Esmeralda Jet

"Freedom is worth fighting for."

- Esmeralda Jet

Esmeralda Jet is a student at Haven Academy in Mistral. She is the leader of Team ECRU; her partner is Rosa Nicoletti.

Appearance
Esmeralda is a fairly tall girl with a thin build and tanned skin. Her eyes are a deep green in color, set in an angular face. She has a strong jaw and thick eyebrows. She has long hair, with bangs draping her forehead, but usually wears it in a ponytail or bun. Unlike other girls, Esmeralda does not have any piercings or earrings.

She typically wears the uniform customary for Haven students. However, during battle or field assignments, she has her own attire. This consists of a dark grey crop top and torn dungarees that were once the length of jeans but are now the length of shorts. On her feet, Esmeralda wears brown combat boots and long white socks. Additionally, she has a long sash made out of some type of brown fur as well as light-weight leather armor pauldrons and gauntlets.

Her casual attire usually consists of airy, light clothing, such as shorts. She always wears her signature boots - even to her prom.

Personality
Esmeralda is a free spirit, spending her early years in the wilderness of Mistral with her grandfather. She has a disdain for authority and privilege, but has no problem cooperating or taking orders once someone proves themselves to be capable and worthy of respect. She strongly believes in freedom for all and has a hard time tolerating oppression: she abhors the second-class citizen status of the Faunus. Additionally, she dislikes Atlas, considering it too authoritarian for her tastes. She loves nature and being outdoors, preferring that to the confines of urban life. As such, she has a lot of love for activities such as hiking and fishing.

While friendly and welcoming, Esmeralda's carefree and go-with-the-flow personality can put her at odds with others. At times, she can appear to be too unconcerned or flippant, which causes complications in her role as team leader. To most, however, she is affable, gregarious, and friendly, easily breaking into conversation even with strangers. She is fearless when standing up to authority or bullies. Despite her attitude and inexperience as a team leader, she genuinely cares for her teammates. She struggles with making "tough calls" and prefers listening to the feedback of her friends over acting alone.

When hunting, Esmeralda's personality shifts from a carefree and friendly girl to a focused, resourceful, and even ruthless predator. She is eager to track down, fight, and kill any Grimm.

History
Esmeralda, born in Mistral, is descended from a long line of Huntresses and Huntsmen. When a young child, her parents disappeared on a mission investigating Grimm and illegal activities in the swamps to the west and never returned, leaving Esmeralda in the care of her grandfather. She spent many years living with her grandfather in his cabin, learning the trades of hunting, tracking, and archery.

When she came of age, her grandfather, to keep the family tradition of Huntsmen alive, urged Esmeralda to enroll in Sanctum Academy. During her time at Sanctum, Esmeralda unlocked both her aura and constructed her own weapon. Eventually she graduated from Sanctum and applied to Haven Academy. She was accepted, and was made team leader of Team ECRU.

Relationships

 * Sparrow Jet: Esmeralda looks up and idolizes her grandfather, who is her chief role model and inspiration in life. She longs to prove herself a capable Huntress and archer, like he was in his youth. She is grateful for his guidance and greatly values his input and advice. The two are very close: Esmeralda frequently visits and stays with him on breaks from the academy.
 * Rosa Nicoletti: Rosa is Esmeralda's partner on the team and the have a strong friendship. While some have shunned or ridiculed Rosa for being a Faunus, Esmeralda has accepted her teammate without any bias whatsoever. Their battle styles and strengths complement each other nicely.
 * Claret Poe: Another member of Team ECRU, Claret and Esmeralda's relationship was initially rocky. Claret's cold, selfish demeanor did little to win any affections from her team. This, combined with her and Esmeralda's irreverence for authority lead to numerous arguments. After a few assignments and combat against the Grimm, Claret has softened up somewhat and has learned to accept - and respect - Esmeralda as her team captain.
 * Ume Sakaguchi: The last member of Team ECRU, Ume and Esmeralda have a good relationship. The two are close friends, as they both enjoy athleticism and exploring. Ume's quiet, reserved nature goes well with Esmeralda's outgoing one. While Ume is generally quiet and tight-lipped, Esmeralda has been working on getting her to come out of her shell.

Weapon
Esmeralda's weapon is a TABS (Tactical Assault Bow Spear) named Whisper. In appearance, it is more like a compound bow than an old fashioned longbow. Whisper comes in two "parts": the bow itself and the metal quiver, worn on Esmeralda's back.
 * Bow form: The bow form of Whisper could be considered the default form of the weapon. It is a large compound bow in shape, black and silver in color, with a dark green ribbon tied around the grip. Like other weapons, Whisper's bow form is capable of wielding Dust to add additional effects to its projectiles, however, Whisper, thus far, has been only responsive to Earth-type Dust, which it uses to make heavier, armor piercing arrows. While the number of arrows Esmeralda can carry is finite, she can use any of the Earth Dust loaded into the quiver to generate replacements: this quickly burns through the Dust Supply.
 * Spear form: Whisper's second form, created when the bow collapses into the shaft and is attached to the quiver. The spear is about 7 and a half feet long, with a large blade. Unlike the bow form, the spear form of Whisper cannot use Dust to add or amplify any effects. While proficient in it's use, Esmeralda prefers to keep targets at a range and as such only uses the spear when it is necessary.

Semblance
Esmeralda's Semblance is called Camouflage and allows her to briefly blend into her surroundings, much like a chameleon. It is often incorrectly thought to and stated as giving her a period of invisibility: instead of outright masking Esmeralda from vision, it makes her harder to detect. She typically uses this ability only when hunting Grimm or in combat: it is extremely taxing on her energy reserves, to the point where she could only keep it up for a few moments.

Abilities
Esmeralda is a skilled hunter and tracker, capable of spotting signs of passage and activity in the wilderness. She is athletic, capable of sprinting, jumping, and climbing. She is also a skilled fisher and angler.

Trivia

 * Her first name means "Emerald" in Spanish. Her last name, Jet, refers to a minor gemstone that is typically black in color.
 * She is very loosely based off of the Huntsman in the Snow White fairy tale.