Brenn



Alice Maria Brennan

aka "Brenda Martinez"

Elemental Earthbones/Metalflesh

Mantle (Summer)  ••••• 

Background
Alice Brennan was a jock. Not in the traditional "beat up nerds" sense, or even the "super cheerleader" sense. She was a jock in the sense that she lived for her body, for movement and competition and the sheer exultation of sport. "Brenn"--as her teammates called her--was a closeted Catholic school girl from a conservative blue collar family. She was a dancer, a martial artist, and a star possessing midfielder for Kapaun Mt. Carmel's soccer team. She lived fearlessly in the moment, right up until the graduation party from which she was taken.

She remembers little of her abduction. She was chased, and she was astounded at how easily she was run down. She fought, and she was astonished at how easily she was beaten. And by the time she even considered simply hiding, it was too late. She had been buried alive in the heart of a mountain. The body she had lived in so thoroughly and so well was made a prison. Later, demons cut her inch by agonizing inch from the living rock. The limbs exercise had sculpted became literal sculpture, became stone.

Brenn held up a table outside of time, its roots growing down around her. Later, she was a fountain. For a time she was somehow part of a door. It was this last that began to awaken her, for there was a bit of movement in it. Slowly, so slowly, but it was motion. She began to fight then, finding some inner furnace her stone body had not quenched. There were failures; they haunt her nightmares. But she was never again a good piece of furniture. As a table, she tilted. As a fountain, she sprayed water far from her bowl. As a door, she refused to close. And finally, she found her feet in the dirt, pounding it again and again as she ran.

Breathing. Eventually she was breathing, and her body behaved like flesh. Someone found her, a tall man with antlers and liquid brown eyes and hooves. He brought her to a place, gave her the first food she could remember eating. He spoke in words she recognized. Finally enough of her senses returned that she could work on cobbling together a new life for herself.

She had to start from scratch. Her memories were vague and fragmentary: flat land, humid summers, occasional snow. Soccer matches. Performing kata for a belt examination. Her name and any trace of parents or siblings were driven from her mind by her Durance.

Her benefactor--John Hart--put Brenn (as much of her name as she could remember) in touch with people (Steve Little) who got her papers, who got her a job at a shelter for battered women. She teaches self-defense classes there, does some light maintenance, and serves as a de facto bouncer on those occasions any of the wrong people find the place.

Into the Gardens and Searching for Shepherd
The long months following the first morning at the Gardens have been as hard as those first few weeks out of Arcadia. Brenn is now the lone survivor of the group of Lost that first entered the manor and discovered the last message of Addison Shepherd's double. She's seen friends die and seen friends get pulled back into the Hedge. She has fought. Mostly, she has felt frustrated and out of her depth. The end of the world is not something you can lay hands on. Neither her temperament nor her skills were particularly suited to the diplomacy and investigation necessary to find the missing Noah. Few of the revelations provided by the investigation have been happy ones, and every time the Lost got another piece of the puzzle, the apocalypse seemed to come a step closer.

Brenn has taken some comfort in her training at a kwoon in Chinatown. Studying Eagle Claw and other forms of Qinna have strengthened the elemental physically and helped steady her emotions. It was not enough to stop Gabriel Cooper from killing Phoenix or the priest they'd been sent to protect. She has been recovering--slowly--from the physical and emotional wounds that fight inflicted. Coyote's recent return has helped accelerate that process.

As the signs of the prophecy tumble into reality, Brenn has formed a new motley with two Lost Coyote rescued from their second imprisonments. With the help of the Forsaken, they found David Perry--Addison Shepherd's hidden son. They also heard at least part of the High King's last words. Combined with what the vampires and werwolves learned, the Lost's discoveries have begun to reveal an ancient, terrible tapestry of bargains and betrayal.

Brenn has also fought a more personal battle: the one to recover her memories. With the aid of Jessica and Wren, and facilitation by the Hag, she has finally remembered Wichita and Alice Brennan. Pulling the shroud from her memories also revealed the truth about Arcadia--Hell--and the double blow shook Brenn's balance at a time when all of her strength was needed.

Awake in the Dreaming
Alice struggled for a time to settle the old and new versions of herself in her mind. She has gradually come to accept the inconsistencies that stem from years of bifurcated existence. If people call her Brenn, it's because they're her friends (or comrades in arms), not because that's all she knows of herself. (To strangers, she's still Brenda Martinez. She has made no effort to reclaim her legal identity.)

With memories regained, the Lost set about trying to disrupt Gabriel Cooper's support network. That search led them to one burned-out Hunters' house after another. For a month, they stayed a step behind both Gabriel and LAFD investigators. Those investigators were led by Kenneth McGowan, the pyrokinetic friend of Noah Shepherd's David Perry persona. McGowan, in turn, led them to the suspiciously resurrected Declan and Rob Murphy—Gabriel's previous victims and keys to his ritual to bring down the barriers between worlds.

On Father Declan Murphy's advice, the motley has ventured once more into Arcadia—into Hell—in search of some Fae trick that will break Gabriel's grip on his underlings. The fluid environment and several stretches of waking dreaming have led Alice to further understanding of herself and her magic. Those moments are responsible for the panoply of bronze inlays that now armor her stony flesh. That they have also amplified her susceptibility to be pulled into Hell's stories as the Knight (made of) Shining Armor is unwelcome, but does not dismay the elemental as it once might have. She's got a world to fight for, after all.

The Mask
"Brenda Martinez" stands 5' 4", with short black hair and black, black eyes. Her small mouth makes her face seem even wider than it is. Her medium complexion marks her with a vague multi-ethnicity that, more than any other aspect of her appearance, allows her to fit in in L.A. Brenn's shoulders are a little broader than one would expect for a woman, and as sinewy as the rest of her compact frame. She moves gracefully and constantly, though Brenn's balance is good enough that it seldom seems like mere fidgeting. Brenn's everyday wardrobe is utilitarian: sturdy denim and the worn cotton of t-shirts older than she is. Her club garb is much the same, though the denim is tighter, the shirts more prone to being slashed, and the whole lot accessorized with studded leather. Her skin is eerily flawless and cool to the touch; she seldom sweats. Occasionally, phantom tattoos glint on her skin. Brenn speaks softly but firmly. Her accent suggests she's not a native Angeleno.

The Mien


Behind the Mask, Brenn is a curious mix of marble and bronze. Whorls and lines of metal trace along her skin like tattoos, suggesting an armored panoply without hiding the stone. The lines of the elemental's body are classical, though here, too, there is more muscle than Michelangelo would sculpt onto a female form. Bronze rims her pupil-less onyx eyes. Unmoving hair is plastered to her head, the same white as her skin but shot through with glittering filaments. Brenn's facial expressions change only slowly; when she speaks, her mouth does not open. The signs of Summer are unmistakable in her vicinity: the sun shines bright and harsh, the air wavers with heat, and plants straddle the boundary between verdant and withered

PCs

 * Wren Fields - Wren knows things. Even if he brought nothing else to the motley, Brenn would value that. Physically frail, the bird-like changeling defeated the monster in Brenn's dreams nearly single-handedly, and has faced some terrible things at Brenn's side. For a member of Fear's Court, Wren is pretty damn brave.
 * Jessica Pennywise - Alice never liked cheerleaders (in any sense of the word "like"). Jessica has made a lot of progress in changing Brenn's mind. The Fairest is never quite as light and shallow as she seems. It has been so very long since Brenn was around genuine smiles...even if they belong to a dragon.
 * Fuller Lancaster - Brenn still thinks of Fuller as "the growly one." She respects what he does as a cop, and is in the dark about how he fits in with the werewolves. It was part of Fuller's job, but Brenn feels like she owes him one for getting her away from Gabriel at the Cathedral.
 * Josh Mackenzie - Good-looking, for a guy, and apparently a rock star. None of that changes the fact that Brenn's first two encounters with him were as a fact-spouting know-it-all and a police dog. If the world doesn't fall apart, maybe she can set him up with Jessica.
 * Evan Cord - Blunt and powerful. Brenn watched him die once, and knows he's pulled that particular stunt several times before. For a being almost as old as the material world, Evan seems to get pushed around a lot. The elemental has almost developed sympathy for him. Almost. It would be easier if they ever managed to encounter each other in circumstances unrelated to the apocalypse.

NPCS

 * Steve Little - Coyote and Brenn were never a neat fit. His mercurial nature is opaque to the stolid elemental. Still, during the months of their acquaintance, Brenn learned to trust his mostly-hidden better nature. His recent return has been (to steal a phrase from Elton John) a candle in the window, even if the barriers of his Custodianship now stand between them.
 * Mako- Brenn has enormous respect for Mako. Her erstwhile mentor John Hart introduced them. More importantly, the Runnerswift always spoke well of Summer's Custodian (something he did for few other beings, mortal or otherwise). Things Brenn learned while searching for Noah Shepherd have thrown an existential wrench into her thinking about Mako, but she has not yet confronted him about it.
 * The Hag - Creepy. Sometimes feeling like a kid again is not a good thing. Meeting her again in the past did little to temper Brenn's distrust for the Autumn Custodian. She is old enough and powerful enough to participate in the ancient games of the Three Kings. That's plenty dangerous to avoid.
 * Doc- Whatever reasons Doc has had to be angry, there seems to be an underlying sympathy that makes his hard choices all the more compelling. In Brenn, that has stirred sympathy in return. She doesn't envy what he's had to do.
 * John Hart - John vanished when the Freeholds did. Brenn defiantly clings to the narrow hope that he might somehow still be rescued.
 * Noah Christian - Initially, he seemed the most interesting and, more importantly, the wisest of the werewolves. Circumstances have pushed Brenn to trust him further than she otherwise would, but he has yet to let her down.
 * Noah Cooper - It's hard for Brenn not to think of Cooper as 'Vampire Noah,' even though it wasn't accurate when they met. Mostly, she just doesn't get him. His world of privilege and temporal power is a long way from anything she can remember of her old life, or knows in her new one.
 * Noah Shepherd - The High King's son pulls Brenn in two directions. She wants fervently to protect him, to guard him against the world he's suddenly been thrust into. She also expects him to be the impossible leader she once wanted Phoenix to become. Treating him as an equal is as difficult as bowing to his heritage.
 * Gabriel Cooper - Brenn is enough a child of Summer that she longs for a rematch with the unhinged dhampyr. She's also enough of a realist to understand that she'll need considerable help to survive such a fight, never mind win it.

Quotes

 * "If he's here to help, sure. If he's here to be an asshole and run his mouth and wait until we're all so terribly impressed with him that we chuck him out the door on his ass, well, I guess we can arrange that instead."
 * "Nevermind. I'll stick with thank you. And just so you know, I don't think there was any ever question of us not trying our damnedest to do our part of the job. We're just trying to get some grip on how."
 * "I'm Brenn. I don't guess the Custodians told you anything about what's going on?"
 * "Hi. I'm Alice."