- Name: Lorna Brenn Griffin
Nickname: Brenn
Age and Birth Date: 24, October 13
Occupation: Co-owns and runs an antique shop with her eldest cousin.
APPEARANCE
Standing at 5 feet, 3 inches, Brenn is easily the shortest of her family. At least, her living family. She's got short copper-brown hair, kept most days gelled into dozens of spikes, standing roughly 1 inch tall. Days when she's running short on time, or the weather is rainy, Brenn either uses hair clips or headbands. Her eyes are a darker brown then her hair, more like coffee then copper. Horn rimmed glasses, colored to match her outfit, usually hide her eyes. Her skin is colored close to brown sugar, a testament to her mixed heritage. For the most part, her build is average for her height, she does have a pudgy belly from indulging a bit too much in her favorite foods.
Brenn's best feature is her fingers, which are long - though not too long - and slender. Most people assume she plays the piano, and they'd be very wrong. Her worst feature, are her feet. Due to the fact that Brenn hardly ever wears real shoes, she's got calluses on her heels and pads of her feet. Her most distinctive feature is her freckles. She's got a smattering of them on her face, mostly on her cheeks, across her nose and forehead. They also cover her lower arms and legs, just about any part of her that has seen the sun has at least a few freckles. Mixed in with the freckles are pock marks, scars from when she had chicken pox. She couldn't resist scratching, and ended up with freckle sized scars on her face, mostly her forehead near the hairline, and on her arms and legs too.
Brenn has no real style, at least as far as things like goth, jock, nerd, and so on go. She just grabs the slippers she wants to wear, and picks a skirt, shirt, belt and handbag to match. She may also add stockings, legwarmers, and or anklets to her leg gear. For her arms it's a jacket, gloves and or sleeves, usually the kind that are secured with a tie or armlet and that billow out. Hats are something she wears only under two conditions; bad hair day, or bad weather. For bad hair days it's a beret, bowler or trench hat. For rain and snow it's a thick knit beanie with ear flaps. The closest thing to makeup Brenn wears is uncolored chap stick and sun screen. Each ear has 2 piercings in the lobe, studded balls most times. Sometimes the holes nearest her face get a pair of dangle earrings, nothing longer then an inch, though. Earrings are colored to match her outfit.
PERSONALITY
Brenn is very outgoing, a trait learned mostly in high school. Eamonn and Keela were always dragging her to one party or another. They never let Brenn be a wallflower either. So, like it or not, Brenn went from a withdrawn teen, to an outgoing young woman. The type to always lend her ear or shoulder to a friend. Her advice is horrible, though, unless you want the blunt truth as she sees it. She tries a little too hard to be what everyone wants, often forgetting her own dreams in the process. Before taking over the shop, Brenn had wanted to be a zookeeper. Now, she's stuck, not sure if running the shop is something she's doing to make her mom happy, or if she truly enjoys it. On top of trying to sort that out, she's got customers expecting her to be happy all the time. And while she is a positive person, that is can see the bright spot in a situation, there are times when life is not happy and she just wants to snuggle up on the sofa and indulge in a bit of crying.
Every morning is greeted rather crankily, until Brenn gets her first cup of coffee, sipped while watching the morning news. Work days see Brenn manning the cash register, and or cleaning, arranging, scheduling appraisers to come in, and a hundred other tasks needed to keep the antique shop running. Her days off mean free time to do what she likes, unless it's time to take care of something needed for her own home. Like cleaning and grocery shopping. The cleaning gets done first, except laundry which is done after she gets home. Grocery shopping, being her least favorite, is often put off until all that's left in her kitchen is stale bread and overly ripe bananas.
Of her free time activities, walking around, watching birds, and looking for new patterns to sew, are her favorite. Sampling new foods is also high up on her list, though that's something she prefers to do among friends. The more people there are ordering, the more things to taste. It's not just birds she likes watching, just about any creature. She can't stand the sight of moths or rabbits, though. Growing up, one of the neighbor boys used to shove live moths in her face, yelling that it's bite could kill a grown man. Rabbits just scare her, she doesn't know why, as she's never even touched one.
Other things she does not like are cars, too many idiots on the road. Snow, it gets way too cold, she'd much rather a rainy day anytime. Swimming, pools, beaches, she never really learned how to swim, and now that she's grown, people expect to to do more then wade up to her knees. Shopping for groceries, clothes and gifts. With very few exceptions, shopping for the aforementioned things frustrate the hell out of her. This is an activity she's best to do alone.
Odd as it sounds, cleaning is a big stress reliever for Brenn. It works better then cooking, sewing or reading. Each layer of dust and grime she's able to lift up helps her to let things go. For those hard to get rid of bits, however, she's not above talking to the person who's causing it. If that doesn't help, it's back to scrubbing something.
ABILITIES
Physically, Brenn is only stopped by what she thinks a women her size can lift. Which often short changes her, and just as often has her running to Eamonn, her cousin and fellow shop owner, to ask for help moving stuff. When it comes down to it, if facing a physical fight, Brenn would rather run. Call her coward if you want to, but the memory of the few fights she was in at school, and how badly she lost, still haunt her. Well, except for that one where she got lucky, but that's another story. Luck is a fickle lady, and Brenn has no desire to trust that luck would bring on another win.
Intellectually, Brenn is great in the language department. Reading comprehension, spelling, grammar, word puzzles, even a second language. She's not finished learning it yet, but after another class or two she'll be proficient. She's very weak in math, so much so that she uses a calculator for anything more complicated then early multiplication. Anything too complex for an average calculator, and she won't even bother with it. Puzzles have her just as stumped, though some she can work out if given enough time.
Socially, Brenn is most comfortable with small groups, where it's easier to remember names and keep track of conversation. If she finds herself in a large group - seven or more people - Brenn will stay close to the person she knows best. If that's not possible, Brenn will either find herself a small inner group, or leave, depending on her mood.
Sewing is what Brenn does best, and with todays mass market cheap to buy clothes, she's the only person she's met who can sew more then a pillow. Slippers are what she makes most, but stuffed animals, clothes, blankets, so long as she's got a pattern and a person's measurements, Brenn can sew anything. She's even starting to get to the point where she can make her own patterns.
What she's worst at is anything with wheels. Weather it be a car, bike or skates, Brenn cannot get the hang of them. She's failed her driven test seven times so far, in fact has given up. If she can't get there by walking, then she'll take the bus or a cab.
HOBBIES
Sewing by hand, especially plushies and new slippers.
Walking, when the weather is nice she'll just leave home and walk all over. This is how she's discovered a lot of neat shops and shortcuts.
Reading science fiction and or fantasy, the odd mystery may attract her eye.
Fantasy RPG games, though she limits this severely, otherwise she'll spend hours and hours - days on a few occasions - playing.
HISTORY
Important events in your character's past.
Brenn's father died before she was born, her mom only being 4 months pregnant. Unable to turn to her parents, who disapproved of the marriage because he was a different race, Brenn's mother moved in with her sister and brother-in-law. Brenn grew up with her four cousins, one older by five years, twins her age - separated by only 3 months, and one three years younger. Through childhood Brenn was pretty much treated as a sibling by her cousins. All three of the adults acted as parents to all five kids. That is, if one or two were not home when rewards or punishments were needed, then the adult at home would carry them out.
Meeting members of her father's family for the first time, learning about his culture first hand.
Aunt's death, and mother's retirement, resulting in her and her cousin gaining the antique shop.
Important people in their life, either past or present
- Nora Griffin, Brenn's mother. With the help of her sister and brother-in-law, Nora did her best to teach Brenn the same morals she'd been taught growing up. With a few tweaks, of course, as Nora didn't want Brenn thinking it was okay to dislike a person based on looks.
Fiona & Quinn Griffin, Brenn's aunt and uncle. If they had not taken in her mother, there's no telling where she and Brenn would have ended up. Or what Brenn would be like today.
Brenn's cousins are all important to her, they provided friendship growing up, as well as being her partners in crime, so to speak, when planning adventures. Often, if one child was in trouble, they all were involved in it.
Brenn hates playing favorites, but deep down, Eamonn and Keela are her favorite cousins. This is due mostly to them being nearly the same age. They attended the same school, and were almost always in the same classes.
Liam is the oldest, and as such did his best to stem the other's misadventures. This often led to him being drug in, mostly, unwillingly. Next are Eamonn and Keela, twins who are 3 months younger then Brenn. Next is Ciaran, the youngest of the group.
SAMPLE
It's a nice night out, still end of Summer warm, with stars dazzling the sky. Not that they'd dazzle the city sky. Brenn thinks, making her even more glad she'd decided to go camping. The woods, supposedly being full of birds - both day and night dwellers - is an added bonus. Brenn had packed her most used bird books, a dozen notebooks at least, and binoculars. She'd also brought a small telescope, which is what she's currently peering through. Not that she's familiar with the constellations, but star gazing can be fun.
Just when she's about to turn and stir the pot of stew, a light catches her eye. Not bothering to follow it with the telescope, Brenn looks up. Sure enough, a bright light is floating in the sky. Grabbing the binoculars, Brenn quickly focuses them, gasping at what she sees. Right there, plain as day, is what most call a UFO. Not believing her eyes, Brenn stairs at it until it turns, and zooms off in the opposite direction.
Brenn stands there, the afterimage still dancing before her eyes, wondering if it really was an alien craft, or some secret government craft. "Suppose it could be either.. though how the government could keep something so big secret is beyond me." she speaks out loud, a habit she's taken up while alone. Running the look of the craft, and new government ships through her mind, Brenn decides it must be an alien craft. "After all, so many planets, at least a few of them should have sprouted sentient life." That settled, she continues on with her trip, though she'll never forget the image of the unknown craft.
[[If you wanted something that's not UFO/alien based, I can change it.]]
