Registry of the Evolved Database
File #19 Jan 2010 19:10
|
 Marion Cotillard |
It is difficult to explain Michelle's childhood without using the words 'fairytale' and 'privileged'. As a child of wealthy landowners who lived on a vineyard and winery in Bordeaux, she grew up in perfect scenery, beautiful weather with room to run and play without a worry. Even adding in the usual sibling fighting that happened between her and her brother and sister, her childhood was, in a word, perfect. Like something out of a painting. Her family was partial to big dinners with everyone they could fit at the table over, with a lot of laughter and love. She has often said, she wishes every child could have been so lucky.
The real magic was that Joseph and Genevieve Demscarier managed to keep their children from becoming spoiled. A sense of responsibility was instilled at an early age, and an appreciation for what they had. For Michelle, this would grow into the desire to give back, when she was blessed with more than. But it started there, as simple appreciation and never taking it for granted.
Her goals in life were also set at an early age. Her Uncle Luc was a doctor, and when she was just a young thing, he used to take her to his office and let her play with the scales and the stethoscopes and other such (safe!) doodads to be found around doctors. The nurses would gush over the darling girl with her cherub curls and Michelle would end up with pocketfuls of lollipops and candies and little gifts that seemed so special as a child. But it wasn't until her early teens, when her brother had a nasty accident and their uncle quite literally saved his life, that she knew being a doctor was for her. And while most childhood dreams and goals disappear over time, Michelle, it never so much as dwindled.
Her school years were very focused. Dedicated. She worked hard and kept her eyes on medical school. Her extracurriculars were all designed to make her look good to a university, which meant not a lot of time for parties and the like. And it wasn't until midway through her first year at Paris Descartes University that she was able to relax again. It wasn't relief at getting in that did it, no. It was romance. His name was Roch and he was a painter, full of passion and love for life and he taught her to balance her life again with some delving into the beautiful things. Her dedication wouldn't let her throw everything to the wind for the sake of experience and enjoyment, so the love affair eventually ended, but she held onto the lesson. Take time to live, not just work. So her years at University were full of hard work and divine decadence; as art and fashion and food and friends were woven in when she could manage it. And when she graduated and became an actual doctor (pediatrician, at the time, it felt like a natural choice, just waiting there for her. It wasn't until later she learned just how natural caring for children came to her), after the parties and gifts and hangovers had their time, her sense of responsibility sent her to Medecins Sans Frontieres, Doctors Without Borders, to help. To travel. To bring the newer medical techniques into the fold. To make a difference. She'd had her fun, her parties, her fancy school and cushy living. Time to turn it around and do something with it that mattered.
There was, of course, the talking. MSF didn't come without inherent dangers and it's difficult for a family to just wave and say 'Hey, you want to go put your life in daily danger? Have a good time, sweetie! Don't forget to write!'. No. There were arguments and… well, projectiles thrown and a lot of crying before frank discussion could take place. And really, it was only recognition that Michelle was going to do this with or without their consent that ended the disagreement. Or, rather, it ended the fighting, at least. No one really wanted her to go, not family or friends, it's highly possibly they didn't really understand why she was so set on doing this. And Michelle just… isn't the type to feel the need to explain her reasons, she just follows her heart, cheesy as it sounds. They worried, especially during those lengths of time when she couldn't write home, but it wasn't long before pride settled in. It probably helped that she left out a lot of the really bad times until well after. But who could blame her?
Don't ask her about how many shots she had to get before she was shipped out, she's likely to glower at you. And really don't mention the paperwork and tests and so forth. The prepwork was thorough and… unpleasant. If she hadn't been totally determined, she would have quit right then and gone to a nice, easy office in the city and never looked back. But this is Michelle. She doesn't give up that easy.
She spent a lot of time in Central America, sometimes a down in parts of South America, traipsing through jungles for hours just to try to find their camp. Dodging fighting when there were conflicts, coming to the islands when hurricanes would pass through… In truth, it was a dangerous life for various reasons, but she had never felt, before those days, as full of purpose. But jungles and warzones are a taxing thing indeed, and when she was dropped in Honduras, into civilization (we use the term loosely), it felt like a vacation. For a woman who spent her childhood running through private meadows and such, she had come a long way, looking at their urban environment and feeling like it was a break. Overpopulation was the problem there. To many people, too few doctors. And in that sort of setting, disease and infection spread like wildfire. She was sent to a post toward the northeast end of the country, where the physician was struggling with health problems of his own. She would be his replacement. And soon enough, Michelle took charge of that particular clinic, regardless of the fact that it wasn't actually her job to do so. It needed her.
And she had just gotten things settled how she liked them, a good rhythm going with the staff, everything was flowing nice and steady. And they told her they were sending down another physician. She took it as a personal insult. And it was going to be a man, too, which only meant someone who was going to barrel through her carefully constructed system and make a mess of everything. To say she was expecting the worst when Harve Brennan arrived would be an understatement. Plus, he was late! It is possible she put a little too much blame on the man himself, but get her to admit it, the world would pause to gasp. But they had been running low on supplies and staff and she maybe, perhaps wanted to establish a pecking order. Their first weeks together might have been a little rough.
It would be hard for her to pinpoint when he went from annoyance to the love of her life, but Honduras was a life-changing post for her. She'd had lovers before, passion and desire, but never anything quite like love. But by the time they were all hunkering down for their first hurricane together, she knew. She knew the way she knows about a good wine.
She didn't know, then, that she was Evolved, or what SLC-Expressive was. She didn't know her posts were more temperate when she was there because she was subconsciously controlling the temperature around her. She didn't know that hurricane hit them less severely because she was there, wishing it to be so. In fact, she couldn't tell when she manifested, exactly. There was no grand explosion. The weather around her was just… the weather. Sometimes gentle and caressing, sometimes harsh and unforgiving. She has accepted the possibility that it's been there since she was a child. Or perhaps it was that hurricane. But she has to admit her mood and the weather have always been tied together. She just doesn't know when it stopped being the weather affecting her and started being her affecting it. And she wouldn't know what she was for some time. And for some time… it was something she kept to herself, uncertain and unsure what others would think. It would be many years before the public was told about them, and that day would change everything, but there in Honduras, it was her instincts that controlled her powers, not her will.
It was nineteen-ninety-nine when Harve proposed to her and she accepted. There was so much they had in common. A common way to look at the world, common convictions, common interests… with just enough differences to keep things interesting. Plus, they'd been through enough together that Michelle knew this was the man she never wanted to lose. It wasn't long before they were married, between assignments at his family home in Chicago. Her family was there, too, of course, and she's always counted herself lucky that Harve's family and hers have always gotten along well.
And when they were lucky enough to be posted together in India… Michelle was ready to stop. She was looking forward to the next stage of her life, her life together with Harve. And she had a far easier time stepping away from MSF than Harve ever did. Michelle argues to this day the man misses that element of danger in his life, misses risking for the greater good. Helping others on a far grander scale. So it was… misfortune with good timing when she came down with malaria. The cause of which is still under dispute in the Brennan house. He says she missed her daily cocktail of pills to prevent such things, but she insists it was the midnight strolls that ended up in his tent leading to Michelle being the prime feeding ground for mosquitoes. 'I caught malaria for you' comes up in fights and funny anecdotes alike. Just ask her how good the sex is! If she doesn't point to the gaggle of children, she'll note it was good enough to risk malaria for.
She was two weeks from the end of her assignment when it happened. So instead of being treated on location, they brought in a replacement and shipped her back to France for treatment. Her family was concerned and understanding and never once said 'I told you so', but they were all relieved when she reassured them she wasn't going back in the field again. She felt very strongly that she'd done her time and it was someone else's turn now. Now it was time to resettle back in the world, there was a life to prepare for, a life in a new country, part of a new family. And when Harve left the field as well… they had to decide just what they were going to do with their lives now.
It was somewhat decided for them when Michelle realized she was pregnant with their first child not too long after that. And it was during that pregnancy when she really started to take a conscious notice of her powers. Started noticing how the clouds would darken when she felt awful, and lighten when she was in a good mood or not feeling sick. And how there was that storm during her labor. But when Marlena ended up being deaf, her mind turned to trying to learn a whole new kind of language, to be able to teach it to their child. Not to mention the general whirlwind that is life around a new baby. But when life settled, and as she and Harve settled into their practice in New York, she started experimenting. Because if she wasn't crazy… she could influence the weather. She was always reluctant to say she controlled the weather, it felt… disrespectful somehow. and by the time their twins were born in two-thousand-six she was sure of it. She could do something, something out of the ordinary. And she had no idea what to do about it.
Later in the year when their twin girls were able to travel, the Brennans left their home and went to visit Harve's family in Chicago. Her mother came as well, because she was there helping juggle the exponential growth of children. Whew. And it was there, having brunch with the family, Harve's brother playing some game with Marlena, Harve holding Dessandra while she held Genevieve. And it came over news. Manhattan had been bombed.
They had been in New York when 9/11 happened, she remembered exactly where she was during that tragedy as well. And it was the same for this one. And like the previous, she and Harve would do what they could to help the community in the wake of it all. But this time, this time it was all the closer to home, since their house was in the blast zone. If they hadn't decided to take that trip… it would all be over. Michelle had a hard time with that concept. Not so much that everything they owned was lost, but that they came so close to losing each other.
The weather was awful in Chicago for a while.
When they could get back into New York, they had the sudden, jarring experience of their experience with MSF being all too useful right here at home. Where there had always been a very clear line for Michelle, there and here, working the ER in the wake of the Midtown Man rang far closer to primitive clinics with too few supplies and too many patients than it did to a nice, clean first world medical experience. But it was familiar work, and she and Harve found it was like riding a bike.
And when the announcement about the Evolved came out, about Sylar and everything… Michelle suddenly had an explanation. She could tell Harve without having to preface the conversation with 'I swear I'm not crazy, but…' And it came as a surprise, when she made it rain in their backyard. He was shocked… but he never blamed her for keeping it to herself at first.
Soon after, Harve started a trip, traveling to talk to Evolved, to find out what it was like for them. To help them feel less… alone. Less freakish. It was a trip Michelle approved of, even, and was proud of her husband for making. But she has to admit, the irony made her laugh, when he was visiting home and found out he, too, was Evolved. It was the only time she let him negate her willingly, when they tested his power. Their backyard was very active, in power demonstrations. And being law abiding citizens, they both registered when the laws came down, and both were able to keep their private practice and their jobs at the ER.
Life continued well for the Brennans. Well off, happy, working hard. And in two-thousand-nine, Michelle was pregnant again. And Harve ended his trip to come stay home. Settle. Everything looked to be going well, right up until the pair were heading up a drive for free vaccines for registered evolved. Protesters came, arguing the special treatment of the Evolved and so on, but no one foresaw the riot that would break out. A thrown chair started an out and out brawl right there. Her husband was attacked, and while she doesn't know it was a telepathic command that sent her running out to save a young girl from being trampled, that act cost her her unborn child. The news helicopters captured a picture of her, pregnant, curled protectively, but by then unconscious, around a toddler that was seen around the world when the rioting was reported. Every so often it pops up again, when the evolved conflict is commented on. She has so many mixed feelings about that picture, and hasn't been able to look at it, since the sharp reminder of their loss still cuts deep.
Not to mention it seemed to spark a series of events that wrapped her and her husband up in danger and derring do for months to come. And while the loss of her child didn't make her shy away from doing the right thing, or Harve from doing the right thing, it did make her a little tetchy when she got too close to losing anyone else. Harve felt the brunt of that anger, since it seemed to her that he was running off into danger at every chance. Her relations with organizations like the Ferry started to get strained then, when so much seemed to be asked of her husband time and time again. Of course, the red scarf'd Messiah didn't win any points either, with their heavy handed threats that would be issued over Liette.
As an atmokinetic, she worked with other local atmokinetics during the great storm, hunting down the cause and trying to untwist what was happening. When it came out that there was a person causing all of this, they knew they had to proceed carefully. And while she was working it from that end, her husband was asked to keep a young girl safe. And he did so. Michelle, in turn, kept her husband safe, as she turned away person after person coming to look for him or the girl or both of them. In the end, Harve and Liette ended up at a Ferry safehouse. A safehouse that was raided and her husband disappeared. It would be silly to say that she wouldn't have been upset if she'd been told right away, but when the Ferry waited nearly a week to inform her, her already strained relations with them wilted right then. Despite the fact that she'd counted some of them among her friends, her husband came first. And she's convinced they used him in his idiotic willingness and left him to dangle when things went bad. The girl, Liette, hadn't been taken in the raids. And while Michelle was glad to hear it, because her family had grown quite close to Liette, it was a bit of evidence as to where her husband stood in the hierarchy of importance. And in the absence of her husband for so long over those months, in the brutality that was that storm, in her tireless work to continue serving the community, the fact that they waited to tell her and didn't seem to be actually trying to find him was too much for her to stomach further. And in the weeks it took before he was dropped off with his family again, blindfolded and having been through captivity and questioning… well, suffice to say, she has not been quick to let go of all that anger.
But she did still help, when it came time to put the storm to an end, when they all gathered with Liette to end it, she did all she could to help. Despite her discomfort with being amplified, despite Messiah coming to try to take the girl, despite it all, they got it done.
And Michelle was happy to go back to the practice, to have a normal life. It wasn't long, after her husband returned from his captivity and all that, that she found herself pregnant again. Life slowing down some… would be a plus. Of course, Harve could never lead the simple life, and while it frustrates the heck out of her, his vivaciousness is part of why she loves him. She isn't exactly happy about his position with the Suresh Center, or rather… the caveats that come with his position there, the potential for danger he's put himself in again, she supports his decision and just what he's trying to do there. Even if it came after a long, long fight. Even when it leads to him trapped under an invisible dome.
Their lives have brought them to new frontiers, new dangers, new limelights and, of course, the new baby in their house. But these new milestones and those that follow, like those that have come before, are events they handle together, as a family.
Some things have layers. Pie. Onions. Dip. Gifts. Winter clothing. Michelle Brennan. She's a woman who knows who she is and is comfortable in herself, as complex as that person is. But which layer you're presented with entirely depends on who you are and where you are.
Publicly, at social gatherings and around people it pays to impress (or pays to keep guarded from), she is the very picture of elegance. She'll chat softly and charmingly about this season's fashion or which wine she prefers at the moment, keeping the talk civil and conversational perhaps witty, if she likes you enough, but somewhat impersonal. She's protective over things that mean the most to her, and finds that the less people know the better. While this may have started as habit from the patient privacy issue, it only grew when a husband and children came into her life. She's an educated and cultured woman, and that is the side people will see on a general level. It sometimes makes her come off as distant or disinterested, but she doesn't mind that image so much. Mostly, though, she's just being… practical.
She does love those finer things in life, like a really great wine or diamonds or flowers or art, and so on (and often, appealing to this part of her gets Brennan out of so much trouble), but she knows their value is only skin deep. Her years of roughing it out in third world countries helped her let go of her need for them. She could live without them, if push came to shove, but she will always long for them in their absence. It could be said it's one of her weaknesses, her attachment to the lifestyle she's become accustom to. She's more at home with those among that same lifestyle and doesn't like the idea of jeopardizing her place there. It also means that expensive gifts and a bit of sincere flattery tend to help sway her in one direction or another. Practical she may be, but not in everything.
Her patients and her family are the ones that see her silly side the most often. Her life is steeped in children, and completely by choice. It's something she loves about her life, and she lets that enjoyment bubble over into playing games with her children, or singing those songs that drive most other adults bonkers, or keeping a lighthearted atmosphere in her office. Children are sensitive to the — pardon the pun — weather in a room, and when it comes to the doctor's office, she wants them to feel as comfortable and welcome as she can manage. Not to mention, keeping the fear to a minimum. The doctor is your friend!
And, of course, she loves her children deeply and has no qualms about letting them know it everyday. Mothering is a natural thing to her, a piece of her personality that was simply always present. That comforting, warm figure that seems to embody the idea of Mother is a strong part of her. But along with that comes the strength to keep firm in the face of quivering lips, screams, crying, tantrums, pleas and other manipulations that seem to come naturally to children. Call it willpower, call it stubbornness, call it what you will, when she's set in a thing, it is very hard to get her to move. Just ask Brennan. The children don't see the woman's temper, but they do see the stubborn mule. She sometimes muses that it's her connection to Mother Nature, through the weather that has given her an understanding of how harsh rain is needed, how a seeming catastrophe has a deeper purpose behind it. As a mother, she cares for her children entirely. Their present, their future… And she thinks carefully about how her actions will steer that future.
Her temper is a rare thing for most people to see. With how her power links to her emotions and just how generally unseemly making a scene is, extreme emotions are kept on a short leash. But even with her dramatics kept down, the woman often makes no pretense about her mood. She can be rude, snappy or just downright bitchy and especially when she's holding back one of those scenes. Those closest to her see the actual temper far more often. Because she trusts them, they end up with the brunt of her grander passions, be they good or bad. And she isn't afraid to blow her top when she sees fit. Mostly she'll apologize later, if she takes things too far and if she thinks it was, in the end, uncalled for. If you're seeing Michelle's temper, it might just mean you're her best friend.
Or maybe you've just really pissed her off. Woman, as they say, is a mystery.
Just as the weather can be a gentle rain, a sunny day or a terrible blizzard, so can Michelle Brennan. She's a woman with a strong personality, firm opinions and great passions. Sometimes, it makes her a delight to be around. Sometimes it makes her a frustration. But she is never boring.
Atmokinesis: Michelle's ability is to finely manipulate the barometric fluctuations of the atmosphere that result in changes to the weather and within a given area of effect in a more organic style of control. The area of effect for this ability can be 35 miles total, centered around herself. The power of such is reliant upon distance/size and mental state at the time of manipulation. This includes the changing the temperature, manipulation of current existing weather conditions, creating new weather conditions or influencing the conditions put into effect by others upon exertion of will. Any change in weather will remain in play unless she actively returns the climate back to it's naturally occurring state. If she doesn't, it will gradually return to it's naturally occurring state over a period of time depending upon how much the weather was altered and the area of effect.
Specifics:
Temperature: This is her primary strength with her ability. She's been automatically doing this even before she really knew she was Evolved, it just came to her easily. It's second nature to her to change the ambient temperature to suit her, those around her and the occasion with very little needed exertion of will to activate it, or deactivate it as necessary. Her day to day use of this can be kept up continuously due to years of having the ability, but the larger the scale, the shorter the duration. While the act of dramatically changing the temperature isn't taxing at this point (or less dramatic changes, either), when she's covering a larger area and keeping it up for long periods of time, that's when she starts to tire. Maintaining a specific temperature of a borough would be applicable for only a few hours at a time with the same amount of time needed to rest. While it does not stay in effect while she is unconscious should that happen, regular sleep will not disrupt the effect if she's put it into play. This effect tends to center on her, but she can place it's core around another individual if it really needs be.
Current/New Weather: Michelle's ability to manipulate naturally occurring weather is something that she's worked with often over the years, and her secondary strength with her ability. If it's raining, she can increase the condensation rate and create a downpour or more. This can also go the other side of the scale and she can lower it and cause the weather to dissipate and rain to disappear. Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day.
She has to work with what is naturally occurring in the climate, with what she's given. The more rare a specific meteorological event would occur in any given climate, the harder and more taxing it is to create. She would have to alter the weather a step at a time, to get a more dramatic weather change. A blizzard in the Nevada desert at a low altitude, exponentially harder than creating one in the Rockies at a higher altitude. A tornado in New York rare, and difficult. One in Ohio or Kansas, easy dependent upon size, whether the conditions are already in place or whether she has to make them herself.
When she starts her atmokinetic interference, Michelle is at the center of her effect. However, she can generate patterns that then increase or shift according to existing weather systems outside her control, and Mother Nature can turn a pebble in the Upper East Side into an avalanche that travels up to Boston, for instance.
Conditions by Others: Depending upon the strength and skill of another atmokinetic, Michelle may be able to influence their manipulations, turning it to what she prefers, dampening or heightening their manipulations or, if weaker than her (and at GM's discretion) overriding. This is hard to do, especially since it usually relates to large scale and is a rarely used subset of her ability and can be exhausting physically as well as mentally.
Other Factors:
Emotion as an Influence: Michelle is a very emotional creature (Please, she's French.). That said, emotion seems to have some play in her ability. She's gained control over it through the years and weather is no longer usually at the mercy of her rises and falls of how she feels. However, in times of extreme anger she can on occasion loose control of her ability. With it, the weather will match her and usually resulting in a storm commensurate with the current climate. Snow in winter, Rain in spring, summer and fall. This tends to last as long as her anger lasts or till she mentally reigns it in. In which case, the conditions will revert to normal over a certain period of time (one hour to half a day depending upon the severity).
Limitations: Michelle cannot control the specifics of weather. For instance. She can make it a windy day, but she can't specifically direct where that wind is going. She can't aim a blast of wind at someone on the street or fill the sails on a ship. She can't make a cloud to hover over someone in a bad mood and rain on them all day. As tempting as that would be. She has a very strong sense of nature vs man. Her power works in an organic nature, which means while she can sit inside a building and manipulate the weather outside of it, she cannot make weather appear indoors. It doesn't belong there.
Should she manipulate the climate/weather/another atmokinetic to the edge of her ability and beyond, there is the sure possibility of nosebleeds or headaches, followed by unconsciousness. There is a remote possibility of say a stroke or seizure would be very minor and be possible only if she were augmented and were extending to the very edge and beyond of that level. She has only ever lost consciousness a few times, over the course of learning the finer manipulations of her ability.
"Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties." - Jules Renard
Appendices
Logs
- 09-01-11 - Motivation
- 09-12-11 - How Much For a Leg?
- 09-19-11 - Serves Him Right
- 08-16-11 - On Maniacal Metal Manipulators
- 08-28-11 - The Lies That People Tell Themselves
- 08-29-11 - Doing Okay
- 07-05-11 - Slightly Hostile Acquaintances
- 07-08-11 - Nothing, or Everything
- 05-29-11 - What Is Right
| Date | Title | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| 18//11 /09 | Affirmative Action | A free vaccine clinic for registered members of New York City's Evolved population is pressed on at all sides by protesters with objections to giving them special treatment. |
| 19/12 /09 | The Girl With The Scarf | A Doctor and a Thief meet during a kandinsky exhibit. |
| 18/01 /10 | Find The Source | Helena finds the source of the attempted help and another weather manipulator in the city and asks for her help with the recent mysterious weather. |
| 23/01/10 | Patient Endurance | Brennan and Michelle find out what's behind the second picture that Rebel has posted to the world and it surprises them. |
| 4/02/10 | A Necessary Housecall | Megan comes around for dinner and to ask for Brennan's help and his wife's permission for something. Something that includes being blindfolded and helping someone he might not want to help. |
| 8/02/10 | Shovel Your Way Out Of The Dog House | Michelle isn't happy with the end results of helping Doyle when Brennan comes home with a negotiation job AND a safehouse. But it followed him home! In other news, Brooklyn's getting snow! |
| 12/02/10 | California Sheet | Meg and Michelle have a girls' night. |
| 19/02/10 | Drop Off, Drop In, Head Out, Come In | A busy morning in Grand Central Terminal crosses several paths and makes an EMT late for his first day on the job. |
| 20/02/10 | Hand In Hand | The Department of Evolved Affairs meets with respected members of the community for a chitchat regarding the immediate future of Summer Meadows. |
| 3/03/10 | Quitté Cet Enfantillage | Michelle's discovered the change in the weather and the unseen aspect and decides to have a little talk with it. |
| 12/03/10 | Bearing Messages and Speaking Falsehoods | Megan attempts to get a message to Brennan with regards to Cardinal and hits a roadblock. |
| 16/03/10 | The Doctor Is Not In | Ryans goes to see Dr Brennan and finds Michelle instead, who tells him that her husband is in hiding and their family is in danger. |
| 17/03/10 | Safe Is A Priority | Joseph visits Michelle brennan to try and get her help in rounding up Brennan. |
| 22/03/10 | Like A Child | Three atmokinetics pay a visit to Ipswitch after playing find the hotspot with the weather. what they find is an atimokinetic of enormous ability and very much like a child. |
| 4/04/10 | Cross That Bridge When I Get There | Brennan spends his last night at home before he has to go back to continue protecting Liette. |
| 5/04/10 | Does The Butterfly Remember The Caterpillar | It's atmocon 2.0 and another stab is taken at soothing the savage rogue atmokinetic with considerably better results. |
| 6/04/10 | Snowfall | A night at a shelter in Chelsea turns deadly. |
| 19/04/10 | So Far As We Know | Megan visits Michelle at the shelter she's staying at to help out, to inform the woman that her husband is missing. |
| 20/05/10 | The Good We Do | When the plan to repair the hastily worsening weather finally comes to a close, one organization that has been waiting to get their hands on Liette makes a valiant effort to secure her secrets about the Institute. |
| 24/06/10 | Bound By Blood III | At a blood drive outside St. John's, some people try to stop a theft of blood, and save others from getting hurt. |
| 7/02/11 | And He Speaks Softly To Me | Days under the dome, Brennan calls home to check in, touch base and make plans for when. |
Skills
- She's Got Skills o/`
- Medical
- Languages
- Survival
- Evolved Knowledge
- Meteorology
- Enology and Farming
- Child Rearing
- Finer Things In Life
- Emotion Control
- Cooking
- Keeping In Shape
- Moneyed Individual
Boy, does she! And I shall list them here.
Michelle went to a top medical university in Paris, as well as having years of practice under her belt. Her specialty is pediatrics, but her time with Doctors Without Borders gave her a firm grip on general medical practices as well.
Multilingual! Michelle is, of course, fluent in her native French, but she's familiar with English and can handle some conversational Spanish, as well, thanks to traveling around South and Central America for several years. Also, she knows sign language, as their oldest daughter is deaf. While they're all familiar with ASL, in the Brennan household it's a bit of a melting pot of its own, as they use signs from French Sign Language as well, along with things they've made up for talk among themselves. French, though, will always be her default.
A skill picked up from her time in third world countries and so forth, she's got a good handle on how to rough it, as it were, as well as good instincts in high stress situations that may or may not include gunfire.
Michelle has always felt it important to understand the Evolved as much as she can, not only for being one herself, but as a doctor. Especially at the beginning, when everything was a mystery, and who knew how an ability could change a person and how their body reacts to medications and treatments. And now, through her own experience and her husband's and listening to and helping others through it, she can help most people gain control over their ability. It's no quick fix, but she can be something of a coach.
Purely through the use of her power, she has some understanding of the weather, and what signs lead into what weather. She's better than the weather man. But then, with a direct line to Mother Nature on the subject, maybe she's cheating.
In her youth, she grew up on her family's vineyard and Winery. So she not only understands what makes a good wine and why everything out of California is crap, she also has a fairly decent green thumb.
Well, she has four of them, if she hadn't learned something by now, there would be some serious problems. But her mothering nature is deeper than that, something she was born with. She just knows how to interact with kids.
We mentioned wine, but Michelle is French, and there is far more to life's decadence than just wine. She has a good appreciation for art, food, fashion, movies, a good kiss under the moonlight with a handsome man (she keeps one on hand for just such an occasion), literature, music… she is, as they would have said back in the day, an accomplished lady. She also does some charcoal and pastel work herself, sometimes painting, to keep her fingers nimble for doctoring.
With an ability so closely linked with her emotional state, and with its effects so… widespread, she has learned to keep her temper and other extreme emotions in check. It takes a lot for her to lose it and start wreaking havoc with her power.
The woman can cook! Which is good, because she has a lot of hungry mouths these days. This is something she learned from her mother, who learned from her mother, and so on down the line. Don't ask about her secret recipes, her lips are zipped!
She works hard at staying in shape, particularly in the wake of the many births. For those times, it's all about hiring a personal trainer. Normally, she's very keen on cycling instead of driving, or walking, and generally just being physical and outdoorsy. She does pay attention to endurance training, because you never know when you'll have to hike through a jungle, especially with a man like Harve Brennan around.
The Brennans are lucky enough to come from money, the both of them, and to have had successful medical careers, so they're in a nice, comfortable position, financially.
Other Things
Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose
When you kiss me heaven sighs
And though I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose
Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere, I've looked at clouds that way.
But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on everyone.
So many things I would have done but clouds got in my way.
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New Orleans native and member of Endgame. She works as a bodyguard or security for events and such. She's a sweet girl who's moral compass is strong enough to make her something of an oddity in a morally grey world. |
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AKA Katya, Tania is a young, sickly Russian girl currently living in Eltingville with an odd hodgepodge of folks. Sasha is her brother and it was for his sake she was extracted from her homeland and plunked in NYC. |
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DoEA agent and general civil rights activist. Also ex-military. Also ex-lawyer. Also hilarious. |
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Part of both the Ferrymen and Messiah, Lynette is a somewhat troubled woman trying to hide her troubles under good humor and decadent tastes. |