Booksmart. Calm & Collected. Reliable. Selfless & Caring. Logical Thinker. Too Selfless. Fluctuating Confidence. Overly Sensitive. Altruistic. Emotionally Involved.Brett is a fairly well rounded young woman; she's giving and caring, but knows to take time to herself to recharge. She's active but still likes some time to relax, she works hard and can let loose enough to play just as hard. Brett comes from a family of individuals good at communicating. While her parents weren't entirely 'hippie' in their parenting techniques, there was a lot of focus on discussion and responsibility.
Like many in her family, Brett is a witch, gifting her talents in the magical community. Brett's training in magic started at an early age, as her mother understood the discipline and dedication that had to be involved in practising the craft.BLOODLINE
Brett still maintains that same discipline and dedication in her craft; she is meticulous in her supplies, maintains a small altar in her apartment and regularly meditates to achieve the calm and centred energy that she feels works best for her work. Typically, Brett errs towards charms and sigils, practising tarot readings and runes as a side hobby that helps her feel connected to her bloodline.
For the most part, Brett's charms sway towards small world effects on single people. She is proficient in luck, health and protection charms, either on items or straight on the person. Her ability to charm items is much more refined that her craft on a person specifically and tends to yield better results. Usually, Brett prefers to use crystals, as she can select the crystal that will help enhance the spell she casts. Brett has gotten rather good at designing spells with crystals and herb combinations through deep learning and much experimentation.
Due in part to Brett's own shaky confidence, her charms are not always 100% effective. While she offers freelance services, she typically under charges and only a select community of people know of her services.
Through her great-great grandmother's bloodline, Brett's family are primarily bestowed with magical sensitivity. This doesn't always translate into being able to practise witchcraft -there has been the odd aunt and cousin who have a sensitivity to magic but no ability to use magic themselves, either through a fluke in the bloodline or an inability to focus on the intent.LISTENING SKILLS
In all likelihood, should Brett pro-create, her offspring have a high chance of being witches like her.
At her core, Brett is a listener; she'll let people talk and vent whenever they need to, it doesn't matter the context. She's exceptionally good at taking things in and helping people where she can, even if she can't offer a solution, sometimes a friendly ear is enough to help.BASIC COMBAT
She's likely the 'mom friend' of her social group, the one who more often than not has the pot of tea ready, a bar of chocolate and a ready ear for any problems. She's the one people call at ridiculous times of the day just to ask for advice or help, and 90% of the time, Brett answers and does her utmost to help.
Years ago, following an assault of a young woman on campus, Brett's father made her sign up for self-defence classes. Brett was sceptical but decided to appease her father just to stop him worrying.
The class at least offered Brett a basic understanding of how to defend herself, she isn't great at fighting, but she can deliver enough of a shock to defend herself in the event of an attack and allow her to either get away or get help. She also carries mace with a mix of wolfsbane and silver just in case -something her mother mixed up for her following a mild dispute she had with some groups herself.
Brett was born during a particularly rainy spring, something her mother thought might indicate a troubled soul, weathering through some complex storms that may come her way. Instead, Brett was born healthy, happy and fairly content, listening to the patter of rainfall in her crib. She was never a fussy child, rather easy and laid back, Brett enjoyed spending time in any company she was in, and that was about the only thing she fussed about, she wanted to be in people's company, she loathed being on her own.TEENAGE YEARS
When Brett was three she didn't need to worry about being on her own again, as her mother gave birth to her only son. Brett adored the baby, and regularly sat with him, reading her books to him, even if neither of them knew the actual words. The trio of siblings grew close, with Lyndsey being tasked with watching her younger siblings during family events as time went on. Brett was the one who stopped fights, who negotiated the terms of their games and playing, she kept the peace, and both of her siblings seemed to listen to her, which worked out well.
At school, Brett was just the same, although she was pleased that she ended up at the same school as her cousins, and later one of her mom's friends daughters joined her. Brett and Zara quickly became best friends, doing everything together, regardless of the one year difference.
High school allowed Brett to find her footing, work out who she was, where she fitted. Thankfully, she was exceptionally good at balance, and with her mother bringing plenty of tutelage in the magical department, Brett was never at odds with the multiple aspects that made up herself.ADULTHOOD
Her craft wasn't well known to those at school, although Zara knew, as they practiced together, Brett didn't feel the need to advertise that she was a witch -many in the community knew of her family through her great-great grandmother anyway.
Understanding this about herself allowed Brett to properly explore who she wanted to be in life, if she wanted her life to revolve around magic or if she wanted to carve something more traditional out of life. The answer came to her during her senior year, when she volunteered with the student body council to assist incoming freshmen in settling into life in the school.
Certain incidents allowed Brett to get a feel for mentoring, for helping younger kids find their feet, and when some of the help ended up being about things outside of school, Brett got her teeth into being there for other people.
When she told her mother she wanted to pursue something in the line of being a counsellor, Sophia wasn't surprised, saying that Brett always showed signs of being the supporter type. It did mean that Brett had a better idea of college and further education from there out, deciding to live on campus the following year at UCLA.
College was an eye opener for Brett, it wasn't that she struggled, but she understood a lot more clearly just how intricate her life was woven around her family and her craft. Brett took up meditation, built her small alter in her dorm room and built up a routine of centring herself to find calm and peace. Her roommate just thought she was a little bit of a hippy and brushed it off, until Brett noticed that her roomie had been the unfortunate bystander caught up in some negative energies. Offering to cleanse her roommate was a little bit of a gamble, but in the end it paid off, and there was no non-human discrimination against her (even though witches are just humans with a little extra something).
Not everyone knew about Brett, but she found that she could supplement her income with the occasional reading, cleansing or charms here and there. It meant she wrote more in her journals, working out crystal formations and when during the moon cycle was best for certain spells, which worked better with what planetary alignment. She ended up taking an elective in astronomy to get a better grasp of things there, purely for her side hussle.
The year before Brett was set to graduate, her grandmother passed away, it was particularly sudden or unexpected, nothing untoward, but Brett had to take time out to get things in order with her family, taking a hiatus from her studies to be there for her mother and siblings. It was the same year that Hayden announced he had asked his high school sweetheart to marry him. The trip to Dallas for the wedding was an eventful one, since Lucy had gotten a job out there with a pharmaceutical firm and Hayden figured he could find work somewhere. The whole family went out, threw a massive party and welcomed Lucy into the family. It was at the wedding that Brett first met Hunter Westley, one of her cousins close friends who came along. The pair had insane chemistry right off the bat, with Kelsey (Brett's cousin) teasing them both from the get go.
Brett thought little of it, assuming that Hunter lived near Kelsey, in San Diego, and long distance wasn't exactly perfect for her right then.
Returning to LA the following week, Brett didn't give it much thought, she didn't mind when Kelsey text her to ask if she could give Hunter Brett's number, she even agreed, because the friendship was something she wouldn't mind maintaining. As Brett returned to college, ready to complete her degree she leaned greatly on Hunter throughout the process of trying to find her place all over again. They spent hours chatting a night or texting, Brett finding it easy to share with Hunter her insecurities about her own magical capabilities. Six months into their friendship, Brett was very much aware that her attempt to not get invested had been a massive failure, given that she'd turned down several dates in order to spend the evening messaging or talking to Hunter, she didn't even care when her new roommate hooked up with her own ex, something the girl had been anxious about and throwing Brett off her own rhythm.
Cooling things off wasn't going to work either, as the sheer notion of not talking to Hunter for whatever reason didn't sit well with her at all. She had just decided that she'd need to talk to him after Christmas, lay things out and let the chips fall, when he turned up for the family gathering at her mother's house, ready to tell Brett that he wasn't about to do long distance with her either. Hunter moved to LA that Christmas. In what was described as rash and reckless, Brett moved in with Hunter by her birthday that April, and when Hayden invited the family out to Dallas for the birth of his first son, Brett took Hunter, more than sure that the family celebration was not going to be the last her attended with her.
She was right, because Hunter was there for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and another birth, and then, Hunter was there for Brett's first big job, after a few years of making her bones in volunteer centers or with crisis hotlines, Brett landed the open position as guidance counsellor at her old high school.
Feeling brave, and ever hopeful, Brett and Hunter bought a house together, starting to lay down their roots together, much to the happiness of her parents, who were happy she'd found such a stabilising partner, the fact that he was a witch too was just the icing on an already very delicious cake. On Brett's 28th birthday, Hunter proposed, creating a massive scene in the restaurant they were at, but not changing Brett's mind at all about saying yes.
Things came crashing down that same year, just three months after getting engaged, the pair were in a car wreck. The car in front of them spun out of control, causing a collision with a car in the opposite lane, causing a chain reaction of impacts. Their car was crushed between one in front and a truck behind, the impact compressing the front of their car dangerously so, pinning Hunter into the steering wheel and jamming Brett into the dash with debris around them leaving them both in a precarious situation.
Several people from the crash were rushed to hospitals, Brett had a puncture in her chest, right over her heart, thankfully the shrapnel didn't go too deep, Brett suffered serious blood loss, a concussion, fractured ribs and some lacerations, but was air lifted out to a hospital once they were able to pry the car open.
The deepest wound was that Hunter died at the scene, his lungs unable to properly inflate from his pinned position meaning he died en route to the hospital from lack of oxygen.
Brett's world collapsed in that instant. Her heart and life shattered around her from a senseless accident that she couldn't find reason for. She took a sabbatical from work, closed herself off, walled herself in, looking for some way to stop the pain.
Ultimately, it was her niece that drew her out of the self imposed bleakness she'd wrapped herself in. With Hayden and Lucy juggling work and kids, Brett offered to help while she was recovering and off work. She stayed in Dallas with them for three months, breaking out of her isolation and letting her niece and nephew heal some of the pain, Brett slowly came back to herself. Her parents made sure to have her over for dinner as regularly as Brett would agree, her sister showed up with plans for movies or lunch, they stopped by shelters to look at animals. Slowly the hurt stopped consuming her entirely and Brett remembered to make room in her life for others.
At her father's request, Brett agreed to grief counselling, understanding that she couldn't possibly keep everything to herself, after attending a counsellor for a while, Brtt realised that she couldn't return to the job she'd had previously, giving her notice at work so that she could start something new for her own life, rather than reopen old wounds again.
She knows, even three years after things, that she's not yet over it all, she understands that her confidence and grief still have effects on her magic, but Brett knows that her journey through grief to acceptance is one she can't rush.
Being able to help people at work at least gives Brett a sense of being able to do something, while her branching out to freelance magical assistance helps to keep her from losing her footing with her magic all over again.
