Name: Briar Connelly
Nickname/s: Bree, Bry, Thorn (band name)
Species: Witch
Primary Power: Animal Speaker
Coven: Hawthorn Coven
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Hometown: Reading
Current Residence: Hawthorn House
Studying: BA Animal Science, 3rd year
Employment: Part-time staff at Raven Whispers
Family: Uncle; Gawain, parents deceased
Friends: The Coven, fellow band members, and some shifters
Relationship: None
Player: Haley
Contact Email: h1watson@hotmail.co.uk
Model: Alexis Bledel
Credit: Sweetandtalented.com
Background
Briar grew up as a single child, born to a loving couple who ran a veterinary service in the community. Her mother was a healer, and her father an animal speaker, devoting their lives to something they cared deeply about, and when their first child came along their lives seemed complete. Briar was a happy child, and has many memories of visiting the surgery when not in school and helping in whatever way possible, knowing that one day she would come into her power and could help carry on the work her parents did. Her parents used their powers to heal the animals that were brought to them, and Briar hade no other desire to do the same thing. Her pride in her parents knew no limits.
Unfortunately there was no happy ending. It was her first year of secondary school, before she had come into her power, when two policemen had knocked on the door of her home changing her life forever. Briar had visited the surgery and stayed there for a while, but left her parents there to close it down for the day. She had noticed that they hadn’t returned by the usual time, but didn‘t think much of it. The police eventually came, and told her that someone had gotten into the surgery whilst they were locking up, and put a bullet through both of their heads. Something inside her died that moment. That night and the following days went by in a hazy blur. Her parent’s coven had come to the conclusion that someone must’ve discovered they were witches and were using their powers in their practice, and were killed by hunters. Fearing for Briar’s safety, they decided to send her away to live with her father’s brother Gawain in Reading.
This marked the beginnings of troubled times for Briar. Her uncle was an alchemist, and was practically a hermit. Though he cared about his niece, he found it difficult to adjust to having someone to care for. He spent most of his time perfecting his various elixirs, absorbing himself in their creation. Briar was basically left to her own devices, and their relationship was strictly functional. He provided her with a place to live, enlisted her in a new school, and bought her the necessary things she needed. She provided for him by doing all the practical things, like the shopping and house chores so that he could wittle away his hours in the cellar with his potions. The first few months Briar spent in near solitude herself, withdrawing from her fellow school pupils and the teachers, and she barely spoke to her uncle. She spent a lot of time being alone, missing the life she once had in the community with her beloved parents. Deep down she was hurting, and filled with an immense anger at the injustice of it all. Her parents were good people, and to have them taken away from her just because they were witches? It was too much to bear.
Briar often took to the streets alone, finding the aimless walking brought her some measure of peace. It was through this that she eventually got involved with a small group of street urchins. It was in this group that she found some semblance of family. They all looked out for each other, and respect was of utmost importance. While her uncle was in his cellar, Briar was running with her gang, waging small wars with other child gangs, causing general harmless havoc to civilians and local businesses. Briar was eventually a prominent member of the gang, having proved her loyalty and strength many times before in ‘battle’. On the other hand, she was a quiet recluse in school, always working hard at the back of the class, and liked it that way.
She eventually came into her primary power in the middle of her school years. It happened gradually. Often on her walks she would encounter urban animals; foxes, local birds, cats, dogs, etc. Time and again when she encountered these animals something within her would stir, some flicker of emotion or understanding. She soon realised she was reading what she could only describe as their energy, and through it could understand what they were doing, feeling, or trying to communicate. She began building relationships with some of these animals, particularly the raven who would frequent the tree in her uncle’s yard. At first it was difficult. She could understand enough of what the animals were saying, but communicating back was a problem initially. Without her father, Briar had nobody to teach her how to develop her power. Through dedication, she eventually found ways to do this.
Briar grew up into an independent, strong young woman. She did well at school, achieving good results in GCSE’s and A Levels, although out of school she was rebellious. She eventually drifted away from her childhood gang because they were becoming too serious in their crimes. Briar wasn’t a bad person, she just had a lot of anger and nothing to lose, but mostly she just wanted somewhere to belong. She found the courage to leave them, and although still gets into some trouble in bars and such, she is trying hard to mature.
She managed to get onto the Animal Science course at Reading University. There she became a part of Hawthorn coven, and seems to have found her first real family since her parents death. She found it hard originally, her strong temperament and often hostile ways distancing her from much of the coven. But some, especially the leader, never gave up on her. Eventually, she became attached and protective of these people, and now would never see any harm come to them. When the coven leader left in Briar’s second year, they chose Briar to be their next leader, which surprised her but brought her a great feeling of belonging and responsibility. Now, Briar is a resilient and effective leader of the coven, proficient with her primary power, and with the news of the possible hunters having moved into Reading, she is willing to lay down her life for the protection of her coven.
Physical Appearance
Briar looks naïve and vulnerable , but you’d pay for your mistake. She likes the fact she looks somewhat defenceless and innocent, simply because she knows that when someone underestimates you it gives you the element of surprise. Standing at 5”9, she has an attractive body. Pale skin and dark, unkempt curly hair, her deep brown eyes hide a world of emotion. Briar has an aura of someone who does not give a damn about people’s opinions, having spent a lot of her life with no one close enough to her for her to care. Her dress sense emphasises this carefree, rebellious look. Her mid-length brunette hair has a permanent ‘bed-head’ look to it, and she never wears make up apart from when dressing up for performances with the band. She is always in either baggy jeans or combats, and often offsets them with tight, punk style tops and accessories. Briar often doesn’t realise that she is actually quite attractive, and often the poor guy who makes any remark usually ends up bruised.
Personality
Briar is one of those with a hard shell to break, but once someone breaks it they realise just how loving, devoted and quite vulnerable she is. She’d rather chew off her own arm than let someone see her cry or be weak, not that it would happen often anyway. Although she isn’t physically strong, she is practically fearless, especially in the past when she has felt she has nothing to lose, and is always the first one to get involved in a fight. When her passion and anger start to surface, she is indeed a force to reckon with. She carries a lot of hurt in her, having never really recovered from her parents deaths, and covers it with an overstated façade of independence and distance.
She makes an effective, if somewhat unconventional and forceful leader. Briar isn’t here to babysit the coven, and knows that there are those within the coven who can be the friendly, mothering, caring ones to those who need it. She is here to enforce the safety of the coven, make sure that peace is kept within it, and that they keep good ties with the other species. Briar is more than capable of doing this, especially as now she has emotionally adopted the coven as her family - and she will give her all for it. Members of the coven have come to appreciate this, and put up with her aggressiveness and sometimes cold behaviour because they know that really she cares very deeply about them. Although, Briar is now trying to consciously turn down her automatic defensiveness when dealing members of the coven, and will readily admit if she has been too harsh.
One thing that means a lot to her is respect. She works hard to be respected herself, and doesn’t care what background you come from or what pretence you carry around, everyone starts as equals and you earn your respect. One downside to this is that she often likes to see people fall, just so she can see how they deal with it and judge them accordingly. If you prove your steel though, you have in Briar someone who will stand by you in all circumstances and whose respect is unwavering.
She has a soft spot for animals, which is obvious considering her power. Her primary power brings much comfort to her, and is a part of her parents that she will always have, and a reminder of the happy life and dreams she once had. The animals are mostly the only ones he get to see her unguarded, soft and gentle side, and around them she feels more like the happy child she once was, or the person she could’ve been.
Talents & Weaknesses
Briar is an Animal Speaker. This means she can communicate with animals to learn things from them. She can understand them, but not control them. She finds certain animals easier to communicate with than others. This is simply because some members of the animal kingdom, such as insects, fish, and wild animals are more removed from human life. Animals who are domesticated or live in human populated areas are more ready to open up to her. Their communication is not like that of the human language. They communicate through energy , understanding each others auras and feelings. Briar has become quite adept at it, and can know interpret the tiniest flux of the energy so well as to be able to ask specific questions . When she is trying to communicate with them, she might speak while doing so, but only to help her concentrate on the energy that she should be putting forward. Briar finds that ravens are the easiest to communicate with, what with them being extremely adaptable and intelligent birds.
Another way that Briar communicates with animals is through her dreams. She knows that each animal has a spirit, its own energy, and often the manifestations of certain animal energies visit her dreams to bring her important information or messages. Also, Briar likes to work with animal totems, finding ways to bring certain animals energies into her life. She also has a talent for figuring out other people’s animal totems. Magically speaking, she also has some small talent with herbs and oils, having gleaned some small amount of knowledge from her time spent with her uncle. This is only basic though, and she is by no means skilled with them.
Briar started to learn how to play the drums whilst doing A Levels, and picked it up quickly. She now plays for the band “Ashes”, who all met a while back and are now friends. One unknown fact is that Briar writes a lot of the lyrics for the bands songs. She is eloquent and poetic when she allows herself to be, but doesn’t want people to know, and is quite content with being just the drummer in the publics eyes. Also, she is quite the fighter, but really its just brawling she does, making up for her lack of strength with steely determination, speed and dexterity. She’d like to develop this into an actual form of martial art, to also help release some of her anger in a safe way.
Briar studied hard as a child, and she keeps hidden in her heart the desire to carry on her parents work. This is why she is doing the Animal Science course, so that she can qualified to work for the benefit of animals, and her primary power allows her infinitely more insight into how to do it than normal humans. She wants to work towards the preservation and safety of endangered animals, so knows a lot about not only the intuitive side of animals the her power makes her privy to, but also the natural and biological side to animals.
Her weakness is definitely her defensiveness and her issues with her anger. Opening up to people is the hardest thing for her to do, although now she realises that she has do open up a bit more for the benefit of the well-being of the coven. She doesn’t want the coven to hate her or reject her, just when she feels like she has found a place she fits in.
