Brigid’s Character Quiz

Brigid’s Memories

The earliest memories Brigid has, aside from the memory of her father leaving her at the orphanage, are of playing with the other children and listening to the Sisters.

The orphanage was run by the Order of the Sisters of the Lamb and was attached to their main convent in the hills above Los Angeles. The Sisters specialized in caring for ‘lost lambs’ like girl orphans (no boys allowed) so it was no wonder that Brigid would be left in their care except for the mysterious circumstances surrounding it. They did try to discover who had left Brigid in their care over the years but were completely unsuccessful.

Brigid grew up wild and fey, but not reckless: she was an attentive student, especially in subjects like music and literature, although her taste in both were considerably at odds with the conservative Sisters (i.e., rock music and fantasy literature). Still, she managed to get an education in music that prepared her for later. And although the Sisters attempted to put Brigid up for adoption several times, somehow something beneficial happened that always prevented it: for example, a childless and barren couple looking to adopt her suddenly discovered the woman was pregnant with twins, and so reluctantly abandoned the adoption.

Her overt powers began manifesting themselves when Brigid hit puberty: that seems the traditional time when such things happen in her home Shadow. Her more covert powers were active since birth: her total resistance to disease, for instance, as she was never sick, and the unnatural speed at which she healed from cuts and scrapes. However, she didn’t consider herself ‘special’ in any way until her nascent powers surfaced in a fit of anger.

At the age of 14, when walking down a Santa Monica seaside street, Brigid found herself consistently annoyed by a street beggar, to the point where she looked back at him and told him pointedly to “Go Away!” She found herself looking into his eyes, and to her surprise, a power she felt reached out and touched his mind, forcing the command onto his consciousness and making him obey. She was quite surprised when the man obeyed.

That act set off a series of investigations into her possible powers. Brigid, acting on impulse, investigated the legendary powers that her elfin appearance suggested: powers of shapeshifting and of glamourie, powers of illusion and transformation. She started experimenting and discovered a wide variety of powers available to her, powers of the mind and over matter, powers that went beyond any she had heard about of any of the super-powered beings that were a common part of the world. Still, they felt somehow natural, which lessened any feeling of alienation or disconnection from humanity she otherwise might have felt. thus she did not feel the urge to use these powers as others had, as a superhero or supervillain.

In addition, Brigid discovered a natural aptitude for music, both vocal and instrumental. The Sisters even provided several months of voice lessons for Brigid until the last tutor threw up her hands and said that Brigid had more range and ability than anyone could ever hope to train. Instrumental music Brigid picked up on her own, convincing the Sisters to permit her to learn the harp while she learned the guitar secretly on the side. Since she learned earlier that she needed far less sleep than others, she would often steal out of the orphanage at night and go into the hills to practice: many were the times she serenaded the moon, the stars, and the occasional coyote, as well as provoking a number of local tales and urban legends about mysterious, magical music in the hills.

During the summer months of her early teenage years Brigid would work at a variety of places, her most favorite being the animal shelter nearby. There she discovered an affinity for animals: it seemed that she instinctively knew them and could relate to them. Others at the shelter would remark that she had a magical way with animals, and could also tell whether an potential adopter would be likely to mistreat an animal: they learned to rely on her perception of people when giving out animals. She also worked a season at the Renaissance Faire as a street busker and later an assistant for an old stage magician. When she was not working she indulged in the standard pastimes of a young adolescent girl: gossiping, following the current ‘hot’ stars of screen and superheroics, etc.

Later Brigid began to use her talents at more paying jobs, saving the money: with her vocal range she easily found work in the LA recording industry while using her developing powers to ‘persuade’ people that she was of age: her ability to mold her form allowed her to pass as 18 or older, her powers of transformation could change her identification to match her appearance, and if anyone was still unconvinced, all Brigid had to do was look into their eyes for a moment to change their minds. It was about this time she encountered Michelle Brown, an aspiring talent agent, who helped her immensely during this time.

Seven months past her 16th ‘foundling’ day Brigid announced to the orphanage that she was leaving them and seeking emancipated minor status. When the Sisters began to protest, Brigid pulled out her bank book and showed that she had saved over $7,000. With that she showed the Sisters two contracts, one as a backup singer and musician for an LA record company and one as a voice actor for an animated superhero TV series. After that, it didn’t take much to convince the Sisters to, reluctantly, release her from their care.

The Sisters surprised Brigid, though, when the Mother Superior went to her office safe and pulled out a large satin satchel and presented it to her. Inside she found the emerald ring and silver arm band. The Mother explained that they were all that was left of the jewelry that accompanied her when she was found on their doorstep. The note, written in black ink on parchment with what appeared to be a quill pen by a trained hand, was included. It read:

I am entrusting my daughter Brigid into your Order’s care: it is not safe for her to remain with me, nor, as I leave this place, am I likely to live to return to claim her. I am trusting you to raise her and to teach her to love, to laugh, and to live. The bag holds the equivalent of sufficient funds to provide for her every need: whatever remains when she grows old enough to care for herself, pass on to her. You have my thanks, and my blessings.

Every examination of the parchment Brigid has had done in the past have turned up no results: the manufacturer of the parchment could not be found, nor could the ink be precisely identified. Finally Brigid had the parchment mounted on a plaque on her wall in her rooms. The simple blanket she was discovered in was also produced from storage: the blanket was of an extremely fine wool that also was never identified.

Brigid practiced and performed music for almost two years, moving from a backup singer and musician into being known as a local star in her own right. She also practiced her powers but was unsure what to do with them, besides using them for stage effects. It was at one of her performances that her decision was made for her.

Agents of the arcane criminal organization Demon noticed her powers and recognized them as a type of magick they had never seen before. Naturally they were curious and, naturally, they were not about to take “No” for an answer. Brigid fled after lashing out with her powers, leaving most of the Demon agents stunned and helpless: while fleeing she encountered the hero NightStorm, who was investigating Demon activity. He recruited her into the ranks of superheroes, and surprisingly Brigid discovered a sense of belonging.

Soon after, when NightStorm was killed in action, Brigid met with a group of heroes who also shared a common bond with NightStorm. At his graveside Brigid also met perhaps the most powerful person on the planet, Doctor Shiva, and his group of devas. Tradition held the graveyard to be sacred ground, where no combat was permitted, but the group followed Doctor Shiva and confronted him on the docks, driving him away. Satisfied with how they performed together, the most experienced hero present, KnightStar, proposed forming a team, and Brigid and the others heartily agreed.

KnightStar also had something special: a starship with an AI and teleportational technology that soon became their base. This gave the team, which became known as Tempest, excellent transportation and communication abilities. Within Crystal’s boundaries Brigid’s powers were suppressed at will, as could be anyone elses’ powers. Brigid never could discover how or why this could happen, but it might have had something to do with the fact that Crystal was larger inside that outside.

Brigid spent three years with the team, aiding through its trials and tribulations as its unofficial ‘heart and soul’. All the while she used the new opportunities and new contacts she was making to investigate the source of her powers. She sharpened her powers of shapeshifting and transformation, but excelled at her powers of the mind. She also discovered that she did not really need to eat or sleep, and could comfortably survive at the coldest or hottest temperature on Earth: this had a cost, however, of never being able to leave Earth, as Brigid had effectively tied herself to the life-force of the entire planet and was drawing upon its energy to survive.

The first three years were the most difficult, as Brigid, now known as Changeling, was forced to develop her powers and her identity without any guidance except instinct. It did not help when her mentor KnightStar was killed in an ambush, leaving her without any guidance and the team without a true core. This was no more evident than at the end of those years when Brigid was on leave investigating her powers once again, this time with the assistance of the British sorcerer Lord Arcanus.

Doctor Shiva, the most feared and respected individual on the planet, entered the Tempest base to announce his latest scheme, to restore the harmony of the world by killing 90% of the human population. When challenged and attacked, he responded decisively, killing outright every one of the heroes present but one. When Brigid heard of this she felt she had betrayed the team by not being present and swore revenge. Together with FrostFire and Skye, two other members of the team who also had not been present, several other prominent heroes from around the world, and three squads of the Steel Guard (US military powered armor units) they raided Doctor Shiva’s island base.

They faced Doctor Shiva’s devas, one of the most powerful groups of individuals on the planet, including the most powerful mentalist Mentiad and the ninja warrior Shadow Stalker: Brigid played a major role in defeating all three. Shadow Stalker she encountered first: leading him to attack her, she used Nuada’s force field as protection for the first time, surprising him so much that she was able to make eye contact with him and completely overwhelm his mind and will, her fury making him her virtual puppet. She ordered him to help attack the patronizing Mentiad, who, if it were not for his slavish devotion to Doctor Shiva, might have been the most powerful and dangerous man alive. Brigid’s specially-developed psychic firestorm attack blinded Mentiad at the crucial moment when Shadow Stalker slipped behind him and killed him. By this time, FrostFire and Skye were down, as were most of the other heroes and the Steel Guard, leaving Brigid alone to face Doctor Shiva with her puppet Shadow Stalker. It was a confrontation that only one of the two were going to leave alive.

Doctor Shiva was almost saddened about the carnage. His goal was to create a more perfect world, albeit one created from the ashes of the present, imperfect one. Those that had fallen, on both sides, including the members of Tempest, he had expected and wanted to aid him when he was completed. Brigid almost sympathized with him but the image of the crater where the base was, and the marble and gold monument she created at the site, flooded her mind, and the confrontation began in earnest. But even with Shadow Stalker’s aid she was no match for the power of his armor, so she used her last remaining trick: she reached down and pulled apart her charm bracelet, freeing the two members of the Steel Guard she had transformed before the battle began. With all their help, although it cost one of the Guard his life protecting her, they managed to blast Doctor’s Shiva’s armor away, removing the source of his powers.

What happened then Brigid has told no one, and no one remained conscious to witness it. She could still feel the fire of her fury, but she still could not kill Doctor Shiva. Brigid was faced with two choices, of dealing death when she had been a warrior for life, or leaving Doctor Shiva alive to begin again sometime in the future. He stared at her, not defiantly, but calmly, expectantly, seeing her confusion. She instead chose a third path. Summoning all of her remaining power, she gave Shiva, who believed in the cycle of karma and reincarnation, an immediate new life: she regressed Shiva into a child, patterning his DNA after her own, and implanted the now female fetus in her womb. When she released Shadow Stalker from her control, he prepared to commit ritual suicide to atone for his failure to protect his master but Brigid stopped him: recognizing that Shadow Stalker, too, believed in reincarnation, she performed the same act upon him. Thus, when the others came to investigate the scene of the final confrontation, they found Brigid, standing in the center of Doctor Shiva’s control room, with Doctor Shiva’s shattered armor at her feet, but no trace of him to be found. When they questioned her, all she would say was that Doctor Shiva would threaten them no more.

Brigid spent the next several months away from the public eye. During that time she initiated an investigation to find the perfect parents for the two children she was carrying. She wanted them to grow up in the most loving and caring home she could find. Surprisingly, she found one in the family of the sound engineer she frequently used for her recordings; the other was an author in Ireland. When the two children were born, she named them Rowan and Rhiannon and sent them to live with their foster parents.

With the death of most of the members of the team, Brigid set out on her own. She would occasionally assist her old companions FrostFire and Skye, and anyone else left from the old team, and monitor the progress of her two fostered daughters, but she mostly returned to her music and her quest for identity.

It was during an invasion of Earth by an alien psychic force that sought to unite all life on the planet into one large psychic entity, one that would have eliminated all traces of free will and initiative in humanity. Brigid was among the ones least affected, if she ever was affected at all, and she rallied a number of others to her side in warding off the main alien force. In combating that force, she served as the focal point for a psychic assault that would make use of her contact with Earth’s life-force: with the assistance of others who boosted her powers beyond any limits she might have considered, she was able to draw upon the power of the entire planet, which barely proved sufficient because she was fighting the united psychic power of several planets. In the end, her transformational powers saved her, enabling her to disrupt the unity of the alien force and return their individuality. Now divided, they could not sustain their attack upon the Earth and left it in peace.

After that time, Brigid was regarded as one of the most powerful superheroes on the planet. She returned to the superhero scene, but involved herself only in the most major affairs. She would assist other heroes when the opportunity presented itself but mainly she re-doubled her efforts at fruitlessly investigating for her parents and the source of her powers. When she was offered the chance, however, to go to the Moon and assist in the construction of the first manned Lunar research base, she decided to sever her tie with Earth’s life-force and learn to sleep, breathe and eat again, although she discovered her superhuman limits of endurance.

This proved a life-saver when the shuttle back from the Moon developed a mechanical problem (or was sabotaged, which others had suspected), losing much of its air. Brigid was able to save most of the crew and passengers by transforming them into a state of hibernation: even so, without her superhuman endurance she would not have lived until rescue arrived if she were not able to reduce her own need for oxygen dramatically.

Brigid assisted a powerful group of heroes against the mechanical menace of Mechatron, who had conceived a means of using nanotechnology to convert humans into living machines, in its quest to replace all organic life on the planet with mechanical life. Although she did not defeat Mechatron, which another pair of heroes did by pushing Mechatron into the vat of transforming nanomachines he had created, she was able to reverse the effects of his experimentation on at least some of its victims.She considered that as much a victory as Mechatron’s defeat.

But still Brigid was beginning to feel that something was missing. She had survived over ten years as a superhero, outliving almost every one of her contemporaries: FrostFire had retired years ago to raise her young daughter, and the eternally-young Skye had progressed to being a media star and actress. Half of the heroes she knew never lasted a year, and almost 90% didn’t last for five years. One by one, her friends and contacts had moved on and she felt more and more alone, again.

It was at a charity event, a battle of the bands, that Brigid met Kai, who discovered her nascent Pattern power and brought her to Amber.

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