~Braintrust Roster~
The first major character we meet is also the one who introduces us to the Braintrust team, and that character is Carolina “Carrie” Deckard, age 25 and a latent psychokinetic until just before her introduction to the Braintrust. Carrie works as a vet before her life with the team, and this is one of the reasons why Romulus so rapidly warms up to her. Carrie is very attractive, of slightly taller height (somewhere around 6’) and, though her style of dress is more or less unassuming, she does have a penchant for wearing clothes or accessories of acid-intense colors. As stated before, Carrie is psychokinetic, which means that she has at least marginal control of many different psychic abilities, though her grasp of telepathy is much weaker than other members of the team, due to how intricate the process is. Count on Carrie assuming more control over her blossoming powers as the series progresses, but this will take quite some time. Once Carrie is fully integrated into the Braintrust family, her inquisitive nature leads her to constantly explore her boundaries and ask questions of the others, most often Romulus due to his expertise regarding psychics. Her growth will be one of the major plot points throughout, and her failures a mix of tragedy and outrageous comedy.
At “numero uno” for the Braintrust team, we have Romulus, full name Romulus Alexander Miller, essentially a Professor X-type character sans wheelchair and with very different powers. His appearance is that of something resembling a lightly bearded and darker-haired Alan Tudyk, aged 44, and ever-dressed in dress slacks and heavy sweaters, although he may very well be seen on certain occasions wearing very colorful Hawaiian shirts. Oddly, he usually chooses to walk around barefoot. Romulus has a certain affinity for animals; as a bestiapath, (an individual who can converse telepathically with animals) it seems only natural, and Romulus is known amongst his superiors for keeping an inordinate amount of animals present with him at all times. However, Romulus is not usually called upon to exercise his abilities for combat purposes, for his main area of expertise lies in his extraordinary wealth of knowledge into the abilities of the human mind. Romulus is a very accommodating man, always open to questions from Carrie and acting almost as a psychiatrist to the rest of the team in times of uncertainty, although he makes a point never to offer such help. Interactions between Romulus’ animals and the rest of the team will make for a great deal of comedy when the team is not on assignment. Romulus himself tends to laugh his way through most situations, from the genuinely funny to, sometimes, the gravely serious or even tragic.
Next we have the Braintrust’s field leader, a tall man from Mozambique named Fray, whose full name is never given because he was never really given one. All that he cares to mention about his past is that he used to be a child soldier before being discovered by the Braintrust, he is 27, and he was educated personally by Romulus, who himself graduated from Eton. His appearance should be reminiscent of Djimon Hounsou, with the addition of a lower-lip ring toward the right side of his mouth. Fray is gifted both with “intuitive aptitude,” which allows him to immediately know how to operate such things as machinery or alien weapons without prior training, and pyrokinesis, the meaning of which should be obvious to anyone who’s read X-Men in the last 20 years or has seen either of the Hellboy films. Fray is a man who takes very easily to the position of field leader, thanks to previous experience in battle, both as a child soldier and an operative of the Braintrust, and to the strength of character Romulus instilled him with during their time as tutor and pupil. Fray is also one of the few members of the Braintrust to use a weapon on a regular basis, that being a machete he has had with him since childhood and has miraculously survived throughout his years in the Braintrust. Fray commonly wears simple white linens (emblazoned on the upper arms by the mark of the Braintrust), possibly the mark of a man who has never quite adjusted to the life of privilege afforded him after his discovery, possibly a showing of reverence for his African ancestry, or maybe he just likes the way the cloth breathes. Fray has never made the distinction known to anyone thus far.
Our fourth member is a young man who answers to the moniker Mars, although his birth name is Terry Marsden. Mars bears a striking resemblance to Matt Bellamy (artist note: look at Muse’s music video “Sunburn” for hair and clothing help), and his usual style of dress is very, well… dressy. Mars prefers to wear mostly black or navy blue clothing of a notably formal style, which to an outsider might look a little odd for someone so young. Mars is fairly young, only 18, but his former career as an Olympic gymnast has helped to age him considerably. Mars’ power is a unique one among the group, as so few psychics in comics focus on the workings of the mind itself. Mars is what he refers to as an “electrician for the mind,” meaning he has the ability to manipulate electrical signals within the brain, meaning he can plant suggestions in a person’s head, make them forget bits of information, even have the targeted individual go into neurokinetic shock for short periods of time. Although Mars has only a partial understanding of how his powers work and the extent of how potent they can be, the mastery he does have can be used in devastating ways. While sometimes snide and sarcastic with other members of the Braintrust, Mars is surprisingly perceptive of others’ needs and feelings, though this may be his abilities helping him. Since Mars is high-school-senior age, he tends to connect with Carrie easier than the others, since she is fairly close in age and has been through college more recently than other team members, who are either younger or much older than he is. Tends to joke around with and confide in Carrie slightly more than in others.
Fifth on the roster is the youngest member of the Braintrust, a 16-year-old girl by the name of Willow, and just Willow. When the girl’s psychic abilities manifested, they were slightly too much for her brain to handle all at once without at least partial damage. When asked about her name, especially whether she has a surname, she will usually change the subject with something nonsensical. The reason for this is because Willow’s powers manifested all at once, allowing her to use 11% of her brain as opposed to the normal human 5%. The result is that she can now speak to the dead, as well as the added peculiarity of having random objects will themselves into being of their own accord at any time, although these objects (i.e. birds, plants, fountains of whiskey) often will themselves out of existence in quick succession. Willow is described by Romulus as unnaturally cheery for a spirit medium, saying that she’s had conversations with all sorts of interesting people and historical figures (Abe Lincoln, for instance). While rare, Willow does sometimes have moments of lucidity, explaining simply with “The music isn’t there ALL the time.” Regarding her appearance, Willow seems to dress in whatever is available at the moment, as she often wears things that are much too small or much too big; much to masculine or much to not-really-clothes. She will often be seen with a sweater stolen from Romulus wrapped around her neck as a cape or wearing a combination of Fray’s linens and Mars’ dressy clothes. Willow has a wardrobe of her own, consisting of anything imaginable, as some of her clothing simply willed itself into being and forgot to will itself away. Willow herself is about 5’5”, has hair that dyes itself strange colors at random although it is naturally black, has a cute face and two crooked scars running a little way down her forehead from her scalp just above her left eye. Willow will have a large part to play in Carrie’s acclimation into the Braintrust, and often present her with little willed-gifts (often to Carrie’s dismay, depending on the gift.)
Last we have the abnormally gifted Iris Halford, aged 24, and another recent recruit to the Briantrust. About 5’9”, with auburn hair and a Welsh accent, pretty, if a little skinnier than is healthy. Iris is what Romulus calls an “isolator,” a psychic who can isolate and manipulate individual elements inside physical objects. She can alter them, remove them, mix them; the possibilities are nearly endless. Iris has a very selfless personality, never wanting to get in anyone’s way and always hoping to do the right thing for her teammates, but her aptitude for using her power with so little training sometimes forces her into he spotlight more than she would like. Iris by no means indulges herself in high fashion, and as such wears pretty standard street clothes, though she does wear a navy-blue jacket emblazoned with the Braintrust coat of arms. Iris tends to get along fairly well with everyone, though she seems to enjoy spending more time with Fray and Carrie than any of the others, as they are closest in age. (Note: possible romance btw. Fray and Iris? We shall see!)
WELCOME TO THE BRAINTRUST
Also, I was watching Heat with a friend a couple weeks ago, and just for a laugh, I decided to draw an assault rifle of my own. For anyone who knows me personally and sees this, I'm not going to snap and kill people, I swear. Really. Honest.
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