Chronicle: Roaring 20s
Nature: Visionary
Essence: Questing
Demeanor: Avant-Guard
Concept: Visionary Scholar
Mentor: Sir Robert Kensington

Personality: Bridgette has always been an obedient daughter who's made her parents-- particularly her father-- very proud, and has always gotten great pleasure out of receiving their approval. She's lived in a kind of happy bubble where nothing bad has happened to her-- always supported by family and friends who have told her she can do anything. Luckily, she's also a hard worker, fast learner, and very intelligent-- always amazing her teachers with her ability to concentrate and block out all distractions, and with her photographic memory, her curiosity, and her natural ability to grasp foreign languages quickly.

Bridgette LOVES history, theology, linguistics, archeology, anthropology-- just to name a few fields-- and soaks up knowledge wherever and whenever she can! She's not very strong nor much of a fighter-- despite a few years of fencing training-- but she has the reflexes and know-how of a thief from 2 years of being sent by her aged mentor on errands to various museums and such in the middle of the night to retrieve various objects, and then return them later when they're done with them. Bridgette is also a lady, and as such likes to be treated like one. She's very meticulous and clean with her dress, hair, and make-up, and when there's trouble that she can't get out of on her own, she'll run to the nearest male and cling to him for support in a lady-in-distress-manner, which-- now that she's a "soldier" in the fight against the Technocracy-- isn't going over too well with her cabal! When she went off to the University of London at 17, she quickly took up the new cosmopolitan trend of smoking, but will only smoke ladies' cigarettes held in one of her various finely-crafted cigarette-holders.

Bridgette loves to help the less-fortunate, but her head-in-the-clouds manner often results in her unintentionally offending her beneficiaries. She may come across as snobbish or insensitive, but it's only because she doesn't realize how what she's saying is coming across. Bridgette really does have a good heart, and her visionary dream is to gather all the wisdom discovered over the millennia by the Order of Hermes from various cultures, and have society implement them in order to bring about peace, harmony, acceptance, and world-evolution. She believes that when society evolves to a higher state of being, there will no longer be violence, poverty, or disease. She's very enthusiastic about learning about all other cultures, races, and religions, and desires that they be left to continue naturally without outside Western influence in order that their wisdom and ways not become diluted oreradicatedd.

Quote: "Aaah, that tiny, destitute village is perfectly charming! They must have many stories to share with us-- Ahmed, please hold my parasol higher, the sun will scorch my complexion!"

Bridgette's Paradigm: Bridgette's mentor took her to Ireland, France, Scandinavia, Greece, Egypt, India, and China for a tour of the world involving the least amount of ship-sailing-- due to Bridgette's sever phobia of deep water. As they would explore each place, her mentor would teach her the basics of a new sphere, and so she grew to believe that that particular sphere must have had its origins in the country where she learned it, so the Magick must always come from that land. To channel that Magick, Bridgette thinks she has to somehow connect herself with that land by either speaking a phrase in the native tongue, or holding an object from that place.

Foci:
Correspondence: (India) drawing a design with henna on each of her palms, holding anything made in India, or chanting, "Yeh Raaste Hain Chori!" which means "these are the secret paths," in Hindi.

Forces: (Celtic) holding or touching something related to the particular force she wants to use, ie. lighting a candle for fire, holding water in her cupped hands for water, etc., or holding anything of Celtic origin or design, or chanting, "R'a cur'ma ha'raa!", which means "secrets hidden show to me," in Celtic.

Matter: (France) putting on an antique pair of short-gloves she bought in France in order to manipulate matter, putting on her spectacles-- which were dipped in the Seine-- to examine matter, or chanting "Je commande cette chose a changer!", which means "I command this item to change!" in French.

Prime: (Egypt) she always wears an expensive ankh on a chain around her neck under her clothes which has a crystal quartz set in the hole, and she will peek through the crystal or run the ankh over a surface or let the ankh pull her when detecting Magick/quintessence. She can also use any item from Egypt to do this, but likes her ankh best. Her spectacles will also work for seeing Prime as she dipped them in the Nile. She can also chant, "Eine anok me, ti anok me!", which means "Bring me the truth, give me the truth," in Egyptian.

Spirit: (Scandinavia) she has a bag of Norse runes-- and the Odin rune on a bracelet around her wrist-- but she's found that nothing works better than to trace the rune that corresponds with her purpose in the air or on a surface. Her spectacles will also work because they've been dipped in the North Sea, but she believes she will see spirits more vividly if she traces runes with her finger over the glass first. She can also chant, "Kann er som hemma Geist!" which means, "welcome spirits!" or "make yourself at home, ghost," in Swedish.

Time: (Greece) she has an ancient armband that was given to her by a real oracle in Greece that she wears all the time on her upper arm, but because the oracle used incense to go into her trances, Bridgette believes that using incense, cigarettes, or smoke of any aromatic kind will put her into the right trance to channel Time more strongly than just wearing the armband alone. She can also chant, "Loquime o paseo, et nunc, et futuro!", which means "Tell me of the past, present, and future," in Latin.

History: Bridgette Elizabeth Fairbanks was born on Dec. 13, 1901 in Northhampton, Northamptonshire England to Professor Arthur Fairbanks and his lovely wife Jane. Their son Thomas was 4-years old at the time, and it wouldn't be for 13 more years before they'd learn he was a homosexual...which didn't diminish anyone's love for him, and actually made him quite the hit in his 20s with the ladies of high society who assumed he was the perfect person to ask for advice about things such as fashion-trends and interior decorating. Luckily, Thomas actually was interested in those things and did give quite good advice on those matters.

But back to Bridgette! She was a lovely little girl who grew into a lovely young lady-- slim and delicate with honey-blonde hair and large, inquisitive blue eyes. She and Thomas were inseparable best friends-- not really having many other friends due to the other children perceiving that there was something odd about the Fairbanks siblings. Bridgette spoke and acted like an adult, preferring to follow her teachers about after classes to argue with them about their lessons and get their reactions to insights she'd had regarding passages in their assigned books. Not many of the teachers had the patience to deal with precocious Bridgette!

Tom was a wealth of knowledge, himself, and had a following of little girls who found him both sensitive and polite. But whenever Bridgette would come 'round, she would shoo the girls off as if they were an annoying swarm of mosquitos so she could have Thomas all to herself. He and her father were the only ones who actually found her ramblings interesting and asked questions and responded back with their own findings. Her mother never knew WHAT Bridgette was on about, and always felt drained after one of Bridgette's "attacks."

During the summer of 1914 when Bridgitte was 13, the Fairbanks family went on a holiday to Stonehenge. As the childrens' parents were making polite conversation with the other adults there, Bridgette and Thomas entertained themselves with the stones. They had both grown up hearing their father tell stories of the pre-Celtic civilization that had built Stonehenge, and how some scholars believed that human sacrifices had been offered up on the center alter-stone...and, well, Thomas and Bridgette decided that they wanted to play at this, themselves. Thomas layed out on the alter-stone first while Bridgette held an imaginary dagger in her hands, and-- chanting a phrase in Latin that she'd heard a priest say once-- she pretended to thrust it into her brother's chest while he groaned and moaned and started convulsing on the rock.

That looked like great fun, so Bridgette said it was her turn next. Thomas got off the alter, and Bridgette took his place. Thomas adopted her previous posture of holding the imaginary dagger above her heart, but then suddenly Bridgette started feeling a little dizzy and things went black for a moment. When her vision cleared, she was looking up at a woman in ancient clothing...holding a real jaggedy-looking dagger made of obsidian! The woman-- Bridgette's Avatar-- gave Bridgette a quick smile, but then her face went stern again and she lifted the dagger higher and started to bring it down! Bridgette let out a horrible shriek, sat bolt-upright, and-- aiming all her fear at the figure before her-- she blew it backwards about 15 feet!

Then she realized that she was back in 1914, and she had just...somehow...launched poor Thomas through the air without laying a finger on him! She looked around Stonehenge and saw leys of Prime coursing into it and through it without knowing what she was seeing at all. When she slid off the alter, she saw a small bloodstain there, and when her parents ran over to see what had happened to them, she clutched her mother and whispered that she thought she'd just received her "womanhood." Her mother wrapped her coat around her to hide the newly-flowing blood while her father helped the dazed Thomas to his feet, and the family quickly left Stonehenge for their hotel. Bridgette had Awakened!

Bridgette's family had always enjoyed an active social-life with family friends-- throwing parties, or just dropping by on one another-- but from this time on, Bridgette noticed that one of her father's colleagues-- a Sir Robert Kensington, professor at the University of London-- was now over quite regularly. At first he would just greet her with a friendly "why hello Bridgette!" and a nod, but after a time his greeting would include questions about how she was doing, what she was studying, and what her interests were. Now finally here was a teacher who wasn't put off by her-- she thought in jubilation-- and delighted in answering all of Kensington's questions in enthusiastic detail. Their conversations would usually end with him leaning in conspiratorially and suggesting a particular book for her to peruse, or letting her in on a new find they had made in London.

The years passed, and when Bridgette was 15 her father called her into his office where Kensington greeted her and quickly shut the door behind her, and all of them sat down. Bridgette asked her father what he wanted to see her for, and that's when he and Kensington told her about the world of Mages and Magick, and that the episode at Stonehenge had been the moment of her Awakening. Kensington asked her what she'd seen when she'd come out of her trance, and Bridgette told them about the leys of power coursing in and through the ancient ruins. Kensington smiled and nodded, telling her that this was Prime-- the substance which fueled Magick, itself. Bridgette asked if they were both Mages, and her father chuckled and said that he was not-- he was one of those privileged few Sleepers who had been told about the Awakened society-- but that Sir Robert Kensington was, and he would be her Mentor. Kensington apologized, telling her that he was sorry she'd come by such an aged, decrepit old man for a mentor, but that she would become a powerful Mage under his tutelage. Bridgette couldn't believe it! She just HAD to see a demonstration of this "magick," so Kensington concentrated, and caused her to float in the air-- and then made her perfectly-combed coif puff out in a crackle of static electricity. Bridgette-- far from being horrified at her new unsightly hair-- laughed in delight and said she wanted to see more. Kensington and Prof. Fairbanks smiled smugly at one another, and Kensington told Bridgette that she would be seeing him now thrice weekly after school for her lessons.

When Bridgette turned 16, she entered the age where she was elligible to be courted by young gentlemen. Not that she was interested in this at all-- she was so wrapped up in her studies that nothing else interested her. But while she wasn't noticing the young men, a particular young man was noticing her. Christopher Wentworth-- son of family friends-- had become fascinated with this mysterious, aloof young lady...probably because she was the only girl it seemed he couldn't have! The only girl who didn't swoon when he tipped his hat to her. The only girl who turned him down when he asked to take her out. She became a kind of brass ring he kept trying to grab, and the more ellusive she was, the more determined he became to win her. Unfortunately, Christopher's character wasn't one to be desired. He was snobbish, rude, spoiled, pushy, and arrogant, and those girls who did accept his offers to take them out often had to endure his quick-fire temper.

It was unavoidable that Bridgette would find herself cornered by Christopher since their social circles were the same, but she had such an airy yet cunning way about her that often when Christopher thought he had finally cornered Bridgette, she would call over his shoulder to someone to come over and meet Christopher, and then slip out leaving the two to their small-talk. Christopher finally found some leverage when he mentioned his desire to court Bridgette to his mother-- who was good friends with Bridgette's mother-- and the two mothers put their heads together and decided that they would love for their children to be married someday. Bridgette's mother was especially enthusiastic about this as she didn't approve of her daughter spending so much time reading, studying, and being with her husband's friends. She thought Bridgette could use a little domesticating, and that marrying Christopher would make Bridgette calm down and take more interest in feminine activities. Fortunately for Bridgette, her father detested Christopher and helped her escape him whenever he could. Her mother didn't know what her daughter was, and what future she was being trained to be a part of. Not even Thomas knew, although Bridgette thought he must have his suspicions.

Bridgette graduated from public school when she was 17, and was accepted-- of course-- into the University of London where her mentor Kensington teaches Linguistics and Anthropology. She was very enthusiastic about getting away from Christopher, so this was a perfect arrangement. There her Magickal training became intense. Some students thought it odd that Professor Kensington's assistant was a Freshman, but no one complained once they saw that she was quite competant. Kensington would often summon Bridgette to his office at a moment's notice to show her a new discovery, to ask her to run one of his errands to "retrieve" something from a museum so they could study it in detail, or to arrange to meet in one of the Order's buildings with other members in the middle of the night to discuss business. She soon saw that her mentor was very well-respected in Mage society, and that as long as she worked hard, a place of honor would always be secured for her within the Order. She loved to return home on the weekends where she and her father would lock themselves in the study conspiratorially so she could show him the new magickal things she'd learned how to do.

The next year-- spring through autumn-- Kensington took Bridgette on the tour of Ireland, France, Scandinavia, Greece, Egypt, India, and China where she learned to grasp the basics of many new spheres. When they returned, they found a letter addressed to Bridgette in care of Kensington inviting her to attend the College Fantastique in New York City. An extrememly prestigious school of Magick for young Mages, only 20 students were admitted every 3 years! They also found out that Christopher had secured himself a job in London so as to be close to Bridgette so he could formally court her. If Bridgette needed anything to firmly convince her to go to America, it was Christopher living in London!

Kensington sent off a letter of acceptance to the College Fantastique and purchased three first-class tickets on a ship so he and her father could accompany Bridgette to New York. Bridgette had to be put into a state of near-unconsciousness by her Mentor's use of Mind before they even reached the docks or she would have gone into a very unsightly panic at her first glimpse of the boat and the sea, knowing she was going to be put on the boat. Bridgette suffers from severe phobia of deep water, due to a near-drowning she experienced when she was about 10 years old.

The Fairbanks family had gone on their summer holiday to a beach resort in Spain. Bridgette's mother had placed little floatation devices around her upper arms before allowing her to run into the sea. At first Bridgette and Thomas didn't mind being battered back towards shore by the incoming waves, but after a while this grew tiring. Bridgette pointed out that the water behind where the waves were forming was very calm, indeed, and she was curious about what it would be like to float peacefully out there. Thomas said no way was he going out that far-- there might be slimy fishes or even sharks who would brush against him and give him the willies-- but this thought made Bridgette all the more curious to try her idea!

As Thomas started back for shore, Bridgette began swimming against the tide towards that calm, blue water. She kept putting her foot down to test how deep the water was. Once when she put her foot down, it came down on something squishy, and she let out a little yelp and pulled her foot back up. Now something was wrapped around her ankle!! She quickly reached down to untangle her foot, and found that it was engulfed in...seaweed. She laughed to herself while pulling the seaweed off, but her nerves were starting to become a little jumpy. Finally she got past the wave-formations, and this time when she brought her foot down, it just kept going down and down until the water would have been over her head if she kept going down! She was in deep water!

She floated there for a moment, taking everything in, and then looked to shore where she saw her parents and Thomas jumping about, shouting and waving for her to "come back! Come back!" Just then something made a tiny splash to her left. As she swerved her head to look, another little fish jumped over her head! Bridgette laughed in glee and waited for a third fish to jump, but then something lightly skimmed against her leg, and images of Thomas' hypothetical shark suddenly came crashing into her head, and panic took hold.

She started paddling wildly back towards the shore, but it wasn't as easy as she thought it would be. As the waves were sucked back into the ocean, the undercurrent would push Bridgette back to the calm water. She started screaming and paddling wildly towards shore in a huge rush of fear-adreneline, but by the time she'd gotten herself out of the calm water and back into the waves, her energy was spent. She was like a piece of driftwood being buffeted about by the stronger waves. Her father was in the water making his way towards her when a particularly large wave suddenly pounded down on her, stripping her of her flotation-devices and pushing her under the water. She felt like a rag-doll-- not being a very experienced swimming-- and went limp, hoping the water would allow her to pop back up again when the wave passed, but all the churning water made her lose her orientation of which way the sky was...and she didn't dare open her eyes in saltwater. Another wave pushed her violently-- still submerged-- and suddenly she knew she was going to die.

Then a hand fastened around her arm and pulled her up to the surface. It was Daddy! She began choking and gasping for breath and crying and throwing her arms around him! Oh Daddy saved her life! Her father picked her up and carried her in his arms back to shore where her mother was crying and making a big fuss, and even Thomas had wet cheeks and was pale as a ghost. Thomas was very sweet-- no "I told you so's," no lecturing-- but he nodded solemnly and turned even whiter when Bridgette told him about the jumping fish and the something that had brushed her leg. To this day Bridgette can enjoy a view of the sea...from a very safe, very long distance...but will not go near deep water, nor particularly enjoys swimming of any sort. Even Thomas suffers from a mild case of hydrophobia just from hearing his water-fears confirmed from Bridgette.

So Bridgette made the journey to America drifting in and out of unconsciousness, and upon arrival in the busy, bustling city, they were escorted respectfully into a limo that took them to their destination. Bridgette was soon installed in her own room in the mysterious and exciting College Fantastique!

This game begins as Bridgette's sophomore year is well under way! Her brother Thomas is a graduate student at Oxford where he studies music, art, and architecture. And at the College, Bridgette has become friends and formed a cabal with the following: Grace Evelyn Hansen from India of the Tradition Euthanatos-- the leader, heart, and motivation of the cabal-- representative of the element Fire; Lewis Cano from New York of the Tradition Celestial Chorus-- the spirit, dreams, and hopes of the cabal-- representative of the element Water; Joe Constantine from East London of the Tradition Order of Hermes-- the wisdom, healer, and down-to-earthedness of the cabal-- representative of the element Earth; and Bridgette Elizabeth Fairbanks from Oxford of the Tradition Order of Hermes-- the mind, knowledge, and communicator of the cabal-- representative of the element Air.

The cabal is currently being advised by one professor in particular-- the paranoid Professor Halloway of the Tradition Order of Hermes-- who teaches Conspiracy Theory and the Technocracy. They've also started a class on Matter with the odd, yet enthusiastic, Professor Lloyd. They're also looked after by the College's head cook, the concerned and motherly Mama Mae, who they found out is a Voodoo priestess. The cabal also regularly visits the Awakened owner of their favorite speakeasy, a man called "Professor Skat." Up until recently they trusted him completely, but IS he to be trusted??

The years passed and only Bridgette and Joe made it to the final year of school. Grace returned to India, and Lewis went off to start his own church. Bridgette and Joe were joined by Michael of the Celestial Chorus, Janice (Maive) of the Verbena, Cryx (Ben) of the Verbena, Amy (Emily) of the Order of Hermes, Jareth (Patrick) of the Cult of Ecstasy, and Shira (Rachel) of the Dreamspeakers.

Professor Halloway of the Order of Hermes	Professor Lloyd of the Sons of Ether

Mama Mae	"Professor Skat"

STORIES:
"Bridgette & Christopher"
"Bridgette & Joe"
"Aftermath: Bridgette"

Come! Learn all about Grace Hansen!

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