something general
name
→ brenna kinsey finch
→BREE-nuh + KIN-see + f-INCH
nicknames
→ bree | "don't be so shy, bree. come play, we won't bite." | she's gone by bree for as long as she can remember. even her parents hardly use brenna, unless she's in real trouble.
→ blue | "aw, is our blue feeling blue again?" | on account of the striking colour of her eyes, this nickname is used affectionately by her friends sometimes.
→ little bird | "i'll protect you, my little bird." | coined by her boyfriend, this nicknamed is based on her last name.
→ carol anne | "hey, carol anne over there's seeing ghosts again." | perhaps due to her perpetually-haunted look, some particularly unkind kids in her school have taken to calling her that, after the little girl in the poltergeist films.
birthday & age
→ twenty-seventh january
→ eighteen
gender & sexuality
→ cis female
→ bisexual
ethnicity
→ having immigrated to lampkin from ireland, she's irish through and through.
accent
→ after nearly a decade of living in america, bree's accent has largely morphed to match the general american accent of her peers, but she when agitated she tends to lapse back into her native irish accent. this accent is particularly strong when she speaks irish gaelic, which she's fairly fluent in.
occupation
→ student
→ part-time tutor
about appearances
height
→ she's always been slightly tall and gangly for her age, and doesn't seem to be growing into it anytime soon at 1.75m.
weight
→ despite her height, she's not got a lot of meat on her bones, and weighs about 59kg.
hair
→ a delicate flaxen blonde that's darker towards the roots, bree's hair falls to just below her shoulders. though generally parted on the left and pushed back from her face, she's been experimenting with a center part of late. not one to bother with elaborate hairstyles, she's content to leave it loose most of the time.
eyes
→ bree's eyes are a striking blue, large and often with a dreamy, haunted sort of look in them. she usually sports winged eyeliner and light eyeshadow too.
body
→ a beanpole of a girl ever since she was young, bree's more angles and sharp points where other girls her age might already have filled out. her pale skin and hair further add to the illusion of fragility, as though she might be a bit of priceless porcelain easily shattered if touched the wrong way. however, she does have a sizable amount of strength in her limbs for a girl her size.
attire
→ in keeping with her general good-girl image, bree favours modest blouses paired with comfortable jeans and the occasional skirt, or sometimes swapping these out for a dress. her father especially is particular that she should dress like a lady, so she dresses in soft pastels and indulges more in makeup instead, adding a splash of colour to her outfits by slicking on lipstick.
scars/markings
→ hidden under her hair is a small scar high on her right temple, from where she was hit by a rock as a child.
tattoos & piercings
→ bree has pierced earlobes, but nothing beyond that.
physical ailments
--
face claim
→ elle fanning
getting personal
personality
→ aloof + protective + loyal
ask around for anyone's impression of bree, and nine out of ten times you'd probably get little more than a shrug. having led a largely solitary life, bree isn't the type to immediately seek out companionship, and as a result is almost always one of the last whose presence is acknowledged. this isn't borne of any disdain or dislike for others - rather, her generally distant and reticent manner is due to her preference for her own company. she has never felt the need to find purpose in the presence of others, and would much rather be left alone with her own thoughts for company. while she won't necessarily reject anyone who tries to spend time with her, it's also unlikely that many would want to seek her out given her solitary nature, so for the most part she can be alone when she wants to, and that's just how she likes it.
bree isn't easy to connect with, but is the kind of friend most people overlook, but would be blessed to have. she's fiercely protective of her loved ones, and will stand by them if they ever need her to. any promises she makes, she intends to keep. she does tend to be loyal to a fault, sometimes even overlooking their shortcomings in order to defend them, but it is done only with the sincerest desire to be a good friend.
likes
→ drawing + indie rock music + ice cream + mint chocolate + glitter + scrapbooking + the smell of lavender + fruity tea + the ocean + the colours mint and light blue + any small fluffy animal really + marshmallows + cute earrings + math class
dislikes
→ coffee + rainy weather + the colour orange + loud music + fish + fighting + raisins + biology class + the forest + clutter + dirty spaces + bullies + sensory overload + blood
habits
→ picking or peeling at her nails, sometimes to the point of bleeding + mumbling under her breath in english or irish gaelic while thinking + rubs her earrings when worried or anxious
talents
→ drawing + visual arrangement + sorting out logical problems + helping with the groceries
fears
→ thunder -- she always thinks of that one catastrophic storm in her childhood, and she can't help it; she just wants to hide in a corner until the storm passes.
→ falling -- not just any typical fall; falling from a height scares her a lot. she's never been able to jump off a diveboard, or even hop off a table without getting as close to the ground as possible first.
mental ailments
→ insomnia -- it gets worse when she's stressed. on good nights she can catch a couple hours of sleep, but on bad nights she spends most of the time wandering the house like a pale ghost, plagued by the kind of fearful thoughts that only seem to materialise in the night.
her backstory
mother
→ niamh byrne | alive | "mama, she's a trooper. but i'm not sure she really loves any of us." | niamh and bree were never really that close. sure, niamh keeps the house clean and dinner warm, and bree comes home every day and gives her a kiss on the cheek, but bree's not sure she's ever felt real motherly love from her. when she was younger, she used to look at little children being sent off to school by their mothers and feel a twinge of jealousy, but she's now indifferent to their relationship. niamh insists that bree only speaks irish gaelic to her, and perhaps bree is the only one in the family that she still cares for.
father
→ ronan finch | alive | "papa's a dear. he spoils me rotten." | bree's always been a little bit of a daddy's girl, and ronan would do anything to keep his daughter happy and safe. he's not very educated, being fairly close to the bottom of the corporate ladder despite his years of service, but he's taught bree everything he knows, and at least that's given her some knowledge of how to use what strength she has well. he would move the world for her if she asked, but she loves him too much to ever request too much of him.
grandfather
→ clarence finch | alive | "i know i shouldn't be, but i'm still a little afraid of him." | clarence and bree have a distant relationship at best. he lives in their guest bedroom, but tends to stay in his room watching television and reading, and has never really made an attempt to connect with his granddaughter. she's heard stories from her friends back in ireland about the rumours surrounding clarence, which are the main reason for her wariness of him, though she doesn't know if they're true or not.
grandmother
→ sadie maher | deceased | "i don't really remember her... i do miss her, though, and i think papa does too." | sadie died when bree was six in an accident. the circumstances surrounding her death were hazy, but bree has her suspicions. she vaguely remembers sadie, but can't reconcile her with the beautiful woman in the photos her father sometimes shows her.
other relationships
→ astrid lang | best friend | alive | "astrid has been so nice to me. she's the best." |
it took a few weeks, but astrid was bree's first ever friend in high school. assigned partners in biology class, astrid made bree swap seats with her so bree could better ignore the mean hissed remarks from wynona, and after that offered bree a seat at their lunch table. from then on bree was part of astrid's friend group, no questions, and they've been a small close knit group for the past four years. astrid is hardly any less of a loner than bree is, but she does what she can to bring joy to her friends, and if it means letting bree have a group to sit with while everyone talks and she listens quietly, that's what she'll do.
→ kyra hadley | best friend | alive | "kyra, that's your paint water, not coffee." |
kyra is the scatterbrained artist of their friend group. never without a paint blotch on her clothes or an ink stain on her fingers, she's determined to try making art in any and all mediums, with the unfortunate side effect of being so immersed in her work that she forgets to eat or sleep occasionally, so it's good that she has her friends to remind her. she's the closest to bree of the group, as both are content to sit together and work in silence, with kyra occasionally bouncing her ideas off bree.
→ cassia flynn | best friend | alive | "you're no queen bee, but you settled and now you're a loser like the rest of us." |
a former child model, cassia realised as soon as she entered teenagehood that she was sick of the spotlight. though she could easily have commanded her own little friend group, she chose to seek out one of the students who had more or less been marked as an outcast in the social hierarchy - astrid - and ask to be friends with her. it was a decision that bewildered everyone, but cassia rejected popularity fairly quickly and grew close to her little circle of losers. while she and bree experience a similar bewilderment when it comes to each other, they can respect their shared preference to stay away from attention. and if bree is to be honest, she senses some attraction between cassia and kyra, something that thrills her to no end.
→ donovan marlowe | best friend | alive | "he's all bark and no bite. donnie's a sweetheart." |
donovan was, initially, a troublemaker no one could get through to. vulgar and often resorting to violence to settle his conflicts, everyone was ready to give up on him - until bree, attempting to channel astrid, offered her services as tutor and a space in their group. he initially balked at being seen with a whole group of girls as friends, but eventually settled comfortably. he still struggles with expressing his emotions healthily, but bree is always ready to act as his emotional anchor, and for that he's always put her on a bit of a pedestal, treating her like one would a guardian angel.
→ harry dietrich | boyfriend | alive | "he surprises me every day, and he makes me laugh." |
drawn to bree's enigmatic nature and her bright smile, reserved only for the rarest of occasions, harry was initially little more than a transfer student admiring her from afar. it took a while, but - egged on by cassia, who considered herself something of a matchmaker and had noticed harry's furtive glances in bree's direction - he finally found the courage to ask her out. they've been together for a few months now, and though they seem like a strange match at first sight - harry talkative and excited, bree quiet and calm - their affection for each other is pure and innocent.
→ wynona haas | bully | alive | "i do what i can to get by. it's not all that bad." |
when bree first moved to lampkin, wynona - already enjoying the attention being pretty and popular afforded her - attempted to take bree under her wing, offering her the chance to become part of a queen bee's clique. what she hadn't expected was bree to look her in the eye and turn her down politely but coolly, and she's never forgotten the slight since then. any chance to pick on bree's lack of wealth, any opportunity to point out bree's poor social status to an adoring crowd is seized immediately, and though she's definitely tried to make bree's life hard for her the other girl has continued with her own life, leaving wynona sputtering and insulted.
→ robin de costa | childhood friend | alive | "i do remember robin, and it was such a surprise to hear from him. i'm glad i've got a reminder in him." |
having moved from her native ireland to america when she was only seven, bree expected to leave her old life behind completely. so it was rather a surprise at fifteen years old to be contacted through social media by an old friend from elementary school, but a welcome surprise at that. though they haven't met in person, she and robin lapsed quickly into a habit of emailing and video calling each other every weekend, and their friendship has not been weakened by distance.
biography
→ "when i was a kid, i would sneak out onto the roof at night. i thought the moon looked like a big round eye. and i would look up and i'd say, 'do you see me?' i would stay out there for hours. sometimes i'd fall asleep just dreaming."
bree was always just the way she was. right from the day she was born, wide-eyed and silent, she'd always been a solitary creature, spending her time doodling or dreaming or just watching the other children play. her parents worried, especially her father, who'd wanted a little girl for so long and finally had his dream come true. but the lack of social interaction didn't really stunt her growth in any way - in fact, if anything she grew taller and stronger than her peers, excelling at her studies and picking up the skills her father imparted to her quickly. she was still happy, and didn't seem to want for much.
her family, though - that was a different matter. an only child, she lived right by the sea in a small irish village with her parents ronan and niamh, and her grandparents clarence and sadie. ronan was not a well-educated man, and worked hard every day to keep his family comfortable, quietly shouldering clarence's disapproval at the state of his only son. clarence never quite approved of anything - the state of their house, the way bree was being raised, even his own wife's way of housekeeping. despite niamh's attempts to help, sadie worked herself to the bone keeping home. though they'd never argue in front of the child, clarence's poor attitude affected everyone at home, and even bree herself was reluctant to go home some nights for fear of the blatant anger radiating from the old man.
maybe it was the way her husband nagged her, maybe it was just the strain of cooking and cleaning every single day. regardless of the reason, a strong flu gripped sadie one winter's evening, and by the next day she was nursing a fever so strong that she couldn't think straight no matter how she tried. the fever burned for days, and in the dead of one particularly cold night, her thoughts muddled by the fever, sadie rolled quietly out of bed, walked out of her home to the edge of the cliff on which the house stood, and threw herself over it, plummeting down to the beach below.
at least that's how the story went. it wasn't long before terrible rumours began circulating, however, that clarence finch had been the one to push his wife over the cliff. the unfortunate thing about small towns is that, with all the long and boring days one has to endure, rumours are generally a source of widespread excitement. no evidence was found to support this theory, but the word spread quickly, and soon enough the finches were despised through all of town, ostracised by their own people. bree herself was a target for the children at school, and one afternoon while she was heading home from school was set upon by a couple of older boys who began throwing rocks at her. one of the projectiles met its mark on her right temple and cut her pretty badly, and it was that afternoon that bree returned home with blood and tears running down her face.
the attack was perhaps what jolted ronan and niamh into taking action. after ensuring that bree had received the appropriate medical attention, they packed up as quickly as they could and moved to lampkin, colorado, hoping for a fresh start.
this is how the finches have lived, in relative quiet for the most part. lampkin was welcoming, and they were happy to take up a new life there. clarence still lives with them, still grumpy but more subdued than his old cantankerous self. niamh has never really forgiven her father-in-law for the rumours - whether they were rooted in truth is irrelevant - and plays the part of dutiful wife while longing for the home she left behind. ronan continues to work hard, determined to do his best in a town that has never condemned him for any reason. and bree does what she has to to survive.