Briony Swan
OOC
| Game | Journal | Portrayed By |
|---|---|---|
| Happily After All | steeps | Anne Hathaway |
Basic Stats
Full Name: Briony Evangeline Swan
Nickname(s): Bree
Gender: Female
Age: 24
Date of Birth: April 28
Zodiac: Taurus
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Single
Birthplace: Greenville
Current Residence: Greenville, in a small house that the tea shop is attached to.
Occupation: Proprietess of the tea shop
Race: Human
Family
Father: Nikolas Swan (deceased)
Mother: Penelope Swan (deceased)
History
Nikolas and Penelope Swan were young when they married, barely seventeen years of age. Nikolas was a farmer's son, and Penelope a merchant's daughter. Shortly after they were wed, they moved to the town of Greenville and opened a tea shop together. Within a few months, Penelope was pregnant, and they happily welcomed a daughter into their small family, Briony. The Swans were happy for a few years: the shop was doing well, and Nikolas and Penelope doted upon their young daughter. But when Briony was three, tragedy struck. Nikolas was visiting his parents' farm to help birth a calf, and it was late when he was leaving to return home. He was caught in a sudden storm, and his horse bucked him when he was spooked by a close burst of lightning. His body wasn't found until the next day, after the horse managed to arrive home riderless.
After Nikolas' death, the tea shop was closed for a week while Penelope got herself together and tried to figure everything out. She wasn't sure if she could run the tea shop on her own without her husband, if she could bear to be in the same building where her husband had managed to fill the room with his very presence, knowing he would never return. Ultimately, it was her need to keep her young daughter fed, clothed, and housed that led her to re-open the tea shop. The shop became her life. Briony never knew a life without the tea shop: she was helping her mother around the shop as soon as she was old enough to be more help than hinderance. She was a very quiet, obedient child: with it being only herself and her mother, living only on the income from the shop, she couldn't be rebellious or shirking of her responsibilities, without hurting herself and her mother.
Even as she was getting old enough to be courted and get married, she kept to herself and mostly avoided the young men in town. She was absolutely afraid of what would happen if she was to marry someone and have to leave her mother to run the tea shop alone, and she honestly did not think she would find anyone to marry who would allow her to continue working in the tea shop with her mother. So when she was 23, she was still unmarried and living with her mother in the small house that she had grown up in, attached to the tea shop. It was that year that her mother fell ill. Briony ran herself ragged, keeping the tea shop going on her own while also trying to care for her mother. When her mother passed, Briony was devastated. For only the second time since it had opened, the tea shop closed, though this time it only closed for two days. Briony was determined to not let the shop that had been her mother's life die with her. She was driven to keep it going, to keep it successful.
Unfortunately, with her parents both dead, no family nearby, and no beloved, she was completely alone. For the past year, she has put all of her energy and time into the shop and into creating new tea blends to sell.
Personality
Quirks: She wears her parents' wedding rings on a chain around her neck at all times, and she toys with the chain when she's thinking. She chews on her lower lip when she is nervous. She hates for people to see her with her hair down: if you come to her house unannounced and her hair is down, she will make you wait outside while she puts it up before she answers the door.
Motivations: Doing right by her parents. Although she doesn't remember her father, the tea shop was her mother's life work, so she is driven to do what is best for the shop. For everything else, she considers whether what she might be about to do is something her mother would approve of, and she won't do anything her mother might disapprove of.
Weaknesses: Briony lives in the past. She has trouble looking forward, only focused on what has come before. In her desire to be nice and helpful, she has let others walk all over her and use her for their own means. Briony is physically weak, as well. She can carry bags, pots, and crates of tea leaves and other necessities for the shop, but that is about the extent of her physical activity.
Strengths: She is a very determined young woman: she won't let anything stop her from what she puts her mind to (which, for the past year, has been to keep the tea shop going strong). She won't give up just because things are hard, and she knows when to ask for help. She is also strong in her morality: she has a deep sense of right and wrong, and she abides by it.