Old Ten of Spades app.

[old_dog]

Most of the information was incorporated into the current Jack app. But just FYI.

	Michael Brennan As I peel away all the years of pain I discovered what's been all along You were so right, I was so wrong.
	Age: 56 Suit/Rank: Ten of Spades PB: Liam Neeson Appearance: Michael has dark hair, is about 5'10" and of medium build, so he's not very imposing. You might catch a glimpse of him looking unkempt once or twice, but most of the time he makes an effort to shave and be presentable - he would feel a little out of place with everyone dressed formally, especially within the Castle, and he didn't bother to tidy himself up. He isn't always in a suit but he would wear a shirt and a jacket at the very least. He does have an array of nice suits but he doesn't dress or act like he's made of money when he can help it. The clothing hides a lot of scars. There's a prominent one down the centre of his torso that looks like he'd had open heart surgery, except the cut is longer, a little crooked and it is much more obvious, more protruded from the skin than your run-of-the-mill open heart surgery scar. There's also a scar from when a knife had been plunged into his belly and wiggled around a bit, and more scars on his back. The straight lines look like it might have been from a whip or a knife, but the curved scars are almost definitely from a knife. Apart from sustaining a stab wound to the left thigh, there are no other scars below the torso. He should quite like to keep it that way, too. Finally, it's probably only obvious to a very small number of people, but healed broken fingers look different from fingers that have never been broken before. So you could tell that he's broken all the fingers in all his hands at some point in his life if you have an eye for this sort of thing. Why this Suit? I liked the idea of putting someone who is sort of 'over the hill', so to speak, in a cutthroat Machiavellian environment. He's a little too old to be duking it out with all the young people but he doesn't really care about that anymore. Whatever he might have really wanted to achieve in life, he would have already done maybe ten years ago. He's trying to make up for past mistakes with Julien because he's realised at the end of the day that Julien is all he really cares about, but he knows it's too late now and so he tries to stay close enough to occasionally know what he's up to but distant enough to not be associated with him. I realise he might be more of a Heart or Club in this respect, but he kinda needs to be a Spade to keep tabs on Julien better.
	History Rushing back to me as the city sleeps So afraid of what I will find Memories they haunt from deep inside.
	Michael was born into the Spades to a Seven and Eight of Spades, both bankers as was the family tradition, at a time when the suit was in turmoil. He was raised in a dog-eat-dog world where it was more accurate to judge someone by the freshness of the blood on their hands than their rank, and from a young age he was aggressive and distrustful even of his own ambitious parents. They had hired tutors and caretakers to raise him as Brennans should be raised - a well-educated, cultured young man who would be groomed to succeed his father. And while he had been good with numbers and was interested in things like music and chess, it was clear early on that he wasn't going to be the Brennan that his parents were hoping for. He was relatively safe at a 2 from everyone else trying desperately to climb to the top of the pyramid, but not from the monarchs. The Queen had taken a liking to the young man she had seen drifting around the bowels of the Castle from time to time, and the King's jealousy saw Michael at the receiving end of his anger and brutality. He suffered at their hands for years before he mustered up the courage to leave, and while he doesn't lose sleep over flashbacks anymore, he still bears the scars they had inflicted upon him. There are parts of Spades Castle he has not been to in close to forty years, and things he will never talk about from the time before he left the Deck. At 18 Michael ventured Outside for the first time, and he did not return - could not return if he wanted his sanity intact - for 20 years. It was not an easy 20 years, but the world Outside had been much more tolerable than the chaos he had grown up with. He ran away from home and though he had come from old money, he dissociated himself from the Deck and made his own way. Over the course of those two decades, Michael would settle down in one place and earn enough money doing odd jobs until he had saved up enough to move somewhere else again. He drifted from one country to another, trying to find a place he could call home. He couldn't put his roots down anywhere and his one failed attempt at starting a family confirmed two things he already knew: he couldn't sustain an intimate relationship with a woman, and he wasn't father material. He kept tabs on his son regardless, and his return to the Spades after twenty long years away from home 'coincidentally' coincided with Julien's entry into the suit. The Spades was under new management now, and David was different from the Kings before him. It made Michael's transition back less arduous, even though it took him some time to get used to the new regime. Despite this, whatever humanity and morality Michael might have gained during his sojourn Outside ebbed away as the intricacies of Spades politics took hold. His resentment of the old ways made it easy to pick specific targets in order to rise up the ranks, but he knew that sooner or later he'd end up just like them. Michael's a bit of a black sheep compared to the other Spades, but he has been a ten for a few years now because he knows how to play this game and he's become very good at it.
	Personality Every broken man comes to understand That he'll never find paradise When all that he wants was there all the time.
	Michael is first and foremost diplomatic - he defers to authority, is assertive towards the lower ranks if they act out of line, and doesn't go out of his way to upset the status quo - and he doesn't seem to be all that ambitious. He's mellowed out over the years and he's not as gung ho and impulsive as he used to be. He's not going to win in any sort of physical challenge over some young punk half his age, and he knows that, but he's not worried about getting killed by someone eyeing his rank. It will happen eventually if lung cancer or liver failure from all that smoking and drinking don't get him first. He's one of the more approachable Spades, and the people who really know him will tell you that he can be quite laid-back. He dresses and speaks casually when he can and he dislikes titles, formalities and other things that others will use to create an and maintain impersonal distance. He doesn't seem to get angry over anything, takes things in his stride and takes his time working around obstacles as he encounters them. He might give the occasional person cold looks and seem aloof and disinterested, but he's actually a good listener if you can get him to sit down with you for a few hours, and he's someone you can count on to be there when you need him. He might not have been that reliable when he was younger but he's come to value the relationships he builds with others. Many years ago he's come to terms with the fact that he's gay, but it's not something he ever talks about, or thinks about often. He's comfortable with himself - if that wasn't obvious with all the humorous self-depreciating comments he makes - and he can handle women who are trying to flirt with him just fine. But he's looking to die alone at this rate and he's made his peace with that.
	Writing Sample We come to find what we take for granted keeps us alive in the end So don't let time leave you empty-handed Reach out tonight and make amends.
	"You shouldn't smoke. It's bad for you." She plucked the cigarette out from between his lips and let it drop to the floor. He turned away to blow the smoke out but she placed her soft, cool hands on his cheeks and pulled him in for a kiss. She had always complained about how he smelled and tasted like cigarettes, but she smiled like she didn't mean a word of what she said. "I'm bad for you," he murmured as their lips parted. She pulled back away from him, and he couldn't read her eyes where they stood between streetlamps but he could feel her gazing up to him. What did she really see in him? When he looked in the mirror he saw scars that marked him as damaged, non-refundable goods. He saw a past he couldn't hope to escape. Heard Her voice and Her laughter in the middle of the night where there should have been silence. "But you don't seem to mind." She took his hands in hers and took a couple of steps backwards. The amber light pouring down from the streetlamp crept up her back, combed through her hair and traced the curves of her body down to the shadow she cast on the floor. Her smile was sincere. At seventeen she knew of no other smile. And as she pulled her nineteen-year-old boyfriend into the light, she saw his mask and thought it genuine and earnest. "I don't. Come on, Michael. Let's go back to your place."
	OOC So I'm coming home back to the place where I belong I'll rest my song; I'm so alone Far from the streets I call my own.
	Name: Scy Contact details: lzha224[at]aucklanduni[dot]ac[dot]nz [Email/GDocs]; ScytheHooded [AIM] Other characters played: None Referred through: Angela
	Credits & Disclaimer
	Disclaimer: I am not Liam Neeson. This character and this game is fictional. Profile layout: Here Lyrics credit: Alter Bridge - Coming Home