Age: 23
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 92kg/203lbs
Appearance: The first thing people notice about Blake is his rather muscular look. Despite being two-hundred pounds, his mass comes more from his heavily calcified bones, yet most of his musculature lies in his upper body; mainly pectorals, biceps and triceps with very little abs to speak off. Back home in Ireland, people would often compare him to well-known Irish Actor
Collin Farrell as Blake has strikingly similar facial structure. His hair is a fairly dark, almost deep brown in colour and quite fair and soft to the touch. Usually medium in length, he is quite often seen with it up in public; quite often being mistaken for having "Bed Hair". His mildly green eyes are hidden beneath the rather thick, dark eyebrows of his and has a tendency to squint. Usually, he would be wearing thin, wire rimmed glasses, but has since given up the ghost to wear contacts instead. His stubbled jawline is usually most often shaved save for the presence of a short moustache-goatee that surrounds his mouth and chin. His skin is a signature Irish pale colour while his speech is thickly enhanced with his natural, Irish accent.
As far as accessories go, a single Celtic Cross cut from calcite hangs from his neck, sitting between his pectorals.
When it comes to clothing, Blake's style would be considered quite dapper. His usual appearance consists of a white or other light-ish coloured dress-shirt beneath differing shades of grey waistcoats. Most commonly silver, but also available in a variety of colours, neck-ties hang down his shirt; very rarely half untied unless he is around his flat/family home. In cold weather, a black, Giorgio Armani Cashmere jacket hangs down to just below his knees in length, with three large buttons riding up the centre of his body and a fourth near his throat that most often stays unbuttoned. He ads a merino-wool scarf and close fitting beanie in winter-like weather. Jeans in varying darker shades of blue are the choice of wear in social situations, while Black pinstriped dress pants are worn during more formal occasions. As for foot wear, formal occasions dictate the need for black dress shoes which he keeps polished, while hiking-like boots and casual shoes are present in social situations. Due to the lack of warmer weather in Ireland, Blake almost always wears this style of dress around for most of the year.
Due to his current mutation, many of his shirts have been tailor-made to more accommodate his affliction with the addition of larger sleeves. To counteract this, unless need be, he tends to roll his sleeves up to sit behind the bone swords; just past his elbow.
Personality:
Blake lives in the present; pure and simple. What will happen in the future and what has happened in the past rarely affect his judgement or perception as it is the now in which he lives. While he can perceive the implications of certain actions, he prefers to act upon what options are available at the moment and not what may or may not occur in the future. As of such, it provides the positive in that he can make judgement based on current standing, but will only contemplate the implications when they arise to meet the action. Generally speaking, the easily changeable option tends to be the one most taken. More often than not, he will show up to appointments early or on time and has yet to miss any business meetings due to his extracurricular weekends. Among those people whom he made acquaintance with in University, there also exists a large number of trust-fund children that Blake will surround himself with. While his circle of acquaintances is fairly large, it is usually mediated by the amount of wealth one's family owns and as such; he will often ignore those who have fallen past his radar. Because of this, he also retains a biased opinion of those he spends his time around, often lying to their faces in order to retain their weak, money-based friendship. Arrogance is possibly Blake's largest negative trait. Having money has made it easy to sway peoples minds when it comes to making decisions, his lack of humility shows in his ability to pursue that his option, idea or proposal is right, and everyone else's is wrong. Being right more often than not has pushed this trait closer to being Hubris, and is not one of his more redeeming qualities, however, sometimes, a degree of arrogance is enough to get things done.
Blake is almost a man of two faces.
On one hand he is the staunch, stern-faced, working individual hired by his father. After having his Business and Management Degree paid for by his father at Cambridge University, Blake soon assimilated into the high ranks of his father's Electricity Industry, "Irish Power", which currently supplies almost eighty percent of power in Ireland alone, as an Assistant Marketing Director before later taking the title of Marketing Director within a year. Thanks to his father's influence, his rise in the company has made it easier for Blake to find a job and did not have to search for opportunities like many others in his class. While he is grateful for his father providing him the position, he also works hard to make his father proud and prove that he deserved the position; not only gaining it through other means. By day he works from the late morning to the evening, keeping the tough exterior together before he lets loose during the night. Quite often, he will exercise at the gym located in the lower floors of the office building at times when the least amount of people will be there. While this is mainly to curb the wonder and interest in his mutation by other people, it does not detract from his own appreciation of the ability.
On the other, he is the brazen, rebellious, trust-fund playboy that parties hard and sleeps around. In the weekends, Blake will take trips with other trust-fund friends to the likes of Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham to indulge in several nights of constant partying, clubbing and general revelling. Wherever he goes, he does not hold back and will often let it be known how rich he is and how much power his family holds. Quite often, he will let his money loose in clubs and generally parties hard. With money no longer being an issue, he indulges in the most expensive of hotel rooms, alcohol and sometimes recreational additives. If anyone tries to pick a fight with him or his friends, he will not hesitate to bare his bone swords in defiance which often sends people packing. Even showing off his mutation at times if a way he attracts attention from anybody nearby who will give it to him. As long as he keeps his face out of the tabloids; something not so easy for the son of a major power conglomerate, his father seems to turn a blind eye to this rather rebellious side to his nature.
History:Blake was the sole child to Kiera O'Farrell and Declan Brennan until the birth of his younger sister five years later. The first known record of Blake's mutation was only a couple of days following his birth when their midwife noticed a series of bumps along the Ulna bone. Perplexed by this and combined with his rather heavy weight, she informed the doctors who took a quick scan and test of infant Blake. To the doctor's surprise, Blake had unusually high levels of calcium and bone marrow as well as a series of bulging bone along the exterior of each ulna bone. As the years progressed, his cautious parents took him to any private doctors they could find, yet none could come up with a solution. They merely continued to keep watch on the growth of the bone segments as they pushed themselves further towards the surface. About a month after the birth of his sister, Eva, the bone began to push through the final layer of skin in a flow of blood having Blake being sent to the hospital for immediate emergency action. Over the next seven months, he remained in intensive care where the doctors kept close monitoring on the bone protrusions as well as tried to keep Blake's pain to a minimum. Once the last remnants of the bone broke free of the flesh, the inner growth of the bone stopped and his muscles and skin soon formed around the five protrusions now sticking from each arm. For the next six years, the exterior bones on Blake's arms began to grow further out, connecting together, until they began to form a large, exterior bone. Despite this mutation, Blake still underwent the torture of going to school, but he became more popular as many of the children did not know of the bones growing beneath his skin. With his own tailor, Blake's uniforms were soon outfitted with larger sleeves to accommodate the extra bone.
It wasn't until High School that the bone swords stopped developing and the extend of the bone was recognised. Throughout High School, Blake still retained his long sleeves, courteous of private schooling, but with two bone protrusions sticking out past his pinky fingers weren't hard not to miss. It soon got out about Blake's mutation, and despite the varying responses, he still managed to come out on top. His closest friends thought it was amazing to be associated with him, bullies feared him and people generally let him get along with his business. Although, there was still dissent among the student body about his so called "affliction"; to the point that parents were fearing for their children's safety. After swapping schools many times, Blake soon finished his High School education with more friends than when he had entered and went onto study at a Tertiary level. Due to his high scores and perhaps a bit of influence on his parent's behalf, Blake managed to make it into Cambridge Universities Business and Management School. Here it became a lot easier for Blake to hide his abilities, and even those who did left him to his own business. Now away from his parents' overbearing and judgemental looks, yet still on their trust-fund for him, he began to indulge in other behavioural patterns with many of his classmates and friends. On more than one occasion, he used his mutation to give him an advantage in bar brawls, but he generally found that if you flaunted money, people were more likely to accepted you. And so began the slow transformation of Blake from hiding his mutation, to using it as a show-and-tell item. At this point, the bones had morphed from being simply bones, to something more sword like and quite heavy. To aid this growth, his parents started him on a high calcium diet which he still follows to this day.
Once graduated, he made an agreement with his father to join the Electricity Company he owned, but on the terms that he would be given a "head-start" and have to work his way up from there. Upon agreeing, he assisted the Marketing Director before taking his place a year later. In the current year, he continues to work as Marketing Director at Brennan Power, as well as holding down his weekend debauchery. He has failed to hold down a successful relationship, preferring the company of people he meets of his weekend excursions and uses his Bone Swords merely for show and intimidation. One day, a letter appeared on his desk stamped all the way from New York in America. The letter asked for his joining of something called 'The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters'. No longer regarding himself as a 'youngster', he disregarded the message, before re-reading it later that day. In the letter, Xavier explained about the school and it's classes aimed at helping mutants control their abilities. Blake, saw that his ability needed little to no control, that is was merely for show, but soon realised that he could actually cause some damage, when put to the right use. Using the phone number at the top of the letter head, Blake called up Professor Xavier and, after a rather long conversation, decided to fly over to New York to see if this school was right of him. Handing in his notice of leave, he took up the opportunity to use his accumulated leave at the company to pursue Xavier's option. Informing his parents that it was merely a 'trip with a couple of friends', he boarded a first-class flight to New York.
Mutation: Bone Swords
Blake's ability manifested at a young age, yet didn't fully manifest until puberty set in around the age of fifteen. Up to the age of five, doctors merely saw the strengthened Ulna bone as a simple mutation of the bone; that was until the extra bone mass began pushing through the muscles and skin. Baffled, the doctors could do nothing but monitor the movement of the bone mass as the years went on. Around the age of Eleven, the bone began protruding from the last layer of skin and out into the open air with quite a lot of blood and pain. At this point, the bone mass inside of his arm no longer grew, and so the muscles strengthened around it. Over the next four years, however, the bone mass on the outside of his arms continued to grow until they stopped growing and became dual, katana-like swords of bone, protruding from each arm. Due to this, Blake consumes a large amount of Calcium rich products daily to help compensate for the calcification of not only his Bone Swords, but also his bone structure; making his bones less brittle and fragile. Having to carry this extra weight around on his arms has given him larger upper body musculature. The bone swords, however, stretch from the connection of the ulna to the elbow, whilst the tips stretch just past his pinky finger.
Writing Sample:
Flying to Heathrow was almost natural for Blake; having flown to some of the major cities in England already on his evenings of debauchery. Still, the flight itself remained tiresome despite the range of amenities at his disposal as a first class passenger. But this flight was far from the last he would be taking; only after an hour from touchdown in Heathrow would he be on the long haul flight to John F Kennedy International Airport in New York. Aside from his rare family trips to Europe, this was his first time flying outside of the European Union. Xavier's letter burned hot in his hands as he turned the paper over and over again, glimpsing the school's logo on once side before it disappeared in the next rotation. He was nervous, worried, delighted, almost every emotion under the sun was running through his mind, just beneath the skin, however Blake kept up the same, staunch look he had when working; showing emotions was equivalent to showing weakness.
"Excuse me sir, can I interest you in a beverage?" The flight attendant spoke a very refined English accent, most likely she lived or had lived north of London for a large part of her life.
"No thanks," He waved her off, a small sliver of his affliction showing past the sleeve of his shirt.
She gasped, clutching her hand to her mouth and stepping backwards, but Blake did what came naturally; slipping a fifty pound note from the folds of his jacket and offering it to her. She seemed to realise the gesture was mainly for discretion, but the money enticed her further as she shakily accepted the bribe before moving on to the next person. Blake was now left to his own thoughts, as the plane continued over the Irish Sea.
Despite the extra comfortable seats offer in First Class, Blake still managed to get little sleep as the seats themselves were designed for people without bones sticking out of their arms. Regardless, he watched his back swing around the conveyor belt as he subtly stretched his arms so that no one could get a glimpse of his affliction. Even though he revelled in the attention the mutation gained him when he was with his friends, there were still a large amount of people who viewed it with disgust as if he was from some horror movie. The cellphone buzzed violently in his pocket as he retrieve his bag, the screen casting blue light across his face as a familiar name lit up the screen.
"Buster! Hows she cuttin?"
"Ah, not too bad, bud, I heards ye were off to America."
"Yeah, need some time away from me family, is all."
"Come back soon, yeah?"
"Aye, will do, bud. Gotta go, me taxi's here, catch ya later!"
"Aye, let's hope America can fix that head of yers, s'like a well chewed toffee!"
The phone went silent as the black, tinted car swung around, the driver getting out to open the back door for Blake. He was grateful the car had come at that moment, despite Buster being one of his oldest, and possibly closest friends, he could only handle the man when he was fairly intoxicated. He had been the first person to find out about Blake's affliction, and while he didn't take offence to the mutation, he would make constant jokes about it; fuelling Blake's hatred of the mutation. Buster had even helped him to take a blade saw to the protrusions when they had been in boarding school, but all that happened was reparations for destroying school property. The two had been through think and thin since high school, but Blake still kept him at an arms length like everyone else.
"The name's Pearson, would you like to make any detours before we head to the institute?" The driver had been one Charles had arranged for Blake to take.
"S'all right." Was all he responded with before leaning back in the car seat.
Running his fingers up and down the smooth, calcified bones, he began to have second thoughts on the whole idea of running away to America to gain better control of this ability. Despite the professor explaining how Blake could gain better control over his ability, he could see no way of him getting stronger. This was his ability; the swords themselves had stopped growing for a number of years and now were simply dull blades of calcium attached to his arms. Aside for swinging them around haphazardly, they were merely a useless affliction; one he could use to show and impress or intimidate. Xavier had said being a mutant was something special, something to be proud about, but Blake didn't feel special, he didn't feel proud at all about his current mutation. For all it's intimidating aspects, the bones were a massive weakness out there in the "real" world. Blake wasn't running from his family, he was running from himself. He had left his old life behind to pursue another facet of life he had not though before to pursue. He continued to rotate the letter in his hand, heart racing even faster the closer the came to the institute. Was this the right choice to make?
There was no turning back now. The cast iron gateway swung open as if they had a life of their own, the driveway leading up through a woodland area before the sprawling estate of the X-Mansion came into view. Blake was impressed, this place seemed like a modern day version of Hogwarts with students flying around the highest balustrades of the roof in some sort of race, with people cheering them on below while others relaxed on the rather large expanses of grass the split the mansion from the woodland. The black car seemed rather out of place driving up the gravel road to the mansion, garnering unwanted in Blake's direction as he slid further into the seat; despite the windows being tinted. When the car finally stopped, a small contingency stood at the foot of the mansion, seemingly waiting for him to arrive.
"Mr. Brennan, how nice of you to join us at the institute. I am Professor Xavier, we talked on the phone," Blake cautiously shook the man's hand, partially because he was still uncomfortable with his affliction without the influence of alcohol, and partially taken back by surprise at the man's wheelchair ridden state, "This here is Scott," He pointed to a tall, lanky guy wearing a pair of strangely red-tinted glasses, "Storm," the lady behind him with dove-white hair and a cape merely nodded in his direction, "and finally, Logan" the final member was a feral looking guy, someone Blake wasn't sure he wanted to get on the bad side of.
"It's good to be here, Professor," he replied, the strength of his Irish accent definitely showing through in contrast to Xavier's calm voice.
"Let's retreat inside, there is much to inform you on, Mr. Brennan."
Gulping, he followed the Professor and his entourage inside the mansion, marvelling at how big it appeared despite it's outside appearance. Now that he was here, Blake was a little less worried about making the trip to the mansion; if all went well, then he'd have to ring his father in three weeks time, telling the man that he would stay here. Suddenly, it didn't seem all so bad as when he had taken his first step onto the plane back in Dublin.