Briar

Briar is one of Ella's four original adopted orphan wards and a commander within S.I.N. He is a relatively meek and anxious character who largely relies on his adopted siblings for direction and uses his powerful support and healing abilities to keep them alive and healthy. He is one of the nicer members of S.I.N and has an unusually fearless and open attitude towards their monster allies, even considering some of them friends.

## Background

### Origins

Christie says that she first saw Cole Yun as a depressed teenager (around 13-14 years old) when visiting Ella's house just after she had turned 18. It seems that Cole, along with with a couple of other kids, were staying with Ella. Ella says that she was taking care of them. Briar is presumably among these children.

At some point before the story begins, Briar was involved in the fight between Valravn and Ella and the rest of her wards. Despite defeating the monster, Cole and Zara were unable to make him compliant so Ella chained him up beneath Mt. Dehaka in the Diamond Mountains, next to where the Goliath lay buried. Briar tried to talk to him and develop a rapport but Valravn wasn't interested and repeatedly threatened violence.

Like the other wards, Briar was sent out across the sectors to look for Effigies and returned to the sector a little while after the story began.

### H.E.R.O Arc

After the public unveiling of H.E.R.O., Cole Yun is given the side project of building a public facing superhuman force to counteract H.E.R.O.'s influence. With Langdon Wilson's funding and Ella's help, Cole creates the Superhuman Independence Nation (S.I.N). Cole, Zara and **Briar** crash William Baldwin's talk show while the MC is discussing himself joining H.E.R.O. to announce the creation of S.I.N. Briar largely stays quiet and watches as his siblings go through their pitch. He also largely silently supports their assault on Nicolette Heart.

If the MC engages Cole, Briar uses his plants to hold together their clothes when Del sets them on fire with his gasoline. He and Cole are then severely injured by Nico's knives, forcing Hex to retreat with the three teenagers.

If the MC doesn't help, Cole shrugs off Laurie and Del's distractions and begins to burn Nico. The pain weakens her assault on Hex but she catches his arm and shatters it before throwing him away. This momentary lapse however lets Hex push its advantage even further. Briar heals Cole who then prepares to renew his assault, but Zara senses H.E.R.O. reinforcements coming and gets Hex to quickly pull them all out.

### Twins Arc

Briar is present early into the initiation. He and Shen wander through the party talking to different people. When Zara arrives and asks where Cole was, Briar tells her that he and Jared are following Eisheth around. When Zara irritably criticizes their immaturity, Briar astutely points out that Zara still likes him regardless. Once Langdon arrives and gets the ceremony started, Briar moves to get his "Healing Garden" setup before being introduced. When the tournament rules are explained, Cole tells everyone that Briar's healing would save them as long as they were still alive when they reach him. He spends the tournament healing the defeated fighters as Hex brings them to him.

As the party begins, Zara tells Briar that it his turn to hold Hex. He pockets Hex and starts talking to him. The MC can stop to talk to him and find him surprisingly pleasant conversation. If asked why he joined S.I.N, Briar can talk about how he largely follows his siblings leads and is just loyal to them and Ella Vulpe. If asked about why he was friends with monster, Briar says that he actually prefers them to humans. He mentions that Goliath gives him rides around the dimension, Eisheth and Aglaecwif both talk to him and teach him and that even non-named monsters were fine to spend time with. He also mentions the difficulties the wards had with Valravn. He also lets slip that Cole and Zara have a way to render monsters compliant.

He is presumably evacuated by Hex when Nico breaks into the dimension to extract the MC.

## Powers and Abilities

Briar is a superhuman who has had his powers since he was quite young. According to Bramon Xanthe children who become superhumans tend to develop quite powerfully and Briar is shown to have precise control of his powers. He is also relatively battle tested, having taken part in many combined assaults with Ella and the other wards.

### Human Abilities

Briar has had many years of experience doing missions for Ella Vulpe. She has also ensured that he trained and developed his powers well.

### General Superhuman Abilities

While Briar is a level 3 superhuman, it is unknown whether he is a physical or non-physical superhuman. Regardless, his body is likely durable especially considering his healing abilities. He also probably has the standard suit of superhuman senses and enhancements.

### Level 3 Abilities

Briar has some kind of plant based healing ability. He is able to manipulate these plants in some way, for example, holding his, Zara's, and Cole's clothes together when they were all set on fire by Del. When given time he is able to setup a "Healing Garden". When patients are brought to the healing garden, Briar's vines can reconstruct their bodies in seconds - faster than even the Level 3 MC's regeneration. Seemingly any injury can be healed, with blown off arms, crushed bodies, torn heads all being repaired in seconds.

## Trivia

* Briar is strangely friendly with the S.I.N allied monsters