Marianne Bennett

As far as Marianne knows, she was born of one of her father's many cheating sprees. Michael Bennett was an engineer, a brilliant man who moved from Britain to get his doctorate, but he was never very faithful, a fact Eloise Morgan wished she had known when she married him, after meeting him at school as an architect who also moved from Britain. Neither expected to find a baby in a golden carriage on their doorstep three months into their marriage. Although Michael wasn't sure the baby was his, Eloise knew it wasn't hers, and he never denied that he had been unfaithful to her when they were dating.

All the same, Eloise and Michael decided that they would officially take the child in and raise her as if she really was theirs, Eloise thinking Michael would settle down now that they were married. He didn't, though. And when Marianne was 6, Eloise had enough and divorced Michael. As she was both vastly more responsible, did not cheat, and actually wanted the kid, she took full custody and raised Marianne ever since.

Marianne's never had much of a relationship with her father, and she appreciates that Eloise, who she alternates between thinking of as her stepmother and her actual mother, took her in and raised her without question or complaint for all those years. Her life has been peaceful.

Well... actually.... It wasn't exactly peaceful. She's just always ignored the little... disruptions quietly affecting her life, but Eloise hasn't. Eloise does not have clear sight, but she's also an incredibly smart, creative woman, and quickly picked up the fact that weird people would come to visit her daughter, and sometimes to attack her daughter. She hasn't figured out why, and quite frankly, she doesn't care. She has instead managed by snatching her kid and running, and burning a strong-smelling mixture of candles and air fresheners frequently at home. She doesn't know why smells do that much to prevent the weird.... she still hasn't figured out a name for them yet, but whoever they are from showing up, but whatever works, man. It's meant they haven't had to move for years.

Marianne never noticed, and she never realized the other strange things about her life, like the way Ancient Greek seemed to naturally flow over her, or how it felt like every spider she ever came across seemed to have some personal vendetta against her, or how she's just a little bit more physically skilled than most girls her age really should be, especially considering her hobbies of painting. Neither she nor her mother ever figured out that she was actually a daughter of Athena, a gift given not to Michael, but to Eloise, as a close friend she met in a cafe. Eloise still sometimes bumps into and speaks with Athena, though she always knew her as Tina.

Marianne is on the short side, standing at 5'3", but she holds herself with a kind of confident near-swagger. She has generally round features and a very light little sprinkle of freckles on her nose. She has red hair she keeps chopped short (Eloise believes is an indication of Michael's parentage, as he also had red hair, but so did her mother) and sharp grey eyes characteristic of Athena's children. She loves oil painting and art in general, but is also quite knowledgeable about a lot of world history. Despite her disabilities, being ADHD and dyslexic, she's always been one to stand up for herself, and never had much problem with bullies. She has a slight British accent thanks to the influence of both of her parents, though most people think it's faked, because it has lots of American sounds to it.

Eloise is slightly taller, at 5'6" with intelligent, sharp, sort of hazel-brown eyes. Her hair is a burnished auburn color, but has streaks of almost dirty blond in it, as well as a little grey, which she keeps long and usually in a loose bun. Her hair is soft and has an ever so slight wavy quality to them, as opposed to Marianne's rough, coarse hair, and she's on the pretty side, if nothing exceptional. She occasionally wears reading glasses, and has gotten pretty handy at split-second decision-making/attacking threats, thanks to her experience dealing with her child's monsters.