Microstory 183: Bree Nolan

This is an experimental Bellevue Profile microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 101. More to follow.

Bree Nolan’s parents decided to not tell their daughter that she was adopted until she turned 11. The day after her birthday, they sat her down and began the discussion. She told them that she already knew, and pretty much always had. They were never really able to understand why it was that she knew this. She didn’t catch a glimpse of certain documents, she didn’t overhear a conversation, and she certainly never ran a blood test. Bree didn’t need any of those things. As an anomaly, she had the ability to sense genetic details of those around her. She knew that her classmate’s older brother was actually his father. She sensed something different about her teacher’s husband, which eventually lead to them learning that he carried a rare genetic disorder common among patients of a certain terminal disease. She could even tell the exact ancestral composition of anyone she encountered. Bree went out of state for college and found herself paired with Connor Higgins as a roommate. She concentrated and meditated, but found herself unable to discern any genetic information about him. Furthermore, whenever he was around, she could also not sense any information about anyone else. He was somehow blocking her ability, and together, they induced that not only were they both special, but that there must be others like them. They quickly became best friends, but also decided that it was best if they no longer live together. Connor spent his free time researching genetics, and even enrolled in a healthy number of classes in the field. While he was doing that, Bree swam through a sea of people, studying their genes with her mind, and taking note of the differences. Even though she was innately aware of their genetics, she did not have the intellectual background to understand it completely. They created charts, spoke with experts, and discussed their findings. After time, these two amateurs managed to learn a nice amount about what anomalies were, and what made them different. They even had some insight on the matter that Hankford Apolomure hadn’t realized. Bree and Connor joined Bellevue together, but spent a great deal of time off-site, much of it recruiting, so that his ability to negate other abilities did not interfere with operations. Years after Bellevue became a household word, a television network developed a mildly successful program called The Adventures of Conundrum and Treemaker, based loosely on Connor’s and Bree’s lives together.