Brainbook x Blond Blazer - Brainblaze / Headcanons
This is so much more extensive than I planned...I will be adding and editing things over time, this is just a WIP really.
But it maps out the basis of the idea I have for the two of them <3
Links:
1. Brainbook - Kassandra 'Cordova' Brown
2. Blond Blazer - Amanda Herrington / Headcanons (pending link)
3. Brainbook x Blond Blazer - Brainblaze / Headcanons
Mandy got the responsibility of Blond Blazer very suddenly at the age of 20, shaking up and destroying any future plans that she had had.
She was bestowed with such a massive responsibility during such a delicate time of her life, leaving school and starting her transition into adulthood without really knowing how to.
She struggled like all people do during that time, but the amulet made it so much worse.
It felt like a decision was being made for her and she almost resented it.
In denial about the massive, unwanted change of trajectory of her life, she applied for a nursing degree at Penn State University, believing that she could be Mandy and Blond Blazer.
While Kassandra was already neck deep in her Forensic Science degree when her roommate moved out.
Kassandra couldn’t pay the rent on her own and was looking for the quickest replacement, anyone willing to take the spot was game.
The first person who took the spot was a really, really weird guy. He took such an uncomfortable liking to Kassandra, that she could barely do anything without him breathing over her shoulder.
A few months into the shit show, Kassandra went to a bar an hour out of town, trying to shake off the stress of her new roommate and exam season, when she realised that he was at the same fuck ass bar. He followed her.
When he walked up to her, Kassandra was both extremely angry and aware that he was the only thing keeping her from being kicked from the apartment. There was nothing she could do.
The more he breathed down her neck, the more stiff she got, with no way out - so thank the lord when a random, slightly taller, weirdly buff brunette puts herself between them
Mandy had seen the scene unfold and decided to scoot her ass in between the two, acting as though she knew Kassandra, pulling her outside and away from the man.
They laughed outside of the bar, Mandy offering Kassandra a shot of fireball and a cigarette as Kassandra thanked her over and over again.
After Kassandra explained the shitty situation, Mandy mentioned that she was looking for a room for the next season, since she would be starting her Nursing B.S.N degree at Penn State and still didn’t have a place to stay.
That's how Mandy and Kassandra became roommates.
Mandy already had the amulet during her university days, but used it rarely and undercover. She never made a show of it, never told anyone about it.
The amulet works in a way that it takes the majority of energy that it’s subjected to and redirects it. Any force against Mandy’s body would be diverted and recalibrated into additional strength.
However, extreme amount of force would be too much and start to show on the body below. Meaning, that when Mandy over did it, took too much, it would show up as bruises all over her body when she took the amulet off.
Kassandra was the first person Mandy told about the amulet.
The pressure of the amulet, the bruises coming through the suit, it started to show.
Kassandra tended to those bruises each night, knowing that Mandy was Blond Blazer from the start. She’s the most intelligent person ever recorded - she knew.
Kassandra breezed through University - any and all of her work was done with the top grades and she still always found a reason to overwork herself. She would study her notes from back to front for hours, even if there was no physical way to know or understand it better.
Mandy, in turn, was doing alright, but still struggled a lot.
Kassandra would often help Mandy with her work, since there were medical overlaps that Kassandra could explain beautifully.
Kassandra is a GREAT teacher - Mandy would often joke that she should become a professor or teachers, but Kassandra said children stressed her out too much.
She has a way of explaining complex subjects in such a way that there is no way that you couldn’t understand it. She understood everything so well that she could explain it in fifty different ways.
Mandy was the kind of person to know everyone - but was only actually close to a select few people. She’d often drag Kassandra to some wild and weird parties - they’ve got some crazy stories from that time. Plus, she knew how hard Kass worked and had to get her out of the book or booze to do some socialising.
Not that Kass was anti-social, just that she got too wound up in her studies.
Kassandra and Mandy were known as a powerhouse of a duo in university
Kassandra fell first, Mandy fell harder.
Both thought the other was straight for ages.
Mandy had a lot of experience with both men and women and regularly brought them back to their apartment, which is how Kassandra found out that both her and Mandy weren’t straight.
Mandy wasn’t as quiet as she thought and it unlocked a few things for Kassandra.
Kassandra’s feelings for Mandy started to build further and further, but being stuck in an endless loop of denial and objectively believing that any complicated entanglement with her roommate was a horrible idea (she could not deal with another new roommate, in case that ended poorly like with the man before) left her not making any indication that she was interested in Mandy.
Mandy deadass made so many moves on Kass but Kass would push it aside, so at some point, Mandy thought it was rejection due to not being interested and stopped.
Which made Kassandra yearn like a motherfucker.
A few years down the line, Mandy made the difficult decision to leave her studies behind to become Blond Blazer full time.
She couldn’t keep up both lives, it was starting to really tear at her mental health and she had to make a choice. She always wanted to help people, which is why she had applied to become a nurse in the first place - but Blond Blazer felt grander, bigger than anything Mandy could ever be.
Kassandra was against the idea, seeing the way that being Blond Blazer made her friend crack under the pressure of being such an ever growing poster child of heroism. She saw the way that Mandy suffered under the expectations
For Kassandra, she felt as though Mandy was giving up on Nursing, something she had been so extremely passionate about and couldn’t put herself in Mandy’s shoes, too upset that the woman she loved gave up everything for a red, alien stone. both bodily and mentally.
She tried very hard to discourage Mandy from giving up her studies - but ultimately, after countless arguments, she gave up, instead being reluctantly supportive.
For a few years, the contact between Mandy and Kassandra faltered.
They talked sparsely, Mandy becoming the Branch Manager of Torrence SDN later down the line and delving herself fully into the role of Blond Blazer.
Kassandra worked with Pennsylvania Police as a Forensic Scientist, quickly working herself up the ranks until she applied for detective work instead.
A few years passed and Torrance SDN decided to branch out to Down Town LA and Blond Blazer knew exactly who to ask to join.
When Mandy rang Kassandra to ask her to join, it took a while of convincing but Kassandra agreed. Better pay, new environment, more resources, a wider variety of tasks.
Kassandra quickly became slipped into her role as Brainbook - without her smarts, DTLA and the A-Team would not be half as successful.
Coming to SDN also reignited old feelings from both sides, unspoken but back in buisness.
Kassandra and Mandy would meet up more again, breaking the ice and falling into a new, yet familiar routine.
Small facts and relationship details
Mandy gets a little turned on every time Kassandra speaks French - Kassandra knows this and uses it to her advantage at every turn.
Mandy calls Kassandra ‘Cordy’, an affectionate nickname that only Mandy calls her
Mandy eats like a starving lion, eating pretty much anything and everything, reaching 2.500 calories (AT LEAST) per day. Kassandra forgets to eat pretty much all of the time.
During their time together in university, Mandy would always make a portion for two. It was Kassandra’s healthiest time in her life.
After University, Kassandra struggled for a long time, teetering on the edge of being underweight, always forgetting to eat while working.
Bullying each other is their ultimate love language.
The way they talk to each other is relentless - the shit talk coming from their mouths tops anything anyone would expect from the two women - it’s comical how quickly they can switch from informal to formal though.
Z-team had the privilege of witnessing this ONCE when they worked together with DTLA. There had been a violent disagreement between two gangs and in the aftermath, Blazer and Brainbook were going at each other’s throats until the camera’s were turned on them and suddenly they seemed like the most well mannered, but together women on earth.
Their media training is on another level.
Kassandra calls Mandy ‘Mands’ most of the time and Mandy loves calling Kass ‘Cordy’ or ‘Cordova’ if she’s feeling spicy enough.
Kassandra is Mandy’s emergency contact - she knows that she’ll be there, not matter when or where.
Blond Blazer (5.11ft) is a few inches taller than Brainbook, but as Mandy they’re both the same height (5.9ft)
They meet up after work every now and again to eat dinner and catch up, sometimes talk about work related issues or for Kassandra to fix some legal shit that Mandy cannot understand for the life of her.
Kassandra is happy to see her friend again, not as some special hero but just as Mandy. She fell in love with Mandy after all, not Blond Blazer.
Touches will linger, old feelings come bubbling to the surface over each beer opened.
It hardly ever breaks past a heavy acknowledgement that something is there. But it’s there alright.
Brainbook is the only one who knows who Blond Blazer is without the amulet, really knows. Not just the name or the face, but the core of the person beneath.
Mandy goes to Kassandra whenever things go south, whenever she over does it, when her body won't hold up or the trauma becomes too much to handle.
Blond Blazer and Brainbook are on a similar status, with Blazer being only having slightly more authority. They share missions now and again, high stakes missions with a horrible turnover rate. They share a lot, and I mean a LOT of PTSD together.
When Brainbook got shot, it was during a mission that involved a hostage situation. Brainbook was supposed to handle hostage negotiations, while Blazer waited with the police in case there was any altercation or a way to get to the perp.
Sadly, the perp knew where Brainbook was, which car, which seat.
When the shot rang through the air - it was instant chaos afterwards.
Blazer doesn’t like to remember that day, she was sure her closest friend had been killed that moment. She was so angry at the police for not planning better, angry at herself for not taking better precautions.
Blazer stayed at the hospital for days on end until she was sure Kassandra would be alright - she stayed by her side, took her home, cared for her until she was back on her feet without a single question asked.
Kass got away with only a scar above her abdomen - but Blazer’s throat closes every single time she catches wind of Brainbook being on an onsite mission. The fear never left her and probably never will.
Though they both have feelings for each other that have resurfaced from their time in University - when Kassandra joined SDN, Blazer was already in a relationship with Phenomaman. So any feelings on either end were repressed because of it.
Blazer was still very sure Kass had no interest in her because in University she'd rejected any advances.
They're both really, really bad at communicating.
