Marvel ad Aeternitas: Captain Britain

Captain Britain #1 - Mischief at Michaelmas

THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE

OXFORD, OXFORDSHIRE

Brian Braddock heaved a sigh of relief as he stepped into the once exquisite gardens of the campus, now hidden beneath the soft, freshly fallen snow. In his third, and final, year as a student at the University of Oxford, Brian had become weary of the splendour that now surrounded him. In truth, his life, like so many of the students who now bustled around him, had been highly privileged from birth. Brian was in the echelon of British society, the cream of the crop as some might say, and the Roman architecture of the university – as beautiful, antiquated and thought provoking as it was – wasn't much different from the manor he'd been raised in by a string of governesses. Still, as he read classics, he remembered the excitement that had feverishly washed over him slightly two years beforehand as he had made his first steps towards becoming independent from his parents. Brian had quickly learned that an aristocrat, no matter how long dead the kingdom and entitlements may be, was never independent from them. The Braddock name followed him without pause, it caused certain students – those on scholarships or internationals – to view him with an air of caution. The class system remained, not because he wished to be a part of it, because he would always be a threat, or competition, to those who hadn't been born with a silver spoon in their mouths.

Yes, as the first term ended and they prepared to return home for the course of the Michaelmas break, Brian was content to be returning to the relative safety of his home, Braddock Manor, in Maldon, Essex. Although, with a series of television shows and specials, Essex had become synonymous with trashy behaviour that was very far from the quaint, ancestral roots the county had been built upon. In his summers as a child, Brian – and even his siblings Elizabeth and James – had enjoyed summer rowing with their parents on the Blackwater River. It had been almost idyllic. Reality was much harsher. As adulthood crashed upon them, scarcely a year before now, James Jr. had been involved in a car accident. Much of the details had been kept from the twins, Brian and Elizabeth, but the funeral had provided them with the closure to move on. It would be the first Christmas without their, considerably, elder brother and Brian had spent much of the previous week arguing with Elizabeth, persuading his sister to leave behind her, as he saw it at least, feeble-minded bohemian ambitions and return to the family home. He was glad she had found happiness in Camden, even if she was slinging pints of ale and attempting to establish herself in the world of modelling, but her disregard for her family in their time of need had strained their connection and wounded him more than he would have cared to admit, at least openly.

"Brian!"

He spun on his heels as the snow began to fall from the sky once again. It had been so long since there'd been snow, particularly at Christmas rather than the end of February. Joseph Falsworth, the son of his father's oldest friend James Falsworth, approached him with a wide smile. They'd known each other on the periphery for years, society types tended to remain very isolated from the real world, but he'd quickly come to know Joseph better as they'd enrolled at Oxford together. They didn't both come under the banner of the Queen's College, Joseph had joined the wealthier and grander Christ Church upon his arrival and thus became more secluded from the lesser privileged than even Brian, but having both begun their degrees in classics together, they'd founded a friendship. Joseph was unique, his build being slender and muscular was telling of the time he had spent rowing since joining the university and he had led the men's crew to two consecutive wins as their captain and president in the annual boat race against Cambridge with his eyes on a third, and he bounded towards his friend, careless of the ice that stood in his path. His foot caught it and he slid as Brian managed to brace himself for the inevitable collision, keeping them both upright. His rugby background was much more physical than Joseph's rowing and he was sturdier and quicker on his feet, if not necessarily with his mind.