headcanons about Bren Brenatto
he has great hair and he loves lying
in terms of appearance he looks like Veth cloned herself. Dark hair, dark skin, a lil' chunky. Yeza's genetics did not participate in this kid.
except the kid has atrocious eye-sight and he desperately needs glasses that he refuses to wear because he feels they make him look like a dork. So he has Yeza's terrible eyesight.
Yeza actually feels really bad because he feels like he doesn't have much in common with his second son, but Luc points out to him that actually, he and Bren are a lot more alike than he thinks: Luc and Veth are chaos gremlins, but Yeza and Bren are the calm and collected ones who stay focused even with chaos going on all around them.
(despite this, Bren is still definitely Veth's son)
He is a wizard prodigy--especially when it comes to dunamancy. Caleb theorizes that this is because of his exposure to dunamancy in the womb speeding up his birth giving him a special connection to dunamantic energy, while Essek disagrees; he thinks that Bren is just naturally talented at said magic. Regardless, the kid is good at dunamancy.
speaking of Essek: Essek does not give one single shit about this kid until the kid is like, 6; the Mighty Nein are all gathered for someone's birthday, and all the other kids are out playing and causing a ruckus, and Bren figures out how to do Essek's floating trick all on his own. Then Essek starts to care about this lil' halfling.
after that Bren-Bren starts spending a lot more weekends at his favorite Uncles' house.
time spent at the wizards' house is enrichment for all wizards; the uncles' spend time creating traps and puzzles and magical situations for the little one to get out of, and the little one spends time getting out of said traps/puzzles/situations. Like a pumpkin in a tiger cage: everyone leaves a little better than they started.
by the time Bren is 11 he hates being called Bren-Bren. His mom and Caleb still call him that because sometimes that is just what parents do
(Yeza is respectful and calls him Bren. Essek has never called him anything but "Bren Brenatto" in the exact same tone of voice he says "Caleb Widogast". Luc exclusively calls him Bren-Bren because he's his big brother.)
When Bren enrolls at Soltryce and starts studying to become a full-time wizard, and is naturally Charming and Good at People while also being Good at Magic, and, because he's Veth's son, reasonable good at thief things, Caleb has a panic attack as he realizes he's accidentally made the Perfect Volstrucker. He has to spend a week on Astrid's couch after that.
When Bren is 17, he (17, the age when all good decisions is made) (loves lying) (has excellent hair) (Veth's son) gets the truly excellent idea to go to the Kryn Dynasty and tell them: "What's up? I'm Essek Thelyss's consecuted soul. You can stop hunting me now! I died 17 years ago in the Empire. Anyway I want to learn more dunamancy!" which certainly won't have any consequences for anyone ever.
