- "Thanks, Joey. Just what I needed. More distractions. These stupid cartoon songs don't write themselves, you know."
- Sammy Lawrence
Brant Morris is a eighteen year old journalist. Brant first appears in the first two chapters of The Lost Ones, but he isn't properly introduced and named until the third chapter, which is from his perspective. From then on, he, Constance Gray, and Bill Chambers switch perspectives as they recount the story, with occasional pauses to have the story be told by "The Machine".
General Description
Physical Appearance
He was described by Bill as, " a strange-looking fellow now that I had the time to really appraise him. He was a little short, and a little squat, but not in a way that you’d actually describe him like that. His hair was already receding but he was young—he had to be about my age. Maybe it wasn’t that, maybe it was just so thin and light. I wasn’t sure what the ladies would make of him, but he had a twinkle in his eye that I bet they enjoyed. I couldn’t figure him out but I knew there was something appealing about him and that I appreciated his directness."
Brant at one point says, "[...] if they weren't mob affiliated I'd eat my own hat. And I only had one hat, so that meant something!" Brant owns a hat. It's unknown if he wears it often or not. Brant also says, "Right this was the other reason. When you looked and dressed like me you weren't going to be allowed to loiter for too long." This implies Brant most likely doesn't wear the nicest or fanciest clothes.
Constance describes him as having 'world weary' eyes.
Personality
Brant is shown to be an overconfident fellow who has a great amount of shame for this confidence. As this confidence gets him in trouble or makes him overstep. Though even with this probably he is clearly rather likable as he quickly befriends Bill and Constance. He is also shown to enjoy joking around and being sarcastic even when it is probably not the right time to crack jokes.
Brant though has a great want to be noticed and not ignored. This is his goal throughout the book even though he doesn't appear in half of it. And he clearly will do just about anything to accomplish this goal. Brant seems to be completely fine with lying and stalking people but even isn't entirely lawless. His uncle ingrained in him how to be a gentleman this is mentioned when Brant first meets Constance and averts his eyes since he thinking she didn't want him looking at her the way he knew he was and after that he asks if she needs his help getting onto the horse since this was the polite thing to do. And to his horror she says yes because carrying a practically half-naked girl was not something he needed happening that day. Luckily for him he didn't need to do that.
He also is shown to be a quick thinking quickly grabbing Constance after Bill is taken by the ink quickly knowing exactly what she would do and taking control of the situation so that she wouldn't go after Bill and end up getting herself killed to. After this Brant sacrifices himself telling Constance to run away and let him fight Bendy on his own so that she could go and make the antidote.
Brant is mentioned to be a clumsy and to have a major fear of horses.
Biography
Early Life
Not much is known about his past. In the book it is heavily implied he lives with his aunt and uncle and is living in poverty. It's also mentioned he has cousins and an unnamed sister.
However, on twitter a fan asked about his past and Adrienne Kress replied saying, "I don't have a ton of backstory aside from he grew up poor, and was raised by his aunt and uncle. It was a large household, many kids so he always wanted to stand out. It was rough but happy. He was determined to better himself no matter what. Full of self confidence and bravado."[1]
It's heavily implied his parents died and weren't in his life for too long.
The Lost Ones (Novel)
Brant is often making sarcastic remarks, but being very direct about his thoughts. He was trying to get a story on the front page of the newspaper he worked for by doing a story on Bill, despite a negative reaction from his boss, Mr. Clark. Bill was the son of Emmett Chambers, who is one of the richest and most important men in Atlantic City, leaving Brant thinking that Bill could be a good source of information on him. Brant convinced Bill to take the job with GENT to have more of a chance to get information from him, learning his schedule and appearing to Bill, seemingly at random.
At some point, Bill is showing Constance where GENT is keeping the Ink Machine, trying to figure out what it does. Brant decides to follow them for the story, breaking into the building, and the group unknowingly lets the Ink Demon out. The trio tries to escape and while Bill and Constance get through the door they came in from, Brant had caused it to malfunction when following them into the building. He gets caught as the door closes on him, and as Ink from the Ink Machine slowly rises, Brant is consumed in it and explodes, turning him into a Lost One. Constance finds out that the ink isn't normal and uses her science kit to create a solution. Brant, still a Lost One, comes to find her and Bill and he gets the antidote. The antidote causes him to be human temporarily, for at least the span of a day "I couldn’t tell her the truth. My little cut was bleeding. Which wasn’t really a big deal. Except the blood was black and I had a pretty good feeling it wasn’t blood at all.". Despite injuries, he is ready to fight the Ink Demon, destroy the Ink Machine, and save Atlantic City.
Brant describes being a lost one as "I closed my eyes again, trying to look back. I saw only flickers, like still photographs in a book. Snapshots. There was a lot of darkness, but not like when the lights are turned out. It was a thick swirling blackness. Like being caught in a whirlpool in the depths of the ocean. Then there were moments of bright white light in the distance and moving toward it. Like how so many folks describe dying to be. But once I was at the light, I would suddenly be in a room. In a place I didn’t recognize. I was aware then. I saw Constance. I saw Bill. I saw them and I knew inside that I was reaching out for them, trying to find them. Something inside me kept dragging me into that light. I don’t know how I got to those places; I don’t know where I went when I left. It was like a dream. Then tonight happened. It was too complicated for me to understand, and how to tell Bill about it? It seemed impossible. “I’m afraid I can’t explain it.”
At the end of the book he and Bill are returned to being lost ones, temporarily stopping the Ink Demon, and Constance vows to get more of the antidote, find them, and bring them back to being human. The book is left on a cliffhanger but in a Q&A Adrienne says Constance didn't get away.
References
- ^ - Adrienne Kress. May 8, 2023. Twitter. (Unable to add link for the footnote or footnote to references.)