Brigitte Mazur was an amateur actress in Vienna. Only, it wasn’t the best of places to someone try and become the next big movie star, don’t you agree? She tried appearing on many different local shows and even got a part on a french movie. It wasn’t supposed to be very popular at first, but it got some good reviews and Brigitte even won some fans with it.
One of them was a bored Hephaestus. One day, bored and having watched everything on TV Hephaestus, he decided to channel some mortal movies. When the movie Brigitte worked on came, he stopped it, very interested in the woman playing the lead role of the dumb blonde. She was beautiful, almost as beautiful as Aphrodite, Hephaestus’ supposed wife. He fell in love with the actress and decided to go to the mortal world to know her.
Disguised as the assistant director of her next movie, he was able to watch her closely. But just watching wasn’t enough for him. The director often made him go and fetch things for him and he once stumbled over Brigitte. They hit it off after that, even though Hephaestus wasn’t the handsomest of men, Brigitte didn’t care for it. She saw his kind heart and she fell in love with the little trinkets he made for her as a gift.
Hephaestus even made her a beautiful necklace with a diamond pendant and when he gave it to Brigitte, they slept together for the first time. But Brigitte was beginning to be famous in France. More directors were asking her to act for them but her roles were always the same: the dumb sexy blonde. That infuriated Hephaestus because all of them only saw Brigitte as a piece of meat and nothing else.
But Brigitte didn’t seem to care, she’d give anything to be famous. That led to her and Hephaestus to have serious arguments for hours, even to the point where she kicked him out of her hotel room. That alongside to the fact that Brigitte flirted with everyone made Hephaestus eventually leave her.
Heartbroken, she did her best to keep standing and to not let it affect her career. But when she found out she was pregnant, she knew it was the end of it. She went back to Vienna to raise her child but was miserable that her life had been ruined so easily. When a baby girl was born, she named her Marilyn.
But she couldn’t deal with looking at that mop of brown hair so alike the man she once almost married. But Brigitte suffered from many mental disorders and was mostly kept in and out of mental institutions, leaving Marilyn to foster home most of the time. When Brigitte got out, they were able to have some peaceful time together, but at night, Marilyn often saw her mother screaming and laughing and yelling at the walls.
Brigitte was forcibly taken to a mental institution and that was the last time Marilyn saw her. Brigitte’s best friend took Marilyn in with her when she was 7 years old. They both had a great relationship and lived happily together. Marilyn had inherited most of her mothers possessions, like the necklace Hephaestus gave to her and all the money she had won with movies, which made much better for Grace, Brigitte’s best friend, to raise her.
They move to a simple house, neighboring a boy a year older than Marilyn, Jedrek, and they became friends quickly. By 1912, while the First Balkan War began, they were pretty much inseparable, they even considered themselves boyfriend and girlfriend. It was in 1914 that their lives changed, it was at this time that they were attacked by harpies, found out they were both demigods and pretty much sucked into what would become known as World War I. The war made them grow even closer together, it was clear they were soulmates, but what they didn't realise, was how badly this pairing was driving Ares and Hephaestus insane with anger.
It was bad enough they fought over the same goddess, but to have their children in love, infuriated them. What could they possibly do though, Eros claimed the love was destined and refused to interfere, they couldn't do anything to their own children without it breaking the interference rule, and if they did something to the other's kid, it would just lead to war. For months, no matter who Aphrodite was with, whether it was Ares or Hephaestus, they were always griping about Jedrek and Marilyn.
Aphrodite, being her rather typically vain self, was tired of the two always going on about their kids, and decided in order for things to go back to normal, she'd have to step in and do something herself. So in 1916, when Jedredk was 15 and Marilyn was 14, she decided to curse them.
When they are Apart: When they are apart from each other, they do not age, but they are constantly drawn back together, like a hunger that can't be satiated. No one else can fill the void they feel.
When they are Together: When they are finally back together, they slowly feel less in love with the other, and often end up cheating or breaking up. They also age normally when they are together, and when they are literally in the same location, within sight of each other, they do not have any of their demigod powers. They can still fight and use celestial bronze obviously, but as far as powers, they aren't able to use them.
This made Hephaestus and Ares happy, as their children were now miserable, and they didn't have to lift a finger to get involved. For the next nearly 100 years, the two would drift apart and come back together many times. Lately it seems fate has decided it's time for them to be back together, and the two have found each other once again at camp. Because of the time spent apart not ageing, they appear to be roughly 18 at this point.