00316J, 'Kay'
"How can people trust the harvest, unless they see it sown?"
Name:
Test subject #00316J, he’ll sometimes introduce himself as ‘Kay’ – as in K7, his cell number. He doesn’t see any significance in having a name rather than a number – “But they’re both just reference tags for a person, doesn’t matter if it’s letters or numbers. It doesn’t affect what you are.”
Perhaps he’ll earn another name during the course of the story.
(I’ll usually be referring to him as Kay in Posts)
Nickname:
Beta, as a mocking reference to his strong wolf-pack instincts – it served as a reminder from his captives that they were the dominant ones, i.e the ‘alpha’ members of his ‘pack’. 'Blind Wolf' was also one he got a lot in his more recent years, see his weaknesses for more of an explanation.
Familiar's Name:
Brother, he's a large grey and black wolf.
Gender:
Male
Familiar's Gender:
Male
Role: Lab-created escaped mutant.
Mutation | Abilities: Kay’s 'people radar' is the most honed of his abilities, his ability to sense their presence heightened to compensate for his daylight vision problems (see weaknesses). He is a formidable opponent in combat; strong, fast, and tireless in comparison to regular humans, and also possesses the other pack abilities to bend others’ emotions and hear their thoughts relating to him. Although he was not born with powers inherently particularly stronger than anyone else's, he's had a lot of time and practice refining them.
Weaknesses:
- Separation from his familiar has an extremely detrimental effect on Kay. He’ll become agitated, worried and irrational; he’ll start seeing stars and getting headaches, and feeling generally nauseous and light-headed. Because of the emotional dependence Kay and Brother have on each other, and the fact that for his entire life they’ve been in each other’s company practically 24/7, the negative effects of separation are unusually strong.
- Due to being created in a lab with such heavily altered DNA he’s a little ‘flawed’ genetically, and exhibits symptoms of ageing much earlier than others. At the moment, the ones that have started to affect him are longsightedness, unusually poor vision in bright light, and a susceptibility to illness. Fortunately, the strengths of his mutation and constant medication have counteracted any other physical deterioration – up til now, at least. In half form he is almost blind in bright daylight, but his nightvision is as clear as most people’s daylight vision, also to make up for this his hearing and smell are heightened considerably to a level on par with dogs.
Description: The taller end of average, about 5’10”, Kay is lean and powerfully built, much like the wolves whose genes he shares. His complexion is clear and pale, his face is elegant with a prominent bone structure, straight nose and green almond-shaped eyes – eyes which become a startlingly bright shade of emerald in his half-form. Kay’s hair is dark, naturally thick and wavy and prematurely threaded with faint streaks of silver. On his left side, his number 00316J is tattooed over his ribs, and a handful of small, neat scars and puncture marks are visible on the inside of both forearms. There is a ugly lattice of scarring down the outside of his right leg, from the knee to about halfway down his calf.
At the time of his escape from the facility, he would have been dressed in his regiment regulation black training jumpsuit; white stripes down the right arm denoting his advanced level of training and his number (0031J) embroidered over the left breast underneath the emblem of a silhouetted wolf’s head.
In half form, his ears are black, white on the inside and tipped with silver. His tail is mostly black, with white underside and faint grey mottling.
Personality:
- Overly cautious and wary of others, Kay has a lot of difficulty trusting those he does not include as part of his ‘pack’. To those he doesn’t know he will often come across as sullen and abrasive, putting on a slightly aggressive front in order to deter anyone who might challenge him. He’ll be quick to question strangers’ motives and even if his abilities cannot detect any sort of ill intention towards him, he’ll still proceed with caution.
- Thanks to the ruthless drilling and training, there is a defined military air to Kay. Precision and accuracy is vital, and he never commits to something half-heartedly or backs down in the middle of it. He makes a determined effort to mask his vulnerabilities and will go out of his way to avoid appearing ‘weak’ in front of others.
- Once you get past the outer shell, you find Kay’s true personality. He’s proud, yes, and easily wounded. But Kay is also fiercely loyal to those he comes to value and, secretly adores to please and be praised by the ones he sees as part of his ‘pack’. Beyond the guarded, aggressive initial layer lies a curiously juvenile sense of humour and a childlike curiosity for new things. A utilitarian in his moral approach, he’ll do what he believes brings the greatest good to the greatest number of people, and any noble actions he might perform he sees as acts of duty rather than kindness. Very tightly wound, he’ll be reluctant to expose the vulnerabilities in his personality for fear of them being exploited – it takes a little time and effort for him to wind down, but it’s not impossible.
- Having spent his whole life in blind obedience to the scientists who created him, he’s now reluctant to go back to being told what to do every minute of the day. He doesn’t appreciate being ordered around, and prefers to form his own opinions on matters; and he will always now insist on being told the whole story on any matters that concern him.
- Being highly territorial and possessive means that once he’s formed a bond with someone else he can come across as overbearing and overprotective of them. He’s also reluctant to share his belongings with others and doesn’t like his personal space being invaded, nor does he appreciate uninvited guests in any space he considers his home, or even less in his bedroom.
- Kay has a fierce temper when angered, and setting him off can be very easy if you know how. He’ll always rise to a challenge or threat, or attempts to hurt him either emotionally or physically, and often won’t back down until he’s beaten into submission. When he’s angry he’ll become aggressive, loud and occasionally violent – in a rage he’ll often do things he comes to regret later. Instead of becoming sad he tends to become angry. As one of his military trainers told him,
“Misery brings you weakness. Anger brings you strength. Don’t let your enemies make you weak – let them make you strong, wolf boy.” - Every loss means something to him, he takes every small failure and treats it like the worst mistake of his life – it was drilled into him during the rigorous training he’s received all his life to criticise himself for every downfall and strive for perfection.
- Suddenly being free from the institution that created and raised him, Kay is feeling lost and disoriented. His whole life was spent in complete obedience to the scientists who raised and experimented on him, and now he’s suddenly free from that, there are so many things which are alien to him. The idea of doing things for recreation, rather than to achieve a purpose; arts and music, novels, hobbies and interests; romance, and being valued for who you are as a person rather than purely what your skills and strengths are; these are all new concepts he is just beginning to get to know. He also has absolutely no idea about how anything in the world outside the facility works. Tell him to go out and get some milk and he'll be totally clueless - if it wasn't immediately relevant to his life before, he'll have no clue now.
Familiar Personality: Solemn, strongly loyal and highly protective of Kay; his familiar is the closest thing he ever had to family. They have an immensely powerful bond as Kay and Brother have been each other’s constant companions his whole life, and Brother is the only being Kay has ever had the chance to truly bond with.
Likes:
- Accuracy and precision.
- Brother.
- Openness and honesty.
- Protecting his ‘pack’ – this consists of those he comes to value and care for.
- Nighttime – although his day vision is poor, he makes up for it with excellent nightvision, and as a result prefers the night as he feels he is no longer at a disadvantage to other people.
- Being praised by members of his ‘pack’.
- Music, it's nothing like anything he ever experienced in the facility and it captivates him.
- Silly jokes, although it may take him a while to get the punchline as he was seventeen before anyone actually told him a joke for the first time.
Dislikes:
- Spicy food.
- Bright sunlight.
- Information being hidden from him.
- Being ridiculed or humiliated.
- Being threatened or challenged.
- Losing.
- Open water – it’s not a debilitating phobia, it just makes him uneasy; hence not being listed under ‘fears’.
Fears:
- Thunder and lightning.
- Fire.
- Being separated from Brother.
History: Created and raised in a lab, Kay didn’t have a set of natural birth parents to know. He was never even given a name, just a number, a cell and 24/7 surveillance, punctuated regularly by courses of study and experimentation. However, he wasn’t miserable growing up in the way that natural-born mutants torn from their homes and subjected to the laboratory were miserable – having never known the outside world, Kay didn’t miss it. The neverending examinations and tests and people in white coats, that was normal and the way things had always been – yes there was pain; sometimes a lot; but as he was reminded by the scientists, it was one’s duty to make sacrifices for the good of others. He possessed a greater power than most, and so must use that power to serve those who were not so fortunate as to be born with such power, he was told. And dutifully he obeyed.
Kay was a member of the only three out a batch of fifteen identical pack clones to survive the first two years of infancy. One of the three died at age four, and he never saw the other one again once they had been separated into individual cells at six. For the first eight years of his life he never left his wing of the research facility. The room in which he lived was a sterile, minimally furnished cell with one fully glass wall for observation; a comfortable size for a young boy and his familiar to live in, but not containing much in the way of entertainment. There was a tiny ensuite bathroom, a single bed, a chair and a table, and a buzzer he could ring to summon the scientists in the case of an emergency – only in emergencies though, or there would be repercussions.
“You think we’re going to be there for you on the battlefield, wolf boy? A real soldier is strong enough to stand on his own feet.”
The tests began before he could remember, some painful, some less so. Sometimes he would just be given exercises or tasks and monitored, sometimes he would be given treatments or medication and observed in how he responded to them, sometimes samples would be taken; blood, flesh. But the true intended purpose of his existence came to dominate his life eventually: Kay had been created to be a soldier.
Beginning at age 10, the training programme was demanding and exhausting, both physically and mentally, but he became accustomed to it. The first three years were spent solely on physical training and fitness and agility in all three forms, in which he was trained in a group of three other pack mutants. From overhearing conversations he knew that two of them were natural-born, the third he never heard speak so he didn’t know. That was the first time he had encountered any other of his kind not created in a lab, but as much as he wanted to learn more about them he dared not face the wrath of his instructor by trying to talk to them during training. It was gruelling and relentless, more extreme than any ten year old should be able to endure, even for mutants – by the end of the three years, even with two replacements the number had dwindled from five to three as they were broken by the merciless regime and would be dragged kicking and screaming back into the depths of the experimentation laboratories.
At thirteen, he was placed in a larger class of pack mutants, drawn from the various other facilities across the country, consisting of those who had excelled or shown considerable promise in their initial training years. If he thought the last three years had been painful, these were lethal. They had trained as cadets before, as individuals – now they were training as a regiment of soldiers. Exercises were timed and scored, failure to match or improve upon a previous personal record was met with punishment and extra tasks. Injuries were frequent and often severe, but were considered no excuse for getting behind on training – if you fell behind the pack you were returned to a preliminary training group if you were very fortunate; otherwise it was the experiment labs. There would be training exercises where various species of mutants would be tasked with working together towards a goal; on the first of these, Kay was surprised to see just how many other kinds of mutants there were as he had never been in contact with any non-wolf hybrids before.
At eighteen, he noticed his vision beginning to decline. Very minor at first – it took fractionally longer to focus on objects close to him, his eyes would begin to ache at the end of the day. On a training exercise, a highwire assault cause taking place at the top of tall metal poles serving as artificial trees, he seemed to be doing fine, and there wasn’t anything really amiss as he prepared to undertake the next obstacle, a thick rope strung between two platforms. It was basic stuff; hand over hand across until you reached the other side. This was practically a warm-up. He set off at his regular determined pace – no harness, naturally, this wasn’t a kids’ summer camp. The sun was out, it was bright, and he could barely focus on the rope in front of him – if he’d kept calm he would have been able to make it across just fine, but the fact that he was suddenly faced with a weakness he was completely powerless against threw him. The next hand slipped, he lurched; but he was quick to correct himself and put his hand on the rope. Then the next hand reached for the brown blur again, it missed, he flailed, and he dropped forty feet and shattered his kneecap and fractured his tibia in two places.
Do to the fact that placing large metal pins and plates into a body that was going to be changing between human and wolf seemed like a fairly bad idea, the recovery process was long and aided by various experimental procedures to try and make it as quick and efficient as possible – however it required weeks on end lying in a hospital bed, and by the end of it his training and fitness had fallen behind. It didn’t take long for the facility staff to twig what was going on – it was his ‘little defect’ kicking in and the beginning of his deterioration. He began to be held back from drill sessions for ‘vital testing’ which became more and more frequent, but he carried on doing all that he could to prove he was still worthy of being a soldier in the mutant army. It wasn’t until a co-soldier of his regiment told him bluntly,
“They know you’re broken. Your days are numbered, blind one.”
That it really dawned on him the possibility they might take him away from the life where he’d given his whole self to being the best he could be, only to take him right back to the life he knew as a young boy, and it was only he began to doubt that his unquestioning obedience and trust of the scientists who told him what to do was well-placed.
And then the explosion happened. And he was free.
The idea of naming things was a strange concept introduced to Kay as a boy, which he failed to see the logic in; labelling everyone with a meaningless word by which to identify them? Why not call them what they were – ‘red-headed tall man’, ‘smiling freckled woman’, ‘wolf boy’? If you wanted individuality why not give them all numbers as he had – after all, there are an infinite number of numbers, and as he learned, there were many people with the same name.
“So who’s this?”
“My wolf.”
“Your wolf?”
“Yes.”
“He doesn’t have a name?”
“He doesn’t need a name. I know who he is.”
It was a brief conversation he had with one of the facility scientists that led to him naming his familiar. Well, ‘name’ – it was a description really. He had overheard some of the staff talking about their family, and it sounded wonderful. The pack instincts had already begun to surface, and his need for a pack, a family, was going unfilled by his lonely existence as a test subject – none of the research staff would lower themselves to the level of forming an emotional bond with him. In his cell, he started thinking – he had just heard what a brother was, someone you had a bond with that couldn’t be broken by anything else, no matter how hard you tried. Someone you shared a part of yourself with, someone you grew up with and loved and loved you back. Kay knew what his wolf was, but now he had the word to describe it.
“He’s my brother.”
And as a name it stuck.
-
When he was sixteen he was put into an area with another member of his training regiment and instructed to fight to the death, as part of an effort to filter out only the best of their class. It was Kay who returned alive.
