Character
Kenos Lege
Race: Faerin
Age: 52
Sex: Male
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Relationship: Single
Height: 4'1"
Build: Average; a little larger than slim
Player
KENDON OSCURO
Nationality: American
Age: 22
Sex: Male
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Relationship: Single
Height: 5'11"
Build: Average in most respects. Not the most fit, but not unfit either.
Personality
Kendon is, for lack of a better term, a creature of borders. For as long as he could remember, his life has been full of dichotomies: logic and emotion, science and the arts, male and female gender roles, and many others. He constantly feels as if one part of himself is battling another and, as a result, struggles with understanding his identity. More recently, he has begun to feel like something of a specter, straddling the line between life and death. He spends most of his days on autopilot, going through the motions of school and work. He has lost touch with the people in his life, and no longer finds enjoyment in the things he used to; other than what’s required of him, his daily routine mainly consists of sleeping and mindlessly browsing the internet. This leaves him with a feeling of insignificance and guilt, believing himself to be wasting away the time and the life that was gifted to him.
The few times he goes outside, he keeps to himself and avoids as much human interaction as he can. If, by chance, he is forced into conversation, his speech is somewhat stilted— or, it would be so, if he didn’t trip over his words so much. Oftentimes, they come out in a jumbled mess, before fading away into indistinguishable mumbles. He avoids eye contact, glancing away uncomfortably if his eyes should meet another’s, and finds an excuse to leave at the soonest break in dialogue. It isn’t that he dislikes conversation, it’s just that he’s extraordinarily bad at it. As much as he isolates himself from others, Kendon craves discourse, and will periodically imagine discussions between himself and a certain imaginary character. Sometimes, he wears a pair of earphones so he can carry out these conversations out loud without appearing clinically insane.
On the other hand, the young man is able to be more proactive as his in-game persona, Kenos (a name he had chosen from the Greek word meaning “empty”, although sharing the
ken and
os from his first and last names was a happy coincidence). Despite this, he still makes little effort to involve himself in matters that don’t concern him, unless he notices someone at an unfair disadvantage or something catches his interest. He’s also able to speak more freely than he is offline, showing a much wider range of emotions and tones. Every now and then he’ll trail off the end of his sentences, or interrupt them with seconds of silence, though these are an effect of deep thought rather than ineptitude. His posture is much better, too, and he walks with a confidence he’s incapable of recreating in real life. Overall, Kenos is a much happier (and stable) person than Kendon is.
Positive: Thoughtful, Honest, Patient, Adaptable, Empathetic
Negative: Passive, Blunt, Forgetful, Insecure, Indecisive
Biography
The child of military family, Kendon had been shuttled from one country to the next in two- to three-year intervals, leaving little time for him to form lasting bonds with peers. A few did attempt to keep in touch, but such efforts never lasted for more than a couple months. As a result, he learned early on that there was little point in making friends that he would have to leave behind anyway. His parents worked long hours, and his sisters had friends of their own, leaving the boy exceptionally lonely. He sought refuge in other realms, to escape the mundanity in his life, and the easiest way to accomplish such was through stories.
They varied in medium, but whether a novel, a show, or a video game, Kendon found himself drawn to particularly fantastical settings. Specifically, those that dealt with fairies. There was something enticing about a parallel world so close to reality, just beyond humanity’s senses. If, as the stories said, the world of Faerie existed, then that would mean Kendon was not truly alone after all; instead, he was constantly surrounded by magical creatures of all shapes and sizes. In his mind’s eye, the boy began to see fairies everywhere he went. His tendency to get lost? Fairies, turning him the wrong way or muddling his mind. Missing or misplaced items? The pranks of his house’s boggarts. A random stroke of luck on a given day? The blessing of a benevolent spirit.
Out of every mystical creature he had ever read or learned about, the lonely child was curiously enamored with the pixie. Perhaps it was the freedom that they embodied, or the energy they possessed (both of which were foreign to Kendon), but they began to represent an ideal existence in his mind. So much so, that the boy imagined a pixie friend for himself, a female fey he so creatively christened “Trixie”. This sprite became everything Kendon wanted for himself, flourishing where he faltered. She was confident, she was straightforward, and she was decisive. She knew what she wanted and she went for it. She spoke without restraint, and refused to let anyone get the better of her. Because of this, Kendon began to call on her for strength, whenever he needed a push in the right direction or required a spark of motivation. She was his closest friend, and, most importantly, always there for him.
As he grew older, he relied on her more and more, until he couldn’t fathom living without her. Unfortunately, with adulthood came a side effect he could not have anticipated: the pressures of reality were so great as to wear down the fantasies he had created, and by the time he had graduated from university his mental and emotional well-being had degraded considerably. Trixie helped, as always, but only minutely so. It was now no longer enough for him to simply imagine her. He needed more than a voice inside his head; he needed to hear her with his ears, see her with his eyes, feel her with his hands. He needed to break down the border between fantasy and reality, bring Trixie into his world— or travel into hers.
It was then Kendon caught wind of Terrasphere, a virtual reality that surpassed the limits of those that came before it. It was immersion on an unprecedented scale, in which users were given an experience barely indistinguishable from that of the real world. Moreover, it took place in a fantasy setting, one where elves, magic, and spirits were a part of everyday life. It was a godsend gift, and everything he could have hoped for. There was only one problem: its legality, or, rather, its lack thereof.
He spent months searching for the game online, visiting forum after forum in hopes of coming across it. Most led to dead ends. These disappointments consisted of two things: poorly named files that were obviously viruses, and inferior clones made by amateur developers. Desperate, he sent out private messages to users who claimed to have played the game, but received no replies— likely, they thought him an undercover officer of some sort, or else had been lying about being a participant. He had just about given up when he received a strange email appeared in his inbox, with no sender listed…
Out of Character
Played by: @strudel
Player tag: @Kenos Lege
(Qualidea Code) Kasumi Chigusa
(Ys) Adol Christin
