Difference between revisions of "Kip"

HISTORY

LIFE OF BRIAN

      The Blake family in the northern part of New York state were a very typical upper class family. Not the richest, but a solid step and a half over middle class. Not old enough to be considered Old Money, but no longer considered New Money, they were caught in a social limbo. There wasn't much memorable about them other than their identical twin boys, Andrew and Brian.

      Like with most twins, despite being physically identical, they were very individual in their personalities. They were both smart, Andrew in a conniving and clever way while Brian was more the book smart type, and both loved the outdoors. Andrew was the more daring of the two, often dragging his slightly younger brother along on their adventures.

      It was on one of these adventures that nine-year-old Andrew and Brian got caught on a steep drop-off over some rapidly moving water. During their rescue, Brian was pulled to safety and Andrew fell and disappeared into the water. They later found his body. Brian never really recovered.

      For years Brian was haunted by guilt which manifested into hallucinations of his brother. Unlike most hallucinations, his vision of Andrew didn't remain at age nine but instead grew up alongside him, always a darker mirror image of him and always prompting his guilt to override everything else about his life. He'd peck and nag and undermine Brian's self esteem, over and over and over until his first mental and emotional breakdown and half-hearted suicide attempt that left him hospitalized for over a year. It didn't help his social standing when he returned to high school, now a year behind his peers. So began the rotating doors of the mental facilities, all of which would declare him fine and release him back into his high school life until he'd lose it yet again and end up back in a program.

      It wasn't that his parents didn't care, didn't love him, didn't want him safe and healthy. It had just become too much over the years. They were the cursed family, having lost now not one but two sons. Their visits to Brian became shorter and more spread out until he hardly saw them at all. It was too hard, so they put their money where their time should have been and got him into what were supposed to be the best programs with the best doctors and the best locations. But he never really improved.

      It was there that The Librarian found him. A loner by nature and by circumstances, he was the perfect target. He'd lose himself for hours in books and stories, holding a secret desire to perhaps someday become a writer. It helped him cope, to have a sense of control over the way the story went, which was something he lacked in his actual daily life. He developed OCD alongside his delusions and spent much of his time in a haze of drugs. He wanted no part of reality and The Librarian made sure he didn't have to participate in it any longer, spiriting him away and leaving a very unfortunate fetch in his place.

THE LIBRARY

      For the longest time in this new-life, all he remembered was darkness and anxiety, knowledge and organization. In many ways, it was heaven for someone like Kip. He was utterly alone, locked in a tomb of silence and surrounded by books and scrolls and tablets and every other form of written word possible. The more he organized and cleaned, the better he felt. He even adapted to the darkness, his eyes taking on a glow that allowed him to see in the dimly lit space. He developed the ability to zip along from spot to spot, riding the electricity and lightning that took up residence within him. He was the lightning. It was a freedom he never had before, despite his captivity. His strength grew as well, allowing him to carry more weight and more volume at once, making things even easier. (Who needs to join a gym? Just get Taken by a Librarian!)

      He spent decades there, learning to fetch and return the stories for The Librarian, a shadowy entity that he never really did see but did his best to obey. Eventually, every so often he would take a place in the stories that The Librarian would run, using Lost discarded by other Gentry. He would play a role, nudging the others along the storyline using any means necessary. He found himself a reluctant king giving orders that he knew would lead to death and danger, a hesitant knight tasked with causing harm to others, a wise sage tormented by the knowledge of what he was doing. He hated the roles he would play almost as much as he hated himself for looking forward to taking part in the stories, for despite knowing he was often charged with causing pain to others, he got to actually interact with others. After decades entirely alone, he craved companionship even though he loved his solitude.

      For longer than he could keep track, his life remained the same. Until Her.

      She was brought in to be a player in the stories, joining the others that he had seen discarded and left for dead when The Librarian no longer had a use for them. When it came time for a story that he saw led to her death, he rebelled and they ran. They ran until they couldn't run anymore. They ran until he fell and yelled for her to keep going, keep running until she was free. The last he saw of Her was a glance back with horror in her eyes as The Librarian swept in, then a flash that meant she was gone. So he got back to his feet and ran as well, not stopping until he ended up in upstate New York. Immediately he tried to turn around, go back, return to where he felt he belonged. He never intended to get out. He was just supposed to help her get free. Instead, it appeared that she had been Taken again and he was dumped back into the real world.

BACK TO REALITY

      It was hard, adjusting to his new-new-life. He was taken in by the local Freehold, taken under the wing of the one they all called Uncle Joe who had a special knack for helping new arrivals adjust. Most he had helped were able to return to their lives. Most had not been gone as long as Kip had been. Even though only a short while had passed to everyone else, Kip had been locked away for nearly a century. It jumbled his mind as much as it had changed his body. Everything was so bright to his eyes that were used to darkness. He wore the darkest of sunglasses, even indoors. Earplugs were a necessity for everything was painfully loud to ears that had grown so used to silence. Smells seemed too powerful, causing him to retreat into a room filled with books and dust just to give him a sense of relief. He slept on a stack of books, just as he had done in the Library. When his anxiety would trigger panic attacks, he'd find the most hidden, darkest place he could manage to squeeze into so he could ride it out, his senses entirely under assault.

      Kip took a little extra care those first few weeks, but soon he found some steadier footing and adjusted as best he could. Being so close to where his fetch was still institutionalized was difficult. He couldn't go back, take his old life back again, or he was resigning himself to a life of psych wards and drugs. So instead, he decided to leave, to put distance between him and that life. He took on a new identity, that of Scott Kensington, though everyone still called him Kip. "Uncle" Joe found him a place that was a small town, quiet and contained enough fellow Lost that Kip should be able to adjust. Perhaps he could even get rid of those insane ideas he had regarding clinging to his humanity and mortality. He'd have to fully embrace his Lost side in order to come to terms with it, but he was determined to be a "real boy" again.

      With the money given to him, he bought a small storefront with an apartment overhead and opened up Homepage Books.

      It took a little over a year before he began actually taking an interest in being part of the community he had been welcomed into. Oh, he'd joined the local Freehold and he even helped out as a Custodian, but in all that time, he had rejected the inhuman core of his very being. He avoided the Hedge and rejected any of his abilities. Along the way he met, then lost, a girl, found himself in the crosshairs of the local gossip columnist (who makes it sure sound like he's a bit of a player, linking him with several women about town. Which often surprises those who read about him before they meet him) and even made some friends. Little by little, he let down his guard until he finally started to embrace what makes him unique. He confronted his delusions brought on by fuguespores, lost some of his memories, got promoted to leader of the Custodians and is cursing the spearhead that Fate forced upon him to make him a Bey.

CONTACTS

FOUND IN THE COMPANY OF...

• Zillah - Z. Snek. Stealer of food and coffee, also best friend.

FELLOW CUSTODIANS

• Haruki - Good friend and good Custodian.
• Nathania - Quiet and reliable steadfast member of the crew.
• Logan - Former mentor and Custodial partner.

LOCALS AND LOST FRIENDS

• Enid - I had no idea I was so fascinating thanks to your overactive imagination! TEAM E.
• Mina - Currently separated love of his life. Christmas and chocolate and favorite sweaters and scotch and every book ever written. Mostly scotch. ♡ Endgame, baby.
• November - The rainbow.
• Widget - Gremlin. Surprisingly, cleans up kinda nice.

SOUNDTRACK

USS - N/A OK Oh, I know I'm holding on I'm holding on to a ghost I know It's ok, I'm not a-ok right now

Liz Longley - Rescue My Heart I can't breathe any faster All the air I wanna capture It's heavy and it hurts my head If you found me, would you save me? If you touched me, would it break me? Will I come back from this?

Tove Lo - Not Made For This World Dream 'til I'm dead, then set me on fire Flames and the smoke keep taking me higher Love and pretend, we'll soon be expired We would be not made for this world Not made for this world.