#kai|character

@soulstcne sent in a FC.

//You didn’t send in a muse with it, so I just tossed them into a randomizer, and got Kai.

Kai’s parents had never actively dissuaded his love for the arts, but they, like the rest of the town, had never really supported them either. There… better, more honourable hobbies, like sports. Kai had known from his earliest teen years that he wanted to be an actor, and taking the drama class had made sense. 

He’s pretty sure that Alita Josephs was the only reason he stayed with it and found the courage to make it his career. She was the Arts teacher at the school the drama, band, art, and choir classes… all of them, it was cheaper than paying multiple teachers, or having them just as clubs. She was passionate about them, and it mean that the school would offer them).

The drama class didn’t get much of a budget but Kai’s pretty certain she must have been magical, because she made made productions out of the small broom-closet that was full of donated Halloween costumes and dollar store props. The first year he was in her class they put on a series of small skits, and over the next two they did a short play. The last year he was in her class, the class was smaller, and almost all of the kids were in her choir so they put on a musical production.

Ms. Josephs was the best teacher he remembered having. She made it interesting, and unlike so many of the other teachers, she wanted to teach. She hadn’t planned to be a teacher, like so many other artists the goal had always been to be the success story, but after a year, she realised that she preferred to inspire others, and that’s when she chose to teach the arts. 

Kai never had much preference about snakes before he got the amulet. Sure they were cool, but they were cool in the same way sharks and dinosaurs were cool, in a distant, unattached way that is “yeah, this is interesting but I wouldn’t want to be near one”. He wasn’t afraid of them, but they also weren’t something he had much interaction with.

AESTHETIC     HEADCANON     MUSIC     CHARACTER

• QUICK STATS •

NAME :: Kai Mercury NICKNAME :: n/a FANDOM :: Dresden Files / generic urban fantasy GENDER :: Male ORIENTATION :: happily bisexual BIRTHDAY :: April 16th, 1999 ZODIAC :: Aries SHIPS :: chemistry

• BIOGRAPHY •

Not everyone who found themselves knowledgeable about the things that went bump in the night were born into it. Some were; the fae, and the wizards, and any of the others that had always known of what was not all that it appeared. Kai wasn't like that. He was born Kevin Mercer, a healthy baby to middle class parents (a banker and a secretary) in Illinois.

He attended the high school and it was when he was about thirteen that he developed the interest in acting. He took the drama class his school offered and auditioned for the community theatre projects. He was a really good actor, better then all his other classmates, and it was at 16 that he decided all he wanted to do was become a star. His parents were less than impressed-- they wanted him to do the responsible, respectable thing and go to university and start a family.

He graduated high school with the rest of his grade and caught the first bus from Illinois to Los Angeles, the 'City of Angels' and of fame. He wanted to, was determined to make it big and see his name in flashing lights, and the name change seemed obvious. There were few people he'd admired more than Freddie Mercury, and the homage seemed only fair.

The first two weeks went nowhere, the few auditions he did find fell flat-- too unknown, too not white, too queer. It was after yet another failed audition when he met Jezzika. She was like him, new to the city and trying to make it big, she introduced him to some of her friends, and promised that they'd be a good place to stay until he could get a stable place to stay.

The warehouse they'd taken up shop in had a lot of incense and general occult stuff lying around. They said they knew magic, and the first time he saw one of them transform into another creature he believed them. They taught him, and it was with them that he got the locket that allowed him to transform into a snake. It wasn't big or flashy, just a small two foot long black snake, and the locket became the closest thing he had to a prized possession.

They taught him about magic and it was with them that he learned to look behind the curtain and see just how much of the world he hadn't seen before. But the problem with power is that it was addictive, and the magic and the knowledge they had wasn't enough. they started doing bigger, and more dangerous things, playing with a power none of them understood. Kai left-- he packed up the backpack he'd come to LA with, locket tucked under his shirt and it wasn't until a week later that he realized he still had it.

He couldn't return it, and even if he wanted to, he didn't think he could without them killing him. He went back to doing the auditions that went nowhere and took the odd job when he could. The few months he'd spent with them hadn't changed him from wanting this one thing. (Two months later he heard that they'd tried to summon a demon and most of them had died. Two months after that a new nightclub opened in Hollywood, and Kai's certain that The Serene Animus were the few that had survived).

In his human form, Kai still has echoes of being a snake. He doesn't function well in the cold, and he's more than a little careful with the locket. Deceit was easy to hone, it was just like acting. He hasn't really talked to his parents since he left, and the relationship with them is strained at best.

• PHYSICAL •

FACE CLAIM :: Rob Raco HEIGHT :: 5′10″ BUILD :: Fit/athletic, slim VISUAL AGE :: 21 ACTUAL AGE :: 21 HAIR :: black EYES :: light blue-gray SPECIES :: Human/snake shifter HAND :: right GLASSES :: No IDENTIFYING :: In order to shapeshift, Kai has to keep his necklace with a bit of snake skin in the locket with him. It’s the power conduit, without it, he’s just a regular person. 

• MENTAL •

So maybe it wasn’t his big break, but it was something. Just because that something was a B-list horror movie set in Gotham City of all places? Well it could be better. He appreciated the fact that they flew him across the country but well, it was cold-- at least colder than his more reptilian preferences would like.

The day was a short one for filming-- most of the actors had finished and gone back to the hotel to sleep off the jet lag, but he hadn’t been able to get his thoughts to shut up, so now he was here, walking the block around the hotel. The locket was tucked under his jacket, and it wasn’t even a precaution, so much as habit now, but considering the reputation of the city he wasn’t sure he’d complain.

And then he heard it, the shouts of a fight (you couldn’t live in a big city and not learn to recognize it). He sped up, turning to look down the alley way and seeing the source of the noise A couple of what he were guessing were mobsters, and a man in a red helmet. In retrospect, it was stupid, but he stepped into the alley, forcing power and thought through the locket on his chest. He felt himself shrinking, and the world around him shifting, until in seconds, a small black snake slithered out from under the pile of clothes.

It didn’t take long fro him to cross the short space between him and the goons, a bite on the ankle enough, he knew, that unless they made it to a hospital soon, they would be dead. he made his way back to the pile of fabric, and with the same process he stretched, limbs elongating and splitting until he was a person again.

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