"What do you mean, you've found a mate?"
"I will tell you, sister. I chose Soujiro - you know him as Bernard."
"The small one? ... Why...?"
"Well sister, to quote from a movie we saw together, 'He makes me laugh.'"
When a woman like Amarante Sardelis chose a doddering, short wisp of a foreign man to be her mate, many... no, all were surprised at her decision. No one had suspected that Luna's proud warrior had seen Soujiro Saitou, aka Bernard, as the ideal companion and father for her children. Bernard was a Japanese man of a mere 5'2" height, immigrated from the land of the rising sun years before for so-called 'business purposes.' His kin were the Shadow Lords, and though he knew about them and his duties as kinfolk, the modern world had progressed quite a bit since the days of vassals and nobles. How he met Amarante was a mystery to most. He had been the only man in Blockbuster who was unashamed of renting children's movies to practice his English and keep his place of obstruction in line as others let the Fury pass to the front. But, few Garou of the Sept of the Changing Leaves in North Carolina knew much of Amarante beyond her fostern rank, and renown as a deadly Amazonesque beauty. When the Garou heard of Amarante's choice, seeing her dwarf the smiling man with her 5'10" height, they were boggled by the possibility of the match.
The main thing the ragabi and galliards of the Sept wondered was: How in the depths of Malfeas did we miss this? The answer was of course, simple. Ahroun are more cunning in their battle tactics than many give them credit for, and for a Fury fullmoon, even love was a battle. It also helped that Bernard was a quiet man whom the Shadow Lords of the Changing Leaves thought rather weak in both stature and in tribal standings. Yet, that didn't stop them from monitoring the mother of their kin's child. Minor eruptions of unrest between the tribes ensued from the union of the ahroun and the kin. Respect the Territory of Another, claimed the halfmoons of the Furies. First Share to the Greatest of Station, countered the Shadow Lords, assuming that it was Bernard who had the victory - as he was the husband, employed, and thus the breadwinner. The bastardizing of the Litany continued, all while the child grew in the womb.
The 'in-law' in-fighting continued well into the second trimester, until finally Amarante had had enough. Under the watchful eyes of the Master of the Challenge, she put an end to the dispute over her child. The mother wolf would decide where and how her cubs were raised, and no other.
So, imagine her dismay when the final decision was made not by her nor any of the Garou, but by Gaia. The child was a bouncing baby boy, which completely threw off the sisters and Amarante. At first there was a glimmer of hope in the mother's knowing, desperate eyes - perhaps the male was a kinfolk, and would be raised with the Furies as his tribe. But, as the Shadow Lord ritemaster determined with inner glee, the child was pure Garou and the wings of Stormcrow rather than the wings of Pegasus were volunteered to be the kinfetch. Bernard consoled his wife as best he could, seeing as he was the only man she could stand being around after the birth without attempting to turn him into a eunuch. But as an ahroun confronted with a problem, she worked her way up the mountain. In the tenderest moments within the Saitou-Sardelis household, it was determined that the child would be raised without knowledge of his Garou heritage.
The plan of action fared well in the early years, and it was very evident that Kenneth was going to be a reserved child, though not utterly anti-social. His dual natured personality varied between extremes of friendly, calm stability and raging emotional temper tantrums that drove away many who could have stood to play a game of dodge ball or watch an episode of Ninja Turtles with the boy. He often put his mother and father in the awkward setting of teacher-parent conferences regarding his tendency to fight in school, but it was countered with the tendency to not be a total deliquent. Bernard and Amarante could only sigh, as they knew what the eventual outcome of these complaints meant.
It didn't bother Bernard that his wife left the household for days on end on her trips with 'the club', nor if for the majority of the time, she was nigh unbearable for anyone but family to be around. Because of her frequent outings, the two-parent household seemed more of a single parent deal, but both Kenneth and his father got along well even as Amarante seemed to appear at just the right times. Eventually the bond between father and son strengthened in its own way, with the man teaching his boy just about everything and anything the youth wanted to learn that was in his own repetoire of facts. Nothing except 'why is mom always gone?' was off limits, so the time they spent in the evenings passed by quickly. Amarante sometimes came back to find the both of them asleep after watching the static-ridden International channel for Japanese programming. Ken couldn't help but ask how his father would put up with his mother, especially if she came home in a bad mood, which was often. Kenneth's father told the boy, "There are times when even scary women like your mother can smile warmly." Ken pondered bewilderedly on that, since it was his mother who took up the harsh, scowling hand of dominance always and often. Family disputes were frequently originated and settled with his mother's word, while his father took up the passive but everpresent role of making sure his son was raised well. Ken would severely miss that frowning face beside the smiling one.
They tried everything to spoil the boy in the ways they knew how. Food, books, music. Food was good, but it was fleeting with hunger, and for such an active kid he didn't seem to need much to actually keep him going. Ken didn't seem to have any fervor for books either, but did read on occassion or when told to, in order to improve his vocabulary skills and 'test his father'. Music finally worked to soothe the savage beast, for as long as the tracks entertained him, but the parents worried about the messages being sent into the mind of their child. When the child showed an aptitude and mild willingness to play the piano, they nursed the talent up until the final teacher literally fled from the household crying from young Kenneth's not-so-veiled insult of her teaching skills.
The frazzled parents then thought, if he were worn out physically then his restlessness could be curbed. Kenneth was signed up for lessons learning the martial art of Aikido at an early age of 8 years upon his father's attempt to get him in line. While it helped in some discipline and getting him out of the house for some exercise, it didn't help stop the fighting; Kenneth simply didn't put up with any lip or teasing from other children, and he made sure to make a point about it each time. The learning of the martial arts just meant that Kenneth sometimes avoided fights with careful discretion, or won his fights with less one bloody nose, rather than getting pummeled into the dust and going without lunch. In addition to the soft-style arts, he was signed into swimming and tennis lessons at the local sports club, which brought out the amazing energy and stamina of the boy even more. Through team competitions, it seemed that Ken would rise above the rest with his quickness and ability to endure, which in turn earned him the admiration and respect all kids his age quietly longed for. Chores, allowance, strict rules on keeping up with studies both in school and in tutoring, and not spending too much money on useless items made up the rest of Kenneth's worries. All in all, one would think, Kenneth was on his way to a rare and normal life.
Then, as if the universe decided life was too good to be true, tragedy struck. Ken was returning from a long day of being an 7th grader. Tennis practice had been grueling, and the walk home even from the bus stop took what felt like an eternity. As he raised his eyes to the sky, he noted that there was an unusual amount of black clouds and the scent of smoke. He forced himself to walk faster, and as he got closer, into a run. Fears were confirmed, as he spied jets of water spilling onto the house where he lived. An unprecedented amount of police cars, two fire trucks and an ambulance had gathered in front of the house along with neighbors. Through the whispers of bystanders and the orders of the authorities, Ken tried to catch what was being said, all the while trying to stem his panic. The boy weaved his way through the throng and tried to run into the still smouldering remains of his house, but authorities caught him easily. The officers held him back, dragging a crying, helpless son away as best they could from the sight of the two bodies beneath white sheets, both so badly burned they were nearly unrecognizeable. The neighbors had never heard such a heartwrenching wail in their lives as they did that day. Investigation afterwards were reported to be a bedroom fire, likely caused by a cigarette. Bernard's one vice was that he did like to smoke.
The funeral was solemn, closed casket and filled with people that Kenneth saw only on occassion, and others he'd never seen before. Though veils and sunglasses hid the red eyes of many, it seemed strange that some of the faces were grave and scarred, or rough with a look of no-nonsense. Others were blank with shock, and still more faces he saw were hiding what he thought was some sort of smugness. That really made the child wonder where these people had come from, and how his parents were associated with them. Still, after the formalities were over, Kenneth was taken away to a youth hostel that doubled as housing for state wards. He returned to his designated room, sans the fiery tempermental woman and the quiet, warm-hearted man who somehow had made life seem more interesting.
Some of the people from the funeral came by in the days after to see the boy and make their case for guardianship. While matters left up to adults were attended to, Kenneth grieved. Understandably, many left him alone or tried to console him. Counselors were appointed to the kid, giving him unwanted advice of what he could to do now, telling him how to feel - wastes of breath, all of them. The young man was in an unbearable amount of heartache, and though he tried to pick up in his own ways nothing seemed to bring his spirit back to life the way he remembered. The things he had left that weren't burned remained with him at all times. The boy, his pair of headphones and a wrist bracelet were inseparable. The latter two were the last gifts to him from his mother and father, and these two things he cherished with heart and soul, along with a singed picture of his parents that had been scavenged from the remains of the house.
Many from the Sept of the Changing Leaves persistently tried to arrange for a transfer of guardianship to one of their own. Without any official proof of relations, however, the state social workers who handled paperwork were definitely less inclined to believe the potential candidates. Kinfolk from Black Fury and Shadow Lord alike were called to take the boy in, but they had their own troubles that made them unfit by the state's standards to care for Kenneth. Frustrations and fighting evident spreading throughout the Sept only made the job harder. Eventually, a benevolent family of a pastor, his wife and their two children, a younger son and daughter, were the ones to take the boy in. Kenneth received warm welcome from the Kingston family into their household.
It wasn't a bad existence, but clearly Ken didn't fit in with the family despite the claims from the social worker that the group would work out. What felt like a family on the outside was ridden with holes in the happy mask. The younger son, Mark, grew jealous of the adoptee even as Ken tried to express that he wasn't trying to steal the show as the next 'man of the house'. Though he played no part in the boy's pranks, the blame was sometimes put on the now 'older brother'. Ken's surly nature soured on the edges some more when he noticed that the pastor's daughter, Jenna, was secretly taken with his subtle, icy responses to her not-so-discreet flirting that her parents were dense enough not to notice. And try as they might, Will and Lily couldn't find the way to relieve the youth's inner turmoil, ignorant of the Rage that waxed within. They too were beginning to feel that Kenneth was a mistake to take in, but obligation dictated that this was one 'gift from God' they couldn't give back. Instead, they prayed for guidance, and an opportunity to show Kenneth that life was still salvageable if only he would be more friendly and less 'dangerous'. That opportunity came in the form of a call from the West Coast.
William was called to serve God in the ministry of his church branch, near the SCCU campus. Seeing this as a great opportunity for Kenneth as well as the rest of his family to explore, he decided to take the job and move his family. Lily was at first doubtful, but she too felt if there was a change of environment, that perhaps their adopted son could get over the loss of his biological parents and accept them as their replacements. Naturally, Kenneth was again unaware of any manueverings outside of his immediate vicinity, but at the announcement that the family was moving, he quickly rejected it, seeing the move as another attempt to cut him away from the open wound he'd kept on reopening and nursing. His rejection was not upheld, as the majority vote swayed into the a 4-1 favor for moving.
Ken's Garou heritage continued to remain unknown to all of them, even as the family was set to transfer all their belongings across the country to the city of St. Claire. For almost two years, Kenneth was forced to tag along on the church circuit, performing the rituals of weekly service and sunday school. He felt the looming shadow of the Christian cross waiting to fall on him once they reached St. Claire. Kenneth was in all manner of speaking the typically frustrated, angry ball of hormones that would soon be enrolled into the St. Claire public high school as a sophmore. And even he had some friends he would be leaving behind, even if they had grown markedly uncomfortable in his presence ever since his parents' deaths.
The Garou of the Changing Leaves hadn't forgotten about Kenneth, but their own duties took them in different directions and left the Kinfolk as the watchers over the Kingstons. A hole in the network of communications indicated that by the time the Garou got around to taking notice once more of the family, the house was sold and the family was on their way to Washington, with the kinfetch still asleep. Headphones covering his own ears as he slept, Kenneth dreamt of the past as a steel-winged bird brought him ever closer to his future.
Once the family arrived in St. Claire, they were set up with a decent house by the brothers and sisters of the church. The welcomes were hearty and many, but every visit to the Kingston house found Kenneth sticking himself as far away from the "happy hunters" as possible. They were simply too cheerful for a teenager in his angsty prime, not that he chose to be this way... much. School became another escape, but every day seemed to remind him of the tragedy of his parents as he would sometimes smell the hint of cigarettes from the boys bathroom. On the car rides back to the house, he would ponder the fire over and over in his mind. His father should have known better than to smoke in bed. And why were both his mother and father in the house at the same time? Usually they weren't home until some time in the evening. Something didn't feel right about the accident, but the youth attributed this to his grief still, and willed himself to move on. It was a new place, and with new places came new faces, and different things to deal with. Lily helped him by contacting a few people through the church whom she thought could be friends with the boy, and at least Kenneth had become interested enough to play sports with the boys and teach some basic tennis to the girls. There was no doubt that Kenneth had the beginnings of another posse to hang out with. Still, as he passed the days and waited for the start of summer vacation, the young man began to wonder whether he was meant for something greater.
Perhaps there was such a thing as a date with destiny.
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OOC Notes from the Character Background:
Caern of the Changing Leaves (Level 2)
Totem(s): Frog
Caern Type: Wisdom
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina -- Situated more towards the southern wilderness from Raleigh, near Raven Rock State Park
Tribal Composition: 30% Black Furies, 30% Children of Gaia, 40% Other tribes (Get, SF, SL, Fianna)
Figures of Note:
Deanna ~Inner-Light~ Weston, homid Adren Children of Gaia Philodox - Sept Alpha
Kristoff ~Silver-Song~ Montagne, homid Adren Silver Fangs Theurge - Warder/Groundskeeper/Master of the Rite
Wheldon ~Fights-Fire-With-Fire~ Smith, metis Fostern Children of Gaia Ahroun - Master of the Challenge/Keeper of the Land
Kinfolk: A fair ranging Kinfolk network communicates and bases itself through Raleigh. All Kinfolk are treated with a decent respect, though they have their fair share of Garou-Kin troubles.
Alliances: Allied to various septs in surrounding areas, and One World in NYC.
Basic Purpose: The Changing Leaves make their base in the forests of Raven Rock Park, but also aid in the reintroduction and breeding programs of red wolf conservation programs in the southeast, as well as forest and wetlands preservation.
Mother - Amarante Sardelis, ~Wyrm-Trap~, Fostern Ahroun of the Black Furies
Amarante was considered a rising commander for the Sept of the Changing Leaves, being heavy-handed and unforgiving of mistakes about the fight against the Wyrm's encroaching into the caern. She was part of the Guardian pack for the caern until she met Bernard, and decided to settle down as best a Garou could. Many thought this was a mistake, but Amarante, knowing she wasn't going to live long in this world, felt it best to become a mother additionally to a warrior. Her choice not to expose Kenneth to the Garou life was done to protect him from the dangers of exposing Wyrm agents to her child.
Father - Soujiro Bernard Saitou, Kinfolk of the Shadow Lords
Hailing from Osaka, Japan, Bernard had changed his name after he immigrated to the U.S. in 1985. The man had been a clued kinfolk about the Shadow Lords in his home country, but as many opportunists saw of America, he made his move in 1985 to San Francisco, and then to North Carolina on a business deal in 1987. He met Amarante not long after, and they married in 1988. Try as he might, he never got a real grasp on English, so much of the culture and customs of Japan still carried over through him, despite his letting Amarante take the main controls of the household while he worked on providing money for their house and seeing to it Kenneth actually grew up somewhat normally.
The Fire
Kenneth never found out the details of the fire investigation, but the fire department's report was of an accidental fire, likely set off by cigarettes on the bedsheets. This was a cover-up of an assassination, done by a pair of young Shadow Lords seeking to increase the power of the tribe within the sept. What they hadn't counted on was the fact that Bernard was prepared to defend his wife, and both Amarante and Bernard were killed in the plan. The political unrest in the sept afterwards was the result of the power changing and suspicions of conspiracy, as Amarante was a valued resource for the Furies and Bernard was at least a valued kinfolk once he had a Garou son. The political manuevering only managed to land the Shadow Lords in greater trouble than they had before, and the fighting within the Sept resulted in their loss of the cub to human foster parents. It is likely that Kenneth will never know what actually happened, but now he hates cigarettes with a passion.
The Kingstons
William Kingston, 44 years old - Born and raised in the religious environment, he is a pastor from a line of pastors. A gentleman in most respects, he tries to teach Kenneth about compassion way too much for Ken to heed his words anymore.
Lily Kingston, 38 years old - Mother-hen instinct is all she really has, aside from the job of being the pastor's wife. She has her limits though, and is frequently frustrated by Kenneth's passive-aggressive duality because it confuses her. Her hand is firm and she makes Kenneth continue well in school.
Jenna Kingston, 13 years old - Jenna is the average 13 year old girl whose main interest at her age is boys and teenybopping goodness. Though she is commonly creeped out by Kenneth's presence, she thinks he's cute and it's quite a shame he is her adopted brother. She gets very jealous of anyone who takes an interest to Kenneth, especially if they are girls.
Mark Kingston, 9 years old - Kenneth's number one rival, so to speak, is Mark. He tries to outdo Kenneth in everything, but fails at most everything save video games. Ever the loud and brash prankster, Mark really does want to be just like Kenneth, and while he knows about how Kenneth's parents died, he never wants that to happen to his own parents.
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