Born in 1993 to Hannah Burkley and Tomas Quinn, Kelly was a healthy baby boy. The earliest years of his life went by, surrounded by family and family friends, people who loved and cared for him. They fostered his playfulness and joy, instilling in him an enthusiasm that would last for many years to come. Like this he transitioned into kindergarten and pre-school, meeting new friends and faces; encountering new situations and learning as he did so. While there were hiccups here and there he became beloved in his way, the joker, the little troublemaker--harmless, cute, hilarious, endearing.
As the years passed he evolved from this point, becoming perhaps what one might consider slightly less harmless, playing pranks on his family and peers. Minor things, designed to illicit joy and do little to no real harm. It made him friends wherever he went, but alas with his parents moving from time-to-time he’d lose them. So it was that he had few truly close friends growing up, teaching him to survive largely on its own. Of course, the attention of his peers helped significantly, allowing him to thrive, feeding his ego and his boldness. Studies fell to the wayside and though he didn’t fail many classes, his parents noticed. He found further escape in comedy, planning elaborate pranks, making up new jokes, researching and practicing improv. They were all tools to bring joy to others and attention to himself.
As he entered high school his studies fell behind even further and his focus on popularity and comedy became even more pronounced. Yet, for some reason, people started responding with less enthusiasm. He came to the conclusion that his
act had gotten stale, so he decided to escalate. Initially this did lead to more adoration among his peers, but eventually he went a half-step too far, dividing the school with the nature of his grand prank. Unsure how to deal with the disappointment of some and the amusement of others being so at odds he spent some time without doing anything drastic. He’d gotten in
enough trouble for the first prank, so he needed to lay low for awhile. Weeks, then month after month he spent planning, laying groundwork for his grand performance. Sometimes he could barely contain his laughter when he imagined everyone’s faces.
Eventually…
finally the day came for him to set the wheels in motion. Practically giggling all the while he set things up for lunch time when everyone would be there and he’d get the greatest shock and the inevitable laughter that would follow. He lay in wait, skipping class, risking everything for a grand joke that would wow everyone in the school. The time came and people began filtering in, little by little, and then all at once as those who had seen passed the word. The tension built and then once everyone had filtered in he sprung his little
trap revealing his masterpiece and himself all at once.
There was a beat...and then another, but rather than seeing the comedy inherent in his piece, all his peers, even the teachers and staff, stared in silence. He frowned to himself even as it dawned on him, slowly, then all at once, that he wouldn’t be getting laughter. First, on their faces, was confusion and shock, and then disgust. Some fled, others threw up, and many more simply turned their glares on him. He wanted to throw up, he wanted anything other than all of the hatred and pity and revulsion that he saw in their gazes. He floundered, opening his mouth to explain, but finding he couldn’t speak.
Why had he done this? Why wouldn’t they stop looking?!?! He wanted to scream, yell at them to stare at anyone,
anything else. Tell them to give him a break! It was just a prank guys. No big deal! He didn’t. He couldn’t. In his inability to do anything, to redirect their attention, to escape their gaze, and similarly...in his total inability to
understand why they were all reacting this way, he triggered.
In the aftermath he used his power for the first time, adding insult to injury to get out and away from the crowd. In tears, he fled the lunch hall and hid in the men’s locker rooms. Eventually, the staff found him and he was escorted to the office, his parents were called, and he was promptly suspended. Confused, ashamed, and depressed Kelly was forced to endure the anger of his usually so supportive parents. With the decline of his grades and now this...this
”acting out” as they put it, well he wasn’t just on thin ice anymore. He was submerged and drowning. He felt like it too and eventually he took to using his powers just to avoid the notice of his parents. They never knew and after a few botched attempts he figured out how to get rid of his duplicates without banishing them and causing his parents significant discomfort. After all, he’d done enough already.
For his time suspended, well, he spent it as if in hiding. Essentially grounded, he forced himself to do the homework and project’s supplied. He’d need to to graduate, his parents said, and apparently that was the only way he might redeem himself in their eyes. Slowly, the focus, as well as his new hobby, brought him out of his deep slump. He found friends online and, for the first time, properly explored the complex web that was the interactions between hero, villain, and civilian. It all seemed like one big play. Like a joke, but at someone else’s expense.
After a whole semester of good behavior--and time back at school--his parents eased off their punishments and life tried to return to some semblance of normal. Of course, things were irrevocably changed, after all...none of his peers would so much as look at him without disgust, pity, or apathy in their eyes. Eventually he took to just ignoring their gazes, their judgement. They didn’t matter, just him and his jokes. Yet...despite all his efforts, they held him back a year. Fortunately though, despite the slump, they let him earn additional credits and he graduated halfway through the next year. By then, he’d pulled himself out of the deep well of trauma and even started socializing again, using summer school as a new place that he could test the waters.
Though half a year late, Kelly graduated from high school in a sort of unofficial way, getting all the necessary documentation, but no ceremony or farewell. Though he missed his peers and the many people he’d once considered friends, he also knew that those relationships were beyond repair, though he never really came to understand exactly why. In the interest of moving on he applied to a local community college, his parents unwilling to send him abroad to another state, but very insistent on his going. Fairly onboard with the idea he started a new school life, this time intent on making things work.
All in all, college was stressful, but having had to struggle and work so hard near the end of high school--and during the ensuing summer--it came more naturally to him than it may have to some. In much of his free time he studied or went out with friends, but behind closed doors he made use of his new powers, making quite a bit of headway in understanding how they worked while simultaneously entrenching himself more deeply in the knowledge of the world he knew he would one day become a part of. After a year of college, struggles and successes both, he needed an outlet, and so he began living a double life of sorts. It was hard, he lost sleep, and some classes suffered, but it helped. He’d go on nightly outings, in a poorly made costume and mask. He soon found that when he was out he didn’t have to hold back...he could do whatever he wanted--and with the assistance of his power he’d never have to pay the price.
Feeling like things were turning up for him, Kelly continued his experimentation, becoming more and more bold even despite the worrying things that came on the news on occasion. However, essentially all at once things took a drastic and dangerous turn for the worse, starting with Scion’s first attack in Earth Bet, and playing out in what would become known as Gold Morning. By and large, Kelly found himself almost totally powerless during the events that transpired, essentially being relegated to help evacuate civilians, scout, or assist with medical aid where possible. It was a horrifying four days, but ultimately he was always rather far away from the conflicts themselves, due entirely to the nature of his powers.
So it was that when things eventually concluded he was left in a corner world with very few other people and little in the way of resources aside from what they could find in the surrounding wilderness. So it was that, for a year he built something with the others who were trapped there with him. They got along well enough and together they got through it, settling into a new life. He found that his power was fairly useful for hunting, allowing him to quietly sneak up on animals and then create a duplicate to stun them before he acted. So, by necessity he learned to hunt, he learned to survive, give medical care to injuries minor and major, and all-in-all function relatively well in a community. Still, beneath the surface he
itched for civilization, for interaction, for comedy. For how things used to be. He thought, quite often, about his parents and the friends he’d made in college...wondering if they’d made it. Hoping they had.
Kelly never found out, but he did find a portal. Having been searching far and wide for over a year Kelly and his compatriots finally stumbled upon a portal that--ostensibly--lead to what appeared to be a more populated world. While many had no desire to leave the home they had made, the place they had become accustomed and comfortable in, Kelly felt differently. So it was that he prepared traveling rations and equipment before setting out for the other world.
Later he would come to learn that the alternate Earth was known as Earth Samekh and that what beckoned was a place both better and worse in equal measures. Perhaps the first thing that stood out to him was the sheer quantity of
process around getting to the alternate Earth. No matter, he had time and once he was in the queue he could easily fend for himself. Eventually he got his documents filled out, boxes checked, and it was a month or three after that that he finally reached Serstol proper. The Silver City, they called it. A fitting title, he thought. Of course, he had more important things to consider...like survival...citizenship...fostering a new identity. It was going to be a hard time for awhile, he surmised.
- Kelly gets into Serstol, but not as a citizen seeing as he has no money to his name.
- Meets and works with (Tuuj’s character) Penelope to get his citizenship. The two forge a close friendship over this period.
- Kelly works on getting money, partially illicitly via parahuman activities, all very low key and spaced out enough that it’s hard to track him down.
- Penelope and Kelly eventually reveal the fact that they are parahumans to one another.
- They decide to form a partnership.
- They form a team.
- Present day.
Notes: He does have an apartment and a job, but I do not know the nature of the job just yet. He lives not in the center of the city, but midway between the center and the outskirts. He’s had some cape activity, but he is in no way a known element as of yet. Has likely had interaction/”business” with the Lost, but is not directly affiliated with them.May insert other details if bonds are forged beyond just Penelope.
