Kendall Cunningham

A Record of Seafarers

File #07 Apr 2021 21:37

Summary

Name Kendall Cunningham Aliases Status Evolved Ability Constructs Gender Male Birthdate June 9, 1993 Age 28 Height 5'11" Build medium Eyes blue Hair brown Residence Ruins near the Pelago Employment Anywhere Parents Drowned in the Flood Siblings (Adopted) The "Lost Boys", including Morgan and Nadira Marital Status Single Children None First Scene Fishing for Compliments Last Scene Profile Kendall can make something out of nothing, and in some cases, they're more than just illusions, able to be touched and interacted with. This is used in many different ways, usually for utilitarian purposes. He often travels around the Pelago in a small boat he conjures up that is fondly referred to as the Fauxboat, and it's possible for him to give someone a ride so long as they don't weigh much and it isn't a long distance.

portrayed by Hunter Parrish

Background

Oh boy, a world where the Evolved weren't outed to the general public until after disaster strikes! Kendall's life would have been drastically different up until then. Like before, it would've manifested from him drawing, but without any sort of public exposure, good or bad, he repressed it entirely, which unfortunately led to him ceasing to draw entirely. His middle school wouldn't have been blown up, he would have still been living with his parents and have been a senior in high school when shit went down.

When the bomb exploded and the world started flooding, Kendall was fortunately smart enough to run up to the school roof at the time, so the water level rapidly rising didn’t drown him like so many others. Instead, he managed to summon a construct of a boat that allowed him to ride the flood up, which freaked him out no end. He still ended up needing to be rescued due to the fact that the boat went intangible after his adrenaline wore off, but fortunately was pulled out of the water by Nadira, a hydrokinetic. The two of them were able to find a place to stay, setting up a small community of people who didn't fit in otherwise.

The Evolved purge that followed led to more death and destruction, and attacks by the Vanguard and Sentinels sent many people into hiding. Kendall was among those, but by that point he was more willing to experiment with his power to avoid getting killed, usually by hiding in a closet and creating a false back to avoid detection. Once, however, he was unable to do so after being taken by surprise, and ended up weaponizing his illusions, creating blades and flinging them at people trying to kill him, impaling them in a very messy way. This shocked the hell out of him, and all he could do was run and hide again, spending an entire day getting sick and throwing up.

Once the Vanguard disappeared and people started picking up their lives again, he decided to go see if he could use his power to help others. His idea for contribution was by trying to learn how to fish, though he had little experience with such things. This was less through a desire to help others and more to provide himself with a source of revenue in addition to a ready meal, but if by selling the extra fish it helped out others, then why not? Beyond that, most of the time he did whatever he wanted, so long as he was able to keep a certain quality of life. During this time, he ended up getting close to another survivor named Roux, and they even dated for a while before they realized it was better to just be friends, since Kendall realized he wasn't interested in having a relationship.

When the Sentinel attacked, the little community Kendall lived in was far enough away from the main cluster of buildings in the Pelago that they were for the most part unaffected and uninvolved. However, it made him distrust 'outsiders' even more, since clearly it wasn't enough that the end of the world happened, there's assholes out there that make life difficult for those who survived, which is rude as hell.

Psych Profile

Repression is a terrible thing. He denied his ability and kept it from manifesting where others could see because he didn't want people to think there was something wrong with it, didn't know there were others like him but too afraid to find out for sure, and then suddenly the world ends and the ability he denied suddenly becomes crucial to his survival.

As such, he views it as a tool, not inherently part of who he is. He never stops viewing himself as some kind of freak, no matter what other people say. The biggest effect his ability had on himself was when he used it once to kill people, due to the fact that they were trying to kill him. It traumatized him and made him afraid of it even more, though not enough to stop using it. Also, the Evolved came into the light in a very drastic way, so he doesn't have much trust in others; after all, he hid his ability for years, that means others did too.

Given how a good chunk of his teenage years and his early 20s were spent avoiding nearly every form of so-called 'authority figure', it would come as no surprise that he developed an antipathy to such. That being said, it takes effort for Kendall to not show disrespect to those in a position of power who haven't earned it in his eyes. In a world where it became 'everyone for themselves' on a personal level, he found it best to do whatever he wanted, and anything not claimed by others already was fair game.

Due to the fact that he helped establish a small community of people who didn't quite fit in with the rest of what remained of society, Kendall became fiercely protective of their little group, even though he wasn't the oldest, biggest, or strongest. He was more than willing to get in fights if he saw one of his friends in trouble, especially Roux.

Evolved Ability

Kendall's ability manifested the same way, drawing things to make them appear out of thin air, but without having anything to go by, he repressed it for years, refusing to let it have any effect on his life. However, during the events of the Flood, his power broke through the repression out of necessity, and he made an illusion of a boat, and he was able to 'ride' the water to a building to keep from drowning, although it wore off once the flood waters stopped rising; he ran out of adrenaline and needed to be rescued anyway. It also came in handy when it came time to hide, because he was able to conceal his presence by hiding in a closet and creating a fake wall. In a way, not utilizing his ability as an illusion allowed him to manifest it in this way because he himself had no preconceived notions of what it could or couldn't do.

Kendall is able to project illusions on everyone in eyesight of him, and they cover all five senses. Additionally, in a range of about 10 feet, he can make his illusions solid through the use of specialized forcefields, although he has to be physically touching them to keep them active, though they can remain in place for up to 5 seconds if he throws them. With effort, they can bear weight of up to 300 pounds before failing and becoming intangible again, but that tires him out immensely if held for longer than an hour. For the most part, he uses them to bear his own weight, but he can provide them for others instead. However, it's a cumulative weight, not individual, so if he has multiple constructs created, the total weight they can bear can't surpass 300 lbs.

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