Kai Brown- Kadzait

Basic Information

Birth Name: Kaileigh Brown
Aliases: Kai, because she just doesn't think it's fair for her to have to suffer her mother's flights of fancy.
Place of Birth: Tarraleah, Tasmania
Age: (real and apparent) Real age: 30; Apparent Age: 23; Gifted at: 16, Born October 5, 1979
Male/Female: Female
Current Occupation: Marine Biologist off the Great Barrier Reef
Past Occupation: (If different from above) Student

Appearance

Hair Color: Sandy blonde
Length and Style: long and wavy, it grows how it feels and is most often in a pony tail or under a ball cap.
Eye Color: blue, just plain unremarkable blue
Skin Color: Deep golden tan from her long hours in the sun and on the ocean
Height: 5' 5"Â?
Weight: 125 lbs
Nationality: Mostly Welch and British, but was born and raised in Tasmania
Race: Werewolf
Body Type: Medium frame, with nothing extra, as her rather frenetic lifestyle and natural metabolism keeps her trim, however she does not spend time in a gym and so her muscles have tone, but no definition.
Wolf Form: A pale yellow-gold, the color of the sand in the noon day sun, with a single circle of black in the center of her snout.

Description (if an NPC) or name of your creator/gifter(if a PC): Kai was Gifted by her mother, after she asked for what seemed a hundred years, but in reality was only two. A bright girl she knew at the tender age of 14 that she wished to follow in the steps of her family, however her mother was not yet ready to allow her child the responsibilities of the Gift. After consultation with the Alpha, Kai's mother, Jennifer, Gifted her on the eve of her 16th birthday. She bears the scar of her mother's front upper teeth on the crescent of her left hip bone. Her mother still resides in Tarraleah with the rest of the pack she grew up with.

Personal Questions



1. Describe your character's personality: Kai is fairly laid back, but always seems to be in a hurry. This juxtaposition often makes her laugh, and she wonders if those around her find it odd. She is witty, and quick with a retort to just about anything said to her, and knows this irritates her co-workers to no end, but can't seem to be able to stop it. Kai is also amazingly introspective and oftentimes lost in her own mind as she scurries about.

2. Describe how your character would appear to a stranger (I.E. typical dress, way they carry themselves etc.) Kai is almost always in a pair of shorts, a close fitting polo shirt, a pair of deck shoes and her hair in a pony tail or under a hat or both. When not in "uniform,"Â? she's usually in a swimsuit or wetsuit because she's on a board in the water. She's light on her feet and has a bounce to her quick-paced walk, her face is almost always skyward or buried in papers, but the world around her doesn't ever fully go out of focus, so you can rest assured she won't barrel into anyone or anything.


3. What does your character like? Kai is in love with the water. Obviously, or she wouldn't research it, but it is more than that. It is like a second heart beat to her and she hears its call all of the time. If she were able, she would never set foot on land.

~Books are great friends to her, there is nothing quite like the feel and smell of a book, when opened for the first time, or one that has been opened so many times the biding it cracked, but opening it again is like seeing an old friend after years of separation.

~Technology and Kai are like peas in a pod. The day she received her first GPS system she swore she heard the Hallelujah chorus. It makes things infinitely easier and provides an outlet where she might not find one.

4. Dislike? Dishonesty, of course no one likes being lied to, but Kai finds it offensive, even if it's not being directed at her. In her mind there is never a reason to be dishonest. It should be noted that this philosophy makes it a struggle when she is forced into dishonesty to protect herself and the pack.

~Pessimism, Kai considers herself an optimist and those that feel the need to find the negative in every situation, annoy her to no end. She doesn't see the point in always looking at the dark side of the moon when the light side is so much more interesting.

~Anything that alters judgment or body chemistry, especially alcoholic beverages, however, she does not drink caffeine for the same reasons. She's never taken drugs, and has no plans to begin doing so, as she knows their effects and wishing nothing to do with them. Once when she was very young, having recently graduated from college and was on her first research vessel, she indulged in a drinking game with crew mates, the choices she made when inebriated caused her to find the altered state of mind caused by these chemicals distasteful. Caffeine causes her heart to race and her body to jitter, not something she enjoys and so avoids the stuff.

6. What are your fears? Drowning, it is a careless mariner that drowns. If she makes a mistake in her preparation that causes an accident, she will lose her life. There is nothing that can keep a werewolf from drowning to death when she makes a careless error.

~The dark, not the night as there is light in the night, the moon and stars often provide more than adequate light. No her fear resides firmly in true dark, the absence of light. For even the eyes of a predator need light to see and if she cannot see, she cannot protect herself.

~It makes most people laugh, but Kai is incredibly afraid of mice. She has no idea why, but the scurrying little creatures make her hair stand on end and cause the flight or fight response to make her turn tail and run. In human form, she will scream and get up on a chair, just like that lady in the Tom and Jerry cartoons, in wolf form she usually yelps and runs away.

7. What are your character's strengths? Kai is a risk taker. She's willing to try anything new at least once, and if the first time through gives her mixed feelings she's willing to try a second time. This opens up a huge realm of opportunities for her, as a Marine Biologist. It was how she received her first research vessel assignment, because really, who wants to study how seaweed reproduces?

~She possesses an eidetic memory, which helped her to graduate from high school by age 14 and from college at 17 and obtain her masters by 19. She completed her doctorate at 25 having waited through completion of her first research assignment. This memory also helps her to remember, names, dates, and faces, of every one she has met, making it easy to put the minds of her crew mates at ease.

~Kai believes in speaking her mind. It has been her experience that when something is unsatisfactory then it should be changed. She had on more than one occasion brought a complaint the entire crew had, to light, with a list of solutions in her mind for the problem, the captain is usually willing to hear her out and work toward a common goal or solution that everyone is happy with. There is no point in being unhappy when opening your mouth can change the world.

~Weaknesses?Kai is often lost in her own thoughts as there is a great deal in her brain to ponder over, making it easy for her to not know when someone is talking to her. She is usually aware of her surroundings, but conversation flows past her more often than not. This often irritates the people around her, once making the captain of a vessel shout at her until he was hoarse and then he wouldn't speak to her again, even after getting his voice back.

~Kai's love of technology makes her over dependent on some of it. The flaws brought on by her gifting have increased this dependency and she often feels lost if she leaves one of these bits of silicon and plastic behind.

~Trust comes all too easily for Kai and she had found herself trampled and broken when that trust is abused. Perhaps a product of her upbringing, or a manifestation of her innate easy attitude, or a combination of the two or some other reason entirely, but it makes life for her a constant rollercoaster of hurt and love.


Werewolf -

Abilities -
Balance- 5 points
Human in Wolf's Body- 10 points
Deft Touch- 2 points
Spirit Sense- 2 points
1 point remaining

Flaws -
Dog Person- 2 points
Aversion to Cooked Food- 2 points
Vivid Nightmares-5 points
Geographically Challenged- 10 points
1 point remaining

Hobbies & Skills: Kai is an avid surfer, and one summer during college she learned how to do high wire and trapeze work, and practices this odd hobby whenever she gets a chance.

Cosmetic Traits: Has a small circular freckle on the bridge of her nose that resembles the mark on her snout in wolf form only smaller.

Quirks and Habits worthy of mention- While on board any vessel, she sticks to a raw vegan diet, because it is easier to pretend to only eat vegetables than to ask for only a quick sear on that steak if you have to cook it at all.

Personal History

"Write your life's story? I had no idea I'd be getting into this kind of thing when I took this class."Â? With a sigh, Kai tapped her pencil against the top of her composition book. She had two of the books, one she would put her real life's story, the other the difficult deception that she would turn into her professor. It seemed like a good idea to take a writing class during the six weeks her boat was moored due to equipment over haul. Now...well it was looking like she should have picked a different class.

Opening the book with a soft crack of the spine, she began to write.
If you travel several long kilometers outside of Tarraleah you will find a dirt road that branches off the highway. If you travel down this dirt road for three kilometers it ends in a fork. It doesn't matter which fork you take, you'll travel in a large circle around an island of forest to return to the beginning of the fork. On the perimeter of this circle are nine large houses, each one different than the one before. If you were to park your car and walk into the forest, as though trying to walk across the island, in the very center you would come across a circular clearing, in the exact center of this clearing is a circular fire pit. Surrounding this pit is a circle of nine curving carved stone benches. It is within this circle that I was born...twice.

You see in my family, there are rituals and ceremonies around everything and each and every one of these ceremonies takes place in this circle with in a circle with in a circle. My mother was married to my father, and consummated their marriage, with in this circle; this consummation resulted in my being conceived. Forty weeks later my mother felt the first pangs of my impending arrival and she and the other women of my family traveled out to the circle, and while she panted and struggled through each pain, the other women lit a fire, boiled water, prepared all that was needed. When it was time for me to come into the world, my mother knelt on the ceremonial blanket and pushed me out into the world. As I screamed my displeasure she held me up to the crescent moon and spoke all the words required of her.

I have seen the other women in my family repeat this same thing and I am wholly certain that I would not be able to suffer such pain and trial. My mother says the sheer joy of holding that wriggling, slimy baby in your hands as she howls at the moon overcomes all the pain it took to bring her there. I will just have to take her word for it.

I was raised in this community of ceremony and intense personal love. Each of our endeavors was intertwined with each other. I was never alone, and I never felt the need for solitude until I left home to attend college. I was educated at home, by my mother, aunts and older female cousins. I finished my schooling much younger than most of the rest of my age mates. At fourteen, graduated from high school and ready to take on the world, I asked my mother to complete the one ceremony that I had yet been denied, the Uitayok.

I wanted to be Aktok in all senses of the word, no longer Miksa, but Amaroq. My mother feared I was too young and that I did not understand fully what I was asking. I could not yet be ready for the responsibilities of being Aktok. I knew, I was ready, but I had little choice in the matter. In our little corner of the world, the women made decisions about the girls and the men made decisions about the boys. I could not go to my father and ask him, and each of my aunts would simply defer to my mother. I could leave home, and seek the Alpha, but who was I that he would believe my stories? Eventually the Alpha was called and his permission granted, that was a very nerve-wracking conversation on my part.

I think my mother really wanted to wait until I was sixteen whether I was ready at fourteen or not, as that was when the ceremony was typically done. The girl became woman and so became wolf. I really do not know all of my mother's motives. It could have had a great deal to do with my being her only child or perhaps she was more superstitious than I realized. Either way I was forced to wait until the eve of my sixteenth birthday. In the interim, I began college courses via the internet.

The dawn of my sixteenth birthday I was awakened by a gentle rain of pebbles on my window. Leaping from bed, I ran to the window and threw open the pane. Silently I was beckoned down by the four girls who had had their Uitayok the month before. Smiling I scrambled from the window, dressed only in the tiny cotton shorts and tank top I'd slept in.

It was cold that October morning, and I wondered briefly if it was cold that morning my mother brought me into this world. We ran like little children, giggling and chattering through the woods. Not the island in the center of our community, but the woods that protect us from the outside world. We searched out all of the things I was required to have for the ceremonies that would be taking place in just a few short hours when the sun reaches its apex and then again when the moon reached the same place in the sky.

When all had been collected in the bag one of the girls had brought, we made our way to the stream that fed our community, and I was bathed in the icy waters with special soaps and oils, then all was washed away in the flowing waters so that I smelled only of myself and nature. I was wrapped in a long narrow strip of cloth, that when the twists and turns and tucks were complete, I was covered from breast to thigh in what could have been a royal blue dress. Like soldiers heading for deployment, we walked solemnly to the circle.

In silence all the necessary things were laid in their required places, and then I was placed in the center of the circle, my toes buried in the ash of the last ceremonial fire. Soon the men of my pack came and placed an object next to one of mine, adding their strength to my circle. Words are not spoken just yet, as they moved off to the edges of the clearing, forming the outermost circle. A proscribed time later, the women joined them, adding their objects and their strength.

Then we began to dance, and soft chanting began from the men and worked its way to the women and then to me. I danced, and looked out over the multi-colored faces of my pack. So many differences, and yet we are one as we dance, celebrating the time of my birth, giving my child's self to the sun so that I could take up the mantle of adult with the moon.

Just as the dance began without signal, so it ended. The women left first, then the men, and then the girls who had helped me prepare. I was on my own until they came again when the moon rose into the sky. I had only one responsibility. I was to make the fire that would be our companion in the night. Stepping from the ash, I set about to gather wood from the forest. I had only a small knife and a block of flint, I had learned long ago how to build a fire and I was confident in my ability. It took several trips to obtain enough tender and fuel to keep the fire alive and well into the wee hours of the morning.

I think I was nervous, as it took nearly an hour to get the fire started and going. But satisfaction was mine, as I perched on the edge of one stone bench and watched the fire dance and sway and thought about what would be taking place soon. When the flames were licking happily at the small logs I had given them, I added larger ones. As these began to be consumed, I lay down across the bench and let my eyes drift closed.

I awoke to a crackle and pop, to watch the largest log I'd placed on the fire, split and fall to the edges of the circle. With a small laugh I stood and with thick branch I set the burning wood to rights and added more wood. Looking up through the clearing of trees into the sky, I watched the stars begin to peek from the cloak of daylight. I watched as constellations formed, and the night sky took its all too familiar shapes. The moon traveled the sky as well, and when it finally came into view over the tree tops I stood from the bench I'd been laying on, and waited.

It seemed like forever before their reflective eyes shown in the dark circle of trees. One by one my pack entered the circle, those that could shift at will came on four legs and those that could not came on two. Those on four nudged me with cold noses or soft furred hips before returning to the circle of trees. My brethren on two legs placed brotherly kisses on my cheek before disappearing into and up the trees. They would keep watch and keep us safe.

Finally the female members of my pack joined the circle, in the same manner, those who could shift at will on four legs and those who could not on two. The females greeted me in a similar manner and took their places among the circle. Finally, my mother joined the circle. She stood before me and looked up into my blue eyes and I into her brown. They seemed to tell me that she was proud and uncertain and sad. I never have asked her why she was sad, but I can guess that it was her mother's heart that found the transition of daughter from child to woman a sad thing, a letting go that hurts.

That is when the howling began. I have grown up with the howling, the song of my people, the joy of my heart, and it gave me great pleasure to know that soon I too would join in that song. The cloth had been wrapped to leave a triangle of my left hip bare. A soft sound left my mother's throat, but before I could respond she lifted her muzzle and put her teeth to my skin. It hurt, but it was fleeting and had almost no time to register, before she was stepping back.

I put my hand to the bleeding wound, covering my small palm and fingers with the life sustaining fluid. Kneeling, I pressed the blood coated hand to the side of the bench that belonged to my house hold. The hand print was surrounded by many other identical prints super imposed with paw prints. It brought tears to my eyes to see my own there.

Gentle hands helped me to my feet, and as I stepped from the circle the howling came to a gentle eerie end. My mother licked gently at the wound on my hip as my pack came to meet their newest member, and my head started to pound. Once I'd been gently greeted by each member, the howling started up again and I was brought to a small pallet of blankets set up on the far side of the circle from where my Uitayok had taken place. With my friends, my family and my pack surrounding me, I endured the three days of discomfort as my body adjusted to life as Amaroq.

My first change was difficult and painful, but the reward of running through the woods and howling my joy at the moon made it worthwhile. I completed my transition from child to woman and human to wolf, by placing a paw print over the dried blood I'd placed there only two weeks before. I spent the next year closely guided by my mother and aunts, learning all that was necessary for a new wolf. My changes hurt less and less each month, but the pain has never gone away and I am certain it never will, at least that is what I'm told.

At the end of that year, I was declared capable of being on my own, and I had earned my bachelor's degree in Marine Studies. It was at this time that I was accepted into the graduate school at the University of Queensland's Center for Marine Studies, it would not be an easy thing to be so far from home, but it was a great opportunity and I desperately wanted to get my education at university and not at home. We weren't near enough to the ocean for me for that. Granted the ocean was only a short drive away, but the center was right on the ocean. So I went to school, with contacts for pack members in the area, and a stern warning to not get caught among the general masses during the full moon.

The most difficult part of being a werewolf on a boat is the change. Though, so far I have been on vessels that berth regularly, and with some difficult, but needed manipulation, I have managed to get the boats to the port during the full moon, and thus far no one has figured that out. I love to run on the beach, but if I can find woods I will always choose them first, as they feel like home when I'm covered in fur.

Kai sighed softly as she read through those words again. It was a good story, her story. She'd written something completely different that she'd turned into the professor. That had been three weeks ago, and now she was on a plane to Nachton to take up a position in the Marine Sciences division at Nachton University. She had never been so far from home. Home was a puddle jump plane ride, her mother was just a couple short hours away. This, this was thousands of miles and the only person she knew was the man she's spoken too via webcam interviews and the Alpha via a single phone call fourteen years ago.

It was a miserable situation for an amazing opportunity to study coastal plant life that is not dependent on a reef system. She had a chance to do some real good for the fishing industry of America and it was exciting, but she was only two hours into this flight and desperately home sick.



OOC Checklist

Player name (online is fine) - Sarah
Other Characters you play - Dana and Kat
How you came to SA (Other board, friend, etc) - um...I don't amember.
Have you read all the Rules? Yes indeedy
Do you understand that this is an adult board with adult content (sometimes graphic and violent in nature)? Yup yup
This board is adult only. Are you over the age of 18? My driver's license says so.