Profile
Keath Emerson
nonhuman . silly in nature . curious"Is that a 'tree?'"
About
Overview
Lark, or "Keath," is a boy of mysterious origins that Poet and his family found when out on a camping trip. He was disoriented and afraid, and the Rodriguez clan decided it would be best to take him back to their house. Ever since then, Keath, Poet, and their friends have been forced to grapple with attention from a secret organization that seems to be interested in "retrieving" Keath.
Keath was raised in almost complete isolation, and as a result has a few quirks. He knows very little about the world around him, but is very curious and interested to learn about it. As a result of this abnormal upbringing, and perhaps in addition to his abnormal creation, he also percieves life differently and in unique ways. He can come off as a little unnerving to those who don't know him, but he's very endearing to his friends and those who know how gentle he is.
- Learning about the world
- Rodents, sea creatures
- Emojis
- Crafts (i.e. woodwork, legos, origami, etc)
- Loneliness
- Various foods (texture, taste)
- Independence
- Complicated speech/text
Characteristics
| Pronouns | he/him (for now) |
| Age | 18 |
| Gender | Sexless, gendered as a "boy" |
| Sexuality | Pretty "gender blind", but tends to prefer men |
| Height | 5'2" |
| Languages | English (and barely so) |
| Ancestry | Sole genetic kin is Thai & Cuban |
Details
Theme
Asian Glow
Personality
Ever since he was created, Keath had an air of curiosity to him. He enjoys learning and is eager to listen to others, whatever it is they wish to share to him. Most who come across him will regard him as endearing, since he has a sense of innocence and sweetness that makes it hard to regard him otherwise. For the most part, he is only really off-putting in appearance. Though, sometimes, his general detachment due to having grown up away from the typical human "morals" and social standards leads him to behave in strange ways. He lies with more ease than you'd expect, and sometimes invades on others' privacy and whatnot simply because he doesn't grasp why he shouldn't.
Appearance
Keath has long, dark brown hair. This hair is present and very thick all across the back side of his body. He is practically hairless on his front half, including a lack of hair where his eyebrows are supposed to grow. The sides of his head also does not have consistant hair growth. His eyes are droopy, deep-set, and various shades of dark, desaturated yellows, and are structured similar to a snake's. Scarring is present near his mouth and on his nose from his cleft lip (and said lips are thin and long).
Keath's anatomy and general proportions are not very consistent with that of his look-alike species (the human). His legs are bent out and jut out a bit more at the knee. He has scarring throughout his body that resembles human cuts of meat. Surrounding these scars are scaly freckles that are greenish in hue. He has no nipples or genitals. A tail extends from his lower back. He has a long torso.
"Style" wise, Keath wears whatever old and worn clothes are available to him. He wears a hat, specifically a beanie, as per instructed to by his friends, since his eyes are a pretty visible sign of his strange-ness. The beanie helps push his hair down over his eyes, and generally distracts from further investigation. He is also usually mostly covered to hide his scarring.
Trivia
Surname Origins
Keath's friends assigned him the surname of "Emerson" after being put on the spot to do so. The inspiration behind the name comes from the kids studying Ralph Waldo Emerson's work at the time in school. Later, Keath will more "officially" take on Dr. Borra's surname out of convienence.
Germs?
He is a bit of a "germaphobe," after learning about what germs are.
Expression
He has a pretty deadpan way of expressing, perhaps due to his strange upbringing, but can still "light up" facially depending on what's going on.
Beanie
Keath frequently pulls his beanie over his head in order to hide his abnormal appearance. He also likes the feeling of it, and the sensory implications of losing sight for a little while.
Story
Intro
On November 6th, 1981, the EverRegions Foundation cleared the commencement of the 7th GES (genetically engeineered subject) experiment. The subject in question, 07-1181-379, proved to be one of the most advanced specimens EverRegions ever developed.
Pre-Breach
The typical EverRegions protocol has never had a need for something such as an "engagement team." However, in the case of "07-1181-379", it was deemed necessary in order to properly track its development. At first, a Dr. Kyrie Hale was the only researcher placed on the "engagement" team, given her abilities as a biologist and her much needed indifferent attitude. As it grew, Dr. Sandra Amarin-Ramos was sent in to assist and advise Dr. Hale, as there was more to observe and experiment on. Soon after, it became readily apparent to all GES7 members just how advanced 07-1181-379 was compared to the other specimen they had seen at EverRegions. Typically, EverRegions has never had a need for a psychologist, but one was brought in for the sake of this unique case. Dr. Nagpal Borra was not a previous employee of EverRegions and brought a certain air of "innocence" to the table, since he was only granted information regarding 07-1181-379 and not much else. He was hired for his unknown reputation as a "nobody" and not much else. He got along with his two engagement colleagues well enough, but he still approached problems differently than them, and in a way that seemed a little tiresome to some GES7 members.
For example, it was mainly his idea to give 07-1181-379 a name, since he claimed it made his work "difficult" to do when they referred to it so inhumanely. After some hasty deliberation, the GES7 team decided to name it "Lark," after the bird featured in the EverRegions logo. Dr. Borra also contributed to the ongoing debate of how to gender the subject, now Lark, since it was getting hard and awfully vague to refer to it as an animal or object when it was beginning to develop verbal communication (becoming more "human"). GES7 voted for Lark to be a boy, and so he was referred to as such.
Most of Lark's life was spent on the recieving end of various tests and experiments. He's able to verbally communicate, but his reading and writing skills are questionable. GES7, or more specifically the executive branch of EverRegions, couldn't decide if they should let him be literate in order to determine more details about his intellectual ability, or if they should reduce the scope of possibilites regarding his ability to understand the world around him. They were concerned about rebellion of the eventual adolescent Lark, or any resentment that may form against his "captors" if he were able to understand such concepts (supposedly through further literacy). In truth, Lark didn't have a bone in his body for such feelings, but what would an executive branch of a scientific organization recently acquired by the government know about that?
By the time Lark was well into adolesence, something sudden happened. There was the "relevant incident" as EverRegions liked to call it. The facility erupted into chaos, somehow, someway. It was the first time Lark heard, saw, and felt many different things. It's hard for him to all put together now, but Dr. Borra had somehow tracked him down and guided him to a way out; a way out of the only place he'd ever known. Dr. Borra spilled in rushed words what Lark needed to know in order to survive "out there", all way too fast and way too complicated for Lark to really understand. Either way, Lark was "free," whether he wanted to be or not. He didn't even really know what that word meant.
Post-Breach
Dr. Borra had told Lark to run and just keep on running, no matter what. So he did. Or tried to, anyhow. He had never really done a lot of long-distance running, being trapped in a small room for all of his life and all. The most running he did was on a treadmill for a physical endurance test, but he didn't know that. Not what any of it meant, anyhow. He was also told not to give his name to anyone, and not to trust anyone who knew it, or knew who he was. It was hard to grapple these instructions, to manage his heart beating out of control, and to process the strange, brown behemoths with green hair all around him.
Eventually, he arrived at a lone house and farm out in the woods (though he didn't know the words to describe what he was seeing). It was home to the Sutton family, who took Lark in after they caught him lurking around. It was Lark's first experience with witnessing "real" human life outside of a controlled environment. They were suspicious of him, with his strange appearance and presence, but ultimately determined he was probably "some escaped ward paitent" and let him "hang around" until they figured what to do. They didn't have the time to figure out what to do before EverRegions caught up with him.
EverRegions, who presented themselves as government (true), tried to get any information they could out of the Suttons. As an anti-government family, they waved it all off, lying poorly in the process, deeming the situation as not serious enough for them to really care. The combination of the familiy's taunting and the knowledge that there was no other place for Lark to be hiding in at this point, EverRegions attempted to scare Lark out of hiding by setting the Sutton residence ablaze. The operatives on site hoped this would incentivize the family to speak up, but it only caused a bit of a riot, and Lark was able to sneak away during the crossfire.
As he ran and ran, Lark came across another new smell. It was a good one, he decided, and he struggled to not edge towards it. Despite the overwhelming goodness, the smell still reminded him of the burning house far behind him, of the screams and yells and shouts that felt all too loud to a boy who had never heard such loud sounds, let alone from a human. The loudest sound he's ever had to percieve was the whirring of an MRI, surely. The negative association that has already formed within him made him wary and cautious, even more than before, and it didn't take him long to have a fright.
During the process of lurking around, two humans who seemed to be his age discovered him, but regarded him kindly and welcomed him closer to the smell. He was still scared, but began to edge towards them, learning that their names were Poet and Camila, and that they had a "mother" who was named Isla. They let him have some of what had smelled so nice, which turned out to be "chicken." They asked for his name, but he remembered he couldn't say it, or what he thought it was, at least, because Dr. Borra told him to. After some hesitation, he told them (shakily, since he isn't very good at speaking with his limited vocabulary and understanding) the name of one of the Sutton family members he had overheard, Keath. "Keath" thought that he kind of looked like his namesake, so it made sense in his mind to use it. He didn't have any other ideas, anyways.
Afterwards, they took him home, and he got them tangled up in his existence and the ensuing chase. Accidentally, of course.
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