#kendrix.pdf

[littleriolu]

Random Kendrix (and Mateo) Cooking:

> Kendrix and Mateo wound up as a Scrivener and Hunter respectively, as well as estranged, from the same event - their childhood Canyne wandering off too far one day and becoming an unfortunate host to a Khezu's Whelps. >The Whelps that wound up killing his Canyne got (mostly) culled due to the inherent danger of a swarm of Khezu knowing the location of their tribe instinctively, but Kendrix managed to sneakily snatch up the smallest, sickliest little runt of the batch and started secretly raising it. This is Panopticon. >This move was, and still is, very against the rules. >Mateo found out Kendrix was doing this, and while he was just utterly disgusted and baffled as to why the hell Kendrix would ever try to save the thing that killed their Canyne, he still covered for him as long as he could. Kendrix is family, and you don't cross or abandon your family. >Mateo did, however, start talking to him way less, and he left to pursue a career as a Hunter as soon as he reached adulthood. >The little tattoo on Mateo’s forehead is one everyone gets upon reaching adulthood. >Kendrix doesn’t have this because he ran away from home - Panopticon in tow - when his harboring of Panopticon was discovered, and Panopticon was about to get taken away. >This flight from home was wholly unnecessary - since he was a child when this rule-breaking occurred, Kendrix would've gotten away with a slap on the wrist. But Panopticon is the first thing he truly, deeply cared about, and he just couldn't cope with the idea of never seeing him again... So, he left, and he never came back. >He still has Panopticon, who is old enough to be attending high school now. :) >You get your own surname at adulthood, appended to or usurping that of your parent(s). Kendrix has neither. "Blackburn" is a (translation of a) pseudo-surname given to the exiled, which he gave to himself. If you were to ask other members of his former community about him, they would not give him this name. >Mateo still visits home. Kendrix does not.

>Mateo still doesn’t “get” Kendrix, and doesn’t make any active efforts to communicate with him. This is reciprocated. >Kendrix’s second monstie was Puffball, a Paolumu. She, like Panopticon, is spoiled rotten. >Kendrix is still quite comfortable sleeping on the field, because that’s what he had to do for a few years when he was still figuring himself out and learning English. He had to rough it out in the wild for a while as a teen. Did a whole lot of traveling. >Their tribe is in Darj, but hardly anyone knows it even exists because they’re so secluded. Like Hakum, but More. >Panopticon is the most well maintained and well trained Khezu you will ever meet in your life. This is a promise. >Kendrix’s goal in life is to be the top Khezu + Gigginox researcher in the world. He’s genuinely already achieved this, but he just keeps going and steadily increasing the world’s knowledge of these creatures. >If Kendrix ever runs out of things to research somehow, he will simply find another animal to focus on until he straight up dies. >Kendrix does contribute some to the research of other monsters, though these are scant in number, and usually a result of field observations made while tracking something within the realms of his main specialty. >I've already said this before, but it's obvious that Kendrix and Mateo are not their birth names. Those are Anglicized names, taken on to increase their chances of acceptance by those who do not share their race/culture. Their birth names are Degaligv and Unanusdi. Almost no one knows these names, with Kendrix being especially guarded about it.

[littleriolu]

Kendrix apathy tonite 👀

Kendrix apathy tonight king???

Kendrix apathy tonite 👀

(i wanna know about kendrix's apathies)

Kendrix's general Apathy towards almost everything is one of his most defining traits, though it's not one most people interacting with him on a day to day basis would realize. There's not a tragic source for his general aura of Emotional Detachment, it's just one of the ways his Autism manifests. He was perfectly fine ditching everything and everyone he's ever known as a child just to save Panopticon, because Panopticon's the first thing he ever found himself really, truly caring about. No, his own family isn't on that list. That's just... How he is.

He cares about his Work and his Little Monsters. That's just about it, really.

You can't pull a "but it's okay, he cares about his friends!" to soften the blow of the topic. He's Aplatonic, he doesn't really have friends for the most part, and he doesn't really feel the need to acquire them. The only times he will acquire a friend is through happenstance, too - it's not something he seeks out, and seeking out a friend in him actively, especially if you make a whole thing of it, is a great way to make him leave. He isn't Cruel or Asocial, however - he has a lot of fun being around people, and he's known to be quite a nice guy, he just doesn't tend to progress any relationship past the Casual Acquaintance phase. Everybody knows him. but nobody knows him, you know?

His brother, Mateo, does not understand him, and he never will. Mateo cares a lot about the connections he's made in life, and maintains them quite thoroughly. It's one of his main occupations, even. Not too big a fan of being alone, that one. But Kendrix can drop that all on a whim and fuck off to the middle of the Tundra for weeks on end with no contact with the outside world and not go insane. He could move to an entire different country without telling anyone and not feel any real regret about it. Kendrix is a professional at burning bridges and feeling nothing about it.

Kendrix is Aromantic, also, so he doesn't tend to find himself partnered with people. He's tried in the past, but it always lasted two seconds due to Kendrix immediately getting weirded out by the whole thing. It's always such a whole affair. The expectations they always bring have always felt deeply unsatisfying to him, and the process of courting - the intentionality of it all - kind of just gives him the hives. He's definitely done a good amount of casual sleeping around - he's a fan of bars, and is decidedly not Asexual - but that's about as far as it ever usually goes.

Kyle kind of threw a wrench in all this. He managed to make Kendrix really, really care about him. Extremely rare of Kendrix to care for a person on this level, but Kyle managed it by just happening to be around Kendrix a lot, and acting like a huge bitch the entire time. His self-sabotaging aggression, ironically, let Kendrix feel more comfortable approaching him, because he wasn't going out of his way to get up in his business in the way most people try to do. It was happenstance, and Kyle was trying to project massive amounts of Hedgehog's Dilemma in his direction instead of trying to get to know him or, god forbid, trying to court him into any kind of relationship. So, he just, like, won.

One funny note I could make to explain the sheer extent of Kendrix's Apathy - He is not Gay. He isn't Bisexual either. I also wouldn't call him Straight. I wouldn't call him anything, actually. He just cares so little about all of this that he does not care about the gender of who he's coupling with at any point. Especially considering they're usually one night affairs, anyway. Why should he give a shit? He doesn't need a set orientation. This isn't something he has any angst over. He feels nothing on the matter. If you tell him he needs to, he'll just crinkle his face at you and go "Why, though?".

He just doesn't really care about anything. Good for him!

[littleriolu]

Where’d you come up with the surnames ?

"Winters" as a surname for Kyle and his Family is derived from several Trains of Thought: >Vibes. The names just slotted together nicely - it has a good mouthfeel, looks like a real name, and just seemed overall fitting. >Symbolism. Winter, the season, is very Cold, Dark, and Crushing. It's Isolating, it's a Metaphorical Death, it traps you in the house, robbing you of things to do safely or comfortably. Winter as a season is oft met with despair by Queer (and Neurodivergent) Folk, as it bodes the coming of necessary Family Gatherings where one has to hide themselves for the sake of safety, but still pretend to be happy. It's the season of Facades. It's the season most dominated by Snow - blankets of overbearing whiteness that can kill easily, without thought. Put simply, the Season of Winter is the Forced Performance of Suburbia. >Thematic Polarity. "Winters" and "Blackburn" are, as names, opposites. To Freeze and to Burn to Charring. It's heightened by knowing Kendrix's real name, Degaligv, literally just means "Wildfire". >Irony. Kyle's a man with feelings that run extremely intensely. One of his main character traits is that he cares, a lot. He may try to come across like he's cold and tough, but he's got emotions that burn like an inferno and probably eat him alive.

"Blackburn" as Kendrix's Anglicized surname, and "Ganvgi" as his Tsalagi "surname" have similar roots: >Vibes. "Kendrix Blackburn" is just a cool fuckin' name, dude, I don't know what else to say. "Degaligv Ganvgi" is also a cool fuckin' name. >Symbolism. This one's complicated. "Blackburn" is derived from a Pseudo-Surname in his Tribe, given to the Exiled - "Ganvgi", meaning Blackburnian Warbler. It's Symbolic, in Tsalagi, of the flight taken from home, as the Blackburnian Warbler is the name of a bird. This surname was never applied to Kendrix formally, as he wasn't Exiled from his Tribe - he fled it in panic, knowing his harboring of Panopticon, a very runty Khezu he managed to snag in the aftermath of his Canyne getting Whelp'd, was against the rules, and it'd get taken away from him and promptly culled for the safety of the community. Panopticon's the first think Kendrix could ever bring himself to truly care about, so the idea of losing him was soul-rendingly unthinkable. He chose him over his home. In English, to Kendrix, it symbolizes the bridges he's burned. If you asked the members of his tribe about him, they wouldn't give him this surname. He gave it to himself. >Thematic Polarity. See the previous Thematic Polarity listing. >Irony. I've mentioned this before, but Kendrix has an extremely, extremely hard time caring about literally anything, ever. He is intensely unemotional. One of his main character traits is that he's just astoundingly apathetic about most things, all the time, forever. Deeply placid individual, unlike his generally fire-themed namesake. There's a reason he found it so easy to just up and abandon his entire home, family, community, all of it, just for the sake of a Khezu that - again - came out of the corpse of his childhood dog. Kendrix giving a shit about anything is instantly remarkable and highly unusual. He mainly only cares about his "Little Monsters" and his Research. Kyle was recently added to that list, which is very new but interesting for him, at least.

[littleriolu]

How’d Kyle and Kendrix come to meet? Seems unlikely given Kyle’s disposition.

It's actually extremely easy to encounter Kendrix, like, in general! With context, it's really not that shocking.

Though he's the titular character for Strangequest - the name specifically references the classifying titles of "Strange Wyverns", which is applied to his main scientific focuses, Khezu and Gigginoxes - Kendrix is actually written as a(n extremely loving) parody of a really specific genre of Video Game Side-NPC: The inexplicably constantly-there clear Developer's Favorite that has, like, way too much lore. Best Example of This: Sheldon Shellendorf from Splatoon. This is genuinely my favorite genre of Video Game NPC. Sheldon is the only reason I give even half of a shit about Splatoon.

He's a Rider by happenstance, but a Scrivener/Researcher by trade. Professionally. That's his main thing. Being a Rider is secondary to him, and is also not part of the culture he grew up in. It's just a natural result of his bond with his first (and main) "Little Monster", Panopticon the Khezu. He works with Hunters quite often - again, Scrivener - is kind of just Always There - Dev's Favorite NPC parody - and is in quite close contact with the actual protagonists of Monster Hunter Stories 1 + 2: Strangequest edition, Django and Navarro, and is either randomly accompanying them or randomly getting stumbled upon by them - again, Dev's Favorite NPC.

Kyle and Kendrix wound up in contact through these means. There wasn't a grand meetcute or anything, nor was there some kind of fated, cinematic meeting - a lot of Kendrix's character is based in happenstance and random encounters/dice rolls/in-the-moment decisions, rather than the grand tales of Fate and Destiny belonging to Django and Navarro.

They stayed in contact because of happenstance, Kyle being quite persistent, and Kendrix being both smart enough to recognize what's going on with Kyle, and patient (and apathetic) enough to, for lack of better term, "deal" with him kindly.

[littleriolu]

What weapon does Mateo mainly use as a Hunter?

He's a Dual Blades guy, in contrast to Kendrix's love for the humble Great Sword. You can't go wrong with a Sword. Or Two, in Mateo's case. He is doing as much damage as physically possible, as quickly as physically possible.

Semi-Relatedly, while Wyvern Riding is just a gameplay feature for everybody in Monster Hunter Rise, I like to think it's just a Mateo thing, at least until the rest of his Hunting Trio catch onto it. You couldn't waterboard this out of him, but he did get the idea based on his brother.