> 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.
