Kale

• Debut: Performance Review 10/18
• Summer Sunshine: asks Thorn to help with a potential danger; admits he has hallucinations; gets taken home by the Woman in Black

• The Show Must Grow On (Act II): when Leachtric gets interrupted by vines, goes upstairs to find Thorn; reveals that he's a magical boy wearing power-blocking bracelets, and asks Thorn to cut half of them so he can stop the threat; interrupted by the Woman in Black, who tells them it's safe to wait for the rescue by Laurel Cerise
• A Night to Remember: visits Thorn to compare notes about what they remember from the opera; realizes Thorn is more perceptive than he thought; takes out his prosthetic eyes so Thorn will figure out his identity

• Something's Cooking: watches Thorn's oven while Thorn takes Elisa home
• Kudzu Roots: after a discussion with his therapist, makes notes on his backstory and reveals it to Thorn, including his raising of Calyx Carvi, work for Northwind Prismaceuticals, and friendship with Hermosa Zikos
• Family Deserts: helps Thorn escort Hawthorn Lavande home; gets an example of how normal people feel about mind-control
• Plus Ones: bonds with Leif at the party; escorted out at knifepoint by Agent D10
• Through Lights and Shadows: accepts his imminent death, until Thorn prompts him to cut (half of) his own bracelets; gets stuck mid-transformation, but has enough power to send touch-telepathy and heal himself; shares some backstory; a response team shows up and re-bracelets him, but determines he wasn't at fault
• Call and Answer: decompresses after the murder attempt, under guard, while the response team goes after Agent D10

• Kale in Lockdown: follows an order to stay in his apartment while Agent D10 is still at large; has remote chats with Leif, Thorn, and his therapist; struggles with depression
• Borrowing Trouble: accepts a visit from Thorn; concludes that he could disable Leif's microchip, if his bracelets were cut again, but it's not an emergency worth the risk; asks Thorn to get him some imported cookies

• AU: Magical Thorn: new student who befriends Thorn under his secret identity, while fighting him and his teammates as a magical boy
• AU: In SPACE!: still in prison; temporarily cellmates with Leif

(For the relationships Kale had pre-name-change, scroll down.)

Kale's current residence in Central was ordered by Acai. He's currently monitored by a team of people, including a primary magical handler (Goldenrod Dinya), a therapist, and the Woman in Black.

He slowly and awkwardly makes friends with Thorn. It develops a side of more-intense feelings he's trying to suppress, though it's tough, especially when Thorn does things like “save his life” and “take the sordid backstory in stride” and “physically pin him on a couch.”

At first, Kale only encounters Leif when Leif and Thorn are together, and is wary about Leif's situation at first, since he's familiar with the treatment of servants of the Sønska companies in Montmere. Eventually Kale gets Leif's contact information, and they start having friendly conversations over text.

In the comic: Niamh

Good dog. Has a therapeutic soulbond with Kale, created as part of his post-murder-y rehabilitation. She helps Kale identify hallucinations, supports him through emotional trauma, and is a positive motivation to get up in the morning.

Special skills: Understands Kale's feelings and sit.

• Debut: Performance Review 9/18
• The Show Must Grow On (Act II): accompanies Kale through the vines before being cut free by Thorn and ultimately rescued by Laurel Cerise
• A Night To Remember: interacts with Tiernan, mirroring Kale's interactions with Thorn
• Kudzu Roots: emotionally supports Kale as he discloses his traumatic past
• Plus Ones: provides a convenient excuse to have Leif speak with Kale, and reassures Kale that he is not hallucinating Kolpovision

• AU: Magical Thorn: Kudzu's talking-animal confidante
• AU: In SPACE!: A counselor for Kale and member of an alien species that can see through the fourth wall

In the comic: Kudzu Carvi

Dark magical boy who “got all murder-y up in the northeast” until he was dealt with by the Romarin administration.

He was the mind-control "fixer" for Northwind Prismaceuticals, a medical spelltech company which had serious problem with industry manipulation in general.

The company was headquartered in Montmere, where it cultivated a culture of not trusting any non-Northwind medical treatment. Kudzu himself had excellent self-taught healing magic, but was steered into using his powers for things like erasing patients' doubts about Northwind treatments instead.

This all worked out great for Northwind executives, until they ordered Kudzu to shred the mind of someone he cared about. That one backfired. Spectacularly.

Kudzu originally tested positive for magical potential in elementary school, but was advised not to pursue it because of the hallucinations. Those turned out to be not a problem at all.

• Domain: Stars (based in Fire)
• Ethnicity: Aibrean
• Transformation sequence

• Debut: Campaign Season
• Kudzu Roots: details of his extended backstory
• AU: Magical Thorn: Primary antagonist, and Thorn's unassuming classmate

Kudzu and his older sister were raised in Montmere by two of their grandfathers. It was a stressful childhood, not because any of them were abusive or uncaring, but because their household had a lot of combined health issues and not enough support to go around: anything not treatable by a Northwind product was left untreated.

In his late teens, Kudzu's nibling Calyx Carvi was born, and Kudzu's fear over Calyx's health issues pushed him into a spontaneous first transformation. Later, Kudzu became Calyx's legal guardian, and was an adoring and protective uncle right up until Calyx succumbed to their medical problems.

Northwind executives were originally afraid of Kudzu, but when trying to have him killed didn't work, they settled for manipulating him into serving their interests instead. They were still wary enough to invest in high-powered mental shielding tech for themselves.

Kudzu became friends with (and then developed a crush on) Hermosa Zikos, the vet for Calyx's pet rabbit. Hermosa cultivated the friendship, because he was an undercover agent sent to investigate Northwind, but concluded Kudzu was a genuinely nice person who was being manipulated by the higher-ups. The reveal of Hermosa's spying gave Kudzu enough of an emotional shock that it led into his final power-up transformation.