Kudzu Téngwàn

**Kudzu Téngwàn** is a side character in the visual novel Echo. He is Leo's neighbor and a clerk at the town hall.

## Appearance

Kudzu is a short, slender raccoon with a runner's build. He has gray fur, a banded tail, and the signature raccoon facial markings resembling an eye mask. Chase describes him as likely the most athletic person remaining in Echo. Kudzu has black eyes and somewhat of a perpetually somber expression stemming from his downcast "eyebrows."

Kudzu wears a black tank top and white pants, both with red accents. He wears a brace on his right elbow.

## Personality

Kudzu has a blunt, no-nonsense attitude, but he greatly warms up over the course of the story and soon shows himself to be valiant, reliable, and, in spite of himself, caring.

Kudzu enjoys relaxing activities, such as fishing, cooking, taking walks, and gardening. Due to his past experiences Kudzu typically attempts to keep his distance from others, feeling more comfortable in seclusion. He is also somewhat nervous around firearms, though he is capable of using one when necessary.

### Prior to 2015

After graduating from college, Kudzu moved to Payton with his boyfriend Falion where he got a job studying desert plants. A few years prior to the events of Echo, Falion was shot and killed when the two got mugged on the street where they lived. This experience traumatized Kudzu, who chose to leave to leave Payton and moved to Echo in an attempt to live in seclusion away from large crowds of people.

Kudzu moved into a trailer next door to Leo's home and sold his car. He also took on a job as a clerk at the town hall. Despite his attempts to avoid forming connections, Kudzu soon became acquainted with Leo, who insisted on helping him move in, and the two developed a friendship. As his neighbor, Kudzu attempts to keep an eye out for Leo and break up the frequent disputes between him and Clint.

Apart from his connection with Leo, Kudzu avoids making any lasting relationships in Echo, preferring to focus his attention on growing and fishing what he can to help sustain himself and caring for the desert plants he grows near his trailer.

### Leo's Route

Kudzu makes his first appearance on Tuesday and shares a brief, awkward introduction with Chase after noticing his arrival at Leo's house. On Wednesday night, he saves Leo and Chase from an attack by Clint. He reprimands Leo for hitting Clint again after he's already been knocked out, and is upset that Clint and Leo are fighting again. He accuses Leo of bullying and antagonizing Clint, and sends Leo and Chase away so he can stay behind to reason with the ringtail and dissuade him from coming after Leo again. The next day, Kudzu inadvertently interrupts a kiss at the railyard between Chase and Leo, and explains that he keeps stumbling upon the two because he frequently takes walks in the area. He seems concerned for Leo and again advises him to avoid provoking Clint. Kudzu then comes to play soccer with Leo, Chase, and TJ Hess, and after the game he briefly explains his resentment toward people to Chase but does not go into specifics.

On Friday, Kudzu briefly helps Chase get footage for his class project and tells him that he seeks solitude because he lost someone during a mugging in Payton. That night, as the Hysteria begins, Kudzu acts on a tip from Clint to rescue Chase from Brian's trailer. Kudzu brings Chase back to his own trailer and supports him as he recovers from his ordeal. Kudzu and Chase then make a plan to rescue Leo from Duke's house, and Kudzu reluctantly allows Chase to come along. Things go awry when Duke returns home with Brian in tow, however, and Kudzu escapes while Chase is once again captured. Kudzu returns to save Chase and Leo, this time successfully helping to free them both after a brief scuffle with Brian and Duke. Kudzu, Leo, and Chase take Duke captive and begin to work together to find a way out of Echo. Duke quickly escapes but the trio is able to reconnect with TJ at the motel and make their way to the Hendricks Mansion, where they find Carl and a car they can use to leave town. However, as they attempt to escape, a mysterious creature begins stalking them and eventually sends their car into Lake Emma.

After escaping the lake, Kudzu and the others reconvene at Leo's house, where the tensions between Kudzu and Leo reach a breaking point. Leo finds Clint hiding in his house and nearly shoots him on sight but Kudzu is just barely able to talk Leo down. Kudzu manages to learn from Clint that they may be able to hop on a passing train to get out of town, but an increasingly unhinged Leo soon turns on Kudzu for defending Clint and getting too close to Chase, and forces him out of his house. Once outside, Kudzu encounters Jenna and takes her back to his trailer, where they hide out alongside Chase, who decides to flee Leo and join up with Kudzu instead. Shortly after, Kudzu looks on helplessly as Brian kidnaps Chase once again when the otter steps outside his trailer.

After Chase escapes Brian, he reunites with Kudzu and the rest of his friends and the group attempts to leave town by hopping the train. If Chase tells Leo that they can still work out their relationship later, Leo pulls Chase off the train and inadvertently under its wheels, mortally wounding him. Kudzu jumps off the train to help Chase and is fatally shot in the head by a jealous Leo acting under the Hysteria's influence.

If Chase definitively breaks up with Leo, however, he and Kudzu escape alongside the rest of the group, except for Leo, who remains behind in Echo. Kudzu comforts Chase by relating to his loss, revealing that the person he lost in Payton was his boyfriend. Two years later, Chase and Kudzu are shown to have started dating sometime after the events of 2015. They briefly stop by Echo to visit Leo while en route to a new home a few states away.

### Flynn's Route

Kudzu makes a brief cameo in Flynn's route as one of the citizens of Echo who assemble in front of City Hall on Saturday night after the Hysteria begins affecting the town. Kudzu is uncharacteristically shaken when Salem's body is revealed and it is implied that he sees Fallion's corpse in its place. Kudzu is not shown again after Duke begins threatening Chase, and his fate is left unknown.

## Relationships

### Chase

Chase and Kudzu first become acquainted early on during Leo's route. Kudzu has heard about Chase from Leo's stories, and is curious about the otter when he arrives in town. During the week, the two bond greatly while enduring a variety of experiences that require them to support one another. Kudzu rescues Chase many times during the mass hysteria event, and proves himself reliable and reassuring while helping Chase find his friends and escape the town.

In Leo's good ending, Chase and Kudzu begin dating at some point after the events of the story. Kudzu frequently helps Chase cope with his trauma and calms him down when events from his past become too much to deal with. The two move in together and live in Payton for around two years, and have decided to move a few states away by the time of the epilogue.

### Leo

Leo is Kudzu's next-door neighbor and one of the few people he talks to consistently. The two first became acquainted when Kudzu was first moving in and Leo insisted on helping him unpack. Leo occasionally gives Kudzu rides to places he can't reach by walking. In gratitude, Kudzu tries to be a good neighbor and keep an eye out for Leo, such as serving as a peacekeeper between him and Clint. Kudzu also tends to serve as a sympathetic listener about Leo's unresolved feelings toward Chase.

During the events of Leo's route, Kudzu increasingly finds himself on the receiving end of Leo's anger and suspicion due to his caring interactions with Chase. This change in demeanor causes Kudzu to become afraid of Leo, especially when Leo's threats begin to escalate. In Leo's bad ending, Kudzu is eventually murdered by Leo, whose paranoia convinces him that the raccoon is coming between him and Chase. In Leo's good ending, Kudzu chooses not to meet with Leo while revisiting Echo with Chase years later, opting to keep his conversation with the wolf brief and expressing lingering worry and resentment over his actions.

### Falion

Falion was Kudzu's long-term boyfriend whom he had planned to spend the rest of his life with prior to his untimely death. Falion's murder caused Kudzu to close himself off from others and become even more reserved. He also developed somewhat of a fear of firearms. Kudzu seems to blame himself for Falion's death to some extent, even seeing a hallucination of his corpse briefly during the events of Flynn's route.

Kudzu's guilt about failing to protect Falion leads him to express feelings of cowardice or self-doubt even while going out of his way to help others. Kudzu keeps a photograph of himself and Falion prominently displayed in his trailer.

## Trivia

* Kudzu is a backer character added to Echo as a result of his creator's support for the Echo Project. He shares this distinction with Daxton, Julian, Micha, and Raven.
* Aside from the main cast, their relatives, and characters related to those from The Smoke Room, Kudzu is the only Echo character with a known last name.
* 'Kudzu' is a species of climbing vine native to East and Southeast Asia. Additionally, when rendered in Mandarin as 藤蔓, Kudzu's last name also means 'vine.'
* According to Kudzu's creator, he is Chinese and went to college in Southland before moving to Payton. He is also bisexual, although this is not made explicit in Echo.
* Kudzu thinks peeing outside is 'liberating.'
* Kudzu sleeps on a water bed.

## Gallery

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