Kele Loveland

Kele is a child living in Glade Park. He is very shy and cautious around other people, due to a past of bullying, but he is slowly learning how to adjust to a warmer community. He is the adopted brother of Marigold Loveland, which already puts him in an odd position due to his sister's mixed reputation, but they still strongly care for one another.

## Concept and Creation

Kele was originally conceived as a chubby, awkward, nerdy ginger kid who had a pet bird. Just about everything was removed except the awkwardness and the bird in the final version. While he was originally white, I changed him to Native American really for the sake of making the cast more interesting to look at, and as well as beginning a development on what he would face in life starting with his race.

Eventually I later came to the idea that he could have come from a very bad background, and would only recently be put in a town like Glade Park and a new, caring family, to probably give him more reason for the extremely shy and cautious way he is.

## Personality

Kele is incredibly timid and passive. He refuses to argue with anyone, and avoids confrontation at all costs. He is certainly a flight over fight type of person. Luckily for him, few actually try to start a fight with him, as Kele is normally too reserved to draw any attention towards himself.

Nevertheless, he is very insecure. Kele always worries about others judgement, especially considering that he has lived in Glade Park for only two years, and is the only Native American in his school. So, he tends to wear conservative clothing, as a way of hiding himself. The only one he can really open up around is Marigold, but he still can get along with most of his classmates.

Kele is very distrusting of most adults though. He trusts his adoptive parents, but not even to a full extent. He avoids adults as much as possible, and immediately goes into panic mode the moment one interacts with him. Having been to a bad foster home before, a belief has been ingrained in him that all adults either want to hurt him or take away what he loves. So, he can't stand being around them.

## History

So, Kele was originally born as a girl named Nina. He lived with his grandmother, as his biological mother and father weren't in the picture, and are left as a general mystery to him. He lived with said grandmother until about the age of 5, when she unfortunately passed away from her old age. From then he was put into foster care and was shuffled around from family to family over the various years. His long hair was cut to keep "manageable", and while he hated losing part of his heritage, he also actually liked being so often mistaken for a boy. But this was only a cherry on top of all the issues he faced growing up. He suffered emotional abuse by other children and sometimes his own caretakers, he developed a habit of hoarding food out of fear he wouldn't be allowed to eat as punishment, and became very quiet and closed off from everyone around him.

Around the age of about 8 years old, Kele knew there was something wrong with him. He was a girl but wanted to be seen as a boy and liked being seen as a boy. He never made this public, but to himself he changed his name to Kele from Nina. Shortly after this during the same year, Kele was moved to a new foster home in Glade Park, Colorado. This is where he met the Lovelands, a family with their own daughter who had also been looking to adopt. Kele was almost numb to all these transfers at this point, and felt that he was going to be handed off to the next family any day now. But on his first night at the Loveland's home, Kele realized that he hadn't seen a trace of his current foster parents' biological daughter. He didn't see her things, never heard her voice, until in the middle of the night he had sensed something like footsteps walking around the house.

Tense but curious, Kele followed the noise all the way to the family's basement, where he came upon a short, strange girl with dark hair and clothing. She was sitting in a circle of candles, so immediately Kele's brain freaked out and thought it was some kind of satanic ghost. But before he could run, the girl noticed him, and beckoned him to join her in sitting and thinking. She explained that she was Marigold Loveland, the daughter, and that she came down here as part of a nightly ritual. She was too shy to meet with Kele earlier that day. Kele was still nervous, until Mari asked him a question. "You're not really a girl, are you?" To which he tried to avoid the question, change the subject, but she did not budge. She asked again. He had to submit. He confessed that he doesn't feel like a girl and wanted to be called Kele. Mari readily accepted this, and her new foster brother.

From then the two were inseparable. Kele came out to his foster parents as well, and while they're skeptical about a child his age being transgender, they've agreed to call him by his preferred name and pronouns unless he changes his mind later in life. Eventually he was adopted, and finally 4th grade started up for him and his sister. But as you'd probably guess, some kids did not take kindly to him. Mari seemed to be his only friend, while most everyone else either avoided him or bullied him for trying to pass as a boy. Many other adults in town didn't take him seriously either, and quite a few still refer to him as a girl. As time passed though, the bullying became less awful, and in fact more of his peers accepted him as a boy. As it seemed he was finally setting into his life, Kele adopted a cockatiel named Rosie and finally began to feel at home for the first time in years.

Though, that peace was a little short lived since Kele met an amnesiac robot named Pin, as well as a rogue robot named Galatea...

## Relationships

### Marigold

Kele is very close to Marigold, being his new sister and all. She has helped him adjust to his new family, and has been incredibly patient with him. When Kele had moved in to the Loveland household, he believed the couple living there had no children. However, he always felt watched, and stalked. On his first night, he found himself facing a dark apparition in the shadows. It… really wasn't much, just Marigold, who told him she was too shy to greet him earlier. Since then, they've become good friends.

### Agil

Kele isn't exactly… happy, with Agil. During fourth grade, he was the biggest victim to her and Kevin's bullying. After all, he was a fairly easy target. New to the town, shy, awkward, and clearly insecure. While he had Marigold to defend and support him, Agil has still left a scar on him which makes him terrified every time he sees her. However, lately Agil has been making every effort to avoid being in Kele's presence, for reasons he doesn't know. But he would rather keep it that way than confront her.

### Pin

For being entirely different in many physical ways, these two have a lot in common. Both are new, about the same height, are adopted, and are both rather chill compared to their peers. So, on a level they can relate to each other, and have a casual friendly bond. However, due to Pin's close relationship with Agil, Kele has been hesitant to stick with Pin, and is astounded how anyone could befriend a former bully.

## Trivia

* Kele has a very bad fashion sense.
* He has a food hoarding problem, as one of his previous foster families would starve him as punishment, and he had grown accustomed to hiding food. This habit is slowly being fixed.
* His bird is named Rosey, after the markings on its cheeks.
* Although he has never known his birth parents, he has no desire to meet them.
* Kele was originally meant to be an awkward, chubby ginger kid, but was changed to make him not appear so similar to Quinn.
* Kele is homosexual, but isn’t exactly old enough to understand this.
* While Kele is native american, he is clueless as to which tribe he belongs to since his only genetic family died when he was young. Though he denies being Cherokee so that no one tries to butt in about their “1/16th cherokee heritage”.
* He may also not be 100% native american, but it is certainly over 50%.

## Gallery

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