Kovit Sangwaraporn

# Kovit Sangwarapawn

Kovit, drawn by Alai Cinereo on the webtoon "Not Even Bones"

Patchaya Vidthuvitsai (older sister)

Henry (adoptive father) †

**Kovit Sangwarapawn** is the deuteragonist throughout the series *Market of Monsters*.

## Appearance

### Book

Kovit is twenty years old, with a wiry frame, dark hair, thick dark eyebrows and eyelashes, and dark brown eyes that look nearly black. In the Webtoon his hair has a streak of white but in the book he has no streaks of white in his hair. His clothing mostly consists of black and reddish-brown shirts as well as jeans to hide the bloodstains from his work. However, he later wears a dark green sweater and jeans when he meets Nita at the cafe in *Only Ashes Remain*.

### Webtoon

Kovit‘s appearance differs slightly from the book, having a white streak in his hair instead of it being completely black. This was primarily a design choice, but the Webtoon artist, Alai Cinereo, has confirmed that it is also a symptom of Marie Antoinette Syndrome[1], which is thought to be caused by high levels of stress.

## Personality

> "I tried so hard, to let myself enjoy who I was and what I was, to let myself revel in the pain while still keeping myself sane. I drew lines, I made small sand castle walls to keep out the darkness, to make sure I never became like the other zannies I met. Like the woman Henry hired. But it never mattered. Henry didn't want that kind of person. Gold was lying the whole time. Matt is dead."
>
> **Kovit Sangwaraporn**, Only Ashes Remain

As a zannie, Kovit was shocked when he realized how self-centered and apathetic older zannies were, and resolved to make sure he didn't become like them for as long as possible. He set ups rules for himself as a child, of “lines” he would not cross when torturing people. He never crossed them or changed them, in fear of setting a precedent.

However, in *Only Ashes Remain*, he feared he had crossed one of his lines, which was to not hurt those he considered friends, when he killed his former mentor Henry after Henry threatened to cruelly torture everyone he knew and loved if he didn't work for him. Believing himself to be a monster despite his hands being forced, he felt deeply pained and Nita describes his breakdown as a time when he was "almost losing himself". It is clear through that moment that Kovit truly wanted to be a decent person despite reveling in people's pain, and ultimately sees morals as something important despite his murderous tendencies.

Kovit is shown to be very fatalistic.

## History

### Childhood

Kovit was born in Thailand. His mother was a zannie, and his father was human. Because the zannie gene was recessive, he inherited it, but his older sister, Patchaya, did not. When he was ten years old, he found out that his mother had tortured and murdered his friend, and Kovit turned in his mother to the INHUP. His mother was executed, but his sister managed to hide him before she entered the INHUP protection program. Kovit did not see Patchaya again until the second book of the series, Only Ashes Remain.

After his mother was executed, he joined the Family, a mafia group. He worked there as a torturer for the Family. However, he refused one day to torture someone he saw as a friend, Matt, and was therefore punished with the torture Matt was supposed to receive by the man who raised him, Henry, a manager of a branch of the Family. When people saw that Kovit wouldn't torture people he was closer to, this made him lose meaning to Henry as a punisher and was sent away to work for Reyes at the Death Market.

### Not Even Bones

Forced to work in the Death Market as punishment for disobeying his mafia family, Kovit dislikes yet follows the orders of Reyes as her zannie torturer-- only the exchange of feeding off the victims' pain making it bearable. When he first meets Nita, he cuts off a slice of her flesh upon Reyes' command only to be shocked when Nita turns off her pain receptors. This results in his disinterest in torturing or maiming Nita since he cannot feel her pain the same way he can when hurting other unnaturals like Mirella. Despite coming off as unnerving, apathetic, and psychotic, Kovit's gentler nature shows in his interactions with Nita. They chat, play cards, and he does her small favors. He even reveals to her bits of his childhood and how he had called INHUP on his zannie mother. Their new bond eventually leads to him not being able to hurt Nita, otherwise going against his principle to never hurt those he knew. This can be seen when he refuses to cut off Nita's fingers when she was given the option to lose her fingers or turn on her pain receptors and be tortured.

Anita met Kovit when she was in the Death Market. After tricking and trapping Kovit in her cell, Anita comes back to team up and escape. They kill Senora Reyes, and become closer after that. After trying to get enough money to buy tickets from selling the body parts of Senora Reyes, they both get caught, and get thrown back into the cell. In a desperate plan to escape, Anita and Kovit are wounded, but they manage to escape, during which Anita burns the Death Market to the ground. They both escape by a boat.

### Only Ashes Remain

Following the destruction of the Death Market and his presumed death, Kovit uses his newfound freedom to meet his internet friends in Detroit while keeping in touch with Nita via email. However, that meeting does not go to plan. One of his friends suffering from chronic pain made it difficult for Kovit to restrain his zannie tendencies. Refusing to feed off his friend's pain, in disappointment and shame, he retreats to Toronto where he reunites with Nita. There, they team up once more to fight against the black market gangs that try to kill Nita due to the price on her head.

As Nita plots vengeance against Fabricio, she forces Kovit to participate in her murder and kidnapping schemes. Though hesitant and uncomfortable with her plans, he still complies in fear of losing her. This results in Kovit feeling used by Nita, believing that she only wanted him to do the dirty work but was disgusted whenever his urges to torture and feed arose. Their relationship becomes shaky, and he ultimately leaves Nita to return with Henry, although he is remorseful and apologetic for doing so.

Staying with Henry does not last long however when Henry holds Nita hostage and uses her as bait to lure Kovit.(which works) Kovit is angry at Henry for doing this as he still considers Nita a friend but he does not lash out until Marigold reveals herself as May in the chatroom, meaning that Henry has kept an eye on him all this time. Infuriated, he reaches out to Henry and snaps his neck in retaliation, slightly frightening Nita and Gold. Then he dislocates Gold’s leg and was about to kill her, almost giving into his inner demons until Nita stops him and explains that though she is afraid of him, she also cares about him. They then kiss and get Gold who was on the ground, crawling from the dislocated leg.

Kovit meets with Anita in Toronto a few days after they escape the Death Market. The two have a much more rocky relationship in this book, with Nita trampling all of Kovit's hesitations on murdering civilians and the person who raised him. Despite demanding he kill many people he does not wish to harm, Nita is simultaneously frightened by his love for torture, hurting Kovit. He leaves, half because of blackmail and half because he can't stand the way that Anita treats him. Reunited after Henry, who raised and betrayed Kovit, kidnaps Nita, Kovit when learning his plans to murder both Nita and his internet friends, is forced to kill Henry. Believing that he can be nothing but a monster, Kovit is brought back from the brink of insanity and hate by Nita, who apologizes for her demeanor towards him and confesses that she needs him to be who he is now, not the him others wish him to be. After this, they kiss and form a somewhat romantic relationship by the end of the book.

### When Villains Rise

Throughout the book Nita helps Kovit to clear his name with the help of Fabricio who makes a reappearance before throwing them to the wolves. Nita’s Mother Monica plans to take control over Nita by killing Kovit, since Patchaya found out who had killed her friend. Monica hoped that while she confronted her brother, she’d kill him out of anger. But since she chose to walk away, Monica took it into her own hands and shot Kovit herself.

## Relationships

### **Mother** †

She was mentioned to also be a zannie and always had a “visitor” in the basement of their house. She made sure young Kovit knew where his “food” came from, and Kovit loved her a lot. However, her personality rapidly deteriorated as Kovit grew up, and at one point, she tortured one of his friends. Shaken, he called INHUP, which swiftly captured and executed her. He expresses regret at indirectly killing her, though confesses she was no longer the person he used to know and care for.

### **Patchaya**

When Kovit called the INHUP on his mother, his older sister Patchaya hid him so they would not kill him as well. Despite this, Kovit cares for her and wished that they could reconcile due to now being older. The wedge driven between them was the fact that young Kovit had turned their mother into INHUP, traumatized by her actions, though his sister still believed she was good. In *Only Ashes Remain,* it revealed that she works for INHUP. Kovit and Patchaya are reunited, bonding very easily, Kovit re-learning how to speak Thai. Later in *When Villains Rise*, Nita uses photos of their relationship to discredit INHUP's manhunt after Kovit. Patchaya figures out that Kovit tourtured and killed a missing INHUP agent, who had been her best friend since basic training. Nita's mother then sets up a meeting between the siblings, hoping Patchaya will kill Kovit. Kovit apologizes, but Patchaya doesn't forgive him. She goes on to say she hoped her little brother would be different from other Zannies, but he, like their mother, had given into his needs and become a souless monster. Kovit asks if Patchaya will kill him with the gun she brought, but she declines, leaving to never be seen again.

### **Reyes** †

Señora Reyes was Kovit's former handler at the Death Market. She kept a distrustful eye on him because of his being a zannie and made sure to never give him cash lest he run away. They had no affections between them, and were seen as master and servant. Kovit and Anita eventually kill her with no hesitation, though when Nita cuts off her thumb, Kovit is a little disturbed. However, after that, they sell her body parts online without remorse.

### **Boulder** †

Kovit never knew Boulder extremely well. Reyes brought Kovit to his house upon Boulders request so he can torture information out of someone. Later, he and Nita break into his home in Not Even Bones where Nita eventually gets shot, later his guards Lorenzo or Jorge shoot Kovit.

### **Henry** †

Henry and Kovit's relationship was tense, he was also Kovit's surrogate father. Kovit ends up killing Henry by snapping his neck and injures Marigold (Gold)

Henry was Kovit's former mentor when he was active in the Family, a mafia group Kovit joined as a child. He taught Kovit how to torture victims, and is shown to obviously enjoy it 'unnaturally' immensely himself.

Henry proved to be manipulative and abusive towards Kovit. He made Gold spy on Kovit's online interactions as a child, and when Kovit refused to torture his friend Matt, he burst in anger and threatened to kill him, eventually sending Kovit to the Death Market to work with Señora Reyes. When he realized that Kovit had survived the market in *Only Ashes Remain*, he threatened him with releasing his information to the public unless he came back to the Family. When Adair sold him and Anita out to Henry, Henry confronted the two. Kovit reluctantly killed Henry by snapping his neck, breaking his rule of not hurting people he knew. Nita worried that this incident broke Kovit, and he proceeded to cry and declare that he was every bit the monster Henry had hoped to he’d be. After talking with Nita however, Kovit proceeds to go and shut Henry’s eyes, letting him rest. He also afterwards instructs Nita to “do anything unnessassary” like dissecting to Henry’s body.

Later, it is found out that Henry had meant to release the information whether or not Kovit came back to the Family, his plan to keep Kovit dependent on the Family. Despite Kovit's caring for him, Henry clearly cared nothing for Kovit, and only saw him as a tool to be used. In fact, before his death, he mocks Kovit's bond with him, saying he'd been safe for a while and knew that no matter what he did, Kovit would never hurt him.

### **Gold**

Marigold, more often called Gold, is the daughter of the head of the Family, and is shown to have an immense hate for unnaturals. As a child, she was asked to keep on eye on the online interactions of a younger member of the Family by posing as an online friend in their video game chat room. She assumed it was Matt, whom she was shown to be close to, but it is later revealed to be Kovit.

In the chatroom, posing as 'May', she and Kovit, who posed as 'Kevin', grew extremely close. Kovit had even said that she always understood him without needing to hear a word. However, after she found out that 'Kevin' was actually Kovit, she became cold and denounced their friendship. This betrayal had a great effect on Kovit proving to be shocking and angered him. In a midst of rage, he dislocated her shoulder and leg. However, he did not kill her in their confrontation in *Only Ashes Remain**,* realizing due to Nita's intervention, it will only hurt him more because he did care for her as May. After talking with Nita, they both go back to help Gold who is lying on the floor from being injured by Kovit. During this, Gold argues with them both, saying he’s a monster who enjoys nothing but eating pain. Kovit retaliates back by saying that they are the exact same because Gold could have intervened. Then they both go to a local drugstore to get crutches for Gold, she being reluctant to do so.

### **Matt** †

Matt was Kovit's former friend in the Family. He is known for his multiple 'accidents', where he is implied to have murdered people.

Kovit was asked to torture Matt at one point before *Not Even Bones*, but he was unable to bring himself to torture his friend, which led to Kovit being sent to the Death Market. He believed himself to be friends with Matt, though bitterly accepted that he probably didn't feel the same way---seeing him as a monster to befriend just to be safe.

Matt is revealed to have been killed in *Only Ashes Remain*in the process of crossing the U.S- Canada border, tortured by Henry, of which shocks Kovit and deeply hurts him.

### **Adair**

Adair is a kelpie. It is implied he used to clean up bodies with Kovit for Matt when he got angry. He runs a pawn shop in Canada and allows Kovit and Anita to hide out in his attic in exchange for names of corrupted INHUP agents. It is revealed he bugged the atic to sell the information the two would talk about, though didn't try to use the information against them.

Towards the end in *Only Ashes Remain*he kicks Kovit and Anita out of his pawn shop for sending the police to his shop. Afterwards, Anita pours hot water on him revealing his true form: a monster with a huge mouth and slimy skin. During this confrontation, Anita learns that Adair never expected to learn any useful information from them, and was allowing them to stay out of pity. Kovit expresses that he was glad Nita did not kill Adair, and wanted the kelpie to escape.

Kovit and Adair aren't friends, though are relatively friendly towards each other. They benefit each other as business partners and aren't close.

### **Diana**

Diana is Adair's assistant who turns out to be a ghoul unnatural. Since she is Adair’s assistant, Kovit tolerates her though not much is known about what he thinks of her.

## Trivia

* Kovit speaks English and Thai. He does not speak Spanish.
* Sangwarapawn is assumed to be a fake alias. Kovit's sister goes under a different last name.
* He is revealed to be 20 when he stated that he only needed a year to be of legal drinking age in the US.