Editing Ken (section)

== Abilities ==
He is capable of dividing himself into four separate people each representing a different area of the town and with the same. The four different aspects of Ken are evenly split in terms of gender and age.<ref>If Lis is the average of a small group then Ken is that stretched out to Kennet as a whole.  The dynamics and effects are similar but reversed: Lis extends herself out and Ken can (if he wants) divide himself down into rough regions.  After our initial experiments doing this however we have agreed this isn’t for the best:<br><br>

1)  The industrial corner of Kennet is badly cared for and malnourished with a lot of latent frustration (and so is the ‘split’ of Ken that represents it).
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2)  The commercial downtown area has a rampant drug problem that is evident if you spend even fifteen minutes there (& so does the ‘split’– spend fifteen minutes in her company…)
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3)  The residential area is the most active & present but is primarily focused on getting by and doing what needs to be done.
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4)  The tourist end is a bit scattered & eternally hopeful but anyone who lives here will acknowledge it is only useful or awake a portion of the year.
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The extra hands simply aren’t worth the hassle of finding oneself face to face with the other aspects.  Split they tend to share out the demographics of Kennet: two female and two male.  One old (usually #1 above)/two roughly middle aged (2 & 3)/one younger (usually #4).  Undivided we get Ken: a man a little older than me and ambiguously blue/white collar.  Somewhat more median/mode than mean.- [8.7 Spoilers] New Other Correspondance #2</ref>

*The industrial side of town represented by K. McKeller Steel
*The commercial downtown area represented by Nettie
*The residential area represented by Annette O.
* The tourist parts of Kennet represented by K.T.

If something happens to him it also happens to the town itself, because of this he is always kept guarded by goblins.<ref>“Are the bodyguards that necessary?” Verona asked.
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“I’m Kennet,” Ken said.  “If anything happens to me, it happens to the town.  With some limits, some interpretations. ”- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/02/16/shaking-hands-9-3/ Excerpt] from [[Shaking Hands 9.3]]</ref> It's also possible for enemies to call on him and summon him but the guards around him make that harder and more costly.<ref name=":0" />

He is able to gather information about what's happening inside Kennet<ref>“I remember hearing about that.  Was the horror-story-slash-gossip of the day among the Kennet moms.  You’d have to ask another one of Ken’s offspring for the full story.  Talk lasted for a few days and then Marilyn MacLymont left her kid in a hot car and it became ''taboo'' to discuss bad parenting.  If you’re a mom and you cross Mrs. MacLymont, you get iced out of the Hot Trotters walking group, the Thursday cocktails event that happens more as a daily thing than a Thursday thing, and swimming lessons.  That’s another huge social event.”
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“For someone who’s saying they aren’t the offspring with the scoop, you’re pretty on top of this.”
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“It’s dull when it’s not winter, I pick up on stuff.  What I just told you is the result of hours and hours of tracking side conversations.  That minute of me talking about mom drama and being mildly entertained?  That’s all I’ve got.  There is nothing more to unpack, I don’t know any stories about the mom drama I could share, I could speculate with you but I really don’t care.”<br />-[https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/05/29/dash-to-pieces-11-9/ Excerpt] from [[Dash to Pieces 11.9]]</ref> but is only aware of what the town as a whole is aware of, conversely telling Ken something doesn't mean that everyone living in [[Kennet]] shares that knowledge as normal people are protected by [[innocence]].<ref>“Don’t you know this stuff?”
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Ken shook his head.  “What I’m aware of is what the town’s aware of.  By definition.”
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“So if we clue you into something, does that clue everyone in Kennet in?” Verona asked.
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“Not quite that simple,” Ken said.  “Old accords protect innocence.  Some things get filtered out to prevent undue influence.  I may even forget things, if it helps that process.”- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/02/16/shaking-hands-9-3/ Excerpt] from [[Shaking Hands 9.3]]</ref>

He can transport people around Kennet almost instantaneously,<ref>“Pretty big downside,” Verona said.  “What’s the upside?”
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“Awareness,” he said.  “And because I am the city and the city is me… will you give me permission?  A trip?  It’s safe enough.”
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“Sure,” Avery said.
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Verona frowned, then nodded.
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He touched their shoulders.
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Nearby houses moved, sliding into new positions, fences rising, falling.  A road turned, a hillside moved.  Trees crowded in.  Wood stripped away from one short fence, revealing the diamond pattern of a taller wire fence instead.  Things blurred, and faces appeared in the blur.  Faces like Ken’s.
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The trees continued to crowd around, branches overhead sprouting trunks that stabbed down, spread, and tore up pavement, revealing dirt beneath.  The chunks of cracked pavement sank beneath the dirt, and plants sprouted.
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Everything came to a halt like a car that had been going 70 and stopped at the last possible moment before reaching a stop sign.  Branches shook in wind, grass swayed.
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They were at the edge of town, on a hillside.- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/02/16/shaking-hands-9-3/ Excerpt] from [[Shaking Hands 9.3]]</ref> the cost varies depending on how important the trip is and the situation surrounding it.<ref name=":0">“Is it costly?  As a power?”
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“In one way, no more than moving you from one hand to the other.  Moving you from one end of Kennet to another.”
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“And in the other way?” Verona asked.
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“The more it matters, the more it costs.  If people aren’t expecting you, if it’s a surprise attack, or a priority situation.  That changes the cost.  This is nothing, only a demonstration.”
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“So do you even need the bodyguards?” Avery asked.  “If you can just run?”
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“I’m everywhere.  Even enemies can call for me, if they know how, and it’s hard to resist that call.  Same as before, that gets harder the more tied down I am.  If I’m with you, for example.”
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“So we’re not just bodyguards,” Avery noted, “we’re anchors?”
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“If you want to call it that.  I can help others move through the town, I can slow threats down.  If they realize they’re being ensnared they may start to expect a response.  If they do, it gets easier for me to send someone like John or Edith to them, to deal with them.”- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/02/16/shaking-hands-9-3/ Excerpt] from [[Shaking Hands 9.3]]</ref>

He is also able to alter the town itself such as changing the layout of the city<ref>“Follow the yellow line!” Ken called out after them.
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They stepped out onto the road.  Verona found herself looking up to see if Rook had somehow moved to the streetlight, but she hadn’t.
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Sure enough, a yellow line was struck through the road, faded as if it had been painted long ago and worn down by weather and tire treads.  It was the kind of thing that could have been there all along, just never seen in the right light or noticed by non-drivers like them.
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It led east, not north, but they followed it.  
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The yellow line led to a path between two fenced in yards that Verona was pretty sure hadn’t been there before.  The trees of each yard crowded in overhead and bins of garbage or compost were reeking from the warmth of summer.  It was sensory assault and maybe that assault made it easier for them to slip between locations.  When they escaped the overhanging branches, the taller buildings and signs of the west end of town were around them.-[https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/02/23/shaking-hands-9-5/ Excerpt] from [[Shaking Hands 9.5]]</ref> or making it easier for goblins to travel<ref>Ken was altering flows and giving them his blessing for the time being.  The goblins had access to the more active, living parts of the city, where water, electricity, and heat flowed inside the walls and beneath the roads.-[https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/04/17/one-after-another-10-e/ Excerpt] from [[One After Another 10.e]]</ref> or changing the weather.<ref name=":1">They pulled Ken over into the shade by the fence, and then went to get a fan from indoors, bringing it over and putting it on the table, the cord stretched taut on its way through the kitchen.
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By the time they were done, clouds had stretched over the sky, giving Kennet a bit of shade.  The wind picked up.
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“It’s really that easy, huh?” Verona asked, looking up at Tashlit.  Tashlit shrugged.
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“I’m putting in an effort, actually,” Ken said, not opening his eyes.  “Making it apply.”
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“Can you do something about the thirty-five degree temperature we’re expecting next week?” Verona asked.
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“I should probably save my strength.”
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“Ugh!” Verona groaned.  Lucy added her groan to Verona’s for good measure.
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He turned his head and opened his eyes.  “I would’ve thought you’d like the heat.”
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“Why?” Lucy asked him, eyebrows raising, hands on her hips.
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“Because…” he paused, frowning.  “You’re kids?  Swimming?  It’s summer?  I dunno.”
<br><br>“Sure,” she said.-[https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/03/02/shaking-hands-9-7/ Excerpt] from [[Shaking Hands 9.7]]</ref> He used this ability to shorten the distance between key people in the trios lives.<ref>“Does that mean you’re- does that shorten the gaps between us and key people?”<br><br>“Liz Driscoll from the Blue Heron talked about this,” Zed said, with a tone like he was excited to have something relevant.  “Mapping out a city you’re visiting so you can find the key hubs, major players, essential people for each thing you need to do.  The guy who knows all the rumors, the person who sells what you need.”- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/08/24/summer-break-13-7/ Excerpt] from [[Summer Break 13.7]]</ref>

He's able to create his own pocket [[realm]].<ref>Small bits of graffiti decorated surfaces, bits of trash were packed into crevices, and the scenery in the distance was only intermittently visible, as they walked around.  Each time it disappeared from view and then reappeared, it took on a slightly different look.<br><br>Snowdrop became more spirit than anything, slightly blue-tinted, wispy at the edges.  She became an opossum and perched on Avery’s shoulder, eerily light compared to her usual dense mass.<br><br>Like they’d moved to a high place, but the view to the south was of Lake Superior, and that view curved upward, and it became possible to see the lake at the horizon… and where lake became sky was hard to make out.  Bowdler Hill to the east and Greensey to the west loomed upward, curving in like horns.  The highway and trees lined the north, trees and mist becoming sky at some indeterminate point.  The colors of it all were both washed out and vivid, like every location of note had been painted neon bright, neon pink, bright green, then hidden behind inconsistent mist.  The ski hills could, if she squinted, appear as if it were winter.<br><br>Past bridges, past railings, past rooftops and concrete archways that allowed passage beneath roads, she could see top-down views of people walking this way and that.<br><br>Ken situated himself on the rooftop.  The space was square, but there was a ring painted around it in red.  Tiny arrangements of stone and wood punctuated that ring.- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/08/24/summer-break-13-7/ Excerpt] from [[Summer Break 13.7]]</ref>