Full Name: Detective Lt. Kathryn Melissa Kitaen
Occupation: Detective, MCPD, Magical Affairs Division
Aliases: Kathleen Kittridge (Private Investigator/Street Swoop racer), Kill Momma Kill (swoop-racing callsign)
Species: Human, Uncursed (Wizard)
Allegiance: MCPD, Detective Bureau, Central Division, Precinct 9
Religion: Meraist
Social Status: 3 (salary M55,000/yr)
Age: 28 as of 5/19/1999
Eyes: Green
Hair: Shoulder-length, naturally mouse-brown (currently dyed auburn)
Height: 180 cm (5'11")
Physical Notes: Moderately fair, slightly gold complexion; fit and athletic; attractive features
Behavioral Notes: Energetic and adventurous; has a tendency to move fast and talk faster; generally speaks in a casual, informal manner, mixing in Street-slang and wizard jargon
Supernatural Abilities: Illusionist (Adeptus Exemptus); eidetic memory; immune to mind control and soul-shaping1
Mage Guild: Rasmussen School of Illusion (RSI)
Primary Element: Air
Focus Implement: Dagger (Arthana)
Armament: Hechland Tiger 10 (shoulder rig), Hechland Lynx (ankle holster, or hidden holster behind the "hump" in her racing jumpsuit), arthana, utility knife, reagents
Personality and Appearance
Kate is an adventurous young woman with a zest for life that many find infectious. She takes her work seriously, but she never misses an opportunity to have some fun if it won't interfere with her duties. She is also a bit of a practical joker.
Kate is quite tall, about 180 centimeters (5'11"), and has green eyes and a moderately fair complexion that is closer to gold than pink. She has shoulder-length hair, which she keeps pulled back when she's on duty to keep it from getting in her eyes. Her hair is naturally a very ordinary, mousy brown, but she dyes it frequently — at the time of Welcome to the City it's more of an auburn color, but feel free to change it as she appears in later stories. A former college athlete, her body is trim and muscular, and she keeps it in shape with regular trips to the gym.
Family
Kate's parents, Sam and Lisa Kitaen, live in the suburban community of Elentown. Sam is actually Kate's stepfather, but since he married Lisa and adopted Kate when Kate was only 3, he's the only father Kate has ever known, and she calls him "Dad" even though she knows they aren't blood-related. She will fiercely challenge the assertion that he is "not her real father", no matter who makes it; fatherhood belongs to the one who does the job, as far as she's concerned.
Kate's biological father, Jacob N. Valenti, was a cop in Metamor City, and Joe Montgomery's partner in his early days on the force. He was killed in the line of duty shortly after Kate was born, and Joe and his wife helped look after Lisa and little Kathryn during the horrible months that followed.2 Kate's warm, familial bond with Captain Montgomery stems from this; she has always seen him as a sort of adopted uncle, and her admiration for him, more than her unknown, invisible bio-dad, is the primary reason that she became interested in being a cop.
Lisa doesn't like to talk about her first husband's death, and neither does Montgomery. As a result, Kate doesn't know many details about her father's passing. Since her "real" dad is Sam, though, she's never felt a driving need to dig up the details; she figures she might want to know someday, but she'll look into it when she has time.
In The Lost and the Least, Kate visited the Matthias Genealogical Library while investigating a case, and a librarian showed her how to search for connections between people in the library's database. Through this, Kate learned that she was related to Janus Starson: her paternal grandmother, Mariel Y. Starson, was the second-cousin of Janus's paternal grandmother, making Kate and Janus fourth-cousins. This explained why Kate felt a connection to Elemacil in Things Unseen: the sword had identified Kate as one of its potential wielders. This also means that Kate is descended from Merai Starchild, the Last Prophet of Eli.
Magic and Heritage
Kathryn Kitaen is an Illusionist of considerable talent and moderate skill who uses her powers to assist in undercover work on the job. She is called "Kate" by her friends and coworkers. Though she doesn't yet know it, she is one the prime candidates to become the prophesied figure known as The Key. As such, Kate carries in her veins the blood of many of the great heroes and leaders who worked to defeat Nasoj, including Thomas V, Prince Phil, Charles Matthias, Murikeer, and Raven. Tying together all of these diverse strands of magical heritage is the blood of Merai hin'Dana, who had been created from the very beginning to channel and shape the mystical energies of the gods. In short, Kate is the heiress of everyone who brought about Nasoj's downfall, and she ends up finishing the job that her ancestors began (though not without a lot of help).
Kate is considered a Senior Journeyman (also called an Adeptus Exemptus) as an Illusionist. She started taking magic classes as early as she was permitted to do so, around age 7, and soon discovered that her strongest talents lay in the area of Illusion. These days she is a member of one of the local Metamor City mages' guilds, the Rasmussen School of Illusion (RSI), where she is known by the given-name Stardust. She values her knowledge of the arcane arts and practices her spells often, both on and off the job, but she has managed to hold on to the whimsical, tongue-in-cheek attitude that characterizes illusionists in general and the RSI in particular. Her mentor, Danarr, is quite fond of her, though he's not afraid to dress her down if he thinks she's screwing up.
Kate has one especially remarkable talent that helps her both in her magic and on the job: She has an eidetic memory. She can take in information about her surroundings extremely quickly and remember it later with perfect clarity. This sort of talent is rare, but it is utterly essential to be a really good illusionist. There are lots of mediocre illusionists who can project an image of a dog, but not your pet dog; or an image of a famous actress, but not a woman they met the other day at the bar. Creating a believable image requires very extensive knowledge of what you're trying to simulate, and for most people that requires hours and hours of careful study. Kate's gift allows her to make up very detailed, accurate illusions on the fly, and that sets her apart from most other mages. Her current abilities are limited not so much in detail as in scale and duration; she can create a very accurate illusion of your pet dog, but recreating a huge dragon or an entire movie would be beyond her skills at this point.
Being an illusionist is an interesting paradox for Kate. She was raised in a stable home by parents who taught her the importance of honesty in her words and dealings, and she tries to follow this code in her own life. At the same time, though, her talent in magic has always run toward illusion, and illusion is nothing more or less than a falsehood brought to life. A good illusionist has to be creative, able to think on her feet — and able to lie persuasively, convincingly and intelligently. Kate tries very hard to stick to her principles and tell (and show) the truth, even when a lie would be more convenient … but the temptation is always there, enticing her to take the easy path and use illusions to "solve" life's little problems. Quite often she will distract an annoying co-worker by making their desk phone ring, only to feel guilty hours later and wonder if what she did was justified.
Athletics & Injury
As noted above, Kate was an athlete back in her college days, a forward for her school's skyball team. Skyball is a fast-paced, physically demanding sport that makes use of a multi-tiered arena laden with enchanted jump platforms and gravity fields located in unusual places. Kate's team made it to the Imperial championship in her senior year but lost in the closing seconds of the game. Kate suffered a leg injury in that game that killed her chances in the professional draft, but she struggled through physical therapy and managed to regain most of her former ability — by which time she was well on her way to becoming a cop. She retains her love of the game and the remarkable stamina it built in her, but that championship loss remains a sore point.
MCPD
Kate has worked in a few different sections of the MCPD since joining them in the fall of 1994 CR. She started out in Narcotics, spent a few years in Homicide, and has been most recently assigned to the Magic Affairs section, which investigates magic-related crimes. Lieutenant David Silverleaf has been her partner since 1997 CR, when the two were put together in Homicide, and they were transferred to Magic Affairs as a unit. The prevailing opinion at the precinct house is that the two are joined at the hip, and that the only way to get them assigned to different sections now would be to fake one of their deaths. Captian Joe Montgomery and Detective Michael Perelli, are also part of Kate's precinct, and Kate's friend Lieutenant Dr. Morgan Drauling runs the morgue for the Forensic Investigation Division at the adjoining hospital.
Kate on the Street
On the Street, however, Kate's attitude about her illusions is very different. The Street is her war zone, which she walks into every day knowing that she is going to face down thugs, swoopies, gang-bangers and other, less human adversaries, all of whom are out for blood. When she's on the beat, Kate uses illusions carefully but remorselessly to mess with her opponents' heads and manipulate them into making her job just a bit easier. Of course, every once in a while she runs up against a goon who (1) knows she's an illusionist or (2) can see through her illusions. When that happens she has to turn to her other skills to survive — and to her partner, David.
It should also be noted that Kate doesn't have any qualms about using her illusions for practical jokes — she's always careful to keep anyone from getting hurt, and she always lets her "mark" know what happened at the end of the gag. Sometimes the other cops grow weary of her pranks, but she generally keeps a good nature about the whole thing — her jokes are hardly ever malicious — and that tends to rub off on those around her. Especially when they manage to get back at her without spells of their own…
Kate is an adrenaline junkie. This is a large part of why she joined the force to begin with. Once, back in her mid-teens, she came to Metamor City with her parents to visit her aunt, uncle, and cousin, who lived on the first sky-level of the city. Kate and her cousin, both tomboys, sneaked down to the Street one night and ran afoul of a group of murderous swoopies. While her cousin ran back home to get help, Kate distracted the bad guys, stole one of their swoops and led them on a wild chase through the bowels of the city, using her modest illusions to throw them off track and keep them a few steps behind her. She had a few close calls — well, actually, she was almost killed — but she managed to trick two swoopies into wiping out and led the rest of them right into the waiting arms of the MCPD, who intercepted the gang-bangers on swoops of their own and proceeded to bring them down. The experience terrified Kate beyond belief, but it also gave her a sense of exhilaration she had never known before — and a great sense of satisfaction in knowing that she had helped nab a group of bad guys. As she saw Metamor's finest cuff the punks and lead them away, she knew that she wanted to be a police officer someday.
Kate's taste for wild thrills shows up in more than her choice of profession. When she can afford it, she spends her time surfing, snowboarding, skydiving and, of course, swoop-racing. She owns a swoop instead of a skimmer, and has taught herself a good deal about swoop maintenance over the years — she's not about to replace the engine, but she can handle most small repairs herself. (And that's a good thing, since swoops generally require lots of small repairs on a regular basis. Especially the kind of swoop that Kate can afford.) Kate will race for money on Street-level courses from time to time, but she tries to pick places that are far away from her precinct; swoopies are a tough crowd, and she could get in a lot of trouble if the other racers (or race-goers) were to discover that she's a cop. She generally alters her appearance with a glamour when she goes to race, just to add an extra margin of safety. A good swoop-jockey, Kate doesn't often win big, but she usually places high enough in the races to rank a payoff. On average, the money she gets from racing is just about enough to cover the endless repairs to her swoop, most of which wouldn't be necessary so often if she wasn't racing. In other words, she does a little better than breaking even — and for someone who lives for the rush of flirting with death, that's good enough.
Kate also uses the alias of Kathleen Kittridge, Private Investigator, while on the Street and for swoop racing. This way, she doesn't shut down the races by her mere presence, and she doesn't get into trouble with the MPCD. In this persona, she has developed a friendship with the runner Callie Linder, who she calls Calendar Girl.3
Home
Kate lives in the Serenity Arms, an apartment/boarding house that starts on the upper levels of the Street and extends up and into the Dusk (First Skyway). She's living there because she is trying to save her money for a better place of her own, and she is fond of her landlady, Isri Fallon.
Psychology: A Friend to the Outcast
John the Incubus has noted4 that Kate surrounds herself with people who are outcasts, exiles, and "freaks": Her partner, David, is not at home among Metamorians or his fellow Elves. Her landlady is a renegade daedra who deserted from the war she was raised to fight. Her best friend, Morgan, is a vampire who has rejected the Syndicate, yet will always be viewed with suspicion by most cops. Her pals on the swoop-racing circuit live on the fringes of society, often making their living in legally-questionable ways (e.g., Callie Linder).
On the opposite end, the people who are guardians of the established order consistently rub Kate the wrong way: Janus butts heads with her over procedures and jurisdiction, Count Halliway (director of Imperial Intelligence) is unbearable for her, and even Captain Montgomery gets along best with her when he's staying out of her way.
Kate, then, is something of a paradox: as a police officer, she is tasked with upholding the social order, yet at every turn she identifies with those whom the social order seeks to marginalize. She allies herself with those who have no power in the system, either because they are oppressed or because they have rejected the power they had.
It is not yet known why Kate does this; it is likely she doesn't know the reason herself. John believed that she was just acting out a subconscious knowledge that she belonged with "the sinners and scoundrels," not with the supposed paragons of virtue, but Kate took offense at this suggestion. Whatever the cause, it's a given that Kate will identify with "the little guy" in almost any situation — whoever is in the biggest trouble, has the least power, or is the least "normal".
Supernatural Powers
Kate is one of the candidates to be The Key. As such, she is immune to mental domination, mind control, and soul-shaping powers; her soul, her core self, is so strong that no other person can reshape it according to their desires.
On the other hand, she has a tendency to absorb ambient Essence from other supernatural beings, such as aedra and daedra, and this Essence can influence her body and her emotions. When Kate spent some time in an active Hedonist temple, including close conversation with John the Incubus, she became uncomfortably aroused and had difficulty turning down John's offer of sexual companionship. She remained irritable, out-of-sorts and sexually frustrated until Ms. Fallon coaxed her into a relaxed state and drew off the contaminating Essence. Ms. Fallon likened the effect to sitting on a freshly-painted park bench and ending up with the "paint" — John's Essence — stuck to her.5
Known Allies
- Artax, master wizard
- Callie Linder, as Kathleen Kittridge
- Danarr, mentor
- David Silverleaf, partner, MCPD
- Isri Fallon, landlady
- Jared Tamlin, psychologist, MCPD
- Joe Montgomery, Detective Squad Capitan, MCPD
- Michael Perelli, Homocide Detective, MCPD
- Morgan Drauling, friend and Forensic Investigator, MCPD
- Rafak Aliri, Street Private Eye
Known Enemies
- Malcolm ard'Valos - Kate runs afoul of Malcolm's plans while protecting Sephora hin'Lassos in Things Unseen.
- Fisher - Malcolm's top enforcer at the time of Things Unseen. He tries to kill Kate and David by throwing them into Hunter's Hollow. After being rescued by the Lightbringers, Kate joins them to track down Fisher and reduce him to chunky salsa. Fisher is now sitting in a jail cell awaiting trial for his crimes.
- Osric - A bull-morph swoop racer who has a grudge against Kate's Kathleen Kittridge persona.
Story Appearances
Welcome to the City, House Call, Broken Angel (Live Audio Drama at Balticon 43 - 2009), The Case of the Golden Egg (Live Audio Drama at Balticon 44 - 2010), THINGS UNSEEN (in process)
Sources
Original MK2K Bible entry- Kate, Welcome to the City, House Call, Broken Angel (Live Audio Drama at Balticon 43 - 2009), The Case of the Golden Egg (Live Audio Drama at Balticon 44 - 2010), THINGS UNSEEN (in process)
Author's Notes
Kate's "friend of the outcast" trait is something that grew organically as the character developed, and most likely has roots deep in my own subconscious. I think she's an egalitarian at heart; while she has been raised with the unspoken assumptions of her culture, with all of its layers of explicit social stratification, she knows deep in her soul that there's something wrong with those assumptions. She perceives the imbalances in the system, and unconsciously she acts to address those imbalances by aligning her power with those who have gotten the short end of the stick. She likes to think of her job as protecting the "normal, everyday folks" from the "bad guys", but this is self-deception: the sickness is in the very system that defines what "normal" is, not in a handful of aberrant outliers. What Kate would really want to see — if she ever thought deeply about it — is a world where people like David, Morgan, Callie and Ms. Fallon could be accepted as normal, everyday folks, where nobody's circumstances of birth made them eligible for special treatment, and where the extreme wealth and extreme poverty of the Metamor social classes were a lot more evened out. She's a radically progressive libertarian at heart, but she can't accept it at a conscious level because she's a prisoner of her context. Identifying with the outcast is a subconscious way of acknowledging and repudiating her own place of privilege within the system.
Given all this, it's going to be really interesting when Kate is confronted with her Key-Potential status. The idea that there really is something special about her because of her bloodline — and that it gives her powers and responsibilities of great significance — is not going to sit comfortably for her…
-Chris
Voice Actor
Kathryn Kitaen is voiced by Heather Welliver and Dawn Phynix.
