Kevin on Keyboards

Kevin knew everything.

He was the only one who had been around back when the Storytellers came into power, and, in fact, he had been the closest friend of Repetitus back when no one had ever called her by that name. He had seen the three of them gather close together and speak in lowered tones during the stories, glancing furtively around them. And he had known, even then, what they had been planning.

Forever after that, he had regretted the fact that he had done nothing to stop them. It was his greatest shame, and it made him certain that he deserved everything that had happened afterwards. But how was he to know that they would become not merely storytellers, but the Storytellers, forever ruling as tyrannical dictators?

When she had first seen that Kevin knew about their plan, Repetitus came to speak to him, offering that, when they became storytellers, Kevin would have an important job; he would be able to create all the sounds necessary for the stories they would tell. She knew that he hated actually acting in the stories, and that he did enjoy those sorts of jobs. And he agreed to remain silent and simply watch, not knowing that, because of that decision, to be silent and watch would be his fate for all eternity.

Because, soon after coming to power, the Storytellers decided that it was too dangerous to leave him with that knowledge, free to give it to anyone he pleased.

And so they took away his voice and gave him his keyboard.

The keyboard only allowed him to say the things that it had been programmed to say, which made it nearly impossible for him to conduct a reasonable sounding conversation. At first, all the Story Players were confused and worried by this sudden change and questioned the Storytellers about it, but this didn't last long, as it was during the time when the Storytellers were beginning to slowly exterminate the earliest Story Players and replace them with new, ignorant, obedient ones. And these new Story Players had never known Kevin as anything but 'Kevin on Keyboards.'

And, slowly, over time, Kevin became, to some extent, content with his life. He began to care about all the new Story Players, and he got used to the Keyboard, and he was rarely the target of the Storytellers' wrath.

But then everything with Flavius began. Kevin saw, even when the others could not, Repetitus' devious plan, both because he knew her well enough to predict such a thing and because he was no longer a Story Player, and so was exempt from the amnesia which plagued each of them over and over again.

Yes, he saw it all, and knew the one way Fred could break the cycle, but when he searched desperately on his beloved keyboard for a key which he could use to tell this to all of them, there was nothing but "Beware." And so he said it, over and over.

But no one ever seemed to understand.