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This strip features  Ahjost, a very cool and talented artist who you need to check out and +Watch right now!

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Kaelin was a hooligan.

He knew firsthand what it was like to crash a party, to get hammered, to get wild, to make a scene, to make a mess, to break things, to trash a house. He knew exactly what hooligans were capable of, and what it meant when one showed up to a party. And now that he was older, he didn't like it.

In his youth, however, Kaelin could have easily been described as a "hooligan." Kindly, a “handful,” more often a “troublemaker.” His father was often absent gigging in clubs and bars, which left an exhausted artist for a mother to look after the young, rambunctious Sphynx with more energy than he knew what to do with.

The partying didn’t start until high school, but before then the young cat was often being chased away by angered adults, yelling all sort of profanities as Kaelin and his friends laughed and ran away. He wasn’t a bad kid, his shenanigans usually involved nothing more serious than Bart Simpson-esque tomfoolery, but without any discipline at home, Kaelin pretty much had free reign to do whatever he wanted. This was most often accompanied by swearing, spitting, or fighting, all of which aroused the ire of his friends’ parents. Even still, they always seemed to have a soft spot for the outgoing, charming young cat.

Despite his penchant for troublemaking, Kaelin was always outgoing and sociable, wanting to make friends with anyone and everyone; kid or adult, it didn’t matter! This trait of course followed the Sphynx when he finally entered high school, but unfortunately it didn’t help him make a lot of friends. Acquaintances, sure, but not true friends; being hairless naturally set him apart from the other kids, and his reputation around the neighbourhood as a troublemaker didn’t do him any favours either. On top of that, Kaelin tended to dress oddly (typically in old, shabby, mismatched clothes) and had a handful of body piercings - most notably in his ears and his nose - and would eventually get more as well as a couple tattoos. All of this quickly cemented the cat as a teenaged misfit to teachers and classmates alike. At least he was a friendly and outgoing misfit!

Unfortunately, what came with the territory of being a misfit (an out and proud gay misfit) was a seemingly never-ending wave of bullies, especially in that neighbourhood. Never one to back out of a fight, however, Kaelin always gave as good as he got. He didn’t like to fight (despite the thrill it gave him), but he refused to back down to anyone. Covered in cuts and bruises, he was often sent home not just for fighting, but for breaking the “no claws” rule, which the school took very seriously.

Despite all of that, the teenaged Sphynx’s energy and charisma and joyful attitude was hard to deny, no matter how much of a misfit he was. That, luckily, meant Kaelin was invited to all sorts of parties (though he would just as often show up uninvited, too), which he loved more than anything. Even as a teenager, Kaelin very much enjoyed drinking – which he only did at parties and other parent-less events – and would always find a way of obtaining some.

Throughout his teenage years Kaelin gained a reputation for being a party animal, and not in a fun, endearing way. Especially if the party wasn’t particularly lively, the young cat endeavoured to make things more exciting, which always involved alcohol (or in most cases, more alcohol). It was fun at first, but it would inevitably get out of control. Unfortunately for whichever student was throwing the party, that led to damaged furniture, vandalism, and a mess too big for a single nervous highschooler to clean up before his parents got home. Kaelin wasn’t entirely to blame for the damage and messes – he was just one cat, after all - but he was certainly the one to blame for instigating a lot of the drunken rowdiness that on occasion had gotten the police involved.

By the final year of high school, Kaelin realized that he was no longer being invited to parties and outings, relying mostly on gossip to learn about them, and consequently to crash them. They were still fun, but something always seemed off with these ones. It didn’t truly hit home for the cat, however, that he specifically was not being invited until a friend – and fellow misfit – told him that everyone was whispering, “don’t tell Kaelin about the party.”

Wounded, the tattooed cat spent a long time by himself and talking to no one, not even the small handful of people he considered his friends, sullen and depressed. Kaelin loved parties and socializing and making friends so much, how could he have screwed this up so badly when all he was trying to do was have some fun? What did he do wrong? It wasn’t like he was the only one drinking, some of the kids were even doing drugs, even harder stuff than marijuana! They were still being invited!

Kaelin’s mother, who was well-aware of her son’s reputation around the neighbourhood, eventually had a sit-down with her brooding 18-year-old and as gently as she could, told him why he was no longer wanted at those kids’ parties: she had received many calls over the years from the parents of those kids complaining about smashed lamps, stained carpets, torn wallpaper, broken doors, broken furniture, and more. She admitted that with Kaelin’s father away all the time, she should have stepped up and said something about it, but she could never be the disciplinarian in the family.

Kaelin spent some time with that knowledge, stewing and mulling it over for weeks before finally getting back to his old, extroverted self again. He tried his best to apologize and make amends to both the classmates and the parents whose homes he had destroyed (or helped destroy), starting with a promise to quit drinking, or at the very least to moderate his drinking. Besides that, there wasn’t much he could do so long after the fact, but they appreciated the gesture all the same, thanking him. They ensured the misfit cat that they would hold him to that promise.

To this day, Kaelin remained a light drinker, still a lover of parties, and always wary of hooligans showing up to crash his.

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The Jaguar's Lair ©  Kattanaita
Artwork by me!