History

Broken Home

Kieran was born on March 13, 1998, in Atlanta. He was the product of a fling between the then teenaged Eileen and Clark, the older brother of Eileen’s best friend Tina. Clark was an officer of the Atlanta PD at the time, and subsequently distanced himself from Eileen, ashamed at having slept with a teenager. But when Eileen realized she was pregnant, she shocked her fellow party-girl Tina by wanting to keep the child. Clark moved Eileen into the cramped apartment he and Tina lived in, and they married shortly before Kieran’s birth.

Kieran would have few memories of his parents together, however. Clark developed a drug problem, dosing himself with cocaine confiscated from crime scenes. Eileen found evidence that Clark was using and, shocked and betrayed, reported him to his superiors. Clark and his partner, Lorraine Brock, were suspended from the force. Eileen filed for divorce from Clark, moving to a new apartment and taking the one-year-old Kieran with her.

In the following years, Kieran’s parents experienced a reversal of fortunes. Clark relocated to Lakewood, Louisiana, cleaned up his act, and joined the small town’s sheriff’s department, eventually rising through the ranks and being elected to the position himself. Eileen, meanwhile, overwhelmed with expenses and the pressures of being a young, single mother, began fraying at the seams.

Eileen and Tina were still best friends, and Eileen was an honorary aunt and namesake to Tina’s son Eli, born just over a year after Kieran…the result of a fling between Tina and an anonymous man she met in a bar. They made a pact to take care of each other, helping to raise their boys together.

But Tina had never been reliable, and motherhood did nothing to change that. Much as she loved her friend, Eileen found she couldn’t confide in her. Her confidante of choice became Dan Wilcox, a freelance photographer who appealed to her sensitive, artistic side in a way Clark never had. Tina didn’t approve of Dan, but she kept mum, and before long, Eileen and Dan were married with a child of their own: Deanna.

Unfortunately for the ragtag Wilcox family, the honeymoon period proved short-lived.

Hard-Knock Life

Having limited means and less supervision, Kieran was used to making his own fun. When he was very little, these adventures were aided by his cousin Eli. Eli and Tina lived in the apartment downstairs, so the boys were always together and, for a few years, were more like brothers and cousins, little Deanna often tagging along after them.

Things changed with the arrival of the Ramos family in 2006, when Kieran was 8. The Ramoses had a daughter, Nat, who was around Kieran’s age. They clicked at once, at the expense of Kieran’s bond with Eli. They didn’t merely grow apart: over time, Eli became a nuisance, somebody for Kieran to pick on. They were never close again.

Court and Spark

It was true that Kieran had a crush on Nat, but there was more binding them than that: namely, dysfunctional parents. Eileen and Dan’s relationship, always emotional and erratic, became rockier as the years passed and they each slipped in and out of the grip of drug addiction. Nat’s parents, by contrast, were straight-edge, which didn’t make them less dangerous.

Kieran objected to the Ramoses’, Felipe and Elisabet, treatment of their daughter. In his more romantic moments, he fantasized about liberating her from her family’s cruelty the way he couldn’t save himself and Dee from their family. In January 2014, Kieran told Nat his feelings on the matter while they hung out on the building’s fire escape. Nat was adamant there was nothing Kieran could do. Kieran realized they weren’t alone and darted down a level, catching Eli in the act of eavesdropping. Cornering his cousin, Kieran made him swear not a repeat a word he’d overheard.

The next day, Kieran heard sounds of violence from the Ramos apartment and hurried to investigate, discovering the Ramoses unconscious as gas from a cut stove line filled the apartment. Thinking quickly, Kieran gathered Nat into his arms and carried her away just before the apartment exploded, taking a chunk of the building with it.

Unfortunately for Kieran, Eli spotted him carrying the badly burnt Nat down the stairs as he and Tina evacuated the building. Given what he’d heard the previous day, it was easy to put two and two together.

Nat survived the burns, but lost the use of her eyes. The Atlanta PD investigatd the explosion and assumed it to be the result of an accidental gas leak. There were injuries among the Wilcox-Hudsons’ neighbors, but the only fatalities were Nat’s parents. More pressingly, for the time being, was that the whole family was themselves homeless and had to relocate to a crowded shelter.

Kieran visited Nat in the hospital and told her he knew she’d cut the gas main on purpose, to deal with her parents. He’s sure that Eli is going to tell the police the explosion wasn’t an accident, though he’ll name Kieran, not Nat, as the culprit: he has every reason to believe it and every reason to want to see Kieran go down. Kieran tells Nat he’s fine with this if it means she doesn’t take the fall. Nat protests, but he silences her with a kiss. They make love in her hospital bed, taking each other’s virginity.

Kieran’s suspicions proved astute: Eli told the police what he’d seen and heard. Kieran was arrested the moment he returned to the shelter, and taken into custody as his mother and sister looked on, helpless and distraught.

There wasn’t a long trial: Kieran confessed. This confession, corroborated by Eli’s testimony and by a harrowing account from Nat of the abuse she’d suffered at her parents hands, had an impact on the jury. Kieran was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention.

Pruning the Family Tree

Kieran ultimately only served a year of his sentence, being discharged on good behavior in January 2015. He returned home to find things had only gotten worse in his absence. Since his arrest, Eileen had become utterly dependent on drugs and, without Kieran to act as a buffer, there was no one stopping Dan from lashing out on her and Deanna.

Bitter and resigned over his mother’s condition, Kieran accepted there was nothing he could do to save Eileen from herself. He could still save Deanna, though, from Dan’s cruelty and Eileen’s influence. Strangely emboldened by his time behind bars, he resolved he would at last commit the crime for which he was imprisoned: killing someone’s parents.

On September 12, Kieran followed Dan and Eileen to a dive in South Atlanta and cut the brakes on Dan’s car while they were inside. On the way back home, the car crashed into a support beam beneath the Whitehall Overpass.¹ Dan was killed instantly, but Eileen lived long enough to be taken to the ER, where she perished just before the Wilcox siblings could arrive to say goodbye.²

There was never love lost between Kieran and his stepfather. As far as Eileen was concerned, he regarded her death as a mercy, convinced she’d been emotionally dead for years. While Kieran may have logically anticipated the deaths of her parents would be a shock to Deanna, the reality of it was different beast. The crash left Dee reeling, and she completely withdrew into herself, becoming practically nonverbal in her grief.

Prodigal

With Dan and Eileen dead, custody of Kieran and Deanna went to the next appropriate adult. Not the nearest, given Tina was neither willing nor strictly able, but to Kieran’s surviving parent, Clark. Kieran hadn’t seen his biological father in eight years, and his expectations for the reunion were low.

He and Deanna came to Lakewood on the evening of October 18, and found the house empty. Kieran, refusing to sit on the stoop and wait, picked the lock and set about making himself at home, though Deanna was asleep on the couch before he could cobble together dinner.³

Kieran finally came face to face with his father the next morning, when Clark returned home to find Kieran making breakfast. It was a tense reunion as Clark attempted to explain why he wasn’t able to meet the kids last night, having been at an urgent crime scene. Kieran, naturally, was uninterested in excuses, pointing out Clark had also been conspicuously absent from Eileen’s funeral.⁴

The tension persisted as Clark insisted on driving Kieran and Deanna to school, rationalizing that the crime he’d been called to the scene of last night (the brutal murder of Stacy Winters and Brock Carmichael, two of Deanna’s would-be new classmates) proved they needed the extra supervision. Kieran, needless to say, was unimpressed by this logic.⁵

Kieran and Deanna were whisked away by Vice Principal Kellerman, who conducted them to their respective classes. Kieran was brought to first period English with Mr. Branson, where he made an immediate impression on his new classmates, particularly Brooke Maddox, who got one look at him and offered him the vacant desk beside her (usually the provenance of her friend Will Belmont, who was absent).

Kieran’s newness provided a convenient excuse for Noah Foster to launch into a detailed background on Lakewood’s local true crime legacy: the 1994 Brandon James murders, which he had used in his paper on The Great Gatsby. The murders, obviously, had extra salience in the wake of Stacy and Brock’s deaths. Noah’s somewhat callous description of Brandon’s victims as “careless people” got under the skin of the otherwise demure Emma Duval, who snapped at him, catching Kieran’s attention…and his interest.⁶

He got a chance to meet Emma properly later, when looking for Deanna at lunchtime. They bumped into each other and got to talking, under the auspices of Kieran asking Emma if she’d seen his sister. Kieran ended up admitting the unfortunate circumstances that had brought him and Dee to town, and Emma sympathized. Recalling her outburst in English class, she admitted her father was the sole survivor of the Brandon James killings, and the ordeal had changed him forever, ultimately leading to his departure from her life years before. Kieran, in turn, admitted his fears of being unable to step up for Deanna now that she really needed him.

Emma did indeed find Deanna, spotting her sitting on the roof. Kieran took leave of his new friend and hurried to his sister’s side.⁷ On the roof, Deanna told Kieran a bit about her dismal first day, and the consternation caused by the deaths of Stacy and Brock. Deanna admitted her fear that she didn’t feel as sad about as she probably should, and worried whether Dan and Eileen’s deaths had sapped all her capacity for grief right out of her.

Kieran rationalized that she needed time to readjust, and admitted his own concerns that Clark was unequipped for them. He promised her that, whatever happened with Clark, with Lakewood, he’d always have her back.⁸

Appearance

Kieran is a tall young man, coming in at six feet, with a leanly muscled physique,⁹ hardened by two stints behind bars. He has wavy, light brown hair and cool, bluish-gray eyes. He sports a short goatee.¹⁰

Wardrobe

Kieran wears an aviator jacket in all weathers.¹¹

Kieran wore a gray henley top and a pair of boots to his first day at GW High.^{12 13}

Personality

Kieran is outwardly cool and collected, a result of having to grow up too fast. His outward composure masks a violent nature, which he has to tightly control at his own peril, and those of others. He lacks his former accomplices Piper Shaw and Gemma O’Neil’s talent for the long game and, when backed into a corner, resorts to increasingly reckless improvisation.

Skills

Lockpicking: Kieran is an adept lockpick, using his switchblade to jimmy the lock on Clark’s front door.¹⁴

Cooking: Raised in an environment that necessitated self-sufficiency, Kieran has become an adept cook.¹⁵

Equipment

Truck: Kieran owned a slate blue 2009 Ford F-150 pick-up truck, which he drove to Lakewood from Atlanta. There’s a rabbit’s foot hanging from the rearview mirror.¹⁶

Knife: Kieran was armed with a switchblade.¹⁷

Crimes Committed

Broke into Clark Hudson’s house the night he and Deanna “moved in”.¹⁸

Development

Kieran was a main character throughout Scream the TV Series and consequently has been part of the Scream Roleplay Universe since its inception. Since 2015, he has been portrayed by four people.

In the 2015 Season 1 AU and May 2016 Season 2 AU, Kieran was portrayed by TellatrixForever. With the exception of Maggie Duval, no other canon character shared a portrayer across both forums. The brunt of the Season 2 AU’s action took place before Season 2 of the TV series had begun airing. The Season 2 finale revealed that Kieran was the murderer, and had also been Piper Shaw’s uncaught accomplice in the first season. In contrivance of Scream franchise tradition, Kieran was not dispatched by the protagonists, but ended the season in prison.

Kieran was portrayed by forum moderator TheDerpHowlsatMidnight for the October 2016 Season 3 AU, which began before the premiere of the two-part Scream the TV Series Halloween special that began with Kieran being unceremoniously killed in prison in a twist that was never elaborated on, given the series was effectively cancelled in April 2017.

When the SRU began with Scream: The Final Retreat in 2019, the events of the Halloween special were ignored, with the Season 3 AU being regarded as the game’s immediate predecessor, meaning Kieran was still alive and in prison. Derp briefly reprised the role for one scene before vanishing, at which point the character was taken over by Snafu Guru.

Other Interpretations

Scream the TV Series

Kieran is a slasher buff in his original incarnation: that is, his very original incarnation, in the series pilot episode. His interest in horror movies isn’t maintained in the rest of the series proper and, consequently, wasn’t adapted into his successive incarnations.

Season 1 AU

Kieran is much more deferential to his father, Clark, in the Season 1 AU, never once disobeying him or showing any disregard to the man he hasn’t seen in eight years. There are no resentments or even complicated feelings in general, father and son’s energies more taken up with managing Deanna than each other.

The SRU’s reckoning for the last time Kieran and Clark saw each other (eight years prior to the Slashings) comes from the Season 1 AU.¹⁹

At one point in the forum, Kieran thinks of his (then unnamed) parents as his “Foster Parent’s [sic]”, and Deanna as merely “the person he considered to be his sister”. This contradicts both the series canon and the previously established continuity of the forum. It doesn’t come up again and was presumably a one-off mistake.²⁰

Trivia

Not counting ThePlotMurderer, who has only portrayed Kieran for The Story so Far, Kieran has been portrayed by three writers since 2015.

Kieran is about a year older than most of his peers in GW High’s Class of 2018, having missed the equivalent of a year of schooling in juvenile detention. Consequently, he’s one of the few teen characters to be a legal adult by the time of The Final Retreat, a distinction he shares with Ryan Keller.

Kieran takes his coffee black.²¹ He is also a smoker.²²

Kieran’s faceclaim, Amadeus Serafini, is shared by reform school kid turned gangster Connor “Finn” Finnegan in Big Trouble in Little Lakewood: 1933.

Quotes

That’ll be his calling card. Closest I’ve been to the old man in eight years.

Kieran, seeing the butt-print in Clark’s recliner.

We’re garbage disposal people now.

Kieran tells Deanna they’re coming up in the world.

She doesn’t talk about you unless it’s to invent new cusses.

Kieran, on his Aunt Tina’s attitude to her brother Clark.

I’ve been clocking some of the looks today. Half-expected someone to call out ‘stranger danger’.

Kieran assures Emma he’s aware he doesn’t look like an average 10th grader.

One promise I can make: you have me, Dee. Whether Clark shapes up or not, whether it works out here or not…you’ve got me.

Kieran promises Deanna he’ll always be in her corner, no matter what happens.

Gallery

1. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 22 ↩︎
2. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 15 ↩︎
3. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 3 ↩︎
4. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 11 ↩︎
5. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 15 ↩︎
6. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 17 ↩︎
7. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 20 ↩︎
8. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 22 ↩︎
9. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 17 ↩︎
10. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 11 ↩︎
11. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 3 ↩︎
12. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 17 ↩︎
13. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 22 ↩︎
14. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 3 ↩︎
15. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 11 ↩︎
16. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 11 ↩︎
17. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 3 ↩︎
18. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 3 ↩︎
19. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 21 ↩︎
20. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 137 ↩︎
21. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 11 ↩︎
22. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 30 ↩︎