Jul 24, 2019 17:16:08 GMT -5
Goosehiss
JungleClan ∙ Elder ∙ Tom ∙ 105 moons
Appearance
Description sentence:
A seal mink point tom with a ragged pelt, crooked jaw, and green eyes.
Appearance:
Like many of the members of his clan, Goosehiss is built sturdy; low to the ground and short-limbed and, at one time, muscled just enough to not be considered lithe. Now, however, time has worn away at that muscle and turned it into extra weight carried in his middle rather than his shoulders. Truly, he is, for lack of a better word, slightly tubby in his old age, something only accentuated by fur that, though ragged, is still rich in color and thick. He is a seal point - His face, tail, and paws are a darker brown than the almost cream of the rest of his pelt, though the color has faded and spread as he grew older. More dusky in color now, the only cream appears around his eyes and mouth where old age has tinged it almost white.
His eyes, large and round, are a light green.
His most distinct feature, however, is his jaw. Injured moons ago during his warrior days, it never healed quite right, forcing early retirement and giving him a permanent (and slightly disgruntled) smirk.
Personality
Please list at least three positive and three negative traits for your character below.
Positive Traits: • Determined • Perfectionist • Protective | Negative Traits: • Indifferent • Opinionated • Short-tempered |
Personality:
Above all, Goosehiss lives up to his name. He is nowhere close to the friendliest cat in the clan, nor is he that agreeable. In fact, he tends to be quite the opposite - grumpy, exasperating, and a menace to the apprentices who are tasked with taking care for him.
Part of this stems from his injury. Never quite healing as well as it should have, his jaw forced the tom to learn how to adjust his life to better suit his modified skills. Through trial and error, he learned how to serve as a warrior even when some skills failed him. Thus, he tends to be rather severe on those who complain when faced with an obstacle, and he often looks down upon them as lazy if they are unable to find a way around it. Now, as he is older, he feels that he is surrounded by cats who do just that - complain and not work. This resulted in a tom bitter with his lot in life who is rather short-tempered and, with a rapidly failing memory, more often than not verbally voicing his thoughts on the faults of others (and himself) repeatedly.
However, not all is bad, as unlikely as that seems. For those that know the tom, they'll realize that below that need for perfection is an unmatched determination. In his prime, he would spend as much time as he needed to groom those under his care into the best version of themselves. It didn't matter to him how long it took - if they needed extra practice or time, he would give it to them. This combination would result in him being rather protective of those he watched and trained, though voicing this pride is another matter entirely.
Skills & Combat
Please list at least three strengths/weaknesses your character may have, such as: hunting, fighting, swimming, healing, etc.
Strengths: • Adaptability • Tactics • Teaching | Weaknesses: • Diplomacy • Hunting • Memory |
Combat:
• Defense: 14
• Attack: 1d20+4
Character Background
Family:
Silverfin - Mother, deceased
Two NPC brothers, one deceased
One NPC sister
History:
As one of the oldest cats of the clan, Goosehiss remembers much of the clan's history that many weren't even alive for. He's lived under countless leaders, through the latest eruption, and seen the last days of exploration. Despite the impressive list of events, Goosehiss's personal history has been rather underwhelming.
Born to an older queen who had known the cats of JungleClan when they were just getting started, Goosehiss never knew who his father was. His mother never said, and he and his three littermates learned quickly that it was better not to ask. Kitlife was eventful, to say the least - the mantle of leader passed from Stormstar to tnhe next, and the next, and the next. A time of confusion, perhaps, though nothing struck the young cat as important until he was apprenticed to a bright tom named Lemurpounce.
Bright and cheery, he made a strange companion to the even then grumpy Goosepaw. But odd as it may have been, it was the perfect match - the apprentice, dour as he was, learned not only warrior skills but general social ones as well. Those he would normally learn from his family (such as polite socialization, how to act during meetings, etc.) had not been passed down - his mother hadn't seen the need to discipline her rowdy bunch nor have much contact with them at all. As a result, Lemurpounce became something of a faux-father to his apprentice, something Goosehiss vowed to pass on when it came his time to join the warriors.
Which was exactly what the tom (named for his...opinionated personality) did. He found that though he was a decent warrior, his true skills laid in teaching. Many an apprentice would pass through his trials, becoming excellent warriors in their own right. One such apprentice was the young Toucanpaw. An energetic, arrogant little one, Goosehiss was firm in his belief that she needed more time to hone that personality alongside her warrior skills. Thus, she was kept back an extra two moons, though he didn't regret it - especially when moons later she was named first deputy, then leader.
Alas, Toucanstar would be the last warrior Goosehiss would train. One day while on patrol by Silverthread Falls with a few inexperienced warriors, they were set upon by a young but vicious boar. The battle was short - the cats fled, but not without their injuries as Goosehiss (caught between leaping a gap in the rocks or being caught on a tusk) found himself spending the next several moons in the medicine cat's den. His jump, though it had saved his life, had cost him - a bad judgment of distance had him landing wrong, breaking his jaw. Eventually, though he would be strong enough to leave the den, it never did heal entirely - he would live with the pain and twisted smirk the rest of his days.
Returning to the life of a warrior hadn't been easy, and it was he who found out he could no longer train cats in one of the most basic tasks - hunting. For his skills (never the best before his accident) were now mangled and, though alteration worked for him, could not be passed on. So for the remainder of his time as a warrior, he focused on battle tactics and patrols, preferring to focus on what he knew he could do rather than face what was impossible.
Around his 90th moon, Goosehiss retired to the elder's den, where he has remained ever since...much to his and everyone else's annoyance.
Other Notes
