RYAN

RYAN
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three • male • cat • maine coone • loner
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+ PERSONALITY |

Ryan can barely talk to someone without turning completely red in the face. His shyness makes it nearly impossible to talk to him -- if he is indeed brave enough to talk to someone, it would most likely be stammered out to the point where what he was trying to say would be either inaudible or choked out. It might make him look like a fool, but Ryan's intelligence is actually much farther than what his speech implies. His mind works so fast that he can't even really get words out quickly enough.

He despises anything that resembles conflict, which makes him a pushover. He would much rather walk away from an argument than actually confront someone. He was always fresh meat for bullies to pick on in high school, and based on how he would always shoulder the blame for his younger sister when he still lived at home, he finds himself being a scapegoat for the people he loves.

If you happen to be lucky enough to break through Ryan's shell and bring him out more, he can be a very fun person to be around. If he's around friends that he trusts, he will slowly come out of himself and joke around. However, this is an extremely rare thing to see if you haven't worked extremely hard at being gentle with him. He will only sink back into himself if you even jokingly make fun of him because his self esteem is so extremely low.

• likes | butterflies, spring
• dislikes | fire, insults
• goals | to live long enough to see the end of this painful war
• fears | others -- who knows if they're going to attack him or not?
dogs -- they destroyed his family, after all, but he doesn't hold grudges -- he's merely petrified of them.
• strengths | his care for others helps him stand up to animals who are mean to his friends; he's kind to anyone who's kind to him, which could help him befriend a potential enemy; he won't hesitate to help anyone in need, cat or dog
• weaknesses | his timid nature makes him an easy target; he almost always refuses to fight back, believing whatever he gets is something he deserves; his inexperience would make him clumsy and too sympathetic
• mental disorders | optional

+ APPEARANCE |

Ryan is just as big as your average maine coon -- with a medium sized body that seems almost imposing with its length, it's deceiving to first see this bear of a cat. His body is wide and lengthy, with a gigantic bushy tail to match it. It seems like there are plenty of muscles beneath his long coat, but although this is true, Ryan rarely uses them unless it's for hunting. He's gigantic, but mainly a teddy bear -- it could easily be seen that way with his gentle face and soft green eyes. He has a look about him that makes one think that he'd never hurt a soul if he didn't have to in order to survive.

Other than his tail, which is about as distracting as anything, his ears are the biggest part of his body. They're soft to the touch and furry, of course, but what's most striking are the long inner whiskers that seem to flow out of his ears like steam.

• height | 16 inches
• weight | 22 lbs
• fur colour | a mixture of browns with black stripes
• eye colour | green
• scars | optional
• noticeable features | His ears are probably the first thing one would notice, but other than that, he's as normal as any other cat.
• physical disorders | optional

+ HISTORY |

Ryan was born on a snowy winter's eve to a pair of loner cats. He was taught his entire life about something radical -- cats and dogs should be treated as equals. Though there was one tribe that accepted this point of view, Ryan and his family (which included his two brothers, Rick and River) never thought that they belonged in an organized group. They rarely called themselves loners, merely "nomads," travelling from place to place. They lived this way in peace for about a year when the incident happened.

Granted, the dog was infected with rabies and it wasn't fully his fault. He wasn't in his right state of mind, and Ryan to this day hopes that, in the past, he never acted the way he did when he tore Ryan's family apart. He had cornered the family of travelling cats when they were trying to stalk a meal, his mouth foaming and his eyes wild. As soon as Ryan's father lurched forward to protect his family from the rabid canine, his memories all fade into a bloody blur. He himself had never been injured, but he remembers a large paw knocking his brother Rick to the ground, and the smell of death had filled the air. His father and mother were both wounded by the time they were able to get the dog to take his anger out on them.

He didn't want to leave them, he really didn't... but he was forced to flee, and River was forced to run in a separate direction in order to make their survival rates higher. Ryan has been wandering ever since those two years ago, searching for his brother and trying to avoid as many dogs as he could.

• season born | winter
• place of birth | middle of a forest not far from the tribe
• family | River -- living brother
• memorable events | the death of Rick and the separation from him and the rest of his living family

+ SAMPLE |

It felt nice to be able to actually visit his hometown again -- Ryan honestly hadn't been in Goldenrod since he had first left, years and years ago... oh, it had been so long. He felt like he was reunited with an old friend, walking the brick pathways and smelling the clean, familiar air... some houses here were new, but many he could still recognize. Whether the same people lived in those houses or not was another matter, but it was at least nice to see it all again...

He reached the metra track, smiling to himself at the memories of when that train first started to run... he remembered some kid named Gold had something to do with it, too. He walked along the metal tracks, letting out Tropic, his large Tropius, to walk with him. Ry rarely had the large dinosaur out, so this was a nice change of pace. He smiled at Tropic, giving his neck a hearty pat and a soft kiss before walking next to him, his arm slung around the Pokemon's shoulder region. Looking to the side, he counted the shops that he could remember from the years before when he still lived here -- very few had closed down, which made him happy. It was nice to have familiarity.

A coffee shop he remembered distinctly was nearby, and he and Tropic both walked to the entrance to see its contents again. He left Tropic outside, as he was far too big to be inside the tiny place -- his coffee was ordered, and he walked back out and leaned against him happily. He looked to the side to see a young looking man with a Cherubi nearby. Aww, how adorable... He blushed a little at the man's appearance, though. He was quite... beautiful... which was strange because he rarely thought of a man as beautiful before...

• link to image of character | click