merlin !

[green ! [old ghost]]

click !
name ;
Merlin

gender ;
Tom

age ;
16 Moons

rank ;
Loner

clan ;
None

beliefs ;
Oh that's such a good question. Merlin knows practically nothing about StarClan and has no opinion on it. Hey, he's just found out about the clan cats in the last few days, that's not enough time to make an intelligent opinion on anything. However, he does like to think that there's something watching over them. Not a god per say, but a force that keeps them all on their specific track. Almost like a destiny that's been completely set out for them, but they can always break away from it if they want. In reality, religion and beliefs confuse Merlin, so he just generally ignores them.

parents ;
Bottle { father & np }
Dandelion { mother & np }

siblings ;
Arthur { brother & np }

other Kin ;
Nok { uncle & pc }
Friendly { aunt & np }
Dratini { cousin & np }
Poly { cousin & np }
Gollum { cousin & np }

mate ;
Not Yet

crush ;
Not Yet

kits ;
Not Yet

apprentice/mentor ;
Never

appearance ;
Merlin is a very compact tom cat. He's definitely on the small side, like most cats in his family, and has short, stocky limbs and a body full of curves. At the moment, he still looks like a young apprentice, despite being 16 moons. It's doubtful that he'll grow any more, too, seeing how his father is the largest cat in his family, and can barely pass off for a warrior. Despite his small size, Merlin is an extremely filled in cat. He wears his size proudly and works hard to maintain a muscled appearance. Just because he's small doesn't mean he's weak, he in fact is rather powerful for a cat of his demeanor.

This tom takes great pride in his fur coat. The base layer is a creamy white, just a paler shade of his dominant fiery-orange coat. His orange color covers most of his body, with the exception of his stomach, neck, paws, and tail. The tip of his tail is creamy white and blends perfectly with the dominant orange shade. His paws do the same, and the blend is especially noticeable on his back paws. Like a lot of tabbies, his stomach and chest are the creamy white. However, the creamy white continues around his neck, creating an orange pattern around his head that looks like a hood. There's a white patch on his muzzle and around his eyes, all together making Merlin look like he's wearing a robber's cap. Across his fiery ginger fur are darker, red-ish stripes, marking his tabby heritage.

As he is a small cat, Merlin's body is composed of mostly curves, most noticeably so on his face. Adding to his young look, Merlin's chin is smooth and his ears rounded; all in all he looks quite harmless because of this. His eyes are a pale gray-green and take an almond shape, adding even more to his cutesy look. Merlin's whiskers are plentiful and white, but short like the rest of him.

personality ;
Merlin is a quirky, intelligent, somewhat oddball of a tom cat.

Despite what he likes to think, Merlin is not good at interacting with other cats. He can speak to them fine, and hold a conversation as well. But really interacting with another? Well, that's difficult to do without insulting them or assuming something he shouldn't. He likes to jump to conclusions based on little things he notices. Merlin can pick out small details about a cat and use them to make a theory or a thought. And, most of the time, he's always right. But through this he's also learned that cats don't really like it when someone seems to know them after just meeting them. To Merlin, though, they need to deal with it. He hates the idea of changing because someone doesn't like how he does things. However, he is slowly realizing the need to be a little more subtle with his assumptions.

Generally, though, he's friendly. Merlin won't say no to conversation and he prefers the company of another cat most of the time. Occasionally he'll have periods where he doesn't want to talk to any one at all. These aren't caused by depression or a negative feeling at all, though. They're spurred when Merlin is on the edge of breaking through something, and feels the need to put all his effort into working on it.

Merlin is an extremely stubborn tom. He'll rarely change his mind- but that's not to say he won't listen to someone else's opinions or thoughts. He actually enjoys that, really, and also enjoys finding a way to combine the two ideas to create something entirely knew. Not that he'll ever adopted the new idea- nope, he'll stick with his guns and go on thinking that he's always right. And, when he is proven wrong, Merlin always finds a loophole that makes his reasoning sound at least somewhat plausible.

Partnering with his stubbornness, he's a blunt cat. If he wants you to know something you can bet your butt you'll know it, because Merlin is not afraid of outright telling you. That being said, he's quite good at twisting and manipulating things, so that he's still telling you, but perhaps he's having a bit more fun watching you squirm trying to figure out what exactly he means. Call him cruel for it, but Merlin does like watching cats feel uncomfortable. It's... eye opening.

Which brings us to our final point about Merlin. He sees life as a giant mystery, with living beings being the riddles that need solving. Though it is not his goal to solve the mystery that is life, Merlin does like to solve the riddles. He understands thoroughly that one lone cat cannot solve the mystery. Many cats over many lifetimes will need to do it. And that's why he picks out details and makes assumptions- each step helps him to solving a cat, solving a riddle. And when one is solved, he's one step closer to helping all the cats that strive to solve the mystery of life.

skills ;
Mysteries, riddles, problems, puzzles- you name it, Merlin can solve it. It's his specialty, and his one true skill. And Merlin loves solving things, so much so that he'll actually go out and look for issues just so that he can fix it. Being raised in a fairly large family, there were always things going missing and arguments being started. Through this, Merlin learned how the solve the disputes and find the answers, which eventually developed into his mystery loving skills. Merlin also likes to think he has people skills. And while he can read and manipulate fairly well, actually getting along with others is a challenge. It takes a special cat to be able to deal with him.

In terms of warrior skills, Merlin would be classified a jack-of-all-trades. He can hunt well enough to keep fed, fight well enough to keep safe, track well enough to know where he's going, and run fast enough to aid everything. But since he's not a clan cat, Merlin could care less about all of it. To his eyes, being able to do those things well is just a way to keep living, not anything to brag about or show off.

Oddly, Merlin also has a decent knowledge of herbs due to his uncle attempting to make him a healer. It's no where near as extensive as, say, a medicine cat's. But if there's a cat that needs healing, Merlin won't hold back what he knows to aid the cat in getting better.

history ;
Merlin's birth was a miracle. He was born still, or so his parents thought, and for several minutes Dandelion tried in vain to get her second born kit to wake up. Just before they gave up hope, Merlin mewled to life, and from then on all was normal. Merlin's brother was Arthur, the more athletic of the two. Despite the family's history of small genes, Arthur was going to be a large cat. From a young age Merlin's family spent all their time with Dandelion's sister, Friendly, and her mate Nok, as well as their three kits, Dratini, Poly, and Gollum. They were only a moon or so older than Arthur and Merlin.

Each of the five kits had distinctly different personalities, something that spawned from there being only four adults, and five kits to give attention to. In their minds, whoever stood out the most, was bound to receive the most attention, and not be the kit that slipped through the cracks. Dratini was flirtatious, Poly was hyper, Gollum was violent, Arthur was bold, and Merlin was quirky and somewhat anti-social. Despite his efforts, Merlin ended up being the kit that “fell through the cracks”.

It wasn't really that the adults didn't pay attention to him, though. Quite the opposite. They (especially his uncle, Nok) realized his heightened intelligence and encouraged it while the other four cats learned how to hunt and fight like a warrior would. Naturally, Merlin didn't know what a clan warrior was at this time. But he did soon realize the difference between his physical family and his intelligence-based lifestyle.

As the kits neared five moons their training really began. An adult would take a kit out for days at a time, not returning until who knew when. Each kit went out multiple times- except Merlin. He went out once- once!- with Nok, coming back the next day with nothing more in his head than the difference between the medicinal properties of Marigold and Yarrow. Which ended up coming in handy, as just a day later Merlin was forced to treat Arthur, who had come back with a nasty cut on his back leg. But it was that experienced that caused Merlin to realize what his family was prepping him for- and he'd be damned if he went for it.

Merlin was not going to be a healer!

But he played along, because he was smart enough to know that a cat of six moons wouldn't survive in the wild all by himself. With a fake glimmer of interest in his eyes, Merlin listened to Nok talk about what few herbs he knew, and occasionally traveled with Dandelion to meet the healer who aided her in delivery. Merlin rather liked the old she-cat, she was blunt and smart and oh-so different from his rather clueless family. As he aged, Merlin found himself not returning with his mother, and ending up spending days at a time with the old she-cat. At one point, he was gone for a whole moon.

The last time he saw his family Merlin was 12 moons and had just returned from visiting with the old healer. As he integrated into the family again, Merlin was taken aback at how brash his brother had become, and how “loose” his cousin, Dratini, was. It was all rather shocking compared to his slow and steady life with the old healer. So, without telling his family, Merlin left them and fled to live with the healer.

There, instead of taking medicine seriously, Merlin fell in love with another one of the old healer's hobbies- mysteries. The she-cat realized his dislike for the herbs immediately and instead fed his love for mysteries and riddles. She taught him how to pick out key words and things that didn't make sense, how to put two and two together without making assumptions, how to crack a cat who was hiding something. Merlin learned more in those four moons than he ever had in his entire life.

He also learned that, where there is life, there is death.

The old she-cat passed away peacefully one morning of natural causes. She was simply old. Merlin said his goodbyes in her scraggly gray fur before burying her, accepting the outcome with teary eyes. But he would keep the old she-cat's teachings by his heart, and not fall into depression from it. Things like this happen, there's nothing you can do to stop them.

For the last few days Merlin has been wandering. He's recently settled in to a place close to the Ranch, learning about the clan cats from other cats in the area. He could care less for them, though he is interested in their history and a how a clan works exactly. And he even debates about joining a clan, if only for a few days, just so he can get his questions answered.