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Description
decided i wanted to have Rhydian uploaded on this account too <3

General:

Name: Rhydian
Nicknames: N/A

Age: 3 years, 0 months
As of 2/20/22
Birthday: January 24, 42 BC (2019)

Gender: Male

Species: Clouded Leopard x Cheetah x Leopard

Rank: Elite Bounty Hunter
- The Legatum Elite
legatum: latin for legacy, heirdom, bequest

Genetics:

Dominant: clouded leopard spots, golden pelt, fluffy tail, white toes, cheetah spots, dual tone pelt, head tuft, dark ear rims

Recessive: cloudy build, white hair tuft, green eyes, red fill to spots

Carrier: red coloration, cheetah build, gold eyes, dark coloration, orange eyes

Personality:

Surly: Rhydian presents a fairly grumpy and no nonsense exterior. He's not mean, nor really one to enjoy arguing or fighting, but it isn't uncommon to see him frowning and he has a more challenging time making friends than some. He's a fairly negative individual and doesn't t end to see the good in many things. He has a prickly outer shell and can be difficult to befriend although he's always improving in this regard.

Introverted: He doesn't like big crowds and is easily overwhelmed in the company of lots of cats. Many larger cats and loud noises can actually overwhelm him and he always tends to stick to the exterior of large crowds though this is a discomfort he'd never admit to anyone else. He loves his friends and family and loves being around them but would hate to be the center of their attention at any point in time and is incredibly uncomfortable under many gazes.

Pensive: A very serious individual, Rhydian often seems to be lost in thought. He's not a very vocal or playful and doesn't posse much of a sense of humor, although he has his moments. He spends most of his time in his own head. This doesn't necessarily mean he's introspecting- most of what he tends to think about are his surroundings rather than himself. Things like his duties for that day, where he suspects any of his friends or family may be at any given moment, if Vinci is going to have time to go patrolling with him later- that sort of thing.

Shy: Rhydian doesn't like big or important introductions. Though he's good at hiding it, he's still pretty socially anxious and not amazing with first impressions. In meetings a lot of cats it wouldn't be surprising to see him sitting very stiffly and not meeting anyone's gaze, particularly not if any cat is a stranger to him, which for his first few elite meetings a lot of cats are.

Modest: Despite being the offspring of some very prestigious cats, Rhydian is very unassuming about his own skills and his accomplishments. He's an intelligent and clever cat but doesn't like drawing attention to himself and doesn't particularly enjoy receiving compliments. Too much praise always makes him embarrassed or flustered. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say he has imposter syndrome as he continuously doubts and second guesses himself to this day.

Troubled: Rhydian has a rather impressive pedigree, one that garnered him the title of Legatum, or Legacy Elite. As the son of Judas- once the leader of the Bounty Hunters and Avigail- once an elite hunter, Rhydian has always had a lot to live up to and a heavy weight on his shoulders. Even with his promotion to Elite he continues to drive himself harder and harder, more captures, more patrols, more work. There's always more he can do and he will likely never feel satisfied in his accomplishments. After all, his parents aren't here anymore and he will never truly know if he's done enough to be proud of.

Faithful: Despite all his rough spots, Rhydian loves his family so much. It's something that's a little hard for him to express, but his family is everything to him. They're who he feels safe around, even on days he is feeling more stressed than usual, they have always been where he turned to when he was at his lowest. But they're almost all but gone now. The intense loyalty and devotion he felt towards them is more of a pang and a weight now, with the departure of most of his family to Syria. He often feels intensely guilty when he thinks of them and how he didn't go with them. During his darkest nights he thinks he should have gone with them. And he misses them terribly, his twin Rhinoa in particular. It's a type of pain he can't explain, as it can't be put into words..

Supportive: Rhydian is by far more encouraging than he is competitive. He doesn't see value in trying to be better than others and is much more of a team player, than the more competitive aspects of the hunter program would be kind to. He would never do anything to make himself look good at another's expense. Despite his social difficulties, when it comes to hunting and working out on the field, they all seem to wash away. He seems to genuinely enjoy helping others on their hunts and accompanying apprentices on patrols.

Reticent: It's true that Rhydian likes to keep most of his true feelings to himself. Since being open with them- in his experience- has really brought him nothing but trouble. In his eyes his real emotions make him a weak hunter- or what he suspects most would consider a weak hunter. So he does his best to put on a mask to hide his social anxiety, his shyness, his vulnerability, he tries to cover up and bury with a veil of indifference. He'd rather pretend he doesn't feel much of anything than show his pain or his hurting. Because of this it's very hard to tell when he's going through a rough patch and another downside is that it can make him seem like a bit of an asshole at times or when his act wavers it makes his emotions seem inconsistent or unreliable which is quite the opposite of what he's aiming for. He just doesn't want anyone to see how truly weak he is.

Background:

  Born along side his twin sister Rhinoa and smaller brother Matthew in 42 BC. The third litter of Avigail and Judas, they are the newest members of a big and promising family of Bounty Hunters. Rhydian is not ready.

Cubhood:

  Rhydian's cubhood was cast in the shadow of the Slasher looming over the city. The cub wasn't a fan of crowds but quickly learned that crowds were the safest places to be. Although he's never had a personal encounter with the city Slasher, the known existence of it is cause enough for a lot of worry. He's also a bit intimidated by birds after one threatened to carry this smaller brother away in it's claws. Inchiostro was the only friend he managed to make throughout his cubhood after helping him feel less lost when he became separated from the other tribunes.

  He rose to the rank of apprentice quickly along with his siblings, preparing himself as much as he could for the challenges that lay ahead.

Apprenticeship:

His apprenticeship was wrought with trials as you'd expect. Perhaps more even than you'd expect for the average hunter. He met more hunters and apprentices alike, forming more tentative friendships with cats like Deianeira and Honey Locust, the latter of which Inky had introduced him to. The two weren't very fast friends, however as about the first thing Honey did was nearly send Rhydian plummeting off a tall roof during a sparring session that had gone too far, Rhydian leaving himself open to attack at the wrong moment as he realized the dangers of the situation he'd gotten himself into.

  Rhydian in fact blames himself for the incident and holds no ill will towards Honey. The two did eventually make up over it.

During his apprenticeship, Rhydian pushed himself very hard. Taking up any and all training opportunities he could. Studying under the elite Tempest and joining the war veteran, Donovan's training program. It was through this training program he met Vinci, Inky's sister. She noticed him feeling out of place and made it her business to help him feel more comfortable and less alone amongst the other students. Accompanying him on city patrols and partnering up on tasks Donovan had set up for them became a regular occurrence.

It was on a patrol with Vinci, one of her friends Levi, and chaperoned by her father Mihail that Rhydian made his first capture. A lightning empire cat called Blue Ginger. This was the only capture he made during his apprenticeship.

At this time in his life Rhydian had found himself spending a lot of time with Inky. The hybrid had been his first real friend and something about his company made Rhydian feel actually normal. Comfortable for the first time with a feline outside of his family and even with his family there was a certain feeling of needing to perform that he didn't feel when he was around Inky. The brown hybrid had a quality to him that made Rhydian feel like he could just calm down and talk without having to worry about the words he said. He felt so genuinely accepted by this other cat that it wasn't very surprising that Rhydian started to develop feelings towards Inchiostro. The realization of which often left him feeling a bit sick to his stomach as right now he felt he needed to focus most on his training and not on what Inky would be doing later that day. So he did his best to push the feelings away.

The incident with Honey and the roof was embarrassing and had had Rhydian feeling a bit out of sorts for a while, but wasn't nearly as bad as she shame brought onto him from his first colosseum match. From the moment Rhydian found out the day his fight was slotted to be he had a very hard time relaxing. He knew the fight was going to be very public and a lot of humans and felines alike would be attending. Potential owners, city officials, elite hunters, all there to judge his promise as a hunter.

In the days leading up to the event he'd found it harder and harder to eat and sleep. All he could think to do was train harder, do what he could to prepare himself and be ready for the fight to come. This all added up to Rhydian being undernourished and over exhausted before the match even began.

He was pitted against a captured empire apprentice. A lion hybrid who's name he'd never really learned (Liel). Despite the empire hybrid's size advantage and Rhydian's exhaustion, he actually performed rather well during the beginning of the fight, but as soon as he'd thought he'd downed his opponent the adrenaline keeping him upright suddenly dropped off as well. This alongside the wounds and resulting blood loss Rhydian had sustained from the match meant he too collapsed.

What he didn't see then was his opponent getting back to his feet and lurching towards him. Enraged and bitter over the fall of Air empire, Liel was going to take this opportunity for his revenge. He probably would have killed Rhydian if Judas hadn't intervened in that moment, putting the colosseum match to an end.

Rhydian took this news of what he considered to be a loss very hard when he was back on his feet again. His father told him that in the human's eyes it was considered a win, but scolded him for over exerting himself beforehand and that if the same had happened in the wild it would have been fatal. He told Rhydian he still had a lot of training to do, particularly concerning endurance.

Following the match Rhydian had distanced himself from others, truly believing that anyone who saw the match would see him as weak and ill suited to become a full hunter for quite some time. This was to him a reality he wasn't prepared to face. So he did his best to avoid leaving his owner's estate for quite some time and donned a collar to cover up the neck scars he'd sustained from the match and hide them when he'd recovered enough to fully resume his training about the city once more.

The neck scars were a particular source of shame and he hardly ever took the collar off or was seen without it. The first time he was, of course, was when he was with Inky.

After his colosseum match was a particularly low time for the apprentice, but, as with many things, he dealt with it by diving harder into his training. Training with Vinci in particular eventually got him back on his feet and he took his final mock hunt with her alongside Levi and Lazanya, and he passed.

H.U.R.T. Training:

He was a fully fledged hunter now, but it wasn't enough. Rhydian was quick to enroll himself in the extra curricular program, colloquially known as HURT or the Hunter Rehabilitation program. It was a stringent training program intended to retrain hunters who were believed to have fallen short of the hunter standards, but many hunters took it willingly to sharpen their skills and prove their metal. It was also believed that completion of the program was a quick way to make oneself know in the Bounty Hunters and was considered by many to be the first step towards eventually being chosen as an Elite Hunter. So naturally, Rhydian signed himself up for it, wanting to prove that he could live up to the expectations of his parents as well as the expectations of anyone who knew his parents.

Vinci was also signing up, so that was a plus.

This training also gave him the opportunity to get more acquainted with some of the other Elite hunters. He'd already known Mihail, being both Inky and Vinci's father, but he was granted the opportunity to spend quite a bit more time with the silent, stoic, elite during his HURT training and began to really look up to him in his steady, stalwart impassiveness.

He also took a lot of time during his day to spend time training with his twin, Rhinoa, who was still in her apprentice training and who he didn't want to feel as though he'd left her behind.

From the time he'd started the program he'd made four captures. The rogue Ryu, the stone cats Rai and Novellah, and his final capture in the program, signaling his graduation, Freya in shadow empire who he'd captured while on patrol with Rhinoa as she captured another shadow empire cat.

Pre-Ragnarok:

He hadn't been there when Fiacre had pushed Inky into the colosseum, another event he'd come to blame himself for as if he would have really been able to do anything about it had he been there. But he'd never really know. Because he wasn't. But he had found out about it from Vinci not too long after and rushed to Inky's side where he was at Luci's veterinary office.

He was incredibly distressed to see Inky in such a state; able to clearly see the blood still seeping through his bandages. Inky reluctantly explained a bit of what had happened and that it had been Majora who had saved him from a particularly wrathful colosseum fighter.

Majora. Inky's.. house guest. From what Rhydian had been told about the captured and currently being tamed empire cat, mostly by Vinci, he hadn't been a huge fan. Particularly not of the fervor with which Inky spoke about him and his current investment in this crimson feline. His personal experience with "tame" empire cats, the one who'd tried to kill him during a non-lethal match in the colosseum, and the way his father always spoke on the matter of taming empire cats, had always led him to believe that there was no trusting a cat who'd once been wild. They're always willing and ready to stab you in the back.

But if Majora had really risked his life to save Inky.. Rhydian felt his criticism and skepticism towards the empire cat softening after that..

Rhydian and Inky also briefly discussed emotions and control, as Inky recalled he had somewhat lost control of his emotions towards Fiacre, which had led him to say something that really upset the other apprentice and resulted in him shoving Inky into the colosseum.

Following the event Rhydian spent what time he could visiting Inky at the vet, even falling asleep there on a couple occasions before Karim or Lucius made him leave. During this time he captured Herne from Ice Empire and the rogue Sobek alongside Vinci. This was also where he became properly acquainted with another one of Inky's friends Somnis.

It was cats like Honey, Somnis and Majora that at times left Rhydian with a bit of a bitter taste in his mouth.. a subtle sparking of jealousy. All these cats that Inky surrounded himself with often left Rhydian feeling somewhat estranged, but mostly he felt protective. He was friendly towards all these cats of course.. but at timed their blunt attitudes and harsh words rubbed him the wrong way and he found himself desperately trying to stifle the flames of his irritation and maintain his composure.

This worsened with news of the attacks on Syria. And the resulting departure of most of his family. Rhydian found himself fighting many emotions as Judas, Avigail, Lilika, Cyrus, Atarah, Mathew.. and even Rhinoa left. He'd been a champion of keeping his emotions level up to this point, but now he felt he was feeling all to much at once, and now he lacked the support structure of most of his family. He felt truly lonely. He felt guilty at letting his family leave without him and at the same time he felt abandoned by them.. He felt angry and he felt grief. He'd truly felt so desperate for comfort and in that desperation, the way Honey, Somnis and Majora all crowded around Inky left him feeling all the more bitter and unhappy.

And he thought about the colosseum. He thought about how Inky could have died. And he knew, he knew he didn't want to lose Inky. He'd been withholding his feelings towards Inky for so long and he just couldn't do it any longer.

He'd needed to tell Inky how he felt. his emotions were eating him up inside and it was increasingly hard to hold on to them. So it was one night, on a rooftop once again, that Rhydian finally came clean to Inky about his feelings. What he'd gotten in return was a non-answer. It wasn't what he'd been hoping for.

  Rhydian had been repressing so many emotions for so long, it was now him who'd lost control of them and lashed out at Inky. Accusing him of his feelings towards Majora. The two argued briefly, ending in Inky admitting his feelings towards Majora and telling Rhydian to leave. Which he did.

Nursing a broken heart, Rhydian wasn't quite right for some time after that. He didn't really have anywhere to go or anywhere to turn to. He felt estranged from his friends as most of them were connected to Inky in some way and he couldn't face any of that right now. He was ashamed of himself, of course and very very hurt. He wondered if Inky had told anyone. If there were cats talking about his failed confession behind his back now..

Of course the only thing he could do, was throw himself into his work. He made four captures during this time. Finn from Lightning Empire- accompanying Aella as she also made a capture, the rogue Soliel, the rogue Skipper, and the Stone Blacksmith Nieva. This brought his total to eleven captures.

Ragnarok:

  Rhydian was still primarily a solitary creature when it happened. The thing nobody had really seen coming. Rhydian certainly hadn't. He didn't know where or why it started, but suddenly what was a routine day of patrols for him had turned into the city being raised in flames. An infernal nightmare.
Nobody really knew what to do, there were fires being started everywhere. Rhydian had heard about the attack on Massilia that had happened before he was born. How the sheer number of empire cats swarming the city had overwhelmed the hunters' ranks. Now he truly knew what that meant.

  In the chaos he'd managed to catch sight of a golden spotted pelt flitting through the smoke. Mihail. Rhydian had surged after the only beacon of assurance he had, but was quickly cut off by a much larger empire cat, before he could so much as call out to his leader for aid, he was quickly overwhelmed by the older, bigger Stone Empire cat and left practically bleeding out and choking on smoke. Alone.

He probably would've died then too if his older sister, Rebeckah, hadn't found him and carried him out of the smoky inferno that was his home.

In his weak stupor, on his sister's back he'd looked up and seen something he wished was untrue. That same spotted and golden pelt, splayed across the pavement, wings of blood smattered out to either side of him. Mihail was dead.

Post-Ragnarok:

It was a day at least before Rhydian managed to get to his feet again. He wasn't really supposed to be out and about but he felt an immense need to be. He needed to know what had become of his city. Of his friends? Were they still alive? Did they all make it out? For once he didn't care what anyone thought about him or that anyone would see him so sounded and weak. He needed to get out and see if the cats he cared about were still okay.

The first familiar face he saw outside of his sisters was Vinci. He was so overwhelmed and practically overjoyed to see she was still alive and relatively okay, but the happiness of their reunion was short lived. Vinci confirmed what he'd seen on his way out of the city. Her father Mihail had in fact died and her mother wasn't doing well with the wounds she'd sustained either.. Rhydian didn't know what to do or say. All he could do was press into her side wordlessly. They were both exhausted and it was all either of them could do to keep each other standing.

It was a few days later that Rhydian had finally gathered the strength and the courage to go see Inky.. He hadn't spoken to him since their fight and from what he'd heard from Vinci and others Majora had betrayed them and been the one to kill Miahil and Inky had suffered badly for it. He had no idea how to address Inky now or what he could possibly say to him, but he still cared about him. They were still friends, right? Rhydian had to go see him.

Inky was a different cat from the one Rhydian had left behind on the rooftop what felt like years ago, even though it had only been months. Rhydian too was a little different in some ways. He had received a less than warm welcome from Inky upon entering the room where the the brown hybrid was recovering, but he held is ground, thinking later that he probably could have come across as more compassionate and caring than the short, clipped responses he'd given Inky's angry remarks towards him. But ultimately he'd told Inky he still considered him a friends, and having noticed the scraps of Inky's old paintings strewn about, decided to help him tidy up the room a little bit more.

Their friendship would eventually recover but it would never be the same as it was before.

After Rowan too had passed away, Rhydian found himself spending a bit of time with and looking after Misthios and Delphinus, Inky and Vinci's younger siblings. And as soon as he'd healed enough from his wounds to be truly out and about again, true to form, Rhydian threw himself back into his work. There was a lot to be done around the city still in the wake of the destruction the empires had wrought. He went on several patrols with Xiang, another one of Inky's friends who he'd grown quite fond of. Both had personal scores to settle after Ragnarok and each assisted the other in capturing the cats who has scarred them during the raid. Alongside Xiang Rhydian captured Cordelia from Shadow and Eudora from Stone, the feline who'd nearly killed him during the raid.

He also captured Lamb from Lightning with Somnis and rogue Ezra with Yelena. Bringing his capture total to fourteen.

During this time the Hunter program and the general cats who guard the city underwent some restructuring of which Rhydian felt mixed feelings towards. The Hunter program was blamed for Ragnarok while Rhydian felt it was really the humans who were at fault for the mishandling of taming and captured empire cats, but that's an opinion he keeps close to his chest.

He also got to know Arvid, an ambitious and well-performing hunter apprentice, hot on the heels of her own promotion to Hunter. He's also grown pretty fond of her.

Promotion to Elite:

  With all these captures under his belt it was of no surprise to anyone but Rhydian himself that he soon found himself promoted to Elite status. A great accomplishment and one he should be proud of, but one ultimately viewed as a hollow victory for Rhydian for all the individuals who weren't there to see him achieve it..

Shortly after his promotion, Rhydian was purchased by a new owner and moved to a large manor where he's his master's only cat.

Additional Info:

- retractable claws
- twin to Rhinoa
- the persona he tries to present is subconsciously based off of Mihail
- usually makes a point of learning the names of his captures
- suffers from stress and anxiety and is underweight as a result

Family:

Mother: Avigail
Status: gone

Father: Judas
Status: gone

Siblings:

- Lilika
Status: gone, WPR

- Levi
Status: gone

- Cyrus
Status: gone, WPR

- Rebekah ( Wildfire-Tama )
Status: Alive (Hunters)
Rebekah - Bounty Hunter Apprentice

- Atarah
Status: gone

- Micaiah ( Polarfleets )
Status: Alive (Hunters)
Micaiah

- Rhinoa
Status: gone

- Matthew
Status: gone

Extended Family:

Grandmother(P): Asha
Status: gone

Grandfather(P): Alexis
Status: Dead

Grandmother(M): Ruth
Status: ??? (NPC)

Grandfather(M): Isaiah
Status: ??? (NPC)

Half-Aunt(P): Zeel
Status: gone

Half-Aunt(P): Matea( Wolvereaux )
Status: Alive (sentinel)
[EBC] Matea the Boomerang

Half-Uncle(P): Ishkur (myself)
Status: Alive (sentinel)
EBC: Ishkur

Uncle(P): Ventus
Status: gone

Cousin(P): Calypso
Status: gone

Cousin(P): Callis
Status: gone

Cousin(P): Zarian
Status: gone

Cousin(P): Vitalis
Status: gone

Great-Aunt(P): Reyna
Status: gone

EP Balance: tba

Description
decided i wanted to have Rhydian uploaded on this account too <3

General:

Name: Rhydian
Nicknames: N/A

Age: 3 years, 0 months
As of 2/20/22
Birthday: January 24, 42 BC (2019)

Gender: Male

Species: Clouded Leopard x Cheetah x Leopard

Rank: Elite Bounty Hunter
- The Legatum Elite
legatum: latin for legacy, heirdom, bequest

Genetics:

Dominant: clouded leopard spots, golden pelt, fluffy tail, white toes, cheetah spots, dual tone pelt, head tuft, dark ear rims

Recessive: cloudy build, white hair tuft, green eyes, red fill to spots

Carrier: red coloration, cheetah build, gold eyes, dark coloration, orange eyes

Personality:

Surly: Rhydian presents a fairly grumpy and no nonsense exterior. He's not mean, nor really one to enjoy arguing or fighting, but it isn't uncommon to see him frowning and he has a more challenging time making friends than some. He's a fairly negative individual and doesn't t end to see the good in many things. He has a prickly outer shell and can be difficult to befriend although he's always improving in this regard.

Introverted: He doesn't like big crowds and is easily overwhelmed in the company of lots of cats. Many larger cats and loud noises can actually overwhelm him and he always tends to stick to the exterior of large crowds though this is a discomfort he'd never admit to anyone else. He loves his friends and family and loves being around them but would hate to be the center of their attention at any point in time and is incredibly uncomfortable under many gazes.

Pensive: A very serious individual, Rhydian often seems to be lost in thought. He's not a very vocal or playful and doesn't posse much of a sense of humor, although he has his moments. He spends most of his time in his own head. This doesn't necessarily mean he's introspecting- most of what he tends to think about are his surroundings rather than himself. Things like his duties for that day, where he suspects any of his friends or family may be at any given moment, if Vinci is going to have time to go patrolling with him later- that sort of thing.

Shy: Rhydian doesn't like big or important introductions. Though he's good at hiding it, he's still pretty socially anxious and not amazing with first impressions. In meetings a lot of cats it wouldn't be surprising to see him sitting very stiffly and not meeting anyone's gaze, particularly not if any cat is a stranger to him, which for his first few elite meetings a lot of cats are.

Modest: Despite being the offspring of some very prestigious cats, Rhydian is very unassuming about his own skills and his accomplishments. He's an intelligent and clever cat but doesn't like drawing attention to himself and doesn't particularly enjoy receiving compliments. Too much praise always makes him embarrassed or flustered. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say he has imposter syndrome as he continuously doubts and second guesses himself to this day.

Troubled: Rhydian has a rather impressive pedigree, one that garnered him the title of Legatum, or Legacy Elite. As the son of Judas- once the leader of the Bounty Hunters and Avigail- once an elite hunter, Rhydian has always had a lot to live up to and a heavy weight on his shoulders. Even with his promotion to Elite he continues to drive himself harder and harder, more captures, more patrols, more work. There's always more he can do and he will likely never feel satisfied in his accomplishments. After all, his parents aren't here anymore and he will never truly know if he's done enough to be proud of.

Faithful: Despite all his rough spots, Rhydian loves his family so much. It's something that's a little hard for him to express, but his family is everything to him. They're who he feels safe around, even on days he is feeling more stressed than usual, they have always been where he turned to when he was at his lowest. But they're almost all but gone now. The intense loyalty and devotion he felt towards them is more of a pang and a weight now, with the departure of most of his family to Syria. He often feels intensely guilty when he thinks of them and how he didn't go with them. During his darkest nights he thinks he should have gone with them. And he misses them terribly, his twin Rhinoa in particular. It's a type of pain he can't explain, as it can't be put into words..

Supportive: Rhydian is by far more encouraging than he is competitive. He doesn't see value in trying to be better than others and is much more of a team player, than the more competitive aspects of the hunter program would be kind to. He would never do anything to make himself look good at another's expense. Despite his social difficulties, when it comes to hunting and working out on the field, they all seem to wash away. He seems to genuinely enjoy helping others on their hunts and accompanying apprentices on patrols.

Reticent: It's true that Rhydian likes to keep most of his true feelings to himself. Since being open with them- in his experience- has really brought him nothing but trouble. In his eyes his real emotions make him a weak hunter- or what he suspects most would consider a weak hunter. So he does his best to put on a mask to hide his social anxiety, his shyness, his vulnerability, he tries to cover up and bury with a veil of indifference. He'd rather pretend he doesn't feel much of anything than show his pain or his hurting. Because of this it's very hard to tell when he's going through a rough patch and another downside is that it can make him seem like a bit of an asshole at times or when his act wavers it makes his emotions seem inconsistent or unreliable which is quite the opposite of what he's aiming for. He just doesn't want anyone to see how truly weak he is.

Background:

  Born along side his twin sister Rhinoa and smaller brother Matthew in 42 BC. The third litter of Avigail and Judas, they are the newest members of a big and promising family of Bounty Hunters. Rhydian is not ready.

Cubhood:

  Rhydian's cubhood was cast in the shadow of the Slasher looming over the city. The cub wasn't a fan of crowds but quickly learned that crowds were the safest places to be. Although he's never had a personal encounter with the city Slasher, the known existence of it is cause enough for a lot of worry. He's also a bit intimidated by birds after one threatened to carry this smaller brother away in it's claws. Inchiostro was the only friend he managed to make throughout his cubhood after helping him feel less lost when he became separated from the other tribunes.

  He rose to the rank of apprentice quickly along with his siblings, preparing himself as much as he could for the challenges that lay ahead.

Apprenticeship:

His apprenticeship was wrought with trials as you'd expect. Perhaps more even than you'd expect for the average hunter. He met more hunters and apprentices alike, forming more tentative friendships with cats like Deianeira and Honey Locust, the latter of which Inky had introduced him to. The two weren't very fast friends, however as about the first thing Honey did was nearly send Rhydian plummeting off a tall roof during a sparring session that had gone too far, Rhydian leaving himself open to attack at the wrong moment as he realized the dangers of the situation he'd gotten himself into.

  Rhydian in fact blames himself for the incident and holds no ill will towards Honey. The two did eventually make up over it.

During his apprenticeship, Rhydian pushed himself very hard. Taking up any and all training opportunities he could. Studying under the elite Tempest and joining the war veteran, Donovan's training program. It was through this training program he met Vinci, Inky's sister. She noticed him feeling out of place and made it her business to help him feel more comfortable and less alone amongst the other students. Accompanying him on city patrols and partnering up on tasks Donovan had set up for them became a regular occurrence.

It was on a patrol with Vinci, one of her friends Levi, and chaperoned by her father Mihail that Rhydian made his first capture. A lightning empire cat called Blue Ginger. This was the only capture he made during his apprenticeship.

At this time in his life Rhydian had found himself spending a lot of time with Inky. The hybrid had been his first real friend and something about his company made Rhydian feel actually normal. Comfortable for the first time with a feline outside of his family and even with his family there was a certain feeling of needing to perform that he didn't feel when he was around Inky. The brown hybrid had a quality to him that made Rhydian feel like he could just calm down and talk without having to worry about the words he said. He felt so genuinely accepted by this other cat that it wasn't very surprising that Rhydian started to develop feelings towards Inchiostro. The realization of which often left him feeling a bit sick to his stomach as right now he felt he needed to focus most on his training and not on what Inky would be doing later that day. So he did his best to push the feelings away.

The incident with Honey and the roof was embarrassing and had had Rhydian feeling a bit out of sorts for a while, but wasn't nearly as bad as she shame brought onto him from his first colosseum match. From the moment Rhydian found out the day his fight was slotted to be he had a very hard time relaxing. He knew the fight was going to be very public and a lot of humans and felines alike would be attending. Potential owners, city officials, elite hunters, all there to judge his promise as a hunter.

In the days leading up to the event he'd found it harder and harder to eat and sleep. All he could think to do was train harder, do what he could to prepare himself and be ready for the fight to come. This all added up to Rhydian being undernourished and over exhausted before the match even began.

He was pitted against a captured empire apprentice. A lion hybrid who's name he'd never really learned (Liel). Despite the empire hybrid's size advantage and Rhydian's exhaustion, he actually performed rather well during the beginning of the fight, but as soon as he'd thought he'd downed his opponent the adrenaline keeping him upright suddenly dropped off as well. This alongside the wounds and resulting blood loss Rhydian had sustained from the match meant he too collapsed.

What he didn't see then was his opponent getting back to his feet and lurching towards him. Enraged and bitter over the fall of Air empire, Liel was going to take this opportunity for his revenge. He probably would have killed Rhydian if Judas hadn't intervened in that moment, putting the colosseum match to an end.

Rhydian took this news of what he considered to be a loss very hard when he was back on his feet again. His father told him that in the human's eyes it was considered a win, but scolded him for over exerting himself beforehand and that if the same had happened in the wild it would have been fatal. He told Rhydian he still had a lot of training to do, particularly concerning endurance.

Following the match Rhydian had distanced himself from others, truly believing that anyone who saw the match would see him as weak and ill suited to become a full hunter for quite some time. This was to him a reality he wasn't prepared to face. So he did his best to avoid leaving his owner's estate for quite some time and donned a collar to cover up the neck scars he'd sustained from the match and hide them when he'd recovered enough to fully resume his training about the city once more.

The neck scars were a particular source of shame and he hardly ever took the collar off or was seen without it. The first time he was, of course, was when he was with Inky.

After his colosseum match was a particularly low time for the apprentice, but, as with many things, he dealt with it by diving harder into his training. Training with Vinci in particular eventually got him back on his feet and he took his final mock hunt with her alongside Levi and Lazanya, and he passed.

H.U.R.T. Training:

He was a fully fledged hunter now, but it wasn't enough. Rhydian was quick to enroll himself in the extra curricular program, colloquially known as HURT or the Hunter Rehabilitation program. It was a stringent training program intended to retrain hunters who were believed to have fallen short of the hunter standards, but many hunters took it willingly to sharpen their skills and prove their metal. It was also believed that completion of the program was a quick way to make oneself know in the Bounty Hunters and was considered by many to be the first step towards eventually being chosen as an Elite Hunter. So naturally, Rhydian signed himself up for it, wanting to prove that he could live up to the expectations of his parents as well as the expectations of anyone who knew his parents.

Vinci was also signing up, so that was a plus.

This training also gave him the opportunity to get more acquainted with some of the other Elite hunters. He'd already known Mihail, being both Inky and Vinci's father, but he was granted the opportunity to spend quite a bit more time with the silent, stoic, elite during his HURT training and began to really look up to him in his steady, stalwart impassiveness.

He also took a lot of time during his day to spend time training with his twin, Rhinoa, who was still in her apprentice training and who he didn't want to feel as though he'd left her behind.

From the time he'd started the program he'd made four captures. The rogue Ryu, the stone cats Rai and Novellah, and his final capture in the program, signaling his graduation, Freya in shadow empire who he'd captured while on patrol with Rhinoa as she captured another shadow empire cat.

Pre-Ragnarok:

He hadn't been there when Fiacre had pushed Inky into the colosseum, another event he'd come to blame himself for as if he would have really been able to do anything about it had he been there. But he'd never really know. Because he wasn't. But he had found out about it from Vinci not too long after and rushed to Inky's side where he was at Luci's veterinary office.

He was incredibly distressed to see Inky in such a state; able to clearly see the blood still seeping through his bandages. Inky reluctantly explained a bit of what had happened and that it had been Majora who had saved him from a particularly wrathful colosseum fighter.

Majora. Inky's.. house guest. From what Rhydian had been told about the captured and currently being tamed empire cat, mostly by Vinci, he hadn't been a huge fan. Particularly not of the fervor with which Inky spoke about him and his current investment in this crimson feline. His personal experience with "tame" empire cats, the one who'd tried to kill him during a non-lethal match in the colosseum, and the way his father always spoke on the matter of taming empire cats, had always led him to believe that there was no trusting a cat who'd once been wild. They're always willing and ready to stab you in the back.

But if Majora had really risked his life to save Inky.. Rhydian felt his criticism and skepticism towards the empire cat softening after that..

Rhydian and Inky also briefly discussed emotions and control, as Inky recalled he had somewhat lost control of his emotions towards Fiacre, which had led him to say something that really upset the other apprentice and resulted in him shoving Inky into the colosseum.

Following the event Rhydian spent what time he could visiting Inky at the vet, even falling asleep there on a couple occasions before Karim or Lucius made him leave. During this time he captured Herne from Ice Empire and the rogue Sobek alongside Vinci. This was also where he became properly acquainted with another one of Inky's friends Somnis.

It was cats like Honey, Somnis and Majora that at times left Rhydian with a bit of a bitter taste in his mouth.. a subtle sparking of jealousy. All these cats that Inky surrounded himself with often left Rhydian feeling somewhat estranged, but mostly he felt protective. He was friendly towards all these cats of course.. but at timed their blunt attitudes and harsh words rubbed him the wrong way and he found himself desperately trying to stifle the flames of his irritation and maintain his composure.

This worsened with news of the attacks on Syria. And the resulting departure of most of his family. Rhydian found himself fighting many emotions as Judas, Avigail, Lilika, Cyrus, Atarah, Mathew.. and even Rhinoa left. He'd been a champion of keeping his emotions level up to this point, but now he felt he was feeling all to much at once, and now he lacked the support structure of most of his family. He felt truly lonely. He felt guilty at letting his family leave without him and at the same time he felt abandoned by them.. He felt angry and he felt grief. He'd truly felt so desperate for comfort and in that desperation, the way Honey, Somnis and Majora all crowded around Inky left him feeling all the more bitter and unhappy.

And he thought about the colosseum. He thought about how Inky could have died. And he knew, he knew he didn't want to lose Inky. He'd been withholding his feelings towards Inky for so long and he just couldn't do it any longer.

He'd needed to tell Inky how he felt. his emotions were eating him up inside and it was increasingly hard to hold on to them. So it was one night, on a rooftop once again, that Rhydian finally came clean to Inky about his feelings. What he'd gotten in return was a non-answer. It wasn't what he'd been hoping for.

  Rhydian had been repressing so many emotions for so long, it was now him who'd lost control of them and lashed out at Inky. Accusing him of his feelings towards Majora. The two argued briefly, ending in Inky admitting his feelings towards Majora and telling Rhydian to leave. Which he did.

Nursing a broken heart, Rhydian wasn't quite right for some time after that. He didn't really have anywhere to go or anywhere to turn to. He felt estranged from his friends as most of them were connected to Inky in some way and he couldn't face any of that right now. He was ashamed of himself, of course and very very hurt. He wondered if Inky had told anyone. If there were cats talking about his failed confession behind his back now..

Of course the only thing he could do, was throw himself into his work. He made four captures during this time. Finn from Lightning Empire- accompanying Aella as she also made a capture, the rogue Soliel, the rogue Skipper, and the Stone Blacksmith Nieva. This brought his total to eleven captures.

Ragnarok:

  Rhydian was still primarily a solitary creature when it happened. The thing nobody had really seen coming. Rhydian certainly hadn't. He didn't know where or why it started, but suddenly what was a routine day of patrols for him had turned into the city being raised in flames. An infernal nightmare.
Nobody really knew what to do, there were fires being started everywhere. Rhydian had heard about the attack on Massilia that had happened before he was born. How the sheer number of empire cats swarming the city had overwhelmed the hunters' ranks. Now he truly knew what that meant.

  In the chaos he'd managed to catch sight of a golden spotted pelt flitting through the smoke. Mihail. Rhydian had surged after the only beacon of assurance he had, but was quickly cut off by a much larger empire cat, before he could so much as call out to his leader for aid, he was quickly overwhelmed by the older, bigger Stone Empire cat and left practically bleeding out and choking on smoke. Alone.

He probably would've died then too if his older sister, Rebeckah, hadn't found him and carried him out of the smoky inferno that was his home.

In his weak stupor, on his sister's back he'd looked up and seen something he wished was untrue. That same spotted and golden pelt, splayed across the pavement, wings of blood smattered out to either side of him. Mihail was dead.

Post-Ragnarok:

It was a day at least before Rhydian managed to get to his feet again. He wasn't really supposed to be out and about but he felt an immense need to be. He needed to know what had become of his city. Of his friends? Were they still alive? Did they all make it out? For once he didn't care what anyone thought about him or that anyone would see him so sounded and weak. He needed to get out and see if the cats he cared about were still okay.

The first familiar face he saw outside of his sisters was Vinci. He was so overwhelmed and practically overjoyed to see she was still alive and relatively okay, but the happiness of their reunion was short lived. Vinci confirmed what he'd seen on his way out of the city. Her father Mihail had in fact died and her mother wasn't doing well with the wounds she'd sustained either.. Rhydian didn't know what to do or say. All he could do was press into her side wordlessly. They were both exhausted and it was all either of them could do to keep each other standing.

It was a few days later that Rhydian had finally gathered the strength and the courage to go see Inky.. He hadn't spoken to him since their fight and from what he'd heard from Vinci and others Majora had betrayed them and been the one to kill Miahil and Inky had suffered badly for it. He had no idea how to address Inky now or what he could possibly say to him, but he still cared about him. They were still friends, right? Rhydian had to go see him.

Inky was a different cat from the one Rhydian had left behind on the rooftop what felt like years ago, even though it had only been months. Rhydian too was a little different in some ways. He had received a less than warm welcome from Inky upon entering the room where the the brown hybrid was recovering, but he held is ground, thinking later that he probably could have come across as more compassionate and caring than the short, clipped responses he'd given Inky's angry remarks towards him. But ultimately he'd told Inky he still considered him a friends, and having noticed the scraps of Inky's old paintings strewn about, decided to help him tidy up the room a little bit more.

Their friendship would eventually recover but it would never be the same as it was before.

After Rowan too had passed away, Rhydian found himself spending a bit of time with and looking after Misthios and Delphinus, Inky and Vinci's younger siblings. And as soon as he'd healed enough from his wounds to be truly out and about again, true to form, Rhydian threw himself back into his work. There was a lot to be done around the city still in the wake of the destruction the empires had wrought. He went on several patrols with Xiang, another one of Inky's friends who he'd grown quite fond of. Both had personal scores to settle after Ragnarok and each assisted the other in capturing the cats who has scarred them during the raid. Alongside Xiang Rhydian captured Cordelia from Shadow and Eudora from Stone, the feline who'd nearly killed him during the raid.

He also captured Lamb from Lightning with Somnis and rogue Ezra with Yelena. Bringing his capture total to fourteen.

During this time the Hunter program and the general cats who guard the city underwent some restructuring of which Rhydian felt mixed feelings towards. The Hunter program was blamed for Ragnarok while Rhydian felt it was really the humans who were at fault for the mishandling of taming and captured empire cats, but that's an opinion he keeps close to his chest.

He also got to know Arvid, an ambitious and well-performing hunter apprentice, hot on the heels of her own promotion to Hunter. He's also grown pretty fond of her.

Promotion to Elite:

  With all these captures under his belt it was of no surprise to anyone but Rhydian himself that he soon found himself promoted to Elite status. A great accomplishment and one he should be proud of, but one ultimately viewed as a hollow victory for Rhydian for all the individuals who weren't there to see him achieve it..

Shortly after his promotion, Rhydian was purchased by a new owner and moved to a large manor where he's his master's only cat.

Additional Info:

- retractable claws
- twin to Rhinoa
- the persona he tries to present is subconsciously based off of Mihail
- usually makes a point of learning the names of his captures
- suffers from stress and anxiety and is underweight as a result

Family:

Mother: Avigail
Status: gone

Father: Judas
Status: gone

Siblings:

- Lilika
Status: gone, WPR

- Levi
Status: gone

- Cyrus
Status: gone, WPR

- Rebekah ( Wildfire-Tama )
Status: Alive (Hunters)
Rebekah - Bounty Hunter Apprentice

- Atarah
Status: gone

- Micaiah ( Polarfleets )
Status: Alive (Hunters)
Micaiah

- Rhinoa
Status: gone

- Matthew
Status: gone

Extended Family:

Grandmother(P): Asha
Status: gone

Grandfather(P): Alexis
Status: Dead

Grandmother(M): Ruth
Status: ??? (NPC)

Grandfather(M): Isaiah
Status: ??? (NPC)

Half-Aunt(P): Zeel
Status: gone

Half-Aunt(P): Matea( Wolvereaux )
Status: Alive (sentinel)
[EBC] Matea the Boomerang

Half-Uncle(P): Ishkur (myself)
Status: Alive (sentinel)
EBC: Ishkur

Uncle(P): Ventus
Status: gone

Cousin(P): Calypso
Status: gone

Cousin(P): Callis
Status: gone

Cousin(P): Zarian
Status: gone

Cousin(P): Vitalis
Status: gone

Great-Aunt(P): Reyna
Status: gone

EP Balance: tba