Heron

hello hello, introduce yourself, won't you?

NAME: Heron
ALIAS: Hero, Antihero
AGE: 3
GENDER: Male
BREED: [Czechoslovakian Wolfdog] x [Australian Shepherd x Siberian Husky x German Shepherd x Shetland Sheepdog x Aidi x Samoyd x Beauceron (Harlequin)]
PACK: Ragdog Royale

APPEARANCE:

He is generally a rather wolfish character, with the erect, triangular ears and the square, powerful build of one. Whereas his mother was an honest-to-God mutt, his father was a purebred Czech dog and remarkably proud of his origins. Heron has inherited his father's figure and size, reaching a height of roughly 27 inches or so and weighing a total of 83 lbs, something that fluxes depending on the amount of food he is given at any time. Generally a rather rangy male, his build is not brutal or broad or anything of the sort. He is made of sinewy and gristle and lean, harsh muscles developed from a lifetime of hard living. He is powerfully designed with a very endurable body, and for the life of him he appears to be a wolf or some shepherd breed--if not for his coloring, that is. Heron is blue merle, a very lightly colored blue merle, at that. His face has the darkest markings, being that his muzzle is entirely, sooty black and his eyes are surrounded by black rings. The rest of him is varying colors of blue, blue-gray, and white. His eyes are heterochromic, the left being a very pale, icy blue and the right one being an amber color. He would be astonishingly handsome if not for his severe flaws, most of which are located on his forelimbs or his face. He is a remarkably scarred individual, with burns and nicks on his mouth and paws. He is also lame, being that he has a severe limp in the right front leg. He was injured as a child and never quite healed from the injury, leaving a rather brutal scar that encircles the entirety of his lower leg, looking as though something bit him and shook.

PERSONALITY:

strengths ;
confident, atypically charming, social, skilled liar

weaknesses ;
pyromaniac, self-destructive, has no sense of consequences, fearless, insensitively blunt

Hero is often the personification of fire, with a snappish, unpredictable way of speaking and behaving. He is impulsive and reckless with little to no thought towards consequences. Authoritative figures have always sighed in the direction of the wolfdog mix, primarily due to his good intentions and his bad way of delivering them. He is self-absorbed and a glory hound, obsessed with making a name for himself. He is equally obsessed with being the best there is to be, regardless of any difficulties he faces with his lame leg or lack of forward thinking.

This is all ironic, considering the fact that from a young age he has expressed interests in fire, which has developed into a full-blown pyromanic obsession. Fire is something that he does not have the typical lupine fear of. On the contrary, he downright dies from excitement whenever he encounters it. While other dogs run from brush fires or destruction, Hero has an uncanny habit of running toward such things.

He has a streak of carelessness that often makes him seem either rebellious or stupid. He carries himself with such confidence and disregard for the opinions of others one might wonder if he is anything but an egotistical jackass. In all honesty, he is a very emotional individual, and just because these primary emotions are anger or ecstasy doesn't mean Heron does not experience such things as guilt, sadness, or fear. Well, perhaps not fear. He has a tendency to leap before looking and dive into life with a bit of a martyr complex, meaning that death does not faze this fool. And what is there to fear, if not death?

Speaking of that martyr complex, Heron seems to display at chauvinistic nature. He wants to be a hero and rescue whatever proclaimed "damsel in distress" he stumbles across, male or female (he is not picky). Opinionated and a bit of a spitfire, this often leads way to arguments or sensitive situations, when the proclaimed damsel is not a damsel whatsoever. Mildly sexist, Heron believes in male superiority to an extent. He believes women to be completely able-bodied and whatnot, but he also thinks that they should raise children and so on. Not live life getting their paws filthy.

Meanwhile, Heron specializes in getting his paws filthy. He is a fighter and a cheat, a compulsive liar and a manipulative sun-of-a-gun when he wants something. Driven and ruthless, there is very little that can stop him, and his straightforward nature is at times a contradiction with his deceitful one.

HISTORY:

"Hero? Hero, are you okay?"

He couldn't see anything. He just felt the pain, something savage, something that radiated from his leg. He didn't want to move. He couldn't move, at that.

"Hero!"

The sound of his name startled him, and he opened his eyes out of reflex. Now he remembered. Now he could see the sky above him, broken by the interlude of winter branches. He could smell the coppery stench of his own blood. When he tried to roll, his leg was tugged on, and he screamed.

Heron turned his head once his body stopped writhing to look at his right leg, stretched out at an awkward angle in front of him, his body twisted away. The rusted, ugly bear trap had seized him by the lower leg and now he saw bits and pieces of bone poking through. The sight made him want to vomit.

A second later, he did.


His father's name was Aquila, who was a runaway Czech wolfdog that lived a life on the edge of the wild most of his life. His mother was the depiction of a southern belle who eventually fell for a "gentleman". In reality, as Heron came to learn, his father was simply a liar. Aquila led a double life throughout Heron's childhood. Half of the time, he was a perfect father. And the other half he was an assassin.

They lived on the edge of the city, and shortly after the human apocalypse his father would disappear for weeks at a time to intermingle with dogs of the city. In exchange for his "services" he was given information or food, things that he would bring back to his family. Heron never anticipated anything was awry.

That was before he and his twin brother, Kestrel, were taken from their mother to venture into the city alongside Aquila. It was during these times that Aquila began to teach his two sons the way of the trade, so to speak. Kestrel was always better at it, but Heron caught on quickly as well, and all he wanted to do was please, anyway. He wanted to grow up and be just like his fathers.

Whatever plans he had made for his future were ruined one afternoon when he and his brother were playing in the forest. They had found some old hunter's cabin and walking down a little pathway in the forest Heron had stepped into a rusted bear trap. It set off and ruined his leg, turning him into a cripple. It was a miracle he survived past his first year with such an injury. His father became fiercely overprotective of him, and there were no more outings into the city. Kestrel was forced to grow up too quickly and Heron was forced to learn to live with his lameness, something that his father disapproved of even if he didn't say it. Aquila was the sort of dog that believed in perfection and imperfection, with nothing in between but weakness--and Heron was now weak.

He could not tolerate the looks of pity his entire life, or the looks of disappointment. At a year in a half in age, Heron left his family behind and moved into the city. He has been there for another year and a half and has learned not only the basics of survival but how to live with his limp. More than that, he has aspired to be much like his father and has trained hard to become a decent fighter, and if it comes down to it, killer.

He's recently taken up with the Ragdog Royale.