Written in the Stars

A lean tortie with coarse fur and a thick scar on her back.

When one pictures a "mangy stray", the mental image would resemble Mallard. Her colouration isn't unique - as a tortoiseshell, her coat is a mosaic of black and orange. Where her dark patches break, plain orange stands out in their stead. For those trying to pick her out against the brown-green palette of dry forest floors and low brush, this patchwork pelt introduces some difficulty in doing so. No, the colours arranged messily over her body are not what paints her as frowzy. Her fur is often messy, brittle if she's been going through a difficult time with respect to food and unkempt when she does the bare minimum grooming. A few spots of her pelt are thinner: a section of fur at the fore of her left haunch, a thin swath lining the space between her nose and one of her green eyes, a spot between her shoulders on her upper back. Scars are the apparent culprit in these areas. Uneven scar tissue sits to the side of her nose, pulling asymmetrically when she emotes. Short lines mark the path of hostile claws through the thin fur on her haunch. A few other marks are partially hidden under her coat, scattered across her form and gathered throughout her life. The scarring between her shoulders is gnarly, and its shape is not instantly recognisable. Though healed, it's clear that the causal wound was severe when earned.

Intelligent, hostile, defiant, nonconformist 

The nature of Mallard's day-to-day life means she rarely interacts with others - this is by design. She has an aversion to social interaction, and does her best to avoid sharing physical spaces with others (on the rare occasions she has no other choice, expect her to assert her boundaries clearly and with the threat of dire consequences). Hostility is a well-worn mask, making its appearance when Mallard feels threatened or vulnerable. Vulnerability in particular is a feeling Mallard loathes. With few exceptions, she prefers to drive others away with cutting remarks or harsh words - failing that, she isn't above letting her claws and teeth do the talking.

Her intelligence is a large part of her continued survival - in addition to being observant, she is an excellent problem-solver. Her quick-thinking has saved her hide a number of times, and is backed up by a sharp tongue and sharper wit (although the lattermost is largely theoretical, given her preference for isolation). Mallard doesn't enjoy feeling stifled or controlled, and has a low threshold for either. She eschews traditional virtues, and places a far greater emphasis on survival, individualism, and self-determination. 

Parents: Honey (Mother, NPC), Goose (Father, deceased)
Siblings: Joy (NPC), Vulture (NPC)
Kits: None

Mallard is one of potentially many children - her only two littermates were Joy and Vulture, with whom she shared her mother and father. Honey was a former kittypet, having been kicked to the curb when her free-roaming behaviour resulted in a litter of kittens her twolegs had no use for. Goose, the father of this particular litter, was unreachable by the new stray. Mallard and her siblings spent their early days hidden away, age bringing with it the privilege of leaving the dark nooks and crannies they'd stowed away in as kittens. By the time they were apprentice aged, the siblings had a fair amount of freedom and would often go days without seeing their mother. Honey would teach them how to hunt and the basics of defending themselves, but Mallard's mother had lived a number of years in the plush lifestyle of a kittypet. Many of the skills they picked up were a combination of trial-and-error, observation, and once or twice the kindness (or unsolicited advice) of a stranger. Honey, unbeknownst to her children, was once more picked up by a shelter - Joy met a similar fate, although Mallard can remember with chilling clarity the day she lost her sister. Joy now lives as a kittypet herself, though her final fate remains unknown to Mallard.

For some time, Mallard and Vulture kept together. They weren't inseparable - often parting ways for days at a time, depending on their motivations. Vulture had a kindness that Mallard lacked, and was the more diplomatic of the two by far. Mallard's intelligence is a cutting thing, but she has little compassion to call upon and whenever the two were cooperative or helpful to others it was certainly Vulture's idea. Both siblings had their fair share of scraps, both separately and side-by-side. It was while she protected Vulture that Mallard earned her most grotesque scar - a small mutt sunk its teeth between her shoulders, close enough to her neck to qualify as a "near death experience" (at least according to Vulture, who took her injury personally). Neither sibling was killed, but without Vulture's assistance she likely would have failed to recover as well as she did.

Around 35 moons, the two siblings were separated. Mallard had found some luck in stealing a fish here and there from twolegs around the docks. She had no qualms about sneaking into places she shouldn't have been. During an investigation of a smaller boat, Mallard was inadvertently brought along when the twolegs took their vessel out to a small parcel of land. Though the twolegs thought they were simply heading out to their cabin, they had accidentally stranded Mallard in unfamiliar territory. It took her nearly a full month to find her way back to the twolegplace, and she was unable to find Vulture. After another few seasons of failing to locate them, Mallard found herself spending more and more time away from the populous twolegplace. Without her more diplomatic counterpart, she was less likely to be a tolerable companion and instead relied even more heavily on her hostility to mask whatever vulnerability may have crept in.

She has no permanent home (and thusfar, no apparent desire to find one), but tends to stick to the eastern twolegplace, cemetery, and rarely the abandoned docks or sections of territory bordering clan lands. She has little knowledge of the clans aside from some rumours and secondhand tales, and took care to avoid territory that seemed actively occupied. It is important to note that her social aversion is not respect for borders - should Mallard feel she needs to "trespass", "steal", or fight, she has no qualms in doing so.