Eel- The little medic who sorta can

by **Eel** Mon Nov 18, 2013 8:34 pm

Eel

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Character Name: Eel
Nickname(s): Whatever you wanna nickname him. Personally, I call him Eelikins. But that's just me.
Age: About 3 1/2 years
Gender: Male
Rank: Keeper Med Runner
Race: Ethiopian Wolf
Sexulality: Sorry ladies, Eelikins is gay. And sorry gentlemen, but it's not that simple. You see, he hasn't really accepted it himself. “Um, my sexuality? I guess I like girls, but I just don't really have time. She-wolves are beautiful and very pretty but I am first and foremost a medic. Anyways, I've never really met a girl I like that way. I just end up thinking of them as a sister.”
But hey, if you wanna go after that spazzy little mudball, have fun.

Appearance: First off: Eel comes from a family of very small wolves. Plus he's a runt. So, there's some serious size issues going on here. As in serious.
Second: He has a friggin FABULOUS pelt. Imagine, bright red-brown fur, covering a sleek, long-legged body; fur white as a summer cloud and just as fluffy, covering his throat, his belly, his slender legs, and forming a perfect V along his collarbone. More of that same white forming arks above and below soft gray eyes, flecked with green and blue. Behind him, a bushy ebony tail, joined to his rust-colored body by a patch of white. Now imagine all that, but caked in dust and mud. Okay maybe its not that fabulous, but hey, its good camouflage. And it makes fur ember-proof.
I WANT TO BE VERY CLEAR HIS FUR APPEARS TO BE GRAY-BROWN AND GRAY NOT RED
EELIKINS IS A LITTLE WAD OF DIRT AND BONES
Plus he has these oversized ears that twitch all the time. As in ALL the time.
Also, on his left hind leg there are some jagged patchy burn scars.
Eel does have one good thing though. He smells good. That's important, right? If you smell good people tend not to hate you. I read that somewhere.
Also, Eel is pretty scrawny. Kids, generosity is great, but starving yourself so others can pig out is not okay. Even if your muddy fur hides most of the emaciation.

Personality: Eel tends to be level-headed and calmyish, which is what overexposure to relaxation herbs does to a wolf. Generous and willing to help, because the world really doesn't need to get any worse. He's a little on the cautious side, nearly being eaten three times was plenty thankyouverymuch, but warms up to new friend pretty fast if they don't attack him. In Eel's opinion, violence is bad. Mainly because he is less of a “ferocious wolf” and more of a “anklebiting whelp”. Yeah, being a runt of an already small family of wolves kinda sucks. A lot.
Enough pressure, or exhaustion, or flat-out rudeness, will make Eel crack. Cause, y'know, he's just a wolf. And when he does.... it's not very impressing. The worst that happens is a little snappy language. Maybe an empty threat. Occasionally violence. Mr. Dad had a very strong opinion on when runts should be violent.
Of course, Eel is very well versed in the ways of the social world. Once he even spent a whole month traveling with the same non-family member wolf! So, yeah, he reads like an open book. Gullible, naive, the works. If a wolf doesn't threaten to tear out his throat, that means there friendly, right?
But have you ever seen one of those gullible, trusting people with a purpose in life? They will chase that thing like it's the meaning of life itself. Of course, our dear Eel is one of those people. Of course. As previously stated, Eel's goal is to help the world not get worse. By spreading happiness and herbs that stop bleeding. Because that's what good medics do.
Eel has a problem. He is an compulsive list maker. Sure, it's handy when he's organizing or gathering herbs, but when the fist thing you think about someone is a list, there's a problem. And then there's the ear. The ever-twitching annoying-as-hell ear. Or ears. It depends.
Eel loves his herb bundle. He carries it everywhere, is constantly picking out a few herbs to eat from it (energy herbs, if you must know), never lets it out of his site. He even sleeps curled around his precious herbs, which is why he always smells of lemon balm. It's kinda cute, really.
OCD-level neat, tidy, neatidyness is a major thing for every responsible med runner. A good medic should be able to tell exactly what herbs he or she has at any given moment. (Obsessive-compulsive list making!) And Eel does just that. Except with his fur. He's covered is dust and dirt. Because if your fur is the same color as the ground, you're harder to see.
Now, over his long kind short life, Eel has learned to dislike a few things. Deserting, for one. Deserting is the ultimate low. Dying isn't a very good thing either. Fire's okay, but not the embers it leaves behind. Those are bad. And rabbit flesh makes him nauseous, but that's his sister's fault.

History: Eel had pretty mediocre beginnings. He came from a family of Ethiopian wolves, living alone on the dry, dusty, plains. Being antisocial and stuff. Naming everyone after their favorite food. Eel's dad forced a few over-the-top expectations on him, like every other runt's father. Example: “But Dad, I don't want to kill the rattlesnake that's almost the same size as me and has very pointy venomous teeth.” and later, “But Da-ad, I don't want to go on an epic quest of self discovery to cure my rattlesnake bite.”
But, he survived. Plus Eel had this adorable sister named Rabbit who was waaay taller then him. As soon as everyone could fend for themselves, the family kinda just.... broke up. Cause feeding seven wolves is pretty hard work. Lucky for him, Eel and Rabbit paired up.
Life was okay. For the next few months Rabbit and Eel spent their time hunting and not-dying. Waking hours were spent chasing after mice and rabbits. So was most of the time they should have been sleeping. Eel would go out of his way to help younger wolves because he was just that nice. He even gained a reputation for being a gullible fool who gave away his own food!
Over time his charity caused him to be ever stunted-er.
Yep.
So their lives continued like that, all sunshine and lollipops and starvation, until some idiot started a bush fire. Now, Eel and Rabbits living area was kinda covered in dry grass. But don't worry! They managed to escape into a sandy clearing where the fire couldn't hurt them. Only, it could. Smoldering embers were picked up by the heated wind.... and dropped into the clearing. Eel managed to escape with only a few major burns on his left leg. His sister was not so lucky. Her fur didn't have as must fire-smothering dust on it as Eel's, and The embers took root and mutilated her entire back and sides. The screams, the flickering cinder, the smell of burning flesh.... Eel is still haunted.
The fire didn't kill her, though! By the time the brush fire had burnt away, she was still alive. And Eel planned on keeping her that way. Every loner in the area knew a few remedies. And for the small price of a few meals, they were willing to share them with Eel. His sister began to recover, and Eel began to travel with the odd loner who knew more then a few cures. Eel discovered his favorites (rosemary for memory, alfalfa for energy, lemon balm for comfort), and the ones that were just plain awful (stinging nettles for ANYTHING), and life was good. Well, not that good. Trading away meals was not helping Eel grow.
But then, (more) tragedy struck. Again. Even though Rabbit's burns appeared to be healing, there was an infected pocket that poisoned her blood. Eel was between a rock and a hard place: He could let Rabbit suffer, or he could kill his own sister.
Eel can still taste her foul blood on his teeth
Now Eel was in deep mourning. He refused to sleep, rarely ate, and muttered lists of remedies to comfort himself. Now instead of chasing down recipes for burn salve, Eel discovered he world of mourning herbs. Panther cap to make his memories fuzzy, hensbane for hallucinations to distract him from the truth, lemon balm to ease the pain of death. Eel's life continued in a downward spiral, until too-much fly agaric gave him a seizure and left Eel with mild brain damage and twitching ears.
That was pretty much the moment when Eel decided to help people instead of screwing himself up. He's spent the past few months expanding his lists and helping people and becoming overly attached to his herb bundle and getting chased by horrible monsters that want to kill him.
Thank every deity known to wolfkind Eel can still run fast.

(Dang, look at those neons. Eyeburny colors, wow.)