Atli

          Atli may be innocent, but his innocence is not ignorance. He knows and understands the cruelty in the world; however, he chooses to look past this in order to allow himself and others to be happy. When Atli is teased, he may become a bit defensive, but he won't get angry from being teased (having sisters prepared him for teasing all his life). Very few things can even make Atli angry. Among those things are insults about his family and his past and the idea of rape. After what happened to Akiru, the idea of rape disgusts him and he becomes rather enraged when it is brought up. Unfortunately, he is aware that rape has been used for interrogations and means of torture in his pride. That's where his innocence comes in. He's actually mastered the means for putting walls around things he doesn't want to think about so that he still knows they're happening but doesn't have to really be aware.

          Overall, Atli's quite kind. He feels his goal in life his to help others. First and foremost is his family, but after joining the Iris Pride he is quite content with his usefulness to them and is happy to be around non-family felines at last. Atli isn't a chatterbox, but when brought into conversation he has plenty to say. He generally won't instigate conversation with someone he doesn't know, but he does enjoy the opportunity to make friends. He's hopeful for the future - hoping that maybe he can find a mate at some point and that she'll like his family, too. Atli's position on who should rule Hexasol in the end is undecided, but being a feline of Iris Pride he's naturally a little biased.

          Obviously he looks very similar to a bobcat, and he has abnormally large paws, even for his breed. His eyes are hazel, appearing more yellow in the sunlight, like looking through murky water. He has some scars on his body, but not many. It's easy to tell that he's not shy, for he sits tall and proper, but he doesn't look particularly confident, either.

          Atli was born after the humans died - about three years after; tensions were very high at that time, and still not all the creatures were yet ready to leave the confines of human houses. Atli's mother, Luna, and her long-time suitor and breeder, Alkae, did not wish to surrender themselves to the outside world. For three years they remained in the home of their owners, first eating all the cat food in the house and, finally, resorting to eating the flesh of their humans. Luna felt it was morally wrong, but alas, she was hungry, and for both of them being show cats instinct had rather given way to habitual laziness; they had been expecting to be fed and now had to re-realize their talents. After a little over two years of the humans being gone, life had gotten a bit easier as Alkae remembered to hunt. The two fell into their usual habit of mating and yielded four children - only one of which was a male. Atli was the oldest and strongest, followed by his twin sister Yukira and Ariku and then his youngest, weakest sister, Kylie.

          Atli's name was meant to be short for Atlas, a mythological being who held up the earth - or basically just a giant map. Atli was well known for his skills as an adventure. He had a near perfect memory and liked to wander, and he never feared he would get lost, even in bad weather, for his internal compass was extraordinary. Having never been trained for show or breeding or anything, Atli merely grew up on instinct. He hunted. He ate. He slept. He thought. He grieved when his father died, having gotten caught in a barbed wire fence and then devoured by dogs. He grieved when Akiru was raped when she was about a year old. He felt much pain in his young age, and he learned a lot, but there was always some quiet optimism inside of him. When bad things happened, he chose to see the good in them, not because he could not handle the pain but because he knew he needed to be Atlas - the one who carried the world. His only purpose was to bring peace to his family, and he did his best to do that, even when Akiru gave birth to her seven weak kittens. He was the caretaker. He hunted. He defended. When the house they were living in got too close to enemy lines as canines and felines alike got too comfortable, it was his duty to find a home, and he did.

          The home Atli found was a tree house just barely within city limits. There had never been animals in the home, so far as he could tell. After a week or two of scouting, when he was about two years old and Akiru's kittens were old enough to walk, he led his family up the tree house. Akiru and Yukira took care of Kylie, and all of them took care of Luna. Atli could only stay with them for so long, he knew; there was an entire city of threats out there and Atli didn't want to be oblivious to it, safe in his pretty tree house. He wanted to know that danger may come his family's way. Fortunately, he found himself relieved from his duty a few months later. A neighbor from not too far away showed up, a rather aged but still lively Bengal cat by the name of Horatio who had done his own fair share of exploring Hexasol. He said Atli may find a home in the Iris Pride, a strong group of felines who may someday help him defend his family, as Horatio had. He'd left because of some recurring nightmares due to the death of the humans which made him unable to help the Pride, but after spending some time with this pleasant family he found himself much more relaxed. When he did have nightmares, Yukira and Akiru comforted him. He was a perfect male helping figure for the family, and Atli knew he'd keep them safe when he left for the Pride.

After leaving the tree house, Atli saw many things. It was the first time he'd gotten lost, and by the time he found the Iris Pride, a year after he'd set out in search of it, he was practically just skin and bones. He'd gotten so disoriented - so confused by the different smells - that he'd nearly forgotten where he was trying to go. At last, however, he found his new home.

          There was very little the wind could do that the rain itself had not already done. The home, Atli knew by now, after a few months of harsh winter and the still wicked first month of spring, would be all but destroyed. His family had not left too long ago - at least a year - but it hadn't been in the greatest condition when the humans had died anyways. At least, that's what his parents told him and his siblings when he was younger. Despite being "wealthy" people, the humans had never done much to keep up with the maintenance of their home. It was very pretty, but in bad weather the ceilings had leaks and the windows were apt to opening in gusts of wind and the shutters on the windows frequently came loose and fell off. The carpets were torn and a little dirty, the floors creaked, one of the stairs had broken when a human stepped on it - so mother had said - and the porch was weakened by termites and such. The owners had always talked about fixing it up, but clearly they never did. Now Atli wanted to know if the home was suffering from the effects of the weather.

         Obviously he had seen some of the degeneration of the home - he'd lived in it for two or three years (he couldn't really remember) before he and his family had left. The beds were smelling rotten last he checked, and the box that had held all the cold food had stopped its whirring. There was no more energy - any lights that had been left on were now off. No more heat in the winter. No more cold in the summer. These last few things were things his mother had pointed out to him. He'd never experienced them, but being that summer was coming fast and the harsh winter and spring were suddenly wiped out by scorching sun, he certainly wished he could get cooler.

          Under his soft tan and brown coat Atli was sure he was dying and burning up. He let his mouth hang open as he trotted through the overgrowing grasses, stopping to hunt a mouse or a grasshopper here and there but generally giving up as soon as he caught it because he wasn't particularly hungry. He knew the way home very well - his internal compass was remarkable - and found it looking pretty much like they'd left it, except with a lot of the garden dug up or trampled on or just dying from being unkempt. Atli was a little disappointed. Some homes had already collapsed on one side or fallen sideways or sunken into the ground. Yet here, their little home was perfect. What a disappointing end to this trip. Perhaps he ought to go check on his family...