[Fawn]

Name: Zuma || Zephyrfang (As of June 6th, 1013)
Age: 16 Moons (19 Moons, as of June 6th, 2013)
Gender: Tom
Clan: None
Rank: Loner (Warrior, as of June 6th, 2013)


Photo Credits: RAY DU SOLEIL SHAMAN OF TRISKEL Maine Coons.

Description:

Comprised of a rich cinnamon, brown and tawny blend of colors, the base appears to be almost light caramel, lightening further along his underbelly, chest and right up to his chin and muzzle. His nose is light pink, with long, neat white whiskers, 'highlights' beneath handsome golden eyes and very distinctive tabby forehead markings. The rest of his pelt is a 'classic tabby' look, which includes large swirls and blotches of color, a majority being a saturated, glossy brown with cinnamon undertones, particularly on his whisker pads and around his ruff. Of varying lengths throughout his body, Zuma's pelt is long enough to be classified a 'medium-to-longhair' that leans more towards the latter in times of leafbare and leaf-fall, and there are tufts on both his ears as well as between all of his toes.

The tail that sweeps behind him as he walks is definitely suitable for 'sweeping', being bottle-brush in shape, it's a feather-soft plume with bands of color (primarily dark browns) and is of average length and fluidity of motion. Zuma's overall body-structure is stocky and battle-hardened, with the occasional scar and several nicks in both of his ears signifying the life of a loner, the nastiest being the one that cuts down through his right eye. Though the initial wound left the ocular organ untouched (a bit of luck, really), a long, pink scar shaped almost like a crescent moon (if it were a bit more circular rather than oval-like) serves as a reminder of a particularly hard-won battle from his past.

In terms of facial features, Zuma presents a very masculine, very wild-cat look, with a large muzzle, and sharp, liquid-amber eyes with the occasional hint of green. There is an overall sturdiness about Zuma that just simply won't go away overnight, though he is not overly bulky, still being a young tom, he is thin from his loner days but still muscular, having a fairly good exercise routine and Mommy's bootcamp to fall back on should he put so much as a whisker out of sorts.

Athletic, fast on the draw and with a surprisingly stealthy side, Zuma is a loner through and through.

Description Summary: A large handsome tawny and brown-striped tabby with light-gold eyes.

Personality:

The Eccentric "Devil May Care" Zuma

A charismatic if not a little quirky tom-cat, he's built like a warrior, but with a very strange way of looking things. Having embraced the philosophy of Solipsism since a young age, Zuma literally believes that the reality in which he lives in is all in his head, that everything is created right there in his noggin, and if he were to die, he would simply wake up. This does allow a certain recklessness to his every day habits - he's the guy who'd stroll by Demon's den just to see if he's home - but he's fortunate in that his outstanding battle skills and lightning reflexes usually get him out of trouble he so happily walks right into.

Despite his definite carefree, Devil-May-Care attitude, Zuma never comes off as unintelligent; in fact, he acts as though he was the only one given the rulebook to the Universe, and while he does not believe in StarClan, he seems to need no such faith or belief to get him through the day. Extremely strong of mind and though a little bit guiltless towards things like killing just because Mommy says kill (something he grew tired of, finding it pointless rather than morally wrong, thanks to Shatani's teachings), Zuma is actually quite a nice tom, considering how he was raised. Though his early days were spent as a Yes-Man, this loner has developed into a rebellious wild child, so to speak, in that he doesn't care much for Mommy's plans and likely never will. Though he does have a certain fondness for his family, Zuma wouldn't consider himself particularly close with any of them - being the chosen one created quite the rift with him and his big brother, Mosi - but he would be lying if he said he wouldn't grieve over their deaths.

That's one of his pet peeves, actually. Zuma hates lying, he seems to have a sixth sense that allows him to detect lies both white and bold-faced, able to just intuitively catch on to the falseness of someone's statement as though it were spelled out there for him. As a result, Zuma never lies. He will always, always be painfully honest, no matter what sort of ire or hurt he may spark because of this.

Despite being raised by a spiteful, darkhearted she-cat, Zuma is a gentleman when it comes to she-cats; though he is quick to fall in love with the next pretty young thing that just so happens to catch his eye, Zuma, though he hasn't realized it yet, has not truly fallen in love. Those one-time she-cats who never take him up on his offer (of running away together) are more infatuations, really, and they never ever go where he expects them to, there's either another tom in the picture or they end up choosing their Clans or their existing families over him. Which is fine, if they refuse, that just means they weren't the right she-cat to begin with.

When Zuma does finally find that 'perfect one', his loyalty and devotion are likely forever, as Zuma has never been the particularly libidinous type, he is not a tom who strays, and is quite likely to follow after her to the ends of the earth, whether she asks it of him or not.

On the darker side of this eccentric, charming, pleasant coin, is a warrior archetype with a more strategical, scientific interest in fighting. Deeply enthralled by 'cause and effect' and the resulting injuries in whatever new technique he comes up with and employs, Zuma seems particularly unphased by gore and bloodshed, as though he's grown up with it his whole life. In fact, it takes a heck of a lot to actually shake up Zuma, one would think his mind and emotional state of being have the solidity of a medieval fortress. Despite seeming as though he is a harmless cat governed by mercy and gentility and kindness, anyone who gets on his bad side (and you have to be a seriously tormented soul to actually get on his bad side, considering he doesn't have one), one will quickly learn the ways of the killer that lurks just behind the surface. He is by no means a loose cannon, he is perfectly in control of himself, and that darker side of himself, both inherited and cultivated, is locked away in a secure little box for those very few, rare times in which he might actually need it.

Still, though Zuma has almost as many secrets as he's had she-cats he's been 'smitten with', he is a decent friend, reliable, ever truthful, gentlemanly and a good sport. He is not quite the 'machine of vengeance' his mother wishes him to be, and you know what? It's his world. He's the king of it, and no one - not even Mommy - is going to make him give up his crown.

Sure the crown's imaginary, but that's half the fun of it. After a while, if you really start to believe something to be true, maybe, just maybe, given enough time, it will become true, all on it's own.


History:

Born the Half-NightClan Half-Loner son of Shatani (formerly Flarefang) and Mito, the name that was chosen for the prized offspring of this ill-fated pair was Zuma, he who would be stronger than the brother that came before him, and smarter than his sister, the littermate. The second born of Amara and Zuma, he was so markedly different from Mosi, the older brother (formerly called Narrowkit) that it was a wonder they were even brothers at all.

From the second he was born, this large personality crammed into a small but very healthy, enduring body walked and talked as if the world had been handed to him on a silver platter, the start of his solipsistic philosophy likely the seeds his mother had planted in those early days. He was the chosen one, it would all begin and end with him, he had a destiny to fulfill. However, teaching a cat that young that even if he aimed for the moon, he was sure as hell going to land on the moon, forget the stars, seemed to breed a certain rebelliousness and sense of entitlement in him that didn't go away even after he came out of his 'apprenticeship'. It was more like bootcamp, if an observer were to be completely honest; free of the restraints of the warrior code, Zuma was taught the ways of a killer and a survivor by his father Mito and his mother Shatani, whose heart was quickly revealing itself to be as black as black could be.

Grown into the lifestyle, the killing aspect of it didn't bother him as much as it should, nor did he have any sort of belief in a higher power - after all, when one had a solipsistic mindset, he was the higher power. Zuma holds the world on a string, and it was with this realization at 12 moons, that the 'perfect soldier', the perfect harbinger of vengeance against NightClan, started to view things in a different light.

Breaking away from his mother's crazy ideals and not bothering to mourn a father he hadn't been that attached to, Zuma spent a few moons on his own, checking in with Shatani and his siblings when he felt like it, otherwise he was off exploring, watching from afar with his rapidly developing devil-may-care attitude. Charming and friendly, it was hard to suspect that this handsome loner was a cat who could kill another as though it were as guiltless as breathing, a cat whose sole 'destiny' in life was to be his mother's favorite warrior.

Deciding he didn't care much for Mother's big plan, Zuma has been going along with it on the surface, but his heart is not in it - what's his motivation for it, anyhow? His mother has the grudge against NightClan, he doesn't. He doesn't have a grudge against anything, really, he seems content with just going through the motions of life, killing when it's asked of him, though he does tend to spar with Mosi frequently, even if his less battle-built brother always loses, it's good for practice if nothing else.

Having a deep appreciation for she-cats, he seems to fall in love quite easily, and despite Mother's wishes, Zuma has started to notice the she-cats in the whole forest, whether they have Clan ties or not.

Other:
Sunlight Through the Dogwoods:

The reasoning behind calling himself that is simple; after hearing about the Tribe Cats and learning all he could, Zuma abruptly decided that he liked their naming system. Crowing himself Sunlight Through the Dogwoods, or Sundog, it isn't so much that he's lying when he tells the other cats this, it's more along the lines of him truly believing that this is his actual name. Zuma is also his actual name - it's not like there's a rule that you can have only one, right?

Besides, it's his world. He can do whatever he wants.