Rafael

NAME rafael

AGE four years

APPEARANCE as an coastal wolf, rafael's coat is a little thinner than normal wolves due to how long his ancestors lived by it. just a little bit, not by much. in the past, it helped his ancestors deal with the rapid change of temperature. his fur is pitch black, with no hint of markings. he's a bit long in both size and features, legs and thick tail on display for all the others to see. his sharply angled eyes are dark brown, with a light blue section splitting his left eye in two. despite being long-legged, rafael is quite large in size and is pretty muscular. his heavy weight and strong jaws would probably make him a decent fighter.

Personality: quiet and introspective, rafael isn't very used to being around a large pack of wolves. the pack he lived in as a pup was very small, with only a few wolves. there was the occasional traveler that stuck by, but his parents and the others shared raising up the pups. he's very familial and prefers close contact with other wolves when he knows them very well. he's a bit of a snuggler too, but that's a secret between you, him and me. for about two years now, he's lived on his own and is quite solitary.

he can be quite rude and blunt without meaning too, and might come off as stuck-up. he's very much an observer, his senses always on high alert in case he has to change dens again. for the past two years he's traveled around and now these days if he settles for too long he becomes a little.. twitchy. he'll also run off to do his own thing for a couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks before popping back in. he can be a little unpredictable.

rafael loves pretty things, though. he'll collect a bunch of them and trade them away for even cooler things. it's gotten to the point where he needs a home base to trudge back to and stash away his things. he can be a total goof in private, rolling around in the dirt and trying to climb trees. sometimes he'll get this huuuge burst of energy and he'll get the zoomies, exploding from bushes and startling deer or squirrels. it's great fun.

History: rafael was raised in a small pack as a pup, descended from a large pack that lived many many winters ago. there's a little bit of inbreeding in his blood, but many traveling and loners have mated into his line to make it clear enough. they were a very close pack, all of the pups raised together like siblings. however, into his second winter a good majority of the pack got very very sick all of a sudden.

to keep himself catching the illness, rafael left them. it tore at his very soul to leave them behind, but he had to do it. he didn't want to die like they were. the next two years were spent traveling around, collecting odds and ends, and at one point he had to make a home base to come back to. he did enjoy traversing the woods, but he also liked having something to come back to. eventually, the silence and occasional awkward conversation with other wolves settled into him and he's very content to be on his own.

he likes being as weird as he wants, though sometimes he had been interrupted by other wolves and the immediate contact had him unable to meet their eyes.