BAPTISED IN VITRIOLIC ACID ↷『 SMOGMAW 』

[smogstar]

SMOGMAW.

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Type: Primary character
Roleplayer: @willie

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Affiliation: ShadowClan
— Marsh Colony (formerly)
— Loner (at birth)

Age: 64 moons
— ages monthly on the 14th

Apprentices: Singepaw, Bloodpaw
— former: Shimmerpaw, Sharpshadow, Ashenfall

As Deputy: 12th March, 2023 - Present
— preceded by: Chilledstar (became leader)

Real power, real legitimacy, lies in the shadows. The space in-between public discourse and a leader's posturing, where the narratives are planned and primed for fruition. Smogmaw is intimately familiar with this space; it is his territory as surely as ShadowClan's glades and mires are.

Smogmaw (he/him) is a large gray tom with black tabby markings and dark orange eyes.

Smogmaw is the deputy of ShadowClan, answering to Chilledstar and assisting them in governing the clan. He is backwritten to have been a member of the Marsh Colony, and he officially joined the RP on 2022, October 22nd.

Appearance.
— scars gained
— inventory
Personality.
— faith
— characterisation
Biography.
— backwritten
— roleplayed
Kin.
— family tree
Relationships.
— shadowclan cats
— non-shadowclan cats
— lost & deceased cats
Miscellaneous
— trivia
— playlist
— aesthetic notes
— faceclaims

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[smogstar]

APPEARANCE

[ art credit to waluigipinball! ]

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Gallery — LH blue classic tabby.

Smogmaw's body commands the space around it. It moves with the heft of a rolling boulder—broad in the shoulders, flat in the muzzle, powerful in the hips and haunches. Grace is not a known term in his bodily language. Rather, each pawstep is leaden, as if he's intent on bruising the earth and anything daft enough to be in his way.

His pelt resembles the smoky residue of a spent flame. Ash shrouds the greater part, a bleak and lifeless grey, and from it, black winding patterns flourish and unfurl in plumes. The pattern emerges as twin streaks on his forehead that touch the tips of his ears, branch out into rivulets and stripes along his spine, before coiling cyclone-like on his midsection and down his limbs. In the heart of his facial profile, two orange eyes, dulled to a smoulder, glare out from above a black nose.

The tom looms large and imposing when he wishes to be visible, yet adopts a hunched and wary bearing in his own time. Either pose denotes the cat as one predisposed to his own world: solitary, uncouth, and defensive. He's marked himself as distant, his physical cues making for social barricades both intentionally and accidental. Even in a relaxed temperament, his nose is turned downward, eyes downcast, and mouth perpetually curled in disdain. A resting-bitch-face of the sourest calibre. When a smile is forced on him, the lines deepen and narrow his muzzle—rather than broadening.

Fur - at a length somewhere between medium and long - covers a body comprising fat and muscle in equal and ample proportions. It stands in odd cowlicks over his nape and atop his crown, especially, which suggests few tongues find him when they are shared. His chest and belly fare no better, a cloud of longer fur tangling there. Its texture is softer than expected.

While navigating the night or shaded undergrowth, stealth comes easily, though only when done at a pace slower, more cautiously calculated than his clanmates. His lumbering form, built as it is for power and brute strength, tends not to appreciate being rushed, lest it betray the tom at his own game and land him in unwanted attention.

He smells of mushrooms, wild garlic, and mud.

SCARS GAINED
— Twin cuts across muzzle. Received at 45 moons from Bonejaw/Boneripple, in retaliation to him treating an apprentice roughly.

INVENTORY
— Non-existent at the moment. Most of the doodads, trinkets, and knicknacks he'd hoarded have eroded from his memory since seeking higher aspirations in the pursuit for power.
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[smogstar]

PERSONALITY 🙵 INTERACTION

[ art credit to my bf c: ]

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『neutral evil, istj』
Intelligence ●●●●●●●●●○
Confidence ●●●●●●●○○○
Charisma ●●●○○○○○○○
Creativity ●●●●●●●●○○
Empathy ●●○○○○○○○○
Humor ●●●●●●○○○○

Strength ●●●●●●●●●○
Stamina ●●●●●○○○○○
Stealth ●●●●●●●●●○
Agility ●●●●●○○○○○
Hunting ●●●●●○○○○○
Swimming ○○○○○○○○○○
Climbing ●●○○○○○○○○
Grace ●●●○○○○○○○

(+) Acute, Headstrong, Methodical
(/) Assertive, Blunt, Self-conscious
(-) Aloof, Impulsive, Vindictive

Widowed, Single — Heterosexual
— Does not trust easily, befriends easier if flattery is involved, not very difficult to woo
— Will start fights | Will end fights | Will flee | Will not show mercy
— Physically hard | Mentally hard | Emotionally easy

『 ⁂ 』

An opportunist more than a strategist, thriving in unpredictable environments and adopting survivalist practices. Smogmaw is a champion of hard-nosed pragmatism, exercising detached logic over raw emotion in just about every interaction. While a cynic to a fault and possessing an insatiable ego to match, he remains dutifully committed to upholding his role, his image, his status, as all are extensions and symptoms within the hierarchy he's chosen to climb. The tom considers them equally precious and worth protecting, and struggles miserably when a circumstance challenges one of them.

He regards power and influence as inextricable from one another. Finite resources both, they are concurrently the currents by which inter-clan relations and interactions flow; war, bond-building and alliances, subterfuge, the rules and enforcement therein, all exhanges of power and influence.

Smogmaw sees it as a zero-sum game: the more he has, the less the other cats have. The more he's able to amass, the higher his position, the greater his sway, the greater his influence, and the stronger his clan. The five clans vie against one another, each seeking their own best interests endlessly. As per Smogmaw's philosophy, the path to triumph in this competition lies in dragging others down to the shadows, and standing atop the heap. Manipulation, exploitation, and intimidation are the methods he employs most readily and accessibly.

All that to say, the guy dedicates an unhealthy amount of time inside his own mind. He is left aloof and distant by a penchant to over-analyse and overthink. It is a compulsion he struggles to reign in, and he is therefore prone to obsessive behaviour, compulsions, and intrusive thoughts, manifesting in a neuroticism which has him constantly reeling, and an ego he's desperate to feed. Without an outlet in Halfshade, whom Smogmaw considered the only cat capable and deserving to peel away these layers and meet him in the present, he's become a recluse in the body and visage he projects to his clanmates.

Time and experience in his deputorial position, however, has taught him a measure or two in patience, humility, and a willingness to compromise. His view on his clanmates has softened accordingly. They are no longer mere means to an end; they are the base of support that legitimises his ambitions and empowers his role. Their loyalty, their trust, and their respect is paramount, and they deserve the same - if not more - consideration and dedication as his own pursuits.

Fatherhood has refined him into a surprisingly proficient handler of kits. He has found himself able to channel his lofty imagination towards entertaining the kits with riddles, stories, and games, and rewards their curiosity with his attention, his praise. He has discovered a nurturing, protective side to himself he'd not had the privilege to explore until his first litter with Halfshade.

Grief weighs heavy on the tom's heart, still, and it's a wound he has never quite learned how to heal. Halfshade's loss was, is, and forever will be the greatest tragedy and injustice he's ever had to endure. Nothing since has been as significant or precious. He copes by shielding himself against the prospect entirely: he is cold, indifferent, and pragmatic in his disposition when the subject arises. It is best if Halfshade remains in memory's limbo, he believes, to spare his conscience the pain. To preserve him from revisiting the sorrow - and, therefore, keeping him intact.

FAITH
— Irrilegious. Smogmaw acknowledges the governing forces which preside over his world, yet holds no reverence towards them. To him, faith in StarClan is wishful thinking and credulity. An all-powerful entity so secretive over its motives, the natural reaction should be to remain critical and keep oneself guarded and unconvinced. In lieu, StarClan have proven themselves to be susceptible to the same forces the Clans struggle with, their visions equally fallible and grounded in subjective whim. For what reason, then, does StarClan deserve such unabashed, unyielding exaltation?

It doesn't help that Smogmaw was raised on a vision of rebirth and the cyclical nature of all things. It was believed by his father, and his father before him, that the spirit moves with time, living beyond flesh, and, upon death, regains a mind and a form anew. It doesn't wait on the stars. It doesn't promise an eternal plane over the swamp and beyond. And it's a much more appealing premise. If all one gets upon death is a starry pelt, memories to eternally brood over while the waking world forgets them, it seems terribly anticlimactic, and unnecessarily cruel to boot.

CHARACTERISATION
— The internal monologue in his posts follow an observational and narratological tone, heavy on detail, and reading almost in an expository manner.
— His internal monologue will debate itself frequently over several ideas and emotions, usually bickering until the result is a meagre compromise. Many times, he will express internal conflict, discomfort, or uncertainty in his decisions, and, to soothe himself, attempt to rationalise the matter logically, or dismiss it altogether until he can broil it over for longer.
— Hypocrite. He dislikes cats who boast and gloat about their victories or accomplishments, yet feels no guilt in doing the exact same to others if a chance is presented. He is perfectly well-equipped at exploiting others' vanity to stroke his own.
— Body language rarely reflects his actual mood. He puts up a front, and never feels at ease enough to be vulnerable.
— Terrible sleeper, can't remember the last time he's dreamed. Misconstrues the anxiety he feels from insomnia as a product of an intelligent mind.
— Loves his family immensely. Wants another litter, and will never admit to this.
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