Kutu Adult ref

Name: Kutu
Name meaning: Rust
Age: 4 years 4 moons
Gender: Female
Tribe: Crooked Tree
Rank: Hunter Tyro Sentry
Accessories: Reed bands (On her braids), Zebra Collar w/Lightning Ridge Black Opal
Personality: [Spunky][Kind][Innocent][Determined][Sly][Secluded][Quiet][Cold*][Emotional][Easily Frustrated].  

[Secluded]: After her incident with Bilashi, she's secluded herself. As a cub she would happily brag and approach strangers in her free time, but now she'd rather just sit off to one side of the camp by herself than be around others. If she is in the company of any others, it is only her family that she allows to approach her and lay down next to her or share a meal. Anyone else, and she'll most likely just get up and find a new place to be alone. This trait carried into adult hood and if anything has only gotten worse. She doesn't often seek company, not even from her family anymore. The only cat she seems to seek out is a certain tom across the border.

[Quiet]: This trait is mostly because of her new found deafness. She can pick up vibrations of voices, but can't distinguish the words aside from monotone vibrations in the cheetah's chest and seeing their lips move. Nyoka has started trying to teach her to read lips, but there is a big difference between watching someone speak slowly and articulate strongly, than trying to pick up movements in a conversation. Because her own voice is little more than a loud murmuring bass in her ears, she sounds a little strange when she speaks. She can feel that her words sound strange and prefers not to talk at all than embarrass herself. She's gotten better at reading lips after a few years of practice, and she's been working to articulate her words better so she can be understood. On a good day you wouldn't even know she's deaf. Though conversations with her are often short and one sided.

[Cold*]: At first, Kutu can come off as cold due to her previous traits, but this is untrue. She's really a very kind cheetah, once she manages to overcome her personal troubles all she wants to do is help others with theirs. *Cold applies to cats who aren't close to her, or cats she's found new distrust in.

[Emotional]: Kutu's emotional state is very unstable. A day can start out with a wonderful sleep and a beautiful morning and end with her laying in her quiet corner of the camp, feeling depressed and wanting to be alone. This is partly the reason for her only wanting to be around her family, since her brothers seem to treat her indifferently with her new disability, even if they as well as her older sister and mother have become a little more protective of their baby sister. But even then, she's picky on when she wants family time.

[Easily Frustrated]: Because of her loss of hearing, Kutu has a hard time doing a lot of things that normally would seem very simple. Her sense of balance is offset because her sensitive inner ears are shredded. Although she's managed to overcome the staggering walk she had after the accident, she can't help loosing her balance while she's running and will tend to trip or skid in a turn, lucky if she doesn't completely fall over. Along with this, she can't hear any instructions or conversations unless she is looking directly at the speaker. Because she can't do these menial tasks with ease, she is easily frustrated at herself for being insufficient.


Scars: [Inner Ears]: Kutu has two scars inside her ears that trail out to her temples. These are from her cubhood accident that caused her to go deaf. Bilashi grabbed her by her head and in an attempt to pull her away from another cheetah, his fangs dug into her skull and slipped into her ears to puncture the soft, inner ear.
[Facial Scar]: After Vumbi's death, Kutu was trying to seek comfort from Damu, who was sulking himself. He hadn't heard his sister's voice, and she couldn't hear him telling her to go away, so once she touched him, he snapped and raked a claw across her face.
[Back and Flank]: Various battles (If you want your cheetah to have left her some scratches, let me know! c: )

Strengths:
- Brilliant eyesight
- Strong legs and upper chest from Sentry genes
- Flexible
- Speedy

Weaknesses:
- Deaf
- Unbalanced
- Stalking
- Tracking by hearing
- Listening to orders/instructions
- Hunting
- Kiojah

Gift: The Gift of Placement- the ability to move small to medium sized objects without touching them. [Kutu carries the strongest known use of the Gift of Placement between all of the Tribes. Where most can only manage to lift stones and small objects, Kutu lifted a cheetah on her first try. The reason for the amount of control she carries over her gift is unknown, though there could be a correlation with her refusal to use it.]

Brief History:

[Cub]: Kutu was a born a healthy cub, and the only she-cat in her litter. She grew to love all of her family and became especially fond of her older sister and mother. Although most of the family were Sentries; all she wanted to do was be a Hunter. Kutu was part of the last generation to be born on the island; her younger brother, Ufanisi, dying during the journey. The new lands offered her a new chance to explore and play. She was a few moons from being apprenticed with the accident took place. A psychotic Sunning Rock tom, Bilashi, cub-napped her and called it 'a play day'. But this day spread out to a few weeks, the two drawing farther and farther away from the Tribe camps. After a loner she-cat, Mawingu, found them and discovered Kutu had been stolen away by Bilashi, she tried to save her. In the escape, Bilashi unknowingly grabbed Kutu by the skull, his fangs sinking deep into her ears and shredding the sensitive tissue inside. Mawingu managed to get Kutu home and away from Bilashi, but not without sacrificing her own life in the process. From this incident, Kutu was permanently deafened.

Being Deafened, Kutu's training as a Hunter was very challenging. She couldn't run in a straight line, she couldn't stalk up to prey...she was failing. Her brothers were already finishing their training and Kutu wasn't any closer to being a Hunter. The decision was made and Kutu was traded to be trained as a Sentry. Her resentment towards Fumo for making this decision still churns in her stomach. Her training to be a fighter went much more successfully. She carried naturally strong limbs from her family's generations of sentries and easily caught up to her brothers. She still absolutely hates the fact that she's a sentry, but she was hopeful upon her promotion. She would get her gift soon. She'd get something that would allow her to hear. She could hunt again.

She'd been sitting outside of the camp for hours when it happened, praying for her hearing back. She was standing next to a little stream and had a bunch of her favorite things with her; a snake rattle, some crunching leaves, the running water; anything she could carry and make sounds with when she could hear. She stared at her reflection, trying to force the glow to come. But it wouldn't. Still hopeful, she decided to give it a break and go for a walk with her brother. Somehow, the conversation came to the two of them talking about Fumo. Kutu had nothing nice to say about their leader, which aggravated Damu. They began to argue, and Kutu couldn't hold back her frustrations. Without realizing that she'd activated her gift, she snapped at her brother. His paws were lifted off the ground, though she didn't notice. Damu was scared by this, and in retaliation, his face illuminated green to force her to put him down. The gift of intimidation. Kutu's glowing face stopped and she fled from Damu. That afternoon she sat by the stream again, forcing her face to glow and screaming as the items she'd brought with her began floating just as her brother had. No. She wanted to be able to hear! Not to move things! Out of spite, Kutu refused to use her gift, cursing the sisters for refusing to help her. Occasionally she will unintentionally use it, but doing so just makes her angry.

Relationships:

= Respect
= Acquainted/Neutral
= Friend
= Good Friend
= Crush
= Love
= Discomfort
= Dislike
= Hate
= Family
Dead

Vumbi // "Vumbi was my father. I loved him so much and I looked up to him, even if I didn't want to follow in his pawsteps. It hurt everyone in my family to lose him...but he was the only one that didn't treat me like I was useless or talk down to me like I have a learning problem because I can't hear anymore."

Nyoka: /// "My relationship with her has broken up after my incident. I understand that she's my mother, and she's always treated me like a cub because I was the baby sister...but I'll never be treated like an adult by her now because she felt like me losing my hearing was her fault."

Sumu: / "..."

Kisasi / "..."

Damu // "I don't want to talk about him."

Ufanisi // "..."

Usi  /// "..."

Maono / "He's alright."

Jahaur / "I don't blame him."

Kiojah / "I met this cat when I fell into a frozen river and was swept into Crowded Water territory. He jumped in to save me and took me back to his camp to warm up. He's gone through some of the same struggles I have and I refuse to let a border keep us apart."

Strelka / "..."

Matone "She's alright."

Johari "He's alright."

Nyeusi "He's okay."

Bilashi // "I don't care what the code says if I see him again I'm killing him or he's killing me."


Role play ex:
The camp was quiet as usual as the sun peaked high in the sky. The day was too hot for any cheetahs to be lounging around outside, so most were taking the opportunity to catch up on their sleep in the cool dens before they had to do their patrols. But a scarlet cub couldn't bother to notice that the day was so hot. Being born in the drought, she only really felt cold when the sun was gone, or when she was wet. Kutu was bored and found climbing on top of her sleeping mother was a great adventure. Nyoka clearly though otherwise, as she'd grunt when Kutu jumped onto her stomach or let out an annoyed growl when she started biting her ears or tail. But that was all her mother did in response to her actions, so Kutu kept at it.

Kutu (c)