Odynn

Family: Astrid (mother), Vali (father), Skadi (younger sister), Open to any other family!!

Personality: To both those who know him and to those that Odynn first meets he creates the impression of being younger than he actually is.  He tries to keep most interactions as light as possible and to maintain a general overall positive feel.   Odynn is quick to smile, with pleasantries and compliments easily falling from his lips to just about whoever he is around at the time.  

A large of the reason that Odynn tends to come off across as someone a handful of years younger has to do with his large chunk of years missing from his memory.  He does have a great deal of emotional maturity - the kind often associated with getting through various trials in life and coming out better for it - and yet most of the kind of indicators one usually notices in a personality are for the most part hidden away until someone really needs that type of advice.  Much of history is lost to him and can only be hinted at through his personality if you look really really hard and pay close attention.  A flippant remark about which streets in the slums is safer, or about neglectful parents, the feelings of insecurity in love, and so on.  These remarks are often spoken in an airy matter and rarely carry the emotional weight they normally would with others.  Odynn simply knows these things, though he doesn't have the emotional history that goes with knowing them most of the time.  Although occasionally after a remark or an action that he only seems to know without any history or reason Odynn's usual lighthearted air is briefly broken as the reality to the possible reasons behind the action or knowledge he has sinks in before managing to pull himself together.   

Despite Odynn's broad frame and large size, he is surprisingly careful and gentle.  He doesn't want to accidentally forget himself and use to much force in regards to cats that are smaller or weaker than he is.  He wants to improve himself, physically, mentally and emotionally but he does not want to disregard others and the way he can affect them.  Odynn doesn't want to leave a trail of negativity in his wake and instead makes the conscious decisions to try and uplift other cats around him - either by helping them or using sincere compliments.  He doesn't like to lie to himself or to others and will do just about everything in his power to avoid lying - including speaking in complete and infuriating circles and side stepping direct answers to get out of lying.  

Contrasting with Odynn's more lighthearted side is his incredibly pensive disposition.  This stems mostly from his amnesia.  He often ponders and has a lot of introspection about what his life used to be like given the small various clues he left with.  Between the very early memories of his youth, the burn scars on his body and instinctual knowledge and ability to fight like a brawler Ody is wary and vaguely shameful of his past - as it is evident to him that he must have done damage to others in order to get by.  However despite wanting to absolutely leave that life behind and move forward in his new one that he has made, Odynn is near desperate to remember his life.  He'd rather know the uncomfortable and possibly ugly truth than be left pondering the 'what ifs' of his past.  It is not uncommon to stumble upon Odynn sitting in a secluded and quiet spot completely wrapped up in his own mind and pensive, caught in his thoughts attempting to figure out who he used to be.

Despite Odynn's fighting ability, which is more akin to that of a brawler rather than anything that speaks of training and discipline, Odynn has no desire to be a protector.  Not because he doesn't want to protect the Jellicles, or because he thinks he can't do it/help but because Odynn has become a sort of pacifist - only will to fight if it is absolutely necessary - and because he was worried about that some how leading to him running into someone he could have cared about in his past but who he can't remember. 

History: Odynn was the first born to his parents.  Unfortunately they had been hoping and wishing for a daughter rather than a son, which was a fact that they never hid from their child.  Sometimes their disappointment in having a son was obvious in their remarks and other times it was much more subversive and implicit in their behaviour.  So throughout his young childhood his parents were often apathetic towards Odynn, never quite straying into outright neglect but dancing the line of it.  It didn't take long for young Ody to figure out that whatever shenanigans the tom got into his parents would barely bat their lashes at it, so he generally did whatever he wanted with little thought to the consequences.

At least until his younger sister was born.  Finally the daughter that his parents had wished for, and despite his parents having treated him rather horribly for not being a daughter, Odynn held no ill will towards his new sister and actually became quite attached to her.  Skadi was doted upon and adored.  Even though his parents were freely giving his sister the attention and love that hadn't ever been afforded to him Odynn never held it against his sister.  Instead he recognized that his parent's weren't the best of cats and had also internalized years of him not being worth the attention.  He'd accepted that reality and by then was more living on his own than with his parents, though with the addition of Skadi, Odynn made it a habit to be around his family's house more often.  Skadi had both her parents and her older brother essentially wrapped around her little fingers, though with all the love and attention from her parents Skadi wasn't afforded nearly as much freedom as Odynn was.  

Odynn who by then essentially had his own den on the streets and was more then used to taking care of and defending himself, having learned practical skills and common sense on his own through trial and error of doing whatever he wanted.  He'd learned to fight by pissing off the wrong cats, getting into a brawl or a dozen while drinking and having to defend his den.  He'd fallen in love a pawful of times, which usually ended in disaster for the tom - being left more often than he left the queens.  He'd learned a lot about life, and the only constant positive influence within his life was Skadi.  Who he in turn did his best to teach about the world outside of their home and the boundaries Skadi was still confined to due to their parent's, while protecting her as best he could from the darker parts of it if he could.

Unfortunately, Odynn's parents completely disapproved of his continued and close relationship with Skadi.  In their eyes, their son wasn't good enough and much too wild to associate with such a queen as beautiful and full of potential as Skadi was, it wasn't good for her and he wasn't enough to be allowed access to her.  So his parents banned Odynn from seeing his sister, threatening to punish Skadi if he so much as dared to continue contact with his sister.  Unfortunately Odynn's protectiveness of Skadi kept him from seeing her again with the exception of a last goodbye to explain to her why he wouldn't be coming around anymore.  He couldn't risk whatever they'd do to detriment Skadi's life further than they already were with the boundaries they kept for her.

Odynn's friends and acquaintances noticed the differences in him almost immediately, while he continued to be compassionate to his friends he became more reserved in his love life.  Being told he wasn't good enough to be around his younger sister anymore had been one of the biggest hits to his self concept since he was young.  Which got reinforced when his current relationship had crumbled, the queen leaving him because he was no longer exciting enough for her and her tastes.  

Staying away from his sister didn't last long however.  Odynn decided that while interacting with Skadi would get her punished, him simply checking up on her wouldn't and he cared way too much to not keep tabs on her to make sure their parents didn't punish or threaten her.  So he'd check in on her, always from a distance to make sure she was alright and occasionally even wait until she noticed him from a distance to let her know that he hadn't abandoned her. 

Months later he met Nivi.  Her anger and near hatred for toms barely fazed him, he'd grown up with parents who could barely stand him based solely on the fact that he was male.  What got to him about Nivi however was despite her youth how bitter and angry she was with toms in general and that something in the back of his mind whispered to him that she'd be worth it to continue to suffer the insults and to actually pry open her shell.  It helped that Odynn actually quite enjoyed the time he spent with her.  And it did pay off, Odynn eventually managed to get through to the queen passed the anger and befriend her - the insults based on being a tom stopped, smiles happened more often and Niviera saw him as a friend.  Unfortunately Odynn had already fallen for the younger queen, but refused to push his feeling onto her and make her uncomfortable, besides Odynn plainly knew Nivi was much too pretty for him and simply felt she was out of his league.  But he didn't want her to stop being in his life, so he was content with the friendship she offered and didn't push for more.  His feelings were his problem, not hers. 

At least until the day that Odynn had found Nivi, hiding and curled into a ball sobbing about something.  He'd nearly panicked, worrying that she was attacked and despite him being frantic internally Odynn gathered some kind of outer calm to try and coax what had happened to cause Nivi to end up sobbing in a ball.  He was stunned nearly speechless when the truth was out, that Nivi reciprocated his feelings.  The tom wasn't sure if he wasn't hallucinating or something, or that she wasn't.  He had no idea how such a beautiful young queen had somehow decided to love him, and wasn't sure she'd be happy with him - Niviera could after all have just about her pick of toms.  Odynn was over the moon with the discovery of Nivi's feelings and did everything he could to make her happy in their relationship, adoring and doting on her.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been sharing his happiness with Skadi who had tried to convince him their parents were wrong over the years (not that it ever had worked).  Despite their happiness, Odynn was still vaguely terrified of asking Nivi to officially be his mate and had resorted to dropping subtle hints towards their future to gauge her reactions and reception to the idea.  

Luckily they had generally been positive and he was so close to actually managing to properly ask Nivi when the bar they were having a cute little date in caught fire.  In the panic Odynn had grabbed the paw of who he thought was Nivi at the time, in actuality it was another queen of similar colouring.  That fact was only realized once Odynn had gotten them out of the flaming bar, and seeing that he had been separated from Nivi had Ody frantic and panicked.  He scannd the crowd of cats fleeing, thanking his large size for the advantage of seeing over most of the cats.  But he didn't see her.  Which meant Nivi was still inside, a thought that had his heart seizing and immediately sent Odynn back into the building to look for his love.  By some miracle through the smoke and debris Odynn found Niviera, and got her to safety outside and laid down before a coughing fit took over from all the smoke.  As his panic subsided at his love being safe Odynn tuned back into the chaos around him, namely of a cat wailing for her child who was still in the bar since her kit had followed her and snuck in wanting to see what it was adults did when she went to sleep.  Ody couldn't just let the kit die with a clear conscience and his compassion towards both the mother and kit had him once again running into the burning bar to try and find someone, but the thicker smoke and more intense heat made it a slower venture.  

Through the crackling of the fire he had managed to hear the young cries and found the kit hiding under the bar.  Odynn barely got them out of the main part of the fire and almost to safety when part of the ceiling collapsed onto Ody, who barely reacted with enough time to protect the kit from the impact.  Knocked unconscious both would have died if not for the kit managing to attract enough attention to them for the two to be rescued.  Unfortunately Odynn suffered rather several burns to his body and amnesia from the ceiling collapse.  

He woke up in the Junkyard infirmary having been found unconscious, bleeding and burned by the ruins of the bar by Munkustrap.  Apparently it took two protectors to drag him back to the Yard.  Upon finally waking up Odynn only had memories of his name, childhood, and family.  He remembered the neglect and constant reinforcement that he wasn't good enough and that he was too wild.  The displeased scowls of his parents and the smile of his sister were all he'd see for months in his dreams.  Occasionally he'd get a dream that seemed like a blurry, indistinct and undecipherable memory.  Nightmares of fire were frequent and still occasionally haunt Odynn, who is severally bothered by the fact that he has no idea why he was near a burned down bar.

Considering that it was the Jellicles who treated him while unconscious and gave him a home while recovering Odynn decided to stay in the Junkyard after recovering.  None of them knew him, and he couldn't remember most of his late adolescence until waking up; so the Yard felt like a new start and Odynn became determined to be better than the tom he couldn't remember being.  But from the displeasure and comments he could remember from his parents, the burns and being found among the ruins of a burned down bar, and the odd tidbits of knowledge he had Odynn didn't exactly think he'd been anywhere near a saint before hand.  Nor did he think he'd be missed by any one other than his sister, but he couldn't quite remember where she lived anymore - an odd part of his childhood that was lost to him.

He's been with the Jellicles now for a good while now and still is unable to remember anything beyond the indistinct and almost nonsense dream memories he gets.