Niemand

Pink text means OOC conversation.

Shy. Nervous. Paranoid. All three are words that have been used to describe this former German scientist. Having fled his home country, Niemand wound up in the wilds outside of Vulpine City. After some time reacclimating himself to society, he moved from the wilds to the Lounge, to various shelters offered by denizens of the Lounge that he's been asked not to speak of, to now living in the city where it is safe. He still comes by the Lounge from time to time, though. As terrible a place as it is, he's still made friends. While the rat has been able to hone his agility and improve his stength in recent months with some help and training, mental scars are harder to work on. He won't run at the sight of his own shadow anymore, but there's still a great unease that he feels in most surroundings, except in the company of those he's come to trust implicitly.
Appearance:
Niemand is a white anthropomorphic rat. The white form is uniform and covers his entire body, except for his ears, nose, hands, feet, and tail. All of those locations appear to be covered with bare pink flesh. Upon a closer look, it might be seen that his long tail actually has sparse fine hairs. Anyone near him could spot the long whiskers that come out of the upper half of his snout, behind the nose. The rat stands 5'2" tall at the top of his head, with ears adding a couple of inches to this. One of those ears has a notch in it. His eyes are not red as would be expected for a "lab rat", but instead black. His vision is still poor, however, and he has to wear black-rimmed glasses that are perched on his snout (This is not reality, so let us please not discuss just how those glasses actually stay on). Speaking of being a lab rat, he is usually dressed in a pair of black slacks and a white labcoat, while it is as rare to see him walk around naked as it is to see him wearing a shirt. His hands and feet are bare, as he only wears something to cover his feet (work boots) when the situation or safety regulations demand it. His build gives an impression of nimbleness rather than strength, and either light eating habits or a fast metabolism.

Personality:
English is Niemand's second language, and while he is quite good with it there are a few quirks in his speech and there may be some rarer words he does not understand. Idioms in particular are confusing. In character, German is his first language but please keep in mind that the player's German is very rusty. The more nervous or anxious he gets the more he will start to slip into German. If he gets near panic all he will emit are squeaks.
The rat has been observed to be extremely skittish. A deep dislike of cats has him avoiding them or even running from the unprovoked. He has, since arriving, also learned to distrust mustelids and dholes. The rat has also been observed to be very nervous about touch by others, to the point of jumping at physical contact from strangers, or even intimate contact from those he knows well.

Backstory (evolving over time):
Niemand first arrived in Vulpine Hollow seeming confused at the nature of the place. His paranoia was nurtured by the sight of people eating eachother and threats of such violence towards him from predators that only viewed rodents as food. The rat spoke German natively, and so his English was rusty, and he frequently lapsed back into German whenever nervousness or panic set in. As dangerous as the Hollow can be, he quickly found allies, which afforded him shelter, food, and safety. He took up residence in the walls of the Lounge thanks to tunnels that had been dug into the walls and underneath the lounge by Lurker, and stashed a large amount of cheese in there supplied by Greywolfe. He managed to avoid predators using advice from Ravenser. For the first few months, survival was his only goal, and he would frequently be seen in the rafters, staring at the one possession he brought with him from Germany or watching the patrons below, all the while avoiding questions of his past but not thoughts. That was until he made one more friend.

With the help of Rirokkaz, Niemand's past was revealed, and he gained help trying to come to terms with what had happened. Niemand grew up in the city of Mausbach, in Bavaria, Germany. He made his way through schooling until he rose to the ranks of a professor and research scientist working for the Mouse-Planck-Institut für Physik. However, Niemand is now refugee. The exact details of his flight from his homeland are unknown. What is known that it was related to the death of his partner, a hooded rat named Günter, at the hand of "Die Katzen". Even with the help and support he's been getting, he's reluctant to talk much of the incident. The exact details still haunting him in waking life and in sleep. The only detail anyone has gotten out of him is that they were both attacked but Niemand was able to escape, leaving feelings of guilt as he had to flee and leave his lover behind. It is assumed because of how little he brought to this country, and in fact a complete lack of documentation on who he is, that he had no time to prepare for his flight from his homeland and had to use somewhat dubious methods to escape. He has been seen carrying a cell phone which contains photos of his deceased partner and their former life, but the phone is useless otherwise with the SIM card having been removed.

As well as coping with these losses, the rat has also been given more secure and more comfortable shelter somewhere out in the woods. He is reluctant to talk about his new home, except that he believes that he is completely safe from the danger of predation while there. He also has an ID card now, and has taken to call himself "Chester P Chedderz." The ID card may be appropriated from someone else.

Cats - IC vs. OOC:
Niemand has been observed to have a fear and maybe even hatred of cats. This is an IC reaction and does not reflect the attitudes of the player against any individual or group of individuals. This is not meant to discourage encounters with cats, however, be aware that Niemand will assume ill intentions on any cat and gaining his trust as a feline will be difficult. He is more apt to fight or flee when encountering threatening stimuli from a cat than any other creature.

Roleplay:
As far as canon goes, Niemand was a scientist, and was not an actual experimental lab rat. His species combined with his chosen field earned him the "lab rat" nickname back in his homeland. He can however, in non-canon settings, play as a former or future experimental lab rat. Alternate canon has him as a professor of physics at a University, so scenarios involving that are welcome as well.

Anything that happens to Niemand can be carried over into future roleplaying or become an alteration to the character. He will probably ask first before appropriating something from your roleplay session. Long term roleplays are not discouraged.

Fatal scenarios are absolutely allowed. If you have an in character and canon means of regenerating or reforming Niemand after play, you are welcome to it. Outside of that, Otherwise, anything that happens to Niemand that is debilitating or fatal will likely end any short or long term roleplay, as he has no mechanism to regenerate or respawn. Future appearances after this happens will be considered a "what if he didn't die?" scenario, with a divergence point somewhere before any debilitating or fatal encounters.

Niemand's player reserves the right to safeword out of any play which makes him uncomfortable. This includes scat play outside of digestion, soul vore, unwilling predators, or sexual acts with minors. If the player does not tell you he is backing out, assume any hesitation or uncomfortableness with a scene to be IC resistance, and not OOC refusal.

Names:
Something that strikes me as odd here is that everyone seems to know everyone's name. We do not wear nametags. If Niemand has not heard you addressed in public or learned your name, he will act as though he does not know it.