Rusty Fisherkatt grew up learning how to fish from his old man, Earl Fisherkatt. Earl was very strict on his son and made sure he perfected the art of snatching up fish from a flowing river with his own bare paws. Because of Earl's harsh attitude towards Rusty, Rusty grew up being very critical of himself. Rusty wanted nothing else than to impress his father when he was a young kit. As Rusty grew up and Earl diminished with age, Earl contracted a deadly bacterial infection from drinking river water. As Rusty stood by the side of the bed that Earl lied on as he was dying, Earl managed to only whisper the words, "pass on fishing as I did to you". Rusty had never heard a slip of approval from his father, not even while he was on his death bed. Because of this, Rusty became very hard with his feelings, and barely let anyone come to understand him. All that Rusty hoped to do was keep improving on his skills and perhaps one day find a kit worthy enough to pass on the art of fishing to.
Rusty is quiet, serious, dedicated, respectful, reasonable, stubborn, blunt, introverted, determined, skilled, tactless, awkward, moral, short tempered, impatient, brief, obedient, thoughtful, caring, independent, peaceful, humorless, monotone, straight forward, calculative, logical, lone wolf, harsh, critical, and bashful.
Rusty, on his way to visit his father Earl at the hospital, realizes he took the wrong way to get there. As he pulled up to a toll booth, he searches his pockets to find no money to pay for the toll. He had come unprepared. Rusty scratched his head in frustration; he had no idea what to do. He couldn't just drive past the toll booth--that's against the law! He also could not just turn around; that action would endanger not only himself but also others. Rusty was not one to break the rules. Rusty looked at the empty highway around him and sighed, defeated. Although he had planned to be by his father's side in 20 minutes, Rusty decided the visit would have to wait. Being as moral as he was, Rusty decided to wait until the next cat drove along. Then, Rusty would ask the cat to pay for him and that he will definitely pay him back. Rusty did not like asking favors of others, but in order to see his father he decided it should be done. Rusty got back inside of his car, reclined the seat all the way back so that he was lying down, and proceeded to relax with his arms behind his head. If he had to wait, he might as well try to enjoy it.
You have a pretty sad backstory here. Poor Rusty, has gone through so much and has never been complimented by his old man, even on his death bed. Earl seems to be extremely harsh. After never complimenting his son and being so strict the only thing he cares about when dying is that the family business continues? ouch. I really like Rusty's backstory, you can really tell how it's affected his character.
ReplyDeleteIn the tollbooth story I'm surprised that Rusty's decision is to just sit and wait for another car to come over. After all of the criticism that he gets from his father, he chooses morals over getting to his father on time. I thought he would've wanted to get there on time to try and gain some sort of approval from his father and to be there for him, rather than wait it out. That certainly says something about who he is and how he really respects the law. Seems like he fears breaking the law more than his strict father, which if that is what you are going for, then you did that well too.
The back story is very well developed! The fact that he never got approval from his father is really upsetting. It definitely explains why he is so cold and grumpy toward his nephew from when you first introduced this character. I agree with sarah, it seems odd that he would wait for someone to come along rather than rush to his father to gain some sort of approval. That need for approval from his father appears to be his driving goal this whole time.
ReplyDeleteBackstory: Nice! Could use more detail as it is such a concise summary – make the characters live more - flesh it out.
ReplyDeleteAttributes: Good, but a bit one note. Maybe some softer bits hidden inside?
Tollbooth: Not believing his calm acceptance. I would expect a more emotional response.