Mercury

Artwork by Egg

## Physical Description

Mercury is a silver tabby tom with green eyes. He is skinny, with long legs and long ears. His tail is thin and tattered, and has completely necrosed. His ears are ripped up, and he has scars all across his pelt. He walks in a strange way, similar to a yellow crazy ant, and almost always carries a sly grin on his face.

## History/Affiliations

Talonslash's Group [Current]

Rogue [Former]

Mercury's backstory is largely unknown, and anything the other cats know is simply speculation. This being said, there is a rumor that Mercury was once a calm, noble, and friendly tomcat, living far away from the back alleyway he resides in now. He lived in a small colony with maybe four or five members including himself, and there he was known to everyone as most intelligent. He was often praised for his experiments, and his colonymates believed in the same ideals as him. It was his perfect world. That was, until another cat joined, one just like him, only better. He grew increasingly envious of the new cat, still believing *he* was the most intelligent cat, far more intelligent than the new one, and eventually murdered them in cold blood. The colony was horrified, his reputation as a friendly smart cat shattered, so he ran away to the alleyway he now calls home.

Mercury's first appearance in HiveMind was on Day 162. He was first observed hiding behind his trash can, performing surgery on a rat. On Day 165, he squeezed rotten vegetable juice into his tail, causing the entire thing to necrose by Day 168.

## Personality

Mercury believes he was created to bring violence and chaos into the world, and also to revolutionize the field of science, which he is dead-set on doing. He thinks of himself as the most intelligent cat in the world, literally. He only wishes to associate with those he considers "intelligent", and sees everyone else as lowly and unworthy of him. When his "superior intelligence" is challenged or threatened, he can become aggressive, sadistic, paranoid, and violent. In reality, he is smarter than the average cat, but his overconfidence may cause him to be increasingly stubborn and make questionable decisions at times. He is extremely dedicated to carrying out his experiments, which are all performed on rats he catches in the alleyway, and unwilling to tell anyone of his intention unless it is someone he admires or considers equal. Though he is quite unhinged and bold in his fighting, he is also very cautious when around cats or items he hasn't fully examined yet, and can be tidy when performing an experiment. He loves the idea of fighting and violence, believing it is the world's true purpose, and absolutely despises the community Talonslash is creating in the alleyway, though he pretends to be a part of it.

## Relationships

### Talonslash

Mercury assumes Talonslash isn't suspicious of him, and intends to use her as a tool if he can. He absolutely hates her and has wild plans to kill her sometime in one of his more brutal experiments.

### Inky

Mercury considers Inky his worst enemy in the alleyway. He very strongly believes he knows nothing about science, and is paranoid the cat will ruin his experiments and, by extension, his life.

### Clover

Mercury thinks of Clover as nothing more than a scared little kitten. He enjoys attempting to strike fear in him.

### Straw

To Mercury, Straw is only a pathetic, smug little cat, and thinks what he sees as loyalty toward Talonslash as a weakness only a non-intellectual cat would have.

## Trivia

* His personality is based on the properties of the liquid metal mercury.
	+ High toxicity if it enters your bloodstream: His love for violence
	+ Too dense to enter body unless you have an open wound: He mainly takes advantage of cats' weaknesses, thereby manipulating them
	+ Tendency to form amalgams when alloyed with certain metals: He can become paranoid and violent around cats smarter than or similar to him
* He is semi-based on NileGreen from the YouTuber MrGreen's videos.
	+ He is **not** based on NileRed. Nigel is a nice guy.
* His tail has fully necrosed from a bit of rotten vegetable juice he put into it. He has no feeling in it, and it is completely paralyzed.
* Ocassionally, he has vivid fantasies of killing those he hates in exceedingly brutal ways.