General

Name: Nere

Meaning/Origin: Swedish; ‘down’, as in ‘down-hearted’

Movie/Series: Hybrid

Gender: Buck

Age: 12 months – appears about half that

Physical

Breed?: Rhinelander

Coat: Blue

Colors: Blue, fawn, white

Physical appearance: Extremely small for a Rhinelander and small for the rabbits at Watership Down. Fine-boned, with large ears, and light-bodied.

Eyes: Grey

Familial

Father: Bitterroot

Mother: Juneberry

Siblings: Three does – Feather, Mint, and Wintergreen, and two bucks – Ethile and Kimthile

Companion/'mate': None/open to a character who’s already made and very good(Will be picky)

Ex-mates: None/open to Watership Down does or domestic does

Social

Friends:

Holly: Admires Nere’s abilities and military capability, and often talks strategy with him.

Primrose: Nere’s relationship with Primrose is unusual – she treats him like a kit, as is rather fitting, and if one was new to the warren, they would likely assume he was the smallest of her first litter who she simply did not want to grow up. She often dotes on him or preens, and Nere does nothing to stop her.

Blackberry: (Male) Blackberry is fascinated by Nere’s odd personality and rather tends to hang around him when Nere comes out to silflay.

Enemies:

Hawkbit: Nere genuinely does not get along with Hawkbit, who is far from taken by his odd habits and mind. Rather, Hawkbit honestly just doesn’t like Nere and finds him strange.

Spartina: Not exactly an ‘enemy,’ persay; Spartina disapproves of Nere because of his size and lack of strength as well as his fondness for digging, which is something bucks simply don’t do.

Rivals: None/Open

Mortal Enemy: None/Open

Crushes: None/probably not open

            Past:

Crushers: None/Open

            Past:

Origin Warren: Domestic

Home Warren: Watership Down

Past Warrens: N/a

Current residence: Watership Down

Rank: Owsla

Mental

Personality: In a sense, “Nere” is the perfect name – he always seems explicitly disheartened, though he isn’t really. Rather, this is his natural state. He has an appearance of down-heartedness but really isn’t. He hasn’t got the natural social instincts that most rabbits have, and actually may go out of his way to avoid contact. He enjoys digging and actually dug out his own burrow and run in the warren, and proves to be a talented digger at that, as the burrow he keeps to himself has some sorts of ‘shelves’ in the walls where he keeps odds and ends that Nere collects. He is always toying with rocks or sticks, rolling them under his paws, but never plays bobstones. He won’t look others in the eye, and lies compulsively about small things that don’t matter. He is socially inept and does not understand any sort of social tact. He doesn’t really have any will to him; if he’s asked to do something he does it without any complaint and doesn’t do anything because it’s ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’ He just… does it, because it’s asked of him and it, with any hope, will help him out. He can be very helpless and kittenlike, even getting lost on the down. He’s also absurdly fearless, ready to lead off dog or fox without so much as a single protest, and is absurdly clever – Nere once learned how to open a rabbit cage and is a tactical genius. However, he is also fairly distant and indifferent.

Quirks: Collects anything be it rock or tin can, suckles roof of mouth, digs, toys with rocks

Likes: Being alone, his burrow/run, battle tactics

Dislikes: Unknown

Fears: Very little – at least, that anyone else can tell

Goals: Unknown/none

Strengths:

Tactics: A battle-tactic genius, Nere is extremely formidable in the art of mind-games.

Fast: For the situations that Nere can’t fight his way out of(i.e. all of them), he can run and run far.

Weaknesses:

Social weakness: Nere doesn’t understand any sorts of social queues, and can be easily manipulated because of it. He also is unable to understand if he’s offending, and drives others away.

Social Incompetence: A distinct failure to have any social abilities. He can’t handle social pressure and in stressful seasons, such as when litters are first brought up or even breeding season, he stays alone in his burrow.

Stress: Cannot operate under pressure and often turns to stopping altogether or even violence.

Light-weight: Has such a light frame as to be greatly incapacitated in battle.

Fearless: Often, Nere puts himself into very dangerous situations that very well may get himself killed.

History

Nere was born dometic – not surprising given that he was also born a Rhinelander. He was the smallest of the litter of six, and after four weeks – very early for a rabbit – he was separated to keep him from being too bad off with his siblings. He was put on ground level. But, the problem was that in his cage, there was little stimulus – and Nere was bored. Before long, he began fiddling with his cage and found a way to open the hutch.

Nere was free.

He didn’t know how to live off the land, exactly, but began working on this quickly. Alone, Nere was fine. He didn’t mind it, though he knew exactly how much danger he was in without a warren – and so, he went ahead and went off toward the downs to find one for himself.

He eventually would reach Watership Down, about three or four months later, and when he got there, he was met with mixed responses – they had no problem with taking the little buck in, but they still had no clue what they were taking on in Nere. Later, Holly, Blackavar, and Bigwig were speaking about a rather sizeable group of hlessil causing problems for the warren – attacking rabbits or kidnapping does who wandered too close to the foot of the warren, as they were staying half-way down Watership, and Nere overheard. He listened quietly to their talks.
Toward the end of Nere’s first day on the down, and they attempted to arrange his burrow. Nere, however, rejected this and ended up spending his evening digging out a side-run and burrow for himself.

By the end of the night and when the rest of the warren found this, it immediately offered an idea of what they’d taken into the warren. By the next night, Nere had filled a ‘shelf’ he’d cut from the walls of his burrow with lovely rocks and a few man objects – a tin can, a dropped pendent. He refused to let anyone touch his collection. Later that same day, he’d actually met several rabbits from the warren he hadn’t had a chance to the day before. Such rabbits were Spartina, Hawkbit, Primrose, and a few others. The reactions were mixed – Spartina of course didn’t particularly respect the thin little buck, and Hawkbit simply didn’t like him. Primrose, though, had not so harsh an attitude.

Later in the day he’d been wandering the small group of beech trees on the down when he suddenly realized that he didn’t know how to get back to the warren and had to be rescued by some of the others – one of which was Primrose, another Hawkbit. He had picked up a thorn that soon ended up infected and Primrose volunteered to care for him, as it was becoming abundantly clear he couldn’t quite get along too much alone.

He soon became rather attached to Primrose, who was a bit of a surrogate mother for him. She continued to dote and preen on him, and Nere never did anything to stop her; rather, he somewhat enjoyed it, though you really couldn’t tell.

Eventually, the problem with the hlessil at the foot of the down got worse – they’d taken a few captives, most of which were does. After much debate about exactly what should be done(and heated that debate got), Bigwig went to Nere’s burrow on a hunch and went to see him. Nere gave him some advice on the situation – and as a result, only one rabbit was lost, and the hlessil were driven further away. They’d still be trouble from time to time – just not that much.

Nere didn’t seem very pleased with what had occurred, and when asked about why he wasn’t happy about his successful triumph against them, he simply told them, ‘I was asked to help so I did. It’s just what needed done.’