Calum Balica

Calum Balica is a twenty-six year old Cheshire Cat. He was born to Calico and Festus Balica in Wonderland, and lived there most of his life. Currently, he resides outside of Wonderland, as he's following wherever the March Hare goes.

Biography
Calum was just a kitten the last time that he had seen his parents. Being ‘just a kitten’ meant that he had been seven years old. Too young, at first, to understand that he was never going to see his parents again. At first it had seemed like a big adventure, and he’d spent his days stalking butterflies and prancing through the flowers-much to the flower ladies’ displeasure.

After a while, he grew lonely and homesick and wasn’t quite sure how he was going to take care of himself. He tried to find his parents, but no matter how long and how hard he looked, he never did. So many times, he came so close to giving up-he was so young and so small, what was he supposed to do to take care of himself?-but then he always remembered what his mother and father had told him.

“A Cheshire never gives up.”

“A Cheshire is always brave.”

Wherever his parents were, they had to still love him, didn’t they? And if they still loved him, they had to come back for him some day, right? So Calum decided that he would be strong for them. He would make them proud.

Such a small boy had no way of knowing what had really happened though, and that despite the fact that his parents did indeed love him very much, he was never going to see them again. Not many did know, actually. The faeries of the forest did, though. The trees saw everything and would whisper their secrets to the faeries. Calum’s parents had been arrested by the Red Queen and imprisoned, put under a spell that they would never be able to free themselves from. They must have known that the queen’s men were after them, and had led them away from Calum to protect him.

The faeries never told him of what they found out; they didn’t want to upset him further, nor did they want to put him in danger. If he knew, Calum might try to rescue them, and then their sacrifice would have been in vain. A few of the faeries did take Calum in and raise him, though, making sure that he had a roof over his head and food to eat. No harm would come to him.

Over the years, Calum grew more and more bitter over his parents’ disappearance, until he finally became convinced that they had abandoned him. Well, if they didn’t care about him, then he didn’t care about them. Except that deep down, his heart still ached.

Either way, he grew up into a fine young man-relatively speaking, considering that he was a Cheshire-tall and handsome. He had a friendly, expressive face and a charming smile that warmed his blue eyes. It was his wicked grin that attracted the ladies, though he shunned their affections in favor of pursuing men.

Sex soon became one of his favorite things, a way to pass the time and have fun, second only to using his Cheshire abilities to mess with people-like any self-respecting Cheshire would. He had never had any examples to follow, but he didn’t need them. He didn’t need to be taught how to be a Cheshire, it was who he was. It was in his blood.

While he was still a teenager, he met the March Hare, who wasn’t very far from Calum’s age. Arleigh was nothing like what Calum had expected the March Hare to be like. While he had expected him to be crazy and unpleasant to be around, Arleigh was friendly and happy. He was also very handsome, at least, in Calum’s opinion. Blond hair and blue eyes, lovely cheekbones, and a neck that Calum would have loved to get his mouth on. Not to mention those lips. It was essentially love at first sight for Calum.

There was only one problem; Arleigh was already in love. With a nature faerie. She was blonde and beautiful, her kindness making her positively radiant. Calum never would have stood a chance against someone as lovely as she was. So he didn’t even try.

Everywhere Calum looked, Arleigh seemed to be surrounded by people who cared about him, people who were so much better than Calum was himself. Though Arleigh’s parents had passed from old age, he had so many older siblings to take care of him, and in turn, so many younger siblings to help raise. Not only did he have an amazing girlfriend-soon to be fiancé-but he had two best friends. Arleigh was rarely without either the Dormouse or Mad Hatter.

There was no place for Calum there. Not as the Cheshire Cat, who was thought to primarily exist for causing chaotic mischief. So Calum stayed back, watched them from a distance. Only on a few occasions, when he’d mustered up the courage, did he approach Arleigh, but their conversations were always brief. In Calum’s mind, that wasn’t really very surprising. Of course, Arleigh had better things to do than talk to a Cheshire that he didn’t even know.

Calum was there when Arleigh and Roselaine got married, watching from the trees before wishing the couple the best of luck. No self-respecting Cheshire would miss the March Hare’s wedding, after all. All it took was a smile to hide the pain, but he had been getting used to doing that over the years, anyway. No friends, no family; he was used to being alone. There was no one to care about him, so over time, he stopped caring as much about other people. Arleigh was always a very special exception, though.

The day that Roselaine was murdered broke Calum’s heart. If he had known, if he had been anywhere near their place, he would have protected her. Instead, he arrived in time for the aftermath, to see Arleigh screaming at Nevan, the Dormouse, while trying to choke him. It was the least that Calum could do to pull Arleigh off of Nevan, in the process getting punched himself. It was a small sacrifice though, for stopping Arleigh from doing something that he would have regretted, and saving Nevan.

From then on, with Arleigh having lost so much, and having shunned his only friends, that Calum vowed to stay by his side. He would protect the March Hare with his life if he had to.

Personality
Calum is many things; lazy, selfish, eccentric. He prefers lounging about as opposed to doing anything that actually involves work. With that in mind, he's not exactly violent (it takes too much energy, anyway). At all. He has no fighting skills beyond scratching and biting. However, as a Cheshire Cat, he has sharp nails and teeth. He prefers avoiding conflict though, and most of his abilities are geared towards self defense and trickery. While lazy though, he doesn't exactly spend a lot of time sleeping-napping occasionally, yes, but mostly resting and daydreaming. However, that doesn't mean that he's oblivious or dumb. He's always alert and paying attention to his surroundings. He pays attention to body language especially and occasionally picks up on subtle things that people don't actually say aloud.

He has a tendency to keep people and things for himself, as part of his selfish nature. It's not exactly possessiveness when it comes to people, as in, he doesn't get jealous if other people spend more time with them or anything like that. His reasons for helping them or protecting them just tend to be selfish. Either it's something that will benefit him in some way or he's helping them because he likes them and without them he would be bored/lonely/what have you. The only time this is different is when he genuinely cares about someone or they're really his friend.

This is the case with his best friend, Arleigh the March Hare. Before the incident five years ago-the brutal murder of Arleigh's young wife-the Hare's best friend had been the Dormouse and Calum was, for the most part, a loner. After that though, when Arleigh shunned the Dormouse and pushed away the Hatter, Calum was the only one stubborn enough to keep sticking by Arleigh-much to Arleigh's displeasure for the first few months. For reasons that Calum never really told Arleigh, he appointed himself unofficial caretaker of the Hare. Calum does his best to keep Arleigh safe and sane-relatively sane, at least. He has no selfish intentions when it comes to Arleigh; Calum cares about him and looks after him because he's a friend-Calum's only friend. He soothes him after Arleigh's nightmares and cleans up all of the teacups that are inevitably broken from said nightmares.

Normally, he's not very big on keeping other people's secrets-because why should he care?-but it's again different with Arleigh. He respects his privacy and doesn't want to do anything that would upset him (seriously upset him, at least). There is much playful teasing, though. It could be very likely that he's in love with Arleigh, considering all he does for him and how determined he is to stick with him. He's never said anything about it if he is though, and that could be because he considers Arleigh off limits because of what happened to his wife.

Now, Calum is, of course, the Cheshire Cat. This means a couple of things. The firs being that Calum can be quite difficult to deal with when it comes to serious matters. He doesn't like giving straight answers to questions if he actually knows something that the asker doesn't. Just because he gives convoluted answers though doesn't mean that he's a liar-because he's not. He'll be more willing to help though if there's a larger benefit-he's selfish after all, but not uncaring. He also quite enjoys playing pranks on people and tricking them, though usually sticks with mostly harmless things.

When he's not annoying people or being lazy, Calum is capable of being well liked. After all, he's handsome and charismatic. He can be a good conversation partner, has a good sense of humor, and loves to have fun. He's laid back, easy going, and rarely gets angry. It takes a lot to piss him off, and hurting someone he cares about-namely Arleigh-is really the main way to do it. Threatening Arleigh is almost just as bad.

Calum is most definitely gay. He's not shy about it or ashamed to tell anyone; he really doesn't do much to keep it a secret. It's just part of who he is and he's very open about it. That said, he tends to flirt a lot and make innuendos if someone catches his attention. He respects personal boundaries though and will back off of he makes someone uncomfortable. He's open about sexual things as well and isn't adverse to jumping into bed with someone he's just met-so long as the attraction is mutual and no one will end up with any hurt feelings in the morning from the one night stand.

Calum is also a prideful creature. Proud and stubborn and unwilling to back down from challenges. If he's presented with a challenge, whatever it is, however difficult it may be, he's too stubborn to refuse it, and too stubborn to quit until he's accomplished it. It would also be a blow to his pride if he failed, and that just wouldn't do.

Now, while he is selfish, he's not selfish with true friends and he's certainly not selfish in love. He's loyal and faithful and willing to commit for life if he feels he's found the right one. He would do everything in his power to keep them safe and happy. But if he's rejected or broken up with, he can and will hold a grudge (depending on the reasons, of course). That's not just for relationships though; he can hold a grudge over anything that upsets him to the point where he is unable to forgive someone for whatever they have done.

Talents and Physical Traits
The Cheshire Cat is a unique creature with a few interesting talents. These include the ability to shapeshift, turn invisible at will-as well as making things around him invisible-and also to disappear and reappear whenever he feels like it.

Calum has naturally sharp teeth, as well as a rough tongue. When startled, he tends to hiss like a cat, and beware the claws. If angered, there's a chance of him shifting to a more Cheshire like appearance: larger, darker eyes, a wider mouth, and longer, sharper nails. He prefers sleeping up high, such as in trees, and this is why he has a hammock high up in his house.