Prince Scratcher

Prince Scratcher is one of the main antagonist in Virus Attack and a main character in Scratcher & Cody.

Appearance

Small and sighthound-like. He has black colored, short membrane proteins (fur), which feels super soft to the touch and has a satin-like gloss to it. He has longer flame-shaped proteins around his face and a ruff around his neck. He has a narrow face with a long and pointy muzzle, tight flews, four protruding upper canines (on both sides). He has pronounced cheekbones. Pointy upright standing ears, dark-gray color around his eyes. His eyes are a deep red color and he has slit pupils. His pupils reflect yellow and green when light shines on his eyes. He has dark-gray lines on his lower eyelids. His tails are long and rat-like, and end in stiff curls. He has saw-like boney protrusion on chest, rib grids and slightly protruding vertebrae and hip bones (typical for adult virions!). His peplomers are relatively long and needle shaped. He has an asymmetric circle shaped peplomer crown.

He's often shown with a mean grin and he walks with his head and tails high up in the air, but only when he's put in charge of a hunting or patrolling party. Many non-immune cells also think of him to be scary looking. Cells think he smells the same as any other virion, but they actually pick up his father's scent, as the latter places scent flags on all pack-mates. This makes it seem like all virions smell exactly the same. Scratcher's own personal body odor is actually very faintly present (and thus not noticeable to the less sensitive noses of cells).

As a puppy

Small, cute, a bit chubby. His ears are floppy, until they start to stand up at a slightly older age. Ears are unstable, and they often go down again, or only one goes down or they lean against each other (as seen in puppies of most dogs with uprigt standing ears). He lacks the rib grids and protruding vertebrae and hip bones until he's a teenager. He has a high-pitched child's voice.

Personality

As a very young pup, Scratcher is quite sweet and rather shy. He's easily scared and wants to stay close to his father, as the latter's presence feels safe to him. As a slightly older pup, Scratcher learns to be less dependent on his father, and he develops a more confident and bossy personality. In all life stages however, Scratcher is a hothead and he gets angered quite easily.

As an adult, Scratcher is flamboyant and arrogant. He loves to stand in the spotlight. He may act a bit 'flirty' with cells he's going to infect, as he loves to play with his prey before killing them, unlike other virions, who directly get to the point. This is mostly due to Scratcher's sadistic personality trait and the fact that he enjoys seeing cells suffer before they die.

Scratcher retains a part of his sweeter personality, as he does show empathy to those he loves. He's especially very friendly and playful with pups.

Biography

Current

Prince Scratcher was just born a day and a few hours ago. He has spent the first day of his life by sleeping and playing with toys gifted by the hijacked cells.

Noteable Quotes

"I'll be your king one day, dude. I can rest my lazy ass on you whenever I please."

— Prince Scratcher teasing Prince Meech (Virus Attack)

"CATCH ME, IF YOU CAN!"

— Prince Scratcher to antibodies (Virus Attack)

"Guys, guys, come see!... little Red Riding Hood here thinks he can fight us with his bare paws!"

— Prince Scratcher to pack-mates (Virus Attack)

"Hey, BITCH! Ya wanna know why my old man named me Scratcher?"

— Prince Scratcher to Erlona (Virus Attack)

Trivia

• In the early development of Virus Attack, Scratcher was actually going to be a female, named Princess Indira. But, because I decided to make SARS-CoV-2 an all male species, I decided to change this character's too, instead of deleting 'her' all together. I slightly edited the design, but most stayed the same as the female version, including some feminine facial features. Scratcher's demeanor may still appear somewhat feminine and rather flamboyant, too.
• His birthday is April 25. He was born in the year 2020.
• He was born in Nashville, Tennessee, as his host was there at the moment. He speaks with a southern accent.
• He's the only virion known to be left-handed.
• He's autistic and he had speech delay for the entire first day (equivalent to 3-4 human years) of his life. Instead of talking, Scratcher still only made puppy noises, while his brothers already spoke full on sentences.
• The fluff around Scratcher's neck is based on a medieval time ruff (also called a 'millstone collar'). It is a minor mutation that first occured in Scratcher and strictly inherited by only his offspring and today's descendants. No other bloodline sports such a feature.
• He's epileptic, though seizures are mostly triggered when Scratcher has intense feelings of anger.
• His design is inspired by the medium-sized, smooth-haired podenco andaluz (Andalusian hound). I gave him pointier ears to make him appear more menacing, though.
• Scratcher is a sadist. Unlike his pack-mates, he doesn't just hunt cells for the survival of his kind, but he also clearly enjoys it when cells show either fear or pain. He'll just run after cells to scare them or he'll inflict wounds on his victims, deep enough so that they'll start to scream, yet not too deep so they won't bleed to death too fast. He also laughts maniacally when doing this to cells.
• Scratcher is the fastest and most agile virion of the Murray Pack. Though, he usually only goes full speed when King Matthias gives him orders to catch someone for him. When he's with a hunting party, Scratcher is often seen running much slower, so his pack-mates can keep up with him.
• He somehow is very fond of Italian/Ancient Roman names. All of his children have such names and he also always comes up with an Italian false name for himself whenever he goes disguised as a cell.

Reference Sheet And Art