Featherpaw

Summary
Featherpaw is a RiverClan apprentice and is played by Caelinus. She has a brown tabby coat with some white markings and minty green eyes, and is somewhat insecure because of her non-Clan heritage. Very bubbly and loving, she tries to get along with everyone; she has an ESFP personality, would be in Hufflepuff.

Reason for Name
Feather - for her long, plush coat.

-kit - traditional suffix.

-paw - traditional suffix.

-leaf - for her nature that makes her feel inclined to help others.

Personality
Featherpaw is extremely determined, and will fight through anything and everything that she has to in order to be the absolute best that she can be. This can be clearly seen in the fact that her first mentor was abusive, choosing to hurt her during their training sessions instead of just wrestling and play fighting; she went for a long time without telling anyone, because she felt that she had to be strong and refuse to give up regardless of how hurt she was. She views the world primarily through her senses, and the way that things come to her first, and then after she has finished viewing things in that sense she will identify how she personally feels about them, and how they correspond to her values. She is also fond of making new friends and having new experiences, and is extremely adventurous; Featherpaw probably spends more time out of camp than she does in it, and is constantly doing what she can to kind of get in trouble and see what it's like. She is curious about the lives of other Clans, and wants to try out absolutely everything that she can at least once. The apprentice is fairly lively and fun, as long as rule breaking is considered fun in her companion's book; she loves to bend the rules and is not one to follow the warrior code very closely, because she knows that she was not born in a Clan and feels that it does not apply to her like it does pureblood cats.

She loves to be the centre of attention, and likes to have others focus on her and let her do the more risky stuff while they stand by and rescue her if it gets to be too bad. Otherwise, she loves to be absolutely involved, and she lives very much in the moment, appreciating what is happening just that second and not considering the consequences. Quite fond of excitement and drama, Featherpaw hates boring relationships and won't linger around anyone who does not seem to have the same sense of adventure that she does. What friends she does make, however, are very close and will get along with her extraordinarily well. On a less dramatic side, she can also be a bit of a peacemaker when her friends are fighting, and she is very sympathetic and concerned for the well being of others. That said, it can also be argued that she doesn't care about their well being when she is so willing to risk their lives by taking them on adventures; however, she prefers for herself to be the one doing the truly risky stuff, and would defend her Clanmate until the end.

Featherpaw can be described as generous and warm, as well as observant of others. She can sense what is wrong with someone before others might, and will do her best to respond as warmly as possible and giving viable solutions to any potential practical needs. She isn't the best at giving advice, nor at taking it, because she doesn't particularly care about planning for the future and prefers to live in the here and now. Even so, she is good at giving practical care, and will do her best to make others feel better despite the negativity in a situation. She can be extremely spontaneous, but also very optimistic; she enjoys having fun, and hates to spend a moment doing really anything but enjoying herself. However, she is a bit excessive in this; she doesn't really tend to favour the rational side of thinking, and instead becomes a bit over indulgent and places quite a bit more importance on immediate gratification and enjoyment rather than sticking to her duties and obligations. She doesn't tend to think of the consequences of her actions; for example, she might sneak into the medicine cat's den and steal some catmint because she enjoys the feeling that she has when she's had some to eat, and she won't even consider the fact that it's leafbare and catmint is in rare supply and needed for those of the Clan with greencough.

The entire world is a bit of a stage for her, and she loves to play the lead. Constantly wanting to be the centre of attention so she can amuse her audience and put on a performance, she likes to stimulate the senses of others in order to help them fully enjoy the experience of life just like she is. She is constantly putting on a show in an attempt to make others happy, but not in a bad way; she herself immensely enjoys it, and relishes in her skill at playing the fun-loving host of the continuing party that is her life. She loves people, and people tend to love her; she is extremely accepting of everyone and everything, with little expressed judgement even if she privately thinks that some things are strange. Upbeat and enthusiastic, Featherpaw is prone to getting along with just about everyone, and is always warm and generous with her friends... or just about everyone, because she kind of considers everyone to be a friend. Unfortunately, once a line has been crossed with her, she will never allow that cat leave again and will instead host a deep, unforgiving dislike for him or her.

When stressed or under pressure, she is overwhelmed by the negative possibilities, and these do not sit well with her; she is used to optimism and positivity, so when the bad starts creeping in, she has to try to combat them. She usually does this by explaining away the problem in a very elementary way, and it is not frequently very effective; however, even though it may not get to the heart of the issue, she sometimes can get over it through use of these global statements. In certain situations, primarily things related to her abusive mentor, not even those can help her, and she shuts down.

Featherpaw prefers to live in the river of life instead of cautiously toeing at the shores, and is practical despite her dislike for structure and routine. She likes to live every moment for the moment and isn't big on planning ahead, rather focusing on what's happening right then and how she can enjoy it to the most of her ability. She learns best by doing instead of being taught, which means that because she and her mentor would legitimately fight, she has fairly well honed fighting skills -- regardless of whether or not they are traditional. Theories are not preferable to her, and she doesn't want to sit and listen to someone explain a strategy or technique -- she wants to see it, mimic it, and adapt it to fit her instead of just being a universal style that everyone uses. It's come to the point where she tries to avoid theoretical thinking, because it's too complex and ambiguous for her; she prefers static facts and evidence, and is a visual, kinaesthetic learner as opposed to auditory. However, she excels when she can learn by doing, and prefers that learning style over any others.

She is also capable of appreciating the beauty of the world, and has a fairly good sense of space and function. Her nest is not unknown to be lined with objects to her liking (which, though it is common of a RiverClanner, she learned this on her own as opposed to watching her Clanmates). These objects are frequently feathers, due to her namesake, and sometimes things that are somewhat foreign -- for example, if a twoleg dropped a piece of jewellery, it would quickly find a home in Featherpaw's belongings. She enjoys the beauty of nature and her environment and hopes that others can see that as well; on a more boring day, she may just go out and appreciate how blue the sky is instead of fretting about how she should be hunting instead. She appreciates some of the finer things in life, and -- StarClan forbid -- she would be a very finicky eater as a kittypet, expecting only the best meals that could be bought in stores.

On the mention of StarClan, Featherpaw is not remotely spiritual or religious; she does not believe that StarClan is more than anything but a lie made up by elders to teach Clancats to behave, and she can't imagine that all the stars above her would really be deceased ancestors; the notion is just ridiculous to her, and she refuses to believe it for an instant. She also does not believe that leaders actually have nine lives, and would have to witness one die then come back to life to even consider that being a possibility... it still might not be enough. Even so, she's a pretty good team player, and instead of telling the Clan how ridiculous the whole warrior ancestors thing is she kind of plays along and does her best not to create any problems or fuss. She enjoys an optimistic, upbeat environment, and seeing her Clanmates look at her in disgust because she has a different faith than them (or rather, doesn't have one at all) would just make things awkward. Instead, she does her best to make living fun, for herself and others.

Featherpaw is a very fast-paced individual and she likes for things to change constantly; routine is not her friend. She requires a lot of diversity in what she does and does not care for things to get repetitive, and if they do she will deliberately act out until it can change. She forms strong bonds with others and enjoys spending time with kits as well as adults, enjoying the playful times that she can have with the younger ones without being seen as anything but a potentially good mother figure. She has an intense love for life and fun, and likes to bring others along to make sure they have a good time too; she is enjoyable to be around and can be very flexible with her schedule, as she does not like planning, and adapts to change fairly quickly. Featherpaw legitimately cares about others, and is fairly kind-hearted despite her mischievous side that constantly tells her to break the rules. She gets a lot of fun out of life but is bad at watching out for the drawbacks of living entirely in the moment.

She can get very caught up in the excitement of the moment and not think of anything else, pushing to go on an adventure or enjoy living life right then without thinking of the future. Because she is less prone to considering the consequences, she is more likely to spend the bulk of greenleaf slacking off and then panic when she realises that she's starving in the middle of leafbare. She can also take some things for granted, such as the abundance of prey, even after she has already experienced the flow that happens with the seasons. Featherpaw doesn't really notice the problems that are associated with her actions, and will frequently get into trouble with not only her Clan but also the warrior code because she doesn't mind breaking it; she logically should be constantly on thin ice. However, because of her generally positive disposition, she is enjoyed in the Clan.

One of the things that will get her down without her being able to rebound is the topic of her now deceased mentor, Silverfang. He pushed her and abused her, leaving her with scratches and bruises after every training session because he did not trust her due to her non-Clan blood. Occasionally she will beat herself up for this, feeling depressed, lonely, and generally unhappy and like she does not belong. When she begins to feel like that, it is a drastic change; as insanely happy as she normally seems, she gets just that bad on the other side of the spectrum and is prone to potentially doing something reckless or idiotic. She tries to avoid that subject for this, and has done her best to hide what he did to her so that she can carry on living normally and not have anyone catch her off guard. She does not feel secure in the Clan when she considers her foreign status, and sometimes wonders why she was even accepted into their ranks. This is part of the reason why she tries to be so welcoming and loving of others, considering the entire Clan to be her friend as well as cats outside of RiverClan; she wants to ensure nobody feels as ostracised as she frequently does.

She is slightly broken because of that, and her self esteem isn't the highest because she feels as though not being a pure RiverClan cat means that she isn't as good as them and she has to try much harder than they do to fit in. Featherpaw either fits one of two extremes; she can be egocentric and hug the spotlight, or she can be extremely self defeating and unwilling to surround herself with others. She can also be quite indecisive; for example, she does not know if she prefers loneliness or company. Though she thrives in the attention of others, she knows that she did not come from any Clan and that only leads her to believe that she lived alone before; because she was a loner with only her mother, she was raised to instinctively feel protective of herself, and as though isolation was better than being around a plethora of cats. On some days she wants to run away from RiverClan, and others, she feels like the Clan is more of a home than anywhere else ever could have been, and she is very happy to be there. However, she also tends to live for praise, and that is part of why she likes having attention drawn to her; she wants to be recognised for what she is good at so her Clanmates can hopefully completely forget that she does not technically belong with them, and so that she can stop believing that she doesn't belong and rather accept the Clan as they accept her, as a family in a home where she is completely welcome.

One thing that Featherpaw is afraid of is always falling asleep alone, and never having a life companion because she thinks that her Clan might be prejudiced due to her impure bloodline. This is part of the reason that she seeks a mate in another Clan; he would not know of her impurity, and clearly wouldn't care even if he did because he'd be willing to break the rules already just to be with her. The other part of that primarily stems from the fact that she enjoys the thrill she gets when breaking the rules, and would be ecstatic to do one of the most treacherous things a Clancat could do -- find love in another Clan. Although this may seem like a very strange thing for her to seek, it is one of her passionate desires and she feels that if she's going to be exiled she might as well get kicked out with a bit of a bang.

On a more optimistic note, she is very encouraging of others in essentially everything she does and is very generous with her time and energy. She wants the Clan to live and thrive just like she does, enjoying every moment, every heartbeat, every breath until the last one. Featherpaw is a born entertainer and does her best to shine in the spotlight, with the world being her entire stage, and she loves putting on a show for anyone who will watch. This means that she will do dangerous, outrageous things just to show her Clanmates that life is worth living, or sometimes tone herself down and speak quietly to someone who is feeling upset. She is a very capable listener and will do her best to help a Clanmate through any troubles that he or she might be suffering through, regardless of what that entails for her; she could happily take him or her on an adventure that bends the rules some, put on some kind of show, or sit and listen while the other cat talks about every problem in the world. And then, she would give what advice she could, but would be as good of a friend as she could be beside the fact that her advice wouldn't be fantastic and would be kind of awkward. Her effort is what is really significant, though, and she hopes that that is recognised and appreciated even if nothing else is.

Featherpaw is also quite brave and determined, and refuses to give up in the face of anything... this also leads to her being extremely reckless if she decides to get into trouble and it could end up risking her life, but she would be too proud to back down and look at it logically. She insists on living in the moment, even if that moment is threatening, without consideration of the consequences. She is a very social creature and enjoys the little things, primarily that of spending time with friends. Featherpaw also keeps her coat very clean and well maintained, feeling that it is essential and important; when Silverfang was her mentor and she was forced to groom it a different way to hide her scratches, she felt frustrated and hoped to some higher power that nobody would notice the difference. Even so, she is fairly curious, and since then has tried different techniques with how she arranges her fur to figure out what looks and feels the best.

Despite the fact that she seems quite selfish in how she enjoys to hog the spotlight, Featherpaw is intelligent enough to know that the world does not revolve around her and she can be sensitive to others' emotions. She is very quick to try to help someone who is having trouble, and will always lend a compassionate ear. Giving what advice she can, she will in the very least be supportive of the other cat and will try to help coax him or her through whatever trails may be occurring... unless she is involved in the problem, in which case she will back out and get as uninvolved as possible. Regardless of her absolute love for drama and some desire for attention, she hates to be the focus of this drama and will try to break away from it when others start criticising her for being who she is.

Featherpaw is fairly neglectful of the duties and responsibilities that make her luxuries possible, and she struggles to analyse the purpose behind repetitive tasks or the consequences for her actions. She prefers to rely on her luck and her opportunity, or get assistance from someone else who is doing the real work -- she's not big on putting effort into serious stuff and prefers her lighthearted mannerisms that focus on fun and energy. She fails to think into the long term of a lot of her decisions, and because of that can be irresponsible and inattentive.

However, she can recognise value and quality of something or someone... except for her own. She has a general understanding that pureblood cats are the only ones who are welcome in the Clan, but evidently exceptions can be made. She prefers to jump at unexpected opportunities than to plan for things that may happen in the future and she can't risk doing some activities because she neglected her responsibilities for so long and is forced to catch up on those. Very few things make her feel worse than those situations, such as getting sent to the elder's den to pick ticks off their coats, because she is unable to enjoy herself and spend time with her friends. However, she is generally welcomed anywhere there is a need for laughter, playfulness, and a volunteer to try something new; she enjoys bringing them along for the ride as well, and won't think anything of it if she spends the entire day playing or chatting.

Featherpaw is very bold, and is not known for holding back. She wants to experience everything she possibly can in life, and is not afraid of stepping out of her comfort zone. She is also original with her ideas, and doesn't really believe in following traditions and expectations; she feels like this life is her own and she has no need to live it any differently. She can be practical and observant, and prefers to experience life instead of wondering what life could be -- no better way to answer that than to figure it out through trial and error. She can notice changes and real, tangible things, in both passive and active life. She is also very good with socialisation and spending time with others, and is talkative, witty, and has an endless supply of things to converse about. Overall, she's fairly satisfied with her life. However, she can be fairly sensitive to criticism, although this has been desensitised some because of Silverfang; it is still hard to bring her weaknesses to light, or discuss him, and she will do her best to avoid any type of conflict she might manage to get herself into. She is terrible at thinking about things in the longterm, and doesn't tend to focus on things for very long. Her life is very much lived in the moment.

Traits
Positive:

- Brave.

- Determined.

- Fearless, in a sense.

- Refuses to give up.

- Optimistic.

- Very friendly once she opens up.

- Good listener.

- Musing.

- Intelligent.

- Quick to learn.

Negative:

- Reckless.

- Can come across as cold.

- Shy.

- Meddles in the warrior code.

- Would give anything for a forbidden relationship.

- Self defeating at times...

- ... but overly egocentric at others.

- Lives for praise.

- Indecisive.

- Doesn't know if she prefers loneliness or company.

Fears:

- Getting caught breaking the rules.

- Never falling in love.

- Never knowing her family.

- Sleeping alone every night.

- Badgers.

- Foxes.

- Birds of prey.

- Snakes.

- Drought.

- Death.

Family and Relationships
Father: Unknown; kittypet.

Mother:  Unknown ; loner, murdered by badgers.

Sibling: Unknown; status unknown.

Sibling: Unknown; status unknown.

Sibling: Unknown; status unknown.

History
Feather was born outside the Clans to a kittypet and his loner friend. The queen became pregnant shortly after their meeting, and still hung around despite his occasional protests. There was absolutely no love or affection between the two of them, with her only staying because she did not want to try to raise the kits alone. After giving birth to four kits in the twolegs' backyard, she managed to keep them hidden for about a moon, as the twolegs were not very attentive. However, one day, the kits were playing in the open. Before any of them knew what was happening, the twolegs had run outside in excitement. The loner managed to grab Feather and run, but the other three were taken inside along with their father. Eventually they were adopted out to the neighbours and friends, but StarClan knows where they've gone since.

Feather, whose name did not have the traditional ending on it at this point given the fact that the loner had likely never heard of them, lived with her mother in solitude for about three more moons. They constantly circled the lake, never feeling safe one way or the other. Feather's mother gradually taught her survival skills, including how to swim, before their nomadic life was forced to end. When Feather was just over four moons old, she and her mother were attacked by a pair of badgers within what they didn't know was ShadowClan territory. Obviously, the two were not able to fight them off, and her mother told her to run while she distracted them. Devastated, but obedient, Feather ran as far and long as she could.

Unfortunately, just running was not enough to get her free. Even on the other side of ShadowClan territory, it seemed that more foes were practically waiting for her; this time, however, it was a fox. It attacked her, swiping her hard against a tree before retreating to its den. When Feather awoke, she stumbled through the forest, unintentionally heading the way she had originally been -- when it came down to it, she didn't remember a single thing that had happened that day, that moon, or her entire short life. Eventually, she came across the scents of many other cats. Having always lived in paranoia, she was instinctively cautious (without being entirely sure why), but crossed from ShadowClan and into their territory anyway just in time for a patrol.

The RiverClanners, as it turns out the three warriors were, greeted her warmly as soon as they established that she was not a threat. Seeing the fear in her eyes, how matted her coat was from her long sprint, and the foreign scent that let them know she belonged to no Clan, she was invited to join their ranks. Some warriors hesitated, mindful of the idea that they were not ThunderClan and accepting of just anyone who wanted to join, but noting her young age eventually she was fully welcomed. Old enough to not need a mother figure, nobody really tried to fill the spot; she was alone in the nursery until she hit six moons, at which point she was assigned a mentor named Silverfang.

Unfortunately, the two were not a good match. He was always extremely hard on her, and despite his reassurances to Magpiestar that he did not mind her heritage, these attitudes changed when the two of them alone. He beat her down emotionally constantly, hurting her during fight practise and expecting her to promise it was a fox attack, telling her nobody loved her and nobody ever would. After two moons of this, Silverfang broke his leg in an actual fox attack; eventually, the wound grew infected and ended up killing him. Featherpaw was relieved, and assigned a new mentor.