Nettlestripe :: Warrior

[nettlestripe]

Nettlestripe
Nettlekit / Nettlepaw
Lanky red tabby tom with dark amber eyes.



NAME EXPLANATION:

Nettle – For his ginger fur
Stripe – For his striped markings

AGE:

2 years and 4 moons (28 moons)

RANK:

Warrior

EXTENDED APPEARANCE:

Nettlestripe’s most prominent feature is his namesake: his deep orange pelt scored with striped tabby markings of red. His fur is short, soft and can take a scruffy fluffy look around his neck and haunches if he does not tend to it, leading Nettlestripe to joke that he never lost his fluffy kitten fur. His orange pelt only pales around his muzzle and jaw, and is most white at his throat. He has long feathery white whiskers.

Nettlestripe is a tall cat with long limbs who lacks the grace to avoid an awkward posture. This is what gives him his typical gangly appearance, and although his long legs lend him speed when he runs or hunts, they can become bothersome in close combat fighting. The scruffy, patchy area on his right haunch where not much fur has grown is proof of this weakness. The young warrior has round, dark amber eyes, rounded ears and a long scruffy tail.

PERSONALITY:

Easy going and friendly, Nettlestripe has little reason to quarrel with any cat. He is known for his loud and often accidentally offensive humour and, although he means well, never wanting to insult or hurt another, his mischievous, witty jokes have been known to irritate others. The orange tom is also known for his laziness. Whenever there’s hard work to be done, Nettlestripe’s nowhere to be found. When he is roped into actually carrying out his duties as a warrior, he’ll try and turn them into a game. The good natured tom is incapable of taking almost anything seriously. He claims his life’s work is to cheer up the clan but many complain that he’s simply a worthless sloth. Nettlestripe pays little attention to these accusations (no matter how true they may be) and it takes a great deal to make him lose his temper.

There are two very different ways in which others see Nettlestripe. He is either a friendly, funny and mischievous tom or a lazy, careless and selfish waste of fur. While Nettlestripe attracts friends easily with his cheerful, trusting attitude, he’s not very reliable or helpful when it comes to helping others. Some cats even hate him for his reluctance to pull his fair share in the clan and, though this does not bother Nettlestripe, he subconsciously reacts by seeking others to talk to in order to suppress any feelings of loneliness. His greatest skill is running, which has made the moors his favourite hunting ground and rabbits his favourite prey.

FAMILY:

Immediate Family:
Mother --> Goldenwhisker, deceased
Father --> Redfoot, warrior, 60 moons
Sister --> Swiftfoot, warrior, 28 moons

Mentor --> Haretail, deceased

HISTORY:

KitHood: Nettlekit’s mother, Goldenwhisker, was an energetic and tireless warrior who had no interest in becoming a queen. Even though she had grown fairly large over the past few moons, Goldenwhisker refused to take residence in the nursery and even continued to hunt until Redfoot refused to allow her to leave camp. Restless with her confined life, Goldenwhisker sneaked out of camp one night only to realize her kits were coming. Her cries of pain drew a night patrol that fetched the medicine cat and Redfoot to her side. Thus, Nettlekit and his sister, Swiftkit, were born outside the camp.

Nettlekit took great pride in this story as he grew up, often repeating it to warriors as a claim that he ought to be allowed to leave the camp, seeing as though he had been born beyond camp borders and therefore had already been outside before. However, no warrior ever accepted this as a valid excuse, and Nettlekit’s attempts to escape the camp were unsuccessful, leaving the young tom to play within the confines of the camp with his sister and the other kits. His favourite place to go was by far the elders den, where he could chatter away to his heart’s desire. Whenever his father would try and teach him some early hunting or fighting techniques, Nettlekit would quickly lose interest and find something more interesting to do.

Apprenticeship: Nettlepaw quickly realized that being an apprentice was hard work. His mentor, Haretail, was continually frustrated with the lazy tom. Although Nettlepaw never disobeyed orders and rarely got into any serious trouble, the tom was more content to laze about the camp or go off exploring on his own than to actually practice and learn techniques. His sister Swiftpaw became Swiftfoot while Nettlepaw remained an apprentice, as Haretail was unable to honestly say that the careless tom was ready to become a warrior.
In a desperate attempt to teach Nettlepaw the value of hard work, Haretail took him with a patrol that had orders to attack a band of troublesome rouges. Having paid little attention to his lessons, Nettlepaw suddenly found himself in a life threatening situation with inadequate skills to defend himself. The apprentice did little to help the patrol as he was quickly wounded by a blow to his right haunch. Nettlepaw only survived the battle by staying out of the way until the fighting was over.

Surprisingly, it was not Nettlepaw who felt embarrassed and defeated after the battle, but his mentor, Haretail, who felt he had failed to adequately train an apprentice. Nettlepaw, on the other hand, treated the entire fiasco as a joke, forgetting all about the paralyzing fear of being unable to fight back only a few days later and returning to making jokes about his near death. Thus, another 6 moons were painstakingly spent by Haretail, who eventually managed to instill enough knowledge into his apprentice that he could pass into the ranks of a warrior.

Warriorship: Even at the most important moment of his young life, Nettlestripe could not keep serious. At his naming ceremony, he fell on his side and announced that, now that he had completed warrior training, he would retire and become a plant. While being a warrior still involved hard work, Nettlestripe found it easier to deal with when he only had the deputy and the leader to order him about than when all warriors could. Supported by his friends and pushed by his superiors, Nettlestripe managed to fall into the routine of a warrior without too much trouble, although he would still bitterly complain every time he was woken for a dawn patrol.

An important event that occurred during this time was the death of Haretail. A few moons after Nettlestripe’s naming ceremony, the warrior fell ill with greencough during leaf-bare. Against the wishes of the medicine cat and his apprentices, Nettlestripe forced his way into the medicine cat’s den to see his old mentor. Away from public eyes, Nettlestripe’s cheerful exterior fell away and for the first time in his life he apologized to his old mentor for putting him through so much trouble in his apprentice years. Haretail accepted his apology. In his mentor’s dying moments, Nettlestripe stayed by Haretail’s side, telling him stories and bringing up their favourite memories until the old warrior fell asleep and did not wake.

It did not take long for Nettlestripe to return to his cheerful old self. The young red tabby claimed that his mentor would not have wanted him to mourn to long anyway. When asked for his opinions about the ‘separatist’ ideas that are floating around the clan Nettlestripe only replies that “four clans sounds like a lot more work than one.” The laid-back tom is unlikely to take a side in the matter and hardly even cares about Badgerstar's reluctance to take a deputy. As long as he has good food and company, Nettlestripe is content to live his under-the-radar life.

CBOX NAME:

Teapot

HOW YOU FOUND US:

Through your ad

OTHER CHARACTERS:

Not yet!

RP SAMPLE:

A white she-cat padded out from the heavy undergrowth that surrounded the Treeclan camp. Her movements were slow and lethargic as she clumsily weaved her way through the towering tree’s that loomed far above, their shadows dappling the forest floor with shimmering golden light that seemed to move like water. Her drooping head seemed to dip even lower as the old she-cat passed by the diminishing fresh kill pile. It wasn’t often the proudly skilled warrior returned empty pawed. A yellow eye was dimmed in exhaustion. The other, her left, was a cloudy pale colour, and the gash of two long claw marks ran diagonally from one side of her eye to the other. The world was dim through this eye; a murky, dark nightmare. Luckyfoot could barely see through it, only recognising the general outline of shapes. Stumptail had told her she had been fortunate to have any sight left in it at all. She’d hissed grudgingly in answer. An eye as bad as this may as well be blind.

The sensation of guilt erupted in Luckyfoot’s chest as thoughts of failing her clan ran circles in her mind. She paused at a certain tree, lined with the claw marks of many cats along its tall trunk. Sucking up a deep breath, the white Treeclan warrior leaped up, heaving herself up the rough tree bark, pausing every now and again at a nearby tree branch. She felt tired, weak, old. Sick. The proud warrior refused to give up as she inched her way towards the top of the trunk with gritted teeth.

Luckyfoot’s muscles ached as she gave one final tug and dragged herself to the warrior’s area. Her mind felt numb, unable to think straight. She glimpsed over the edge of the tree. Funny... She had never had a problem climbing up here before. Slowly getting to her paws, the old warrior made her way along the branch towards the warriors den. Sleep. She just needed a good long nap and then she’d be up and running again. Yeah, she was just a little tired that was all. All those moons of non stop work were getting her. That was all.

Her thoughts were halted suddenly as a paw slipped, almost sending the she-cat toppling right over the edge to the ground below. Long claws shot out, gripping the trunk in a terrible fear that she had never experienced before. Luckyfoot had been an excellent climber all her life. What was happening? All of a sudden she felt sick. It was as if a badger had leaped out of a higher branch and crashed straight into her forehead. The she-cat’s vision swam as she teetered dizzily in the middle of the branch. Her head was aching horribly and every muscle hurt, right to the tip of her claws which still clung desperately to the tree.

“Help,” yelped the once proud she-cat frantically, but her voice was hoarse and weak. Her eyes fluttered and the world suddenly grew darker.

[admin tetris]

Accepted! Nettlestripe sounds like tons of fun xD I can't wait to rp with you!