Jayheart -- warrior
Jun 16, 2013 20:14:27 GMT -6
Post by jayheart on Jun 16, 2013 20:14:27 GMT -6
JAYHEART
jaykit/jaypaw/jayheart
"A grey-brown tabby tom with pale yellow eyes."
NAME EXPLANATION:
"Jay-" for his grey-brown coloration
"-heart" for his loud, jovial, and compassionate personality
AGE:
2 years (24 moons)
RANK:
Warrior
EXTENDED APPEARANCE:
PERSONALITY:Jayheart - a self-declared "strapping young bachelor" - is a healthy, hearty young tom whose loud actions and personality speaks against his altogether average size and appearances. Though he was dangerously close to the edge of small-ish in his kit and apprentice years, he has filled out nicely with adulthood; a broad set of shoulders and muscular, long legs ideal for jumping act as testament to the success of his apprentice training.
Jayheart believes in the importance of appearances, and keeps his grey-brown fur carefully groomed and maintained before leaving the den in the morning. This habit does not go hand-in-hand with his other habit of roughhousing like a kit, so his fellow clan mates either see him fresh out of his den looking like a million bucks or padding back into camp with twigs and brambles sticking out from behind his ears. While play is play, he does try to put a good paw forward, so to speak.
FAMILY:Jayheart is a playful soul that, despite being somewhat tempered by age and experience, still goes out of his way to keep his clan-mates (and himself) happy. If he sees an opportunity to make light of a situation, he will unfailingly do so. On a surface level, it seems that Jayheart comes in only one mode - jovial.
As a kit, this manifested in him being extremely high-energy, a trait that made it a living hell for both his mother and his mentor to guide. With the help of his mentor's training, he was able to channel this energy from silly playfights to a willingness to be involved, to help. Perhaps sticking himself into a situation or three has rightfully earned him the adjectives "nosy" or "intrusive" once or twice, but Jayheart is an honest soul who wants to be known as someone who is there to help.
Of course, "happy" and "helpful" are both just projections of Jayheart's personality - the way he puts himself forward because, in his mind, it helps improve the morale of the clan. Like any cat, he is victim to the full spectrum of emotion, both rational and irrational. In fact, Jayheart is rather sensitive, especially when traditional tom masculinity balks such displayed of "she-cat emotion." He tries not to hold grudges, but is very keen on traits such as loyalty and true friendship. Despite his tendency to try to work a crowd, he altogether prefers the closer connection of one-on-one time, and is keenly aware of his own tightly-knit mental "inner-circle."
Of course, there is a time and place when Jayheart's everyday friendliness and good humor are irrelevant. Under situations of stress or tribulation, Jayheart's mind works in a sort of black and white, right and wrong, "in"-group and "out"-group mentality. With only one clan, this has most often manifested as the clan acting as his "in"-group and the rogues and loners acting as the "out"-group; while he shows bravery and loyalty to his in-group, he can be narrow-minded and unsympathetic to the outsider, finding it extremely difficult to be objective and constantly having his vision colored by the thoughts and opinions of himself and those closest to him. He does not do so maliciously, but for simplicity's sake - being so emotionally invested in the happiness and safety of those he is close to, he cannot always afford to act the same to those who are, well, not.
tallheart, father, deceased; willowpelt, mother, elder
ashfur, older sister, warrior
unnamed, littermate sister, deceased; unnamed, littermate brother, deceased
HISTORY:
CBOXKIT-HOOD:
Jaykit was the only surviving kit of Tallheart and Willowpelt's second litter, his two siblings being still-born. His father, Tallheart, was especially happy for his birth; though he and Willowpelt already had a daughter who was proving herself to be an adept apprentice, he could not help but possess an extra surge of pride and parental expectations for his first- and last-born son.
Though Jaykit was the only kitten in Willowpelt's litter, by the time he was old enough to be bouncing off the walls of the den, he wasted no time in interacting with the other kits. Quite the social butterfly, he spent very little time interacting with his mother and instead spent all his time with the other kits. Though on occasion he could be rebuffed - some litters were almost clique-ish in their familial tightness - he was well-liked enough that by the time he was old enough for apprentice-hood, he had friends of similar age.
APPRENTICE-HOOD:
While his father had been distanced in Jaypaw's kit-hood, immersed in his own warrior duties, he played an annoyingly proactive role once Jaypaw became an apprentice. Jaypaw was apprenticed to a young warrior name Dawnstorm, a formidable feline in the arts of hunting and fighting but untested in her skills teaching.
Tallheart, masquerading his attention for his son as an elder warrior giving advice to a younger, micromanaged Dawnstorm's training techniques and decisions, "coincidentally" stopping by their training hollow one too many times for coincidence. Jaypaw, though still young, noticed this and was close enough to his mentor to read her annoyance as well.
Tallheart's extra attention was largely unnecessary, however. Though Dawnstorm initially struggled to teach tactics to Jaypaw that had felt natural after moons detached from her own apprentice-hood, she was clever enough to work Jaypaw's obsession with playing and games to an advantage. After all, if you were able to forget that hunting was a necessary task without which the clan would starve, wasn't it really just a game of hiding, not letting your prey find you until you were upon them? Dawnstorm broke down the duties of a warrior in a way that young, immature Jaypaw could understand. Under her tutoring, his skills progressed and he was shaping up to be a rather respectable warrior at an impressive rate.
Of course, his father never saw it that way. Eternally critical, his pessimism played stark contrast to Dawnstorm's encouragement. Tallheart was no fool - he could see his son improved quickly despite his immaturity. He never let his son feel the pride that surged in his chest every time the younger tom returned to camp with his jaws full of prey. Despite Tallheart investing all of his hopes and standards into his young son, Jaypaw himself only felt more distanced. Balking his father pessimism and overall negativity, Jaypaw modeled his own behavior after his mentor's, his developed encouraging and positive nature only helping his good relations with his peers.
Jaypaw's passing into warrior-hood was less of a happy occasion as
he had dreamed about. When he and his mentor had been out hunting, they
had encountered a vicious rogue. Dawnstorm tried to chase the rogue off with words alone, informing the rogue that the trespass into clan territory would not be tolerated. The rogue, a big tom but with his skin hanging off his sharply-protruding bones, was much too starved to see reason. He attacked Dawnstorm, who yowled for Jaypaw to get help. He was torn only momentarily; he trusted absolutely in his mentor's abilities and judgement, he could make it back to camp in time to get help, everything would be oka-
Unfortunately, by the time the backup arrived, Dawnstorm's wounds were staining the mossy ground red. Jaypaw, traumatized by the sight of his dying mentor, was ushered back to camp. He later heard that Dawnstorm had passed before even being dragged back to camp, gone to join StarClan. The clan leader granted Jaypaw his warrior name the next day, for Jaypaw was close enough to finishing his training that, with Dawnstorm's death, it seemed only respectful for the hard work the late warrior had put into her mentoring.
WARRIOR-HOOD:
And so Jaypaw became Jayheart, and assumed the full responsibilities of being a Warrior. At the time of his ceremony, deep in grieving for his mentor, he found the pride of his father altogether distasteful. Their relationship, strained at best, remained so till Tallheart passed of natural causes a few moons later.
NAME:
Owl
HOW YOU FOUND US:
Advertisement~
OTHER CHARACTERS:
None yet. #soon
RP SAMPLE:
Remember, Jaypaw, that hunting is a balance. The longer you stalk your prey, the closer you can get undetected, saving you precious time and increasing your chances of success. The longer you wait, however, the more likely the wind will change or your prey will otherwise detect you.
That had been his first hunting lesson, almost six moons ago. At the time, it had meant nothing to him - he had been little more than a large kit, caught up with excitement for the huge territory that he had only began to explore. When then-apprentice and mentor had found a small vole, he had proved his hunting prowess by dashing blindly after it without a second thought, scaring it and all the other prey away for miles around. He had improved a bit since then, he thought ruefully.
The scent of prey cause Jayheart's reminiscent thoughts to disperse and his whiskers to twitch, his steps suddenly becoming more deliberate as he hunkered his body closer to the ground. His jaw parted slightly to fully take in the scent. Vole. How fitting. His tail flicked in amusement, but he didn't allow himself to dote on the parallel much longer - Greenleaf was, after all, the time of year that he and his clanmates should be growing fat and content over the bountiful prey. There was no stress to his slow slink across the forest floor. It was, after all, just a game. Albeit game that was now tipped quite in his favor, thanks to the training of his mentor.
The game was over quickly. Once the vole had come into sight, nibbling on a seed, Jayheart had only needed a moment to bound forward, claws unsheathing to trap the vole under their weight while his teeth delivered the killing bite. It, too, had grown fat with Greenleaf; perhaps he'd personally deliver this juicy specimen to the queens, or maybe the elders. In the meantime, he buried the vole in a few sure movements, and looked up, noting the position of the sun.
There was still plenty of time to catch more prey before heading back to camp. Bounding into the woods, the hunter kept his senses alert for further prey.
The game is on.
