Mousepaw // Tideclan

Appearance

Simple Appearance: small brown and white tom with amber eyes


Paragraph Appearance: Mousepaw is a slim, small tom. His fur is mostly white with brown tabby patches, noticeably is the brown 'drop' on his nose and patches on his ears. Otherwise white dominates most of his pelt though his tail is brown tabby. He has amber eyes and a face more on the angular side along with a long tail which shows more of his brown tabby coloring with dark stripes.

Personality

More often than not Mousepaw is a timid creature, he does not like to stand out and is the last to ever defend himself. He will rarely do something on his own and will let others take the lead for him. He does not do well under pressure, instead of taking the time to think problems out he would much rather avoid the problem all together and do whatever he can to leave the situation that he is in.

He knows well that he gets scared quite easily and that sometimes being too anxious can keep him from doing the duties he needs to but this is where he has learned to adapt to his own mannerisms which means he often does not do anything alone. He is timid but not necessarily shy, he loves nothing more than to make friends and being able to interact with others. He knows having close friends is a good way to help him face his fears.

He gets nervous around figures of authority or seniority, he does not like to be bossed around by older cats which of course poses some issues to him as an apprentice learning how to be a warrior. It is not that he does not want to listen to the warriors or anyone else of higher rank but that he is terrified of failing them. For every new task he gets he worries that he will do the task so horribly wrong that he will be punished and not allowed to be a warrior. He will try to put off tasks as much as possible or do it with other apprentices but typically by the time he finishes it he learns his fears were irrational.

Mousepaw makes quick assumptions at nearly everyone he meets, he likes to think he knows how someone will be for the rest of their life. If someone acts lazy once he thinks that they are always going to be lazy and does not believe that cats can change. He makes judgements that he holds onto and does not like to learn that he is wrong. This mindset of his is juvenile of him but he does not realize it and one day he could grow out of it.

For all the faults he has though he is a cat with a strong sense of loyalty and sticks to the warrior code. He wants closeness with his friends and family, he can be the caring sort by being one of the first cats to make sure his friends are doing alright. He does not like to see the suffering of anyone and will help when he can. He is often nervous to try something new but being able to help someone will always go above any fear he may have.


FOUR STRENGTHS
- Inquisitive
- Practical
- Sociable
- Quick thinker

FOUR WEAKNESSES
-Timid
- Judgemental
- Poor listener
- Defensive

History

Mousepaw's mother was a young she-cat when she had kits. She was a quiet she-cat at the time and many thought she was a bit too young to be a queen despite the fact she had been a warrior for a fews moons. Worse was the fact no one was certain who the father of her kits were since she had not really shown much interest in motherhood before. For a long while rumors spread about her despite her right to keep quiet about her mate. After the kits were born though a tom named Mudfang announced he was the father, proud to see his mate had born him so many kits. It was a surprise that Mudfang had kept quiet for so long, he was notoriously an outspoken and loud warrior and quite different than the serious and calm Swanface.

Swanface had produced a fairly large litter for a first time other, the labor had been incredibly hard on her but she survived though her recovery was a slow process. Mousekit, Tigerkit, Mottledkit and Sandkit seemed to be fairly healthy kits if not a tad small but the medicine cat was more worried about their mother than the kits at the time. However after only a night Sandkit had died. The lost hurt Swanface but exhausted as she was there was little time for her to mourn when she had three other kits to also take care of.

Luckily the other kits made it through their first moon perfectly healthy and growing well though Mousekit remained the smallest of his siblings. Mudfang took interest in Mousekit for being the smallest, which the tom perceived as weakness, he did not want any son of his to grow up to be a weak warrior. He had no bad intention but he would often try to push Mousekit beyond his comfort zones. He started with getting Mousekit to explore the camp with him, showing him all the dens and introducing him to other cats which is something most kits would want to do but Mousekit refused to do anything without his siblings going with him and would try to get the others to join despite Mudfang's protests. Mudfang wanted Mousekit to be more independent, he would try to bribe him with extra fresh kill or ask Mousekit what he wanted. In truth though, Mousekit did not enjoy being singled out as he worried about being resented by his siblings for being able to spend more time with their father. He wanted to be able to spend time with all of them together.

Swanface is what eventually made Mudfang take all the kits out together, while she highly disproved of him teaching them battle tactics and lectures for the kits were obviously too young to understand she did know that play fighting was a valuable part of growing up. She worried that her other kits would become neglected though if they never spent time with their father.

Mudfang decided he was going to try to lecture all his kits together, if Mousekit would not listen to him alone then he just had to hope that maybe one of his siblings could get through to him. It was suppose to be a mentor's duty to teach apprentices but Mudfang found no harm teaching them proper hunting techniques and a few fighting moves certainly could not hurt. However the problem was not in what he was doing but how he was doing it. He was a notoriously short tempered tom, prone to snapping at his kits when they did not do something right.

Swanface certainly did not approve of Mudfang's waning temper though, it was not long before the two mates began to fight. What once Mudfang had mistaken for timidness in Swanface's quiet demeanor had in reality simply been her quiet and serious nature. While Mudfang was certainly the loud and passionate, Swanface was cold and stubborn. The kits were often present for their arguments, hearing of Mudfang's displeasure in them, how he worried that they will grow up too weak and that they would never survive outside of the forest. Swanface though was often able to persuade him that they will learn with their mentors and how it was never his place to train them anyway. Mousekit never felt comforted when Swanface was able to resolve any arguments with Mudfang, she had never been comforting to her kits afterwards. Never reassured them that they would make fine warriors, that there was nothing to fear. He always heard instead that their mentors would have to take care of them instead.

The three kits did finally become apprentices at six moons old, Mousepaw was ready to leave the nursery.