COPPERPAW - SHADOW APP

~ Pansyblaze, a young warrior, is patrolling with her parents when the two are brutally murdered by a swarm of rats. She survived by scrambling up a tree, but was stuck there for nearly a full sun waiting for the rats to leave. While imprisoned the molly bore witness to the swarm consuming her kin. It was traumatizing.

~ After nearly half a year had passed Pansyblaze began to move on from the incident. Part of what helped her recovering was a budding romance with a handsome tom named Tigerface.

~ Tigerface begins to feel as if his relationship with Pansyblaze is becoming unhealthy. She’s extremely dependent on him and excessively clingy –distrusting his every move. He tries to communicate with her about his concerns, but is only met with an increase in her undesirable behavior.

~ Seeking comfort outside of the relationship Tigerface becomes close to a young tom named Deertail. Pansyblaze, while stalking her mate, discovers this. Over the next few days she uses guilt to coerce Tigerface into spending one last night with her. The two break up the very next day.

~ Pansyblaze is diagnosed as pregnant. She attempts to use this information to get Tigerface to come back to her “for the sake of the kits.” While he assures her he intends to be a father figure in their life, he swears on StarClan that he’ll never be Pansy’s mate again. She retells the event to her friends who consider the tom a heartless player.

~ A thin layer of snow covered the ground when Pansyblaze gave birth to four little kittens. The next morning the youngest, Antpaw, passed away. She was small, frail, and sickly from the start. The queen openly mourns her death, almost forgetting about her surviving kittens in the process. Members of the clan come together to sooth her broken heart, assuring her over, and over again that she still has a family to tend to. Finally she is appeased and returns to nursing.

~ Tigerblaze brought Deertail to visit the kits on multiple occasions. They quickly grew fond of him, and would often play with the brown tabby. Pansyblaze was jealous of their attention. In an attempt to separate them from her ex-mate’s new partner she once dragged them forcefully to her and roughly held them to herself. Ravenkit was unable to breath during which, and by the time Copperkit and Hornetkit drew enough attention to the small tom medical help was needed. Thankfully he had a full recovery. Pansyblaze apologize profusely and blamed Deertail for scaring the kits and herself. Everyone decided the situation was simply an accident.

~ From then on out whenever Deertail visited the kits Pansyblaze grew unexplainably light-headed and faint of heart. She would even pass out, although she always revived before the medicine cat could make it to the nursery. At first Tigerface was concerned for her well-being, and even remained by her side during a particularly bad fit. As her illness continued he became skeptical, however, and eventually ignored the events all-together in defense of his new mate. How could Deertail be making her sick?

~ Tigerface and Pansyblaze began to fight constantly over her condition. He was determined to be a figure in the kits’ lives, and believed his new mate had every right to be so as well. He would yell at her to “stop faking it” much to the clans’ dismay. During a particularly bad spat between the two Deertail stepped in, attempting to calm both parties. Pansyblaze slapped him across the face with her claws unsheathed. When the leader intervened he did not accuse her of foul play, and claimed responsibility. She made it well known that she had struck out only in self-defense. Many agreed that the queen was in her right defending her litter.

~ However, as the litter continued to grow, becoming more independent of their mother as they weaned, they visited Deertail often on their own and spent less and less time with her. Pansyblaze changed her story, and started to claim that her illness had been the cause of her lashing out. The medicine cat took interest in the ongoing case and began to visit her frequently, attempting to discover the cause of it.

~ Initially the clan was, for the most part, entirely behind Pansyblaze. She was a driven and charming young molly, who may have been a little quiet but she was a gentle soul all the same –someone to be protected. However, as her mysterious ailment continued to get worse their blame shifted from stress caused by the father to uncertainty. The queen was making greater and greater strides to get back in her first love’s favor, and some began to grow tired of her single-minded (borderline excessive) intentions. Was it true love, or was it something else? Couldn’t she just move on and find another?

~ Aware that she was losing the support of her friends, and the clan at large, Pansyblaze focuses her attention heavily upon her kits. One sun she decides to take them out of camp so they can help her search for some herb she think she heard of in an elder’s tale. They were barely four moons old, and patches of thin spring ice still covered the marsh. Thankfully Tigerface discovered the group before they could leave camp, potentially saving his kits from accidental drowning. He immediately alerts Boarstar to the situation.

~ Boarstar confines Pansyblaze to the medicine cat den “for her own good.” The medicine cat continues to research herb combinations and treatment options in an effort to find a solution to the mother’s physical, and now suspected mental, illness. Had her physical illness caused the latter? Or was there something else involved in the puzzle?

~ Public opinion on Pansyblaze shifts dramatically after the incident, with some going so far as to suggest that she had intended to get the kits killed. Why? So that everyone would pity her and pay attention to her once more. It was only a rumor, never confirmed.

~ Deertail temporarily gives up his warrior rank to care for the kits in the nursery. They’re weaned, and simply need 24/7 support and guidance (there are either: no other pregnant or nursing mothers, the mothers are strained after a long winter, or the queens enjoy his company and don’t mind the extra help). The kits are ecstatic, with Copperkit particularly growing close to her step-dad. When the others go to visit their mother, at Ravenkit’s whining request, she begins to stay behind.

~ On their sixth moon Boarstar holds an apprentice ceremony for the litter. At first Pansyblazes refuses to show up, laying weak-hearted and half-conscious in her nest. However, as their new names are called and paired up she rushes out of the den, pulling the newly named apprentices to herself. Copperpaw briskly shoved her mother off, and keeps the molly from getting to her smaller brother, Ravenpaw. After briefly attempting to get around her daughter Pansyblaze gives up and falls to the ground with odd spasms causing her to kick out.

~ The medicine cat cannot find a logical reason that explains the illness and incident. The spasms were unlike any seizure they had ever seen. Despite their best efforts to focus on healing and to stay positive and supportive, they began to question if the illness was ever real at all. How could it be when nothing seems to fit it?

~ Copperpaw is paired up with (TBA). – I’ll add a description of her training after I talk to her chosen mentor-

~ During the early moons of their apprenticeship Pansyblaze is given the rank of permanent elder, although her request for a rename is denied. She pleads for the kits to visit her often in the den, telling them she needs their help and that no one else cares for her anymore. She also uses their apparent adoration for Deertail, stating that they love him more, and need to show their actual mother more attention.

~ At first the three kittens do try their best to visit her frequently, with Copperpaw more often than not being dragged over by her brother Hornetpaw. Slowly the trio begin to fall behind in their training as their mother keeps them longer and longer for each visit.

~ Copperpaw becomes increasingly concerned when her smallest brother drastically suffers in his training and personal upkeep due to the strain of caring for their mother. Angry, and sick of the ongoing abuse, she confronts her mother. During which she openly declares that her mother is faking any and all illness in order to get attention, and calls her a useless strain on the clan resources. She states that the molly deserves to be kicked from their home, and has lost the right to be loved.

~ Her elder brother chastises her for it, but admits that Ravenpaw does need to have some boundaries set. This is seconded by their father and Deertail, who Copperpaw tattle-tails to. With the grown-ups' help they do manage to distance themselves from the she-cat, although Ravenpaw continued to visit her frequently. Copperpaw’s training takes a drastic turn for the better and she begins to improve more quickly.