Bluetail | ShadowClan Warrior

[Cai]

Name: Bluetail
Gender: Female
Age: 28 moons
Clan: ShadowClan
Rank: Warrior
Apprentice: Dovepaw
Love Interest: Open
Kin:

Shadowtail - [Mother; ShadowClan; NPC]
Greyclaw - [Father; ShadowClan; NPC]
Cinderfur - [Sister; ShadowClan; Cai]
Slateclaw - [Brother; ShadowClan; NPC]

T h e. m a r b l e . l a d y

Description:

Bluetail has a look of reluctant beauty, as if she is wishing not to have it, yet somehow cannot shake off the air of naturalness and sleekness which create quite good looks. Her long legs and slim body are coated in solid, blue-grey fur which never wavers from its strong, dark colour. Bluetail possesses a lot of elegance and grace, her tall shape making her a particularly impressive creature in movement. Her looks alone would suggest a kind of statuesque beauty, cold and stone-like with finely sculpted features and an unmoving expression, and it can take a while for others to see past this. A hard, reserved expression so often settles upon her face, and, particularly when in the company of her sister, she can look quite sour and irritable. Contrastingly, though, she happens to have quite a lovely, low, cool voice which emphasises the statue-like elegance that Bluetail is rather sorry to have inherited from her mother. She does not look soft and girlish like her sister Cinderfur; she is tall, regal and cool. There is no flamboyant displaying of her beauty in the way her sister so often does, since it is not in her nature to act like a peacock.

Personality:

Bluetail is a long-suffering she-cat with a rather tyrannical father, a silent mother and a foolhardy sister. The result of this is a hard-edged she-cat who is decidedly independent since she has no-one to depend on. Bluetail is very clever and has learnt to ignore her father's requests and shake off his influence to the best of her ability. Somehow, despite having a puppeteer father, Bluetail firmly walks her own route, refusing to smile, giggle and flirt along with her sister like she used to. Some cats call her stony because of her apparent lack of warmth and joviality next to Cinderfur, but the reality is that Bluetail is frustrated and embittered by her manipulative family, and worn down by a less than desirable lifestyle. She seems older than she should be because of this. Nothing is as it seems with her kin, and so she has become very distrustful and tends to spend most of her time alone.

Bluetail's father once held hopes that his eldest daughter would pursue a position as leader or deputy because of her independence and natural strong mind. Had she been more complying, Bluetail might well have been on the route to being made a deputy, but she refuses to do anything her father wishes and is quite certain that she will not be a highly ranked cat. This is because she would hate to see any one of her family members in the top position, and that includes herself. Sometimes there seems to be a mean streak in Bluetail when she is snappy and frosty, and that makes her concerned that she is more like her sister than she likes to think, thus causing her to shun any opportunities to raise her status. Her truest nature, however, is one far more amiable. She is, albeit grudgingly, a good cat who devotes a lot of time to her Clan, though most prefer Cinderfur over her these days.

History:

A litter of five was born to Shadowtail and Greyclaw of ShadowClan in the small hours of a leaf-fall morning. They were status-obsessed cats, well-respected within the Clan even in the times of chaos, and so it never crossed their minds to mate outside of ShadowClan. Though there was not much love between the two, and Greyclaw was obviously the dominant one in the relationship, the kits were a very great thing for both parents, but not in the way expected. Greyclaw saw his children as tools for improving the social standing of his family, future pawns in his schemes to secure future leaders and mates of leaders. His fine litter of kits, including three toms and two she-cats, seemed perfect for one day taking lead of the Clan. Bluetail was the second kit to be born.

Unfortunately, five became three soon after birth. Two of the toms died of greencough after a weak struggle, leaving Bluekit, Cinderkit and Slatekit as their family heirs. Their father was harsh on them from the beginning. Even when they were just moons old, Greyclaw would demand proper etiquette and manners from them. He insisted upon respect and good presentation, despite the fact that his kits only wanted to play and have fun. He soon ironed this childishness out of them with his harsh reprimands and grim warnings. At only a few moons old, Bluekit was easily influenced and what could she do if not obey her father? At first, she tried. She tried to be what would make her father treat her like everyone else's father. She obeyed him and made herself pretty, charming and well-spoken, swiftly adopting the position of favourite daughter. But her father never showed Bluekit that she was his favourite. Cinderkit was also shaped to perfection in her father's eyes, and so the beginnings of the sisterly rivalry were made before the kits were even apprentices.

When Bluekit and her siblings became apprentices, a big fuss was made over who would be their mentors. Greyclaw insisted that his offspring receive the best of mentors, and Bluepaw was apprenticed to an up-and-coming warrior she-cat by the name of Hollyclaw who was at the right hand of the leader. She was tough, fierce and utterly independent, and Bluepaw was always in awe of her. She had been taught that a she-cat should be well-groomed and serene, always obedient to her father and never rowdy or crass. Hollyclaw was the opposite of this. She was always in motion, always talking and joking and never delicate and shy. She was a brilliant warrior, so skilled in battle that she could take on toms twenty moons her senior and win. Hollyclaw was never afraid to speak her mind and nobody told her what to do. The young Bluepaw was utterly astonished that a she-cat could be this way, so different to her mother or her sister. Everything was sincere about Hollyclaw, and Bluepaw secretly wished that she was her sister instead of Cinderpaw, with whom her relationship had deteriorated. The two sisters were always at odds as Cinderpaw constantly snubbed and derided her big sister.

Bluepaw loved training with Hollyclaw. That she-cat was the one positive influence in Bluepaw's life, and to this day she can honestly call her the best cat she ever knew and the one great role model in her life. Hollyclaw became like an older sister to Bluepaw and she taught her well. Bluepaw's father had no complaint since Hollyclaw was one of the most talented cats in the Clan and was training his eldest kit. While Cinderpaw frittered her time away with her tom friends, Bluepaw tried hard, afraid of letting Hollyclaw down. She proved to be a great fighter and hunter, far superior to her sister, a fact which Cinderpaw never let go. Though Cinderpaw was rising up in the social standing of the Clan, Bluepaw was becoming an actual great warrior.

Like many young cats and their older siblings, Bluepaw copied Hollyclaw in every way she could, just as if she were really her sister. She tried to act as independent, carefree and calmly powerful as Hollyclaw, breaking the family mould of flirtatious and slightly air-headed she-cats. Bluepaw's ambitious father, instead of reprimanding her, was actually interested in this new development and began to put his hopes on Bluepaw for taking the ultimate prize: Leadership of the Clan. Initially he had planned to push a son towards deputy and leadership, but he decided that Bluepaw was the best candidate, and so he pushed her to train harder and harder. Surprised by this sudden interest in her, Bluepaw thought perhaps her father was finally starting to support her out of love rather than power-hunger. Of course, she was wrong. Everything Greyclaw did was a selfish manoeuvre. In any case, attention was diverted from Bluepaw when Cinderpaw managed to get into mischief with her mentor in an effort to steal the limelight. It worked, to an extent, since their father, though not entirely pleased by her choice in prey, realised that Cinderpaw was already a talented seductress.

Bluepaw was reasonably happy as an apprentice. Even though her family was beginning to irritate and sometimes shock her, she delighted in the affection and friendship she received from her mentor. Hollyclaw was a lovely cat to everyone and she didn't treat Bluepaw just as a student. She was a friend to her. And that friendship is what made it hurt even more when Hollyclaw died in a freak accident during the raid on RiverClan fifteen moons ago. Bluepaw was twelve moons old and just about to become a warrior when her mentor was struck unexpectedly in a weak spot during the battle. She died four days later from her wounds in the medicine cat den, and that was when Bluepaw's apathy and frostiness began. Her best friend and her beloved mentor was dead. All she had left was a family with skewed desires and corruption running through its core. With no-one left to copy, Bluepaw became herself, but herself distorted by loss and dissatisfaction.

---

Bluetail has since lost the interest of her father. He has long since given up on convincing her to do his bidding, and he declares her his only failure. As far as he is concerned, Bluetail is not his daughter, though this suits her well, for she has tired of her family's destructive ambition. In the place of normal family love, there is only a desire for success, something which hurts Bluetail every time she sees kits with their loving kin. Bluetail is all but estranged from her family, though her sister refuses the leave her in peace and constantly sneers at her for what she is now: a she-cat who seems twenty moons older than she is, and one who is overshadowed and scorned by her little sister and unnoticed by most of the Clan.

Other:
Roleplay Example:

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

[Sporelett]