Post by sporelett on Mar 4, 2012 12:20:15 GMT -5
b r i g h t b e r r y
n e e d . t o . k n o w
» clan : ShadowClan
» age : Twenty-seven Moons
» gender : Tom
» rank : Medicine Cat . Anti-StarClan Faction
» status : Healthy
» apprentice : None
» description : Lanky, fluffy ginger and white tom with amber eyes.[/ul]
g o i n g . d e e p e r
» appearance : Thin . Lanky . Bright . Fluffy . Bumbling . Energetic . Gawky
Reasonably sized for a tom, but lanky and thin, Brightberry could be called scrawny without any worry of being unfair to his appearance. He is scrawny, and wimpy-looking, and there really isn't any getting around that. Fortunately, trying to intimidate other cats isn't something that he has ever had any interest in doing, because he would be really terrible at it. Somewhat atypically for a cat of RiverClan descent, his fur is both thin and long, sticking up in fluffy tufts in places along his flanks and especially on his head. It doesn't keep out water very well, so he isn't very fond of swimming, but happily for him this is rarely a necessity. Brightberry's fur is mostly white, with flame-coloured patches placed here and there, marking his tail and body, and covering the top of his head as well. He has quite a long tail, and rather large paws, although he has finished growing, and somehow has developed the ungainly habit of tripping over anything available to him, including his own tail or feet. His eyes are large, amber and intent. Their depths often shine with a kind of scarily-obsessive, crazed gleam, which understandably makes other cats hesitant to approach him.
» personality : Clumsy . Reckless . Helpful . Optimistic . Clever . Inventive
With his large, awkward paws and unruly, fluffy pelt sticking up in tufts, the figure that Brightberry cuts is easily dubbed as ridiculous. It's the first impression that most strangers have of him, and honestly it's a pretty accurate one, which is only reinforced the longer one spends in his presence. Because in addition to being a bit of an odd bird looks-wise, Brightberry is possibly the most ungraceful cat in all the four Clans. To say that he is careless with his paws would be an understatement. Not only does the cat have an almost magical ability to trip over nothing, but if nothing isn't good enough then he somehow manages to get his own tail tangled up in his legs and stumble that way, which is always worth a laugh unless it's in the middle of a mission or patrol.
A bit of a black sheep, Brightberry hasn't had acceptance shown easily to him throughout his life, and as a result he clings especially hard to those who are willing to call him friend. For these cats he will fight tooth and claw or, perhaps more usefully, put his mind to work solving any issues that vex those he loves, and will defend them steadfastly against all attacks or accusations, be they valid or not. His sense of objective judgement has been skewed over moons of being dismissed and attention-starved, so accuracy tends to come second to whatever point of view will be most favoured by cats he has come to look up to. When it comes to day-to-day life, Brightberry is one of the friendliest, most kind and helpful cats that you ever will see. Every waking moment of his time is spent in a good humoured attempt to make at least one cat's day better. He lives for his Clanmates, and would do absolutely anything for them. Even small tasks, such as helping out with mundane chores if there aren't enough apprentices, are eagerly tackled by this cheerful tom, which sometimes can lead to him being taken advantage of.
Planning ahead is, well, not his specialty. Brightberry has gotten himself into many a sticky mess because he didn't stop to think about what he was doing. Helpful and well-meaning he may be, but at times he can be a bit of an eager beaver, which is frankly annoying for the more practical members of the Clan. However, succumbing to the temptation to send him off on a solo task is a risky gamble, because Brightberry tends to get into a lot of trouble on his own. Imagine a cripplingly clumsy tom with a single-minded desire to be helpful to his Clan, and no sense of forethought or caution to mediate his actions. The results could easily be disasterous, or at the very least troublesome.
Despite all of the above, however, Brightberry is somehow not a stupid cat. To the contrary, he may very well be one of the most inventive and resourceful cats in his Clan. If only he would use that flexible mind of his to be a supreme tactician, it would be much easier on his Clanmates. Unfortunately for them, however, this warrior's head is full not of brilliant battle stratagems, but rather innovative ideas to improve the ease or efficiency of various tasks, or, even more disastrously, schemes to take care of long-standing problems that are usually carried out without knowledge or consultation of his Clan. He fancies himself to be quite the genius, but usually fails to take what others would consider to be astoundingly obvious things into account when crafting his plans, which inevitably results in his current project falling apart at the seams.
» background : Brightberry's mother was already quite old when he was born. Having lost her mate before having the chance to ever have kits, Poppyleaf spent most of her warrior career avoiding interest from other toms, resigned to never being a queen. However, when she was seventy moons old, Poppyleaf unexpectedly moved into the nursery to give birth to a kit that no-one knew she was even carrying; a ginger-spotted tom whom she lovingly named Brightkit. As the moons progressed, and Brightkit grew and developed in body and mind, he proved to more than live up to his name. The young tom loved to visit the elders for stories, and at the encouragement of his doting mother, frequently made up stories of his own, and would act them out for her amusement. Gentle Poppyleaf could find no fault in the young kit, even though he was a bit small for his age, encouraging every new idea that he shared with her and clucking over him whenever he landed himself in trouble. The reason for her excessive coddling became clear long before Brightkit neared apprentice age; there was no cat in ThunderClan with fur so long and fine. Whoever his father really was, it clearly wasn't any tom from Poppyleaf's own Clan.
Brightkit's sixth moon came and went, and he became apprenticed to a stern warrior who Foxstar hoped would straighten him out and turn Brightpaw into an acceptable example of a ThunderClan cat. For his part, Brightpaw was far from lacking in enthusiasm. He was extremely excited to have reached apprentice status, and soaked up his mentor's teachings like a sponge. However, despite having duties heaped ever-higher upon him in an effort to keep him busy, Brightpaw still managed to have enough free time to concoct his own dreams and plans, and then to execute them when his Clanmates neglected to watch him for long enough. Often his experiments with different kinds of plants would leave interesting stains on his fur, and his mentor tired of Brightpaw's endless time-wasting with nonsensical "inventions." Things came to a head three moons after his training began, when a channel that Brightpaw had been digging to divert a small drinking stream through camp flooded during a rainstorm, prompting an emergency evacuation. Warriors had to be rallied to bury the channel after the rain had ceased, and there were some cats in favour of exiling the troublesome apprentice then and there.
Fate intervened on his behalf, however, in the form of a single out-of-season rose bush fruiting moons before its time. The medicine cat came upon the plant with its bright orange berries—which so closely mimicked the ginger colour of Brightpaw's fur—the very next day, and pleaded with Foxstar to be allowed to take the troublesome young tom as her apprentice. Thus was the problem of Brightpaw shifted into Mistwhisker's capable paws, and for a time it looked as though his suspicious parentage would be forgotten. Though Brightpaw was still wont to forget certain edicts of the Warrior Code from time to time, his knack with herbs and remedies was undeniable. He quickly memorised everything Mistwhisker could teach him about plants and their known uses, using his mentor's knowledge of herbs as a starting point to explore even more of their uses. Despite his quirks, Brightpaw became a welcome sight around camp, especially when someone was injured or ill. His mother was never prouder.
But it was Poppyleaf who had begun Brightpaw's controversial entry into the Clan, and ultimately it would be she who caused his departure. After seven moons of diligent study under Mistwhisker, Brightpaw earned his place as a full medicine cat of ThunderClan and received the name Brightberry, for his skill with plants as well as a reminder of the fruiting bush which earned him his apprenticeship to begin with. Not long after, a round of whitecough swept through camp, afflicting several cats including Poppyleaf, who had recently joined the elders' den. Despite both Brightberry's and Mistwhisker's best efforts, her condition quickly worsened into greencough. Brightberry was by her side whenever he could spare a moment, and it was during such a moment when his mother beckoned him closer and made a final request. Poppyleaf begged her son to seek out a RiverClan tom by the name of Puddletail and give him her last farewell. Though Brightberry encouraged his mother to get well so she could speak to Puddletail herself, Poppyleaf succumbed several days later, leaving him with a difficult obligation to fulfill.
With StarClan having recently retreated from all contact with the Clans, finding peaceful avenues of communication with RiverClan was risky at best. Foxstar had ThunderClan whipped into a lather over RiverClan's new half-Clan leader, who was surely to blame for their silence. With his own dubious parentage, the fact that Brightberry had also earned his full name around the same time the silence fell did not help his cause, and only Mistwhisker's staunch defense of his position kept the murmurs within his own Clan from rising to a roar of outrage. Any action which might attract Foxstar's ire would be an instant banishment sentence, and the mood at Gatherings was too hostile for conversation. As a last resort, Brightberry took RiverClan's medicine cat Yewberry aside after yet another failed half-moon meeting and begged a favour of him. He arranged to meet with Puddletail—a senior warrior of RiverClan—at the border in between patrols, and set out the very next day to make his mother's last wish come true.
They met at the edge of the river, keeping quiet while Brightberry did his best to explain the situation. He delivered his mother's final words as faithfully as he could, but although he wanted to ask if Puddlepelt and his mother had been mates, it didn't seem like the right time. Besides, the RiverClan warrior's feathery, white-patched fur provided all the clues that were really necessary. He felt it best to leave the question unsaid. Their meeting came to a close without incident, and it looked like Brightberry would be able to return to his Clan in secrecy with his shoulders free of further obligation. But upon his return to camp, he found Foxstar waiting for him with one of the senior warriors at his side. The cat had witnessed the ending of Brightberry's meeting and had rushed to report to Foxstar of their new medicine cat's treachery. This time not even Mistwhisker's sage intervention could forestall the inevitable. When Brightberry admitted the truth of his meeting with Puddlepelt, rumour spread around camp like wildfire. He was banished that very same day on charges of cross-Clan loyalties.
With nowhere else to go, Brightberry crossed the border to RiverClan in order to beg them to take him in, but Thornstar had no wish to take any action which would further inflame ThunderClan's fury against them. Unless Brightberry could prove his RiverClan heritage, he would have no place there. Unwilling to name Puddletail in order to save his own hide, Brightberry was at the warrior's mercy. Ultimately Puddletail remained silent, and he was forced to leave RiverClan's territory alone. Brightberry made his way towards the edge of Clan lands, avoiding WindClan patrols as he skirted the thunderpath on his journey towards Highstones. For the rest of that leaf-bare, while cats fought and died over StarClan's absence, Brightberry scraped by as a loner in the unclaimed lands near Mothermouth. The only time he ever had contact with the Clans was each half-moon, when he would greet the medicine cats on their way to attempt communication with StarClan. But he was no-longer a medicine cat of ThunderClan, and Brightberry did not accompany them inside the sacred tunnels.
Eventually, after almost three seasons of dwelling by himself in neutral lands, Brightberry found that he had company once more. A group of ShadowClan rebels who had broken away from the main body of their Clan came to live on the plateau above Mothermouth, near Brightberry's home. Weary after moons of solitude, Brightberry began living with ShadowClan's outcasts, and now claims loyalty to ShadowClan—the only Clan which would take him.
i m m e d i a t e . k i n
» sons : None
» daughters : None[/ul]
e x t e n d e d . k i n
» mother :
» brothers : None
» sisters : None[/ul][/div]
