Runningriver

You all know him, or maybe you don't - my first and arguably most iconic ABW character according to the votes in the poll, Runningriver. Your friendly neighborhood ball of anxiety and abandonment issues.

## Appearance and Personality

### Appearance

Runningriver is a tall, lanky tom with a lithe frame and lean muscles. His fur is wavy and tousled about like the currents of a fresh stream, locks springing about his chest and face wildly and in that sort of charmingly unruly way. His pelt takes on a light blue-gray hue with the majority of his upper body, spine, and tail consumed by darker tabby stripes. He has a few white parts here and there, most noticeably his underbelly and chin. His resting face is a nervous, slightly quizzical expression and his eyes are a pale blue.

### Personality

Runningriver is fairly withdrawn and has been for most of his life. He's the quiet and observant type who doesn't really talk much unless spoken to. He can be very difficult to speak to sometimes in the sense that he is very nervous, which can lead to him stuttering around people he doesn't normally talk to. He's cripplingly anxious and has some abandonment issues he hasn't quite sorted out yet, but is trying to manage them with the help of his friends.

Other than that whole aspect of his personality, he's very kind. Almost a sort of pushover, really. He enjoys others' company even when he has nothing to contribute in a conversation and is very physically affectionate, preferring to keep close to his friends to assure himself that they are safe and doing okay. He'd be the type to memorize little things about people he likes and can recognize small changes in behavior, like whether one of his friends is having a particularly good or bad day. The question is whether or not he'd work up the nerve to bring it up. However, he is consistently selfless and always has his friends' best interests in mind, even if he doesn't verbalize it.

## Background

### Kithood

Runningkit was born beside his sister Fieldkit to a queen named Bitterhoney, sired by their absent loner father Runner, whom he was named after. Bitterhoney really didn't seem to want anything to do with Runningkit and Fieldkit after their hasty, shouting-match breakup and although she nursed them, that was about all she did as a parent and got back to warrior duties as soon as they were weaned off of milk and able to eat prey and walk and talk on their own, leaving the two young kits by themselves in the nursery. Runningkit was very confused on why his mother hated them so much, seeing the other queens in the nursery be so loving and nurturing to their children. He ended up convincing himself that it was something he did wrong and began overthinking a lot, afraid he'd do something wrong again and mess everything up. This took a huge toll on his now extremely low self-esteem, thinking that maybe he just wasn't good enough for anyone to like him. He always wondered why Fieldkit didn't leave too, but never brought it up in the petrifying fear that the only cat he had left really would leave.

Because of Bitterhoney's absence in the kits' lives, Runningkit and Fieldkit stuck close to each other and rarely left the other's side. Runningkit grew highly dependent on Fieldkit instead of on his mother and always looked to her for problems he had, making decisions, and never did something without her opinion. He was scared of being left on his own. (Luckily, Fieldkit never took advantage of this - opting to try and keep Runningkit's morale up and have fun so he wasn't so sad all the time.)

Besides that, they didn't really do much in their younger days. Runningkit didn't really care what he did so long as he had Fieldkit by his side. That was really all he wanted. Some of the other queens and kits tried to make friends with Runningkit, but he was very withdrawn and closed-off and afraid he'd muck something up, so he never tried. Which led to him becoming very lonely and jealous when Fieldkit had made friends and started to hang out with them often. She still of course stuck to Runningkit like glue, but the world always became very frightening and overwhelming when she wasn't there so he kind of just idled off to the side near her while she tussled and squealed with the two or three kits she'd made friends with.

### Apprenticeship

Runningpaw and Fieldpaw were made apprentices at six moons old, with Runningpaw being apprenticed to a she-cat named Bloombelly. Bloombelly was nice, but sort of distant and in her own little world and Runningpaw was horrible at making friends, so he never really bonded with her much aside from their brief conversations during training.

Everything was mostly as it was during kithood - Runningpaw and Fieldpaw stuck close with the exception of Fieldpaw going off for a little bit to spend time with her friends. Runningpaw grew to dislike her friends because they picked on him a little, but didn't say anything because he didn't want to make Fieldpaw upset. He didn't really like his apprenticeship all that much besides the joint training sessions he'd have with Fieldpaw and her mentor Riverpelt, which were pleasant but slightly overwhelming because of all the things going on.

When he was nine moons old or so, roughly halfway into his training, he and his sister were going on a mission together to see who could catch the most prey - a contest Bloombelly and Riverpelt had proposed, since they were old enough and skilled enough to solo hunt (albeit under their supervision.) Everything was going fine - Runningpaw had caught a few pieces of prey and was searching for more - until, well, it wasn't. He heard ragged breathing a little ways away from him and encountered a very injured and on the verge of death Fieldpaw pinned under a fallen branch. He was confused on why he hadn't heard the cracking of the splintering wood, but was instantly sent into a crippling panic attack once he detected how much blood was pooling under her. Bloombelly and Riverpelt took no time to rush to his aid and saw what had happened, and Riverpelt quickly instructed them that they needed to lift the branch off of Fieldpaw and with their combined strength they managed to do so, but it was far too late for the young she-cat. She only had a few more minutes of life to cling onto, instructing Runningpaw to live the best he could without her, and then promptly passing away from the loss of blood.

To Runningpaw, that day was a blur. Perhaps it was his memory repressing it for his own sake, but he didn't handle it well. Denial wrought his system and defeat and despondence followed suit. He was not only grieving, but terrified. The only person who'd ever understood him, who he'd been comfortable around, the reason he was able to get up every morning, was gone and there was absolutely nothing that could replace her. It wasn't like he had the social skills to even find someone like that in the first place. He completely gave up on everything. Stayed in his nest all day even when he couldn't sleep, stopped attending training sessions, and stopped eating. He was alone. Completely alone, with no one to help him work through anything, and his thoughts that his sister had assured him so much were just him overthinking were right and that terrified him.

But he wasn't just left to rot. Bloombelly found it extremely difficult to approach Runningpaw afterwards, being a moderately young warrior herself and having experienced the first traumatic thing in her life as well, not to mention she was always off in her own thoughts. So, Riverpelt came to his aid. He and Riverpelt were mostly acquainted from the amount of training sessions they'd had together, and having been through a few things himself he knew how the young tom felt. After finding his mother and chewing her out for not being there for him when he needed her the most, he took Runningpaw under his wing and assisted him to the best of his ability - bringing Runningpaw prey every day, encouraging him to get up and stretch his legs, all that kind of stuff. Extremely slowly, some of Runningpaw's old self returned and he was able to tell Riverpelt what he needed and wanted, confiding in him more. Basically, Runningpaw started to become very attached to Riverpelt and Riverpelt was sort of the father he never had, a guy who was able to put aside his own grief of losing his apprentice to care for the other, knowing full well he'd lose that one too if there was nothing done about it.

Eventually, Runningpaw was able to pick training back up again and he and Bloombelly started talking again, which was cool. But aside from his mentors, he didn't really have many friends. He wanted to make friends but being encouraged would stress him out, so he could never work up the courage to. But, that somehow changed when a young tom named Firepaw joined Horizonclan. Firepaw was extroverted, loud, and excitable and made friends with just about anybody. His enthusiasm reminded Runningpaw of Fieldpaw which was nice and slightly sad for him, but he sort of just watched Firepaw and never really approached. But sooner or later, Firepaw eventually ran into him.

Firepaw was confused on why Runningpaw was so withdrawn and nervous at first. But eventually, the ginger tom realized he sort of just needed a friend and didn't want to leave him behind. Runningpaw was surprised to find that Firepaw stuck around him so much because of his reclusive nature, but started to enjoy the young tom's company, finding his optimistic personality relaxing somehow. They slowly started to learn more about each other and eventually, were proud to call each other friends. His newfound friendship in Firepaw and supportive mentors helped him to persevere through the last two moons of his apprenticeship and he managed to pass his assessment on the first go, becoming a full warrior of Horizonclan.

### Warrior Life

Runningpaw requested the warrior name of Runningriver specifically to honor Riverpelt's help in restoring his hope. Runningriver found it amusing that Riverpelt looked like he was on the verge of tears when he told him that, but would deny it.

Not a lot happened in the moons of his adulthood. He hung out with his old mentors just as much as he did when he was apprentice, and of course Firepaw as well. Eventually, Firepaw got his own warrior name a few moons later, Firecloud, and things were pretty chill for the most part. Runningriver liked it that way.

Somewhere around his mark of 18 moons of age, another cat joined Horizonclan from Fallclan. A new warrior slightly younger than Runningriver called Fernsway. Fernsway immediately terrified Runningriver - she was cold, aloof, and tough and even a single look from those green eyes of hers made him tremble. Firecloud being Firecloud, however, went to go make friends with her. Expecting to get spat on or something (and also subconsciously just not wanting Firecloud to become distant like Fieldpaw did), he was slightly apprehensive when Firecloud said he'd made friends with the she-cat and wanted to introduce her to Runningriver, but agreed anyway because he didn't want to upset Firecloud.

Despite his overthinking little brain pestering him about being left alone again, fortunately that did not happen. As much as Fernsway seemed to think Runningriver was weak and he thought she was scary, Firecloud managed to help them get along, as awkward as it was at first. Fernsway learned she could loosen up and be herself around the two and Runningriver learned to relax and be less intimidated once she showed that she wasn't all that scary after all.

Now he's 20-25 moons I think? I'll go with a middle answer of 23 moons. I'm sort of wanting to redo the friendship with Thistlespring so canonically, that hasn't happened yet, but I'm excited for it to! Right now he's just vibing with his friends and former mentors.

## Other

### Trivia

* I decided since his name is sort of long, I'd call him "Riv" for short. So when I say that I'm referring to Runningriver. I think it's cute!
* He definitely has some sort of social anxiety. Also, probably tends to get very overstimulated easily, which Firecloud has learned to detect and takes him on walks frequently outside when that happens. He taught Fernsway about it too, probably.
* Runningriver prefers quality time and physical affection rather than talking. Even if he's not contributing much to a conversation he kind of just likes to be around. He enjoys physical affection because it helps him feel close to his friends - with more open, emotional cats like Bloombelly and Firecloud he's able to be more clingy (cuddling, hugging etc.) but with the more stoic types like Riverpelt and Fernsway he usually is more gentle (small gestures like nudges, tail touches, etc.
* His voice claim is Connor from *Detroit Become Human* because I'm watching the series and I love it.
* You may detect some changes from his page from ABW Reborn. Riverspring is Riverpelt now, and Hibiscuspaw is Fieldpaw. I also thought it was kind of lame of me to kill off Bloombelly at conveniently the same time as Fieldpaw so I made her stay alive. Found family parents go brrr
* I kind of want some people to roleplay Bloombelly and Riverpelt... if you want to claim one of them honestly just ask and I will say yes
* Runningriver probably was an adamant groomer of his fur and always kept it neat and pristine. One day he woke up with a beadhead of sorts and Firecloud said he liked the messy look, and so he doesn't have the heart to tidy it up.

### Playlist

* Spring and a Storm | Tally Hall | "*when the rain came down that day, and it drained my soul away, and I wondered, why I even bothered to try"* | Post-Fieldpaw death. The rest of the song is just Firepaw cheering him up (and I also think the franticness at the end of the song resembles his social anxiety very well)
* Vow of Silence | Lemon Demon | *"silence means that you can't speak: you can't let things out, they stay inside, you just sit and nod like a quiet freak, and hold your tongue and swallow your pride"* | Just Runningriver in general, but I feel like this resonates strongly with his apprenticeship and struggling to reach out to people. He needs therapy.

### Quotes

None yet, I don't want to include any past quotes