Stagback

*"Its my fault. I never meant to hurt her."*
**Stagback** is a handsome grey and sand coloured tabby tom with pale green eyes and an impressively buff build.
**Stagback** was born in the clan to Hentuft and Sedgeheart, the latter being the son of Tulipstar and therefore grandson of Valleystar.

## Relations

Crush: n/a

Friendships: Cloverpool, Risinghawk, Larkwing, Sunsettulip. He basically likes everybody.

Enemies: n/a. Madea

Mentors:

Apprentices: Cloverpool

## Interests

*Likes:* Any and all family members. Swimming and rain. Rolling around in the grass. Being a mentor. Napping with others. Kits. Being still.

*Dislikes:* Long walks+patrols. Being alone. Birds (feathers are gross). When great things are expected of him simply because of his heritage. Kittypets or speak of his kits' mother.

## Skills/Faults

Skills: *Physical strength* (he is undoubtly strong). *Size* (Stagback not only stands a bit taller than most, but a bit broader. This makes pinning others easy). *Sympathy* (he is very sympathetic and understanding of others). *Smell* (he has a heightened sense of smell). *Passionate* (When he loves something he truly does. It takes a lot to sway him). *Hand to hand combat* (he excells in this thanks to his ability to overpower others).

Faults: *Speed* (he is not built for speed. A fast blow yes, but he can’t chase his opponent). *Guilt* (Stagback’s guilt can easily eat him up. He refuses to talk about his feelings which makes it worse). *Lying* (Stagback isn't prone to lying and won't throw them out willy-nilly. But in the past has used a rather large lie to make things easier and would do so again if the situation called for it. It would take a toll on him however). *Hunting* (While he could easily wrestle big prey he would be useless chasing it down). *Easily hungup* (He has a habit of getting hung up on things, and in the past, cats. He finds it very hard to move on). *Agility* (His bulk makes being graceful hard. Brute force is much easier).

## Personality

While he appears to be “large and in charge” thanks to his looks, he really is a gentle giant with his clan mates. Stagback is known for being patient and kind to young cats, especially his own three kits which he raised alone (rearing Risingkit surely took some patience and sympathy). Kits that are not his own are always welcome to play, and he is the first to offer a badger-ride on his muscly bulk. He forms bonds with whoever he interacts with, and is known to even give lasting nicknames to those he adores. He is steadfast in his morals and will fight for what he believes is right, and a ferocity rips out of him when his clan is in danger. Stagback is the type of cat to stand against a horde without showing his fear, and take them on alone without giving up until he is dead.

Despite it all, he is somewhat of a background character. He is a wonderful warrior, but in his semi-adult years he seems to have lost his spark. Some would say, if they cared to notice, it was after the birth of his kits. He does not regret them for a moment, but if one managed to get him to admit it he would reveal that he wishes they were not lacking a mother. He feels guilty that they are lacking a parent, perhaps a bit more than he needs to because of his own upbringing with a very absent father. This guilt makes Stagback heavy chested, but he hides it. He turns it into a fierce loyalty over his children and all those he has come to love. But it eats at him, especially when he is alone.

## Detailed History

Stagback debuts in a short scene with the nervous tom Sunsettulip, where they repair the trainees' den as it gets damaged from poor weather.

During the flooding event, Stagback's ribs are fractured and one punctures a lung. He is one of the cats at the bottom of the pile and is knocked unconscious. He remains in a delirious pain ridden state for a long time, mostly unconscious. He does speak to young med cat apprentice Magpiepaw for a moment before the pain is too much.

## Detailed Appearance

-**BUILD:** 10". Stagback is undoubtedly handsome. His frame is masculine and thickset with broad, wide shoulders and ribs—exactly his name sake. His limbs end with large paws like his offspring, with round digitals he utilizes in his rank. He has a masculine, burly face with a large nose, nose bridge, and muzzle. While his limbs aren’t long, they’re well toned and built for close combat. His hips are heavy set and perfect for carrying weight—watch him easily balance and squat on his short hind legs! He is a giant in size comparison to most because of how thick he is.

  -**COAT COLOUR:** A pinstripe tabby with two distinct colours. His under hues are a creamy sand, but he is mostly a tickled black-grey. His stripes are a dark ebony and thin, most prominent on his limbs, chest, and nape. His face has a black mask, and his paws are back as well. His maw, chin, and throat are the sandy undercoat colour.

  -**COAT CONDITION**: Thick and soft, but nothing special. Short. Often a bit dusty.

  -**EYE COLOUR:** A pale sage green.

  **-SCARS:** Large messy scar on his face over the bridge of his nose and just missing his left eye. Ugly scars on his front ankles from having both front paws stuck in a snare. Tail tip is broken/crushed, and the bones reformed so it is permanently curled forward against the rest of his tail (earned the night he returned with his kits). Other small ones from defending the clan. Two on his left ribs from the flooding event.

## Kin

Mother: Hentuft

Father: Sedgeheart

Siblings: Monarchgarden

Daughters: Risinghawk, Larkwing

Sons: Stoatslaughter

## Backstory

*TW for death and family troubles.*

Stagback’s family has a long history in the clan. He was born to Hentuft and Sedgeheart with one sibling. Sedgeheart, his father, was born to Tulipstar and Sootbelly, later in the she-pair’s bond so that Tulipstar could continue on her ambitious and determined path of success. Sootbelly’s litter was not entirely purposeful, but not downright unwanted. They took it as a gift, though Sootbelly spent considerably more time with Sedgekit than Tulipstar did. This might have been the reason Sedgeheart was a more distant cat, not speaking often and rarely showing affection. This left a considerable impact on his son, and many cats wonder why Hentuft took a liking to him at all.

Stagback never met his grandmothers, but he heard plentiful stories of them. He knew that Tulipstar was an excellent and pioneering leader, and that he should try to follow in her pawsteps. Hentuft filled his head with tales of her, and he saw his great grandmother Valleystar in the flesh daily proving her worth. So, he compared himself to them, as he was told to. But despite being a brave, promising warrior, Stagback felt beyond ordinary. His line was filled with loved leader after loved leader, and countless respected family members—all cats who had done feats for the clan. But Stagback was… just Stagback. He would fight for them and feed them until the day his bones gave way, but he felt that wasn’t enough, not in Hentuft and Sedgeheart’s eyes, or his clanmates. Eventually, his father’s silent expectations became too much for the young tom to stand. He started slipping away, visiting kittypet and rogue territory just to get a break. Out there, he met Medea, a twoleg’s pet—though she assured him she belonged to no one and came and went whenever she wanted. This was beyond refreshing to Stagback, and he became almost intoxicated with the kittypet molly. So much so that he visited as often as he could. Madea was a bad influence. To put it bluntly, the relationship was toxic, but Stag was stuck and happily stuck.

One night when he slipped away his father, suspicious, followed him. Stagback noticed his father seconds after meeting up with Madea and turned on him, enraged that he had followed him and was ‘all of a sudden taking an interest in him’. The tom’s fled the twoleg territory, equally angry with each other; Though fear gripped Stagback as well. Would his father tell the clan what he had been doing? What would the beloved Valleystar think? He tried to talk to Sedgeheart but the tom refused, and a chase broke out, with Stagback unable to reach his father’s speed. Both blinded with emotions, they didn’t notice the approaching thunderpath. Sedgeheart was killed by a monster and Stagback was left in a stupor with his father’s body lain before him, staining the black rock red. He had never dealt with loss like this before, nor this level of guilt. He carried his father’s body back to camp and claimed that after he noticed Sedge following him he confronted him and his father spooked into the thunderpath, the lie spewing out of his mouth before he could stop it. Nocat knew he was in kittypet territory and he intended to keep it that way–it was now a secret he would take to his grave. There was a shift in Stagback during the moons following. Hentuft coddled him more, he tried spending more time with Valleystar and her offspring, and focused more on building his muscles for protecting his clan. Eventually, he settled back into place. But that lasted two prosperous moons. In a dream Tulipstar walked him back into kittypet territory, despite him urging her that he never wanted to return. When he woke, he couldn’t get the urgency on her face out of his mind. Begrudgingly Stagback followed her invisible pawsteps, tracing a trail he had not walked since his father’s death. What awaited him was Madea, and hours from labour. The end result was Stagback returning home with three newborn kits and nothing to say. He has kept Madea’s profile a secret his whole life, slowly coming to realize her true colours, and refusing to reveal her to his children. He found purpose raising his kits, and poured himself into them, giving themselves room and safety to become individuals.

## Trivia

* While he has short fur, his size and build does hint towards his maine coon blood, along with his immediate family having the thick, long fur typical of the breed.
* He has two thorns sticking through his right ear along the edge, sort of like earrings; He seems to like them and does not want them removed.
* Aesthetic is **A lone stag standing on a hill, horns aged and weathered to a chocolate brown, tines twisted in every direction, and his hide silvered by the seasons he has lived.**

## Quotes

*"They’ll never know how truly weak I am. They can’t."*

## Links

Theme Song/Voice Claim

* https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5WQ4IdClTUtV810BMIYGes?si=XxiJ-vveSFa4fvqXtU-PUA (Playlist)
* VC: Bailey Zimmerman