Shardpaw

***Spoiler warning:** Plot and/or ending details follow.**"Oh, but even sad birds sing."*
**Shardpaw** is a small, tortoiseshell molly with mint-green eyes.
**Shard** was born to a pair of unknown parents in a lab. She was tested on and forced to bare kits, before eventually the lab she was held in was burnt down. She escaped alongside few others, and since has been living as a loner on the outskirts of Sunlit Prairies territory.

## General Information

### Scent:

Like water logged fur, even when dry, with hints of chamomile underneath. A cat would need to be very close to notice this sweeter aroma.

## Relations

Crush: Decayingbelladona

Friendships: Decayingbelladona, Peachpurr

Enemies:

Mentor: Lavendersnow

## Interests

*Likes*

Nature (having lived in the lab her whole life any form of the outside world totally enthrals her. Adores nature). Physical affection (having lacked it completely growing up, she loves nothing more than a good cuddle. Love language is definitely physical contact). Having a full belly (not something she often had in the lab, and easily overlooked). Soft moss/grass (so used to the hard wire flooring of her cage, she’s often enthralled with anything soft). Other animals (while she’s decently fine eating them, she still finds them so interesting and always whispers her thanks before a meal). Medicine (Shard is enthralled by the medicine cats+nurses jobs and intelligence. She’ll do anything to sneak into there).

*Dislikes*

Water (Shard is very aquaphobic. Anything deep enough where she has to swim makes her extremely uncomfortable and elicits a panicky feeling as instinctually she thinks she is going to once again drown. Heavy rain is also something she strongly dislikes). Inclosed/tight spaces (Not quite claustrophobia, but still uncomfortable in enclosed spaces and would prefer to avoid it if there’s the option. Once again due to lab life). Sleeping (prone to nightmares, that often get so bad she’s afraid to sleep). Rudeness (she’s a sensitive molly). Killing (Shard dislikes having to hunt. She feels really guilty taking the life of even the smallest mouse. Physical battles between cats also make her extremely uncomfortable).

## Skills/Faults

*Skills*

Determined (Shard is determined to help out whenever she can and do what others asks of her). Forgiving (she easily and readily forgives a cat). Kind/friendly (tries to be kind to others at all times). Giving (growing up with nothing, having anything is amazing to her and is something she just has to share). Curious (still being rather young, she’s naturally curious about almost everything). Memory (Shard has a wonderful memory and a knack for remembering even the smallest of things).

*Faults*

Aquaphobia (her fear of water is a big weakness for her, controlling her life at times). Moodswings (She can go from 100 to 0 in a matter of seconds). Extreme emotions (can go hand in hand with the one before. When she’s sad she can be really depressive, and when happy absolutely ecstatic). Awkward (due to isolation she can be very awkward around other cats). Neophobia (while learning about new things is fun at times, she can be easily startled and scared over something she doesn’t understand). Fighting (She's rather useless in physical combat, because of how uncomfortable harming another creature makes her feel).

## Personality

Shard is a molly just trying to live life. Growing up in the lab, from the moment she was cut from her dam’s belly, she’s known nothing but her cage and the sharp cruel instruments of the white cloaked humans. Everything about the wild is so new; daunting but exciting. The cats she meets she wants them to like her, and does her best to be helpful and friendly. She’s still often tormented by her past, but is trying to shed it. Shard is incredibly kind, thinking there is good in everyone she meets. She would never dream of hurting another living being, and because of it she would easily put others’ needs before her own in fear of someone thinking she is ‘selfish’ if she put herself first. She is heavily influenced by others opinions of her, going great lengths to impress others and get them to like her. She thinks she has to be good, kind, and gentle in everyone’s eyes.

## Detailed History

*Dawnstar's Reign*

Shard is first introduced when she meets Decayingbelladonna on the edge of Sunlit Prairies' territory during a raging storm, in need of medical assistance. The mental medicine cat agrees to bring her back to camp, and she seeks out Peachpurr to assist in aiding the molly. The two medicine cats fix up Shard's wound and the tortoiseshell gets her first taste of clan life; she is immediately enthralled. Peachpurr leaves, to tell Dawnstar of the new cat's arrival, and shortly after Acacialight steals Decayingbelladona away, leaving Shard alone to rest.

## Detailed Appearance

  -BUILD: 7.5". Rather normal in size; not overly big but not overly small. Thinly built though, with almost scrawny looking limbs and a short ratty tail. Her munchkin blood is a bit evident, as her legs are a bit short for her body. Looks a bit malnourished, as she is when she first arrives. Eyes look a bit too big for her face. Small ears, with the left tip cut off. Has polydactyl on her frontal limbs. Has an obvious primordial pouch once she's fed and healthy.

  -COAT COLOUR: A black and orange tortoiseshell with white on her chest and belly. The ratio of black to orange is relatively equal and the splotches are very sporadic and ‘scratchy’ looking. White paws and chin.

  -COAT CONDITION: thin but soft. Lacking a luster, but clean and well kept. Almost overgroomed.

  -EYE COLOUR: a sharp mint green.

  -SCARS: Forearms are coated in scars from countless IVs. The tip of her left ear is cut off to symbolize she is spayed. A long scar along her belly hidden in the fur from internal operations/vivisection. Other insignificant ones. Scars earned in rp: tear drop shaped scar along her left ribs from barbed wire.

## Kin

Mother: Unknown molly.

Father: Unknown tom.

Sisters: Unknown mollies.

Brothers: Unknown toms.

Kits: Four unknown kits.

## Backstory

TW, talk of animal abuse and forced breeding. Rather gruesome at spots.

Shard is the tormented product of an illegal animal laboratory that practised vivisection. She was the countless heir of line bred, muddle blooded cats stole from the streets. From the moment she was born via enforced early c-section, she’s been alone, mostly cramped inside a small wire cage. A poor place to make friends, no? Growing up she lived from meal to meal, subject to many cruel tortures. She stopped counting all the times they strapped her down and cut her open, testing flesh-glues, new dissolving stitches, and other things for scientific research. At four months they bred her for the first time; she kitted and almost immediately the humans took the babies not much older than her. Shard bled uncontrollably, and luckily wasn’t bred again. Rather they used her for a new idea that was being tested. She was repeatedly dumped in a large water filled basin left to paddle until the exhaustion was too much and she drowned. Then she would be resuscitated, only to have to do it all over again.

It was a shitty life. Her saviour came in the form of a bunsen burner knocked over, which was left unattended and burnt the place down. Fire fighters opened as many animal cages as they could, including Shard’s and she managed to escape out an open door. She watched with wide eyes as all she had ever known burnt down to nothing but soot before her. Very few others survived, and those that did were too bitter to let the scrawny molly stay anywhere near them. Shard was forced to fight for scraps, try to learn to hunt, and seek shelter in anything she could.

## Trivia

* Has a faint limp from a gimpy hind leg/hip, but doesn’t hinder her too much.
* While she was spayed, they did such a shitty job and she was so inflamed that she technically can still carry a litter.
* Has a spirit/earth/starclan connection and can see ghosts (approved by Silk ♥)

## Quotes

“Oh, yes I am okay. Not a scratch on me.” Shard glanced at her pelt, looking over the white, ginger, and black. There were scars everywhere, but aside from the deep laceration she had earned before joining the clan everything was old and healed. “After Peachpurr left when it started flooding some cat found me and helped me.” She began to explain. For a moment she wondered how much she should share. She didn’t want her weaknesses to make the clan not want her… or even her friend to not want her! But at the same time Shard considered herself an open book. Looking at Decayingbelladona she decided she trusted her—Shard trusted easy anyway. “I uh, don’t like water. The cat helped me not drown. But yes, I am alright, and please don’t be sorry.”

-Shard and Decayingbelladona

## Links

Theme Song/Voice Claim

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4jzj5Nd2yMiYPvBItjX3CV?si=IgdJPA03Rx6WwbC9imIQmw

* Voice Claim:
	+ Vashti Bunyan

*End of spoiler warning*