Palestep

### Siblings

Houndblossom, Finchaser, Preenvine, Weaseltang (brothers) Crowstem, Maroontrance, Quakeholly (sisters)

### Other Relatives

FireMink kits (niblings, kind of? Palestep just kinda decided to look out for them once Firestorm died)

### Friends

Leafstar, Wheatnose, formerly Firestorm (dead)

### Enemies

Lavendersight, Oatfoot, Pansymoon, other Lav supporters, Suncurrent

Palestep may be a grump, but as the final original member of the OrchidClan rebellion in the Clan as well as the deputy under Leafstar's regime, he has earned the respect of his Clanmates. He isn't the most strategic, but Palestep is dedicated to getting what needs to happen done.

## Appearance & Personality

### Appearance

Palestep is a tall and slender cat. His fur is short and scruffy, which matches his general demeanor. His eyes are a bold blue, standing out against his pale, champagne-gold fur. His fur is marked with thin tabby stripes and he has red on his paws. He has a few bands of red on his paws as well as a red tail tip and a red blaze above his nose. He occasionally wears an edelweiss flower that was gifted to him by Hollypaw after the most recent HorizonClan hike.

### Personality

Palestep is a little grouchy, a little arrogant, and a little reluctant to do any sort of socialization. His friend group didn't exist until he was a warrior and even then, it was similarly grouchy cats. Palestep doesn't mind that. He is somewhat ambitious, seeking and striving to make a name for himself. Not the name Palestar, mind you. Palestep's aspirations stop right before becoming leader.

## Background

### Kithood

In late autumn, in OrchidClan's nursery, the greatest cat to ever exist was born under the flowername Snapdragonkit. At least, that was and still kind of is his opinion. His mother's name was Dahliaflick and his father's name was Foresthowl. Snapdragonkit was born smack in the middle of a litter of eight. Due to the size of the litter, flowernames were used until the kits were almost three moons old.

Snapdragonkit had four older siblings and three younger in his litter. He was relatively close to the oldest of his litter, Ilexkit, and his other older brother Mallowkit. His older sisters were named Asterkit and Lilackit. Snapdragonkit didn't mind them too much. He liked his younger sister, Hollyhockkit, but he thought his younger brothers Rhodedendronkit and Goldenrodkit were obnoxious.

The DahliaForest litter were unfortunately not the only kits in the nursery. Moonkit and Thornkit were a moon older than Snapdragonkit. He didn't like either of them very much. There was also Lionkit, who Snapdragonkit didn't mind too much, who was four moons older than him. Finally, Leafkit and Coniferkit were five moons older than him. Snapdragonkit didn't know them very well, since they had moved out of the nursery by the time he was old enough to start making friends.

OrchidClan was idyllic enough. Snapdragonkit had a good kithood, playing around with his siblings and bugging apprentices. Some older apprentices, Firepaw and Wheatpaw, were occasionally willing to teach him hunting or fighting moves, which Snapdragonkit used liberally on his siblings.

When the kits were a two moons old, the first official name for the litter was given. Rhodedendronkit was given the name Preenkit, to reflect his vanity and tidiness. He was the sixth-born kit, which irritated Snapdragonkit. Why didn't *he* get a real name? Snapdragonkit was almost too long for him to even say.

A few days later Hollyhockkit became Quakekit, named for her dynamic and energetic personality. Snapdragonkit was happy for his favorite sister, but still wanted his own name. Before the end of the moon, Mallowkit and Asterkit had received true names as well, becoming respectively Finkit and Crowkit.

When Snapdragonkit was three moons old, his sister Lilackit became Maroonkit. Snapdragonkit was still not super happy about this. He did think it was a nice name though, as was Goldenrodkit's new name Weaselkit, given a few days after Maroonkit's. Ilexkit's name was changed to Houndkit when they were about three and a half moons old. This left Snapdragonkit with the only flowername left in his litter. He wanted his real name so badly. He tried to guess it several times, laying awake at night wondering what it would be. Bravekit? Tipkit? Duskkit? So many interesting names he could end up with.

He was almost four moons old when Dahliaflick announced the final name for the litter: Palekit. Snapdragonkit was not pleased. All his siblings had such cool names and he was... Palekit? Because he had more of his mother's pale gold pelt than the rest of his litter? But Palekit was his name now and he had to live with it.

Not much else happened during Palekit's time in the nursery. He had nothing interesting going on for him. He just slunk around being grumpy about his name. This continued for the rest of his life, just not as often.

### Apprenticeship

Palepaw was apprenticed to Oatfoot. Palepaw was not a fan. Oatfoot was not exactly an interesting mentor. He was Lavenderstar's brother, though, which was kind of cool. Not that Palepaw would admit that, of course.

Palepaw, he had decided, was somehow worse than Palekit. His paws were not in fact pale - they were one of the few parts of him that weren't! He worked hard in training, though, often sparring with Houndpaw or Quakepaw. He figured that the more he trained, the faster he could get his warrior name. Maybe he could be Palespark, or Paleflick like his mother. Maybe he would be Palestorm. Yes, that sounded cool.

Palepaw and his siblings were not the only cats in the apprentice den at the time. Lionpaw was also around. Palepaw thought Lionpaw was pretty cool. He was also rather jealous of his name. That didn't really matter, though. Lionpaw was pretty chill and occasionally sparred with Palepaw. That was neat.

Training went rather well. Since his family made up most of the apprentices, he frequently got to work with his siblings. He enjoyed that most of the time. Well, he didn't care much for Preenpaw or Weaselpaw, but most of them he got along well with. He also failed to get along with a transfer apprentice from HorizonClan, a tom named Sunpaw. Sunpaw was incredibly annoying and Palepaw went out of his way to avoid him when possible. His brother, Sootpaw, was okay though and Palepaw was a lot more chill with him. He wasn't sure why, Sunpaw just grated on his nerves. He would say it was the accent, but Sootpaw had the same one.

Lionpaw became Lionspark when he was eight moons old, which Palepaw thought was the coolest name ever. He also stopped talking to Lionspark very much, partially because he was a warrior now and Palepaw didn't want to bother him and partially because Lionspark and Sunpaw had become best friends and Palepaw was still decidedly anti-Sunpaw.

When Palepaw was eleven moons old, Moonpaw, Thornpaw, Sunpaw, and Sootpaw all received their warrior names, respectively Moonmist, Thornstep, Suncurrent, and Sootwhistle. This didn't really affect Palepaw, but it did make him very antsy for his own warrior ceremony. Maroonpaw tried to soothe him, reassuring him that their time would come soon. Palepaw didn't really pay attention, but he did appreciate his sister's efforts.

### Warrior Life

Palepaw earned his warrior name, Palestep, at the same time as his siblings; Houndblossom, Crowstem, Maroontrance, Preenvine, Quakeholly, and Weaseltang. Finpaw was held back a moon due to failing his assessment. Rip Finpaw. He did eventually pass and became Finchaser.

Life as a warrior wasn't much different from life as an apprentice. When Palestep was thirteen moons old, Suncurrent's brother Sootwhistle died. That was sad, because Palestep kind of liked Sootwhistle. He was a good cat, not very similar to his brother. It was a shame to lose him.

The next important thing that happened was when Palestep got an apprentice. At the relatively young age of 19 moons old, Palestep received a molly named Peonypaw as his apprentice. He was very nervous to have an apprentice, but excited to be the first of his siblings to be a mentor. He was extremely proud of that fact, actually.

Palestep didn't like training Peonypaw. She was a perfectionist who couldn't leave things half-done and insisted he help her get them to be perfect. Palestep was far too impatient for that. Peonypaw was at least polite and a good cat, which he appreciated, because some of the other apprentices at the time were anything but.

Wheatnose was training an apprentice at the same time, a molly named Myrtlepaw. Myrtlepaw was the same age as Peonypaw and she was a troublemaker. As much as Palestep didn't like training Peonypaw, he was glad that she was at least pleasant to work with. Myrtlepaw was a nightmare and Palestep only did joint training sessions because of his respect for the older tom. Those training sessions stopped about a moon into Myrtlepaw's training, when Myrtlepaw attacked Peonypaw claws-out and ended up permanently scarring her. That was a no-no and Peonypaw was very upset about it. After that point, Palestep didn't let her train with Myrtlepaw anymore. Everyone was fine with that.

The rest of Peonypaw's training went fairly smoothly. There were still some small challenges due to the difference in Palestep's teaching style and Peonypaw's learning style, but she eventually reached the end and passed her final assessment when Palestep was 25 moons old. Palestep was very proud of her and was very pleased when she received her warrior name, Peonycrown. Palestep thought it was a great name and congratulated her. She gave him a peony as a thank you gift that he kept in his nest for a while until it wilted. He still has one of the petals.

Around the same time, Lavenderstar closed OrchidClan's borders after a visit from Aspenstar. Palestep didn't like that very much. A few of his siblings had moved to other Clans, but he wasn't too worried about them. After all, they were adults, well trained warriors. They'd be fine. Besides, surely the borders would open quickly, right?

But then they didn't. A moon passed and Palestep started to get antsy. He wasn't the only one and, over the course of some grumbling complaining sessions with Wheatnose and Firestorm, the first sparks of rebellion started to brew. It started as only the three of them, with Wheatnose and Firestorm wanting to leave to see their wives (Skyflower of OasisClan and Minkstar of MarshClan respectively) and Palestep just not wanting stupid, pointless restrictions anymore. (And, maybe, just maybe, a tiny part of him did miss and worry about his family outside of OrchidClan.)

By the time he was twenty-seven moons old, Wheatnose had left. He escaped to OasisClan the night of the Gathering and Palestep hadn't seen him since. He spotted Minkstar on the border at one point while hunting with Firestorm, which unfortunately for Palestep led to Firestorm also leaving. Palestep was getting tired of his buddies ditching him and their budding rebellion. He griped about this to Saffronsplash one time when he noticed her getting antsy about her nephews in HorizonClan, which brought her onboard the rebellion.

About a moon later, Palestep decided it was time to bring in someone a little more substantial, so he told Leafshine about the brewing rebellion. He wasn't necessarily surprised that she was onboard with rebellion, but he was definitely relieved. It was a risk to tell her, but she had actual authority so it all worked out.

With Leafshine on their side, the rebellion quickly grew to encompass more and more of the Clan. Leafshine took over all ceremonies, including Petalpaw and Sprucepaw's apprentice ceremonies.

When he was 32 moons old, Palestep's sister Maroontrance had a kit. She named the kit Wisteriakit and Palestep made sure to check in on her every few days. Maroontrance didn't agree with him on the whole rebellion thing, but she was still his sister and Palestep cared more about that than how wrong she was.

* 37 moons - successful rebellion, becomes deputy of OrC
* 38 moons - HorizonClan hike; meets Firestorm's kits and finds out that whoops he's dead; announcement of the impending rogue war
* 39 moons - At the Gathering; he's kind of upset that Leafstar and Swallowfrost didn't fill him in
* 40 moons - rogue war begins

## Other

### Trivia

* Palestep despises both his flowername and his actual name. His siblings still call him Snap sometimes though.
* Doesn't want to become leader mainly because he thinks Palestar would be a dumb name. He has no doubt that he could manage but he does think his name would be stupid and after a lifetime of dumb names, he's not interested in willingly taking on another one.
* His 'mullet' on the ref is a reference to his blonde hair in the When Will My Life Begin? MAP from 2020. The Moonkitti blonde Ashfur wig is of course welcome on any drawing you make of Palestep.
* His voice claim is Tony Stark (MCU). They're both obnoxious, so it's fitting <3

### Quotes

**New RP**