Bean

Character art by Sci (Bean left, Condorpaw right)

## Description

Bean is a skinny, small and scraggly-furred white tom with brown splotches and big, round green eyes. He has patchy fur and several small scars and scratches across his body. He has extra toes on both his front and back legs, to the point that it looks like each of his paws has a small paw budding from it. He has difficulty traveling long distances or for a prolonged amount of time.

Art by PinkArt by Sci
Theme Song: The Dear Hunter - The Oracles On The Delphi Express Hippo Campus - Bambi

## Personality

Bean is naive, friendly, and slightly skittish. As a result of his upbringing, he is often focused on self-preservation and sometimes finds it hard to trust others. When he does trust others, however, he does his best to help and protect them. He's very insecure, and tries to avoid things that make him uncomfortable. He feels a debt towards The Glinting Claws and sees them as his family. His greatest fears are being defenseless (which happens often), abandonment, rejection and loneliness. He also likes playing with kits, since he's basically one himself and they're easily entertained by his toes.

## History

Bean was born to a loner she-cat and a male Gang cat (he doesn't explicitly know this, since his father left as soon as he was born) in the mountain range surrounding the Clans. His mother was was disgusted by him at birth, but felt too guilty to abandon a kit. She decided to raise him but was neglectful and demeaning, feeding him the bare minimum and failing to teach him skills such as hunting and fighting. This deteriorated his health and stunted his growth. It is unknown if he has any siblings.

When he was just six moons old, Bean's mother couldn't bear to look at him any longer. She threatened him, forced him out of the mountains, and gave him directions to what she said was the only place that would accept him. He traveled for days, injured by his mother, unable to hunt for himself and cold in the mountains' snow until he arrived at the stairs of the Black Valley mansion on the brink of death.

Ariadne spotted him running towards the mansion after narrowly dodging a monster and asked him if he was alright. Out of pity, she offered him prey and invited him to join the gang - but first, he would have to pass their trials. His first task was to kill a cat and bring back their body as proof. Bean was shocked, but his desperation for food and shelter overpowered his fear.

With the energy he gained from the first thing he'd eaten in days, Bean decided to first try to kill some prey, reasoning that it would be hard to kill a cat if he could barely even hunt. He pounced on a rat and flailed around with it, eyes shut until it fell still in his arms. He also reasoned that it would be easiest and the most merciful to go for an elder, however, he ran into a young she-cat named Pepper (he understandably never got her name) first. He apologized and attacked her, envisioning the rat and his mother, but snapped out of it when she ran into the street and was hit by a monster.

He ran to her side and dragged her off of the street, apologizing profusely, but she had already stopped breathing. He panicked and tore out her neck so it would appear as if he had killed her, and brought the body back to Kacius, who accepted it and threw it to the side. He then brought Bean to the field behind the mansion for the second and final trial: a spar against \_\_\_\_.

Fun fact: WOW did roleplaying that make me sad!!!

Bean passed both of his trials and was welcomed as a member of The Glinting Claws. Kacius led him to a nest in the barracks, which was a welcome change from the snow, and directed him to Lich for medical care.

The next morning, Bean looked for Pepper's body and dragged her out to an abandoned building where he buried her. Krol, a kit just a moon younger than him, spotted him from the nursery building and confronted him about what he was doing (but not before falling out of the window). Bean brought Krol back inside. A few days later, Bean went back to the nursery to see Krol again, but ran into Ariadne instead. He stayed for a bit and played with her kits, but the queen warned him not to come back in case a cat from The Glaring Eyes was there.

After a great flood in the Clans washed Condorpaw up in the Black Valley, Bean mistook him for a raccoon and attacked. He quickly realized his mistake and agreed to help Condorpaw get back to CavernClan. The two quickly formed a bond, but the apprentice hadn't yet realized Bean was a member of the Gangs. Bean led him to the abandoned parking complex behind the mansion where he made a nest for the tom, and the two fell asleep next to each other. He continued to hide Condorpaw and tried to help with his requests, even if he messed up sometimes.

His first raid was with Charlie on Mickey D's, where Bean narrowly escaped out the window with some onion rings. He brought some of the food to Condorpaw, and while eating together, Bean came up with a nickname for him, "Fang," because of his scraggle tooth. After that, to treat Condorpaw's wounds, the two invaded a twoleg house for garlic, a poppy-seed bagel and honey (secret StarClan whisper voice whatever told Condorpaw to take that). They left Nutella, the cat of the house, confused but unharmed. Back in the parking complex, they were haunted by Howl. Frightened by the encounter, the two decided to go back to CavernClan.

Before leaving, Bean gave Condorpaw a bag of uncooked beans from the Twoleg's nest as a gift, thinking they could be some sort of herb. The two set off through Clan lands back to CavernClan's camp, which was still unoccupied after the flood, and ran into Curlingsmoke (Condorpaw's father) and Drearypaw (his apprentice). Curlingsmoke was kind and thankful that Bean brought his son back and invited him to CavernClan, telling him to hide the fact that he was a Gang cat. Bean agreed, because although he was scared, he wanted to stay with Condorpaw.

Bean attended the Gathering with Condorpaw the next night, but became overwhelmed and ran back to the Black Valley. He returned to the mansion, where he found Banksy waiting for him. Banksy threatened Bean, asking why he had been to CavernClan. Bean lied in an attempt to protect himself and Condorpaw, anticipating punishment whether he told the truth or not. When Banksy let him go, he fled to the parking complex to the nest he had shared with Condorpaw and tore it up, angry at himself. He fell asleep there after piecing it back together.

Back in the mansion, Bean started to form relationships with more Gang cats in an effort to protect himself and compensate for the anger he felt towards himself about Condorpaw. He often spent time sunning outside of the mansion alongside Astaroth (who was sometimes playing with headless mice), a younger cat, who became his second friend after the two talked and discovered their own similarities - they had similar backstories, (their mothers tried to kill them, in a way), and when Astaroth asked Bean if he killed cats, Bean replied "Yep."

Bean became extremely distressed after Kacius's death, as he was the first person who had shown him kindness, and it meant that Banksy became leader. Banksy declared himself sole leader of the gang, choosing Cujo and Bean to carry out the tasks of a Runner. Bean became his messenger, and began to regularly patrol the Black Valley in an attempt to memorize the territory. He feared that if he wasn't good at his tasks, Banksy would kill him.

During one of these patrols, he attacked Kestrelpaw in a fit of paranoia around the CavernClan border, slicing off half of the apprentice's ear. After realizing what he'd done, Bean fled and passed out at the stairs of the mansion. After he woke, Bean encountered Melody on the sidewalk and fled, terrified, as the she-cat pursued him. Bean struck out at her, cornered, and after a mostly one-sided fight, Melody had him pinned. She explained that she was a loner, previously from CavernClan, and was looking for a kittypet named Lila. Paranoid, he lied and told her he was also a loner, named Fang. Afterwards, he ran away, contemplating the she-cat's frightening resemblance to his mother.

Bean returned to the Mansion afterwards, bleeding from the wounds inflicted by Melody as well as those from Kestrelpaw that had been reopened during the fight. Banksy saw him enter and retrieved cobwebs, scolding Bean about how when he got in a fight, he should fight back. Bean explained his encounters with the CavernClan cat and Melody, giving Melody's name. Banksy vowed to track down and kill the two. Bean felt relieved and slightly less intimidated, despite a lingering sense of guilt, that the leader would go to such lengths to ensure the safety of his cats.