Patchpounce

Patchpounce is currently a warrior of OasisClan.

Name- Patchpounce

Gender- Tom

Clan- OasisClan

Rank- Warrior

Family- Silverclaw, Cobrakit, Flaxpaw, and Webpaw (brothers), Dustkit, Nettlekit, Lynxkit, Tawnypaw, and Cloudpaw (sisters), Skyflower (mother), Wheatnose (father), Flowerpaw and Peonykit (aunts, I guess, technically?), Jackalbark and Cloversky (paternal grandparents)

Friends- Minnowfrost, Asterfall, Hickorypad, and possibly Thistlespring and Monarchflame, kind of???

Enemies- none yet, and hopefully ever

## Appearance & Personality

#### Appearance

Patchpounce is a fluffy white tom with long, ruffly fur. He always likes to keep it unkempt, and strongly dislikes grooming himself (although he always does before meeting with Asterfall). His pelt is mottled with black, diluted gold, and pale gray splashes, and there smaller freckle-like flecks around his bright blue eyes. ((Yes, I know male calicos are rare and infertile. But not this one. Shush. If Void can have purple eyes, I can have a fertile male calico. That's the rule.))

#### Personality

He's generally very friendly and optimistic. He has a good sense of humor, although he mostly just ends up resorting to bad puns. He enjoys making other cats laugh, and while he isn't exactly an idol when it comes to common sense, he actually is quite intelligent. He's curious and observant when he wants to be, and for the most part, he's just a nice guy. He can switch from excitable to serious in an instant if necessary, though.

## Backstory

#### Kithood

Patchkit was born in OasisClan to Wheatnose and Skyflower, alongside Silverkit and Dustkit. Skyflower and Wheatnose’s first litter, Cobrakit, Nettlekit, and Lynxkit, had died. Wheatnose was still living in OrchidClan at the time of Patchkit's birth, although he decided to change Clans so that he could be with his kits. Patchkit wiggled around and did nothing for a while.

The medicine cat, Snakespeckle, gave him and his littermates a pomegranate to nibble on once, and he thought it was the greatest thing ever. After finishing his own piece, he tried to steal Dustkit's and it didn't go too well, so he just stole Silverkit's instead. He also thought it was extremely fun to try climbing on top of other cats - he would climb on his parents and siblings all the time, liking the sensation of being high up. He climbed Snakespeckle, too. He was actually a little spooked by her rough voice at first, but after being given a bit of pomegranate, he decided he loved her and liked poking around in her herb stores. He tried to eat a random berry he found rolling around in her den once, but luckily for him, it wasn't anything dangerous.

Anyways, once he was older, Patchkit had a grand old time romping around and annoying everyone he could. He bickered with his littermates often, but they still had a pretty close bond. He got along better with Dustkit than with Silverkit, though. Silverkit was annoying while Dustkit was more loud and excitable - in other words, more like him. He particularly took an interest in bothering Snakespeckle and Breezepaw, Songstar's son. He also took a liking to Monarchpaw, and not just because she'd also been sort of raised by Skyflower. It was mostly 'cause he thought her fur looked pretty. But the Skyflower thing was cool, too. He thought she was cool. She was also friends with Breezepaw, so bothering one of them usually meant bothering the other as well. Plus, Skyflower and Songstar were good friends, so Patchkit felt like he and his siblings were sort of expected to hang around with Breezepaw and Monarchpaw.

He was once drawn into a challenge along with his siblings to try to make Breezepaw smile. Spoiler alert, they failed horribly. He also tried to climb Breezepaw and made some terrible puns. None of the above attempts worked. He managed to fail at doing a hunting crouch, too. He asked about Breezepaw's dead dad, Duskriver, and was fairly close to getting yelled at before Silverkit saved him by changing the subject. He accidentally insulted Songstar while trying to compliment her and in turn got called a stinking fish by Dustkit. It was fun. Oh, and he also got freaked out one time because Breezepaw and Silverkit were having a conversation about death and he didn't want to hear it. Poor Patchkit.

He left camp to explore the territory one time with Silverkit and Monarchpaw while Dustkit stayed behind with Breezepaw. They saw a snake. He also nearly got lost chasing a butterfly. He tried to climb a tree and then almost fell out and died, too, but Monarchpaw caught him. All during the same trip. It was pretty spectacular. On the bright side, though, he enjoyed himself. Afterwards, Breezepaw explained that the snake had probably been a non-venomous grass snake. Patchkit for some reason found that disappointing. He thought near-death experiences were fun. Okay, little dude.

Unfortunately, when they were about four and a half moons old, some terrible stuff happened. Breezepaw and Snakespeckle both died of the plague, much to Patchkit's despair. Monarchflame became a warrior, meaning she wouldn't have as nearly much time to spend with him. Oh, and Dustkit also died! Did I mention that? She snuck out of camp one morning and got snatched up by an owl. Patchkit and Silverkit grew much closer after the loss of their sister. They hadn't even known she'd snuck out, because they'd been listening to Bloomheart's stories at the time. When Wheatnose showed up holding some owl feathers, he initially assumed that they were for him and his siblings to play with, and he kept trying to deny that Dustkit was dead. Poor Patchkit.

He was pretty sad after that. He didn't do much... except when he was five moons old, he learned about Cobrakit, Nettlekit, and Lynxkit from Wheatnose and Skyflower. He was kind of upset to learn that he'd actually lost *four* siblings and not just one, but he vowed to his parents that he and Silverkit would grow into "strong, amazing warriors and honor (their) siblings' memories". Good boy, Patchkit. He also stopped avoiding Bloomheart and Hollowfall, because he admitted to himself that the elders' den had nothing to do with Dustkit's death, despite the fact that they'd been in there while she was dying. Since Hollowfall was rarely in the den anyways, Patchkit came to enjoy Bloomheart's company and quite liked her intense tales of the first rogue uprising.

Minnowkit moved to OasisClan at some point after being thrown out of FallClan for being a disaster child. Was she watched over by Skyflower? Probably. Patchkit most likely got along fine with her and tried to help her settle in. Minnowkit was friendly and cheerful, like Patchkit had been, but he was still sort of a depresso boi for the rest of his kithood. Having another kit in the nursery probably helped, though.

For the next moon, he just sat around and was sad, alternating between moping with Bloomheart, moping with Minnowkit, and moping with the rest of his family.

#### Apprenticeship

Patchpaw was apprenticed to Frondnose. Unfortunately, not even a day later, Frondnose ended up getting sick and being confined to the medicine den with the plague. So Patchpaw mainly trained alongside his brother with Silverpaw's mentor, Sagestep. He was also greatly disappointed to learn that the borders had been temporarily shut down and he was unable to attend gatherings, as he'd been greatly looking forward to learning more about the other Clans. He supposed that it would have to wait, though.

During their first training session, though, Patchpaw got bored and wandered off while Silverpaw and Sagestep were practicing hunting. He tried to climb a tree he found near the HorizonClan border, but there, he encountered Asterpaw, a young HorizonClan apprentice who’d managed to get lost and cross the border. He gracefully fell out of the tree and (accidentally, might I add) took her back to the border so she could get back to her camp before her mom, Dawnfire, found and murdered her. Before that, though, he got to tell her some more really bad puns, and they joked around a little about how weird and all-knowing their moms seemed to be. He *also* accidentally invited her on a date - to meet at Silver Falls that night - since the plague had made it so they weren't allowed to attend gatherings and they both wanted to see the falls. She was hesitant at first, not wanting to break any rules, but Patchpaw insisted that it would be fun as long as they weren't caught. To his surprise, Asterpaw agreed to meet him there at Moonhigh before heading back to her camp. When he eventually found Sagestep and Silverpaw again, though, Silverpaw yelled at him. But that was fine. Patchpaw decided it was worth it.

He met her at the falls that night as promised and was thrilled to see her actually show up. They made more puns, poked fun at the rules they were disobeying, and then raced each other to the top of the rocks overlooking the clearing. Despite all of Patchpaw’s climbing experience, Asterpaw beat him to it, and he found that very impressive. Then they looked at the view together and tried to imagine what it would be like to be Clan leaders. *Then* they proceeded to pull a Lionblaze/Heathertail and start roleplaying, pretending that they *were* leaders. And they went to war with each other for fun. Then they accidentally discovered the tunnel-cave things behind the waterfalls and went splashing around a bit. Or at least, Patchpaw did. He was disappointed to learn that Asterpaw didn’t like water. On the other hand, though, he learned that she *did* like rabbits, and so he promised her he’d catch her one next time they met just in case she ended up being caught and getting in trouble, since the whole thing had been his idea. They agreed to meet at Silver Falls once every moon, and then parted. Suddenly, Patchpaw had a crush.

He kinda-sorta became friends with Hickorypaw over the course of the next moon or two. I mean, they weren't exactly close, but they'd hang out if they had no one better to hang out with. That sort of stopped once Hickorypad became a warrior, though. Then Patchpaw was sort of bored. Once he turned seven moons old, however, he had Minnowpaw to hang out with, so they chilled together quite often. And, I mean, he enjoyed visiting his mom in the nursery — especially after finding out she was pregnant again when he was nine moons old. That was great news for him. He also hung out sometimes with Thistlekit, a little she-cat whom his parents had sort of adopted. He liked her and would tell her lots of stuff about being an apprentice. Silverpaw wasn't too fond of her, but then again, Silverpaw wasn't too fond of anything. So Patchpaw disregarded his opinion.

Oh yeah, and every moon, he continued meeting with Asterpaw at Silver Falls at night, and he continued crushing on her harder and harder each time. He started bringing her rabbits on every visit, even going out of his way to find and catch some before they met up. This really frustrated Silverpaw, who didn’t approve of his brother’s illegal girlfriend, but Patchpaw ignored him. He and Asterpaw weren’t exactly hurting anything. He enjoyed playing around with her. They continued their “war” and Patchpaw kept losing, which he found to be more funny than humiliating. He only won a single time after having trained extra hard with Sagestep, and he was super proud of himself for it. He told Asterpaw about Skyflower’s pregnancy as soon as he could during their fourth meeting, because he was still freaking out over the whole idea of being a big brother. Then he felt a little bit guilty for never having mentioned Dustkit, Nettlekit, Lynxkit, or Cobrakit to her, but he tried not to let that bother him. He wasn’t ready to talk about it yet, so he figured he didn’t have to. While they were on the subject of siblings, however, they decided that the next time they met up, they would bring their siblings and friends with them so that they could all get to know each other — Patchpaw would bring Silverpaw and Minnowpaw, and Asterpaw would bring her own littermates, Riddlepaw and Lilacpaw. Asterpaw and her siblings would be warriors by then, as they were still a moon older than Patchpaw, but that was more exciting to him than anything. He wished her good luck on her assessment before they parted ways. It was a solid plan.

Later that moon, when Flaxkit, Tawnykit, Webkit, and Cloudkit were born, Patchpaw was absolutely in love. He was ecstatic. He silently promised to keep them safe at all costs, and asked his parents to tell them about Dustkit and their first litter early on so that the new kits wouldn't have to learn about it they way he and Silverpaw had. Wheatnose and Skyflower obliged, to Patchpaw’s relief and respect. The kits were sort of small and didn’t do much for the first couple of moons, though, which he found to be somewhat disappointing despite having expected it. He didn’t let it get him down, however, and decided to work hard anyways to be able to impress them once they were old enough to be impressed.

\*(insert description of the next AsterPatch date here... we haven’t rp’ed it yet oof)\*

As his little siblings aged, he came to really enjoy playing with them and bringing them feathers and moss and fun stuff like that. Well, he enjoyed bringing them moss, anyways. He particularly got along with Webkit, who thought he was the greatest cat ever. Patchpaw liked that. Webkit would often beg him to take him outside of camp, but Patchpaw, mainly just concerned for the kit’s safety due to Dustkit’s fate, never agreed to it unless at least one warrior came along as well. Overall, he just thought it was very fun to have younger siblings. Silverpaw, however, did not. Patchpaw talked to him about it and got to make fun of him for being nervous about being replaced. It didn't exactly help.

On one occasion, he and Minnowpaw went hunting in the early morning before they had to be pulled away by their mentors for training. They challenged each other to a squirrel-catching competition, but while poking around, Patchpaw ended up finding some baby raccoons in a tree hollow. He and Minnowpaw thought they were adorable for about six seconds. Then the mama raccoon showed up and started being aggressive towards them, so they ran away and then laughed about it once they were out of range. Patchpaw made sure to warn Skyflower and Wheatnose to keep the kits in camp afterwards - he was *not* going to let any more of his siblings die, and *definitely* not to something as stupid as a raccoon.

For the next and final moon of his apprenticeship, Patchpaw just vibed and continued to be oblivious to the fact that Minnowpaw was crushing on him. He continued vibing with Hickorypad and trying to cheer him up after he got rejected by Honeyswirl. He continued checking up on Bloomheart in the elders’ den every so often for entertainment or just to be helpful. He continued training with Sagestep because Frondnose was still sick and dying. She'd been sick and dying for the entirety of his apprenticeship, actually. So, uh... yeah, Sagestep was pretty much his mentor. F.

Very shortly before he became a warrior, Thistlepaw turned six moons old and joined him in the apprentices' den. He thought that was very great. He probably tried to hang out with her a lot, too. Patchpaw kept on training as hard as he could, and he couldn't wait to earn his own name so that he could share it with Asterfall.

#### Warrior Life

He earned the full name of Patchpounce, passing his assessment on his first try, and was very excited about it and proud of himself. He pretty much just vibed for the next two moons, hanging out with Hickorypad and Silverclaw for the most part when Minnowpaw and Thistlepaw were busy with training. He also kept meeting with Asterfall. Now, unfortunately, Asterfall’s mom and brother were both killed by the plague at around the same time Patchpounce received his warrior name. So... he felt pretty bad about that and tried to be supportive. He likely shared with her what had happened to Dustkit, Lynxkit, Nettlekit, and Cobrakit. I don’t really know, though, because we haven’t roleplayed most of their strands yet. Well, anyways, Minnowfrost became a warrior one moon later, and then they could vibe together more easily. There was a lot of vibing, and it was fun. With the exception of his depressed girlfriend, life was good for Patchpounce.

Yet another moon after that, Webpaw, Flaxpaw, Tawnypaw, and Cloudpaw were made into apprentices. Patchpounce was thrilled for them and tried to spend time with them - and Thistlepaw - to teach them stuff whenever possible. Oh, and Frondnose finally died. Patchpounce was somewhat sad about that, but he’d known it was coming for a while. He'd never been close with her anyways. He'd always thought of Sagestep as his mentor, really.

Thistlespring became a warrior and Skyflower got pregnant yet *again*. That was exciting for Patchpounce. He was getting even *more* little siblings! He was starting to feel old at only sixteen moons. It was sort of funny to him. He shared that news with Asterfall in hopes that some good word would make her feel a bit better.

Then Tawnypaw had an accident. She had been sneaking up on Flaxpaw from a tree when the branch she was standing on snapped beneath her, breaking both of her hind legs. She ended up having to spend the majority of the following moons in the medicine den while they healed. Patchpounce felt pretty horrible about it since it had been his idea to encourage them to climb trees whenever possible in the first place. So, in hopes of preventing that sort of thing from happening again, he took it upon himself to show Webpaw, Cloudpaw, and Flaxpaw how to do it himself — the *right* way, so that they wouldn’t mess it up the way Tawnypaw had. They didn’t enjoy it. Patchpounce knew they didn’t enjoy it, and he felt bad for forcing them to, but he was doing it for their own safety, and he knew they were aware of that.

Oh, and, um... only, like half a moon later, Cloudpaw almost got yeeted by a hawk while out hunting, along with another apprentice at the time named Silkpaw. Patchpounce was pretty upset about that and was glad Silkpaw had been there to help her frighten the hawk off. He had *no* idea why birds of prey seemed to hate his sisters so much, but he wasn’t going to have any of it. Not anymore. He started practicing his hunting skills more than usual — specifically when it came to catching birds. In case he ever came into contact with an owl or a hawk, he wanted to be more than confident that he could defend himself and anyone with him. He tried to encourage Silverclaw, Thistlespring, Cloudpaw, Flaxpaw, and Webpaw to do the same (since Tawnypaw’s legs were still recovering), but it became apparent to him pretty soon that he was the only one who felt genuinely passionate about the idea. He gave up on asking them to work with him, but he continued practicing by himself.

When he was seventeen moons old, Silverclaw got his attention one evening and asked him to come with him to hear a story Bloomheart wanted to share. Now, Bloomheart was very old by this point, and her memory was starting to go. She still called them by their kit names and had difficulty remembering that Dustkit had died. But she was happy with their company and wanted to tell them the story of the rogue uprising once again. Even though they’d heard it many times, and Patchpounce thought he had it memorized by heart, he sat down to listen with interest while Silverclaw brought her some prey. It was bittersweet but enjoyable. That same night, Bloomheart died in her sleep, as discovered by Hollowfall the following morning. Patchpounce was... very sad about it, as he’d really been very fond of the old she-cat and all the memories she’d carried with her. He knew she was in a better place, though, with her mind intact, and that knowledge was enough for him.

He hasn't done anything else yet.

## Other

#### Trivia

* He really, really, really loves climbing. A lot. Did I mention yet that he loves climbing? He really loves it. He loves it a *lot.*
* He’s going to get into an official relationship with Asterfall eventually. AsterPatch will be cute.
* As a kit, he was terrible at words. He would mistake "awesome" for "awful" and things like that all the time. He offended quite a few cats that way.

#### Quotes (more coming once I actually bother to reread his strand)

*“Huh?”*

*“I think eating is best. And sleeping. I like that. And having fun!”*

*“Y’hear that?* Fun! *Your least favorite thing, Silverkit!”*

*"Magic moms."*

*“Oh, golly me. You know I struggle to count past five!”* (- to Asterpaw. Context is a myth.)