Brackenrush

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Quote incoming. I haven't roleplayed with them yet.

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### Other relatives

Orchidflank (grandfather), Ixiathroat (grandmother), Cougarrun (step-grandfather, deceased)

## Appearance and Personality

### Appearance

Brackenrush is a lean, very fluffy cat with big ears and a short tail. They have fur mottled with many shades of ginger, with lots of white spotting around their face and neck. Brackenrush has one brown eye and one blue eye, both of which are speckled with gold.

### Personality

They are very practical and authoritative. Brackenrush has a talent for organizing cats, and has a strong sense of confidence. They are, however, extremely stubborn and will NOT change their plans for you, period. They're a gruff, intimidating presence in anyone's life, and honestly they resort to violence worryingly quick.

## Backstory/Life

### Kithood

Brackenkit was born in a litter of two, alongside their sister Skykit. The kits were raised by their two fathers, Hayshred and Tansyhaunch. Hayshred was kind of absent, but Tansyhaunch more than made up for it with the time he spent with his kits and said kits had a happy two moons before they could finally leave the nursery.

That is until at three moons old, Tansyhaunch was killed investigating some strange scents that turned out to be a pack of wolves. Skykit was a crying mess, but Brackenkit was just *angry.* They definitely wanted to murder some wolves. But, I mean, they were three moons old, so not much they can do about that.

Anyway, the whole ordeal just started making Hayshred *more* absent, and without Tansyhaunch to balance it out the kiddos sorta just existed for a while. Skykit was kind of having an emotional breakdown, but Brackenkit didn't realize that enough to comfort her.

Then, surprise, Tansyhaunch's mother Ixiathroat showed up. Was she here to comfort the kits? Nope, she was here to whip them into shape and get them to stop sulking. You have to realize that Ixiathroat wasn't really ever a great mother. That's part of the reason Tansyhaunch was such a good parent - he wanted to break that cycle.

Anyway, Brackenkit took a liking to Ixiathroat and her strict, practical ways. Skykit's mind was kind of just melting into a puddle of nothingness at the time, but Brackenkit didn't know and Ixiathroat didn't care.

Then one day, Ixiathroat and her mate (not Tawnyhaunch's father, this was her second mate) Cougarrun were caught in an avalanche. They both died, and once again Brackenkit was angry. They actually finally realized that Skykit was an emotional wreck, and decided to try and hang out with her. This was to no avail; Skykit was not really talking to anyone at that point.

### Apprenticeship

Brackenpaw was apprenticed to their grandfather on Hayshred's side - Orchidflank, a caring and understanding cat who didn't approve of his son's parenting technique. Orchidflank was a superb mentor, pushing Brackenpaw just hard enough to motivate them while also somewhat calming their violent nature. Brackenpaw excelled at hunting, but their rash nature made it hard for them to time hunts properly.

Skypaw, on the other hand, became the medicine cat apprentice; violence made her queasy and she did not ever want to have to fight anyone, thanks. Her mental health was steadily improving at this time, which made Brackenpaw happy.

Brackenpaw merged into a friend group with a few slightly older apprentices - Shufflepaw and Kalmiapaw, who were littermates, and Glowpaw, who'd been adopted by Shuffle and Kalmia's parents after his mother's death. The four spent most of their time engaged in prank wars with Shufflepaw and Kalmiapaw's sister, Vaporpaw, and her friends Preenpaw and Colpaw. They weren't really enemies, just hung out with different cats and that made them into teams. It was all fun and games for a long time.

Unfortunately, though, a long time isn't forever. And when greencough struck the Clan, Kalmiapaw and Vaporpaw got it and the pranks halted as all the cats held their breath for the sisters' health. Eventually Kalmiapaw got better, but the illness brought Vaporpaw to StarClan. Everyone was very sad and the 'wars' ceased for a long time. The friend groups merged into one and they did their best to stay optimistic. Skypaw was kind of panicking after Vaporpaw's death, because death is something that Skypaw could never handle.

Eventually Preenpaw and Colpaw became Preenskimmer and Colcrosser (they got the -er names after their deceased father, Stormwalker), and for her diligence in fighting greencough, Skypaw became Skyquiver when she was eleven moons old.

So Brackenpaw kind of just trained with Orchidflank for a while. They were getting better at hunting (but not much better), and Orchidflank was a comforting presence after the death of Vaporpaw.

Glowpaw's ceremony was next, and he became Glowhop. Then were Kalmiapaw and Shufflepaw - Kalmialeaf and Shufflesplash.

Brackenpaw took their first assessment, and failed the hunting part. So, frustrated but not giving up, they took it again the next day. And passed.

### Warrior Life

Brackenrush got their warrior name, and everything was pretty cool for a while. They hung out with their old apprenticeship friends, and talked to Orchidflank once in a while, cool.

Also they found out that Skyquiver had a crush on Kalmialeaf, and teased her about that (especially because she was the medicine cat.) They stopped after realizing Skyquiver wasn't in a great place mentally after the recent death of her mentor - and because of that Brackenrush decided not to mention that Kalmialeaf was straight.

At age twenty, Brackenrush got their first apprentice - their cousin Rockpaw, who was the daughter of Hayshred's sibling Babblesong. Rockpaw was extremely difficult for Brackenrush to train, as she really wasn't great at much.

Eventually, though, Rockbreak became a warrior and Brackenrush breathed a mental sigh of relief. Now twenty-seven, they were ready to lead a long and successful life.

They started by yelling at Hayshred for being a *not great* dad. Hayshred was unresponsive to this. This made Brackenrush angry. What made them somehow angrier was when Hayshred was plucked up by an eagle and never seen again. Part of them had wanted to get closer to their father, not end up watching him carried off to a feathery death.

At age thirty-two, Brackenrush was just hanging out, which was great in their opinion. Not like they wanted a mate or anything, so they just existed. Anyway, they found out that Rockbreak was dealing with her mother's death, so they said a few kind words in her general direction. Rockbreak greatly appreciated and it sort of made up for their terrible mentor-apprentice relationship.

Skyquiver just disappeared one day. There was no warning or probable reason. She was just gone and nobody knew why. Brackenrush did grieve quite a bit in this time, wondering if there was anything they could've done. And HillClan had no medicine cat for a brief period of time, so that was scary.

During this time, Orchidflank died of natural causes. He'd been relatively old when he had Hayshred, and he went quietly in his sleep when Brackenrush was thirty-eight. They were upset about this, but at least they knew he'd lived a long and fulfilling life, and that he hadn't died painfully or, ya know, DISAPPEARED. Yes, I'm looking at you, Skyquiver.

Babblesong fell off a cliff while hunting one day. Brackenrush had never really known them, so they didn't care all that much to be honest. Rockbreak cared, though - she up and left the Clan.

The Clan's deputy died, and then, woop, at forty moons old Brackenrush was suddenly deputy. They were pretty dang happy about that.

Brackenrush did pretty much nothing until they were fifty. That, my friends, is when Otterstar died and suddenly Brackenrush was to be leader. They got their nine lives: Tawnyhaunch (morality), Ixiathroat (organization), Orchidflank (mentoring), Vaporpaw (appreciation), Hayshred (forgiveness), Babblesong (acceptance), the old deputy Groundmist (knowledge) and Otterstar (faith).

The newly-named Brackenstar was pretty happy now. They got to see Colcrosser find herself a mate (Skipdart) and have her own kits: Vaporkit and Quiverkit, named after Vaporpaw and Skyquiver respectively. Brackenstar had never seen the appeal of a mate or kits, but they thought Colcrosser's babies were pretty cute. They gave themself Quiverpaw to mentor when he became an apprentice. Vaporpaw II became the medicine cat apprentice - at least, until he was killed by a coyote. Seriously, what is it with these Vaporpaws and dying young? Colcrosser and Skipdart broke up after that, which Brackenstar had mixed feelings about.

However they felt, they were not going to let Quiverpaw turn into another Skyquiver. So they spent a lot of time comforting the apprentice, being supportive when they came out as demiflux, and whatnot.

One day Brackenstar found some SwampClan scent hanging around - more than one cat! - so they found the cats, and, uh, led an attack. Brackenstar can be a little paranoid about ambushes and whatnot. Except *as it turns out*, they were just looking for their missing deputy. Whom Brackenstar had not seen.

After that ordeal, Brackenstar found that they just really disliked being leader. After Quiverhoot became a warrior, Brackenstar retired - age sixty-four, pretty young for a cat to become an elder. So they were a warrior up until they were seventy - when they lost their penultimate life to a falling boulder. At that point they were just like, 'forget this, I'm out', and became an elder.

### Elder Life

Kalmialeaf and Shufflesplash were lost to greencough when Brackenrush turned seventy. They were upset about that, but didn't do much about it. Preenskimmer retired too.

Now they just kind of exist.