Thornpaw

Thornpaw is a long-furred black tabby tom with a white underbelly and chest, and very pale blue eyes.

## Personality

He's a know-it-all. He likes being right, and has quite the smug aura about him when anything he says or does is validated, not to mention that his general attitude is that of someone who knows more than others and acts superior with his knowledge. The way that he speaks and presents himself adds to this image; he uses lots of academic, formal language when he talks, and speaks in a very precise manner, rarely using slang, shortened words, nicknames, or exclamations, which gives him an air of intelligence that adds to his superior air. His general inability to avoid responding to a joke or friendly inquiry with something dry, sarcastic, off-puttingly blunt, or complicated generally makes him quite unapproachable, or even unlikeable, to cats his own age. Most adults like him well enough – he's respectful, responsible, and smart, so he usually ends up being something of a teacher's pet wherever he goes – but most of the time, he can't seem to connect with people his own age. Many write this off simply as him being a smartass jerk who thinks he's better than everyone else, but in reality, he just has no idea how to socialize with his peers. He is a tightly wound ball of stress, responsibilities, and deeply ingrained behaviors that anyone without a Hell of a lot of persistence would be incapable of unwinding. He tries very hard to be mature beyond his years, reigning in any impulse or desire to be silly or let loose and have fun in favor of attending to his responsibilities and immersing himself in "productive" activities (mostly training), which makes it difficult for him to relate to most cats his age, as he is not likely to simply relax and joke along with them, and has missed out on many common experiences because he has shunned them in favor of focusing on his responsibilities. Additionally, he tends to doubt the sincerity of everything that anyone does or says, being incredibly closed off around and wary of others, suspecting everyone of having ulterior motives or sinister intentions in even the simplest things. He is often vague or indirect right back to them, brusquely brushing cats off and seeking solitude once more, or simply talking circles around them until he has them confused or irritated enough for them to leave. He dislikes others criticizing, contradicting, or questioning him, as he has a strong desire to be right and to be acknowledged for being right, and can be quite stubborn in proving himself and getting others to notice or accept his input when he *knows* he's right about something. His natural distrust of others makes him unwilling to open up to other cats in most cases, so if he feels at any point that he's being interrogated, he's likely to try to turn the conversation on the person questioning him, starting off with making snide remarks in hopes of scaring them off, and descending into full-blown psychoanalysis of everything they say or do if the questioner does not back off. He is very intelligent and clever, with great observational skills, so a lot of the time, the things he brings up in his psychoanalyses are accurate enough to be cutting to whomever he turns his focus on. Although he does sort of enjoy watching cats squirm when he prods them about a topic, it truly irritates him if cats refuse to see the logic or truth behind his statements, and will likely press the issue the more they resist. However, though he may seem insensitive or apathetic to outsiders, he truly isn't a malicious cat, and doesn't mean to hurt anyone by pressing issues – it's more about his own insecurity or ego at that point, and he doesn't really want to deeply upset others. If asked nicely, he'll even let an issue slide without the acknowledgement of his rightness that he craves. While it is not immediately apparent in his day-to-day actions or attitude, he does care for his loved ones very deeply, wanting to protect and help them as much as he can, but being pretty much complete shit at expressing affection; most of the time, he it through teasing, which unfortunately doesn't sound too different from his usual criticisms and can thus be easily misconstrued, and is frequently too tightly wound with nerves and personal reservations to be straight with others about his feelings. In spite of this, he would sacrifice himself in a heartbeat if he thought it was the only way to protect someone he cares about– though his intelligence and intuition means he can usually figure out an alternative, and he knows better than to intervene in a conflict if he has accepted that someone else is better suited to dealing with it than he is. Regardless, he will never allow one of his loved ones to be the sacrifice if he can help it, and generally gets pretty torn up if something bad happens to someone on his watch, spiraling into self-ridicule and retreating further into solitude, analyzing all the ways in which he could have acted to avoid the situation that occurred, and ruthlessly disciplining himself in order to prevent such oversights in the future.

## History

He was born a rogue; he never knew his father, and his mother wasn't the greatest of mother figures throughout his life. Though his mother did her best to spoil him, she wasn't really ready to be a mother, and tried to treat him more like a friend than her son. She didn't always remember to hunt for two, and only really hunted when *she* was hungry, despite having a kit to feed as well - not to mention that she weaned him rather early. He mostly had to take care of his own injuries or hurts as well, as his mother was often too distracted to do so. Basically, he was forced to be the "responsible" one in his family despite being much younger. When his mother eventually died from sickness, he was left alone, taking care of himself relatively well until he wandered into ShoreClan territory. After some debate, he was taken in to the Clan, his maturity impressing some warriors. Because he had to take care of himself for so long, he didn't really fit in with the other apprentices, and the fact that he suffered some doubt and distrust due to his origins certainly didn't help. He's been in the Clan for three moons now, though, and is mostly integrated.