Duskfrost

[duskfur]

GENERAL

Name: Duskfrost
Name Explanation: Dusk; the dark colors of his pelt. Frost; cold, detached nature as well as a collected mask (covering his anger like frost covers grass).
Gender: Tom.
Age: 52 moons.
Clan: ShadowClan.
Rank: Deputy.

APPEARANCE

Body Type: Gaunt; gives off illusion of being lanky.
Fur: Dark grey-brown; lighter underside.
Eyes: Pale gold.
Markings: Bold black tabby stripes.
Overall: Duskfrost has a tattered and gaunt look about him, with a long if not tall stature and narrow shoulders. Several old scars make his fur grow out in ragged tufts. He looks weak at a first glance, until one notices the quiet ferocity with which he carries himself. His coat leaves no doubt to where the prefix of his name came from, the dark grey colors signaling an approaching night. Traces of brown are evident in his fur; it can appear either way. Tabby stripes, bold black, cover his body, mottled on his flanks and banded around his legs. His long tail is wispy and feathery, as are his whiskers, and his eyes a stern dirty-yellow.

PERSONALITY

Positive Traits:

• Stern → He is loyal to the warrior code and makes no exceptions for the rules. No matter who you are, you will lose respect with him if you break the code. He loves to enforce these rules in his Clan, holding them as sacred guidelines that should not change with time just because a few earthly cats make stupid decisions.
  
  
• Thoughtful → He’s not going to leap before he looks. He weighs his options and figures out what the best decision will be for peace and his Clan before opening his mouth or before launching himself into battle. Very rarely is he reckless.
  
  
• Skeptical → He isn’t going to automatically put all of his trust in someone, so he’ll brace himself for the worst of a situation. It’s not very easy to cross this watchful tom.
  
  
• Fierce → He will never back down from a challenge or stand for someone insulting him or his Clan. His eyes alone can hold this ferocity and make others back off before a claw need be unsheathed. He uses all of his suppressed rage and uses it coldly and efficiently when he needs to unleash his ferocity.
  
  
• Collected → While he can be passionate, he is usually cold and calm. He doesn’t allow his temper to get sparked easily, and when it is, he doesn’t let it show. He can face a spitting warrior without so much as blinking and calmly talk to them.

Flaws:

• Grim → He sees the worst in everything and will never sugarcoat the harsh truth about the circumstances of life, even if sometimes it would be better to do so. He views the world with a certain pessimism, and his skeptical nature doesn’t allow him to enjoy the good times in life, because he’s usually wondering when those times will be over.
  
  
• Withdrawn → He is socially awkward and won’t speak much, instead keeping his thoughts and opinions to himself unless they are strictly business. This makes him no friends among his Clan, leaving him instead a distant, threatening character that cats look up to as a deputy, not a fellow warrior.
  
  
• Prejudiced → He relies heavily on first impressions. If he meets a cat who acts like an idiot, even if they turn out to be smart later, he’ll have a hard time changing his opinion of them. He categorizes cats most often by age and experience; if they are younger than he is, they are less experienced and therefore lesser to him in general.
  
  
• Demanding → His expectations are high, perhaps from what he suffered through as an apprentice. He is worried that he’ll push others too hard, but when it comes down to it he’s not aware if he does. He pushes his warriors because he believes that they are capable of the best.
  
  
• Unsure → He is completely unsure of himself. While does his job of enforcing the rules and the decrees of the leader well, when it comes to making his own decisions he is clueless about what might be the best for his comrades. He needs a higher figure to look up to, and ultimately is terrified to become the leader of ShadowClan.

Fears:

• Becoming leader.
  
• Messing up.
  
• Permanent mutilation.
  
• Cats standing behind him.

Quirks:

• Cannot talk to someone unless he can see them.
  
• Hunches his shoulders when involved in social awkwardness.

Ideals:

• Blind following of a literally interpreted warrior code.
  
• Wisdom and experience in older cats as leaders.

Overall: Intelligent but grim, Duskfrost is the type of cat who you would listen to for orders but never engage in conversation with. Socially he is inept, a tom of very few words. However, this near-silence from him contributes to an advantage of stubbornness in arguments, where a fierce look can tell more than a wordy retort would. He cares about his Clan though he doesn’t show it, and unless you can gain his respect through experience, he doesn’t attach himself to individual members except perhaps briefly. He is extremely passionate about the warrior code and follows it to the end of the earth, often preaching it to others (if he could preach). However, underneath this mask of confidence, he is scared to death. He fears screwing things up and would rather die than become leader, when his choices more than ever could lead the Clan to a downfall. But no one is the wiser about his secret terrors.

HISTORY

Family: Alderstripe (brown classic tabby), father; Patchfur (tortoiseshell/patched tabby), mother.
History: With two loyal (but decidedly insignificant) warrior parents, Dusk-kit was no different than any other of his denmates as far as heritage. However, from the moment his personality began to develop, he was the calm cat he was today. Because he preferred to watch the others wrestle and pounce rather than do it on his own, his parents became worried that he would never want to learn to be a warrior. He quietly pounced on crickets and small frogs around the camp but would always stop, unsure of himself, when a warrior commended him for his skills.

A warrior named Bluethorn decided to take him on as his apprentice, appreciating the challenge such a shy kitten provided. However, his tactics were far from gentle encouragement. Whenever Duskpaw hesitated with an answer, he was berated thoroughly and sometimes punished. A scarring event that still carries to this day is when he showed fear as his mentor stalked him through the marshes. Bluethorn immediately told him that a warrior never shows his enemy that he is uncertain. He pursued Duskpaw for almost the entire day, always rustling the bushes to signal an approach then escaping again, until the fear-scent was finally suppressed by the weary Duskpaw. The apprentice soon became terrified of cats walking behind him or stalking him.

When he reached sixteen moons, the torture of putting up with Bluethorn paid off. He was evaluated by the leader herself and passed with flying colors. However, it was evident to all of his denmates that he had changed. He remained silent and grew grim. While his hesitance was never shown, he remained unsure of himself and skeptical of others’ intentions due to the many tricks his mentor pulled off in order to force some confidence out of him. He was quietly efficient and a feared warrior; while he never puffed his chest out with pride, he had an intensity about him that would startle those that didn’t know him well. His suffix, -frost, was granted for this new cold personality, glorified for the piercing and knowledge that chills brought.

He participated in several minor battles and managed to prove himself worthy in each one, just as much as other warriors. He was beginning to lead the life his parents did, as model faceless cats that did their duty and nothing more. However, when his mentor died quite suddenly in a fight, Duskfrost took on a new resolve. He used his experience to teach other cats, taking on the most insolent of apprentices and using his calm personality to shake them up and teach them respect and the warrior code. He saw two apprentices become warriors in this time period. Doing his best to influence the Clan—in a good way—he managed to gain more than the usual respect from others.

And it wasn’t much of a surprise when, after the old leader lost her last life, the newly-dubbed Willowstar selected him as deputy. At least, no one else was surprised—except for him. He took on his duty well with supposed confidence, even if at every turn he was terrified of messing something up. After he saw his last unruly apprentice, Rowanpaw, become a warrior, he managed to believe in himself enough to shoulder the duties of deputy effectively and is steadily improving with his confidence in himself.

RP SAMPLE

Administrator privileges. =3