gracklenose

thistleclan

sleek and shorthaired black cat with brilliant yellow eyes

    There isn't much that sets Gracklenose apart from his clanmates. Many cats in Thistleclan bear a black coat, including the face of the clan and the medicine cat. One thing that does distinguish him is their size. They are built long and lean, but boast a tall frame. She stands at about 10 inches (25 cm) at the shoulder, the tallest of their family—bar their older half brother. He weighs about 8 lbs (3.6 kg), on the light side but lines up due to their lithe build. Simple muscle and bone holds them together.

    Short and thin, her coat is fine and satiny. It is thinner than even most shorthaired cats, and this sometimes causes trouble in leafbare. Their coat is the color of a starless sky and allows him to easily melt into the dark parts of Thistleclan territory. But it isn't purely pitch black—when the sunlight hits it, warm mahogany undertones are revealed in his fur. Unlike their sibling, there is little white mixed into his coat—just a couple strands here and there on her chest and belly. It is a surefire way to tell the two apart at a glance.

    The most stunning thing about Gracklenose is obviously their eyes. There's a reason they say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. Set in wide, almost perfectly circular sockets they sport a dazzling yellow pair. Sometimes his eyes appear more of a lemon color and other times more golden, but they never stray into green. Otherwise, they have neat triangular ears and a well-proportioned, round face.

    Gracklenose's voice is mostly influenced by his confidence, it rings clear and bold but nothing too special. Her scent is of sharp berries and damp earth, like they had rolled around underneath a raspberry bush (which they wouldn't have, for fear of the thorns). He walks with a smooth, fluid step almost like the stealthy leopards in elder's tales whose black coat they share. Many healing scars cross his pelt but the majority will fade as they age.

+ daring, resilient, logical
    From birth, Gracklenose has never shied away from a good adventure. He is constantly on the go, audacious in all pursuits. Something that plagues many is never taking the leap, but for Gracklenose it is quite the opposite—what they should do after making the jump. Despite not always thinking things through, when his nose leads them to trouble they are tough and able to withstand it. The perpetual snide remarks that his clanmates are so fond of has made him develop a thick skin, and this has bled into more than just being able to brush off taunting with ease.
    Though they may not act like it, he has a good rational head on his shoulders. A sharp mind is essentially required to survive in Thistleclan and catch wind of all her clanmates' subtleties. It is best-suited to puzzle and problem solving, and Gracklenose also tends to think in straight lines. They have trouble with anything that requires a ton of imagination, as he likes to have all four of his feet on the ground at all times.

- insolent, obstinate, prying
    Though it's not exactly a surprise coming from a clan such as Thistleclan, Gracklenose is even more insolent than many of his peers. They give no easy respect to cats younger or older than he is, and it is very hard to earn it from him. Part of this comes from thinking that they simply do not need the help of others and thus do not need to be in their good will, and part of it is just simple hubris as well as the way she was raised. Buying even more into this is their mulish nature, they are willful and loyal to a very very large fault. You'll have a tough time getting him to change his mind, they will not be told what to do.
    Perhaps the most annoying trait to come from Gracklenose is how much of a busybody he is. No secret is safe from them, she has a nose and they're willing to use it to sniff out lies and untolds. Even if a cat does not want him meddling in their business, he often inserts themself and interferes regardless. No problem is a problem he can't solve, and she wishes for a day that their clanmates will come to them to help figure out their conundrums.

loves: Lounging in the sun, solving mysteries, rabbits, feathers.
likes: Climbing, leaffall, thunderstorms, spiders, fresh mud.
dislikes: Rogues, liars, soggy grass.
hates: The cold, crow cries, being lost or aimless.
secrets: Secrets? Who's she?
fears: Dying or losing their brother, or mother, or cousin.
dreams: To make a name for himself in the clan, and get to the bottom of all mysteries cats need solved—including that of their father.

    For the duo of kits born to Juncofang and Jackdawstorm, the black bird names were continued onto Gracklekit and Starlingkit. As soon as their eyes opened and they were old enough to hobble around, the kittens differing personalities began to show. Gracklekit was as contrary as they came, always saying things to cause trouble, while his brother was much more of a goody two-pawed sweetheart. Despite their more disagreeable child's antics, their parents loved the two to the ends of the world.

    Gracklekit made few friends other than his brother, they didn't mind speaking or playing with the other kits in the nursery, he just preferred to be alone. But the cats he always made exceptions for were her family. This included their cousins, namely Shadekit, who had been born just a moon or so before Gracklekit and Starlingkit. Shadekit's mother was their mother's sister, and though the two were not especially close, their children's closeness in age brought them together, if not for a couple moons.

    Gracklepaw took more of a liking to his mother as well, while Starlingkit seemed to gravitate towards his father. Juncofang had a sharpness about her that her mate seemed to lack, it was that wit that inspired and played off of Gracklekit's natural curiosity and seeking disposition. Jackdawstorm was a fine warrior, but he lacked much of the subtlety that most Thistleclanners prided themselves in. It was his strength, and his weakness.

    Not long after Gracklepaw's apprentice ceremony, they told his family that he was not comfortable as a molly, but they weren't a tom either. Neither label really felt right for them, so she said she was something somewhere both in-between and totally different. With the support of their family and clan, Gracklepaw now accepts all pronouns as each feels the same amount of right—though he has a slight preference for he and they, they don't mind a she thrown in there sometimes. As long as his clanmates remember to switch it up, they're perfectly happy—and it certainly helps that it's pretty hard to get things wrong.

    Though he's adapted well to the more structured life of an apprentice, they didn't totally give up trouble. He's begun to channel it more into helping... as long as it has some sort of intrigue. A hunter who hid their prey hidden under a root only to find it gone when they returned? Gracklepaw would be on that in a moment, and they were pleased to say that she solved many of the things that they investigated. As they got older and grew in experience, he began to be seen as a cat to come to for any mystery a cat needed solved.

    There was one thing that Gracklepaw really wanted to solve. He wanted to know what her parents whispered about whenever they thought their children weren't listening. The dark tom, unfamiliar, that was a shadow of their father and who Gracklepaw sometimes spotted lurking at the edges of their den. The cat soon discovered that their father had had another mate, before Juncofang, and that he and Starlingpaw had an older half-brother named Thunderfoot.

    He wasn't sure exactly how to feel. They confronted their father before telling his brother of the news, and Jackdawstorm explained the whole story. He had loved Thunderfoot's mother, Lavenderscreech, but after their daughters died... she had changed. They had both changed, and they weren't fit for one another anymore. So he had left her, and his living son, and realized that he actually had feelings for his best friend Juncofang. So they became mates, and not long after birthed Gracklepaw and Starlingpaw.

    He spoke of Lavenderscreech leaving the clan, and her death, and how sorry he had felt... but it hurt too much to look at Thunderfoot. He had his mother's eyes. He knew that his son hated him, and it hurt him so much to not be able to meet his granddaughter nor comfort his son for the loss of his mate. After all, he had lost a mate too. Gracklepaw had had his view on the world changed that day... she had always seen their father as strong, unshakable, a fighter at heart with steel in his veins.

    But seeing him so soft, so sad... it was heartbreaking. Gracklepaw set out to meet his half brother, and maybe they could help the father and son reconnect. And if not at least he could say he tried. Thunderfoot seemed mostly indifferent to meeting his little siblings, but he would tolerate Gracklepaw as long as the topic stayed off of Jackdawstorm. They also told Starlingpaw of their newfound extended family, omitting some of the softer parts. She knew Starlingpaw idolized Jackdawstorm, and he didn't want to ruin that.

    Starlingpaw had his own problems, though. The social butterfly of a tom had recently fallen into bad faith with his many friends. They would find bugs in their beds, dirt in their dinner, all manner of disgusting pranks. As always, Gracklepaw is on the case. Starlingpaw's friends connected the dots to him, and severed ties, leaving the poor tom with only his sibling and one other friend—Gnatpaw. Gnatpaw was a little weird, but very pretty and kind to Starlingpaw, so he didn't mind her. Gracklepaw knew that their brother wouldn't dream of harming his friends. He was much too well meaning and besides, what use would he get from scaring them off?

    He never did found out, as soon they would have bigger fish to fry. Altercations with rogues were common, and fights went paw-in-paw. So when Jackdawstorm went out one day and his patrol returned without him... the clan was prepared to mourn a great warrior's death. Gracklepaw wasn't so ready to accept that. The tom's body was never found. Speaking to each of the warriors on the patrol uncovered other curiosities, details that didn't line up.

    Whilst the clan grieved, Gracklepaw went to work. They offered little comfort to their brother and mother, simply saying that dad was still alive and promising that he would find him. It's been moons, and whilst other mysteries have been picked up, solved, or cast aside, this one still lies at the back of the cat's mind. He's begun to neglect her duties, playing hooky to go over and over the worn details of his father's disappearance. It's the reason he hasn't became a warrior yet. They know that his family's patient hope is waning, they've started to tell Gracklepaw to just accept that he's gone.

    He always refuses to agree. They know that something is up. He can smell a rat, and he's determined to get to the bottom of it. They have a family to fix, and Gracklepaw can't do it without Jackdawstorm. He remains the piece of string tying the family tight, trying to support both her brother as well as Shadepaw, especially in his role of the sole medicine cat on top of juggling relations with Thunderfoot and their... half-niece? At least in his downtime, she has other problems to solve—and has been keeping an eye out for a partner in crime to help him out. Or rather, un-crime.