[Weekend-Wondering]

Rosepaw
Header by @/Dolomedes / Male / 6 Moons / ThunderClan / Sexuality Unknown
Chocolate-brown and russet tabby Tom with fluffy fur and bright amber eyes, thin scars on his legs and a large scar shaved across the bottom half of his face that exposes several teeth

“Sure, I’ve got half a face, but you’ve got yourself half a brain, so I’m sure we’ll get along just fine, ey?”
~ Rosekit, 1/100

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Taking a long and careful deep breath in, Rosekit stopped beneath the Stormcrest, tilting his head up to get a good look at ThunderClan’s leader as she prepared to give them their apprentice titles. Well, this was it. Life had taken its time, that was for sure, but finally, Rosekit was being given his chance to become the very thing that he had spent so many moons working himself crazy over. All of the preparation he had forced himself to get during his kittenhood days, and even still, this was slightly nerve-wracking. For the most part, Rosekit was confident in his abilities here and all that he could do, but what would happen if he got distracted? What would happen if apprentices like Ivykit, soon to be Ivypaw, out-skilled him? Out-witted him? Of all of the things that Rosekit wanted to become as he grew up, ‘The Laughingstock’ certainly did not fall into that mixture. He trusted Bumblestar to give him a good mentor, somebody worthy of mentoring him, and if they did not teach him well, guess where he’d be? Reporting the issue. Rosekit took no crap from nobody, and as much as this came from his anger issues, it also came from his ambition, his desire to do great things and- not just get- but earn the things that he wants.

Ya’ know, all’s this freakin and scramblin’ I’ve been doin’ as a kitten to get here, and look! He glowered up at Bumblestar with narrowed eyes, lightly biting his lower lip. I’m just one drop in the whole sea, here. Just one apprentice. Oh, I’ve got a looooong way ta’ go, and this whole trainin’ obsessive thing ain’t gonna be stoppin’ here, no way, no how. A real shame they don’t offer any sorta, ‘Overachiever Advanced Trainin’’ system… that’d be a real opportunity to I and the rest’a us overthink’ers and overdo’ers. But instead, Rosekit would just have to do everything he had already accepted and try his hardest to become as best as he could as early on as possible. And who knew, maybe some miracle mentor would get chosen to mentor him and the pieces of his life would fall into place beautifully, like the pieces of a delicate puzzle. But there was only one way to find out; Rosekit was going to have to work for it, see if he could manage it. And if he could? Well, great. Worst comes to worst, he dies as an early apprentice, and best comes to best, he makes it to StarClan as a long-lived elder with a history of success, fame, and worth, as somebody worth ThunderClan’s attention. He already had a little bit, but the amount was honestly sad and pathetic, and the russet tom was happy to earn himself some more of it during his apprenticeship.

But the russet tabby tom-kit was growing tired of thinking so hard about the difficulties and struggles of it all- it wasn’t as if he hadn’t covered them already, so he slipped a little joke into it all. Speakin’ of attention, maybe some romantic attention’ll find it’s way into it all, ha… Rosekit smirked in spite of himself, and he quickly covered it up with the swift swish of his tail over the lower half of his face. ’Course, that ain’t the best reputation, but then again, the more practice the better, ey? Couldn’t hurt to get started on findin’ somebody worth that kind’a love from myself early on, right? Anyway, most’a my focus’ll be in trainin’ anyway, so… this said ‘somebody’s seriously gonna have to put effort into that too, ‘course! His whiskers twitched with amusement, but Rosekit quickly abandoned the thoughts to pay more attention to his own apprentice ceremony. The young to, didn’t want to ruin this little ‘reputation’ of his all of the sudden by deciding to not pay attention to anything, so he kept his attention on Bumblestar and Ivykit, sharp amber gaze unblinking and unwavering as he stared ahead.

{ @Frozen Reign (Ivykit/paw)

From the corner of his vision, with a pring of curiosity, Rosekit noticed Ivykit shivering as she stepped forward. Rosekit’s ear twitched, and he couldn’t resist a little remark. To casually, he leaned towards his nervous denmate and whispered to her, “Keep that quiverin’ up an’ Bumblestar might just give ya’ a stern and frightenin’ mentor to teach ya’ a lesson ‘bout courage… I’d suggest gettin’ over it. ” He hesitated, flowered at the ground for a moment, then grinned and added, “I’m jokin’, I’m jokin’,” before leaning back into his own standing space. Then with those obviously necessary words out of the way and into the air, he shifted to stand upright again, chin up and eyes back in focus. I’m just glad that I ain’t turn in’ this into some sorta’ panic session for myself… it’s seemin’ like a whole lotta’ kits an’ apprentices have been doin’ that durian’ their own ceremonies, huh? He sniffed and snickered a little, keeping his eyes upward on Bumblestar. I’m pretty confident with all’a this, ain’t I? I mean, it ain’t like Bumblestar’s gonna just demote me all’a the sudden for bein’ existent. That’s unrealistic… yeah, things are goin’ just ‘bout as good as I could hope for ‘em to go. I’m lucky, boom. But was it really luck, or was it in my control…? He felt his tail tip twitch at the idea of the new thought, and his grin snapped away. But that last thought train didn’t last too long, because Bumblestar pulled back his attention pretty quickly.

Rosekit held his ground, trying decently hard to replace his natural impatient stare with something more respectful, but he only ended up appearing unusually solemn. It was his apprentice ceremony, but he sort of looked like he had just carried the clan through a bloody war that killed off half of them all. Well, anything to avoid looking like an impatient brat like he knew that he usually did. He watched with the beating of his heart growing quicker as Bumblestar spoke, announcing that they would be using their new names until they proved themselves to be worthy of their warrior titles. Rosekit stood a little bit straighter. Here we go, The confident young tom thought to himself, barely resisting another smirk as he waited. And there is was, his new name. The russet and brown tabby tom blinked at the sound of ‘Rosepaw’ and for a moment, he was silent and still. RosePAW… hmph, The newly made apprentice thought to himself, lightly. Sounds more like it… RoseKIT was a bit sad… uh… moving on, PAW! The tabby tom smiled with pride, glancing briefly at Ivypaw after her own name was given. It was probably going to take him a while to get used to being addressed by ‘Rosepaw’ instead of the usual, ‘Rosekit’, but he was sure he would manage to adjust. Everybody else did- especially elders, who’d been through it all before. He, with the amount of things that he had forced himself to get used to in the past, was sure that he would cope just fine.

{ @ollie (Twilightforest) }

Rosepaw perked his ears at the sound of mentorship, and mildly impatiently, he awaited the name of his own. When Bumblestar assigned him to a warrior he had never actually interacted with directly called, ‘Twilightforest’, the young tabby tom took a moment to look around for the warrior. Fun name for a guy, I s’pose, The russet apprentice thought to himself, sniffing as he took a look around. Well, if Bumblestar’s over here trustin’ ‘em to teach me, then we should be all good here, shouldn’t we? I’m sure she isn’t just tryin’ to make my apprenticeship Hell, that’s not a leader’s job, ‘course. At least, that wasn’t how Bumblestar ran her clan, Rosepaw didn’t want to make too many assumptions about the other clans and how they unraveled in their every day lives. Eventually, the dark brown and russet apprentice caught sight of a dark gray and speckles warrior who he was pretty sure patched the title, ‘Twilightforest’, so stiffly, he headed over in the figure’s direction. As much as Rosepaw wanted to leave his first impression on the warrior nice and polite, he didn’t want to cover up any personality, and the usual sarcastic wit immediately outweighed his desire to be perfectly respectful.

Rosepaw came to a stop in front of Twilightforest and muttered, “Oh, hey. ‘Was told that you’re gonna’ be my mentor now, Gloom,” Rosepaw had no interest in calling Twilightforest by his name… the colors of the older Tom’s pelt were just too… gloomy. They were all gray and sad in Rosepaw’s opinion, and there was absolutely no way he was going to miss a nickname opportunity. So with a small grin, Rosepaw continued to introduce himself. “Anyway, I’m a bit of a brat, so uh- enjoy, I s’pose. It ain’t my fault I wasn’t taught manners. As for trainin’, you’ll be happy ta’ know that I actually enjoy it quite a bit, and I’ve already forced a pawful’a warriors ta’ teach me a thing or two. I’ll try to make it so ya’ don’t beg for a different apprentice, and you teach me at the best’a your abilities, deal?” Rosekit tilted his head and awaited his new mentor’s answer. He had absolutely no idea how Twilightforest would react to all of that, but he didn’t much care, either. He would figure something out for however Twilightforest responded, he was sure. So with his eyebrows lifted and his tail raised, he stood still and awaited the response.

{ @JellyCat (Raggedear) }

After Rosepaw may or may not have received a response (because Weekend doesn’t like powerplay) he briefly allowed his attention to fall back onto Raggedear from a distance. Now that he had made his way all the way over to Twilightforest instead, Rosepaw was a bit far from Raggedear, but seeing as the russet tabby apprentice refused to admit to his limits, he still found a way to try and communicate. Stretching his head as far as he could to see Raggedear properly, Rosepaw lifted and began to repeatedly swipe a paw in the russet warrior’s direction, saying hello in his own silent but desperate ways. Then once he thought he might have Raggedear’s attention, he gestured with his head towards Ivypaw, and mouthed, Ya’ got that one? Nice! Before pointing with his tail tip to Twilightforest. Then with a grin, he mouthed more slowly this time, Wish me luck, Half-Ear! With that said, Rosepaw turned back to watch the meeting keep on playing through.

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Rosepaw Has Reach Apprenticeship.