[Neptune.]

Hollowkit
to rule the world, you must first know the world

 

In his desire to sequester as much possible knowledge in preparation for the day he rules the world as the most powerful cat in the forest, Hollowkit is nothing if not a well of questions and curiosity. Although young and only turning 4 moons old on August 1st, it is my personal belief that he would bring to the table something I have yet to see a lot of on WCO... I'll let the application speak for itself, though...
all herbal knowledge portrayed in the following section should not be taken as examples of things Hollowkit already knows and should instead be assumed to merely be a glimpse in the future

 

To start off his day, Hollowpaw would have very much liked a quiet morning where he could grab a mouse off the fresh kill pile, and maybe sort some herbs while categorizing, in his head, the next steps in his plans for world domination. Of course, that wasn't how his morning went, and chestnut ears flatten at the call of his name from outside the den.

"Hollowpaw?" The cat asks, and Hollowpaw stops what he's doing to glare at the intruder, saying nothing and expecting them to speak up about their ailment. "Er," the cat continues awkwardly, and Hollowpaw doesn't hide his scoff of annoyance at their hesitation, "I think I stepped on a thorn while out on patrol..." the patient finishes, and Hollowpaw can only blink at them. A thorn? They really came all the way to the medicine den over a stupid thorn??

Without a word, the tabby rolls his eyes and gestures to an empty nest with his tail, turning back to his herb stores while the patient moves to the nest he pointed out to them. Instead of getting the marigold he would need to make a poultice, Hollowpaw goes back to sorting his herbs. A thorn could wait and, honestly? Hollowpaw really just wanted to see how long he could make the idiot warrior squirm in the uncomfortable silence before he had no choice but to treat them.

After several minutes had passed and he could no longer pretend to be busy, Hollowpaw turns to face the warrior with the thorn in their paw, an unimpressed brow raised.

"You said you have a thorn stuck in you?" He deadpans, although he hadn't actually forgotten, he just enjoyed making other cats feel stupid and watching them wriggle in embarrassment beneath his gaze. The warrior nods, and Hollowpaw steps closer, lifting the affected paw and turning it over to look and... yep, there's a thorn in there. It's wedged in pretty good, too, Hollow can admit. "Hold still," he instructs and bends forward to grab onto the very end of the thorn with his teeth, ignoring the warrior's hiss of pain. Seriously, warriors were all babies. With a sharp tug, Hollowpaw yanks out the thorn, flattening his ears against the loud yelp the patient let out as he did so.

"Oh, would you be quiet?" He snaps, glaring, "it was just a thorn, it won't kill you. I'm getting some marigold, so stay there and lap up the blood." His patient is glaring at him, but Hollowpaw ignores it, slinking to the herb stores and taking out a marigold so he can chew up a poultice that he then applies to the wound. It's a little tedious, because the patient keeps jerking away their paw and hissing in pain.

"Stay. Still." Hollowpaw growls, "unless you want this to get infected and lose your paw, then, by all means, keep squirming away! It isn't like your constant movement makes my job more difficult than it needs to be or anything!" That shut the warrior up, and he was able to finish applying the poultice and wrap the paw around with cobwebs without complaint. "There," he says, putting the spare cobweb back. "You should be fine to keep working tomorrow, you might just be a bit tender. Now get out of my den."

"But... what about a poppy seed? For the pain?" The warrior asks, and Hollowpaw actually feels his last nerve snapping, because seriously??? A poppy seed? For a thorn?

"You're kidding, right?" He asks, and when the warrior denies it, he bares his teeth. "You had a stupid thorn. You didn't just lose your whole paw, I think you'll be able to manage without a poppy seed. Suck it up and act like the warrior you supposedly are." With that, he turns his back on the warrior, uncaring if they had any further comments for him.

My Comfort Levels ( x/10 system lovingly poached from finley)

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Illness rps
~ w/ minimal angst and description [10/10 i am 100% comfortable roleplaying these]
~ w/ moderate angst and description [10/10 i am 100% comfortable roleplaying these]
~ w/ detailed angst and description [10/10 i am 100% comfortable roleplaying these]

Injury rps
~ w/ minimal angst and gore [10/10 i am 100% comfortable roleplaying these]
~ w/ moderate angst and gore [9/10 i am pretty comfortable with these, i'd just prefer them marked under a spoiler]
~ w/ detailed angst and gore [9/10 i am pretty comfortable with these, but i'd prefer them under a spoiler]

Death rps
~ w/ minimal angst and gore [10/10 i am 100% comfortable roleplaying these]
~ w/ moderate angst and gore [10/10 i am 100% comfortable roleplaying these]
~ w/ detailed angst and gore [9/10 i am pretty comfortable with these, but i'd prefer them to be marked under a spoiler]

Kitting rps
~ w/ minimal descriptions of birth [10/10 i am 100% comfortable roleplaying these]
~ w/ moderate descriptions of birth [8/10 i'm pretty comfortable with these, but i'd prefer them under a spoiler]
~ w/ detailed descriptions of birth [7.5/10 im fairly comfortable with these if that's what you want, but it is not preferred]

 

"And what is this herb? What do we use it for?" Hollowpaw's mentor, RECATED asked, poking a paw towards a fuzzy green leaf with small ridges all along it's edges. The leaf was slightly rounded, and had a very sharp, fresh scent. Honestly, every kit and theit mother could recognize mint if you shoved it in their face, this lesson was stupid.

"Mint," Hollow deadpans, tail tip twitching irritable. Seriously, why did acquiring the knowledge needed to rule the world have to be so tedious and boring? "It's doesn't have a whole lotta medicinal uses, but we can use it to cover the scent of the dead." At his explanation, his mentor nods, an approving glint in their eye that makes Hollowpaw want to vomit. Seriously, where did REDACTED get off acting all high and mighty? He might be the one with the title of apprentice stuck to his back like an annoying burr, but REDACTED was no more fully trained medicine cat than he was! They're both learning together, this isn't a situation where one has all the knowledge and has to teach it to the younger.

Briefly, the tabby tom debates getting riled up about this, but before he can open his mouth, his mentor slides forward a different herb, and the lesson continues. "That's dandelion" he says with a yawn, "the leaves are a painkiller, kinda like poppy seeds, the flowers can help with bee stings, and the roots can cure, uh, some kind of poison. Not somethin' we have to worry about too often." The whole plant was useful, which was good, because there was always plenty of the fuzzy yellow flowers in late new-leaf and early green-leaf. He especially liked the bit about the leaves being painkillers - that was the most useful part of the plant, according to him. "Can you quiz me on the more dangerous plants, now?" It's a shot in the dark, Hollowpaw isn't sure REDACTED will actually agree to it, but hey, can't fault a guy for tryin!

"Why?" His mentor questions skeptically, and Hollowpaw rolls his eyes, easily fabricating a lie to tell. [hypothetical silver tongue active]

"'Cuz,," he drawls. "It wouldn't be smart for me not ta know what plants can kill a cat, and the earlier I lern 'em, the better, don't you think?" A soundly logical conclusion to be drawn, now, if only his mentor would fall for it...

Hesitantly, his mentor wanders to their herb stores, and returns with two plants, a poppy, and a thin green stem with a few small, purpleish black berries on them. Gently, almost fearfully, REDACTED sets them down, and Hollowpaw can't help holding his breath, though he doesn't quite know why they brought over a poppy, those aren't poisonous.

"The poppy," his mentor begins, "is to give you a vague sense of what the plant might look like we don't keep foxglove in camp, so this will have to do." Tilting his head at the mention of foxglove, Hollowpaw waits for his mentor to continue. "Foxglove seeds look nearly identical to poppy seeds, although the flowers they come from are bell shaped. It isn't a painless way to die, you's first suffer paralysis, then your heart might give out, you could fall into a coma, and only then would you die."

As his mentor moves the poppy to the side, Hollowpaw commits the description of the foxglove flower and the effects of its seeds to memory. This was good to know, not only so that he might be able to identify the poisoning a cat might suffer from, but also so that he could potentially use them should the need arise. Not that he has anyone in mind right now, but you never know.

"This here is called deadly nightshade. Its flowers, too, are shaped like bells, the branches of the bush it grows on are long, and the leaves are green. When ripe - like these ones - they're a deep purple, almost black color, but they're green when unripened. We keep them because they offer a very quick death, and if some cat is suffering too greatly and there's nothing to be done to help them... it's good to offer them a way out on their own terms." Well, that was certainly a sobering explanation. Hollowpaw doesn't have much to say about that, but it might be useful to know that the berries are kept in camp, so he commits it to memory anyway.

With a nod, his mentor picks both plants back up and carries them again to the herb stores, leaving Hollowpaw to sit and ponder... suddenly this whole 'rising to power' thing doesn't feel quite right if it means he has to hurt others to accomplish it. He used to think he'd do anything to become the ruler of the world, but, now, maybe there were a few things he wouldn't do...

Quick Facts!

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~ Hollowkit isn't exactly the best personality for this position, he's snippy and isn't afraid to call you stupid for any injury he deems dumb enough. Although, I've yet to really see a medicine cat that isn't your typical kind, quiet and anxious character and it's my belief that Hollowkit could shake the mold up a bit!
~ His whole 'world domination' ideology, though he's not actually looking to rule the world, and more so just wants the validation he thinks comes with it (though he doesn't know that yet so shhhh don't tell him!), it might be interesting to see how that plays out through this position, as Hollowkit will likely see this as a major stepping stone to ruling the world
~ Although it's been about half a year since i've had a hr position, and I admittedly didn't handle that very well towards the end, I now have a much better grasp of how the site works and of my own limits, so something similar won't happen again and, if I feel myself getting to that point, I trust myself to know when to step back for a bit

 

The night is dark, and the medicine den is filled with the sounds of sleeping cats - those that are too injured or sick to return to their regular dens, and his mentor as well. Hollowpaw can't sleep. It's less about the noises around him, he thinks, and more about the noises within him. It sounds silly, but even though the den is never really empty, Hollowpaw has always found it oppressively lonely.

'When I rule the forest,' he thinks to himself, shifting in his nest so his abnormally long tail covers his snout, 'I'll never make any cat sleep apart from our one big clan. No one will be lonely.' It's silly to think about, but in the moons since he's become ThunderClan's medicine cat apprentice, Hollowpaw has thought of ruling the forest less and less perpetually, and with less and less ire. What does that mean? He doesn't really know. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there's always seemingly something going on in the medicine den, so there hasn't been any very dull moments... maybe he's gone soft.

Part of Hollowpaw thinks that ruling the forest is still a good idea, if only because it's one of the only goals he's ever had since he was little... but when he thinks about the why of it all, he can never quite think past anything more than 'I could do better than everyone who came before me.' He's older now, though, and he's got a good enough and humble enough head on his shoulders that a little introspection on the reasons behind this plan won't kill him - even if the answers he comes to might piss him off.

For starters, leaders and rulers are always respected, or, if they aren't respected, they're feared. Hollowpaw likes that, he thinks. Not that he wants to be feared, but the respect he's gotten (in spite of his sour attitude most of the time) as a medicine cat has made him feel important. It's made him feel good, and needed, and valued in a way he isn't sure he's ever felt before. Sure, he knows his sister and his mother love him - his father, too, probably, though Hollowpaw has never met the cat - but he doesn't even look like them! And he's never really felt like he belongs with them. He loves them, he does, but there's always been an underlaying current of... disconnection among them all.

Maybe the reason he wants to rule the forest, and the reason he's thought of doing so less and less, was because the validation from his position has filled whatever sorry hole was left in him by his family. It's sort of sad to admit, and the realization of it makes the tabby tom scowl into his tail, but it's the only answer that feels right.

So, what's his diagnosis as a trained medical professional? Hollowpaw doesn't know, but for right now, he thinks a good remedy would be getting out of this stars-damned stuffy ass den. So that's what he does. He gets to his paws and creeps out into the clearing. He could go into the territory for a better view, but Hollowpaw has felt uneasy about going too far from his sister ever since Sprinlight was attacked by that owl. Bravepaw is reckless and gets herself into far more danger than she can handle sometimes... she needs Hollowpaw around and close by in case she gets hurt. He trusts no one else in treating her injuries, not even his mentor.

The stars are visible overhead... did that mean StarClan was watching him? Honestly, the idea that a bunch of long-dead clan cats watching over him and judging his every action had always made Hollowpaw's skin crawl. And then, taking into account how so many cats viewed them as gods, taking their words or actions to heart and worshipping them? That, too, felt odd to Hollowpaw. Sure, he believed they existed - he's been to the Star Cave, after all - but, to him, they were just dead cats. They weren't gods, they weren't infallible. Maybe that makes him a shoddy medicine cat, but isn't it better to have a medicine cat who trusts in himself more than he pays credence to the words of the long dead?

Many meds before him might feel similarly, hell, maybe even some of the current meds feel this way, but Hollowpaw would never broach the subject. For one thing, even if it's technically allowed for medicine cats to share information with each other, Hollowpaw doesn't trust anyone else. Mossfreckle is fine... they're competent, at least, and Grousepaw is definitely a character, and someone who matches Hollowpaw pretty well personality wise, Lightningstorm is funny and sort of coy, and don't even get him started on the RiverClan medics, but Hollowpaw would never trust any of them enough to open up to them about his distrust of StarClan. And it's not something he'd discuss publicly with anyone from his own clan either. Maybe he'd bring it up to his mentor, but he still wasn't sure how well he could gauge REDACTED's reactions, so it would be best not to.

Yawning, Hollowpaw looks to the sky again... how long has he been out here? He should probably get some sleep now. Of their own accord, his paws carry him away from the medicine den and towards the apprentices' den, and Hollowpaw lets them, nosing his way to his sister's nest and slipping into it next to her. There's a lot he still doesn't know, like all the herbs in the forest or even what his own motivations for certain things are, but settling here next to Bravepaw, Hollowpaw thinks that even if he never ends up ruling the world, he can be content with just this.