A large black she-cat with long, thick fur and gray eyes.

Batsong resembles her father more than she likes on most days, with a sturdy build and thick black fur. The texture of her pelt is fluffy rather than sleek, well-suited to keeping her warm, so most of her hunting assignments are in the more mountainous regions of RidgeClan's territory. This has given her tough pawpads and a low, careful gait. Snow tends to stick to her pelt and grant a natural camouflage while hunting in leaf-bare, though she has to take care in drying off thoroughly afterward or risk getting sick.

Her ears are pointy and tufted like her mother's, lending balance to the roundness of her face, and her eyes are the same cool grey as Wolfstar's. While the striking color makes her seem frigid at first glance, that misconception is quickly cleared by her friendly posture and endearing demeanor.

Her earliest memories in the nursery are feather-light, hazy and joyful. Cougarcloud and Wolfstar are doting parents, and the deputy Spiderstorm proves a dedicated godfather.

Despite her sweet, babbling nature, Batkit is not immune to the mischief that beckons to all kits. She and a couple other kits from the nursery, not of her own litter, sneak out one evening. Adventure beckons. The night sky is vast. 

They're caught before they get too far, and punished with menial tasks.

Cleaning carrion out from the pile, she whines and complains, puffing out her cheeks petulantly. It smells bad. And it isn't fair anyway! It wasn't like they got very far.

Cougarcloud is quiet, patient, when she tells her about her uncle. Her uncle who broke the rules, just like her. Her uncle who never made it to apprenticeship, taking two other kits with him. She tells her how important it is to put others first, to not be selfish, to not get other cats in trouble for her own foolishness.

It scares her out of her petulance. Just thinking that because she wanted to explore, to see outside of camp, to break the rules, that she could've been responsible for the deaths of her clanmates?

"In everything that you do," Cougarcloud tells her, "you must think of others; you must put your clanmates before yourself."

Feeling cold, she nods.

---

Sitting beneath the Highstone with her three siblings, Batkit tries not to shrink from the eyes of her clanmates. There were so many, and she feels so small under their scrutiny. It comes as some relief, though, that it's her father who approaches her at the end of her line of siblings.

"Batkit," he says with a purr, gray eyes—a perfect mirror of her own—warm with love. "From this moment on you will be known as Batpaw. Your mentor will be Spiderstorm."

Again, relief floods through her, and she smiles shyly as she lifts her nose to touch her godfather's. Her eyes glimmer with a budding excitement; Spiderstorm is so cool, her siblings must be jealous. Some tiny, petty part of her is glad. She always gives so much to others, especially her siblings—and she knows she has to in order to be a good cat, of course, but it's nice to have something for herself now.

Spiderstorm's quiet confidence ends up rubbing off on her. Slowly, with tentative steps, Batpaw starts to blossom under his tutelage—in personality, at least. While she becomes even more warm and bubbly towards those around her, she struggles with the more physical aspects of warrior training.

She's inherently strong due to her size, sure, but she holds back her blows and never puts her full weight on an opponent. She gets a little flak about it from her peers, but she's always so sweet that the ribbings are never more than playful.

The first time she kills a mouse, cutting off its panicked squeak, she cries for hours. Taking a life was its own kind of pain. She couldn't get the fear in its eyes out of her head.
If possible, she flags even more in combat training. Some days, she can barely lift a paw against her sparring partner, shying away from the possibility of hurting them.

It gets bad enough that Spiderstorm has to put those parts of her training on hold to focus on other things, such as tracking and leaping, just to make any progress. The break is good for Batpaw, and she starts engaging again with her training.
Without thoughts of death and pain hovering over her, she finds herself able to focus. And tracking is really interesting! Learning to pick out scents comes easily to her, and she often tries to navigate with her eyes closed just for fun.

By her ninth moon, she's ready to try combat again. Spiderstorm approaches it on her terms, easing her back into the idea by teaching her defensive moves first. Slowly but surely, Batpaw gains more confidence in her own strength.
When they try hunting again, she finds it easier to hunt fish; at least they don't make any sad, scared noises when she pulls them out of the river. But even now, she has difficulty dealing the killing blow.

---

Before she can overcome this fear, RidgeClan is called to do battle. At eleven moons old, she and her siblings are the oldest apprentices.
So, Batpaw goes to war. "You'll stay close to me," Spiderstorm assures her, as cool and collected as ever. "Stay alert. Remember your defensive moves. Don't worry."

She didn't worry until the first cats started shrieking. Blood splattered across the grass, flecking on her cheek. Her godfather is bundled away in the surge of cats. Somewhere, she can hear her father shouting orders. Then it's just noise. It rises to a roar in her ears, all these screeching, writhing cats, the scent of blood and pain threatening to overwhelm her.

Flatting herself to the ground, Batpaw presses her paws over her ears. Cats bundle into her, tripping over her, but none stop to attack the cowering apprentice. Everything fades to a haze.

At the end of it, it's Spiderstorm who nudges her to her paws, leading her back to camp. She can barely see her paws, it's so dark. Someone says something about her father losing a life. That's okay, she thinks. He's a leader. He'll be okay.

Then by morning, he's dead. Batpaw isn't sure how to react when they tell her. She blinks, gray eyes owlish. How could he be dead? Wolfstar was so strong, tall and noble, with gray eyes full of love. He was a leader. He had nine lives. He was blessed by StarClan.

He was her father.

---

Everything crumbles. Spiderstorm steps down as deputy. Orchidgaze is no longer allowed to be the oracle. The medicine cat, Sootwhisker, appoints a new leader as was his duty, before retiring.
Her family is shattered. Confusion and grief rip at the seams of her siblings, and Cougarcloud seems numb. Batpaw tries to cheer them, but isn't immune herself; she starts having crying fits, moments of explosive sadness that overcome everything else. This should be fine. Permitted. Her father was dead, after all.

But after the battle, opinions sour towards Wolfstar. With so much death and injury resulting from the battle, many cats start to believe that he was... wrong. They blame him. Some even turn distrustful eyes on those closest to him, including his family. Including his children. Including Batpaw. She looks so much like him. She has his eyes. Does she have anything else of his? those distrustful gazes seem to ask.

Batpaw starts to ask it too. She pushes back against their distrust, in her own way. She extends the olive branch, reaching out and taking on more work, acting as a pleasant distraction with her cheerful personality, even helping to bridge the differences between her clanmates' disagreements.

For a while, it's okay again. She pushes forward despite the writhing anxiety that had made a permanent home in her belly, despite the lingering distrust turned towards her simply because she looks so much like her father. Despite the recurring nightmares of waking up with white flecks in her fur, like Ravenpaw.

Then Mushroomstar, the new leader, promotes her and her siblings into warriors. He gives her the name -song, a beautiful name meant to highlight and compliment her warm, gregarious personality. But all it does is chill her to the bone. That had been her father's warrior name. All at once, she stops seeing the cats around her as friendly, celebrating new warriors after a fresh tragedy; to her, they start to look accusatory. Suspicious.

She spends her vigil shaking. Hopefully, her siblings just see it as leftover excitement from the ceremony. But she's terrified. She hates her name. She hates her father for cursing her like this. Would his shadow follow her for the rest of her life? Would she ever be free from him?

---

Batsong quickly finds comfort in routine. Being a warrior is easy, for the most part: just an endless cycle of sleep, hunt, patrol, eat, share tongues, sleep... She makes friends just as readily as before, if not more so. It's easier that way, she thinks; if she's friends with everyone, they can't distrust her, right? They can't think of her father instead of her. They can't hate her. So she puts her clanmates before herself in all things, like she learned was right. She's a good cat.

She's a good cat.

The Appeaser, 4th Born - One of the many lessons that Cougarcloud tried to instill within her kits was the importance of placing the needs of the many above one's own desires. The Appeaser took to this lesson a little too well. They find it virtually impossible to consider their own needs and desires before that of their clanmates and peers, and it has proven to be a detriment to them physically and emotionally more than once. They are terrified of disappointing others, of being a burden, and, in truth, of conflict itself to a degree. They're a friendly, warm soul that the Clan is almost universally fond of due to their sweet and... you guessed it, appeasing nature. Deep inside, The Appeaser likely experiences a lot of turmoil that they try to hide away. They might be scared, they might be angry - maybe both. Has settled several conflicts they were not directly involved with before.
[character profile excerpt from mongrelessence]

Pre-Plotting: Batsong falls into the opinion of Saturn from [RidgeClan's plot ad]. She finds value in the daily grind of clan life, relying on its structure to provide a way forward out of this tragedy. While she's developed a fear of StarClan, this is kept private; to others, she encourages a healthier viewpoint on their ancestors, striving towards a more peaceful clan. This desire for peace extends to the other clans, as well. She holds no blame towards them for defending themselves, and now that she's old enough to have her own opinon, she really doesn't think it's fair to say any one clan is better than the others.

Family: Batsong still tries to be friendly and optimistic towards her family, but can't help but be frightened of the zealot's increasingly strong personality after Wolfstar's death. She also feels somewhat abandoned by Bristleclaw's withdrawal from her family. She resents her father for the legacy he left behind, but tries not to show it.

Friends: Batsong is a compulsive friend. She can't help it, she needs to be everyone's friend at all times, or she starts to feel like she's secretly hated. Rebuffs are taken hard; she won't let anyone see, but she'll definitely cry.

Romance: It might be hard for Batsong to trust that any romantic feelings towards her are genuine, due in part to her own tendency to cover up her own true feelings in favor of a more palatable mask. But it would probably do her a lot of good to let the right cat in; she's a total romantic at heart.

Rivals: Any negative feelings are a worst-case-scenario for Batsong. She'll do anything to patch a relationship; she just can't stand the idea of not being liked.

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