thunderspook [galeclan]

[lynx]

thunderspook
male, 29 moons, warrior, galeclan

appearance
muscular black tom with yellow eyes.

personality
in a word to describe thunderspook, it would be taciturn. a tom of few words, he prefers silence over anything else. under no circumstances will he be provoked into an argument or, for that matter, any other type of conversation. unless absolutely necessary, this tom's jaw shall remain clamped shut. social interaction leads only to unnecessary stress and annoyance, or even worst, some sort of sick attachment. that is the last thing this fellow desires, and will do his best to avoid it. as silent as he is, it's not so far-fetched to refer to thunderspook as something of a walking ghost. brooding, lurking, hidden among shadows and barely existing at all, he truly is quite reminiscent of a wraith of some sort in his icy mannerisms and cold, unfeeling disposition.

in all his coldness, thunderspook comes off as an extremely distant cat and that's not a theory without foundation. in truth, he is incredibly separated from his clanmates and the warrior life in general, but distanced only by his wholly apathetic attitude toward it all. while of course he is faithful and loyal, he is only just. it's enough to keep him around and serving galeclan, but little more than that. his indifference is a point of conflict for others when he becomes impossible to communicate with, but, simply put, thunderspook prefers to do his own thing, away from the annoyances of others. this emotionless facade is an easy way to shug off company aside from the very persistant.

a truly vicious fellow, this tom doesn't know the meaning of mercy or at least pretends not to- he doesn't understand the concept, anyway. why allow the weak a pardon? they are weak for a reason, and deserve to be punished as such. this sort of mindset earns thunderspook a reputation for being a bit of a monster, but he would never fight such rumors. while not really much of a blood-thirsty tom, he can be quite cruel when it comes down to it and fights with a hidden fury, released perhaps by his past and kept bottled up until the right moment. in battle, this tom is ruthless and mindless, working like a machine rather than a living being. its quite frightful, but a powerful asset to his allies.

all of this alone-time has to be used for something though, doesn't it? it sure does- thunderspook is an extremely productive cat. as little as he cares, he does have a habit of channeling his lack of socializing and his time alone into helpful activities such as hunting and patrolling. oddly enough, he almost always skips out of patrols he is assigned to, but everyone in galeclan already knows how much of his duties he performs when he's not seen, so it's often let slide by unnoticed. a fiercely hard-working tom, he sets endless amounts of goals on a daily basis in order to get done what needs to be done, and focuses in a way that he easily blocks out distractions for maximum productivity.

history
two loving parents were responsible for the physical form of this tom, but little more. the creation of his being can be credited only to his mentor. first things first, though; thunderkit. dappledoak was his dam- a lovely torbie she-cat with the most vivid white-silver gaze that had a habit of entrancing all of the toms. but her heart was pure and her love for thunderspook's father was all-consuming. the sire? he was a gallant and fierce black tom, looking much like his son but with deep amber eyes. his name was darkpelt, and he loved his children and mate dearly. the litter consisted of three kits- thunderkit as the firstborn, and two seemingly twin she-cats after. their names were lilackit and featherkit but complications that haunted their parents for seasons afterward involving a strange flesh connection between them did not allow them to live past their first week in the world.

if circumstances had been normal, the parents would have had no choice but to dump every ounce of their love on their remaining child but, as luck would have it, their attention had to be placed elsewhere as darkpelt grew quite ill. of course, they loved thunderkit, but without the attention necessary he grew used to spending time on his own in the nursery, galeclan's queens not having any other kits to bear at the time. while they would give him as much attention as they could afford, dappledoak's milk ran out sooner than expected and thunderkit was weened in a hurry. all signs simply pointed to a lonesome kit as his mother began sleeping in the warrior's den again, simply used to such and feeling so uncomfortable with the gossiping queens.

thunderkit was looking forward to life as an apprentice of course, but his dreams of his mentor becoming his best friend were quickly dashed when his ceremony arrived. twisterclaw was the name of the huge dark tabby chosen to mentor thunderkit, and he was known for the eerie dark streak in his personality, but he was a loyal and faithful warrior anyway, and had turned out good warriors in the past. at first, it was alright. twisterclaw wasn't talkative, but neither was thunderpaw so they got along fine for the first few sessions, but things took a turn for the tragic when the real training began. rigorous hunting and battle practice, thunderpaw rarely allowed into camp for all twisterclaw's vigilent persistance on practice. thunderpaw began to think his mentor was a bit cracked, but when he told his mother such she said he was simply not used to the excersise, being an only kit without others to play with. he believed her, and allowed twisterclaw to continue to push him around, growing into a muscular young tomcat by his eighth moon, but then things became serious.

thunderpaw was hit, he was bleeding and bruised after every session. while not pleasant, it's far from unheard of for such roughness to occur when teaching an aging young cat how to fight properly and understand the seriousness of battle, but the problem was that it wasn't only battle training that left such scars. hunting training, patrolling, and scouting the territory continued to leave thunderpaw battered from nose to tail. one wrong step, a flick of the tail without permission? thunderpaw's naturally passive attitude was leaving twisterclaw too much freedom to dominate the younger tom, and he did so liberally. he felt no moral issue with attacking his apprentice, and justified it by telling thunderpaw he had it coming, and if he didn't want more he ought to get his act together. doggedly, thunderpaw used an assortment of strategies to avoid training, like hiding and squeezing himself into patrols away from twisterclaw.

this, of course, was not the way to go about it though, because whenever his mentor found out, thunderpaw was mercilessly punished. verbal abuse was freely handed out as well, though the young tom had no problem blocking this out, it was the fact that twisterclaw didn't understand what he was doing was wrong that really drove thunderpaw wild. at last, though, he began to rise above such obsticles. mature at 12 moons, thunderpaw began to beat his mentor back, digging his claws as hard as he could ever chance he got, biting a bit too hard, savoring the yelps of surprise. twisterclaw never expected his unnecessarily harsh ways would create such a ruthless warrior out of such a passive apprentice, but sure enough. thunderpaw rarely spoke to others, and cared not for making friends. he was ashamed, for one thing, to be around others his age. he couldn't relate, couldn't socialize, he was too far out of it by then to know how to get back into the loop that all 14 moon old cats seemed to be in. except him, of course.

there was a she-cat, though, surprisingly. as a young cat he was indeed interested in the ladies, though he hid it well. she didn't mind his unnaturally stoic nature, and he thought her pretty and sweet, despite her tendancy to nip his nose when she was mad- that was nothing to what he thought of as punishment, so they got along well. she was a soft light in his oddly dark lifestyle, in addition to his upcoming warrior ceremony.

he was dubbed thunderspook, though it was unconventional, everyone agreed that it suited the silent, dark ghost of a tom very well. he thought he would be rid of twisterclaw, but the idea of the tabby training another young cat like he himself had been trained haunted thunderspook by night. how could he tell anyone? twisterclaw was respected, and thunderspook was yet a youth. no one could believe him! he pushed it out of his mind and in the meantime patrolled and hunted and served his clan faithfully. his father retired early as an elder by this time due to his rapidly deteriorating vision, and meanwhile his girlfriend trained hard to become a warrior. thunderspook had plans to ask her to be his mate when she earned her warrior name, but never got the opportunity. just a few moons later, when she became a full warrior of the clan, she was already hanging on a different tom, having apparently forgotten all about thunderspook's existance, and the relationship he thought they had had. heartbroken, thunderspook didn't allow anyone to know how he felt. he pushed her out of his mind- he was becoming quite good at such a habit.

oddly enough (but what had ever been normal for thunderspook?), the lurking problem of twisterclaw was solved quite suddenly, when a flashflood swept the then-aging warrior into the river and over the edge of the Maw. he was found dead, and that was that. an enormous weight was lifted from thunderspook's chest, and while his disposition changed little, he was noticeably more content for moons to come. since then, thunderspook's life has remained perfectly average. he avoids the girl, keeps away from his parents, and seeks time alone. he looks for battles to serve in, and hunts for his clan whom he feels so little allegiance to.

other
n/a