Aspenstar

Aspenstar is the current leader of HorizonClan. He is seen as being rather odd, as he is strangely quiet, and he can be unintentionally intimidating at times. Outside of his own Clan, not much is known about him, which sometimes leads to rumors. He does not do much, and generally comes off as being calm and dignified, but he can be a bit vicious when he decides to be.

Name- Aspenstar

Gender- Tom

Clan- HorizonClan

Rank- Leader

Family- Grayfur (father, deceased), Willowrain (mother, deceased), Crowflight (sister, deceased), Coldpaw and Stonesnap (brothers, deceased), Lilyspring (mate, deceased), Weaselkit and Smokekit (sons, deceased), Dapplepaw and Featherpaw (daughters, deceased), Oceandusk (niece, deceased), Alpinefeather and Lupinepetal (adopted kids? adopted grandkids? nieces? smol friends?? something, idk???)

Friends- Snowbreeze and Frostroot (formerly, deceased)

Enemies- idk

Appearance
Aspenstar is a tall, slender, long-limbed tom with long, jet-black fur, mottled white and silver tabby patches, tufted ear-tips, and piercing golden eyes. He carries himself well, always with a straight posture, although his fur is a bit ruffled and tends to sag in places. There is a small scar running horizontally across his throat, but it is mostly covered by his fur. Oh yeah, and he's kind of an old man. He doesn't look too old, though. He'd be on the cover of one of those "dErMaToLoGiStS hAtE hIm" ads for sure.

Personality
Aspenstar has a rather quirky personality. He is very withdrawn and quiet, usually only speaking when necessary. He has a few eccentric tendencies, and does not seem to care how other cats perceive him, although he does his best to act grounded in front of others due to his position as HorizonClan's leader. He is very calm, stolid, and introspective, although he can be alarmingly callous and strict at times. He rarely loses his composure, and intentionally distances himself from his Clanmates due to his fear of getting them injured or killed. He has a very strong belief in StarClan, as he relies on his connection to them in order to remain grounded after losing nearly all of his loved ones.

Kithood
Aspenkit was born in HorizonClan to Willowrain and Grayfur, alongside his littermates, Coldkit, Crowkit, and Stonekit. He was reserved and calm even as a kit, but he was a happy young tom, and liked to help the queens and apprentices when he had the chance. He enjoyed listening to the elders' stories, and briefly considered becoming a medicine cat before deciding that he wasn't willing to put that much pressure on himself — he was afraid to be placed in a situation where a cat's life was in his paws. Stonekit and Crowkit teased him a lot for being so quiet and shy, but Aspenkit was quite close with Coldkit, and the two of them were together more often than not.

Aspenkit's polite obedience evoked jealousy in Crowkit and Stonekit, though, and when they were five moons old, Crowkit tricked Aspenkit into leaving the camp while a pair of raccoons was on the loose, being chased down by a patrol. Crowkit had no intention of getting her brother injured, but she thought it would be fun to frighten him and perhaps get him to be less uptight. This went wrong, however (surprise!), and Aspenkit ended up being cornered and attacked by the raccoons. One of them tore several layers of flesh off his throat, leaving a permanent scar and very nearly killing him, before the patrol reached the scene and fought them off. Grayfur was a part of this patrol, and the lower half of his tail was bitten off during the scuffle. It took a while for Aspenkit to recover, and his apprentice ceremony was delayed by several days. He felt terrible about Grayfur's tail. Coldkit decided to wait to become an apprentice with Aspenkit, which did help him feel a bit better, but it still didn't make much of a difference. Crowkit had told the Clan that Aspenkit had gone out on his own, and Aspenkit was afraid to rat out his sister, and simply went with her lie. She was never punished for the incident.

Apprenticeship
When he was finally apprenticed with Coldpaw, a half-moon after Stonepaw and Crowpaw, he was given a young warrior named Larchburn as his mentor. Larchburn never really got along with Aspenpaw, and found his apprentice's soft and distant demeanor to be irksome, and they struggled to train well together. Larchburn eventually gave up for the most part, letting Aspenpaw do whatever he wanted most days, pretty much leaving him to train himself. Aspenpaw never begrudged him this, for he knew it was his own fault for being so problematic, and he instead worked as hard as he could on his own to keep caught up with the other apprentices. Crowpaw felt guilty for the raccoon incident, and tried to reconnect a bit with Aspenpaw. He was reluctant to forgive her, but he was glad to strengthen his bonds with his siblings. During the next few moons, he grew closer with Stonepaw, as well. But when they were nine moons old, tragedy struck yet again. Aspenpaw was hunting with Coldpaw, Willowrain, and Grayfur, for the four of them had found themselves free of duties, and had thought to spend some time together. They were making their way up the mountains at the edge of HorizonClan territory at Coldpaw's request, for he was curious about the view from higher up. When they were partially across the mountains, though, a particularly powerful gust of wind knocked a couple of rocks loose. In turn, these stones broke more stones off the side of the mountain, until it had essentially turned into a full-scale rockslide. Aspenpaw, Willowrain, and Grayfur managed to leap across to a safe ledge, but Coldpaw didn't move in time. Grayfur tried to jump down in an attempt to get to him, but the rocks were falling too quickly. Both Grayfur and Coldpaw were killed in the event. As would be expected, this was very traumatic for Aspenpaw, and he grieved for a long time, often suffering nightmares as he remembered the moment they'd died. As a result of this, he developed insomnia, and was exhausted more often than not. At around this time, a trio of siblings named Frostpaw, Snowpaw, and Lilypaw moved into HorizonClan from OasisClan. They actually made efforts to befriend him, and he was able to take comfort in their company. He was unused to spending a lot of time with more than one cat, but he found to his own surprise that he was happy with his new friends. He still had Crowpaw, Stonepaw, and Willowrain, too. As his apprenticehood progressed, and he became more open with Frostpaw, Snowpaw, and Lilypaw, he became a bit better at working with his mentor. Larchburn tried harder to understand Aspenpaw, and their relationship got better as well.

Warrior Life
He failed his first warrior assessment, for he was too nervous during the hunting test and he failed to catch enough prey. As usual, however, he did excellently when it came to fighting, and he managed to pass on his second try, becoming a warrior with the name of Aspensting alongside Lilyspring, Frostroot, and Snowbreeze. He was once again behind his littermates, but it did not bother him as much as it once might have.

While he maintained good relations with both Crowflight and Stonesnap, Stonesnap ended up moving to FallClan only a couple of moons after becoming a warrior. Aspensting still remained close with his group of friends until Snowbreeze moved back to OasisClan one moon after Stonesnap left. After this, Aspensting began finding that he had more in common with Lilyspring than he had initially thought, and they grew more intimate, developing feelings for each other over time. Frostroot disapproved of this, however, and several arguments were sparked between him and Aspensting over whether or not it was in Lilyspring's best interest to become his mate. Eventually, this resulted in Frostroot severing his friendship with Aspensting and moving back to OasisClan with Snowbreeze. Aspensting was shaken by this, but he became mates with Lilyspring, and for the time being, that was good enough for him. Crowflight and Willowrain remained supportive as well, and even Larchburn was always willing to help his former apprentice whenever needed. When Aspensting was twenty-three moons old, he received his first apprentice, a young she-cat named Irispaw. For two moons, her training ran relatively smoothly, and Aspensting established a strong bond with her following the deaths of her parents. But she was attacked by a hawk one day while racing one of her friends, Mistpaw, up a tree, and ended up being carried off. Aspensting was dispirited by the loss, feeling that it was his fault for not having properly trained her to defend against attacks from above. In an attempt to alleviate some of his grief, Lilyspring proposed that they have a family of their own. Aspensting was delighted at the idea of this, and one moon later, Lilyspring was expecting his kits. They were ecstatic to have the chance to raise kits together, and once it was discovered that there would be four of them, they put their heads together and came up with eight names - four for toms and four for she-cats - that they were fond enough of to give to their potential sons and daughters. Two moons into Lilyspring's pregnancy, though, an epidemic of severe greencough swept through the Clan. It claimed Larchburn's life, and it had a critical effect on Lilyspring. When she finally started to give birth, she was too weak from her illness, and the effort killed her. Two of the kits were toms, although they had both been born dead. Devastated, Aspensting named them Weaselkit and Smokekit anyways, as those had been Lilyspring's two favorite tom names. The surviving two, she-cats, he named Dapplekit and Featherkit. At the next gathering, Aspensting received word that both Snowbreeze and Frostroot had died of greencough as well. He grieved for his mate, sons, old friends, and former mentor for a long time, becoming even more withdrawn and unsociable than usual. Stonesnap moved back to HorizonClan at around this time, and after a couple of moons, Aspensting was appointed deputy, because Pebblestar recognized him for his level head and ability to stay strong through losses. He tried to spend time with his daughters, for he loved them far more than himself, but he couldn't help but feel as though it wasn't worth it. They were sickly kits, and he was terrified that they would die, especially if he bonded with them - it seemed that nearly everyone he tried to form a relationship with died terribly. He knew it was foolish to think it was his fault, but all the same, he couldn't fight back the feeling. He didn't visit Featherkit and Dapplekit often, but when he did, he made sure to convey to them that he cared. Even so, his relationship with them was not the best.

When they were four moons old, a patrol returned from the mountains with the body of Stonesnap. He'd been killed by rogues on the border. Half a moon later, Willowrain passed due to an unidentifiable illness in her stomach. Aspensting's only remaining kin were his kits and Crowflight, and he didn't get along too great with any of them. The losses hardened him, and he became more stony and a bit cold, unintentionally scaring some cats, and causing a few to question his role as deputy. A few days before his kits were old enough to be apprenticed, Pebblestar died, and Aspensting took up the position of leader.

Leadership
Aspensting received his nine lives from Grayfur, Coldpaw, Willowrain, Stonesnap, Lilyspring, Smokekit, Weaselkit, Larchburn, and Irispaw. Frostroot and Snowbreeze were also present for his ceremony, and they exchanged words with Aspensting, although they did not come forward to offer lives. He earned the name Aspenstar and became his Clan's leader, despite having never desired such a fate. His faith in StarClan was renewed, and he started relying on his belief in them, having great confidence that there were reasons behind their actions. He had to, in order to avoid losing himself. He appointed Crowflight as his first deputy, and gave her Featherpaw as an apprentice. Dapplepaw was given to a warrior named Sleekfeather.

Aspenstar was proud of his kits, and, as he came to realize that they seemed to be in no danger, he started trying to spend more time with them. When they were eight moons old, however, Aspenstar was at the head of a patrol with Crowflight and Featherpaw at the outer border. There was a group of five rogues attempting to settle in HorizonClan territory. Aspenstar intervened and tried to convince them to leave, but a fight broke out. Aspenstar tried to send Featherpaw back to get reinforcements and stay away from the danger, but she insisted that she could fight. During the scuffle, one of the rogues tried to kill Featherpaw, and Crowflight took the blow and died in her apprentice's place. But it ended up being in vain, for two more rogues came up behind Featherpaw and killed her anyways, before Aspenstar could do anything. He pretty much lost it and went on sicko mode, and he managed to kill three of the rogues before the remaining two took off running. He'd been bitten pretty hard on the back of the neck, though, and ended up losing his first life immediately afterwards. It was kind of intense. He was also pretty messed up by the whole ordeal, understandably. He'd just watched his sister and daughter die right in front of him. Then he killed three cats. Then he died. That's uncool. He wasn't able to let any of it out, though, because he was HorizonClan's leader, and he just had to kind of suck it up and deal with it, as was expected of him. Aspenstar recovered from having lost the life before anyone else came along, though, and he knew he couldn't tell his Clan that he'd killed anyone, so he buried the rogues' bodies and brought Crowflight and Featherpaw back to the camp himself. He appointed Flamethorn as his new deputy.

He became fiercely protective of Dapplepaw afterwards, but only a moon later, she was killed in the camp when one of the smaller caves collapsed on top of her. This was, of course, pretty upsetting for Aspenstar, and he feared that if he couldn't protect his kin in their own camp, he had no right to defend an entire Clan. He pretty much just got sad and distant, and he kept to himself a lot, staying in his den most days, not sleeping often, sometimes forgetting to eat food. He wasn’t bothered by this, though. He was fairly accustomed to it, and he managed to keep up his reputation as a strong and strict leader. His eighth life was lost to an illness brought about by a general lack of sleep and eating, because he’s bad at being alive. He decided to actually start doing that after losing that life, so his seventh life was lost just because he got greencough at one point and basically told the medicine cats to just leave him alone and let him die. After that, he just became really depressed and sorta blank. He would still just sit in his den and do nothing all the time, usually staring at the wall and spacing out or something to pass time. He still didn't do most of those healthy things that you're supposed to do. However, on one occasion, two of his cats - Slipmallow and Strikepaw - brought a pair of young kits back from the mountains. Alpine and Lupine. Aspenstar permitted them to join HorizonClan, but was somewhat struck by how similar they looked to Dapplepaw and Featherpaw. He talked with them a little and it was cute. He developed pretty good bonds with them and made the decision to try and come out of his shell a bit. A couple of moons later, he took them - as well as their adoptive sister, Amberkit - on a trip outside of camp to show them around and all that good stuff. They thought it was awesome. He was sort of warmed by how naive and all that they were. It was nice. He also had a talk with Lavenderstar about grief once while they were trying to work out a solution to the rogue issue on their outer borders, referring to her deceased kits, Cloverpaw and Dewpaw. He was somewhat surprised when she closed OrchidClan, but he wasn't particularly bothered by it. He didn't blame her. Out of all the Clan leaders, he's actually the most fond of Lavenderstar, because he feels like he has the most in common with her.

On a similar note, he was pretty saddened to learn about the deaths of Frostkit, Glorykit, Wolfkit, and Breezeriver. He felt bad that Milkweedstar, Canyonstar, and Songstar had to lose kits as well. For a while, he’d been the only leader with dead children, but that was no longer true, and it hasn’t been for a while.

Anyways, he made Lupinepaw, Alpinepaw, and Amberpaw into apprentices. He still cared a lot about them and was somewhat overprotective, so on their first day, when Lupinepaw and her mentor Swiftstrike ended up near the outer border, he got all nervous about that and forbade the three apprentices from going near there without at least two or three other warriors. They didn't like that. Alpinepaw got mad and stomped off. He felt bad for making them feel bad, though, and took Lupinepaw and Amberpaw hunting to make up for it. He gave them some pointers and also admitted to having failed his first assessment. They ~bonded~ and all that good stuff.

Once the plague began, he was pretty stressed out about it, especially after learning that it had killed Milkweedstar and technically Minkstar as well. He was somewhat concerned about his own cough, and isolated himself from his Clanmates more than usual (because somehow that was possible), particularly concerned about Amberpaw, Alpinepaw, and Lupinepaw.At the first gathering after the start of the plague, he only brought Flamethorn and Mistrunner with him, just because they refused to not come. While there, he proposed the idea that everyone should follow Lavenderstar's example and close their borders, and messengers should only meet twice a day either at Silver Falls or on the edges of their territories to exchange news, in order to limit the passing of the sickness. Leafshine - who had come in place of Lavenderstar, as the head of the OrchidClan rebellion - was somewhat skeptical at first, but she eventually agreed to it, as did Songstar, Canyonstar, and Weepingstar.

He gave Alpinefeather, Lupinepetal, and Ambershine their warrior names and was very happy for them. Good old man. Then, uh, he died. Twice. He lost two lives to the plague and it kind of sucked. He also received word that his niece - Oceandusk, Stonesnap's daughter - had died. Now, he'd never really formally met Oceandusk since she lived in FallClan, but it was still pretty devastating for him to learn that literally everyone he was related to was now dead. Poor dude.

Currently, Aspen just vibes. He's still kind of sick and dying, though, and that’s not cool.

Trivia

 * He is the only current leader who doesn’t have blue eyes. How did that happen?
 * He’s also the oldest leader right now. And the longest-reigning, somehow, despite being terrible at living.
 * He has p r o b l e m s . Lots of them. Such as insomnia and depression. But he's chill.
 * "Aspirinstar".
 * He was named "Aspen" for the pattern of his fur - mottled black with some white and silver - because it resembled aspen bark.
 * He never truly forgave Crowflight for the raccoon incident until after her death. He respected that she tried to sacrifice her life for his daughter's, and accepted that as enough repentance.
 * He has a habit of swiveling his ears to the sides of his head whenever he's thinking. Lilyspring used to tease him about it often.
 * He always enjoys being the last cat to leave the Silver Falls at gatherings. Why? Just because.
 * He kind of sucks at hunting. He's better at catching birds in the air, though, and when he's hunting them, he usually tries to startle them into flight on purpose so that he can aim for a moving target instead.
 * He sort of named Alpinefeather after Featherpaw. Kind of.
 * I could be wrong, but I believe that he, Oatfoot, Myrtlepelt, and Broken are the only cats in the roleplay known to have killed another cat before.
 * He’s probably going to tell the Pines about his kids at some point. And then he’ll end up admitting to murdering three people. And that probably won’t go down very well.

Quotes
-

"Let us hope that your first gathering as a leader goes smoothly, Songstar."

-

"Perhaps the loss will allow him to gain some maturity. But I wish it was not in this way. Someone like him should not have had to endure the pain of outliving his kits.” -(to Flamethorn about Milkweedstar)

-

"I think I will stay here for a bit. You can go ahead and lead the rest of the Clan home. Those who would like to stay can.” -(also to Flamethorn at the end of a gathering)

-

"The mountainous terrain along my border serves us well in that regard. It is difficult for untrained paws to traverse, and so I trust that it wards off many unwanted visitors. But OrchidClan has no such luxury. Therefore, I am guessing that the issue is much more pronounced in your territory, and as such must be dealt with more quickly.” -(to Lavenderstar)

-

Lavenderstar: "There must be a better solution."

Aspenstar: "Have you any ideas of your own?"

Lavenderstar: "Do you want the honest answer?"

Aspenstar: "That depends on what it is."

-

"I doubt it will come to that. If we find a way to... teach a lesson to a few rogues, word should soon spread to the others. The major flaw in this plan is the fact that we do not yet have a lesson to teach them.”

-

"It would be quite unfortunate if we were forced to end the peace that our founders strove for so long to ingrain in our culture. I have faith that such a deeply entrenched principle will not be uprooted by a mere gaggle of unruly outsiders. If this faith turns out to be misplaced, however, I am sure we will have far greater issues on our paws."

-

Aspenstar: "Again, Lavenderstar, I am deeply sorry for your loss. I have found that it is helpful to remember that they are okay, and they are with your other loved ones. You will not be separated from them forever. Therefore you must continue to do as best you can while you wait to see them again."

Lavenderstar: "That doesn't help the pain of losing your kits."

Aspenstar: "I know. Nothing does. The pain will never truly go away, but it will grow easier to bear with time. It is agonizing to even think about moving on, especially during the first several moons, but when it comes down to it, it is really the only thing you can do. But we each walk at our own pace."

Lavenderstar: "I... I just miss them so much..."

Aspenstar: "I take it you have grieved before. Each time you suffer a loss, the pain of it will gnaw at you, and nothing you do feels right. It is a terrible, heavy feeling, and it will cling to you like snow to the peak of a mountain. Yet as the seasons grow warmer, it will melt. I am sure that you are familiar with the experience as well. You know as well as I do that it is crucial to concentrate on the joy they brought during life, not the sorrow entailed by their departure."

Lavenderstar: "You know, don't you? You know what it's like to lose a kit."

Aspenstar: "Yes. But this is about you. It may be a long time before you feel the brush of their pelts again, see the glimmer of their eyes, hear the ring of their voices, or breathe in the familiarity of their scents. The only thing this knowledge ought to do, however, is make the moons you spent with them all the more cherishable."

-

Aspenstar: "Greetings. You are up quite early."

Lupinekit: "We are? Really?"

Aspenstar: "Unless I have finally gone senile, I do believe that is the sunrise."

-

"I do not intend to sound like an elder, but I think you should enjoy being able to sleep while you still can, little one.”

-

- Amberkit: "The world outside is so big!"

Aspenstar: "You are only seeing a fraction of it, little one. This is but a drop in the lake."

Amberkit: "There's more?!"

Aspenstar: "Of course. Beyond the mountains and pines of HorizonClan, there are the rolling fields of OrchidClan and the lush forests of OasisClan. Past even that, MarshClan's moors and FallClan's waters are vast enough to be wondrous on their own."

Leadership Position
Preceded by: some cat named Pebblestar, but Pebblestar did nothing notable, and therefore she will never get a page.

Succeeded by: no one yet.

Deputy Position
Preceded by: good question, who knows. Probably Pebblestar?

Succeeded by: Crowflight