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HONEST, HARDWORKING, BRAVE

For all she does, Zinniaspark is a truly hardworking cat. She never likes to slack off and even being an elder rather bugs her due to her feeling she should be hunting or protecting those she loves. She's pretty honest too, not being one to lie and while she may not always explain herself, she doesn't make up excuses for it. Her honesty rings true and it is semi because of her brave demeandor. Zinniaspark will always try to do what she feels is right, regardless of the concequences there might be in return.

EMOTIONALLY STUNTED, STUBBORN, INDEPENDENT

After how she grew up, there is a limit to how well Zinniaspark can really process what she is feeling. She definitely has gotten better, so it's less prominent, but she still tends to need time to think over her feelings to work them out. She often is independent for this reason, sometimes just easier to be by herself from time to time. However, she has her moments of knowing exactly what she feels or wants and this is when often she'll be pretty stubborn. This is the case especially when she believes she is protecting her family from a danger.

OVERPROTECTIVE, DISTRUSTFUL, HARSH

Zinniaspark has tried for many moons, but no matter what she does she can't help the overprotective streak she has. Already being harsh when she speaks and talks, when she feels there is danger she can't help but risk lashing out sometimes. She can't lose what family she has left and if that means she accidentally hurts someone's feelings? Oh well. It doesn't even help that Zinniaspark is naturally a distrustful person, quick to watch others if they even remotely come close to her family in any way that might be a danger. It's instinct and a habit for Zinniaspark.

TW for Toxic Family relations, Mentions of Starvation, and Descriptions of Violence! Be Warned

0-5 Moons

Zinnia was born in a litter of 4 in a small family group of loners. Her father, Oleander, was the leader and her mother, Dahlia wasn’t quite his mate, but they had been courting before the accidental pregnancy. He had no want for kits, but he wouldn’t be young forever at the same time so he decided that if they could survive the winter, they would bother to train and feed them as adolescents.

Luckily for Zinnia and her brother Sage, they managed to survive, but this wasn’t so lucky for their siblings, Peony and Rose. With such a small group and traveling so much, sickness and fatigue made hunting a difficult pursuit. Peony was the runt and Rose was only a little bigger so when it came to milk and later meat, they didn’t get a whole lot. They passed away when they were maybe 2 moons old, Zinnia too young to know what that even meant.

Zinnia and Sage from the moment they were old enough to move and talk seemed to fight nonstop. Although they couldn’t do any damage while they were so young, it was clear both were very headstrong and many kitten squabbles had to be broken up on a daily basis.

Mostly this was because Sage was the biggest kit in the litter and it seemed like Oleander was hoping he would be a possible candidate for being the next leader seeing as he managed to survive more easily than Zinnia. Sage often boasted about this and, although she was only a kit, Zinnia couldn’t stand it. She decided that she’d somehow train enough to beat him for the spot. After all, Oleander didn’t seem set on Sage and had already regarded a few times that she could be a choice as well since she similarly did survive, even if not as easily.

6-11 Moons

Soon it was newleaf and the training for Zinnia and Sage had finally begun. Quickly she had started to do all she could to try and impress her father, training for as long as she could with any available person. Sage seemed to find this funny and made jokes about how much practice she seemed to need. It made it pretty clear that he was underestimating how he would have to actually try in order to learn anything. “Future leaders don’t need practice!” Sage would so loudly claim all of the time.

This quickly backfired for him and soon enough it was clear that Zinnia was becoming the favorite in Oleander’s eyes. She worked the hardest and was improving with each spar she had while Sage was falling behind. It soon led to more fights, though unlike when they were kits, often it resulted in actual injuries. Cuts, bruising, and sprains of all kinds came up, yet no one dared stop them.

Dahlia had been extremely distant ever since the death of her two other kits and Oleander wanted to see their skills at work no matter what injuries may occur. It was fortunate that Zinnia was as good of a fighter as she was, it was probably the only reason she didn’t get worse injuries.

She never wanted to hurt Sage badly, but what else was she meant to do? He only stopped when it was clear he lost so there wasn’t much room for change. It was the thing Zinnia despised the most about her brother. He tried so hard to claim he was the best and a great hunter, yet these fights proved he never even bothered to try. It was like Sage just expected his skills to improve out of nowhere!

There was a long, cruel argument that sprung from this, Zinnia snapping and giving her brother quite the beating and verbal berating. Oleander seemed pleased by this, even daring to compliment her which was extremely rare. Hell, their father barely acknowledged them most of the time. This appeared to get through to Sage, who didn’t cause any more fights… At least, Zinnia thought she got through to him.

12-100 Moons

Soon after turning 12 moons old, they had the unfortunate problem of running right into a fox den to try and hide from a storm. Usually, they might have been able to run, but they were backed into the corner of a den soon enough which left escaping a rather impossible task.

Since there were 7 of them in total, they did manage to do a good bit of damage and hold their own. Eventually there even had been an opening which led to Zinnia landing a killing blow on the fox while others had kept it distracted. Even if it was a team effort to get it down, it seemed like Oleander was impressed by the fact she had been the one to take the chance instead of leaving it for someone older. He declared that, in the case he died, she was the one who their small group would follow.

To Zinnia it felt like she won the world, her father was always such a cold person and all she ever had wanted was that approval. Somehow Sage seemed only mildly jealous, but he didn’t talk to her much anymore so she didn’t think she had to worry about him.

In fact, when he later asked if they could talk maybe two or so moons after the fox incident, she had foolishly believed that maybe things would get better and maybe they could make up. This wasn’t what happened and to this day she isn’t sure how she let herself fall for his fake sincerity.

Zinnia had let her guard down for a split second while talking and before she knew it a pair of teeth lunged right for her neck. It missed thankfully, landing closer to her chest, but now she realized his true intentions were always to wait for when he could get rid of her. Even more alarming was that Sage clearly had been practicing his fighting with someone. At his point their skills were a lot more evenly matched.

Zinnia did her fair share of damage to her brother, but in the end had to run with her injuries becoming too severe. Moving blind and trying to avoid a bad hit, she moved to head towards what she thought was their group. In the mix of the fighting and panic, she had gotten herself turned around and landed herself right into Swampclan territory.

A patrol found her and, due to the blood loss, she was too weak and dazed to argue when she was led back to the group’s camp so she could be healed. She didn’t trust the odd kindness, it felt like they would ask for something in return, but what was she going to do? Even Zinnia knew she was too weak to fight off multiple adult cats and the risk of infection without the help was too high.

Full of distrust after her own brother turned on her, Zinnia didn’t talk much, but soon enough realized that the place wasn’t as bad as she initially thought. It was leafbare and yet somehow they managed to find a decent bit of food to keep most fed, unlike her group which would have been struggling. Plus Zinnia wasn’t sure what she’d go home to, likely this would be seen as weakness and she had a feeling Oleander would have disgraced her for letting Sage attack her that easily. Eventually she decided this place might be a good stopping point and asked if she could stay. If something went wrong, nothing was stopping Zinnia from leaving.

She was given a trial run and two cats, Alligatorgrin and Honeydew, seemed to be happy to help her learn more about clan life and to welcome her. Zinnia didn’t want to trust it initially, at first having thought there had to be some alternative reason they’d step up, or well at least the short one stepped up. It seemed like Honeydew was offering to also help because Alligatorgrin apparently hadn’t been there long. The she-cat was adamant about not revealing anything and sorta reluctantly had started to listen only because she needed it in order to stay. However, with a bit of warming up she soon enough began to relax and their presences weren’t… awful. Maybe even pleasant despite how she hadn’t wanted to admit that for a while.

Zinnia, under a different mentor later in her trail, quickly picked up on what duties she’d have as a warrior and how much more peaceful clan life was compared to her home. The longer she stayed, the more it felt like somewhere she could stay, though she was thankful for already knowing how to fight. It meant that she had relatively quickly proven herself enough to be accepted as a full warrior and was given the name Zinniaspark in kind.

Afterwards, she was focused on getting used to this new life and frankly her newish name. It felt weird and it didn’t help that she was starting to realize that her friendship with Alligatorgrin and Honeydew wasn’t entirely platonic. Zinniaspark felt rather stupid at that realization and almost had debated avoiding them. Like.. really, she had to fall for the two cats who were already mates and clearly so in love? It seemed so foolish and quite honestly she had beaten herself up about it for a while.

The likelihood that they actually felt anything back was so very small after all and it frankly shocked her when the two approached her and asked about adding her as a third part of their relationship. Despite some thoughts being about the outcome going sour and not working, especially if it meant she’d lose some of the only friends she had, Zinniaspark couldn’t help accepting the offer. It was her only chance at this, so how could she ever pass it up even if she wanted to?

Some time passed and luckily it seemed like they were all a pretty good match and they just seemed to work like they were all each a piece of a puzzle. Zinniaspark only loved them even more and, much to her shock, Alligatorgrin and Honeydew loved her just as much as they loved each other. She was more than happy to become mates with both of them.

When the subject of kits came up, she didn’t know how to feel. How could she be a good mother when she didn’t even have a good parent to go off of? The idea that she might be as awful as them made her terrified, but in the end she agreed that she was alright with Alligatorgrin and Honeydew carrying some kits. Zinniaspark would still be a mother of course, but she could get used to it without having to worry about carrying anything.

Part of her didn’t quite understand the appeal of Hazeclaw when he was picked by Alligatorgrin’s loud claims that he’d make pretty kits,, but what could she do about it? Alligatorgrin always had a way of making it impossible to say no and it seemed like Honeydew couldn’t say no either.

Soon enough the time came for the labor with Zinniaspark practically paced a trench into the ground with how much fretting she was doing the entire time. The fact Honeydew wasn’t doing well nearly had her panicking at some point and snapping at anyone that close to the Oracle den because of how she couldn’t do anything else to help.

The end resulted in the loss of two of the kits, Oakkit and Birchkit, the discovery of a birth defect with little Dawnkit and the near loss of Honeydew, though thankfully she managed to survive. Zinniaspark did the best she could to support her mates after and mourn with them when she was allowed to be with them, honestly worried they might go distant, like her mother had when she lost her sisters. That fear alone, although she didn’t share it, made Zinniaspark stay with them 24/7 for a long while. Not even Bogstar himself would have been able to pray the large she-cat away from her family without losing an eye first.

Despite Zinnia’s worries they were much better suited for handling loss and slowly they healed from the mishap, watching their remaining kits, Pinekit, Bramblekit, Aspenkit, and Dawnkit, all grow up happy and healthy. Zinniaspark was immensely proud, but still she had her struggles with learning how to parent and she was just grateful that she didn’t seem to do anything too bad.

Nothing for a while happened besides Alligatorgrin turning to a hunter rank instead of a scout to try and ease her arthritis The kits grew up into apprentices and then into warriors and gained the names Pinespeck, Brambleshadow, Aspenheart, and Dawnrain. It was a while later that Zinniaspark felt she might be alright having kits of her own. After all, the first litter was rather well handled, surely much wouldn’t change even if they were related to her biologically.

Seeing no point in asking for a different donor and because they were friends with him, they went back to Hazeclaw and soon enough they had 6 more kits. It was amusing for them, as each had 2 kits in the end which was sweet. Luckily the labor went smoothly and they were all healthy, given the names Peakkit, Hailkit, Duskkit, Flamekit, Marigoldkit, and Amberkit.

Similar to before, there were no problems for a while and the she-cats got to enjoy seeing their kits grow into warriors, or well, for the most part. Flamekit had turned into Flameflower, Duskkit into Dustcloud, Hailkit into Hailstorm, Peakkit into Peakmane, Amberkit into Amberstride and Marigoldkit into Marigoldsea.

This time Ziannaspark did tend to quarrel with Flameflower, their personalities being very similar and leading to arguments. She always felt bad, but sometimes she didn’t think before she spoke. Duskcloud and Hailstorm seemed to fight against them often, but it was more the moms in general rather than Zianaspark alone.

It made her worry and second guess herself. Perhaps she wasn’t as good of a mother as Alligatorgrin and Honeydew. She was more involved this time and three of the kits despised her. The reasoning for it wasn’t entirely true, of course. She was just as involved with the first litter and the only difference really was that she didn’t have kits biologically related to her. Despite that, it felt like she was the problem.

At the same time, a more concerning problem had started to come up when it was becoming clear that Swampclan didn’t have enough room for all the cats they had. The idea of starvation was a particular fear that Zinniaspark always had, though it was one she never shared to anyone, not even Alligatorgrin or Honeydew. Whether they picked up on it anyways, she couldn’t know, but the reason for it would of been quite impossible to figure out.

She shared a lot about her past with her mates and her mates only, but never did she mention the difficulty with winters or even the fact she had any other siblings than Sage. It was easier to keep that stuff deeply buried, but what else could she do when it was now again a risk for her mates and kits?

That was the large reason that she had shown support for Irisstar and why, although Alligatorgrin and Honeydew had to retire to the elders den, she simply couldn’t allow herself to do the same. Zinniaspark needed that outlet as a vent and if it took using all her strength to fight for the three of them plus their kits, then she would do it to her last breath.

When news of the poisoning hit, admittedly Zinniaspark was shocked and didn’t understand how one could do it, but… surely she was doing it for the best right? Part of her wanted to be repulsed by the actions, but the other part could only see the fuzzy memories of her little sisters laying down not moving while she and Sage are ushered away by their father. The flashes of the adults fighting tooth and nail over two maybe three scrawny rats because there were days where it was all the group could possibly find and no one wanted to share. The general scrawniness and sickness as they trudged to find a place to stay because a storm was coming, meaning another night of cold and no food.

Zinniaspark for that reason had to try and rationalize that Irisstar wouldn’t of done it unless she felt it was absolutely necessary. She had to believe that for her family’s sake despite the disgust.

When it came time for the battle, she was ready to offer her self up for the fight alongside some of the kits she loved so dearly. It was hard to just leave her two mates there, as they were already elders and not able to fight, but she promised them that she’d come back alive. That she’d keep their lovely kits alive and well.

Those promises luckily were ones she could keep, though unfortunately she didn’t come out of it unharmed. Zinniaspark was older than she wanted to admit and had taken a lot of wounds. At one point during the battle she had saw Hazeclaw going down and in a motion to try and rush to help, one of her back legs was grabbed and yanked back. A lot of damage was done and sadly she couldn’t do anything to help the tom, unable to even really walk properly with the wound she got.

This was towards the end of the battle and it had become clear they weren’t going to win this. No, they were going to be driven out and immediantly she knew they had to find what family they could to try and figure out what they wanted to do.

Zinniaspark didn’t trust Mountainclan nor Forestclan, but she could see the fear in Alligatorgrin’s face at the thought of being a loner again and it was pretty clear Honeydew didn’t want to go because she only lived in the clans. For them she truly would do anything for, so at the end of the day when it was suggested they go to Mountainclan, she agreed. Her mates were the most important thing and, in all honesty, with her leg now messed up being loners wasn’t a good idea.

Their kits had to leave as well to go their own separate ways when Swampclan was chased out. Some of their kits, she isn’t sure where they landed even if she could only guess they went to be loners or kittypets which was better than them being dead. Duskcloud and Hailstorm in particular were ones she worried about, as even if she knew they resented all the clan and generally all three of their mom’s, Zinniaspark held the secret belief she may have done something.

Amberstride, Brambleshadow and Aspenheart were the other three whose where abouts are currently unknown, but at least it was on good terms if nothing else for them. Zinniaspark tried to remind herself of that as often as she could.

As for the kits she knew the location of, it was no surprise that Flameflower went to forestclan. Their relationship was rocky, yet Ziannaspark hated that she was the direct cause. Being the package deal they were, it hardly surprised the mothers when Marigoldsea joined faer sister to keep her from being alone. That only left the last three kits, Peakmane, Dawnrain, and Pinespeck who all came with them to mountainclan much to Zinniaspark and her mates’ relief.

Zinniaspark still didn’t know how to feel about Mountainclan even if her mates were relieved that them and their children got a trail run. The fact she now also had a permanent injury to her back leg that forced her to retire to the elder’s den didn’t make her feel any more safe about it. She hadn’t wanted to even agree to being an elder in the first place, but the injury made her limp and she had difficulty with motion in that limb. So she mostly just had to settle for complaining about the predicament as she couldn’t really argue that she was still as good of a fighter. That outright wasn’t true and she hated it.

This injury and foced retirement, however, wasn’t the thing that made her the most angry. Sure, she understood why mountclan would distrust them, she didn’t trust them either, but how dare they ostracize their child? It wasn’t even small things, eventually being enough that he even left to go be with his siblings in Forestclan. They already had so few of their kits stay with them and now the clan split them up more, making Zinniaspark rather spiteful over most of the cats in Mountainclan.

Even in the current time, the elder doesn’t like most cats and is very overprotective of the remaining family in Mountainclan. She still often tries to get some practice in and try to get her injury to be less of a problem so she could be more well equipped for fighting, just in case it should ever be needed. At least even if she can’t run or jump as fast, Zinniaspark is still very capable enough to wallop someone in the back of the head if necessary.

101+ Moons

Rp Starts Here

Zinniaspark was surprised and confused when she heard that Morningstar was found dead, though she wasn't exactly upset. Yes, a death of a leader was upsetting and it was strange how Nightshade had a dream about it, but she was more indifferent. Mostly she was concerned this murderer might move on to cats and hoped whoever did it would be caught soon. She did feel for Sheepstar, however, given how badly her leadership ceremony seemed to go. Zinniaspark felt she deserved better.

Soon after and something that was more terrifying for her was the avalanche that occured maybe two moons after. Zinniaspark herself had earned a new scar along her back and side, yet that wasn't the worse things for her. She had been quick to grab Alligatorgrin and rush towards the moon cave, yet they only actually made it thanks to Avalanchestar pushing them in last second. She didn't notice much at the time, but she would come to truly appreciate the action.

At the time she just couldn't see it given Honeydew hadn't made it to the mooncave. Both panicked and scared for the third part to their whole, Alligatorgrin had snapped that it was her fault. Zinniaspark, always used to being the protector of their trio, took this really hard. She already held the fear, but to hear it from Gator herself had her reeling.

The moment that the entrance to the moon cave was open, the two searched frantically for Honeydew. Zinniaspark did need to pick up Alligatorgrin, due to problems with mobility, but in the end they had found her. She was alive and both were grateful to find her relatively quickly.

It was not over after that like they hoped however, as Honeydew feel extremely ill due to the cold and had both of her mates again terrified that they might lose her. Zinniaspark and Alligatorgrin didn't really make up from their fight immediantly either, which in all fairness could of been a mix of making sure Honeydew made it out okay and Zinniaspark avoiding the talk.

The talk came regardless though and, after some heart-to-heart, both elders made their apologies clear and Zinniaspark has mostly gotten over what was said. She wants to get better and realize that sometimes she isn't able to protect them. It's difficult, but she'd do anything for her mates so she can learn... maybe.

The news that Sheepstar and someone else was killed had Zinniaspark more alarmed this time. She didn't have much of a connection to the she-cat, but the fact not one, yet two leaders were murdered was scary. Who was doing it? Zinniaspark slowly became more alert and started to be more protective once again. It might all be from Forestclan so far, but she didn't like the odds that it'd stay that way. She just wished there was more information. Particularly she was worried for her own kits that remain there and who might be harmed by the culprit,

The death of Plumpaw didn't happen too long that. However, it was rather clear something was terribly wrong. It wasn't mountain lions that killed her, nor whatever stranger took out Sheepstar. It was said that Forestclan scent was all over her and a cat sized wound was the death blow to the apprentice and this had Zinniaspark suspicious of the other clan. Plumpaw was so young and Zinniaspark truly wants to see faer death brought to justice, yet there is some part of her that things it has to be an individual. She doesn't want to see any of her kits harmed or blamed for the death just because they were of Swampclan and now live in Forestclan.

No break was in sight either, as maybe a moon later a sickness broke out. Alligatorgrin hadn't gotten sick thankfully and even Zinniaspark only had minor symptoms. She would be grateful, but to her and Gator's terror Honeydew had been decently sick. Not severely sick, but enough that the fiery she-cat pushed herself to go on any patrols she can and search for herbs to try and help heal her. It's also why she's been increasingly protective over the molly in particular, since it always seems to be Hon that gets the brunt of the pain. Zinniaspark hates that every time this happens, there is some chance of Honeydew not bouncing back.

The source for the illness luckily had been found. Zinniaspark had been on one of the patrols searching for it alongside Foxjaw, Mistripple, Ghostsnow, and Bloomheart, where they found a dead rabbit and a dying fox. Through some investigating of the bodies, they discovered and confirmed it with other patrols that the water coming from the city was tainted. Not only did it affect them, but it affected the prey and predators as well.

Zinniaspark was relieved to know what was causing this problem, leaving patrols to focus on gathering herbs for all those infected. She herself had no more symptoms after maybe two weeks and, thankfully, Honeydew also got better around the same time. She still is rather protective of the calico at this point, fearing something might happen to her again if this trend kept up. It's also affected her protectiveness with Alligatorgrin and the few of their children that remain in Mountainclan. What more could this world throw at them?

Rp Example

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• I like to think Zinniaspark's voice claim is Lorraine Toussaint, who played Vee in Orange is the new Black as a reference.
• Personality types/Alignment - N/A Atm
• Playlist Song { Stuck Like Glue by Sugarland - Theme for Z & Her Mates }
• Playlist Song { Love Like You by Rebecca Sugar - Theme for when Z started to have feelings for Gator & Hon }