Myrtlepool

Myrtlepool is, in a word, friendly! She tries very hard to maintain the relationships she has with her other clanmates, and is generally well-liked amongst them for her warm and adaptable nature. She definitely has the heart of a WaveClanner, and loves to pour affection, physical and otherwise, onto her Clanmates, especially the ones she grew up around. She is also likely to make friends with cats from other Clans, though she’s a bit more guarded with those cats than her own Clanmates. Myrtlepool, however, can absolutely be goaded into an argument if her pride is wounded, or someone she likes has been insulted, since she is fiercely protective of whoever she chooses to spend her time with. She’s also rather stubborn, and though she is willing to change her mind if she’s convinced she’s in the wrong, she has been known to dig her heels in and die on that hill. She has a good heart, and does her best to always put good things into the world, rather than wrong others.

Myrtlepool was a skilled apprentice, which carried over into warriorhood, and extremely hardworking. Though she’s relaxed some in her older moons, Myrtlepool has never stopped giving 100% for her Clan, and has devoted herself wholly to them. Failure brings out the worst in her, and sends her back down that obsessive spiral she was so often consumed with in her apprenticeship, the intense need to meet expectations, to have the approval of every cat.

Generally, she is a level-headed cat, and good at keeping up appearances to soothe any ruffled feathers. She trusts in her abilities and the decisions she makes in life, and generally thinks herself to be rather intelligent and capable, able to make the right calls or do whatever is asked of her perfectly. Thus, Myrtlepool hates not knowing what to do in a given situation, especially when it concerns cats she cares about. She struggles to deal with the way it makes her feel moronic and worthless, regardless of what others actually expect of her.

Myrtlekit was born in a litter of two, along with Jellyfishkit, to Sharktooth and Bayflower. Sharktooth had not wanted kittens, and when he found out Bayflower was having them, he was not very supportive—in fact, he became distant, and barely spoke with the cat who would soon be having his kits. He was not there to give them their names, and for the first few weeks after their birth he very rarely visited the nursery. But, in time, he came around, and began to visit more frequently, though mostly for Bayflower, not his kittens. Still, something in their relationship changed after that, and would never fully recover.

Eager for her father’s attention, Myrtlekit often sought him out, though Jellyfishkit had apparently little interest in the father who ignored them. She seemed to always need the approval of the cats around her, which as a kit was largely only her parents and the other kittens in the nursery, and desperately sought out their attention and praise.

It didn’t take Myrtlepaw very long to figure out that while Bayflower was always supportive, Sharktooth responded better to her successes as an apprentice. If she brought back the biggest catch, or bested her opponent in a spar—it was the most surefire way of getting him to notice her, give her the attention she was starved for. Though she always wanted to prove herself to her Clan, her mentor, her mother, it was that extra bit of motivation that forced her forward, made her ache for success, for perfection. When Sharktooth began asking about her training sessions, she felt almost as if she had won a game she didn’t know she’d been playing.

Then, during the storm season, Jellyfishpaw was out with their mentor on a training session on how to safely navigate the territory when it is dark, windy, and dangerous. It wasn’t a big storm, just some rain and stronger than normal winds. They should have been fine—they were close to camp, where it’s safer, and supervised—but Jellyfishpaw slipped on the slick rock. They didn’t even fall far, but disoriented and surprised, they did not land right, and that was all it took.

Bayflower was crushed upon learning of Jellyfishpaw’s fate, and Myrtlepaw had been more scared than sad at the sight: seeing the strange bend in Jellyfishpaw’s back was horrifying, and seeing her mother screech and wail like she had never done before was even more so. Something changed in Bayflower after that, and in Myrtlepaw too.

She suddenly found herself struggling to balance keeping the attention of her father, proving her worth to her mentor and the rest of WaveClan, and providing support to her mother after the loss of Jellyfishpaw. The loss of Jellyfishpaw widened the gap between Bayflower and Sharktooth, despite her father’s attempts at repairing their relationship moons ago, and Myrtlepaw was torn between each of her parents. Then—though she’s not sure what actually happened, as Bayflower never told her—Sharktooth and Bayflower finally separated, with Sharktooth ripping out his own marriage piercing during the exchange.

And, once again, there was complete radio silence from her father, no longer interested in entertaining his surviving kit.

Myrtlepaw was confused and betrayed, seeming to fall apart at the seams with the complete rejection of her father, and unable to find the support she needed in her mother, who was in the middle of her own grieving process.

Shrimppaw was like a light in the dark during everything.

Though she had found him strange when he was first found on the shores of WaveClan’s territory, over time they forged a bond, one that Myrtlepaw would not give up for all the world. She found that, while she liked the other apprentices well enough, she liked spending time with Shrimppaw the most, and felt the pressures of expectations fall away whenever they hung out. Though he was nervous, she was not afraid to put herself out there and try to keep him included in activities with the other apprentices. Perhaps at first it was because he reminded her somewhat of Jellyfishpaw—but it wasn’t very long before she decided that she just enjoyed his company.

WIP :)

Myrtlepaw passed her assessment with flying colors, but broke tradition to choose her own piercing, rather than use one taken from the prey she caught during her assessment. She used a snake fang, belonging to her very first piece of fresh-kill that she had held onto her whole apprenticeship for this sole purpose. It was a catch she was very proud of, and she took great care of the fragile tooth so that it would survive long enough to turn into a piercing.

In her ceremony, Myrtlepaw was given her first piercing, along with her new name: Myrtlepool. Her ceremony was bittersweet: Myrtlepool was over the moon to have finally received her first piercing along with her warrior name, but Jellyfishpaw was not there to get a name with her, and Sharktooth was completely absent from the ceremony. Bayflower had been glowing with pride, but she could tell that her mother was probably thinking of Jellyfishpaw, too. Plus, Shrimppaw still would not be finished with his apprenticeship for a few more moons.

With her new name, Myrtlepool only worked harder to serve her Clan. She eagerly joined patrols whenever she could, probably too often, and relished in her newfound freedom to leave camp unsupervised, often leaving to fish on her own. The vision of a perfect warrior had stuck itself in her mind, and her paws were always moving towards that goal, eager to prove herself. Prove herself to who, she could not answer, but she never stopped to question why she felt the way she did, why she pushed herself so hard.

WIP :)

Having been appointed deputy following Barracudastar’s passing has both worsened her relationship with Sharktooth, outcompeted for the deputy position by his own daughter, and her perfectionistic streak from her youth, feeling the desperate need to prove herself once again. Myrtlepool is trying her best as WaveClan’s deputy, but she has doubts about why she was chosen.

Still… she can’t deny the pride and excitement she feels at the new title, and the promise of what it means. Now that this is something she’s doing for herself, and not her father, she wants to do it right, and not let her Clan down.

Becoming WaveClan’s leader was a dream she’s had since she was little, though one she spent many moons agonizing over, trying to unravel if it was something she actually wanted, or something she felt like she had to want. Ploverhymn’s recent passing has only dragged her further back into the past—her first moons as deputy are certainly shaping up to be anything but easy.

A large, muscular, long-furred, black smoke tortoiseshell molly with a white underbelly and mismatched teal/green eyes. Her warrior piercing is a snake fang, and her marriage piercing is replaced with a pearl tied into her fur. Her fur is curly and wiry from spending so many moons on the coast, and gets tangled very quickly. She smells like sweet flowers and salt water, and the fresh breeze that comes off the ocean.

VC: Emily Rose as Elena Fisher from the Uncharted series