Weeping Rose (Cessair)

Chapter Zero: Summary

Born to a stressed and depressed mother as her seventh child with an absentee father, raised primarily by her siblings. Growing up she tries to hide her emotions until her oldest brother dies and ends up spiraling into workaholic tendencies to try to combat her emotions and grief. She starts to get better as she gets older, only for two more of her brothers to die as she reached adulthood. Spirals further into depression and self-isolation as a result without the structure of training. Eventually pulls herself out of it with help from her remaining siblings and meets another cat her age named Jessamine.

Falls for Jessamine- only for them to be attacked by a fox while out hunting with Jessa's sibling. Jessamine dies. Isolates themself from everybody before leaving when her father died. Travels from town to town before coming across the totems and gaining an Air-Tribe tattoo.

Chapter One: I Watched my Mama

Despite being born as the only one in her litter, Rose was the youngest of her siblings, with six older ones from her parents past litters. In many ways from an early age, she was often finding herself raised by her older siblings, as her mother was often overly stressed and her father was just absent most of the time, and when he wasn't absent physically, he was absent mentally. Even as a young kit, they were very aware of the oddness of their family situation, the dysfunction in the dynamics.

Her mother was trying her best to keep track of all seven of the kids; three of them twelve moons old, three of them six moons old when Rose was born. But it was stressful for her mother, being basically a single mother to all these children that often as Rose shared her nest with her, her mother would be crying herself to sleep, and so, Rose cried alongside her. They didn't really understand why their mother was crying, but she hoped that crying alongside her would help her.

As she grew older, she kept wearing her heart on her sleeve, gaining the nickname 'Weeping Rose' from the other kids in the town- until she started to understand more of what her family's situation truly was. With this understanding, as vague as it was in her still young mind, she made a promise to herself to not cry anymore. They wanted to be strong for their mother, just like their older siblings all were.

Chapter Two: My Brother was Gone

This is how things continued for a few moons, her tucking away her feelings from view, only sharing them with her siblings on the rare occasion. They were close with all of their siblings, the seven of them all there for one another. It was all they'd all learned to adapt to the unfortunate situation they were being raised in.

However, things took a turn downhill as Rose grew into her teens- as they slept in after some training with the locals in town, their eldest sibling, their brother Cloud, was found dead outside of town by another family in town after he failed to return from a hunting trip. Of her siblings, Rose was the last to find out- and it was this death that cracked the mask that she had been keeping on her emotions, crying openly for the first time in moons, distraught over the loss of their brother.

In some ways, this spurred the family into overdrive- Rose throwing herself into her education with the locals, even as grief continued to hold her in its grip. Keeping her mind focused on her education during the day and returning back home to cry herself to sleep at night, often times curled up with one or more of her siblings; or her mother. During this time, all of the children, half of them full grown adults by this point, were sure to help comfort their mother, as Cloud's death took a heavy toll on the older she-cat as well.

With her tendency to overexert herself in her training, Rose often found herself worn out in her youth, while she excelled in her education. During these moons, she ended up developing more of her pessimistic outlook on life, but even so, she tried her best to keep a smile on her face each day, always explaining that they had to live life to the fullest.

Chapter Three: Till We Lost Another

As she reached adulthood, her father continued to be more of a ghost in her life than anything of substance, showing up for a day with his mind distant before disappearing again for periods of time. Rose had learned to essentially ignore the tom- she was bitter about it but that's just how life was. She was blooming on her own. And as the locals she was studying under deemed to have taught her all that they could, only a day had passed before her life turned on it's end once more.

In what felt like a blink of an eye for the pink-toned demigirl, they'd lost two more brothers, Fog and Dove, taken by a landslide not far from town. For a while, it was almost silly, she held out hope that they'd return, having not been trapped underneath the rubble- but as the week went by following, Rose withered. Without the guided training that she previous had to pull her from her nest following Cloud's death, she simply stayed secluded in her nest, eating only the smallest of meals brought to her by her siblings, feeling trapped by her own sorrow.

It took a few moons for her to start to move forward once more, eventually pulling herself out of the stupor that she'd fallen into, and with her siblings help, she begun to throw herself back into her solo training, the others helping her keep her tendencies to overwork herself at bay. They were tightknit as they kept an eye on their parents as well.

Chapter Four: Living and Loving

During this individual training, she met another cat similar in age to her that lived in the town- a dark coated she-cat with golden eyes. It was almost funny how often they kept bumping into each other on accident. Slowly, they begun to keep each other company while out and about training- growing to become friends and the next thing that Rose knew, she was smitten for the she-cat. For Jessamine.

But... It was optimistic thinking for Rose to think that things wouldn't turn for the worse once more. As they were working up the courage to confess one of the times that the pair were out hunting together alongside one of Jessa's siblings, they got caught off-guard by a fox. They worked together to kill the fox, but not without taking injuries of their own. Jessa fatally wounded and her brother hurrying back to camp for help, Rose had gashes all across her face, but she still held Jessa, confessing to her as the she-cat's life slipped away.

In many ways, this was the final straw for Rose. Secluding herself and believing herself to be cursed even, she shut out the rest of the town, even her own siblings that'd been there for her for her entire life. One day, her father was found dead, and it didn't even phase Rose- instead she used the time to instead slip from town, leaving behind the life she'd grown up in.

Chapter Five: It's A Crying Game

Leaving behind her home that she'd known all her life was a chance for Rose. They'd never lived on their own, or even left the area surrounding the town before. And for the first bit of time after she left, it showed. The loneliness was an entirely different level than when she previously wallowed. The lack of warmth of others nearby and the eerie silence of only their own heartbeat accompanying them.

They continued to travel though, eventually coming across other towns along their way- never staying long in any of them, lest her fears of being cursed start to effect these cats as well. She'd help with their healers for a warm place to stay for a day or two, or for shelter from a storm, before moving on once more- and this is how she continued on.

Eventually, Rose neared the tribelands- a bit wary at first before she came across the Meadow of Serenity and the decorated pillars within. A tug pulling her towards the one wrapped in clouds and shades of orange and blue, they'd tap their paw against the surface, red markings etching their way onto their back.

A whispered voice with a name. A new start.