rosesong... a warrior cat au version of my d&d character, laertes/love!
rosesong was born a kittypet, but was brought to shadowclan at a young age, starting his medicine cat training a little too early. he was a runt and is still quite small and has declawed paws, but it’s best not to underestimate him despite this.
Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, four unnamed sisters
Other Relations: unnamed mentor, multiple 'mates'
Clan: RiverClan
Rank: warrior
Characteristics: clever, seductive, beautiful, hates cheaters, lures cats in and kills them
Murder Motive: kill cheaters, cleanse the world of carrion-cats
Number of Victims: 7
Number of Murders: 7
Murder Method: lures into the water, drowns
Known Victims: Whitefoot, six unnamed cats
Victim Profile: cheaters
Cause of Death: infection
Cautionary Tale: most cats don't believe it to be true, but it's enough to get some to second-guess their actions, to consider how they would be hurting their mate and stop themselves, lest they find themselves pulled beneath the surface
Story:
Rosesong had never liked cheaters.
It wasn't a hatred that came from bitter experience, but it didn't have to be. Cats don't have to have a negative experience with carrion to know that it is disgusting.
She couldn't help the bile that rose in her throat when she saw cats flirting and nuzzling with those that weren't their mate. It was only more aggravating to see how clueless and in-love those mates were, poor foolish souls, strung-along and manipulated. Lied to. Dismissed.
Someone ought to teach those liars a lesson.
That was all it was going to be. Just a lesson.
But she got carried away, and Whitefoot didn't resurface.
Yet...she felt good. She felt like she had done something right, that she had cleansed the world of one piece of carrion.
She became somewhat known as an adulterer. She wasn't, really--she never actually got with any of those cheaters, simply flirted back, tested them, tested their will and their loyalty.
If they failed, she would smile and tease and swim into the river, where she would dare them to join her. Or are they too scared?
They always swam to her.
They never swam back.
Rosesong slipped up once and a victim almost made it back, but a lucky pike took care of it for her. Unfortunately, it also wounded her.
She became delirious with her sickness, and the truth spilled out.
Cats were shocked, outraged. She was forbade from anymore healing, left alone until she succumbed to the infection.
Though she died, her influence lived on. Queens and elders began to tell the young of the Clan about the beautiful, rose-scented she-cat who swam hidden in the depths of the water. If you were loyal to your mate, she would leave you alone--some versions said she would guard you--but if you were disloyal, you would be dragged down where no one would ever find you.
Additional Information:
--At some point she killed someone who was polyamorous because she didn't know that was a thing. From that point on she made sure she knew it was cheating and not anything else.
--Thanks to @starfalcon555 for the name suggestion!
--Her head-tuft has one sharp cow-lick like a thorn before it curls
Big-ass backstory and world-building under the cut.
*I sincerely struggle to draw characters interaction on any deeper level than “next to each other” so I used this free lineart on DA as my reference picture
Sparrowstorm was the deputy of TunnelClan when he met a plucky young kittypet named Rosalind who jumped in and saved his life from rouges that had caught him unaware. She was fairly injured and, unwilling to let her find her way home alone he instead escorted her back to camp. By the time Rosalind was fully recovered, she no longer wanted to go back to life as a kittypet and asked to become a part of the Clan. Thistlestar gave her Sparrowstorm as a ‘mentor’ since as deputy and the one who found Rosalind he was the best suited to the job. By the time Rosalind earned her clan name, Rosesong, she and Sparrowstorm had begun to develop feelings for one another.
Torn between his duties as deputy and growing love for Rosesong, she and Sparrowstorm courted in secret. Caught up in their own world, Rosesong became pregnant. She confided in Sparrowstorm, letting him know she loved him but had no strong expectations given how important his role of deputy was to the stability of TunnelClan. She offered to claim Queen’s Right (the right of any queen to not disclose the father of their litter), return to her housefolk for the duration of pregnancy and leave her kits to twolegs, or take the herbs offered by Minnowflower to any expecting Queen unwilling or unable to bear their kits. Sparrowstorm was appalled that his own devotion to Rosesong could be in such doubt, and since he had already been seriously considering retiring from deputyship for her, this was the final point cementing his choice— he could no longer serve his clan objectively since Rosesong was now (and had been for a while) his true priority.
While TunnelClan forbids leaders and deputies from having mates or kits, it wasn’t unheard of for deputies to retire if they felt something developing between them and another cat. However given that Sparrowstorm and Rosesong had courted so long in secret and he only retired a few days before Rosesong announced her pregnancy to the clan, there were lots of whispers and distrust that Sparrowstorm had skirted if not broken the Code outright by refusing to stand down earlier. Many cats turned away from Sparrowstorm as a result, and some with sharper tongues even targeted Rosesong as well for her kittypet roots contributing to their disrespectful behavior. By the time their son, Redkit, was born, most of the bitterness had faded. Their young kit still grew up forever marked by the remnant scorn of the clan to his parents.
