High Rank Announcement [#hrannouncement]

**Fritter** · #**12951** April 16th, 2024, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SentimentalSquid

Watching Pepperbounce's face was enough tell Berrypaw that there were probably hundreds of thoughts racing through his mind all at once, much like her own. Sheepishly she ducked her head when she saw him shake his head — he was ashamed, wasn't he? Ashamed that she'd been picked for him, that he had to deal with the non-Clanborn nervous wreck. It all made sense in her mind.

But when he spoke, she looked up hopefully. He was trying to be composed, for what it was worth. Berrypaw cast a wary glance at Stagheart who only nodded to her again. She looked back at Pepperbounce and swallowed the nervous lump in her throat.

"Excited? Yeah..." She mewed hesitantly. It was hard to keep up the wonder-filled apprentice act when her mentor looked about as unsure as she did. She'd hadn't gotten to too much training with Mistyshard, but the thought of battle training nearly scared her claws off. Too bad it was an integral part of being a warrior... one day she'd have to face it, and she knew it.

"I, uh... well, I guess whenever you'd like to start me," she replied, eyes darting everywhere but Pepperbounce's face. "I've only had a few lessons with Mistyshard... so I'm not very far at all. Or too good at anything..." The last part was in a barely-audible mutter, an instinctive self-deprecation.

Great. Give him more reason to not want you, way to go!

Berrypaw flexed her claws into the dirt to quell her internal tension. She kept her gaze averted, hoping he wouldn't notice that she was also a swirl of chaos in her head.

/ @Fritter

Pepper Bounce
Purrks: Sweet as a flower (Expired)
He / Him - River Clan - Warrior

PepperBounce seriously wondered how many more ‘Get it together!’s it would actually take before he stopped sinking into his own thoughts, noticing the lack of eye contact and ducked head he felt a wave of fear go over him. This apprentice was going from MistyShard- a well respected warrior whose earned their place and was a clan idol to some low life fur-ball with their tail tucked between their legs at the idea of being responsible for someone else. And all the hesitation and lack of enthusiasm only drained the rest of what little ‘im a confident and decent mentor!’ Act- which already had been slapped away upon hearing he even had one perish. ‘Ah- awesome! Excitement! ’ PepperBounce blinked constantly, keeping his gaze to his paws and the side, more in hopes of GoldFish turning up. Stars he could do with some moral support right now, this wasn’t going well whatsoever and now he was going to look like an idiot for the rest of the time he was meant to train berrpaw.
What hit the worst was learning that BerryPaw was ‘not that far along and not very good.’ Oh. Oh no he was really going to mess up, what did he even have to teach? Were there things he could and couldn’t teach? Learning that the oh so great MistyShard had not actually gotten far at all with BerryPaw’s training made Peppers expression hold as both anxious and frustrated. All this worrying and he wouldn’t even know of it was for the right reasons? Was there even hope with trying or should he bring himself to fading instantly to beg that this apprentice got some-cat more capable. Well he wasn’t big on begging and he’s only been in the leaders den once- and that was during LarkStars reign from what he could remember. And it was rather anxiety inducing. ‘How about tomorrow? Sunrise, till then you can get some good sleep and prepare for it and all.’ Was he meant to reassure BerryPaw everything was going to be okay and he was going to be a perfect mentor? Or was he waiting for someone else to reassure him? Probably both. PepperBounce wasn’t sure why he had decided on sunrise- he wasn’t a fan of mornings at all and to make it worse he was always grumpy when waking up a tad bit too early. Which meant he’d either have to get extra sleep or bite through his dismay at the time that he had chosen?

**SentimentalSquid** · #**12952** April 16th, 2024, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fritter

Pepper Bounce
Purrks: Sweet as a flower (Expired)
He / Him - River Clan - Warrior

PepperBounce seriously wondered how many more ‘Get it together!’s it would actually take before he stopped sinking into his own thoughts, noticing the lack of eye contact and ducked head he felt a wave of fear go over him. This apprentice was going from MistyShard- a well respected warrior whose earned their place and was a clan idol to some low life fur-ball with their tail tucked between their legs at the idea of being responsible for someone else. And all the hesitation and lack of enthusiasm only drained the rest of what little ‘im a confident and decent mentor!’ Act- which already had been slapped away upon hearing he even had one perish. ‘Ah- awesome! Excitement! ’ PepperBounce blinked constantly, keeping his gaze to his paws and the side, more in hopes of GoldFish turning up. Stars he could do with some moral support right now, this wasn’t going well whatsoever and now he was going to look like an idiot for the rest of the time he was meant to train berrpaw.
What hit the worst was learning that BerryPaw was ‘not that far along and not very good.’ Oh. Oh no he was really going to mess up, what did he even have to teach? Were there things he could and couldn’t teach? Learning that the oh so great MistyShard had not actually gotten far at all with BerryPaw’s training made Peppers expression hold as both anxious and frustrated. All this worrying and he wouldn’t even know of it was for the right reasons? Was there even hope with trying or should he bring himself to fading instantly to beg that this apprentice got some-cat more capable. Well he wasn’t big on begging and he’s only been in the leaders den once- and that was during LarkStars reign from what he could remember. And it was rather anxiety inducing. ‘How about tomorrow? Sunrise, till then you can get some good sleep and prepare for it and all.’ Was he meant to reassure BerryPaw everything was going to be okay and he was going to be a perfect mentor? Or was he waiting for someone else to reassure him? Probably both. PepperBounce wasn’t sure why he had decided on sunrise- he wasn’t a fan of mornings at all and to make it worse he was always grumpy when waking up a tad bit too early. Which meant he’d either have to get extra sleep or bite through his dismay at the time that he had chosen?

Berrypaw was still dwelling on her own worries when Pepperbounce mentioned a training time. She looked up to him and nodded. "Sunrise... got it!" She tried to perk up her voice a bit, perhaps at an attempt at soothing both herself and her new mentor.

Bright and early in the morning! She surely wasn't a morning cat, but hey, at least this seemed to mean Pepperbounce wanted go get to business instead of delaying. Maybe that meant he had some sort of faith in her after all...?

The apprentice then padded over to sit beside him, as she should for the rest of the meeting. She shuffled her paws nervously as she thought of something else to say — but no words came to mind or mouth. So she expectantly looked up at Fadingsun instead for his next address, occasionally casting small glances and quick at Pepperbounce.

***occultation*** · #**12953** April 16th, 2024, 04:33 PM

High Rank Announcement [#hrannouncement]

Only Dimkit failed to show, which wasn’t too bad of a turnout if Fadingsun had to say so himself. Hopefully the kit would show up at the next meeting; if not, he’d have to track the child down and see what was going on. What fun that would be…

“Ravenkit, Branchkit, and Mousekit,” he began, smiling down at each kit in turn. For as awkward as interacting with children often felt, he knew that this was a special moment for each. It was a special moment for him, too; these were the first kits he was naming as apprentices. Hopefully many more would follow.

“From this moment on, until you receive your warrior names, you’ll be known as Ravenpaw, Branchpaw, and Mousepaw. Ravenpaw, you’ll be training with Marigoldleap. Now that she’s returning to warrior duties, I think it’s a perfect time for her to take on an apprentice. Branchpaw, Fallenwish will be your mentor. Fallenwish is a dedicated and loyal warrior, and I think the two of you will work fine together.

“Finally: Mousepaw, your mentor is going to be Duskleaf. I trust that all three of you will put the right amount of effort into your training, and that in turn your mentors will show you the same amount of dedication.”

Fadingsun paused for a moment to allow any chants the Clan wished to convey upon the three newly-minted ‘paws. After that, his gaze and tone hardened a bit.

“I want to be clear that going forward, expectations will be stricter for both apprentices and mentors. There are several apprentices in this Clan who are due or overdue for their warrior ceremonies. Going forward, any apprentice who isn’t warrior-ready by the age of 16 moons or the end of their ninth moon of training will have their place in this Clan re-evaluated, whichever comes first. If you’re an apprentice at or near one of those milestones, I suggest you put your head down and get to work.

“Likewise, mentors are going to be held accountable for their apprentice’s training going forward. If any mentor goes a moon or more without doing anything to train their apprentice, they will more than likely get their apprentice re-assigned. While apprentices are free and encouraged to seek training from others, mentors exist for a reason. I’m not going to have mentors sitting on their ass not doing anything to train their apprentices. To those of you who have been slacking, you have until next moon to fix it or your apprentice is getting re-assigned. If it’s an issue with motivation on your apprentice’s part, come speak to me as soon as possible.”

He knew these requirements were a fair bit stricter than what Larkstar and Birdsnow had enforced, but RiverClan had a history of problems with apprentices finishing training and it needed to end. There was no reason, except under extreme circumstances, for an apprentice to dawdle excessively with their training.

With that said, there wasn’t anything left to cover for this meeting. A wave of tiredness suddenly swamped him; his instinct was to go back to the warriors’ den, but he immediately realized that wouldn’t be his home any longer.

His tone suddenly strained, he said, “This meeting is dismissed. If anyone has further questions or concerns, you can meet me in the leader’s den.” With that, he leapt off the Floodstone and retreated into his new den.

[ Exceptions for the new apprentice/mentor rules will be made on a case-by-case basis, and generally only for specific IC/OOC circumstances. Time in training will be tracked by IRL months passed, based on either the date of an apprentice ceremony or the date a cat was submitted to the allegiances. Those apprentices who are already at the aforementioned milestones (16 moons of age or nine months in training) will be given a two month grace period to wrap training up and complete a final assessment. After that, if they are still not warrior-ready Fading will re-evaluate their place in the Clan. Any questions may be directed to me via VM or DM! ]

**hades.** · #**12954** April 16th, 2024, 04:39 PM

Fallenwish watched around the clearing. She had nothing better to since it was a meeting, and it had distracted distracted her from not being medicine cat, which was fair of them, but she was still upset,
Not that she'd drag attention to herself. Besides, she could be medicine cat apprentice.

Inevitably other people were upset, such as Minkpaw and Cobwebpaw, but they should've known that two healers could exist. Surely they would realize that? Or maybe they were scared that there was only one spot left. Regardless, they were probably just upset like her. Fallenwish turned her head to the leader. Oh, she had to go. she stood up and almost left, but then she heard herself getting an apprentice.

Oh, she had her first apprentice! Sure hope she didn't screw up. "Hi, Branchpaw. Be right back." She said.

After that, she headed out to go get Minkpaw.
[ @taillow @alec @Blazing - whoops, I edited it now]

**zozelen** · #**12955** April 16th, 2024, 06:15 PM

So, Mousekit really was an apprentice now. He wanted to look around for his new mentor, Duskleaf, but that was a name he didn't recognize- hopefully they'd just recognize Mousepaw as the kit who hadn't met with their mentor yet and go up to him. He wondered if Duskleaf would start any sort of training today, or if they'd save it for later...

Speaking of which. "Branchpaw, Ravenpaw," he meowed with a hint of excitedness in his voice. "Congratulations." Although Fadingsun was being stricter with the apprentice deadlines, Mousepaw thought that he'd manage fine. If he wasn't made an apprentice after 16 moons, Mousepaw would be reevaluating his place in the clan too, honestly.

@Seamrog @Blazing @Epiales

**PoisonOrchid** · #**12956** April 16th, 2024, 07:50 PM

Berryflare

Berryflare was relaxing by the collection of cats in some near shadows and bushes. She was barely paying attention. Though her ears pointed up and she sat up as she heard her name. "What in star-clan! I - UGH!" She hissed not to loud, to make sure no one heard. Her claws unsheathed by nature as she paced back and forth, muttering something.
Soon she came to the realization that the meeting was now over. That meant she would need to find her new apprentice ... great. She didn't even remember her name. Maybe it was some flower thing... Rosepaw? No that wasn't it. Uhhh, Sunflowerpaw? No, that name was too long.
Looks like she didn't have the time to think of the name. There was an apprentice looking around, it must of been hers. She started walking towards her, hoping she would remember the name. A few tail lengths later, the thought suddenly it popped up in her head. Tulippaw, her name is Tulippaw! "Tulippaw, over here!"

/No it's alright! I was confused for a bit until I realized Berryflare was made Tulippaws mentor. They didn't mention me in it! So early too, I literally joined a couple of days ago, but I'll try my best!

/

**Blazing** · #**12957** April 16th, 2024, 08:04 PM

Branchpaw

His ears perked when he heard his new name. Branchpaw, He was no longer a kit. He's now officially an apprentice of RiverClan. Looking up at Fadingsun, his eyes glistened brightly before stepping down once again to look for not only his mentor but also the other two apprentices. It's fairly possible that the three would continue to train together in the future considering their age.

Though finding Fallenwish first, she was quick to leave for something else. "Hello," that was all Branchpaw could say before she went away. Shaking his pelt, Branchpaw decided to think that it was right and went back to Mousepaw, who was excited. The tom himself smiled slightly too, a small yet cheerful grin. "Congrats to you too," He said simply, yet energy was content in his tone.
@hades. @zozelen @Epiales

**chickadee** · #**12958** April 16th, 2024, 10:19 PM

The calico’s ears perked as she heard her new mentor call her over. Tulippaw quickly detected the owner of the voice and began to head in her direction, giving her a critical eye as she scanned her mentor up and down. She didn’t want to come across as bitter, (Even if she most certainly was) so she forced a smile and a polite voice, just like mother had always taught her to.

“Hi. I’m Tulippaw. It’s nice to meet you Berryflare.” She choked out. “I hope that I can learn lots from you.” She grinned. “Unlike my old mentor.” She couldn’t help but add. What she didn’t want to mention was that the said old mentor was her older brother, the one she aspiried to be like. The one that she thought she could still count on. She thought wrong.

“I haven’t really been trained at all, so I’d like to have a tour of the territory if that’s alright with you?” She asked

. . .
@PoisonOrchid - no worries!! ill go ahead and set up a tracker and territory tour rp if that’s cool with you!

**Seamrog** · #**12959** April 17th, 2024, 02:05 AM

Duskleaf had not expected to become a mentor, he’d only been half listening to Fadingsun’s announcement when he heard his name being called at the apprenticing ceremony. He looked up at his leader with surprise, Duskleaf wasn’t much older than some of the older apprentices, so he really hadn’t been expecting this. Regardless, he was still determined to do the best he could do, and was proud that he’d been chosen. Although he was also a little nervous, he’d never had an apprentice before and it sounded like quite a demanding duty, but more than anything he was looking forward to meeting his apprentice. Oh! I haven’t even met Mousepaw yet! he thought, I better get a move on then

Looking around the clearing, he waited until a few cats had left before having a look around again, then he spotted a kit without a mentor next to them on the other side of the Floodstone from where he was sitting, he tried removing a few of the leaves from his fur to appear a bit more presentable as he walked over to meet his apprentice for the first time, but inevitably more leaves just landed on his fur, which was quite annoying. He just hoped Mousepaw wouldn’t notice how messy his fur looked because of it.

"Mousepaw?" He called, before approaching the young apprentice. "Hey, nice to meet you, I’m Duskleaf." He said.
@zozelen

**Epiales** · #**12960** April 17th, 2024, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blazing

@zozelen @Epiales

Ravenpaw
|transmasc| 6 moons | Purrks: N/A| he/him | apprentice | twin: cowkit|
white she-cat with black markings and violet/blue eyes
Image by @/Marigoldwhisper

Ravenpaw scoffed at the other newly made apprentices. Of course, they would say congratulations, head held high. He frowned a bit as he looked around. No wonder he didn't have friends, he wasn't always this bitter... in fact! he was pretty nice... to Fawnheart-- who had gone missing. "yeah," he said in a low voice, "congrats." he finished with a mumble. They were being nice. He could be nice back, couldn't he? He stood there awkwardly as they talked and smiled at each other. He scuffed his paws along the dirt as he looked around for his mentor, who had not come where the other mentors had come for them.

@hades. @zozelen

{ @Madelaine ~ marigold }