tessa, rescuers

[tessa]

DON'T CRY OUT FOR GOD

we are all lambs to the slaughter now, don't worry it will be over

NAME Tessa
CLAN rescuer
POSITION rescuer (leader or right paw if she wins the position)
GENDER female
AGE 50 moons

APPEARANCE click - a grayish-brown she-cat with white patches
breed: mix
build: average
eye color: brown/gray/green

HOLD ON THOUGH YOU'RE

alone i am there with you, that much at least i can promise, you know

LIKES being right, winning, being on top, feeling like she's helping, having a cause, inspiring others
DISLIKES the Clans, lazy cats, cats who don't agree with her, being under-estimated, losing
HOPES destroying the Clans & making a new, fairer system
FEARS losing to the Clans, losing power over the Rescuers

PERSONALITY
active. tessa truly believes that, as a rescuer, she is doing the right thing, and she will put her everything into it. this is because tessa needs to have a cause at all times. since she was a kit she has known of the injustices in the world and felt that it was her job to stop these, starting with the clans. once she has a cause, she will work toward it and make sure it succeeds.

calculating. being very calculating, tessa is always hatching up her own plans for her cause. she thinks of everything in these, so, while these endeavors might appear risky, they're actually not. she thinks of every possible situation. tessa would be mortified if one of her famous plans failed.

perfectionist. everything needs to be set up. nothing can be left up to chance. everything must have a place. her perfectionist attitude helps her come up with her plans, but it also extends beyond her plans to her life. her den is spotless; her nest of moss a perfect circle; her prey killed with a single clean bite with no blood shed.

unethical. tessa believes that she is perfectly ethical, but she's not. she is willing to do anything to help her own cause, even if it means killing or torturing for information. she hasn't yet, but she may. the way she sees it, it's okay because this killing or torturing is happening for a good cause, and it will help the greater good.

hot temper. if things don't go her way, tessa gets angry. i'm not saying that she throws a hissy fit - actually it's nothing like that. in fact, she usually doesn't get angry for small mess-ups. but if something big and bad happens, and it's your fault, watch out. tessa will come after you.

kind. in spite of all this, tessa is extremely kind to everyone. perhaps under different conditions, if she came across a clan member she'd talk to them. as long as you're not an opponent, tessa is a perfectly good friend. she can be very fun to be around when she's not working.

inspiring. tessa has the great gift of being inspiring. the way she passionately speaks, the way she really believes in her causes, makes for some truly motivational pep talks. this can also be turned into being persuasive. if any rescuers' morale dips because of a defeat, if a cat doesn't know if they want to join the rescuers - tessa will definitely help you make up your mind. her inspiring speeches make her very powerful.

strong. tessa's not very strong physically, but mentally, she's extremely strong and resilient. she refuses to give up after defeat and will keep pushing for her cause.

vengeful. tessa can hold a grudge and she remembers every unfair thing anyone has ever done, so don't anger her. of course, just because she has a grudge, she won't come after you, but if she doesn't like you at first she may be a little cold.

persistent. as said before, tessa will never give up. she will always keep pushing to accomplish what she wants.

wise. tessa can be very wise, and if any cat is having trouble with something, they can come to her. she has many tidbits of wisdom that she can give to others in need.

fearless. tessa appears fearless and she is, as much as a real cat can be. it's not really having no fears - of course she has fears. however, tessa trusts herself and believes that her intellect will be enough to stop any fear of hers from happening.

KNOW WHAT'S TO COME

do not accept this, though we're alone we must fight for each breath

HISTORY
elmwhisker and fernstripe of shadowclan were deeply in love, so it wasn't too surprising when the two had a litter of kits together. there were two healthy kits and one kit born with a bad cough; one tom and two she-kits. they were named hollykit, emberkit, and littlekit. littlekit, the kit with the cough, died soon after her birth, and, after the initial grief, the little kit was soon forgotten. fernstripe was like every first-time mother; she coddled her kits, and almost stifled them, but they loved each other. elmwhisker was the same way; he visited them every day, and the two kits assaulted him in their excitement. he led them around camp, teaching them hunting and fighting, telling great stories of epic battles that the two kits would later tell to the elders for verification.

hollykit was always the smarter of the two kits; emberkit was like every tom-kit, always rushing into the things, never thinking. they play-fought often, and with other kits as well. overall, they were two perfectly normal kits. except for one key flaw.

emberkit was blind. he had been since he was born. as he was still a kit, it didn't get him into too much trouble. he was intent on becoming a warrior, and though hollykit was smaller than him, she thought she was smarter. she gave herself the position of older sister and protecting, and was bent on making sure that emberkit could become a warrior. she was always careful to teach emberkit the battle and hunting moves she got from her father, as her father watched it with amusement as if it was a little phase that hollykit was going through.

hollykit was six moons old and about to become an apprentice when her mother pulled her aside to talk to her. "dear," fernstripe meowed, "this may hurt you, but i think we all saw it coming. emberkit isn't becoming a warrior apprentice."

"he's becoming a medicine cat apprentice?" hollykit asked innocently, "that's awesome!"

fernstripe smiled carefully. "no, hollykit. he's going to the elder's den."

hollykit almost jumped out of her fur. she insisted on speaking to the leader, telling him emberkit should become a warrior apprentice because "he's blind, so his hearing and sense of smell are even better than mine! see?" she pushed emberkit into the den and starting digging through the sand on the floor. hearing the noise, emberkit turned to stare right out her. then, she stood in front of emberkit and batted her paw in front of her face as if to claw at him. emberkit, hearing the swoosh of air, ducked, and the paw whizzed over his head. "so please, please train him!" hollykit begged.

but the leader wouldn't give in. "that's sweet," he meowed, treating her like a little kit who didn't know what she's talking about, "but we can't let your brother get hurt, can you? he's much safer in the elder's den, hollykit. now go out and become an apprentice. emberkit can become one, too!"

hollykit became hollypaw, and her mentor was an old, senior warrior named darkfoot. emberkit became emberpaw - his 'mentor' was an elder named half-face, after a horrific battle wound. perhaps that was the first day hollypaw realized that the clans weren't as fair as they thought they were.

apprenticeship was a bad time in the new hollypaw's life. she was determined to change things for emberpaw, who was stuck in the elder's den. even worse, it seemed that emberpaw had almost given up. this fact only drove hollypaw more until she came up with a wonderful idea.

it was the first time she battletrained with darkfoot, and it wasn't pretty. darkfoot instructed her to crouch. she did. "pretty good," darkfoot meowed, "now pounce on me. claws sheathed." she did.

it was then that darkfoot told her that she was simply the physically weakest apprentice he had ever trained. angry, hollypaw attempted to pummel her mentor, but he easily batted her away. "we'll do more strength training," he meowed.

the criticism annoyed hollypaw to no end, and that sundown she told it to emberpaw, telling him how she wished she could practice it more, and get better. and that was when the thought occurred. she taught the moves she had learned to emberpaw. he picked them up quickly.

the two apprentices did that every day, away from the prying eyes of the clan, practicing hunting, climbing, battle-training, exploring the territory, anything. the extra practice made hollypaw an incredibly successful apprentice and even her mentor remarked on her flawless technique and her newfound strength. emberpaw was very successful as a warrior apprentice as well.

when hollypaw was thirteen moons old, windclan attacked. they suddenly flooded into the camp, a huge number, knocking over all in their path, like a giant monster eating her fellow clanmates. she immediately ran to the elder's den to get her brother, sure that if they saw that he could fight they would make him a warrior.

at one point during the fight, hollypaw was pinned down by a large warrior. he reached out with his unsheathed claws to rake her across the face. "emberpaw!" she screamed in desperation. emberpaw came, bowling the tom off his feet. he aimed to slice at the tom's belly, but, at the last moment, the tom squirmed. it was too late for emberpaw to move his blow. he sliced the tom's throat.

panic flooded hollypaw. if they knew, they would never let emberpaw become a warrior. so they didn't have to know. stumbling, hollypaw led her brother away. "no one has to know," she whispered to him. emberpaw's eyes were wide, horrified at what he'd done. "emberpaw!" she whispered, "focus. please. don't you want to be a warrior?" he nodded. "go fight. please. for me." she whispered, before going to fight with other cats.

shadowclan won that night in the battle, but it was clear that the battle had only created more issues. for one, emberpaw had killed an important senior warrior.

"be honest," the leader called out over his cats in a clan meeting, "nobody will judge you. it was a surprise attack, everyone was scared. so you lost control. please. admit."

and hollypaw, mortified, watched her brother step forward, staring at the ground, and meow sadly, "i did it. i'm sorry. i...i didn't mean to!" hollypaw hated his wail. it was full of terror. this is what the clan did to cats.

the clan was shocked. most of them hadn't even noticed that emberpaw had fought in the battle. they wanted to know why emberpaw was even part of the battle.

slowly, it all came out, hollypaw's whole plan. as he told, her brother broke down and started yowling in sadness. "i'm so sorry! i just thought...i just wanted to be an apprentice! please..."

but, once again, emberpaw was just a blind kit. everyone's eyes fastened on hollypaw. murmuring broke out among the clan, hurried glances at the little kit they had once all loved to see tumbling about the camp with her father.

"emberpaw was great in the fight. he can fight. he can really fight! and he can hunt. and he's a real warrior. only a real warrior would admit..." hollypaw meowed hopelessly.

the leader stared at her, his eyes hard. "hollypaw, emberpaw killed a cat. is this what you wanted? you've made tensions break out across the clan. this can even lead to another attack. you're not a little kit anymore, hollypaw. you have to think."

hollypaw broke down. her 'breaking down' was not the same type as emberpaw's; she did not wail or yowl or weep; she looked her leader in the eye and told him that he was a piece of fox-dung and not a real leader, and how he could he not see that emberpaw deserved this? is this what he wanted? emberpaw to have a terrible quality of life? every cat should be able to run and hunt. that's what being a cat is about. she said much more, and she could see cats in the audience nodding, but the leader quickly cut her off.

"i'm not impressed, hollypaw. go to your den. emberpaw, why don't you go talk to half-face?"

"half-face my dung. you're all so dense. these clans...they're not what i thought they were. they're not as fair as you made it out to be." hollypaw mewed this in a very soft, dangerous voice before it melted into regret. she padded into her den.

that night, she awoke at just after moonhigh. quickly creeping to her den, she padded to emberpaw and shook him awake.

"we're running away," she informed him.

"we?" emberpaw inquired, "hollypaw, i'm okay. honestly. i killed a cat and i need to own up to what i did. running won't help anything."

shocked, hollypaw was stunned for a few moments before she replied. "but what about equality? they were so unfair."

emberpaw shook his head. "no, hollypaw. you can run. but i'm not coming."

staring at her brother, hollypaw spoke again. "please." the conversation went on for several minutes, hollypaw pleading her brother to come. he refused.

hollypaw, eyes full of pain, paused before dipping her head. "very well. goodbye, emberpaw. i love you. you're a great warrior. don't ever forget it."

emberpaw nodded. "i love you too. don't forget me. goodbye...holly."

and that was that. hollypaw left and ventured into the city after several weeks, where she slept one night in an alley between two dumpsters. She was woken early that morning by three city cats.

"hey," the first one growled, "this is my alley."

hollypaw got to her paws. "this alley belongs to nobody. i came to this city for equality." and it was true; after the unfairness of the clans, she wasn't going to take it anywhere else.

"who are you?" a second one meowed, a little taken aback by her defiance.

"i'm...holly."

the third one spoke. "that's my name." it was a scarred black she-cat, missing one eye.

the first one laughed. "you don't look like a holly. you look like a ... tessie. do you wanna know who that is?"

the second one spoke before holly could. "it's the name of the she-cat who slept here last week. do you wanna know what happened to her?"

this time, 'tessie' spoke before anyone else could. "i think i know what happened to her," she meowed, moving forward to strike the first cat across the face, "but you should really be nicer to newcomers."

and there started the newly-named tessie's next 'cause'. after a couple days, she decided to change it to tessa. and from there she began changing the city. teaching cats not to look out for themselves, but all cats. there were enough dangers of the city already; other cats should not have been a danger. it didn't mean they had to know every other cats' name, but she made sure that cats were friendly to each other. she taught the city cats that if they saw another cat in trouble, they shouldn't walk away. they should help. perhaps her change is not visible - the city is very large - but she certainly touched at least a few cats.

she stayed in the city for a very long time before word of the rescuers came to her. a group committed to taking apart the clans' hierarchy and making them a fairer place. thinking of emberpaw, tessa made the decision to leave the city and find the rescuers.

it took some time to find her way back to the clan territories, as she had been very young and scared when she had wandered there, but she did. it didn't take her long to find some rescuers and tell them that she was planning on joining their group. she was quickly taken in.

THIS CHARACTER IS PLAYED BY HESTER