APPEARANCE
Bitterpaw is ghostlike in appearance, a washed-out impression, emptier of color than the world around her. She is all pale, to the point where even the darker portions of her pelt offer only the suggestion of solidity. White fur covers her torso, but rather than the pure white of snow it is a shade darker, a shade less distinct. This almost-white fades yet darker at her tail, feet, face, and eyes into a series of grays, but the darker color never descends quite so deep as to reach any approximation of black. Snatches of deeper gray accentuate her features, gathering in the corners of her eyes and around the base of her ears, but even they do not darken enough to give her coloring any great contrast. She is, in her entirety, pale but without contrast, muted.

Her eyes do nothing to negate this impression, either. They appear almost white, especially in sunlight, although a hint of color does separate them from the rest of her. And yet this color is difficult to pinpoint, shifting somewhere between an icy blue and minty green.

Bitterpaw's build also refuses to distinguish her. She is of average size, weight, and proportion, with little memorable about her save her ghostly coloring. In silhouette she is easily mistaken for just about anyone, save those with particularly dramatic features.

PERSONALITY
Having spent her life up to this point in the periphery, Bitterpaw is more accostumed to watching from a distance than to being involved herself. As such, she revels in the victories of others, an enraptured spectator to the drama unfolding around her. But while this perspective allows her to appreciate her clanmates and the intricacies of their personalities and relationships, it also obscures the depth of those realities with an artificial sheen. Sure, when an apprentice earns their warrior name, Bitterpaw is happy for them and excited to see where their new responsibilities take them. Likewise, however, when tragedy strikes, Bitterpaw is more likely to muster curiosity than sorrow, wondering how this new development will change those involved for better or worse.

"Worse" is not really an expectation for Bitterpaw, however. Even in tragic circumstances, Bitterpaw looks for the best outcome, the brightest resolution. She imagines that, though unfortunate, hard times might somehow bring about greater prosperity, a silver lining of sorts, or at the very least a bittersweet conclusion. She somehow manages to avoid applying these insights to herself and her own growth through adversity, as introspection is not part of Bitterpaw's skillset. Her relentless positivity is instead targeted outwards, occasionally to the chagrin of her clanmates.

HISTORY
The prickly queen Aspenstripe was not the sort of mother to offer her children a warm upbringing, even disregarding the frigid temperatures of the floodplain. The greatest indication of this lack of warmth, or at least the most obvious, was the naming of her first and only litter. Bitterkit, Furykit, and Gloomkit, she called them, passing down her pessimism and abrasiveness onto the innocent litter. The siblings did not suffer much love from their mother, but they did not receive much in the way of attention from her at all, if such a thing could be considered a silver lining. Luckily the other queens, who already shunned Aspenstripe as dour and generally unpleasant, were quick to take the three kits in as their own, caring for them as much as they could while still maintaining litters of their own.

And so Bitterkit's earliest days were spent with her siblings on the outskirts. Never the first priority, but still loved, in some distant, obligatory manner. But youngsters can be resilient, especially when surrounded by the sort of idealism (or naivete) for which FloodClan is best known. Although Bitterkit's own mother was something of an outlier, Bitterkit herself nurtured a sort of detached wonder at the world around her, fascinated by the possibilities even as she grew increasingly convinced that, like most things in her life thus far, the possibilities were in reach for others and not for herself.

Now in the early days of her apprenticeship, Bitterpaw has started branching out and finding her place in the clan. But her mother's abandonment and the well-meaning if mediocre attention of the other queens have made an indelible mark on her, making her question her place as in her community even as she trains to become an even greater part of it.