KESTRA, nanny

[hester]

` KESTRA !



[style=text-align:center;]'always look at an issue from all angles'

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the generals

NAME Kestra
AGE three years, four months
GENDER she-cat
RANK nanny
PATRON GOD Milarea
SHIFT RARITY common
SHIFT FORM red fox
PICTURE(S) normal & normal & normal & shift

the personals

[style=text-transform:uppercase;]APPEARANCE

breed: mixed
build: average, slightly tall
fur: thick and soft
eyes: green-gray

PERSONALITY

generally, kestra is seen as a quiet she-cat with few friends. she will tell those close to her anything and she trusts them to do the same. she is extremely loyal to these friends. in her job, she is the kits' main discipliner. she is never afraid to tell a kit when they are doing something wrong and, unlike some cats, she doesn't coddle the kits. though there are some kits she likes more than others, she does not usually make any personal connections with them. she gives them sets of rules, whether they're just simple manners or important rules from the gods and goddesses, and if the kits break these rules they will be punished. kestra is very fair with these punishments and even in her daily life, the way she views things is from a very unbiased standpoint, looking from both sides of a situation to come up with the best outcome of what she should do. when needed, she can be a fantastic mentor and a terrific teacher, as she has some wisdom in her.

always concerned with security and keeping the tribe safe, kestra is extremely suspicious with newcomers and those she doesn't trust. she sees herself as somewhat of a protector of the kits and she takes this role very seriously. sometimes her paranoia can go so far as to make her appear impolite and a little bit crazy, and this doesn't earn her any friends. when she feels threatened or cornered, she can become aggressive and lash out. this can be if she's physically cornered, but it can also be if she feels like many people are ganging up on her and she's being criticized. of course, she doesn't take criticism of any kind well. she feels betrayed. being very proud, accepting criticism is like admitting her defeat. the fact that she believes her role is the protector stems from her pride, as she wanted to give herself a role to ensure to herself that she was important to the tribe.

kestra always appears to others as extremely clear-headed and reasonable. as mentioned before, she tends to think like this, looking at things from every viewpoint and believing that if she didn't see it, it didn't exist. however, despite her mostly practical view of things, she does tend to trust her gut instincts as opposed to cold, hard fact. that is the reason that she is so deeply suspicious of those she doesn't know - her deep sense of paranoia causes her to have a hunch that each person she meets is trying to spy on the tribe, or kill a kit. on the other paw, along with being practical, she is extremely organized and has a loose schedule she likes to follow. however, she's always prepared for anything to happen and keeps a cool head in any situation. this reasonable way of thinking, though, causes a problem that is the only secret that she has never told anyone. as she has never seen the gods or goddesses or evidence that they exist, she does not particularly believe in them. sure, she puts on the show and goes through the motions, but she's not sure they actually, actually exist. the only goddess whose existence she accepts, and the only goddess she prays to, is her patron goddess, milarea.

often thought to be too quiet, kestra loves her time alone. she is often very reflective of herself and thinks about her future. however, most of all, kestra loves being alone because constantly she feels suffocated by the sheer number of cats she deals with every single day. she feels as if all the nannies are exact clones of her, and kestra doesn't like that. being alone is having a chance to be an individual, a chance that is welcomed.

HISTORY

chosen to mate by the leader of the clan, parents leonard and jasmine were never quite used to actually being parents. leonard was an ambitious young tom of the patron god helite, anxious to serve his tribe in any way he could, even if it meant fathering pathetic kittens. jasmine was a quiet, simple she-cat, a hard worker but one who many thought were stupid and who barely ever spoke. the affair was awkward but necessary, but soon it was done. jasmine was pregnant and there was no need for them to interact anymore. becoming bigger with each passing month, jasmine retired to the queen's den earlier than most. it was clear that many kits were coming, as her stomach bulged. furthermore, if both parents were highly fertile, there was no reason for there not to be many kittens; it was a very prosperous season for the tribe, and all cats were eating very well. however, unlike leonard, jasmine had a smaller frame than most, and the weight of the kittens put a tremendous strain on her fragile body. birthing was very hard and bloody, but it was necessary and jasmine gritted her teeth and silently went through it, detesting the sight of the blood surrounding her and the feeling of it soaking through her fur. she had all the kittens before she slipped into unconsciousness. she stayed unconscious for the next three days as she was tended to, and the kittens were split up and nursed with other queens, as they were many of them and a single queen could not take two litters of kittens when one was so large. however, jasmine soon healed and returned to her six kits, only to find that something terribly, horribly wrong had happened.

it shamed both her and leonard, as the formerly proud parents found that all six kits were females. females! to leonard, this terrible news meant that he would not have a son to teach to hunt and train in the ways of aromian. to jasmine, this terrible news meant six whining kits to take care of all for the next generation to be caught being a nanny. at that moment, both parents promised to themselves they would never have another litter of kits. and they didn't. but in the meantime, the six idiot females they did have had to be taken care of. as leonard and jasmine were very alike in appearance, all six kits were almost identical. they were named hastily - alcyone, clementina, minerva, sequoia, kestra, and valora. from the start, they were seen as a large group of clones rather than as individuals. even as their personalities emerged, they were still seen as a herd. like any sisters, they always liked to stick together, and this habit wasn't helping. of course, at such a young age they did not notice how, in the tribe's eyes, they were all one cat. as it usually happened with such a large litter, some of them had minor shifting disorders.while the rest of the kits shifted effortlessly back and forth between their forms, the two kits alcyone and sequoia had great trouble shifting into their other form. however, these problems soon passed and the kits grew older.

their personalities began to emerge more, kestra becoming a more independent one, intent on differentiating herself from her siblings. they began to separate off into groups, alcyone and sequoia clinging to each other as the poor little kits, in kestra's eyes the whiniest and most pathetic of the group. they seemed to think that their having a shifting disorder when they were younger made them invalids so that others had to wait on them. similarly, kestra was disgusted by clementina and valora. naturally gentle, they seemed perfectly fine with the career path ahead of them and in fact looked forward to being a nanny. back then, kestra was a fiery, outspoken little kit who refused to be censored. she would challenge the gods, asking them why they had females just for having kits while there were goddesses above. with these views, she looked down on clementina and valora because they did not see the point of her struggling. however, minerva, like kestra, wasn't afraid to say what she was thinking and wanted to provide for her tribe in other ways than caring for kits. however hard kestra and minerva protested, they were only reprimanded for their actions and severely punished for their talk against the gods. nannies told them that if they didn't shape up, and quick, the gods would turn them into humans. kestra thought humans were just a myth to scare cats until a nanny took her and minerva out to see one one day. they stayed a safe distance away, the nanny hissing "see? that's what you'll become!" while kestra and minerva looked on in horror.

after that unpleasant experience, both kestra and minerva quickly shaped up in the eyes of the nannies. meanwhile, they both plotted their escape from the tribes. it wasn't real, of course. neither of the kittens knew how to hunt or fight or protect themselves in any way. but it gave them something to believe in, some inkling of belief that someday, they would be free, so they continued plotting and scheming. they said they would execute, but they continued plotting and scheming until the day they became nannies.

it was an especially horrible day for kestra as, having been a kitten herself until now, she had not realized how difficult a job being a nanny was. she and minerva planned their escape, as they always had, but they had less and less time now, as they were often caught up in their duties of becoming a nanny. however, soon after they became a nanny, minerva was selected to become pregnant. normally, minerva would never have been matched with a tom. because of her past of disregarding rules, the leader wanted to make sure that any hatred of the gods or want of escape was thoroughly out of their system before he gave them any kits. however, a young tom specifically asked for minerva. though she was very angry, minerva had to submit. for several months, the tom tried to make minerva pregnant, but to no avail. it was determined that minerva was sterile and she was driven from the tribe. it is a sad memory doesn't like to look back on.

however, at that point, kestra realized that there was nobody in the tribe that she was close to at all. it was in the hard weeks following what basically meant minerva's death (she didn't know how to hunt, fight, or anything) but it was during that time that kestra realized something. she couldn't win, alone, against a whole tribe, a deep-rooted set of traditions that started with some gods. she prayed to a goddess, the only one she had ever connected with - milarea. after praying, she experienced a feeling of being whole and happy, as if everything was going to be okay. everything was going to be taken care of. and that's how kestra knew milarea was real - she gave her that feeling.

but even more, after that week things started looking up for kestra. she found that things were better if she just followed the traditions. furthermore, she didn't want to make milarea angry at her. now, though she wishes she could do something beyond kit-sitting, being free is like a distant dream for her.[/style]
functions preformed by HESTER
other characters are NONEXISTENT

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