The last thing I want is for Pearl to be a Nepobaby HAHA but I do think there is a consideration to be had for the fact he's been pretty sick since he was born - mostly due to the unexpected frost. Originally his plot was going to expand into his early Apprenticehood where his asthma would be far more of an issue. But, due to the plot happening in the Clan I had to flex this to earlier in his life for it to be realistic. It's been exciting actually!
I don't believe that Pearlkit is someone who would think of himself as worthy of a medicine cat apprenticeship just because he happens to be a little bit sick. In many ways he might actually protest it at first. I feel like his connection to medicine is because of Fireflyglow, his family. It's one thing to be the sick kid that goes to the doctor a lot - it's another to then want to become a doctor yourself, so to speak. But I know that Pearlkit has a natural inclination towards knowledge, towards waiting, and watching, and listening. He's the type to observe before he acts, and I think this is a natural personality trait that is well-suited for a high-stress and quick-decision role like a medicine cat. More than that, I think being treated as a patient so much has also opened up his mind towards wanting to understand what's happening to him, why it's happening to him, and how those smelly plants help it. In many regards, I think he has to have a respect for it, and an admiration for Fireflyglow's knowledge. I know there's a part of him that's grateful too, because that medicine den means he'll walk away from it feeling better. That's a pretty big deal for a young thing like Pearl.
One of the original plots that I had for Pearlkit when I made him was this idea of him being a 'fallen hero'. Taking pride in looking after his siblings and his family, being reliable, being strong and capable. But as he's developed asthma, and as he will constantly deal with this chronic illness, he was always going to have this struggle with feeling limited by his own body, fighting against his mind that wants to be able to do more in a body that won't let him. Pushing his limits and putting too much stress on his body until he's forced to learn his limits. Forced to redefine his own perception of his self-worth and his personal values while maintaining his core values.
He was always going to shift from this idea of being a 'main character' into being a 'support character', and learning that even if life doesn't look like how he planned it to be, that it's okay, and that it might even be for the better.
This was originally planned to be for a warrior's path, given how rare these opportunities are to explore medicine, but there is this alternate world now where that shift into a 'support' role is due to him being called upon to become a medicine cat. To explore more about himself that's not as an extension of him being an older brother and so feeling like he should be a warrior, and that he should do all of these things, but because he has a role unique to himself that his siblings won't be able to walk. That he's meant to not be identified as the older brother, but as Pearl. Instead of burying his own thoughts and feelings into the wider web of his family, I can see him blossoming under this world where he's expected to be there not just for his family, but for his clan, and what it means to have to interact with the wider world instead of the small bubble that he wants to put himself in.
Pearlkit will have a disposition that I think is well-suited for the medicine cat role. Out of the understanding of what it's like to be a sibling in a big family, what it's like to be someone in a clan. He has such a wide web of people to care for and who care for him already that it'll be easy for him to sympathize and empathize with people going through a hard time - especially since he himself struggles too.
But I know being as young as he is, if he's told that he's not meant to be a warrior, he'll protest it at first because he won't understand that it's not a punishment. Because he'll misunderstand his own misplaced feelings of self-dislike that he aims at himself as being the consequence for why he's meant to do something different. I know he respects Fireflyglow's work, and the knowledge that they have, and I know there's a part of him that will be so excited to learn as well - but in the early stages of his late kithood or the first moon of his apprenticeship, I know he'll really struggle with this idea of self-worth and the why behind it all, always feeling like he's a little bit out of place because he's always been trying to force himself into a corner of his own creation.
Basically I think a lot of his journey into being a medicine cat is also a journey of self-discovery and exploration. And in many ways, acceptance. Into the different types of self-identity and the roles that we place ourselves into, or that we get placed into, socially and societally. Why we place ourselves into them, and why they can be important. And why they can be harmful too.
Also me as Noia truly have missed playing medicine cats. I've never had an high position on TT, but I used to play a head medicine cat on [redacted] and it's been so many years, I've got that brain worm a wiggling
I'm going to be so real, all of this is just me brain dumping so I might come back and edit this later to be more clear or if you have questions just lmk!! I have so many more thoughts but this is already so long omg
