applestrikez

[applestrikez]

“weird and unhealthy relationship that cant be categorized neatly as sexual or romantic or platonic but has a defining air of devotion and obsession to it” wins sound of the summer for the 13th year in a row

[applestrikez]

There’s a melody in everything, I’m trying to find a harmony, but nothing seems to work, nothing seems to fit

[applestrikez]

"ThunderClan has had a great loss," Emberstar began. "A coyote was found on our territory, and chased one of our patrols into ShadowClan territory. We were fortunate enough for a ShadowClan patrol to come across the fight and help our warriors, but Asterpaw died of his injuries on the way back to camp."

Before the gathered cats could hold a silence for the fallen apprentice, a voice cut above the crowd. "ShadowClan refused to help him!" Redfoot stood tall, fur bushed and teeth bared. "He could barely walk, and collapsed before we could get home! He was bleeding internally and needed immediate attention, that ShadowClan denied." He swung his gaze to Comfreystar. "Were you made aware that your warriors broke our code and left a 9-moon old apprentice to die? Or is ShadowClan only concerned with keeping injured, exhausted cats off of their territory?"

As Redfoot described Asterpaw's injuries, Oakfoot looked more and more horrified in her spot under Comfreystar with the other healers. Smokemist leaned over to whisper something in her ear, and her face fell.

[applestrikez]

them. i need to make applestrike more smiley in the second she looks annoyed lol

[applestrikez]

redfoot interrupting the announcement of asterpaws death to admonish shadowclan + smokemist explaining asterpaws internal bleeding to shadowclans healer oakfoot

[applestrikez]

i think it might be kind of fun for applestrike to have a massive fuck up right at the triumphant end of her rebellion arc, ive been trying to figure out what to do with redstar and meadowmist. from day 1 of this plot they were meant to die in classic bad guy fashion and im still generally leaning that way. sometimes im like but what about the ethics and morals of killing oh nooo and then i remember im not required to teach anyone anything in my warriors oc story. this story is built for my own political venting and i can kill the tyrants if i want. but regardless redstar is still a leader with multiple lives. close to 9 if not the full 9. so killing him once in your epic final battle isnt enough and i dont feel like pulling a scourge. right now i like the idea of applestrike forcing him to rescind his position and him giving in to that magically makes his lives go away and then she kills him

but i think it would be cool. if making him give up his leadership was supposed to be the only thing they did. like thunderclan came to the decision that thats how he should be dealt with. and maybe they were still deciding if he should be exiled or not. thunderclan is dealing with a change of power and their new leader and deputy are trying to pick up the pieces and find the best way to move forward, how can we avoid becoming redstar's thunderclan again? how do we usher in peace without letting the other clans walk all over us in revenge? etcetera. but during that period of redstar being redfoot again and on camp arrest or something applestrike just fucking murders him. shes lost hope for thunderclan after they offered her the deputy position and she doesnt think theyll ever truly be incapable of becoming Redstar's ThunderClan again. thunderclan doesnt know what theyre doing. none of the clans know what theyre doing. applestrike has to do this herself again. shes also incredibly fueled by grief for her father and brothers, grief for the childhood she lost as redstars apprentice, grief for the pain lightningheart endured because he couldnt bear to be without her. so she murders him. either it happens pretty straightforward and the clan is horrified, or she's pretty easily able to claim he tried to finish her off and she only defended herself. either way shes done something terrible- the clan sees her dishonorably kill, or she knowingly lies to cover up her dishonorable kill

this veers back to moral-of-the-story and a "killing is bad" statement but idk. its cool. its not applestrike being the good moral protagonist putting an end to the war. its applestrike doing something horrible.

[applestrikez]

the thing about "does redstar deserve to die" is. while technically it would be possible for him to fix his shit because most of it is xenophobia and a disregard for others, he was also so purposefully and calculatingly horrible to applestrike i dont feel like entertaining the idea. i cant honestly say hes the type of antagonist that Has to be killed because nothing else would stop him. but im also not leaving him alive

[applestrikez]

i also dont talk about the rest of redstars litter enough

frigidflight was named after her aunt frozengaze. this does not have any bearing on the plot its just a detail i like. she's a responsible older sister type, and absolutely not approving of redstars leadership. but she also knows how to keep her mouth shut to save her pelt. she has scarring on her face and body from a Great Fire that happened a while before the start of the story. The Great Fire™ is where im throwing a lot of missing parents btw. why are emberstars mother and aunt alive and old but amberstrike has no parents? The Fire got em

leafstorm is redstars deputy. he fired his first one and replaced her with his sister. another obvious choice for power and control but you wont hear much protest voiced about it. leafstorm is nervous and ashamed of her role in the clan, and tends to keep to herself or her siblings. before she was made deputy, she was still a nervous person, but accepted help more often and was well motivated to do her best as a warrior. she often sticks to duties in camp, but likes hunting.

smokemist was already a healer when redfoot became deputy. their mentor goldendew is thinking about retirement, but still healthy and sturdy in his old age. smokemist is confident in their abilities and always determined to get cats feeling better, or as comfortable as possible. they became nervous and skittish when redstar became leader. still determined to help and heal, but really wishing starclan would give them a sign. tell them redstars evil, tell them hes fine, something, anything. they get a little distracted looking and hoping for communication.

darkpelt is semiverbal after a head injury. she has trouble speaking coherently and often opts not to speak at all. she works incredibly hard to "make up" for not being able to do harder jobs, which smokemist has to reel her in from constantly. darkpelt is mischievous and enjoys hiding in shadows to jump out at people. everyone jokes that she wandered in from shadowclan as a kit.

[applestrikez]

This is what info dumping oc lore feels like

[applestrikez]

giant thing i just wrote about redstar on furaffinity:

redfoot assisted in mentoring several apprentices while he was young. he was familiar with all the apprentices and beloved, sort of functioning like the teacher equivalent of a relative that lets your parents rules slide when youre with them. his active presence in training convinced emberstar to give him an apprentice earlier than she normally would have; she always preferred to see how a warrior matured before putting the responsibility of mentorship on them. redfoot and asterpaw were a great team, until their patrol was chased by a coyote into shadowclan territory. a patrol found them and helped fight the coyote off, but were unaccommodating of the circumstances and tried to get them off the territory as fast as possible. asterpaw had been injured in the fight, but the shadowclan patrol insisted they get back to their camp and be seen by their own healers. asterpaw died on the way home, bleeding internally in the abdomen.

an amount of time i havent determined passes where redfoot grieves and adjusts. he doesnt go back to helping with training very often. when emberstar's deputy dies unexpectedly, she appoints redfoot. his incomplete mentorship was made up well over by his experience helping. and when emberstar had kits and their apprentice ceremonies came along, she assigned applepaw to redfoot. redfoot had taken up emberstar's responsibilities while she was helping her mate in the nursery, and after losing his own apprentice, emberstar wanted to thank him by entrusting one of her kits to him.

unfortunately we (my audience of me and the random people and friends i post to) all know that redfoot squanders that trust a million times over when emberstar dies and redstar uses applepaw's grief to make her bitter and reactive. and when she starts getting away from him and he tries to cut her down again by killing the rest of her family she's already too far gone. he has completely lost his grip on her and she leads a revolution against him. bye bye mr hubris

[applestrikez]

i also dont talk about the rest of redstars litter enough

frigidflight was named after her aunt frozengaze. this does not have any bearing on the plot its just a detail i like. she's a responsible older sister type, and absolutely not approving of redstars leadership. but she also knows how to keep her mouth shit to save her pelt. she has scarring on her face and body from a Great Fire that happened a while before the start of the story. The Great Fire™ is where im throwing a lot of missing parents btw. why are emberstars mother and aunt alive and old but amberstrike has no parents? The Fire got em

leafstorm is redstars deputy. he fired his first one and replaced her with his sister. another obvious choice for power and control but you wont hear much protest voiced about it. leafstorm is nervous and ashamed of her role in the clan, and tends to keep to herself or her siblings. before she was made deputy, she was still a nervous person, but accepted help more often and was well motivated to do her best as a warrior. she often sticks to duties in camp, but likes hunting.

smokemist was already a healer when redfoot became deputy. their mentor goldendew is thinking about retirement, but still healthy and sturdy in his old age. smokemist is confident in their abilities and always determined to get cats feeling better, or as comfortable as possible. they became nervous and skittish when redstar became leader. still determined to help and heal, but really wishing starclan would give them a sign. tell them redstars evil, tell them hes fine, something, anything. they get a little distracted looking and hoping for communication.

darkpelt is semiverbal after a head injury. she has trouble speaking coherently and often opts not to speak at all. she works incredibly hard to "make up" for not being able to do harder jobs, which smokemist has to reel her in from constantly. darkpelt is mischievous and enjoys hiding in shadows to jump out at people. everyone jokes that she wandered in from shadowclan as a kit.

[applestrikez]

redstar blames the shadowclan patrol for asterpaw's death but i dont think there would have been any way to save them if they died before the patrol even made it back to camp. they would have died on the way to shadowclan's healer too. but redstar will always blame the patrol that prioritized getting them off of their territory

[applestrikez]

redstar the perpetually bloodstained thunderclan leader another drawing from a photo reference which i dont do nearly enough

[applestrikez]

liked that drawing so much i went back and shaded it

[applestrikez]

Can I get a uhhhhhhh *checks smudged writing on hand* applestrike with 25?

(If you didnt mean Your OCs with that ask game . um. Oops . I can go again)

#25 was faster n harder by 6arelyhuman! very funny to realize i need to draw my mega serious ferocious desperate warriors oc to this. extremely fun! she deserves to #slay

[applestrikez]

evil medicine cat! hes a windclan cat and the herb in on his ear is thyme

[applestrikez]

process for everything stays! blocking out the silhouette, sketch, lines, color, and shading+background stuff!