#BB!Brightwhisker

[bonefall]

what poison/s were used in riverstar's heir at moth's celebration and when bright and flowerstar ate together? suggestion (if you hadn't decided yet): Monkshood/Aconite/Wolfsbane (Aconitum napellus) its a VERY poisonous plant native to the uk and europe, lethal with both ingestion and body contact and has historical use in killing and murder. symptoms appear quickly and death often comes in only a few hours; its a shame it wasn't used in canon lmao

Oh symptoms don't just appear quickly-- Aconite's name is said to be ancient Greek for "Without Dust." That refers to how aconite kills SO quickly that you will not even kick up dust in your death struggle. Death coming in a few hours is from the minimum deadly dosage, any good assassin worth their salt would use more (and take care to mask its bitter taste, it's not a subtle flavor like cyanide is.)

Forget "deathberries." Yew is nothing next to aconite.

Yew's deadly compound, taxine, acts by stopping your heart. Yawn. Aconite targets your heart, liver, kidneys, AND brain all at the same time. It's so potent that handling young roots will make your hands go numb. Only 2 miligrams of the deadly compound, aconitine, is a fatal dose in a human being; a single grain of rice weighs 20 miligrams.

Anon, my friend, you undersold aconite. It's not just a very poisonous plant in Europe, aconitine is top 5 deadliest poisons period. Members of the aconite family are widespread through the northern hemisphere-- indigenous Alaskan people have used it to hunt whales for tens of thousands of years. Its toxic properties break down within 24 hours, leaving the meat completely safe to eat.

So naturally, suggestion accepted. This is going to be SICK.

Especially since no one will be able to tell what happened. It looks like every major poison because it is. You might assume it was some kind of toxic cocktail from the symptoms. Convulsions, rapid heartrate, vomiting, numbness. It looks like yew, nightshade, and bryony all at once.

It'll be very easy for Bright Whisker to survive this and shake off suspicion simply by poisoning herself with a small amount of something else. If I go with Maple Whisker being a sibling instead of a cousin, I could have her simply join their meal a little late and realize that her mouth feels numb, just as everyone else enters convulsions, so she spits it out.

(Autism win! Avoided a poisoning because texture bad! Maybe she was waiting for the food to cool down too lmao)

And LASTLY... Aconite is Wolf's Bane. I think this is a really cool place to see the earliest incarnation of the Wolf Motif that will later show up in Bluestar's family. It tickles my brain a bit to think of Flowerstar somehow having the "hood" shape of the flower, and then she loses her first life in her gambit to poison the wolf among sheep.

I also had a stroke of inspiration and had an idea for one of the BB!DOTC cats, too. Dappled Pelt gets massively neglected in canon, imo, and I could set up the wolf thing even earlier. African Wild Dog time (painted wolf.)

[bonefall]

maybe bright whisker is related to maple whisker?

Hmmm... I'm unsure how that would sit with Flowerstar's Girlie Moment at the end of the story where she baits Bright into eating poisoned food with her, if her deputy/bestie is going to be related in that way.

"I think your cousin poisoned my king's oldest son and grandchildren and is going to kill me next. I just had to watch my little sister and several friends drown to death in a massive battle they aggravated. I am going to be VERY normal about this now that I can die 9 times"

Actually. Thinking about it. This is objectively funnier I'm going to do it. Maple Whisker learns of what Flowerstar is going to do here and is like, "I support women's wrongs. If my cousin did what I think she did then well she had it coming"

[bonefall]

Does Jumpfoot get damned or does he get taken into Starclan because, even though he was a jackass, he did have a rightful claim to the throne so it's understandable that he would go for it.

Also, does the Diplomat have an actual name?

Jumping Foot is one of StarClan's first major damnings. He was working with the Wind Coalition to accomplish what he did, which many of the spirits of early StarClan were not very charitable towards. He was exploiting his claim to the throne with another Clan's mercenaries.

There were DOZENS of deaths at the Sunningrocks battle, practically a stampede's worth of innocent deaths. "No good king would have allowed such a thing," they rule, "And any warrior who would act as some other leader's puppet is not worthy of the stars."

StarClan will grow more self-obsessed with time, but they were pretty "reasonable" with this one. Weighing the harm he did with his claim to the throne, but what tips them over is how he worked with Duststar. Very few of his followers got damned with him though, unlike later power struggles which had a very "BLOCKED! BLOCKED! BLOCKED! NONE OF YOU ARE FREE OF SIN" vibe

Mossfire was also in trouble for a similar reason-- but it was ruled that she was young and did what was expected of such hard times. It wasn't Mossfire's fault that the Sunningrocks had been so crowded or that so many factions formed, it was Jumping Foot and the Diplomat.

And as for the Diplomat, haven't picked their name yet. Since I'm repurposing the COTC story anyway though, I can take Brightwhisker for now. That feels like a good Diplomat name-- explicitly named for Bright Storm, perhaps.

[bonefall]

might you include some of the COTC robinwing/mothpelt/maplewhisker gang in riverstar’s heir? robin is lowkey a bg blorbo for me… i love a guy with no canon appearance description <3

Of course of course <3

I'm not sure who the adopted Heir should be, on that note. I feel like Mothpelt makes the most sense. Here's additional "wants" for BB!RH that I'm shuffling around like jigsaw pieces;

I want the following cats to have roles here; Robinwing, Mothpelt, Duststar, Jumpfoot, Mossfire, Flowerstem, Redscar.

The following cats are maybes, and may get shuffled around the Code Era or moved to the reserves; Maplewhisker, Brightwhisker, Blizzardstar

SIDE NOTE ON DUSTSTAR; he is a direct descendant of Windstar. Dust Muzzle is either his parent or grandparent. The Wind Coalition is also a monarchy, currently. He is also the youngest leader at this time and has been ruling from a young age.

I need at least 4 Heirs. The Chosen (adopted), The Eldest (oldest living child), The Firstborn (direct descendent of deceased firstborn), and The Worthy (descendant with most achievements)

And in addition there is at least one Visier who was actually running RiverClan, what we would now consider a "Deputy."

The story ends with Redscar's choice.

So Robin works nicely as the Visier... Mothpelt could be The Chosen. It's also probably going to come down to Robinwing and Flowerstem as the two "Finalists."

I also like Halo's suggestion that there could be a moment where it all seems to work out, they're on their way to the Moonstone... and then the Heir Apparent is assassinated. So that the "SET A DEPUTY BEFORE MOONHIGH" part gets added to the Law of the Deputy.