#Laurelstorm

[x-critter2022]

Happy (late) birthday! I’m sorry I didn’t get this out yesterday, @spottyissleepwalking so I added a bit more detail!

I’m also sorry it’s being weird about the animation, Tumblr is making it pause and speed up where it shouldn’t.

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

getting very tired of people thinking that an evil character being queer = bad rep. like you could say it was kind of bigoted if tiger was the sole trans woman in ofnd, but that’s not the case so there’s no correlation between transness and evil.

also love me some nasty evil stinky transes honestly, they are my favorites. if all queer characters were perfect and moral and good things would get real boring real fast

THANK YOU

A lot of the time, in representation in media, consumers get so blinded by the word “trans” that they forget the word “people”. They’re not supposed to be perfect; nobody is perfect. Everyone has their flaws, and for some, those are just more prevalent and worse than others. Trans people can be awful just as cis people can, and cis people can be good just as trans people can! We’re all just people at the end of the day, and that extends to well-written characters.

I support Laurelstorm’s wrongs; we love her for it <3 my complex sopping wet gremlin woman <333

[spottyissleepwalking]

Pokes you with a sword stick I love your au and your designs it’s gets me frothing in the mouth I love how you made whitestorm a part of the tigerstar and made her the evil gal laurelstorm you are amazing sporty and if I have to poke you with a stick sword I will

Or I can head bonk you

<3

[sketchnyan]

I was doing the clan gen challenge and after finishing halfway through I somehow made backstories and personailties for most of the cats I’ve finished, and this red boy is my villain Campionnose! When was an apprentice he was trained by a great Snowstorm and grew too attached. So attached that he thought he was being replaced by Snow’s own daughter Laurelpaw and became jealous to an unhealthy degree and murderered his own mentor. blah blah blah the clan never found out blah blah Laurelstorm becomes Laurelstar blah blah blah Campionnose wants to murder Laurelstar because he blames her for taking Snowstorm away from him in the first place.

anyway, this piece would be the scene after Laurel is made leader and most of the clan is cheering for her Campion’s like “Man wtf why is everyone cheering for this bitch?” and rips his own ears, a few cats see campion bleeding and the crowd slowly quiets down.

the cat walking up to him is Willowcloud a former kittypet whose kinda dumb.

as you can see. my favoirte warrior cats trope is obsessed crazy people 

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

How many names has Laurelstorm gone through? I remember Wolf- and Coyote- but I assume there's others.

Oh geez, yeah Laurel’s been through a ton…

At one point in OFND, Whitestorm and Tigerclaw were separate characters near the Very beginning of OFND’s creation; Whitestorm went through a few names (namely Softsnow and Whitethorn), and Tigerclaw did as well (namely Strikeclaw and Talonclaw).

Once Laurelstorm came into existence, her original name was Tigerstorm! Then it was Tigerlilyclaw, then Talonstorm, then Wolfclaw, Wolfstorm, Coyotestorm, Maplespark, Maplestorm, and then, finally Laurelstorm!

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

Firefall: You killed him

Laurelstorm: he died of natural causes

Firefall: you call dying from talons to the neck “natural causes?”

Laurelstorm: Obviously. Dying when you’re claws in the neck is the most natural thing in the world

Laurelstorm: It would have been really unnatural if he’d survived

CRYING I can absolutely see them having this very interaction

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

So... what happens to Dreamtongue?

He gets dragged to the Moorswept and publicly executed by Laurelstorm as a show of her good graces.

Essentially: “Look. I’ve brought your kin’s snake-hearted murderer, weak and blind. Let me kill him for you, bleed him dry, in exchange for being accepted into your ranks.”

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

Laurastorm takes over the windswept? What happen to my boy? What happen to hopfoot?

She did indeed. She dragged Dreamtongue with her, under the guise of “horrible cats need to stick together”, and then presented him to the Moorswept… and slaughtered him for them.

Hopfoot wasn’t ready to take the mantle of oratorship. He just lost half of his home, his entire firstborn litter, his half-brother, his mate’s family, and he was so achingly young… He was too numb to act as a proper leader. He kept the survivors together as a torch of hope, the last surviving member of the Yellow Star’s lineage, but he wasn’t really… present.

He was a husk of himself for the longest time, and he remained that way until the dawn after Laurelstorm allied the Moorswept (she renamed them the Stormswept) with the Riverward after heavily blackmailing Sunningstrike.

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

How was the reaction when the moorswept finally returned? Did no one send out search parties to try to find them or was it declared a lost case?

They were declared pretty much a lost cause, especially by the Fenland, since most of them were literally there to witness the brutality of it. And if they, as the aggressors, still had nightmares about it, what would the effects be on the surviving victims?

Plus, the Moorswept’s orator had been killed. More than half the faction had fallen. Nobody thought they’d be able to pick themselves up again.

It was quite a shock: not only because next to no one expected them to return, but also because they were led back into the forest by Laurelstorm, who had adorned herself with a smear of red across her eyes, that every Moorsweeper confirmed as the blood of Dreamtongue…

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

I noticed that Laurelstorm being the one to kill Rainfall got retconned... who's going to kill her instead?

I’m planning to do one last “1 hour questioning” sometime tomorrow… Keep an eye out so you can ask again then ;)

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

Since Thrush's death seems to be comparatively recent compared to other deaths before a dream of destiny, when did Laurel find out about the fox incident? Pre-Dream of Destiny or after?

So the timeline is pretty crowded around that point…

Thrush dies, Rainfall leaves and appoints Mottled (who would have JUST received his full name at 13 moons, roughly) as her liaison. She’s gone for a moon, comes back, and immediately offers Laurel one of the fox’s teeth.

About ten moons later, Rust comes into the forest.

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

Did Laurelstorm use Crookedstorm's death to blackmail Sunningstrike? How did she find out if so?

She didn’t “find out”….

She helped orchestrate it.

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

Laurel joins the Moorswept?👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️

“Joins” is a.. very loose term…

I’d say more “takes over”…..

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

Who do you think are the top 3 most tragic cats of OFND?

Oh jeez… that is hard. I thrive on making characters as angsty and tragic as possible lmao

Hmm,, For the first arc, at least, Rainfall’s definitely in the top three. So is Laurelstorm - she’s a monster of her own making, and the product of her system and upbringing. And, ultimately… maybe Rust, at the end of his life.

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

This is now being retconned. :)

how does rainfall die, if this hasn't been asked already?

Laurelstorm.

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

Spoiler question: how exactly does Rainfall die?

In the aftermath of Laurelstorm’s betrayal, Rainfall is shaken to her very core. She becomes a husk of her former self: unable to eat, to care for herself, much less lead. It comes to a point where her neglect is actively hurting her community: She doesn’t name a liaison. She spits on anyone who attempts to approach her. She tries to banish Laurelstorm’s newborn kits with Monarchmask. Her refusal to name Swift and Pigeon lead to the deaths of two bright, promising young cats (Swift and Bright) and the near-death of another (Pigeon) in their attempts to prove themselves to her.

But Rainfall ignored it all, too consumed in her niece’s betrayal and attempted murder to so much as lift her head…

And Firefall has enough.

He approaches her one evening, after he set the day’s patrols; the camp is nearly completely empty. He settles himself at her side, offering her food and herbs - one final ditch attempt to make her rise to her former glory, one last try to get her to rise. She refuses him and lashes out; her claws connect to his cheek, and he reels back, eyes flashing. He sighs… and murmurs to her his latest decisions. He has renamed himself: Rustfire. Rainfall tries to protest, but he silences her with an icy, “if you wanted to have any say, you should have remained orator.”

“I am orator. I am your orator, your superior. You cannot change the name I gifted to you.”

“No… not anymore.” He inhales, straightening. Behind him, Sandstorm and Minktail slink into the den; Sandstorm’s eyes are cold, and Minktail’s glitter with grief. Rainfall bristles, shoving herself upright as Firefall-Rustfire, goes on. “If you are allowed to lead, to continue as you are, you will destroy the Woodruff. Your home. The community you swore to protect has already been hurt enough by you. And I cannot allow it anymore.”

He steps back as Sandstorm and Minktail step up. Rainfall hisses, and turns to Rustfire a final time, attempting to plead… but he turns away. His ears lay flat against his skull as Sandstorm and Minktail work together to silence her dying screams.

In the aftermath, Sandstorm becomes orator, with Monarchmask as her second in command… and Rustfire, his change of name made official by Sandstorm, keeping his place as allay.