#coev: laurel

[cats-of-eden-valley]

Wait what? But… he didn’t mate with anyone in the pride? Why was there father exile?

That's definitely part of the argument was made. It was a bit of an unprecedented situation--a coalition tom has never in pride memory brought back a litter they had while away from the Valley. Other cats argued that he (his name was Laurel) broke the coalitions law of silence, where the toms aren't allowed to speak about where they go during the Sleeping Year.

It can also be argued that he broke a law of queens, where a pride cat can't have kittens with an outsider, but are protected by the "don't ask, don't tell" clause around a litter's sire. Doesn't work as well when a tom brings a litter back, because everyone knows that the dam must be an outsider.

Laurel just wanted his kits safe, because for whatever reason the mate he took couldn't take care of them. He had a lot of misgivings about the prides and how they worked, but he thought at least they would let this be a cut and dry issue and take in the kittens without asking too many questions. Instead, the topic began to circle into "what to do with them" so it was his offer to take the fall--he broke the law, but his children shouldn't suffer.

So he fully agreed to be exiled. Maybe he was weirdly relieved because of it too.

[cats-of-eden-valley]

do you have any notable splinter family characters at the moment? as in, characters that are currently splintered? or are they so far-flung that they won’t really come in contact with the main cast?

splinters families are kinda like my backup in case I ever just. need a Guy real quick and no one established will do, so i don't really have anyone super notable yet?

i could expand on Rhubarb, though. She's Hemlock's mother, the older sister of Dogsbane (p. Thistleclaw), and littermates with Hawthorn (eldest tom in the Goldspring coalition) who felt the Call and left. She had Hemlock and Parsnip, Parsnip going to join the coalitions (though he's p solitary and doesn't come home often) and Hemlock didn't really want to live alone, so she joined the core pride.

though related: some exiled cats are allowed to live on the territory, just not with the core pride. this is what happened to Laurel when he brought kittens home to the pride.

[cats-of-eden-valley]

Who’s Laurel?

No one from Warriors, he's actually a character from one of my clans in Clangen! He's less relevant than his kids (who I don't know how they come about yet or why) Juneberry and Lilac. I brought them in the help fill in the generation gap around where Darkstripe n Lizardtail are born in the rewrite cus there is...just nobody lmao

The lowdown on the sibs though: They're littermates and completely attached at the hip. Lilac isn't close to anyone Except Her Brother, even her own father. Kinda cold and withdrawn, though she opens up a bit more as she ages. Juneberry is much more outgoing, but he, uh...didn't last as long as Lilac in my game u.u He's gonna be Wormwood's (Yellowfang) 'paw, after he decides to step up into the vacant healer spot.