#dovewing has seen things dovewing has done things | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thedo0zyslider · 3 months

Text

there is a sister shaped hole where my heart used to be - 8k Words

Starclan wants Dovepaw to be what she could not. To make up for their failure, for picking the wrong third.

Lionblaze and Jayfeather have recently lost a sister. It feels like Starclan is saying to just replace her.

Dovewing wants to (cannot) be neither of those things.

A03 Link

Everything ends with the sound of rocks and dirt collapsing, and a full moon still resting high in the sky. (Or maybe everything begins with the sound of falling dirt. Jayfeather could not tell you which it is, no matter how hard he tried.)

(Maybe it's both.)

The rocks are falling, collapsing on Hollyleaf. His sister, they are collapsing on his only sister. He can barely remember how they got here now, but it will all be so painfully clear in the morning. His paws already ache from running after her, and his shoulder throbs from where she clawed him away from the medicine den. How she'd clawed Jayfeather away from her, so she could run. (Hollyleaf never hurt him, or Lionbalze. She never did, she never laid a claw on them she was always nice and kind and loving with her brothers she loved her brothers too much to hurt them. Something was wrong something was wrong wrong wrong and there were rocks and loose dirt falling on his sister-)

He had seen her memories mere minutes ago. Of blood on her claws and blood in the water and a gray, lifeless mass floating in the stream. But that didn’t matter anymore because a tunnel was collapsing right onto Hollyleaf. Loose dirt was falling and going to crush his only sister and it was all Jayfeather could hear.

He thinks he screams for her, as he tries to dig. Lionblaze's form is on his right, and he's pushing him away from the ground that's not done falling yet. Jayfeather wants to yell at him, but all that comes out is their littermates name. He needs to save her, to dig her out before it's too late. Before he has to clean the dirt out of another siblings mouth and lungs-

(He will have saved all his siblings, all his brothers and a single sister, from a tunnel collapse if he can get to her. Even if Jayfeather does not want to call Breezepelt anything close to brother, he is still the one he dug up his brothers and pulled the dirt from Breezepaw and Lionpaw's bodies all those moons ago at the Daylight Gathering. He saved them from death, just like he brought Poppyfrost back from Starclan's grasp as well. And he can get Hollyleaf back too. He just needs to get to her he just needs to dig.)

(He has already lost two mothers and fathers, he cannot lose his sister too.)

And then, suddenly, as if it where never happening at all, the rocks and dirt are done falling, and the forest is quiet around them. The world settles with a rumble, and all is quiet except for the chirping of night time insects around them. Lionblaze drags his little brother away from what remains of the tunnel, and from their sister. He could not have dug fast enough, no one could've. Even the cats who could've seen the dirt couldn't have saved her. Nature, and the earth, are often far too strong and far too fast acting to do anything about.

His sister has been buried in a grave of stone and dirt, and the last memory of her Jayfeather has is full of Ashfur's blood floating in the river and staining her paws.

Lionblaze, strong, reliable Lionblaze, presses his frame against Jayfeather's skinner one and shakes with grief. He has never felt his brother shake like this before, not even during the fire. It scares him more than he will ever admit.

In the quiet of the night, under the Gathering's full moon, Jayfeather presses back against his brother and cannot help the wail that leaves him. His sister is gone, his sister is dead. And neither of them have the strength to dig through the dirt and see her mangled body. Let alone carry it back to camp for all their kin to see.

(Back at camp, there is a mother who does not know her daughter is dead. There is a mother whose daughter just tried to kill her. And there is another mother padding home from the island with stares on her pelt and chin held high despite it all. There is a father who doesn't care anymore so very far away from her, and across the lake there is one who never did; who stays very far away from them all. There is a stepmother and a halfbrother who they mean nothing too and a Windclan grandmother they never knew they had.

Back at camp there are Thunderclan grandparents and a leader they have to face. They have to announce the death too. Jayfeather doesn't think he can. He doesn't want to see his clanmates happy his sister is gone.)

Hollyleaf had made a mess, shattered everything and left them to pick up the pieces. She had run away from her own actions. And she is not alive for them to be able to resent her for it, not anymore.

(They will still come and leave a flower on her grave when sunrise comes, and they must face the first day without their littermate.)

Everything ends after sunset, and begins again at sunrise the next morning.

__________________________________

The walk back to Thunderclan camp is longer than it has ever been. Lionblaze does not leave his brothers side for the whole trip, and guides his steps with his tail. Jayfeather does not need to be guided normally, but he allows it this night. He feels clumsy like he hasn't since his very first weeks of life, and like his limbs will give out of Lionblaze is not there to lift him up. It feels like the forest is just waiting to trip him up again.

(Of course he is clumsy, why wouldn't he be? There is supposed to be another body pressed against his other side, another cat to help guide him. That body is gone. It's like he's forgotten how to walk without her, and it feels like he will never properly learn to again.)

The silence is deafening when they shamble through the entrance. The hostile stares that turn to the brothers say more than enough, more than words ever will. (Half-clan. Scum. Disgraces. Curseded blood running through their veins. A product of shattering two codes. A shame on Thunderclan. A stain on Firestar's glorious legacy. A weak link for Windclan to take advantage of. Should never have been born. And a million other horrible things to think about a cat.) He smells Squrrielflight's scent get closer, before it settled a few feet away. She is hesitant. Squirrelflight is never hesitant. The uncertainty and unusualness of it all makes him want to scream.

Their father is somewhere in the camp, looking at them, but not where Jayfeather can sense. Lionblaze can see him though, can see the same amber eyes he has staring back from under the highrock. Their father's love is gone, replaced by something else instead. He doesn't want to dissect it, and lets his eyes follow Sandstorm, grandmother, instead as she stands next to her scarily hesitant daughter. Firestar follows close behind.

Neither of them need to look over to see Leafpool peaking out from the medicine den, scared. She is clearly rattled from whatever Hollyleaf had done. She is wondering where her only daughter has gone.

(Her daughter will not be coming home. Her daughter will never come home again. Her daughter died with hate in her heart and no love to guide her soul upwards. Leafpool will know this shortly.)

Firestar is the first to speak. It's the first time he's ever spoken to his grandkits in a tone so hollow. Yet there is still some familiar gentleness hidden far, far underneath. "Jayfeather, Lionblaze, where is your sister?"

(He does not say her name, like it is a sin to do so. Like she's an evil, Dark Forest cat from the elders tales. Jayfeather wants to scream again for the second time that night.)

Neither of them say anything immediately, mostly because the silence after Firestar's words is loud. Expectant. Deafening. He hears Leafpool hold her breath, and Squrrielflight move slightly closer to her mother in anticipation. Brambleclaw is still as statue in the background.

He doesn't think Lionblaze can say it, so Jayfeather will say it for both of them. He has always been good at speaking when his littermates littermate cannot.

"Hollyleaf is dead." He says, and it's the last words he will for a while. The grief is choking him too much to say much else. Despite that, his voice is deadpan and free of any indication of pain. It's fooling nobody. He's still leaning on Lionblaze to stand.

"How?" Is all Squrrielflight says. She let's herself sound pained, she let's the grief flow. The rest of their Thunderclan kin, and clanmates, say nothing. He hopes that movement from Brambleclaw in the back is something mournful, or so help him Starclan.

(Hollyleaf would he tearing their father limb for limb for that attitude if she was here. That attitude that he never loved them at all. And Jayfeather will gladly do so in her place. Lionblaze will as well.)

"A tunnel collapsed. There was nod digging her out in time." Lionblaze finishes for his brother, and Jayfeather leans on him harder. He adds something about her chasing a squrriel, some dumb lie to distract from the truth everyone knows.

Hollyleaf was running from the consequences of her own actions, and Starclan had punished her accordingly. Perhaps in favor of covering the moon on an already ending Gathering.

The silence is broken by Leafpool'a wail. The sound of a mother's grief. Sandstorm moves away to comfort her eldest daughter. Firestar presses himself against their youngest, taking his mate's place, and Squrrielflight buries her face in her father's fur like she is a kit again.

No one comes to comfort them. They get tired of glaring and whispering and want to sleep instead. When the eyes have turned away from him, Jayfeather hides his face in Lionblaze's shoulder for a second and sobs. His brother will return the gesture a million times over before dawn comes.

Cats mutter their condolences to Brambleclaw as they all head in for the night. Not over the cat he lost, for the dauhter who is gone, but for the pain the whole situation has brought him. The deputy just nods, and moves his nest away from Squrrielflight's. It's not like she'll be sleeping in there tonight, anyways.

They hold a vigil, one without a body to bury. Her brothers are there. Her mothers are there. Her fathers couldn't care less. Firestar and Sandstorm stay, despite whatever complicated feelings are swirling inside them, they stay. They stay for their daughters, and for the grandchildren they spent time with and kitsitted and helped to raised. Sandstorm grieves for the granddaughter she shared so much of herself with, her skills and her ambition, and Firestar grieves for the grandchild he had before sunset. (Or, thought he had before sunset. The old Hollyleaf, the one he loved, burned and died in that fire like Yellowfang once had.) He grieves for the kit who was going to be like her father one day.

(He always thought she looked like Ravenpaw. He hoped she would have a better life in the clans than he had.

Fate was never kind to black cats, in the end. Bad luck seemed to run with the pelt color.)

No one else stops by, not still the sky is starting to turn yellow. Cinderheart comes to pay her best friend condolences. She drags Lionblaze away once the leader and his mate have left, saying he needs to eat. He lets her. He lets Hazeltail and Mousewhisker say sorry to him, and mourn the version of his sister they'd been friends with. Berrynose says nothing.

Jayfeather does not see his brother for the rest of the day. He stops seeing Lionblaze less after she goes. It is hard to be together as two when they're should be a third body next to them, after all.

The one to drag Jayfeather away is Poppyfrost. She ignores any look her mate, or anyone else, gives her and presses against the medicine cats side like Lionblaze had. Like his sister used too.

"You have to eat as well, Jay." His friend murmurs, and Jayfeather lets his ear twitch so she knows he's listening. Other than that he is still as a statue. "She would want you to eat. To live."

Jayfeather holds back a tired sigh at her correct words, and finds himself slowly getting to his paws. Poppyfrost always knew how to make him listen, almost as well as his siblings did. That's why she was his best, if only, friend. She had her father's kindness, as Leafpool always said, and Jayfeather was currently shoving any words she'd ever said to him in the far reaches of his mind. Where they would never be touched again.

Leafpool and Squrrielflight only leave when the rest of the warriors start to wake. The latter shows her sister to the warriors den, and moves their nests to a more private corner. The bedding is shoved together, like how they had it when they were kits, before Leafpool could no longer share a nest with her. Her sister's warmth will replace Brambleclaw's for the next little while.

Poppyfrost lingers outside the medicine den, after dropping Jayfeather off, but leaves eventually. She has patrols to go on and other people to care about. The shrew she grabbed for him is left to grow cold on the den's floor. He couldn't eat right now, not when there was work to bury himself in. (It would taste like ash on his tounge when Jayfeather did eventually eat it. Shrew was always her favorite.)

He is the sole medicine cat now. Leafpool demoted herself at the gathering, and Firestar had no choice but to go along with it. The medicine den has never felt so empty. There is one more empty nest than there should be. Jayfeather resists the urge to claw it up, and keeps on working.

The out of place deathberries on the floor send a clear message, of what his sister was going to do to their mother. Jayfeather feels numb at the new knowledge, and puts them back in their proper place, towards the back of the storage.

(He wonders, if Leafpool had eaten them, if his sister would still be here. He wishes he had time reversing powers so he could go back and try.)

While cleaning the den of everything that made it Leafpool's and Jayfeather's, instead of just Jayfeather's, he infs tufts of familiar black fur from the night previous. Gently, the medicine cat scoops them up with a paw, and places them near the death berries. In the back of the herb storage, where no on but him can reach.

Sunrise happens again, and before it comes and goes Jayfeather already knew Starclan had lied. Their sister was not special, because they had let her die. They had told her she was special, then they had killed her with rocks and dirt. Lionblaze knows it too. He can feel it.

He wanted to know why. He knew they would never tell him. They would kill his sister then never say why. They would lie to all of them and never say why.

Jayfeather snarls and flexes his claws at the thought, and then stops before he shreds up some innocent borgae leaves. That is enough for today, he decides, and goes to rest. To sleep time away and pretend this was all a horrible dream. From the fire till now, it was all just a bad dream.

(Starclan had lied and his sister is dead. He is going to have a horrible time at the bext half moon meeting. Yellowfang and Spottedleaf will know nothing but the way he will yell and the way he will cry. They will pity him. He does not want their pity. He wants to see his sister again.

He cannot.)

If only he could see. Then he would know that was true, and that this was just a horrible nightmare.

___________________________________

A few moons pass, and Jayfeather knows they are trying to replace his sister.

He knows this because he is watching an apprentice ceremony, where two of Firestar's descendants sit eagerly under Highrock. They are from Cloudtail's side of the family. The cousin that was not the most present in Jayfeather's younger years, but certainly wasn’t entirely absent either. The cousins who are also kin of Firestar.

He had known this for moons, since he helped with their birth. Everytime he had to check up on the kits, or give them herbs for a cold, he knew.

One of these kits was meat to replace his sister. And he was just supposed to let it happen.

(Jayfeather didn’t know if he could do anything but let it happen. He just has the powers of the stars in his paws, he does not hand out the powers. If he did the latter, his sister would not be dead.)

Now, they just have to figure out which apprentice Starclan has chosen, and then go from there. That is the only thing Jayfeather can think to do.

He sits next to Lionblaze at the ceremony. Things are still....tense in the clan, even sixth months after that fateful gathering. He does not want to sit by anyone else, and they do not want to sit by him; sans Poppyfrost and Purdy, who does not care for all the half clan nonsense. (Before the secret, Jayfeather would always sit next to Leafpool. He never sat by her anymore for anything.)

He turns his head slightly towards Lionblaze while Firestar announces the first kit's mentor. He feels his brother glance over at him, and flicks his tail towards the general direction of the medicine den. A signal to talk later. He assumes Lionblaze has nodded when his gaze moves away from Jayfeather's form, and back to the ceremony at hand.

The ceremony ends. Dovekit and Ivykit are made into Dovepaw and Ivypaw, apprenticed to Lionblaze and Cinderheart respectively. Lionblaze is surprised, but happily accepts the role, touching noses with his apprentice. Jayfeather knows it is probably to help his reputation, to show that Lionblaze is trustworthy despite his heritage. He knows that it probably won’t work, but it's worth a shot. Firestar looks pleased, if that's worth anything.

Lionblaze excuses himself after the ceremony, tell Cinderheart he'll only be a minute. She nods, and gathers Dovepaw and Ivypaw as he quietly walks over to the medicine den. Jayfeather, who is lingering around the den's entrance, senses his brother padding forward, and slips inside it.

"The third cat is one of them." Jayfeather says, making a small circle around the inside of the den. Lionblaze sits a little way from the entrance, his tails curled around his paws.

"I know." His brother says, his voice tense. Jayfeather makes another circle, his tail lashing rapidly. Lionblaze half worries about it hitting him in the face on accident.

"You need to watch them, find out which one it is." Jayfeather paces again, and Lionblaze can't help but be slightly worried. It's rare to see his brother this agitated over anything. Though, if anything was going to rile him up like this, it would be the prophecy. It had a nasty habit if doing that.

"I will, don't worry." Lionblaze mews back, the tension not leaving his voice. It is also starting to settle in his shoulders, leaving them hunched and the fur on them starting to stand.

Jayfeather pauses his cirlcing, and fixes his sightless blue eyes on his brother. He has glared at Lionblaze like he is now a million times before, and will probably continue to do so for the rest of their lives. He will be snapping at him too for the rest of that time, just like he is now. "You better!"

"You're worrying too much, Jay." Lionblaze says, tail twitching behind him. Jayfeather was always like this; a worrier. Even if he never showed it, he worried. It's what made him such a good medicine cat, and a rather annoying prophecy one.

"Lion, this is about the prophecy, of course I'm worrying!" Jayfeather says, not quite snapping again just yet. But his fur is starting to stand up in agitation. "You know how important finding the third cat is!"

"I know," Lionblaze sighs. His tone is heavy, heavier than Jayfeather is prepared to deal with today. But he's going to have to deal with it. "I'm just wishing we didn't have too."

Jayfeather goes silent after that, no more irritated words coming to him. If he has anything else to say, then the words won't leave his throat. Lionblaze doesn't say anything else either. There is nothing else left for him to possibly add. The warrior had already said it all.

The medicine cat doesn't continue the conversation, instead flicking his tail towards the den's entrance. A sign this conversation is over. "You have an apprentice to show the territory too."

"I do." His brother agrees with a rumble, his tone still sounding unhappy and tense. Jayfeather purposefully doesn't pay it much mind, lest it choke him up again.

"I'll see you this evening." Lionblaze says, getting to his paws. Before he leaves, he moves to rub his cheek against his brothers, a gesture of comfort. Jayfeather lets him, and returns the action after a second. His brother turns away after that, and goes to give the third cat a tour of the territory; even if they don't know which apprentice that is.

Lionblaze leaves the medicine den, and Jayfeather almost wants him to back. The space feels empty and alone once more. The den always feel empty and alone these days. Like it's too big for one cat, and that there should be another one sharing the space. (There should be.)

Jayfeather has gotten used to the loneliness though, or is at least getting used to it still. He doesn't do anything about the feeling, and turns back to his herbs. In case one of the few apprentices steps on a thorn, or something like that.

(It's not like he can solve the loneliness anyways, not without getting Leafpool back. And he does not want to get Leafpool back.)

The medicine cat goes to mindlessly sort his herbs again, and tells himself he needs to get used to it. This is how it will be until he gets an apprentice, in however many moons that is. Every other medicine cat has done it before him. He just needs to suck it up and do his job.

At least with being lonely, there is no one here to talk his ears off. At least there is that...

___________________________________

Being the sole medicine cat is a lonelier job than expected. It is also a harder job than expected. Jayfeather thought, no, he knew he was good with herbs. He was stupid good with them, and everyone knew that. But being nervous and grieving will make it harder and harder to do your job, it seemed.

Going from two healers to one was nerve wracking, especially when the medicine cat with more experience was no longer allowed to heal. It made Jayfeather doubt himself. It made Jayfeather run the list of herbs and their uses over and over in his head, like he was an apprentice again. It was frustrating. Jayfeather was a fully trained medicine cat. He was good with herbs. He should not be second guessing him, he has the powers of the stars in his paws, for Starclan's sake!

Firestar is attacked by a fox, and Jayfeather cannot save him. He can do nothing but sit there and watch as his grandfather loses a life. He feels guilty. Like it is somehow his fault. It is not. Sandstorm is there, when it happens. She doesn't blame him. That only makes him feel slightly better.

The lose of Firestar's life makes Jayfeather's nerves worse. Makes him more anxious that he cannot do this alone. He pushes through the loneliness anyways, because he has to be. He is the only medicine cat, and he has to push through for the good of his clan. It is his job, and being the sole medicine cat is a lonely and hard job.

Being the only medicine cat is lonely in more ways than one. No one shares a den with you. You are the only cat like that in the whole clan. There is no one else like you. You are alone until the half moon once a month, and then you are alone again.

It's also much harder to do that job when no one trusts you.

Jayfeather is not unaware of the gossip his clanmates spread. Now, they don't really gossip around him, or Lionblaze by extension, but they both know their clanmates talk. The looks thrown at them say everything where words do not.

The older warriors, ones more bound to tradition, throw them the nastiest looks; doing so especially when everything had been fresh. It takes over a moon for Thornclaw and Dustpelt to stop glaring at him from across camp, and even longer for other warriors to stop making jabs at Lionblaze during patrols. Though, when Sandstorm unintentionally hears one of said jabs, she shuts it down very quickly. With hindsight, it probably just makes everything worse.

Cats do not come to him as readily with injuries anymore. Some of them even seem uneasy now. Like suddenly knowing he's half clan has changed their medicine cat, and that he could turn on them for Windclan at any moment. Which is stupid. Jayfeather has no attachment to Windclan. He did not grow up there, does not know how to to move around the moor when there's nothing for his whiskers to brush against. He doesn't even have a relationship with his birth father, and doesn't desire one either.

But common sense does not come easy to most cats, leading none of them to take that into consideration. Which is fine by Jayfeather. He had his fee friends, and that was that. He didn't need approval from anyone else in the clan...

Gatherings are marginally better for a few moons, even more so when the spectacle wears off. Riverclan, while shocked by the ordeal, generally does not seem to care about his heritage. Why would they? Their own leader is half clan as well, and cats have long since learned to accept that fact. Willowshine is still annoying, and Mothwing is still frustrating with her lack of belief, so nothing much changes there.

Shadowclan also does not care as much, unless they can throw some snarky comment about the situation in. Something that is normal for Shadowclan when it comes to their neighbors. The remarks are easy enough to avoid on an island so full of cats anyways. Except when they come from Flametail, but Littlecloud is always quick to shut his apprentice down.

Windclan is the real trouble, and Jayfeather (along with Lionblaze) avoids a lot of the moor cats like the plague. Especially Crowfeather's side of the family. Though Ashfoot's attempts to at least be amicable with her newfound grandchildren are admirable, even if the latter cats want nothing to do with her.

Kestrelflight is also still annoying, and still the friendliest with Jayfeather. He is often used as an escape when Breezepelt seems to be extra antagonist that night, or when anything else that Jayfeather doesn't want to deal with pops up. The other doesn't seem to mind, and he supposes listening to the Windclan medicine cat prattle on is better than being bored for half the gathering.

Being a medicine cat is lonely when your mentor leaves. Being a medicine cat is a hard job when no one trusts you. But Jayfeather learns to deal. He has too.

___________________________________

It only takes a week for Lionblaze to find out which apprentice is the third. It's not really hard when she's catching prey perfectly, and talking about hearing things halfway across the lake. Because she thinks being able to hear that far is normal, and no one has pointed out otherwise yet. Just like Lionblaze had thought being invincible was normal when he was younger, and how his brother had thought everyone could walk in dreams.

He goes to Jayfeather's den first thing the next morning, right as the sun starts to rise; before any other warrior wakes. He knows his brother will probably be awake this early anyways.

"You're in here early." Jayfeather comments, busy licking his fur down. He seems better than he was a few days go, less worried. So that's a relief. (Unless he's just faking it, which would be the very opposite of a relief)

"I know which one is the third cat." Lionblaze says, and Jayfeather stops tending to his fur almost immediately. The face he makes sould almost be funny, if this was any other situation.

"Which one?" His brother says, head snapping upwards and ears perking along with it. He's worried, but also a little relieved; Lionblaze can tell. Maybe there's a little excitement mixed in there as well.

"It's Dovepaw." Lionblaze says, and cannot help but feel a sudden wave of empathy for the apprentice. He can remember what it was like, finding out that he was special and different from everyone else. It's not an easy thing to handle. He almost dreads having to tell her.

"You're apprentice. That's lucky." Jayfeather notes, and goes back to grooming his fur once more. He seems relived about that, but is also keeping himself calm. His brother knows that the medicine cat will be full speed ahead with all the prophecy stuff sooner rather than later.

"Yeah," Lionblaze mumured, his tail tip twitching behind him. There's tiredness tugging at him, and he half considers going back to sleep after this. He usually wasn't up this early, only waking at dawn to ensure this conversation stays completely private. "Should we tell her?"

"Obviously." His brother snorts, in that condescending tone he has a bad habit of taking with every cat ever. The warrior barely pays it any mind anymore, long used to his siblings grumpy attuide. "We'll talk to her later today."

Liomblaze gives him a nod, which Jayfeather has to guess that he did, and then leaves the den not long after. He does not go back to sleep after, and decides to have an early breakfast. His thoughts are raving too much for any attempts at extra sleep anyways, too distracted as he wonders what Dovepaw's recation will be.

He hopes it isn't as bad as his gut is telling him will be.

___________________________________

Dovepaw has only been out if the nuresy for a handful of days, and can already tell her mentor doesn't like her. He acts like he does, sure, but Dovepaw can tell its an act. She knows Lionblaze will look at her and frown when he thinks shes not looking, like somethings wrong with her.

She knows Jayfeather doesn't like her either. More than he doesn't like most cats, anyways. Anytime she says hello to him, or ends up neat him because of Lionblaze, the medicine cat ignores her. Or glares at her harshly, like she'd personally upset him when Dovepaw hadn't done such a thing!

Dovepaw notices that they don't look at Ivypaw like that, in all their brief interactions, so it's not a problem on her clanmates side, it's something about her. But she just doesn't know what she did! Or what it is about her, because she's never been anything but polite to the both of them! It was so frustrating!

Dovepaw thinks about this for what has to be the millionth time while lounging in camp one day, after her training has concluded for the afternoon. Lionblaze had looked at her and frowned again, even though her hunting had been better than perfect like it always was. Todat, she knew she just couldn't take those looks anymore.

Her mother, Whitewing, lays next to her; her presence providing some comfort as daughter's thoughts race; entirely unbeknownst to her. And Dovepaw, having no one else and not knowing what else to do, glances over at the white she-cat for help.

"Mama, I don't think Lionblaze and Jayfeather like me." She says, letting how troubled she is bleed into her tone. Her mother glances over at her, surprised, and then wraps a comforting tail around her youngest daughter.

"Why do you say that, dear?" Whitewing asks, giving her daughters ears a quick lick. She sounds concerned. The feeling is probably worsened by Lionblaze being Dovepaw's mentor, worried that her childs apprenticeship has not been a pleasant experience so far. Maybe they'll have to ask Firestar for a new mentor, if worst comes worst.

(Ironically, and unknown to both she-cats, that would be the worst possible thing to do)

"I dunno." Dovepaw pouts, resting her head in her paws. Her upsetness is even coming through in the most normal of movements, it seems. "They're not mean to me, but I just...have a feeling."

"I'm sure it's nothing you did." Whitewing soothes, giving her daughters ears yet another lick. It is what comforted Dovepaw the most as a kit, after all. "Those two have had it very hard recently."

"Is it because they lost their sister?" At the mention of hard times, Dovepaw suddenly remembers all the stories she had beard about Hollyleaf her whole life. The black she-cat had always seemed like a mystery towards her, and her brothers were no different. The latter changed as she got older of course, and the clan became gradually less hostile towards the two half-clan toms, but Dovepaw had still been nervous to have Lionblaze announced as her mentor.

"Yes." Whitewing hums, now grooming the rest of her daughters face. Dovepaw lets her with only a single annoyed flick if her hear. At least she wasn't chasing her down to wash her anymore. "Hollyleaf was very dear to them."

Curious, Dovepaw asks a question she isn't sure she should. She prays to Starclan that neither of Hollyleaf's brothers are sround to overhear. Or any of their ither clanmates, for that matter, and that the camp stays as empty as it is now. "What was she like?"

"Hollyleaf was a very...complicated cat. I didn't know her as well as some of our clanmates did, but she was always a strong and loyal warrior." Whitewings explanation is hesitant, and lacking any of the information Dovepaw would truly want to know. Though she suspects she'd have to risk asking around to get all that. "Until the end, anyways."

"I wonder why she did all that." The apprentice muses. She had been told many cats interpretations of the events over the past few moons, but could ever quite figure out what had motivation Thunderclan's lost warrior to do all of that, and seemingly ruin everything for her family.

"I don't know," Her mother responds, starting to sound just as thoughtful as her daughter currently is. "But I don't think it is for us to know, or understand why. I think that's a family problem."

Dovepaw gives a nod of understanding. Some things just weren't meant for cats outside the family, and that was okay. No matter how big they were, or how other cats came to know about them.

"She was very important to them, wasn't she?" The apprentice muses, thinking of her own sister. She doesn't know what she would do if she lost Ivypaw, or anything happened between them and their family. It would truly feel like a piece of her soul had gone missing, if it ever game to that.

"Very much so." Whitewing seems to guess what her daughter is thinking, being scarily good at that as usual. It's a mom thing, she had said a few moons ago when Dovepaw asked. "Just like Ivypaw is important to you."

Her daughter nods again, and has no more questions for the time being. For now, she is content to just relax in the sun with her mother. Maybe Lionblaze and Jayfeather are just going through something, and it is not Dovepaw's fault. They will like her eventually, just as her mother reassures her they will. And just for a moment, the young apprentice feels comforted by those words, and all her worries can vanish for just a few minutes.

It does not last for long.

___________________________________

Dovepaw finds out she's a part of a prophecy a few days after her talk with Whitewing, and it all makes sense why Lionblaze and Jayfeather look at her weird. Her worries are back in full view now, but just in a slightly different form now. Something she never could have expected when she awoke that morning.

A little past dawn, instead of going out with Cinderheart and Ivypaw like they were supposed too, Lionblaze tells her to come with him and Jayfeather; neither of them saying why. No matter how many times Dovepaw asks, they do not tell her why, and she is forced to follow behind them in a quiet confusion; all the way from camp, and until they reach their final destination.

The three of them end up in a small, out of the way clearing, and Dovepaw sits down when the other two do. She feels like Jayfeather's eyes are burning holes into her skull as he stares at her, and tries not to sjift uncomfortably under his intense gaze.

They give her tests, on how far she can hear. Dovepaw is confused, but she goes along with it anyways. She tells them about how she can hear a Riverclan patrol padding across the lake shore, and cab heat Shadowclan cats talking amongst themselves between the catching of prey. She wonders why they look at her so strangely, because she had always been bale to heat like that. Isn't every cat able to hear that far?

No, every cat is not actually able to hear that far. That is what they tell her, along with the fact that she is different. That Dovepaw is special.

They tell her shes special just like they are, that's she's a part of a prophecy; just like they are. Dovepaw protests, she protests loudly. It does not matter. Her protests, perhaps rather ironically, fall on two sets of deaf ears.

Jayfeather harshly tells her it doesn't matter what she thinks, she had to step up. She has to work on her powers. She has to save the clan and fulfill the prophecy. Dovepaw does not want to be special like that. She does not want to be a part of the prophecy. She just wants to be a normal cat, with a normal life, not a savior of the clans or anything like that!

But she has no choice. Starclan has chosen her, and said that she is special. She must save them all. Dovepaw does not want to. She has never wanted to not do anything more in her life.

After they are done testing her, she follows Lionblaze and Jayfeather back to camp in a cold silence, and feels like the weight of the world has suddenly been put on her shoulders.

___________________________________

"Why don't you like me?" Dovepaw asks one day, when they are taking a break from training. The branches on the trees sway above them, giving off a calm and relaxing feeling. A feeling much different from the feel of the conversation below.

"What?" Lionblaze says, turning to look at his apprentice. The question has surprised him. He doesn't know why Dovepaw would think that either, he likes his apprentice and fellow prophecy cat perfectly fine. She listens well, is a kind cat overall, and excels at all her training; even if half of that is due to her superpowers. Plus, he'd been a perfectly adequate mentor so far. Cinderheart would've pulled him aside and scolded him if he hadn't been, he's sure of that.

"You and Jayfeather don't like me. I can tell." Dovepaw says, a frown now starting to form on her face. She's very set on this idea, that Lionblaze and his brother don't like her. And he can tell it'll be hard to get it out of her head.

"It's not that, Dovepaw. I like you just fine." Lionblaze says, very aware of all the times he would frown at his apprentice for seemingly no reason. He aware of when he looked at Dovepaw and thought of another cat that was no longer with them, because Starclan had made the poor kit her replacement. Lionblaze couldn't place that blame on her shoulders, yet the feelings were still hard to ignore...

"Don't lie to me!" Dovepaw says, her tail now flicking behind her in irritation. His apprentice is being annoyingly stubborn today, and with the most annoying idea she'd gotten into her head. (You'd think she was one of his siblings, with how persistent she was being. Which didn't make Lionblaze feel any better in the slighest.)

"I'm not lying to you, Dovepaw!" Lionblaze argues back, already getting fed up with nonsense. And dear Starclan they are only halfway through the training session. Today was going to be a long day...

"But-"

"Me and Jayfeather like you just fine, okay?" Lionblaze cuts her off with a finality in his voice. "You would know if Jayfeather didn't like you, you'd be getting the Berrynose treatment." He points out, knowing Dovepaw is well aware of the two toms relationship. That being Jayfeather hating it when Berrynose even breathed in his direction. The whole clan did, they heard Jayfeather's complaints everytime the warrior so much as walked near the medicine den.

"C'mon, let's get back to training." He says, not giving Dovepaw a time to repsond. She doesn't say much else after that, or for the rest of the training session. She is oddly silent, clearly upset by the denial and non answers she had received.

She will have to deal with all that though, because she will not be getting any answers out of her mentor. They feel too painful for him to say outloud, let alone share with any cat he knows.

And if Dovepaw can't get anything from Lionblaze, she'll go interrogate his brother instead. Dovepaw will get her answers, one way or another, and will not let their dislike of her remain a mystery.

All three of them are in this dumb prophecy together, and she will make sure that is the case. That none of them will ever be alone in this situation, like she has guessed Hollyleaf was towards the end. One way or another, she will make sure of that. If only to spite Starclan and their near cruel ways, if nothing else.

___________________________________

Dovepaw walks into the medicine den a little past sunhigh one day, wanting to talk to Jayfeather. As she expects, that's much easier said than done. But hopefully, she can annoy some answers out of him, since they had been rather hard to get out of Lionbalze.

"What do you want, Dovepaw?" Jayfeather says, turning his head in her direction, once he hears her footsteps approaching. He sounds irritated by just being around her, which is expected. And it's not his normal irritation he carries with everyone, no, it's different. Jayfeather is never as snappy with any other cat as he is with her. Even more than he is with Berrynose.

Dovepaw feels her tail flick in slight annoyance despite herself. She's kinda glad that Jayfeather can't see it. "Can I not talk to my fellow prophecy cat?" She asks, walking further into the den. She doesn't want this to be overheard, sensing that thus conversation can quickly become nasty.

"I'm busy." Jayfeather is curt when he dismisses her, and goes to turn back to his herbs. The herbs, that look neatly sorted. The herbs that are currently not needed right now, for no one else is in here but them.

"With what patients?" Dovepaw asks, sitting down a little ways away from the medicine cat. Jayfeather doesn't respond to that, likely not having one, but his ears do flatten just slightly.

"What do you want?" Jayfeather repeats, somehow sounding even more irritated than he had beforehand. A special thing only Jayfeather can seem to pull off, with his the seemingly endless grumpiness he feels. It is normally enough to deter other cats, but not Dovepaw. She is a prophecy cat, just like him, and will not be intimidated by his attitude. Not anymore.

"Why do you hate me." Dovepaw asks, her voice firm and determined. She is not backing down like she did with Lionblaze, there's no chance. She deserves to know why they look at her all sad sometimes, why they look at her with way too more emotions than they should. She deserves to know what she did to make them feel that way! It's not fair that she doesn't. It's not!

"I don't hate you." Jayfeather says, in possibly the most unconvincing way possible, his ear going back just a bit. Even an idiot wouldn't believe him, with the way he says it. Dovepaw can not help hut feel a little proud for backing the usually self confident Jayfeather into a corner like this.

"Then why are you so mean?" She reasons. Because if he dosen't hate her, or dislike her like he dislikes cats like Berrynose, then he has no reason to be ruder to her than anymore else. He should treat her just how he treats Ivypaw, and Blossompaw and Bumblepaw and all the other apprentices. But he doesn't! And all she wants is to know why. "You're mean to everyone! But your extra mean to me!"

Jayfeather only gives her a small response. He sounds more upset as the conversation goes on. She barely cares about that, considering she's been upset with them for over a moon now. If it takes upsetting the medicine cat to get her answer, then so be it. "Go away, Dovepaw."

"No, I wanna know why! What did I do!?" Dovepaw insists once more, for what feels like the millonth time, and it is finally time for her to get her answer. Even if it is far different than she ever expected it to be. But at least her being all persistent paid off somehow, she supposed.

"Because your her replacement! They're trying to replace her with you!" Jayfeather snaps, turning to face her quickly. Pain is evident on his expression, like it physically hurts him to say the words. It probably does, to some degree anyways, considering the cat he is talking about. The medicine cat does not say his sisters name, but any cat could guess who he is talking about. It is the only she Jayfeather would ever be talking about like this. There was only one other cat supposed to be in the prophecy, only one other cat who fit the kin of your kin description Starclan had given to Firestar all those moons ago. It feels like a lightbulb is going off in Dovepaw's head when she hears it.

It suddenly makes sense then, why Lionblaze and Jayfeather sometimes look at her like she's a ghost. Why they frown and turn away, with an unreadable express plastered across their faces. Starclan has basically told them to replace their only sister, told them that Hollyleaf wasn't special like they said she was. Like they promised she was. And then she had died, they had killed her. Then they said that they had picked wrong and now needed to fix they're mistake. What an insulting thing for their ancestors to do.

Unluckily for Starclan, Dovepaw is not here to do that. She is not going to replace anyone's sister, she will not be in anyone's shadow. She is not a replacement, never has been and never will be. She is Dovepaw, the real third cat in the prophecy, and will be nothing else other than that. Nothing else other then herself.

"I'm not trying to replace her, though. I don't want too." "I just want to be Dovepaw."

"Okay, okay then." Jayfeather says, his voice sounding a little soft around the edges. Much to the apprentices surprise. Soft is quite a rare word to describe Jayfeather, and it feels like she's seeing a side of him only the closet of his friends and fmaily get to see; all while being nowhere near that close to him. "You can just be Dovepaw."

"And you can just be Jayfeather." Dovepaw nods back in response. She can just be Dovepaw, a Thunderclan apprentice, and he can just be Jayfeather, the Thunderclan medicine cat. Nothing more, and nothing less than that.

There's a sister shaped hole in Jayfeather and Lionblaze's life, but Dovepaw is not here to fill that. She is just here to be Dovepaw, not to fill the gap in their lives. She is not here to be Hollyleaf, and never will be. She will not do what Starclan wants her to this time, she refuses too. She is already their prophecy child, and that is more than enough to ask from any cat.

She is just here to save the world with them, nothing more, and nothing less. And that is all Dovepaw will be.

#I did it guys. The warriors fanfic I mentioned #ron.fic #I also tried a slightly different style with all my warriors stuff :3 #warrior cats #jayfeather #lionblaze #dovewing #warriors #thunderclan #omen of the stars #power of three

7 notes · View notes

exocynraku · 1 year

Note

8, 14, 15, 20, and 21 + warrior cats for the Violence ask game!!! (hopefully thats not too many questions ahaha)

8: common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about hmmmmmm that squirrelflight & crowfeather are Good for eachother . yes they used to have Sort of Vaguely similar personalities in tnp and Did Infact interact but ? do you really think anything wouldve been different if they got together ? it's not like starclan thunderclan & windclan wouldve just gone errrrmmmm okay you two you get a pass we won't punish you at all x3 like the ship itself isnt awwwwwfulllll i do get where the shippers who ship it are coming from but when you try to say that things would be different at all compared to leaf & crow after they had kits ? WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!! 14: that one thing u see in fics all the time you know i would Love to answer this question but i don't read fanfiction . sorry...... ive just never really gotten into it!!!!! if anyone has any suggestions though id like to hear GRINS especially if there are Lesbians in it 15: that one thing u see in art fanart all the time in the recent few years i have seen a Lot of brown dovewings which is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love brown dovewing. also i like it when starclan & tbc era ashfur are depicted less like cats are more like Creatures 20: part of canon you found tedious or boring nighthearts chapters in their entirety im gonna be one hundred percent honest w u guys here the only nightheart chapters i read were shadows . in river and sky i either skip the chapter entirely or skim them. at least for now while there's not really any Cool Lore things happening and nightheart is just being a pissy baby loser im going to keep skipping them 21: part of canon i think is overhyped please don't kill me for this but Nightcloud . yes i agree she is not in the wrong yes i agree she is not a Bad character but other than her arguing & whatnot with crowfeather what has she.... done.... i guess she was kidnapped by twolegs that one time but ??? other than that i literally cannot think of any other thing shes ever done i don't hate her shes just not particularly interesting to me if that makes sense. sorry nightcloud fans.....

#warrior cats #wc #ask game #ray talk

19 notes · View notes

everybody-loves-purdy · 2 years

Note

Berryheart: Hates her family member for being in a half clan relationship

Fandom: Boooo you are a horrible person

Ivypool: Hates her family member for being in a half clan relationship

Fandom: Yas go ivypool uwu strong selfless perfect woman we hate dovewing she is such a spoiled brat how dare she escape her abusive and manipulative home life with a guy that grooms her! Mary sue >:(, nothing like that would EVER happen to the flawless queen that is ivypool!!1!

I personally feel that comparing the fandoms attitudes here is similar to comparing the fandoms attitudes on Tallstar and Nightheart since they both left their clans for a non-romance reason. Apart from that neither of those characters don’t have too much in common.

Neither Berryheart or Ivypool hate their family member that is in the half clan relationship, it’s other things surrounding the relationship itself they dislike.

Berryheart is a xenophobic bully who goes out of her way to make Fringewhisker uncomfortable and punished due only to her past in SkyClan, and she will peddle conspiracy theories about why clan cats mixing with each other and swapping clans more freely is bad. Fringewhisker has never done anything to directly butt heads with Berryheart and is desperately trying to please her. Berryheart exploited this in Sky in order to purposely get Fringewhisker in trouble.

Ivypool on the other hand already didn’t like Tigerheart and all her issues with his and Dove’s relationship also comes from when these kinds of relationships were prohibited. Ivypool was never against cats from other clans like Berryheart is. Ivy and Tiger have never seen eye to eye, they just don’t like each other.

Yeah the way the fandom has treated Dovewing in the past and sometimes still present is super, super unfair. But I don’t think pitting people’s attitudes towards Ivypool Vs their at attitudes towards Berryheart is that comparable due to the drastic differences in as to why each character is against their relative’s relationship and the wider context of that character’s attitudes towards those outside their clan as a whole.

#anonymous #Ivypool #Berryheart

21 notes · View notes

redux-iterum · 3 years

Note

Ok, here's a little challenge for you and the editors; roast for me 10 WC couples of your choice.

This was fun! We each took five with a bonus from the editor, and you can read our complaints after the readmore.

LYNX (editor)

Violetshine X Tree: I'm still trying to get through the latter half of AVOS, so I haven't seen their first time meeting up or them falling in love or anything like that. What makes me rather uncomfortable with this couple is that Tree's old enough to be Violetshine's father. Pebbleshine and Hawkwing were already young lovers, but with the release of Tree's Roots, one can calculate Tree to be born around the same time as Hawkwing. He even meets a heavily pregnant Pebbleshine when he's around fifteen months old. Honestly, if his and Violetshine's dynamic in late AVOS is good enough for a Warriors couple, I'm willing to just headcanon him as at most eight months older than her to make it more palatable. By the way, this has nothing to do with the ages when they meet up. Violet's a year old by Darkest Night and nearly an adult if her sister's warrior assessment is anything to go by.

Clear Sky X Storm: It's been some years since I read DotC, but the love drama in The Sun Trail was pretty stupid. Especially the insta-love thing. Maybe it was an insta-attraction? But this is Warriors and we can't have that, noooooooooo...

Clear Sky X Star Flower: Everyone's gone on with how Clear Sky getting with his son's ex is rather dubious, but what is often neglected is the fact that Star Flower can make choices too! She made the choice to go for her ex's dad which is about as questionable as Clear Sky's choice! My personal headcanon is that she's the kitty equivalent of a gold-digger.

Pebbleshine X Hawkwing: Alright, so you're either of these two nitwits who've recently become a warrior. Your very way of life has been drastically upturned by someone you thought you could trust. You've lost family and friends to your betrayal, and what's worse is you've lost your home. The world you've known for your whole life has been ripped form you and you have to keep ambling forward with the hope that the place you'll finally settle in will be worth all this hardship. The path ahead of you is long, uncertain, and dangerous, and you'll need to have a clear head to have a hope of surviving this season. SOUNDS LIKE THE PERFECT TIME TO BOINK AND START A FAMILY, AM I RIGHT?

Bumblestripe X Dovewing: Pushy, inconsiderate, trademark Nice Guy, from questioning why they haven't had children yet at some random meeting to suggesting they have children at her friend's funeral, everyone's said it already. Bumblestripe is not a good cat for Dovewing. I'm glad she's not with him since that makes her happy. But... Tigerfartstar X Dovewing: Yeah, Dovewing, your taste in toms is awful. This temperamental, arrogant, patronizing shipdit, while not as bad as Bimbostripe over there, is still pretty bad. It's been a long while since I read OotS and I haven't yet read Tigerheart's Shadow, but I probably should to get a refresher on why I hate this couple.

DULLARD

Bristlefrost x Rootspring: So ignoring that Rootspring as a -paw is a whiny, overly defensive putz that acts self-conscious about having Tree as his father, Bristlefrost does not ONCE show interest in him. Not once. Count ‘em, zero times. In fact, she’s aware of his crush on her and is embarrassed whenever he comes around and whenever people notice him staring at her. She actively avoids him and speaks curtly, even rudely, to try and drive him off. Then, out of buttfuck nowhere, she says she has feelings for him once he’s a warrior? When they’ve barely interacted beyond her spurring his affections? Fuck with that?

Crowpaw x Feathertail: Feathertail, you’re a nice girl. You’re team mom and almost a second in command to Brambleclaw. Everyone likes you. So why in the good god damn fuck does a pissant like Crowpaw (an apprentice at the time, by the way) deserve your recognition, let alone your love? You could get literally any other cat you wanted to, and you go for the fruit that was formerly hanging the lowest, but dropped off the tree and is now rotting on the floor. He is nothing but a dick to you and only starts being remotely kind two seconds before you die. Please love yourself and do better in StarClan.

Bluefur x Oakheart: Speaking of low hanging fruit, this is a very, very easy one to dunk on. It’s moreso the fact that this entire “relationship” is treated as one of the great tragic romances in this series than anything else. The two of them talk, what, two or three times? And then have exactly one night together before Bluefur kills one of their kits and shoves the other two on him and then that’s it. That’s all they had. A one night stand and child death. What a love story. Why does Bluefur think Thrushpelt is the worse option, again?

Dustpelt x Fernpaw: GOD, this relationship is creepy. I still get simultaneously unnerved and mad whenever I read the first arc, because Dustpelt initially seems like he’ll go with Sandstorm before she stupidly falls in love with Fireheart, but then he sets his sights on someone so much younger than him that he actually asks if he can mentor her instead of his original apprentice (her brother, fun fact). Let me emphasize that, because he is actively seeking a power imbalance in this relationship, and he clearly intends to eventually get with her. Bear in mind that she is still being treated like she’s a young kid, if not a teenager, by the narrative. I could be here all day on this fucking topic, but let’s move on.

Berrynose x Poppyfrost: We all know what I’m going to say here. Berrynose having the brass to say loving things to a dying, agonizing Honeyfern after she spent all this time pining after him, and then less than two months later, he shacks up with her sister. That is the coldest thing he could possibly have done to her. The fact that the writers decided that she’s totally okay with the relationship and takes care of her sister’s dead kits like they’re hers is extra terrible. Like, she still gets the scraps when she’s dead? Seriously?

#ask #readmore #relationships #shipping #i speak #lynx #editor #rant

565 notes · View notes

warriorsbutnotreally · 3 years

Text

because I use the term to describe DotC and certain relationships in Warriors, I do want to explain what I mean when I say "Warriors has painfully cis-het relationships"

because I don't hate [all] cis-het people [some of them test me irl tho]

but when describing Warriors relationships that personally put me off

I mean they fall into tropes I associate with cis-het culture

and not cis-het relationships are like this [these tend to be my favorite cis-hets]

and not all trans or gay relationships avoid these tropes

but the tropes I personally reference when talking about 'painfully cis-het relationships' in these books;

- one character [usually the female or femme-aligning character] losing all personality or intrigue in the relationship the best example is Violet / Violet Dawn, who was a strong-willed, grieving widow who didn't need a guy but then Thunder rolled around and she grew attached to him really quickly for a woman who was still grieving her dead former mate

- the relationship is rushed and feels more like the author[s] trying to pair off characters for future relationships aka any and all 'and now these cats are together' ships that happen off screen [usually confirmed outside of the books first]

- one character [male or masc-aligned, usually] is heavily flawed [or a bastard / or does questionable things / or has questionable morals sometimes] and their partner [usually female or femme-aligned] does not call out this behavior unless it directly affects them Clear Sky and Star Flower, Clear Sky and Storm, Graystripe and Millie [namely in the comic], Tigerheart and Dovewing, Bumblestripe and Dovewing

- there is certain drama that feels like it would be resolved if the two characters would just talk to each other [without running off mid-conversation or plot interrupting them] but the books refuse to let them do this until it's convenient to keep them together instead at a more natural time Lionblaze and Cinderheart in OotS is my biggest example

- any actual problematic and frightening fights are supposed to be seen as 'quirky' and you're not supposed to villainize the one who is actually very obviously in the wrong because 'that's the love interest' Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight [especially in Squirrelflight's Hope]

- the masc-aligned / male character is brooding, moody, and when they're not the bad guy, they can be good but obviously have some weird morals - while the femme-aligned / female characters take on a softer, supportive role where they rarely take part in the action unless they're being hassled or hurt by the villain Thunder and Violet, Star Flower after her dad dies, Gray Wing was brooding and moody for a moment there

now some of these tropes aren't as bad as others

but they're very classic tropes that are mostly written in cis-het stories [or gay stories that make the relationship into 'the boy gay and the girl gay]

and though I don't mind tropes

something about how these ones are written just makes a lot of the canon relationships feel.. uncomfortable to me??

which is purely personal opinion and everyone's free to have their own feelings

this just stimmed from me starting to read DotC again and remembering why it was so hard for me to read

because so many of those tropes are all in these specific books

and those are just my personal problems, esp with how romance is written in these books

anyway I'm done rambling askdf

I just had to clarify cause idr if I used the term before, but I know that I'm likely going to use it in the future

#warriors #warrior cats #also this doesn't mean that #i hate these ships #except i do hate bramblesquirrel #it's just the ships mentioned #are the ones #that best explain my point

25 notes · View notes

warriors-but-cats-die · 3 years

Text

dovewing’s apprentice

Dovewing knew the newly named Onionpaw was watching her with distaste. She could practically hear the young she-cat’s thoughts: Dovewing wasn’t a warrior of ShadowClan, how could she be a good mentor?

Or maybe those were just Dovewing’s thoughts.

Tigerheart was encouraging her, a soft look on his expression that reminded her why she left ThunderClan. It was for this; it was for love. It started as love for Tigerheart, but it grew, as these things often do.

Onionpaw could doubt her, but when Dovewing was done, Onionpaw would be the best warrior ShadowClan had every seen.

Leaving started with love for Tigerheart, but it has grown so far beyond that. Loving meant sitting with kits and hunting and having friends who didn’t treat her as that-prophecy cat.

Let Onionpaw doubt her. Dovewing knew she would win her heart by the end.

#wbcd #shadowclan #y9 #lf #y9-lf #dovewing #onionsong

23 notes · View notes

canon-notcanon-warriorcats · 4 years

Note

From what I've seen, Sweetfrost (the Its Alright map host) is one to own up to and correct/acknowledge mistakes and seems fairly okay. However I may be wrong, I dont know everything about her. Apparently she's also 15, so any confrontations over ableism should be done tactfully. I don't believe any of it is meant to be malicious, I think she's a kid. She's also not the au owner, but she is friends with the owner.

yeah don’t be going after anyone for something as ambiguous and definitely more subjective than objective like this, even IF anything was done wrong nothing was done maliciously and i’m honestly even impressed with all the trigger warnings at the beginning of the video

that’s my last take on the matter, everyone needs to chill and relax, this fandom has had a bit of a history of attacking literal children and teenagers for simple mistakes and i’m not having it anymore under my roof (blog), this time wasn’t even a mistake, just possible misinterpretations people could make, the closest thing is dovewing’s curse but that doesn’t have anything to do with a mental or physical disability

#Anonymous

25 notes · View notes

despairbreaker-wcdesigns · 4 years

Video

youtube

Yooo long time no see! In celebration of the Asphyxia MAP being completed yesterday (July 7th,2020), I thought I’d redraw the character refs Feline Frenzy style and compare them to my normal designs of the characters! These redraws stays true to their original palette as well.

***Remember, you can use this story idea, character refs, and palette. You just need to credit me and the Asphyxia MAP***

Here are their original refs that were used by the MAP’s participants

Ivypool:

Dovewing:

Hawkfrost:

These drawings were made in May 2019 which was a year ago.

Here are my redraws done on July 8th,2020. These were drawn over the previous refs of them on Feline Frenzy. I don’t have a normal design/ref for Hawk yet so I drew over my Lionblaze ref to save time.

----

Design Comparisons:

Though they’re quite similar, you can see theres a lot of differences especially with Ivypool. When designing her non-Asphyxia version, since it came after the MAP was made, she was designed to be sharper and more beat up since she is battle hardened from being in the Darkforest, unlike the Asphyxia Ivypool.

Asphyxia Ivypool was also drawn more softer and rounder since shes pretty much just a normal cat. We also sympathize with things that are more rounder since they’re seen as less threatening.

Another extra note is that when designing the non-Asphyxia designs I wanted to drive home the idea that Ivy and Dove are sisters and are compared a lot, so thats why they both have the same palette and heterochromia.

Honestly, I really love these designs, but the biggest issue I have is having extra colors that are basically the same. When doing designs, especially for animation, its best to keep colors to a minimum. You can easily do this by getting rid of very similar colors and only using one of them. You can make interesting designs with very little colors like with Atrophy here who is my OC.

Another thing I want to put out there is that I recommend creating specific designs for your own MAPs or altering an already existing design to fit your MAP (with credit/permission of course). This is so your MAP has a uniting theme and can be more memorable or fun for animators to animate since its something new. The Asphyxia MAP wouldn’t be the same if I used the same design that I normally view Ivypool as and don’t mess with palettes.

----

Thank you all for reading and sticking around this blog! I’m sorry for the lack of posts. I’ve been drifting away from the warrior cats fandom for a long time in favor of working on personal projects like my comic. I’m not really sure if I’ll be continuing this blog because of that

If you want to see more of my work, I suggest checking out these places!

Haunted Hearts Comic (Undertale + Deltarune AU):

|| Webtoons || Tumblr || Deviantart ||

Other Social Media:

Youtube. Most active. I post animations, speedpaints, and a bunch of fun stuff on the community tab

Twitter. Art stuff.

Deviantart. Least active and has more art stuff. It pretty much has a lot of old art.

Artfight. I’m doing it this year. I’m team sugar

Thank you all for reading!

#warrior cats #cats #ivypool #dovewing #hawkfrost #map #multi animator project #animation #art #ref #reference sheet #warrior #thunderclan #designs #DespairBreaker

44 notes · View notes

fencesandfrogs · 4 years

Text

cloudtail’s daughter: cinderheart

alright well third character: cinderheart.

i'm going to be honest, i don't care enough about cinderheart to have a lot to say about this. i'm finishing it in the morning, and i'm starting it in night, so watch this be longer than dovewing's (fat chance i wrote like 4k words about dovewing because, and i can't say this enough, i lovewing dovewing), but i'm not feeling particularly inspired at the moment.

ohhh wait i changed my mind this is the one where i get to talk about cinderpelt again, isn't it? yeessss i take it all back i've been waiting to write this since i first wrote cinder back in dovewing's character

anyway as per usual, this is part of an au where dovekit and ivykit are born to brightheart and cloudtail. go ahead and click the cloudtail's daughter tag if you want to see more about this. this is probably pretty dependent on knowing what happens to dovewing in the au, but i'd say compared to lionblaze, its still more self standing because it's significantly more verbose, so it's not reliant on filling in the gaps as much, because this is filling in the gaps.

[3k words, 10 minute read. section headers. a little bit jumpy.]

section one: cinderpelt and cinderkit --- an exposé on reincarnation

you don't need me to tell you warriors reincarnation is weird. to make my life easy, here is how it works:

true reincarnations -- jay's wing/jayfeather, dove's wing/dovewing, lion's roar/lionblaze. only one soul exists. half moon will reunite with jayfeather. or ig he can decide to go by jay's wing. dovewing and lionblaze may or may not regain their memories on death; it's not important to this story so i'm not decided

starclan induced reincarnations -- cinderpelt's soul gets shoved into cinderkit. they now share. this was, ah, very dangerous, because cinderkit and/or cinderkit's soul could have died. but she didn't. as cinderkit grows into her own person, she and cinderpelt will grow either increasingly intertwined (i.e., cinderpelt weaves into cinderheart, and is never fully awakened.) when they die, idk what happens. it's not very nice.

luckily, that didn't happen. instead, cinderheart grows apart and cinderpelt basically is a voice in her head. eventually, at some point, idk, cinderpelt frees herself. i'm sure i'll figure that out in this post, but i don't know yet.

so that's their deal.

section two: cinderheart and lionblaze

alright, cinderheart and lionblaze are not going to be a conflict thing, because of destiny. i'm just, that's. well it's a step up from the standard romance drama, but i still hated it. so anyway, cinderheart knows lionblaze is in L-O-V-E with her, but she's kind of holding out until he's more mature/responsible.

she's also not ready for kits, and that's the only way a warriors romance can be officially codified.

jk, but in seriousness, they're already close, similar to sandstorm and fireheart in books 2-4 or so of TPB. she's just not ready to take him as a mate yet, and he's kind of funny as a bumbling fool. that said, she does care a lot about him and if he pushed her, or circumstances pushed her, she'd be willing to be upfront about it.

cinderpelt is happy cinderheart is finding love, but she does kind of wish it wasn't with lionblaze. not because he's an idiot, after all, cinderpelt had a crush on fireheart before he finished growing a brain, but because she is worried about the prophecy. and lionblaze dying and leaving cinderheart alone. so cinderheart has some internal conflict about this, but she has internal conflict over whether she wants thrush or mouse some days. side effect of having two souls in one body. she keeps it wrapped up because she's pretty sure she's into lionblaze and cinderpelt is unsure, and she doesn't need to confuse the situation anymore.

yeah, by the time this series begins, cinderheart and cinderpelt are really two separate entities, and cinderpelt is getting ready to leave. she's just sort of waiting. it's until cinderheart and lionblaze confirm they're mates. why? because that's when it happens in the original and i can't think of a better time. also, it kind of completes cinderpelt's small crush on fireheart.

(it really wasn't that big. sandstorm just made a big deal out of it because she was jealous.)

section three: dovepaw

right, so cinderheart is hype for dovepaw. the dovepaw is real sweet and quiet and cinderheart feels good about that. so they're excited.

cinderheart and dovepaw go out for territory and cinderheart is like "she's on top of shit this dovepaw" and dovepaw catches a mouse or two and cinderheart is super proud and supportive and everyone is happy.

and then cinderheart starts to feel like she's failing dovepaw, because dovepaw just can't get anything else down. lionblaze and ivypaw, on the other hand, are having basically no issues. so she feels like she's failing dovepaw, and she's a little insecure about that, so cinderheart and dovepaw tag along with lionblaze and ivypaw a lot.

as you can guess, this makes everything worse.

cinderheart realizes dovepaw is sneaking out at night and is like "well this is a problem i'm not equipped to deal with" and frets over it for a while, unsure of who to talk to without geting dovepaw in trouble. (lionblaze also snuck out as an apprentice, he's an unreliable source.)

so she doesn't tell anyone at first, just makes sure dovepaw is still getting sufficient rest for a young cat. (she isn't.) eventually, she lets it slip to hollyleaf who talks about it with lionblaze who ivypaw overhears, but ivypaw is the last character i'm covering in this set of essays.

dovepaw gets trapped in the tunnels for three days, and cinderheart feels like she's failed her charge. also, brightheart is kind of mad at cinderheart because she feels that cinderheart didn't really do anything to stop dovepaw from feeling like she needed to prove herself and like, brightheart's not wrong, but it's also unfair to cinderheart. so cinderheart blames herself a whole lot because dovepaw is dead now and it's her fault.

when dovepaw gets back cinderheart only barely punishes her, and dovepaw has had enough exploration, so being confined to camp is only barely a punishment anyway. cinderheart vows that she's going to do better, do right, by dovepaw (although she's really been doing pretty okay no one is really blaming cinderheart, even brightheart has gotten over it now that dovepaw is back and safe and alive.)

section four: can you hear what i hear?

so when dovepaw gets back, cinderheart takes her out once she's recovered, and dovepaw is like "so where are the creatures with the clicky-clackies?" and cinderheart has no idea what's going on.

but cinderheart, despite being lumped in the "two braincells" category that the first three pov characters have (seriously if you haven't read my breakdown of this au as a whole you may want to because i've written so much for it that i'm definitely skipping details. now that my pace has slowed from "about 10k words in one weekend" to "2k words a day" it's better but still), is not an idiot. she's seen the lake get smaller. times are getting hard. there was a gathering while dovepaw was in the tunnels that cinderheart went to and it was real rough. so she's like. hm. maybe. dovepaw is starclan chosen or something? it would explain why she's spacy all the time.

cinderheart gets all the info she can from dovepaw and then has to figure out whether she's taking this to firestar or jayfeather.

i'm not 100% how this resolves, but eventually, cinderheart and dovepaw go to firestar to discuss the beavers. cinderheart does most of the talking, dovepaw is just kind of there nodding along.

so the standard canon thing happens and they all get ready for the trip. i feel like i've done a pretty in-depth breakdown of this for dovewing, and hollyleaf will get one too, so i'm just going to say, other than hollyleaf also coming, it's pretty much canon.

section five: the tribe

oh man it's the cinderheart book and whoo boy am i excited for this one.

alright alright alright so dovepaw is doing the Late Nights again, but its to see tigerheart. so cinderheart is uh, not very aware of it this time?

dovepaw is older and smarter (barely) and more importantly knows she can’t get caught again.

so dovepaw real tired, real close to tigerheart at gatherings, and cinderheart is like “hm maybe something is up” and cinderpelt is like “yeah keep an eye on that”

(an aside: so cinderpelt’s presence is kind of a nagging one in cinderheart’s life. it’s not that she’s not the same cinderpelt we know and love, but she’s a kind of omnipresent authority figure, so she reads a bit differently. but she’s still our wonderful cinderpelt. no fear.)

and ivypaw tells lionblaze that dovepaw is sneaking out (see here for lionblaze, literally 0 awareness) and he tells cinderheart and cinderheart is like “well that checks” and cinderpelt is like “hm remember fernpaw and dustpelt”

“ferncloud is like a second mother to me no i don’t know the details of her romance”

“yea well...”

you know, cinderheart's almost worried dovepaw is going to have kits real soon after becoming a warrior and there are approximately 0 thunderclan toms she's close enough with for that to be applicable.

(for the record, they are not that close. cinderpelt is concerned not just because forbidden romance, but also because of how young leafpool was. not impossibly young by any means, but still fairly young.)

so then through uhhh who knows memory? convenient stormfur is convenient? haven't decided yet, but anyway, cinderheart decides the tribe can help them. (the real reason is because i want the tribe to solve a clan problem for once. the stated reason is probably something like "dovepaw feels too much pressure after the beavers" or "long journeys are good for apprentices" i mean look brambestar dgaf about where warriors are going so why should i?)

lionblaze and ivypaw come along and cinderheart is like "great i just told this guy that i don't want to change anything between us until i'm done mentoring dovepaw and now he's tagging along with this? where's a hollyleaf when you need her?"

(hollyleaf is living with her ghost boyfriend, cinderheart, she is no longer a reliable source of buffering between you and lionblaze. also, cinderheart, this isn't coming up in this au because again ending in step with canon but please consider: lesbians.)

anyway, the four of them set out and dovepaw and ivypaw still aren't talking which is getting really old, really fast.

eventually, after a day or two of travelling in basically silence, ivypaw and dovepaw do start to talk again. one goal down. (my conviction that travelling books are good, actually, remains untested, but i'm determined to prove it.)

okay, so i've been reading all my notes in detail as i start actually drafting this, which means my essay content is morphing further into writing notes. you can tell because i'm skipping bigger sections, or adding notes about purpose in story, etc. this is just a warning that since i last worked on this, i've actually begun writing the book this stuff takes place in (the first book only matters if you're dovekit or ivykit, so the fact that i'm writing it doesn't really have an effect. i just wanted to start with something low-stakes.) so like, on one hand, i should have more figured out, but on the other hand, my comments are going to be a lot looser and i wouldn't be surprised if i just straight up contradict something i already said (i do edit my posts but not heavily and only if i think they're something i'm going to point people back towards. i'd rather point people to my archive once i start posting, so.) anyway, this is just a warning for this and anything else in the CTD essay series (hollyleaf, jayfeather, ivypool, as well as the books, growing shadows, fading echoes, distant whispers, and whatever the canon names are but switch book 4 and 5), that it's going to be less "here's a summary of what i'm going to do" and more "here are my thoughts about what i'm doing"

right that note aside, the travelling party makes it to the mountains. there's drama, probably? none of them have been to the mountains IIRC? i know jayfeather has but i don't think the others went with him (bramble did? hm i'll have to research) but okay so the point is, they make it to the tribe as the mountain is getting colder and this is where i have to deviate from my trend of realism the most because they're going to stay on the tribe for much longer than they should. my timeline has ivy/dove born in leafbare at the beginning of the season (easier math), so this is early-mid leaf fall, and the mountain would be unpassable really soon. but i don't want that, so we're going to pretend they have 2-3 moons before it's truly impassable, or the story flows a lot worse because i really want the drought to be in green leaf because it just sets up a hard hitting winter which is a good tension/drama fodder machine.

unfortunately, i'm limited in who i can kill off, but what can you do?

right so anyway, they're in the tribe and cinderheart present dovepaw and stoneteller is like "huh ig this could work sure why not" and dovepaw is enlisted to be a tribe to-be. she's not given an offiical whatever the tribe word for mentor is, (does the tribe have individual mentors? i can't remember off the top of my head), but she's more or less the same as any othet tribe to-be. the fact that she's so fluffy is a bonus. keeps her warm.

cinderheart is less at-home in the tribe, but she works with the prey hunters and generally gets along. i'm not sure. maybe she makes friends? (this is literally her book she definitely does interesting things i just don't know who lives in the tribe off the top of my head. her life does not revolve around dovepaw like 100%. she has to sort out some cinderpelt stuff in this book it's just very internal and i'm not entirely sure how it goes yet.)

so cinderheart and dovepaw are doing their thing for a bit. they get a good chance to explore tribe culture. it's good. everything is good. cinderheart is still definitely mentoring dovepaw, but what that means right now is a lot of modeling how to be a good learner, rather than explicitly teaching. cinderheart herself is preparing and thinking about how to transfer these skills to thunderclan.

uh yeah so anyway it's getting close to winter so they gotta head out, and the tribe is like "off u go food is tight in leafbare/whatever-they-call-winter" and the four of them set out.

okay so i'm going to skip to cinderheart's second book, because honestly, arc one narrators all get thrown in BGCH until they're needed in arc 2. (i mean, tbf, jayfeather has done literally nothing in all of arc one. nothing. he's just there, occasionally being like "no firestar, don't make dovepaw my apprentice!" and that's pretty much it.)

and basically so while jayfeather and hollyleaf are off having ghost romances (that's the entire plot of their book it's ghost romance), cinderheart and lionblaze are just having a relationship. dovewing and ivypool are warriors now, so cinderheart does have background drama of being worried because dovewing is still seeing tigerheart ("we took her on a whole mountain vacation and she's still obsessed with him?"), but like, it's very chill for a while.

and then sol comes back.

oh man, sol comes back and it's gonna be a big deal. yeah. it's a big deal for cinderheart, and hopefully this will be an interesting section, because cinderheart is a very different character from the OG oots crew, and she's going to handle problems in a different way, and this is the first chance we get to see that. the beavers don't count she was j chilling with whatever dovepaw said and the tribe is certainly a good example of her character (caring, resourceful, outside the box), but that's the set up. sol is the pay off.

so cinderheart is pleased by sol, but also generally wary. you gotta remember, cinderheart has been on a lot of extra curricular field trips. she's met a lot of cats. (note to self: include more loners.) she's a quick judge of character. and sol, you know, he's a lot.

so she keeps an eye on him, and she expresses her concern to hollyleaf, and hollyleaf is like, yeah, sure, i'll help.

so hollyleaf is like "so by the way, sol is in the tunnels." and cinderheart is like "this is going to be a problem" and cinderpelt who is now in starclan is like "oh she's finally learning."

so i'm not entirely sure on the details here because i haven't plotted out the ending three books in nearly as much detail (i mean on the blog i have but in my head where i keep all the plot lines i haven't) but cinderheart is going to solve the problem and she'll do it in a different way.

thunderclan definitely still learns to fight in the tunnels because they need to for battle purposes. (oh, to be a windclan tunnler, looking down in sadness from starclan about what my clan has lost.)

and yeah leaving cinderheart here because she retreats to BGCH after completing her duty of being a meanful character.

cinderheart? done.

#lionblaze #dovewing #ivypool #hollyleaf #cinderheart #cloudtail's daughter #mine #q #txt #27th #February #2021 #February 27th 2021 #essay #long #lovewing dovewing #not really but also yes #28th #February 28th 2021

4 notes · View notes

bonefall · 1 year

Note

You know what's a super classic conlang thing I'm shocked we haven't done? A kinship terminology chart! We should totally have one, get in those terms for uncle/aunt, grandparents, nesprings, the whole of it!

LETSGO, full list of the familial terms they use in Clanmew, plus a straightforward explanation of the concepts that have been floating around!

PARENTS

Blood relation is simply Gan. This is a term that's more related to bloodline; Nyams is for people you consider your family. Both of these are translated as 'Kin.'

So to start with, the only constant for a kitten is that they have a Mi.

A Mi is a Primary Parent. This is a non-gendered term; there are many reasons why a non-birthing parent may be the Mi of their litter. It also doesn't necessarily refer to whoever suckled the kittens. Whoever spent the most time and energy raising the litter is its Mi.

Fernsong was the Mi of his litter. Torear, biologically Harestar and Kestrelflight's uncle who adopted them, was their Mi. Breezepelt is the Mi of the litters in his polycule.

If, for some reason, the Mi was unable to care for their kittens, their Ba is expected to step up and become their Mi.

Most kittens also have a Ba.

A Ba is a Secondary Parent. This exclusively refers to cats involved in kittencare, to try and imply that an Honor Sire that has no role in raising their children is a Ba is something that supporters of Thistle Law do. It inherently means closeness.

For example, when TigerClan took over, Rippleclaw was considered the Ba of Swansong, even though Oakheart had raised him along with Stonefur and Mistyfoot.

Never use "Ba" for an Honor Sire unless the Honor Sire is co-parenting, such as with Firestar and Sandstorm. "Ba" can also be a title that a cat rejects completely, such as with Breezepelt to Crowfeather, Brambleclaw to the Three, and Dovewing to Lionblaze!

"Ba" applies to all kitten-involved members of a polycule. Heathertail and Harestar are both Ba to the kittens that Breezepelt is the Mi of. In cases of there being multiple Ba, usually a creative nickname is made up to differentiate them. For Harestar, his Clanmew name (Yywayayiaoyr) has so many Y sounds that his children call him Ya!

A Mwaow is a relevant biological parent. Usually a mother if referring to wild egg-laying animals who don't care for their young, though occasionally Wairre is used for "sires" specifically.

"Mwaow" is what Swansong feels is most fitting for his sire, Rippleclaw. Breezepelt wants to be extra insulting and call Crowfeather a "Wairre" sometimes.

To call your Ba a Mwaow is very insulting, and a rejection of them as your parent. Likewise, it is insulting to say that a cat's Mwaow is their Ba if they don't feel that way.

And finally, the term for Honor Sire in Clanmew is Kurruaow. Honor-Parent. They make no distinction between dams and sires in Clanmew.

To summarize;

Gan = Kin/Blood

Nyams = Kin/Family

Mi = Primary parent

Ba = Secondary parent

Mwaow = Biological parent, neutral but non-endearing

Wairre = Biological sire, used mostly for animals

Kurruaow = Honor Sire/Dam/Parent

AUNCLES AND COUSINS

What about the sisters and brothers of your parents? Their kids?

There are Mi-Auncles, Ba-Auncles, and First Cousins. Further than that is just thrown under Gan, if at all.

Myami = Mi-Auncle

Byama = Ba-Auncle

Rabir = Cousin

SIBLINGS

Multiple-births are very common to Clan cats, and furthermore, multiple litters are seen often. Defining your place within your parent's litters is very important socially!

So, in addition to having words for an older or younger litter of siblings, there are also words for your size within your own litter. Clanmew is more concerned if you were a large kitten or a runt than your birth order, but this could be crudely compared to the human concept of older and younger siblings!

This is an important concept because size growing up would mean you had the upper paw in brawls, to your suckler's milk, and were considered the 'most mature.' Runts are considered to need more protection and 'babying.'

If there was a situation where two littermates were equally sized, they often squabble over who was really the bigger sibling. This doesn't relate to adult size-- Fallenleaf was the largest of her litter, but Lionblaze is bigger than her now.

Firra = Siblings (Broad term, often assumed to be innately plural and referring to several types of siblings at once)

Kafrrif = Sibling of older litter

Eefrri = Sibling of younger litter

Wifeerr = Littermate

Wikfrra = Larger littermate

Weesfwa = Smaller littermate

OFFSPRING

A baby cat, referred to as a 'kit' or 'kitten' is simply called a "mew." But that's not typically the word they're using when they're talking about their children. There's also additional words in Clanmew for the children of different litters, and how an auncle refers to their sibling's kittens.

Nia'u = Child/son/daughter

Neewarr = Litter

Niak = Child of first litter

Niawi = Child of second litter

Nia'eef = Child of third/any more litters

Rabnif = Nespring/nephew/niece

Niauga = Grandchild (of child you were the Ba of)

Nini = Grandchild (of child you were the Mi of, can be given for closeness)

Kurrnia = Stolen kit, rightfully won through battle (Archaic)

GRANDPARENTS

Garrmwa = Ancestor (For non-ancient ancestors that can still be tracked with deduction. Great grandparents, not Thunderstar.)

Sharrarram = Ancestors (For ancient ancestors, far beyond modern memory, who live in the stars. Thunderstar.)

Ami = Mi of my Mi (This can also be applied as a term of endearment. For example, Heartstar is the Ba of her kittens, but Tawnypelt is still Shadowsight's Sharrmi)

Garrmi = Ba of my Mi AND/OR Mi of my Ba (Like Ami, can denote a type of closeness.)

Genrrarg = Ba of my Ba/Someone who is still a grandparent, but not a close one. (This is the term that Breezepelt's kittens eventually use for Crowfeather)

Shegarra = Descendant (For the sake of completion; typically used by StarClan)

#Clan culture #Familial terms #family tree #Clanmew

75 notes · View notes

mallowstep · 3 years

Text

cloudtail’s daughter: ivypool

i wrote this up a while ago, and i’m just queuing it for completions sake. it may or may not be accurate.

ivypool. it’s time. it’s time. i’ve been waiting for a long time.

i wrote about dovewing like. well okay it was only like two weeks ago for me. but it was a very long time ago in my brain. i’m pretty sure when i wrote the dovewing essay, i still hadn’t figured out a lot of relatively basic things? or like, i’ve just made a lot of changes? yeaaah. also, this is my last official warrior cats essay that i’m writing for this blog. so. yeah. uh. yeah. i’m excited for this. because this is, well, i have good good thoughts about ivypool. i don’t really like her like dovewing and jayfeather, but she’s up there with jayfeather and like, squirrelflight? for quality characters. she’s one of the best characters. possibly the best character. so. yeah. it’s time. let’s begin.

section one: ivykit

oh yeah baby. going back to basics. let us examine the life of warrior, via ivykit. ivykit is born. she has one littermate. dovekit. ivykit and dovekit vibe, aight? like yeah, sure, ivykit spends a lot of time playing with blossomkit and bumblekit, but like, less than in my other aus. ivykit is…well at first, she does not feel underloved. i mean, she’s on equal footing with dovekit for like, the first moon or two of their life, when they’re still all stumpy legged and stumbling, with fluffy coats and eyes that don’t work right.

and yeah, things are fine. i mean, sure, jayfeather is concerned about dovekit, but ivykit doesn’t care. dovekit is her sister. that’s what matters. of course, as they get older, this starts to crack. subtly, at first. ivykit feels like she needs to protect dovekit. she doesn’t know why or from what, or even when she started thinking this, but ivykit just knows that she has to be there for dovekit. that she’s going to be the person who doesn’t complain when dovekit doesn’t hear, etc., and that’s just her job.

and the cracks grow larger. cloudtail and brightheart are concerned for dovekit. ivykit can’t keep going she’s my sister, she’s just like that and so she does yeah she does start to grow jealous. and there’s this awkward rift and they can’t make it work, except that ivykit and dovekit are still sisters. (oh man oh man is dovewing’s silence gonna fuck ivypool up.)

but ivykit doesn’t really grow resentful until BB&B are apprenticed. because now she’s, well, alone. i mean yes, she still has dovekit, but dovekit is working with their parents, and her old friends are busy, and what’s a girl to do?

and then she starts to feel lonely. and this, while not when hawkfrost contacts her, is the weakness he will exploit. i’m not doing a mapleshade/crookedkit situation. wrong vibe. hawkfrost and ivypool should end as equals. but otherwise, that’s pretty much her kithood.

section two: ivypaw

alright, so we’ve heard this story 5 times by now. but that’s ok, that’s okay. ivypaw is given to lionblaze. this is chill, this is chill, this is some good vibery. you know? oh lord i’m meming again hold on someone needs to factory reset me.

right so ivypaw is assigned to lionblaze because he’s supposed to be encouraging and brave and loyal. and you know, ivypaw is fine with that. it’s fine. this is fine. she doesn’t mind. he’s chill. this is really cool lionblaze is a really good warrior ivypaw is internally screaming because she’s very happy but she wants to seem cool so she’s trying to keep it together.

yeah, she’s very hype. she’s like, mildly concerned for dovepaw, but dovepaw gets cinderheart and everything is fine and they’re going to be apprentices together and then. dovepaw catches a few mice.

and whoa, does this make ivypaw jealous.

because this means that dovepaw’s training with brightheart and cloudtail wasn’t making them equals, it was making dovepaw better. (this is wrong, obviously, but it’s how ivypaw feels, and that’s kind of the most important part.)

so ivypaw just sulks and about a moon or two in, i’d need to check notes for the specifics (yes, this au has finally gotten large enough i can’t hold the entire thing in my head), but a moon or two in, she gets contacted by hawkfrost. and i’ve actually already drafted their first meeting, so i can include some quotes. i know it’s unorthodox, but it’s one of my favorite scenes i’ve written. plus, it’s definitely not final form yet. so i don’t feel bad about including it.

Ivypaw didn’t know where she was. Her dreams were usually across the Thunderclan territory.

Now, a strange tom stood in front of her. He had no scent, but he looked like a warrior. But he sat still, saying nothing.

She could smell a mouse in the field, and she instinctively dropped into a crouch.

At least I can make a catch in my dreams.

But as she was preparing to strike, her back brushed the stem of a poppy, and the mouse squeaked, running off.

Ivypaw flopped to the ground.

“It’s not your fault,” the tom said, his voice low and gravelly.

Ivypaw’s ears flicked towards him instinctively, and she turned her head.

“You haven’t been taught how to crouch properly in this kind of field,” he said. “It’s a shame, but I’m sure your mentor is getting around to it.”

Ivypaw growled. “Sure, whenever he actually decides to pay attention to me.”

The tom didn’t say anything, only gazed kindly at Ivypaw. Feeling self concious, she stood up, and tried to lick the dust off her pelt.

“Do you want me to show you what you should have done?”

“Sure,” Ivypaw said.

The tom crept forward slowly, his back flat. He pounced, without giving a single sign he was about to move. “Did you see that?” he asked, calm. Ivypaw nodded. “Good. Now, you try.”

Ivypaw tried to copy his form. “Do you live here?” she asked, trying to make sure she was in the correct form. He didn’t say anything, just flicked his tail.

“Hold yourself a little looser,” he said, “but go on, give it a try.”

She leaped, but her belly brushed the ground, and she skid to a halt far closer than she meant to.

“That’s alright,” the tom said. “Here, aim for this.”

He hooked a ball of moss with one claw, putting it a fair distance in front of her. Ivypaw shook her head slightly, trying to think about what she needed to do.

She pounced, this time, moving cleanly, but when her spine flattened, her balence was thrown off.

“You’ve almost got it,” he said. “Watch again, then you try.”

He demonstrated the pounce again, and Ivypaw tried to pay attention to how he landed. He realigned the ball of moss. “Now you.”

She thought carefully about what she needed to do, then leaped. She moved through the air cleanly, and landed with the ball between her paws without even a whisper from the grass.

“Very good,” the tom said. “You must be quite the hunter.”

Ivypaw didn’t say anything.

“Oh, you must know you are. That’s an advanced move, and you picked it up in no time.”

Ivypaw felt flush. “Is it that obvious?”

The tom’s eyes were piercing. “No,” he said. “But I had a hunch.” Ivypaw had the sense he was waiting for something.

“My sister struggles with hunting,” she admitted. “We’ve been spending a lot of time with her.”

“It hardly seems fair,” the tom said, “that your training should suffer.”

Ivypaw didn’t know what to say.

“Let me show you one more thing,” he said. “Call it, evening the scales.”

The tom moved so Ivypaw could see his whole body technique. “A stalking technique,” he said, “one I doubt you’ve seen before.”

He drew his whiskers back and stuck his chin out, holding very low and flat to the ground. The tom weaved through the grass and snapped at the stem of a violet, impossibly quickly.

“That was so fast!” Ivypaw said, despite herself.

The tom licked his chest. “Comes with practice. Give it a try.”

She copied his technique, grabbing a flower stem, although she couldn’t move nearly as quickly.

“Very good,” he said. “You’ll get the speed with time. It’s a good technique for fish.”

Ivypaw tilted her head, quizzical.

“Or mice,” he ammended. “Anything fast.”

Ivypaw began to feel something pulling her.

“I think I have to go,” she said.

“So be it,” he said.

“What’s your name?” she asked him.

“Hawkfrost.”

“I’m Ivypaw,” she said. The pull was growing more urgent. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

“Because,” he said, calmly, “I think you deserve to succeed.”

and there you are. like i said, i don’t think it’s going to stay in this form. so i wanted to share it. it turns out the canon version of this scene is just. good. i don’t like a few key things about it, but for the most part, it’s good, so trying to redo it is hard.

anyway, so. ivypaw isn’t exactly kind about her feelings. she’s angry at lionblaze and at dovepaw. and dovepaw knows this and dovepaw feels exceptionally inadequate. so, dovepaw starts sneaking out.

section three: ivypaw II, ivypaw alone

so dove/holly/cinder leave to deal with beavers, and ivypaw is…salty. as i’ve made somewhat clear, i’m not 100% sure where this falls on the timeline: it could overlap with the hawkfrost incident. but. yeah.

lionblaze is very distracted, and she picks up on that hard. and hawkfrost is getting into her head, and she’s tired all the time, but she feels good.

ivypaw is…ivypaw is complicated. she wants to be good so badly it’s blinding, and somewhere i have notes on why she doesn’t figure out the hawkfrost deal sooner, but there’s a reason, but she wants so badly. she wants recognition, she wants to be good, she wants to serve her clan, she wants to protect dovepaw. and it’s all building to an almost unhealthy level, but like, what is she supposed to do? no one is paying attention to her because of dovepaw.

#q #mine #txt #24th #April #2021 #April 24th 2021 #ctd #ivypool #essay #long #6th #May #May 6th 2021

2 notes · View notes

leopard-mask · 4 years

Text

we still have each other

Lionblaze and Alderheart are worried about Jayfeather. Set during River of Fire, AVOS.

Jayfeather stomps out of the medicine den with a scowl, calling some excuse about gathering more watermint over his shoulder as he leaves. Nobody says anything, but he can practically feel Alderheart’s exasperated gaze on his back. That’s fine. Let him feel a fraction of what Jayfeather’s been feeling these past few moons.

He hears Lionblaze’s telltale heavy footsteps approaching and lets out a hiss before his brother even has the chance to say anything. “Can I not have a moment to myself?”

Lionblaze, never one to take antagonization well, stops short. “Well, hello to you too,” he spits. “Pardon me for wanting to spend some time with my brother.”

Jayfeather lashes his tail and steps past him. “Go spend time with your mate and kits.”

To his irritation, Lionblaze follows. “Believe it or not, I have the capacity to care about more than one cat at a time.” His tone is still sharp; he’s clearly already not taking Jayfeather’s company well. That’s fine. Maybe he’ll get so fed up that he’ll finally leave him alone. “Where are you even going?” Lionblaze continues when Jayfeather doesn’t say anything.

Jayfeather puts extra force behind his growl. “Use your brain Lionblaze. Where do you think I’m going?” he doesn’t wait for Lionblaze to answer. “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s this sickness going around the camp. I’m getting more herbs for it so no one else has to die.” His own words make him cringe internally. He’d just unwittingly admitted, aloud, unprompted, that Briarlight had died from this sickness. The one he’d given her. Which, yes, it was irrefutable—of course she’d died, there was no avoiding that at this point. But he’s been pointedly avoiding the thought since her vigil…

Thankfully, Lionblaze must not have caught the significance of the slip. Instead, he (predictably) bristles at the jab at his intelligence. “What’s wrong with you? You’re ruder than normal lately.”

“Why are you following me?” Jayfeather snaps by way of answer. They’re in the forest now. He’d expected Lionblaze to leave when they reached the camp entrance, but much to his annoyance, he’s still here. “I’m busy.”

“I’m worried about you,” Lionblaze snaps. The growl in his voice is an ironic contrast to his words that Jayfeather might have pointed out if he was in a better mood. Lionblaze has never been great with heart to hearts, but then, neither has Jayfeather. That skill was best left with Hollyleaf.

The thought of his sister just worsens Jayfeather’s mood. “Well, don’t be. I can take care of myself. That’s kind of my job.”

Lionblaze sighs, but this time it sounds more weary and less angry. “Jayfeather, this is about Briarlight, isn’t it?”

Jayfeather stops so suddenly he nearly stumbles. Why would you bring that up? He can’t even think of something to say—he just stands there rigidly.

Lionblaze shifts slightly closer. “You forget I know you. That’s why you’re upset, isn’t it?”

Jayfeather shakes himself forcefully and pushes on. He’s already had this spiel with Alderheart—while his apprentice’s soft words of comfort had been nice at the time, he can’t help but hate himself for breaking down in such a way. Having such a conversation twice in as many days was simply not going to happen. “Stop distracting me. Like I said, I have work to do, and you’re not helping.”

Lionblaze’s long-suffering eye roll is evident in his tone. “Come on, Jay—”

“Shut up!” Jayfeather seethes. He certainly doesn’t beg.

Lionblaze quickly steps in front of Jayfeather, preventing him from continuing. Jayfeather flattens his ears and jerks back, but Lionblaze is quick to speak. “I’ll be honest,” he says, temper surprisingly controlled. “Alderheart asked me to talk to you. He’s worried, too.” His tone sharpens. “And I can see why.”

Of course Alderheart had. Jayfeather turns his head away mutely.

“Now you’re the one wasting time,” Lionblaze points out. “Just talk to me, will you?” when Jayfeather still refuses to speak, Lionblaze deflates slightly and sits down. After a few too many heartbeats have gone by, he exhales and admits quietly, “I wish Dovewing was here.”

Well, great. This isn’t something he particularly wants to talk about either, but he supposes any topic change is a good topic change right now. Besides, he can’t just ignore Lionblaze’s confession. Neither of them had spoken of it since she’d gone…

With a sigh, Jayfeather reluctantly turns back to Lionblaze and stiffly sits beside him. “She’s with Tigerheart.” They don’t know that, really, but it had to be true. Why would both of them have gone missing at the same time if not to run away together?

Lionblaze shifts. “That doesn’t make it hurt less.”

Jayfeather doesn’t say anything, but he does lean a bit closer so his fur presses against his brother’s.

Lionblaze shakes his head sadly. “It’s like… I know it’s different, but she chose him over us. And she didn’t even say anything! I can only imagine how Ivypool’s doing…”

“There’s no use wallowing about it,” Jayfeather chides softly.

“Grieving and wallowing are not the same thing,” Lionblaze counters.

“It’s all the same to me.” Jayfeather shrugs. “There’s nothing we can do about it. We just have to move on.”

“That’s your problem.” Lionblaze tips his head; Jayfeather feels his brother’s whiskers brush his shoulder. “Sometimes you have to address it to move on.”

“Are you trying to give me a lecture?”

“Are you admitting that I’m right enough to lecture you?” Lionblaze asks cheekily.

Jayfeather rolls his eyes. “What do you want me to say?” he asks, perhaps a bit harshly. “I wish Dovewing hadn’t left? I wish I hadn’t gotten Briarlight sick? I wish Alderheart—” he breaks off, mouth twisting into a disgusted frown. He hadn’t meant to say so much. He abruptly gets to his paws. “There’s no point in wishing for things that can’t happen.”

Lionblaze gets up too. “What about Alderheart?” he asks slowly. “I didn’t know there was something up between you two.”

Jayfeather scowls. “Haven’t you seen the way he acts around Velvet?” his tail flicks. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he takes off with her before the moon is up.”

Lionblaze’s surprise is almost palpable. “Alderheart and Velvet?” he echoes, as if he honest to StarClan hadn’t seen it himself.

“Yeah.” Jayfeather sniffs. “Why don’t you watch them a bit when we get back? I’m not overreacting.” His shoulders hunch forward miserably. “I’ve been trying to keep them apart, but if Dovewing’s anything to go by, that’s not going to do anything.”

“Well,” Lionblaze says awkwardly. A few moments drag by before he evidently figures out what to say. “Alderheart isn’t Dovewing, you know that. You can’t assume you know what he’s going to do.” He nudges Jayfeather’s shoulder lightly. “Have you talked to him about it? I’m sure he’d listen.”

“No,” Jayfeather admits. He hadn’t wanted to explicitly say anything. He’s sure Alderheart must’ve gotten the hint by now, but neither of them has spoken of it out loud.

“Maybe give that a try before you keep assuming the worst,” Lionblaze suggests gently.

“I know.” Jayfeather shifts uncomfortably. Maybe he can get Leafpool to talk to him about it? After all, she’s the one with the firsthand experience; he’s sure she could dissuade him from pursuing anything with the kittypet. But that would involve Jayfeather actually talking to Leafpool about that, and, well, they’d just finally gotten past it. He doesn’t see himself approaching Leafpool about something like that anytime soon. Or ever.

“That’s not it though, is it?” Lionblaze guesses. “Don’t deny it,” he interrupts when Jayfeather makes to speak. “There’s something behind all of this, isn’t there?”

Jayfeather lets out a defeated sigh. Fine, Lionblaze wins. “I just… First there was Hollyleaf, and now Dovewing, Briarlight, and Alderheart next?” he shakes his head. “After all we’ve done for StarClan, it doesn’t seem very fair.” Not to mention, Fuzzball will be leaving soon, but Jayfeather will die before he admits to getting attached to the annoyingly chipper kittypet.

He hates going to sleep every night wondering, who’s next?

“You’re right.” To Jayfeather’s surprise, Lionblaze agrees. “It’s not fair.”

Jayfeather snorts humorlessly. “You’re not going to lecture me about being pessimistic?”

“No. We’re grieving, not wallowing,” Lionblaze corrects. His lighthearted inflection grows more solemn. “It helps to know that they must be happy, wherever they are, but… I know what you mean. It isn’t fair.” He nudges Jayfeather again. “But we still have each other. And I have Cinderheart and my kits, and you have Alderheart and Leafpool. As long as we all still have each other, we’ll be okay.”

Jayfeather rolls his eyes, unwillingly fond. “Quit trying so hard to be profound.”

Lionblaze snickers. “Oh right, I forgot, you’re supposed to be the profound one.” He flicks Jayfeather’s ear with his tail, then laughs louder when Jayfeather ducks away from him indignantly.

“Come on,” Jayfeather grouses, “I really do have to get that watermint.”

“Alright, alright.” The two walk together in companionable silence for a while before Lionblaze says anything else. “I hoped it helped a little, just to get it off your chest. You know you don’t have to shoulder things alone. It’s not like I can fix anything but… Talking helps.”

Jayfeather doesn’t want to admit it, but he does feel a little better. Less angry and spiteful, anyway. It still hurts terribly, thinking about all he’d lost, but… it does feel better.

He won’t admit that Lionblaze was right, though.

#hi im back with another one shot #nobody asked for this but here #if you cant tell im a sucker for character interactions and relationships #avos #a vision of shadows #warriors #warrior cats #jayfeather #lionblaze #fanfiction

6 notes · View notes