#she's my tormented fuckup with a tense relationship to a family that just can't bring themselves to love her anymore

[daily-whistlebreeze]

daily whistlebreeze until la becomes PoV day 1486

chatting with auntie Larkwing

Larkwing as a character has always fascinated me tbh. She's made an apprentice by the tail-end of OOTS and has become trainee in the dark forest in The Last Hope. We obviously have no canon reason why she joined, but her mentor Furzepelt (who had only recently become a warrior) was a trainee too. In Crowfeather's Trial she's there alongside the other trainees being scorned by their clanmates, and that includes her own family. She lost her two aunts in the battle and now both her parents and her grandmother are distant with her. She's also just generally distrusted by her clanmates, but fights hard against the stoats the entire time.

Featherpelt is in CT kinda retconned to be her littermate. It's a weird thing for me since Feather didn't exist in OOTS at all. but in CT she's way closer to her parents who are clearly favoring her over her supposed littermate. She at one point also expresses the idea that the dark forest trainees should be exiled, which kinda struck me because her own sister is one of those trainees. I'm more planning on putting that onto Crowfeather and her parents being so mean to the trainees and her picking it up, but yeah, Feather and Lark don't seem close at all.

I chose to imagine that her relationship with her parents, sister and grandmother never fully recovered from that whole ordeal. They're less hostile now, but they're awkward around her, though they just Don't Address That Thing anymore. She just avoids them when she can now and spends time with other cats (in my mind Harestar most importantly, as he's another dark forest trainee). Though Featherpelt's kits, who have not known the dark forest battle and have no reason to judge her for it, are close to her (in my heart). I like the idea that she might be the black sheep of the family to the older members, but Whistlebreeze, Flutterfoot and Songleap enjoy spending time with her.

as for the stuff with her parents. I've stated a few times that I despise emberfoot. It's kinda because he's just a stock Mean Conservative (though most of WindClan gets that treatment when the books need it), but I also have gripes with Sedgeember as a ship.

Sedgewhisker is born at the end of The Sight. She's made an appretnice in Sunrise. we have to quickly roll with the very nonsensical timeline stuff as warrior cats hates making sense of how many moons have passed, but for all accounts and purposes, she's 6 moons by the time sunrise begins, maybe 7 or 8 if she was made an apprentice earlier in Long Shadows, but it's never announced in the books, so we just can't get a grasp of how old she is.

Emberfoot on the other hand appears as a fully grown warrior with an apprentice for the first time in Eclipse. in the best of cases he's just been named a warrior and immediately got an apprentice in some sort of Fireheart and Cinderpaw but Worse situation. Sunpaw, his apprentice, is being trained at the same time as Sedgepaw is, they are apprentices together and Emberfoot definitely did have interactions with Sedgepaw while training.

by the time the fourth apprentice has begin both Sedgewhisker and Sunstrike get their names. Sedgewhisker goes on the patrol to deal with the beavers and then returns to WindClan and not too long later she must have has Larkwing. for her to be apprenticed by TFW (the wiki's timeline also puts her birth in fading echoes). My problem with this is that Sedgewhisker barely got her name when Larkkit is born whereas Emberfoot has at least been a warrior for 7-8 moons If Not More.

I have no solid proof in canon that ember did something shitty, but even if they only became a thing after Sedge became a warrior, he was a mentor while he was an apprentice, he's been a warrior for a while by the time she gets her name and I don't like it.

In my headcanon world ember is genuinely shitty and they have Larkkit, but eventually Sedge or her family (or Sunstrike) do stop Ember from his scumbaggery, but Lark is kinda stuck in the crossfire and this situation also doesn't help with her band with Sedgewhisker and Gorsetail or Featherpelt later.