"I don't know. Stonedung... what does that even mean? And Dumbwing? That one is better, but it goes along with Stupidspark too much. So, why don't you think of some more? Don't worry about getting them wrong." But, those names aren't too bad, Stonewing thought. I've got to be careful with Icespark-- I mean Stupidspark. She seems like someone who make my life a lot harder and I don't want that. Okay, maybe not my life, but she is fairly smart. Definitely still a super easy target. She's stupid. Just like her name suggests. Or says.
// OPEN to one RiverClan warrior who's chill with the setup Warning: sadboi alert. A little lengthy to start for intro purposes only ~
Afternoon came and went with a flourish. Ottersplash paced Lionsbeach against a backdrop of sunlight as seconds turned into minutes turned into hours; the tom ended up somewhere with a view, curled in warm sand watching the water tug this way and that. Out of nowhere - why was everything so heavy?
Otter distracted himself with many things and he was by no means sad. Right? Definitely not. He was--would always be--completely fine. Making so many friends this past moon, especially the odd ones with their adorable quirks and hard to earn smiles - that's what fulfilled him the most. Even now, his heart swelled to think of their names:
Wormbite.
Lotusheart.
Looncry.
Olivenose.
Just...for some reason it wasn't enough to drown out everything else. He didn't get why. Denial was a drug and every day Ottersplash upped the dosage, tried so hard to avoid feeling like...this. Like his paws were made of stone, his mind granules of sand with thoughts adrift like a skittering breeze.
Coast had been gone for a while. Ottersplash tried not to worry. They were both adventurous spirits, right? He was out there somewhere. Probably on his way back to tease Otter about his clinginess, about the way he eyed the tom's empty nest every night and wondered where he was off to. In any case though... unless he turned up soon, Coasbreeze (his best friend, his something more?) would be officially missing. And not just him. Firesweep too, the pretty boy Otter thought about sometimes when his mind wandered. Fire and Otter were supposed to take Redpaw for training soon; they never did get around to that.
So...why...why? Ottersplash didn't feel so good thinking about them. Not even the promise of adrenaline tempted him to do anything (like traipse along the rocky cliffs for a rush.) He didn't know why he neverknewwhy.
Ottersplash heard soft pawsteps by the time evening settled in. Sensing a cat's approach from behind, the ginger warrior tried to grin with his usual warmth - but it came out sort of...half. Huh. And here Otter thought smiles were muscle memory.
When Otter turned over one shoulder, ginger ear flicking, he looked like a child holding paw-fulls of something broken and pretending it was whole. "Do you ever feel...tired?" He asked, voice calmer than it ever was. Battles. Deaths. Disappearances. Coast...Firesweep. Otter didn't care who he was asking. He didn't care if they expected the question or not, didn't care if they even knew what he meant at all.
__________________
Hiatus
-
Full hiatus except for a couple threads I hope to finish up, ily all <3
(Sorry about the slow response everyone! We can just do one post each of finding shells to speed things up if you all want)
Bumblestep led his patrol to Lionsbeach, tail held high. Oh how he loved this part of the territory. The salty smell of the ocean water greeted his nose, carried by the cool breeze. Shells poked out of the sand like daisies, some carried in from the tide. Others sat upon the sand, basically begging to be picked up by the incoming patrol.
He turned to the queens and apprentices with a smile. "Alright everyone, lets split up and gather as many shells as we can!" He turned towards the younger cats. "If you see any large leaves lying around, you can use them as a satchel to help you carry even more shells." With that he set off, eyeing a particuarly beautiful white shell.
No, Plumstorm wasn't fitting their graves into a daily routine.
This was just another day, another consecutive quiet stroll to the place where her mentor and his world- their former medicine cat were buried.
Every pawstep closer to them felt worse, until the silver warrior stood peering down at the sand.
She doesn't say anything this time, doesn't ask for her mentor's words nor disturb Fawnsqueak (whom she still regretted not really having much to say about, but it felt awkward coming out for Lionstorm and not acknowledging him as well). Instead, she stares wordlessly down at them for some time. And just as she'd come, she turns and continues down to the shore.
Plumstorm had already succumbed to her former state- Quiet, cold, unfriendly. RiverClan was family, and she'd played the game for not even two heartbeats. Her connection to them lived and died in Lionstorm. After his vigil, she never saw Spiderstorm again, nor his other apprentice. Kestrelstar never spared a moment for her, Gentlethunder was even somewhere too far. And she had to prepare Saltpaw for a war. A war with the very place Lionstorm had pulled her out of.
It was all so dreadfully ironic.
Plumstorm felt weary.
She hadn't noticed the figure curled into such a small, pitiful disc. Not until they lifted their head and turned to face her. Lowering herself, she warily inches nearer to Ottersplash until she knew he was of her own Clan (the breeze being too much for her nose right at the seaside). "Tired."
Her tone is flat, her voice hushed. It was something about the ocean. Its waves, the light that reflected them. She always found herself speaking softer, as if the illumination cast off the choppy water was StarClan approaching from the depths instead of the sky. "Hah. Tired doesn't cut it, but I doubt it compares." Indeed, she knew better than to hold herself to him, at least. Comparisons in one-anothers losses would only darken their hearts further.
The silver and gray dappled she-cat gingerly sits near Ottersplash, pale blue eyes resting on the shrunken figure. He seemed exhausted. So, she diverts her attention back to the sea instead and lets out a sigh.
[ @Ziera ]
Silvery pelt, lithe figure—eyes bluer than the foaming sea at their paws. Her name surfaced in Ottersplash’s mind slower than usual, dodging thoughts like scattered debris: Plumstorm. Huh. Her muted voice barely reached his ears through the ocean’s inhales and exhales.
Tired doesn’t cut it.
She was new to him, but for once, no ‘welcome’ speech presented itself. Otter didn’t break out a winning grin, skipped out on those flirty compliments that either made newbies laugh or roll their eyes—even decided against introducing himself. Just for now...happiness was too heavy to wear. Was Otter's neck allowed to rest before propping his chin up again?
Plumstorm settled on the same pillow of sand. She looked at him—the moment he would have expected the pressure to talk, smile—but then looked away. Quiet once more. Ottersplash wasn’t a fan of silence, sure, but it wasn’t silent here; neither of them needed a thing from the other and that was somehow okay. It surprised him how easy it was to let go.
Ottersplash watched her as she watched the waves, a soft stream of curiosity seeping through cotton-candy melancholy. Did she understand? How he felt? Or no. Maybe they weren’t linked by what they understood, but by what they didn’t; maybe all Plumstorm and Ottersplash shared in common was being stuck in feelings that resisted description. He looked away.
“Doesn’t need to compare.” Otter’s eyes caught the setting sun’s glow, turning redder than their usual honey-color as a result. “Tired isn’t good or bad. It just—stays in the background, feeling like nothing till it feels like something worse.”
That...probably didn’t make sense.
Otter barely followed his own rambling sometimes, but his obliviousness wasn’t a shock; the ginger tom didn't win awards for his super healthy coping mechanisms. Haven’t you heard? Otter coping 101: chuck the manual and hope for the best. In case of emergency, attempt risky behavior to create another emergency you’d rather deal with. Simple.
White paws shifted in the sand, leaving little puncture marks where his claws slid in and out. Just as calm as before, Otter asked - “You think it’ll go away?”
__________________
Hiatus
-
Full hiatus except for a couple threads I hope to finish up, ily all <3
If anyone were to ask Palepaw why she had been in the territory by herself without a warrior to accompany her, she'd lie, and say she was bored and didn't feel like asking for permission, hoping no one noticed that she had submerged herself in water and rolled around in grass to cover up her scent (she hoped very much that no one deemed it suspicious and look for a hidden meaning).
She'd started straying further and further from camp the more her anxiety got to her. She was amazed she had ever been comfortable with meet ups so close to camp.
But she's most unsure how she eventually ended up at Lionsbeach (not how, she had gone there on purpose, had sought it out, the real question was why, she'd been meant to go back home).
She wanders aimlessly, occasionally finding a shell or a crab scuttling by and, in a moment of cruelty, kicking it to the water. They rarely plopped into the waves to her dismay, but she didn't care enough to follow after and kick them again (she didn't feel like being pinched).
She was just about to kick yet another crab when the cry of an unfamiliar bird reached her ears. She backs away from the crab, eyes flashing to the sky as she prepared to lash out.
But she didn't see a bird, not in the sky or on the ground. She looks around, still on edge when she hears it again, accompanied by a blood curdling howl that was unmistakably a cat. A very young, very pained cat.
Without a second thought, she goes hurtling towards the sound.
The moment she sees the sea gull in the kit, she pauses. Gulls were notorious for their desperation for a meal, their lack of self preservation if only to get a bite and it was warned just how dangerous they were even to a full grown cat.
She hesitates, because she's just one cat and where there's one gull, there are surely more.... but at the same time, what chance would a kit stand against even a lone bird?
Damning herself and her bleeding heart, she shrieks as she launches herself at the bird, teeth flashing foward and clamping to its wings, the feeling of satisfaction as she heard the bones in her maw snap calling her to do more, ignoring how her sudden intrusion causes the birds head to whip around and its beak to try and take a bite out of her. She twists her head and yanks the wing awkwardly, barely avoiding a chunk of her own shoulder from being torn out, but not the shrill cry it makes.
She jumps back, hoping the stupid bird will drop the kit now that it can't fly off with it (and hoping it doesn't decide to eat her then and there instead)
Petuniakit thought this was going to be the end of her. She really didn't want to die. She wanted to become an apprentice and a warrior. She couldn't do that if she died. What would her parents do if she died? Blizzardsky had already lost so much already. The seagull just kept on pecking at her. Small amounts of blood poured out of another wound.
Then she looked at the flowers and shells she had collected. What if one got to them? They were hers and she was going to protect them. She almost flung herself at them when a cat came to her rescue. She was quite amazed at Palepaw as they attacked the bird. Now that it was distracted she raced over to the pile and swept them with her tail to a safe place.
Petuniakit laid on top of her collection and continued to stare at the scene going on. Boy was she going to be in trouble. "Come on! Get that bird!", she called. She was excited until the bird turned away from the apprentice. Oh no, It was headed right at her. The kit let out a hiss. This thing better gets away from her unless it wanted some feathers plucked out.
__________________
Marigoldleap is my main character and is currently an outsider if anybody wants to roleplay with her or has a small plot they need an extra cat for.
Dawnwhisper let out a light purr of amusement, raising a eyebrow at the old tom “but you’re being nice to me and I’m not that young, I’m twenty-seven moons.” sure, they would be considered a young warrior, but still. They weren’t exactly sure if they even wanted a cat to swoon over them, maybe kits would be nice but even that they weren’t positive about even that.
The sunlight seemed to almost make their silver pelt look like it was rippling. Slowly, they started edging their way closer to the water, they weren’t going to get in, just wanting the cool water to lap at their paws while they walked.
Blizzardwind shrugged matter-of-factly. Yeah, I don't know what's up with me. I'm usually a 'menace'. Well he personally thought he was delightful, he was quoting the queens. 27 moons. A little older than he was when he joined RiverClan. And I'm 75 moons, you still have time. He cast a side eye to them as they moved closer to the water. He hadn't swam in a while, his muscles cramped too much. After the little almost-drowning incident, he stopped swimming.
Blizzardwind shrugged matter-of-factly. Yeah, I don't know what's up with me. I'm usually a 'menace'. Well he personally thought he was delightful, he was quoting the queens. 27 moons. A little older than he was when he joined RiverClan. And I'm 75 moons, you still have time. He cast a side eye to them as they moved closer to the water. He hadn't swam in a while, his muscles cramped too much. After the little almost-drowning incident, he stopped swimming.
Dawnwhisper blinked at the cat, they supposed that it made sense then about the graying around his muzzle. But they also seemed amused “who exactly calls you a menace?” they had seen Blizzardwind be in bad moods a lot of the time but they wouldn’t call him a menace. He was willing to tell stories, be kind when he wanted to be and in all honestly someone Dawnwhisper could get along with.
They paused their trek down to the edge of the ocean when they saw his side eye “oh, I was just going to walk close enough that when the water comes up it laps at my paws, but we can keep walking here.” it didn’t bug them all that much and they would happily continue to walk with the tom.
__________________
"I am out with lanterns
looking for myself"
Last edited by Nixey; June 29th, 2021 at 09:33 AM.
Re: Lionsbeach
Warning: sadboi alert. A little lengthy to start for intro purposes only ~ 
