Marshykit
Male / 5 Moons / ShadowClan / Sexuality Unknown
Russet tabby tom with cream-brown fur around the torso, blue and yellow heterochromatic eyes, and a naturally sinister expression

“Well there’s no point to misery without joy, now is there? Just like there’s no point to beauty without brains! That last part is something that you, my friend, need to work on!”
~Marshykit

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Marshykit had never been one to stray away from a chance at interacting with somebody who appeared to have a unique personality, and Shadekit was no different. She had been sitting alone, seemingly sulking in a shadowy corner in ShadowClan’s camp, taking the Shadow in ShadowClan and truly carrying that title with her. The amount of dynamic her character Shadekit had shown had caught Marshykit’s attention right off the bat, and her interest had been peaked. He would do anything to interact with somebody who made some of their personality clear right from the start, and Shadekit fell right into that category. So in the end, Marshykit felt no shame in running up to bother the dark mackerel she-kit with his personality and story offers. There was only one problem; what if the she-kit did not accept his story offer? At that thought, Marshykit felt his eyebrows furrow a little in annoyance. Oh, true. What to do… what do to…?

Eventually, he made his conclusion and the smile fluttered back onto his face in an instant. Well, it’s simple! I will not CARE! With a sigh of self-approval, he glanced at Shadekit with a perfectly satisfied yellow and blue gaze. I have no reason to! All I have to do is create some sort of comment about how much of a sad answer ‘no’ is and tell her anyway! Oh, I’m sure she’ll love my story no matter what! The russet and cream tabby to, began to beam, and with starry eyes, he glanced up at the sky. Wonderful! But I will still have to find a way to slip her into the story, now won’t I? I have mixed feelings about this molly… shall I make her a hero? The villain? Well, she will be the protagonist no matter what, but… Will she be a good one with sunny intentions? He squinted at her in thought, and his whiskers twitched. I suppose I’ll simply have to wait for her introduction, so it seems! Well, I’m emotionally flexible, I’m sure I can manage!

But unfortunately, especially at his angsty age, Marshykit was not the most patient cat around. Within seconds of waiting for her introduction, he found his tail tip tapping against the ground in a steady rhythm, and eventually paws joined along. He was doing it mindlessly and didn’t think about whether or not it might annoy Shadekit, but fortunately for the mackerel she-kit, at least it kept him quiet. That was, until Marshykit began to him slightly, improvising and singing up some once-non-existent tune. Just before acknowledging Shadekit’s reaction to what all he had said, he looked up at the sky and had a final thought. And what if this interaction fails, if we end up hating one another? An unusually wide smile appeared on his face at the thought. ….Well, then, drama! We’ll just have to see how things go… we could be enemies forever, become best friends, really anything one could imagine, but I will just have to wait and see! Oh, this is terribly, wonderfully exciting and anticipating!

Finally, he turned to Shadekit to get a glimpse of the beginning of her reaction. When he noticed her gaze fixated on him. Oh, lovely! The russet and cream tabby thought to himself, tail-tapping and paw-shifting slowing down. Well, I have her attention already! Now isn’t that just wonderful!? He watched as Shadekit began to think and consider, staring at her with round and unblinking eyes, waiting decently patiently. Eventually, Shadekit gave in and muttered a, ‘Fine’. Marshykit felt a strange wave of relief rush through them. It was seeming like Shadekit was not going to make this too complicated for him, so enthusiastically, he gave her his response. “Oh, joy!” With the largest smile yet, he tilted his head to peer at her sideways. “I guess you aren’t quite as much of an anti-social jerk as I had thought… well, isn’t that just lovely!” And lovely was correct. So far, at least on Marshykit’s end, everything about this interaction was ‘lovely’. From the way Shadekit simply accepted her fate and told him she was alright to listen and offer an introduction to the way she hadn’t clawed his throat to pieces yet, everything was going perfectly.

When Shadekit prepared to introduce herself, Marshykit sat up and perked his ears, ready to listen quietly and patiently. Although he could be awfully bothersome, Marshykit understood that if he wanted Shadekit to listen quietly and respectfully to one of his stories, it was only fair for him to stay quiet and polite during her explanation about herself. The dark mackerel she-kit told Marshykit that she had a hobby of watching, better yet known as observing, and Marshykit’s smile faded into a more gentle simper of agreement. Well, not exactly something I didn’t already know, but I suppose this is something we have in common, then! He considered it a little bit more. We both enjoy being observant and keeping an eye on others, though… we DO have different reasons for doing so. Shadekit? Why not. Me? Well, I go scavenging for story-victims, so clearly, we have different goals! But… we still have a similarity or two… I should keep listening and quit thinking. Yes, good idea. He snapped out of his distracting head and returned his attention to his denmate. She told him that she didn’t like loud kits who bombarded their fellow cats with words, and Marshykit only blinked. If there was any reference about the dramatic tom-kit behind those words, he didn’t catch on, and he proceeded to stare at Shadekit with happy innocence. Marshykit preferred to ignore subtle insults… it avoided unwanted conflict. If someone wanted to tell him something, they were going to say it, not hint at it. Otherwise, he simply was not going to acknowledge it.

Shadekit informed him that she was not very fond of other cats, and at the sound of that, Marshykit raised his eyebrows and tilted his head even further. None? No lovable parents, siblings, buddies, nothing? Goodness, that’s terrible! Though, I can’t exactly blame her… but… well, it’s terrible that she doesn’t even TRY to FIND somebody to love! I’m assuming that she… isn’t the brightest star, I suppose. At that thought, his gaze softened and he kept listening. Then the she-kit began to defend herself a bit, stating that she was not grumpy, she was not a villain, and she simply liked to be alone. At the sound of that, Marshykit’s eyes flashed with a strange shine of pride in his denmate. Oh, wow! Confident backlash! His whiskers twitched excitedly, and the russet and cream tom lifted his head to sit straight and upright. I’m glad to know she can stand up for herself a bit. I’m thinking… she could be the hero…? He waited for Shadekit to continue, her ‘And…’ reeling in his attention again. He waited silently and expectantly, gaze frozen on his dark-furred denmate. Then suddenly, she was finished. With a, ‘that’s all.’ the quiet she-kit went silent.

Marshykit brightened at the success of his shadowy denmate’s introduction. She had managed to introduce herself without losing all of her social energy and sneaking off, it was a miracle to Marshykit. So happily, the russet and cream tabby started to think about the story that he was preparing to tell her. Yes, I think that I want to make her the hero of this story! His thoughts declared. It was confirmed; Shadekit was no villain. In fact, the she-kit had said it herself. She was just quiet. She’ll be a hero… of sorts. Well, she won’t be a BAD character. So now that her general role was it of the way, what would the plot be? Marshykit thought about it for a second or two, and finally, he decided that he had to include her quiet personality into in somewhere. Now, how can I create a moral based off of… silence? Let’s think… OH!!! An idea jumped into his head. A story idea, a wonderful idea! At the thought of it, his tail returned to tapping restlessly against the ground. There’s always a dangerous point of TOO MUCH silence, and I think that Shadekit may have entered this stage! It can’t hurt to encourage some noise, some sociability! Let’s start this!

// If Shadekit ever tries out her, ‘Look! Behind you!’ method of escaping during or before the story, Marshykit will simply smile gently and say, “My apologies, I do not fall for lies.” and continue his story like the stubborn nice-guy he is. \\

“Okay, here we go! Story idea has arrived!” The tabby tom-kit declared, clearing his voice. With that, to stay animated, he jumped onto all four striped paws and generated a title. “This story’s called… the… ‘The Sea of Silence’, by Marshykit of ShadowClan! You ready?” Without waiting for an answer, he nodded and stood straight. “Wonderful, wonderful! Now let’s begin… the beach. Have you ever heard queens’ tales and stories of the sea? Where the sand meets the waves, and water- water with quite a tang, that is- meets the land? Well, this is exactly that; This story takes place on a beach, and by the sea! It begins on a gloomy day, with the scent of rain hovering in the air… and… uh… clouds swirling! Standing beside the start of the sea, there is a dark mackerel she-cat, and she stands with her gaze on the incoming waves. Her name is Shade…shadow, and she has been sent by her clan to explore the sea and its danger! Being one of her clan’s most intelligent cats, this was what she was sent to do.” Marshykit offered Shadekit a little bow, as if to say, Shadeshadow is YOU, my friend!

Well, hopefully I’ve got her interest and attention now… moving on! Now for the interesting stuff! Eyes shining with excitement and confidence that this was going to go well, Marshykit grunted and continued to tell his story. “Now, Shadeshadow had been warned about the dangers and mysterious events of the sea beforehand. See, cats cannot breath underwater, so they had never been able to explore the ocean… until Shadeshadow! See, Shadeshadow was quiet, a listener, and thanks to her lack of noise, she had been the only one in her clan to hear StarClan explain the instructions on how to breathe underneath the surface of the sea. With these instructions, she left, diving into the ocean to explore its depths and discoveries.” Marshykit happily bounded forward and imitated a dive as best as he could, before purposely landing with what most likely looked to Shadekit like an uncomfortable splat against the ShadowClan clearing floor.

“-But then, oof! The noise, the sound, the terror! The ocean was a truly loud and chaotic place, and that mixed in with the dangerous monsters annd entities that surrounded her made Shadeshadow want to hurry on home. She needed some silence, and room to watch, to observe, but the ocean was just too overwhelming.” Now to get really animated. Marshykit jumped and landed directly in front of Shadekit and bared his teeth. “From Lion-like fish beneath the sea, with long teeth like jutting stones…” Then he dropped down to the ground and imitated a snake slithering across the ground, barely managing to not get stuck. “…t- ow, sorry- to the serpents- ow- anyway, the serpents of the sea, there were all sorts of monsters! You get the point.” The smiling tom scra,bled up and into his feet, eyeing Shadekit. “Shadeshadow thought to herself, ‘Silence! Please, just some silence! And struggled through the ocean with her ears flat against her head. The world was disgustingly noisy. She snapped at StarClan to let her have quiet for once, to silence the ocean and the sea, but the noise kept pouring… and pouring… and pouring, until suddenly-” Then abruptly, Marshykit froze and shut his mouth, staring at Shadekit blankly for a moment. Then eventually, in a whisper, he mumbled, “…suddenly, she found it. Silence.”

He padded over to sit down in front of the she-kit again. “For a while, she was at peace. The silence was a lovely thing, something Shadeshadow wanted to celebrate alone. Alone, here in the quiet sea, she had found her peace, and she was ready to go home. So after watching the quiet emptiness of the sea for a while, she decided to stand up and get going.” Marshykit choked a bit and tried to imitate a full grown she-cat’s voice, doing strangely better than he had expected himself to do. “She decided, ‘Well, I need to get back to my clanmates… be socially productive. I suppose everybody has a social life somewhere… ugh!’ and with that, mildly homesick, he started to head back. But soon enough, she realized that something was wrong. Soemthing was wrong with… the silence.” Marshykit smiled wider. Yes, the conflict! We’re here! “It wouldn’t… end. No matter how many different routes she took to try and return home, Shadeshadow couldn’t get there! Left, right, up, down, heck- upside down- she could do it. She was trapped, forever.” Marshykit grinned maliciously. “Guess where she’d be now? Still stuck in the dead-silent, empty, still sea. She was so desperate for silence, so hopeful that she could have silence that she found herself stuck in it. Fun, right?”

Eventually, Marshykit moved on, and asked Shadekit, “So, what might you think of that improvised tale? I only thought of it in the moment… my apologies if it was… well, rough,” Then he tilted his head again and tried to make eye contact with his mackerel denmate, still grinning. “Anyway, see the moral here? Silence can be good and bad, see? Shadeshadow’s quietness allowed her to survive the sea unlike any other, but all things have their dangers, silence included. She had always been too dependent on silence, leading her to get trapped in the empty, silent portion of the sea. Terrible, terrible fate… and although I’m sure being overly quiet won’t get you stuck in the ocean anytime soon, it could still ruin your social life, yes?” He nodded to Shadekit. “Believe it or not, training for battle, hunting, and all of those things… they are not the only things that make up a strong cat, right? Have you ever listened to elders blab? Even though they can bore you to death, they speak the truth- sociability is important too, you know!” And with that (plus a mildly sore smile), Marshykit waited patiently for her response and/or reaction.

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~ @SnowheartTC ~

Originally Posted by Onion Sandwich (Post 1600178) Darkdrizzle spotted her alone in the corner and approached her with a friendly gaze. "Great day for hunting isn't it?" He smiled, trying to make small talk. He thought she needed a friend.

Batstorm
Kitty Softpaws, Beefed Up 3, Survival Instinct