Warrior Cats Online - the puppet and his puppeteer

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- - the puppet and his puppeteer (https://warriorcatsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38421)

the puppet and his puppeteer

Okay folks :eyes: been considering this for some time now and I think it's time to bring this one into action.

Whisperpaw here has seen some pretty heavy trauma starting from a pretty young age (being essentially eaten alive will do that to ya i'd think), so of course I'd jump on the chance to traumatize him more.

Long story short - I want him to have a path of evil/redemption arc. Ideally this would start mid-apprenticeship and stretch into early/mid warriorhood, but before I go into details here's the run-down:

Whisperpaw is still incredibly insecure of the scars that cross his body. They're impossible to miss, and 9 times out of 10, they're the first things cats notice about him. He's tired of the looks, the stares, and he wishes there was some way to stop the insecurities that flood his mind.

Then [Puppeteer] comes along one day. They run into each other. [Puppeteer], of course, notices Whisperpaw's scars, but they also notice that he's a Clan cat. [Puppeteer] is someone who is a chaser of power, and they've heard the tales of how the Clans carry themselves. A lightbulb goes off in their head - if eyes are the windows to the soul, then the youth, the insecurity, the malleability shining in Whisperpaw's eyes is the start of [Puppeteer]'s path to power.

Instead of mentioning Whisper's scars, they say hello. A simple greeting to be sure, but Whisperpaw is almost immediately hooked. They talk for a bit, [Puppeteer] warming him up to them, slowly reeling him into their scheme from the very beginning. Whisperpaw leaves feeling validated, appreciated, and of course [Puppeteer] promises that they'll see each other again.

And so of course they do. They meet at the same spot, night after night, doing what Whisper thinks is just... talking. But [Puppeteer] is slowly poisoning his mind - feeding him subtle ideas of betrayal and the notion of strength and power. Eventually, it turns to only being able to trust them and himself. Whisper feels as if something is off, but decides not to question it, because [Puppeteer] is one of the only cats who sees him for more than his scars.

[Puppeteer] begins to train Whisper in the art of manipulation and quiet killing. They tell him that they are the ONLY one he can trust, besides himself. They tell him that his own Clan (none of them, really) doesn't deserve his attention or loyalty. That certain cats Whisper has mentioned are going to turn on him, and that he should take them out himself before they have the chance to kill him.

This is where [Friend] comes in. [Friend] has been attempting to grow closer to Whisper, because they've noticed the change in his demeanor. He ignores their advances and their attempts, but slowly begins to warm up to them, because they too have looked past his scars from the very start. Then they start to inquire about where he's gone off to, and he retracts from them completely. They notice - he's not trying to hide that he's ignoring them, he even snaps at them sometimes in an effort to get them away from him - and they're hurt, but they don't stop trying to fix their relationship with him. Slowly, the strings that [Puppeteer] have wrapped around his paws and throat have begun to loosen their hold and fray and snap, even if he doesn't know it.

Whisper tells [Puppeteer], and of course they're upset by this. He is THEIR key to power, and no one is going to take that away from them. They tell Whisper that the only way to get [Friend] off of their back is to kill them. Whisper is rattled, but with just a few more honey-laced words, [Puppeteer] has him strung up once more, although those strings are thin and fraying.

Whisper asks [Friend] to go on a walk with them one night. They comply, they head off, and he stops them when they're in a good distance away from the camp, deep in the territory. He's trying to hype himself up, repeating what [Puppeteer] has been saying to him over and over again in his head. And then he realizes that he can't do it. He breaks down in front of [Friend], sobbing and spilling his guts and his secrets to them in a panic. They lay next to him, comfort him, tell him it's going to be okay, and then they explain what's been going on with [Puppeteer].

With [Friend]'s help, and with the strings sliced away for good, Whisper confronts [Puppeteer] one last time. He calls them out on the manipulation they've inflicted on him and says he is cutting ties, for good.

OKAY. god damn. here, take a sip of water and a breather before you move on, that was a long one. you good? awesome. onto applying.

i really don't care how you do it! all you need is some character info and to let me know which role you're applying that character for. i think the only limits i have is that Puppeteer needs to be someone not in ShadowClan and Friend needs to be someone IN ShadowClan and around Whisper's age! (which is 8-9 at this point, his site is a little outdated).

yeah that's pretty much it! @ me and i'll let you know if i think they can work or not <3

EDIT: I'm closing applications for Friend for the time being! I've gotten a few interesting characters sent my way and I want to feel those out for the moment - if it turns out that whisper doesn't mesh well with any of them , i'll be opening it back up. please refrain from applying for Friend for now, though!