#Better Bones AU
Text
BB!MALICIOUS ENTITY: Ancestor Rats
A cruel fate that can befall a shattered pantheon, and the enemies of Firestar's Quietus
With SkyClan homeless and exiled at the end of the Skyfall Era, StarClan itself was in chaos. 1/5th of their ranks broke from the sky to walk with their descendants into exile, with only some of the most powerful ancestors staying behind.
Skystar himself, Patron of War, was one of them. He scoffed that a Clan that couldn't hold even a sliver of land had failed his teachings, and deserved nothing.
Scores of cats died in exile, starved, exposed, killed by predators. Cloudstar desperately tried to keep his cats together as SkyClan dwindled. Soon, there were barely enough cats to maintain a Clan, let alone such a large pantheon.
When Cloudstar died, his successor Spiderstar found herself facing a new threat. One she couldn't defeat.
Over and over, there were rats who would attack the camp. Horrible, twisted creatures of many colors, with sharp claws like a cat and jaws full of needle teeth. They swirled like a storm around a central point, wound so tightly that it was impossible to see what lay at the eye.
While watching baby spiders fly away from their mother on little silk balloons, Spiderstar devised a Great Plan. SkyClan would live apart but connected, loosely, like a web. The Rats could not kill what they could not find.
As she watched her Clan disperse, some to humans homes, some to live as rogues, the blood roared in her ears. It pounded, throbbed into a rythmn, until the words of a prophecy became overwhelming,
"EEK SHARRARRAM SSARSHAIWO!"
[Rat ancestors disastrous-they-will-kill]
Could this be true? Would their ancestors save them from the rats, someday?
(Below the cut; a guide to Ancestor Rats and how they are dealt with in Firestar's Quietus. CONTENT WARNING: BODY HORROR, GORE.)
Firestar's Quietus; The Secret of the Rats
Exactly as before, when Firestar and the spirit of Brokenstar gathered the SkyClan web together, the rats had one point of attack. They washed over the soon-to-be warriors in a wave, but they were able to fight them off.
Skywatcher laid on his side in the clearing, trembling and wide eyed, covered in horrible bites. At first they could barely get a word out of him, too shaken to speak. When he was finally able to force a word out, he could only mumble;
"I saw Lowbranch. That was my mother..."
And then, someone else came forward, sharing that one rat had the same stripes as their brother. Another recognized their son's tufts on another's ears. The camp buzzed with tension as the stories bubbled forth.
Everyone recognized something in the rats.
Something had happened to their ancestors. Something terrible. It became clear why they had never answered their prayers or sent a hero to save them. Brokenstar tried to reach them, but he could only hear a command echoing in the darkness.
"Neek urrspeekorreen urrsnyarhak, karrl urrsnakochya."
"THAT WHICH CANNOT BE FIXED, MUST BE BROKEN"
It was only later, when they went to confront the rats once and for all, that they realized what those words meant. Stumbling out into the dim light out of the barn, they saw them.
Those weren't just rats!
And the most horrible thing of all was the atrocity behind it all, the creature at the center of the swirling, agonized mass, the eye of the storm...
The Rat Leader; Cloudstar
He promised to keep his Clan together. So he did.
As each life wasted away and his Clan dwindled, smaller and smaller, as their heaven crumbled above them and became too tiny to hold their ancestors, Cloudstar kept them in one piece.
When he died, that mission continued. Trapped as this cursed creature, Cloudstar was mindlessly commanding his cats like a storm around him, dragging in both the dead and the living in a desperate attempt to save the Clan he'd vowed to protect.
SkyClan could not mend until this curse was broken. These fallen angels needed to be released, by force, to rejoin a new heaven of modern making. Slipping into the body of Firestar, Brokenstar was able to lend all of his talents for one final fight. It was just like being back at Carrionplace.
With his purpose as the fallen 5th tree, a guardian spirit, fulfilled and the rats freed from their prisons, Brokenstar's soul grew sleepy with peace. Firestar buried the acorn necklace that he had used to channel him overlooking the gorge, where it quickly sprouted into a new oak.
Rat Ancestors; Tome of Beasts
When an afterlife is destroyed, through mass death or supernatural attack, and the spirits within it cannot peacefully fade away or join a new pantheon, all of its souls can become earth-bound.
There are many types of entities and curses in this world, each one completely unique. Ancestor Rats are the form that this pantheon took.
From a distance, an Ancestor Rat could be mistaken for an odd, escaped domestic rodent. Their faces were an unsettling mix of rat and cat, with teeth laid out like a cat's but endlessly growing like a rat. They had the blade-like claws of a Clan cat, tearing through the skin and laying at various angles.
They had no physical needs, but were unable to handle being separated from their leader. Cloudstar himself, however, did need to rest in some way, returning to the barn where he died every day.
When one was killed, it would flash blue as if briefly turning into a shard of the sky, before leaving a completely standard rat corpse in its place. As long as Cloudstar was alive, the pulsar of each spirit would simply be dragged back into another rat after some time.
There was no escape until he was killed.
After the defeat of the Ancestor Rats, the spirits moved on to SkyClan's special heaven; Skypelt. Even after moving to the lake, Skypelt maintains its independence from Silverpelt, judging its own souls and staying separate (but connected) to StarClan-Prime.
With an abundance of rat bodies on their paws, SkyClan started a morbid tradition for a very special celebration. "The New Day" is celebrated every year with a grand feast, where a traditional rat meat dish called "Roasted Grandpaw" is served.
#BB!Malicious Entity#Better Bones AU#cw body horror#Firestar's Quietus#Ancestor Rats#Rat Leader#The Rat Leader wc#Spirituality Overhauls#Tome of Beasts#BB!Cloudstar#cw gore#SkyClan Rats
611 notes
·
View notes
Text
New year, new Mistystar appreciation post, three cheers for violence!
This is fanart for @bonefall ‘s warriors au in which Mistystar kills Leopardstar to end the increasing xenophobia that she’s helped grow in RiverClan.
Felt hugely inspired by this post which details how the event happens in the au and really enjoyed playing with the composition and palette here!
#my art#warriors#warrior cats#warriors au#mistystar#leopardstar#tw blood#tw violence#better bones au
311 notes
·
View notes
Text
#better bones au#i was just gonna add snake as a lighthearted jab at the snake content they've been reblogging#(for their own sanity i imagine)#but then i thought “fuck it put the others in too”#we out here with a “DOTC characters who were done dirty” protection squad#protect bumble especially!!! sweet chonky kitty
134 notes
·
View notes
Note
Can you blend Bramblestar from @bonefall's rewrite specifically (https://www.tumblr.com/bonefall/728623469710934016/what-does-bramblestar-think-of-his-reputation-of?source=share)
Better Bones!Bramblestar from @bonefall is being blended!!
You cannot save him.
#your fave is being blended#you cannot save them#blend requests#better bones au#bb!bramblestar#bonefall
147 notes
·
View notes
Text
tried out printmaking recently and made a scene from @bonefall better bones rewrite
#art#artists on tumblr#better bones au#yes I know the prints are subpar it's my first time#warrior cats#wc art
103 notes
·
View notes
Text
[Image ID: Twinekit and Moonpaw in their StarClan forms. The title above them says "StarClan: Structures & Basics of Power"]
So, StarClan is… an interesting group. Everyone has their own take on them, because almost no one likes how they are written in canon. The Erins clearly want StarClan to be a Christian analogy. They want interaction with StarClan to be a story about having faith in an omnipotent, benevolent force despite the challenges you face. I don’t think this is a bad thing, per se. However, the basic world building of StarClan makes this almost impossible to effectively portray for two reasons.
A: The living cats speak to StarClan all the time. This means that the writers must write dead characters in a character-accurate way while giving them divine knowledge and power. StarClan lacks the separation needed to say “we may not understand them but we need to trust they’re working towards a greater purpose”. When our heroes can actively talk to God, God needs to have something of value to say, something that would contradict the characterization of whatever dead cat you’ve chosen to deliver the information.
B: StarClan is a body of dead spirits who make terrible decisions. As readers, we can scan through the entire Warriors timeline, and that makes a lot of decisions seem ridiculous, contradictory, or outright cruel. Some notable examples include the Leafpool and Squirrelflight issues, Goosefeather, Jayfeather, letting Ashfur into StarClan but sending Frecklewish to the Dark Forest, and more. Some of these could work if we weren’t in constant communication with StarClan, but we are.
With all these issues, every AU or FanClan needs to explain how they view StarClan in an effort to craft better world building and useful tension. For RippleClan’s Promise, I take some inspiration from @bonefall and his Better Bones AU (hi bone love your work hope you like this). Other details are based around the mechanics of Clangen and my own personal tastes. For this lore post, we’ll discuss the basics of StarClan and what they are capable of.
Positions In StarClan
Clan culture is based on hierarchy and on listening to figures of authority, so why would StarClan not have their own unique positions? In this series, positions are based on how long someone has been dead, their reputation among the living, their personal interests, and the occasional bout of StarClan politics. In StarClan, all are meant to be equal, but authority is to be respected when working towards the good of the living.
The Newly-Dead are StarClan's most recent arrivals. They are often chosen to present information to the living due to their close ties to living friends and family. They could also be called the "face" of StarClan. They spend their time learning about StarClan, reuniting with loved ones, and delivering prophecies/visions/omens under the orders of others. After some time, they can move onto other roles, although some prefer just to rest.
Fetchers spend their time escorting the souls of the Clan's dead away from Earth. When a Clan cat dies, their soul sticks around for a while. Their souls can be stuck on Earth if their deaths are not properly acknowledged and/or the Fetcher cannot find them. There are stories of souls hiding from Fetchers long enough to return to their bodies, but the Clans aren't sure if they are stories for historians or artisans. Fetchers also protect the souls of leaders as their bodies recover from a lost life.
Judges keep an eye on the choices of the living to see who deserves to join their ranks. When someone dies, if there is a chance they do not deserve StarClan, the Judges will host a trial, like those of codekeepers on Earth. One judge will defend the soul while another accuses them of breaking the code one too many times and standing against the values of the Clans.
Blessed Ones can create blessings and miracles for the living. When the living have earned their favor, Blessed Ones encourage the growth of certain plants, foster the expansion of prey, and design kits in the bellies of pregnant queens. If StarClan is angry, the Blessed Ones help guide that anger into a specific manifestation.
Rather than fading, if a cat is forgotten by the living and has grown tired, they join the All-Seeing. The All-Seeing is considered a singular deity who stores the memories and personalities of every StarClan cat within them. If they push themself, they can separate a soul from themselves to present as an individual, but they prefer to stay whole. Few living cats have ever met them, for they stay out of living affairs. They tend to the river of space and time, which shows them all events of the past, present, and future concerning the Clans. They share these notes with other StarClan cats through prophecies and orders for dreams and visions. It's hard to tell if the All-Seeing truly cares about the Clans, or if they just want to watch a story unfold.
Sometimes a cat reincarnates rather than joining the All-Seeing. They can be dead for any length of time, but the act of reincarnation is a sacrifice. Their next self will recognize who they once were after they die, but their own personality will be gone.
Cats who want to stick around or have a strong memory in the Clans gain more power and authority in their chosen roles. These cats are known as Celestials and are similar to Christian saints or niche gods in a pantheon. Celestials can display god-like forms and are considered the guardians of a specific domain.
The highest of the Celestials is a small group known as the Guides. There are five Guides, one for each Clan. They can be considered the leaders of StarClan due to their determination to maintain their beloved Clans. Each Guide died or lived in such a way to permanently tie them to their Clan. Moonpaw was chosen as the guide of RippleClan and is therefore the Celestial of RippleClan.
What Can StarClan Do?
StarClan's power is largely based on individual prestige and collective emotion. All StarClan cats can take a form matching any part of their lives and visit the living Clans. Fetchers have unique abilities that allow for the manipulation of souls. Judges have the power to take cats between StarClan and the Dark Forest. The Blessed Ones work together to bless the territory. Celestials have some special abilities connected to what they represent. However, all these cats only have power because they have a community to look after so they can one day join them in their peaceful, starry abode.
The All-Seeing is the only one who actually receives knowledge of the future. Their rather neutral perspective on life, death, and what the living need to know is a source of frustration for anyone who isn't ready to join them. Sure, StarClan sees a lot, but the All-Seeing gets mad if they reveal too much to the living. Even the Guides don't want to piss off the All-Seeing.
In terms of influencing events, StarClan's power is limited by their emotion. Some of their greatest signs are the result of moments of utter rage. The Blessed Ones manage the collective emotion of StarClan and guide each boost of emotional power into a stronger blessing or curse outside of their own limited abilities.
There is more to StarClan, such as their relationship with the Dark Forest, but I'll save that for another day. I'll leave you with this: Twinekit may be a Newly-Dead as of Moon 8, but she will eventually become a Fetcher for RippleClan.
#rippleclan#clangen#rippleclan clangen#warrior cats#warrior cats clangen#rippleclan lore#starclan#clan culture#better bones au
30 notes
·
View notes
Text
(Lack of) Reflection
————
Heeeeyyyy…. sorry that I haven’t posted in a while! I was scrolling through @bonefall’s BB!Hollyleaf/Fallenleaf posts and felt inspired…. Please ignore the weird water reflection stuff ;-;
25 notes
·
View notes
Note
again looking over the reworked history
what the hell happened with Ripwater, I wanna know. What *was* that? How did Riverclan kill it?
Oooooh, quite a request! Ripwater, Queen of the Lake, one of the episodes of BB!Po3!
Ripwater is a Wels Catfish, the largest freshwater fish in Europe. The biggest specimen EVER caught was just landed last year, in 2023, 9.4 feet long. It wasn't weighed, but smaller fish than this one have broken 300 pounds.
And it's not a good thing that we're catching so many big ones.
Wels catfish are extremely invasive across most of Europe, introduced for anglers who want to land record-setting catches. They're massive, intelligent carnivores, sometimes called the "freshwater orca" because they will lunge out of the water to catch land prey. They DESTROY the population of anything big enough to fit in its terrible mouth, including fish, amphibians, and even turtles.
They get that big from a mix of constant food and hot temperature. It's a sign that they're devastating their surroundings, and that nothing has been able to kill them for the decades it takes to get so large.
So of course, some dunderhead put them in British rivers, where they've been spreading upwards ever since. Thankfully they thrive better where it's warmer, so they're not too massive of a threat to BB's modeled regions in Northwestern England, but they're fucking coming.
Ripwater's name isn't an exaggeration. That's how they hunt. They gape their jaw and beat their fins like dragons, creating eddies and currents that suck their hapless prey in. When RiverClan names her, it's because they see her ripping the water in half. I was thinking about her recently, and came up with some new stuff. I'll take a brief break from my drafts to serve up some fragments for you.
[A gray cat with blue eyes, Lakepaw, later BB!Lakeheart, swims in bluegreen water surrounded by lilypads. Below her is the massive shadow of Ripwater, a gigantic Wels Catfish. Its eyes flash in the depths.]
SMALL RECAP OF BB!PO3:
(to set the stage)
It is now a breather arc, just dedicated to some worldbuilding!
I feel pretty strongly that Po3's strength is how AWESOME of a slice-of-life arc it could have been. To this end, I removed the Kin of your Kin prophecy from it, until it's revealed only at the very end just before Cruel Season.
That's so I can focus on The Three and their adventures around the lake, without this big prophecy looming over them and making the lower-stakes conflicts look small.
Instead, the various episodes of Po3 are related to problems that their new home presents, with just a teeny bit of Sol's magical influence to spice things up.
While Lionpaw learns about the "meaning of strength" and ultimately learns a terrible lesson he will extend to his kits, and Jaypaw finds his limits and learns to prevent others from defining them for him, Hollypaw is grappling with Fire Alone and how to reconcile her grandfather's legacy with her strict dedication to the Warrior Code.
And SO we find ourselves in one of the earliest episodes of BB!Po3; Ripwater the River Demon. This is like... episode 3 or 4, it's a REALLY early one.
I'm just shuffling it around with ANOTHER RiverClan-centric episode; the Shinewater Plague. The oilspill from TNP is now going to be bumped up to Po3 so it's more about establishing Mothwing and her apprentice Willowpaw, to contrast Leafpool and her apprentice Hollypaw, before Holly swaps to being a warrior. Jaypaw completes warrior training before becoming a Cleric apprentice.
So I don't want them to be TOO close together. Maybe put Ripwater in Book 2 and have RiverClan comment that they don't really want to ask for help because of the last big event, Mistystar hates feeling indebted to ThunderClan.
After all, it could basically replace the "flood" episode from Canon Po3, which is often forgotten about anyway. I'm already having ShadowClan construct dams instead of RiverClan anyway...
ANYWAY RIPWATER
I want to start this episode off with Sol/Harry, who is unnamed, messing around near water. He has a bit of a fish motif going on that I want to establish, and I need to get him to start messing with the Clans good and early.
(Specifically his motif is going back and forth between the koi, also an invasive and notably domesticated species, and the atlantic salmon which is famous for its changing life cycle.)
The Wels Catfish is an invasive species to England, slowly making its way up the island from the South. The fish who will become Ripwater, at this point, is already HUGE but not cat-swallowing huge. She's an 80-pounder.
Sol hits her with some godly magic, which allows her to grow at a rapid rate.
The sort of thing where it wouldn't be COMPLETELY implausible. He just... helped it along.
When we get to her first true on-screen appearance interacting with RiverClan, she is nearly 300 pounds of monstrosity with a length of about 8 feet
I'm unsure how, exactly, ThunderClan comes to know of this. But I DO know that I want Hollypaw to be snooping, and heavily encouraged by her mentor Brackenfur to do so. So, somehow, SOMETHING starts going wrong across the lake and ThunderClan catches wind of it.
Thinking about it, this should probably be her first big action after swapping out of Cleric apprenticeship.
One of the few things she's missing about Clerichood is the way she could be close to Willowpaw without needing to sneak around so much. It's easier to just pass it off as "friendship" and "Clerics need to be close." Leafpool and Mothwing are a similar way.
Possibly work in that Hollypaw's also already seeing Heatherpaw in the tunnels, contrast the two things...
At this point, Hollypaw has a crush on Willowpaw, which is requited, but... it's kinda fading.
She still loves her like a friend, but she's liking Heatherpaw a lot more. It doesn't mean she doesn't CARE for Willowpaw, of course, but
Willowpaw is still IN love, and it's slowly becoming unrequited, when it didn't used to be.
And from RiverClan's POV...
The first disappearance is so sudden they have no idea what's happened. I'm planning for it to be Robinpaw.
(I go back and forth on if it's Robinpaw or Dapplepaw, but I'm leaning towards Robinpaw again, because I like Dapplenose too much to have her get killed off here.)
She went out clamming in the lake with her sisters, Lakepaw and Otterpaw, there was a swirl in the water, and that was it. She was gone.
Just like that.
She never came back up. RiverClan searched for her, following the currents, checking the shoreline, everything. It was like she vanished.
Mistystar is suspicious and doing everything in her power to figure out what happened, but... let's face it. It's the word of two apprentices, who were swimming alone, who swear Robinpaw just went under.
Misty JUST got done with the Shinewater Plague and isn't trying to make RiverClan look like it can't keep track of its own young. The most likely situation is that Robinpaw was sucked down by an undertow that the three of them were too inexperienced to recognize.
So... she's pretty adamant about not sharing this information until Robinpaw's body is found. Jaws Style. "We cannot let the other Clans be alarmed by this, else they might meddle in our affairs..."
(and she's still maybe a little paranoid that some snoop in another Clan is going to find out that Leopardstar wasn't killed by a rogue, y'know.)
I don't want it to be TOO much of a bloodbath, so I'm capping Ripwater's body count at three and just aiming for two deaths total.
I'm also going for a coincidence RiverClan is going to interpret as a pattern; this happens a lot, specifically, when they're hunting Freshwater Pearl Mussels.
Ripwater doesn't like the river as much as she likes the lake, but it has nothing to do with their clamming. They're just going to interpret it as such.
Anyway.
The next one she goes after was lucky. By some stroke, she opens her jaw, and the victim is able to grab onto something before they're sucked in. (Maybe toss in something here were it was Holly who was able to help save them.)
Since the WHOLE Po3 Apprentice Generation is going to be getting more focus, there needs to be more input from the RiverClan apprentices. Lakepaw and Otterpaw obviously need time here, but I also NEED to involve Ripplepaw, to establish how he's going to be seen as one of the strongest in RiverClan by OotS.
EDIT FROM THE FUTURE AS I FIGURED STUFF OUT:
It was Ripplepaw, Otterpaw, and their two mentors on a raft who were attacked next. They were fishing for mussels in a shallower part of the lake.
Otterpaw was tethered to the raft with a flax lead, so it wouldn't float off. Or just tugging it in her mouth. Either way she had a line.
When Ripwater attacks her, she is swallowed on the line like a worm on a hook
And it starts pulling the WHOLE RAFT down, just a crummy bundle of sticks
One of the mentors started shouting to cut the line, else it would drag all of them under, but Ripplepaw dives right down to beat its ass without telling them he's not gonna cut it
Hollypaw just rushed right in, didn't think about it, forgetting she was supposed to be trying to sneak around
Taking control as the natural leader she is, she ordered them to shut up and start pulling the opposite way
Underwater, Ripplepaw braced himself against the fish's lips, grabs Otter's tether, and YANKS
Abovewater, the adult warriors are pulling together, Holly grabs the raft and pulls too
Once their paws touch the bottom of the shallows it's over, one last HEAVE-HO and POP!
Otterpaw is FREE
And when it's finally known that the apprentices weren't mistaken, there's a monster in the water, THAT'S when the debate really starts up. Mistystar does NOT want ThunderClan meddling, and she'll already be pissed off that Hollypaw (and any OTHERS who tagged along with her, I wouldn't put it past Honeypaw to wriggle her little yellow butt into a later draft, or Lionpaw for his massive strength) witnessed something that's not her business.
There's a moment from canon I desperately want to keep; where Squirrelflight comes to fetch her daughter.
(more reason to just say this is replacing The Flood Episode from canon lmao)
It's such an interesting moment, and so forgotten. In a nutshell, Squilf is both furious and concerned that her kit went missing and meddled in another Clan's affairs, but... understands the impulse.
Because it's something she would have done.
So when she scolds Hollypaw, there's this aching feeling that she's scolding a younger version of herself. Calling her arrogant and disloyal, that an apprentice's opinions mean less, and that she needs to listen to "older and wiser" warriors within her own Clan.
In BB, I want to do something big with this. Firestar is the figurehead of Fire Alone, who encouraged Hollypaw's behavior through his deputy, Brackenfur, who he set as her mentor for a reason.
But Squirrelflight is being abused. By Brambleclaw.
This is one of the lowest points in Squirrelflight's life, and she is walking a line between self-worth, the warrior code, and her personal beliefs, just like her daughter is.
SO, since I'm already using Brambleclaw's enabling of Ashfur's physical abuse as one of the contributing factors to Hollyleaf's descent, I ALSO want to show how he acts on other characters.
Brambleclaw, Clan Culture, the pressures of their strength-obsessed social system. So it's gotta be Squirrelflight that reminds her, or even plants the seed in her head;
"What you did isn't consistent with the Warrior Code."
Maybe even have Mistystar herself state this earlier, to be echoed by Squirrelflight, offering an alternate perspective to Hollypaw. Make her realize that ThunderClan's political leanings are not universal or even popular.
But when Hollypaw comes back to ThunderClan, whoever set her to be a snoop wants her to spill the beans. This is also a big WIP part, as Hollypaw struggles with if she's going to obey or not, and I still need to set all the political "players" in this moment.
I know for sure, though, that Firestar's IMMEDIATE desire is to meddle like it's an episode of Scooby-Doo. Though he's savvy enough to be smart about how he phrases it and what actions he takes, his ultimate goal is to put his little cheeto-dust paws all over this. And Hollypaw is starting to question how appropriate that actually is.
This is where it starts to really be a rip in Holly's mind. Clans aren't JUST big, blanket groups with united opinions, they're collections of individuals. Mistystar doesn't want meddling, but Willowpaw is in danger. Otterpaw and Lakepaw went all that time without being believed, after they watched their sister die, because they're lowly apprentices like her. Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw are angry and disappointed, while Firestar and Brackenfur are secretly lathering her in praise.
Now imagine me standing in front of a big board where I'm writing ??? because there's a missing chunk here.
I need to connect THIS part to what comes next, which is where ThunderClan DOES come in and help out. Here's the thought process going on in RiverClan;
Willowpaw comes in to do something important. She adores Hollypaw, knows her value as a Cleric, and knows that StarClan can sway Mistystar.
I want her to have a couple of pieces of a vision... BUT. She decides to interpret it in a way that's convenient, and add a few details.
It's not a tooootal lie lmao. It's just 75% true.
This is the true power of Clerics, when they realize it. No one can actually challenge them without just ignoring them or stripping them of power. They are accountable to StarClan alone.
A mentor simply doesn't say this out loud to their apprentice. It's a quiet secret. And Willowpaw just realized it.
and thinking about it... this should be the thing that finally breaks the budding romance Holly and Willow had. Holly is sickened by this, when Willow confesses how she convinced RiverClan to work with ThunderClan.
But, without even being a full Warrior, the apprentice leverages her power as Cleric of RiverClan, and 200 skill points of Improv Acting, to tell them these things;
"StarClan is so angry with us that they've sent a hog to the water! It's why they've sent a ThunderClan apprentice, we must work with them to eliminate the beast that lurks in our waters. With spears and plans, we must hunt it honorably!"
(Mistystar is defensive, but it's not known why) "We haven't disobeyed StarClan in any way. We'd already accepted their help once before, when sickness drove us to weakness, and it's only let them think they can disrespect our borders as they please. This can't be the holy will of our ancestors."
"It's-- We've been disrespecting this bountiful new land that they've so generously given us. That's what the pile of shells in my dream was. Think about it! The last attack was on the shore where we collect mussels. The second attack was on a cat latched to a raft, and it was only the tether that saved them. And the first..."
IVE GOT AN IDEA, Robin, Lake, and Otter WEREN'T clamming when they were attacked. She gestures over to Lake, knowing that if she doesn't back her up, the theory crumbles.
(Otter is in the Cleric's den, unconscious.)
Lake hesitates, not wanting to lie. Willow jumps back in,
"It's why Otterpaw was attacked," does those little jazz-hands to be like 'come in bitch work with me,' "And it's why Lakepaw has to be involved in killing it, to end what she started, and appease StarClan."
Lakepaw more like I LIKE-what-you-just-saidpaw, "It's true, we were so ashamed to admit it, Mistystar, this is all MY fault, I wanted my siblings to dig up mussels, PLEASE let me atone by stabbing the fish to death"
AND AFTER THAT IT'S NOODLIN' TIME
Mistystar, begrudgingly, accepts Firestar's help, or perhaps reaches out to him. Ripwater is a "Hog in the Lake," a beast too big for them to kill honorably on their own.
ThunderClan is the ONLY Clan that uses spears, and only for boar hunts. To protect themselves and to give their quarry a quicker death.
No other Clan touches weapons for dishonor reasons, as they're heavily associated with the demon Shredtail.
I should have Willowpaw explain her half-truth to Hollypaw here, and it's where Hollypaw just... so very suddenly can't look at Willowpaw the same way.
Jaypaw would definitely face an ableist moment from someone, but it's going to have to be one of those times where he accepts that there IS a very real limit to his ability here. Spears are range-weapons and his whiskers don't reach that far. He can't tell where he's stabbing, and the water is going to make it too hard to smell where Ripwater's dangerous mouth is. He can't be chosen for this hunt.
Meanwhile Lionpaw learns from Willowpelt how to make a spear and it is one of the most satisfying things he's ever done in his life, he's like "this is so awesome oh my god i love weapons"
just gently setting up that he's going to eventually become ThunderClan's head of hunting, and also that he's a lil violent
I feel like him and Lakepaw should hit it off a little because they both think the idea of stabbing a fish in the face is super cool, only for someone to growl at them that they shouldn't be enjoying themselves so much
Maybe Blackclaw, fuck that guy
(absolute tangent but BB!Lionblaze is kind of evolving into a little dork and I love that for him. Local himbo only capable of making friends or enemies, all Clanwide opinions on him are polarized, more at 11)
THE PLAN
So how DO they kill that thing? First of all, it's all about strategy.
Immediately they started making a couple of specialized spears. Most spears they make are exclusively for boar-hunting, so they have a distinctive "lug" that prevents a boar from impaling itself down the shaft to get you.
Someone in RiverClan explains that you don't want a fish having the chance to get off a claw. If Ripwater escapes, they might not find her again until she kills someone else
The solution is that these need to be custom-made, with special claw-shaped prongs, so they're chevron ^ shapes instead of tear-drop points. They stab in, and don't pull out.
So they need to make spears from scratch, which is an intensive process, and they don't have time to waste. RiverClan doesn't want to hunt by water that has a chance of having a freshwater orca spawn and drag you in; they'll starve
And there's only so many artisans in TC that can MAKE spears. Glue, twine, shafts, blades... these are all things that take hours of labor to create.
And MORE IMPORTANTLY, they realized from the Raft Rescue that a tether, attached to a floating object, can be very useful. Each weapon has rope tied through it and is tethered to a raft-- which is even MORE intensive, RiverClan had to repurpose several nets to create so many lines, and they only own three rafts, so the rest have driftwood.
So they only have time to create 3 special water-spears, and bring in 2 modified boar-spears.
Lionpaw is like visibly disappointed he can't have one lmao
The only apprentice given a spear is... Lakepaw. And it's a boar-spear
Because she's gonna be bait. They believe the litter is cursed for their "sin" and she'll be the next target.
But still, they chum up the water near the last sighting with blood and crowfood, like hog slop, and wait.
(Heavy WIP stuff here as we get to a play-by-play I haven't fully figured out yet)
Their plan is to get it on the shore as quickly as possible.
Four cats could pull Otterpaw from its mouth, so 5 spearcats and a dozen strong warriors could pull it onto the shore. Surely.
shorely.
It comes as expected, lunging at Lakepaw. She leaps back and tries to use her spear on it, but she is NOT properly trained with it, she stabs its face, but can't break the skull
RiverClan manages to toss a net at the beast, but it's NOT heavy enough
And they managed to get LAKEPAW with it, pressing her to the beast, her spear is dropped into the water
Someone shouts that it swims like an eel, able to just reverse course unlike a REAL fish which must turn
In the panic, warriors start mobbing it.
she thrashes, and splashes and the net is barely holding her back at all
She smashes a warrior with her tail, buffs another with her powerful head
She's stabbed in her side by a ThunderClan warrior (probably Sandstorm), and she turns on the raft they're standing on, breeching and SMASHING it to bits. Lionpaw and the rest of the cats on this raft get dunked
In the water, ThunderClan cats are useless, and RiverClan cats can't properly handle spears.
Someone from RiverClan, probably Blackclaw, tries to free Lakepaw but is scooped up in Ripwater's mouth.
He's screeching and yowling and trying to hold onto its upper jaw, regularly cut off as she dives under
When Willowpelt gets her spear in, she holds onto that damn stick with her LIFE, getting swung around and dunked in the water and then going back up into the air
Thornclaw, holding the other boar-spear, aims for its tail
But it's not enough; Even with several warriors of RiverClan, five spears, a net, and the weight of the two remaining rafts, Ripwater's managing to pull them towards the depths
She's too big to bite, too large to claw, and too strong to hold down
LIONPAW TIME
He grabs the spear that Lakepaw dropped
Ripplepaw seems to zoom right passed him, running away from the fish. He thinks he must be some kind of coward, the fight's NOT OVER YET!! WE NEED TO HELP LAKEPAW
(In a later draft I might have Lionpaw be on the smashed raft, and Ripplepaw brings the spear to him before turning and bolting back to shore. Either way he doesn't explain himself)
He paddles near one of the rafts, and is pulled up onto it
Firestar calls him a WONDERFUL BOY for bringing the spear
Lionpaw mumbles something enthusiastic around the stick in his mouth, wriggles his butt, and jumps back into the water
Grabbing the net sticking to Ripwater and using it like tree bark, he pulls himself on
Bites the spear by the lug like a handle
And stabs it in like a knife
But it's already starting to pull out, too shallow
Filled with anger and resolve, he bites the shaft, and PUSHES
Harder and harder and harder until there's a crackle, the twine breaks loose, and the lug snaps
The rest of the spear slips in as if Ripwater's made of butter
Figuring that's probably deep enough, he lets go of the net, breaching the surface, sputtering and hacking
He's about to dive again to go get Lakepaw, but to his surprise, she breaks the water next to him
and then he feels the fish bump his paws
His name is called from the shore, and there's Hollypaw and Ripplepaw waving. Ripplepaw TOOK HIS SPEAR'S ROPE. Like a GUY WHO THINKS.
Now there was a team of cats on the shore, all the spent warriors who got thrown off, pulling Ripwater to the shore.
And from the feeling of slimy fish under his paws, it seemed like her fight had been all but spent.
And more cats were swimming to shore now, with the ropes attached to the other spears.
Once on the shore, they're able to discover that, tragically, Blackclaw has died. Mistystar in particular looks deeply torn by this, as their relationship was notoriously toxic. But still, he had been the father of her children, and drowned trying to save a Clanmate. She jumps up onto the massive fish, giving a speech about sacrifice, how Blackclaw and Robinpaw would be honored, and that RiverClan has learned its valuable lesson.
Ripwater was symbolic; it's the greed they had unleashed upon the lake by over-exploiting one resource. From now on, they would be respectful of StarClan's bounty. She thanks ThunderClan for helping to fulfill a prophecy, and offers that their debt be repaid by splitting the meat of the hunt.
Hollypaw, internally: "Oh she's doing that on purpose. She knows ThunderClan hates fish and it would be rude to refuse."
Firestar: "well. how could we refuse."
Sandstorm, quietly, in the distance: "easily actually ew"
CLOSING STUFF
I kinda want some kind of "epilogue festival" where the two Clans legitimately celebrate with a somewhat somber meal sharing. Some of these episodes in Po3 will result in lasting traditions and holidays that are celebrated annually.
At that little "fish festival," it works for Holly to officially break it off with poor Willow, to leave this episode off on a bit of a sad note.
This was one of the first times Lionpaw's power becomes obvious, and it's the sort of thing that wasn't really noticed. I figure it would be good for Lakepaw to ask how that lug snapped, she could barely even get the spearhead in. Lionpaw just brags and says it must be because he's SUPER STRONG.
For some reason he's just making a ton of friends whenever I write these out, I think I'm going to lean into it. Lionpaw's got friends when he's a kid lmao, starts losing them over time as he gets more violent.
It's probably because I really need a comic relief in The Three's dynamic. Hollypaw is very dramatic, Jaypaw is dealing with legitimately stressful social issues, and Lionpaw is violent. Someone has to lighten the mood up a little and it's probably because he's The California Girl himself lmao
At this fish festival he also discovers fish isn't actually that bad. Everyone's being weird about this. It's not really that slimy. It's got a strong taste but that's kinda nice, actually?
Could use some berries but like... "damn why don't we do this more often. this would go great with blackberries."
Ripplepaw: "You think so? I can taste sweetness, can I try to make it at home and tell you how it works out at the next Gathering?"
Lionpaw: "It's not hard, you just mash the berries and stew them in a little water before pouring it over your meat. I learned it from Willowpelt, she's got a mad sweet tooth."
Lakepaw: "No offense Lionpaw, but I always thought you were a total lunkhead. I never thought you'd like, cook?"
Lionpaw: "I mean not really, I'm an awful cook, I can just make simple stuff. Willowpelt's just nice enough to be patient with me, my mentor Ashfur says if I can learn something anyone can, haha."
Just a nice little moment for him.
Blackclaw is being mourned in the mortal plane, but secretly, getting a SCATHING trial up in StarClan. His death was heroic, but his ENTIRE LIFE was treacherous.
From teaching Hawkfrost to follow in his father's pawsteps, to joining him in WindClan's Civil War, and his constant arguing and undermining of Mistyfoot back when she was just a deputy trying to do the right thing.
He goes on trial for a bunch of things he did in TigerClan, too, facing his victims who took his misdeeds to their graves. He's not the only cat in RiverClan who is getting a review like this.
Leopardstar is already in the Dark Forest, and soon, Blackclaw's sent there too.
I decided to kill off Blackclaw here so he could have a VERY cool Land Mar;
(context: all Dark Forest demons now get a cool little evil playset area just for them, where they spawn into after they're thrown out of StarClan. These are called Land Mars)
It's still unnamed, but it's basically an even BIGGER Ripwater. It goes above and below the river and lakes of the Dark Forest, popping up in any body of water big enough to hold her.
#better bones au#Land Mar#Ripwater#BB!Po3#Better Bones AU#BB!Lakeheart#BB!Willowshine#BB!Hollyleaf#Fallenleaf#Wels Catfish#I NEED to make an art tag for my partner#Gamer-the-kittypet art#THEIR SUGGESTION NOT MINE
247 notes
·
View notes
Text
BB!Nightcloud
Nightcloud Woobification Army ASSEMBLE.
There's actually very little canon information on Nightcloud outside of how her ex-mate deflects blame onto her, which she is notoriously demonized for. So for Better Bones, I've cooked up a backstory from scratch! I feel this character deserves to exist outside of her romantic relationship, y'know?
Make sure to check the BB!WindClan Family Tree if you recognize any of the repurposed Missing Kits!
Clanmew Name: Oogarhai
(The period of time where the sun has set + fat cloud)
Official nickname: Nico (NIghtClOud), Oogi (OOGarhaI)
Alignment: WindClan
Relationships:
Ex-mate - Crowfeather
Child - Breezepelt
Family (all deceased) - Hillrunner (Mi), Downwind (aunt, bio-mother), Tawnyfur (sister), Crowfur (grandparent)
Mentor - Addersong
Nightcloud is a controversial warrior of WindClan, and also among its largest, strongest cats. She continuously finds herself tangled up in nearly every massive conflict since the day they arrived at the lake, with only some of these events being things she ever had a choice to be involved in.
Though she yearns for a more peaceful life, her violent, stressful childhood following the WindClan Massacre carved deep distrust of outsiders into her bones. It lead her to the lowest point in her life, fighting for Mudclaw during the WindClan Civil War. The following years of distrust, Crowfeather's mistreatment, and the abuse towards her son, Breezepelt, made much of Nightcloud's life lonely and stressful.
In spite of that, she absolutely adores her son and stands by his side no matter what. After the secret that Crowfeather sired kits with a ThunderClan Cleric is revealed and he is banished for a few moons for dramatic, codebreaking behavior at the reveal, a "spell" that he cast over WindClan begins to lift. In his absence, Nightcloud is able to truly begin fixing her reputation.
Though Breezepelt still has a way to fall as a new POV in BB!AVoS, where his treatment as a Dark Forest trainee drives him to join Darktail's cult, Nightcloud's life begins to turn around after her mateship with Crowfeather crumbles. After participating in a secret plan to rescue her boy and several Kin members under the command of her future leader and son-in-law, Harespring, she is solidified as one of the most powerful fighters in the entire Clan and occupies a lofty position as one of its most reliable brawlers.
She's also developing a friendship with Willowclaw about it, which is neat.
Glossary
Upbringing
WindClan Civil War
Mateship & Abuse
Breezepelt and BB!AVoS
Trivia and Misc
Upbringing
The Mothermouth Moorland War came to a cruel and bloody quietus at the claws of Brokenstar's ShadowClan, ending a three-generation long conflict with an event called the WindClan Massacre. Along with the rest of their Clan, a pair of twins was forced into exile; Downwind and Hillrunner.
They looked out for each other, and ferociously protected the tattered Clan while living in the Tangle of Thunderpaths. It was hard, but they had each other and that was enough.
After Bluestar's champion, Fireheart, fetched WindClan to bring them home, Downwind soon gave birth to her first litter. A pair of sisters; one of them practically a little copy of her mother... and the other one who looked hilariously nothing like anyone in their family. The twin girls were named Nightkit, and Tawnykit.
They'd barely settled in before Nightstar and Crookedstar turned on them, attacking to try and drive them out AGAIN. If it wasn't for Bluestar and her reinforcements, ThunderClan's charity, they might have succeeded.
But this time, Downwind refused to run. Hillrunner saw her twin, limp, red, and ragged outside the nursery. The kits were too young to remember her, or to understand the significance of their new Mi's anguished cries that night. They came so far together, only for Hillrunner to lose her other half in the place where things were supposed to get better.
NOTE: On adopting the kits, Hillrunner is then considered their "Mi," a primary parent in Clan culture. Her biological relation as the aunt is superseded.
Nightkit and Tawnykit only knew Hillrunner as their Mi. They only know that Downwind was identical to her-- except for a scar across Hiller's nose.
Hillrunner was notoriously short tempered, paranoid, and easily offended. She shouldn't have been raising kits alone, but what choice did she have?
She was CONVINCED that she'd failed Downwind that day, and that something could have been done to avoid the WindClan Massacre. So she was dedicated to making sure her own kits were better prepared.
They knew the whole territory by heart by their 6th moon, and even major abandoned tunnels below the moor
Most apprentices don't learn how to differentiate individual warriors out of scent marks until a moon or two into training. Night and Tawny knew it before they became 'paws.
Ever trying to ask a question, or tell Hillrunner that they didn't want to do something, was "backtalk;" argue too much and she would hit them with a punishment.
Punishments, "lessons," were usually strenuous physical tasks, like doing laps, moving large objects, or being made to carry a stone in the mouth for hours.
The sort of thing, in hindsight, was probably meant to be a sort of "cover"... the Clan thought the 'Lessons' were harsh but 'understandable'. No one would step in.
If Hillrunner was angry though, she would also just straightup smack them. She was less creative when she was in a mood.
As an adult, Nightcloud will tell you how messed up it used to be... but sometimes she preferred when Hillrunner was moody. If she got hit, the creative "lesson" wouldn't be applied to Tawnykit too.
Because Nightkit got in trouble more often than Tawnykit, there was a sort of sour resentment between them, mixed in with the unbreakable sense of solidarity.
Tawnykit: "You got US in trouble. But no one else in the world knows what we're going through. I love you. I'm going to take this out on you when we're alone. I can't believe you did this to me, I can't believe our Mi did this to us. Can't you try harder?? We did nothing wrong. Why am I paying for YOUR mistakes?"
Hillrunner says she, "Just wants you to be safe. ShadowClan won't hit you with their claws sheathed! This is what real life is like! If you'd just LISTEN to me you'd know this is for your own good!"
The little family was "close," in the way that mice tied together at the tail are close, even as they desperately pull at the knot and gnaw at each other's flesh.
Hillrunner convinced them the world was terrifying, that they couldn't entirely rely on their clanmates, and the most important thing in life is Gan, blood-family.
"The ONLY ones who will turn out for you, who you can rely on, who will be there until the end, is your family. The only way you'll lose us is if you're not strong enough, and I'll make you strong. I promised. You'll see!"
When she finally became Nightpaw, Hillrunner continued to try and have control over her... but the new mentor, Addersong, would not be bullied. And he would not let his apprentice get pushed around either.
He taught Nightpaw that now that she was an apprentice, she was free to make her own choices.
If she needed him around when she confronted Hillrunner, he would be there.
And if she needed to be the one to do that alone, he would support that too.
But on one condition; he would never tolerate someone speaking down to his apprentice in front of him. THAT is a matter of his pride. Capiche?
That was a term she could handle.
She had always known that she didn't want to be like Hillrunner, and that one day she'd be free of all the torment she was put through, but Addersong was the one who showed her the way out. Protected her when others didn't.
It gave her a sense of newfound confidence, and freedom. Like maybe the world WASN'T so terrible after all. And maybe... there's people out here who are kinder and more loving than she was ever allowed to believe.
And then, Hillrunner died in a TigerClan attack
And she began to wonder if it was HER fault when Tawnyfur fell to BloodClan
And suddenly Addersong's lessons felt far away. And maybe that was a good thing.
Hillrunner tried to teach her that family, KIN, was the most important thing in the world, and Nightcloud began to reject that. And now they are all dead.
She didn't appreciate them enough while they were alive. And now they are gone.
So... she pushed Addersong away. He figured she needed space to mourn.
WindClan Civil War
While Addersong was composing Tiger's In A Heap with his buddies and others were baking Tiger-shaped tunnelbuddies to welcome relations with BloodClan, Nightcloud was joining the group that was critical of the decision.
Especially when Snapper and Leo-- sorry. They call themselves Snappaw and Brushpaw. When those two joined the Clan. Ex-BloodClan traders. Not to mention Pigeonflight's... charge, also acquired from BloodClan
Nightcloud felt like she was the only one who remembered that they fought BloodClan. That Clan cats died in that battle.
Until she found others, echoing the same feelings she did, and more.
Mudclaw was the most legitimate member of the group, organizing this group of cats with "concerns."
Those "concerns" started having weight when things began to sour in the Moor. The poisoning, the Mothermouth's collapse and the death of Barkface and his apprentice, Blackfur... eventually a warrior, Runningbrook, was SHOT by a human as if she was a grouse.
Someone called the two apprentices "jinxes," pointing out the bad luck they'd brought to them, and it stuck.
But Tallstar did nothing. Didn't listen to the concerns, and insisted that Snapper and L-- Snappaw and Brushpaw, that they were part of the Clan now.
Eventually they were all forced out of their home, and sent on a journey following Crowfoot and the other Chosen cats to a new land. Tallstar just continued to look weaker and weaker.
All around Nightcloud (and the cats who would eventually become the Rebels), the Journey was uniting the Clans in a way that was never seen before. Apprentices were trying out ancient recipes that had been untouched for generations. Warriors from WindClan were helping to carry kits from ShadowClan.
It was terrifying. It felt WRONG. It filled her with a sense of deep dread and unease. No one was enforcing the boundaries that made the four groups into Clans.
When they arrived at the lake, what would HAPPEN there? Would there even BE a WindClan? Or would they just get lured into forming the new TigerClan?
Through all of this... Mudclaw seemed strong, and sure of what needed to happen next. He was certainly more of a leader than the feeble Tallstar, who had allowed the jinxes to follow along on the Great Journey.
So when Tallstar was allegedly on his deathbed, and mysteriously swapped his deputy to Onewhisker, Nightcloud was one of the very first to call foul play.
It felt like an awful betrayal, to know that Firestar, one of the FEW cats outside of WindClan that Hillrunner spoke fondly of, could be trying to pull the wool over their eyes.
But just LOOK at the other witness-- Brambleclaw. Son of Tigerstar. This was a PLOT, and Onewhisker should be ashamed of himself!
Mudclaw jumped at the opportunity Nightcloud presented.
But... the newly honored Crowfeather came forth too, to calm the tension.
"Brambleclaw is a LOT of things and untrustworthy isn't one of them," Yet, he put up a smokey-black paw when his friend's eyes lit up, "But a change in deputy? To Onewhisker, of all cats?"
Onewhisker: "no offense, right? ...right?"
"So if no one here is lying, then Tallstar's brain fell out on the way here and I'm not going on ANOTHER journey to look for it. Mudclaw is the rightful leader of WindClan."
His endorsement of Mudclaw sent the Clan reeling. His own mother, Ashfoot, came forth to argue against her son, and his aunt Morningflower pointed out that Mudclaw was his mentor.
OF COURSE the two jinxes also argued in favor of Onewhisker. Leo had even joined in the first place because he wanted to be with him.
The compromise that the Clans reached, at ThunderClan's treacherous suggestion, was that they would wait until StarClan could sort the matter out and confirm the rightful leader.
But of COURSE ThunderClan felt like they could wait for StarClan. THEY had two Clerics, Leafstripe and Cinderpelt.
In the meanwhile, the Clan started to split in two. Those who were backing the feeble Onewhisker, and those who were supporting the powerful, charismatic Mudclaw.
Nightcloud refused to allow her Clan to fall into the claws of ThunderClan's ambition. WindClan could not be allowed to be seen as WEAK. Weakness invites invasions. Invasion invites death.
Not everyone that joined Mudclaw's side of the rebellion believed that ThunderClan was lying. Crowfeather believed it was the truth. Mudclaw himself did as well, though he didn't discourage beliefs that benefited him.
Nightcloud absolutely did believe that ThunderClan lied. And that cats outside of the Clan can't be trusted.
...and then.
Mudclaw started working with non-WindClan cats, namely Hawkfrost. The rebels were joined by reinforcements, given quiet support and aid, handed the knowledge that they would have extra backup if things got violent.
At first, Nightcloud was one of the most vehemently opposed to them.
At first.
But... Hawkfrost has some good points about all of the Clans needing to be strong and independent.
And he's right, that; "ThunderClan's plotting won't stop with one Clan. Tigerstar came from ThunderClan, after all."
And, if things go wrong... they will need the extra claws. They couldn't fight against the remainers alone.
"Hold on, who says we'll be fighting anything?"
Wide, innocent blue eyes, "You can't believe that ThunderClan will just let the word of StarClan shine through, can you?"
He's... reasonable. He's right.
So, in the BLINK of an eye, she and Crowfeather were surrounded by Thistle Law supporters. OPEN ones.
And Mudclaw himself didn't seem to mind all that much.
For Nightcloud, it was too late to have doubts, especially when Hawkfrost's lie made such perfect sense. When the Moonpool was discovered by that THUNDERCLAN Cleric, Leafstripe, Honored by the new name Leafpool, that was the last push she needed to ride into battle with Mudclaw.
ThunderClan had to be stopped at ALL COSTS before they installed a fake, sniveling little mouse to do all of their bidding. If Onewhisker had to die to prevent it?
Then... so be it.
They created a plan. Onewhisker was organizing WindClan to carry out a Muirburn, a carefully controlled fire to return the territory to heathland.
They would sabotage it, and throw him into the same fire meant to cleanse their new home. It would be symbolic, practically religious in its righteousness.
But CROWFEATHER betrayed them. Bolted to his friends in ThunderClan, that daughter-of-Firestar and the Tigerkin liar.
During the battle, Nightcloud leapt on Leo and went for a ferocious bite to the back of the neck. She was ripped off by another warrior just in time, taking a chunk of his scruff with her.
It gave him a permanent, gnarly scar. A reminder to Nightcloud of how close she came to killing him, and how much she hated such a kindhearted tom.
The tide of battle turned as the ThunderClan reinforcements came behind Crowfeather. In that instant, it was as if StarClan had torn open the sky, and the heavens were bleeding rain upon the burning moor.
Nightcloud fled along with the other rebels, and bore witness to StarClan's smiting of the false idol.
With a clap of lightning, a tree from the Gathering Island toppled down, crushing Mudclaw beneath it.
She stopped running, staring in breathless awe. The rain washed away the mud and the ash that clung to her pelt, and for the first time in moons, she felt like her mind was clear.
It was like, for a brief moment, the song of fear and anger behind her eyes forgot the lyrics, leaving her with cold reality.
"What have I DONE?"
That sabotaged Muirburn was one of the most short-sighted, cruel, evil things she can imagine any cat taking part in... but at first, her regret was just in the amount of destruction it had caused, not in the ideology she'd fought to defend.
The heinous act had caused the peat below the moor to catch on fire, and WindClan was playing Whack-A-Mole with the various little blazes that kept popping up in the area; and THAT was what initially made her regret her role in the Civil War.
But... she had to work next to Snapstorm and Brushblaze, just like any other Clanmates. Pigeonflight's daughter had also come into her own, Cranberrysplash. And ThunderClan continued to send aid to help with the reckless disaster she'd been part of.
She still grappled with a strong, immediate distrust of strangers... but it was tempered by the sobering realization she had while watching Mudclaw die.
And the shame, knowing that she'd been taking out her grief of losing Tawnyfur and Hillrunner on all these innocent cats.
Onewhisker's lenience... was mercy. All along.
She tried to punish herself for ever criticizing her new leader for "weakness." WindClan needed all the paws it could get to fight the fires and continue to feed the Clan, and Onestar was the cat who understood that.
He showed unfathomable kindness and wisdom by giving her and the other rebels no punishment.
She vowed to atone for it. She would not waste her second chance.
Nightcloud had been so busy trying to make up for what she'd done, fighting fires, building dens, and carefully rotating hunts to manage the prey populations that she barely registered that she didn't see much of Crowfeather after the night of the Muirburn.
While WindClan was gossiping, she was largely left out of the loop for being distrusted at the time.
When he came back, they started spending a lot of time together.
Mateship & Abuse
She liked Crowfeather. They'd been in each other's orbit since the Civil War, and she admired his judgement at nearly every turn. Mudclaw seemed like a good choice for a lot of people, but Crowfeather had seen when his true colors started to show. He made a truly heroic choice at the end. So when he expressed interest in her, it felt like she was going to be his next good call.
Nightcloud had so, so much to prove.
In spite of his absence, Crowfeather was a hero to the Clan. The warrior blessed by StarClan to bring them to their new home, a land of a thousand more stars, he who betrayed the traitors.
And in spite of that. He had a loneliness. He requested a name to honor the cat of another Clan, a lover he had lost on his mission
He is loud, passionate, and yet there seemed to be a niche in his heart he wanted to fill.
So... she wanted to be his missing piece, in service of the great love that binds a Clan together. To help him.
To prove she could mean something to someone, and be trusted in turn by a Clan that, rightfully, looked at her with suspicion.
but she didn't LOVE him so much as she RESPECTED him.
and he never saw her as much more than an in-Clan replacement for Leafpool, especially while he was secretly reeling from her dumping him and cancelling their elopement plans.
It didn't really strike her that they were mutually using each other; Crowfeather to affirm his loyalty to the Clan, and Nightcloud to prove she could love and be loved.
And neither of them were even accomplishing that. But, there's a difference between them.
While Nightcloud was trying, GOD she was trying... Crowfeather quickly grew frustrated that she was a person, and not just the perfect image of the "true love" that Feathertail and Leafpool would have given to him
So he started FINDING things to criticize about her. Reasons that he could use to justify why it's not HIS fault he's not happy, but hers.
She's clingy. She's too cold. She's less attractive when she's carrying their child. She's too demanding when she tells him to help out with the kit.
NOTHING she did was right, and meanwhile, even when Breezekit was young, Crowfeather was an awful Ba.
Depending on his mood, he was either too rough or too distant, a dichotomy he used to describe as Nightcloud being unable to make up her mind. Does she want him to help, or does she want space??
Problem is, you can't be fair with unfair people. When Crowfeather would say ANY of this, she would try to take his words in good faith
And Breezekit's formative moons were spent watching his mother twist herself in knots, trying to avoid whatever his father was complaining about that week.
But it NEVER satisfied him. It never COULD.
and worst of all...
Whenever she DID fight back, dragged down into explosive arguments after biting her tongue again and again, Crowfeather would ALWAYS bring up Feathertail. She's dead, and so Nightcloud could never defeat this ideal, NONEXISTENT image of this nearly perfect hypothetical lover that he could have had.
Crow: "And YOU don't even care. You CUT me, Nightcloud! I am being flayed and left to DIE from infection, and you don't even care."
Night: "Of course i care, I'm here aren't i?? Feathertail loved you, but I do too! And I'M in YOUR Clan, in case you haven't NOTICED."
Crow: "Oh you love me do you? I don't think you do. There's a reason I loved Feathertail enough to be so tempted away from my Clan, but YOU'RE such an awful person that YOU happily did ARSON."
Night: "I... I wasn't-"
Crow: "Wasn't trying to betray your Clan? Wasn't trying to make me feel like some kind of animal?? What WERE you trying to do, then?"
Night: "I've ALWAYS tried to make up for what I did, I was trying to-"
Crow: "To WHAT? To hurt me? Like you always do? All I wanted was you to see that I'm-"
Night: "Can you cut it out?! I wanted-"
Crow: "STOP Interrupting me, this is exactly what I mean! Feathertail NEVER made me feel this way, she would let me finish and listen to everything I have to say before trying to jump in. WHAT have I done wrong exactly? What IS it this time?? Hm???"
Night: "I-- Crowfeather I'm trying! I didn't mean to make you feel that way, and I'm not trying to fight. I just don't know what you want from me, I'm-"
Crow: "I say it over and over and over!! Are you stupid? I should have been with a rabbit, at LEAST it would have given me faster children!"
Night: "Can you stop being a CHILD for a minute and TELL me what you want me to do? In simple terms? Or is that just too much?"
Crow: "Fine. But im not going to repeat myself again. I don't deserve this, you're lucky I'm gracious."
When Breezekit became Breezepaw, Nightcloud had lost patience with this treatment. She still tried to be gentle with Crowfeather, but he was starting to force her into making a choice; Was she going to protect her son? Or was she going to keep endlessly trying to appease her husband?
In her head... SHE might "deserve" it. She knows she's "difficult." And that a lot of the things Crowfeather says about her are "true"
And if she's lonely, she "brought it on herself" by doing awful things. That's why she tries so hard to atone for them.
But Breezepaw is her BABY, and Crowfeather makes him feel like a little brat. Yells at him, finds reasons to pick on him, gives him the cold shoulder when he's done wrong...
At first, it looked like overprotectiveness, because she was often shoving herself between Breezepaw and his father, never backing up Crowfeather when he was punishing their son, and "downplaying" her son's rude behavior.
In reality, those were the actions of someone who was trying to prevent arguments from turning into abuse.
Those were things HILLRUNNER used to do with her, though at the time, she didn't realize that Crowfeather was in the same positions that her Mi had once been in
In fact, she continued to grapple with the deep feelings of shame, that she might be like Hillrunner when she was trying so hard to be different.
But the truth remained, that she recognized the same patterns that she was forced to be hyperaware of, and was trying to stop them before they escalated.
It took MANY years, well into Breezepelt's adulthood, AND well into her divorce, before she realized that.
Protecting her son was as reflexive as a hunting crouch. It was just something she did.
Unfortunately, Crowfeather was the one with power in this situation. And his immense sway was palpable. If he vented to a Clanmate about how hard it was to have a mate who undermines him and a son who defied him, they'd believe him.
So, Breezepelt started getting written off as "a problem kid" by the adults.
What changed... was Hollyleaf's reveal at that fateful Gathering.
She had been desperately trying to "atone" for what she'd done for years, guilty and shameful that she'd been complicit in an attack that had gotten cats killed and set the peat on fire. She kept proving herself, over and over, as Crowfeather held his love for an outsider up over her head.
And then she finds out he was HIDING this from her, ALL THIS TIME. There'd been ANOTHER MOLLY from another Clan she was being compared to.
Unlike canon; Crowfeather knew. He didn't need to be told. Hollyleaf looks just like his father Deadfoot. Lionblaze has his tail tip. Jayfeather is a miserable git.
They were born 2 months after Leafpool left him, choosing her Clan and her CLERIC FRIEND over HIM. He isn't stupid.
Emotions ran high and, right in front of his wife, at a PUBLIC GATHERING, he made another love confession to Leafpool. That she never should have abided her vow because she belonged with HIM.
Leafpool was fucking mortified. On top of her life crumbling as the secret was revealed, she was undergoing the cat equivalent of being cornered in a public space as an unwanted ex begs you to acknowledge your LOVE.
Leafpool is completely and utterly out of love for Crowfeather, not a SINGLE flicker of it left in her heart, but NIGHTCLOUD felt like Leafpool's tears were because she missed Crowfeather soooo much.
And after YEARS of being compared to FEATHERTAIL, only to find out she was being contrasted to LEAFPOOL all along??
And that Crowfeather really WOULD just break the code for any OTHER lover? Even "a treacherous, vow-breaking, abominable little [cat meow censor] FROM ANOTHER CLAN?"
AND A CLERIC?????
YEARS of trying to unlearn bigotry, keeping lessons about unity kept close in spite of the growing tensions between the Clans, having an open mind towards the people she'd unfairly judged, trying to atone for following Mudclaw... What's the point??
She was humiliated, embarrassed, scandalized. For moons she'd tried to appease him, and then he goes after HER SON, and then DOES THIS.
But something was different.
Onestar had enough of Crowfeather and his shenanigans.
By making a fool of himself at that Gathering, he made a fool of the WHOLE Clan.
Not only did he sire kittens with a Cleric, in a half-clan relationship, vanishing for a week to go on a holiday as the Clan was fighting peat fires, but he didn't even have the decency to NOT TELL AN ENTIRE GATHERING THAT HE DOESN'T REGRET IT.
Onestar snapped.
CrowFEATHER is an Honor Title. CrowFOOT was in respect to his deceased father, Deadfoot.
These names are both too honorable.
And even a DISHONOR Title is too good for this sort of behavior.
If he cannot behave like a Clan cat, then he WILL NOT BE ONE.
For one moon, Crow, no suffix, just Crow, would live on his own in total exile.
It was such a scandal that Nightcloud was horrified. The whole Clan had turned to look to her, see what she would do, desperate to know how she was reacting and what she would do next.
But... their tune changed.
They weren't looking at her like Crowfeather's ungrateful mate. They were curious about her judgement.
CrowFEATHER had convinced so many people that Nightcloud had been the problem, with his immense sway and influence.
But what he did was shocking and abhorrent to WindClan. Now he is just Crow, a rogue on the border.
And Nightcloud is as reliable as she always has been.
What really causes Crowfeather to begin to change here in BB, is that when he comes back... nearly everyone has been better off without him.
After a moon, Crow came back thinking that Nightcloud would snarl at him, or they'd fight, or she'd weep, or... something negative.
But instead, she greeted him. Cordially. Casually. With the tiniest little lilt to her tone that you only hear when you're forced to welcome someone you dislike.
For the rest of BB!OotS, they were together but... distantly. If it wasn't totally over, it was visibly dying.
They had a few more fights, public spats, but now that the Clan didn't seem to have Crowfeather's back...
He started to lose his nerve, and she stopped feeling terrible for things that happened long ago.
Now WindClan was following Nightcloud's lead on Crowfeather. When she was gracious, so were they. When she was pushed to snapping, they saw him like the unreasonable one.
But, honestly? That attention made Nightcloud uncomfortable.
She disliked the sway she now seemed to have over her ex-mate's reputation. She hated him and everything he did, especially in the few times that he would STILL try to deflect blame onto her, but... wielding that kind of social sway, after being an outsider for so long, it felt heavy and toxic in her belly.
Between OotS and AVoS, she realized that she's not like him. He reveled in the spotlight and influence he had over the Clan as a result of his power, adored attention and drama and being able to command it. Crowfeather would complain that life was so unfair, but he ENJOYED how the rules were applied so loosely to him, and how well he was treated because of the pain he'd gone through.
She doesn't.
In fact, she even resents the finicky opinions of her Clanmates. That earning their respect, in the end, was something she had absolutely no control over. She'd gone through so much for so long and so very few cats had ever had her back, and to be vindicated now of all times?
It was sour. Not comforting.
If she made any mistakes during OoTS, it was enabling Breezepelt's growing xenophobia in the midst of her own pain and frustration. She didn't KNOW that he was being recruited by the Dark Forest. If she did, she would have done something to try and stop him.
Breezepelt and AVoS
The worst part of it all was that none of this newfound reputation carried over to her opinions about her son. Breezepelt continued to be hated and distrusted because of his role in the Battle of the True Eclipse (BOTTE), where the Dark Forest killed so many warriors. He'd fought until the end of the night.
Of course she was disappointed in him. Of course she knew he'd done something awful. But she had too, so many years ago.
The fact he had also been a victim of Crowfeather's slander was disregarded in the eyes of WindClan, and for his role in the fight, Onestar gave him and his complicit friends Dishonor Titles.
Breezepelt became Dodderheart-- a reference to a parasitic type of bush, native to heathland, which strangle and kill the flowers. Harespring didn't get off without one. Darkseeker had sought his biological father in the Dark Forest, Mudclaw, and then the BOTTE had killed his Mi and biological uncle, Torear.
Nightcloud tried to encourage her son to follow Darkseeker's lead in seeking atonement, but he had decided that this meant; "My own mother had taken HIS side, that damn traitor who threw me under the boar so that he could save his own reputation, distancing himself from THE REST OF US so that he can climb the ranks! WELL!"
When The Kin arrived at the lake, lead by the mysterious Darktail, Nightcloud was powerless as the pied piper called forth cats of many Clans.
He appealed to everyone who felt alienated. Every HalfClan cat still dealing with stigma, every young warrior frustrated by the dogged separation of the Clans... and, especially, to all of the Dark Forest trainees who still lived.
It was a trap, and Breezepelt was drawn to it.
As the situation got worse and worse, Nightcloud could only watch from afar as Onestar responded with furious embargoes, aggression, and fury towards any type of contact with Darktail's cats.
Along with Brushblaze and Harespring, now deputy and having shed his Dishonor Title, she plotted ways to undermine Onestar's strict orders and try to reach her son.
And.... Crowfeather, too.
To her surprise, he wanted to help.
The irony was overwhelming. Yes Breezepelt, or Dodderheart, damn Onestar's pernicious name, YES he had been making his own choices for a long time, but Crowfeather knew full well who had set him on this path.
In spite of how he'd try to deflect the blame for seasons on seasons.
Hedgehogs took flight that day, because his response was, "You think I don't know that? ...that's why I'm here."
Someone else might have wanted to shove that back in his face, drink in every drop of smugness they'd earned, tell Harespring to kick him from the help efforts for causing so much pain in the first place..
...But Nightcloud isn't like that someone else.
Breezepelt was what mattered to her. Anyone who was going to help was another alibi, another mouth to carry herbs, another set of claws to fight by their side.
...is that what working with others really means, at its core?
Maybe it's not love that truly binds us, but a sense of duty. The commitments we make to each other, and the honor to keep them.
She loves her son. And by extension, she loves Heathertail and Harespring who love him.
But her Clanmates... she doesn't love them. Or Crowfeather.
And Crowfeather wasn't here out of love for her. Maybe not even love for Breezepelt as a person. He was here for honor. Repentence. To right a wrong.
Whatever reason he was here; it still meant he was HERE. To help.
In that moment, she thinks back to the words of Hillrunner. That only blood-family would ever turn out for you, and strength was what allowed you to keep them.
Looking over to Brushblaze, thinking to her Clanmates, she finally had the wisdom to see the words for what they were
It was the scared, broken philosophy of a molly who had lost everything a hundred times over, clinging to something that made sense, trying to scare her kits into never leaving her side.
Nightcloud was truly unlike her. Surrounded by allies of all kinds, united in their goal to rescue her son and other Kin captives and victims.
She was entitled to her reasonable distrust, but not held back by it. She never would forgive Crowfeather, but they could work together. For Breezepelt.
Hillrunner wasn't completely wrong about strength. It was an asset.
But so is faith.
After they'd brought Breezepelt home along with many others, bedraggled and shaken by their experiences, Nightcloud was absolutely shocked by how graciously Onestar seemed to be towards them.
She didn't question it at the time, but when Onestar spent his final life stealing a plan Breezepelt admitted was his own, to sacrifice himself drowning Darktail, it suddenly made sense.
After Harestar took power, she had cemented herself as one of his favorite warriors. A powerful, loyal brawler, who was willing to do anything under his command. Breezepelt had accepted at this point that he was never going to have a position of power due to his past; and that was okay.
She spent a lot of time with the grandkits Breezepelt eventually had with his mates, Harestar and Heathertail. For the first time in a long time, she's finally at peace with the family she's acquired.
Trivia and Misc
I'm tempted to swap Crowfeather and Nightcloud as deputy. I feel like Nightcloud makes a very interesting one.
At the same time though, I do like the drama of Crowstar and Squirrelstar as opposing leaders, so I'm still unsure.
For some reason whenever I think of Nightcloud, I think of ABBA songs lmao. Thank You For The Music, or maybe Knowing Me Knowing You.
As you can see, I split up Crowfeather's Trial and shuffled it around. I feel like for most of OotS, Nightcloud and Crowfeather are doing nothing but arguing and the development feels incredibly rushed because it's all in an SE, so I've pushed a major event back.
They also never actually describe their verbal arguments; so I'm using them to make my take on Crowfeather more clear. He's emotionally abusive.
Something that I often feel isn't done enough is abusers who are popular, and also funny. How devastating it feels for someone you love to mock you in public, and then a bunch of people laugh because "you deserve it."
Or just see you as the aggressor by default
Knowing you can't do shit about it because they're just more loved than you. Their word vs yours.
(especially when paired with trauma that makes you forget major details so you can't even recall any examples in the moment, so you just get painted as clingy and whiny)
All that said, there's a ton of abusive cats in BB, most of them never improve or get better, but Crowfeather will.
And from Nightcloud's perspective, that's a good thing. And I want to capture that deeply bittersweet feeling.
She's happy he's not so terrible anymore... but god, it doesn't undo any of the AWFUL things he did and said to her.
Anyway, I really want to fit Nightcloud's buddy Pickle in somehow, but I'm still working it out. Pickle was such a cute character
Hillrunner and Downwind are repurposed Missing Kits! WindClan is ridiculously tiny so I had to stretch it pretty thin.
I don't see a ton of Nightcloud origin stories, so the one I figured made the most sense was picking up on the observation others have made about her "coddling" behavior
In-canon, because Crowfeather is abusive to his kid, it suddenly implies that a major reason why Nightcloud is so protective of Breezepaw in arguments is because she's trying to prevent it from escalating into abuse.
Eventually I'd like to build out some more friends, and expand on her budding friendship with Brushblaze. Not to mention Willowclaw.
Maybe I should repurpose Crowfeather's Trial into an SE about Nightcloud... Nightcloud's Thaw, maybe. Something about a change that's a long time coming, so I can show her new backstory and how she reacts to all the changes in WindClan towards her reputation.
And that's Nightcloud! I think she deserves an AU where she gets to be a more fleshed out supporting character, as a treat <3
300 notes
·
View notes
Note
how to the clans view eating roadkill?
Generally, roadkill is seen on the same level as carrion. It's coated with the overwhelming scent of the road, with crows, ravens, and buzzards almost always finding the carcass before Clan cats. They might try to salvage what they can, especially if it was a large animal like a deer, but generally this meat is avoided.
Unless you're ShadowClan. ESPECIALLY if it's badger meat. Do you know how hard it is to kill badgers, deer, and foxes?? You're just gonna LEAVE a free meal there?! It's GOOD MEAT, Tawnypelt, we NEED to get you over this ThunderClan snobbery, StarClan made all the animals out of food and here you are just rejecting our ancestor's sweet, sweet blessing. Now get over here and help me drag this thing off the thunderpath before the car comes back
209 notes
·
View notes
Text
Cat? Gray. Eyes? Blue. Hotel? Trevago.
Design babble stuff below
BLUESTAR
Good god it's been over a year since I last drew her. I can do so much better now
I give her a wolf motif for BB, because in my mind it's about the myth of the lone wolf. Lone wolves aren't normal, they're pack animals. At first, Firestar sees her as this ideal, strong leader who stands independently of everything... but he's wrong!
She's NEVER acted fully alone! She's always been devoted to her family, even as it dwindled. Her ruling style is to protect other Clans, unlike any leader who's come before her. In BB, she even had a mixed-Clan friendgroup called the Forget-Me-Nots.
She helped to depose ShadowClan's tyrant. She sent Firestar to fetch WindClan, even against the wishes of the other two. She even fought Nightstar and Crookedstar when they tried to drive them out again.
She even takes the code SO seriously that she refused to kill Brokentail, extending a mercy that ended up backfiring.
And Firestar learns everything about leadership from her. Grace, diplomacy, fairness... and she was fair to a fault.
Both her and her apprentice would eventually face down Tigerkin, Bluestar during the coup and Firestar even lost a life after defending Hawkfrost for several books.
The only time Bluestar ever became a "lone wolf" was in her cruelty arc, when she was dragging everything she ever stood for down with her.
Her wolf motif shows up in her entire family, to connect them. It's in her nephew Whitestorm, her uncle Goosefeather, her daughter Mistystar, even all the way down into Curlfeather and Frostpaw who are descended from Reedwhisker in BB.
The scar comes from her fighting a badger to rescue Darkstripe and his sister, Cricketclaw, when they wandered off as kittens.
CROWFEATHER
He's a mix of spiky and swirly, as a cross between his dad Deadfoot and his mother Ashfoot.
He's older in BB to change that he was an apprentice on the Great Journey, and also to fix an inconsistency where his dad would be dead when he was conceived.
I think it was a huge missed opportunity that Crowfeather's bond to his mentor, Mudclaw, is barely mentioned in-canon. In BB they were VERY close and Mudclaw was incredibly influential to his personality.
Deadfoot is dead-- Mudclaw was like a father to him.
Crowfeather is torn between the influence of his mother, who was a Forget-Me-Not in her youth, and the hard ideology of his mentor. All the while, the ego boost he got from being selected to go on the Great Journey massively affected him, in a bad way.
He ended up taking Mudclaw's side in the rebellion-- not because he believed that ThunderClan had told a lie (in fact he defends his friend's honor) but because he believed Mudclaw would be a better leader.
But eventually, he found himself surrounded by cats he didn't want anywhere near WindClan. Good intentions or not, Mudclaw was willing to work with cats like Blackclaw and Hawkfrost-- people who want a second TigerClan.
Crowfeather betrayed the rebellion, running to fetch Brambleclaw and ThunderClan reinforcements. In the fight, his nose was scratched in a chevron, the shape of Mudclaw's stripes.
I like the idea that he carries it with him, but always tries to put it off his mind. He mistreats and misuses other people, ignoring the reminder that he is a fallible person that's carved onto his nose.
died of infection. Sad!
All of his kits resemble him in some way. Lionblaze inherited his tail, Hollyleaf has the spikes, Breezepelt has the build, Jayfeather is a miserable git has the ear swirls
He was head of Kitchen Patrol until BB!OotS, but I'm actually planning for him to NOT be deputy in BB. His character growth feels a lot more satisfying in realizing he really doesn't handle power very well, and should stay away from it.
He has old relationships and burned bridges to mend, and staying part of Kitchen Patrol seems like the way he should plan to do that.
I talked about him a lot in Nightcloud's summary and he's going to be coming up in the outline of Nightcloud's Pannage a lot. Much as I love taking potshots at him, he's got a very kind arc laid out.
CINDERPELT
She is the daughter of LIONHEART whY don't you people give her A MANEEEE
let her be THICK
In BB, the Frostfour are actually from two different litters. Cinderpelt and Brackenfur were in the older one.
Frostfur was head of Kitchen Patrol at the time, and very overworked lmao
So Cinder and Bracken both have an "older sibling" energy. Their mom was usually involving them in every little activity to get some help. Brackenfur is over-responsible, and Cinderpelt was always trying to help out other people and prove herself.
Of course, it also lead to her running right into Tigerclaw's trap which was set for Bluestar-- she wanted to be helpful.
The injury didn't heal right and she has chronic pain. She has severe mobility issues in the hip, and usually keeps the leg bound to her body so it doesn't drag or hurt.
She could have still been a warrior if she wanted to, but discovered while healing that she loved working with Yellowfang. I also interpret it this way in canon, to be fair, but TNP decided to remember it completely differently.
After saving Littlecloud's life they became absolute best friends. They worked on a mobility device for Wildfur together.
They style their manes in a similar way, pushing it up into that "spike" on their heads and out of their faces.
ASHFUR
Moonkitti's blonde Ashfur remains iconic, I fear
I draw him like a cheetah so he has the funky cheetah cub hair
I'm a HUGE fan of what the Erins did with the direction of Ashfur's story, with him being an obsessive spurned lover, but that's not really the sort of story I tell in BB!
So I approach his obsession on Squirrelflight as being very... Judge Frollo-esque.
Frollo's ultimate goal isn't to possess Esmerelda. He wants her, but it's a wrench in his plans to commit ethnic cleansing using his religious justifications. Hellfire is about how he finds a way to shift the blame for his own lust onto her, and offers an ultimatum; "She will be mine or she will burn (along with everyone else I plan to slaughter)"
In Frollo's mind, he "forgives" her for what she's "done to him." For what she is. He sees what he's doing as giving her an "escape."
It's not for her benefit. It's for HIS. By giving her this "escape," if she takes it, he gets to think of her as redeeming herself (and thus being worthy of him).
If she does not... then it's no skin off his back. He's Done His Part. Everything was always her fault. He is blameless.
Either way he gets to walk away feeling justified.
All that to say-- that's how I approach BB!Ashfur.
He wants to punish codebreakers. He wants the Clans to suffer for how far they've fallen from where they should be. They've become vulgar, ungrateful, unworthy of StarClan's grace.
He tried to kill The Three because he'd learned of the Fire and Tiger prophecy, and was only trying to protect the Clan. If Squirrelflight had CHOSEN HIM, then none of this would have happened.
He was righting a wrong, you see, and StarClan understood, in his eyes.
When Hollyleaf slaughtered him, violating the Code, it only confirmed he had been right all along.
And again and again and again, he offers Squirrelflight what she needs to redeem herself. He wants her. He wants her to "be better."
When she lets him down... then it's not his fault. She's forced his paw.
SO the blonde hair isn't totally just a fun reference, I also find it fitting because aside from the cheetah motif, he sees himself as angelic.
It's also why I don't portray him as "grubby" like some folks do, BB!Ashfur is much more vain than Canon!Ashfur, caring immensely about his appearance. Thinking about it, he probably won't even let his Bramblefake vessel fall into disrepair, he'd feel more grossed out than usual.
He also gets a very cool boss fight form at the end of BB!TBC which I still need to design lmao.
215 notes
·
View notes
Text
Pre-reveal Lionpaw to Breezepaw: "Bro I'd kill your dad for you haha"
Post reveal Lionblaze to Breezepelt: "Bro I'd kill our dad for you haha"
#better bones au#fennelposting#BB!Lionblaze#The absolute personality this man is acquiring is blorboifying him to me#Not a big fan of him in canon but god help I'm getting obsessed with all three of The Three
214 notes
·
View notes
Note
If you’ve already answered this then no worries, but what would the typical clan cat lifespan be then (assuming they don’t die prematurely from injury/illness). Just curious as to how many generations have passed since the clan’s founding in the 80 or so years.
Clan cat lifespans can be pretty variable! They're considered senior warriors at 5, but if all works out their lifespan is often 16 years. Kittens usually enter the picture for a parent who is 2 to 8 years old, but they COULD have them anywhere between 1 to 15.
Clan cats play less attention to raw age than to EXPERIENCE, though. It is socially discouraged for a fresh warrior to become a parent, and you are NOT an adult until you're out of apprenticeship. They see age like this;
Child: Less than 6 full moons SEEN. If a kitten's eyes were not opened when the first moon of their life passed over them, that is not a month they were alive.
Adolescent: The amount of time you are an apprentice. Flamepaw was considered a child while his sister was an adult.
Young Adult: The first full year out of apprenticeship, when you've handled a full year on your own. A warrior is only eligible for an apprentice after this length of time, so by extension a cat COULD be a mentor around age 2 (BUT that's considered young. 3 is a better bet.)
Adulthood is even more variable, because you're usually not considered "aged" until you've had an apprentice or a litter and you're around 5 years old. Without either of those things, you often won't be considered a "senior warrior" until you're as old as 8.
So to answer your question directly, you can comfortably estimate a new crop of warriors about every 5 years, and full population turnover every 15. Between the numbers, 8 is a good estimation of how long it takes for a generation to pass
(Though I'm more partial to historic events and time periods than crunching numbers like that)
Elders can hang on for a LOOONG time though-- One-eye over in ThunderClan was a personal friend of Pinestar and witnessed the Crusades before passing away at the tender age of 20-something.
#clan culture#better bones au#Age#It's good to remember that population isn't like salmon who die when they have kids#Gen X Millenials Z and Alpha are all coexisting right now#And imo the distinctions between the generations have much more to do with what we grew up with#I'm a lot more fond of the benchmark ''do you remember a time before 9/11'' to separate Millenials and Z for example#Rather than the imo silly division of the year 2k#One of those is much more meaningful to how you developed as a person than the other imo#A SECOND TREE HAS HIT THE RIPPLESTAR
151 notes
·
View notes
Note
I am once again giggling like a maniac at Spottedleaf basically calling Redtail directly in starclan (the terminology of which I forgot) to ask what the fuck happened about his murder, and he's TOO BUSY YELLING AT HER to answer the actual questions.
Real fucking sibling behavior right there.
The Rose Twins are everything to me ngl.
Their deaths haunt the narrative. They were both in positions of massive authority. One takes life too seriously and the other laughs in the face of oblivion. He desperately wants to keep his children away from her so they don't pick up her habits. She teases him that no cat avoids the doctor forever. He hates she's right. She loves that he hates that she's right. If she needs to sneak out of StarClan she tricks him into making daisy chains. She will break the veil between life and death to speak to him again. He wastes the entire session barking at her about witchcraft. He never rats out her crime to the heavens he's so very loyal to.
They are Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck if they were siblings, to me. Absolutely in love with them.
#better bones au#BB!Spottedleaf#BB!Redtail#I think if I was doing a 'draw your favorite bonds in your wc project' thing they would end up in 'fav brother and sister'#Because they are an absolute joy
167 notes
·
View notes
Note
What position do you think the cats would take to pray? would they bow or just sit or aomething else?
I think they should tilt their head straight upwards, so that their whiskers are stirred by the breeze. If they worship the stars, it makes sense that wind is part of that. Invocation is like asking permission of StarClan to speak to one of your ancestors, like using an operator, so if the wind stirs your whiskers it means they're answering.
Proper prayer etiquette includes going outside. You don't pray in dens or caves.
You're not praying to the Moonplace. You're directly seeking an audience.
WindClan, ironically, is the least strict about this. Comes from a mixture of tunneling culture and the fact they confess to their Cleric more than other Clans.
RiverClan probably has a phrase that goes something like, "Your wishing wind was an undertow" which roughly means "you were badly mistaken and should have known better"
I'd also combine it with them sitting on their haunches and putting their paws/wrists together, "rabbit sniffing the air" style.
#Side note though Im kinda amazed no one has made the cats pray towards the moonstone#That would be so cool tbh#I kinda wish the forest territories haunted the cats more#Especially the older cats for whom losing their home should have been a deeply traumatic event#Clan culture#Prayer#Better bones au
197 notes
·
View notes
Note
Is there a list of all the jobs the cats can have?
I gotta make a whole thingie on this but here's a short list of the new job expansions, as a quick summary before I get around to it;
All heads of the patrol expansions report to the deputy. Patrol expansions also have apprentice chores that need to be carried out-- like dishwashing for Kitchen Patrol.
Official Jobs: Tasks that a cat can volunteer for or be assigned to for the day.
Kitchen Patrol
Tasked with preparing meals. This includes processing prey from carcass to meat, making all the cats feel as full as possible on the food they have on-paw, and general preservation.
NEW Position: Head of Kitchen. Oversees these operations, ensures fair ration distribution, decides the communal meal for the day, works directly with the other two heads to provide building materials (leather, bones) and discuss hunting quarries.
Hunting Patrol
Very similar to canon; tasked with catching prey or patrolling the border.
NEW Position: Head of Hunting. Tasked with managing prey populations and overseeing the types of animals that are being brought home. Has the freedom to levy "limits" on species and organize big game hunts. Is also expected to keep tabs on the territories and populations of other predators, especially vixens and how many cubs they're having in a season.
Construction Patrol
An expansion of canon's unofficial builder roles. Tasked not only with building itself, but weatherproofing based on the season, comfort of the dens, and collecting materials.
NEW Position: Head of Construction. Oversees projects and manages safety. Works intimately with the Head of Kitchen especially, responsible for taking the skinned pelts and processing them into proper leather, and cleaning spare long bones (especially of rabbits) for use as beams and supports. In ThunderClan, they are also responsible for maintaining the spears.
Educator
A cat in charge of giving all kittens all their basic skills and a simple introduction to history, before their mentor and the elders eventually take over. Teaches kits how to understand glyphs, the names of certain animals, the leaders of their Clan, etc.
Unofficial Jobs: Tasks that a cat chooses to do, sometimes also asking permission to do it professionally or permanently.
Chaperone
The "perma-queen" position. Helps out in the nursery and attends the needs of the queens. Doesn't typically do a lot with the kittens themselves, between their Mi, the Educator, any Bas or family they have, and the elders. Raising kittens is communal, so the Chaperone focuses more on the parents themselves.
(Chaperones are generally rare, as they are redundant if you write the clan as a proper social unit, imo...)
Trader
A cat who brings things to the border or to gatherings in order to swap them for other goods. Becoming more popular as peace between the Clans grows. Not a "position" but more of a hobby, or a talent. The Clans are currently running on bartering, between borders.
Crafting
Weaving, tanning, toymaking, instrument creation, etc. Not so much a singular position rather than a blanket of various hobbies Clan cats can do in their off-time, now. While Construction Patrol often has to do these as chores, they can be done just for fun or personal gain.
In addition, the Leaders, Deputies, and Clerics have significant expansions as well.
Leaders are now given 9 lives to USE, and are expected to function as "the ideal warrior." They are at the head of dangerous missions, patrols, and are brave responders to natural disasters. They are blessed by StarClan itself, carrying a piece of a star to display their holy rank.
The Deputy is now expected to be the one who handles the "busywork" in the Clan so the leader is free to lead by example. The final decision always goes to the leader, but the deputy has MASSIVE influence over the day-to-day functions of the Clan now.
And the Cleric is the healer and spiritual authority of the entire Clan, only outdone by the Leader itself. Only a Cleric is allowed to interpret signs and omens, with Clan Culture now having the concepts of blasphemy, dark magic, and demonic influence.
217 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
dagspambone
Im A Wild Pig
iconstucker
iconstucker;
raeconaissance
not again
thecartoonistme
Cartoon Yourself