warrior cats but TNP is set in 1960s america and the trip to the sundrown place is just storm tawny and feather helping bramble dodge the vietnam draft. plus one stowaway and one hitchhiker.

51. What were some inspirations for your character (people, movies, games)? For a character you really wanna talk about!

Well, I guess Mick would be the easiest for this! I made her in seventh grade as a sort of Harry Potter OC. I didn't really stick with HP so now she's just a funky lesbian witch all on her own! Of course, Grim is also part of Mick's universe, and he based off my then-favorite character. He's a werewolf so... guess. Stara and her counterparts are boss monsters and therefore meant to be tied to Undertale/Undertale aus.... but by now I think most ppl assume they're just anthro goats of mine. 

brindleface and flintfang

the cool kids on the block

Given how Feathertail dies in this AU, I'm guessing Sharptooth the mountain lion is either a cop or a really violent war hawk in this?

Also, where does Sasha and her kits fit in?

(This is such a cool AU I love it so much)

yep, i think it makes more sense if sharptooth was a war hawk which allows fetaher to more realistically be the cause his of death after the fight they have (he dies suddenly that night due to the brain injury he sustained), while other “sharptooths” are cops and such.

sasha and her kits are tiger’s affair family. she was an aspiring actress that lost her home after her elderly father passed away, his estate being ripped out of her hands and thrusting her out onto the streets with very little to her name. tiger took a liking to her - unfortunately she would find out he was married and purposefully hid away their oldest son tad from him, but still kept in contact. golden and tiger never divorced but golden did disown her husband, and tiger went back to sasha. he had fallen hard for her and weasled his way into her good graces, meeting tad and getting her pregnant two more times. tad would end up drowning during flood season.

in the meantime, tawny would end up in her father’s care (he pulled some strings. she was always a daddy’s girl and turned her against goldenflower for a few months) and she would meet her younger half siblings. she and sasha did not get along well.

tawny would stay with them even after tiger got arrested for his crimes (murder, some other things) since she already got set up to attend a university close by. sasha was relieved when tawny moved out, but didn’t know what to do with her own two children and struggled a lot being a single mother. tiger was still stringing her along and making promises he likely wouldnt be able to fulfill and she was too lonely to leave.

eventually, she found solace in leopardstar and the two became good friends. leopardstar was like an aunt to moth and hawk. sasha’s depression wpuld get worse, though, and for the sake of her children she entrusted leopardstar to be their guardian from then on. sasha would disappear for a while to find herself and get away from tiger. she’s reappeared once every few years, but after a certain point they just stopped hearing from her entirely.

moth had felt abandoned by religion and her family, resenting them for leaving her this way and having 0 control over anything in her life. pushed into it by her brother, she put all her energy towards studying medicine and becoming an army nurse. she served for a few years before resigning and studying to become an emergency surgeon instead - a familiar high stakes environment without the danger of herself being killed. she chopped her hair short in the 70s after returning from her military service.

hawk meanwhile served in the vietnam war. he had been in the military since he was in his late teens, inspired by his father and leopardstar (who was one of many rosie riveters for WW2). he would meet ashfur from thunderclan and hear about his half brother brambleclaw through him (“you remind me of someone back home” ‘really?’) and mudclaw. hawk was lucky enough to return home, keeping in touch with tiger snd bumping into bramble, who came up to visit tawny and figured he’d show his face while he was here. the two got along pretty well after the initial shock, but eventually a rift was put between them when (i have yet to decide what about) and they stop talking, much to squilf’s relief.

:(

this part of the au is set way back in maybe the 1920s or so depending on timeline bullshit i need to sort out. rusty is a kid/teen in the latter half of the great depression and during ww2

in case u were curious who was who (plus order of siblings, theyre all born separately for timeline reasons)

some gunk requested ny my friend

What’s Jayfeather and Alderheart’s relationship like in your au? I always imagined Jayfeather choosing to tutor one of his siblings after Hollyleaf, Cinderheart, and Lionblaze kind of did and he realizes five days later he was mislead into thinking this would be fun but now he just has a little 13 year old on his hands. But I don’t know how well that translates to another time period

kinda! i think with how the timelines overlap a lot closer (to make sure that characters are within reasonable age differences between each other) alder and his sister were born earlier and are only just barely younger than ivy/dove, so jay/lion/holly’s childhood overlaps with alder/spark’s a little bit. i’d say with squirrel’s fertility issues (probably PCOS or some other unspecified reproductive disorder) they probably have a pretty significant age difference but not to the same degree as the books where jay was a grown ass adult (theres a 5 year difference between them in canon! that means he wouldve been like fucking 35 or so human yrs LMFAOO) by the time alder was born. maybe 10 yrs at the most. dandelion and juniper were born between that but unfortunately didnt survive long

as for their relationship, they were pretty okay. jay was probably fresh into college by the time alder got diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. squirrel/bramble probably pressed jay about it but he dismissed them because he was still a student at the time and nowhere near a professional yet. alder idolized jay a lot growing up because he “didn’t let his disability hold him back”. there qas a lot of inspiration porn type of thinking on alder’s end and honestly the rest of the family kinda perpetuated it as well so its not just him. its not intentional either but yknow. at a certain point (and a lot of long conversations and arguments between the two about it) alder stops idolizing him to such an unhealthy degree and doesn’t fall into the ‘if my disabled brother can do xyz then i have 0 excuses’ line of thinking as much as he used to. while alder isnt the biggest fan of jay trying to psychoanalyze him mid-argument, he takes his word into consideration anyways

jay likes to say he thinks alder is irritating (in the younger sibling kind of way) but honestly spark was worse than alder when she was a teenager. jay just interacted with alder more since he was quieter and less overstimulating, especially when in the Deepest Pits Of College Homework Hell. also hes bluffing he really does enjoy alder’s company. he’s hard on him because he wants the younger to succeed, evem if hes a bit mean about it sometimes.

alder eventually becomes a pharmacist instead of a psychologist, finding the work of the former much more attuned to his needs and his likes. he’s still helping people. by the 2010s-2020s, he’s even filled and compounded a few medications jay prescribed to his patients!

is Midnight in this?

she is! shes technically a cat here since it would be kinda silly if she wasnt considering theres no other major non-cat animals in the series with a speaking roles like her.

she’s stormfur (and graystripe’s) old landlady before gray+millie went back to thunderclan and storm+brook bought a house together. she was actually letting the gang stay in her apartment where she rented out rooms to other people and basically shared the same unit. despite her gruff exterior she’s a pretty chill woman, and a rather mysterious and spiritual one at that. she lives a pretty long life and passes away in the 90s-2000s (AVOS/TBC)

…Deadfoot 👀 what is his name and role so far? If he has one

he and his wife ashfoot were cattle ranchers! they have a lot of land, going all the way back to windstar and gorsefur.

deadfoot actually lives a little longer than he did in canon. instead of dying shortly after crow was born, he instead lives into crow’s 20s but unfortunately passes away from (unspecified disease here).

he and ashfoot were pretty protective of crow since he was the only one out of four siblings to survive. but eventually he began to fight back, and as a way to keep themselves in his good graces, they gave him a lor more freedom. too much, in fact, as he would jusr wander off for days before coming home. it was definitely stressful but he never got in serious trouble while he was out so they just dealt with it.

deadfoot used to be a rodeo cowboy when he was younger but quit after his oldest son eagle was born.

the longest he went without seeing crow was during the rosdtrip when crow decided on a (slightly drunken) whim to join the gang. as part of their agreement, crow made sure to call in when he could and told them what happened recently. usually deadfoot was the one to pick up the phone and listen to crow ramble on. one time he told crow he was happy he found friends and he would love to meet them some day.

unfortunately he never would, as he fell deathly ill when crow was bunking in TC with bramble. crow had been planning to move in for good and come grsb his sentimentals and clothes from home, but upon receiving the news of desdfoot’s condition he immediately went back on those plans and decided to return home for good. deadfoot passed away with his wife and son by his side. crow now runs the ranch with his mother and wife nightcloud, keeping deadfoot’s photo on the fireplace mantle with crow’s late siblings.

in your anthro au, does bramble actually make it to canada? is the plotline of the lake territory scrapped for something else?

rambled quite a bit here!

no, they dont make it to canada. they abandoned that idea after feather was killed. instead her funeral and burial is held in california by her dying wish and her family drives/flies over. graystripe and mosspelt took feather's car, but mosspelt flies back home via plane. graystripe is staying wirh storm indefinitely and eventually meets millie.

with storm's blessing, bramble,tawny, crow, and squirrel take the van back home. tawny is dropped off on the way, but crow insists on tagging along to thunder because he's not ready to be alone yet. his family is pretty small and he's not sure his parents will be able to help much, as much as they may try.

dodging the draft can get you into trouble, but there are many that got off scot free and bramble was one pf those lucky fellows (especially with firestar's involvement. he made sure bramble wouldn't have it held against him in return for keeping squirrel safe and bringing her home). firestar was furious at both bramble and squirrel but he's not cruel and unsympathetic, especially considering they just lost a very close friend (and that gray isnt coming back for a while).

this is where crow and leaf meet, crow is kinda bunking with bramble at his place and even had plans to move in for good. his parents were pretty combative but couldnt do much since he was a few states away!!! they dont know where the fuck thunder-whatever is. but eventually he gets a call about his father's rapidly declining health and immediately abandons his plans to stay. he asks leaf to come with him but leaf still isn't finished with med school (she doesn't know she's pregnant yet) and they part ways. crow makes it home to help ashfoot care for deadfoot in his final few months and fills in after his father dies. it's something he didnt plan to continue but its notnlike he HATES doing the work. eventually meets+marries nightcloud a 1-4 yrs later

leaf meanwhile continues med school. being unmarried with kids is still a social taboo, especially at such a young age (im imagining she and squirrel are around 18-19 by now, 17 during the road trip). squirrel and bramble, however, had been in a relationship with one another for a while after coming back home. sure, it got a bit messy when ashfur came back from vietnam and got a bit too close to squirrel for comfort, but they sorta resolved it and eventually bramble/squirrel got engaged. leaf confided in squirrel for her help with the pregnancy and squirrel immediately offered to take the children in as her own if leaf needed. it was a huge jump but leaf took the offer. bramble was let in on the plan the closer leaf got to her due date. he thought it was a very impulsive decision and they fought a bit about making the decision without him but he was enthusiastic about being a father regardless.

the others in town had their suspicions but dont ask dont tell.

theres some other parts i havent fully ironed out yet like where hawkfrost and mothwint come in.

as for the actual lake territories, they coexist with the forest territories by just being in different states LOL windclan and thunderclan's territory was pretty consistent in terms of The Basics so theyre mostly in the same general area (tc is east coast forests, wc is southwest-midwest prairies. theres a lot of cowboys, farmers, and ranchers in "windclan" as a result). shadowclan i can see being in the southern swamps, especially florida or louisiana, and riverclan is kinda interspersed alont the mississippi and ohio rivers. maybe a few along the east coast, too, as the lake territory equivalent. skyclan is probably in the rockies or the redwood forests out west. maybeeee old skyclan is in the appalachias???? idk LOL since the cats are so far apaer now the conflicts are a little less wide scale and more personal if rhat makes any sense at all. of course this whole au is a huge work in progress so some of what i say here may change!

the clans are rural/small/poor towns in my head. tight knit communities that have to rely on each other. kittypets are urban/suburbanites as a contrast and keep the 'kittypets r fucjing spoiled' theme going . you inow the city slicker junk LOL

bloodclan is probably a gang in new york. at least scourge's bloodclan. the other iterations are probably in other huge metropolitan cities. idk what warriorclan is, and the tribe is a whole can of worms im trying to be very careful with so im not gonna talk about them as a whole quite yet other than imply they exist

fireheart in his clark kent era lol (plus a sneak peak at the ‘human’ names ive assigned to them)

Your anthro au is sooo cool omg... I love the way you draw cats!!

Question- how would Feather die in your anthro au?

here's the abridged version from twitter ^^

I love how you don't use only super common names 😭 I have a rare name that I almost never see used and I get to be excited that I might see it

im trying not to do too many repeats if i don't have to, so i have to get a little creative with it! behindthename's popularity-by-year ranking tool is a godsend for this i tell you what. the only repeat names are for characters that are explicitly named after someone else in the AU - cinderheart and ferncloud after their aunts cinderpelt (canon) and fernshade (AU exclusive), and tigerheart after his grandfather

ive still got a lot of characters to get through (and some named now may even change) so thers still a chance you might see yours!