Ivypool, #99

You go and I stay

It's always right person and wrong way

I hate to be right, please, tell me I'm wrong

Please, tell me I'm wrong

and a yellow moon glowed bright

Years later, when Ivypool herself is only a memory and before she’s completely lost to time, she’ll look over ThunderClan, wherever they might be, and still look for her daughter in every face.

The stories have it wrong already, and the truth will be dust before long. Bristlefrost isn’t alive in their memories. She’s twice-dead, drowned in black, choking water, a light snuffed out too soon. Bristlefrost was the prodigy — the daughter cats dreamed of, the first to find her voice and her paws, the leader of her siblings, the apprentice who did not graduate even earlier than she did because there was no prey in the forest to be found, not because of any failings on her part.

Cats starved, that long winter. Not Bristlefrost. Never her daughter, her clever, resourceful last-born. And she had once occupied this spot, designated for deputies, even though she’d never had an apprentice of her own. Would never have an apprentice of her own, now, even though she deserved it more than anything. Even though she’d deserved to stay deputy, but had given the role over with a smile, no hint of dark ambition in her gaze.

Ivypool steps into the deputy position under a brand-new leader with a whisper instead of a bang, the pounding of blood in her ears the only reminder that cats had been here before — that cats had died here before, and that Bramblestar’s first deputy becoming leader was a fluke, an odd quirk of fate. It hasn’t been done in living memory, nor long before that. Leaders do not usually step down, and when they do, they rarely stay with their Clan, or even within reach of their territory. First deputies do not often become leaders in turn. Usually this event is a bittersweet one, with a body or bodies laid out in the clearing, their eyes closed swiftly to avoid the rigor of after-death, but this is almost-peaceful, with only the murmurs of those who could not easily accept change as detractors.

Ivypool will die long before Squirrelstar. She’s—surprisingly okay with this, but she thinks she’s been at peace with her death since before Hollyleaf had stepped between her and a deathblow from one of the only friends she’d ever had.

(“You were my friend!” Ivypool screams in her worst nightmares, Hollyleaf’s blood dripping from her pelt.

“I was never anyone’s friend,” Hawkfrost murmurs in return, something aching-sad in his voice, Hollyleaf’s lifeless form pinned under his claws. “I was born to what I am. We’re the same, you and I.” He pushes the black cat away from his paws with disgust — not for the body, but for Ivypool herself. Blood bubbles from the horrible wound at the corpse’s throat. “She should have been the one,” he says sometimes, in the ones that shatter her already pieced-together heart. “She died in your place.”

“I know,” Ivypool says, and she does know — she knows it more than anyone else alive.)

“It should have been Hollyleaf,” she says to Squirrelstar, quietly, at the end of one of their dusk meetings.

Sorrow flashes in Squirrelstar’s gaze, but it’s buried as soon as it comes. “It’s you,” she says. “It has always been you.”

It is not a truth — not in the way Ivypool remembers them from her childhood — but it is not a lie, either. Hollyleaf chose her, in the way dying deputies might choose their successor. She is always an echo of another cat burned by starlight. It is a comfort, sometimes. In others, she begs the spirit who’d saved her life for mercy, for clemency, until she runs out of breath.

(“I’ll find her,” whispers a voice Ivypool had almost forgotten, in dreams she forgets as soon as she wakes. “I’ll walk the skies ceaselessly, I promise you.”

But there is no bringing Bristlefrost back, and a part of Ivypool has died with her.)

When Ivypool wakes, her Clanmates breathe around her, steadying her rabbit-quick heart. Fernsong’s tail wraps snugly around her flank, Thriftear curled only one nest behind, and she does not lose her breath at the way Flipclaw’s dark tabby stripes curl over his spine. She hasn’t in a long time, she knows, but the impulse is there, sharp as ice underneath her ribs.

(She’d once thought his brown tabby pelt a punishment from the stars. She loves her son, would give her life for him, but the feeling that StarClan may have meted some punishment down in the shade of his pelt remains long after he’s received his warrior name.

She’d begged Bramblestar to give him a suffix that was as unassumingly kind and silly as her son always was. Instead he’d given him -claw, as if to remind her of her failings. She is not sorry to see his form slip into the elders’ den, bereft of the nine lives he’d once so jealously hoarded.)

how are we feeling about these designs.

thriftear

here me out,, finchlight x needleclaw :3

this got me thinking because i remember seeing thriftear/needleclaw back in the day and thinking it was cute but then i started making connections with other characters and this single ask has created a beautiful hinge polycule situation that i like a lot

here's a diagram of how things operate in this little world. imagine the amount of warriors family tree searching i had to do to work this out given that theres 3 thunderclan cats in here. but its ok. it all worked out. love wins

Kitty Love❤

omgg hiiiiiiiiiiiii hiii ^^ hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ^^ coud............. could you pssibly mb draw breezepelts kids + ivypools kids as breezeivy kits?? ^^^

hoiiiiiiii i absolutely caaaaan!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some redesigns!! Finally got some time to do these. First up is sisters Dovewing and Ivypool. Dovewing's actual design didn't actually change all that much, the main thing I wanted to fix was the shapes, also put in some form of freckles. Ivypool changed completely, basically what happened was like months ago I sketched out an Ivypool design and thought 'yeah this is a lot better'. Also fun fact Ivypool and Dovewing share the same palette here :3. Then I also changed Thriftear a lot. Some people like to draw Bris as a sort of tortie, but I could never really get behind that. But I can get behind Thrift being a sort of tortie. Flipclaw is also basically the same, the main thing I wanted was the little heart on his forehead. Also adjusted the lighter color to be warmer, and changed his eye color to match Ivypool's. Then next is Frecklewish from Thunderclan, I never really liked her first design, and it was more a placeholder than anything because I couldn't figure out how I wanted her to look. But I figured it out now! Gave her the eyebrows so they don't skip a generation. And finally are Ruby and Socks, Scourge's littermates. I wanted to make Ruby a tortie, but like obnoxiously orange/red coloring. Toned it down a little at the end, but the vision is still there. For Socks, mostly just wanted his foreleg markings to extend up so it looks like he's actually wearing socks, I don't know how the color change happened.

unpopular warrior cats opinion but i actually like blossomfall being a mother! preferably not with thornclaw as her mate but still. canon blossomfall being a better mom than millie was! some people in this fandom seem to think that all they have to do to make warrior cats not misogynistic is make female characters not have children, which is.. problematic, and doesn’t even address teh issue

Warrior cats misogyny is a special brand, I swear. We really can over-correct at times.

I personally didn't like Ivypool getting pregnant, she always struck me as the adoption type if she was gonna be a parent, but the Erins hate adoption, so that was out the window.

I liked Blossomfall being a mom, I just wish we got to actually see it! I do think canon!Blossomfall would blanket sure all her children know they are loved, and can always come to her, even when they are fully grown. You don't just stop being your parent's child the split second you're an adult, and when I see people making it out that Blossomfall should have just "gotten over it" I will also remind them that a fresh 18 year old is still pretty much a child, and that while yes, her anger was misdirected, Blossomfall was pretty much still a kid. Your parents suddenly becoming cold and snappy at you still hurts, even when you are a "grown ass adult". You don't suddenly stop needing your parents the second you turn 18.

Millie was a terrible mother to all 3 of her children, and to be quite frank was... Kind of a pointless character.

But in Warrior Cats Rewritten, Millie... Doesn't really exist. Silverstream barely survives Feathertail and Stormfur's births, and goes on to have the B Triplets. Millie may make an appearance in The Last Clan.

For WCR!Blossomfall, she and Ivypool have a Sire, a loner tom named Thrift, heavily implied to be from The Guardians. He looks exactly like Thriftear. Ivypool, having heard about Silverstream's 2 traumatic pregnancies and births, promises that Blossomfall won't have to lift a finger the moment she is carrying, that she will do everything for her, so she can just relax, and maybe think of some cute baby names.

I like to think that she wanted to name one after Briarlight, but Briarlight insisted not to. Back when Mousefur was alive, cats got her name and Mousewhisker's name mixed up all the time! Briarlight watches over the babies when they arrive and the 2 are incredibly close.

She is pregnant for quite a while, heavily so during Tigerheart's Light, and pushes Ivypool to go find Dovewing with Tigerheart. Ivypool was worried about her and hated Tigerheart, but Blossomfall pushed her to get up and go, that she would be fine.

Blossomfall loves her children. Plumstone, Thriftear, Flipclaw and Bristlefrost are her kits, and she cherished each one. We see it in Princess's Parting, Plumkit, Bristlekit, Thriftkit and Flipkit are all very close with their Mama.

She deeply grieves the loss of Bristlefrost and Flipclaw. Flipclaw hasn't passed, but he lives in the mountains with his mate Hawk Feather. Soon enough, Plumstone will join Shadowclan to be with Gullswoop, leaving Thriftear alone.

She is trying her best to be there for her lonely daughter, along with her wife and sister.

As for her relationship with her mom, it withered while Silverstream worried herself sick over Briarlight. She had to unlearn things about disability and she really damaged her relationship with Briar, but she also did end up being a bit absent for Bumble and Blossom, snappy at them because she wouldn't sleep for days... They reconciled during Dovewing's Silence, when all is said and done, but Blossomfall vowed to never let her kids feel the way she felt, not for one second.

How about Flipclaw the world's best Medicinecat / Tribe Preyhunter / Sillygoofster. Basically a protagonist IMHO

the warrior cat ever!!!

The officially inbred cats in ThunderClan (as of Thunder)

-Birchfall- His parents were uncle and niece.

-Bayshine and Myrtlebloom- Their parents were 2nd cousins once removed.

-Nightheart and Finchlight- Their parents were 2nd cousins once removed, and their paternal grandparents were 1st cousins.

-Ivypool- Her parents were 1st cousins once removed, and her paternal grandparents were uncle and niece.

-Thriftear and Flipclaw- Their parents were 3rd cousins, their maternal grandparents were 1st cousins once remove, and their maternal grandfather's parents were uncle and niece.

-Honeyfur and Leafshade- Their parents were 1st cousins.

-Twigbranch- Her parents were 1st cousins.

-Bristlekit, Stemkit, and Graykit- Their parents were 1st cousins once removed.

I didn't count cats like Alderheart and Sparkpelt who are only inbred through Facebook statements btw. If I missed anyone lmk.

Also if you send an ask about a character, I'll give you a list of alive cats in their clan that they aren't related to ^^

AU Sandstorm/Firestar family tree!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve had Thriftear for 20 minutes but if anything happened to her I’d k- 

quick little ivymom with her kids