private 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝗕𝐎𝐎𝐓 ╱ 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐋

[SUNSTAR]

Into the privacy of his new den, unchristened, Sunstar beckons his council. The moon is still high after their return from the Gathering, and his agitation betrays him in a heartbeat-flicking tail and narrowed eyes. The first that he had stood there as Sunstar, and at least the other clans had not attacked him. Some had glanced at him oddly, and he's certain that at least a few cats beneath the rock looked upon him as no better than Sootstar. But they had come home unscathed, and that is enough for him to celebrate. If only he could calm himself enough to do so.

The burnished tom sits at the back of the den, moonlight filtering through the entrance just enough to grace his paws and reflect against seaglass eyes. The shadows of his new council cast inwards, a subtle glow surrounding them, and he wonders bizarrely if this is how Sootstar had seen him, once. Dark, surrounded by light, the shadows swelling in closer. But each of the cats that enter his den are kind, in their way, and proven loyal both to himself and this clan. He is not her, and they are not who he once had been. Tension seeps slowly from his shoulders.

"At least RiverClan was alone in their threat," he remarks finally, a rueful smile on his face. "With how much we all have suffered this last moon, I do not think we need worry about retaliation. Did any of you hear more before the announcements began?"

⋆°•☁︎ 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝗕𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃  ╱╱ 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝗕𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝗕𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃 〚 02.11.2024 〛 𖤓

• OOC. someone pls bring prey in so they can have their snackies together <3
• 

  SUNSTAR. LEADER OF WINDCLAN.   ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
  ——– HE – HIM – HIS ╱╱ 48+ MOONS OLD, ADULT.

  NPC x NPC, MOUNTAIN CATS. MATE TO WOLFSONG; FATHER TO BEARPAW, SINGEDPAW, RIVEPAW, SUNLITPAW AND FEATHERPAW. MENTORING RIVEPAW.
  
  TH ╱╱ A LARGE, FRESHLY SCARRED CHOCOLATE AND WHITE ROSETTE TABBY TOM WITH SEAGLASS BLUE EYES

• "speech"

​

 

[RATTLEHEART]

AS HE RAISED HIS FIST BEFORE HE SPOKE — The gathering had gone... honestly, better than the lead warrior had been expecting. The snarled words of Smokestar were still ringing in his ears, sure, but they faded in comparison to everything that Windclan had been through in the last several moons. A threat made difficult to take seriously through the sheer brutality of the last villain that they had all faced - not to mention the fact that Rattleheart wasn't worried about it coming to fruition. He trusted Sunstar enough to know that their new leader wouldn't be throwing them full force into any battles against the other clans anytime soon, and Riverclan had nothing to worry about from them. The same couldn't quite be said of the scattered rogues that had followed Granitepelt in his retreat, but blaming Windclan itself for their future actions would be a mistake that hopefully Smokestar wasn't a fool enough to make.

With the other clans present at the gathering having enough decency to at least be cordial, he found that he couldn't come away from it thinking of the whole thing as a total loss. That was enough to put a somewhat restrained smile on his face as he followed along after Sunstar, pausing only temporarily to grab a couple of pieces of prey off the pile. Enough for them all to share without making him trip and fall on his face during the delivery process. Rattleheart couldn't help but grimace as he heard the first words out of Sunstar's muzzle, nodding as he dropped the prey from his jaws. "Certainly one way to try and bring about a future of piece." He hated how his words came out as a rough grumble, perhaps more annoyed by the hostility than he had initially thought. "I unfortunately didn't hear too much beforehand, but I did at least chat with a Shadowclan warrior without feeling like he wanted to take out my throat." Small victories, at least until the other clans could properly see how they would change under Sunstar's rule.

His claws scraped lightly against the floor of the den as his paws shifted, green gaze thoughtful as he took a bite of one of the pieces of prey he had brought along. It was at least a relief to be allowed to relax now, among a group of cats that he trusted the most. "Did... did Orangestar tell you anything, about Blazestar's death? I had known about the incident with Harrierstripe, but you seemed just as surprised as the rest of us." Rattleheart wouldn't have blamed him for keeping it a secret until then, if only to spare the rest of them more undue stress about the future of their clan. Unfortunately, it hadn't seemed like he possessed any more foreknowledge than the rest of them.

THE RIGHTEOUS HAND OF GOD 𓆩♡𓆪 THE DEVIL THAT YOU FORGOT

• 

• 
  ❥ longhaired black and white tom with pale green eyes
  ❥ 48 moons old; ages the 1st every month
  ❥ afab; uses he/she/they pronouns
  ❥ homosexual homoromantic; mated to venomstrike
  ❥ sibling to scorchstreak, lizardbounce, and rabbitclaw
  ❥ currently mentoring downypaw
  ❥ somewhat difficult to befriend; wary but kind
  ❥ "speech", thoughts, attacking
  ❥ peaceful powerplay allowed
  ❥ all opinions are ic

​

 

[Bluepool]

If there is one thing that her sister had ever done right, it was to put an end to attending those star-ridden gatherings. WindClan was always the target of some pointed words, of claws barely contained and teeth snapping inches from their faces. The paw pointed in blame for every little thing. She knows how much Sunstar wishes for friendship with the other clans but she herself is uncertain how much of a possibility that is. The gap between WindClan and the others was so wide now it rivalled even the gorge, and she is uncertain if it is even worth the attempt to cross. No, it is her opinion that they should focus on themselves, on rebuilding what her sister had been so set to destroy.

Her sister. Coming into this den for a council meeting was perhaps one of the harder things that Bluepool has had to do since her death. Despite all the bad, it is so easy to remember the good. All the times she had spent in this very den, grooming smoky colored fur while the two of them chatted about nothing and everything. What it was like to love, what is was like to loose. Sootstar had once been her sister, afterall, underneath all the madness and anger it had still been her somewhere in there. And Bluepool had helped kill her. Held her down while another delivered the final blow.

She blinks and she is back in the present, back in the moment with claws curled into the soft sand underfoot. "The other clans will never see us as anything more than the remnants of Sootstar's dogs" she says from her spot next to Scorchstreak. Her voice contains bitterness and sadness in equal measures. When the prey comes to her for her turn to take a bite, she only takes a small one before quickly passing it along. "I didn't hear much either. The others aren't exactly jumping to speak with us" her words are accompanied by a slight huff. Did they really expect anything different? Tabbies didn't change their stripes after all. "RiverClan is all talk and no bite, I would not be too bothered by their words" she says finally in agreement, her scrap of a tail flicking dismissively.

​

 

[SCORCHSTREAK]

༄༄ Scorchstreak has not been to a gathering of the clans in half a year, and this one only serves as yet another example of why she had made it a habit to stay home from them even before leaving for the journey. She had felt exposed, vulnerable, in the midst of so many enemies—and they are enemies, still, in spite of the peace that has descended over WindClan since Sootstar’s death and Sunstar’s ascension. "They will never respect us. They will always look at us and see her," she comments in agreement with Bluepool’s statement. It’s as though they expect us to repent forevermore, to bow, to grovel to them. There is forgiveness to be asked, she agrees, but certainly not from the likes of RiverClan, so quick to sweep their own murders and wrongdoings beneath their former leader under the rug; Smokestar had been the deputy then, too, not without blood staining his holier-than-though claws. There is no reason to beg forgiveness from SkyClan, either. Harrierstripe acted on his own, and his actions have no bearing on Sunstar’s reign. Any grudges held against Sunstar for that are as hare-brained as digging a tunnel through sand.

As for ShadowClan—well, Scorchstreak can understand their expectation the most. Sootstar had gone beneath their very noses to sink claws into their backs, had stolen their kits after the marshland clan had so generously offered the clan shelter. And while Scorchstreak admits that she had not fully realized the truth of the matter until Sunstar confirmed her feels, she understands that ShadowClan’s patrol had been lied to at their very border. Smogmaw had thrown his pawful of scorn in their direction, but that was more than justified, she thinks. Her tail lashes, brushing against Bluepool for a moment, before she speaks again. "Smokestar’s opinion is worth less than dirt. He won’t attack, not if he knows what’s good for his clan." RiverClan’s first leader did not have a good reputation, paranoid and spiraling, and she doubts that the second leader wants to be viewed as a warmonger. Especially after Sunstar has finally rid the lands of Sootstar’s treachery.

Rattleheart asks after Orangestar’s revelation about Harrierstripe’s involvement in the death of SkyClan’s first leader, and Scorchstreak sits up a bit straighter. She, too, finds herself curious. Surely Sunstar could not have known Blazestar was dead. He would have told them, his council, before sending them to the gathering to fend for themselves. She waits patiently for the tom to speak of it, but adds her own account of the gathering in the meantime. "I only spoke to one of ThunderClan’s lead warriors, one I journeyed alongside. She seemed amicable enough, and wanted to know how we are recovering."​

​

 

[SUNSTAR]

He spits, rabid, the sheer force of his frustration breaking through his composure in one fell swoop: "I will not beg his forgiveness." His tail lashes, and in a burst of anxious energy he surges to his paw and into one pacing stride, back and forth against the den's far wall. A swell of disgust and he sits back down, finding cruelty and energy in him that reminded him of times long past. Of being Sootstar's warriors, thrumming with energy, with eagerness to throw himself into battle on her behalf. He has no wish to fight RiverClan. But nor will he allow his clan to suffer for the sake of forgiveness. "Smokestar would settle for no less than allowing him to walk this very moor, to hunt our rabbits freely and see our heads bowed, meek." Again, he forces himself to still from the cracking glacier he was becoming, mere moments from splitting to the ocean with a crack so loud it might shatter bone and earth. Out harshly from his nose, a final protest.

"We will not seek an enemy in them. But if he demands anything beyond civility, I will be the one to decide if we offer it. He will not command our clan." None of them had seen the trek through the mud that his clan had already survived. None of them knew the terrible weight of being a father under Sootstar's crumbling rule, knowing that his kits, his mate, were at her mercy. None of them knew what it was like to look back and see the cats that had been chased out or killed for their disapproval and realizing, knowing, once more, that those he cared for may be next. They had the benefit of distance, and moons to make sense of what they saw. To those that had lived outside of the pot, it is all too obvious that the water began to boil long ago.

They were merely the frogs left contained.

Sunstar sighs gently, and gestures with his paw. It casts a shadow from the moonlight across his own body, covering the starlit fur of his chest in darkness. "We do not need to live our life so that they might forgive us. We will care for our own. However they may judge us is their own." And oh but how many of them would.

Orangestar's glance from across the rock has not left his haunted mind. The moment of rage had shielded it from his internal gaze, yet as Rattleheart asks it of him, the final remnants of it clear. All that is left is Harrierstripe's body as it must still lie, unclaimed and rotting across their territory. He nearly wishes that he could return it. But alone, a body was a terrible thing to drag. (Vulturemask had taught that lesson well, so many moons ago.) Tired, weighted, Sunstar murmurs, "No." Whatever seems to want to follow on his tongue settles and then dies as his mouth closes. It rots and blooms again, filled with hesitation. "Before I spoke to the clans– you know that I intended to seek StarClan's guidance. It was he who greeted me there. Yet it had seemed impossible, that he had died. Perhaps it had been a trick of StarClan, showing me a cat that had ruled this forest in a way they had considered honorable. Or perhaps it was a trick that leaders had, to dream with the living."

A tired smile cracks his maw. "It was a foolish thought, I know this now. It was all that I had."

⋆°•☁︎ 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝗕𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃  ╱╱ 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝗕𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝗕𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃 〚 02.11.2024 〛 𖤓

• OOC. —
• 

  SUNSTAR. LEADER OF WINDCLAN.   ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
  ——– HE – HIM – HIS ╱╱ 48+ MOONS OLD, ADULT.

  NPC x NPC, MOUNTAIN CATS. MATE TO WOLFSONG; FATHER TO BEARPAW, SINGEDPAW, RIVEPAW, SUNLITPAW AND FEATHERPAW. MENTORING RIVEPAW.
  
  TH ╱╱ A LARGE, FRESHLY SCARRED CHOCOLATE AND WHITE ROSETTE TABBY TOM WITH SEAGLASS BLUE EYES

• "speech"

​

 

[Periwinklebreeze.]

OH, WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SOMEONE ━
THAT EVERYBODY HAS TO TALK TO━​

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

periwinklebreeze ❀ 19 moons ❀ demi-boy ❀ windclan lead warrior ​

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

At first, the boy only listens. He is not as comfortable within the throng of cats as the others seem to be - lingering on the sidelines, blue eyes focused half-unseeing upon Sunstars golden frame. Gatherings had always been an enjoyable affair - in spite of everything, really. News shared kept him out of the dark - a place to see and make friends with those who he'd otherwise not be allowed within a fox-length of, let alone get away with being on friendly terms. Smokestars name alone is enough to have pelt bristling and teeth grit - the toms presence is fairly high on his list of cats better of dead, shadowclans deputy only a few pawsteps below.

But... nothing the others say is untrue, really. Head bobs, quiet voice piping up to agree with scorchstreak. " Th-those from the j-j-journey... m-many of us are l-leads now... and th-they at l-least seem amicable t-to windclan, t-to us - even sk-skyclan " even now, the scent of the forest still lingers on his pelt. He'd come out from his moonhigh conversations mostly unscathed despite sitting amungst the swarm, curled into his friends side - chrysaliswing, silversmoke, greeneyes... despite cold gazes upon smoke-stained frame, only the smallest of barbs had been traded between himself and them - and even that, green had said, was just the tortoiseshell toms personality. 'Nothing personal'

He cannot forget hearing howlingstars thanks for his delay, cannot forget the memories of Orangestars eyes when he'd shoved her away from the dogs, cannot forget what it'd felt like to lay side-by-side with those who are now so far away. Certainly, the others can't either. Unlike the others, he has high hopes that things will only get better from here... naive though it may be.

Sunstar speaks of not knowing when he should have, but periwinklebreeze is hardly one to place blame. Starclan is strange and mysterious, he an hardly blame the newly made leader for not knowing. And stars only know how much of the knowledge he'd learned over the moons, shared by sootstar and the others had even been the truth. " St-starclan does like th-their riddles, th-their tricks, " he agrees.

━ actions & " speech, " & 'thoughts/quotes' ━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━H E━H AD━N O━O N E━T H A T━H E━C O U L D━T A L K━T O━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

 

[RATTLEHEART]

AS HE RAISED HIS FIST BEFORE HE SPOKE — No. The answer to his questioning was more shocking than it should have been, the tunneler's chest clenching as he thought of the anguished looks that had spread through the clans upon the news of Blazestar's death. Even those outside of Skyclan and Thunderclan had seemed stunned and pained by the news, though it wasn't hard to see why. The last of their original leaders - a cat that many had known, loved, and respected - had fallen, and it felt as though there was a noticeable shift in all of the clans. In a way, it was almost fitting that Blazestar had fallen so soon after Sootstar's defeat, seeing the both of their reigns ended in one fell swoop - though only really in a poetic sense. Even without a stellar view of Skyclan in his mind, Rattleheart would never compare Blazestar's way of ruling to Sootstar's. He had never seen the same fear in the eyes of the Skyclanners that he knew had existed in his own eyes, and in the eyes of his clanmates.

The talk of Blazestar walking starry-pelted among the ranks of those high above made him chuckle, both in response to Sunstar's tired smile and the comment from Periwinklebreeze alongside him. He nodded, sighing as he glanced out of the den and towards the moon still gleaming high in the sky above them all. "Periwinklebreeze isn't wrong. Even with all of the respect I have for them, I've never gotten the impression that Starclan are the most... straightforward bunch of cats." They seemed to delight in speaking through omens and signs, only deigning to be outright obvious when they seemingly felt like it was needed for the clans to be able to move forward and coexist. "You shouldn't be too hard on yourself. After all, medicine cats say that they've walked in the stars too. It wouldn't be unreasonable to think that a leader could." Wouldn't that have been better for them all. For Blazestar to just be a temporary apparition that had come to visit and guide Sunstar momentarily, instead of taking up permanent residence there.

It certainly would've saved them plenty of trouble with Harrierstripe, and potentially with the other clans. Though now it made even more sense why Skyclan hadn't wanted to hand Harrierstripe's body over, probably content to let him rot in ambiguity after he took the last life of their king. Rattleheart couldn't even say he wouldn't have done the same.

At least the news of the former journey cats was positive, a light purr finally leaving the tunneler as he thought of the cats that had walked alongside his sister and Periwinklebreeze. "That is at least something to remember - not everyone is against us. For every Smokestar, there's a cat like Smogmaw that is just glad that we're free of Soot's influence. They might not be the most friendly bunch, but at least not everyone seems determined to just write us off as a tragedy." He'd much rather focus on those cats, and the potential path forward that Windclan had forward alongside them. Unless Smokestar came stomping up to their border with the whole of Riverclan behind him, there was no reason to worry about him or his hypocrisy - they all seemed in agreement that it was doubtful he'd change his mind no matter what they did, anyways.

THE RIGHTEOUS HAND OF GOD 𓆩♡𓆪 THE DEVIL THAT YOU FORGOT

• 

• 
  ❥ longhaired black and white tom with pale green eyes
  ❥ 48 moons old; ages the 1st every month
  ❥ afab; uses he/she/they pronouns
  ❥ homosexual homoromantic; mated to venomstrike
  ❥ sibling to scorchstreak, lizardbounce, and rabbitclaw
  ❥ currently mentoring downypaw
  ❥ somewhat difficult to befriend; wary but kind
  ❥ "speech", thoughts, attacking
  ❥ peaceful powerplay allowed
  ❥ all opinions are ic

​

 

[cottonsprig]

Cottonpaw feels like a child sitting at the adult's table, even though she's only a few spare moons younger than the next youngest warrior here. They chatter and she listens, her eyes bouncing from one cat to the next as the discussion flows. Their collective recollection is one that she appreciates - as while some of them are embittered about the return to gatherings, the medicine cat apprentice is thrilled to find them again. And frankly put, she had been to enthralled in discussion to properly listen to the chatter around her.

Smokestar's threat was not lost on her, however. And neither was Harrierstripe's true intention, rushing into SkyClan land and losing himself in the meanwhile. The cold chill that had gotten trapped in her bones then still shivers now, and she clenches her jaw to keep it from being obnoxious. She thinks of Lupinepaw, who voluntarily spoke with her in spite of the issues between their Clans, and offered a, "It's not just those who went on the journey, either," for the conversation. "One of SkyClan's apprentices talked with me as if nothing changed. It was... nice," and she hopes that can continue for several moons more.

"Even if our focus is on rebuilding our home - rebuilding us... It's still nice to know that in time, the other Clans will look at us as just... WindClan, and not Sootstar's Clan." The difference is clearly important, given the thinly veiled threats and side-eyes they were each given. After a long pause from the little grey she-cat, she cannot help the short laugh that leaves her maw, "It did look a little funny, y'know. We had, what, two new leaders, plus Smogmaw standing in for Chilledstar? And then - oh," she presses closer to the cat beside her, "Orangestar's deputy! He looked like he ate a mountain of fire ants before showing up. He couldn't stop shaking...!" Her gossip is unbefitting a council meeting such as this, but she cannot help the quiet segue of, "We didn't have any deputy up there. It felt a little weird," but she ended it there.​