sensitive topics shut up my moms calling ❀ RETREAT

[lilacfur]

tw for the following topics of blood, descriptions of facial injuries, panic/hysteria, spiraling thoughts, and hallucinations. paragraphs containing these descriptions will be marked with a ❀, pls read safely :)

❀ The walk back was long, exhausting every muscle in the rosette's body as she persevered through the aches of protest. Flashes of a white-masked face cloud her vision. Blood-coated teeth tearing through fur and flesh. A crimson-covered tongue lashing nonsense, broken sentences the lead warrior could not even begin to piece together. ❀

What had Granitepelt done to her? What kind of evil could he have instilled in that girl in the many months they were alone together? Her Clanmates believed she had run off with him willingly. That she was rotten inside, just like him and perhaps they were right. The innocence of youth she played could have been a tactful ploy all along, but when would that have started? Lilacfur couldn't believe a cat to simply be born from evil. Not with someone such as Starlingheart to be their mother.

❀ "Poppy, wait." Lilacfur gave pause as mismatched paws rushed ahead of her, shoulders tensing as she prepared for another attack. She could hear it, distantly, the echoes of her giggles hidden behind the tussocks. Peering between the shadows of the branches looming above them. Cracking behind the low hanging fog that swallowed began to swallow her vision. She felt woozy from the scent of ripped skin, it's all she could smell. Not even the muggy, salty rot of the swamps could overpower it. Lilacfur winced as another thought intruded to the forefront of her mind. Her naive belief that Ghostmask could be saved, that there was a part of her untouched by the decaying ilk of Granitepelt. Perhaps his death only allowed her to fully embrace what she had been holding back all this time. But now that she had shown the colors of her true self, there was no avoiding the truth. She could not hide the culprit to her missing eye, and she would not even think to pressure Poppyglow into doing the same. ❀

❀ All her effort to save her kin from the despair that another of their own had fallen from faith, wasted. She could not preserve the image of Ghostpaw any longer, that she had been swept away but her heart would remain pure. That she could come back as a loving girl who fought all odds to return home. Instead her mother would learn the truth, that evil had claimed her very soul. Flintwish would be faced with yet another broken dream, cloaked in lost hope that her kin were unlike her father. ❀

"Okay... let's go. We're almost home." Her paws knew the winding paths of trodden mud better than her nose anyhow, and they quietly weaved between the gnarled roots and hanging branches together. Lilacfur guided her carefully, knowing she could not see in her physical state, murmuring warnings of when to step higher or lower her head. The brush of brambles over thick fur told of camps entrance coming near yet there was no relief to feel. Her heart rose to her throat, prepared for the heartbreak she would reveal. To expose her own lies, breaking what little honor she could still claim.

The pale light of dawn broke through as they entered the muddy clearing. The morning patrol's would start to rise, early wakers already alerted from the tinged scent from Poppyglow's injuries. A new marred face would greet them all as they leave their nests.

"ShadowClan..." Lilacfur cannot hide the feeling of defeat from her voice. "Poppyglow was attacked last night. A rogue, one who's allegiance fell to Granitepelt..." The rosette passed the warrior to Starlingheart, pausing to meet her sisters gaze. "We knew her. We loved her- this same rogue who took my eye..." She didn't want to say it, every part of her body fought to admit such a horrid reality.

"My niece lives, but only to serve as ShadowClan's adversary."

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  //@Starlingheart @POPPYGLOW @smogstar but no need to wait!
  

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• LILACFUR ✩ she/her, 26 moons, mother to marblepaw and sycamorepaw
  ⭃ lh lilac rosette with yellow eyes (carrying cinnamon, solid), a torn ear and claw marks beside her eye.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking ↛ see battle info here
  ⭃ penned by this loser ↛ @gonkpilled on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[MIRESTAR]

When one knows the language of the marshes, they know precisely when to listen. It is both a blessing and a curse — the weighing, comparing, debating the pros and the cons would be an endless battle with no definitive victor. Mirepurr had not slept well; the night looms, less like the calming and protective veil it usually does, but more like something foreboding. It sets their nerves alight... and forces them outside, into the bone-chill of greenleaf's last few evenings, air already cooling in preparation for the change of seasons.

They smell blood before they see anything. It confirms everything, and Mirepurr can scarcely wait for the reason to show itself... they hover by the entrance, drawing unintentional lines into the ground as they go back and forth. Perhaps the repeating motions should comfort them. They do not.

Despite any and all kind of terrible situations flashing in their mind, Mirepurr does not expect to see- "Lilacfur?"

Their own blood freezes within their veins. Nighttime cold turns colder; forces an uncomfortable shiver through Mirepurr, and then another when they loo at Poppyglow. "No..." Their face is positively marred... to the point of certain loss of sight. It is eerily similar to Lilacfur's own injuries. The culprit must have shown themself again; took two instead of one, an attempt at finishing the job, like some sort of unsaid debt. At least Lilacfur is actually conscious to tell the tale — StarClan knows Poppyglow themself is in no shape to recall such terrible events.

And when Lilacfur does speak, Mirepurr almost wishes she hadn't. Their ears press against their skull... an useless attempt at silencing her, despite the need to know everything.

"You... why did you..." Mirepurr swallows against the quickly-growing bile in their throat. Why didn't you tell me? There is a sense of betrayal burrowing itself under their fur, but surely it is unprecedented... surely, Lilacfur has her reasons. Granitepelt's bloodline is tainted — no, anything he has ever touched is tainted, and Lilacfur only protected her niece. Wouldn't Mirepurr had done the same?

They do not allow rage to build. When they look at Lilacfur, they only want to comfort her, not reprimand her for something that has evidently backfired on her... Mirepurr sweeps their gaze over the gathering cats, and against their best judgment, they make a decision right then and there. "It doesn't matter. You don't... look good either. Starlingheart should treat you before you talk." Their Clanmates might reject such a notion in the wake of Lilacfur's confession. Smogstar might be at the forefront, even, but Mirepurr holds their ground on the matter and actively challenges anyone who would disagree, despite the fear and mix of emotions threatening to make them sick.
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[Starlingheart]

The pain of loosing not one kit - but two, is one that ShadowClan's medicine cat does not carry around lightly. It is like a stone buried in each of her forepaws, just under the skin but felt with every step. With enough time, its unnoticable, the sensation, but if she stops and thinks about it too long she risks ripping open the wound again. She still holds onto the hope that her daughter is out there somewhere, that she's okay, she made it. That she's safe, happy, happier than she could have been in the marsh for her to leave the way she had. Without even saying goodbye...

A commotion at the entrance to camp has her raising her head, looking out from the shade in which she rests to find her sister stumbling into camp, pelt marred with.. stars.. blood. Blood and a disfigured Poppyglow. Starlingheart is on her paws in an instant, turning towards the medicine cats den only so that she may fetch her emergency bundle of herbs from where it sat by the entrance before making her way over to them.

Her kin, upon closer inspection, is unharmed, but Poppyglow on the other paw... Starlingheart would have to clean all the blood marring her face in order to get a closer look at the injuries, but first she had to make the bleeding stop "Hey its okay- it's okay I've got you" she murmurs softly as the red-pelted warrior is passed off to her, already pressing cobwebs over the spot where the blood seemed to flow from. Her lone gaze flickers to her sisters face as her kin offers an explanation.

She wishes she hadn't heard. She wishes she could pretend like those words had not come from her sisters mouth, like Ghostpaw is still missing because that would be better than the alternative Lilacfur was suggesting right now. "Wh-what?" she asks, certain she had heard wrong. Surely, if this were true Lilacfur would have come to her sooner, right? "She's alive... She's alive and-and all this time...I- I don't-" hurt, betrayal, grief flashes in that solitary eye as the paw holding the cobwebs against Poppyglow's face trembles with the sheer force of the emotions waging war in her chest. Her daughter was alive alive, but following in her fathers footsteps.

She feels sick, suddenly, like she's going to lose her lunch. She holds it together though, just like she always did. She closes her eye, takes a deep, steadying breath. Mirepurr was right, there would be time later, after Poppyglow's wounds had been attended to, to ask questions... "Come on Poppyglow let's-let's get you to my den. It'll be alright..." she says as she slowly leads the injured warrior away, not without one last forlorn glance cast in her sisters direction.

( ‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚. ) fly me up on a silver wing

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  STARLINGHEART SHADOWCLAN MEDICINE CAT; SHE / HER ; SISTER TO PITCHSTAR, CHITTERTONGUE, NIGHTSWARM, SKUNKTAIL, AND LILACFUR. MOTHER TO NETTLEPAW, FLINTWISH AND GHOSTMASK.
  

  A skinny she cat with short black and white fur littered with scars and one singular green eye.

  ✦ Easy in battle + has little to no formal battle training
  

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[lizardthroat]

ShadowClan is as much of a place of misery and circumstance, as it can be a place of odd fun and pleasant companionship. It's just horrible when the scales tilt and favor the negative - and it's worse when her family is raked through the flames all the while.

Lizardthroat detangles herself from Mottledfox when she hears commotion echoing in the early morning light. Her tail whips, mild dissatisfaction coating her otherwise positive expression. She likes sleeping in - who doesn't? - and detests more when she must wake up to tragedy. She watches as a warrior of white and red (and more red,) is passed to her aunt, eyebrows furrowing partially. Another attack on them? Lizardthroat almost wishes it to be a cat from the Clans, just so there is someone tangible to punish, rather than some sort of -

Ghost.

She was aptly named. Starlingheart would've never known that gifting her daughter the moniker of a phantom would've allotted the she-cat the brevity of the breeze. Lizardthroat had not been there for that, did not know the hardship that preceded it nor the commotion that followed not long after. It's all rumors and bedtime stories now, but even then, she feels kinship to the lost. Should she or any of her siblings turncoat at this point, become a walking disaster for no discernable reason - well, the rest of their family would feel certainly as morose and frustrated, right?

"Should we return to the borders, Mirepurr?" Lizardthroat asks, sluggishly leaving the warrior's den to approach both the deputy and lead warrior. She clicks her teeth together nonchalantly, though admittedly there is a layer of fear just beneath her fur. "A patrol or two, just to be sure she's run far enough?" The she-cat does not neg her aunt for not sharing this information sooner. If it were Pipit or Hawk... she'd hold the information close to her chest, too.​

 

[LIVIDSMOKE]

Lividsmoke observed the situation with a careful eye as they sought for answer over what had happend. What had behallen Poppyglow was awful and some-cat needed to pay for it. Lilacfur revealed shocking information to share with them all not only who the culprit was but also a previous encounter with them. Withholding such information, what in starclan's name had their lead warrior been thinking?. Lividsmoke for one was highly displeased, thinking this all could have been prevented if Lilacfur had told them the truth from the start. In result of holding such a thing to herself Poppyglow had paid for it. In the way they looked at it all of this was Lilacfur's fault. Hopefully, Smogstar would be wise enough to punish this molly for protecting the identity of a traitor. There was no excuse for it.

" Let me come with you. With luck we might even catch up with her to make sure this never happens again." and if they did...Lividsmoke would make sure to finish that traitor of for good to not only avenge Poppyglow but make sure to eliminate that threat for good. There should be no love left for a traitor like them, and if anybody here were foolish enough to care for a such lowlife...then Lividsmoke would do them a favor by ending it with their merciful claw so they could think rationally again.





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[MIRESTAR]

Starlingheart arrives to the scene — thank the stars for her swiftness in doing so —, and with it, Mirepurr's heart only twists further. There is a certain bitterness to them as the medicine cat focuses on Poppyglow primarily; the guilt that comes with it is not quite enough to remove such displaced feelings. They wish Lilacfur could hog all the attention, but of course... Poppyglow is in dire need of it. Their sight had been brutally taken from them.

It is Starlingheart's stammering that reminds them of cruel, harsh reality. She is forced to receive, experience, and then push away the hurt she no doubt feels right about now. Such is the fate of medicine cats — to treat and heal before anything else. Idly, Mirepurr wonders if she would spat and jeer, if duty were not so important? Would she hurl insults at Lilacfur for what she's done?

She had good intentions, Mirepurr finds themself repeating.

But will those good intentions be worth anything now? Will they be worth a single thing while Starlingheart tries to soothe Poppyglow's pain and the grief that will inevitably come with the loss of sight? Will good intentions be anything but a speck in Smogstar's eyes as he makes a decision about Lilacfur's fate going forward? Mirepurr internally begs him to be merciful.

"A patrol?" They hadn't realized their slip into a daze once again, not until Lizardthroat and Lividsmoke speak. "Oh... yes, that... that does sound smart. Makes sense." How unsightly... they should not lose composure this fast, not as deputy, but could anyone blame them?

They feel almost dizzy as they gingerly remove themself from the crowd, pushing past anyone who blocks the camp's entrance. "If anyone wants to come with us..." A wave of their tail in quiet invitation — and with that, Mirepurr buries themself under duty of their own, instead of facing whatever this is.

Out, unless stopped!

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