camp AVENUES | hunting bugs

Oleanderkit

ARCADIA! ARCADIA!
Jul 20, 2024
29
8
3
t4HGVVO.gif
Oleander has been in SkyClan for a good number of sunrises now. When she'd first arrived, starved of food and sleep and health, she had welcomed camp with open arms. It was very easy to accept a new situation when it was better than the old one. But now that her days have become weeks, and her weeks will become months, the young girl must admit she has some reservations about everything.

Prime among them was the way everyone was now affixing kit to her name. Oleanderkit. Oleanderkit. Gods, she hated it, and Birchkit was always quick to correct her when she 'forgot' to refer to herself correctly. But it wasn't Oleanderkit, it was just Oleander. That is what Lovage had named her, and so that is what she would be called, until she stepped into her grave and fell to bits there.

A beetle is squashed without fanfare beneath a rosy pink pad.

The next grievance: she cannot exit camp. Butterflytuft was very nice, and she was very adamant that kittens did not belong outside of the fern banks or the armored wall beyond them. But Oleander had traveled so many miles already; miles and miles and miles upon more miles! She had been safe then, so would she not be safe now? The nursery felt less like home and more like a prison every day. Or maybe, Oleander had never disassociated captivity from domesticity; had never seen a bed she was not trapped in. Nightshade had trapped her family before — was she trapped again? A rush of ice sweeps through her throat.

Another beetle loses its pitiless life.

Finally, the matter of company. She recalls Budkit screeching at her as she'd attacked Hollypaw. What the younger kit lacked in understanding she made up for in sheer volume. But Oleander needed someone with understanding — Mercury and Birch were wonderful candidates, except that Mercury often annoyed or embarrassed her by biting others, and she got the feeling that Birch resented her for not melding herself into SkyClan fully. And the native SkyClanners, well, she cannot hope to start understanding them. The queens are kind. She likes Butterflytuft, and Doeblaze, but they are not her peers. Oleander has no peers, not really. She can look up at the apprentices and warriors, too busy for her, or she can look down at the kittens who struggle to understand instruction or fun (as Oleander would call it), but she cannot look anyone quite in the eye.

A myriad of crushed carapaces litter the soft hollow ground about her. Young Oleander scrapes her rosy pad across the earth, ridding herself of beetle-slime, and extends a single silk-thread claw to begin her examination. She tilts one of the beetle corpses this way and that, watching its shimmer change color in the sun, transforming from a deep sea turquoise to a ripe-plum violet in just a few degrees. It's extremely beautiful. When she looks up, she does not know who to share it with.
u9a4dSL.png

  • ooc.
  • OLEANDERKIT —— kit of skyclan . lovage x laurel . littermate to birchkit and mercurykit ✦ penned by meghan

    a willowy silver blue ticked torbie with low white and seafoam eyes. lonerborn, oleander struggles to learn the ropes of clan life while coping with anxiety and past trauma. may seem strange, and has unconventional hobbies.
    girl / she her pronouns / undiscovered sexuality / 02 moons & ages every 20th
    peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / underline & tag account when attacking
    —— will not start fights / will flee / will show mercy. a mere kitten, she cannot defend herself in battle.

    "speech", thoughts, all opinions are in character
    full biography — msg on discord for plots — toyhouse
 

Adderkit watches Oleanderkit from her spot not far from where the other kit is... smashing beetles? She doesn't fully understand what her new denmate's purpose is. Was she planning on eating them? That didn't make sense. Who would eat beetles? They're so small, there's no way they're very filling.

As Oleanderkit moves one of the beetles around, Adder notices how pretty the colors are. Maybe that was her reasoning. Maybe she just wanted to collect the pretty bugs. Either way, it didn't matter to Adderkit.

The other kit looks up and Adderkit immediately glares at her before looking away. There's no way she's going to let herself get caught being curious.

 

It is true that what Budkit lacks in understanding she makes up for in volume. A singleton with no siblings to conspire with, no competition for her mother’s affection. She gets what she wants when she wants it - regardless of volume. Being loud just happens to be fun.

However as time goes on, Budkit begins to understand a bit more. The world begins to slowly, ever so slowly, expand beyond the walls of the nursery and the safety of Butterflytuft’s flank.

Mittened paws carry the curious kit towards her peers (and she only trips over her own feet once!) as Oleanderkit smashes unassuming beetles and Adderkit watches. “Oweanderkit have bugs?” The point kitten asks as she nears them, kinked tail waving happily and big blue eyes fixated on the iridescent shells. “Pwetty,” she coos while crouching down and poking at one of the crushed beetles. She does not understand the gruesome nature of her denmate’s pastime, nor does she understand the look Adderkit casts towards the other, only finding interest in the results.
[ penned by kerms ]