BACK IN TOWN — storm

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BARKPOOL

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A crack of lightning causes him to flinch, claws extending quickly as he glares back over his shoulder—cursing the storm that seems to have shown up out of nowhere. Retracting his claws, Tree Bark rolls his shoulders in an attempt to relieve their tension. His fur is going to be soaked through when the rain begins, and he scowls at the thought. Worse yet, he’s only managed to catch a single mouse for all his hunting efforts. He’s only halfway back to camp when he feels the first free droplets on his fur, and then it seems that the sky opens up all at once. Within moments he’s being pelted with cold rain, and he takes off in a mad dash for the nearest tree.

Never stand beneath a tree in a storm, his mother’s words remind him, but Tree Bark disregards her for the moment. His nose wrinkles and he sniffs nervously at the air, hoping that nothing bad will happen while he’s taking cover here. "You’ve gotta be kidding me," he mutters, curling his tail across his paws after depositing his caught prey on the ground. He’s not fully shielded from the rain, especially with the wind whipping it around like this, so the fur on the left side of his body is soaked already. With a miserable expression on his face, he glances in the direction of what he now calls home. If he runs fast enough, he might make it back before the mouse he’s caught gets too wet.
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[ PENNED BY FOXLORE ]​
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"Tree!" A loud voice bellows over thunder. If the tom looked over in shoulder he'd see the large Big Guy racing toward him, his cream and brown fur already soaked from head to toe. He had been making his way from the barn to the pine forest camp when he too got caught out in the storm. "Looks like I'm not the only one gettin' a soakin'!" He laughs, clearly minding the water less than Tree did. He didn't find this situation pleasant, but there was no use scowling over it.

"Maybe... if we climb the tree like you cats so enjoy doin' the branches will cover the both of us, including your squirrel." The Branches and leaves wouldn't block all the rain... but some of it. Big Guy is unaware this is wise, as unlike Tree Bark he had not had a mother for long enough to warn him of such dangers... ​
 
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  • karth_banner_2.png
    ── ( ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ. )  Visibility is down to near zero as rain pelts through the trees. He's used to shitty conditions, but this came out of nowhere and he thinks he hates it– for the first time in a long time, Karth realizes he might not have been better off on his own. He curses softly at the torrent that thunders down on his back and splashed into his eyes, fur drenched close to his body. It’s only been a few seconds and it already feels as if he’s lost his bearings. It wasn’t like he really needed to get back to the pine group – they weren’t his, and he certainly wasn’t theirs – but any sort of shelter would be welcome. More than welcome, actually. But unlike Bark, Karth knows better than to trust the trees. Each crack of lightning has him flinching, searching for the branch that must be coming down on his back.

    Though of course, the first company he sees choose to shelter beneath one. He doesn’t join them, standing beneath an opening in the trees with a wide, skittish look to amber eyes. "That’s a terrible idea!" he shouts to them. Maybe it’s his own anxiety making this situation work. The second of the two looks remarkably calm, while Karth’s heart thunders like it might burst from his chest. Too much could go wrong– being wet wasn’t half of it. If the winds picked up even slightly they could expect snapped branches. Summer storms make those terrible clouds that touch the ground and destroy all that they touch. If one came down here– he knows he needs to calm down. He knows. But he can’t. "Even just standing beneath one is too much of a risk. You guys should keep moving. The rain’s not the real danger here."

    ( local cryptid has a panic attack over storms; rip mobile post )    ​

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  • n/a​
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  • ──── karth. cis male, he/him pronouns. wanderer, hangs by the pine group.
    ──── adult, probs around four or five years old, but he doesn't talk about it.
    ──── bisexual,  currently grieving his former mate  who has recently passed.
    ──── a strong-shouldered  brown tabby with  medium fur and  amber eyes.    ​
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HANGING ONTO HOPE​

Another body comes tumbling toward the tree the three are hiding beneath, racing blindly away from the downpour with blistering speed. Ember emerged from the sheet of rain, throwing herself into the shelter gratefully. "Augh," she groaned as she fell to the ground dramatically. "Oh, that was terrible." She didn't take heed of the gathering storm, and was caught in it when the sky broke open. Forcing her to spend several agonizing seconds enduring its wrath. She had hated every one of them.

She made it to safety just in time to hear the tail end of Karth's comment. "The rain is dangerous!" the molly whined. "It's a danger to my ability to live without-" Another groan. "Feeling cold and wet and awful. You can all keep moving if you want but I'm staying here where its nice and dry." Her words were without there usual vim and vigor as she lay still, simply waiting to dry out. Water was the one thing that could always put a damper on her mood.​
 

Selfish it is for Haku to think that it was down to his luck that he was caught in this- as if the heavens above were out to get him, someone so comparatively drab and unimportant. Still, despite better logic he was inclined go the irrational route, disheartened and soggy as he trudged through wet first mulch. There were hardly words tumbling from his maw- simply nondescript grumbles that meant nothing, were nothing- just like him.

The rain truly did put him in a foul mood.

Commotion rustled the trees nearby- into his line of sight faded a quartet of figures of various sizes and attitudes. Eyes widened slightly and he picked up his pace, thunder crashing as one paw hit the earth. Stoicism disturbed by the sudden sound, Haku bristled so much that he was thrown off balance, falling with an abrupt thump onto his side. Appearance akin to a lanky rat shoved underwater, Haku could feel the pitiful aura he radiated as he got to his feet, embarrassment heating the tips of his ears. ​
[ PENNED BY PIN ]​
 
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( ✶ ) If one believes that Gull doesn’t mind the rain due to his love of water, they would be completely mistaken. He hates storms. The difference between him taking a dip in the river and being drenched by pelting rain is that the former is voluntary. (And much more relaxing in his completely correct opinion!)

One thing he’d learned from his years as a ship’s mouser is that storms bring nothing but trouble. Seeing lightning crackle in the corner of his eyes, he’s forced to recall the violent waves hammering the ship as they sailed through tumultuous weather. The wind whipping in his ears is nowhere near as deafening in the pine forest as it was on the open sea, but if he closes his eyes, he could swear that he could still taste the bitter salt of the ocean carried by the howling gale.

Gull’s paws slip on the slick mud that the storm has swiftly conjured, muttering curses as he fights against the typhoon. “Greenleaf’s always the damn worst,” he grumbles to himself. Violent storms seemed to love the hot, humid weather.

He’s surprised to hear others — whether that’s because the wind was so damn loud that he’d thought he wouldn’t be able to hear anything above it or because he just didn’t expect anyone in their right mind to be out in this hellish weather, he doesn’t know. Through the heavy sheet of rain, Gull spots them huddled beneath a tree’s towering branches. Karth is spouting something about how dangerous it is to be near trees in a storm, and the pale-furred tom couldn’t help but to roll his eyes and shout above the wind, “you think this is risky? Try bein’ out on open water with Mother Nature on one of her rampages! The waves woulda swallowed you whole!” He didn’t understand why being underneath a tree would put them in danger, but it seems too late to complain about that now. They’re surrounded by trees!

His half-tail lashing, he scowls at the stragglers. “If you’re all just gonna stand here and bicker, I’m headin’ back to camp without ya!” It’s a bluff. Gull cares too strongly for his groupmates to leave them in the middle of a storm like this.
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The brown tabby nearly jumps out of his skin as he hears the shout of his name from behind him. Once he turns to level a sharp citrine gaze upon whoever would give him such a fright, though, Tree Bark relaxes a bit. As much as he can relax in the middle of such a storm, at least. Big Guy isn’t bad company to have, even if he seems far too content despite being caught out in this horrifying weather. Tree Bark offers the large tom a grimace—the pathetic nature of the situation he’s found himself in is apparent in the way that his ears pinned flat against his skull, silky fur plastered to his slender frame.

The rosetted feline offers Big Guy a judgmental gaze; how presumptuous of this cat, to assume that just because Tree Bark is in this group, he is lumped in as you cats. He is nothing like any of these former kittypets, thank you very much. "You’re right, maybe climbing up there would-" He’s cut off by another shout—geez, does everyone around here wish to cause him fear-based heart problems? The striped ash-brown feline is telling them to move on, rather than stay beneath their temporary shelter. His own sense of panic is reflected in the other tom’s posture, and he finds himself shifting to sit up straighter in defiance. He’s not afraid of some storm, he decides, even if he is very afraid, because surely he doesn’t want to look like that.

The warning is further left unheeded when another cat comes crashing in from the wet, this one disregarding Karth’s words in favor of staying dry. In that moment, Tree Bark decides that he likes this one. With a quick glance between a seemingly unbothered Big Guy and Ember, who is still sprawled on the ground. "I’m not moving either," he agrees, lifting his chin to stare up at the branches of the tree above them. Surely they’re sturdy enough to keep a group of cats safe and dry until the rain lets up?

Another swift movement in the rain catches his eye—is everyone and their den-mother out here in this thundering storm? The tom’s stare is deadpan, everything seems to move in slow motion as he watches Haku slip and topple onto his side. It takes him a few seconds to react, but his tail flicks with amusement as the black and white feline climbs back to his paws. "Can’t even keep on your paws, you look like a half-drowned mouse," he scoffs with a shake of his head. Fool.

Gull is next to arrive, first shouting about Mother Nature’s rampages and threatening to go back to camp without them. As he draws closer, the rosetted tabby gives a dismissive wave of a paw, forgetting entirely about the prey that he’d caught. "Go on, then. Don’t think there’s enough room under here for you anyhow." It’s untrue, as evidenced by the glaring space at his side, but if Gull is going to be contrary, then so is Tree Bark. He is curious about the prospect of a cat living on whatever an “open water” was, though. So he huffs and scoots a whisker closer to Big Guy, attempting to make room for whoever else turns up out here to take shelter. "I’m not leaving ‘til the sky lets up."
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[ PENNED BY FOXLORE ]​
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It seemed only ever to be the harsh ones that Haku made a fool of himself in front of. Droplets shaken off his pelt, he let a low growl shudder through his teeth at Tree Bark's words, azure eyes growing icy with irritation. "Right, well- thanks for rubbing it in." As if he didn't know how dreadful he looked- and anger, when he was this ragged, likely made him appear even more pathetic. Trudging through pine-needles and leaved he joined the cats under the tree, dragging his tongue across an ebony paw in some futile attempt to look more presentable.

"Mother Nature's rampages?" Shooting an incredulous look to gull, his expression grew less hostile and more baffled. "What are you on about?" Half biting and half intrigues, Haku's tone teetered on uncertainty. He had never seen open water- he knew not of this beast who ravaged it. Perhaps it was some old folklore that Gull was spouting to scare them all. ​
[ PENNED BY PIN ]​
 
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  • karth_banner_2.png
    ── ( ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ. )  Does nobody in this forest have a brain? He'd thought they would manage it out here, but none of them seem to know enough to be wary of the sky that threatens to break open at any moment. Lightning striking through the branches, fire curling around and swallowing up its leaves. The creaking of something falling, the panic of moving away and the realization that others didn't make it. Maybe they'd never just never seen something like that, but he has. And he's not all that eager for a repeat show. If it didn't get that bad– fine, he'd seem a fool to them. But better a carful fool than a dead one.

    "Oh, right, because this is most definitely open water. This is the only place we're at right now, and it's risky enough being here now." He shakes his fur, still drenched from standing out in the open, or as much of the open as one can get out here. The others seem content enough beneath the tree limbs and he's not really in that much of a mood for an argument, though amber eyes flick about the area in search of lightning cracks or shuddering branches. The ones above them don't seem prepared to come down. Best case scenario, they peg him as paranoid because nothing happened. Worst case– well, he gets to tell 'em he told them so. "You're so– you're– Okay, you know what. I'm gonna go find a burrow around here to wait this out while not risking my hide."    ​

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  • n/a​
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  • ──── karth. cis male, he/him pronouns. wanderer, hangs by the pine group.
    ──── adult, probs around four or five years old, but he doesn't talk about it.
    ──── bisexual,  currently grieving his former mate  who has recently passed.
    ──── a strong-shouldered  brown tabby with  medium fur and  amber eyes.    ​
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  • 21621778_Alq40j6KGMt0SnJ.png
 
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