private BEST HOUSE ON A BAD BLOCK ( TWITCHSTAR )

[BLOODBIRD]

She doesn't really know what's going on. Doesn't particularly care to either, so it all works out good. Apparently you could just trade your star for another... She'd expected something cooler, like uh... flash of light, or somethin'. Crash of lightning to set the old corpse ablaze. That big thing would be real annoying to bury. Had bet, uh... some battle to the death. Claws gotta be real sharp to tear through more than one life, after all. Surely whoever managed it should take their place as rightful star. Figured that one would be leader forever though, since her second always looked eaten alive from the inside. Yeah, even now she bets there are tiny things gnawing at his fatty tissue...

She likes it though. Thinks its real funny. That guy leapt like a hare just from her talking normal... Would he shoot to the stratosphere if she actually tried to scare him good? Maybe he'd cough up a blood splatter. Maybe she'd choke one of those lives right out of him, heh. Nine times over, and birds would sing Bloodstar.

This one's not a thinker though. She's a doer. The new wool of her name would soften her steps. A nose like hers never fails to lead her to prey, and petrichor is heavy in her nostrils, now. Oxymoron, really. The very nature of that smell was airiness. Should be impossible, really, for it to properly stuff up her nose... Defy all odds she does, though. Wouldn't be a warrior if she didn't, she thinks.

Too bad the trees creak when she climbs. She would've crashed down on him like a stone, done what that owl did to that little bird... (Or had it not been, after all? Uh, she hasn't been keeping up) She settles for something else, hunkers down in the undergrowth and watches blurry faces pass her by... One of her worst ideas maybe, and she's had plenty of those before. Each flock is a temptation. Her mouth nearly waters at the thought of prey; the grown kind— kitty friends, not the sort she could eat. And even if she could... Shouldnt's the word of the day.

But look here, now she's lucky, one star-blessed thing all alone... Nearly, she blows her cover too soon... but she awaits the wick of whiskers, that knotty brown coat. Something beastly surges! It shrieks the loudest sound it can manage. An accident, she swears, her claws being unsheathed. Naw... she couldn't risk, uh... skewing her results, now could she...

OOC: @TWITCHSTAR

 

[TWITCHSTAR]

He was always primed for threats from the outside. Rogues prowling their borders, blood-veined spittle dripping from their jaws. Foxes, hounded by their kits, an incident which only ever made them more volatile. Other Clans, and their words of mockery- brambles on their backs, eyes speaking the idea that SkyClan would be easy prey if they ever wanted to attack. Always had he worried... Blazestar said he'd always cared, and maybe he could believe there was crossover there... but it was even worse now it was objectively his responsibility. Worse and better all at once.

In moments of pleasantry he could forget the brain-flattening pressure that came from his new name- his new life, lives. Forget that apparently the Twitchbolt that worried so endlessly as a warrior was gone now, given up in favour of Twitchstar, who held some nine attempts at caring well enough to deserve his name. Forget all of it and just be him- a star, still, but himself in every way...

Not just pleasantry, it seemed. Panic, also.

All he saw was a blur of white and red, bug-eyes and bone- some animal he'd never seen in his life, dwarfing him in a flurry of ungainly limbs. Twitchstar did not think about the screech of shock that left him, a scream that sent scattering birds upward. Neither did he think about the springing of his own claws, flashing in stuttered sunlight. A white paw to match the beast's swung right at its face- only in the motion did he recognise his Clanmate, with the force of the blow sending him skidding to the ground.

Twitchstar wasted not a second in scrambling to his feet, regarding Bloodbird with wide eyes, expression a strange mix of offended and apologetic. Well, he was feeling it, anyway... his face was probably some weird, unreadable twist. "Wh-huh- why?" asked raggedly- what else was there to address?​

★★★★★★★★★​

 

[BLOODBIRD]

She'd expected stumbling, crying, flapping, like a bird that'd leapt straight out of its feathers... She gets it, really. Not as high as she would've liked... but the unexpected is a fine consolation! Claws at her cheek, lightning-quick and curling. She remembers something at the end of him before... Uh, bolt, or something. Oh, shoulda seen it coming, maybe... It was more fun when she didn't, though. A nice surprise, the metal-smelling sort...

"HAH—!" she teeters, couldn't forget about how funny he was; not a chance. Snickers set beastly shoulders in a shake. It tumbles into wheezing, and she slams down a paw just to keep herself upright— slams it down a few times, actually. Maybe that wasn't the real reason, after all... And now he's looking up at her... and he's less like a frightened bird than she'd expected. Hard to be sure what he is, really... Not quite a wolf, clearly. Not small and sniveling like prey, neither. Her stinging cheek reminds her. She snorts. "Figured- hehe- figured you'd go sky high... Twitch up a proper storm..."

Curiosity's what keeps her from toppling over. The worst of her laughs die quick, leaving just her giggles to pick at the remnants... Thing is: she likes to poke when she's curious. Hopefully guy didn't mind... "Got me, though..." She beams, and another blood trickle would be joining the ones she was born with. Not with much tact does she try to wipe at it with a paw. There— smattering the snow— is a good stain at her ankle. The open air stings her eyeballs. She wets her drying lips. "Got me good..." A low giggling sounds her delight. Slowly, her gaze crawls back to his. His face was real funny, too. "...Bet you surprise people often."

 

[TWITCHSTAR]

And she was laughing at him... well, he could only assume at him. Couldn't be with if there was no laughter from his own mouth, could it? Confusion stuttered his heartbeat, kept him staring with a half-slack jaw, as she beat the ground to the rhythm of her cackling. Fangs slotted together in a snap that could have shattered them when she revealed what she really wanted out of it. Or, thought would happen, anyway. To... send him comically into some sort of stupor, rocketing into the air... bemusement kept its place on his thin face. Any impulse to apologise to her died... though in truth, Bloodbird didn't seem like she desired it.

Being studied, and... clearly having something funny skittering on observable features, though he'd known that already... wasn't what he would have called fun or relaxing. His staring was utterly relentless, until the drying of his eyes forced him to blink to rid himself of blurriness. Blood dripped onto the ground, nestling into the cold; was that a compliment?

"W-well— if I'd jumped up that high, I would have... t-tried to land on you," he murmured, roughly. Revenge, he supposed, if such a thing was possible... instinct for a counterattack. He'd proved it in the slash on her face, he hoped. "And it wouldn't have been difficult." Being quite so large wasn't helpful in those cases. Twitchstar figured he might like to give her a shock of her own, one day... descending from a pine tree. But it was hard not to imagine those doglike fangs wrapped around his throat, in exchange...

But it's weird, that she notices that one thing... a shattering of expectations. He had felt the shards of it cut at his skin often. "So, I hope I'd have... surprised you either way." Wide eyes shuddered to narrowed scrutiny, quivering in place. Something in his tone, he found, betrayed his pride of that fact. "Are you gonna- gonna make a habit of this?" Should he be prepared to be experimented on, or to... to bring cats on the brink of fright-death to the medicine cat den? Perhaps he should launch her over the ThunderClan border... should shut them up about kittypets.​

★★★★★★★★★​

 

[BLOODBIRD]

She's always open-minded! More than other's realized, she thinks. The idea's as hilarious as it is grand; as implausible as it is possible, really. She likes it better that he sounds serious, really. What authority does she have to dismiss it? None, she'd tell you. More cackles come, her blood-smudged mitt still lifted. Friendly competition for a moment, two pairs of ugly, sort-of green. Strain is what hides his gaze away. The force of her snorting knocks hers closed, a second. "M'about as big as a branch..." she agrees. She thinks she's seen him in 'em, crawling about those wood tendrils. Yeah, she knows he's got it in him to jump. It served a purpose, after all...

Guy's plenty capable... she shouldn't worry. Not that she had been. About as useful as crying over the the queen bee. "Written in the stars, I think." And she's glad. Gladder than glad. SkyClan would never bore her, surely... Her eyes slit too, skin pulled unfitting across grey-green. Pack mentality, or something. With less teeth, she could look just like him, she bets. Well... she couldn't shake the same if she tried, really. "Big fan of surprises," her giggles are soundless, panted through her nose. "Should make it a game, me n' you."

Habit, routine... Words like that imply structure. That's not her, really... she's an opportunist. But uh, she'd spare the guy simplicity... "Hehe- Would be fun, yeah?" Her lids press closer, still. Her too-big grin settles the shape into something strange. "Ex-citing," the word's caught between a purr and a growl, side-effect of her glee burgeoning in a sound. "Think I'd kill to see that move of yours..." His fate was all his fault, really... The idea had been lovingly planted by his own self, new meat stuffed in to join the brain. She could look forward to somethin' new every time she saw him.