camp BLOOD IS STICKIER THAN WATER [🌘] Medicine Cat Ceremony

[SOOTSTAR]

A kick sends heavy snow to the ground with a light thump. The substance has covered the roof of her den, making scaling the Tallrock slippery and difficult, she often has to clean up before taking her place upon it. The last of Snakehiss’ hunting patrols had just returned to camp, their jaws mostly empty with zero prey to show for their efforts. Her stomach churns and she is plenty aware of the weight she has lost, betrayal has made her appetite-less, and when she could stomach the thought of food their pile laid empty.

It would be a cruel leaf-bare and with only two lives remaining she is reminded of her mortality. With each breath she grows closer to breathing in her last, her growing fragility is just another reason she is grateful Cottonpaw had enough steel to remain with her clan and not chase the pelt of her fleeing mentor. The clan would need her knowledge now, as limited as it may be.

”All cats old enough to race the moors gather beneath the Tallrock!” Her yowl sounds across the camp, unyielding to the biting wind’s that flew past their ears. She watches stilly as her clan abandons their tasks to pool around her, eyes flickering over to the thorny den of herbs awaiting for Cottonpaw’s head to rise from above it.

”WindClan needs a new medicine cat. Cottonpaw is prepared to fill that role.” Or at least she has to be. She turns to the blue and white she-cat. She was not due for her full name for many moons yet, but duty pulls and she must give into it. ”I, Sootstar, leader of WindClan look down on this apprentice. She has trained hard to earn the knowledge and wisdom of a medicine cat and I commend her as a medicine cat in her turn.” A ceremony she has never had to give before, she has decided it to be indifferent from a warrior’s ceremony if not for the change of a few words.

”Cottonpaw, do you promise to guide and protect your clan, even at the cost of your life?” Even the same vow she must promise if Sootstar was to give her a full name, her ears perk with anticipation.

☾ INFO BATTLE

• >> @cottonpaw
• 
  » Soot ․ Sootstar
  » WindClan Leader
  » She/her ․ Mate to Weaselclaw
  » Tiny blue smoke she-cat with green eyes.
  » "Speech" ․ thoughts ․ attack
  
• 
  » A high-stamina foe who can be difficult to hit.
  » Excels in quick, short moves.
  » Fights to kill and maim
  » Fatal attack of choice is an underbelly dive.
  » May powerplay minor harm. Can powerplay healing

​

 

[Gooseberry]

A call to gather, Gooseberry joins under the Tallrock after abandoning whatever menial task he was doing. It was pretty easy to gander just what this ceremony was for, and he eyes the medicine cat den as he waits to see the familiar blue pelt enter his line of sight. He was still weary of anyone save for Sootstar, even her own kin, so there’s still a pit of dread in his stomach.

What if Cottonpaw used deadly herbs to poison some of them in the night, or something of the sort? She doesn’t seem like the type, but he can’t judge character outwardly anymore. Looks can be deceiving, after all. And so he holds his breath, eyes trained on her with a suspecting glare. How she handles her newfound power will determine everything going forward.​

 

[SNAKEHISS]

It only made sense that Sootstar would bestow upon her daughter a full name, now that Wolfsong was not here to mend WindClan's sick and wounded. However, Cottonpaw would not be StarClan-blessed. She would possess no ability to commune with the dead, to receive omens and messages from their ancestors about events soon to come. WindClan stood alone now under a starless sky, disconnected from the spirits who once looked after them. Unease stirs in the pit of Snakehiss' stomach. Does StarClan judge him now for what he has done, or would they understand his dilemma?

The black-pelted tom's viridian gaze flicks toward the blue smoke molly now; they look rather cold as of late, especially when it came to her. He would be reacting very differently—rejoicing, even—had things gone to plan. Now, all Snakehiss could do was look on, complete apathy draining any expression from his features.

₊ ⋆ * ⊹ ₊ ☾ —— 𝙞𝙩 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝

• 

• 

  ✰ SNAKEHISS
  —— he/him; deputy of windclan
  —— bisexual; single; not looking
  —— long-limbed black tom with green eyes, a small white chest patch, and a notable bite mark on his right foreleg
  —— "speech", thoughts, attack
  —— link to full tags; @ on discord for plots.
  —— penned by beatles

​

 

[hollowcreek]

( ✧ ) A curious thought had murmured about what would happen with Cottonpaw. The next step to take as her mentor had abandoned them, abandoned her to struggle alone. A half-trained apprentice was not so deserving of respect, in Hollowcreek's mind. He found Cottonpaw to be rather airheaded and lacking any drive aside from being told what to do and where to go. He did not ever speak these thoughts as she still wore Sootstar's blood within her but it was not hidden the way he disregarded any trips to the medicine den when he felt any scratches or achey joints.

The Lead sat beside Snakehiss with a quick glance in acknowledgement before resting back to their Queen.
​

( I SEE YOUR COLLARBONE ; AND WANNA LOSE CONTROL )

 

[downyfur]

Out of all the cats in this clan, Downypaw likes Cottonpaw the most. She feels like there's something to be said about growing so close to two members of the WindClan monarchy now, but whatever it is she isn't grown enough to know. The smoke-tipped apprentice picks their way into the shadow of the Tallrock. Her belly gives a low, familiar grumble as she passes the fresh-kill pile, and she has to force the legions of hungry dogs back down the wall of her stomach. They haven't caught anything for as long as they can remember. They shouldn't be allowed to eat now.

Downypaw hunches near the fore of the crowd, graciously allowed passage on account of their smaller size. All eyes would be on the medicine cat apprentice when she chooses to stride out, and hers would only be another among the half-crowd. She feels like she should give her a smile, but only if she looked at her, and she doesn't know if she would care to look at her. So if she did look at them, they'd be too startled to smile anyway.

At any rate, she's happy for her. They don't know how medicine cat ceremonies go anyway, and what greater blessing than to be named once more by your mother?​

 

[cottonsprig]

A single day. Cottonpaw is gifted mere hours to prepare for a ceremony that, some day prior, she figured would've been completed by their ancestors. She thought she would be sat at the Moonstone, in beside Wolfsong, and she would be communing with the dead. They would cheer and congratulate her, gift her the moniker of something precious, soft, important, immortal - yet she stands to leave her den, to accept the fullness of her position purely out of necessity and nothing more. She's certain the numbness of her paws tells her all she needs to know. She's made her decision.

She's summoned and she strides out from her home, the coldness of the leafbare chill hardly causing her to shiver. She stands before Sootstar, her mother, once her idol - and Cottonpaw feigns her normal excitement. She does not look towards Snakehiss or her remaining friends - even poor Downypaw is not afforded a glance. Her gaze is for her mother, and her mother alone. "I do," she says cleanly, tail lashing behind her.​

 

[PEONYBREEZE]

❀༉˖° Wolfsong's lack of presence has been felt in more ways than one. No golden pelt to match Sunstride's own, no smart remarks whenever someone is complaining about something, and no experience when it comes to healing. Peonypaw has been lucky to avoid big injuries or illness so far, so he hasn't actually seen Cottonpaw in action much, but he suspects she's the one who feels the consequences of no mentor to guide your paws the most. Peonypaw already knows what it means to be a warrior, so he doesn't technically need Rattleheart to shadow him - but as far as he's concerned, medicine cat training never ends.

Despite it all, Cottonpaw stands before Sootstar nevertheless. Whatever she might be feeling about everything is anyone's guess; or at least Peonypaw hadn't seen her betray much lately. She seems calm, collected, and he eyes every one of her movements as she emerges and responds to Sootstar.

What's your new name going to be?

°
​

​

​

​

 

[SHADOWRUNNER]

\╱╲I SEE A RED DOOR & I WANT IT PAINTED BLACK╱╲/​

Shadowrunner felt almost numb as he sat with the crowd to witness proceedings as Cottonpaw was made to step up to her new role in the clan. The tunneller was somewhat thankful that he was not the one forced into such a position. At one point in his life he had humoured the idea of becoming a medicine cat, encouraged by watching his elder brother work, back when Vulturemask was still alive. But now... the role almost felt empty, filled by puppet after puppet. Still, he tried to muster up a small smile for Cottonpaw's sake. Earning one's name was still meant to be something truly special.

NO COLOURS ANYMORE I WANT THEM TO TURN BLACK
╲╱╲╱╲╱​

​

 

[HARBINGERMOON]

☾ Harbingermoon stood at the edge of the gathering, his ebony and white fur bearing the signs of recent battles. The new scar on his chest hinted at the challenges he had faced, and his expression held a mix of pride and a subtle acknowledgement of the wounds as badges of honor. His lead warrior status came with its share of responsibilities, and he approached the ceremony with a sense of duty. As Sootstar's words resonated through the clearing, Harbingermoon's gaze focused on the downy she-cat, Cottonpaw, who stood poised to become the clan's new full-time medicine cat.

A glimmer of approval sparkled in his curious pumpkin-hued eyes as he observed her response to the leader's call. The idea of having a dependable medicine cat appeasing the older cat. He was not one to readily lean on others, preferring to handle his own affairs. The memory of his vulnerability shown to Wolfsong still lingered, leaving an embarrassed grimace on his face. He shook off the discomfort, determined to maintain an air of self-reliance in front of clanmates.

Turning his attention back to Sootstar and Cottonpaw, Harbingermoon awaited the conclusion of the medicine cat's ceremony. His expression remained a stoic mask, concealing any internal reflections on the changing dynamics within WindClan. ☽​

 

[SOOTSTAR]

”Then I give you your medicine cat name.” Sootstar declares, raising her chin to the wind. ”From this moment on you will be known as Cottonfang. WindClan honor’s your devotion and hunting prowess. We welcome you as a full medicine cat of WindClan!” Cottonfang, a strong name for a strong medicine cat. A strong name for a cat of powerful ancestry. No kit of hers would bear a puny name, her daughter being a medicine cat would not change that.

”Cottonfang!” Sootstar begins the cheering, a rare display from her, typically leaving it to clan-mates. Casting a long look down on the medicine cat she grins proudly, hope surging in her chest that her clan would not yet collapse.

☾ INFO BATTLE

• 
  » Soot ․ Sootstar
  » WindClan Leader
  » She/her ․ Mate to Weaselclaw
  » Tiny blue smoke she-cat with green eyes.
  » "Speech" ․ thoughts ․ attack
  
• 
  » A high-stamina foe who can be difficult to hit.
  » Excels in quick, short moves.
  » Fights to kill and maim
  » Fatal attack of choice is an underbelly dive.
  » May powerplay minor harm. Can powerplay healing

​

 

[BLUEFROST]

Bluefrost remembers the day Wolfsong had sought them out, dirt from the tunnels clotted in their pelts like blood. The searing jealousy that had lanced through her at Cottonpaw’s choosing has been replaced with pity. Her sister sits alone, the great golden bulk who’d once guided her paws having defected with rebels. The weight of WindClan rests upon her tiny, rounded shoulders. Though excitement ripples through water-blue eyes, Bluefrost cannot imagine Cottonpaw is feeling anything but nerves. She looks at her littermate as she bows her head, before she vows to spend her life toiling for the good of the Clan, for the good of their mother’s claim to leadership.

“I do,” she says, and so Sootstar strips her of the name she’d no doubt expected to wear for countless more moons. Cottonpaw, her ditzy, clumsy, cheerful little sister, becomes Cottonfang, WindClan’s sole medicine cat. Bluefrost’s eyes cloud with unreadable emotion, but happiness is not among them. “Cottonfang! Cottonfang!” Her cheer is as it had been for Addervenom and Harrierstripe, for Moorblossom beside her, nonetheless. Her sister has no choice anymore, and neither does she—they have both chosen their respective paths.

, ”​

​

 

[✧ Honeybadger.]

NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND I
WE SHARE THE SAME SUNSHINE FROM THE SAME SKY ​

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

honeybadger & 13 moons & male & he/him & windclan moor runner ​

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

Even now, honeybadger cannot help but notice how... small the crowd around them is - sees all the missing in the see of faces, see's the spaces where there once were none. He hates them - truly he does, but in that moment some part of him aches. The moments over as quick as it comes, the warrior swift to remind himself that they are traitors - and grey eyes turn full focus upon the two blue-furred she-cats before him. The ceremony is swift - cottonfang seemingly certain in her choice. He supposes it's only expected - and his own voice is swift to join the calls that ring out around him. " Cottonfang, Cottonfang! "

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

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

━ W E ━ W E N ' T ━ B L I N D ━ G O I N G ━ E Y E ━ F O R ━ A N ━ E Y E ━

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

 

[whitedawn]

Once upon a time, when they first became friends, Whitepaw had expected that she would her name with Cottonpaw together. It was a nice thought, one that had been brushed away as Cottonpaw soon became Wolfsong's apprentice. She had accepted that they wouldn't be earning their names together and that she would earn hers before Cottonpaw because surely being a medicine cat apprentice would be an even longer process than a tunneler, wouldn't it? But the plot has been twisted, and now Whitepaw stands in a meeting full of wrongness, of Cottonpaw getting her name from her mother instead of her Starclan chosen mentor. Something about the entire scenario, from clanmates being missing to the clan itself, felt so, so wrong. Rose-hues remained focused on her blue-coated friend as she lingered beside Bluefrost, merely watching as her friend was declared a new name. Cottonfang. A name that felt minorly off for her affectionate friend, and now Windclan's sole medicine cat. "Cottonfang! Cottonfang!" She spoke out the new name along with the remainder of Windclan, pushing down the feeling of wrongness that settled within her. ​

[I'M BREATHING]​