CALL IT NEVERLAND CUZ WE'RE LOST, BOYS [twitch]

[QUILLSTRIKE]

I FEEL LIKE AN ASTRONAUT IN THE OCEAN​

---

Quill had never expected living in the woods to be easy or safe. When he said he wanted 'normalcy' in his life he knew the word wasn't interchangeable with things like 'simplicity' and 'safety'. And that was fine, really, it was. Quill was no coward and never would be, so he didn't mind if he had to get thrown into scary situations or take some lumps and bruises every now and then. That was life, and he'd never be so stupid as to think it could be entirely uneventful. And that was okay too, because Quillpaw didn't mind stuff happening- as long as that stuff didn't directly effect him in any negative way. Quill didn't like to be hindered or bothered by things he didn't find important or relevant to him, and he had very little patience for anything that came along looking to make him suffer through their bullshit.

That being said, the black and gray tomcat really wouldn't have minded having to outrun a dog. If his long-ass legs were good for anything outside of clobbering an opponent with his superior reach, it was covering a lot of ground in just a little bit of time. No, the problem, was that the mutt had chased him straight into twoleg place.

It all happened faster than the patrol had time to properly process. One minute their group was was walking along and the next the sound of paws running filled the air. Before the cats could so much as bristle in surprise, three dogs had come bursting through the underbrush toward them. There'd been no time for orders to be called or for anyone to get their barings- Quill had taken one look at the brown canine charging toward him and had bolted. The thing was massive, and as much as the apprentice wanted nothing more than to turn around and rake his claws across its slobbering face, he knew he couldn't kill a dog. Hell, he wouldn't even be able to drive it off on his own. Maybe it would have taken an adult cat seriously, but at 6 months old he hadn't grown into himself yet, lacking the muscle-mass and size that would have given him an edge.

So he ran, as fast and as he could in whatever direction was available to him- which just so happened to be right into twoleg place.

At the very least, Quill was familiar with how the place worked, and within a few minutes the clever tom had managed to shake his pursuer, ducking beneath a fence and into a garden before just yard-hopping. The only problem? He was pretty damn far from the forest, and those dogs could still be snooping around..
​

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skyclan - male - 6 months - bisexual - homoromantic - single - very tall tabby tomcat with broad shoulders

 

[TWITCHBOLT]

Twitchpaw had not moved cleverly. When a dog had descended upon their patrol, let free from its shackles by some foolish twoleg and the only instruction had been to run, Quillpaw long having sailed over the horizon, the bicolour tom had taken off in a similar direction. Over asphalt and concrete, baked by sunlight and stinging the pattering paws that scrabbled across, Twitchpaw dove into the rows of gardens, the baying still echoing. He couldn't tell whether it was getting closer or whether it was just the bellowed noise bouncing off the walls.

Puffed up in tangled panic, Twitchpaw's head frantically swivelled, amber-struck gaze flickering rapidly around for somewhere to settle. There- the fences, though they towered over him, were thin and would not support the weight of a dog. Up there would be a vantage point and would render him untouchable- so, wiggling before he rocketed off the ground, Twitchpaw leapt up there. A tightrope tipple, his stance was tremulous but stable enough, and he began to make his way across the precarious path glancing left, right, left, right. He could still hear the barking, a shock that sparked a desire to pick up the pace. It was then that he saw, ducking into a garden a few rows along fro him, a familiar monochrome pelt.

"Hey!" he called, walking even quicker and noticeably almost toppling off a couple times. By some miracle of the stars he stayed upright, taking a seat only when he was perched upon the fence of the garden Quillpaw dwelled within. "You're- where are we?" ​

penned by pin ✧​

 

[QUILLSTRIKE]

I FEEL LIKE AN ASTRONAUT IN THE OCEAN​

---

It didn't take long between the dogs barking fading in the background and the realization that he was back in twoleg place for him to find himself wanting to get the hell out of there. While his parents didn't live on this side of town and probably had no reason to be anywhere near his general vicinity at the moment, he couldn't shake the tense sense of unease that kept him wanting to stick to the closed of yards. At least behind the fences he wouldn't be seen by anyone who might recognize him and tip of his people.

He was probably a good half a block from where he'd lost the door, still hopping between yards, when a semi-familiar "Hey!" had him stiffening and glancing back over his shoulder. To his surprise, Twitchpaw was up on the fenceline wobbly making their way toward him, and he visibly relaxed when he realized that it wasn't a large ginger tom or spikey-furred tabby shecat.

He hadn't realized that anyone else had come this way, and he wondered how long the bi-color feline had been chasing after him for. Quillpaw hadn't exactly been listening or watching for any of his clanmates, so there was a good chance the twitchy tomcat had been trying to catch up for a good minute. Oh well.

"We're in twoleg place." he replied, frowning slightly because he'd thought that much was obvious. Still, he followed suite and allowed himself to take a seat, needing a breather anyways after all that running. "Have you never been here before?" he asked, the brow above a deep blue eye lifting in curiosity.
​

---

skyclan - male - 6 months - bisexual - homoromantic - single - very tall tabby tomcat with broad shoulders

 

[TWITCHBOLT]

It was obvious, and Twitchpaw felt immediately embarrassed and irritated that he had received such a blank answer. Quillpaw probably thought he was some idiot now who couldn't tell his nose from his tail. "I knew that! Ugh, whatever." he spat, ears flattening against his head. A frown furrowing his brow and darkening green eyes, Twitchpaw's posture dropped, shoulders and head sinking slightly in mortification. He hated making himself look stupid, he hated it, he hated it! His neck leant to one side for a moment, though it seemed not to bother him as he soon straightened up again- poor posture aside.

Quillpaw's question, though, lead his mind to wander. Was he supposed to have been here before? He'd been born into the wild, had the name of a wildcat for most of his life, so the Twoleg nests had never been a desired destination. Through the stories that his mother had doled out over the moons, flat and uninteresting as they were, he had heard of the angular mazes and patches of fenced grass, but never before had he seen them. "No." he admitted, making only brief eye contact. "I wandered out of- of camp a couple times, but I never wuh-went this far."

He considered why he never had for a moment. Flippant as they were to many of his activities, unconcerned as long as he had neatened their nest by the end of the day, Tidespin and Ravencall likely would not have cared. "You've been here before." It was meant to be a question, but was delivered more as if it was an accusation. Such a thing was obvious, though, from Quillpaw's surprise at Twitchpaw's naivety. ​

penned by pin ✧​

 

[QUILLSTRIKE]

I FEEL LIKE AN ASTRONAUT IN THE OCEAN​

---

Quill was tempted to ask the other why they had asked if they already knew, but decided against it when the other toms posture suddenly deflated. Had Quill said something wrong? Probably. He had a tendency to do that, but had long since learned to just let it go- no point in apologizing for things he didn't understand. It would be meaningless anyways, and he wasn't about to waste Twitchpaws time.

The chocolate cats next words prompted a simple, "Oh," from the chimera. He;d honestly thought that all Skyclan cats knew about twoleg place. The rumors sure made it sound that way at least, with all the talk of it being a clan of ex-kittypets and strays.

"You've been there before."

A momentary glint of surprise at the accusation in their tone, and then the dark tabby was shrugging, expression and body language casual once more. "Does that bother you?" he asked, tone purely curious.

"I was born here. Never lived with a twoleg, though."

He'd been born beneath the porch of an abandoned twoleg nest, had stalked these alleys for prey with his family and walked these garden fences to bother kittypets when he was bored. Being here was unsettling, but for entirely different reasons than those Twitch held. His memories of this place were far from fond, and more than anything he was ready to just forget it all, let the memories burn away to nothing so he could get on with his life.

"You were born in the forest then, right?" he asked, "I thought you came from here, since your always so nervous back at camp."

And again, there was no malice in the comment even if it was a somewhat insensitive thing to say to a person. He couldn't help but be a little curious, though. He hadn't really spoken to any of the other cats just for the sake of talking to them, and Twitchpaw in particular was someone who'd managed to snag his attention once or twice around camp. They were unusual, and while this normally would have been a big red flag for Quill, for some reason the twitchy toms lack or normalcy wasn't anywhere near as annoying as it should have been.

Maybe that was because Twitch themselves was a perfectly normal cat -quirks aside of course. If you took away the constant trembling, random verbal ticks, and the paranoia that had them constantly looking over their shoulder, Twitchpaw was probably among the more tolerable cats in the clan. Half of the apprentices in their shared den spent their evenings chatting about ridiculous crap like how they were going to kill foxes or become leader when they were older, some of them even whining about whatever conflict lay between this clan and the marsh group, now known as Shadowclan, and how they'd get revenge for the death of the previous leader.

It was all extremely annoying, and he found it far easier on his ears to listen to the nervous whines and constant twitching of the tomcat standing before him.
​

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skyclan - male - 6 months - bisexual - homoromantic - single - very tall tabby tomcat with broad shoulders

 

[TWITCHBOLT]

He held little of the same disdain Quillpaw did for their denmates, though Twitchpaw could not particularly say that he was friends with any of them. Or, well, anyone. He had never been much good at connecting to people, instead electing to spend most of his days panicking about all of the danger he might be chucked in front of during his next training session, or whether a dog might break into camp and decide it was going to kill everyone. Believing he was well-prepared for these scenarios, Twitchpaw had begun to think it was perhaps... a good thing, that he wasn't close to many people. That way he'd simply be horrified when they died in front of him, instead of being sad as well.

That was... selfish, wasn't it?

He shook his head, as if ridding himself of river water. "No." A conformation, quick and grated from his throat, was offered hand-in-hand with the gesture. Whether or not he had lived with a twoleg hardly mattered to Twitchpaw; there were plenty of cats in SkyClan who still lived with one. Perhaps that distinction was important to the other, though... he wouldn't be one to judge preferences. He'd hardly room to do so.

Twitchpaw visibly bristled as his peer pointed out his nervousness- it was never something Twitchpaw believed he hid very well, but at least something he hoped didn't bother anyone. Well, aside from his parents. He knew it bothered them. "I'm- yeah. Forest-born. I just- have a lot of... bad dreams." That wasn't really it, but it was a common outset for his paranoia throughout the day. If it did not start off well, it tended not to end well. "I guess... I just thought- um, you'd, uh- have lived with a Twoleg, if you lived in Twolegplace. Sorry."​

penned by pin ✧​

 

[QUILLSTRIKE]

I FEEL LIKE AN ASTRONAUT IN THE OCEAN​

---

It was hard to describe what it was like to watch Twitchpaw. Everything about them was so expressive that Quill felt like he could almost gauge the nature of their response before it left their mouth. It was chaotic and oddly genuine, and he wondered if the other was a poor liar. They certainly seemed like the sort that was too paranoid to carry any heavy secret on their shoulders for long, and he wondered just how hard the other would panic if Quill were to offer to share a secret with them.

"It's okay. Lots of cats here live with twolegs, so it makes sense you'd think that." he replied, not sounding bothered. And he wasn't. What did he care if Twitch mistakenly thought he'd been a kittypet before all this? He'd known pleanty of them growing up, and just like any other cat there were some who were cool and some that were lame. Though, Quill wouldn't say that had anything to do with weather they lived with humans or not. Some cats just sucked.

But there was something else Twitch had said that caught his attention, and his held tilted to the side in interest. "What sort of stuff do you dream about?" he asked, a bold question to ask a total stranger. And yet, Quill asked it without batting an eye. "I have them too." he added after a moment, though he doubted they were the same kind. And, unlike Twitchpaw, the effects of the chimeras dreams were far less obvious at first glance.
​

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skyclan - male - 6 months - bisexual - homoromantic - single - very tall tabby tomcat with broad shoulders