FINDING THE EDGE [ ✦ ] sharpshadow

[Halfsun]

She was Halfpaw now. Chilledstar had decreed it so and therefor that's what she was. An apprentice. But she didn't feel like one. She thought it was supposed to be different. Her first day had ben spent within the confines of the camp, however, and she had been forced to watch as others were taken out. For a tour of the territory they had said. Their mentors were taking them to train. It made her wonder, did Sharpshadow have anything in mind? Maybe it was something really exciting and that's why she was making her wait for so long. But the day passes by and Halfpaw watches with dismay as the shadows creep across camp. She spots her mentor a couple of times, but always he is not headed in her direction. Finally, when she goes to lay down for the night she accepts the fact that the warrior had nothing at all in mind, that her mentor was failing her and it was only the first day of training. Adults. Why can't even just one of them be trustworthy? Angrily, she curls into a tight ball and lays her fluffy tail over her eyes. In the morning, she would handle it, she vows to herself. She could not trust grown-ups to do anything.

When she wakes she almost forgets what she had been so mad about the day before but it only takes a few moments for her to remember. Immediately, she pushes herself out of her nest and she makes her way to the warrior den. Dawn has just cracked the sky so she makes her way over in the dim light that she is afforded through the pines. It is even darker in the den where the adults sleep but luckily for her, Sharpshadow was a newer warrior so he slept on the outskirts and he was easy to find.

She comes and she stops by that familiar dark-pelted figure. Already, there are some cats awake and they give her a quizzical look but she says nothing to them and they say nothing to her. She leans down so that her lips are right next to her mentors ear "SHARPSHADOW! SHARPSHADOW WAKE UP!" she screams suddenly then jumps away, anticipating the startled motions of a cat frightened awake. Other cats around them start to wake up now, grumpy that their sleep was disturbed by an apprentice coming in and screaming before the sun had even fully risen but Halfpaw doesn't seem to notice or care really. She ignores the angry glances, the comments that her mentor needed to keep her in check, and she blinks innocently as she sits, curling her fluffy tail around her paws and waiting for the older cat to rise.

// @SHARPSHADOW

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[SHARPSHADOW]

Sharpshadow's first mentor had taken her aside the very day he was apprenticed to her. She had told him her expectations she held as a mentor. She had told him what he ought to be taught. Told him that he would be one of ShadowClan's finest, by the end of it all. Ripped from a life that so far, had only been wanting mewls and quiet kitten games by himself, he had been taken out into the marsh; shown the borders, told of the prey, shown the thunderpath.

When Sharpshadow had been given his own apprentice, he touched her nose, and then he'd gone for a hunt.

Of all of the things her first mentor, and then Smogmaw had prepared her for, there was not this. No one had told her that she'd hardly have time to be a warrior, before she was in charge of someone else. In charge of what that someone else would learn, of when they would eat, or when they would train and when they would sleep. Who had thought the warrior that slinks around her own camp as if she were in enemy territory would be fit to mentor an apprentice?

Chilledstar, apparently.

It had been easy, to just... keep going about his day. So easy, he figured he'd just be able to do it again. Clearly, he was wrong.

Ringing, rining in her ears, its the cry of nightmares, when the shriek of her name wasn't by some authority waiting to chastise her, but instead the shrill squealing of a kit wanting to harass her in particular. Sharpshadow startles, shooting to her paws in a mass of bristling black fur. Fear - response is not just bristling. It's teeth and claws. Claws that unsheathe to scrape at her nest. Teeth that snap in a snarl, matching Halfpaw in volume. " WHAT? "

Too - late, she tunes into the fact that this is not a dream with a squealing rabbit invading her infinite supply of prey, but the warriors den, with... other warriors inside of it. Sharpshadow's eyes fly open, any tiredness forgotten at once, when he realizes what he's done. Petrified is the look she flashes to the other warriors, as she braves a glimpse behind herself. That glimpse only lasts a second, before she is pushing Halfpaw outside and clawing herself out of the den alongside her, in such a hurry that a few brambles snag her pelt.

Halfpaw would be met with the sight of him heaving, only as a result of his own manufactured fear. Eyes wild and gnashed, he cranes his neck down to her level, desperately trying to put a clamp down on his reactions, because he was making more of a scene than she was, at this point.

And he sounds embarassingly out of breath when he repeats, with less teeth this time. " What... Do you... want? " His tail is blocking the entrance to the warrior's den still, and he would hastily move what he could, not wanting to disturb the warriors any further.

with myself i must play in this game of charades ( ♱ ) cause there's no one to speak to

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• ( OF THE THINGS I'VE GOT IN MY BRAIN ) SHARPSHADOW: Formerly mentored by Smogmaw Mentoring Halfpaw
  ♱ he / she , no pref , dislikes gender neutral language ; fine with gendered terms
  ♱ currently 18 moons old as of 12.19.23 / ages every 8th
  
  

  dark smoke feline that stands at an above average height. Easily identifiable by her namesake – an unruly mat of fur, destined to be cluttered by inconsistencies between chimera halves. Burdened with a broken tail, often lying dead behind her in the dirt.

  
  Anxious, antisocial, paranoid. Sharpshadow has not known peace for a single time in his life, and lives anticipating inevitable dangers to the detriment of herself and others. —scraping together some higher purpose— making somewhat of an effort to be " likeable "
  heavy ic opinions! he's irrational and mean </3

​

 

[Halfsun]

Her new mentor's reaction is something she had expected, something she finds amusement in. She watches as she flails about, has to keep from laughing at the stupid look of bewilderment on her face. Instead she waits patiently for Sharpshadow to piece together what was happening, why she was here. She doesn't protest as she is herded by her new mentor out of the den. This was what she wanted after all, for the damned adult to actually be an adult, to take charge so that she didn't have to. For once.

It would seem that would not be, however, as Sharpshadow still seemed confused about why she was here. her eyebrows knit together, as if she is confused by the question and there is a long, drawn out pause before she answers. She lifts her paw up to her face, claws out, studying them as if she hadn't just woken the entire warriors den. "A new mentor would be cool" she muses "But seeing I am stuck with you..." with these words her eyes flash to the warrior, looking her up and down as if assessing. The expression she allows on her face suggests that she is not pleased by whatever she finds. "I want to go and see the territory. Like all the other apprentices. Take me." it is a demand more than a request. She would get what she wanted, no matter the avenues she had to take in order to get there. And if Sharpshadow did not oblige... Well, she had no problem making this a daily occurrence.

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[SHARPSHADOW]

Her apparent apprentice doesn't even have the mind to be embarassed like any respectable one ought to be. Very acutely, Sharpshadow feels a migraine swiftly making itself known. A new mentor would be cool. Sharpshadow's laugh is drier than dry. " Ha ha. " with a smile that does anything but match. She thinks she's funny, does she? She thinks she's cute, waking the entire warrior's den to make her little quip. She dares to once him over too, as if she had any right to judge what was before her. Sharpshadow bristles underneath her gaze— that of... that of essentially a kitten. No, no, no. He would not let this happen.

If Halfpaw wanted to leave behind kithood so badly, Sharpshadow would treat her just how she had been treated as an apprentice. She wills her fur to lie flat; to try and fashion a colder expression onto her face— and while one of these things fails, she manages to trade her from for something more... unmoving.

I'm not your mother, he might've said, but then, Halfpaw didn't truly know hers. He supposes that they were similar in that way, but Halfpaw still had a father that had torn up the world whilst looking for her.

Assert yourself. Her mentor— both of her former mentor's had told him something along these lines. It was easier said than done, when you are face in the crowd; when you are worse off than much of them. But... it's easy when it's your apprentice.

" Who did that work on? Smogmaw? Sootstar? " he says. Maybe he shouldn't say something like that, but there are much worse things he could say, still. He wrinkles his nose. " It won't work on me. I'm your mentor, not the other way around. "

He pauses, if only to wonder at himself. He glances around, as if someone would stop him. But... this is normal, right? This is what he's supposed to do, right?

Stuck with you, the brat says. It was the other way around. Definitely. "I could have you picking ticks for the next moon, maybe two, " he grumbles.

with myself i must play in this game of charades ( ♱ ) cause there's no one to speak to

• 
  
  

• 

• ( OF THE THINGS I'VE GOT IN MY BRAIN ) SHARPSHADOW: Formerly mentored by Smogmaw Mentoring Halfpaw
  ♱ he / she , no pref , dislikes gender neutral language ; fine with gendered terms
  ♱ currently 19 moons old as of 1.15.24 / ages every 8th
  
  

  dark smoke feline that stands at an above average height. Easily identifiable by her namesake – an unruly mat of fur, destined to be cluttered by inconsistencies between chimera halves. Burdened with a broken tail, often lying dead behind her in the dirt.

  
  Anxious, antisocial, paranoid. Sharpshadow has not known peace for a single time in his life, and lives anticipating inevitable dangers to the detriment of herself and others. —scraping together some higher purpose— making somewhat of an effort to be " likeable "
  heavy ic opinions! he's irrational and mean </3

​

 

[Halfsun]

Halfpaw has never wanted to smack someone more than she now wants to smack her own mentor. An actual proper smack - not one born out of malice for another kit but one born of pure hatred. It blossoms in her chest like a hot coal upon hearing the words spewed from the warriors mouth. Sootstar. So obvious in its mockery, its bait. But she forces her fur to lie flat, forces the fire in her eyes to die. If she lets him see that he has bothered her, that he's got to her in some way... No. She won't let him win. She forces herself to roll her eyes, to allow a scoff to escape past her lips as if what he had said was only a mere irritant, annoying and insignificant.

I could have you picking ticks for the next moon, maybe two' he says and this time, the short barking "HA!" That escapes her is genuine. In order for him to have her picking ticks he would have to acknowledge her existence outside of an interaction of which she has forced first. "I would love that" she says, her words dripping in honey coated venom with each syllable. Her mismatched eyes narrow "At least then you'd actually be acting in a way a mentor oughta" Because isn't that all she has been asking for? For Sharpshadow to act like the adult he was meant to be and actually teach her something.

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[SHARPSHADOW]

Her laugh is a grating, ugly bark that Sharpshadow thinks he ought to rip out her tongue for, but of all the things mentors could do with their apprentice, that wasn't one of them. I would love that. Sharpshadow hesitates, only because as far as his understanding of apprentices went, that's something that one of them wouldn't ever say. She thinks he isn't serious. Well... well he is. Nevermind that he's never told anyone what to do before, be that a friend, or apprentice. He glowers openly. He's without a tail to lash.

Being a warrior... being warrior is something he'd wanted. He'd wanted it more than anything. " I never asked to be a mentor, especially not yours. " he sniffs. A further threat lingers on his tongue... but he's already given one, and – and it's something he should stick to it. It's what Smogmaw would want, for him to be confident. Sharpshadow would be glad to be to Halfpaw what her father had been to him: a gnat constantly buzzing in his ear that he would do anything to get rid of.

" The elders are usually up early, go ahead and get a head start, " he sniffs, at last.

with myself i must play in this game of charades ( ♱ ) cause there's no one to speak to

• 
  
  

• 

• 
  SHARPSHADOW: he / she , no pref , dislikes gender neutral language ; fine with gendered terms ; 19 moons old as of 2.2.24
  

  dark smoke feline that stands at an above average height. Easily identifiable by her namesake – an unruly mat of fur, destined to be cluttered by inconsistencies between chimera halves. Burdened with a broken tail, often lying dead behind her in the dirt.

  Anxious, antisocial, paranoid. Sharpshadow has not known peace for a single time in his life, and lives anticipating inevitable dangers to the detriment of herself and others.
  heavy ic opinions! he's irrational and mean </3

​