going in unscathed, but i have my doubts ✧ blazestar

[CHALK]

⭒✧ Chalk sat snuggly into one corner of camp, watching the last comings and goings of the day. He ought to have left earlier but unlike the kittypets that came to visit, the tom’s schedule was more flexible. The dark was a malleable sort that night, the sun adhered to the sky far longer than it would in leafbare. Now just barely out of sight, it allowed the breeze to finally smuggle some cool air across the clearing. He didn’t really want to move.

Rooted down as he was, Chalk’s eye line was much lower than that of their leader’s as he caught the ragdoll’s gaze. Fawn chin tipped up, the flare of his ears was the only precursor to his words. ”Blazestar. I’m sure you’re a busy cat but ah," Mild uncertainty splintered through his plain foundation, the structure of his point lacking. Really, he just wanted to ask after the clancat- intrigued by what made up a leader. Oh, how about- "I never properly thanked you for getting all of us out, even if we might’ve been an unintended side effect."

His chin levelled out, in what can just about be inferred as a nod of self-satisfaction. He didn’t really gesture to the grassy knoll beside him, but the slicked glance towards the negative space was acknowledgement enough- should Blazestar want to of course.

"I understand you’re more open-minded than the other leaders? I had heard rumours of forestcats before but they came with hefty warnings." Chalk knew he straddled the border between kittypet and loner, and that disparity made it hard to connect with other cats. Not that he’d had much interest in doing so until now. "I’m glad you are- let’s me come out here and study what I can. It’s so different to the Learningplace."
/ @BLAZESTAR ​

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[BLAZESTAR]

He’s a busy cat, yes, but at the pale feline’s greeting, Blazestar trots over with interest, tail lifted in a friendly greeting. “Chalk, right?” He tilts his head, blinking down at the former loner. “No need to thank me for that. You’ve all been an asset to the Clan.” Well, he thinks all might be a stretch; with a grimace, he remembers Cheddar’s embarrassing foray into ThunderClan territory. “Besides, it was the patrol who did the work.”

Chalk’s gaze points to the space beside him, and Blazestar settles his bulk upon the grass, yawning and enjoying the burn of the sun through his light-colored fur. The shelter cat begins to muse about the forest cat tales he’d heard, and the Ragdoll has to laugh. “I’d heard the same things, when I was a kittypet. Wild ferals who gnaw on cat bones…” He blinks. “But I suppose some of what you say is true. The other four Clan leaders are not fond of kittypets or loners. I know where I came from, though. Had Rain not been welcoming to me, I would not have the life I have now.”

A blessing and a curse, perhaps; his tone is bittersweet. He would not have had Little Wolf’s love, nor the family they created together, but he would also be spared the pain of dying over and over again, the burdens of leadership.

Something Chalk says—a strange word, jumbled—catches Blazestar’s attention; amber ears flick. “Did you say ‘Learningplace’?” He echoes. “Did you mean… Twolegplace?”
​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

 

[CHALK]

⭒✧ Blank-faced and sharp-eyed, Chalk absorbed Blazestar’s replies. He had remembered his name- a leader of good memory. Good, likely a prerequisite. With a sharp exhale, the tom matched the other’s chuckle. The rumour he spoke of paralleled the ones he’d heard.

'I know where I came from, though' "Admirable." No inflection warped the word, tone ambiguous. "Forgetting that would be a loss. Experience, empathy and the like." Levity crept in, the tom consciously resisting the temptation to unravel that topic. Chalk searched Blazestar’s expression, trying to weigh what he saw there. He wasn’t sure.

Then sandstone ears grew long, and he finds himself at the receiving end of the questioning. "Oh, no." Blue is washed from his face as his eyes mashed shut for a second. Had he not spoken clearly- no, it seemed the leader was just unfamiliar. "I don’t know how many of the cats that visit here are aware of it- the Learningplace is where the twoleg kits go to train and learn. It's where I spend my time, picking up what I can."

Chalk steeped in his thoughts for a moment. "The older ones scratch away at thin scraps most the time, but they conduct the most interesting experiments. Yesterday, I saw them prodding powder into fire. It turned blue, red, yellow- the green was most striking" His mounting enthusiasm was quiet, reservedly eager. Mewling misunderstood questions to the twolegs that pawed at him was very different to actually engaging in intelligent discussion.​

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[BLAZESTAR]

The buff-colored cat expresses himself with perfect neutrality. Blazestar doesn’t know that he’s ever met a cat who conceals their emotions so effortlessly—or perhaps this is the extent of them. He calls Blazestar admirable, that forgetting his roots would be a loss. “I agree. I don’t think it does any of us any good to forget where we came from.” He tilts his head. “Kittypet, loner, or otherwise, we all have a reason we believe what we do, so we should embrace it.”

But he says it again, Learningplace, and he explains it’s separate from the Twolegplace. “It’s where the Twoleg kits go to train and learn,” he explains. Blazestar’s eyes stretch wide with surprise. “Are you saying Twolegs train apprentices like we do?” He’s never heard such a thing in his life—and considering it is beyond strange. “Perhaps I don’t know about this Learningplace because my housefolk were elders already by the time I came to live with them as a kit.”

Fascinated, he stares at Chalk—powder into flame? “I know Twolegs can control fire, but this is beyond bizarre,” he says incredulously. “How did you come to know such a strange place?”

✧ INFO.

•  
• 
  — blaise . blazestar
  — he/him ; leader of skyclan
  — pansexual ; divorced ; single
  — longhaired flame point Ragdoll with blue eyes
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — penned by Marquette
  — chibi by Mercibun

​

 

[CHALK]

⭒✧ His opinion of Blazestar deepened as the other shared his thoughts. Chalk had not expected to find a cat so receptive to outside knowledge in the woods. ’Embrace it’. Good. Skyclan was shaping up to be quite the place. The daylight warrior kept quiet until the tom finished, each question memorised carefully. At the mention of the fire however, his organised intentions fell away.

Agreement rippled through him. A long, pleased blink preceded his response, eyes bright as they reopened. "Extremely bizarre. The scent was sour like metal- but if that was what the powder held it only tempts further questions. They use metal everywhere, even in contact with fire and yet..." The speculation rolled from his tongue, stopping only when his gaze drifted back to the large paws of the leader beside him. "Ah, sorry. Your questions." Chalk’s expression smoothed.

"I believe so, though their methods appear to differ. They have fewer mentors- many kits are ascribed to just one. They even swap throughout the day." He liked answering questions, liked it even more when his conversation partner appeared engaged. So grateful for Blazestar’s interest and determined to repay it, Chalk struggled to pick between answering quickly and answering considerately. Thoughts were sorted and prioritised. He hummed to fill the gap. ”You are likely right, the ‘apprentices’ are young like the clans'. The oldest are as tall as adults."

Next, the query on his origins. "I was born nearby.“ The tom spoke plainly. ”The rest of my family disliked the density of twolegs but I was too interested in their lessons to move on. The kits, while over-eager, aren’t so bad if you are, ah, more lax." Perhaps he shouldn’t be admitting such soft-spined behaviour to the ragdoll- who with his size and position is surely a fearsome warrior. Previously a kittypet though- one who valued his past. Indecision kinked his ear. "Being more experienced, I assume your housefolk were more gentle than the ones I put up with?"​

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