sensitive topics How the tables turn {Thistle}

[~Deersong~]

𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝐼 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒​

---

Life had been going fairly well for the cream and mocha furred femme. In just a few short weeks she had been promoted to Lead Warrior, earned her stellar apprentice Snowpaw, and was now mates with her beloved Thistleback. Yes, her mother's gem had been broken and she was still sad about that, but it had been an accident and Deersong just could not bring herself to be upset over an accident.

This night she had been thinking about what to do with the pieces of her broken stone, Thistleback in his worry for her emotional health had decided to spend the night in camp with her and she had indeed found comfort in his low breathing and his form wrapped around her own, like a dragon protecting his treasure.

Deersong would stir from her sleep not long before dawn, yawning quietly as she looked around the sleeping bodies of her clanmates before her aqua gaze settled onto Thistlebacks' sleeping one. Love would blossom into her chest and she would, as lightly as a butterfly wing, nuzzle his neck before carefully rising from their shared nest Slipping from the den, she would stretch leisurely before making her way toward the dirtplace. Her mind wandered wistfully to more ideas of what to do with her mother's stone.

Skyclan was supposed to be safe. It was supposed to be home. With all of the joy that had entered her life, she had genuinely forgotten about the malicious eyes that followed her around camp, the sneer of the NPC tom who held nothing but possessive contempt for her. Once she was close enough to the dirtplace that no cat could really see, a set of fangs suddenly grabbed her by her scruff and dragged her out of the camps.

She had been too shocked to even let out a yowl of surprise, but when she was finally released and turned to confront her attacker she would recoil back. "I don't know what game you think you're playing Deer. You think you can get away from me just because you have that sleazy two-leg rat following you around like some love-struck kit?" His words were pure venom, spat with a ferocity that caused the molly to shrink back into the ground, "I told you before if I couldn't have you then no tom could. I bet you even told him about my little gift to your face, didn't you? "

Deersong would shake her head and her voice would finally return, tight and trembling, "NO! No, I swear, I haven't told any cat. I just want to live in peace, please." Her whole frame was shaking, and if any of her clanmates saw her at that moment she would be unrecognizable. No cat knew, of course, none of her clanmates had any idea about the toxic relationship the pair had garnered during the very early days of the clans formation. How this tom had only used the molly as an emotional outlet for his real romantic interests rejection. The day she had returned with her cheek slashed, had been the very day she had ended whatever bridges had been left between them because she had found her soulmate in the black and white spikey furred tom that now held her heart.

"I love Thistleback. We were wrong for each other, I could have never stayed with you." The NPC would scoff at her words, tail lashing in his mounting anger and he slowly began to prowl towards her, like she was simply a measly mouse before him, "Do you really think he loves you back? Do you think he actually cares about you? He only sticks around because you've got a pretty face, there is nothing else about you that's worthy of being loved. And deep down you know that." Deersong would appear ready to break, shaking her head violently before she covered her ears with her paws and she tried to press herself further into the earth below her, "No. That's not true. It's not TRUE!"

Tears would stream down her muzzle, her entire body trembling so violently that her paws could barely remain over her ears. The NPC would smile down at her, an expression twisted with sick delight at seeing the lead warrior so easily crumble before him. He would step closer, leaning down so that his muzzle was close to her ear as he hissed, "He's going to leave you eventually Deer. Just like Vermillionsun did. Just poof, gone without a word. Why don't you just save yourself the grief and come back to me?" ​

 

[ThistleBack]

Breaths bellow from his sleeping skull, swallowed by the scent of flowers they even filtered into his nightmares growing from the walls and fences of his dream of a burning city- he slept peacefully though despite the rolling flames behind his lids.

a shift of weight in the soft thin coil of tendrils that was their nest, Thistleback isn’t disturbed, his tail entwining around his own hock as Deersong slips away. A bleary silver optic surfaces though, unfocused pupil tracking the retreating form of her pelt. That’s when the cold set in, climbed his bones and drags him up from his laying position.

He watches her disappear, blinking a bit blankly before stretching out with loud crackling limbs and rolling muscle. That’s when another shape moves about camp- steps made hurriedly with purpose. It was so quick, Thistleback almost missed it.

Brows knit together, and he drags himself from the shadows like a mucky black snake, white maw parting in a yawn. Something tugging him toward the treeline, but with slow swagger- pausing to rub his shoulder against the scratchy pine bark to dig a massage into the aching sinew. That’s when he hears a pleading voice- carried by the cold wind to his half-bandaged ear, but then comes another. “ I told you before if I couldn't have you then no tom could. ”

“little gift to your face…” Thistleback’s skull lifts, pupils shifting with the absorption of words. “ I love Thistleback. We were wrong for each other, I could have never stayed with you.” These words alone, plant his knuckled paws to the ground. A scowl melting over his muzzle.

She’s crying, there is a tremble in her voice he had never heard before- one of terror, begging for normalcy, to end the spout of hate spewing from the NPC’s jaws. It was as if all the pieces of the puzzle suddenly click. This is who hurt her, this is why she concealed their name, they were once a pair. While little had the ability to sicken Thistleback, his stomach boiled with acid threatening to rise up.

Lines crinkle on the bridge of his nose, his chest goes cold between the plates of bone under his throat, his claws unfurl and he keeps his pace slow as he peels from the shadows. Deersong is impossibly flat to the ground, tears bleeding down the softer fur of her cheeks. The NPC towers above her- muzzle to her ear. " it was you. " it’s feral the way it comes out but he’s not snarling. No- but his grey eyes are wide with murderous rage. " all this time, she protected you " he mutters coldly almost to himself. His steps draw him toward the NPC. Hackles rising giving him an almost urchin appearance.

Suddenly and violently, Thistleback kicks off on his hocks- barreling toward the man who throws his paws up in defense. Claws cutting into his chest to keep off the force of impact and out of pure defensive panic. Thistleback’s adrenaline drives out the pain- the NPC’s talons curl into the muscle but the piebald thrusts him to the ground like a ragdoll. " how does it feel… to be small" his rage twists into dark delight, a cackle even spit from his collared throat. Planting black paws with a hard thump over each of the NPC’s flailing limbs. The tom’s fur is stained with the blood he split from his attacker. " you cut her face " he whispers, " I should RIP YOURS AWAY INTO SHREDS" he bellows with hot breath into the NPC’s face. The abusive male’s limbs kick violently, backlegs drumming at Thistle’s ribs and belly " but don’t worry… I’m more merciful than that…"

" If this makes my paws too heavy for the skies of Starclan, so be it " his voice, back to a whisper- a crazed daze now as he pushes down harder on the NPC’s legs, so hard he could feel the bones resist painfully. " do me a favor. Look me in the eyes as you take your last breath. " he finishes, teeth extracting from his curled lips as he dives toward the NPC’s throat. A clamp of death descending upon him- “ THISTLEBACK! ” Deersong’s voice shouts, an angel’s blade crossing with a demon’s. His teeth clutch the man’s throat but he quivers with the force it took to be halted by her call. A deep growl crumbles from his gut as he pulls his fangs from the throat, swallowing over and over in fear.

He sees himself, in the glossy sclera of the tom under his merciless paws. A darkness he was, eldritch- the weird kid he once was, the one that talked to a stuffed animal. The freak. The feral beast is gone, and he looks back at Deersong. She were warm sands, and he had steel blades for arms to hold her in. He could never hold her- that darkness whispers. " he hurt you. HE HURT YOU. HE DESERVES THIS- WHY. ... WHY!" he’s angry, words ground out toward her with a shout.

Her love, her forgiveness, her soul. A stone to be broken like her mother’s. Thistleback could not swallow this anger, could not forgive.

​

OOC INFO REF

• —
  
  
• — Thistleback | thirty moons | cis-male
  — daylight warrior of Skyclan
  — bisexual | fallen for Deersong 9.29.22
  — very muscular piebald black and white tom with spiky fur and cold silver-grey eyes. Wears a purple collar with brass clasp.
  
• 
  
  

​

 

[~Deersong~]

𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝐼 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒​

---

Deersong wasn't sure which emotion hit her harder or faster, joy or shame when the voice of her love infiltrated the air that surrounded them and she would snap her head up just in time to see the black and white tom slam into the NPC with fury and hellfire within his silver pools.

She would jump to her paws, tears still fresh in her eyes as she watched in pure horror as her beloved tom aimed straight for the NPC's throat and she cried out before she could even think, "THISTLEBACK!" Her legs almost gave out in the relief that swept through her as he seemed to freeze at her call, and she would flinch back from his angry questioning. She would take a soft step towards them, "I know...I know he does, my love..." She was trying to meet her mates eyes, desperation in her optics as she whimpered, "But if you do this...if you kill him...then when it's time for us to join the stars, you may go to a place where I will not be allowed to follow you..." Her voice choked up and Deersong would feel renewed tears streaming down her muzzle. She did not know what afterlife awaited them as clan cats now, but her mother had told her before that cats who did bad things went to 'the dark place' and the mental image of Thistleback going to such a sad place made her chest hurt, "Please....Please Thistleback...don't go to a place that I can't go with you...The thought alone hurts me far more than his claws ever could.."

With each sentence, she would step closer and closer to the spikey-furred tom, and finally, she was standing beside him, raising a paw to touch his cheek as she meowed softly, "Don't leave me behind..." Looking down at the NPC, she would lash her half-tail and meow in a voice that was uncharacteristically cold and hard, "You. You should leave Skyclan tonight. I'm done protecting you, and I'm going to tell Blazestar and the others what you did to me. So You can either leave now or face the whole clan's judgment when the sun rises."

Without waiting for his answer, Deersong would turn back to Thistle and try to touch his cheek with her muzzle, another attempt to calm him. But it was clear from just looking at her that she was barely holding it together. Clear that she was trying to stay calm so that he did not feel like he had to kill for her. ​