I always feel like (somebody's watchin' me) | spying gone wrong

[Snakeblink]

Snakeblink knows the kind of reputation he’s garnered, back in the marsh group and then here, in Riverclan. Creepy, suspicious, once a loner always a loner. He doesn't pay the whispers any heed. They're nothing he hasn’t heard before. He knows who he is, what is doing, what for; as long as he can trust himself, he doesn’t need others to trust him.

(So he thinks. So he hopes.)

Or he didn’t pay them any heed… up until leaf-bare came upon them and he discovered, with the blinking, unmoored surprise of someone waking up from a strange dream to a flooded den, two things in quick succession.

Number one, an old evidence brought back to the forefront of his mind and, as such, boring: the nights are long and cold, and he is achingly lonely. This is not news. He considers that fact and allows himself a short moment to linger on the warmth-love-comfort of childhood memories and harsher moons spent curled among his siblings against the living heat of their mother’s flank. And then, breathing in cold air and none of the familiar scents of family, he discards it as trivial. Nothing he can do about this right now. It’s not worth dwelling on. It is, crucially, not the main problem.

Number two, much more novel and, as such, a more pressing matter:

His gossiping clanmates are right. He is creepy.

It starts with a seasonal disturbance of his daily routine. Usually he would spend the day hunting, with the occasional border patrol, and then go around camp checking if anyone needs any kind of help during what free hours he has left before it’s time for sleep. With his sight degrading drastically once the sun goes down and the river too cold to swim in all day, Snakeblink is at a loss for what to do in the lengthening darkness. There’s only so much den weaving and nest building one can do while half-blind. So, finding himself at loose ends, he naturally decided, why not focus more on his clanmates? Eavesdropping on cats and trying to deal with their problems hardly requires much visual acuity at all.

And it goes great! He spends a few days following cats around: Ashpaw, whose safety he is always somewhat worrying about nowadays, and Clayfur, who might get into any kind of shenanigans while unmonitored, and Houndsnarl, who needs neither his help nor his attention but he can’t help to stare at for some reason— anyway. He does his job. He helps where he can and it keeps him busy either way. It's fine... Up until he's midway through a crouch that would get him in eavesdropping range of another cat and realizes, Ah. I see what they meant.

So he sits back on his haunches, gives his front paw a lick for appearances’ sake, and thinks to himself, This is getting borderline obsessive.

(The border in question was crossed miles ago, when he decided ‘covertly following his clanmates around to butt into their private lives’ was an acceptable hobby, but he’s not ready for that thought quite yet.)

Alright. Time to cut back on the tailing a bit. Just while he finds something else to fill his idle time with. He can roll with this.

…

He has no idea what else he could be doing.

Blank-eyed with astonished confusion, Snakeblink rises to his paws again, intending to pace his way into another, more helpful epiphany—

Only to walk straight into the cat he was only just sneaking after.
​

ooc. information.

• ooc: the cat he walks into can be your oc or an npc if you'd rather watch him make a fool of himself
  
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 35 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

​

 

[BUCKGAIT.]

MY NAME IS BRUTUS AND MY NAME MEANS HEAVY ✧​

buck's as wild as they come, clan life not managing to tame the woman in any way. she is aware of the words spoken about her, the complaints and worries. cats bothering themselves with what must be bothering her. what makes her fur stand so stiffly now and eyes turn quick? what makes her teeth bare quicker than usual and well, is there anything we can do?'s, as they accept that this must be passing. that she'll figure it out. and she's just about her wits end when she feels the strange sense of eyes upon her. roving and prying where they shouldn't be. she's no fool to when she's being stalked. buck has only been about her survival, and now she's under threat.

she acts as normally as she can. barks at some annoying clanmates who need to be doing something useful; whether it be den-weaving or a fruitless hunting patrol. the eyes follow her. she checks in with caraway, scolds the smoke for not getting in the nursery yet. the eyes follow. butts heads with lighnting over something mundane and cherish his attention upon her. the eyes continue. she glares upon cicada and watches the medicine den, still contemplating on that apology she surely owes beesong. the eyes. she tries to open koi back to the world, show her that buck is trying to make it safe again. the eyes continue.

it is when she is alone, that buck strikes. she is nonchalant, a tongue raking across a paw as an ear flicks at a shift in the air. when the eyes have finally relinquished, she makes her move.

agile and graceful, quick in her approach and surrounds the assailant. only to find it to be snakeblink. some tom she truly doesn't hold anything against. he's weird as toms go, but she enjoys their limited conversations. even if speaks with some forked tongue and has eyes a bit too slitted, she doesn't speak on his lack of clan blood. she's the same. she's the same goddamn molly that cursed riverclan and hoped for these cats to freeze in the river. for taking everything away from her. they're one and the same, even if they don't realize it.

her eyes narrow, breath heavy. she could punish him for this. this strange and weird behavior. could make him clean every nest until she's satisfied, clean any cat who wishes, sit in silence for moons. but she doesn't, only stares back at him. "find anything interesting about me, snake?" it's a low drawl, hiding her interest in it. how he may perceive her. but he won't know that, and it won't be apparent. buck looks as if she's about to tear him apart, and with the way her shoulders shiver and her jaw tenses, she might be. it was still a huge invasion of privacy, and buck had cherished that deeply.
​

 

[WASPRATTLE.]

Wasp himself knows no such thing about Buck– Buckgait as she was called. He knew nothing of her habits as an individual, nor of her duties as a deputy. Only that she was someone important. Someone to be feared (?) Wary of, at the very least. There is only so much he can discern from the few sunrises spent here. Only so much he should discern, maybe. (A few seemed adverse to speaking with her altogether; and, ever the impressionist, he is inclined to follow suit. Not that he has any personal qualms.) But avoidance does little to educate, really.

Snake, was that his name? Wasp admires his proactivity. Ever the observer, he seems to be. Even then, Wasp could lay eyes on the same face, the same pelt, the same mind, and he's sure he would be able to discern infinitely more. Wasp blinks; glances at Snakeblink. Genuine, "Did you?"​

 

[Minnowpaw]

( ♬ ) The sound of the deputy's voice so close to her working area had caused the silver brushed apprentice to jump. She had been so absorbed in her work, her paws moving as quickly as her mind that she had not realized that Snakeblink had slunk past her in his following of Buckgait.

Her paws would stop, freezing in an almost comical way as she turned her head to lay copper eyes on the scene that was unfolding before her. In truth, the deputy terrified her. She was so confident, so serious, so....tense. The energy alone was enough to drive Minnowpaws' anxiety up the walls of the camp. So, like many others, she simply kept her distance. She didn't dislike the deputy, always respectful and obedient when given an order or task, but outside of that, she would try to stay away for her own sanity.

So when her voice cut through her mind fog like a dagger, the apprentice looked genuinely worried for Snakeblink. She had been on a few patrols with the tom and found him decent enough. Had he really been following Buckgait around? Was she about to witness a clanmate of hers' getting into trouble?

Minnowpaws' eyes would widen into uncertain saucers as she went perfectly still, and watched. ​

( BUT I WATCH YOUR EYES AS SHE; WALKS BY )

 

[Snakeblink]

Faced with the attention of numerous cats, Buckgait’s worst of all, when he expected none at all, Snakeblink’s mind goes… blank. For that blessed second, there’s nothing — nothing at all, not even mortification — except the distant echo of his mother’s voice, tinged with love (and, yes, aggravation.)

My little snake…One day you will get yourself in trouble sneaking about, and then what will you do?

His answer back then is lost to history. His answer now, it seems, is “try to freeze, backtrack and flatten himself at the same time, achieving nothing but embarrassing flailing in the process”. That’s a knowledge he’d have been happy going to the grave without. The effort to keep from falling flat on his face after getting his paws tangled together at least dissipates the initial shock. It’s fully chased out the door by the sheer anxiety of the situation slamming into him like the river’s current at the first snow melt — this is nowhere near what he had planned and he is not prepared, he has no explanation and Snakeblink knows what happens when he says things without mulling them over for a good long while first—

Maybe it’s not that bad. Buckgait is a wise, responsible molly. She will forgive him for the—

Oh. Ooh she looks mad. She looks incensed. Snakeblink glances to the side, not so much that he takes his eyes off her, but no assistance is coming from this front: all he gets is Cicadastar’s newfound loner brother reiterating the deputy’s question, which is not helpful, and Minnowpaw watching on from the side and what is he going to do? Ask an apprentice to save him from the big bad deputy?

”Well, I, see, the thing is—” He stops, breathes in. Don’t lose anyone’s time; the only thing you ever got in your favor is time. ”Apologies for the indiscretion, Deputy, I’ve only been trying to do my duty. We all must, in our own way.”

A shiver runs down his back and he wills his fur to smooth down, affecting a collected air that he only partially feels. Half-felt is good; easier to fake than a full lie. He’s fine once he gets talking: it gets him out of as much trouble as it gets him into.

Okay. Honesty. That's supposed to be the best policy, yes?

”It’s only, you seem on edge. Is there anything I can do to help? I am, in all things, your most obedient servant,” He murmurs, inclining his head in a small, hopefully-more-respectful-than-mocking bow.


​

ooc. information.

• 
  
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 35 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

​