camp i know the weight is coming | intro

[turtlepaw]

i'm in the in between, honey​

---

"And the rat leaped up, and bit my toe!" A near-black paw was held up at this statement, boasting a fairly small cobweb wrap with barely any herbs needed for the small bite underneath. At twilight, when the sun was setting and the sky threw a fit with the most gorgeous colors, a silver charcoal tabby apprentice told her tale. Turtlepaw, typically grin spreading wide over her face, reared onto her back paws and held her front ones wide apart. "It was this big!" She boasted, voice filling the entire camp clearing.

She moved through the crowd of those gathered eating their evening meal - her own meal of a small carp left half-eaten - and fought an invisible adversary. Turtlepaw's green eyes were lit with the memory of the heroic fight, her proudest moment yet in her apprenticeship. "So I scooped it up-" her movements mimicked the tale "-and smashed it down, biting it till it died in my grasp!" The role had switched now and she was the rat, twitching until her fake death. Turtlepaw opened an eye and smirked at the warrior she feigned death in front of, a giggle brewing in the pit of her belly.

 

[maplepaw.]

"That big? No way!" Maplepaw gasped, watching as Turtlepaw moved with her story away from her. Between licks of her fawn and cream pelt, the tortie would listen intently.

It was entertaining nonetheless, though, she was unsure how true the story was. "Where'd the rat go? Are we gonna eat it?" She asked with a head tilt. It didn't sound appetizing, but at the same time... Food was food. She was skipping her meal this time, worried about other mouths, but nonetheless, she'd get the next meal in and chow down.

She had caught her own prey, but never anything that was a worthy story to tell- not yet. She didn't see herself as a story teller, to be honest. Shed get there though.


​

 

[SWIFTFIRE]

I'VE LEARNED LOVE IS LIKE A BRICK — Though Swiftfire had never been a Riverclan apprentice, she had experienced a youth of her own within the Ripple Colony. She fondly remembered her own exaggerated tales of adventures and hard-fought victories, most made up of half truth and half lie. Though back then she would've said such things were merely creative liberties, meant to make the story more exciting as a whole. It seemed like Riverclan apprentices were much the same, Turtlepaw's voice carrying over to her as she emerged from the warriors' den. She had been taking a short nap after an earlier hunting patrol, only to wake when the scent of prey all around had grown stronger. Deciding to put off her own dinner for a little longer, she made her way over to where Turtlepaw and Maplepaw were both sat.

Well, Maplepaw was sat. Turtlepaw was still stretched out on the ground in a performance of feigned death.

"I'm not sure we'd want to eat it, if it went out in such a brutal fashion." The warrior couldn't keep the smile off her face as she settled nearby, fluffy tail settling over her own paws. "Though either way I've heard rats don't make great prey. They can carry all sorts of things on them, you know." Swiftfire honestly had no idea how other clans dealt with having rats as one of their main sources of prey, the thought of having ended up a Shadowclanner instead of a Riverclanner sending a shiver down her spine. "I'm surprised it didn't take a chunk out of your paw with its teeth, if it really was as big as you say." She gestured with one white paw towards Turtlepaw's bandaged toe, the miniscule wrapping hardly seeming like enough for a rat of the size the apprentice was boasting about.

YOU CAN BUILD A HOUSE ✿ OR SINK A DEAD BODY

• 
  ✧ shorthaired blue and red tabby chimera molly with green eyes
  ✧ 38 moons old; ages the 1st every month
  ✧ bisexual; currently not looking
  ✧ daughter of lilou and germaine
  ✧ formerly of the ripple colony; loyal to riverclan
  ✧ easy to befriend; desperate to improve the former colonists' reputation
  ✧ "speech", thoughts, attacking
  ✧ peaceful powerplay allowed

​

 

[bubbleburst]

"GOT A LITTLE CASH NOW SO THAT SKIRT IS DIOR"​

Bubblepaw sits and listens to Turtlepaw's story, enraptured by the tale of her victory against the vicious rat which bit her. Her eyes go wide as the dark tabby gestures as to show the gargantuan size of the rat. She is sure glad it hadn't been her fighting that thing off. Big fish are one thing, but rats are scary and mean. Turtlepaw must be awfully brave and quick to have fought off such a creature. "I hope we don't find more rats around," Bubblepaw comments seriously. What would she do if one of those ugly things came after her?

"Rats are gross tasting," Bubblepaw crinkles her nose at Maplepaw's question. The apprentice recalls the brief time they'd spent in ShadowClan's marsh during the yellowcough epidemic- the rats and frogs they had been forced to eat in their desperation for survival. Admittedly, the amphibians had not been so different from their usual diet in taste, though the ShadowClan cats had been far more stingy about sharing those than the garbage eaters and sickly rodents. At the end of the day, Bubblepaw prefers the taste of fish much more.​

✦ ★ ✦​

 

[RAVENSONG]

"I've heard..." Ravensong mused from his seated position only a few rabbithops away from the gathered group, "That the rats in ShadowClan can have a poisonous-like bite... almost like an adder's." It was the truth, as far as he knew, but he spoke it with such dramatic flair that the others might think he were exaggerating. His whiskers twitched in amusement, finding some sort of peace in watching the excited apprentices. Rats were not a commodity in the Clan, but every so often the prey could find itself in their territory. Ravensong had never developed a taste for the rodent, preferring fish.

"So, you're lucky it was a RiverClan rat, Turtlepaw." Ravensong lay down, tucking his paws underneath his body. "Otherwise, I might have to give you more than that cobweb mess."

☾₊ ⊹ темная ночь — dark is the night

•  
• 
  RAVENSONG of RIVERCLAN — LH BLACK POLYDACTYL MALE (CARRYING CINNAMON, DILUTE) a tall, slender creature with pitch-black feathery fur, large ears, and a sharply angled skull held up in an aloof manner. smells of dried herb, speaks with a low and rumbly accent and walks with an elegant slinking gait.
  
  — born in twolegplace and orphaned at a young age, he joined riverclan at its inception and began training as a drypaw warrior known for a bitter temperment until beesong made him his medicine cat apprentice. after his mentor's untimely death, he had been named ravensong at the moonstone, young heart revitalized with anger and guilt. he is a somber and thorough medicine cat that guards every word spoken in the confines of his den.
  
  — secretly loves "the stars but not so much what inhabits them" — openly suffers from chronic migraines — single, but "it's complicated"

​

 

[turtlepaw]

i'm in the in between, honey​

---

Turtlepaw's response to the growing crowd did not come quickly, the performance of Dying Rat still going on. She was making a good show of it so far, too. Paws dangled in the air and twitched at just the right moments, tongue lolled from her mouth, and a long groan escaped her. When she realized those gathered were waiting on answers, the tabby rolled to her paws. "Well, Maplepaw," she began with voice growing very matter-of-fact. "The rat died and I buried it!"

She turned to Swiftfire with a pleased expression on her dark face. "And! I knew exactly what Swiftfire just said, so I left it there." The only reason she knew this was because the warrior on patrol with her had instructed her to do so. In reality, this was Turtlepaw's first ever experience with a rat. She had scared the creature during a hunter patrol, and it had spun around and bit her toe... lightly.

The tabby sidles up to Bubblepaw, pressing her flank against the other apprentice to comfort her. "Don't worry! If we do I'll protect the whole camp. I'm super experienced in rat-fighting now." She puffs out her chest at this remark, truly believing it. If she could kill that one rat, how hard could 10 be?

Turtlepaw deflated at Ravensong's statement, looking over her shoulder at the shadowy cat. She was not afraid of much (in a way other's told her would get her in trouble), but the idea of such a tiny thing killing her was a teensy bit nerve-wracking. While she wanted to push the creeping fear away, a tiny voice made her speak up. "Would... uh..." She pressed up against Bubblepaw not to comfort her now, but for comfort from her. "Would you take a peek at it later? Just to make sure it wasn't a ShadowClan rat?" At three moons old, she still had a lot of growing up to do despite thinking she was ready to be a warrior.

 

[hazecloud]

A breathy laugh escaped the silky-furred queen at Ravensong's bland teasing toward Turtlepaw. She was lucky enough thus far to have never needed a brief stay in the medicine den while her other half had seemingly routine visits. Trouble seemed to find that molly like a fish to water.

"I used to live in those marshes, y'know." Hazecloud gave a neutral reminder as she looked over Turtlepaw in a brief observation, as if assessing the injury herself. "You would know a marsh rat very clearly. They've got razor-sharp claws and pointy front teeth. And when they bite it feels like your bloods been turned to fire." She continued to nod solemnly as if from personal experience. Thankfully she was never keen to step a paw into the wasteland of carrionplace anyway.

"Since you're still able to walk about, I'd say this is definitely now ShadowClan rat." Her voice tilted up in a more reassuring tone. She would hope that rats wouldn't start making an appearance in their fresh-kill pile, though. The thought alone of going back to eating them made her nose wrinkle in distaste. ​

 

[RATWHISKER]

power belongs to those who take it .
︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

They carry all sorts of things on them, you know. Oh, how Ratwhisker wanted to snap, muzzle wrinkling in muddled annoyance, well-masked by moons' worth of pretending he didn’t despise his living son, pretending to care when he wanted nothing more than to shove him beneath the water like he’d done all those moons ago in a desperate act to get the creature to listen after countless failures that made his fur run hot in shame.

He listened, not too amused at how the conversation was going, sharp hues narrowing by the minute, teeth-gritting, but he was a respectable warrior, and he would not cause problems. No matter how much he wanted to scold naïve apprentices and their twisted words. “Not very fond of the animal, I see.” He mused from afar, ears swerving with a painstakingly neutral facade, grin languid, but miffed, lips curled in a tense line. I can’t help but wonder. He thought, tail tip twitching. “I wonder if you aren’t fond of the name, either.” He added, yellow hues narrowing. I have been nothing, but willing. He huffed silently, ears angling away from the group in contemplation. Annoying.

“I am not fond of rat meat, but with enough skill, you’ll leave without a scratch or bite.” He commented, that whether he was insulting them was no one’s business but his own. He couldn’t simply be at fault if someone took offense to it, after all, he was merely stating the truth. He couldn’t help it if someone wanted to whine like kits. ​

​

thought speech​