I PROMISE TO NEVER GO OUTSIDE AGAIN. riddle making

[BAGUETTE.]

the snow white tom cat sat in the middle of camp. he had been avoiding just about everything, but now he had something to do. making a riddle. it was about day three of no sleep. he'd watched the sun go up and down, and it all blurred together so he couldn't definitively say that he'd been awake for as long as he was. but it was long enough for him to be on edge. he stared at his paws, which seemed to blur as his eyes started to try and close. he pushed them open with a frustrated growl towards himself. he couldn't sleep. not yet. not when everything was so incomplete. not yet. not yet. not allowed. not good enough. not enough... no! incomplete! unfinished! unfinished!! i will not get a sssssingle wink of sssssleeep until i know it'sssss perfect!!! he insisted in his head, but he couldn't help but look utterly exhausted. if asked, he was sure to deny it.

"no way... ssssomeway? thissss way... ugh! idiot! sssstupid moussssebrain! rockhead! sssssquirrel brained fool! sssstupid little jesssster you are! jusssst finish the riddle!"

he stood up on his paws frustratedly shaking his head before just frowning. he had to get this right.
​

[ RUNNING LOW ON SEROTONIN ]​

 

[BUGPAW]

"Baguette?" The cheery voice of Bug rings out. They peer at the white tom with a puzzled frown, tilting their head as they listen to him mumble and mutter. "Whatcha doin' — Oh, are you making another riddle?!" They didn't often understand his riddles, and would usually give a wild and highly incorrect answer. But that didn't mean that they didn't like Baguette's riddles! (Even if they think that their answers are better than his answers.)

However, he seems to be struggling with this riddle... and with staying awake. She blinks at him, suddenly noticing the exhaustion weighing on his face. "Woah, you've got eyebags bigger than Tugger's forehead! When's the last time you slept?" And, in typical Bug fashion, she begins to go off on a slightly irrelevant tangent... "Y'know, when I was a kit, I once stayed up for three days straight! I started seeing crazy wacky stuff, like when the squirrel I was eating for breakfast started twitching! It was completely bonkers!"​

 

[HAZE]

Haze's frazzled whiskers tremble with slight amusement at the berating Bug innocently gives Baguette. They're right, of course--the white tom looks frustrated and exhausted, and the tabby does not appreciate the negative self-talk.

"You're not stupid, Baggie," he says comfortingly. He sits beside the pale feline and glances at Bug and snorts at her story.

"You know, I've heard when you see your prey moves that you have actual bugs in your brain..." He shrugs. Maybe he did hear that at some point. Who's to say?
​

PENNED BY MARQUETTE​

 

[BAGUETTE.]

the white tom's tufted ears perked up, swiveling back and forth as he moved his fur from his face with a small smile.

"yesss, i am trying to make another riddle. they can be a little tricky sssssometimesss."

bug is funny to him. he listens to the little one speak up about how his own eye bags are bigger than tugger's forehead. huh. he doesn't think tugger's head was that big but then again... he did have a bit of a jaded view on that one, right? he listens to bug ramble on, carefully nodding his head with a small laugh.

"i'm sssssure it did, little buglet. but i'll have you know, i'm absssssolutely one hundred percent sssssure that i've sssslept! thissss isssss jussst my face! you know how we jessssterssss are."

touching his paw to his chest, he smiled, before blinking in the direction of haze. oh, he knew that. he knew he wasn't stupid but sometimes the words just came out. he didn't stop them either. what good would that do?

"yesss... i know... it'ssss the lack of... food getting to this little fool."

he nodded his head, though he was actually talking about lack of sleep. but after lying to bug, he couldn't just say that so quickly, right? with a deep sigh, he stretched his body out, a yawn leaving his throat.

"I sssswear i'll resssst with a nice warm mouse after i get thissss riddle figured out. it'ssss important."
​

[ RUNNING LOW ON SEROTONIN ]​

 

[DAWNGLARE]

( ♡♡♡ ) He dimly recognizes the little flurry, the strange pale form he'd spotted in the forest some day. He reactions with him still, remain strange. Valentine observes him with narrowed eyes, a thick-furred tail curled tightly within himself as he picks him apart as if he weren't cat. What was possessing his tongue to have him speak as he did? Foul creature, wrathful bug... Currently, it's his biggest mystery. For an outsider, he's perhaps spent an uncomfortable about of time silently watching Baguette speak with the same, never-changing expression on his face.

"More important than food or sleep? Unlikely." he comments, finally speaking as he listens in to the chatter around the pale tom. Does he care for his wellbeing? Stars, no, but he simply couldn't comprehend prioritizing verbal schlock above those things. Forest cats possessed a unique sort of foolishness, he's quickly come to learn. Even he, who normally wouldn't be caught vulnerable in this place, had found himself dozing off from time to time, coaxed into the sweet embrace of sleep as the sun's light seeps into his fur. A cruel trick of nature, love personified, comfort beating from the sky. Strange though, those few times, he'd dreamt of something strange.

Unimportant. His softening face once again turned sharp. "You're the only one stressing over something as dull as words, whelp. Little more is important than sleep. The sun and the stars, maybe... you're not a star, are you?" he suddenly asks, scrutinizing him with a sharp gaze. No, he banishes the thought before it can go any further. Foul suggestion. He is very weird. Stars are not.​

 

[BUGPAW]

Haze's words do not phase her. Rather, they only seem to fuel her excited blabbering. "Ohh, I love bugs! What kinda bugs do you think are in there? Butterflies? Moths? Fuzzy caterpillars? Oh, oh, do you think if I shake my head hard enough, they'll fall out my ears?" Bug begins to shake her head from side to side until the rapid motion causes the world to spin and her head to ache. When she opens her eyes, however, she's disappointed to find that there are no bugs at her paws.

Baguette's funny voice draws her away from her disappointment, her ears perking as she rubs her aching temple with a paw. He confirms that he's making another riddle, and that they're tricky. Bug grins at him. Her headache seems to dissipate with her excitement. "I can help, I can help! What's the riddle about? I'll make it unsolvable!" She shifts her weight from one side to another.

Baguette assures them that he has, in fact, slept. That the eye bags aren't eye bags but instead his face. Bug tilts their head. "Whaaa?" That couldn't just be his face, could it? They're certain that Baguette hasn't always looked like that! Which could only mean... "Wow... Age is really catchin' up with you." The comment is innocent enough.

The funny white tom reveals that it's a lack of food that's bothering him rather than a lack of sleep. Bug blinks up at him. "Then you should eat, silly!" He yawns, which Bug finds awfully suspicious, their eyes narrowing and lips pursing. "Are you suuuure you're not tired?"

He says that he'll rest once he's finished the riddle. Bug opens her mouth to say something, but another, more critical voice interrupts her. She looks over at Valentine, frowning. Not important? That's a total load of squirrel-dung! "It is important! Super-duper important!" She nods fervently, her wide eyes twin moons. She doesn't know what a whelp is... But she thinks it isn't a very nice thing, considering how Valentine is speaking to Baguette. There's a spark of protectiveness over her white-furred friend. "Baggie's riddles aren't dull! You've just never met a riddle-maker as talented as him!" The tall sepia claims that nothing is more important than sleep, aside from the sun and stars. He scrutinizes Baguette, questioning if the white tom is a star. Bug is quick to answer for him, assured that what she says is true. "Uh, duh! He is a star! A star of riddlesssss!" She draws out her S's just as Baguette does, sticking her tongue out at Valentine.​