camp in my own mind ] curiosities

[leechpaw]

Leechkit lay sprawled out in a patch of sunlight that streamed through the entrance of the nursery. His bright eyes were wide with wonder as he watched a beetle skitter across the ground in front of him. It was a shiny, black creature with tiny, delicate legs that moved in a fascinating way. Leechkit’s own back legs twitched slightly, reminding him of the ache that always seemed to linger there. He wonders if the ache would still be there if he had little legs like the bug he was watching. “Why d'ya move like that?” he mused aloud to the beetle, though he knew it couldn’t answer him. “An' why d'ya look so different t'me?”

To Leechkit, everything was a mystery waiting to be solved. The warriors and apprentices he pestered with questions often had the answers, but sometimes they just gave him funny looks or told him to run along. He couldn’t run, not really, but he could certainly hobble and explore, which always, always led to more questions, one way or another. He could always find something new to be curious about, with bugs just being the most recent in a long line of interests. “Maybe y'can’t talk because y'don’t have a voice,” he continued, inching closer to the beetle as he considers possibilities. “Or, maybe y'don’t need to. Y'get along okay w'thout.”

He poked at the ground with a small, dark paw, trying to see if the beetle would climb onto it. Instead, it scuttled away, disappearing under a leaf. Leechkit sighed but quickly perked up again, his attention shifting to a different curiosity. Nearby, a piece of prey leftover and unfinished was starting to smell funny. Leechkit knew it was part of the natural process, but he didn’t understand why it happened. Why did fresh-kill start to rot, and what did that mean? He’d asked someone once, but they'd been busy and he had never gotten a proper answer to the question.

“'m gonna figure it out m'self,” he decided with a determined nod, though his back legs protested as he shifted. He would need to rest soon, but not just yet. There's too much to learn before he can rest. He crawled closer to the piece of prey, wrinkling his nose at the pungent scent. “Th'bugs eat you,” he muses to himself. "Maybe it's th'bugs that make ya all smelly." His head tilts to the side thoughtfully as he stares at the piece of prey, as if staring at it hard enough will give him the answers he seeks.​

 

[LIVIDSMOKE]

Kits had always been a strange enigma that he never had desired to learn more about. Even as a kit himself had never felt like he belonged with them, that he couldn't understand them. Neither did he find them interesting. Useless they were too at that age, just a mouth to feed and little rewards did they have to give for the effort of hunting and feeding them. Just an endless mouth running unless food was put into it. An headache was the 'gratitude' he received from them. That was why he made his best attempt to stay away from them. Every since leaving the nursery den had never looked back and not once had he thought of ever returning there. His time there he wished nothing more but to forget about.

Unfortunately, this little chatterboxes didn't stay in the nursery forever as they daily run around across camp, making it more difficult to avoid them at times especially when one of them was lurking by the fresh kill pile he had come here for to grap something to eat. Lividpaw watched from a distance, hesitant to approach at first. Maybe he could wait to eat later but who knew when an opportunity to eat would arrive again. He had a busy day ahead of him so it was better to eat now then to wait for long and risk going on a empty stomach.

So in the end he had no choice.

" The dead cannot answer you." Lividpaw commented, hearing this kits strange conversation with the rotten prey that should get removed from the pile. Another job for him to do. He blinked his eyes as he stared the kit down. Why on earth were they staring at the prey like that for?, and why on earth to begin with did they speak with the dead?. Aha, he should not think too much about it. Once again, kits was an enigma with a mind he never would understand and neither was he interested to learn. " You better not try to eat that." he stated, just in case such an absurd idea had crossed this kit mind. You could never know.






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[Swansong]

⋆⁺₊ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ 　Swansong watches the scene with a placid sort of interest. A curious child with hobbling legs, a curse placed upon his body without any injury to speak of. No lack of determination, however; he moves purposeful and bright, flitting from question to question like flickering moth's wings. They only move to join the kit once Lividpaw has made his own presence known, his dry words far from what such a bright child needs to hear. Their retort is light. "Ah, but that doesn't mean you can't speak to them..." Swansong does it herself quite often, murmuring to both the stars and the bodies that lie beneath the earth. It brings her closer to them; perhaps speaking to smaller creatures could do something similar. A connection to the crawling and hunted things... It is an intriguing thought.

Still, it would not do to leave rotting food in camp. That is for beyond the bounds of their home. Swansong herself doesn't mind the smell, but she figures a gentler touch would do better to take Leechkit's prey-piece away. "I think... the bugs... like to eat smelly things. Perhaps we should take this little froggy away... Before the wasps start swarming," She moves towards the rotting piece of prey - yet pauses before she gets there. She feels a little bad taking the object of fascination from this little kit, though she's certain he'll find something new to question before long.

Sleepy eyes slide over to Leechkit's tiny form, lingering upon his form for a moment. A firelight child, all bright and curious. A small smile dances upon her face. "Do tell me if you find your answers, hm...?" she asks in a hushed voice, as if a secret shared between the two of them. And then she is leaning down, grasping the body that has just began to decay with delicate teeth.

‎‎┌── WE FOUND TWO DEAD SWANS ⋆⁺₊ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ AND FILLED THEIR BODIES WITH FLOWERS ──┐‎

• 
  
• 
  
  

  "SPEECH"

• 
  SWANSONG　⋆⁺₊ ☾ ⁺₊⋆　she / they, warrior of shadowclan, fourteen moons.
  ➳ a pale, silky-furred cream tabby with droopy blue eyes.
  ➳ dreamy and detached, known for her perpetual sleepiness.
  ➳ halfshade x smogmaw, littermate to applejaw, garlicheart, & ashenfall.
  ➳ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ➳ penned by SATURNID ↛ saturnids on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[Snowlark.]

[ ༻❄༺ ] Snowpaw remember their time as a kit, how he had isolated himself, allowed his own grudges swallow his heart like a poisoned vine with thorns on them. But, others managed to wiggle their way through those sharpened thorns and poison vines, weeding them out and allowing Snowpaw to feel less...alone. He was never a curious kit like leechkit was, never asking those questions about the living or the dead, seeing as once you're dead... thats it, of course there was starclan, obviously but... that was it-you just become a memory to those around you, someone others tell stories about to their young, especially if they had been a hero in their life.

"Do you think they have something similar to Starclan?" he asked, moving yowards the warrior and kit, completely ignoring the presence of Lividpaw, yellow gaze on the two of them while Swansong was quick to rid the rotting prey, even if it had been Leechkit's moment of fixation, but surely the kit would find something else to ask questions about soon enough, even if it was either him or...the other apprentice here.

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── You ve wasted your life , but thanks for applying ──┐‎

• 
  "speak""Thoughts"
  
• 
  Snowpaw ❄ He/Him, apprentice of Shadowclan, 9 moons.
  ⭃ Lithe long hair blue lynx sepia with high white, and yellow eyes. Stubby tail, permanent resting bitch face
  ⭃ Hailfreckle x Mudsplash
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted (ask first) / / underline and tag when attacking
  ↛ see battle info here
  ⭃ penned by Ryn ↛ @/Rynnaro on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[POPPYGLOW]

ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 "...There is plenty to be heard for those who have ears open to listen," chimes a soft voice from behind the group. Delight shone from Poppypaw's face in the form of a small, modest upturn of lip at the fascination this child had for the world around them all. Such openmindedness was an essential skill for moving about in the world, and Poppypaw was happy to nurture this flame of enthusiasm in the youngest amongst them.

Of course, rot must be disposed of, and Poppypaw's dearest was sharp-witted beneath the cloudlike languidity of their corporeal presentation. She blinks slowly at their clean disposal of the old prey and curls a tail around themself to settle next to little Leechkit, "It seems that the odor is a ... means of communication, hm? Perhaps when prey is unpleasant smelling to us, it smells appetizing to bugs, and it serves as an indication that it is their turn to eat..." And after that, the ground beneath them would eat whatever was left. The red-tabbied truth-sayer hummed quietly to themself, quite satisfied with the swirling pool of inquiry floating through their mind.

"Such things are cyclical... Everything is eaten in the end, isn't that wonderful?"

To Snowpaw's question they would dip their head obligingly, offering their bit of expertise, "That is a wise question... Can such small creatures be capable of such a thing as complex as faith? Is it a matter of bigness that denotes spiritual facility, or does their littleness mean that their Starclan is something much smaller and simpler than ours?" Of course, Poppypaw had more questions than answers regarding the philosophy of bug-faith, she sighed, "... The only way to know for certain would be to speak to a bug directly... Do you know of anyone who speaks bug...?"

PRESENT DAY... ⭑☾༺♰༻☽⭒ ...PRESENT TIME! ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁

• OOC:
• 
• 
  — poppykit - poppypaw
  — agender they/she. 12mo apprentice of shadowclan
  — questioning affections. friend to all.
  — a tiny, fluffy white and dark red tabby cat with pale, wraithlike blue eyes
  — smells like mushrooms, dust, and foggy night air
  — deaf in left ear, may display asthma-like symptoms of "long-yellowcough"
  — sounds like lain iwakura, with a flat yet gentle high-pitched tone
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack, 'poppypaw'
  — penned by eezy
• disclaimer: poppypaw is not always operating completely within reality! they are affected by some delusions and may see, hear, react to, and interact with things that are not actually there. most notably, she will believe herself to have interactions with starclan as a whole and specifically, the deceased shadowclan apprentice Poppypaw. these are not reflective of ic reality and are not real interactions with starclan or deceased characters! this is not an attempt at powerplaying, godmodding, or metagaming.

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[STONEPAW]

Stonekit watched quietly from his position not too far away. He'd been sunbathing alone, a moment away from Agatekit. He loved his sister but his alone time was also necessary. Leechkit was... weird. He didn't understand how the other kit thought. Lividpaw's blunt answer was more along his line of thinking, though he'd probably have found a better way to say it. Either way he decided he'd had enough alone time and padded to investigate. He came in somewhere in the middle of Poppypaw's rambling, and he screwed up his face in confusion. "Can bugs even think?"

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‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── ooc ⋆⋅☾⋅⋆ info ──┐‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

• 
  
  "speech"
  

• 

• STONEKIT ✩ he/him, kit of shadowclan, three moons
  ⭃ pretty lilac with low white and blue eyes. bossy, charismatic, manipulative.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by Twitchtail ↛ @iliawonders on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[MARBLEPAW]

Leechkit’s investigation is driven by curiosity pure as snowmelt. Marblekit watches him first prod the beetle with questions, then eyes him as he meanders toward the fresh-kill pile. An overripe frog lays amidst the rest of the prey, its flesh bloated, pungent; she wrinkles her nose, much as her denmate had, as she approaches and sits beside Leechkit and Stonekit. The older cats wax philosophical—Lividpaw tells Leechkit that the dead cannot answer him, and the word dead punctures Marblekit’s previous good mood.

Just like Siltcloud can’t come back for me. Because—because she’s dead. Marblekit’s lower lip quivers imperceptibly, but she pushes a paw to her mouth, as though to hide the insecurity.

Swansong and Poppypaw have a lot to say about the dead, though—and Marblekit strains, doing her best to listen to what they’re telling Leechkit. She can talk to the dead, says Swansong, and Poppypaw says there are things to look for, to understand that they’re talking back. She frowns. She doesn’t understand, but she’d like to—she’d like to know Siltcloud can hear her, would like to press her ear to the marsh and feel comforted by an unknown presence.

Snowpaw asks if the prey have StarClan, and Stonekit retorts with, Can bugs even think? She settles in beside him, her mouth quirked into a frown. “It’s alive,” she says. “Everything alive thinks, right?”

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: —
• 
• Marblekit, she/they w/ feminine and non-gendered terms.
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 4 moons old, ages realistically on the 1st.
  — mentored by n/a ; mentoring n/a ; previously mentored n/a
  — shadowclan kit, formerly a rogue. siltcloud x lilacfur, gen 3.
  — currently mated to n/a.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  sh fawn tabby with dull green eyes. courageous, curious, introspective, observant, judgmental, snarky.
  
  

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