private junkyard dog .. blazestar

[APPLEFROST]

It had been on her mind for quite some time now. Before the forest had become stricken with yellowcough, before all five Clans had to set their ranks on a perilous mission from StarClan. Their ancestors paws could only hold so much guidance to their living kin, but Apple Stem was not afraid to be selfish. She wanted there to be more. She wanted them to protect her Clanmates on this journey and keep them safe from the jaws of death. She wanted to threaten and swear at the sky as if they could be intimidated into doing so.

She wondered if Blazestar had ever felt the same. If he had felt that way even now as he found himself without his deputy once again.

Orangeblossom's departure had driven her to finally place her paw down. For moons she had toyed with the idea of returning to the pines more permanently. The life of a Daylight warrior, as great as it had been for her, was losing its desirability. Not due to any of the embarrassments her fellow ranks had caused though they surely contributed. Honeysplash had disappeared right under her nose, and even now a part of her felt she could have prevented it, but her family had grown beyond her littermates and younger siblings. She had already missed so much of their growth, she didn't want to be a part-time aunt to them.

Finding a moment to catch the fluffy tom alone was like trying to find a fish on land- near impossible, but when the moment came it could have easily appeared as though she were cornering him.

"I know this is a terrible time to bother you, but I can't put this off any longer. Can I steal you away, just for a few minutes? I promise I can make it quick." Her tone spoke with urgency, wide crystal eyes gazed up at him pleadingly.

@BLAZESTAR ​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

Blazestar takes a moment to breathe. To rest. With Orangeblossom gone and Slate with her, the duties of his deputy have fallen to him and the lead warriors who remain. On top of his normal Clan duties, well… he feels himself run especially ragged. The flame point pauses just outside his den, as if to dip inside for a spell, but his paws freeze when an urgent voice catches him in the act. “I know this is a terrible time to bother you, but I can’t put this off any longer,” Apple Stem says. He turns to study her, then dips his head, a smile crinkling the pale cream of his muzzle. “No need to apologize. I should have enough time for a brief meal.”

Though the fresh-kill pile is meager, he selects a robin and brings it to the mouth of his den. He descends, dipping his head for Apple Stem to take a bite of the bird. “Share a meal with me and tell me what’s on your mind.”

ooc ✧ 𝒷𝑒𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝒶𝓌𝓃, 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒷𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉

•  

• 

• 

  — blaise . blazestar
  — he/him ; leader of skyclan
  — pansexual ; divorced ; single
  — longhaired flame point Ragdoll with blue eyes
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — penned by Marquette
  — chibi by Mercibun

​

 

[APPLEFROST]

The burly tom does not regard her unkindly, not that she would expect, but she felt relief nonetheless. Apple Stem is not commonly driveling for the attention of her Clanmates, even less so those in rank of Blazestar or his council. She had a firm drive to be self sufficient, to not need and only provide, to provide her own solutions, but this was not such a case.

His invitation is met with eager paws that follow him in and she made herself comfortably much easier than she expected. Her pale sights look around the dully lit burrow. There's almost too much space! Is her first thought. She wondered if he thought the same.

"Oh, thank you." Her voice rumbled in a soft purr, taking a humble mouthful for herself. She doesn't wait, though, and continued to speak between chewing. "It's been on my mind lately- for a while now actually. I want to come back... forever. I want to become a proper warrior for you." Being a Daylight Warrior had never made her feel inadequate, but it was undeniable, the difference she felt in the connection with her Clanmates when she was here.

"And as a new, fully fledged warrior I want a proper name, too. One from my Clan leader, and one from my mother, just like everyone else." She couldn't ever part with the joyful memories behind Apple, but a SkyClan-branded suffix would be a badge she could proudly wear.​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

Blazestar watches the ginger-splashed warrior make herself comfortable in the spacious confines of his den. She gets to the point relatively quickly, speaking through a small mouthful of feathers and bird flesh. “I want to become a proper warrior,” she says. The flame point tilts his head just slightly. “Daylight warriors are proper warriors,” he points out gently. “But if it’s your desire to live in camp and leave your Twolegs, I will not try to talk you out of it. You will be welcome, of course.” He can understand the sentiment—he had once left his own housefolk the same way.

The Ragdoll’s eyes flash when Apple Stem mentions a name change. “I have no issue with changing your name, if it’s what you truly want,” he says. He remembers Ashenclaw, her sister’s mate, had once made a similar request. It had baffled him, but he is not meant to see into every cat’s heart, perhaps. Honeysplash’s name had been changed to reflect her status, but it had only been to rid the nonsensical Twoleg word from her title.

He takes another bite from the bird. “When I hold ceremonies next, yours will be one of them,” he promises.

ooc ✧ 𝒷𝑒𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝒶𝓌𝓃, 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒷𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉

•  

• 

• 

  — blaise . blazestar
  — he/him ; leader of skyclan
  — pansexual ; divorced ; single
  — longhaired flame point Ragdoll with blue eyes
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — penned by Marquette
  — chibi by Mercibun

​

 

[APPLEFROST]

His light reminder is met with only little regard, nodding her head as if to say 'of course', but she couldn't deny they were... different. If WindClan raided their camp in the middle of the night again, how many Daylighters would be able to say they had been there to defend SkyClan in their nests? She hadn't been there the last time, to her recollection none of them were there to defend them that night. They had to get rescued by RiverClan instead. She had been away, unaware of the scars Badgermoon would score across her sisters face.

She doesn't say any of that, though. Blazestar is firm that they are the same, and she won't turn this into a disagreement.

"Thank you..." Apple Stem is eager for her turn again. She hadn't realized how hungry she was for fresh-kill.

"... When you left them behind, did it take long? Y'know, to stop missing them?" She thought of the twoleg homes she had seen after they had lost their kittypets to the dangers of the forest or the neighborhood. Never knowing what happened to them. She knew they would go through the same pain, the same confusion as to why she hadn't come home again.

"The connection with a twoleg is... it's different. It's not like anything we ever have with our own kind. We don't need to know both languages to understand, we just... know." Apple Stem wondered how off kilter she sounded as she heard herself. "I wish some of the others could understand it. They're a lot like us, sometimes. You meet some that are kind and loving, and other's that are rough and cruel. But they don't, they refuse too." She thought of Silversmoke especially in her ramblings.​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

Blazestar nods at her thanks, his smile genuine. He watches Apple Stem take another bite of their shared bird, her expression turning slightly pensive. “When you left them behind, did it take long? Y’know, to stop missing them?” He remembers soft, wrinkled paws without fur pulling his pelt smooth. He remembers the scratches behind his ear, like nothing he can get with his own hindclaws. He remembers nests lined with the softest material, plush like a cat’s coat and so unlike the moss that absorbs moisture from the air. He remembers a perpetually-full food dish, the warmth of the fireplace in leafbare.

“Yes,” he answers her after a few heartbeats. “Even in the excitement of joining Rain’s colony and starting SkyClan, I missed them. And… I still miss them sometimes.” He looks at her with a gentle blue-eyed expression. “I never knew my parents or littermates. Those housefolk I gave up were my kin. And I sometimes dream of them even now.”

He dips his head at her assertion that a love for a Twoleg is different than the love they had for their own kind. “Perhaps it is. I have kits of my own now, cats who truly share my blood, and I have a Clan I consider my closest family. I wouldn’t have thought the connection different until I laid eyes on my firstborns.” He remembers the moment, cradling Fireflypaw between massive golden paws and licking his fur clean, a tiny white-cream bundle. He had shed tears, he knows.

Like Apple Stem, he thinks briefly of Silversmoke, of Slate, and he sighs. “Some of those cats were hurt by Twolegs the way some of us have been hurt by foxes or dogs.” He flicks an ear. “It is hard for us to understand, but that’s how I’ve come to view it. I wouldn’t give a fox another chance to be kind to me, after all.”

ooc ✧ 𝒷𝑒𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝒶𝓌𝓃, 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒷𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉

•  

• 

• 

  — blaise . blazestar
  — he/him ; leader of skyclan
  — pansexual ; divorced ; single
  — longhaired flame point Ragdoll with blue eyes
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — penned by Marquette
  — chibi by Mercibun

​

 

[APPLEFROST]

His admission is a surprise, but she found comfort in it. There is pure honesty in every word, and she found a bittersweet joy in sharing the moment of quiet with him. She thought of her own nights spent curling tight on a warm lap, the lull of nonsensical noise that hummed from their contraptions. Gentle caresses that combed through her coat and savory bits handed to her seemingly without reason.

Pale beryl sights turned to a deeper blue gaze and she mirrored his smile kindly. Blazestar shared his similar feelings between his former twolegs and his own kits. She found it difficult to relate with, having none of her own. Apple Stem wouldn't say she wasn't good when handling kittens, she felt was rather fair around them. Never saying or doing anything that would cause for a queen to shy their child away from her. The feeling he described though simply... wasn't there.

Firstborns? Apple Stem giggled at his choice of words, as though there were any others beyond the five that stumbled around SkyClan's camp. More like Onlyborns. Her giggle then turned to a laugh, a sudden pitch that awkwardly echoed in his den.

"I don't know any cats that sleep in foxes with- that sleep with foxes- in their dens, but I suppose you're right. Just don't let them think I'm doing this because of whats been going on- this is purely my own choice. Even if we were all plump as pigeons and were so healthy, we didn't need medicine at all! I'd still be asking you to come home." Her cheek briefly nuzzled into cream fur, respectful affection for sharing his time, his meal, with her. Apple Stem snuck in one last bite before skipping back to the maw of his den, her tail held high over her back.

"Thank you. I'll never be late for a dawn patrol ever again, star's promise."​