private Just keep swimming | Slate

Mar 13, 2024
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When Peachpaw first started, she'd envisioned that being a daylight apprentice would be so much more exciting than this. But as the days rolled by, it became clear that it wasn't! So many rules and boring camp tasks were so boring. Her slender tale snaps back and forth. 'No fun at all,' Peachpaw thought with a sigh. Not that she would complain out loud, opting to just hurry through everything to get to relaxing. Any important task that she does incorrectly will just be corrected by another cat a bit later anyway. She looked over past the cat in front of her. "Hmm," Peachpaw really wondered why a cat would go out of their way to redo her work. Didn't they have anything better to do? Like relaxing Her eyes drifted close as the breeze ruffled her fur.

Oh, actually, she really should be paying attention to the giant black warrior she's supposed to be helping with? Tuning back in to catch him talking about. Checking the prey pile? Why do that? Food doesn't go bad? Peachpaw decides to just agree to it once Tom is done talking. Wait, it was actually rather quiet… Peachpaw opened her eyes and looked up to meet the lead warrior's golden gaze. Oh! "Sounds good?" Her statement came out more like a question. The apprentice gave a big smile a shot, and she really hoped that it looked like she knew what was going on.
@SLATE




 
Upon joining a clan, Slate had no real clue of what he was in for. For most of his life, he had lived as a lowly rogue, scouring the streets for morsels of food and scrapping with other feral felines for his right to them. He knew what it was like to defend "his" alleyway and the stinking twoleg scraps that littered it, but being a steward of an entire chunk of forest had been something to grow used to. After experiencing the life of living in the wild, never having a rumbling belly again, Slate knew he did not want to go back. Ever.

However, this did not mean that Slate always agreed with the ( sometimes ridiculous ) rules and customs that the clans had in place. More recently, Slate had been reprimanded by Orangestar for his public disapproval of kittypets and daylight warriors. He never understood SkyClan, the way they accepted frankly useless and lackadaisical house pets into their ranks. They did not take from their fresh-kill pile, at the very least, but they were still bothersome when they slowed the clan cats down and bombarded them with questions.

Speaking of being slowed down...

The burly Maine Coon narrows his gaze at the younger she-cat, scrutinizing her every move, every hair moving upon her head, every shift of her gaze. The lead warrior had delegated one of the less desirable tasks to the daylight apprentice; this was a means of testing her resolve, her dedication. If Peachpaw was willing to trudge through the less-exciting aspects of clan life, then she would earn her keep here. However, it seemed she wasn't giving Slate her full attention. Hm. Maybe he should see if her ears truly worked. "Repeat everything I just told you to do." The scarred tom orders Peachpaw, amber gaze glowering down at her expectantly.

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    slate
    he/him; lead warrior of skyclan
    a hulking, scarred charcoal-black colored maine coon with amber eyes
    "speech", thoughts, attack
    link to full tags; @ on discord or dm @beaaats for plots!​
 



Peachpaw doesn't know the reason why she comes back every day. Granted, she was not always on time, but she still did it. She goes around messing things up till the sun goes down. But she comes back to do it again. She understood why cats with a hard life would find Skyclan to be paradise. Being a daylight apprentice was the hardest thing she's ever had to do. And Peachpaw sucks at it.

When her parents told her and her siblings stories about their time in the forest, it sounded amazing. Maybe they had a hard life too. Not that she can ask. She thought they'd be clan cats, but they're not. She thought life would be easy; it isn't. It's too hard to focus on how to do something correctly when you know you're just going to mess up.

"The prey needs…Um, the prey pile needs some sort of something."

Prachpaw grimaced; it was pretty obvious that she wasn't paying attention. It's not even personal to the black Tom. Even she noticed that it was something she was doing a lot more often. 'Why couldn't he ask me to do something simple?' She thought bitterly. Not that she knew if the task was simple or not, because she wasn't paying attention.

"I'm not good at most stuff, so you should just give me something easy to do." Peachpaw proclaimed, growing more annoyed by the second.


 
Just as he suspected — Peachpaw's ears were filled with fluff. How blatantly inattentive she was was eyebrow-raising to the lead warrior. Was that really the best answer she could come up with? It was as if she was begging him to scold her! "Tell me somethin'- why are you here?" The burly Maine Coon questions the apprentice with a twitch of his bushy tail. He narrows his irises, "Did you just think you'd get to join our clan and not have to pull your weight?" The others were far too willing to be patient with pets who obviously thought clan life to be some sort of game. Slate, on the other paw, would not let this behavior slide for a moment. "I gave you a task that a kit could do. If you don't feel up to it, then you could go back to your twolegs for good."

Feeling as if Slate couldn't have expressed himself any clearer, the lead warrior locked his burning stare on Peachpaw and leaned forward slightly. "So, make your choice." Frankly, if Peachpaw didn't want to put in the work and contribute to SkyClan, then he wouldn't mind her joining her twolegs permanently. There were a lot of bellies to fill in the span of a single day, so they could not afford to house cats who didn't want to even so much as lift a claw.

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    slate
    he/him; lead warrior of skyclan
    a hulking, scarred charcoal-black colored maine coon with amber eyes
    "speech", thoughts, attack
    link to full tags; @ on discord or dm @beaaats for plots!​
 
❀ . ° ✦ Peachpaw’s ears pinned back, suddenly feeling much smaller and less important than she had before. And much more embarrassed under Slate’s cold gaze. Normally, cats give into her pleas without much resistance. What was his deal? ‘Why are you here?’ She wanted to say that she was obviously here to be an apprentice. To fight and claw her way to victory, just like the stories she’s been told. “No I can’t leave, I came here to become a strong, unforgettable hero,” she proclaimed, though the words felt hollow even to her. “I dreamed of being a forest cat since I was small”

And she did it, became the apprentice she wanted to be. Her lack of effort was not defendable with her goal already meet. Slate is actually insisting that she’s like a kit. No, behaved worse than a kit! She could leave! She should leave! Peachpaw gritted her teeth, opening her mouth, ready to unleash her plans to leave forever. But no words came out. Instead Peachpaw turned her head to no longer able challenging his scorn.

Her life before had no value; she had been lonely, and unfulfilled kittypet . And if she left Skyclan? Everything would go back to how it used to be, and she'd grow old and be forgotten by the world. “I bet you didn’t become lead warrior by being the best nest builder. Peachpaw huffed. “What’s the point in all this cleaning if it doesn’t benefit me?

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    Peachpaw — she/her ・ 7 moons ・ daylight apprentice, Skyclan ・ PENNED BY @Ghostunes!
    Grey and cream tortie has blue eyes.Tags
 
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