camp LIFE'S LONGING FOR ITSELF —⟢ INTRO & INCHWORM

Feb 23, 2024
49
8
8
Even small and squirming, Bilberrykit had been eager to take on the world. He assumes as much, anyway—his nursing queen had told him that he would slink his way out of the nest with closed eyes and stubby legs. It was only natural to think that, even back then, he was energized by exploration. There are an infinite number of things to see. This would be overwhelming for someone so young if not for the fact that Bilberrykit was eager to start seeing things early, so perhaps he could have the list whittled down to nothing by the time he is a warrior.

Today, an overgrown and overhanging branch from the surrounding gorse holds promise. Bilberrykit leans close to it, so near that his eyes—still clinging to their kitten-blue—cross to better focus on the thing. The thing is small and moves by gripping the space in front of itself, then dragging its body forward. Its small—its so small!—and such a pretty green. Bilberrykit thinks that, perhaps, he has never loved anything more than he loves this thing.

"Oh!" He says. Close as he had gotten, the thing had deemed the space between his nose and the end of the branch to be an acceptable gap to bridge. It lives on his face now, so near that Bilberrykit can't see it, not even when he crosses his eyes further, and not even when he backs away a step. Often, when something was too near to see, backing away a step helped.

"Oh!" He says again—it doesn't help him see his friend, but he realizes now that he can feel it move across his face. He needs to close one of his eyes so that it doesn't touch it—friends don't touch each other in the eyes. Bilberrykit has been told that it's a rude thing to do, and he doesn't want his new friend-thing to accidentally be rude. "Did you know that your name is... your name is bug?"

In the space that Bilberrykit leaves for it to answer it offers only silence, but Bilberrykit doesn't mind: he is more than capable of making conversation with someone so shy. "You're the prettiest ever bug that I've seen, um, ever."​

windclan kit | black and white harlequin | two moons | tags
 
  • Love
Reactions: Dustpaw!
AS HE RAISED HIS FIST BEFORE HE SPOKE — As uneasy as Rattleheart had been about the kits that Periwinklebreeze had mysteriously just brought back with him one day, they had never had anything against the kits themselves. They were just poor kittens seemingly left without a mother to care for them, and as much as Windclan was already dealing with the weight of all the children they already had, the tunneler would never be in favor of turning them away. In their mind, that would make Sunstar's Windclan no better than Sootstar's, with their only advantage being that Periwinklebreeze's brood seemingly hadn't been stolen from anyone. Besides, it seemed as though the trio of them were already settling in with each day that went by, and as they began to see Windclan more as home, Rattleheart also began to see them more as Windclanners.

They could only hope that others within the clan felt the same way, however.

Taking one of their usual trips towards the nursery for the day, the lead warrior's attention was grabbed near immediately by the sound of Bilberrykit's voice, the child's soft oh enough to make their pale gaze flick over to him. Their ruffled pelt was quickly soothed when they saw what he was reacting to, chuckling warmly as the inchworm that had decided to grace him with its presence slowly clambered its way across his muzzle and face. "Well... it seems like you've made a friend there, haven't you, Bilberrykit?" Admittedly not the biggest fan of insects - ironic, considering how close they often were to many of them - Rattleheart could admit that they'd be shivering and huffing if there was an inchworm anywhere near the dark fluff of their face. Thankfully, Bilberrykit didn't seem nearly as turned off by his miniscule companion, especially judging by the awe in his tone.

Resisting the strong urge to usher the thing off of the kit's face, they instead gestured with a flick of their tail back towards the entrance to camp, and the flood of flowers that lingered outside of it. "If you think that's pretty, then you should see what some of those things turn into. They become the butterflies and moths that adore the flowers decorating our territory right now, and they're usually all sorts of pretty colors." Admittedly, Rattleheart was unsure of how exactly they became such things. All they knew was that one minute they were fat worms gorging themselves on every bit of leaf they could find, and the next minute they were beautiful butterflies or moths. What exactly went on in those little dens that they seemed to make themselves?


  • 75034712_8183RsjuzqJmQXv.png
    longhaired black and white tom with pale green eyes
    50 moons old; ages the 1st every month
    afab; uses he/she/they pronouns
    homosexual homoromantic; mated to venomstrike
    sibling to scorchstreak, lizardbounce, and rabbitclaw
    currently mentoring downypaw
    somewhat difficult to befriend; wary but kind
    "speech", thoughts, attacking
    peaceful powerplay allowed
    all opinions are ic
 
It's not uncommon that Pinkpaw stops by the nursery. She knows she's not a kit anymore, obviously, but it still had to be one of her favorite places ever! And she can't help but be a little bit jealous when its all gross and rainy. Today she's just here... just because! Because fun things are always happening when there are kits around, in her opinion. She feels kinda special, to have been there when Periwinkle brought in the little mystery kits. And now the mystery kits were a bit less little! And now one of them had a weird worm hanging out on their nose!

" Oh, wow! " Pinkpaw mews hopping beside Rattleheart. " Are you very best friends? Or just best friends? " she asks. She thinks it's a very important distinction! Pinkpaw doesn't like all buggies. But she likes some of them! This one was kinda like an icky worm, but... wayyy cooler. " Maybe you can name it! " she suggests.

Her ears prick at Rattleheart's word, cause they always had neat stuff to say, she thinks. Especially for a tunneler! Probably because she was related to the coolest tunneler ever, Scorchstreak. The revelation they have for her today makes her stop everything at once, an open - mouth gaze then immediately turning to them. " Wait... these are butterflies? AND moths? " she gapes. No WAY. How could something not fly, but then suddenly decide they are gonna fly! " Bil — Billy! Billberrykit! Do you know what this means? " she presses. Maybe when they're older, they'll all grow wings too!

...But Brightshine was like, way old, and she didn't have wings. And neither did Sootstar before she... um, went away... So...maybe cats couldn't grow wings. But that's so boring... " How old do you gotta be before you grow wings, Rattleheart? "
EpC61GT.png

  • EZIRq0S.png
  • 74869745_2wuYhU20pHwieui.gif
    ( IT'S TIME TO START A FUCKING RIOT, RIOT! ) PINKPAW: APPRENTICE OF WINDCLAN. DAUGHTER TO BRIGHTSHINE & HEAVY SNOW. SISTER TO HEATHPAW, DOWNYPAW, & FINCHPAW.
    🌸 SHE / HER; UNOPPOSED TO THE USE OF OTHERS
    🌸 CURRENTLY 8 MOONS OLD. AGES EVERY 16TH

    Pinkpaw bounces around WindClan without a care in the world! Her emotions are big, and she makes little effort to regulate them, resulting in both her usually cheerful disposition, as well as making her prone to sudden bouts of extreme anger or sadness. Rarely seen without a smile!
    HEAVY IC OPINIONS! Pinkpaw is a very irrational and childish character!​
 

What was it with kittens and bugs? They seemed to love collecting the horrible little things, dead or alive, and shoving them under all the nests in the nursery. Deeply, he hoped that by the time these bug-loving kittens slept with the apprentices, they would have grown out of these sickening habits, or he would be a warrior... either would be fine. Rattleheart, who she normally didn't mind, annoyed her by claiming Bilberrykit's horrible new fascination was any sort of friend- bug, its name was, apparently.

And the fact they turn into other things was even more bile-inducing. The mere thought of it sent a shudder across Featherpaw's spiky pelt, sun-blister eyes narrowed in complete and utter disdain. Pinkpaw- of course, and he was over here because of her- pranced around with excitement at the notion. His friend's question brought from him an almighty scoff and a roll of the eyes from the respectable distance at which he stood, away from bug the disgusting bug.

"If you g-g-grow horrible flappy wings like an insect I'm never speaking to you again," she stated, very matter-of-factly. In Pinkpaw's excited presence, in the awe of the kit, she foolishly forgot that growing wings was a stupid concept to begin with.
✦ penned by pin
 
  • Wow
Reactions: PINKSHINE
Azaleafrost liked bugs. They were weird little guys. The inchworm crawling on Bilberrykit is no exception. Look at it. Why's it move like that? What's it doing? Little guy has no problems in life. All it does is.... Inch. She approaches even if she doesn't know how to talk to kits. Azaleafrost is still... Struggling with her social skills and demeanor not being dominated by negativity. She can be happy now, she reminds herself. She is free.

She doesn't have to prove herself anymore.

"I think it likes you." She says to Bilberrykit, sitting down.

A small smile crosses her face. She doesn't mind the cats gathered. Rattleheart even dispenses knowledge that Azaleafrost never thought about before. These little green worms.... Turn into moths and butterflies? Of course they do. How had she never considered that before? Wonderful creature, Lambcurl would have loved you.

Pinkpaw interrupts her thoughts with the real questions. Cats can't grow wings... But she can't bring herself to break this news to her. So she decides to play along.

"Maybe we just haven't figured out how to grow wings yet." She says thoughtfully.

What would they be, then...? Buttercats?? Hm.
 

The protective Gorse walls that enclosed the camp were easier to explore near then the entirety of camp, long as she felt them she knew she was on the edges of camp. She longs to explore like her brother and boy did she explore! But it's much much easier for her to get lost, not that being lost matters to her she was always rescued almost to an annoying degree! Brave kits didn't need rescuing and she promised she would get used to the camp like she got used to the nursery! Today she doesn't step her paws outside to run into the open nor to bonk her head on anything she comes across, today she's following her brother trying to be quiet while she follows him. He's easily distracted so she doesn't have to worry as much of being caught like she did when it came to Vulturekit or their dad. She was gonna get em'!

She prowls low, her butt and tail all but dragging in the dirt, her ears prick listening to him coo talking to this thing named bug. She's heard of bugs before, had felt one crawling on her one night and all but woke everyone up in the nursery mewling and yowling in surprise at the feeling of many legs on her. Dustkit does not have the same fondness for bugs! They could be beautiful she's got like no clue but they were freaky and had too many legs! she figures he's talking to an actual bug anyway, she hadn't heard of anyone else named "bug" she'd feel bad for any cat with that name. Yucky, icky, gross! She stills when she hears many paws and a barrage of close scents of her clanmates, a lot of them are unusual still to her, her fur fluffs out and she waits as they come up to her brother to talk to him and "bug".

Her curiosity piques when growing wings is brought up, there were bugs that flew? Like birds? That was crazy! And this Rattleheart (the name is familiar to her but she hasn't attributed the name to the lead-warriors scent and voice yet) was gonna grow them, amazing! She can't get distracted though she's on a mission and when she's sure they aren't moving around she speeds up to where she thinks her brother is. A paw strikes out towards a fluffy behind not her brothers but towards Featherpaw in a case of mistaken identity she attempts to smack her paw in four quick successions against her "unsuspecting" Target BAP! BAP! BAP! BAP! "Surprise Bilberrykit! I gotcha good!"

 
  • Wow
Reactions: PINKSHINE
" Whaaat! No way! " Pinkpaw balks in response to Featherpaw, who kind - of - joined the fun, and kind - of - didn't, by how suspiciously far away from the buggy he was! " Only some insect wings are horrible! I'd have the best ones! And I would give you amazing winged wisdom! " she huffed. Not like she knows what winged wisdom would be...but um, of course she wouldn't, because she didn't have wings. It was a wisdom that perhaps, she would never know in this lifetime... " Whatever their name is... I bet they have important things to say. Things only Bayberrykit can hear... " she nods introspectively.

Maybe we just haven't figured out how to grow wings yet, says Azaleafrost. Yeah, maybe... " Maybe it'll tell Blackberrykit the way! " she pricks her ears, anticipating a grand and amazing answer.

She was SO distracted by the potential revelation on their paws that she doesn't even notice Dustkit creeping nearby! The kit's strikes are like the wind! " That's not Bilberrykit! " she laughs. Featherpaw was way too big to be a kit! And wouldn't she know what her own sibling looks like? Actually — oh, she guesses that she wouldn't.

Well, if she was mistaken for Bilberrykit and totally beat up, she'd probably pretend to totally be defeated, or something! She'll be super helpful and set it up! " Oh, poor Featherpaw! She may never walk again... "
EpC61GT.png

  • EZIRq0S.png
  • 74869745_2wuYhU20pHwieui.gif
    ( IT'S TIME TO START A FUCKING RIOT, RIOT! ) PINKPAW: APPRENTICE OF WINDCLAN. DAUGHTER TO BRIGHTSHINE & HEAVY SNOW. SISTER TO HEATHPAW, DOWNYPAW, & FINCHPAW.
    🌸 SHE / HER; UNOPPOSED TO THE USE OF OTHERS
    🌸 CURRENTLY 8 MOONS OLD. AGES EVERY 16TH

    Pinkpaw bounces around WindClan without a care in the world! Her emotions are big, and she makes little effort to regulate them, resulting in both her usually cheerful disposition, as well as making her prone to sudden bouts of extreme anger or sadness. Rarely seen without a smile!
    HEAVY IC OPINIONS! Pinkpaw is a very irrational and childish character!​
 

[ ༻ ❊ ༺ ] Lakekit wasn't too fond of bugs like Blizzardpaw was or some of his other older denmates were but, he tolerated them nonetheless and even sometimes offered to go bug hunting with his friends. Now, the three newest of the kits to join had come from the outside, adopted underneath the paws of the Lead Warrior, Periwinklebreeze, and yet that matter not. He remembered when they first had been there, remembering how helpless they were from their cries and wriggling movements to now where they stood on awkward limbs they've yet to grow into.

Shame, Lakekit himself would be leaving the nursery soon and becoming a apprentice which meant he had less time watching over Frightkit and the other younger kits, but he still thought to make time for them. Slowly he approached the group, glancing at all of them before landing down to Bilberrykit's new friend with a slight hum of amusement. "Looks like a worm... are you sure it grows wings?" he asked softly, his thoughts going to the blue wing that decorated his fur, his gift from Sheepkit who too would becoming a apprentice next moon.

"It was a good try though Dustkit" he prompted softly. His gaze flicking to the others and noting how Featherpaw reacted to the sight of bugs, remembering their rude encounter with the stuttering apprentice and would silently take note of this for later means.

  • "speak""Thoughts"
  • Lakekit AMAB, He/Him, Kit of Windclan, 5 moons.
    LH Rosette Lynx Minx with low white and bi-color eyes, blind in left eye
    NPC X NPC
    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.

 
OH, WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SOMEONE
THAT EVERYBODY HAS TO TALK TO
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
periwinklebreeze 21 moons demi-boy windclan lead warrior
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
78467824_a4pzKBESfsRFBod.png
When not busy with patrols and duties, periwinklebreeze is rather reluctant to leave camp these days - a watchful eye upon the nursery at all times. Parenthood had been far more challenging than he'd expected, to be honest, but he can't find it within himself to regret it - a fond smile upon battle-scarred muzzle as he sits nearby. The sight of a wobbling green inchworm upon his sons snout brings back fond memories of his own childhood - he too, like most kits, had loved finding bugs within camp. He remembers searching gorse branches for beetles and over turning rocks for centipedes, eyes wide with wonder. He wonders if he was that small back then - must've been, he thinks. All kits are small.

" I d-don't think we've figured out h-how to g-g-grow wings j-j-just yet... but maybe p-pinkpaw will be the first, " he jokes lightheartedly, beaming at azaleafrost as more of his brood ambles over. One would think he'd tire of the childish antics, yet he can't help his snort of laughter as pinkpaw utterly butchers bilberrykits name and dustkit pounces upon the wrong tail.

actions & " speech, " & 'thoughts/quotes'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
H EH ADN OO N ET H A TH EC O U L DT A L KT O
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
  • Love
Reactions: PINKSHINE