private little ears listen well // family

[TWILIGHTKIT ⋆]

Twilightkit would never call herself emotionally capable. For one, she's still a child, who's emotions are volatile even if they are obscured beneath a shroud of discontent and frustration. And for two - the distance she continues to hold is well maintained. Why must she grow invested in others outside of their family, when they simply... die? She thinks of Howlingstar, who promised to give her a name befitting of her eventual adulthood - and how her grandmother passed with a crack on the ground. How many others were slain and cut down shortly thereafter... To invest feels like a pitiful decision.

Yet all the same, even the silver tabby can tell how hollow her father has proven to be.

It's not her idea. Maybe it was the caring Lightningkit that suggests it, or Tigerkit who thought that it might garner her a prize in the end. Regardless, as handler of her siblings, Twilightkit does not refute the suggestion and, in fact, holds fast to them. She wonders if perhaps she should have, given all that her siblings brought along... but surely their father will appreciate the attempt in the very least, right?

"That smells foul, Stormkit," she comments with a furrowed brow, her single paw pressing a feather into her father's bedding. Five kits, trampling over warriors' nests without a care. Twilightkit does not hold worry for tact or care for the belongings for other, not in this moment. Their gesture is to bring Raccoonstripe a smile, not anyone else.

[ @STORMKIT @LIGHTNINGKIT @bayingkit @TIGERKIT :3
@RACCOONSTRIPE figure u can reply after 1-2 kits reply at least! and @nightbird girl get ur kids they're partying in the warriors den ]​

 

[STORMKIT]

Raccoonstripe hadn't had the same bounce in his voice, wasn't as affectionate, wasn't coming to visit as often. When Stormkit heard his dad speak he didn't hear anything bright there, really- but a withdrawn thickness, a wobble in his tone. It wasn't Stormkit's idea either, but he want along with it well enough, and dictated by suggestion (but really, he was telling them) that they needed to get some interesting stuff, try and find some junk that Dad had never seen before. Discovering new things always cheered him up, at least...

So that was why he barrelled into the den, colliding very briefly into Twilightkit before righting himself, whiskers twitching wildly as he bowed his head to find the nest. Right, there it was. Whatever it was in his mouth- it felt like a mushroom or something, but really he was more interested in the odour- rolled to the ground, and Stormkit nestled it into the moss, finding a probably-clear spot.

That smells foul, Stormkit, his sister remarked. Stormkit scrunched up his face, interjecting "Nuh-uh!" and plaing a paw protectively over it so Twilightkit didn't whisk it away or something, deeming it not good enough. "It's cool. I've never smelled anything like it before." That meant it was better, clearly, than whatever odorless junk his siblings had brought in. ​

penned by pin ༄​

 

[TIGERKIT]

Tigerkit's glad they're all worried about Raccoonstirpe, and it's not just her... She doesn't want to be a silly cat that worried too much... Or even a silly cat that didn't worry enough. Cause that's why all the bad stuff happened, right? Not enough worrying... It's hard, she thinks, to know how to be the right amount of everything. Like a good kit, Tigerkit had tried to sit and wait... It was getting a little annoying, really. She's glad her littermates finally decided what they thought today, cause now she knew what she thought, too. It's okay to be a worried... and if they're all worried, that means Raccoonstripe wasn't avoiding the nursery because of her. It was because of all of them, maybe. It's not her favorite thing to think, but she likes it way more than the other option.

If they all bring him gifts... he'll forgive them all, right? Hopefully he'll forgive her first. Tigerkit's ears angle toward Twilightkit. Her gift wasn't foul, was it? She brought a stick. It's... better than a normal stick, definitely. It's... It's brown, and has black stripes, just like her and Raccoonstripe and Howlingstar... And Racoonstripe would be able to look at it and think about Howlingstar ( Oor even Tigerkit, if he wanted to. That'd be cool. ) If he wanted to just chew on it or something, that was cool too, she guesses... Maybe if he thought Howlingstar was dead, so the stick should be too ( or even Tigerkit, if he wanted to. She'd like that a lot less, though. ) She really hopes he isn't mad at her. Mad at her for taking Howlingstar's face. She didn't mean to.

Tigerkit sticks out her lip, not knowing which of her siblings she should agree with. She doesn't super like the smell of Stormkit's gift... does that mean Raccoonstripe wouldn't either? " I actually- " she mews, and she blinks for a few moments, as if she hadn't expected her own self to talk. " I got- got Raccoonstripe something really good. Good smelling. But I... I um, didn't want to cover up your things, you know... " She'd felt good about her stick before, but now she didn't. " S-so I got something else... " With black ears flicking atop her head, she sets it down in his nest.​

 

[RACCOONSTRIPE]

He hears kitten chatter as he nears the warriors' den, which gives him pause just outside the entrance. Raccoonstripe has purposefully avoided the nursery for what seems like weeks now. He has seen Nightbird in passing in camp, and though he feels like he can feel the frustration sparking from her silver-dusted pelt, he has not gone to visit the kits. He knows they have felt his absence — but he had not expected them to breach the sanctity of the warriors' den. To trap him where he cannot run, cannot hide from their too-big eyes, their questions, their incessant existence.

Raccoonstripe's mouth is dry. He pushes into the warriors' den, and there is no smile on his face. "You know you aren't supposed to be in here," he growls, but his anger sizzles and dissipates like fog in a gale. The kits are all in his nest, grouped together, their paws pressed firmly on little tokens.

Twilightkit's single forepaw crushes a feather into the moss. Stormkit has a pungent gift, one plucked from the bending roots of some damp-seated tree; Tigerkit has a stick, which is so laughably like her that he lets the anger falter from his expression.

They are hurting, too, he thinks in Nightbird's voice. They are missing not only their grandmother, their uncle, but their father, too.

A lump thickens in his throat. Raccoonstripe lowers himself into his nest and tries for a smile. "You all brought something in here, huh? Does Nightbird know where you are?" He extends a forepaw to the feather and caresses it absently. The smell of Stormkit's gift would normally cause him to wrinkle his nose, but he resists. He lays the feathery tip of his tail on his son's wiry black pelt, then traces the striped flanks of his daughters with its length.

"It's been awhile, huh? I've missed you guys. I've just been... busy." Busy in the throes of grief, of change; busy with avoidance.

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

• ooc: —
• 
• Raccoon . Raccoonstripe, he/him w/ masculine terms.
  — "speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 46 moons old, ages realistically on the 5th.
  — mentored by n/a ; mentoring Thistlepaw ; previously mentored Wildheart, Moonwhisper
  — thunderclan lead warrior. gray wolf x howlingstar, gen 2.
  — currently mated to Nightbird.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh black tabby with white and dark brown eyes. charismatic, charming, calculating, ambitious, shallow, manipulative.
  
  

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[LIGHTNINGKIT]

LIGHTNINGKIT . of . THUNDERCLAN

5 moons old (born 07.08.24) / lh silver tabby with green eyes / feminine pronouns
raccoonstripe xx nightbird / little sister to bayingkit, twilightkit, tigerkit, & stormkit

They're all different now. Skyclaw's gone, but everything he did isn't. He still stole from them, and there's no way they can get Howlingstar back, no way to make up for the cats like Ivorypaw feeling they couldn't be safe in their own home. Lightningkit hadn't been able to do anything about it, and in the end, it didn't even matter how helpless she was because Raccoonstripe took care of it— took care of Skyclaw, her uncle, his brother. And maybe that took her father, too, because she hasn't seen him much at all ever since.

They couldn't do anything about Skyclaw, but maybe they can do something about Raccoonstripe. She wants him to tell her stories like he used to, batting at her with his paws and smiling at her because she made him happy.

He doesn't sound very happy when he steps into the warriors den. Her ears twist back and she focuses on the warmth of her siblings pressed close, on the spiky jut of Stormkit's fur, the stink of his gift, the line of Tigerkit's stick on the ground and curve of Twilightkit's feather. His tone has gentled when he speaks again, though she doesn't look up until she feels the weight of his tail.

"I got you one of my teeth," she blurts, and her vision blurs and she doesn't know why. She paws at her eyes roughly. "Because— because I have more of my big teeth now, and— and I'll bite you with them if we have to come find you again!"
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