sensitive topics manifest | kitten

[VULTUREPAW]

tw for mentioning of mother's corpse and child taking care of it

A tiny nose wiggles and twitches as he presses it close to the ground. Lost on where he may be but he had not gone far. Of course he couldn't go too far because his mother isn't feeling well. She's beginning to smell bad too and that worries him because it can't be okay. Bad smells mean something and maybe his mother is sick? She doesn't move too much anymore but that is okay, his mama can move when she feels better. Even if she doesn eat the bugs that he tries to bring her. Today he manages to grip a beetle and a cricket. He eats the smaller one and is careful to bring the cricket back to his mama. He wonders why she don't est anymore. It puzzles him and she doesn't talk like she used to either. Maybe it's the sick that makes her like that. Still he makes his way back, following the pungent scent with ease and the shade that wraps him up lets him understand that he is close. Small paws walk around his mother's body and he drops the cricket before her dried and sludgy muzzle. "New food, Mama..." He mutters softly before he feels the ache of his stomach. He wants the cricket himself but...his mama needs it more.

As he settles beside the nasty corpse, lacking the understanding that his mother has long since passed he lays his head down on his paws. Blind eyes stare forward as he waits in silence before tickling happens on bloodied and crusted tattered ears. It turns into pain and he shakes his head before frowning, pulling the small ears back. "The things, they back. It okay, mama, I'll make'em go." The flies are dancing Roind the body but the kit begins swatting wildly and shaking his head. But this exertion tires him out rather quickly and his small body drops against the disgusting ground. He sighs and yawns before he closes his eyes, too tired. He supposes he will nap and then see if Mama wants to go now.​

 

[sheepcurl]

Theres a scent of death in the air, something Churro has unfortunately been acquainted with. As soon as she gets a scent of it on her walk, a loud sigh leaves her mouth, already mourning. What was it this time, another dead apprentice, another dead warrior? She follows it mindlessly before she comes across the scene and almost retches up her breakfast. There are flies and worms and theres a child, oh fuck theres a child-

“Hola, bebe…” her voice is soft as she speaks, near motherly as she draws closer to the child pressed against the dead body. She feels like shes about to be sick with how strong it was, but she needed to get the child out of there. The flies would eat him sooner or later, and then the worms would too, she shudders at the very thought of it. Nasty, nasty, he needs to get out, and the scent of death was clouding her mind.

She remembers Haze and Centipede’s death scene.

“Whats your name, cariño? Whose this?” her heart pounds in her chest. A parental figure, most likely. The kid needs a bath too, she shuffles over and aims to give the kid a swipe of her tongue over their head. She’d sit besides them and the body, thumping her tail against the ground as she waits for the childs response. As much as she wanted to turn and run, throw up, she’d stay besides his side and wait until he was okay to speak.

 

[MORNINGBIRD]

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Retired or not, Morningbird needed to stretch his legs.

Being mostly cooped up in camp was a new concept to the former loner, who had roamed wherever he did please within the span of where he considered home. Now, well now he needed to be babysat like some youngster, though he didn't mind the company when someone took the time out of their day for him. Today, that happened to be Skyclan's lionheart, Blazestar.

"And I said to them that if they didn't learn to talk things out like responsible young cats, I'd tie their tails together, and then maybe they'd learn to get along!" Jovial, light hearted laughter came rumbling through the forest as the old tom continued a story about his eldest litter. His heart still ached for them, it always would until he knew if they were alive, but talking about them...it made him feel better. He was a story keeper, stoking the flames of memories is what they did. It was their purpose in this grand scheme they had been born into. "Dawn was the first to protest, saying I'd mess up her fu-"

Acrid and heavy, that's how he would describe the air that hit the roof of his mouth as he spoke. It made his heart drop, stomach twisting around it like thorned vines on a fence. The mild, blanket like kit scent is what keeps him from staying at Blazestar's side, striking out ahead of his companion with a harried determination reminiscent of a frantic mother hen. The smell is even worse when he gets there, Churrodream already having reached the scene before him, but the sight is possibly the most terrible thing of all.

This poor child, this poor, ravaged baby.

"A mother," The transitional stage of her body, even decaying, is unmistakable to one who has seen it before. "how-" The next part is a whisper but the adults can hear it, can hear what he cuts off when he stops.

How do they pull this kit away from a death he does not seem to know he needs to escape?

// @BLAZESTAR for babysitting duty-

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header by lleafeons on DA, fancy via chérie​

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[VULTUREPAW]

His muzzle twitches and he settles himself down for another day. Another passing of time before he wakes up feeling the aching pain of his stomach and goes to find food again. Telling Mama he will be back as soon as he finds them food. Yet a different event happens and a voice he has never heard before makes him jerk his head to the side, towards it. The little midnight walker is unsure of strangers but she doesn't seem bad. Curiosity gives him a small amount of energy and he struggles to his paws, turning fully toward where he heard the voice. "Hello..." He parrots the greeting and he can smell the other as she comes near him. A sweeping of unease comes and he becomes a little nervous yet he doesn't back away. Instead he sits down and angles his fly eaten ears forward.

A name? Yes, yes his name. What Mama calls him. "Boy...Mama calls me, Boy." He begins as blind eyes look off to the side before going down towards the ground. She brings up his mother then and he turns slightly before he brushes the ground gently to find a decomposing paw, placing his own on top. "This is Mama... she talked before but not so much anymore. She sick so waiting for her to get better. Much better." The swipe of a tongue against his head seems to comfort him for the time being and he settles down, tucking small pass under himself. "You have name?" Small nose twitches again and he smells someone else, something else. Regardless he gets nervous again, looking towards that direction but not seeing Morningbird.​

 

[sheepcurl]

Her ear flicks, eyes soften as the child speaks back. He just sits down and her gaze wanders to his ears, bitten and bloody, crusted with old red. Her lips purse. No state for a child, her heart aches and theres a heavy breath as she settles besides him, becoming increasingly more comfortable despite the body that lays there. He needed someone calm, not someone that would freak out. He opens his mouth again to speak and her heart breaks.

"It's very nice to meet you, hijo." her voice is a gentle purr, as if the child besides her would crack if her voice raised. "I see..." she forces the frown off her face as he places his paw on top of the dead mothers one. "We have someone that could help her..." she doesn't want to break his heart and shoots a glare, something uncommon on her face, at Morningbird before he shuts up. Her gaze returns back. "I do have a name, carino! It's Churrodream, Churro's just fine though." she takes in how nervous he looks and for a second her eyes look towards to where he was staring, in the direction of Morning, but not exactly at him.

Then it hits her.

It makes sense now, why he didn't move. Why he couldn't see the state that his mother was in, why he stayed. Her heart shatters further. "Hey, little one, do you want to come with me? We'll get our medicine man to help your mama, okay? And we can get you all cleaned up in the meantime. It'll be okay, okay?" shes lying. Shes lying and she knows it and the guilt prickles at her skin like fire, her beating heart roars in her ears. His hopes will be shattered as soon as Dawnglare arrives on to scene, and she can't exactly promise any of the other ones would deliver it any gentler. In that little moment it solidifies in her mind that she'll silently take care of the little one, make sure no other harm falls upon him. "Do you like badger rides? I can give you one! And we'll go fast too, if you want that. They do call me a speedy runner." her purr is somewhat sad. She feels exhausted, her heads spinning with the heavy scent of decay, but she'll keep strong for him.​

"speech"​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮​

Blazestar smiles wistfully at the glow in Morningbird's eyes, the lightness in his step, as he talks about his children. Cats dead and gone, but for the memories he speaks into tangible existence, the stories he passes on to his grandkits and Clanmates. Someday, that will be him, nothing but a tale for kits who wondered where SkyClan came from... a strange thought, one that he has no time to entertain.

The stench of decay hits his scent glands, and he stops, horrified. Morningbird takes off as quickly as his body will allow him to, and Blazestar follows behind, slowly, somnambulantly. He does not want to find what lies at the end of this trail.

Centipedepaw. He's almost sick at the tattered corpse, bloated and exposed to the flies that feast on her flesh.

Churrodream bows to talk to the corpse, and Blazestar stares at her until he realizes there's a living kit cowering beside it. Its own ears are raw and infested with insects; it huddles against the rotting flesh of what Blazestar assumes had been his mother. Churrodream is trying to lure him away.

She does not tell him that his mother is not sick. She does not tell him his mother is not coming back. And he doesn't know if that choice is the right one or not, but he will not contradict it. Like the other cats, he just wants the kit to get away from this horrific scene, wants him safe and cleaned up. They can figure the story about his mother out later.

She deserves a burial, he thinks, bleak. She deserves better than to be left out to become crowfood.

"Badger rides are very fun, and Churrodream is the best at giving them," he says, the words heavy and numb on his tongue. "Why don't you go with her, and Morningbird and I will take care of your mother?" It's all he can think to say.

- ,,​

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[QUILLSTRIKE]

I FEEL LIKE AN ASTRONAUT IN THE OCEAN​

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Quill knew the scent of death when he smelled it. Maybe he shouldn't have at such an age, but you didn't get to choose what sort of experiences life threw your way. And so when he'd caught the scent of something beginning to sour while out with his hunting patrol he had veered off to investigate on his own. The trail led him off toward the border, where he found he wasn't the only one who'd been drawn in by pungeant death-smell.

Churro, Morning, and Blaze all stood around a small black kitten and an older cat who seemed like they'd been dead for a while at that point. He was silently glad he hadn't been the first to arrive after realizing he would have then been responsible for getting the scrap of inky fur away from the body and put into the care of someone competent. Luckily he wouldn't have to, and as the adults fussed over the kit, Quill let mismatched eyes drift to the corpse, wondering idly what it was that had actually killed them before deciding it didn't matter. Shit happened. People died. Kids suffered.

What else was new?

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skyclan - male - 8 months - bisexual - homoromantic - single - very tall tabby tomcat with broad shoulders

 

[VULTUREPAW]

Shifting his attention to the other closer to him he seems to relax more. He can feel the warmth of the molly, it makes him feel better after the cold nights he has been waiting for Mama to get better. His little paws play with the dry grass as she talks and then he catches her words. His head lifts up and he angles his head up as if he can tell where her face is. Though of course he can not and hope blossoms in his heart. "Do...do...promise? Promise to help?" If Mama gets better then everything will be alright and they can be together again. It'll be nice. He tilts his head and takes in her name, a name that sounds strange but he can understand. "Churro...Churro is nice. Good name." He mutters softly as he closes his eyes for a moment. Taking in a small and short breath he shakes his little body to try and keep himself from falling asleep. The pain in his stomach is ever present and he makes a small face before being drawn into the conversation once more.

Come with her? A nervousness comes in again and he lifts his head just slightly. But she says a medicine man will come to help Mama. He puzzles over it but also he doesn't think they would tell him stories. Stories are only told by bad cats. They are cats right? Mama said that was what he was. He wiggles his nose and leans over to push his snout against Churro's thigh. Fur...leg...cat. Right. It'll be okay. She said so. "Okay..okay, Mama will be happy to get help. I'll go." Getting all cleaned up sounds good too and he blinks his blind eyes as he is asked about badger rides. Confusion wavers his tiny expression. "What's badger? We can go fast, I wanna go fast." The idea of going fast seems to put energy into his little legs and he stands up. Though he tenses as other smells come to him, that of another cat coming forth. Two. He wiggles back and pulls his ears forward towards the next. Listening intently.

He speaks about him going for the badger ride. Helping his Mama. He nods quietly. And the next cat does not speak so all he says is a small. "Okay..." Before he turns to Churro then.

-- permission to powerplay is given​