sensitive topics MOURNING DOVES 🕷storm && grief

[Briarthorn]

.·:*¨༺🕷༻¨*:·. Her head still throbbed. Her sadness had leeched all the hydration from the apprentices veins, and let it spill onto the marshland floor. The sun on her brothers death date and vigil had set, risen to birth a new day, and set once more to a comforting night.
Briarpaw hadn’t moved from her place in the apprentices den since Sweetpaws vigil, pieces of plush moss clutched in her forepaws that had long lost her littermates scent.
When Sweetpaw had been brought back to camp, Briarpaw had been filled with emotions, burning and crushing. She had willed for them to stop, choked on the air that was meant to sustain her. Now, the apprentice only feels dull, empty. A dim, milky hue swells within the empty space of the apprentices den as the sun dips below the horizon, and Briarpaw knows she cannot stay here.
Crack! Something the raven-furred adolescent cannot see rips at the sky above, flashing the den with something electric and white.
Lightning. Her suspicion is confirmed by the jarring thunder that follows soon thereafter. Briarpaw cannot stay wrapped around her dead brothers nest forever, letting fruitless thoughts brew her mind’s own storm cloud. She needs to get up. Up.
Rigid as splintering ice, her body moves. Her gait is robotic, marching towards the exit, and she is wholly unnatural.
Fresh, new-leaf air spills over ragged features, drizzling rain splashes against trembling whiskers.
Briarpaw settles outside of the apprentices den, head craned as thunder explodes from the clouds above.
She is empty, and does not know what to do with herself.

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── ALL YOU HAVE IS YOUR FIRE ⋅ ࿏ ⋅ AND THE PLACE YOU NEED TO REACH ──┐‎

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  BRIARPAW ꔫ she/her, apprentice of shadowclan, 9 moons.
  ⭃ slender, lean-muscled black she-cat with sharp hazel eyes & large ears.
  ⭃ daughter of Forestshade && Vulturemask ࿏ sister to Screechpaw && Sweetpaw
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by Noor ↛ @toyangel on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[Snowlark.]

[ ༻❄༺ ] Snowpaw didn't fully understand the pain Briarpaw was going through, nor what Forestshade or Starlingheart were feeling but, no one should be left to grief alone and seeing Briarpaw stand in the thundering rain made him walk over, having a bird inbetween his jaws before setting it at the older apprentice's paws, before looking back up at her, a soft look in his normally harden gaze before shifting to stand next to the ebony apprentice. "You'll get sick if you stand out here for long" he spoke softly, before nudging the bird closer to the other. The two might not be friends but he felt worse just leaving her in solace.

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── You ve wasted your life , but thanks for applying ──┐‎

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  "speak""Thoughts"
  
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  Snowpaw ❄ He/Him, apprentice of Shadowclan, 8 moons.
  ⭃ Lithe long hair blue lynx sepia with high white, and yellow eyes. Stubby tail, permanent resting bitch face
  ⭃ Hailfreckle x Mudsplash
  ⭃ 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.
  

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[MIRESTAR]

When light tears the sky open, the rain is but an ironic (depressing, ever depressing, but fitting all the same) match to the sour mood that settles within ShadowClan again. Time after time, Mirepurr had heard their Clanmates mutter something about misfortune, something about their starry ancestors either forgetting them or deliberately turning their backs on them. It can't possibly be true, because they haven't done anything so monstrous to warrant such a thing, but sometimes, on days like these, they let themself dwell on the possibility.

It's thrown to the side the moment Briarpaw emerges from the apprentices' den, lack of a proper expression betraying everything. Burying cats who have started to grow right in front of you is hard enough: seeing their family shatter with the knowledge that no word or act could possibly offer relief from their pain is something else entirely.

"Snowpaw's right," Mirepurr says when they get close enough, the rain barely felt as it cascades down upon them. "Just move a bit back, under some cover, alright?"

They doubt Briarpaw has much of an appetite, but Mirepurr glances at Snowpaw's offering with something akin to relief. Perhaps the simple sense of survival would push her to eat, robotic and unnatural all the same, but more than sufficient to stop the inside of her stomach from turning on itself.
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[betonyfrost]

Betonyfrost doesn't see Briarpaw stumble from the apprentice's den on rigid limbs. She doesn't even hear Snowpaw beckon Briarpaw to shelter over the rain-patter. She looks up from her own soaked paws only when Mirepurr speaks—agreement. Her green eyes track where Mirepurr looks, and at once understands.

"Let her," Betonyfrost says—warns.

She doesn't feel pain for Sweetpaw's death—not like the pain she had known before—but the look on Briarpaw's face is familiar regardless. The rain will continue to fall, and Briarpaw could either remain in a den and let the empty space of it consume her, or she could be out in the rain. She would either get sick from it or she wouldn't—life was rigid in its options. Betonyfrost folds her paws beneath her chest. She doesn't look at Mirepurr.

"It's something to feel."

shadowclan warrior | blue mackerel tabby | 31 moons | tags​

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[Briarthorn]

.·:*¨༺🕷༻¨*:·. The breath of cool, humid air is successful enough in the way her lungs no longer feel crushed under the burden of her hurt, as though they had begun to re-inflate. Claws flex out in front of her, sinking into marshland soil when Snowpaw sets the bird at her paws. The gesture, as genuine as it was, catches Briarpaw off-guard, and she is quick to retract forelimbs inwards, tucking them under her as hazel optics hang vacantly on the offered meal. You’ll get sick if you stand out here for long. The sentence is softly spoken, a wisp among the thunder that rattled the clouds overhead. Briarpaw ponders saying nothing in return for a moment, but when thinned pupils slide from the prey to where the tom now stood next to her, the sudden urge to tell him where to stick it seizes at her vocal cords. Irrational, undeserved- she knows, the sliver of logic she clings to the only thing keeping her filter composed. Instead, Briarpaw looks away, right into the face of another telling her to just move back a bit.
"I’m fine." The apprentice bites back, the edge of her tone as sharp as her claws. "Last I checked, neither of you have star at the end of your name, or heart for that matter." Large ears flatten diagonally from the sides of her head, a single crack in her armored expression. Briarpaw knows she’s being rude, petulant to say the least. Yet, she didn’t want to be told what to do, didn’t want recycled condolences stuffed down her throat, she wanted her brother back, she just wanted Sweetpaw. Betonyfrost’s voice cuts through the light drizzling, but the only reaction the she-cat can muster is a small, hollow dip of her head. The most positive interaction she could offer.

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── ALL YOU HAVE IS YOUR FIRE ⋅ ࿏ ⋅ AND THE PLACE YOU NEED TO REACH ──┐‎

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  BRIARPAW ꔫ she/her, apprentice of shadowclan, 9 moons.
  ⭃ slender, lean-muscled black she-cat with sharp hazel eyes & large ears.
  ⭃ daughter of Forestshade && Vulturemask ࿏ sister to Screechpaw && Sweetpaw
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by Noor ↛ @toyangel on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[SCREECHSTORM]

✧ . It only takes a single crash of thunder to rip Screechpaw away from golden-lit dreams of a night-furred trio, to pull him back to darkness, to the cold of an apprentice den now one more cat empty, to days to only be spent as a night-furred duo. His heart pounds at the stark contrast, eyes wide as they dart toward a nearby nest. Empty once, now twice-over.

For a moment, he fears the worst — fears a trio-turned-duo is no more — and it’s enough to make him rise to his paws, to pray to the stars above not to leave him here alone, not to punish him further than they have by taking his brother away from him. He can’t lose his sister too.

But she isn’t far, though her placement still leaves newfound nerves rising, as dark fur is drenched in rain and light breaks the sky above. A crowd forms around her — a quarter moon ago, he’d hold resentment over this; now… now he hardly pays attention toward them. He hurts as much as Briarpaw does, feels as though his form is plummeting with each breath he takes that his brother cannot, feels talons digging into his side with each realization that he lived and Sweetpaw did not.

But he can’t blame them for their concern. He can’t because… Because she’s his sister, and he’s concerned too.

“ Bri — “ he says quietly, voice devoid of honed words and only carrying worry, grief. Please come back inside, he almost begs, but silences himself as her mouth opens. It’s when she speaks — when sharp tones escape her maw instead of his — does he move. She’s fine, Briarpaw insists.

Screechpaw knows she isn’t.

If she doesn’t want to come back inside, then… he’ll sit with her for as long as she’s out here. The tawny-splotched tom steps out from the apprentice den’s shelter and into the strobe-lit camp. The chill of rainfall clings to unkempt fur immediately, but he steps further into it anyway to settle beside his sister.

It’s something to feel, Betonyfrost says, and as drizzle drenches his pelt too, Screechpaw thinks he agrees. ​

✦ ABOUT

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  SCREECHPAW ✦ AMAB. He / Him. Apprentice of ShadowClan.
  ✧ . A black/red tabby chimera tom with mismatched green eyes.
  ✧ . Forestshade x Vulturemask
  ✧ . Mentored by Chilledstar
  ✧ . Peaceful and healing powerplay permitted!
  ✧ . Penned by Abri ‣ @_abri_ on discord, feel free to dm for plots!
  ✧ . " Speech " ; Attack
  

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