MY TERRACOTTA HEART \ orangestar

[TWITCHBOLT]

The reason he had come here was not just to bring prey, though it was clasped between his jaws. To Orangestar green eyes had glanced, and spoken into a squirrel scruff he had asked for a moment of her time. That granted, he placed the prey at her paws- as he did so, Quillstrike's encouragement buzzed through his blood. His own, too - for once it was not just the loving look of his mate that gave him strength, but a self-assuredness cemented by the gratefulness in Butterflytuft's eyes, the adrenaline that had roared through him when running that dog through Twolegplace. The gleam of lightning ... smoke and excitement coiling through his lungs when he scaled the trees to stormwatch ... that very same gleam had lived within him for a long, long while.

Orangestar had seen it. Despite everything, she'd seen it. And he had met her with confusion, and now- now was prepared to rectify it all.

"I just came here to say ..." Stupid way to start a conversation, really- something a coward would do, but that didn't double Twitchbolt over the way it might have a season ago. "I was wrong before."

He let the assurance sit in the air for a second. Hopefully she'd know what he meant- he wasn't wanting to seem like he fiended for the deputy position, believed he was owed it ... but he wanted to smooth it out between you. "You - you said you disagreed, and ... and you were right. And I'm sorry for the trouble of it all." He swallowed, spasmed- for a moment, his jaw tightened in a painful twinge. "But I understand, now. You- you were right."

\ @Orangestar !!​

penned by pin ✧​

 

[Orangestar]

Orangestar faces Twitchbolt fully as he tugs on the threads of her attention, drawing herself to her full height as he places the squirrel between them. An odd choice of a peace offering, but intriguing nonetheless: level with hazel eyes, and then remembering she stands a whisker taller, Orangestar waits for her former deputy to speak. An admission? Feline brows furrow, and she waits.

It takes Orangestar a few moments to catch on to his tremulous, meandering point. When she does, realisation between mental claws,, the ginger-patched leader fails to stifle her huff of amusement. The rare and genuine spike of a purr rumbles in her chest after her rasp of a barked laugh. Finally come around, has he? The wry thought has her blink, surprised; since when had she started to sound like Duskpool?

Orangestar clears her throat in the beat that follows, some sobriety returning, angling her ears towards the young tomcat as his apology sinks in like rain through her fur. Her anger towards Twitchbolt's abdication has cooled considerably, time soothing the ragged wound and stress of other problems far outweighing an unsure member of her council. In lieu of her expectations being upon him, Twitchbolt has grown. Some part of her still sees him as the shaky kitten tucked carefully under Daisyflight's wing, but there's no denying the air of confidence that he carries now. Though he still fidgets, he seems unbothered by the movements. While he still quakes, some jolts harsher than others, an acuity pervades his manner.

"I was. Am." She adds quickly, still certain that the spark she had seen in him wasn't a figment of her own delusions. It satisfies some prideful streak within to see that he sees it now, too. Her tongue swipes across her lips, thoughtful just as much as it is reflexive. "What made you understand?"

ooc ✧ 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘦

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  [ art by pin ]
• ORANGESTAR ✧ she/her, leader of skyclan | eight lives
  
  
  — "a scarred white-and-ginger she-cat with brown eyes."
  — single ; mentoring springpaw & ashpaw
  — speech is in #F18C47
  — tags | penned by mercibun, contact on discord for plots.
  
  
  
  

​

 

[TWITCHBOLT]

She laughed- was she laughing at him? No- no. That was a stupid thing to think- Twitchbolt swatted it away like it was a mosquito, high-pitched and bouncing through angled ears. A humming thought, shard-sharply pitched, that Twitchbolt had learned by now to squash beneath a quick paw.

So he laughed, too- a small, harsh little thing as always, a frayed sound scraping against the walls of his throat. It never lasted long, but it was always notably sincere. Her assertion that she was, indeed, right brought a smile trembling onto his features- her self-assurance was a valuable thing, a light he wished he'd earlier seen. At least one of them, then, had been sure since the start.

A deep sigh, like cooling snowfall, steadied his thoughts. "I ... I thought my instincts were more cowardly. I thought ... when it really mattered, I'd run away." The skeptical glances he'd been given when his name had been called, the uncertainty that had blistered in the eyes of those who had gathered to hear his patrols, they hadn't done much to help. He'd been convinced that they were all waiting for him to fail ... but really, they just hadn't been able to see his strength. And who could blame them, when Twitchbolt himself was blind to it too?

"B-but I proved myself wrong, didn't I? With- with Butterflytuft, and that dog. And a bunch of other times before, but ... I'd not thought about it 'til then..." His point trailed off, but he laughed to punctuate it. It was stupid, really. Throughout his life he'd rotted within a cave of so much unworthiness that he'd pounced on the first chance to prove his several naysayers right.

Twitchbolt's tongue traced the tips of his teeth. "I ... should've believed you. And I'm ... p-proud to be on your council, and..." He paused. Cherryblossom was a good cat, who he didn't wish ill on- in every way he hoped that her deputyship would work out. But... Quillstrike's encouragement shone forth in his mind again, and in the memory of his mate's odd eyes he found the strength. "Well. If you ever needed me to be your deputy again, I know that I wouldn't run away."​

penned by pin ✧​