private NOW WHO'S THE GREATER SIN? ✧･ﾟ:* SNAKEHISS

[BLUEFROST]

She’s in the tunnels again, and the darkness yawns before her with infinite totality. Every pawstep trembles with fear, because she’s not alone. She’s never alone in the tunnels in her dreams. Here lurks a monster with a matted gray-silver pelt, with half-rotted, luminous eyes the color of acid burning holes into the shadows. Here lurks the she-cat who’d labored to birth her—the leader who’d given Bluefrost both of her names—who’d carefully, expertly guided the warrior she was to become. Here lurks a monster with blood on her teeth, who wants to tear into Bluefrost’s throat and seek vengeance for the final betrayal.

She stops. Her pawsteps cease their echo. But she hears something moving behind her, and the corridor is too narrow for her to turn around. The fur prickles along her spine. “Sootstar?” Her whisper carries like rushing water, but there is no answer except a lumbering snarl that tears through the quiet like badger claws.

Bluefrost jolts awake in her nest, green eyes flying open to stare blankly into the star-strewn sky. Her body quivers—her belly rolls, and she thinks she’s going to be sick. She pushes herself out of her nest and heaves herself toward the center of camp, trembling with terror and longing. Stars, what would happen if she faced the demon in her dreams—if she met it with love, and compassion, if she begged for forgiveness? Would it sink its teeth into her throat and end her for good? Or worse—would it disappear, her mother gone from her again like smoke in a heavy gale?

Her breathing is quick, and she struggles to steady it. Bluefrost tilts her face to the moon, and, uncaring for once who sees her, begins to weep. Silver streaks the water running down her cheeks, dripping into her thick pelt. “Please, make it stop,” she shudders, weak, vulnerable, and terribly alone.

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

• ooc: @SNAKEHISS
• 
• Bluekit . Bluepaw . Bluefrost, she/her w/ feminine terms.
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 14 moons old, ages realistically on the 14th.
  — mentored by Sootstar ; mentoring n/a ; previously mentored n/a.
  — windclan warrior. sootstar x weaselclaw, gen 2.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh blue and white she-cat with emerald eyes. aloof, dignified, poised, haughty, composed, distant.
  
  

​

 

[SNAKEHISS]

Snakehiss doesn't know where Sootstar's spirit had ascended to after her final passing—perhaps she had been too evil for StarClan's standards and remained in a boundless purgatory, doomed to forever wander the plane between life and death. Maybe her spirit was gone entirely, wiped away as if she had never existed. Sometimes he would see shadows that made him do a double-take, sometimes he nearly flinched at the sight of her daughters, fearful of the idea of her manifesting a physical form again and taking her revenge upon him for his betrayal.

It was not a ghost he was seeing on this night, though it was close to it — a blue-hued coat, long and wispy in nature, with emerald green hues illuminated by the shine of the pale orb in the distance. Tears well in the corners of her optics, effectively wetting tufted cheeks that Snakehiss long thought to be stone-enforced and emotionless. Bluefrost, Sootstar's perfect protege, her personal trainee, her own blood. Snakehiss' youth had consisted of a concoction of bitter jealousy and burning disdain for the moor queen's brood, partly because it was much more difficult to capture Sootstar's attention but largely because they claimed a right to a throne that Snakehiss also thought to be his.

None of it mattered now. He and Bluefrost had been knocked down to the same level — husks of their former selves, lost and aimless, remaining in the moors only due to Sunstar's mercy. They were no longer at the top of the metaphorical food chain, now reduced to outcasts like the ones that Snakehiss used to criticize.

Seeming to materialize from the shadows surrounding camp, Snakehiss meows, "Your tears will not change anything." He knew that first-hand. Snakehiss had stood in her same place, softly sobbing to himself under the cover of moonlight as he wished to go back in time and stay in the past. Sootstar had been a tyrannical madwoman near her end—perhaps she always had been—but as a youth, Snakehiss never knew it. Many others didn't know it. They just lived their way of life and it worked for them. Nothing was wrong.

He does not read as necessarily sympathetic; his tone is drained of any emotion, far too tired to care about much of anything anymore. Bluefrost's lament was of hardly any concern to him, especially since he had gone through so much himself. Though, there was a peculiar sense of solidarity that he felt as he stood a close yet comfortable distance from the other. "It sounds foolish, but countless times I've stared at the moon, hoping that by some miracle I'd wake up in the apprentice's den again, as if this had all been some sort of strange dream." The leggy tom murmurs rather cynically, staring up at the moon and avoiding any eye contact with Bluefrost.

₊ ⋆ * ⊹ ₊ ☾ —— 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙟𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨

•  

• 

• 
  ₊ ⋆ * ⊹ ₊ ☾
  snakehiss
  

  — he/him; moor runner of windclan
  — long-limbed black tom with green eyes, a small white chest patch, and multiple scars
  — father to violetkit, cricketkit, and privetkit (duskclan)
  — "speech", thoughts, attack
  — link to full tags; @ on discord or dm @beaaats for plots!​

​

 

[BLUEFROST]

Something shifts in the shadows behind her—a lean black shape crested with white detaches itself from the night. Lean green eyes glimmer with moonlight. Bluefrost starts, a hasty paw rising to her face. She attempts to clean the tears from her cheeks, though it’s clear it’s too late—Snakehiss has seen them. “Your tears will not change anything,” he tells her, and though it’s said matter-of-factly, it lacks cruelty, lacks bite. She slowly lets her paw fall to the camp’s floor, her mouth tightening. “I… I know. If they could, I would do nothing but shed them.” She bows her head for a moment, letting tufts of fur obscure her dampened face.

He comes to sit beside her, though he’s careful not to meet her gaze. Her tattered ears flick as he speaks again. He says something he prefaces is foolish, but Bluefrost, as pragmatic as she tries to be, quivers at the idea that she could close her eyes and awaken an apprentice. She could be following Sootstar into the tunnels—she could be kneeling before her, still true, still pure of heart.

She has become so broken, she thinks with bitterness. She has become tainted, and she does not know if her betrayal or her loyalty is what has stained her spirit so. “Dreams… I have them every night,” she murmurs. “Dreams of her, stalking me. Following me. Disappointed and—and watching me fail her again and again.” She swallows around the thickening in her throat. “Did we do the right thing—or should we have died together in this camp? I know it is what—it is what she would have wanted…””

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

• ooc: —
• 
• Bluekit . Bluepaw . Bluefrost, she/her w/ feminine terms.
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 14 moons old, ages realistically on the 14th.
  — mentored by Sootstar ; mentoring n/a ; previously mentored n/a.
  — windclan warrior. sootstar x weaselclaw, gen 2.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh blue and white she-cat with emerald eyes. aloof, dignified, poised, haughty, composed, distant.
  
  

​

 

[SNAKEHISS]

Snakehiss also possesses a sour relationship with the cat he's become. He has a conniving mind, once bountiful with wit and ambition, though now he is a subordinate to cats he once detested with his entire being. This was no life that Snakehiss had ever wanted to live, and yet, what choice did he have? He had narrowly avoided death in order to remain here in the moors where he belonged, where his kin had once dwelled before the existence of the colonies. Snakehiss wouldn't just run away, not like his father had.

"In the end, I decided that it mattered not what she wanted. I decided I would rather fight for StarClan." Snakehiss replies simply, blinking as he quietly regards the stars, as if what he's said will earn him any favor with the ancestors. He's inept when it comes to anything emotional, but Snakehiss is not daft — he can tell how hard it was for Bluefrost to admit her mistakes. To face the betrayal of her own mother. If Sootstar were his kin, he may have made a different decision entirely. Snakehiss knew how difficult it was to go against the wishes of one's family.

But, as for the question of their continued existence... Snakehiss would be lying if he claimed that he did not question it sometimes. It isn't as if he desired death; in fact, the very thought of it strikes a chilling fear in his heart. He had trembled like a terror-stricken kitten on the battlefield, confiding in Sparkspirit his fear surrounding death and even so much as passing out from shock. However, it was not as if life living in the new era of WindClan was much better. "I see the stares that some cats give us. To them, it doesn't matter if we fought against her in the end. We will always be remembered as her dogs." Snakehiss scoffs with a frown, his claws beginning to knead the earth. "I suppose sometimes we might have been better off dead than alive." He remarks, bitter. They didn't know. They didn't understand. They never would.

₊ ⋆ * ⊹ ₊ ☾ —— 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙟𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨

•  

• 

• 
  ₊ ⋆ * ⊹ ₊ ☾
  snakehiss
  

  — he/him; moor runner of windclan
  — long-limbed black tom with green eyes, a small white chest patch, and multiple scars
  — father to violetkit, cricketkit, and privetkit (duskclan)
  — "speech", thoughts, attack
  — link to full tags; @ on discord or dm @beaaats for plots!​

​

 

[BLUEFROST]

Snakehiss’s reply leaves her silent for a long moment. “In the end, I decided that it mattered not what she wanted. I decided I would rather fight for StarClan.” Bluefrost follows his gaze to the night sky, and she wonders if he’s looking for his own mother’s spirit there. She already knows her mother is not—she remembers her mother’s final words, that she had roamed that dark forest, and she suppresses a shiver. Are her very thoughts disloyal to StarClan? She thinks of the blasphemy in her heart and feels very small, very alone, under Silverpelt’s judgmental gleam. “So that’s who you fight for,” she says after a long pause. “StarClan, not Sunstar.”

Is there a difference, she wonders?

“When I look at you, I see someone who was fooled,” she murmurs, and she finally lets her gaze settle upon his face. “You are not the only one. The same cats who condemn us forget they served her just as loyally, once.” Her lip twitches, tone mimicking Snakehiss’s bitterness.

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

• ooc: —
• 
• Bluekit . Bluepaw . Bluefrost, she/her w/ feminine terms.
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 14 moons old, ages realistically on the 14th.
  — mentored by Sootstar ; mentoring n/a ; previously mentored n/a.
  — windclan warrior. sootstar x weaselclaw, gen 2.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh blue and white she-cat with emerald eyes. aloof, dignified, poised, haughty, composed, distant.
  
  

​

 

[SNAKEHISS]

Snakehiss suppresses the urge to scoff at the very idea that Bluefrost speaks of — fighting for the sake of Sunstar, a mere mortal, not his powerful ancestors who had the power to smite and grant lives. His idea of loyalty to leaders had definitely been tarnished by Sootstar's tyranny. "Of course. StarClan is more powerful than any leader." Snakehiss answers in a matter-of-fact tone. And he has not earned my loyalty. The tom thinks, referring to their golden-furred brute of a king. Sunstar had spared him—spared all of the remaining loyalists—but Snakehiss would not blindly devote his life to him.

A scowl is cast downward now as Snakehiss turns away from the face of the moon, instead focusing on the dark earth below. Snakehiss still finds it difficult to look Bluefrost in the eye — rivals since youth, now forced closer by an unfortunate turn of events. He supposes he has no real grounds for hating her now. They were both cut down to size, mighty oaks torn from their roots by the elements. "We were simply following expectations. Expectations set from the moment our mothers bore us." Now, they were all gone. Their fathers and mothers both. They were wayward souls now, aimless and lost, unsure of what direction to follow now that they could make decisions for themselves. "I thought that I would fulfill my destiny by following Sootstar." Eventually, finally, his eyes trend upward and meet a pair of fellow emeralds. "You weren't any different, no doubt." The expectations of a lead warrior and leader's child surely soared higher than the clouds themselves.

₊ ⋆ * ⊹ ₊ ☾ —— 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙏𝙄𝙈𝙀 𝙃𝘼𝙎 𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙀 𝙏𝙊 𝙈𝘼𝙆𝙀 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙎 𝙍𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏

•  

• 

• 
  ₊ ⋆ * ⊹ ₊ ☾
  snakehiss
  

  — he/him; moor runner of windclan
  — long-limbed black tom with green eyes, a small white chest patch, and multiple scars
  — father to violetkit, cricketkit, and privetkit (duskclan)
  — "speech", thoughts, attack
  — link to full tags; @ on discord or dm @beaaats for plots!​

​