pafp oh sweet providence ; patrol training

[ThistleBack]

Tree-based combat, Orangeblossom had formulated a patrol for him. Thistleback spins on heel and waits for those named along with him to join his side. " lets find some pines with lower branches, it’s a good way to master the trees… sparring on a branch, however. It’s not worth breaking limbs " he suggests. It was strange, the sort of careful considerations he was taking lately. Thistleback never thought himself someone to pay much to cautionary detail. Lessons best learned the hard way.

" we should pair up. Sheepcurl, you should take-on my apprentice, Quillpaw. Pumpkinpatch, you should pair with Violetpaw. " he suggests with idle tail flicks.

" I’ll take Greenpaw " he ends with a swing of his chin toward the orange and white apprentice. " sound fair? " he nods, quite proud of his pairings. Slightly curious about everyone’s performance.

With that, he leads the ground through the snow- to a small cluster of pines with lower hanging branches. " We should take this one " he mutters toward Greenpaw, before unsheathing his claws and running up the bark. Flakes of the evergreen dust in his wake but he plants himself firmly on his chosen branch. It’s already white, withered by a preference of bird landings. It swayed under his weight but Thistleback is able to spin around, and creep backwards to allow Greenpaw the space by the trunk, a safer zone for his age.

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OOC INFO REF

• — hope this is ok! @Quillpaw @Pumpkinpatch @VIOLETPAW @GREENPAW @sheepcurl
  
  
• 
  
  
  ✧ T H I S T L E B A C K
  thirty-three moons
  — Lead warrior of Skyclan
  — taken by
  Deersong 9.29.22
  — mentoring quillpaw
  — very muscular piebald black and white tom with spiky fur and cold silver-grey eyes.
  — voice & accent
  — biography･ﾟ✧​
• 
  
  

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[QUILLSTRIKE]

CUZ I DONT REALLY LIKE ANYBODY​

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During his time as an apprentice, Quillpaw had been paired with other cats to spar. Typically though, these cats were either other apprentices, or Thistleback himself- and it had taken him quite a few sparring sessions with the older tom for Quill to grow anywhere close to 'comfortable' playing pretend hostilities with an adult. Even now, tall enough to look over the heads of several of the warriors in the clan, he still felt tense and aggitated when paired off with them, as if a part of his brain was unable to accept that it was just training.

Of course, these mental disturbances of his were far from easy to spot. Quillpaw despised showing any form of weakness, to others and to himself, barely allowing himself to acknowledge the feelings and thoughts let alone express them in anything outside of tense shoulders and spiked neck fur.

He just didn't like being touched by others, especially those he considered a threat.

But he disliked showing weakness even more.

He nodded at his mentors words, mismatched eyes setting a cool gaze on Sheepcurl. He wondered, vaguely, if the shecat was afraid of him. If she still help contempt and disgust for him over what he'd done to that apprentice. She had been the one to separate them, after all, the first to fix him with that all too familiar look.

The part of him that had been twisted and turned monstorous by his father almost hoped she did, hoped it would reflect in her fighting so he could get a taste of something familiar.

The rest of him was cold, knowing he would deserve it if she did.

"Ready when you are." he said, waiting for her to take the lead.
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skyclan - male - 8 months - bisexual - homoromantic - single - very tall tabby tomcat with broad shoulders

 

[sheepcurl]

Tree combat was the one thing Sheep had been good at, anything in the tall plants was where she succeeded. Part of her is glad that Orange assigned it and the other part is insanely worried for Greenpaws safety. Its not that she doesn’t trust him but the other cats that she doesn’t trust. Despite living with them, being insanely loyal, Greenpaw was much like a son, one of the few cats that could make her lose it if he got hurt. A breath of relief tumbles from her mouth as Thistleback takes her apprentice, she shoots him a glance, be careful with him.

Shes assigned Quillpaw. Her shoulders stiffen as she meets his gaze but she forces herself to relax them immediately. The scene plays over and over in her head, the blood spatters, the running start she had to get due to her size. Eyelids flutter shut for a heartbeat. He had been assigned to Thistleback after the incident and she trusted Thistleback with her life. He knew what he was doing and so she swallows the bile-like prejudice back down to the depths, buries it within herself.

She climbs on to a lower branch with ease, an ear flicking as her heart drums in her chest. Shes not great at fighting and will be severely at a disadvantage with her size but she has to remind herself the trees are where she thrived. “How comfortable are you in the trees, hijo? We can go higher if you want to challenge yourself.” adrenaline floods her body at the thought. Without waiting for an answer, she springs at him, hoping to knock him slightly off balance. They could talk while they sparred.

Suddenly shes not sure how comfortable she is fighting a clanmate in the trees where they could plummet to death if she wasn’t careful with how she fought. Too bad, she had already started.

 

[VIOLETNOSE]

to think that violetpaw would be placed on a patrol solely focused on two of her worst abilities; climbing and combat. as she follows after the patrol leader, her whiskers brushing against one of her peers to help guide her, she doesn't know whether the knot in her stomach is from excitement or dread. she couldn't even fight on the ground. judging when and where an opponent was going to attack is impossible when she could not see the visual cues; she's completely vulnerable in a fight, and that liability had been the catalyst to morningpaw's death.

how did orangeblossom expect her to fight in the trees?

no matter... daisyflight did not raise a coward. violetpaw keeps her chin tilted up as her whiskers sense the sudden halt of her denmate. thistleback's speaking, instructing them to find a pine tree with lower branches and pair up. violetpaw's given pumpkinpatch as a partner, and her ears twitch in acknowledgement. no turning back! she's probably going to get her ass beat, especially considering that pumpkinpatch is an experienced warrior, but like hell is she running away with her tail tucked! that'd just be embarrassing for everyone involved.

"which tree is ours?" the apprentice asks as she pads towards the scent of pumpkinpatch, forcing a grin despite the turmoil brewing inside. the older she-cat would have to lead her to the designated tree; it's not like she could tell which pines have lower branches or not, after all.​

 

[GREENEYES]

As he follows behind Sheepcurl, his focus is on his littermate beside him. Though Greenpaw himself isn't all too good at climbing, Violetpaw is worse - for good reason. If the green-eyed boy didn't know better, he'd assume Orangeblossom had assigned his sightless sibling to tree-sparring as a means for failure. He knows it's not, knows the deputy probably meant well, but still, he worries.

But, Violetpaw is tough, Greenpaw also knows this. She'll be fine, despite his concerns.

As the patrol nears the pines, Thistleback suggests splitting off into pairs. Greenpaw turns to look at Sheepcurl for guidance, but Thistleback splits them off into different pairings, assigning his mentor to Quillpaw instead, leaving Greenpaw to train with the black and white warrior. It shifts his concerns to his own climbing skills, a push outside of his comfort zone with Sheepcurl leaving him feeling insecure about his skills.

"O-okay!" Greenpaw says anyway, tries to make himself sound excited for what's to come. He doesn't know, maybe it will be fun? He turns to his dark-furred sibling, nudging her lightly to get her attention before she makes her way over to her training partner. "Good luck." The apprentice then follows after Thistleback, joining in his search for a good tree to train on.

"This one?" he repeats, as Thistleback chooses their tree. Viridian eyes inspect it warily, searching for low enough branches for Greenpaw to stay steady on. Hopefully, he'll be fine on this one.

The branch sways as Thistleback jumps on it, and Greenpaw hesitates as the lead warrior makes space for him to jump up. But, he does so eventually, leaping upwards to reach the branch the lead warrior settles on. His leap falls short, only able to grab the branch by his front paws, embarrassment consuming him as he hoists himself up onto the branch. He's doing so bad already!
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