camp oh, what's in a name [🕊️] telling history

[Needledrift]

"You know, you share your name with one of the sweetest cats I ever knew." Needledrift said as she licked the fur on her son's neck clean. It was bath time just outside the nursery with Needledrift's three youngest children and Branchkit was first up. The gray she-cat licked and licked, meticulously trying to smooth down the tabby spikes that made up her child's coat. She knew it was no use, really, Chittertongue's spiky genes ran rampant through all three of his children's pelts, but still she tried.

"Heavybranch was an old soldier of the Marsh Group when I was your age, and he liked to tell me stories of the days where he would hunt foxes and slay badgers with a single claw. When I got this -" she tilted her head to show off her misaligned jaw and the scars that decorated the corner of her mouth, "- he would chew up food for me so I could eat. We caught snails and slugs together because they were easy for me to eat." Needledrift smiled warmly at the memory. "You and your siblings are named after good warriors, true heroes. Morelkit, you were named after Smogmaw. You can't tell anyone, but he really likes mushrooms, and every moon, I used to sneak some into his nest to see him smile. I had morels in my nest for him when you decided to make an entrance." How unfortunate it was that she hadn't been able to deliver her quarry... they had been so destroyed after the birth. Hopefully there would still be some outside of camp once she was able to wander again. @BRANCHKIT @MORELKIT @Gigglekit

// not pafp but she's directly talking to the kittens speech is in #B9D0F5​

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[Gigglepaw]

Gigglekit was roused by her mother speaking, and she awoke fully just in time to hear what Needledrift was saying about Heavybranch and Smogmaw. Gigglekit had always thought, in her short time being in ShadowClan, that Smogmaw was a funny cat - she was even a little jealous that her brother got to be named after him instead of her.

"He could really hunt badgers an' foxes?!" Gigglekit squeaked as she sat up, jostling Branchkit and Morelkit along the way. She had never heard of any cat who would do something like that, and from what she had heard of the creatures that were being fought, they were big, bad monsters that usually took a whole lotta strength to take down! "Does that mean that someday Branchkit is gonna be able to fight badgers an' foxes, too?" She looked over at her brother in excitement.

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎OOC ᓚ₍ ^. .^₎ .ᐟ.ᐟ INFO ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

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• GIGGLEKIT ✩ kit of shadowclan, one moon
  → blinks incessantly.
  → peaceful and healing powerplay permitted.
  → penned by Archivist → .archivist on discord.
  

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[FERNDANCE]

A pleasant smile graced the cinnamon tabby's face as she sat by Needledrift, her heart beating like the patter of fleeing prey's feet against the earth. The she-cat's body remained with her family but her mind was not present for a time, flittering between the medicine den and the leader's den as if sizing them up. It was only when Needledrift began to speak that Ferndance began to pay more attention, blinking back into reality and finding her thoughts more aligned with her mate's. She waited for elaboration and, when it was offered, Fern's stomach dropped. "Ah... Heavybranch." Wide-eyes looked more like frog-spawn than something feline. She'd been honest with Needledrift before about how her family named each other after the first things they saw at birth, yet... it seemed the message hadn't quite stuck, or Needledrift just refused to believe that her son had been named after something else. "Yes. You were named. After... Heavybranch..." She stated to Branchkit. There was robotic in the way the she-cat spoke, something more plastic about the expression, with a wince, she realised she may have just borked a harmless fantasy she hadn't even been aware of. Paws shuffled uncomfortably, hoping her hesitance wasn't seen as anything but a quirk.

The distraction from Gigglekit caused some authenticity to return to her, even as the misunderstanding still gripped her chest in embarrassment. "Only the extra tiny ones," she mewed with a soft boop to her nose. "A fox did something very nasty to another hero once, you've got to be super strong to hunt them... and super old."

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[ONYXPAW]

I WISH YOU COULD SEE THE WICKED TRUTH — Names seemed to be coming up more and more often in Shadowclan as of late, weren't they? Onyxpaw wouldn't particularly mind, if it weren't for the fact that every name conversation turned her thoughts inward, wondering what her full warrior name might end up being. The thought alone of becoming a warrior was still terrifying, and while the prospect of what her name might end up being was less stressful, it was only minutely so. What if Chilledstar ended up picking something that didn't properly suit her? What if Onyx ended up being too hard to pair up at all? Maybe she would just be stuck as Onyxpaw forever, without a proper suffix linking her to the rest of the clan's warriors.

The mental image of her slumped over and tiny alongside her older, properly named clanmates flashed across her mind, nearly enough to make her gag from the unpleasantness of it all. Becoming a warrior might have seemed like a borderline insurmountable task, but that didn't mean she wanted to be stuck in the apprentices' den forever.

Shaking off her own obnoxious thoughts with a sudden jerky movement of her head, Onyxpaw instead chose to focus on the conversation that had got her thinking in the first place. She settled into a seat near the nursery, though far enough away that she - hopefully - wasn't intruding on a family exclusive moment. "Wouldn't being super old make you worse at hunting something like a fox?" Her question was directed towards Ferndance, though she posed it as if she were merely speaking a hypothetical into the open air. Upon remembering that she was actually around other cats, her ears briefly flicked back. "I mean... I'm sure there are a lot of amazing hunters in the elders' den, but I'm not really sure I could imagine them hunting much now." They did basically have all of their food brought to them, after all. Though there were still older warriors out there that hadn't yet been made to retire to any kind of elders' den. Thunderclan's own leader was quite up there in moons, wasn't she?

CAUGHT UP IN A RUSH ✦ IT IS KILLING YOU

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• 
  ✧ shorthaired tortoiseshell point and chocolate point chimera with blue eyes
  ✧ 6 moons old; ages the 1st every month
  ✧ bisexual; crushing on yellowpaw
  ✧ daughter of monarchroot and sleetjaw
  ✧ shadowclan born; silently loyal to her home
  ✧ difficult to befriend; shy to most except yellowpaw
  ✧ "speech", thoughts, attacking
  ✧ peaceful powerplay allowed

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[MORELPAW]

Bath time is upon them, and while it’s not something the kit is immediately fond of, Morelkit finds enjoyment in the tales his mother speaks as she cleans their fur. It’s his brother’s tufted fur that she works on first, and cobalt eyes watch for only a moment as Needledrift’s tongue rasps over dusted fur, before his gaze shifts elsewhere. A flicker of light against the ground, bright and shining. The boy opens his mouth to ask what just what his new discovery is, but his mother’s voice fills the air faster than his own can.

Branchkit’s name is the topic of Needledrift’s soothing stories today. She says he’s named after a cat she knew, Heavybranch. Morelkit’s never met this Heavybranch before, he doesn’t think, but Needledrift speaks of him in ways of warmth, and if Branchkit’s named after him, then Heavybranch must be good.

And then, it’s his name mentioned. Morelkit likes his name, so his gaze brightens as he looks up to his mother. He's named after — “ ‘Mogmaw? “ he echoes. He doesn’t understand. Morelkit sounds nothing like Smogmaw. “ Why…? “ His new favorite word these days, it’s only right he uses it now, for how can that be?

Smogmaw likes mushrooms, that’s why. And morels are mushrooms. “ Why? “ the kit finds himself asking once more time. And then Gigglekit speaks, and the boy looks to his sister. Branchkit will fight foxes and badgers too, just like Heavybranch. And Morelkit… Morelkit will just really like mushrooms, if that’s the case. A nose scrunches, a frown threatening to pull at his face as he paws at Needledrift’s leg.

“ And... I hunt fox badgers? “ Ferndance says only the tiny ones, but can Morelkit too? Or is he destined to only like mushrooms forever and ever and — he blinks, looking up at his mother once more. “ What's Gigs? “ If he and Branchkit were named after good warriors, what of his sister? ​

 

[BRANCHPAW]

𖠰𖠰 The tabby-striped kit doesn’t protest when his mother captures him to groom his spiky fur. It means that he has to sit still and can’t play or explore for the duration of her cleansing, but it also means that he has her undivided attention for a few moments. Or… partially undivided, as she talks to all three of her kits, along with Onyxpaw who has made her way over to observe their family moment. Branchkit certainly doesn’t mind the tortoiseshell-pointed visitor, murky blue eyes focusing in on the apprentice as she settles down near the nursery. He hopes that she says something, because she’s just kind of watching, but before her silence becomes awkward Needledrift begins to speak.

You share your name, his mama says, continuing on to talk about the sweetest cat she’d ever known. Heavybranch was a cat who killed foxes and badgers, and he helped Needledrift when she couldn’t do things herself—just like Needledrift does for Branchkit! Heavybranch must have been a great warrior, he decides. "Branch," he chirps, purring away as he listens to her speak. Beside him, Gigglekit speaks up to ask if he will kill foxes and badgers, too, and the lilac tom gasps. He pulls himself to sit straight up, blue eyes blown wide open. "Mmmm… me?" He wants to be strong and a hero, but he’s so tiny and foxes are so big… Luckily, his cinnamon-furred mother pipes up to say that he’ll only fight the tiny foxes. And he has to be super strong and old to hunt them, so he has a long time to go before he’s a fox-killer. But he will be, eventually, won’t he?

Onyxpaw expresses her doubt in Ferndance’s assertion that they would have to be old to fight a fox, and Branchkit’s attention is pulled to the tortoiseshell once again. He can’t imagine some of the elders, fragile as they look, fighting anything, let alone something like a fox! But his attention doesn’t linger on that for long, instead turning to Morelkit. The blue tabby kit is named after Smogmaw, except not in the same way as Branchkit is named after Heavybranch. Instead, Morelkit is named after what Smogmaw likes—and the little blue tabby asks why before Needledrift explains it to him. It’s a bit less exciting than being named after a badger-killer, but it’s still cool to be named after the clan’s deputy. "An’ bibble," he mumbles, repeating his brother’s question, albeit with far fewer words.​

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