private ONE FOR SORROW, TWO FOR JOY : ̗̀➛ FAMILY DISCUSSION

[RACCOONSTRIPE]

"Come close." Raccoonstripe's eyes are hollow, his voice flat. He sits beside Nightbird, before the array of their kits, with a muted expression. The fire has been taken from him; his claws have been blunted. He wants to fight, as Mousenose had fought, as Sorrelmist had, but he had watched his mother's demise, had watched Flamewhisker barreled back by a Clan who'd forsaken her role, and he has nothing left but simmering coals and ash inside his heart now. I cannot join them in their foolish courage. He regards each kit, seeing Howlingstar in their tabby pelts, their ears, the roundness of their eyes, still kittenish-blue. I have you to protect now.

"Howlingstar is gone." He knows Nightbird had tried to shield them from the worst, but he has to let them know the truth. "Skyclaw is your leader now. You must do as he says, do you understand me?"

A firm, oppressive dark gaze flicks from Bayingkit to Stormkit to Tigerkit to Lightningkit and, finally, to Twilightkit. "You will stay close to your mother. You will do as she says. You will be safe. I will do everything I can to make sure of that." His teeth gnash, frustration seeping into his veins. "But you have to be good for that to happen."

Raccoonstripe clears his throat, giving Nightbird a desolate look. I've never needed her more, but she has them now. And they need us both. He wants nothing more than to sink his face into her silver-dusted pelt and inhale, to slip into her nest and press himself to her and dream beside her, but he must leave her and the children and resume his broken life in the warriors' den, sleeping amidst traitors and murderers.

"And you..." He closes his eyes, pressing his muzzle to hers, however briefly, "you do the same." A plea enters his voice, straining. "Don't give them a reason to hurt you."

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

• ooc: @nightbird @BAYINGKIT @TWILIGHTKIT ⋆ @TIGERKIT @STORMKIT @LIGHTNINGKIT
• 
• Raccoon . Raccoonstripe, he/him w/ masculine terms.
  — "speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 44 moons old, ages realistically on the 5th.
  — mentored by n/a ; mentoring Thistlepaw ; previously mentored Wildheart, Moonwhisper
  — thunderclan lead warrior. gray wolf x howlingstar, gen 2.
  — currently mated to Nightbird.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh black tabby with white and dark brown eyes. charismatic, charming, calculating, ambitious, shallow, manipulative.
  
  

​

 

[nightbird]

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ she hated to see him this way. the warm spark in his gaze snuffed out, his voice hollow as he addressed the children. even his tongue had resigned to call skyclaw their leader. that traitor was nothing more than a loyalty deficient hound, grasping for a lick of power at the cost of their clanmates. he did not deserve to stake a whisker in the leaders den.

but, here they were, fair or not this was their reality. nobody had to like it, and nightbird could confidently say no one except the false ruler's entourage did. but they must endure. long enough until something could be done. that meant playing by the rules, biting their tongues in the face of treason, no matter how their blood boiled.

"you will not stray from my gaze. do not speak to anyone without me." nightbird reiterates with a tight jaw. she'd keep them tucked safely away best she could, avoid the possibility of facing any danger entirely. but she could only do that if they stayed close and listened, some were still struggling with such a thing.

as firm instructions lull, the look raccoonstripe gives has her heart squeezing underneath her ribs. he needed someone, they needed a moment alone more than air to fill their lungs. such a precious thing was impossible now more than ever. tansyshine was a good queen, but if this were to come to claws the nursery would need a warrior. nightbird had no choice but to be present in one place only until this tyranny was quelled.

she leans into his touch, pressing her shoulder gently against his for a moment. and though his words are heeded, she makes no promise. these cats had already made an attempt on the lives of children. even starclan, in all their divine might, wouldn't be able to stop her if they so much as twitched a whisker in the direction of her own. and there is nothing she can utter wholeheartedly, she'd do what she must to protect and survive, so nightbird settles for a quick lick against the striped fur of his cheek.

"this is not the end, we must stay strong until we reach it." she looks back to the kits before them, mustering as much clarity in her tone as she could. the molly wanted to keep them trapped under a steely gaze, force them to commit each word to memory. but she sees big, wavering eyes, and though she is not generally one to uplift, her heart seems to crawl out of her throat as she stoops closer to their level. "you can do it, alright? i know each one of you can."

‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ┌── THE CROWS IN THE GARDEN ⋅⋆⋅ ARE LAUGHING AT MY EXPENSE ──┐‎

• ooc ↛
  

• 

• 
  NIGHTBIRD ✩ she/her, lead warrior of thunderclan, 35 ☾'s
  ⭃ a small black smoke molly with a white paw and pale silver eyes. currently a queen residing in the nursery.
  ⭃ mate to raccoonstripe / / currently mentoring none.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking ↛ see battle info here
  ⭃ penned by vayle ↛ @vayl3 on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

​

 

[bayingkit]

there has been a drastic turn in bayingkit’s life.

at three months old, her skull is filled with only thoughts of mossball and pretend clans, of fascinations with being deputy and spending time with her family before apprenticeship thrusts her into the world for good. at six months, she was supposed to be ready for anything the outside could throw at her — she would have her own stories, of dogs and birds and broken bridges like the ones nightbird tells them on sleepless nights. she would be scared, but she would be brave, because . . she’d do lots of growing before then. when she was big, and tough and strong as the spirit of tigerclan itself.

at three months old, her leader and grandmother falls from highrock. bayingkit is still not entirely sure what this means, or why she hadn’t gotten up — she couldn’t be out of all her lives, bayingkit had only just gotten here . . it wasn’t fair that everyone else got to have her for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine lives over. it feels too early. it feels like, maybe, this should be something that she could deal with at six months old, when she was a ‘paw and was braver than she was now . . but it really feels as if it shouldn’t have happened at all.

she’d been playing at the fern curtain, at the time it happened ; and it feels wrong, when she’s finally allowed to turn away from the bramble wall. to look out, to see glimpses of destruction before she’s nipped back in. she sees first her father’s tear - stricken and hollow face lingering near where the dirt smears red with blood. before, shed seen nothing, forced back and hunkered down with her pressed painfully into the gorse, hunched and hoping the pin of her ears would blot the sound of shrieking behind her. it hadn’t. the sound of death, of collapsing bodies and letting blood, reverberates in her little head as she trails behind her parents — mind salvaged only by the fact that she does not know it was the sound of mousenose, of sorrelmist taking their final breath. she hadn’t seen a thing but her father’s devastation. with nothing to compare it to, it feels worse.

there is still a visible tremble to her step, a reek of fear clinging to the ends of her coat that nightbird would inevitably have to help her groom out.

for once, the striped girl sits when her parents tell her to sit, huddles near twilightkit as if he could explain it away himself — as if she hoped he would, any second now. raccoonstripe says howlingstar is gone, instead. bayingkit had feared this. without thinking, her maw parts on a blurted, ” but i don’t want skyclaw, i want — i want my ma’maw! “ an attempt at tantrum, but different ; pained, a scorched feeling lingering in her throat when it’s said because . . again, for once, she knows raccoonstripe nor nightbird could do a thing to change it. the burst of energy is short - lived in response to hard eyes, hard flares, sharp instructions — she begins crying.

she does not know when it starts, only tastes the salt of her tears when she snorts, sucks her running nose up, and warbles a little sob she cannot contain. raccoonstripe says she has to be good, and nightbird says not to leave her sight, and bayingkit snivels and whimpers and screws her eyes up tight because — she’s scared. she wasn’t very good. she is not big enough to deal with this, she decides, as her father presses his face into her mothers fur. for the first time, she does not caw a noisy eww. she only cries, babbling a taut, terrified, ” noo, he’s gonna ge — hic — get me . . ! “ and drops to her belly, cowering. he was going to get her. he was going to get her, just like he got her grandmother.

nightbird crouches, and slowly, bayingkit peels open dualtoned eyes to watch her. to look at her, salvaging the comfort she finds instinctively in steel - silver eyes. she drags herself on her belly to close the whiskers length between them, knocking her head into the molly’s muzzle and letting her body seize on another trembling weep — she says she can do it . . but she can’t do it. she cant.

☽ ˚ ｡ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐙𝐄𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒  𓃥 【 𝑰𝑻𝑺 𝑫𝑨𝑹𝑲 𝑰𝑵 𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑬 】

• i.
  
  
• 
  
  
• ” speech “
• BAYINGKIT——————— SHE / HER, KITTEN OF THUNDERCLAN. NIGHTBIRD xx RACCOONSTRIPE, SISTER TO TWILIGHTKIT, TIGERKIT, STORMKIT & LIGHTNINGKIT. 3 MOONS OLD, SMELLS LIKE DISRUPTED SOIL & WET FUR. PENNED BY ANTLERS.
  a large, unsightly black tabby kitten.
  
  mongrelish, standing all thistlethorn fur and bared teeth, bayingkit would be thought roguesblood if not for the dogtooth crown she uncomfortably bears. a hereditary haunting lies in the shag of ornate black striping and long limbs that do not yet suit her wide, slouching shoulders ; her fathers daughter, laced in dredge and filth moreso than he’d ever been. a constant, incessant need to make herself small forms in hunched spine and weary, whale - eyed suspicion, communicating mostly in rumbling growls.. bayingkit tends to hold herself with a tuck tailed and trembling livewire of feral volatility.
  

  teething, easily frustrated with her lack of vocal skill and highly reactive. prone to biting, swatting and general moodiness it is highly encouraged to correct. powerplay is allowed for disciplinary swipes, scruffing and general redirection.

  
  
  

​

 

[LIGHTNINGKIT]

LIGHTNINGKIT . of . THUNDERCLAN

3 moons old (born 07.08.24) / lh silver tabby with green eyes / feminine pronouns
raccoonstripe xx nightbird / little sister to bayingkit, twilightkit, tigerkit, & stormkit

Lightningkit's tears have subsided for a lack of energy to fuel them. She glances at her father when he begins speaking somberly. He is so different from the cat she's known so far, and the terror of what that means builds in her throat, until it doesn't matter how much she swallows— it isn't going away. Mommy, too, is even more serious than normal. Lightningkit knows she isn't thinking about grass or monsters like she'd once told her. They're scared. Mommy and Daddy are scared, and Raccoonstripe promises that they're going to be safe, but for once, she doesn't believe him.

What Skyclaw did to grandmama lives in her mind like a grotesque, hungry spider, catching all of her other thoughts in its web and wrapping them up to eat. She stares at the nursery floor, listless, wondering what it means to be good because Howlingstar was good, wasn't she? That didn't stop Skyclaw.

She hates him. She hates him. It's too big for the spider in her head to capture, swelling in her chest and bursting behind her eyes. Her limbs tremble with it. He should have been the one to fall off of the rock. Lightningkit wouldn't have cried for him, and then Ivorykit and Coltkit could come back, and Howlingstar would still be alive.

Her ears flatten when Bayingkit's tears form words. She looks away from her, and looks away from Nightbird when she says she believes in them. "Howlingstar was good," she says dully, watching the floor again. "Maybe Skyclaw won't do anything if we're bad."
​

​