One man's treasure | picking up trash

[Snakeblink]

MAYBE I'D BE A SAINT IF I WEREN'T ————————————​

Shadowclan’s rubbish being blown to their side of the territory lines by the windstorm and fouling their waters was already troublesome, but the situation took a more sinister turn after Cindershade’s near-drowning accident. The trash feels less like a hindrance and more like an imminent threat now, a trap lying in wait on top of slow-acting poison seeping in the river. Twolegs were sighted at the edges of their lands, picking up the larger pieces of their own mess, but few ventured deep into Riverclan territory and even fewer bothered to scrounge through the river for small bits and pieces of garbage trapped between rocks and lodged in the silt and sand of the riverbed.

It figures that even when they’re the source of the problem, twolegs wouldn’t bother to be the solution as well. As a result, Snakeblink has taken to picking the foreign objects out of the water when he finds them during patrols — but there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of them, older, worn artifacts buried in the shallows and revealed by the lowering water levels.

Finding himself with some free time, Snakeblink decides to tackle that problem once and for all. As daunting as the task may appear, surely he can at least clear the favored fishing spot near camp from this trash if he focuses on nothing else.

He wades through the water, holding a small, round object held between his teeth: bright green, hollow with a smooth bottom and ridged sides, of a completely indecipherable nature but easily identified as not belonging to the river. There’s still sand caked between the grooves, sticking to his tongue as he adds the mysterious object to the small pile of similarly twoleg-made trash that he’s been gathering from the river. Most of his findings are small, with ragged edges that suggest they are not whole but broken bits of larger trash: he shivers to think of how many of these pieces have been scattered up and down the river.

”I struggle to imagine these ever not being trash,” he mutters to himself, nose wrinkling at the taste lingering in his mouth.
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——————————————————————————————————— so god damn lonely ​

ooc. information.

• 
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 42 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

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[CLAYFUR]

Clay has always been the sort to believe strange objects are interesting, and to even collect such objects. The fact that the trash is everywhere, though, is obviously not ideal—and the fact that Cinder nearly drowned in some discarded line prickles at his skin beneath brown fur. The junk isn’t any good in their river, because even if it doesn’t hurt RiverClanners, it will surely hurt their prey. What if the fish are eating the trash in the water—and then the RiverClanners are eating the fish? What if one of those weird, dangerous hooks gets embedded in a fish, and a clanmate swallows the fish?

He frowns as Snakeblink speaks, gaze catching on the pile of garbage that the other has dragged from the waters. "I wonder what it was ever used for," he says, tipping his head to the side. Curiosity is alight in hazel eyes, but his expression is guarded. There’s nothing of this trash that won’t hurt them if they aren’t careful. "Have you found any interesting stuff in all the trash, though? Once, I found this super shiny round thing with, like, a weird texture." He wonders if he still has that thing lying around beneath his nest, tucked up beside his most special gray stone.​

[ YOU ARE THE STARS TO ME ]​

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[merlintongue]

⚘ merlintongue's actions are all colored with worry. sky-blue eyes zero in on snakeblink's motions, how he wades through twoleg trash, how he cleans and cleans the endless stream of garbage — "watch out," he can't help but say, starting forward as snakeblink picks something else out from the water, his eyes dark with concern as they lock onto the other man's. what snakeblink retrieves seems harmless, and he falls back, a tad embarrassed. "ah. just — be careful. some of this twoleg trash — " he spits the word like it tastes bad, agreeing wholly with snakeblink's muttered comment, " — it's dangerous. sharp like teeth, or..."

he doesn't have to spell out the rest, does he? cindershade's accident... they all know how that could have gone.

"we can't go and lose such a fine warrior as yourself," he finishes instead, hoping it sounds off-the-cuff as he means it, settling back into his typical friendly smile.

he turns toward clayfur, blue eyes meeting hazel now, and considers the raised question. what could it have been used for?

" ... i imagine they need somewhere to store their prey," he reasons, humoring the thought. "or ... a tool for grooming, or healing?"

that's about all he can come up with. what else is there?

"maybe some of this comes from the bodies of their monsters..." in the old days before even the marsh colony, when merlintongue was just merlin roaming twolegplace, he remembers seeing twoleg monsters shed body parts, especially after battles. the twolegs must do something with those parts. dumping them in the river seems like a pretty twoleg thing to do.


// sorryyy if this is weird or inconsistent, he has new character disease. aka i haven't settled into writing him yet. ​

⚘

• tags •

•  
• • MERLINTONGUE, HE/HIM • 48 moons • marshborn riverclan warrior • silver ticked tabby with sky-blue eyes and a soft white mane • tall, graceful, and strong • charismatic and kind, seeks out friendships • peaceful powerplay welcome •
•  

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[hazecloud]

The river had been a pain to swim in recently with all of the debris floating into it. Some of the even tinier bits trash loved to get tangled in her fur. As if it wasn't hard enough keeping her coat pristine. She was careful this time to keep herself on land, fishing at whatever floated close enough to scoop out.

"It's never-ending." She sighed distantly as she swiped at a bottle cap. Merlintongue's interruption caught her attention, making her pause as she looked at whatever Snakeblink was holding. It didn't appear any more harmful than what she had fetched out. "Those are... definitely interesting theories." Hazecloud found a bit of humor in it. ​

 

[Snakeblink]

MAYBE I'D BE A SAINT IF I WEREN'T ————————————​

Concern is obvious in both Clayfur and Merlintongue, the silver tom going as far as moving as if to stop Snakeblink from picking up the pieces of trash. He chuckles at being called a fine warrior, unconvinced but flattered nonetheless; true or not, it’s nice to hear.

”I would be hard-pressed to call any of this junk interesting,” he tells Clayfur with a shrug. He was raised here, near the river: he never acquired a taste for twoleg secrets. ”Though some of it has… fascinating colors. You’re welcome to take a look though: if anyone can find treasure among these, it would be you.”

His own eyes cannot see the beauty of bold hues and alien materials, only their danger and disgusting encroachment upon Riverclan territory. He’s not alone in this reluctance: Clayfur, curious as he is, still looks wary, and both Merlintongue and Hazecloud voice their displeasure openly.

”Interesting theories indeed,” he agrees, turning towards Hazecloud as he echoes her words. ”What about you? Care to wager a use to these? I myself would argue some of them are meant to be decorative. I certainly cannot see any practical use to… this.” He prods the bright green, round object again.
​

——————————————————————————————————— so god damn lonely ​

ooc. information.

• 
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 42 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

​

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[CLAYFUR]

Merlintongue approaches them, fretting over the lead warrior, and Clay tips his head to the side. Having a tool for grooming would be nice, he thinks, casting a glance down at the roughed-up fur of his own pale chest. He then supplies that it may come from one of their monsters. Perhaps it’s from the one that Pike had shown him—he wonders what kind of other things are inside of those big metal beasts? The other brown and white warrior calls the stuff he’s collected junk, and Clay frowns slightly. It’s definitely interesting, no matter what Snakeblink says; maybe the other tom just hasn’t seen very many cool things. Where’s his sense of adventure? "It is interesting," he protests, but it’s light-hearted rather than outright defensive. But Snakeblink invites him to root through the objects, see if there’s anything fascinating, and Clay takes the opportunity.

Just as he reaches out for one of the not-green items, Snakeblink pokes at the green one, asking Hazecloud whether she has any ideas in particular. "No matter what they’re used for, at least they look cool," he says again, mentally comparing the shimmer of fish scales to the shining of twoleg objects. But he glances to Haze, awaiting her response.​

[ I ONLY SEE DAYLIGHT ]​

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[hazecloud]

Clayfur's protests were a bit amusing if only because she found it a little absurd. They would never find a use for anything the rolled down the river, or understand what it was for. The twoleg nonsense was beneath any of their understanding, she thought. But Clayfur's fascination was cute and mostly harmless. At least he didn't clutter the warriors den with all his findings.

"Me?" Hazecloud questioned through her laugh. She decided she would play into their imaginative guessing game. "I'm with Merlintongue, maybe they kept something like prey or herbs inside it. Or maybe it carried even more twoleg stuff." Hazecloud was inclined to believe the latter with just how much debris floated through.

She flicked the bottle cap further away from the shallows. "And maybe this was more like a... twoleg mossball."​