private ONE RAINY DAY ✧ sunshinepaw

[MOUSENOSE]

The forest, even in full newleaf glory, seems stripped of its beauty since Sunfreckle’s gruesome passing. Shadows, in her mind, still lurk with lean-eyed monsters, their snouts long and decorated with flecks of blood. Mousenose’s hackles struggle to remain flattened as she takes Sunshinepaw out of camp and into the Sandy Ravine. “I want you to use the lightning strike on me,” she mutters, her voice flat and disinterested. The tortoiseshell plants her paws in sand, bowing her legs, and waits.

Immediately, things go wrong. Sunshinepaw’s movements are not what they should be—their limbs are stiff, awkward, their steps noisy even in sand. Mousenose’s whiskers begin to twitch and stiffen with frustration. “What’s the matter with you today? I’m really not asking for much, am I?” Her tone is more biting than she means it to be—but oh, she’s just so tired, so tired of being a failure, tired of being sad, tired of … being. Her eyes snap emerald fire in her younger sibling’s direction as she waits for a response.

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

• ooc: —
• 
• Mousekit . Mousepaw . Mousenose, she/they w/ feminine and non-gendered terms.
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 18 moons old, ages realistically on the 25th.
  — mentored by Silverlightning ; mentoring Sunshinepaw ; previously mentored n/a
  — thunderclan warrior. sunfreckle x rabbitnose, gen 2.
  — currently mated to n/a.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh messy-furred tortoiseshell with high white and bright green eyes. demanding, exuberant, selfish, sensitive, oblivious, obnoxious.
  
  

​

 

[sunshinespot]

The lightning strike? What even is that? Sunshinepaw offers his sibling a stiff nod, hiding his confusion behind a grimace as he tries to think through the action. It should be quick, he thinks, if it's named after lightning. But he is not quick. His paw has an odd bounce to it, his sight is ruined, and he lumbers no differently than a badger. Regardless, he tries -

- and ultimately fails.

"Fuh -" he spits out some sand that ended up in his mouth, a paw lifting to rub it out of his pitted scars. Mousenose continues, her once plateaued voice pitching with frustration. He struggles, too, and he's been trying to be the spot of sunshine for them all - but maybe he's had enough. "'m - 'm trying, Mousenose!" he argues, though his heart hurts to even do that. "I can't see well, not no more. Is it too much t'ask you to be patient?" Or has he asked for too much patience already?​

 

[MOUSENOSE]

Sunshinepaw rises, spitting grit from his disfigured mouth and rubbing it from his ears. His green eyes rise to meet her own, and there is something breaking there, some resistance to her complaints. Her sibling’s response is unexpected—normally, they take everything Mousenose says without a word back. She takes a step forward, frustration puffing her pelt. “I know you have some struggles now, but they’re your own fault!” Her lower lip trembles with emotion, but she does not dare cry. She must be a mentor—she cannot give into the hurt that batters ‘round and ‘round in her heart. Doesn’t Sunshinepaw know they don’t like talking to him like this?

She shakes her messy fur and gives a solemn, tension-filled sigh, eyes closing behind tired lids. Sunshinepaw has suffered, but so has she, damn it. She had to watch her sibling be carried back to camp, broken and battered, bleeding and left with gruesome scars. She had to watch their father die, just the same as he did! She had the burden, too, of making him into a great ThunderClan warrior when all he did was blip and bumble along!

Mousenose opens her eyes, the flatness creeping back into her voice. “I just don’t know if I can keep doing this with you,” she mutters. “Maybe Howlingstar shouldn’t have chosen me to mentor you. Maybe I’m not…” Good enough. Sparkwing is a pinecone-eating mousebrain, but he and Pigeonpaw get along well—and Pigeonpaw is coming along to be a fine ThunderClan apprentice.

Is the problem her?

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

• ooc: —
• 
• Mousekit . Mousepaw . Mousenose, she/they w/ feminine and non-gendered terms.
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 18 moons old, ages realistically on the 25th.
  — mentored by Silverlightning ; mentoring Sunshinepaw ; previously mentored n/a
  — thunderclan warrior. sunfreckle x rabbitnose, gen 2.
  — currently mated to n/a.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh messy-furred tortoiseshell with high white and bright green eyes. demanding, exuberant, selfish, sensitive, oblivious, obnoxious.
  
  

​

 

[sunshinespot]

Mousenose speaks and surges forward with a single step, one of which Sunshinepaw reacts with an uncertain one falling behind him. Her voice threatens to warble, but his does as he cries out, "I know!" The moment is so tense that even the failure of a calico can drag his lazy claws through and shred it in time. He stares at her, uncertainty and pain in his lopsided gaze, trying to gauge what to say, if anything at all.

And then she speaks.

They share green eyes, but as she speaks, hers remind him more of acid and poison, and not their father's. "Don't -" Sunshinepaw doesn't lurch forward with his return step finally. He stays unsteady on paws that struggle to grasp the mere meaning of a hunting pounce. His head aches and he thinks of Gentlestorm turning him down - of how he tried to get away from Mousenose, but now trembles at the mere idea of them abandoning him.

"Don't leave me, Mousenose," he pleads, but he can't edge the anger and frustration out of his voice. Must he beg for her forgiveness? When all he does is try and try and try - and all they do in return is nag and complain and - "Please. I'll be all alone without you," his voice tapers into a whimper of sorts, lips trying to press together but doing so awkwardly.​