private PURE IMAGINATION ❆ "Family"

[Frightpaw]

*+:｡.｡ Since Deathpaw's demise, Frightpaw had been thinking. Mostly, replaying Whitepaw-now Marrowpaw - returning home, covered in her sister's blood. She thinks about Nightingalecry revealing that half the "litter" were adopted...about the way Ebonylight looked at those very same kits. She understood him, now. She understood, too, how easy it must've been for Marrowpaw to draw the ichor of one he did not share his with. Frightpaw didn't doubt he'd find it easy to pull from hers as well. That any of his siblings might.

"Midnightpaw, Grasspaw, Marrowpaw " Frightpaw spoke to each cat in turn after gathering them together in a secluded part of camp. She didn't want this to be a big thing - honestly, she doubted it would be. Thus, she cut straight to the point - "I think we should stop seeing each other as family " Amidst clan culture, adoption wasn't all too rare. Even someone as rough around the edges as Sootspot had done it, claiming three orphans as his own. It was unprecedented, then, for a cat to openly cut ties with felines she still shared a camp and duties with...but Frightpaw wasn't the type to fake it till you make it.
"It was nice while it lasted, but I think it's good for everyone if we stopped pretending " she explains with the amused smile of one who'd outgrown childish games. She'll surely miss teasing Grasspaw, or sharing prey with Midnightpaw...and it had been nice having a similar apathetic disposition with another cat like Marrowpaw...
But this was for the best.

Frightpaw was her own family, and she'd like that to be acknowledged.

*+:｡.｡ Updated 12/28/24

• @Grasspaw @Midnightpaw @marrowpaw. I'm so sorry ya'll she's SO dramatic
  
  aaand @Periwinklebreeze. if you wanna watch your niece burn bridges like an idiot <3
• " Speech "
  
  
  GENERAL:
  ☾ Frightpaw
  ☾ DFAB— She/Her — Unsure
  ☾ 12 moons
  ☾ Windclan moor-runner apprentice
  ☾ Sister to Deathpaw, Witherpaw, Grasspaw, Whitepaw and Midnightpaw
  
  
  
  COMBAT:
  ☾Physically hard | mentally hard
  ☾ Attack in bold #1b1e21
  injuries: None

 

[Grasspaw]

𓆝 . ° ✦ When Frightpaw had gathered them together it had set an uneasy stone in the pit of his stomach. She was getting weirder by the day it seemed. Then she opened her mouth and made it worse, apparently. He sent an incredulous look to both Midnightpaw and Marrowpaw (he'd have to work on getting used to that one). "Are you serious?" he nearly laughed in her face. The sheer ridiculousness of the whole thing was absurd. "You think I- we're pretending?" he snapped, the edge in his tone sharpening.

Sure. They weren't close like when they were kits. Nobody ever was as they grew up. That's just life though, right? That doesn't change the fact that they're all still family, that they were all raised by the same cat. Nightingalecry must be rolling in her grave listening, seeing this... whatever this was meant to be. "You-" he snapped his jaw shut fast enough that his teeth clicked together. Grasspaw scoffed instead, looking to see his other siblings reactions.

✧ ° . ✶ . ° ✧​

ooc Information

• ooc: —
• 

  GRASSPAW — HE/HIM ･ 12 MOONS ･ TUNNELER APPRENTICE & WINDCLAN ･ PENNED BY TWITCHTAIL

  Small fawn tabby with pale green eyes.
  "speak" thoughts action
  — peaceful, healing, and minor injury powerplay allowed

 

[MARROWPAW]

Marrowpaw's heart clenches at the conversation unfolding in front of him. Frightpaw's words hit him like a claw to the chest, ripping open wounds he thought had begun to scab over. He stands frozen, barely listening to Grasspaw's sharp response. The edges of his vision blur, and it feels like the ground beneath him is tilting. Stop pretending? His claws dig into the earth as he stares at Frightpaw, her amused smile like a thorn in his paw. It's not just the words that hurt—it's the way she says them, so casual, as though casting them aside is the simplest thing in the world. Marrowpaw doesn't know what he expects her to say, but this isn't it.

He swallows hard, his throat dry. "So that's it, then?" he says, his voice quieter than Grasspaw's but no less cutting. "You've decided we're not family anymore because it's... what? Easier?" His tail lashes behind him, the tension in his body palpable. He doesn't look at Midnightpaw or Grasspaw now—he can't. All his focus is on Frightpaw, the cat he thought would always stand by them, no matter what. "We grew up together, Frightpaw. We shared the same nest, the same food, the same mother. But none of that matters to you anymore?" And then it strikes him—maybe this is his fault. Maybe she's cutting ties because of what he did. Because of Deathpaw. His chest tightens, the familiar weight of guilt pressing down on him. He doesn't want to believe it, but he can't shake the thought.

"I'm sorry," he blurts out, the words tumbling from his mouth unbidden. His voice cracks, and he hates how weak he sounds. "If this is because of me—because of what happened—then just say it. Say it's my fault. Don't drag them into this." He finally looks at Midnightpaw and Grasspaw, his gaze filled with guilt and desperation. "You don't have to stop being family because of me." His ears flatten against his head, and his tail droops. He doesn't know what he expects to come from this. Frightpaw has made up her mind, and there's nothing he can say to change it. But the ache in his chest doesn't care about logic or reason. It just hurts.

Marrowpaw's paws feel rooted to the ground, as though the earth itself is trying to swallow him whole. His words hang in the air, brittle and raw, and he hates how exposed they make him feel. For a moment, he wants to take them back, to curl in on himself and let the world forget he ever spoke. But the words are out now, and there's no reeling them in. He glances at Frightpaw again, her expression still unreadable to him, and the sight twists the knot in his chest tighter. His claws scrape against the dirt, and he presses them deeper, hoping the sting in his pads will pull him out of his spiraling thoughts. It doesn't.

His breaths come shallow and quick, the edges of his vision still threatening to blur. He focuses on the familiar surroundings of the camp—the cracks in the stones nearby, the faint scent of rain still lingering in the air—but none of it grounds him. All he can think of is Deathpaw. Of blood. Of the look in Frightpaw's eyes now, so different from the warmth they used to hold. Of the ice in Deathpaw's eyes as she knocked him to the ground and closed her teeth around his eye, his ears, as she held him down to rend flesh. Of the taste of her blood, hot and metallic, filling his mouth as her life drained out atop him.

Marrowpaw swallows again, his throat tight. "I—I didn't mean for any of this," he murmurs, his voice barely audible now, meant for no one but himself. His tail drags low, stirring the dust behind him. "I didn't want... I didn't want things to turn out like this." The memories continue to creep in unbidden—Deathpaw's snarling face, the sickening warmth of blood on his fur, the weight of her body falling to the snow as he finally pushed her off him. He squeezes his eyes shut, willing the images away, but they only sharpen in the darkness behind his lids. His body feels heavy, weighed down, panic racing through his chest. Marrowpaw shakes his head sharply, trying once more to to clear it, but it only makes him feel more unsteady. He forces himself to speak again, his voice trembling but insistent. "You can stop seeing me as family if that's what you want, Frightpaw. Maybe I deserve that. But they don't. They didn't do anything wrong."

His gaze drops to the ground, unable to hold her eyes any longer. The weight of his grief and guilt presses down on him, threatening to crush what little strength he has left. Slowly, as though every step costs him more than he can afford, Marrowpaw turns away, his head low and shoulders slumped. "I'll... leave you alone," he murmurs, the rasp scratching through his words, "if that's what you want. Just leave them out of it."​

 

[Frightpaw]

*+:｡.｡ Frightpaw stares, unblinking, as Grasspaw laughs only to contradict his amusement with an indignant snarl. Shards of moonlight narrow into glinting daggers as he proceeds, lost for words as if Frightpaw is crazy. She decides to respond in kind, baring her teeth in the guise of a smile, "Are you saying you aren't? " Last she checked, none of them had spoken to one another since Nightingalecry died - does that sound like family behavior? Granted, that was nothing compared to literally killing a sibling, but that's just evidence of her not seeing the signs.

Marrowpaw senses her thoughts, it seems, as he immediately begins to blubber like a convict caught with his paws red. She stares, daggers becoming twin pools of starless abyss eager to chew up and swallow those foolish enough to think they're anything more than a speck of dust in this grand, unforgiving universe. "You are so dramatic " she finally sighs, her tongue colder than the dark side of the moon. Seriously, what did he think he was going to get with this pity party? A pat on the back? A hug?

"You killed my sister " she says it with the same amount of passion as one relaying the weather - a fact. "I didn't mean it, I didn't want it " she raises her voice into a mocking keen, tilting her head this way and that as she widens her eyes in a theatrical pantomime of Marrowpaw's wretched expressions, before cutting the play with a deathly cold stare, "But you did. You killed her. How am I to know I'm not next? " She shifts the judgemental gaze to Grasspaw and Midnightpaw, silky tail lashing like a viper hidden in the grass, "We were all tied by Nightingalecry, and now she's dead, so that connection is severed. Stop crying Marrowpaw, Starclan, not everything is about you, seriously you'd think killing a person would give you a backbone "

Rising to her feet, Frightpaw's determined to cut this tragedy short, "We're not family, we're barely even friends, I don't know why that bothers any of you so much " she directs her gaze, specifically for a moment, on Marrowpaw, "At least you all have each other...unless Marrowpaw decides familicide is a new hobby he'd like to persue " she snickers.

*+:｡.｡ Updated 12/28/24

• " Speech "
  
  
  GENERAL:
  ☾ Frightpaw
  ☾ DFAB— She/Her — Unsure
  ☾ 12 moons
  ☾ Windclan moor-runner apprentice
  ☾ Sister to Deathpaw, Witherpaw, Grasspaw, Whitepaw and Midnightpaw
  
  
  
  COMBAT:
  ☾Physically hard | mentally hard
  ☾ Attack in bold #1b1e21
  injuries: None