camp puttin' on the RITZ ☆ GIFT

[Skunktail]

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Maybe Frostbite's softheartedness was wearing off on him. He couldn't say he was fond of it, loved the guy but he felt he was a little too much of a pushover when it came to feelings at times but that came from a tom who felt his emotions on a level that far exceeded the norm. Skunktail did not feel anger, he felt rage. Skunktail was never happy, he was jubilant. Everything was intense and overwhelming at times, he let himself be a vessel for his feelings rather than attempt to control them in any constructive way.

He was not sorry for being angry, she had been foolish and endangered herself and her kits and it lead to such grief and pain, she had kits at the most innappropriate time - something that should have been celebrated was instead another trial to overcome for the clan. But he WAS sorry for having lost his cool, he was sorry for not reigning it in enough to make his feelings heard without barred teeth and screams, forcing a defensive response. The black and white tom's jaw clenched, the object between his teeth felt heavy in the way something like this shouldn't be but he was not about to back out of his decision now. He thinks of Frostbite, kind and a little too dense and how he offered patience to cats Skunktail didn't think deserved even a sliver. He respected him, loved him, how could he face his new mate and claim to look up to him if he did not first embrace his ideals. Or try to. He was going to try. How well that went was in the air.

She is not hard to find in the camp, his paws swiftly carrying him over and he sets his prize down near her before nudging it with his nose to roll it forward, "This is for you." Ah, words. He's not good at those, never has been and never claimed to be, part of him still stubbornly doesn't want to apologize for anything but he swallows and forces that wave of unease down, "I want to start over. I won't lie and say I'm sorry for being upset with you." He wasn't going to rehash it all again, they both knew how it was, "...but I may have been too harsh. I am sorry for that."
He waves a dark paw at the thing he'd found, dug out of carrionplace where he gets most his odd treasures. Truthfully he has no idea what it is. It looks like a plucked bird and makes awful noises.

☆ ———— promise me she's not your world ☆ ———————— 'Cause Andy, you're a star

• - @FERNDANCE but not a PAFP!
  It is one of those screaming chicken squeaky toys!
  
• 
  
  
  Skunktail
  —⊰⋅ Warrior of ShadowClan
  —⊰⋅ He/Him
  "SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
  —⊰⋅ SH Black & white tom w/spearmint green eyes
  

​

 

[FERNDANCE]

Skunktail's rage towards her made sense when Ferndance considered the facts: the cat had his own leafbare litter, hardship during the winter months was evidently something he'd avoided no matter the consequences, but her actions had forced him to confront difficulty. Had she been a bystander instead of the recipient, it was not something she'd have blamed the tom for. For good and for bad, selfishness ran in the cinnamon tabby's blood, his words had been all an emotional Queen had needed to want to run away. She'd avoided him since her return to active duty, discretion was the better part of valour and she was not feeling bold enough to fight an unwinnable war. His approach, random as anything, caused her fur to bristle and her nose to turn upwards in disinterest... until he revealed a piece of... something. Emerald eyes gawked at it, her pupils turning from cautious slits to being as wide as boulders. It was a chicken, that much was clear by the crimson crown upon its head (or was that just roosters? She'd ask their namesake, had he still been around... StarClan, she missed him). Whether it was a real one or fake, the cinnamon tabby couldn't discern, nor did she have the chance before Skunktail opened his mouth - and apologised, somewhat.

"Yeah... you were dirt," Ferndance agreed, her tail lashing as she glanced down again towards his reconciliation gift. She placed her paws on the chicken and pressed down, the creature emitting a grating groan that echoed throughout the camp. When its squeal died, Ferndance did it again... and again... and again... until she remembered the company that expected a proper answer. Eyes unashamed at getting distracted look up towards Skunktail. Ferndance should still hate him, though she had been the one to leave camp in the end, his hatred had been the wind that pushed her towards the exit. She'd have taken care of her kits by herself in the forest if she had to, if not to be reminded daily of the burden she had become during leafbare. Still, the warrior found herself absent from camp far too often, killing whatever frogs she could find to ensure her children were fed. ShadowClan deemed them apprentices, but they were kittens still, her kittens, and she would not have them starve. Some of Skunktail must have felt the same, if he had bothered to interact with her younglings. Ears droop with uncertainty as she stepped once more upon the screaming bird, as if the noise would bring some level of comfort. "I forgive you... on one condition."

"Gifts are boring, let me steal this from you when you least expect it." The prospects of a challenge shone in her eyes.

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[CHILLEDSTAR.]

DON'T YOU GIVE ME UP, PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP​

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chilledstar was trying to get rest. key word, trying. it wasn't working and especially wasn't working when the worst screaming noise comes from out of their den. they jolt up with a hiss at the way their wounds move with them. what the fuck was that noise!? with an agitated growl, they slide out of their den, unamused look on their face. oh, of course this was what it was. some stupid piece of twoleg trash, found from stars know where, and making such horrendous noises. why did a twoleg have a need for such thing, they will never know nor understand.

"what the fuck is that?"

bitterness suits them, they believe. they have every right to be. what a terrible noise.

"oh, great. glad to see you're making up or whatever but why must it have been with such an annoying... thing? skunktail, i could very well kill you for this."

a joke... mostly. they'd never kill him... for frostbite's sake.
​

 

[splashdance]

Snowypaw reclines by the nursery, soaking up little bits of sun where she can. Most of her days are spent here, watching her little siblings grow and talking with her mother. Thistlesight is often out hunting - they don't have the paws to spare to make dedicated training days, unfortunately - so Snowypaw often just... waits around for his return, mostly to practice the same hunting crouches and spar lessons. Not much else they can do in camp.

Her leisure is surprisingly interrupted by caterwauling to a degree she had never heard - and she was there for Needledrift's kitting!! She stands quickly, clearly disturbed and confused, and she finds Ferndance and Skunktail standing near this weird... yellow thing. Her curiosity pitches her forward as she trots closer to her mother, eyeing the twoleg item with big blue eyes. "Can I squeal it...?" she asks, looking up first at the original duo and then Chilledstar. She's lost on the original context, both the apology and the reason behind it, as well as how perfectly intertwined into the mess she really is. Her ear flicks as she squeaks a quick, "Please!" afterwards.​

 

[EGGSKIP]

I MET A GIRL WHO SANG THE BLUES — Her peace, so fleeting and so well-loved by the lazy queen who spent ages lounging around the nursery... destroyed. One moment her nose was tucked beneath her tail, amber eyes closed and mind completely blank as she dozed the day away. The next moment, a shrill squeal shot through her ears, jaw clenching and tail lashing as her head popped up. Eggskip half expected it to be one of the kits currently living in the nursery alongside her, squealing because they'd discovered something amazing in their eyes. The space around her was free of squeaking children for the moment though, a fact that caused her to glare in confusion until the shrieking noise was repeated once again. And again. And again.

Whatever it was, she wanted to tear it limb from limb.

Furious huffs left her muzzle as she stalked out into camp, teeth bared towards the unknown threat - annoyance, more like - until she spotted Ferndance and her new prize. Previously she had thought the seemingly new Shadowclan tradition of trash gift-giving was cute, but now? With this? It filled her with a sense of rage, claws churning up dirt in her wake as she made her way over. "What is that Starclan-forsaken thing? I could hear it from all the way across camp in the nursery!" Eggskip couldn't keep the annoyance from her usually flat or amused voice, a strange contrast that very few in Shadowclan had ever heard before. She had mainly reserved it for those that had scolded her for the birth timing of her own children, telling them off because she had grown tired of the continued comments. The queen had gotten it eventually, she was just tired of hearing it over and over - it had just become a pain in her tail.

Normally she found that she got along with Ferndance in particular because of that, and because of the other similarities that the two of them shared. Right now, though? She'd box the older warrior around the ears if it would get her to stop pressing on that terrible, horrible thing. She didn't feel any better when Snowypaw came bounding over, looking towards the apprentice with a pleading expression. "What's so great about it, really? It's just so loud, you can find plenty of actual prey to squeal like that." And then at least the noise would be outside of camp, instead of so nearby that she wanted to claw her own ears off to escape it all. Why would Skunktail condemn them all to this?

AND I ASKED HER FOR ★ SOME HAPPY NEWS

• 
  ✰ longhaired black tabby and fawn chimera with amber eyes
  ✰ 18 moons old; ages the 1st every month
  ✰ bisexual; currently not looking
  ✰ mother of slugkit, leechkit, and mantiskit
  ✰ currently a queen; rarely leaves camp
  ✰ shadowclan born; loyal but not hostile to other clans
  ✰ very easy to befriend; little animosity in her at all
  ✰ "speech", thoughts, attacking
  ✰ peaceful powerplay allowed

​