QUEEN FLY ☣︎ RTA - Ladybug

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Mintshade has mostly existed in uncharacteristic silence since the sudden shift in clan dynamic. Sunstride was Sunstar now, Sootstar was dead, the clan was slowly healing from the open wounds she had long since ignored because they had not bled upon her. Part of her wonders if she should have sided with her sister, defended her as she once thought she might have; died the way she felt she should have, it would have been nice to go down in battle but in a sudden strange turn of heart she had chosen something else. A path once paved in bodies and bloodshed had been one she craved, she longed to continue her quest to better herself in combat, to clash claws with another; a life and death struggle to keep her feeling alive. Now? Now, she wasn't sure. Mintshade didn't know what she wanted anymore in this world. The purpose she once held, defended a throne secured, was no longer something she felt any pride or need in; Sunstride did not need wayward defenders, the clan had blossomed like the moorland fields from beneath the oppressive air it once held. She feels strange for noticing no difference, nothing has changed for her in a meaningful way. The nursery is full of kits, the freshkill pile is full of prey and WindClan felt lighter. Her shaded, scarred and dour figure seemed alarmingly out of place now. No cackling at blood spilled in bitter spats, no mocking those whose voices rang in opposition, snapping her teeth at retreating tails as cats were sent fleeing for their lives. The calm unsettled her. It was worth basking in, enjoying and accepting, but her fur prickled and she felt as if she were trapped within her own skin unable to escape.
The dark molly gave a silent huff as she lay on her belly at the edge of camp, watching everyone go about their business and a surge of loneliness swelled in her chest; she hated that she missed Sootstar. Bluepool was still here, but as a lead warrior her duties kept her busy, Sootstar's many offspring scattered like petals in a breeze through the tall grass but she never was close to them; Mintshade had always kept a distance and now it felt too late to try.
As she stared, acid green gaze fixated forward, a flicker of red caught her eye and she lowered her head to glance upon the tiny speck settled on her paw. A ladybug, spotted and shining like a smooth stone in the sun. She was once told they were a sign of good fortune, of luck. The black she-cat scoffed, flicking her paw to send the bug fluttering away. Was it a sign from StarClan? She doubted it, a cat like her didn't get signs - those were for healers, leaders...
But a small part of her hopes its an indication of something changing. Luck bestowed upon her to find her path again perhaps? Who was to say.
"I wonder if there are flowers by the sunwarmed pools yet..."

  • Prompt ⊱✿⊰ Ladybugs are symbols of luck, and one just so happens to land on your character! What endeavors are they hoping to be lucky in?

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    Mintshade
    —⊰⋅ Warrior (Moor Runner) of WindClan
    —⊰⋅ She/Her
    "SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
    —⊰⋅ SH Solid black cat w/ acid green eyes.

 
──ᨒ↟↟ᨒ↟ᨒ↟↟ᨒ── Many moons ago, perhaps Wolfsong would have been surprised that Mintshade did not stand at Sootstar's side in the end, but he finds that it did not strike him as unexpected at all. During the debilitating outbreak of yellowcough and the quarantine, which locked Mintshade with Weaselclaw and her niece, Wolfsong sensed...a change, perhaps. When Weaselclaw died and Sootstar cursed StarClan, he thinks he saw that change most clearly, but whatever the cause, it meant he wasn't taken aback to see her stand with Sunstar.

She has been oddly reclusive, however, a far cry from her days of poking her nose everywhere and butting heads with Wolfsong. Seeing her today, he does not hesitate to approach — and sees her flick away the red beetle, despite its associations with luck. Hm.

"What keeps you from heading there now, Mintshade? Worried you will frighten the blooms back into the soil?"
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WOLFSONG of WINDCLAN FORMER ROGUE TURNED MEDICINE CAT. 42 MOONS, HE/HIM, NPC X NPC. MATES WITH SUNSTAR (07/05/2023). BIOGRAPHY, PINTEREST, & PLAYLIST.
  • ★★★☆☆ WOUNDS: You're (mostly) in safe paws. You'll know if he's less experienced if he asks for your permission to try a treatment. No wound can scare him away from knowledge.
    ★★★☆☆ INFECTION: He can prevent most infections. If you feel feverish, let him know; he'll hum thoughtfully over herbs and sniff your wound before saying, "With your blessing..."
  • ★☆☆☆☆ ACHES & PAINS: If you complain to him of pain, he'll ask where. If it's a headache, you'll likely feel a bit better. For anything else, "Try this, if you'd like, and tell me how you feel."
    ★☆☆☆☆ BROKEN BONES: At best. he can ask you to remain lying down in the den. He may try to distract you with conversation while he considers what herb to feed you.
  • ★★★★★ TRAVELING HERBS: Going somewhere? No worries; Wolfsong knows just what you need to stay hale and healthy during your journey. The rest is up to you.
    ★★★☆☆ KITTING: Thanks to Starlingheart and his own pregnancy, he's better prepared for the arrival of kits, but any complications will need a little faith and a lot of luck.
  • ★☆☆☆☆ POISONS: It's best if you avoid eating anything unfamiliar to you— it's probably just as unfamiliar to Wolfsong. The best he can do is offer you yarrow and sit with you.
    ★★☆☆☆ ILLNESS: If it's white or greencough, you'll likely recover. Otherwise, prepare for odd concoctions and the usual request that you consent to a little trial-and-error.
 

Featherpaw held no great fondness for cats who mumbled to themselves, though why he did not know for certain. Through early life, those who had made comments under their breath- or who had gossiped a bit too close to the medicine cat's den- had been useful in arming Featherpaw against the dangers what awaited her outside of camp. Perhaps that was why it annoyed him, now... they were useful no longer, and served as stark reminders of the child he did not want to be.

He did not know Mintshade well- which was lucky for her, probably, as he had not had time to sour on her yet. The proximity of Wolfsong was some indication that she might be worth engaging with, though in typical guarded manner. Partway through grooming herself, Featherpaw murmured, "If she's got a b-buh... b-brain, it's the sneezing that keeps her away." Sun-blister eyes flickered to Wolfsong, momentarily, uncaring that it was anti-social to refer to Mintshade as if she wasn't there when she was in fact very much within earshot.
✦ penned by pin
 
AS HE RAISED HIS FIST BEFORE HE SPOKE — Mintshade had never been a clanmate that Rattleheart had grown particularly close to, for a variety of reasons. The most prominent one - even above her association with Sootstar - was simply the way that their workloads had kept them apart. It had been rare for them to end up on patrols together, his own monochrome pelt burrowed underneath the dirt while Mintshade's coat of black soaked in all of the sunlight up in the moors. Rarely did their two paths cross, with the only occasions where they did usually being negative ones. The already mentioned snapping at the heels of cats fleeing for their lives, a group that Rattleheart had only gotten lucky in not finding himself one of them sooner. He had no doubt that she would've been happy to chase him alongside the rest long ago, though he hoped such a statement wouldn't prove true now. She had helped Bearpaw along to the rest of them, and it seemed hypocritical not to offer her the same second chance that he had offered towards Bluefrost.

That he was still trying to offer towards Sootspot, in spite of it all.

Regardless, the lead warrior did have to wonder how she was settling into things, now that Windclan's moor fields weren't painted with the blood of friend and foe alike. It seemed that the turn of the season had finally afforded them some peace and quiet, and Rattleheart wasn't sure he could even picture a Mintshade frozen in such a state. Evidently the moor runner herself felt similarly, considering the distant look in her eyes as she laid near the edge of camp, staring listlessly towards the rest of the clan milling about around her. Did she really have anyone to turn to, with Bluepool caught up in her lead warrior duties and - as he suspected - a growing closeness with Scorchstreak? He hated to see any clanmate in such a state, a fact that prompted him to snatch up the most tantalizing piece of prey from the freshkill pile that he spotted - a rather plump thrush.

Long-legged strides brought him over to where Mintshade had settled, arriving just in time to see her flick away the ladybug that had made an attempt at gracing her with its presence. Hopefully she wouldn't do the same with him. Rattleheart dropped the thrush at her paws as Wolfsong and Featherpaw approached, both of their statements drawing a chuckle out of him. "There are flowers by the pools, I saw them myself on my last trip out there to wash the dirt off my pelt. The pollen from them is admittedly a bit of an annoyance, but it's not so bad when you can just dip down into the water." He barely waited for his own explanation to be over before pushing the thrush towards Mintshade, striped tail twitching behind him as he offered her a smile. "Care to share? I'm sure a trip to the Sun-Warmed Pool would be even better without an empty stomach." He honestly wouldn't mind going and taking his own dip once again, considering his frequent trips down into the tunnels had once again begun to stain the white of his pelt an unpleasant tan. He could wait until Mintshade had gotten her own fill, however.


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    longhaired black and white tom with pale green eyes
    49 moons old; ages the 1st every month
    afab; uses he/she/they pronouns
    homosexual homoromantic; mated to venomstrike
    sibling to scorchstreak, lizardbounce, and rabbitclaw
    currently mentoring downypaw
    somewhat difficult to befriend; wary but kind
    "speech", thoughts, attacking
    peaceful powerplay allowed
    all opinions are ic
 

In many ways their predicaments were similar, choosing to survive to live another day then die yowling the name of Sootstar. She fought her regrets daily, tried to comprehend what it meant to live in what felt like a new world, she’d only been a follower however a loyal soldier since she was barely anything more then a kit. She could scarcely imagine what it must’ve felt like to be Mintshade or Bluepool - more so the former. She had always thought the more vicious of Sootstar’s siblings would’ve died for her but expectations sparingly seemed to match reality for her. She didn’t know what to think of them anymore, she couldn’t judge them she’d chosen her own skin too.

She eyes her nervously as she comes up to the small group that surrounded the older she-cat. They were discussing the sun warmed pool, she didn’t often go close to it she never enjoyed the feeling of water soaking her fur. She passes a glare towards the back of Wolfsong’s head before she comes to the side of Rattleheart. "I wouldn’t go in that water if I were you. Figure it’d still be chilly" it was much much warmer but the rain still felt chilly to her, it wasn’t greenleaf yet and she wouldn’t be caught dead sticking her paws in the water no matter how dirty they got.