RESTLESS POTENTIAL ☀ RUNNING

[SUNFLOWERMASK]

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YOU ARE THE DAYLIGHT

Sunflowerpaw has not had an easy apprenticehood; its start marked by injury, its end by tragedy. The marks of the metallic teeth which trapped their paw still lie beneath their thick fur, the pain still lingers on their worse days. The stiffness of a paw never quite healed right marks their gait, a shifting of weight obvious to any who look.

It's still easier to think of than their more recent loss.

Sunflowerpaw has always seemed a touch cold, a touch asocial. Their face is ever-blank, their soft words as rare as ever. But there is a woundedness to them now, deeper than their subtle limp, and far harder to heal. Grief claws at their chest, loss clouding their mind.

They want to get away from it.

So Sunflowerpaw runs.

Not away, no; WindClan is the only home they know. They run the moors alone, a training of sorts. Moons ago it would have been unimaginable. A visit to the sun-warmed pool eased the stiffness, just as it did in the sunrises after they left their brother's old den.

They've leaned, now, how to work with the pain. Focus on their hind legs, their left front paw, place as little weight on their bad leg as they can. Push off with hind legs, steady with their good paw and brush the ground lightly with their bad one, repeat. With their focus on running with their hind legs, their run turns rabbit-like, hopping and bounding across the moors.

It looks like flying.

The wind grasps at their fur, pulls and tugs as they race against it. A living thing, surrounding them and trying, trying, to pull them back, to halt their bounding pace. A competition held with none but the wind itself. A shaky breath escapes Sunflowerpaw's maw, half a huff of laughter, and half a panting exhalation. Unbeknownst to them, their mouth tilts upwards. Tears prick at their eyes - just the wind, it's just the wind - and they squeeze them tightly shut. Move by instinct alone, by the feeling of the moorgrass against their paws, tracing a haphazard path across the hills.

And for a moment, with nothing but the sound of the wind rushing in their ears, the rest of the world fades away.

YOU ARE THE NIGHT
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.°☀ info ; visual

• // 150th post yippeeeeeeeee
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• SUNFLOWERPAW named by their half-brother vulturemask after his friend and mentor.
  — they/them, 9 moons.
  — windclan apprentice, mentored by houndthistle.
  — reserved yet loyal, distrusts most. rarely speaks.
  
  primary character, high activity. penned by saturnid.​
• "SPEECH"
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• 

​

 

[SUNNVAR]

Sunstride cannot say what it is that he feels, looking at Sunflowerpaw. Never had he been all that close to the apprentice. Even as Wolfsong's, at the time, he had never grown all that close to them. Perhaps it was their proximity to Vulturemask, or perhaps he had been afraid of stepping on another's toes. Yet there is...familiarity. The shared flow of time between them, and a link between them that is named Wolfsong, one that shifts and withers with the breeze. There is a strange guilt that he gets to keep the golden tom, where his former apprentice did not. They still spent their time with one another, curled into a nest that they shared. He would accompany him on herb gathering, when he was allowed. Sunflowerpaw, meanwhile, had been given to another entirely. After the loss of Vulturemask, to find that their former mentor had taken that position...did it burn terribly? Did it wound them?

As they race across the moors, he does not think so. Or, at the very least, he can see that they have set it down. His breath a gentle exhalation of something akin to awe, the lead warrior watches as they leap above the grasses and soar. There is laughter dancing across the breeze, and their fur flows with it as well. Rabbit hops and a bird's weightless flight; Sunflowerpaw, child of the moors, finally relieved of their burden. If only for a moment. Sunstride does not interrupt, but his eyes are soft and liquid as he sits and observes. They are not close, yet they are clanmates even still– there is pride and love nonetheless.

＞ˏˋ〘  OOC NOTES ╱ REFERENCE ╱ 07.10.2023 𝘏𝘈𝘕𝘋𝘚𝘖𝘔𝘌 𝘈𝘚 𝘓𝘐𝘍𝘌 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘗𝘖𝘐𝘚𝘖𝘕 〙ˊˎ＜

• ooc: this post was absolutely gorgeously written and tore my HEART out, i just had to say. like.... wow

• 

• SUNSTRIDE. named for his coloration and his bold chasing of fate.
  —— cis male, he - him. approx. 40 moons old. lead warrior of windclan + former rogue.
  —— gay, monogamous. mate to wolfsong from 07.05.2023.  npc x npc, no larger family.
  —— has recently regained some of his earlier lightness, but maintains his steady facade.
  
  sunstride is broad and bold– a creature standing above most of windclan, though not a beast beyond its borders, with fur that flames red and deepens to a burnt amber with every whorl and stripe. his eyes, in comparison, are a pale summer's blue, still as bold as the rest of him.

• "speech"

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[Bluepool]

Bluepool comes to the crest of the hill, gray fur gently tugged by the breeze. It calls to her, makes her want to race across the moors alongide the apprentice who soars across the gentle slopes. They look like they belong, like they are a rabbit reincarnated into a cats body. Like Sunstride, who she settles down next to, a smile graces her lips at the sight. "Look at em go" she says in a breathy voice, filled with awe and wonder. "It makes me feel like a youngin again, watching them" it is the same sense of wonder she feels now that she had felt before, when she first set eyes on the moors and stepped out into the open air. It was the feeling of freedom.

"Almost makes you wanna join em eh?" she says, but as she tucks her paws underneath her and settles into the grass it is clear she won't. She did not want to disturb Sunflowerpaw. No, this run was theirs and she would not interrupt the moment unfolding in front of them. The look in her eyes does not fade, however, and her gaze follows the apprentice's race across the fields.

// dittoing rev your post was beautifully written!!!

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[Robinfang]

Robinfang’s nose poked from the tall grasses, eyes narrowed on the two clanmates watching another fly. He wasn’t close to any of them. He had conversed, just as he had with any other, but he didn’t consider them friends, per se, but perhaps this was a time to change that. He stood straight before breaking through the grasses, ears alert and green irises narrowed in curiosity.

He sat straight-backed behind the other two, to watch the apprentice as Sunflowerpaw ran through the moors. He glanced down at Bluepool as she spoke, a smile on his lips when she wished for the grace of youth again. "I do. But my joints are far too rough and worn on the edges for me to catch up with them." He smiled again, tail placed neatly on the tops of his paws. He hoped her run was as freeing as it looked.

OOC: Kicking and screaming all of you guys are such good writers KEEP IT UP.
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walk "talk." thought​

penned by helly​

 

[Periwinklebreeze.]

❀​❀ I AM SORRY THIS IS ALWAYS HOW IT GOES ❀❀​

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periwinklebreeze & 12 moons & demi-boy & he/they & windclan moor runner​

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Periwinkle has not been a very good friend. For all that he claims vulturemask to be his brother in all but blood, says that he views sunflowerpaw and siblings much the same, he's not been very attentive, so caught up in his own grief and self-flagellation as he is. So when the boy spots dove-golden fur fly about the moorlands in a startling show of grace, as he listens to laughter in the wind, he pauses to watch, a soft look upon his face, and feels only regret. He should do better, he thinks - will do better. "Sunflowerpaw looks... free," he murmurs, his own soft voice startling himself, both in the fact he'd spoken aloud without realizing it and the fact he'd managed to speak without stuttering, and he flushes beneath his coat. But his words are no less true.

— the wind blows loudest when you've got your eyes closed ❀

• Actions && "Speech," && ' Thoughts/Quotes '
  
  ooc: —
  tw/cw: —
  
• 
  — a lithe figured black and white tom with a false-pointed pattern and clear blue eyes that gleam periwinkle in the right lighting. he seems perpetually worn and exhausted, with heavy bags beneath his eyes and a slouched figure. he has a speech impediment which leaves him with a stutter and sometimes even completely non-verbal, and his fluffy tail is adorned with daisies.
  
  — physically medium && mentally easy && pacifist
  — non-violent powerplay allowed && healing powerplay allowed && minor injury powerplay allowed
  — please attack using [b][color=#ccccff]action here[/color][/b] and tag account