private ROLL THE DICE | Sootspot

[Firefang]

Firefang was watchful, vigilance was a skill that’d been further honed in this new age; in the age of Sunstar. She worried perhaps unfoundedly that her blood would be spilled in the dark of night, that the tolerance some of her clanmates held for her would end swiftly and in her demise. It took her longer than most to drift asleep, regardless of her wariness she refused to give up the joy of sleeping beneath the stars. If she died she prayed it’d be beneath the banner of silverpelt. For now she watches the slowly rising and falling sleeping forms of her clanmates, but she catches movement and her head cranes to see the fur of Sootspot slipping away, going out alone rather it be to the dirt place or to clear his mind - whatever he was doing he’d be alone.

The Tunnelers spent much of their time beneath the earth and when she saw them it was among other clanmates. She’d not been able to corner Sootspot by his lonesome. This was her first opportunity and she takes it.

She rises to her paws nearly stumbling over at her quick movements, and pads after him swiftly. She doesn’t care to hide the noise her movement makes as she draws closer, further out of earshot of camp. "You" her meow sounds like a accusation with a single word. She comes closer to him and it’s so obvious how small he was, how feeble he was in a world that was no longer his - that wasn’t his mothers anymore. He walks around with a haughty stride, plays pretend and she sees right through it. She sees the way he looks down on her despite the allegiance they once shared.

She can stomach the others, those who’d been loyal to the rebellion and the way they view her it was expected. But from him? She couldn’t stand it.

"Whats your problem?" she doesn’t know what she gains out of this but she feels a need to do it. she’ll take away this toms armor if she can find a gap in it. She has nothing to hide herself, and for once she was out of the earshot of her superiors and all those who pretended all was well. She wasn’t muzzled she could say what she wanted. And she would.

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‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── ooc ⋆⋅☾⋅⋆ info ──┐‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

• 
  
  @SOOTSPOT BONK
  

• "speech"

• 

  Firefang ✩ She/Her, Warrior of Windclan, 22 moons
  ⭃ Black tabby she-cat with amber eyes. former-loyalist of Sootstar, Moorunner.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by Kedamono ↛ @legmeatt on discord, feel free to dm for plots. ​

​

 

[SOOTSPOT]

He didn't much like sleeping under the stars anymore. His mother had chosen the moors as a way to be closer to them, to show the divinity of his bloodline and the faith that WindClan had in their ancestors. Now he knew that the clan nestled under a blanket of lies, that StarClan's justice wasn't real because they'd forced him to take away everything he'd ever tried to work for. Most nights, the former Lead Warrior took to the entrance of the tunnels for slumber, this night, however, he found he couldn't sleep for thinking. Ideas buzzed around his head like bees collecting pollen and he knew he needed to walk it off before he did something reckless in the middle of moonhigh. Sootspot slipped into the shadows to avoid the glimmer of the Star's indignant eyes, stalking out a smaller camp exit and letting the early newleaf chill run through his fur. Tufted ears were aimed the sky, even if he could navigate the dark better than the moor-runners, there was an unfamiliarity to the hills at this time of day that made him wary of predators. He didn't realise he would have to be careful of flames, too.

The sound of flowers crunched under unkind paws caused him to whip his head around, squinting at the outline of a dark creature. A rogue? She spoke quickly, the familiarity doing little to stop his claws from unsheathing. 'I was half-correct.' Instantly, he tried to map where the closest burrow was, the nearest escape route from a cat that walked up to him as if prepared to kill him - Firefang's tone did little to inspire confidence in a civil meeting. She was a boorish creature, too prone to showing her heart when plenty of her clanmates were prepared to rip it out. The black tabby loomed over him and Sootspot was forced to crane his neck back to meet her eyes, despite the thrum of uncertainty to his heartbeat, he didn't look away. Weakness was death, and he wouldn't let her push him around as she'd done with other Tunnelers when they were apprentices. "I was not aware I had a problem," he mewed, his smile pulled taut. "But it must be a terrible problem indeed, for you to have followed me all this way to tell me about it." False sincerity rolled off his tongue like a sweet poison, innocence was his armour, even if it was difficult to maintain when he wanted the clan to know how smart he was.

"Perhaps you should get some rest and reconsider your own problems before you come to me with mine."


​

 

[Firefang]

Firefang isn't above violence for violence sake but she doesn't have much interest in going to blows with her clanmates, sparring and verbal fights aside she found no pleasure in the idea of maiming or killing them. Some had the propensity to learn to better themselves - Sootspot she'd always seen some potential in regardless how much he tried to taint the blood in his veins with the asinine 'games' he was playing. She does think about slapping the smile off the toms face though but she holds back on the impulse, he hid behind it like she hid behind her glare and snarl. He had inherited a clever barbed tongue, what he lacked in size he made up for in sugar sweet words spoken with sharp fangs. She's sure he knows she holds the power here that in a fight he'd have little shot in winning but he stares up at her like she isn't a looming threat. She can commend him for that, mouse-brained bravery was still bravery, that was what set him apart from the rebels she felt he was trying to masquerade as.

Even if she towers over him she gets the unmistakable feeling she's still being looked down on. He waves her off like nothing more then a hungry mosquito, but she's out for blood metaphorically and she isn't one to turn away no matter how hard he tries to shoo her to return to the sanctity of solitude. She doesn't care to mince her words to tip toe around him, there is no need when it's just him and there's nothing to lose. A huff of laughter that sounds more like a growl rumbles out of her preluding her words "You act like your above all this, like you weren't her son, like you weren't her follower!" her jaws snap shut but she doesn't stop there's only a momentary silence "But you're not! You're just like me flouderin' to find a place in Sunstar's clan. You're no better then me!" her voice rises almost cracking and she knows she should quiet down she doesn't need an audience but she's not one to disguise her emotions.

She can only hold them in for so long, she wasn't trained in manipulation didn't have any pretty words to hide behind she was raised to be a brute and nothing else - Badgermoon couldn't change that about her and when he was gone all she had was her own predisposition of brawn and violence to fall back on. She had no-one, Icebreath wasn't enough and the few friends she had were dead and buried or had moved on while she rotted in place happy to idolize a leader doomed by the stars.

"So stop pretending you are"

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‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── ooc ⋆⋅☾⋅⋆ info ──┐‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

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  text
  

• "speech"

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  Firefang ✩ She/Her, Warrior of Windclan, 22 moons
  ⭃ Black tabby she-cat with amber eyes. former-loyalist of Sootstar, Moorunner.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by Kedamono ↛ @legmeatt on discord, feel free to dm for plots. ​

​

 

[SOOTSPOT]

The wild fur around his neck began to bristle, an ear twitched as if swatting away a fly and, what had once been a forced smile, almost seemed to crack the corners of his face as he struggled to keep it. It was beneath him to show his anger, he could not act on it the same way other cats could. His teeth had ended life before, only because he'd had the element of surprise - he doubted Firefang would be as shocked if he were to suddenly tear at her neck like a rabid badger. He was Sootstar's firstborn, and so many in the clan liked to remind him that the apple didn't fall far from the tree that he didn't know whether to give up and embrace their worry or shrink into mediocrity like Cottonpaw had done. An unkind bark of laughter escaped him. "I thought it possible for a tabby to change its stripes, it is kind of you to prove me wrong." The venom before had been saccharine, now, it had truly revealed itself. Conversation with him was like the boiling frog apologue but the tom knew no other way to deal with his wounds.

"I know you have always been envious of what I am. Should the blood in my body allow you to become Sootstar's daughter, I have no doubt you would cut my throat now and drink every last drop. Even this scar must be vexing; a reminder of what you had never been, and never will be without my family in power." She wasn't just floundering, she was nothing; the coward that defied her ideals and couldn't even admit it. To give her some purpose had been a mercy that he doubted other loyalists would've offered but, perhaps somewhere, he still held a fondness for how loyal she'd once been. Few would be willing to turn on their friends for being traitors, but now that she had become the very thing she'd fought for moons, he felt ridiculous holding onto the memory when it should've been over the moment she bore her fangs at him. Past the rush of frustration in his head, he tried to memorise the locations of tunnels once again - both to calm himself, and because the weak-jawed tom didn't trust Firefang as far as he could throw her not to turn on him at that moment.

He almost welcomed it, being proven right was the only boost to his confidence he could get nowadays. His ears pinned back before being forced to point towards the starry sky again, deflecting as best he could. "So how is it that the same manner of creature that would have called me a king now says I am just like them? Is it me who has fallen, or you who has risen? Only one of us betrayed Sootstar by choice, you know."
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[Firefang]

Even the most solid blocks of ice cracked when the heat came baring down on them - she's see's the flaws in his façade now she inspires a reaction she's sure not many in many moons had been privy to. It's so infuriating how he holds onto the faux-superiority onto all that pride he's still smiling, she wants him to stop wants to see the true Sootspot whoever that may be. She knows he's not his mother, that none of her kits were her, they held her traits but their choices were their own but Sootspot lacked the ferocity he may have the tongue of a leader but he had nothing else to back it up. His words stand in for his claws and she can feel the brunt of them, the way that barbed tongue slices into her insecurities and childish dreams of whims she'd never have. Her teeth are showing sharp and rugged, muscles in her maw pulled taut to show them, it's hard to distinguish if she's snarling or smiling (was there a difference for her?)

Her clan would never let her fully change - he would never let her change, and to be damned sometimes she doesn't want to she'd dig her claws into the earth if she could to keep time standing still it rushes past her regardless she has no chance but to move with it. Sadly she's much more fleetfooted then him, she can chase after it but he's stuck beneath the earth in the dark. She listens to connotations not precisely spelled out, to a singing ego of his heritage some of his siblings damned themselves for. She won't deny her jealousy if it'd been moons ago but there's no Sootstar anymore to play mother to her - if there was her throat would've been torn out for her cowardice and she'd have welcomed it. She doubts Shrikethorn welcomed her own demise. "I have nothin' to be envious of anymore, no not anymore. If I ever did in the first place. Your blood didn't protect you from her ire and it doesn't protect you now from the way our clanmates look at you" her own mother ignored her existence but she did not know the feeling of teeth at her throat nor the overwhelming pressure to live up to such grandeur - or now the fear of falling into the same depths that swallowed her whole. She stares at his scar "I was never anythin' I know that, I was happy that way! Happy to serve! I only needed her and now I don't need anyone!" the strain in her voice says otherwise, so many emotions; hatred, rage, sadness, mourning - she never got to prove herself she was always chasing a fading dream that she'd never hold in her paws.

Was it ever power she was chasing, that far off extinguished dream of hers? Her eyes never leave him, his ears for a moment lay flat his emotions fighting with him as much as hers were. "You were never a king. You're just as much of a lost soldier - no a lost child as I am" she spits out her words, her maw loosens the snarl fading. "Neither of us had a choice! We both fell and we're left with nothin' but her memory and a clan that's waiting for us to snap!" she frowns pausing listening to the wind whistle across the grassy hills, briefly she tears her gaze away from him staring into the stars above. Sootstar is not up there, there is no favor to be earned by her looking into night no redemption - but what of the others those who'd earned their spot in silverpelt what did they see in them?

Her eyes meet his again "I'm tired. I don't want to be enemies." she says it so blatantly more so then she means, there was no reason for this for him to prance around like he was better then her like he wasn't named after Windclan's horror story and she's tired of being alone with nobody to share the burden of the past with. "I have plenty of them already"

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‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── ooc ⋆⋅☾⋅⋆ info ──┐‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

• 
  
  
  

• "speech"

• 

  Firefang ✩ She/Her, Warrior of Windclan, 22 moons
  ⭃ Black tabby she-cat with amber eyes. former-loyalist of Sootstar, Moorunner.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by Kedamono ↛ @legmeatt on discord, feel free to dm for plots. ​

​

 

[SOOTSPOT]

When chartreuse eyes squinted, Sootspot didn't know if it was anger or determination that made them narrow. Emotions and words once carefully plucked seemed to muddle in his head the longer he spoke to the Moor-Runner, his claws privately flexing into the earth in a subconscious attempt to ground himself. He'd never considered that the weakness of a conniver could be someone so honest that it made his head hurt from disbelief. He'd heard enough flattery and insults to be numb to them, but Firefang's cut like bear claws... if only because she had nothing to gain by insulting him. The fur as grey as ash, the ambition only thinly veiled by polite gesture, the cruelty when he didn't get his own way. The whole forest saw Sootstar when they looked at him, it made his stomach curl in disgust having to pretend he was not proud of his blood. One day, it would make him a God. Firefang did not let him believe privately in his idea. On and on she prodded at the weakness he'd shown, until eventually, she'd hit a sensitive spot and, as if it were an old wound, a hiss escaped him.

Snakelike pupils thinned even further, his heart sinking into his stomach once he realised what he'd done. Had it not been for the metaphorical hole he'd dug, he may have escaped to the burrows by now. "They took my rank, my apprentice and my mother. They claim it is for righteous reasons, yet they have not done anything different to her." It was worse, almost. Cats like Firefang's former mentor and cats that'd demean themselves by living in a Twoleg den had been invited to join. Sootstar had rarely taken pity on such disgusting animals, whereas Sunstar seemed to welcome them like old friends. He feared the prosperity of a clan that'd take pity on so many exiles and outsiders. "Was that you wanted me to confess, that I have feelings? I wish I did not, I wish I could live without disgust and sentiment, but StarClan feared making me perfect. It is why they gave me a body that cannot fight against the injustices I see... because if it could, I would be the one with nine lives and not a rogue who was not even Deputy when she died." He had searched for so many reasons why Snakehiss had been Deputy instead of him: a lapse in judgment, an expectation of betrayal that came with the position, whatever it was, it didn't take precedence in the tom's mind over his shortcomings at that moment.

Panic gripped his chest as he feared speaking too much. '...It's not my fault... it's never been my fault... What in StarClan's name are you making me say?' He was one angry outburst away from admitting he saw the rebellion as nothing more than a power grab, one step away from finding himself neck-deep in quicksand. He stared unblinking, contemplative as he considered sealing the cracks in his spiky shield. Her voice cracked with emotions that he'd never be able to imitate even on his best days. It was like the nectar of a pitcher, already he'd fallen in and gotten trapped, but there was still time to pull himself out. A smile cracked his frozen features as if to ease his own tension. "One might say it is safer to be your enemy than your friend." Snailstride had told everyone who would ever listen about what Firefang had done, at the time, he'd been grateful for such diligence from the black tabby for reporting her deadweight peer. Under a new order, his secrets were in jeopardy and his privacy was subjected to the whims of a hotheaded feline. Sootspot let out a huff, fighting his instinct to let his fur continue its vexed bristling.

"Prove to me you are neither. Tell no one of this talk." He figured Sunstar and the rest of his council was already suspicious of his intentions, but the last thing they needed was confirmation from a known tattle-tale.




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[Firefang]

Firefang had hated the moral grandstanding the rebellion had taken, they never were better they weren't christened by the stars because they felt kitnapping was bad - they all knew it was bad but it was far from the most violent thing they'd done in their past. She remembers her claws digging into former clanmates, her jaws snapping trying to find purchase in throats of mouse-brains who believed they were in the right. She remembers how at best those who'd rebelled had been besides her, had run after the fleeing tails of the exiled as hungrily as chasing down hares, and those that didn't were happy to turn the other way. They were willing to resort to so much in order to win, had brought in strangers to help them win a fight that shouldn't have happened. They claimed they weren't like her when they killed her despite her being held down by many paws, she was given no chance wasn't allowed to fight for her final life with any honor; she was executed publicly like she was never anyone's mentor, never their hero, never someone's mother. In the time that followed they stripped those on the "wrong" side of history of their dignity and power and claimed it to be righteous punishment, they allowed them to live in the clan they were born in, that they'd served and acted like it was a favor; like it was mercy. So focused on not being the clan they once were that they found other ways to muzzle and bind the dogs she still had in the races.

She isn't anyone's dog anymore though. She doesn't disagree that it'd been unfair, it was just another thing to be stripped away - she remember Sootspot had played such a vital role in leading the Rebellion to their victory he'd jumped ship before she did; had yowled a warning and yet it was what he'd been and not what he'd done that'd damned him. She surprised at his admittance though she'd been prying it from his clamped jaws since she'd first come up to him. His pride was stripped down more then her own and yet he still clung onto it as battered as it was, she'd been disgusted by it but she looks at him oddly now. It'd been his strength perhaps the only thing that kept him together and kept his claws sheathed and maw shut behind a grin. If she'd been of of Sootstar's council she wouldn't have readily bowed her head and let her rank be stripped, if Sootstar was her mother she wonders if she'd have been able to cower like she had done.

He's still haughty, not all of his pride is falsely masqueraded Starclan feared making me perfect, they'd feared his mother too but they'd given her so much power and entrusted her with a multitude of lives in her paws that weren't just her own. His words make her wonder if he wishes to stage a coup there's that desire written so plainly in the verbiage he mewls and yet there's the awareness that he'd never gotten to live out that fantasy. She doesn't know what to say but she makes herself do so regardless "No such thing as perfection, I gave up chasin' that catmint dream long ago... It isn't fair what they did and how they still look at us like dirt beneath their paws" her lip curls up "We made our choice to bow our heads and serve Windclan again and we're still punished as much as if we had never left Sootstar at all. As if our shame for turning our backs on her isn't enough of a punishment itself" then with a far less serious tone she makes a remark "Somehow I don't think Snakestar would've been much better then Sunstar." making him her deputy instead of anyone else had always been one of Sootstar's most insane decisions in her eyes he had grown from the annoying little tom he'd been as apprentice but he was still annoying.

It'd been so long since she'd though of Snailstride, she truly thought she'd done him a favor that he could've lived to grow into a proper warrior but he died young and hating her guts for what she'd done. She'd never had many friends in her life, acquaintances yes but looking back she knows he'd been one of few she would've given the label to in hindsight - she'd destroyed that relationship like she'd destroyed most other things that were gifted to her. What she didn't lose she pushed away. It's safer to be your enemy then to be your friend, she hurts everything she loves has betrayed everyone even herself in her own mind. Her ears flatten "We don't need to be friends but we don't need to be enemies either" she responds, he tells her to prove herself and she feels indignation prickle her fur.

"I have nothin' to gain and everythin' to lose!" she snaps out "They'd exile me before you" she feels there's a undeniable truth in that, she keeps pushing her luck, she can't keep her mouth shut and she'd never abandon her own morality.

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‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── ooc ⋆⋅☾⋅⋆ info ──┐‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

• 
  
  text
  

• "speech"

• 

  Firefang ✩ She/Her, Warrior of Windclan, 23 moons
  ⭃ Black tabby she-cat with amber eyes. former-loyalist of Sootstar, Moorunner.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by Kedamono ↛ @legmeatt on discord, feel free to dm for plots. ​

​

 

[SOOTSPOT]

The rise and fall of his flank became more and more rapid, only hidden by the layers of thick fur that protected his feelings like a vice. Honesty was dangerous, in anger, he had displayed some - already, the regret was akin to teeth cutting off his air supply. It would be a conversation that loomed over his head and invaded his sleep, as if proving that StarClan had made a mistake while making him was deadly. When he wasn't met with immediate rebuttal, the curled lip of the Tunneler folded back to its usual spot and the fangs defensively displayed disappeared in a gulp of air that reset the rest of his expression. She believed their treatment from the others was unjustified and without a second thought, the tom latched on.

"Deflection can be more powerful than claws. I served my mother loyally but had she asked me to do the things our council did out of their own free will, I may have hesitated." His gaze trailed towards the earth, the order to kill Smokestar and the subsequent kidnapping of ShadowClan kits ripe in his mind. Justifications had spilled from his maw for so long that it was easy for him to rationalise that there was truth behind them; the former had trespassed and was punished, and the latter was to save kits from a neglectful clan. "Of course, the clan always needs a villain - the heroes murdering friends and family for the 'bad cat' is hardly a fitting story to tell the little ones." Just as he rationalised, as did the others, but his was a better type because he was self-aware. When he pictured the heads of the other cats, he thought of them as empty, their bodies vessels of violence rather than things that emoted just like him.

Sootspot's whiskers twitched at the name Snakestar, finding it just as venomous as the real thing. Still, there was an airiness to his tone, a funhouse imitation of the lighthearted comment that Firefang made. "He was a grifter who wanted my family name and went after our weakest link to get it. But, he would have united the clan... in hatred for him - not even Sunstar can claim to be so cosmopolitan." He regretted being unable to ask his mother why Snakehiss had been chosen over himself, but it didn't matter now. Though it made him wince, both were as powerless as the other. He was not a cat made for squalor as the gangly Deputy had been, he was a cat told over and over again that he was made for power, but being Lead Warrior instead of anything better had felt like an insult to his birthright. The scar was a permanent reminder that he hadn't been good enough and would likely have to achieve his 'catmint dream' in his own way.

The tom froze as her ears flattened and the words rolled from her tongue. "We shall see." In the dark, he saw her outline shift, a wolfish bristle to her neck fur that gave the chimera pause. His mouth grew dry. "A truth for a truth, then." Sootspot reclined on his haunches, tilting his head back and forth to ease the knots built from staring up at the other for so long. "To trust a reckless cat would be to put my faith in a badger not to eat me because it is not hungry, and to associate with one whose loyalties change like the moons would be a killing blow to whatever credibility I have left. My problem is not you, but rather what you represent." A traitor. Tufted ears pricked forward, he knew he was taking a gamble that his curiosity would not kill him. "Does that make you angry?"


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