RUSTED WORLD OF PRETEND || Twolegplace Patrol #1

[BLAZESTAR]

THIS IS THE SKYCLAN CLANWIDE PLOT'S FIRST PATROL! The cats have entered the Twolegplace. The only SkyClan cats in this thread should be the ones who signed up. (If you want a last minute addition, that's okay! Just ping me on Discord. :]

HOWEVER, kittypets, loners, and rogues are allowed to interfere as they please! Not every interaction has to be a pleasant one. :) This is an anything-goes type of patrol. At some point, this patrol will split into two as the cats get separated.

They are meant to go deeper into the Twolegplace and near the city. They'll get past the suburbs in a few posts; feel free to be the character who notices they're somewhere busier and new!

pinging: @DAWNGLARE @HARPYFALL @BASILPAW @PANTHERPELT @SQUALLMIST @butterflypaw @TWITCHPAW @Quillpaw

They'd left without ceremony, at early morning when the wind had still been brisk and the sun melded with the glowing sky. Blazestar had woken from a light sleep, feeling strong and determined, more than he had since he'd left his housefolk's nest and ventured into the woods to an unknown fate.

Yesterday, Little Wolf had told him she was in love with him. He holds that moment close like a memento, something to take to the grave. He intends to return to her soon, to bring her the flower he'd promised, to see her face again.

Dawnglare - and by proxy, Blazestar - had been urged to leave their territory by StarClan themselves. The Ragdoll lifts his tail to the patrol gathered at the camp's entrance, and in a fan-like formation, they head towards the Twolegplace.

With time, the soft earth littered with pine needles becomes concrete and asphalt. The heady scent of squirrel and sap transforms into the confusing bloom of garden flowers, the acrid tang of monster smoke. Birdsong weakens into Twoleg speech, yelled out over fences.

Blazestar feels almost alien in this world he'd grown up in. There's something bittersweet about that to him - he knows cats like Sootstar, Briarstar or Cicadastar wouldn't give a damn, but to him it's an affirmation that he's more forest cat than kittypet now.

He throws a look over his shoulder, blue eyes flashing with warning. Not to the warriors or to Dawnglare, but to the apprentices that have followed him on this patrol. "Listen, do you hear the loud, rumbling sounds?" He gestures to a monster that flashes by, a little too fast, and shakes his broad head. "Those are everywhere in the Twolegplace. They don't usually leave the black part." He dips his head to indicate the Thunderpath, then to the paler, whiter ground the patrol stands on. "Keep off of the Thunderpath at all times, if you can help it. Monsters don't always see cats. It's an awful way to die."

He doesn't want to cause them too much anxiety - Basilpaw is apt to start crying, and Butterflypaw with him, and Twitchpaw might even start - but he needs them to take this seriously. It's their first real mission, and somehow he's allowed just as many apprentices to accompany him as adults.

With a sigh, he flicks his tail tip and indicates the patrol should continue. He knows they need to find the big tree Dawnglare had described, but he sees nothing but manicured lawns and shrubbery. It might be a long journey yet.
​

PENNED BY MARQUETTE​

 

[butterflytuft]

Butterflypaw clings to her mentor the entire journey, her tail tucked close to her flank and ears flat against her skull. With every new noise, her wide eyes flick in a new direction, soft huffs and gasps signalling her surprise. The massive tom beside her somewhat helps her to feel safer, but it's not enough. She wants Daisyflight, she wants the holly bush, she wants her nest. It had been her very first night in the apprentice's den, and she had tossed and turned the entire night. Her first night in the wild without Daisyflight was hard.

So now, tired and in a completely new environment, the tiny apprentice scurries along. She listens carefully to Blazestar's warning, gazing at the black, acrid-smelling path with a horrified look. The monsters could kill her? A hard swallow was shortly followed by a whimper, and she casts a glance towards Basilpaw and Twitchpaw. Are they just as frightened as she is?​

 

[TWITCHBOLT]

Angled tail held low to the floor, Twitchpaw focused on little but his footsteps and his breathing. His mother and father had been sleeping, and he'd woken them up to say goodbye when they had left- they had bid him good luck, and settled back into sleep very quickly. The guilt that pulsed in his chest was irrational, he knew it, but he regretted stirring them nonetheless. Surely he owed them rest?

Alongside the more experienced patrol members did he walk, the unfamiliar scents cloying and confusing. What was it about this place that always smelled so bad- was it the Twolegs? The dogs? How come their daylight warriors never smelled this... much? Questions whirred in his skull, the rapid spinning of his mind-cogs only halted by Blazestar's words, pointing out a sound and a flash of motion that the brown and white tom would have been blind and deaf to not have noticed. Eyes flickered wider, a spasm of the eyelid obscuring his amber-flecked iris for a fraction of a moment. A monster.

He'd only heard about them, never seen them, and as his eyes tracked the back end of the one that had just sprinted past them he skittered backward a little. They were bigger than he'd thought, and so much less... catlike. Not even Twoleglike. Where were their faces? Their paws? How did they move so fast with no blur of running legs?

He cared not to get close enough to find out. Keep off the Thunderpath- "Don't have to tell me twice," he said abruptly, eyes flickering to Blazestar, to the Thunderpath, to Butterflypaw, to Quillpaw, to Basilpaw, to Blazestar again. The second step he took back was largely subconscious.​

penned by pin ✧​

 

[BASILPATCH]

Basilpaw trudges alongside Twitchpaw, casting Butterflypaw irritable glances from time to time. Why did Blazestar have to bring her along? He remembers the first time she had been brought into camp, and he stands by his first evaluation of her. She stinks. Mostly, it was just jealousy that caused Basilpaw to act this way towards her. While she was babied, despite being older than himself, he had been tossed into the world, into training and hunting and fighting, and now he was here. He did not want to come, he did not want to go to any of the things Harpyfall had been dragging him along to lately. Including going to Wind Clan.

He is overwhelmed by all the sights and the sounds, head on a swivel as he looks about him. Man this place was crazy! And scary! He whips his head around to look at Blazestar, blinking slowly as the tom explains monsters and thunderpaths to the rest of the patrol. Ooh! He knew what those were! "Don't worry, Twitchpaw, I'll keep you safe! I've faced off with one and lived remember?" he reassures the brown tom next to him, seeming to forget that it had been Howling Wind who had saved him and led him home. He puffs his chest out and tries his best to look brave, despite the fear that makes his limbs quake, the only indicator that he is faking.​

 

[QUILLSTRIKE]

I FEEL LIKE AN ASTRONAUT IN THE OCEAN​

---

When he had left his family to join Skyclan, Quill had that it would be the end to his days of feeling like the black sheep, the odd one out, but as he walked along with the patrol of other cats he couldn't help but feel the shadowy fingers of that feeling curl within him once more. He tried t ignore how out of place he looked standing there among Butterfly, Twitch, and Basil, the only kid who didn't look as if some horrific monster was about to leap out at them. Too tall, expression bored, and lips tugged down into the ghost of a frown as he trailed behind the others, he probably looked every bit as out of place as he felt. Everytime Blazestar stopped to explain something and the others began frantically nodding along as if the information was the only thing keeping them alive, Quill could only stand there and quietly wait for them to move on, already aware of most of these things.

A perk, he supposed one could call it, to having been born among the humans without ever having belonged to one. He could only guess thats why their Leader had decided to bring him along, because he certainly hadn't had any time to prove himself as deserving of a trip like this- though, if you'd asked Quill, it seemed more like a punishment than a prize. He would have much preferred just staying home and chasing squirrels with the others.

"So, what exactly are we looking for here?" Quill asked, letting his gaze shift toward the adults of the patrol. He understood that a dream had been had and that they were supposed to be heading into twoleg place, but did nobody really have a clue as to why? While the young tom didn't show it, he was uneasy to be heading back to his old haunting grounds. His parents, while they surely hadn't been surely for him, would definitely jump at the opportunity to cause trouble for him if he was spotted by them. The last thing he wanted was for them to bring their drama down on his new clan, and if he hadn't specially been told by Blazestar that he needed to prove himself if he wanted to stay, he probably would have declined the others offer to come along.
​

---

skyclan - male - 6 months - bisexual - homoromantic - single - very tall tabby tomcat with broad shoulders

 

[PANTHERPELT]

"AM I YOUR DREAM GIRL?"​

Pantherpelt hasn’t ever left SkyClan’s camp with such a large group of cats before. Sure, she’s sometimes accompanied by one or two of her fellow daylight warriors, but never have any of the full-time clan cats trailed back to the twolegplace with her. Sure, she’s sure many of 'em have been here before, possibly even come from here, but Blazestar had certainly never walked home with her at the end of the day.

The wild-furred cat’s lip twitches, an amused snort leaving their nose at the word Thunderpath. The urge to correct them—it’s called a street, ye loser tree-cat—is hard to ignore, but she decides that it’s funnier to hear them say Thunderpath. "Yeh, it'd jus' wreck me heart to lose one'a y'all to somethin' that simple," they agree with the leader, pulling their most sympathetic face. They could go on and on about how gruesome a death such as that would be, but there are small ears around, and Pantherpelt’s not one for scarring children.

Although they suppose it is a good idea to keep the SkyClanners aware of the dangers of this place. "Lotsa stuff here'll kill ye if ye ain't payin' real close attention. Good thing y'all brought this feller." She gestures to Basilpaw, who she wholeheartedly believes actually faced off against a monster. Shaking their head with amusement, they glance around to take a more careful look at their surroundings. Ahead of the patrol stands a familiar stick-box beside a large slab of concrete that leads up to the front of a twoleg home.

Suddenly, they stop mid-stride, one paw lifted in the air as if they’re genuinely frozen. What if sis finds out yer livin' with the sky-cats? She'll gut'cha like a fish! Theit amber gaze slides to the familiar figure they spot up ahead, and they give the rest of the patrol a quick bow of their head. "Ah, this's where I take me depar-toor now. Home 'fore dark, y'know? Good luck on yer patrollin' outchere." And with that, they flash the patrol a fanged grin before they turn to dart away. They take one last glance at the group before disappearing around the corner of a fence, already heading for home.
​

✦ ★ ✦​

 

[SQUALLMIST]

Ever since he was a kit, Squallmist's dreams were inhabited by a reoccurring noise - a droning sort of rumble, one the moved from one ear to the next, over and over again. Some one after another, some with a few moment's pause in between.

It was the sound of monsters rushing by on thunderpaths - a sense of danger always following, always enough to wake him up. Nightmares of his time before SkyClan, before Rain's group, always seemed to find their way back into his own dreams.

His home-coming is anything but. It's merely a mission to find... whatever it is that Dawnglare had dreamt of. Whatever it is that Dawnglare and Blazestar think StarClan sent them.

He hangs towards the back of the patrol - sea-glass eyes keeping watch of the youngest of members. Silently, he repeats their names to himself again and again - Basilpaw, Quillpaw, Butterflypaw, Twitchpaw. A missing name would mean a missing apprentice, would be a call for action. The four of them were too young to be sent on this journey, in Squallmist's eyes and - though some of their mentors were on the patrol, too - the tom thinks it wouldn't hurt to have an extra set of eyes watching out for them. SkyClan couldn't lose anyone else. Especially not over a supposed sign from StarClan.

The chirp of birds is soon replaced with the rumbling of monsters, and unease fills him as Blazestar stops the group beside a thunderpath to explain the dangers of the monsters to the apprentices. They seem to get it in their heads quickly, how dangerous such a thing can be, and Squallmist is glad for this, because it means they can move on, can get further away from the thunderpaths and start finding StarClan's sign. Though, perhaps he'll need to keep an extra eye on Basilpaw - Squallmist isn't too sure the concept of danger has fully clicked for him, the young apprentice claiming he'd keep others safe, trembling as he does so.

And then, Pantherpelt just... leaves the patrol and goes home? How odd. Squallmist watches the daylight warrior in confusion for a moment, unsure about her abrupt need to depart from them, but he pushes the confusion towards the daylight warrior aside. His gaze moves on, towards Blazestar and Dawnglare, instead.

"Any chance we know exactly where we're meant to be going?" he asks, a hint of agitation in his voice, though mostly towards the continuous rumbling in his ears, "Or, are we just supposed to wander around until we find something starry looking?"
​

 

[ARCHANGEL]

❝  The cats they drag back here are too young to watch their own hinds– he's met his fair share of competent youths, but they're the wild feral sorts that know starvation, know suffering. The ones that'd do anything for their next meal. These ones? Nah. Some are nervous, some are foolish. None of them could survive real life here, 'cept maybe that patchwork one who seems mostly in his element. Too good for these wild cats, then. All those faces that have forgotten their roots, shun their neighbors for a life they thought they'd outgrown. Now they come back, thinking they still had the guts to survive it. From where Angel's perched, all he sees are a bunch of dumbasses trying to make something of themselves. He hears something about monsters, 'cept they're talking about the black parts– those things the people move around in? Oh, that's not even half of the shit waiting for them out here.

There's a dog that gets let out about this time, just around the corner. Everyone that spends their nights outside knows that there's a hole beneath the fence just big enough for it to slip through when something interesting's on the other side. Like a bunch of prissy-pawed forest cats who think they can handle things. One of them's already running off. An adult, to boot. Archangel laughs, a sound that tumbles out of him like a drumset crashing down and echoing 'round the garage, and drops from one rooftop to the delicate tops of a tall wooden fence, trees tamed to a border much like the one these clan cats claim. He walks it like it's nothing, like he's meant to straddle that line. "Don't tell me you've come crawlin' home." He has no idea how many of them are actually from this part of the world, but if his sneer prods at least one of them where it matters, well– mission fucking accomplished. "Your clans don't let us wander about without– pledging loyalty or whatever sort of shit you want to hear us say. What makes you think you're welcome here?"

He's heard whispered tales, of those turning away kittypets or peaceful-pawed loners. It doesn't have to be false for this one group for him to stop wanting to burn it all down.

†  ooc notes information †

• 
  ooc: >:3c
• full information.
  

  
  ARCHANGEL,  angel.   might accept others,  rather begrudgingly at times.
  ──── uses he - him + masc titles;  will accept others with bemusement.
  ──── about 39 moons old, born during the full of greenleaf. acts older.
  ──── bisexual, singleish?  mostly here for a good time, not a long time.
  
  a tall, short-haired black tomcat with odd splashes of white and intense blue eyes that seem silvery in most lighting. he has a very lean build, with notably long legs and wiry strength. a stray cat from a busier area of the twolegplace, and a lifetime ass. a flawed creature with his heart in the right place, and a deep desire to change the world around him.
• "speech"

​

 

[DAWNGLARE]

A sorry bunch this is, whining, crying, excuses for cats. The apprentices have useless exchanges. Blaise takes it upon himself to tell them not to die. They needed the warning, don't they? He agrees with it - if only for the sake of such a thing being bothersome. With the way little Butterfly refuses to get her grimy little mitts off her mentor, he doubts she'd end up in any trouble. Shaking, mumbling whelp, Twitchling would be leaping into the sun at the slightest rumble, surely. Sun-watcher... eh...

He regards the chimera with a critical eye, lips pulled deep in a frown as he does so. He's nearly met death before - several times, he would hope that he knows now to avoid such a thing, but even after the sun put him in his place, he'd still tumbled into the claws of Thunderclan. Perhaps this one was a lost cause, though. Somehow... he always seemed to avoid death. Perhaps the heavens were watching over him - for some damn rea-so-nnnnn... Perhaps it's one of their jokes, like the one sent to bless him with this very name. Wonderful hilarity, he could just laugh!

So he does - he does! He giggles to himself, paws topsy-turvy as he stumbles alongside this gathering of flesh-crawlers. The lashing of his tail isn't something to be missed, frantic and wild with delightful frustration. Slay him, eat him alive! Oh, anything - ♪

His giddy face near-instantly drops into thin-lipped neutrality, then. Soul-gone - heart-spent - hellfire swirls in his eyes. Panther suddenly leaves with insane ramblings of going home in the middle of the day. He cannot care at the moment. He would rather this than the sorry few who continue to ask the purpose of their visit. Another sorry yelp and he'd likely commit something unspeakable.

Strange thing, dark and masked suddenly appears in front of them. For a moment, this does not register. He blinks, slow. Their words go through one ear and out the other, fluttering away in the wind - dying where they stand. He barely hears, but he knows he doesn't like them. "You're in my way,” he says, eyes narrowed against the sun. He doesn't bother with 'our,' it's unimportant.​

 

[HARPYFALL]

Harpyfall had left his twoleg's nest earlier than a typical day would elicit, taking a moment to press his forehead against his twoleg's hairless arm as he unfurls from the soft blankets. It's gentle and loving, a rare side to the brusque warrior that many do not have the fortune to see. A low purr rumbles as a slumber-slow hand scratches that perfect spot underneath his chin before it falls and the snores of his twoleg resume. Then, Harpyfall leaps from the bed, glancing back to mumble, "Be back soon, mate."

He'd slipped past the cat flap and into the darkness of early morning. The artificial light from the street lamps gleam overhead, the only light to guide him this early. But Harpyfall doesn't need to see to know where he must go; he knows the route like he does the back of his paw.

Harpyfall stops at the border between the Twolegplace and SkyClan's territory, where asphalt met needle-covered grass. I'll wait for ye all on the edge of the Twolegplace, the daylight warrior had told Blazestar and the others before he'd departed the evening before. There is no sense in wasting energy on the trek to the camp, when Harpyfall knows he would only have to pad back to the Twolegplace as soon as he arrived. And so, he waits, pacing back and forth until he spots the familiar flame-kissed figure of Blazestar between the trunks of the pine trees.

He shuffles his way into the patrol, walking alongside his apprentice. (Harpyfall doesn't understand Blazestar's reasoning on bringing not one, not two, but three overemotional children on this journey. Maybe it's to try and toughen them up, but Harpyfall feels as if it's going to be counterproductive to the mission when, not if, one of them bursts into tears.)

A monster flashes past them, and Blazestar warns the apprentices to not wander onto a Thunderpath. Too late for Basilpaw, Harpyfall thinks with a twist of his lips. The cream-furred tom does not flinch at the horrendous noise of the monsters. He's accustomed to it, little more than a slight crease of his brow crossing over his features. Blazestar is right about one thing; the monsters do not leave the paths. There is little reason for Harpyfall to fear them.

Pantherpelt stumbles across the patrol, and Harpyfall nods to the other daylight warrior. He cannot be surprised at her presence in the Twolegplace, but a shocked laugh does leave him when she gestures towards Basilpaw and claims that they're lucky to have brought the apprentice along. "I'll try remember that when another cryin' fit hits, sure." The response is sharper than intended, his lips quirked.

Pantherpelt leaves as quickly as they'd arrived, and their teasing voice is replaced by the laughter of another. Harpyfall's narrowed gaze snaps towards the culprit, watching as he leaps from a roof of a house onto a fence, twisted words falling from an even more twisted tongue. The sneer aimed at the patrol does not ruffle him as it's intended to; rather, Harpyfall raises his chin in defiance and snorts. He knows where his home is, and it is within these asphalt borders. The bandana tied around his neck is proof of this, as is the intertwining scents of pine and twoleg that cling to his fur. He is loyal to SkyClan, but his heart belongs to his twoleg companion. "You're as thick as manure and half as useful," Harpyfall bites back with a roll of his eyes. "Isn't there not a scent of markers, now, mate?"​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

Butterflypaw and Twitchpaw, predictably, heed his warning about the Thunderpaths with little more than a shake of their head and a comment about ensuring they're careful. He blinks at them, a gesture meant to be comforting, when Basilpaw shakily asserts that he's faced off with a monster before and won.

The flame point looks at the little tom with a quirked brow. "Are you referring to when Howling Wind brought you home after you almost got hit by one?" He flicks a ginger ear. "Let's not have a repeat of that, okay?"

Quillpaw is far less terrified of the dangers the Twolegplace presents. Blazestar knows the younger cat came from a harder lifestyle, isn't a sheltered kittypet or a Clanborn kit, and his comments are sharp and almost bored. "What exactly are we looking for?"

Squallmist, tone perhaps even more critical, asks the same thing. "Or, are we just supposed to wander around until we find something starry looking?"

Ears flattening briefly, Blazestar realizes he hadn't told the rest of the patrol what it was they were all searching for. He attempts to share a glance with Dawnglare - he supposes everyone should know what to keep an eye out for, right? "A tree, a big tree with big roots in soft grass. It'll be the only tree like it in the Twolegplace." He hopes that's descriptive enough - it's all the patrol has to go off of for now.

Pantherpelt's comments about Basilpaw almost cause Blazestar to snort with laughter. They must have missed when Howling Wind had brought him back, quaking in his dappled fur. He says nothing, though - the poor tom doesn't need more verbal abuse. Blazestar is sure Harpyfall gave him plenty upon return.

He is, however, surprised at the black daylight warrior's sudden departure. "Home 'fore dark, yknow?" His jaw flops open. "Wait, what do you mean? We haven't even found the -" She's gone without ceremony, barely spares them a glance over her shoulder.

Blazestar doesn't even know what to say. His paws have begun to ache already, and though they set out quite early, the day has reached late afternoon, the sun gilding the sky and what little of the treeline they can still see. There's a distant roop-roop of a Twoleg dog somewhere in the background, but Blazestar barely hears it; at this point in time, it's part of the ambience, nothing more or less.

He glances at the cats behind him, all wearing expressions of impatience, fear, anxiety, and he hardens himself against his own exhaustion. "We should probably find a place to hunt soon," he begins, but something interrupts him - a wingshadow is cast over his practicality, shushing him almost without effort.

A black and white cat, lanky, approahces them with an edge to his swagger. The condescencion that radiates from this street cat sets Blazestar's fur on edge - why must he encounter it no matter where he is, in the forest or in the Twolegplace? He holds his ground, though his heart begins to hammer as the cat lays into them. "What makes you think you're welcome here?"

"We're not trespassing," Blazestar says. Harpyfall says the same thing, though Dawnglare's venomous expression merely tells the rogue what his tongue does - to get out of their way. "What does it matter to you? Let us on our way without trouble, and we-"

For the third time today, he's interrupted - by a shrieking roar that emerges from the background, shatters the veneer over the surface. The loping gait of a dog free from its confines - a big one, ginger-brown with a sable back - fills his vision, and Blazestar's mouth goes dry.

"Dog," he hisses, as though the rest of the patrol couldn't see or smell for themselves. The street cat! If he hadn't bothered them, they might have recognized its pawsteps on the pavement sooner. "Run! Help the apprentices!"

Wild now, his eyes fall on Butterflypaw. Daisyflight flashes through his mind, back at the SkyClan camp, worrying about the dangers Blazestar has dragged her daughter into. He bends down to shove her into action, but the dogs is too close for him to attempt to do anything else - anything but, like all of them, to scatter like brittle leaves in a gale.

// TL ; DR - a dog has come while Angel talked to the patrol and the cats have scattered!

THREAD #1 - DREAM OF CALIFORNICATION - Blazestar, Squallmist, Basilpaw and Quillpaw find themselves in a run-down downtown area, full of back alleys and dumpsters. The more 'wild' and roguish cats will likely be found here, but there are no restrictions!

THREAD #2 - CITY OF STARS - Harpyfall, Dawnglare, Butterflypaw and Twitchpaw end up in a stripmall. Concrete jungle with enormous Thunderpaths with traffic going all directions. The more street-savvy and Twoleg-savvy cats will likely be here! The stripmall is edged by stroads and is close to some neighborhoods.
​

PENNED BY MARQUETTE​