somebody told me — QUIETPAW

[Snakeblink]

It’s not that Snakeblink considers all Riverclan apprentices to be interchangeable, per say… It’s just that he has no reason to go into the nursery and rarely gets assigned patrols with master-apprentice pairs, so he has little to no contact with kits before they get their warrior’s name and stop being kits to anyone but their parents. He recognizes them by sight from seeing them around camp and he can name the more rambunctious ones, but he wouldn’t say he knows them.

This slight face-blindness when it comes to the younger generation of Riverclanners is something he’s seeking to change though. Kits are the future, as his mother used to say, and not understanding how they work is no reason to skimp on his duties. If he wants to take care of the clan, he must take care of all of it, and that includes the… somewhat cryptic and confusing wants and needs of apprentices.

Out of self-preservation, he decides to start with Quietpaw. Even though he barely knew them before their disappearance, he feels like having been part of the patrol that brought them home gives them a connection. Tenuous as it it, it’s more than he has with most apprentices.

He finds them easily enough. They haven’t stepped out of the camp since coming back, keeping herself busy with weaving dens and other menial tasks when they weren’t following Cicadastar around like a particularly sticky shadow. He hates to disturb her, but he is nothing if not ever-faithful to his made up and self-assigned missions. He pads up to them quietly and clears his throat in an effort not to startle them by appearing out of nowhere.

“Hello, Quietpaw. May I help with anything?” He motions to her current task.

​

ooc. information.

• ooc: gossip mode: activate
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 34 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

​

 

[QUIETSTREAM.]

even prior to having disappeared, quietpaw had never really been the most... social cat. the same cat that had caused these wounds, now scars, on their body, was the same cat that took her parents. they still remember it, of course, but the memories are more fresh in her mind than they'd previously had been. it replays over and over, and she knows she's not there. she knows it's over. and yet, her brain can't process that. she is stuck in a situation that's so far away, having been over moons ago, it it makes her feel sick. they are trying to distract themself, pushing a stick through a nest to try and weave, only for the sudden clearing of a throat makes their fur perk up, body jolting in fear before they turned to see snakeblink.

quietpaw knew more about snakeblink than snakeblink knew about them. it was common... because quietpaw had always been an observer. with a deep breath in and out, they pushed the nest forward, making a gesture to imply they'd been making quite a few nests. they had been trying to make a rather big one so that she could share with someone... the idea of being alone still scares her which was why she barely left being beside cicadastar. shaking their head slightly, they pick up some moss between their teeth and place it down in front of his paws, raising a brow. hopefully he understood what she meant... cicadastar would have.
​

[ WISH YOU WERE GAY ]​

 

[Snakeblink]

Snakeblink has never met a situation he didn’t have something to say about, so the lack of verbal reply throws him off a bit. He looks down at the moss, then back up to Quietpaw’s raised brow. Her meaningful expression seems to welcome his help, but her utter silence suggests otherwise. He hopes he didn’t spook them: she nearly jumped out of her pelt a second ago. Maybe coming up to them was a mistake. He glances behind his shoulder discreetly, to check that Cicadastar isn’t about to drag him away by the scruff of his neck.

Then again, is this not the same apprentice who did not call for help while wandering the border territory, wounded and exhausted? It might be foolish of him to expect vocal agreement when their actions are clear enough on their own.

”Oh, are we making a nest?” He looks at the construction in front of her, noting the width of it — you could fit two of her snugly into it, but she doesn’t seem done with it. ”A big one, too, much too big for you alone. Do you intend to share? Good thinking, with leaf-bare so near. We ought to turn every den into one big nest and pile everyone up to stay warm… ” It’s not hard to guess, by the way she sticks to Cicadastar like a tiny shadow, that it’s not warmth she’s seeking with this endeavor. It's not his place to comment on it though.

He gets to work as he speaks. Thirty moons of nest building have turned the process of making a nest into automatism, paws going through the motions instinctively. It’s not his brain that moves them so much as the memory of every other time he’s done this, practical knowledge magnified by countless repetition. It allows his mind to wander, and he’s anything but surprised when it decides to settle on the matter of Quietpaw again. Relying on others' understanding of their wordless cues must be impractical. A pantomime is good to ask for help with a present, tangible task, not so much for anything more complex or long-term. What would he want to ask, in her situation? What did I miss, for sure. He can barely stand being out of the loop for a day, let alone moons.

”It seems to me that everyone has been sharing nests lately,” he says, digging through his memories for anything noteworthy to relay to them — something lighthearted that won’t weigh down their spirit further. ”Willowroot and Poppysplash, of course, but the cold weather has definitely been bringing people together. Take your guardian, Cicadastar. I’ve heard he’s been cuddling with Smokethroat — you know him, right? The one who saw you first, that day… ”

He goes on in a similar fashion, filling the silence with inconsequential gossip, all the going-ons of clan life that one learns so easily while living with them yet misses so acutely after a long absence.
​

ooc. information.

• 
  
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 34 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

​