camp such fun to hum a happy working song (newleaf cleaning)

[butterflytuft]

It seems everyone is relieved that newleaf has warmed the forest, Butterflytuft definitely one of them! Her first leaf-bare was survived, but it hasn't been easy, especially not for a sensitive former kittypet like herself. She's grateful for the fresh scent of sap, the budding flowers that have finally arrived. But even more-so, she's eager to leave the death of leaf-bare behind.

The tortoiseshell has not been placed on any patrols for the day, leaving her wide open to do what she really wants to do. Clean! Yellow eyes shine as she drags a dead pine bough away from the center of camp. It had fallen off one of the towering trees that shadowed the camp during the blizzard and has remained pushed towards the gnarled tree where Blazestar calls clan meetings. Everyone's so busy nowadays, the young warrior can't blame anyone for ignoring it along with other dead branches day after day. That's what she's here for. Doing this, she can actually be helpful.

Her tail swishes with the effort of pulling the branch towards the bramble entrance. A light, sing-song humming can be heard from her throat as she makes her way across the camp. Just outside, there are a pile of the other boughs she has dragged out. Her fluffy pelt is littered with pine needles and twigs, the remaining evidence of the work she's put in today. Normally, she would be much more conscious of her appearance, but in this moment she doesn't care. She's helping! She is actually being a helpful warrior for once and benefiting SkyClan. It feels so great!​

 

[SHRIMPY BOY]

There's not a whole lot of seasonal variety in Twolegplace, barring recurring changes in the outlying foliage and the occasional snowfall. A road might look identical to as it did several seasons before, and a twoleg would hold the same routine no matter what the time of year. The twolegs just liked having things organised, having them uniform, and they altered their environment in little ways to achieve that, like collecting their waste in bins and tending to the plants outside of their homes.

When he first reached the perimetre of SkyClan's territory, the pudgy tom had been taken aback by how raw and organic the environment was. He recalls gnarled roots, heaps of pine needles, bestrewn across the forest floor in a manner so chaotic it was almost alien to him. The "real world", as some might say, far beyond the twolegs' comfy little threshold where cats live him were supposed to live. Paving pathways and tidying up didn't come as priorities to the warrior folk, not when there's prey to catch and WindClannners to fend off.

At least, that's what he'd initially figured.

Butterflytuft crosses his vision as she crosses camp, towing along a branch while she hums like a nightingale. It appears as though she's putting the hollow in order, and moreover, doing so merrily; a fact which nigh on provokes a double take. Besides Dawnglare, he hadn't guessed any SkyClan cat would give a rat's behind about how their living space looked (and the medicine cat struck him as someone who only did that begrudgingly).

Newleaf cleaning, in the same vein as a twoleg would. Funny, that.

"Good, uhh, initiative," remarks the ginger warrior as she passes, before gawking clumsily at the ground below. She's doing more than he is, and she's hardly out of apprentice age. Frowning, Shrimpy Boy skims a paw across the soil until a small pile of pine needles accumulates. He smacks it towards camp's boundary once it's palpable in size, and of course, this doesn't do much to help at all. ​

 

[TWITCHBOLT]

There was some kind of- it was almost bird song, but weaved in the wind and more vocal instead of a flittering whistle. It took Twitchbolt an embarrassingly long time to realise that the one making the sound was Butterflytuft- she'd always been the reserved sort, not the type he'd expect to hear singing. Attention swivelling toward her, he watched with a half-incredulous and half-awestruck gaze as she worked on practicalities, cleaning... stuff that near no-one thought of as honourable work, and yet he'd never seen the fire-patched femme so content.

Shrimpy Boy gave a quiet compliment, and Twitchbolt felt a shaky smile curve his lips. Butterflytuft had always been just as flighty as him, if not more- he knew how warming it was to find something that calmed you into contentment. Stormwatching and climbing had become such tranquillisers to Twitchbolt that the former had been immortalised in his name; and though cleaning might seem mundane to some, if she was happy then that was all that mattered.

"I'd, uh, ask if you want help, but I'd- I'd probably just interrupt your flow," he murmured, humour honeying his tone despite the hoarse halo perpetually shining around his vocals.​

penned by pin ✧​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

Leafbare had been an era of grieving. His daughter had died just as the snows had begun to build. Little Wolf, Burnpaw and Moonpaw had been cut off from him only a short time after. His healing has been slow, dreadfully slow. Snowstorms had waged in the time since Morningpaw had joined StarClan. Battles had been fought. A new deputy named, two new lead warriors. Apprentices have become warriors.

Life has moved on, and leafbare is over.

Blazestar watches Butterflytuft haul the snapped-off pine bough across camp, intending to get rid of it. Cleaning is akin to rebirth, he thinks idly. The tortoiseshell girl is tiny, but she uses all of her strength to drag the branch. "Good thinking," he calls to his former apprentice, dipping his head to her and then to Twitchbolt and Shrimpy Boy. "You know, that's been there so long I'd kind of forgotten it's not supposed to be part of our camp," he jokes. He looks at the other warriors, gesturing to other bits of fallen debris from various storms. "Maybe we should help? Nothing as impressive as that, of course, so we can't steal the show." He winks their direction before padding to a pine branch half the size of Butterflytuft's. He fastens his jaws around its thick middle and skips after her.​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

​

 

[QUILLSTRIKE]

JUST MOVE WITH ME, DARLIN'​

---

The dark chimera was in in his usual spot beside Twitchbolt, once again having been aimlessly following the mahogany tomcat around just for the hell of it. As the cats around him exchanged words, ending with Blazestar suggesting they all help out, Quill simply shrugged. He'd been enjoying his free time with his friend, but he didn't mind the work and Twitch was technically still here, so...

Mismatched eyes landed on Shrimpy, taking in his poor attempt at trying to help gather pine needles and frowning. This was the tom Bananapaw had been defending, wasn't it? The one Chrys had called a selfish kittypet.

"Like this." he found himself saying in his usual bored monotone, making his way over to the orange tom. With careful sweeps of his tail like a broom, he began sweeping the pine needles toward the camps entrance. "This way they won't scatter." he informed them evenly before pausing to nod toward Shrimpy, indicating they should give it a try.
​

---

skyclan - male - 12 months - bisexual - homoromantic - single - a very tall, dark chimera tomcat with mismatched eyes and several scars. has bluejay feathers woven like spikes along his spine and neck.

 

[GREENEYES]

With the shift in seasons and how busy it's been as of late, Greenpaw supposes he didn't realize how messy camp has gotten.

No, it's not until he's returning back through its entrance with a mouse between his teeth that he realizes such - his sister's song welcoming him home as she pulls at branches. The camp looks kind of different - neater, a little more open and livable. And, well, Butterflytuft's always been better at the cleaning thing that Greenpaw has - as evidenced by his fur, almost always unkempt from training and hunting and so on. But, still, the boy bounds over to greet his older sister.

"Looks great, Butterfly!" he says, looking around the camp. "Is there anything you want help with?" Though it's something he'd rather not do, cleaning, he'd like to help out if it meant spending time with Butterflytuft. He sees his sister less now that she's a warrior!

Another scan around camp shows Greenpaw that some are already helping the tortoiseshell. Like, Shrimpy, and his... interesting way of cleaning up pine needles. Sweeping them up with his paws, rather than his tail, as Quillstrike shows him.

"It's easy once you get the hang of it," he tells Shrimpy, a flick of his crooked tail behind him. Though, it just might be easy for Greenpaw because of his crooked tail.
​