camp summer days || intro

[cranberrypaw]

It's official. Greenleaf is the best season. Sure, newleaf is amazing too—in fact, it had been Cranberrypaw's favorite season until greenleaf arrived.

Cranberrypaw was born in the dead of leaf-bare, so this was her first time experiencing the wonder of sunny days and warm water. If she could choose, she would spend the rest of her life in the water. If only she could become a fish. Or a turtle. Turtles are cuter than fish, and they get to bask in the sun when they want. Do turtles breathe underwater? They certainly spent more time underwater than Cranberry could. Yeah, they could totally breathe underwater.

She had no clue how the other clans could be so terrified of water. Swimming was the funnest thing ever, and they just didn't realize that. They were so weird. Thank StarClan she had ended up in RiverClan. What if she, too, had never been shown how wonderful water was?

When she hears another cat approach, the young cat looks up from where she was lounging in the shallows of the water surrounding camp. "What would you do if you suddenly became a turtle?" She says it with the utmost sincerity, as if this is a perfectly normal thing for a cat to wonder about. After all, it is for her.​

♡ BARBIE GIRL ♡

 

[FERNGILL]

Fernpaw had, since early apprenticeship, felt most at home in the river. It had perhaps been the first signs of a slumbering likeness to his father in a tiny, unsightly ginger scrap- Mudpelt was a talented swimmer, and now that Fernpaw was an adult he could see that their instinctive techniques were alike. He couldn't imagine what it'd be like if he had been born into a different Clan- one that didn't train their apprentices to do the one thing Fernpaw was actually good at. Surely they would've given up on him by now- runt-like, fire-pelted, ungifted for battle and stealth.

He was lucky, really. Lucky from birth- another reason to believe in the whims of fortune.

The lapping of the river-bank lulled Fernpaw a little into autopilot, limbs aching from earlier training as he padded toward the shoreline. Cranberrypaw's chirping tone sent his verdant eye fluttering wide, and then squinting at the brightness of the light for a second. He tilted his head a little to better see her, her voice hang sounded from his blinded side- though his face quickly moved to form his typical sunshine grin. Her question was... an odd one, to say the least. To say the very least- though, Fernpaw's pondering didn't last too long.

"Depends," he hummed, tone as sincere as Cranberrypaw's own. "Would I have memories of myself as a cat, or would I'm a turtle be the only thing I know?" It was important- at least, in regards to this. Even if it was silly- his answer would change! ​

✦ penned by pin ✦​

 

[Mosspool]

Cranberrypaw's question caught Mosspaw's ear as she padded by, and she blinked. "What?" She stopped in her tracks as she glanced over, taken aback by what she had heard. The more she thought about it, the more absurd it became. The idea that a cat would just become a turtle somehow was completely outlandish. The question was complete nonsense. Which made it all the more shocking to her when Fernpaw answered genuinely.

She listened in astonishment as he asked not why Cranberrypaw would ask something like that, but for clarification as to if he would have his memories as a turtle. Why was he taking this seriously?

"...How would that ever happen?" Mosspaw asked slowly, looking between the pair in utter bewilderment. The whole conversation was just strange to her. She didn't get why the two of them were taking a topic that was so impossible seriously. "It makes no sense."​

 

[Snakeblink]

MAYBE I'D BE A SAINT IF I WEREN'T ————————————​

There are things in life you love so much you want to keep them to yourself — and others you love far too dearly not to show them to everyone else, so they can love them too. That’s how Snakeblink feels about the river. He’s sure that if every clan could experience the joy of swimming, the cool caress of water over their pelt in the heat of greenleaf, they too would love it as much as Riverclan does.

That is unlikely to happen. But he gets a taste of it every time a kit or apprentice discovers the joy of their birthright: the delight in their faces when they get to swim freely for the first time never gets old. And it never really stops: even in the grouchiest of their clanmates, there’s always a spark of happiness set alight in their eyes when they slip into the water.

The apprentice Snakeblink is keeping an eye on today is more on the peppy side, but the result remains the same: it’s fun to watch her be so enthusiastic about the river. And the question she lobs at Fernpaw, too, is pretty entertaining.

”It’s not that strange,” he tells Mosspaw, deadpan and entirely straight-faced — seemingly dead serious, even a little disapproving. ”My sibling was a Turtle.”

It is, strictly speaking, true — although he doesn’t specify that in their case, it was their name, not some trick of fate that led his mother to give birth to a shelled reptile.
​

——————————————————————————————————— so god damn lonely ​

ooc. information.

• 
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 42 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

​

​

 

[RAVENSONG]

Ravesong is one of the few dry paws of RiverClan. His fear had remained strong ever since he set foot in RiverClan, but small steps were being made. Like right now, the black cat was crouched by where the water reached the edge of camp (he rarely left camp nowadays) with his paws half-dipped below the water. This isn't so bad—it's when his feet can't touch the ground and he has to trust the water to support him. Ravensong cannot imagine a more frightening thing.

One ear angles half-interested in the conversation proposed by Cranberrypaw. His internal thought process mirrors much of Mosspaw's, but he stays silent until Snakeblink's bizarre addition.

Paws withdrawing slightly from the water, Ravensong twisted his head around to look at the others. "I pity your mother..." He mumbled, his own low voice just as serious and deadpanned as the tabby's.

​

 

[cranberrypaw]

At Mosspaw's initial question, Cranberrypaw smiles at her. It's a big, toothy smile, the only kind she knows how to give. "Oh, you didn't hear? I'm sorry! I was asking Fernpaw what he would do if he was turned into a turtle."

Fernpaw's answer makes her think for a moment. He's right, after all. Whether or not you know that you used to be a cat would change the answer. "Um... Let's say you wouldn't have any memories, and you're just a turtle." Mosspaw asks how that would even happen and Cranberrypaw shrugs. "Who knows! But I'm sure it's possible."

Her eyes widen and she whips around when Snakeblink says that his sibling was a turtle. The sudden movement lightly splashes the nearest cat to her, but she doesn't notice. "For real? What was that like, having a turtle for a sibling? Did they know how to speak cat? Can they breathe under water?" This is the most interesting thing she's ever heard, and she must know all about it. "You're right, Ravensong! Their poor mother! What if they couldn't speak cat? What if they were never able to talk to each other?"​

♡ BARBIE GIRL ♡

 

[Mosspool]

Mosspaw's ear flicked at Cranberrypaw's response to her. She had thought that perhaps the question had been a joke she didn't understand, as that happened often enough, but the idea that the other apprentice actually believed it bothered her. "I know what you said, but it makes no sense." She told her firmly, her words sharp and certain. "It's not possible. Why do you think it is?" Cranberyypaw and Fernpaw were just being silly and childish. They should have stopped believing such things by now, they weren't kits anymore.

At least, that was what she told herself before Snakeblink arrived.

His comment left Mosspaw aghast. Her mouth hung open wordlessly as she stared at him, blinking. The disapproval in his tone made her pelt prickle with embarrassment at being scolded by a lead warrior, but her mind protested against it. What he was saying was insane, impossible, incomprehensible. She was right. Wasn't she? Cranberrypaw had a thousand questions for him, but she couldn't think of anything to say at all. Eventually, she managed to splutter out, "Wha- well- I-" Before giving up on saying anything at all.

Ravensong glanced over, and relief filled her. She knew him to be a wise reasonable cat. Surely, he would set all of this nonsense straight and show that she had been right all along. Staring at him with with wide eyes that begged for him to bring stability to the chaos in which she found herself, she watched eagerly as he began to speak.

Her heart sunk as he took Snakeblink's assertion as seriously as the rest of them.

"What are any of you even saying?" She muttered sullenly, too chastened by Snakeblink to speak as confidently as she had before, but too confused to keep her peace.

This conversation was beyond her.​

 

[FERNGILL]

Just a turtle- right. Fernpaw fell silent for a long few moments as he pondered the question, head drifting a little bit to the side, healthy eye narrowing slightly to peer past the mist of his thoughts. The ensuing conversation around him was a little distracting, though- Snakeblink claiming something largely impossible that Ravensong offered an entirely serious reply to, and Mosspaw standing impenetrably confused on the sidelines. Humour lit vaguely upon Fernpaw's face, but he said very little else as he quite seriously wandered toward his answer.

"I think I'd go eat... whatever turtles eat," he murmured. "I think I'd probably be hungry. Even if I didn't remember I was a cat... it could be cool to see what leaves taste like to turtles." In cat-form, Fernpaw did not like leaves- whether they were healing herbs or just the sort off of trees that he'd decided to try once, in a fleeting fit of boredom.

A barrage of questions- rightfully- bulleted from Cranberrypaw's mouth as Snakeblink's revelation- and Fernpaw set a quizzical eye upon the lead warrior. He couldn't be serious, could he?​

✦ penned by pin ✦​

 

[Snakeblink]

MAYBE I'D BE A SAINT IF I WEREN'T ————————————​

Ravensong’s serious face and equally deadpan words give just enough credence to Snakeblink’s boldfaced lie to push it just over the line of plausibility, and Cranberrypaw doesn’t just walk: she runs. Questions flow from her mouth like water and he tries to answer as earnestly as if he truly was discussing his late sibling, who happened to be a turtle.

”Of course they could not speak cat,” he says while nodding mournfully, as if it were a sad but obvious fact. ”They were a turtle. But my mother loved them all the same, and we were happy together.” Struggling to keep a smirk off his face, he adds gravely, ”Until one day, when they tucked their head and their paws into their shell, and just rolled away. I have not seen them since.”

Surely this is too big of a story for even her to swallow, but it’s such a nice thought — much nicer than the truth of Pond Turtle’s untimely end — that he can’t help himself. He feels a little bad seeing Mosspaw’s chastened face… but it truly is very funny.

”My theory has always been that they started off as a cat like you and me, and turned into a turtle in our mother’s belly, perhaps because she ate something she shouldn’t have.” Hearing Mosspaw’s sullen confusion, he affects concern and peers at her closely. ”Oh dear, could it be that you are losing your understanding of our language? Perhaps this is how it starts. Do you feel a sudden desire to eat leaves? Is your back stiff, perhaps… shell-like?” He glances at Fernpaw. ”You have already adopted the mindset of one, so tell me: if you were a turtle, what leaf would you find tastiest, do you think? Maybe Mosspaw ate one by mistake…”
​

——————————————————————————————————— so god damn lonely ​

ooc. information.

• 
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 42 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

​

​

 

[Cindershade]

Like Mosspaw, Cindershade was also a bit baffled by the question. What sense did it make? It wasn't as if anyone could turn into a turtle—it was impossible. That is, until Snakeblink raises his voice and she could not help but to roll her eyes at him. What an idiot. He was teasing, of course, wasn't he? His sibling was not actually a turtle, was it? If that was the case, she would deem him more of an idiot than before. The imagination that some of these apprentice's have—a wonder how they were not all wagging their tails and dragging their asses around like mindless hounds.
In the midst of it all, the fact that Cranberrypaw does not even question his blatant lie has her nearly cackling at the gullibility of the young molly. Her lips twitch as akughter bubbles at the base of her throat, threatening to spill but she swallows it down with an awkward cough. "If I was a turtle, I'd go rogue and still eat fish." She manages to speak now, though her tone wavers and betrays her usual serious nature.

​

[ SILENCE IS DEAFENING ]​

 

[cranberrypaw]

Tilting her head at Mosspaw, Cranberrypaw says, "Well, how do you know it's not possible?" She turns and nods her head vigorously at Fernpaw. "That's a good answer! I'd probably be hungry too, but I feel like I'd rather bask in the sun on a nice log. Wouldn't that be fun?"

Her eyes are wide as she stares at Snakeblink, absorbing every word. "That... That's so sad. I'm so sorry for your loss, Snakeblink." She'd never had a sibling, but she couldn't imagine losing one, even if they were a turtle. Tears threatened to fall even thinking of it. She nods solemnly as he theorizes about possible causes, but her heart isn't in it.

That is, until he implies that Mosspaw might be turning into a turtle herself. "Oh no! Mosspaw, are you okay? Please don't become a turtle!"

At Cindershade's addition, Cranberrypaw spends a few moments thinking. "I think I've seen a turtle eat a fish before, but I'm not sure."​

♡ BARBIE GIRL ♡

 

[Mosspool]

Mosspaw did not want to be in this conversation anymore. She wished desperately that she had never spoken up at all, then she could have just gone about the rest of her day without being a part of this nonsense. As it was, all she could do was flick her ear and a sour expression as Fernpaw continued to humor the idea that he might literally turn into a turtle.

More than anything, she wanted to just leave, but then Snakeblink turned toward her. It would be rude to just leave while he was speaking to her, and she would not be rude to a lead warrior. So, she stood there awkwardly while he asked her if she was having trouble understanding him, if she had a sudden craving for leaves, if her back felt a bit stiff, and if - perhaps - she was turning into a turtle.

The stars were punishing her.

She had done something wrong, and the stars were punishing her for it. That was the only explanation for this. When she laid down in her nest tonight she would need to ask for forgiveness for whatever it was.

Mosspaw knew, by now, that Snakeblink had to be messing with her. As dense as she could be to this kind of thing, even she could realize that was the only reasonable explaination. That, however, didn't mean she knew how to deal with it. Stars knew she was not going to play along. Even as another lead warrior in Cindershade joined Fernpaw, she would not.

"No, I did not eat any leaves. I-" Cranberrypaw, the source of this whole horrid mess, chimed in again. Asking with concern if she was okay, and begging her not to become a turtle. "I am not turning into a turtle." She declared in exasperation, putting great emphasis upon each word to demonstrate her incredulity at having to say them. At the very least, they couldn't claim she didn't understand their words if she replied to them directly.​