sensitive topics SUREFIRE, YEAH, THE SETTING SUNS GONNA SET ON ME ✿ shelter ✿ death

[Daisyflight]

"SUREFIRE, YEAH, THE SETTING SUN WANTS COMPANY"​

TW: death, needles, euthanasia

Daisyflight had been asleep when hands hooked her from the cage that she shared with Butterflytuft.

The difficulty parsing the time had made her weary, and hours spent on edge only reinforced it. Seeing Momowhisker’s tabby face had brought some entertainment, some hope, but the same pewter walls and dry pellet-prey beat even the strongest of wills. The warrior was certain, however, that there would be an out for them soon. She clung to the idea. After all, the molly had already missed her kit’s warrior ceremonies. Imagining Greenpaw, Violetpaw and Figpaw in the centre of the clearing, without her or their siblings, made her head light and chest strained. Not there to embrace them as warriors, nor cry out their names- what would those names be?

But dreams of moss nests and pines were seized from her, strings of unconsciousness torn up from the stitches. World wrenched at an angle, Daisyflight had little time to register what was happening before the hood of the metal den swept past her. Fern eyes shot to her daughter. "Butterfly-" She kicked at her captor. "Be safe, I’ll -" An unfamiliar stride pinched air from her lungs, the slate walls falling away at terrifying speed.

The instant her kit’s monarch-wing pelt slipped from view she began to fight back more fiercely. Perhaps if she fought free, she could find a way back- find a way to free the rest of them. Limbs strong from a life climbing rallied against the twoleg’s hardy false-fur but try as she might Daisyflight could only worm one back leg free, the weight of it displacing her balance.

Chin jammed against a rough shoulder, she slowed at the sight of her clanmates. Some faces she hadn’t seen in moons. Twitchbolt’s outline brought a crushing relief- one she hadn’t known she’d needed. Just hearing her old apprentice’s voice had not been enough. And then, a silver spark within the uniform cells. Snowpaw. "Look after your sister!" The molly ached to say more, that she’d find her way back, but thick wood slid into place behind her with a ghastly click.

Quiet pervaded this section of the nest, the twoleg’s breath an uncomfortable companion. Still, Daisyflight tried to wrench herself free. In a dervish of desperation, tufts of fur fell in their wake. Her captor warbled in dismay and rearranged her frame in their arms before placing her onto a chill slate. Dimly, the calico was aware of another shadow around the corner that seemed to grunt in acknowledgement.

Free only for a heartbeat from their vices and then the molly was faced with an uncomfortable string of procedures. Plasticky appendages roamed her mouth, deep against the curve of her lip. Every twist of her spine granted a claw’s length. Patchwork fur bunched at her scruff, a pelt so carefully tended to ruffled in ruin. When the twoleg released her maw and went to grasp her forepaw, Daisyflight wrested from their steel grip. Talons raked the exposed skin in a parting gift in a practised motion.

They barked in pain, hobbling from the metal block the pair warred over. The blood coiled around their arm struck a vivid image. A pause. The twoleg expelled a great dose of air, the breath hot against her ears. Another sharp call was given to the silhouette through the door and, after a beat, a muffled response moaned back. Their beady eyes procured an odd shimmer, watery.

Daisyflight spat out another warning.

The creature busied itself before returning to her, mitts around a foreign object. It was metal, as thin as her whisker. An incredulous fury rose to meet it- that they’d try to keep her down with such a feeble instrument- but the instant its pin-edge faced her the rage fled. A terrible, all-encompassing horror pawed at her, corroding low into her bones. The calico bucked against the hands that held her, to no avail.

A prick met flushed skin.

The frost that bloomed across her pelt was instant, swallowing up every blade of fur. Brightness winked into view, blinding her. A gossamer shift, celestial, draped along her rigid spine with oppressive command. With her remaining strength, Daisyflight bore her teeth. Even at the end, they taunted her. Unlife, unnatural, whimless, dead- Another prick.

They were the watchers, the witnesses. For so long she had feared their eye and now she faced it in its rawest form. Ribbons of light tumbled into shapes, laced ambiguously to a twinkling ear, an ephemeral step. Deny them, she must, she has- she had to see to her family.

Watchers. Daisyflight’s lungs emptied in a sigh. Perhaps… The glimmers wafted closer, their glittering fringes caught in the crease of her eyes, her whiskers. Blaze trusted them- saw them. Would he see her?

As the sky descended upon her and the world grew dim, Daisyflight’s mind was smoked with memories of the nursery, of grooming one, then four. Pearl lids sunk low, demanded by static and stars, she knew she’d see them again.

✿ /gone ☀-*ೃ༄
​

✿ ✿ ✿​

 

[QUILLSTRIKE]

DARK BLUE, DARK BLUE, HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ALONE IN A CROWDED ROOM?​

---

If curiosity killed the cat, then optimism crushed its soul.

Quill had thought that the worst was behind them at that point. Sure, more and more Skyclanners kept showing up, but with them came news- Thistlebacks promise to keep looking, Slate telling them where to look, and it all seemed to pay off when a Skyclan patrol finally showed up the other day. Sure, nothing had really been done and the patrol had lost Grizzlyridge in the process, but they were still steps orward. Skyclan would regroup and plan, and soon they'd all be free again.

He hadn't realized that some of them were on a shorter time limit than others.

"Get your fucking paws off her!" Quill snarled as Daisyflight was pulled away from her daughter, claws gripping the grate door and slamming violently in an attempt to force it open- an attempt that always failed.

He watched, helplessly and stewing in fury, as she disappeared behind one of the wooden doors- never to be seen again.

​

---

skyclan - male - 14 months (Feb 17th) - 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.

 

[Snowpath]

He wished he could be shouting, filled with rage and spitting and snarling against the bars like his mother was; but he was scared. Snowpaw didn't want to admit it, but his silence the entire time had been less his usual brooding demeanor and more genuine fear. What was to become of them, what was going to happen? Would Blazestar get to know his daughter was alive? Would he live to recieve his name still even long after his siblings got theirs? Would anyone here get to go home? His head lifted at the sound of steps, golden eyes burning like twin suns through the mesh of bars and he saw just faintly the white-clad figure reaching into the cage a distance away that held Daisyflight and Snowpaw was immediately alert, immediately rising to stand despite his shaken nerves. What were they doing-where were they going-"STOP!" His cries meant nothing, he knew the two-legs didn't understand them but he threw himself against the bars to scream all the same.
"Dais-MOM! MOM, DON'T GO! DON'T LET THEM TAKE YOU!"

The shelter cats had whispered of that room, he heard the hushed mutterings of them around him, how cats went in alive but never left as such. It was a death sentence, but it was rarely used. Don't worry, they said in hushed voices, I've only seen it opened once. I only heard it was opened once. I've never seen it opened once. None of it brought him any reassurance and he had been acutely aware of it the entire time; a great blocky barrier straddling the line between life and death.

Look after your sister!

"I-" No, he couldn't. That was her job wasn't it-she had to stay to do it. She had to stay with them. Snowpaw's long spotted limbs pushed through the bars, claws swiping the air to no avail; useless. His mother was going to die and there wasn't a single thing he could do to stop it. So he stopped trying, he sat back, he watched as she was pulled away from him more and he realized that all he could offer was assurance. Tears wet, heavy, pulling the fur down of his face as he shouted, to be as loud as he could.
"I'm-I WILL! I'll look after all of them!-I'M SORRY! I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble growing up! I'm sorry for what I've done, but I-I'll-I'll be better! I will! I'll be a warrior you can be proud of! I love you!" A thud, heavy and horrifying sounded and he could not tell if it was the door or his heart.


Goodbye.
​

 

[Dogskip]

His nap was disturbed by the sounds of a struggle, and he slowly opened his eyes to what he expected to be one of these bothersome forest cats causing a scene. He wasn't wrong, exactly. He watched, eyes fully open now as Daisyflight was taken from her cage. The cries of her kits cut his very soul, and seeing where the twoleg was heading only dug the blade deeper.

Twolegs were such cruel creatures. Selfish, vile and cruel.

He did not particularly care for the clan cats, but he would never wish this upon them. To be torn from family, to watch helplessly as a loved one is ripped away by circumstances you cant prevent, or enemies you cannot stand up to.... Powerlessness was a wretched feeling.

He closed his eyes and bowed his head. He had no words of comfort for the forest cats, he didn't even know what to say. Sometimes the best thing to say is....Nothing at all.

And so he lay in mournful silence for a cat he had never known, for a family he didn't know.
​

 

[TWITCHBOLT]

As always, the clamour rose quickly- sudden as shattered glass. From silence to chaos, the flip of a coin; his head shot up at the noise, to crane his neck and get a look- a glance, any sort. Olivine gaze wide, spherical- he knew those voices, hated that he knew them when they sounded like this. Distress, panic- it laced their words like the vilest poison, a sound that sickened him. Daisyflight should never sound like that- Snowpaw, either. Not- not this careening wail, this puling, poisonous... bile that only meant something awful must be happening.

Claws clattered on metal as he rushed forward, the door in his view. And he should be- wished he could be- relieved at the sight of his mentor's face, but- but when she was being ferried off like this, how could he dare? And... the words she had said, they seemed so final. Hatred boiled in his blood at the sound of that finality, and he was loathe to feel hatred for her now. But it wasn't for her, was it? It was for those- gangling beasts that had her in their grasp, wrenching her away from what she loved and what loved her-

Away. Away she went, and for a moment her eyes might have met his, but he had not seen for certain. And- with the yowling and the wailing, this could not mean anything good. A sound left him, not a word or a shriek- but something unidentifiable, choked behind the broiling despair he felt. He hardly felt his body hit the metal bars with a CLANG, muscles losing their will to keep him standing.

Twitchbolt- it was a name she had given him by all manner except directly, and yet he stood now undeserving of it in his inability to protect her. Her praise, her belief in him despite his volatile shortcomings, were still fresh in his memory and nauseated him by the moment. Saccharine memories seemed so sour now, resurfacing in this light- under the assumption he'd never see her apple-sour eyes again, nor the kind light within them when she had encouraged him.

He could not join the outcry. He could not join the keening screeches of losing her- of losing Daisyflight, someone who seemed so impossible to lose. Someone who had always seemed too sturdy, too rational, too there to ever be gone. Why was it that the moment he actually wanted to, Twitchbolt could not scream?​

penned by pin ✧​

 

[HAWKPAW.]

She certainly hadn't been ecstatic about being snatched by some stupid twolegs with superiority complexes that day, but hearing the anguish reverberate off the walls in this place made Hawk sure she could have gotten the much shorter end of the stick. That sound bounced off metal and dug right into her chest. It was because of them, because of those damn clan cats. There was something to be said about their camaraderie, certainly. Once that strange cat had been taken out of sight, the room had erupted in grief - anger, sadness, and some emotions she doubted she was at all familiar with.

Hawk figured this was easier for her. There was no one to miss her, no one to come back to. No one to leave behind. The clans seemed to be different. You ate together, slept together, worked together like a well-maintained machine. There was something not akin to blood, but stronger, between clanmates. Honestly, how didn't it feel invasive? And why keep on with it if it could bring this much pain? Perhaps that's why the tortoiseshell she-cat had ignored every whisper of someone's name when she eavesdropped. She didn't need to know you. She didn't need to know your name, see your face. If she did, she'd lose herself in the same sea of emotion that'd swept away the others.

It was unlikely any of her band had lamented her plight this way. No matter how she racked her brain to think of some other reaction, that was the most likely scenario. All getting captured had awarded her was their relief at one less mouth to feed. They'd take pleasure in the air of desolation, whereas Hawks could taste the despair, and hated it. That revelation had her stumped with how to address what had just unfolded. Was she supposed to release her bottled rage at these featherless bipeds with wild abandon, hoping it made sense? No? Then....well, actually, she was out of ideas. She had never been very good at this. Maybe if she thought it hard enough, they'd know that someone somewhere sympathized with their pain.

She opened her mouth a few times, immediately closing it again. What could she say, about their bonds, about that pseudo family of theirs she knew nothing about? What good would a token apology do? She'd just leave them to their hurt. Hawk had never believed in "they're in a better place", but in this jungle of sterilized metal boxes and harsh lighting, anywhere was better than this. She settled down in the shade of her metal den, paws tucked neatly under her small body. These boxes. Each a direct copy of the other, no life, no warmth. All that remained was emptiness.

And as she gazed out through the metallic webbing, she was empty too.

 

[butterflytuft]

She can't tell what time in the day it is when she feels her mother's warmth pulled away from her. Time is hard to keep track of within these walls, but she thinks it's dawn. Or dusk. The scrape of metal stirs her before she blinks open sleepy eyes. The stark white light beaming from outside the kennel takes a moment to adjust to, her tired head bobbing as she murmurs, "Daisyflight?" Her mother screeches for her. Butterflytuft bristles and ascends to her paws in a moment, yellow gaze stretched wide with fear. "Mama?" They've pulled her out of the den and for a moment the coward does what she's always done. She freezes, unable to move. It's a moment too late when she is finally able to will her paws forward. She lunges, forepaws outstretched but the wired door clangs shut before she can reach Daisyflight or the twoleg. Her small body slams against it with a harsh sound and her face and paws remain pressed against it to follow where she's taken. "Mama, no!"

Her breathing picks up as others begin to notice. Above it all, she can hear her brother's screams. It's a sound she's never heard from him and her mismatched ears angle backwards in fear. "Snowpaw!" She wails for him, craning to try and see her younger sibling. "Where are they taking her, Snowpaw?" Her cries grow louder as she continues to push against the door, everyone's fear and sorrow flooding the room and overwhelming her. "MAMA!"

Slam. And she's gone.​