camp SWELTERING HEAT // conversation

[lovage]

Lovage didn't reveal more than she needed to. These cats were new and though she had immense gratitude towards them for taking in her and her children, very little questions asked - she cannot help but be secretive about the details. These cats seem to be nearly as guarded with their own pasts, anyhow, so she doesn't think it horrible to withhold her own. That said, she's had a few entertaining conversations with enough of them that she feels comfortable lounging outside the nursery and telling a little story.

"... and dogs are no joke in the twolegplace, as I'm sure you know," Lovage chirps. Her kits must be around somewhere, and she watches them with careful side-glances. "I learned that twolegs like to train them. If they bring back kills, then they get prizes. So when we had no where else to turn - I basically just threw the mouse I had caught! Flung it right into the air, I did," she grins. "The dog was dumb enough to snap at it. We took that time to run, and run we did. Sure we lost some food, but in exchange for no one dying? Yeah, I'll take that any day..." Her eye dims briefly, but she lets out a deep sigh and releases it all the same.

In that time, she notices a nearby tom muttering something. She looks at him, equal parts curious and confused. "What was that?"

[ pls wait for @CHRYSALISWING :3 ]​

 

[CHRYSALISWING]

It was not hard to infer that Chrysaliswing's past lie close to his side, like a blade that clung too closely to the sheath, or the claw that grazed too keenly upon its own flesh. How else would a cat like him have been made, unless through the knolled and blackened hands of strife? No feline came into the world harboring knars of pure hatred and resentment. The one thing that the tomcat couldn't stand was arrogance, his anger for it a gaslight musing upon its tinder, ever-bright and ever-consuming. Perhaps it was his manner of dragging one down to his despondence, like he stole the very birds from the sky and wished to clip their wings. He would never be able to fly as they did, so his solution would be that of destruction, that of cries that simply said - why you and not me? Today, the longhaired tortoiseshell caught upon his victim of the day, chirpy songbird inflection of the newcomer gracing his keen ears. Perhaps it was the flippant manner in which she spoke of the beast that had almost swallowed him alive or the way she had seamlessly woven herself into the enclaves of the clan, but Chrysaliswing felt it appropriate to butt into the conversation, if only to show her that there was little to be celebrated.

"There's no way a cat like you managed to outsmart a dog." The chimaeric warrior muttered, smoldering gaze trained upon the lighter pelt of Lovage, as though his regard aimed to brand her more than she already had been. Lovage looked at him like a bewildered animal, a prey-thing that hadn't yet registered that it would meet his fangs. It only served to enrage him further. "I said, there's no way a cat like you managed to outsmart a dog. I'm sure you have all your fellow queens hooked in with your tall tale, but it doesn't fool me one bit." He growled, ire welling up from his throat in spouts, tar founts expelled from a maw that had never given anything else. His tail lashed behind him, though he cared naught even if anyone that he knew were to see him like this.

𝘯𝘰 𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 ⚠︎ 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘷𝘦

• OOC:
  
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  —— CHRYSALISWING / He/They / 27 Moons
  —— Warrior of Skyclan / Mentoring n/a
  —— A long-haired tomcat with chimaeric patterning. His left side is fully black and his right side is black splotched with sunset-orange. He has complete heterochromia, with his right eye being a bright green and his left eye being a glowering yellow.
  —— Abrasive, temperamental, and critical. Approach at your own risk and engage at your own cost. Despite this, he is a hard worker and quick to call out what he finds wrong.
  —— Penned by Tempest. Contact on Discord (naruk4mi) for plots and threads.

​

 

[Cherryblossom]

Cherryblossom remains half-enamored with her own fur as SkyClan's newest queen once more divulges a dog-troubled history. The story doesn't quite satiate her citrine-sharp attention, blunted by humor and told time and time again by Doeblaze and the late Mottledove, but she keeps a torn ear trained on the dusky tortoiseshell's voice as she concentrates on a knot in her shoulder.

The fact that this queen managed to outwit one of the beasts was certainly something though. Not even Doeblaze, Bobbie then, had thought of it, though in her former life she wouldn't have been able to catch a mouse in the first place. "Mmmm, well, lucky you," the calico remarks, shifting a sly side-eye towards her. "You're safe and not hungry now." She knows little of Lovage's past, assumes a housecat's one at most, but she's under SkyClan's wing now. Not truly safe and would never be, but prettier and bolder and freer, and it seems like she hadn't a lot of choices anyway. (SkyClan: a last resort or all one's ever known; it should make her feel bad, but that's all she's ever known too.)

A rust-torn shape slinks by, but not without baleful, muttered announcement of his presence. Annoyance punctures her bland expression, greying the pale around her eyes and twisting her ears backwards. "Don't listen to him," she snaps, pulling her silken tail tighter around herself. In any situation, her dire dislike of the chimera would outweigh any capricious judgements she has of Lovage now. At some level, though, she has to admire him standing his ground. "He's just saying that 'cause he wouldn't have thought of that even if you gave him a thousand seasons to think."​

 

[Batscreech]

For once, the small framed mahogany tom offered an unwavering ear towards one of which he had never properly gotten to know. It would have been a challenge not to, regardless of how disengaged he typically was- dogs were no joke, she was correct- and for one such as herself, with a gentle frame, silken fur and a singular soft eye, one of the only traits about her that eluded to a life that reared its ugly and violent head in her direction- it was quite the unbelievable feat. Bat himself was no stranger to dogs, having come from the derelict and dodgy city streets. They could flay any cat into an incomprehensible pile of mangled fur, flesh, and bone with ease should their frenzied jaws get ahold of you. Whether or not this story was true, he himself could not say, however it was not his place to. What use would one get from lying about such a thing? Nothing more than awe-stricken eyes and passing whispers of praise- useless and trivial.

Before the newly appointed queen was able to close off her tale in full completion, a mottled body slunk into view from the shadows. Bat was unaware of the chimera's name- unfamiliar with his mannerisms and the way his optics glinted and shifted with a harrowing level of ire- something about the way this feline carried himself made the thick fur around Bat's neck prickle, however he would do well to keep it as smoothed out as he could despite his instincts screaming at him to do otherwise. Trust was not easy to come by, and this was undoubtedly no exception- in fact, it may have been the very reason for it. This original disconcerted reaction did not last very long, however, for once Chrysaliswing spoke, the words proved to be as empty and hollow as the cat who allowed them to slip off his tongue.

It was clearly not well received by Cherryblossom, who like Bat had settled down to absorb- albeit halfheartedly- the story woven from the eager queen. She would return his unwarranted words with her own imbittered remark, wherein Bat would shortly do the same. He didn't much care for the opinions others chose to openly share in regards to others, not unless it concerned or benefitted him- a rather distasteful trait still engrained within him from a hardened past. However, he would not pass up the chance to let his sharp tongue fly loose, especially if it was for a cause that could be considered...good. In defense of another. "Get bent, mate. Sounds like yer just shirty 'cause ya weren't the one 't think it up. Any sorry bloke what come's face 't face with a slimy, mangy cur'd do well 't keep a proper head on 'em, instead of goin' 't shambles tryin' 't flog it."​

 

[lovage]

Whilst others urge her to turn her nose up at the chimeric tom's sour words, Lovage cannot help but want to dig her heels in. Chrysaliswing reminds her of her past in a way that makes her stomach twist, of creatures who thrived on the misfortune and frustration around them. She was like that, too, believe it or not. She hardly thinks motherhood has weathered that part of her away completely (though she'd be remiss to admit that she quite liked the softer life she's been given.)

"Hey," she rumbles, and should Bat allow her, she taps her paw to his briefly to tear his attention away. "It's okay. I can handle this on my own," she rumbles. To Cherryblossom, too, does Lovage bid a silent, I got this. She more than appreciates their attempt to shield her from Chrysaliswing's tirade, but it sparks a flame beneath her paws, and the flower-bloomed she-cat cannot ignore the gut churning curiosity that swells in her.

"If you think yourself so smart," she starts, with her still genuine, soft, queen like smile, "Then once I'm able, we should hold you to it. A competition, maybe. I bet I could do better than you, one eye shut," and that she does - her missing eye closes over the gap. She remains mostly composed, aside from her tail that ticks back and forth, either with anxiety or excitement. ​