pafp THE OPINIONS OF SHEEP \ quiet bullying

[BLUEFROST]

News of Echolight’s disappearance has spread around camp. Her father had told her, clearly upset for his apprentice, but Bluepaw has shown blatant indifference. What does it matter, she thinks, if a traitor disappears? The rest of their foolish family had. Emberfang had been exiled for treason; she knows this story well. Pollenfur had defected in the night, a coward. Mallowlark had followed in her pawprints. Yewberry, too, exiled for foolish violence against Clanmates.

It'd been only a matter of time before Echolight had chosen to listen to the call of her traitorous blood. Bluepaw thinks good riddance, purposely blind to the pain in her kits’ faces. She doesn’t have to imagine what it’s like to walk in their paws. Her father is a loyal lead warrior of WindClan; her mother is the leader, StarClan-blessed. All of her siblings are training to be proud and fierce warriors. Her aunts are already that, one even a lead on Sootstar’s council.

Half-lidded emerald eyes peer flatly across camp, focused on one lilac-and-white splotched pelt. Larkpaw is one of three of Echolight’s kits. The kits she’d left behind, that all of their family had left behind, unwanted. Bluepaw examines her with a veiled expression, but she leans close to the cat beside her and murmurs, “Which of them do you think will run off next? My bet’s on Larkpaw.” Bluepaw straightens her posture. “She looks the most like her mother. It must mean something.” To her, it does—she looks the most like Sootstar, besides Cottonpaw, and it means she’s the most like Sootstar, too.

Her expression morphs prettily with just the barest hint of a smile. How unfortunate it must be to be a traitor’s kit.

// talking to @SNAKEPAW about @Larkpaw ! ; please wait for one of them to post
​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

 

[SNAKEHISS]

❪ TAGS ❫ — Although Snakepaw detested the leader's brood—as he had since their birth—they could find common ground upon the fact that their families had bloodlines that ran strong, born of the moors and bred to bound along the grasses like their ancestors before them. All it took was a single cat to tarnish a family's reputation, to which neither Bluepaw nor Snakepaw's had succumbed to such a shameful fate as of yet (and hopefully never would). Shadowsight and Rosepool had instilled a glowing pride within their son, reinforced by riveting tales of his predecessors and their long history within the moorlands. He could not help but grow repulsed whenever a cat decided to disgrace themselves and turn their backs on their home, whether they left on their own accord or were chased out.

Sat outside the medicine cat den for a moment of fresh air, he turns a blind eye toward his rivalry toward Bluepaw for the time being as she mutters something, pricking an ear and setting his sights onto Larkpaw across the way. He thinks of Sparkpaw, briefly, remembering how he had turned his back on Snakepaw and left him to fend for himself against a RiverClan warrior. While Sparkpaw had received countless praise for saving his mentor from certain death, he could not find it in himself to excuse the sudden abandonment of their impromptu "team" effort. A family of foxhearts, that was for sure.

"That whole family is a curse, I'm convinced." Snakepaw snorted with a flick of his tail. "Between her mother's looks and her father's traitorous blood, I wouldn't be surprised if Larkpaw was next." Or perhaps her brother; he was perfectly good at running away from things.​

 

[WOLFSONG]

──⇌•〘 INFO 〙 It is as Wolfsong has suspected would happen: with parents such as Sootstar and Weaselclaw, and peers such as Snakepaw, Bluepaw has come to hold disdain for other WindClanners. She is quiet, unlike Snakepaw, but the benefit of losing an eye is a gained keenness of his other senses. It helps, too, that he emerges from the medicine cat den after asking Vulturemask for help removing a burr from a difficult-to-reach area. How fortunate for the pair of apprentices that Sunstride was otherwise indisposed.

"I wonder," he rasps with sinister amusement, "whose blood compels you to heal so slowly, Snakepaw, and your paws to remain more idle than your mouth, Bluepaw. Not your parents' blood, surely." He keeps walking until he's a short distance away, where he turns to smile at them both. Larkpaw a traitor for her familial resemblance? Is my fate death at the fangs of a dog like my mother's? Foolishness.

"Why don't you look more like your mother, Bluepaw? Those white markings which split your face— do they mean something?"
​

 

[Morningsong~]

He could hear Bluepaw and Snakepaw talking quietly to each other. He had seen them first, looking at his sister. Morninpaw always chose to be peaceful and jovial in most situations, but when his siblings were being made fun of or harassed..... A different side of him often showed its face. He glanced to his sister, who may or may not be aware of what was being said. Then, to Wolfsong, who intervenes.

Bluepaw and Snakepaw talk of blood..... But is their's really anything compared to his? His mother's side of the family has roamed these moors for generations. Longer than Windclan has even existed. If anything, these moors are his and his siblings by right. He couldn't say this outloud, though.

He strode over with grace, a pleasant smile on his face.

"It's okay, Wolfsong...." He began. "They ride on the backs of their parents legacies." It's all they have. Without their heritage, they are nothing. "My siblings and I will make our own."

He gives the two apprentices a cool look, his face never once twisting into anger or irritation.​

 

[GHOSTWAIL]

She observed the jabs thrown with a placid expression, a sort of approval settling in. Yes, Sootstar's spawn with the unfortunate Weaselclaw certainly had the right of it. Traitorousness surely ran in the veins, pumped from the heart to the brain, to the legs, to the very essence of what a cat may be. Cowardice was etched into the skulls of these cats, passed down generation to generation. Maybe there were a few that escaped their lineaged curses, though the phantom doubted they were a common breed...

Wolfsong chides the children in their play - as if a bit of deserved teasing has ever harmed a child. It was good to maintain rivalries, that passion would drive them as warriors later on. Morningpaw exhibits this quite well, she observes, the young cat making but a small comment in return. The tom-cat is harmless enough, derived from nondescript cats with silly little names and follies. With proper training, he could - perhaps - cleanse the disloyalty that tinges his blood.

"A simple jest." She drawls to Wolfsong, "Children possess a certain way with their peers. It is.... gratifying to see that WindClan's values are being properly imported to the youth. Fealty is a becoming trait, don't you agree?"​

- you call for peace when it suits you​

 

[VULTUREMASK]

"They are not wrong. " Vulturemask spoke up but suprisingly to both Bluepaw and Snakepaw's defence. There was a coldness in his eyes one that never had been seen before. Echolight's disapperance had shifted something inside of him. That glass which he had been filling had cracked and shattered into a million pieces. There was a limit to what one cat could take. That last thing which had kept him together was now gone. The world was nothing but a ugly place corrupted with vermin and bugs. Every single one he had let in to trust and relay on had hurt him. It had left his own sanity cracking. Echolight was nothing but a bug like the rest of them. " Parasites are known to pass on to different hosts...." His eyes find Morningpaw and he would just stare at them with contempt. " Only time will tell if it will capture them too." he finished before his attention slipt away and he started to blankly daze of into the distance and to them he looked at nothing but to Vulturemask...he saw something or someone. Aha. He was starting to understand things now. Everything was finally starting to become clear to him.


​

 

[Larkfeather !]

Larkpaw, albeit too far to clearly hear the two apprentices, had noticed their gaze on her only shortly after they began to speak to one another.
Ignorantly blissful to their venom, the older apprentice gives them a friendly wave.
She can see their glares burning into her, but that’s how Bluepaw always looked. Snakepaw, though? Her disdain for him was one that was kept a secret, exceptionally well.
While she may not like the other, Bluepaw was certainly someone that intrigued the lilac molly, perhaps they could be friends?
By the time she reaches them, Snakepaws words are the only ones she hears.
Yet, she knows already that Snakepaw is a bully, keeping his words locked in her mental safe to use for later purposes.
She blinks to Wolfsong, grateful for his chastising, though confused as to why it would be directed towards Bluepaw as well.
Morningpaw is next to come to their families defense, and it slowly begins to click that perhaps Bluepaw wasn’t just an innocent bystander… surely not, though? A leaders child would have more dignity than that, right?
Parasites are known to pass on to different hosts…
The new voice that pitches in almost takes Larkpaw by surprise as she swivels her attention to Vulturemask. She didn’t know much about her mother and his relationship, only that the mollys care and adoration for him had never been a secret.
His words are the only ones that sting, and she gulps. This isn’t what she thought it was, and it’s all becoming a bit much.
A rare spark of anger is ignited in her, deep down in her chest, but she only keeps a gentle expression.
”If I recall correctly, parasites are pests, no? I don’t know about everyone else, but the only pests I see here are the ones that carry their names.” There is no venom in her tone despite her bold words, only a charming smile directed towards Snakepaw and Bluepaw. ”Or- I’m sorry, does your name not define who you are? Just as your pelt color, or heritage?” She keeps her matter-of-fact hum. She can’t find herself thinking that even if it did, she’d be proud to wear all three.
This interaction was draining, she’d much rather be out on the moorlands right now.

”Speech.”

[ YOUR SILVER LINING ]​

​