pafp to know the laurel | dawn patrol

[Cherryblossom]

Pre-morning comes slow and cool. Blue-bottomed clouds sprawl lazily over the lightening sky, the horizon washed in watercolor beryl. Too dark for the birds still, the only sound accompanying the strangely-early dawn patrol is the patient rustling of the pines above, between whose trunks watery light seeps through.

Dulled with dawn-shadow, Cherryblossom and her patrol wind their way through the needled canopy. Her royal pawsteps are feathery and practiced upon the branches, but not nearly as naturally gifted as those of the cat she’s found herself walking besides. The former lead warrior’s tiny frame barely bows the bark she walks upon, her lone eye dyed a mournful shade of turquoise in the shadows of her fringe.

Bobbie’s not someone Cherry has ever really disliked. For someone she’d grown up with though, her knowledge of the other is annoyingly poor—beyond the thickened threads of gossip that used to trail her and Blazestar like spidersilk, that is, and whatever Lupinesong had intimated to her over the moons. The deputy could say she’s lost a mate as well, but she wouldn’t embarrass herself in the comparison.

She waits for a breeze to pass them before quietly, casually volunteering, ”Bobbie?” Cherryblossom turns towards her as she likely does the same, an aloof, absentminded kind of curiosity on her face. ”Have you ever thought about, like, changing your name?” She doesn’t think much past the question: a conversation-starter, something she wouldn’t ask Slate for fear of being stone-walled. Though with how Bobbie had changed since Blazestar’s death, she runs the risk of her doing the same here.

ooc: @BOBBIE , anyone can post after her!

skyclan deputy | "speech." | tags​

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[DOEBLAZE]

Night is just bleaching into dawn, the last of the stars a corona of silver around the edges of the horizon as the first rays of sunlight climb the distant horizon. The world lightens from near - black, to navy, to gradually glowing cornflower, vivid brushstrokes of dusty muscadine blooming at its corners. A lone green eye rolls lazily over the bumps of hills in the distance, skimming the overlapping peaks of the pines sprawling outwards from the winding path of boughs their patrol follows. Dawn's mist spills over the unclaimed border and rolls between the proudly fanned needles, whipping itself into long, torn shreds of fog in the cool dawn breeze.

Bobbie is at relative peace. She'd woken in the cool darkness of the warrior den dry - eyed and bloodless, inclined to introspection but feeling relatively well. The slightly dewy bark gripped under her claws, tiny frame stepping lithely from one branch to the next, and the light duty of the dawn patrol had helped to dispel any foggy - headed notions of guilt ( at least for the moment ). Greenleaf is a pleasantry, not only for its fat - bellied prey and warm rains, but for its place as the polar opposite to frost - whipped winds and snow crunching underpaw. For that, she is endlessly grateful.

" Hm? " Velveteen ears twitch, torn and newly furred, her head canting rightwards at the deputy's quiet utterance. The patrol moves onwards and she divides her attention between keeping her own pawsteps steady and considering the question. It's innocuous enough, not a fledgling ask for her, and Cherryblossom recites it with considerably more tact than the first cat who'd asked something of the same—not that Silversmoke was a difficult opponent when it came to manners. Her brow quirks curiously, verdant gaze flickering between the calico deputy and the horizon . . . she's less familiar with Cherryblossom than she might like to be all, things considered, but she wonders why the other cat chose this question and now.

" Um . . . " Her claws grip the bark instinctively with each step, an effortless move to keep herself secured as she ponders the issue in a silence already stretching slightly too long. Thought about it? No, she hasn't really . . . Bobbie is just who she's always been, and thought she always would be . . . though, she recalls her pointed mrrow to Silversmoke some moons ago: I said I didn't want to take one yet. She'd never set a timeframe for that yet, had she? The typical " training " time has more than elapsed for her, and yet, she'd never put a thought to the issue again. Maybe I should have left my name back in the mountains with my collar.

" As in taking a warrior name? " Her husky voice quirks upwards, the conflict evident in her tone and her long pondering silence a testament to her lack of surety on the topic. " . . . No, I guess I've never really thought about it much. "

OOC : —

♥︎

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[SILVERSMOKE]

Bleary eyes squint at dawn's light, the spotted tabby keeping to himself on the day's patrol. It was a route taken many times, he found that within the evergreen, the pines did not change, only the cats he experienced them with did. On this particular patrol, there were few clanmates he was able to converse with, but attention at an all-time high, he heard their conversations all the same. Mention of names caused his tufted ears to twitch, a side-eye offered to the cats in front of him as they began to discuss Bobbie's name. His fur ruffled someone in memory of a prior conversation with the she-cat about it. To be in a clan was to sacrifice the life you had before, both in memory and name. It felt right to the spotted tabby, he had done it so readily that the hesitation of those like Bobbie and Slate confused him - at least the former's motivations he could understand.

Until, she decided not to repeat them to the Deputy.

His eyes narrowed towards Bobbie, his tail lashing at the lie presented by the widow. 'Perhaps she's just changed her mind,' he considered, but, wouldn't she have alluded to that instead? Suspicious eyes shifted between Cherryblossom and Bobbie before the spotted tabby quickened his pace, reaching the twos' side in record time. "That's not true," he pointed out, decorum mattering little in the face of deception. "You told me you were waiting until you felt like a proper SkyClanner." And he'd respected her for it, for a time. But since then, she had become a Lead Warrior, she had found fleeting companionship in Blazestar and mothered kittens that would be the clan's future - it was difficult not to put a time limit on acceptance when so much had happened to suggest she was right at home. Expectantly, his attention settled back on Bobbie for an explanation.

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[EMBERFALL]

Emberpaw had found herself a short length from her mentor, yellow-amber eyes shifting as the three warriors converse. Would she get her name like Flora became Florabreeze, Momo to Momowhisker? Her whiskers twitch yet she doesn't inquire on her useless statements and instead finds herself to be the silent factor. It was none of her business to intrude on the conversation with her personal opinion or inquire Bobbie why she'd never found herself wanting to change her name. It was the former lead warrior's own business and if she wished to share it, then that was fine— but the brown tabby wasn't going to push. It was disrespectful to shove your snout in someone's business when you had your own to deal with.

The words of her mentor make her ears flick as her gaze shifts to the spotted lead warrior. You told me you waited until you felt like a proper SkyClanner. An ear flicks at Silversmoke's words and she remembers when she had been renamed and given a clan name, the memories of her old name long forgotten. In her time of need and suffering, a small starving kitten joined and found herself isolated and had to prove herself to a clan that fed and sheltered her. Many clan-cats hated kitty pets, strays, rogues, even their kind— that's why she worked and improved herself. Emberpaw would be a great warrior and she knew it, and everyone would know it by her actions.​

 

[Cherryblossom]

A soft hum of noncommittal thought, and Cherryblossom allows her attention to wander elsewhere while Bobbie mulls the question over. What's Eden up to right now? In the relative darkness, she lets the bridge of her nose twist a little. Probably still sleeping. "Mmhmm," she answers, ash-dappled tail pulling against a particularly heavy bough of needles. What else could I be talking about? she wonders unkindly.

Bobbie gives her an unsatisfactory answer, but she would've left it at that if Silversmoke hadn't butted his big ol' head in. For once, Cherryblossom finds herself appreciative of it. A clearly amused, "Oh?" follows the lead warrior's interjection, and she looks at Bobbie with mismatched brows high on her face. "I'm surprised you cared enough to remember that," the calico remarks, shooting the larger feline a sly glance.

With a quiet flick of her tail, Cherryblossom meows, "Once Blazestar made you a lead warrior, it should've been obvious." Or once she was chosen to go on the journey, or once she was named a real warrior after shadowing Blazestar, or once she'd successfully given the clan the kits who now stood alongside Cherryblossom as warriors.

There's a nonchalant sort of delight sitting on her face as she thinks more on it, pleased with the meager dregs of entertainment that could be squeezed from one of the more boring crowds in SkyClan. Her apprentice days not far behind her, she expects more of Emberpaw in this regard, but the she-cat seemed to be cut from the same cloth as Falcongaze when it came to being fun. "Maybe she, like, forgot," she says, inclining her head towards Silversmoke. "But, well, that's kind of a big thing to forget." She'd been almost too preoccupied with her warrior name when the time came, but there had been no doubt about whether she would get it or not.

skyclan deputy | "speech." | tags​

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[DOEBLAZE]

The pleasant distraction of Cherryblossom's question becomes significantly less so when Silversmoke invites himself into the conversation, as things are wont to be when the grey - furred warrior ( a pelt as bleak as his personality ) enters any equation. Of course the lead warrior can't just let her leave the painful details to be swallowed up in her too - frequent silence . . . no, he feels it necessary to drag it out for everyone on patrol to hear about, a sprawling of viscera as messy as his kills ( which is an unfair comparison, but let her have this ). The lilac tabby's torn ears burn, her soft footsteps on the trees suddenly a little less sure as the Maine Coon details her previous stalling on the matter to their tortie deputy.

His crimson - furred apprentice, trailing him in silence, is given little mind as Bobbie's half - tail flicks hard with irritation she wisely chooses not to verbalize, even as Cherrypaw's lackluster hums of acknowledgement turn to prodding mrrows of curiosity. Of course he just had to open his mouth, she thinks with a barely stifled grumble, the only thing he hates more than daylight warriors is letting sleeping dogs lie. " Did I say that? " she finally answers in feigned forgetfulness . . . maybe it's a little cruel to pretend she doesn't remember their conversation with as much clarity as Silversmoke, but she's capable of being perfectly nice when he keeps his big mouth shut.

" I guess I just forgot, " she adds, tail lashing behind her . . . as well as she schools her face and tone, she's always been rather expressive with the limited tail she had. " You know, since I've had bigger things on my mind lately, Silversmoke, " Bobbie remarks pointedly, emphasizing each word with the unspoken underpinnings: Like my dead mate, and my kits, and my Clan, and . . . It's all she can do not to huff out of her respect for the two higher - ranking cats. Still, though she's loath to admit it, both bitter Silversmoke and nosy Cherryblossom have a point . . . she's long past the point of a " proper SkyClanner "; she'd journeyed for the lungwort, made ( and lost, of her own volition ) Lead Warrior, found a brief but enduring love, raised up two litters of kits . . . and in her own mind, she's been a SkyClanner since those early heat - steeped days of greenleaf past. Finally, she mutters begrudgingly, " Maybe I'll have to give it some thought. "

OOC : —

♥︎

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