private TRIUMPHANT & SNAKEHISS

[sparkspirit]

He had always expected that earning his warrior name would turn everything upon its head. What had once been a dream of being a powerful, proud warrior had morphed into a dream of being a warrior worthy of pride. Acceptance was so distant to him, so– so inconceivable that they day Sootstar stood before him with pride in her eyes, Sparkspirit felt as if he was still asleep. Everything, finally, had been right. He should have known it would not last. With his family involved, how could it? It doesn't matter how he tries to distance himself from them. They cling like leeches to his skin, bleeding him dry. Each wound aches and aches and aches.

Meeting Pollenfur is still a heavy, disastrous weight as he goes about his work with intensity, as if trying to cleanse himself of it all. Snakehiss's presence doesn't help. The reminder of the moons he had spent desperately shaking the accusations of his bloodline, proving himself worthy despite who he had been born to — it's all there when he is. Agitation rushes from him in waves as they walk the territory in an awkward, off-kilter patrol of two. His strides are jerky and sharp as he rubs the full length of his side along the bark of a nearby tree. A pleasant, grounding scrape. Cleaning them off of his pelt. Ridding himself of leeches as best that he can.

He can't help it. Maybe he's seeking a distraction; maybe he's desperate for change, clinging to any possibility that Snakehiss would see his warrior assessment as another opportunity to turn a new leaf. Sparkspirit blurts out, not quite as neutral as he would like: "What were your parents like, when you were a kit? I didn't talk to you, then." The tinge of desperation, the whisper of please don't deny me this distraction wavers in his voice.

˗ˏˋ〘  OOC ･ ｡ﾟ🗲 REFERENCE 06.26.2023 〙´ˎ˗

• ooc: —

• 

• sparkspirit, sparky. dmab male, he - him - his.
  ──── moor runner warrior of windclan; is very loyal to his clan.
  ──── 09 moons old. born on 12.15.22, and ages 85% real time.
  ──── echolight x elmbreeze, adopted by yewberry. brightfam?
  
  a long-limbed, trim mock tortoiseshell tom with mostly black fur splashed with the occasional patch orange. he has a singular white mark on the back of his neck shaped similarly to a lightning strike, and a small scar across the bridge of his nose. his eyes are a shocking electric blue.
  
  his apprenticeship has treated sparkspirit well. a newly-named warrior, he is lean and well-muscled, with paws accustomed to long treks throughout the moorland. he is deceptively sturdy and heavier than one might expect.

• "speech"

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[SNAKEHISS]

A patrol consisting of Snakehiss and Sparkspirit is an odd pairing, truthfully, if not a smidgen awkward. He hasn't really acknowledged the rust-splotched tom since the day of his assessment; the day that they had driven a fuming mother badger off together. It's a tough thing to swallow, that without the help of someone he once considered a rival he would have surely succumbed to the wrath of those steely claws. Sparkspirit isn't really anything to him now; their tensions seemed to be long gone now, buried and left in the grave. They had saved each other's lives, and yet Snakehiss couldn't call him a friend. Perhaps now they were simply clanmates ─ fellow warriors and nothing more.

He's perfectly content with not saying anything and just leaving whatever had happened in the past. Snakehiss was a warrior now, as was Sparkspirit, and they could move on with their lives... right? That was when Sparkspirit suddenly inquired about his parents, of all things, and caught the green-eyed tom off guard. "Why?" The newly-made warrior scoffs with a wrinkle of his nose, more so genuinely puzzled than anything.

Snakehiss is cruel, but he isn't daft. He can sense in Sparkspirit's tone that he wants to ─ needs to ─ talk for whatever reason. He supposes he'll humor the other tom, if only just this once. "Not much different than they are now. Only my mother doesn't smother me as much as she used to." He wasn't a kit anymore, after all. She hardly talked to him except for the occasional passing smile or greeting. "My father, he's... never been the type to dote. Distant, cold like frost under your paws, but always watching." Always looking for an imperfection. Snakehiss thinks to himself bitterly, though he would never dare say it out loud. He would never risk tarnishing his father's name. He was too important to him, and if he were to shatter the only relationship that they had, he would never forgive himself.

Well, there isn't much more to say, is there? Naturally, one might take this point in the conversation to turn the question onto the questioner, but... Snakehiss doesn't want to talk about Sparkspirit's family, frankly. "I don't think it wise to tread on the topic of your parents." Yewberry, the traitor to WindClan, and Echolight who had presumably been taken by twolegs. To bear the blood of a traitor was to be disgraced, his parents had always told him from the moment that Dandelionwish, Yewberry, Galeforce, and other cats rallied against Sootstar and turned their back on their clan. Sparkspirit could try all he wanted to separate himself from the misfortunes of his lineage, but his clanmates would never forget what had become of his predecessors.​