development when time stops | leaving

[BONERIPPLE]

Days, it has been days since she has seen her son. Since he vanished without so much as a trace and took flight from their home. She tried to reason with herself that he didn't go far and that he will come home once he had a chance to clear his head. Hoping had turned quickly to despair and she told Wolverinefang about it. Her pain leaking through every word and soon he too had disappeared. Her only thought is that he went to look for her son and she finds herself alone. Alone with the smell of herbs in a place that has become foreign to her. She sighs softly, thinking and thinking. Sleep evading her all throughout the night and she supposes she is ready. Her long frame gets from her nest and she leaves the den. Soon to be her former den. The sun is high and she knows how this will look. It will be twisted but she can not stay and hope that her son and potential mate are going to make it back alive. If they die out there..... The woman takes a deep breath in and she shakes her head, attempting to remain strong in all this. Pausing near the camp entrance she turns to look st the cats in camp. Faces all different and some familiar. So much change and she is not sure if it is all for the better. Still she has her mind set. Starlingpaw knows what she knows. She has trained her with what knowledge she has and she feels a fleeting smile pull acrosd her muzzle.

"Everyone, I'm leaving. I'm going to go and find my son and Wolverinefang. In my stead I'm lesving you a fine apprentice who has learned all I was able to teach her. Starclan, I believe chose me to pave the way for someone better." The molly has been through many trials. Lost more cats than she wished but now she was going to be going on her own path. One that isn't controlled by those that died upon the battlefield. Her paws tingled with the idea of being able to make this choice and she nods to herself. "I don't know what will happen, don't know what the future holds but they are out there and I need to find them." She waits then for words. Kind or ridicules, either way she has made up her mind and she will be another less mouth for Shadowclan to worry about feeding. ​

 

[Starlingheart]

Fogpaw has been missing for what seems like moons when, in reality, it has only been a few days. Starlingpaw tries to pretend she does not notice how distant Bonejaw has become, tries to pretend like she does not see the worry written plainly on the black and white she cats face, but it is unmistakable, unmissable in the way she looks off into the distance. She personally thinks Fogpaw and Wolverine ran off together, and if that’s the case good riddance. They were just as good as gone, traitors that they were.

When Starlingpaw wakes up this morning, Bonejaw is not there. Her nest is already vacant. The black and white she cat stretches her white tipped paws out in front of her, yawning and arching her back in the air before she leaves the warm comfort of the medicine cats den to find her aunt.

Find her she does.

Her words stop her cold in the entrance to the den they had shared, her blood running icy and her mouth hanging half open. Leaving. Did she hear her right? "L-leeeaving?" she echos, her voice shrill, almost a squeak. It has not even been two moons since she has been appointed. Bonejaw says she knows all she was able to teach her but- Starlingpaw is only a child, a child who had thought they had much more time to learn and she desperately racks her brain, trying desperately to remember what she knows, to cling to it. The threat of oncoming tears does nothing to help the situation at foot. "Y-you you caaaant I-I n-n-neeed I need you" she says quietly, but she can see it in her face, she is resigned to go. Resigned to leave them.

// completely IC Rhos we will miss you and Bonejaw so so much you were a great first medicine cat for shadow clan! I’ll see you and her over in river hugs!!! ​

 

[Frostbite]

Frostbite bristled. He was content to silently glare and harshly judge Bonejaw for abandoning them a second time, but when Starlingpaw spoke up, the icy fortress that was his heart shattered instantly.

She was only a child.....

"You would leave Starlingpaw to tend to an entire clan, just as leaf bare arrives? She may know what you know, Bonejaw, but she's still a child......" He spoke up.

"Just because Windclan has a child medicine cat doesn't mean we should follow suit." He added. "Reconsider." He almost begged.

Left to fend for herself during leaf bare...... Frostbite could relate, and it stung. It was a sting he wasn't prepared for. The way his mother just up and left him, saying not even a word.

At least Bonejaw was telling them why she was leaving. Better than his mother, and for a much better reason, which wasn't lost on him.

But he still wanted to go over there and smack her. Though to be fair.....He felt that way about almost everyone.

"Will you.... Come back, when you find them?" He asked, as if not wanting to accept she would not return. And he did not know why.

(( ALL IC OPINIONS WE LOVE U RHOS))
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[Bramblesong]

❝ SOMETHING NEEDED ME ONCE ✿°.✧ ————————————

Leaving them without a medicine cat — a trained adult, not a babyfaced apprentice still learning what she can — on the cusp of Leaf-bare is… unwise, on Bonejaw’s part, but Bramblesong cannot find it in herself to hold it against the other molly. What would she have done for her kits? Anything. She’d have walked all the way to the stars just for a chance to see them again. She wishes she could do something to help Bonejaw on that journey. Instead, she comes nearer to Starlingpaw in a silent offer of comfort she’s not sure will be accepted, throwing Frostbite a saddened look. She doesn’t know all that she sees in Bonejaw’s eyes, but she recognizes that finality that speaks of a new turn. Whatever lies ahead, she doesn’t see Shadowclan down her path.

”We’ll feel your absence, but I wish you all the luck you can have on your search,” she meows.

———————————— ✧.°✿ AND I KNOW SOMETHING WILL NEED ME AGAIN ❞ ​

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[CHILLEDSTAR.]

ic opinions !!! we will miss you and bone around here, rhos!!!!! good luck in riverclan!!//

selfish. that was the first thing that came to mind it wouldn't be the only thing. as chilledgaze padded closer to starlingpaw, they find it hard to keep their face from twisting with disgust. if there was one thing that set the felidae off more, it was disloyalty. one couldn't be partially loyal. they were either completely loyal, or they weren't at all. seems bonejaw had chosen to not be loyal at all. bonejaw was only thinking of herself. she sure as hell wasn't thinking of shadowclan, or her family she had here. she wanted her son and to chase tail after wolverinefang. another traitor. with a click of their tongue against the roof of their mouth, they only lower their eyelids. pitchstar was either going to be off his rocker pissed, or so depressed that he didn't leave his nest. there wasn't going to be any in-between. either way, that made more work for chilledgaze. all because of disloyalty. she had felt this way for a while, so why didn't she leave sooner? before leafbare, leaving them with starlingpaw as a medicine cat? starlingpaw, as sweet as the little button was, wasn't ready. windclan had the same issue didn't they. thunderclan too. why had they had to follow suit? because the stars are fucking wrong.

they remind themself. damn it all to the deepest darkest depths of the forest. damn it!

"disloyalty isn't a good look."

they muttered under their breath. they took a second before just rolling their eyes. bonejaw didn't care enough to stay and chilledgaze was never the type to beg for a single thing in all of their life. they weren't gonna start now. and they sure as hell weren't gonna stay for the shit show.

"you may wanna leave before someone with a worse ttemper than I leaves you with a few mementos."

and with that, the deputy turned and left. what a waste.
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[ NOBODY ELSE MATTERS, GIRL ]​

 

[smogstar]

They still stung, the narrow streaks down his muzzle left by Bonejaw's claws. A thin film of crumbly blood cakes the wounds, neglected, as he harboured no ambition to have them examined by the woman who put them there in the first place. No likelihood of infection could outweigh his newfound disdain for ShadowClan's medicine cat. She conducts herself with such vapid arrogance, and if Granitepaw's bitter words ring true, then the high horse she rode upon is a false front. Such would not surprise him in the slightest. Playing the role of clan healer would get to anybody's head after a while.

In spite of his personal misgivings against her, Smogmaw cannot help but feel astonished with regard to Bonejaw's unforeseen announcement. It had been merely a half-moon ago when she chastised him for alleged disloyalty - and now here she is, flouting her StarClan-given role for no reason other than self-interest. Fickle hypocrite.

"I wish someone'd told me that we could just up and leave," he mewls sourly, drawing towards the camp's entrance on surly pawsteps. "During the time we are going through, no less," the mackerel tabby presses on, echoing the justification she had used to attack him. To leave a child, not even halfway to being of warrior age, at the helm of an already-starving clan - to put such a burdensome responsibility on her own niece.

He does not share Bramblesong's commiseration, nor Frostbite's grief. His position is consistent with Chilledgaze's, but he doesn't turn tail. It seems Bonejaw is cemented in her decision, as conceited as it may be, and she deserves to fully understand how detestable it is.

"Your priorities are clear, so what are you waiting for?" asks the tom through narrowed brows. "Whoever you run off to, they'll quickly come to learn that you're a disloyal lowlife. Should you be lucky enough to find your son, he'll realise this too."



// it goes without saying that this is all ic opinions and im so sad to see u go rhos! but im looking forward to writing with bone in rc, and it was so much fun having her here in sc >:3 ​

 

[Halfshade]

It was leaf-bare and while at first the novelty of the snow was quite charming and enjoyable it was wearing off as she watched the prey pile grow smaller and smaller as mere scraps were thrown desperately onto it. They were risking themselves further and further out into the carrionplace and edges of territories and the risk of starvation was alarmingly real now. Halfshade smiled, but it was a mask as she listened to the chiaroscuro she-cat make her announcement and the faintest flicker of irritation crossed her maw; a brief lift of lips curling, a soft narrowing of her eyes, her tail gave a sudden twitch where it lay draped around her paws as if gaining sentience and become a furred snake rearing to bite.
She was leaving-was it? Chasing her missing boyfriend and child? Missing? Sure. More like they had left to avoid starving to death in this hole like the rest of the clan, probably climbed a fence and meowed pitifully at a backdoor to be pampered and pet as kittypets.
"You would abandon your own kin to chase daydreams? Perhaps they vanished without your knowledge for a reason, perhaps they sensed your wavering loyalty."

She claims she is leaving them a fine apprentice she has taught everything. Unlikely. It has not even been a MOON. A single moon of training. While she was terribly fond of Starlingpaw she was just a child! WindClan was fine with its children soldiers and their barely out the nursery healer but Frostbite spoke earnestly. They had the territory to afford such hubris. She couldn't imagine forcing someone so young to carry the burden of the entire clan and it ignited a rarely seen fury inside it; her pelt crackled with flame, splintered with ice. Halfshade comes to a stop as she stalks forward next to Starlingpaw, long plume of a tail carefully curling around her for a moment of comfort before she throws her pristine and calm mask of pleasantries to the ground and bares her teeth, pink gums visible as lips curl back and eyes narrow and she stalks forward even further, body lowering with each step like a hunter preparing to strike.
"You would leave your niece to shoulder your burden, abandon your clan when we are struggling the most. You are a wretched soul, a disloyal curr-if I ever glimpse your face in the shadows again I'll thrust you into true darkness, long and eternal where even the stars can't touch you."
She shakes her head, she is not leaping to leave the she-cat bloodied and staggering and left to struggle as they most certainly will: not yet. No, she wants to see what happens first, this will most certainly not go over well with Pitchstar.

[Ooc; MWAH! lu Rhos ! I loved Bonejaw so much as a medicine cat and am super excited to RP with her in my second main clan!!!]
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[BONERIPPLE]

Glimmering eyes held sharp emotion and she looks to Starlingpaw. The young molly needs to have more faith in herself. Afterall, just like with herself she being thrusted into a whole new world. And yes she does know she is just a kid, that she needs her family but the woman is not leaving her to fend for herself. She has Pitchstar, her siblings, everyone here who will hopefully try their best to help. Her maw parts to speaks to her, to try and give her the encouragement she never really got when someone else speaks up and she focuses on Frostbite. "Windclan is not the reason I am doing this. I know she is a child but Starlingpaw has more potential on this path than I ever did." Her maw twists then into a grimace before she sighs tiredly. "I do plan on retrieving them and returning, I—," Her words cut off again and she looks to Bramblesong, one who understands at least this much and she dips her head toward the other. A silent gratitude

But as others speak their words she finds anger boiling underneath her pelt. The mere fact that they can call her disloyal is laughable. What disloyal? Her eyes are like sharp daggers as she glares, tail lashing back and forth with her annoyance. She is disloyal for attempting to find and bring two of their clanmates back home? She is disloyal for caring about her clanmates? The woman feels a sickening feeling pooling in her gut. "I see. Tch. I'm the only one who cares enough about two other Shadowclanners out there missing to even go and look for them. Neither Wolverinefang or Fogpaw matter to any of you. You don't care if they are possibly injured and can't get back. But I'm the disloyal one while all of you cast them aside." Perhaps from this moment she knew that there was no cammeradiere here, no true family between these cats. No, she would not return here. She could not, not after the words they spoke to her. Chasing daydreams is trying to find their clanmates. She scoffs. Neither of them left because they wanted to, one felt abandoned and then Wolve he...went to bring Fog back. "I feel ashamed that Fog's parents died for this place.".

Shifting she moved her paws towards the exit, but she looked over her shoulder as Halfshade spoke her threat and she merely stared on blankly. "When that day comes I pray that you are ready enough to face me." Her paws move then as she starts to leave but she has one last thing to say. To Starlingpaw. "I do love you. All of you. Even though I'm making this journey. I hope in the future you can forgive me, but I can not forgive a clan that will so readily toss their own aside as if they are nothing. Do well, Starlingpaw...I'm sorry." With that the molly retreats out of the camp, moving through the thin and sodden foliage with a new goal in mind. Maybe living as a loner will be better and she hopes she finds them.

_/ and she is out! Thank you guys so much for everything and love you all![/COLOR]​

 

[GRANITEPELT]

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮​

For once, Granitepaw watches the situation with Bonejaw in complete silence. He sees Starlingpaw trail after her aunt, her mentor, jaw dropped and her eyes vacant with fear. "Y-You can't, I-I n-n-n-eed you." His heart twists, stomach full of fire that threatens to escape from his maw -- but it doesn't.

He goes to sit beside Starlingpaw, pressing his flank to her's in a gesture of comfort. Their Clanmates are seeing, finally, what he's been seeing this entire time. Bonejaw cares not for ShadowClan, for the sick and dying cats in her care. She cares about herself and whatever strange desires she has in her skunk-streaked head.

Granitepaw cannot help the smile of satisfaction that twists his features. Finally, he is rid of her, and he didn't have to do anything, really. She up and left her Clanmates on her own.

He does feel sorry for Starlingpaw, and the look he gives her once Bonejaw is gone is one of complete softness, sympathy gleaming in normally cruel green eyes. "You don't need her, Starlingpaw," he says. He licks her ear, hoping to direct her attention his way. "She was right about one thing. You were always going to be a better medicine cat then her. Not that it takes much." His tone is sour. "No, you don't need her. You have me. I'll always be here for you." He gives the other cats a defiant look, as if to dare them to say otherwise.

- ,,​

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[✧ Siltcloud.]

MY IGNORANCE HAS STRUCK AGAIN​

siltpaw | 06 months | female | she/her | physically easy | mentally easy | attack in bold #ddadaf​

---

Siltpaw can only look on, dull green gaze watchful and wary. Her feelings are mixed disloyalty is unforgivable in her eyes and yet... sometimes, she wonders how her life might have been if she'd gone with their mother. If she hadn't been left behind. How it might've been if she had been the one to disappear - would sandra have come looking for her as bonejaw did? She supposes she'll never know. Turning her back on the molly as she strides away, the messy-furred apprentice simply slinks off. There is nothing more to be said or done here.

 

[PITCHSTAR]

pitchstar's silent, at first.

he watches his aunt through eyes wide, every muscle in his body coiling tight. she's leaving... leaving him...? leaving him, all alone, to lead his mother's clan? no, she couldn't. she wouldn't. she loves him, doesn't she? why would she leave? he almost laughs at the notion, the audacity of such a thought. he must've misheard her, then. that must be what happened.

the first blow comes when his clanmates begin to step forward. starlingpaw, with her shaking voice, exclaims that bonejaw couldn't leave. (no, she's not leaving. starlingpaw must've misheard, too! his frantic mind tries to provide, to shield him from the truth, like a child hiding beneath their mother from a thunderstorm.) but as more and more of his clanmates speak out against bonejaw, the further the thorn embeds itself. the more pitchstar is forced to admit to himself that this is real. that bonejaw is leaving him behind with a dead mother and a starving clan and a medicine cat who's hardly older than the kits in the nursery.

she's not just leaving him, she's abandoning him. pitchstar wants to scream that's it's not fair, because it isn't fair. nothing is fair. he's lost so much. and now, one of the cats he thought he could trust more than anyone on this wretched earth, his own blood, is forcing him to lose more. the cat he'd almost ruined the alliance with windclan for. the cat he would've fought tooth and nail for. the cat he would've went to war for. she doesn't care enough about him to stay by his side like he did hers.

the second blow always hurts more than the first. bonejaw turns on them, spitting out that they're to blame, that they don't care about shadowclan. and this time, pitchstar does scream. "you can't do this to me!" he screeches, lurching forwards with claws that rip at the earth. "i would have sacrificed everything for you! i loved you! and this is how you repay me?! by abandoning me after you've clawed me in the back?!" chilledgaze was right. bonejaw should've left before he came to his senses.

the traitorous medicine cat claims she's ashamed that fogpaw's parents died for this place. that's when tears burn at pitchstar's eyes and his vision hazes over with red. "and what about dad?! are you ashamed that he died to protect our home, too?! are you ashamed of mom?!" are you ashamed of me? he doesn't dare to speak the last question aloud, too scared to know the answer.

she's already making her way towards the exit, and pitchstar is powerless to stop her. all he could do is watch, with shaking legs and heaving breaths. "fine! leave! i don't want you here, anyways!" it's a lie. no matter how much he tells himself it's true, it would never be. he wants his aunt to stay, more than anything. he doesn't want this fate, to watch as everyone he loves slips from his grasp. but the biggest lie of all, is the one that slips from his tongue heartbeats after. "i don't love you anymore, and i never will!"

pitchstar whirls around and storms off to his den, his head ducked to hide the hot tears streaking his face.

[ ic opinions only </3 ily and bone, shadowclan will miss her dearly! ]​

 

[Starlingheart]

Starlingpaw watches with a shocked expression upon her features, everyone else’s protests hit her ears but it all sounds muffled, like footprints falling on a heavy snow. Her mind goes elsewhere, refusing to acknowledge that this was really truly happening.

When Bonejaw turns her attention on her, tells her that she loves her it all comes back into focus. She wants to scream, cry, anything. She loves her? If that were true then what was this? Why would she just leave like this? She was leaving her and her siblings behind for what? Some cats that weren’t even related to her by blood. It is a mean thought, she knows it the second it enters her head. She wants to beg her aunt to stay but voices cry out branding her a traitor and Starlingpaw cannot say she disagrees.

And then Granitepaw is there. He is her rock in this storm and she turns to him, burying her head into his shoulder fur so that she does not have to face the scene unfolding in front of her. She nods along to his words, agreeing, but she does not look up. She would be a better medicine cat than her aunt had been, she is certain of it. She would at least never leave her clan, her family, not like this.

When she pulls away, when she watches Bonejaw leave the camp followed by venous words spat by her brother before he too retreats, one thought runs through her mind. What in the stars name am I supposed to do now?
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[RIBBITLEAP]

Ribbitpaw should be happy about this, shouldn't he?

He should be happy that the medicine cat who pushed his aunt away from the clans - who failed to save his grandfather, his friend's mother - was finally leaving.

But, as he watches the scene before him, the brown tabby can't seem to find an ounce of happiness. As he watches Pitchstar storm off, as he watches Starlingpaw beg for her aunt to stay - her mentor to stay - all he can find himself feeling is sorrow, guilt, worry. Betrayal.

He'd once told Bonejaw in a grief-filled rage after Twilightfall's death, that she'd be the reason they'd all die. A moment of anger that he'd come to regret, but a moment that seems to crawl back to him as he watches the black and white feline take her final steps out of the camp. She'd left them in the midst of leaf-bare, left them with her apprentice. Her apprentice - new in her position, new to the world of medicine. Practically a kit.

He watches for a moment longer, watches to see if the medicine cat will change her mind - will stay, rather than search for those assumed gone. But she doesn't. She doesn't turn around, an action that leaves ShadowClan at risk of disappearing too. A brown tabbied tail flicks behind him.

"Traitor," he finally mutters, before returning to his own work.
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