you could never swing that dagger ⋆⁺₊ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ marblepaw

[Swansong]

⋆⁺₊ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ She drifts into the medicine den unhurried, pale paws sweeping across cool stone. Her head is held high, as if it is where she belongs - and she does, she knows in her heart. She can feel the hazy lingering of dreams and memories in here, the way her mind begins to drift back to her own near-death. The bitter scent of herbs is a comfort, the tomblike walls just as much so. A small smile creeps across he maw, languid and pleasant.

And her eyes drift down, as if only now noticing the den's inhabitant. She stands tall, lets her willowy legs place her above the young apprentice. Her head lolls slowly to the side, pallid eyes boring though the cat before her. "Marblepaw..." she breathes, considering. A murderer's daughter. Hardly star-chosen; her bloodline is that of bloodshed and curses. She is not one to lead them from the despair that clings like thick tar. She let their father disappear - he could be dead by now, sickness rotting his blessed body and tearing away every one of his lives. All for a foolish incompetence, a neglect to watch a patient. She is young and unfit, a ruinous choice born of clear nepotism. Tragic.

The ghostly molly's smile does not waver. She paces a circle around the apprentice, before settling down next to her. A featherplume tail curls around their paws. "It must be... A difficult fate to bear, mm?" The words spill like sweet honey, a careful lure. "So much responsibility, and so young..." Sadness gathers in blue eyes, casted over to the apprentice. Her easy smile does not waver, but rather turns wistful, a mockery of sympathy. She feels outside her body. Polite and cordial, as she should be - because she is the only one who seems to notice how wrong this is.

‎‎┌── WE FOUND TWO DEAD SWANS ⋆⁺₊ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ AND FILLED THEIR BODIES WITH FLOWERS ──┐‎

• @MARBLEPAW
• 
  
  

  "SPEECH"

• 
  SWANSONG ☾ she / they, warrior of shadowclan, seventeen moons.
  ★ a pale, silky-furred cream tabby with droopy blue eyes.
  ★ dreamy and detached, known for her perpetual sleepiness.
  ★ halfshade x smogstar, littermate to applejaw, garlicheart, & ashenfall.
  ★ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ★ penned by SATURNID ↛ saturnids on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

​

 

[MARBLELEAF]

A phantom filters into the cave, pale and on drifting paws. Marblepaw does not initially hear the cream-coated warrior; she is busy with her task, the simple but therapeutic busy work of rolling herbs into bundles and storing them in a dry place. When she finally does notice Swansong's presence, she starts just a little — a rush of adrenaline, cold as icicle-water, drips down her spine.

"Oh! You startled me. Hi, Swansong." The medicine cat apprentice smiles, but it's decidedly a little nervous. "Uh, Starlingheart isn't here right now, if that's who you were looking for, but I can... take a message for her, if you want..." It's pathetic, a little, that that's all she still feels good for, isn't it?

Marblepaw's ears flick, her eyes snapping to attention, as Swansong speaks.

"It must be... a difficult fate to bear, mm?" Her voice is rhythmic. Marblepaw feels some of the tension leave her shoulders at the almost sympathetic note in Swansong's voice. "So much responsibility, and so young..."

Marblepaw's gaze falls to her paws. "It is... hard, sometimes," she admits quietly. "I never feel like I know what I should. I couldn't help Smogstar, and I couldn't help Needledrift when she was too sad to get out of her nest..." A frown tugs against her muzzle. But I've visited with StarClan, she thinks. Siltcloud would say I'm doing fine, wouldn't she?

She does not say this aloud — no, not without prodding. Marblepaw tries for a smile. "But I'm learning a lot. Starlingheart thinks so, anyway."

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: —
• 
• Marblekit . Marblepaw, she/they w/ feminine and non-gendered terms.
  — "speech", thoughts, attack
  — 9 moons old, ages realistically on the 1st.
  — mentored by Starlingheart ; mentoring n/a ; previously mentored n/a
  — shadowclan medicine cat apprentice, formerly a rogue. siltcloud x lilacfur, gen 3.
  — currently mated to n/a.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  sh fawn tabby with dull green eyes. courageous, curious, introspective, observant, judgmental, snarky.

​

 

[Swansong]

⋆⁺₊ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ A simple, slow shake of their head meets Marblepaw's timid question. It is not Starlingheart that they seek; she is too set in her ways, too blinded by grief and hubris. She clings to her dying bloodline as though it is not eating away at the festering corpse their clan has become.

Marblepaw, though... She is like clay. Perhaps that is why Starlingheart chose her, to mold this child into a different form than her mother took. To let the stars purge the rot from her cursed blood. Selfish. "Ah, it is not your fault..." she murmurs sadly. "Inexperience... It is a curse that we all must overcome." She does not let the bitterness she feels seep into the featherlightness of her words. Inexperience is a poor excuse for her father's disappearance. Still, her denial of blame rings true. It is Marblepaw's fate to be cursed; she has no say in the matter. It is her position which has doomed them all.

"The stars... They can be cruel in their taking. My father, Needledrift's daughter, your youth... To be their chosen... It is not fair, that you should bear that burden." Her soft words ring melodious in the hollow of the medicine den. They watch Marblepaw work in rhythmic motions. "I trust that you shall learn well," she purrs placatingly. "I only fear... That this path shall take more from you than it gives..."

‎‎┌── BUT NO ONE❜S REALLY THERE ⋆⁺₊ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ DOES THAT MEAN IT❜S DONE IN VAIN? ──┐‎

• 
  
  

  "SPEECH"

• 
  SWANSONG ☾ she / they, warrior of shadowclan, eighteen moons.
  ★ a pale, silky-furred cream tabby with droopy blue eyes.
  ★ dreamy and detached, known for her perpetual sleepiness.
  ★ halfshade x smogstar, littermate to applejaw, garlicheart, & ashenfall.
  ★ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ★ penned by SATURNID ↛ saturnids on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

​

 

[MARBLELEAF]

Swansong recognizes the failed diligence in Marblepaw; her tone is almost motherly, and the apprentice laps it up like warm prey blood on a leafbare morning. "Ah, it is not your fault," the cream-colored spectre murmurs, the sad set of her sapphire eyes dim with some internal grief. "Inexperience... it is a curse we must all overcome." The ShadowClan apprentice nods, hesitant. "I'll get better," she repeats. "I get a little better everyday. That's what Starlingheart says."

But Swansong has turned her attention elsewhere. The pale warrior laments — Smogstar's disappearance, Snowypaw's abandonment, her youth — and Marblepaw frowns. "My youth hasn't gone anywhere," they point out with blatant bewilderment.

"I trust that you shall learn well; I only fear... that this path shall take more from you than it gives." Marblepaw's confusion sours into trepidation. Despite the warm, honey-thick quality of Swansong's voice, the warrior has the quality of delivering something prophetic, and Marblepaw is too naive, too bogged by insecurity, to be able to untangle it.

"Explain what you mean, please." Her words are sharper, now. She is starting to dislike this interaction, but Swansong hasn't technically done anything wrong... and she can't help the bubble of morbid curiosity that's begun to simmer under her dust-colored fur.

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: —
• 
• Marblekit . Marblepaw, she/they w/ feminine and non-gendered terms.
  — "speech", thoughts, attack
  — 9 moons old, ages realistically on the 1st.
  — mentored by Starlingheart ; mentoring n/a ; previously mentored n/a
  — shadowclan medicine cat apprentice, formerly a rogue. siltcloud x lilacfur, gen 3.
  — currently mated to n/a.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  sh fawn tabby with dull green eyes. courageous, curious, introspective, observant, judgmental, snarky.

​

 

[Swansong]

⋆⁺₊ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ Marblepaw clings to their words like sweet honey. So hopeful, so naive... It is not her fault, truly. She should never have been put in such a position in the first place. It is a product of selfishness, a medicine cat more concerned for her family than her clan. This is what killed their mother. The apprentice's hackles begin to raise, words growing more defensive. Swansong blinks slowly in surprise. "I only mean..." they murmur, before trailing off.

Their caught fly flutters its wings. She leans in closer, lets her silken voice lower. "The medicine den can be... a lonesome place. A deathly place. There is... a sadness, in your aunt's eye... I do not know if you have noticed it..." Said like a secret, like it's not as obvious as the scars across her skin. "She was... young, when I first met her... but she never seemed it," they muse, eyes growing distant. Starlingheart is hollowed out, dead as the stars she serves. Such is the fate of a medicine cat, of a prophet.

Marblepaw does not understand. She has not yet come to accept death in all its beauty and cruelty. "There will always be cats who you cannot help..." they continue quietly. "Do you... think you can accept that, Marblepaw? Without losing that hope in your eyes...?"

‎‎BUT NO ONE❜S REALLY THERE ⋆⁺₊ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ DOES THAT MEAN IT❜S DONE IN VAIN?

• 
  
  

  "SPEECH"

• 
  SWANSONG ☾ she / they, warrior of shadowclan, eighteen moons.
  ★ a pale, silky-furred cream tabby with droopy blue eyes.
  ★ dreamy and detached, known for her perpetual sleepiness.
  ★ halfshade x smogstar, littermate to applejaw, garlicheart, & ashenfall.
  ★ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ★ penned by SATURNID ↛ saturnids on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

​

 

[MARBLELEAF]

Marblepaw's frustration does not seem to bother Swansong too terribly; the pale she-cat leans closer, her blue eyes swimming with unnamed melancholies. She tells Marblepaw the medicine cat's den can be a lonely place — a deathly place. "There is... a sadness, in your aunt's eye," she tells Marblepaw, as if they didn't already know. They had seen that sadness as young as six moons; they had been there, as the nights turned, where Starlingheart wept softly in her nest for children she'd lost, for kin who'd abandoned her, for a mate who'd hunted her like prey.

"There will always be cats you cannot help..." Marblepaw's gaze sharpens. Does Swansong mean Needledrift? Does she mean the cats who'd lost their eyes, their limbs, their will to fight? The fawn tabby wonders how the other she-cat could know about such a thing. Did Starlingheart tell her?

"I don't know," she murmurs at last. "But this is how I can help my Clan the best. After Siltcloud..." And she grimaces; she hadn't meant to utter her mother's name here, to Swansong. "She hurt so many... I wanted to heal to make up for it." A painful admission, a raw one — and selfishly, she had wanted to keep that to herself.

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: —
• 
• Marblekit . Marblepaw, she/they w/ feminine and non-gendered terms.
  — "speech", thoughts, attack
  — 10 moons old, ages realistically on the 1st.
  — mentored by Starlingheart ; mentoring n/a ; previously mentored n/a
  — shadowclan medicine cat apprentice, formerly a rogue. siltcloud x lilacfur, gen 3.
  — currently mated to n/a.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  sh fawn tabby with dull green eyes. courageous, curious, introspective, observant, judgmental, snarky.

​