Open Border SkyClan betray the moon as acolyte | joining

[JACKDAW JACKDAW]

JACKDAW

They felt less like they had chosen to go on this journey and more like something was dragging them along.

When they had first chosen to follow her, it had been out of grief, out of guilt. At the time, there hadn't been any real signs of her; just bloodstains from the battle and her scent, leading into the mountains. It hadn't taken much for them to make up their mind, and even then, under normal circumstances, it would have taken less. But they had wanted to bury her, if nothing else. They couldn't make up for what they had done, but they could have at least done that.

Except there had been nothing to bury. It had been the opposite; whatever was left of Jackdaw's hope had sprung back to life, slowly but stronger with every sign, every cat claiming to have talked to someone that fit Doe's description. She was alive. She was alive, and somewhere along the way Jackdaw's thoughts had shifted from needing to give her a proper resting place to just wanting to see her- to just confirm that their mistake hadn't killed her, too.

In the end, it's the border that causes a sliver of doubt to creep back in. It's almost funny, in an awful way- so long of walking, and it's a scent that threatens to crush any hope that they had. But they stop, anyway, and they wait. And a tiny, almost childish part of them looks for their sister like she'll be summoned by their presence alone.

 

[Mulberryburst]

Walks amongst the branches near the border were not uncommon for Mulberryburst and his apprentice, teaching Jaypaw how to move as close to silent as possible through the trees their current objective so that they could move on to mixing things, taking what's been taught and shoving them together. He's in the middle of moving his feet, showing his apprentice how to test the branches for stability when the scent of a loner filters through the branches, the sight of multicolored fur flashing by the border before it stops and silently the warrior finds himself motioning with his head for Jaypaw to follow before he moved down the tree onto the forest floor and moved forward once more, stopping close enough to the border to speak to the other but far enough away to be able to get away should it come to it. Although Jackdaw thus far wasn't showing any signs of anything untoward you never knew.

"What's your business with SkyClan?" He'd ask quickly, standing before the other with confidence as he spoke the name of his clan. This was the second loner in just a few days that had graced their borders, and though he hadn't been there for the first one she had joined their clan, and if this loner was planning on joining as well Mulberryburst had no authority to decide their fate.

apprentice tag @JAYPAW

​

MULBERRYBURST he/him, skyclan 24 moons old.
chocolate x cinnamon mink chimera with low white
mentored by none // mentoring Jaypaw
littermate to Maple
NPC x NPC / father to none / mated to none
"speech" // "thoughts"
penned by tikki ↛ rabbitcake on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

 

[DUSKPOOL]

DUSKPOOL​

Appearin' with Sweetpaw in tow, Duskpool raised a hard brow, takin' note of Jackdaw's appearance. "Got a name, kiddo?" He remarked gruffly, pausin' to swipe a tail in front of Sweetpaw, warnin' the apprentice not to go any further. "Reckon yer a long way from home, eh? How'd ya hear about this place?" His molten iris drifted to Mulberryburst before directin' his gaze to the youngster.

"Why don't ya go fetch Hawkstar and the others, eh? We'll keep 'em company." He rumbled to Sweetpaw, gaze driftin' to Jaypaw, brow raised in inquiry before straightenin' with a rumbled grunt. "Folks these days are out lookin' to join. I'd reckon yer among those bunch." He stated with a narrowed iris, obsidian figure ripplin' as he shifted his stance, languid, but poised to defend if the need arose.

we're only haunted by the things we refuse to accept

ooc

information

main ref

• @sweetpaw
• 

  DUSKPOOL he/him a storm carved in flesh and smoke, duskpool towers with the bulk of a maine coon and norwegin forest cat. his wooly black pelt bristles with ghost-stripes and scars—old wounds etched like lightning through dusk. one copper eye burns like molten steel and the other a mangled ruin of war. every step is heavy, thunderous—war-born, death-burdened, and unflinchingly alive.
  
  ᯓ★ senior warrior of skyclan (sun guard during coffeestar's reign)
  ᯓ★ brother to outlawbite & thistlestrike, half-brother to flowercloud
  ᯓ★ eighty-three moons; ages on the 1st of every month
  ᯓ★ speech thought action
  ᯓ★ peaceful/healing powerplay permitted
• ​

 

[doe]

Everything is very… new. The land here is nothing like the mountains Doe hails from. The highest the ground dares to rise is a sloping hill, and the pines grow thick and strong, unburdened by suffocating snow and ice. Voices caw from the trees, cats calling and crows echoing, and the land is thick with the scent of pine and SkyClan. An ancient tree watches over the camp where Doe now roosts, and it is a rare hour when the air does not fill with the sound of many voices and paws.

The mountains are not so easily banished from her mind, though. Shards of jagged rock still cage in the walls of her thoughts, spiked forts long built and slow to crumble. She chooses to busy herself with roaming her new home, outlining the borders and slowly building a sketch of the land. Doe could have walked the mountains with both eyes torn from her, she thinks, but this place is still unfamiliar. She walks and walks and finally finds herself back at the border where she first met this Clan, albeit on the other side.

Mulberryburst's umber tail is not a surprising sight, like a fox's shadow where he stands, an apprentice at his side. Doe doesn't know the latter's name, but they suppose it will come to them in time, as the names of her colonymates are still seared into her mind: Chough, Grizzly, Vulture… She shakes out her pelt and advances with her head held high, still favoring her bad leg as she ducks around Mulberryburst, then past the dusky-furred senior warrior inquiring after the stranger.

The face that greets her makes her blood run as cold as mountain wind.

Taller than her, ever since they were kits. Their fur like a darker reflection of her own, her tawny pelt cast into a foxed mirror, one ice-blue eye shaded by a tuft of fur. They look a little worn by their journey, but not nearly so worn as she knows herself to be. Her left eye is not hidden by thick fur but blotted out entirely by clawmarks, her hackles at a perennial spike, her figure wiry with a traveller's muscle. The look on her face is distant. Guarded.

" Jackdaw! "

The steel mask falls at that. Despite the suspicious looks of her new Clanmates, Doe ducks over the scent line, her single eye wide. She pauses just short of touching her sibling, paw lifted in a half-there gesture, whatever cool words she'd anticipated dying on her lips.

" What are you—How— "

Words escape her in the depth of her shock. She had never expected to see Jackdaw again—expected them to be trapped under the iron claws of the usurper, or worse, hung from the peaks for the buzzards to pick over. Certainly she had never thought she would see them here, so soon, their pelt still carrying whispers of the smell of fresh snow and high winds. Now she does find herself able to aim to fit her muzzle to their neck, leaning her heavy head against them for all of a moment.

" I never thought I would see you again. I thought you were trapped or worse. "

Her voice is a low murmur meant only for her sibling's ears.​

 

[JACKDAW JACKDAW]

JACKDAW

It had taken no time at all before Jackdaw wasn't alone. Too fast for her liking, honestly- the idea that these strangers could have already been watching her makes her skin crawl. But neither of them seem aggressive, even if they do seem just as wary of her as she is of them. The bigger of the two speaks up first, when they get close enough. "I was looking for someone, and I thought she may have come here." Who she's looking for goes unspoken; on the off chance that Doe didn't have a great meeting with these cats, the last thing Jackdaw wants to do is accidentally set more pursuers after her.

Especially not when another duo, much like the first two, approach while she's explaining herself. This one, though, sends his smaller companion away to fetch a- a Hawkstar?- but even that doesn't help, because Jackdaw is still obviously outnumbered. Which is why, despite everything telling her not to trust these cats with her name, she trusts the idea of what will happen if she lied and they found out less.

"It's Jackdaw." In a way, after hearing something like Hawkstar, her own name feels bland in comparison. The thought is amusing, kind of, but the moment is fleeting, falling to the wayside with the first flicker of lilac fur.

And then she's here. Not a fleeting mention by a stranger, or a tuft of fur left behind, and certainly not a reminder of a brutal fight. Here. She stands with the rest of the Skyclan cats for a moment, with that familiar guarded expression Jackdaw has seen time and time again. And her eye-

It feels like it takes the willpower of ten cats to not cross the border for Doe. That and the fact that she's sure these cats wouldn't like that. But Doe is able to, and she does, a paw half-lifted like she may reach out to Jackdaw, just to bury her muzzle against their neck. And, immediately, it's like the realization that her journey had a happy ending after all leaves her feeling nothing but relief and a dizzying exhaustion from how far she had traveled. She half-crumples, half-folds herself around Doe. "You couldn't get rid of me that easily."

Despite the joke, Jackdaw's voice threatens to break. A little voice in the back of her mind hisses that she shouldn't be getting this emotional, not when she had played a part in causing all this, but her vision blurs anyway.

"With the way you disappeared, I just wanted to-" Even with her own voice hushed, she can't bring herself to say the rest of it- like if she does, Doe will dissipate into thin air after all.

But even with the silence, she's sure her sibling will know.

 

[DUSKPOOL]

DUSKPOOL​

He shouldn't be surprised, mangled ear twitchin' at the statement. Lookin' for someone, eh? He raised a hard brow, mind mullin' over the possibilities, though he ain't no fortune teller. He can't help all that much without context, though she seemed like someone who ain't like to convey more than she ought to. Duskpool can't blame the feline, not when he was similar. It ain't lyin' when ya tell the partial truth, though, whether that hurts others? Duskpool could only wince inwardly.

"Duskpool." He introduced after a heartbeat, wooly plumage swishin' idly across the ground. Reckon he ought to hold out an olive branch. A name for a name n' all that crap.

His gaze narrowed, shiftin' slightly to watch their newbie lunge forward, cryin' out Jackdaw's name. Must be the someone they were lookin' for. His head tilted, watchin' the reunion with bittersweetness. "The two of ya know each other, eh?" He mused, not a question, but a fact. A molten iris shifted, watchin' Jackdaw's crumbled frame foldin' around Doe. "Reckon if ya pull yer weight and respect our way of doin' things. I'd reckon ya wanna join now findin' what ya were lookin' for." He began slowly, head liftin' to observe the two kin.

If it were up to Duskpool, the Sun Guard would've given the joiner a task or challenge before allowin' 'em into the clan, but he ain't about to do that, not yet. He can't very well go about acceptin' strangers off the bat, not unless their barely old enough to be an apprentice, but with time, he'd reckon they'd earn their trust amongst SkyClan. "SkyClan ain't about to carry dead weight, not when we've got mouths to feed and lives to protect, but yer gonna have to prove yerself to Hawkstar, our leader, before thinkin' about steppin' over the border." He finished with a low, guttural rumble.

we're only haunted by the things we refuse to accept

ooc

information

main ref

• xxx
• 

  DUSKPOOL stands like a storm given flesh, broad-shouldered and unyielding. His frame was built from the bloodlines of a Norwegian Forest and Maine Coon, every inch steeped in the weight of a life hard-lived. His pelt is a wooly black smoke mantle, thick as winter fog and marked with faint mackerel stripes. Old scars score his flanks and shoulders like lightning carved into the night sky, with each one telling a story that was paid for in blood.
  
  One molten-copper eye burns fierce and unblinking, sharp enough to cut through lies, while the other is nothing but a hollowed ruin. A sunken relic of a battle he walked away from when he shouldn't have. His tail is a heavy, swaying banner of shadow, and his paws are silent despite their size, measured by someone who's learned patience the hard way.
  
  He carries himself with the gravity of an old war-chief, regular in ruin, yet brutal in beauty. His very presence is a warning that some storms don't pass. They wait. And they return.
  
  

  "there's two kinds of cats in this world. those who learn from others' mistakes, and those who are the mistake."​

  
  senior sun guard of skyclan during coffeestar and hawkstar's reign (mentor to sweetpaw)
  eighty-three moons; ages on the 1st of every month
  brother to outlawbite & thistlestrike; half-brother to flowercloud; father to almondpaw & cinderpaw (wolfstorm & lostmoon)
  his voice is a low, gravel-rough baritone, measured and deliberate, carrying the weight of old battles and unspoken truths
  his scent is a deep grounding mix of cedarwood and patchouli, laced with the sharpness of pine and a lingering curl of smoke
  pinterest | playlist | theme song
  speech thought action
  peaceful/healing powerplay permitted
• ​

 

[flowercloud]

"I have no apprentice, I can take on showing Doe the ropes, if you wish." But she wouldn't argue if request was denied, if Hawkstar had another in mind, or even herself instead. The warrior came breathless, but not alarmed, and they set off.

Flowercloud trudged beside Hawkstar, fur tangled in twigs, their conversation cut short as word came of another on the border. The pointed mollies simply eager to see who awaits, or perhaps eager was less than intended, still stricken by grief, appalled, disoriented.

And the molly whom they were talking about, as they came on the border, seemed to have a familiar ally on the other side. Green eyes shot to Hawkstar, before the deputy lifted her head. she had caught the tail end of the reunion, and what Duskpool had said, slowly, green eyes blinked before nodding in agreeance.

"The months are coming, where cats have to hunt harder, where resources run thin." Green eyes slit, before a breath intook through her maw, calming herself. It was a statement of truth. "Doe, you are a fresh member here- and yet you receive a friend at our borders- how many are we expected to take in? Or is survival and work already engrained? Expected? Will there be more, only to leave when it gets too hard, when paws ache and belly not satisfied?" She looked to Hawkstar, maybe searching for a shred of approval- before quickly glancing back to the stranger on the border.

@Hawkstar

flowercloud - 35 moons - skyclan deputy - mentoring none