Open The Farm Deep Waters Hold Reflections || Star Gazing/Intro

[Flicker]

{$title} She's looking at part of Pegasus and probably the North Star, but there's no need to be specific sjssjdhfg

A deep navy sky stretched on and on, speckled with stars like wayward dandelion tufts. It was this sight that drew the young molly from the warmth of the barn nearly every night. She adored the whispers of deep evening, taking the secrets of flowing wind and drifting cloud for her own. Tonight, Flicker noted she was not alone. A few of the other barn cats were strewn about; restless walkers, dreamy-eyed youths, and night owls amongst them. The calico molly beamed softly. Despite the near-absence of the moon, each cat she laid eyes on dimly glowed. The light of life was never truly snuffed out.

The same indeed could be said for the stars. Though the moon came and went in waves Flicker had observed over and over throughout her days, the stars rarely followed suit. Only the tufts of clouds or the billowing breadth of a storm could smother a star, and even then Flicker knew they remained, just out of sight. She wove past one of her fellows, multi-coloured face tilted upward.
"Did you ever notice how the stars sit, night after night?" she asks, her silky voice wafting with the breeze. "I swear, they stay the same. Least, some of them do." Her eyes danced back and forth, settling on a point high above.
"Those ones always make a little box. An' that one- It's so bright. An' it's always there. I'm almost sure it's always the brightest."

 

[sunlight]

Life stirred around the barn as the sun set, eyes sharpened to nighttime emerging from their rests to greet the moon. Sunlight was not much of a night hunter - they preferred the company of the farm dog and the barnfolk that passed through. But paws rustling the straw around them disturbed their sleep, tufted ears lazily flicking toward the source of the noise. More paws came past, and Sunlight couldn't drift back through the gentle commotion with where they had settled themselves. Sleep disturbed, they their eyes lifted open and caught a calico tail slipping out the door. Blinking the sleepy haze from their vision, Sunlight slowly picked her way down the hayloft to follow multicolored paws past the doors.

A barncat they recognize as Flicker is staring upward, intently watching the stars. A shiver ran down Sunlight, bristling the fur along their back. A cold winter breeze, surely - not staring at an empty darkness with no end to it. Sunlight follows Flicker, coming closer to enjoy the company of another cat under the unblinking bright eyes of the stars. "Uh," he flounders to find words when he realizes he's being spoken to. Leaf eyes blink quickly, eyes tossing between Flicker and the sky. "... what about the stars that move, have you seen those too?" His head tilts as he tries to find an example, but nothing comes. Those moving stars, they aren't every night. Sometimes they blink at him as they pass, too. "Sometimes they're colored, too... I only ever see them at night."

promise me when you dream of me, ———— it will be in colors of white

• ooc. he's talking about the lights on planes :^)
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  ₊⋆*⊹₊☾

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  sunlight

  — they / he, 15 moon old barncat
  — a large yet timid chocolate tabby-tortoiseshell with spring green eyes
  — full length biography
  — penned by @izanami, contact on discord (@nullmoons) for plots or threads :)

 

[nutmeg ♡]

When the sun goes down, and the stars exchange places with it, Nutmeg was still out and about working. Snow or clear conditions, it did not matter to her, all she wants is to make sure that the barn ran smoothly and was safe enough to let her little siblings roam around. She does not expect to stumble across Flicker and Sunlight. She lingers awkwardly nearby, shifting her weight as Flicker speaks about the sky. Her own eyes flick upwards.

Both forties speak about special stars, but it's Sunlights that she chooses to respond to.

"… Ain't that just a shootin' star?" she blinks towards Sunlight, ears swiveling back. She knows what they're talking about, but now that she thinks about it… We'll, were they even shooting stars? Or something else entirely? Some of the ones she sees that streak across the night sky are normally different colors, but some of them are sheer white and she… She purses her lips, head tilting ever so slightly as she finally seats herself from standing, curling her tail around her paws. At least this was nice… Not having to be lonely on a winters night, when her siblings were tucked away.

 

[BUCK]

When Buck wasn't occupied with "wrangling" horses or getting himself into some mischief, he found stargazing to be a peaceful pastime. Granted, it did not take long for him to close his eyes and fall asleep under the canopy of starlight, but having other cats to talk with would certainly keep him awake this time. Besides, it was pretty chilly out to be dozing off outside of the barn.

A strand of hay rests between the chocolate tabby tom's front teeth, waving about as he adjusted his lips and chewed on the end of it idly. Buck squints his eyes, attempting to find the hidden "box" shape that Flicker was referring to within the array of twinkling lights but to no avail. Maybe his imagination and creativity were failing him—no, wait! That one looked like a rock.

Sunlight brings up the strange case of stars that blinked different colors and drifted across the expanse of the sky; they were present nearly every night. Those, he knew, were much different than shooting stars. "Shootin' stars move quicker — whoosh. Gone in an instant, you'll miss it in a blink." Buck chimes in response to Nutmeg.

𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐌 ✹ . + ˚ · 𝐑𝐔𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐌𝐘 𝐕𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐒

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  — buck / 26 moons / he/him pronouns
  — loner / barncat
  — sh chocolate tabby w/ orange eyes, bite marks on left foreleg, nick in left ear & scratch on right side of lip
  — click for tags

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[Flicker]

Hazel eyes met her fellow, Sunlight, softly acknowledging their presence beside her. They seemed content, perhaps a little chilly. Do the stars awe you, as they do me? The consideration alone brought a smile to Flicker's maw. She couldn't imagine the celestial bodies invoking anything but an ethereal wonder. She took their engagement with her this night as a sign the sky spoke to them too.

She gazed thoughtfully back upward. The stars that move. It took her a moment to remember, but she had. For some reason, they had never caught her the same way as the general blanket of the sky. When Sunlight clarified they were thinking of the slower, yet strangley dazzling ones, Flicker nodded, a purr rumbling against her ribs.
"Oh, yes, sometimes! I haven't a clue what gives them such colour. I wonder where they're off to?" Her head dropped back to earth, reflecting on the nights they had caught her attention. Like distant, lazy fireflies, they illuminated the darkness. A rare dash of extra colour during the deadened grays of leafbare.

Nutmeg passed by now, a very familiar face to Flicker. Though the other molly was undoubtebly a harder worker than she, the times Flicker slept in and missed her early rises were made up through the calico's late nights, in which she often caught at least a glimpse of the other. When does she sleep? Flicker often wondered. She must find time, though the calico suspected it wasn't nearly enough. She took Nutmeg's suggestion in, nodding.
"That could be. Maybe some of the stars get tired like we do, and walk instead of sprint?" Flicker had never considered the idea before. It had a silliness to it, which made her smile. We aren't so different from the stars as we imagine.

Buck, a tom who embodied a wilder presence amongst the barncats, had knowledge to share with regards to shooting, or not shooting, stars. Flicker watched him intently, ears twitching as he countered Nutmeg's thoughts. Oh, that's true, too. Maybe they are different. But then, what were they? How could stars, just stars, hold such an array of mystery? Suppose that's why you don't see them as just stars, isn't it?
"I wonder why," she murmured, her half-finished thought hanging in the air before she jolted back to full awareness to finish it. " I mean, why are some of the stars so still, an' others leap across the night? An' why are some so fast, while others are slow as frozen fleas?" And where do they go? Where did they go, indeed. Do the ones that fly just... disappear?

 

[Swiftwatcher]

SWIFT OF THE BARN

Yellow eyes gazed upward, fixed on the vast expanse of stars above. A glimmer of pain flickered in their depths, visible to anyone who might have taken the time to notice. But Swift was almost certain no one did. Everyone had their own lives to tend to, their own worries to shoulder, and that was fine by him. Even if someone had asked, he would have brushed it off with a chuckle and a lighthearted quip, burying his sorrow beneath his usual easygoing demeanor.

Up there, in the endless sky, he imagined Bumblebee waiting for him. Her gentle eyes, so full of warmth, seemed to blink down at him, and for a fleeting moment, he could almost hear the soft sound of her purrs breaking through the quiet night.

Perhaps one day, he would join her again.

Swift fluffed his fur against the cool night breeze, his gaze softening as Flicker's voice pulled him back to the present. A faint smile tugged at his maw. " Really? " he murmured, following her gaze skyward. He tried to pick out the stars she mentioned, tilting his head slightly. Yes, there it was, he thought he saw the one she meant.

His ears flicked at the sound of Nutmeg and Sunlight chatting about shooting stars, their words pulling a gentle rumbling purr from his chest. Settling down more comfortably, Swift let his yellow eyes drift back to the heavens, finding solace in their infinite sprawl. Then Buck's voice broke through the quiet, remarking how shooting stars were fleeting, gone before anyone could truly appreciate their beauty. Swift considered the thought, his head tilting ever so slightly to one side.

" Maybe... " he began, his voice soft and contemplative. He hesitated for a moment, the words lingering on the tip of his tongue before finally spilling out. " Maybe they're thinking the same of us down here. Maybe up there, there's more than we can imagine. A place we'll never reach... but they can. "

His words hung in the air, carried on the cool breeze as he let the silence stretch, his gaze fixed on the stars as if waiting for them to respond.

I'll be your light, your match, your burning sun ——･ﾟ✦​

･ﾟ✦ —— I'll be the bright, in black that's making you run

 

[harefoot]

Harefoot had been dozing off in a pile of hay when suddenly he heard murmurs from outside the barn, the sounds of distant conversation. Mildly curious, he stretches his legs and pads out into the cold dark night. The stars blink benignly above them as they speak of them, their ever silent listeners.

"I wonder," Harefoot says slowly, settling next to the cat that had just spoken, Swift he is called, "I wonder where they go during the day. Why do we only see them… at night? Is there some far off moor where they must go to light up other cats' night sky?" he tucks his tail around his paws. "They are like a thousand little eyes, the stars are. A thousand little eyes blinking down at us."