Shipyard Dumpster Diving in the Port district [closed]

[GravelPath]

Gravel drags their gaze along the horizon, stepping out slightly from the flotsam and garbage that had acted as their cover. Their nose twitched - the smell of fish and sewage was too strong to point out any potential rivals, but it would provide cover for the colony's party as well. They flicked their tail forward, signaling for the others to follow as they moved ahead.

Their target was a little while away from the shore itself - within a nest of twoleg dens, there was a dumping site teeming with abandoned food. Not just measly scraps and twoleg food, but full, fat fish, only slightly older than was ideal. It was a risky play, though. The dumpster was well known, and while the food was rarely ever picked completely dry, fights could break out over the best of the bunch. If they could get their first, they would get a meal to fill their bellies and make their fur shine, but if they were late, a battle could break out, further tiring the exhausted cats. It was a risk Gravel was more than willing to make, in order to sate the gnawing of their stomach.

 

[Smokewreath]

all you have is your

FIRE

─〃

⟢

He was aware of the cats of the forests, it was far enough away he rarely thought of them and the one time they had wandered out here they had been chased off by the cats at the dock, back when the ships still visited and the cats were plentiful. Now they had spread thin, several gone and several more leaving to find a future away from the water's edge. Part of him knew deep down this was no place to raise a family, the ships had brought fish before and scraps had been plentiful then but now they had to scrounge through the twoleg trash like common strays and it was not only demeaning but not sustainable. Smoke's healthy diet of fish scrap and whatever bits of food had been tossed his way before had not lasted long after the kits, he had grown thinner over moons, maintained his lean figure still and his bulk but there was a distinct ridge of ribs showing now that his scruffy black coat could not hide.
It wasn't often he went out this far for food, but desperation drove him into the territory where rogues wandered and twolegs with long sticks often chased them all away the second they were spotted. He knew the place well enough, easily clambered onto the edge of the large metal bin and perched to look down into the depths of gruel and bits and pieces of twoleg trash mixed with various strange food he could not even begin to name. He had not even begun considering which looked edible, hunting for the fish tossed here primarily, when he heard it. Pawsteps. The fur along his spine bristled as he turned, paws firmly planted on the edge of the dumpster as his single eye narrowed forward. The scent of the forest was strong, stronger than even the twoleg scraps beneath him. Those colony cats. This was nowhere near their territory and while no cat owned this area he would be damned if he let those feral ingrates come creeping onto the turf that was once primarily shipcats only.
"Forest fools, you've got about a few seconds to beat it before I beat you."

─ & the place you need to reach.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ & if I fall, I fall ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

•  
• 

  Smoke

  
  — Future RiverClanner (Shipcat)
  — He/Him
  "SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
  — Solid black tom w/vitiligo and one orange eye.
  #ff7d46
  
  
  
  
  
•  

 

[Garlicheart]

She's never been out this way before! It was a whole new adventure. Maisie has ventured farther than ever with her trusty colony mates to find food for the colony! Sure, this place is really smelly and funny looking, but it was new to her, which made it amazing. What stuff was there to eat here? Would there be mice? Were there..... Land fish??? She was going to find out the truth....

Or would she?

Even though she was doing her best to keep quiet like all good hunters do, it seems she was noticed anyways by an intimidating looking tom. She lowers her ears. "Sorry, mister... We aren't looking for any trouble, just some food..." She explains, but gets the feeling this guy is going to come down here and beat them up anyways.

 

[GravelPath]

Gravel's fur bristles for just a moment, before smoothing back down as they regain their composure. His presence may have been a surprise, but a single tomcat was still nothing to worry about. Gravel could tell he was nearly as haggard as their own party, not to mention outnumbered.

Even if they could fight, it would be exhausting. Getting into scraps with street rats was hardly worth Gravel's time, and they'd rather not get their paws dirty.

They smiled serenely up at the stranger.

"Sorry to intrude. We were just looking to get enough food - for all of us."

They flicked their tail towards their companions. Perhaps the scraggly tom would back down once he realized the forest cats had the advantage of numbers.

 

[Frostmoth]

FROST

Strangers are... Curious. Though, Frost supposes, he and Smoke are no more familiar to these intruders than they are to them. The earthy scent of forest reaches Frost before he ever spots them, and Smoke has reached them before he's had an opportunity. They both looked hungry, and as much as Frost wanted to afford them pity and leeway the shipcats, too, had many mouths to feed among their colony. Besides, wasn't there more opportunities afforded to these forest-dwellers? Couldn't they go grovel in twolegplace for some stinking can of food? The bicolor stops beside the tomcat, evaluating the starving group in front of them.

"You won't find much here," Frost muses, standing tall beside his fellow shipcat. He wills his fur to lie flat. Smoke and the strange forest cat are both doing enough posturing for all four of them. Frost's eyes linger on one of the plump, discarded fish on the shore. "We hardly have enough to feed our own," he adds with a frown "And it wouldn't be to your... taste... Anyway." Frost snivels. He's let his bias against the forest ferals shine through a bit, but it isn't like it's untrue. He isn't even sure what those forest-dwellers tend to eat anyway. Just that it would be bad news if they got any closer to the shore than they already have. They might have numbers on him and Smoke, but the group is intruding on their territory and he would bet just about anything that they can't swim.

═════════════⊹⊱ ⟡ ⊰⊹═════════════

 

[GravelPath]

"Won't find much? In that case, why not just go on your way and we'll see ourselves out after you."

An obvious bluff. At this point, a fight was inevitable. With a sigh, Gravel lifted their paw to their mouth and gave it a few nonchalant licks, being careful to clear debris from their claws. Gravel didn't know much about Garlic's martial abilities, but they had more than enough confidence in their own. They brought their paw back down to the pebbly ground beneath their feet.

"Or, we could just get rid of these pleasantries, and start solving this with our claws."

In an instant, they swung their paw forward, sending a small, sharp bit of rock flying towards the toms as they fell into a battle stance.

 

[willowburn]

(☾) green eyes blink into existence, a dark shape stepping from the shadows as a lean, long-legged molly emerges from the shadows. she circles the other two, sidling up beside smoke as she gives the intruders a once over. "forest dwellers," willow sneers, a curl to her lip as tufted ears flick back. the mottled cat seems to be their leader - at least he is the most talkative of the bunch. beside him, a swirled tabby explains their predicament. willow tips her head, a soft chuckle exhaling from her maw. "you've never caught a fish in your life, little fool. run back to your forest. it takes brains to survive here."

verdant eyes flick to her two dockside companions, recognizing frost. she gives the younger cat a nod, appreciative of the steps he's taken to stand up with smoke. brushing against her brother, willow rolls her shoulders. the vocal cat opposing them lashes out with a paw, sending rock flying smoke's way. a growl rumbles in the ghost tabby's throat, a warning. she will not attack first, but if this tomcat hurts her brother, she will not hesitate.

WITH THE ECHOING HYMN ☾ OF MY FELLOW PASSERINE

• // " #979c88"
• 
• WILLOW, SHE / THEY, SHIP-YARD CAT. 30 MOONS OLD, PENNED BY LAVS
  
  
  a lithe black smoke feline with ghost striping and leaf green eyes. long smoky fur dashed through with grey and white adorns her frame, sliced across by darker stripes that frame her face and legs. eyes like sage, brilliantly green, gaze with an intelligent look. she is scarred across the bridge of her angular nose.