TW: Sensitive Content Open Territory hide and seek ✧ kit in territory

[poppykit's icon poppykit poppykit]

{$title} tw for child neglect and abandonment (through the lens of the child)

POPPYKIT ──

windclan | kitten​

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Child. He's pretty sure that's his name. It's what Momma always calls him - "Come here, child." "Be quiet, child." "Go to sleep, child." Phrases such as this are often the answers to his burning questions, things like where are we going? and when is suppertime? But it's okay. That's just how Momma says that she loves him.

One day, he's asking his questions as usual. "Momma, let's play," he says. "Please can we play? I want play." He's insistent enough that his momma stops abruptly, inhaling deeply before turning to him with a wide smile.
"Okay. Let's play 'hide and seek'."
Oh wow, a new game! He sits, listening intently as she explains the rules. "You count to ten, and I run and hide. Don't open your eyes until you're done counting, okay?"
He nods, bouncing around with excitement as he squeezes his eyes shut. One… two… ummm. What comes after two?
He makes it to four before huffing and declaring that he's close enough to just skip ahead to ten, excitedly opening his eyes to begin his search. His momma hid well, and he's wandering through the fields getting distracted by the tiniest of things. Still searching… still searching…. still searching…..

As the sun makes its way across the sky, the kitten wanders, growing increasingly tired and hungry as his tiny paws tread across frost-laden ground. He starts calling, wailing for his momma to come back. But he is met with only silence.
Until… oh!! A cat!! Surely, that's his momma? He scampers over to them, disappointed when he realizes that this cat neither looks nor smells like his momma… he sniffles, a small whine escaping him before he promptly bursts into tears.
"Where Momma!?" he demands of the cat before him, his face growing wet from tear-streaks.

always an angel

never a god

• ooc:
• "speaking" | thinking | action

 

[Merrystalk Merrystalk]

The day was growing to a close, the sun teetering on the edge of the sky, Merrystalk was making some last rounds of the territory. Dimmingsun had been vehement that he take it easy, but a tom incapable of resting, he at least wanted to tread the borders to ensure markers were maintained and nothing was amiss.

But there was always something amiss. A tiny voice, calling out, not one he recognised but far, far too small to be alone with the chill of leaf-fall. His stomach twisted with the sensation of fear, which was only alleviated as a small scrap of fur came bounding up to him. But that alone was short-lived, as Merry breathed to speak to the tiny thing, his face scrunched up as tears threatened to spill down his cheeks.

It hadn't been the first time a kitten was found on the moors, but so soon after the flooding? His stomach twisted at the idea that there had been a family separated. He stooped down, hushing the kitten gently. "Hey there lil' buddy, yer okay." Desperately, he looked around, lifting his head for a moment, hoping to catch the scent of a mother or father or siblings at least. But all there was was the unfamiliar scent of the lone little kitten.

The gale guards face knit in worry, looking back to the tiny thing with a gentle tone, even as his own chest was wrung from the bawling of the kitten. "Yer safe with me, we can look for yer mama, it's okay. D'ya think ya' can take a breath 'nd tell me yer name?" He just needed him to take a breath before he made himself sick with worry and panic. Merry hoped his clanmates would be about soon to help; there was only so much he could do alone.

​

MERRYSTALK He/Him, Windclan Gale Guard, 32 moons.
A lithe, tortoiseshell cat with green eyes and pelt speckled with rye grass.
mentored by none // mentoring Talonpaw
sibling to Goldenroar and Sunnyspring
NPC x NPC / parent to no one / mated to Harefoot
"SPEECH" // "THOUGHTS" // ATTACK
penned by Pheo ↛ phoenixwashere on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

 

[poppykit's icon poppykit poppykit]

POPPYKIT ──

windclan | kitten​

​

The kitten stares up at Merrystalk with huge, watery eyes, still sniffling as the older cat's voice evokes a comfort that, at the very least, keeps him from wailing for now.
"You help me?" he asks, scooching closer to him as he tries to blink away the tears that are blurring his vision. Momma hadn't said that he couldn't have help looking for her, so surely this isn't against the rules, right?

Then Merrystalk asks for his name, and the kitten's mind swims with memories of his mother's voice. "Get down from there, child!" "Quit running off, child!" "You'll be the death of me, child…"
"Um… child," he says, though it comes out as more of a question than the answer Merrystalk is expecting. "It's what Momma call me." As far as the poor thing knows, that's a perfectly normal thing to be called; Momma and 'child' is the only world he knows.

The kitten lets his curiosity get the better of him despite his situation, and upon looking around, he sees that Merrystalk doesn't have anyone with him, either. His brilliant kitten logic deducts that he must be alone for the same reason - he is playing hide and seek, too!
"Your momma is hiding too?"

always an angel

never a god

• ooc:
• "speaking" | thinking | action