Closed The Colony Lay your weary head to rest | Serpent

This tag is specifically for The Colony prior to the clans forming. It can still be used for any backwritten plots!

Snakeblink

Venom & honey
ThunderClan
9
1
Freshkill
39
Pronouns
he/him
Profile
TAGS
Rank
Warrior
Played by
Kangoo
šŸ
Water Snake has lived in company his entire life: his mother, his siblingsā€¦ yet he can't quite seem to adjust to the strange mix of communal and solitary that comes with living in a colony. He doesn't know where his responsibilities begin and end, if he has any; they hunt for themselves, after all, and territory hardly needs to be defended when the sheer number of cats around is enough to keep enterprising newcomers at bay. Is this all it means to live in a colony? Number? If so it seems damned impractical--they are so many he can feel the forest straining under their weight, too many paws trampling through foliage and not enough prey to feed all those hungry bellies.

He is thinking about this because he has beenā€¦ not stealing, but certainly seizing a large amount of bedding material for his personal use. Should he leave some for other cats? He drags another mouthful of moss towards his and Serpent's sleeping spot, mulling this problem. No, certainly other cats already have their nests. Besides, Serpent is expecting kits--any cat would be glad to sacrifice some comfort for her own. Yes, he's sure it's fine. Other cats can travel a little further away if they want comfortable nests. Water Snake himself has been sleeping on the ground; it's not too cold yet, and the grass is comfortable enough. They can ask Hawthorne if they have complaints.

He nudges some downy feathers aside to make space for moss beneath. Is this enough? He gives the nest -- a hole in the ground overflowing with moss, feathers, soft needles and foliage, some tufts of fur from prey -- a good look.

"Perhaps a little more,"
he muses under his breath. The air was getting colder: it wouldn't do for his sister to be cold.

  • ooc: @serpent he's been requisitioning the forest's entire stock of Soft
  • WATER SNAKE ā€” HE/HIMļ½„ 23 MOONS ļ½„ COLONY CAT ļ½„ PENNED BY @Kangoo
    A thin, short furred chocolate tabby with bright green irises and a scar over his freckled right eye.
 

The forest is dying. Serpent had spend the better part of the moon prior experiencing it, watching as new cats join the colony carelessly. As long as paws are kept to themselves, then almost anyone is welcomed in. (Even that can be controversial, she finds.) And now, as her nearly silent steps grow heavier, and her stomach rounder, she is forced to sit by as the grounds are overhunted into leafbare.

Water Snake would've suggested they move on, she knows. He would've asked that they find new grounds, where prey remains plentiful even when snow falls atop it. But she fell in love, she harbors the kits of the leader's son - she's happy, and her brother is happy to stay by her side.

And... loot the entire forest of anything even somewhat soft and comfortable.

"I'm not having a litter of ten, Snake," she snips at him playfully, moving to bump her shoulder into his as she slips in beside him. It's awkward, with the way her belly warps her figure, but she pays little mind to it now. "Unless you'll be playing nursemaid so that I can stretch my legs, this is too much...!" Serpent laughs as she speaks. A paw lifts a downy feather from the nesting, fondness in the action despite her tone. Greed festers in her chest happily, and she feels as if she's putting on a show to any overeager ears. In truth, she adores the attention a little too much; she loves being cared for, simply put.
 
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Reactions: Snakeblink
šŸ
Snake sniffs primly at his sister's chirp, though he presses back against her touch with a short purr.

"You joke now, but we will see who is laughing when it is snowing and you are as warm in there as in the middle of greenleaf,"
he comments, casting a fresh look at his craft. Hm. Perhaps he wentā€¦ a little overboard.

But he knows his sister like he knows the back of his own paw, and he can tell she is pleased with his effort. A real princess, that one: he fears he has given her bad habits throughout their life. Ah well, too late for that now -- and Hawthorne's problem more than his, especially once the kits are there.

"You know I will do all that I can to lighten your burden,"
he reminds her, glancing meaningfully at her round belly.

His tone is a little weary, but he comforts himself thinking there will always be Hawthorne to pick up the slack. Leader of the colony or not, someone will have to kitsit when Serpent gets stir-crazy, and Snake is pretty sure he's more likely to step on a kit than properly keep them out of trouble.

"Although I am perhaps hoping this nest will be comfortable enough that you will sleep soundly and not snore or kick your kits in your sleep as you've done with me throughout our life,"
he adds, wrinkling his whiskers in a smirk. Another problem that he's glad to dump on Hawthorne's shoulders, nowadays! The tom chose her; he cannot complain too much.
  • ooc: ā€”
  • WATER SNAKE ā€” HE/HIMļ½„ 23 MOONS ļ½„ COLONY CAT ļ½„ PENNED BY @Kangoo
    A thin, short furred chocolate tabby with bright green irises and a scar over his right eye.
 
  • Love
Reactions: serpentberry

"Oh," she toys with the feather in her grasp, leaning back to sit on her haunches as she further examines all that he has thrifted for her bedding. Still the coyness of her tone does not fade, especially as she flourishes with, "how the colony will envy me, Snake. Sweating my paws off in my nest of feathers and furs, while everyone is trembling like whiskers...!" Serpent clicks her tongue, looking as if she will rebuff his help and warmth. However her play is dismantled with his sincerity, and in the following moment she leans quickly into him, pressing her cheek to his briefly. "Thank you. I know you'll be one of their favorites, especially if you keep this up..."

Their family - their small, small family, growing so fastly out of its seams. He stayed in the colony because she refused to leave. Serpent searches her brother's gaze for some sort of remnant of regret, of longing and wanderlust. His teasing disrupts her search and she winds a grin onto her face, her paw now featherless and jabbing into his side with a laugh. "If I'm lucky, they'll seek you out for rabbit kicks and badger rides! 'Oh, uncle Snake,'" she ploys like one of her unborn children, swaying to-and-fro, "'Please, one more run around the trees! It's not like you've taken me about ten times already!!'" She instinctively leans away, as if his paws may batter her in return. A laugh sparks off of her lips, "Though if they're anything like you, they'll have shredded ears before they see their fourth moon...!"