TW: Sensitive Content Private Backwritten Territory SPEAK TO ME IN THE BACK SEAT = [ ghoststrike ]

[THUNDERFLASH]

Stepping out of the leader's den felt instantly freeing, but the bubbling of emotion behind his eyes didn't help. Not when his eyes stung like this, not when his shoulder still cried out in pain if he moved from. His ears flattened against his skull, moving from what had been a charged, and frankly loud, environment. Between the wound on his shoulder that was briefly treated and the screaming and the utter bomb that got dropped on him all at once, his head ached. Thunderflash's eyes remained on the ground as he moved through camp, from the leaders den to the entrance, slipping free. And the instant he was free, paws were drumming against the ground, heading towards Fourtrees.

Measured breathing followed, the only way that he knew how to run now. Early morning runs were the only thing that were getting him up early, but spending the time with Ghoststrike alone was rewarding, and not only that, he was forced to learn how to run properly. Not just sprinting to his destination. His paws drummed evenly on the ground, despite the way he wished to run wild, to yowl and scream until his throat was dry. No, that wasn't any good, not right now. It was only going to get him killed. So he ran, until his paws ached, until his shoulder was screaming and likely bleeding worse. He ran, until it came into sight.

Thunderflash didn't know why he ran here. Maybe, because things were simpler, back then. Maybe because he wasn't stuck between his clan hating him, and a leader breathing at his throat like she might rip it out. Boar-headed. He stopped, shoulders heaving and chest ragged with breaths he struggled to breath in, leaning against a fallen old hollowed out log, where he had been stuck inside twice. He thinks, possibly by choice, but maybe not. Maybe Ghoststrike had kept him there on purpose. Slowly he sags into a sitting position, head tilting backwards to lean against the log. No, he hadn't even made it out of the borders. How laughable to think that this log, of all of them, still remained within the borders.

Blue eyes widened, snapping towards where had come from, the sound of approaching pawsteps causing him to stand once more, despite how tired he was.

___________________ YOU'VE GOT MY BODY ☆ FLESH AND BONE, YEAH ___________________

• "speech"
  // right after the skirmish -> juniper private with tav
  // @GHOSTSTRIKE
  

• 

• THUNDERFLASH he/him, thunderclan storm guard, twenty one moons.
  ☆ a sh/lh chocolate tabby with low white and stunning baby blue eyes. stands of average height with a 'mohawk' and spiky-shaped mane.
  ☆ mentored by who / mentoring no one
  ☆ whichever relations / want listed
  ☆ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ☆ penned by dallas ↛ dallasofnines on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

 

[GHOSTSTRIKE]

I WON'T SMILE, BUT I'LL SHOW YOU MY TEETH

​

---

While Ghoststrike did not appear angered at a glance, he certainly wasn't happy with the latest development. Sables lot– Shadowclan-- was closer than ever, and despite Juniperstars insistence that she had things under control, todays encountered had proved fully to him that she in fact, did not. Brightpetal wasn't ready. She wasn't ready. None of these cats were. They had no idea what kind of monster was sitting on their doorstep, or what their attempt at showing it patience and fairness would do. These were the cats who'd attacked early the night of the battle in an attempt to turn the tides in their favour. Who then hunted Hawthorne down on his way to get his lives and killed him.

Now they were taking territory as well,

As irritated as he was by all of it, he didn't slink off to go train or to unalive whatever poor piece of prey crossed paths with him out in the forest. Instead, he lingered in camp while Thunder was pulled into the leaders den to be torn a new one.

Ghost couldn't say he disagreed. He hadn't changed his mind about them being too quick to jump into things– like a speeding monster with no thunderpath to guide it, wanting to run down anything in it's way regardless of the damage it received for it's recklessness.

He wondered if Thunderflash had ever seen what happened to a speeding monster when it smashed into something stronger than it.

The muffled shouting match from the old tree trunk didn't last long. Out of the leaders den, right past Serpentberrys, and up the side of the ravine Thunderflash went, frowning and tense and still fucking bleeding.

And Ghost was tempted to let them go. To let them deal with the fallout of nausea and dizziness and potential infection that was sure to come from running through the territory with a bleeding wound. If he was back in the Coalition he wouldn't have looked twice in the pups directions, but… things were different here, Thunderflash was different. It pissed him off to no end, but it didn't change the fact that the night of Sables betrayal, Ghost hadn't been able to leave him behind.

How could he, when there was so much fucking trust in those eyes every time they looked at him? When it made him feel like just as much of a traitor for turning his back?

So Ghost had gone back for him. Had accepted that they were clanmates. And he was trying to act the part, even if he was a gruff, anti-social, hardass most of the time.

Which meant he couldn't just sit there while Thunder let his emotions get the better of him again.

His pace was slower than the irate, watery-eyed sun guards as he ascended the quarries wall and disappeared into the woodland beyond. He was in no particular rush, figuring Thunder could do with a few minuted to cool off anyway, but he wasn't in the mood to linger long.

Eventually he did catch up, recognizing the spot without much surprise. He wasn't sure why this place was so important to the other, but it wasn't the first time he'd found them here and he doubted it would be the last.

Thunderflash was leaning against the old log, shoulder bloody as he panted for breath, expression one of frustration and pain. A large paw came down rather purposefully on a nearby stick as he moved among the brush, and dark eyes narrowed as Thunder shakily forced his way to his paws with wide eyes.

He wouldn't have even known I was here if I hadn't just announced myself. he thought darkly, and while most cats didn't tend to hear him coming, in a state like this Thunderflash was particularly vulnerable. Bloody, unsteady on his feet, and probably coming off his second adrenaline rush after being screamed at by Juniper, Ghost doubted he had his head on straight enough to react right to a predator or enemy.

"If I'd been a fox, you'd be dead right now." The words were calm spoken as he emerged, but not in a good way. There was something cold about them, a sharpened edge to match his glare that wasn't normally pointed in the mocha cats direction. Annoyance. Disapproval.

Not quite the white-hot-rage Juniperstar had directed at him, but the message was clear just the same; you fucked up and I'm not happy.

"Full of 'bright ideas' today, aren't you?"

A question without real need for answer as he made his way over, gaze dropping from blue eyes to the red-stained fur along their shoulder. It wasn't gushing blood, but Ghost knew enough about injuries to know the sluggish bleeding hadn't been given time to properly clot thanks to Thunders impromptu run, and that it was probably throbbing like a bitch.

​

---

thunderclan warrior- male - a towering dark tabby with a white mask and dark amber eyes.

​

 

[THUNDERFLASH]

Where hope had flickered, perhaps someone to lick his wounds, a shoulder to lean on, an ear to listen to his frustrations, it was snuffed out like a dying ember. Ghoststrike looked just as pissed as normal, yet the tone he used caused Thunderflash to hesitate. Very, very rarely had this tone ever passed his way- actually, he couldn't remember a time it did. Maybe it had happened during his 'almost-dying' moment, but Thunderflash couldn't speak to it. The cool undertones to seemingly normal words, yet the threat they carried anyways made his spine all but crawl. Instead of rolling over and baring his neck to this, his ears drew backwards, the anger that he hadn't been able to quell against Juniperstar flaring once more.

"Feels like everyone would be happier with tha', right at tha' moment." He says back, matching ice for fire, tongue sharper then he intended it. He didn't want pity or a threat or support this is a lie, this is a lie, this is a lie, he just wanted space. Annoyance and disapproval. Not only was that thematic for his life, it was showing it's ways in many facets. Juniperstar barking at him to take ownership of what he had done. That it wasn't just his life on the line. Ghoststrike baring his disappointment for Thunderflash to mull over, given the fact he could have gotten himself killed.

.. He doesn't want that, does he?

He ignores the ringing thoughts in his brain, the wound on his shoulder screaming for attention, even as Ghoststrike looms over him. Blue eyes, thunderstormed over, narrowed at him briefly then dropped away. Even he couldn't deny the guilt eating at him. "Shu' up. I already know. Go' a fuckin' earful already." He starts quiet, the anger tensing his neck and spine. "Needed t' think. Didn't wan' to see Serpentberry. Couldn't bear t' see her face." Thunderflash says, sentences short and disjunctioned, thoughts pieced together like they were nothing but afterthoughts. "Couldn't bear t' see anyone." He says.

Thunderflash is still looking away as he attempts to sit back against the log, gnawing on his cheek. It's starting to taste like iron, the longer he does.

___________________ YOU'VE GOT MY BODY ☆ FLESH AND BONE, YEAH ___________________

• "speech"
  

• 

• THUNDERFLASH he/him, thunderclan storm guard, twenty one moons.
  ☆ a sh/lh chocolate tabby with low white and stunning baby blue eyes. stands of average height with a 'mohawk' and spiky-shaped mane.
  ☆ mentored by who / mentoring no one
  ☆ whichever relations / want listed
  ☆ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ☆ penned by dallas ↛ dallasofnines on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

 

[GHOSTSTRIKE]

I WON'T SMILE, BUT I'LL SHOW YOU MY TEETH

​

---

Ghoststrike was always the wrong cat. That was nothing new. If he had a piece of fresh kill for every time someone had glanced his way and found themselves wishing it was someone else, he'd never have to worry about going hungry again. So he wasn't entirely surprised to see the other toms expression fall when he revealed himself. Could have seen it coming from a mile away.

If only he could have seen the stab of rejection it'd bring alongside it.

"Feels like everyone would be happier with tha', right at tha' moment."

'Yeah-- and they're judgments been sound, has it?" he challenged, something almost bitter in his tone stormy eyes glared up at him only to fall away a moment later. "Besides, that's horseshit and you know it. Nobody wants you dead– short of maybe Sable."

"Shu' up. I already know. Go' a fuckin' earful already."

He let them talk as he moved past them toward the fallen tree trunk, dark eyes scanning it for what he needed. He might not be a healer, but he'd seen Serpentberry handle the basics enough to know that moss or cobwebs would do a better job than his own fur.

As he made his way farther down the fallen tree, he found what he was after and reached up to carefully claw a strip off.

"Couldn't bear t'see anyone.

"Then shut your eyes." came his gruff response as he stopped in front of the other cat. Blunt but honest, because it was the only way Thunder was going to get out of not having to look at Ghost right now.

He reached out to press the cool, clean side of the moss against the others injury, staunching the bloodflow properly and cleaning up the area. Silence settled, but it wasn't the good kind. It was tense and uncertain, and Ghost tried to ignore the fact that the younger warrior probably wanted him gone.

"You'll be fine." Ghost said after a minute, though it was hard to tell if he meant the injury or if he was actually attempting to reassure the other.

---

thunderclan warrior- male - a towering dark tabby with a white mask and dark amber eyes.

 

[THUNDERFLASH]

Thunderflash shakes his head. Okay, maybe the anger was getting to him, that sharp oil-and-spark that normally brought forth a rage in his heart. Patience was key, right, with these kinds of things? If only he had listened to the lessons back home, the ones that taught him politics of war, of ruling a large colony like that. A slow breath left him, uninjured leg moving to press a paw to his eyes, rubbing at the ache starting to spread behind them. That pain was from the arguing and blame since he had returned. Then shut your eyes. "Huh?" Thunderflash opens them to a solid wall of black tabby in front of him and-

Oh. Vision darts from Ghoststrike's cheek down to his leg, then swiftly switches away. He's effectively done what Thunderflash needed and wanted in seconds. Contact, even if it was through the rain-soaked moss, and to completely shut his head up. It was funny, how easily Ghoststrike did that. He forces himself to breath again, picking the details of a wildflower over and over again until Ghoststrike speaks again. ".. 've done worse." He murmurs, voice quieter then it had to be, but this level felt right, too. How close together they were. "Nothin' you haven't seen typa thing." Baby blues shifted back to far darker browns. "I.. need to get m' attitude under control, yeah?" He asks meekly, seeking some kind of council now that mutual silence let him regain a sense of control over his emotions.

___________________ YOU'VE GOT MY BODY ☆ FLESH AND BONE, YEAH ___________________

• "speech"
  

• 

• THUNDERFLASH he/him, thunderclan storm guard, twenty one moons.
  ☆ a sh/lh chocolate tabby with low white and stunning baby blue eyes. stands of average height with a 'mohawk' and spiky-shaped mane.
  ☆ mentored by who / mentoring no one
  ☆ whichever relations / want listed
  ☆ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ☆ penned by dallas ↛ dallasofnines on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

 

[GHOSTSTRIKE]

I WONT SMILE, BUT I'LL SHOW YOU MY TEETH

___________________________________________________________________​

Ghoststrike kept his paw where it was, the blood-slick fur under the moss gradually drying as he pressed slow and deliberately against the wound. Not quite gentle, but efficient in a manner that suggested it wasn't his first time staunching the blood from an open wound. His ears flicked once at the murmured words, his eyes tracking the way Thunderflash avoided his gaze– as if the ground would hold the answers he was looking for.

"I've done worse."

The tomcat snorted lightly at that.

No shit, he thought to himself. He'd seen it for himself firsthand. Had dragged the chocolate tabby through said 'worse' and stood over their limp body while his own heart hammered like a wardrum in his chest. That kind of memory didn't leave easily. Sat there in a vault right alongside the other things that haunted him in life.

He shifted the moss to a cleaner side as the chocolate tomcat spoke. His paws were picking up fresh strains of red– Thunders blood. Familiar, but never easy.

"Nothin' you haven't seen typa thing."

That earned him a glance.

"just because I've seen it before, doesn't mean I want to see it again." he answered, voice low and rough as flint.

Not this- Thunderflash bleeding and shaken and spiralling in their own head.

"I.. need to get m' attitude under control, yeah?"

Ghosts expression didn't shift. Not outwardly- though his paw hesitated a moment on the wound before slowly withdrawing, moss soaked and limp now. He didn't answer right away, taking a moment to turn and flick the used clump aside, wiping his paw on the bark of the log without looking back. When he did look, his gaze met Thunderflash's dead-on. No anger there now- just tired honesty, sharp as ever.

"Attitudes not the problem. Pretty sure the clans used to that mouth of yours by now." he said finally, tone flat but not unkind. "It's the lack of discipline that gets you killed out there."

Ghost had been plenty angry over the years, but it was only when he let that impulsive, boarish rage rule his judgement that he found it backfiring on him. That was ultimately the lesson the blue-eyed cat had to learn; how to be angry without acting on it. The importance of choosing a moment.

"And as satisfying as I'm sure it'd be for you to gut that bastard the next time you see him, it won't mean anything if he takes you with him. Not when he's got a dozen cats that are just as bad ready to claim leadership the second he carks it."

It'd be an absolute waste. Thunder would be dead, and for what? Another Shadowclanner would just step up to push the same agenda-- perhaps worse, without the morality of 'fatherhood' hanging over themto push the pretense of being able to peacefully co-exist.
[/i]

​

OOC NOTES . ◭ . CHARACTER INFO

• ooc : —​
• mentoring Cinderpaw
  no living relations
  unwelcomed/uninvited/unexpected physical contact may result in hostility/retaliation
  thunderclan warrior- male - a sh black smoke tabby with low white and dark amber eyes. has a white mask and 'bone' markings on the knuckles of his paws. known for his towering size and multitude of scars

  ​

​

 

[THUNDERFLASH]

A wince follows as his joke doesn't land. Thunderflash is starting to feel the staggering pain, something that would drive him right back to Serpentberry's upset paws- but the way that Ghoststrike responds that he's never eager to say it makes his feelings deflate. Yeah, I wouldn't be excited either. Blue eyes stray back to Ghoststrike's paw, moss still pressed to the wound, then up towards him. When he withdraws, he slowly pushes to his paws, ignoring the way he wants to suck air in through gritted teeth, the stinging in his shoulder unmistakable now.

It's the lack of discipline that gets you killed out there. His ears twitch at the statement. And while he knew that, it wasn't like he could up and change it out of nowhere. A hot breath of air is blown out, another sucked in means to tell Ghoststrike as much. That he knows- that he's always had an issue with discipline, that his father couldn't be bothered to be soft-pawed by the end of it. The words are silent, they never come, and Ghoststrike speaks again. Thunderflash's tail lashes behind him briefly. And as angry as he still was, despite the way he knew that it was slowly receeding into regret for Thunderclan's loss of territory, Ghoststrike was right. The bastard.

"Why are y' always righ'." Thunderflash finally speaks, stepping up closer to him. Blue eyes snapped up, studying darker ones intently, before he's turning back towards camp. "This is gonna suck. Let's go back. Sorry fer..." He gestures behind him, as if it would make amends for running out in the middle of the territory with no plan or healing. He starts heading back when Ghoststrike does, his shoulders lowered and the anger smoothed from his face.

_________ I'M LIVING LIKE A LANDMINE ☆ WAITING TO EXPLODE ! ______________

• "speech"
  

• 

• THUNDERFLASH he/him, thunderclan storm guard, twenty-four moons.
  ☆ a sh/lh chocolate tabby with low white and stunning baby blue eyes. stands of average height with a 'mohawk' and spiky-shaped mane.
  ☆ mentored by who / mentoring no one
  ☆ whichever relations / want listed
  ☆ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ☆ penned by dallas ↛ dallasofnines on discord, feel free to dm for plots.