TW: Sensitive Content Open Camp They Should’ve Known Beasts Would Sink This Low — [INTRO]

[Echokit. Echokit.]

SO WITH THIS BLADE, TURNED TO SCYTHE, I RID A MIRACLE-
SLICE YOUR HEART, AND CALLUS YOUR LOVE

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Echokit

, He/Him / 4 moons /

Thunderclan - Kit

Long hair chocolate point cinnamon tortie with low white and vitiligo, has ice coloured eyes
Younger Sibling to SNOWCAP, GRACEPAW & BRIARPAW, Littermate to FRECKLEKIT & VICTORYKIT
A closed off and angry individual, not very talkative but generally snarky, jealous of those who are truly happy
Tagging

[ @Gracepaw , @Briarpaw. , @Frecklekit , @Victorykit ]

NOTE: This thread will be closed until all tagged above have posted, then it will become open! :3

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It was a crisp morning for Thunderclan, not unlike any other that had come before. A dawn patrol had gone out a while ago... However, two members from it never did return. It was unclear as to why precisely they didn't, even those that had returned were confused, they could have sworn those two were right behind them? Some of them went back out there just to check, just to be sure...

In this early morning, a kitten had overheard this. A small four moon old by the name of Echokit looked at the group with a dull expression. Some of the older cats that were investigating chose to, perhaps against better judgement, to go over to Echokit to talk to him. They questioned the disinterested kitten. Frankly, Echokit barely registered it all, he slowly looked up at these grown cats as they said all sorts of things in his direction. They had asked him things like 'where they think their mother and father had gone', 'aren't you worried about them' or 'how are you feeling'

Echokit blinked once, he blinked twice.

"Beats me. I don't care."

Why should he? Why should he care about two miserable cats that regarded him as little more than a hairball, an inconvenience, a burden? Why should he care when they didn't.

All these cats who remained wouldn't change his mind on this. Growing increasingly tired of this nonsense, Echokit got up from where he was sitting and started walking away, ignoring any further input from these older cats. There was no point, they would forget about him when it was no longer convenient to remember. That's what his parents did, that's what his older siblings did, and Echokit wasn't entirely sure his own littermates were much different.

Briefly thinking about his siblings, Echokit looked in the direction of the apprentice den and the nursery. Gracepaw, Briarpaw, Frecklekit and Victorykit.

Gracepaw, the vain, the almost identical copy of her progenitors, favored in nearly every way by them... But what good was that now, when they left her behind among the 'rabble'?

Briarpaw, the stoic, always living in his littermate's shadow for so long, treated as second best, forced to make up for it by forgiving too much... Or did they truly forgive anything at all?

Frecklekit, the one to have gone under the radar, but his distance only awarded him fortune at the cost of others. Just how wide was this gap, would he ever bridge it, could he?

Victorykit, she who works herself to the bone, impulsive, reckless, fearless. Yet, to what end? What does she have to prove now, with those that wanted her greatness just a thought on the wind?

They were all going to react to the sudden disappearance of their parents, surely. Echokit frowned, wanting nothing to do with it. He just wanted to forget about it, he already moved on well before this scenario. In his opinion the others should just get with the program.

"Some family this turned out to be."

‎

YOU PESTS WERE GIFTED FREE MINDS, BUT NO...
IT WAS NEVER ENOUGH

​

 

[Briarpaw. Briarpaw.]

BRIARPAW, 11 moons / THUNDERCLAN APPRENTICE
A long-furred chocolate tortie with white tail tip.
Brother to Brick, Gracepaw, Echokit, Frecklekit, Victorykit
SPEECH || THOUGHTS
Tagging person here

---

Truth be told, Briarpaw probably wouldn't have noticed the vanishing of his parents until a few days later, had a few cats not come up to him in order to express their condolences, ask if he'd like to join them on a search party, or ask if he knew anything about their disappearance.

Hah! As if!

If they had felt so inclined to tell him they were leaving, it no doubt would have come along with a scathing, "because of you."

So no, Briarpaw had no idea where his parents went. And truthfully, he couldn't give less of a fuck about it.

He saw one of the replacements wandering about - couldn't recall their name at the moment - and had a brief moment of concern for the younger litter. This passed quickly, as any thought of concern for those precious gems often did. They were old enough to survive without a mother's care, and honestly, he'd turned out just fine without it, right?

Hah. Yeah. He could keep telling himself that.

He curled his tail around his paws and continued to watch these "siblings" with casual disinterest. He didn't care, but it would be interesting to see how they'd all handle it. Especially Gracepaw.

 

[Victorykit]

victorykit;

if you're gonna hit me, hit me harder

x
x

Victorykit had been busy trying to scale the old tree trunk in which Loonstar's den resided. She just knew there would be some nice moss growing on it, if she could reach it. She'd seen the apprentices bring back moss, listened to the way they described digging it off of tree trunks. If she could find moss in the camp, she could take it to Rowanpaw, or use it to line nests in the nursery or even Loonstar's den itself! Maybe they'd be so impressed by her ingenuity they'd make her an apprentice two moons early. She grinned, digging her claws into the dead, sunbleached flesh of the tree. Hauling her small frame to the top, she whirled around to face the incoming patrol. Her parents would be returning - she couldn't wait to tell them about her idea.

But her parents' faces did not appear at the camp entrance, much to the confusion of their patrolmates. A sinking feeling gathered in her belly. Had something bad happened to them? She launched herself from her perch and tried to run after the few warriors who decided to double back, but she was quickly bundled back into camp. She huffed and began to scent the air, but she caught only a faint scent of her parents mingling with the stronger scents of her other clanmates. Peering around, she could see her older brother, Briarpaw, looking on in disdain as warriors questioned Echokit. Fury gathered in her belly. Briarpaw was so useless, and so was Echokit! Why wasn't anyone asking her? Not that she knew, but at least she was smarter than either of them. They didn't even seem worried!

Victorykit turned to try and sneak her way out of camp again, but at that point the entire clan was on alert for any threat that might explain where her parents had gone. She was immediately snagged by the scruff and dragged back inside, hissing and flailing. Frustration prickled in her pelt, in her pawpads, in her throat. Where were her parents? Were the dead? Worse yet, had their disappointment in their kits become so strong that they'd just... left? No, that couldn't be. She refused to believe it. She'd be trying so hard.

Turning on her siblings, Victorykit sank her claws into the dirt.

"Aren't you going to do something? Do you even care?!"

you better knock me out the first time

Victorykit

— thunderclan, 4 moons
— she/her
— chocolate tortie, white paws, green eyes

"speech"

, 'thoughts', action

 

[Frecklekit]

Leave what's heavy, what's heavy behind.
If your heart won't move, find a reason why.
If your tears don't fall, it's not that you're dry
You just forgot what it's like to cry.

.

Frecklekit sat stoically, eyes wide as saucers. He knew something was wrong, he always did. His parents hadn't returned with the patrol, and deep down, he already knew why. Two shapes had slipped away at dawn, vanishing into the forest and leaving their children behind. Was it a surprise? Not quite. He remembered the looks of disdain they'd throw toward anyone who wasn't " good enough. " The way some of his kin tried so hard to bask in the spotlight, a light that others, somehow, could step into so easily. He remembered the tension that always followed their presence, that thick, suffocating silence between sharp words and sharper gazes.

He'd learned to hide from it. Now, there were no more eyes watching.

For a fleeting moment, he wondered how his siblings felt. Echokit, he imagined, wouldn't care. Victorykit... Man, she had tried the hardest, hadn't she? What would this mean for her? And Briarpaw, always forgiving of Gracepaw... The other hadn't spent much time with them... And then there was Gracepaw, the golden child. A soft snort escaped him, his face folding into a frown. But they'd left her too. The favorite. Maybe none of them were what their parents wanted. Maybe they were all just flawed designs. The thought made his stomach twist, and for a moment emotion burned in his chest before he swallowed it down. His gaze slid toward Echokit. His fur bristled, something coiled inside of him and he turned away, finding the eyes of a watching warrior instead.

" Do you have a clue, little one? "

Her worry was clear. Frecklekit blinked, swallowed, and slowly shook his head. " I don't think any of us would know... " he murmured, feeling too seen. " We weren't... " He cut himself short. Weren't what? Good enough? Even Victorykit, as hard as she'd tried, hadn't been spared their judgment. " If they left... " he finally managed to breathe out, voice soft. " They won't return... " He wrapped his tail around his paws, shoulders hunched, eyes fixed on the ground, even when Victorykit's voice broke the air, sharp with grief.

His feisty sister.

" What can we do? " he said finally, voice trembling with restrained anger, and maybe something more... " They both left. It's not like one disappeared. They left. Both of them. Together. "

He drew a breath that hurt to take.

" They left us. "

Speech, thoughts/emphasis

4 MOONS

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THUNDERCLANNER

𖧧

SONG

𖧧

bio

 

[Gracepaw's icon Gracepaw Gracepaw]

I BET YOU THINK THIS SONG IS ABOUT YOU

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Gracepaw was lounging idly, slacking off on her apprentice duties as she always was. Her mentor had practically given up on her at this point, not that it mattered to her. She didn't have to try, after all. She was perfect in every which way, and she knew this for a fact. She was mid pelt grooming when she heard the commotion, the dawn patrol had returned but... without her parents. They had gone back to search, but returned empty-handed. Many concerned clanmates flocked to her siblings, most of which seemed utterly indifferent to the fact that mommy and daddy had vanished off the face of the Earth. Victorykit seemed the only one with an ounce of worry inside her, and Gracepaw felt her own sense of disdain at this.

No wonder they hated you all.

She glared at her siblings. Since she was young, she had been told how awful they were, how much better she was, and it had gotten to her head in horrific ways. Her littermate Briarpaw was the worst of the batch, he really thought he mattered. Compared to her? She scoffed at the thought, he was never very good at... well, anything. And she made sure to let him know that. He had grown bitter lately, a storm on his face every time he interacted with her. It was almost thrilling to get such a reaction from the tom. The utter theatrics of it all he had started avoiding and ignoring her entirely, which certainly wasn't as fun --- but at least he had learned his place.

The younger litter was another batch of screw-ups. Echokit was largely forgotten by his parents, and Gracepaw largely felt the same towards him. He did nothing to earn her attention, why should she even care about him? He was always such a moody thing too, she would much rather avoid him at all costs. Victorykit was interesting, sure. She was competitive, but even still she couldn't compete for her parent's favour against Gracepaw. She would often scoff at her for even trying, but still there's at least something there compared to the other two. Frecklekit was the most absent of the three, soft-spoken, meek. A real bore. But even now, forced to come together like this --- she realized why she had always been their parent's favourite.

"So all of you are saying you don't care at all?" She scoffed, her amber eyes narrowing at her siblings. Even Frecklekit seemed more defeated than usual, commenting how they likely wouldn't even come back. Gracepaw felt herself crumble a bit, looking at the furrowed brows and unemotional glances of her siblings.

There was no way they would leave her, they would have told her. They would have told her. She repeated in her head, like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else. She shrunk a bit, but quickly shook it off.

"They wouldn't just leave!" She practically shouted, looking at her siblings faces. "They love me!" She cared little about the feelings of her siblings in this regard, she knew her parents loved her deeply --- certainly enough to a least tell her if they intended on taking an extended leave for any reason. The older cats took notice of Gracepaw, the only one of the children that seemed convinced in the slightest that this was some sort of misunderstanding --- that her parents would come back at any moment.

For the first time in her life... Gracepaw felt incredibly small and unsure.

@Echokit. @Briarpaw. @Victorykit @Frecklekit

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you're so vain

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GRACEPAW

she/her, thunderclan, 11 moons

♛ a long furred cinnamon tortie with low white and amber eyes
♛ mentored by eveningeater // mentoring none
♛ sister to snowcap brick, briarpaw, echokit, frecklekit, victorykit
♛ npc x npc (missing) / mother to none / mate to none
♛ "speech" // "thoughts"
♛ penned by asteiri ↛ asteiri on discord, dm or post in #asteiris-astronomy for plots!

 

[Echokit. Echokit.]

SO WITH THIS BLADE TURNED TO SCYTHE, I RID A MIRACLE-
SLICE YOUR HEART, AND CALLUS YOUR LOVE

​

‎

Echokit

, He/Him / 4 moons /

Thunderclan - Kit

Long hair chocolate point cinnamon tortie with low white and vitiligo, has ice coloured eyes
Younger Sibling to SNOWCAP, GRACEPAW & BRIARPAW, Littermate to FRECKLEKIT & VICTORYKIT
A closed off and angry individual, not very talkative but generally snarky, jealous of those who are truly happy
Tagging

[@]

‎

So it began, the incoming storm. Echokit knew it was coming, and he found himself emboldened in not caring. It was a strange feeling bubbling up inside of him, a twisted version of satisfaction. It was a subtle poison, another result of their parent's actions and their wrongdoing. Frecklekit was right to look away from Echokit at this moment.

Echokit saw other Warriors asking his siblings what was going on. Briarpaw first, who did little about it, he watched on with notable disinterest. For the first time in what felt like forever, there was an unspoken, and even less so acknowledged understanding between them regarding their parents- both Echokit and Briarpaw simply did not give a shit about what had supposedly transpired. Briarpaw had no desire to interact, and Echokit had no desire to bother Briarpaw about it. If nothing else, the two of them could watch the crumbling of everything their horrid parents built from both sides of the disaster.

Overhearing a Warrior question Frecklekit, Echokit glanced over. The response from his littermate was to be expected, meek and muted- but definitely not unaware. Echokit was sure that Frecklekit, fortunate as he was to be spared the worst of it, held within him some measure of resentment.

It looked like Victorykit had tried to go out and look for them too, obviously to be stopped by an older Warrior. She could hiss and flail all she wanted but they weren't letting her go out there. Echokit couldn't understand why she even bothered, these parents of theirs were just as horrible to her as they were to the rest.

While he was happy to ignore it, Victorykit was not. She rounded on the rest of them, spitting fiercely at them in an accusatory way.

"Hm? Okay, Vic', I'll tell you what I'll do."

Echokit raised a brow at her. Truthfully, he was going to do something, something other than waste his time looking for cats that didn't care about him.

"Following their exceptional example, I'll move on-"

He paused, slowly turning his head to look her right in the eyes, unblinking, unfeeling, a gaze as cold as the ice colours of his eyes.

"- and I'll forget about them."

What took a slight bit longer was the response from the 'crown jewel', the 'flawless' favorite, but boy was it worth it. The haughtiness, the assumptions, the arrogance- surely cracks would form in her noxious personality, if not now, then hopefully soon. Echokit wanted to be there for when she was met with reality. For now though, Echokit took the opportunity to call her out. Without the false praise from their parents, there was nothing here to back her up.

"Oohohoho, nuh-uh you don't get to put words in our mouths anymore, little miss favorite."

He mocked her, even almost cackled. This felt great.

"Briarpaw hasn't even said a word, Frecklekit is just stating facts and Victorykit just went to run after them- that's more than you've done."

It was strange to be speaking up for the siblings that Echokit thought barely cared about him, but he had more issues with Gracepaw overall. In truth, he was speaking up for himself more than them, at least he thought so.

"As for me, I absolutely don't give a shit. Good riddance to rotten freshkill."

Echokit shrugged.

He was happy to leave it there and just run along, he was happy to go play with some rocks or something. He was happy. Happy, for once. That core of true happiness or relief, laced in the poisonous warped version of triumph and freedom burned away in the wake of unrelenting electric fury as soon as he heard but one simple sentence uttered.

"They wouldn't just leave! They love me!"

Echokit's gaze snapped to Gracepaw, meeting her with ferocity that no kit should yet have. His entire body shook with unfiltered rage.

"Love!? Really?! You think they were capable of that?! You can't be serious."

Echokit let out something between a cackle and a snarl, but he came to realize, that she was absolutely being serious.

"Hah... Oh, Starclan above, Gracepaw, you're delusional! They left, they're gone. They never cared about, nor loved any of us. Even you."

‎

YOU PESTS WERE GIFTED FREE MINDS, BUT NO...
IT WAS NEVER ENOUGH

​