Open Camp you decided this — public confrontation

[PEONYPAW]

trigger warning Self-deprecating language.

Peonypaw is furious. It's nothing new, sure, but he cannot bear the way it presses down on him like a heavy blanket of snow. Screw tht- it weighs on him like dirt, the kind that threatens to swallow you whole when you're down in the tunnels. Dangerous. Life-threatening.

He sure does feel like his very life is on the line here.

Dustystar isn't wrong. Of course she isn't—she's the ever-knowing leader, and his mentor to boot. He had thought that his behavior would put her off of him entirely, succumb to his attitude, and then give him someone else to suffer with him. She is nothing if not unrelenting, he will give her that.

But stars, does it get under his skin when she tells him what he's doing wrong. As if I don't know that. As if I can do anything right.

Peonypaw has not been taking Clan life nearly as seriously as he should. There is guilt there, underneath the anger. He had promised Petalpaw that he would try. Somehow, life in the barn had been easier, even though he had been so against that idea, too, in the first place. Nobody had expected anything from him; maybe a few catches here and there to pull his weight, but it's not like anybody had to stuck with the others then. He had been free to do whatever he wanted. Now, he constantly has to adhere to stupid rules and do stupid tasks.

Somewhere, where his logic still works, he knows he is acting like a kit. He all but storms off when Dustystar looks at him with disappointed in her gaze again, but she isn't letting him go this time. Her voice sounds far away as she talks- tries to talk some sense into him. It's only backfiring now.

"I don't care!"

The yowl bursts from his chest. Peonypaw whisp around to face Dustystar, uncaring of the pairs of eyes that undoubtedly lay on him now.

"I'm not a good apprentice. I know that. I don't care about the dawn patrol, or the hunting patrol, or the whatever patrol!"

He should shut up, truly. This will only get him even more punished... but what does it matter anyhow? Peonypaw knows that he should be a fully-fledged warrior now- could be, if he had put in more effort. The assessment had gone horribly and he had not even asked Dustystar to try again. Peonypaw heaves.

"And do you know why? It's because I know it doesn't matter. Why should I try? I don't belong here, and I never did. I burned down the barn. I killed innocent cats-"

He freezes.

When realization hits him, it's far too late. His heart leaps into his throat and beats there, panicked and sick. The anger drains from him and leaves him weak, pathetic, scared.

Now they all know. He was being stupid again and let it slip- his terrible secret, the one that he carries with him despite how it only serves to reopen his imaginary wounds. Because of course, he did not suffer any damage in the fire, even though he would have deserved it far more than those who burned in the hungry flames.

Peonypaw may as well be exiled now.

Without thinking, he spins around and hares out of the camp, unable to meet the shocked gazes of his Clanmates.

No need to wait for @Dustystar
Peony is OUT!

 

[Talon Talon]

Talon had a lot of days to really mull over what Dustystar had said. Everything Meadowpaw had said. Whatever a barn was- a farm, it was really important to a lot of them. It was home- and they were forced to move from it. He remembered the danger of fire. He remembered his mother leaning in close, the heat of her breath against his face- and saying it was only hotter. Fire could kill everything it touches. And it seemed that luck was on Windclan's side. ​

Talon found cons being here though, at night if he poked his head out, he watched them sleep in the open, a cat here and there standing, ears perked- watching out for others. How can they sleep? There is nothing to protect them, as far as he can see, it was clear fields besides the occasional shrubbery. The open sky was vast and dizzying. Dots and the moon lit it up, but it still left everything dim and depleted. But they slept so close together it was almost sickening to the boy.

He was more comfortable in the back of Dimmingsun's and Meadowpaw's den, nearby the new entrance to Meadowpaw's tunnel. He had fallen to like the morning routine, at least when meadowpaw was there tending to him. She tried her best, but sometimes, very occasionally, she would be busy and Dimmingsun would take over. It shouldn't have been a big deal. But it made him uneasy, he'd shift, and wouldn't seep as comfortable as with Meadowpaw. With Meadowpaw, they had begun talking more and more every day. He still enjoyed his silence, and she seemed to respect that.

But otherwise he liked it here. He sat in his normal spot when he watched camp, the cats gathering to set up 'patrols'. Border patrols... Hunting patrols... They were small little groups set out to do tasks and Talon would sit back, feeling well, useless. The days ticked by closer, he could feel better, do more- even with the newfound wound on his nose.

But this morning was different. I don't care! Blue eye shot to the scene immediately. This cat was bigger, but something about him still screamed young. He threw his emotions around, yelled into Dustystars face, and his jaw tightened, his paws shifted underneath him. I don't belong here! I never did. The words burned something inside of him. There was an obliviousness from him, and then the next words struck him differently.

He had burned down the barn. He had somehow set the fire ablaze, and his body froze like a deer in headlights. There was that tension in the air, the one he so recognized. He hadn't seen or witnessed altercations this far- and the breath in his throat caught. The golden Tom had begun to run after his own freezing, and Talons own heart had begun a strange thudding. He didn't recognize these emotions, a distant memory to when danger was imminent.

​

 

[GOLDENROAR]

There's no secret about how Peonypaw has been doing- at least to Goldenroar's eyes, after all. At the barn, he'd like to think he took on a rather mentorly role to those he scooped from the side of the road. Teaching them to hunt and defend themselves, promising they'd be safe. He was good at it, he'd like to believe. But sometimes, there were just a handful of younger souls that didn't click with the idea of doing. They wanted to live for themselves, and Goldenroar could see it in Peonypaw. Especially now, the way the apprentice whips around to snap at Dustystar.

The deputy is on his paws in an instance, a frown glued to his face. Another outburst, yes? Another day in Windclan, he thinks briefly, but the confession that rings around camp, that splits from Peonypaw's muzzle like a dastardly poison, causes his fur to stand on end. He doesn't recognize the world around him, the way that Talon stared after Peonypaw.

I burned down the barn. I killed innocent cats-

"No fuckin' way." He whispered, slowly staggering from where he had been standing, vision staring out after the hare-flighted apprentice. He isn't so sure what he's feeling. What emotions bleed into one another, he can't separate. The anger, for one- somecat so selfish to live and eat the prey of those catching it. Prey from the paws of cats that had lost friends, family. Bitter, bitter grief flares in his chest too, because all of this pain was caused by Peonypaw- who acted selfishly. Who dragged Dustystar around, who ignored her teachings. Who forced an entire community of cats into the open. His muzzle slowly wrinkled, lips pulling back, teeth grit together.

It isn't often that Goldenroar feels such baneful anger, but Peonypaw made that real easy, didn't he? He's standing taller then he normally does, shoulders set square and head lifted, ears forced forward and tail lifted, bushed out. Admitted a sick and twisted truth and ran? Oh, he has every urge to hunt him down, as if there was a wolf snarling and baying in his mind. Slowly, his head tips skyward, a rattling breath leaving him. Patience; he urges it into his veins, like its a new kind of lifeblood that could dry a poison like anger out of him. "... What do you want to do, Dustystar?" He finally asks, voice cold. There's no inch of charisma within him now.

_______________________ I KEEP RUNNIN' BUT ☼ I'M STANDING STILL _______________________

• "speech"
  

• 

• GOLDENROAR he/him, windclan deputy, fourty moons.
  ☆ a lh golden red marbled tabby with low white and glimmering aqua eyes. often seen with a smirk, confidence oozing from him in heaps, but always the ever-helpful guy.
  ☆ mentored by who / mentoring dandelionpaw
  ☆ older brother to merry
  ☆ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ☆ penned by dallas ↛ dallasofnines on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  
  ☆ mini by tasmagoric, ref image by dallas (yours truly!)

 

[Dustystar Dustystar]

✪ Align my Heart, my Body, my Mind​

indentDustystar had lost her patience again. Peonypaw isn't putting in the effort, slipping up with mistakes he knows how to correct. Mired in her own frustration, she fails to notice Peonypaw's own anger bubbling over. "Peonypaw, you..."

indentHer scolding is cut off by more yelling, and a startling revelation. Had her apprentice really caused the fire? "That isn't true!" The words leave her mouth before she can stop them. Her apprentice, refusing to listen once again, has shot off out of camp. "Peonypaw, get back here. As your leader, I'm ordering you!" She spouts demands, but her voice wavers. She knows it's useless. Peonypaw had never listened to her before, and, in the throes of his anger, he wasn't likely to start now.

indentUnable to reach her apprentice, she's left to manage the commotion in camp. "Everyone, please stay calm. Once Peonypaw comes back, we'll figure this out. I'm sure he's just... having a moment." There's no way he was telling the truth, right? The fire had been a freak accident, something the twolegs must have caused. This outburst is just a symptom of Peonypaw's adolescent mind, causing him to lash out and speak nonsense. Hadn't all cats done something similar, at least once?

Dustystar - 27 moons - Windclan Leader

 

[scorchpaw]

NATURE CHEWS ON ME

Scorchpaw does not typically concern herself with her clanmates' affairs. Training, politics, relationships; all of it circles around the apprentice without her paying it much regard. She, among the others, does not pay much mind to Peonypaw's stunted progress. It is lost on her that he is beyond the age of most graduations. Though it is hard to ignore how he and his mentor do not seem to get along. Especially now, where she has been stopped in her tracks by his shrill cries as she moves across camp. Scorchpaw prefers to stay out of this sort of thing, but Peonypaw is screaming at the top of his lungs at Dustystar. And though Scorchpaw does not grant the leader any more reverence than her other clanmates, she cannot help but to feel a sort of secondhand shame burning at the back of her neck.

An unusual expression of surprise flits across her face when Peonypaw confesses to burning down the barn. To ending lives. His confession stops there, though, and he flees despite Dustystar ordering him to come back. Scorchpaw's owlish eyes follow Peonypaw out of WindClan camp, his movements not unlike the hares they hunt on the moors. One might think he was pursued by hounds. She does not follow him as some of the others do. Scorchpaw has never been the sort to grant anyone the benefit of the doubt, and she is unlikely to start now, in the shadow of Peonypaw's supposed confession. Should they not believe him? She glances around, weighing her thoughts against his words and the expressions and murmurs of her clanmates.

"Perhaps he is right," Scorchpaw mutters, swaying slightly "Perhaps he is not lying." The sharp amber of her eyes find their way to Dustystar, but they do not linger for very long. The tortoiseshell recoils when she spots Goldenroar, uncharacteristically angry and cold. This, she thinks, must be true if even Goldenroar believes that Peonypaw is not just having an outburst. Dustystar tries to calm and reassure her clan to the best of her ability. She seems aptly interested in giving Peonypaw space and time, but... "What if he doesn't come back...?" Scorchpaw finds that she is looking to Goldenroar for the answer, though her question had been no more pointed to him than Dustystar or any of their other clanmates. What she does not say is what she wonders: would the clanmates who followed Peonypaw grant the same benefit that Dustystar had? Or would they desire retribution?

— ⋆˙⟡

☼ scorchpaw is a windclan apprentice with a haunting disposition and leering gaze
☼ 9 moons old, ages on the last day of each month.
☼ currently has no mentor, though this is changing soon.
☼ in battle, physically moderate and psychologically difficult
☼ her parents are unknown and she is a former barncat.
☼ penned by carat, see her tags here.

 

[Yewkit]

YEWKIT

.

Yewkit hasn't been alive for very long, but she is starting to understand the things happening around her. She knows this clan she has been born into has certain rules and hierarchy, but she also knows the clan doesn't turn away outsiders, though the welcoming may not always be warm. She knows this, for she is technically also an outsider, her mother having joined not long before she and her siblings were born. She also knows a lot of her clanmates are from this place called The Barn, which got destroyed in some kind of accident, and the survivors traveled and settled in WindClan.

What she does not know, however, is why the apprentice is causing such a commotion. She has been sitting at the edge of the nursery, watching what her clanmates are up to, trying to understand the roles in the clan. But then she was forced to focus solely on the scene happening near the tunnels. It seems not only she noticed, as every head turns towards the apprentice yelling at their leader. "I don't belong here, and I never did!", she hears him snarl before turning around and running away. But how could he not belong? It seems to her everyone belongs in WindClan, as long as they put in a bit of effort to help out, to be a good clanmate.

Just then her mind catches up to her thoughts, and she realizes what else the apprentice had said before storming away - something about him being responsible for the destruction of The Barn, and the death of so many.. She's not sure what all this means, but she's sure everyone would understand, if only he just stopped and talked to them.

Yewkit considers going after the apprentice to make him come back and talk it out, but she quickly discards that idea. There's way too many problems her wandering away would cause. And so she keeps on sitting, watching her clanmates' reactions, some angry, some shocked, some sympathetic. Not one sure of what to believe. To her, it seems like she is the only one to find this simple - the apprentice made some mistakes before. But he is still their clanmate and clanmates stick together. Isn't that how this works?

 

[Comettail]

Well I'm still here...
They can't tell me who to be... Cuz I'm not what they see—

‎

COMET(TAIL), He/Him / 11 moons / Windclan Apprentice
Short fur black self tom with low white and fluffy tail + ginger somatic mutation in tail, bright yellow eyes
Son of ASTRO and NEBULA, Sibling to TWINKLE(TUFT), & ECLIPSE(SHADE)
Doesn't typically sit still, he's as quick on his paws as he is with his wits, a more fun-loving sort though no stranger to a healthy prank here and there!
Tagging [@]

‎

Just another day in Windclan. Everyone was going about their business as usual. Going out to the territory, returning from patrols and whatever else. Cometpaw himself had long since returned from a run he chose to go on. He even picked up some decent moss for bedding that he went and brought over to the nursery. Owlbear's little rascals and Honeyflower's little buds were all growing day by day, and Cometpaw was always happy to help in any way he could.

All seemed well...

Just another day in Windclan...​

Or was it, really...?​

At first, Peonypaw's attitude barely got much of a response, many seemed to see it as normal. Perhaps he really did just miss the barn and the barncat way of life?

All things considered, Cometpaw didn't really blame him all that much. Most of the Windclanners were barncats after all, a lot of them probably clung onto that past life. The barn was nice, sure, Cometpaw wouldn't say otherwise. However, he had a lot of time to think it over with himself. Maybe it was because he hadn't lived most of his life there, but the barn was just that. A barn. It was a place, a place with a lot of memories attached to it, yes, though still just a place. A place didn't have those memories, the cats had those memories. The cats made it a home. So, to Cometpaw, home was not a place, it was the company, the friendship and the presence of others.

Other cats just might not see it that way, which was fine by Cometpaw.

However, this conflict wasn't as simple as it first seemed. Beyond the general disagreement tension flickered. Peonypaw's outburst echoed through the camp. A chemical cocktail of emotions that had been bubbling away for quite a few moons now had just been spilled over, lit aflame by a moment of anger, only to immediately expire in a puff of panic, fear... And no doubt self loathing.

Cometpaw stood shocked, both because of what Peonypaw said and how he had said it. As far as Cometpaw was concerned (and he was very concerned) Peonypaw's voice was full of regret and guilt. Surely it must have been an accident. Why would someone that liked that lifestyle just up and destroy it? Was his attitude a result of what had happened? Cometpaw in the brief time that the barn was still standing didn't recall Peonypaw acting like how he does now even if he only knew the guy by presence and in passing. Was he pushing others away because he didn't feel worthy of their time ever since it all came crashing down? Did he blame himself for all of it? Did he suffer in silence with it weighing on him, all alone?

In a sad twist of fate it was because of the same disaster that Cometpaw knew how it felt to burn oneself away from the inside out, to direct hate inward for all they thought they were responsible for. This wasn't right, it wasn't fair. Not to Peonypaw, not to those that were lost in the blaze and not to those that still lived.

As soon as Peonypaw turned tail to run, Cometpaw jumped into a sprint after him, and in contrast, with far too many thoughts between his ears.

‎

Yeah the world is still sleepin' when I keep on dreamin' for me,
And their words are just whispers and lies that I'll never believe!

 

[HoneyflowerHoneyflower's icon]

Slow Down, Just Breathe

The sounds of arguing were nothing new, but the desire to help, to heal hurts if she can, wins out over minding her own business. Honeyflower supposes that's partially why Dustystar picked her as a Gale Guard.

Light pawsteps take her out of the nursery just in time to hear Peonypaw's confession, eyes widening with disbelief. "What does he mean..?" How could he have possibly been able to start the fire? Surely it had been an accident. There was no way it was intentional. She refused to believe Peonypaw had done it on purpose.

The molly is vaguely aware of Goldenroar's shift in stance, briefly fixing him with a hard stare before stepping forward and opening her maw to call out to the fleeing apprentice. Her own immediately following after, thank the stars for Cometpaw, honestly.

"I'm going after him and Cometpaw, I'll bring them back home." Because this is what it was now. Peonypaw belonged here in Windclan just as much as everyone else. She was going to get to the bottom of this before anyone else did something rash.

xxx

All We Have Is All We Need

Tags

Honeyflower

✿—Gale Guard Of WindClan
✿—She/Her
✿—"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
✿—Dilute Calico Shecat With Green Eyes And A Floppy Ear
#a4e1ba