kudossi

[kudossi]

White cats with blue eyes challenge! I had a lot of fun with these :)

#cloudtail #icewing #frostfur #icecloud #warrior cats #white cats blue eyes challenge #waca #wc #warrior cats art #warrior cats fanart #white cats blue eyes #white cat blue eyes #white cat challenge #my art

[kudossi]

i'd draw sol wearing ISO-approved eclipse viewing glasses while everyone else runs around in a panic if i wasn't a coward (sleepy)

AU in which everything is the same but everyone who was looking at the fucking sun during eclipse has some form of eye damage for the rest of their lives

#warrior cats #waca #warrior cats au #wc #sol #ashfur #cw eye damage

[kudossi]

ashfur stares at the sun for so long that he ends up just waltzing himself into the fire the next book. win for the gays: two can keep a secret when none of them is dead. just the gray prick has to go. bye bitch see you in the fiery infernos of hell—

AU in which everything is the same but everyone who was looking at the fucking sun during eclipse has some form of eye damage for the rest of their lives

#warrior cats au #ashfur #waca #wc au #squirrelflight #leafpool

[kudossi]

AU in which everything is the same but everyone who was looking at the fucking sun during eclipse has some form of eye damage for the rest of their lives

#warrior cats #warrior cats au #waca #wc #warrior cats eclipse #cw eye trauma #cw eye damage

[kudossi]

Hear me out: Lionblaze is born brown and is named after sea lions, actually.

I'm not taking into account the commonality of sea lions in whichever place one might imagine the clans are as it's a magical place no matter what and sea lions might as well be there. Really it would have made more sense for Midnight to be a sea lion instead of a dry land-ass badger hoping that high tide doesn't drown her this time.

Anyway, the journey group rolls up to the sun-drown-place and goes what the fuck is that a sea lion? I'd only heard RiverClan stories about those things!

And of course Midnight the sea lion is like BARK BARK BARK BARK [delivers prophecy in pinniped]

So naturally when Leafpool hands over her kits to Squirrelflight, Squirrelflight is like your names suck ass this one is Lionkit

And Leafpool's like ...why are you fucking reminding me about that fucking sea lion who broke up my illicit affair?

And Squirrelflight's like of all the cats you had crushes on over the years you just HAD to run off with the grumpy WindClan idiot whose original also-sapphic-leaning girlfriend kicked it in the mountains.

So of course Leafpool has no choice but to be like yeah fine Lionkit it is.

Lionpaw doesn't like this very much, mostly because his siblings like to make sea lion impressions every time he enters into literally anywhere. Hollypaw's gotten really good at it.

I also like to imagine one of the ubiquitous quests that everyone and their second cousins seem to have to go on leads them to a zoo and Lionblaze is like SEE! LOOK! I WAS NAMED AFTER THIS MAJESTIC CREATURE THE AFRICAN LION!

And he turns around, triumphant, to see that his siblings are just standing by the sea lion exhibit barking at him.

The quest is of course leading them to the sea lions. Lionblaze considers feeding himself to the land lions.

Also imagine a bunch of sea lions attacking the camp in Twilight. Like I mean they're probably still badgers I don't think that has to change but hear me out: it would be funny.

#lionblaze #hollyleaf #jayfeather #leafpool #squirrelflight #crowfeather #warrior cats #warrior cats au #waca #wc #wc au #midnight the badger turned sea lion #sea lions #tnp au #the new prophecy #the new prophecy au #power of three #power of three au

[kudossi]

hear me out: a warriors character named duckpaw. their siblings and denmates consistently greet them by yelling DUCK as loudly as they can. the older cats hate this. some of them still duck to this day. the last time one of the apprentices needed to tell their mentor to ACTUALLY duck they got hit in the head by a duck trying to land on the water. the clan leader eventually gets so fed up with this that they try to give duckpaw a new name, but duckpaw and their parents veto it. the leader considers retirement. chaos reigns.

#warrior cats #wc #waca #warrior cats au #duckpaw #au #ideas #warrior cats ideas #riverclan

[kudossi]

Dusted off my jazz drawing hands to make a little art for my favorite living @fallenclan cats, Cherrystar and Ripplefade. These two are adorable and Cherrystar doesn't get nearly enough attention from the clangen enjoyers at large for being both badass and awesome. Love these two!! <3

#fallenclan #clangen #ripplefade #cherrystar #cherrydust #warrior cats oc #warrior cats ocs #my art #go check out fallenclan! i don't think you'll regret it. :) #clangen art

[kudossi]

and a yellow moon glowed bright

Years later, when Ivypool herself is only a memory and before she’s completely lost to time, she’ll look over ThunderClan, wherever they might be, and still look for her daughter in every face.

The stories have it wrong already, and the truth will be dust before long. Bristlefrost isn’t alive in their memories. She’s twice-dead, drowned in black, choking water, a light snuffed out too soon. Bristlefrost was the prodigy — the daughter cats dreamed of, the first to find her voice and her paws, the leader of her siblings, the apprentice who did not graduate even earlier than she did because there was no prey in the forest to be found, not because of any failings on her part.

Cats starved, that long winter. Not Bristlefrost. Never her daughter, her clever, resourceful last-born. And she had once occupied this spot, designated for deputies, even though she’d never had an apprentice of her own. Would never have an apprentice of her own, now, even though she deserved it more than anything. Even though she’d deserved to stay deputy, but had given the role over with a smile, no hint of dark ambition in her gaze.

Ivypool steps into the deputy position under a brand-new leader with a whisper instead of a bang, the pounding of blood in her ears the only reminder that cats had been here before — that cats had died here before, and that Bramblestar’s first deputy becoming leader was a fluke, an odd quirk of fate. It hasn’t been done in living memory, nor long before that. Leaders do not usually step down, and when they do, they rarely stay with their Clan, or even within reach of their territory. First deputies do not often become leaders in turn. Usually this event is a bittersweet one, with a body or bodies laid out in the clearing, their eyes closed swiftly to avoid the rigor of after-death, but this is almost-peaceful, with only the murmurs of those who could not easily accept change as detractors.

Ivypool will die long before Squirrelstar. She’s—surprisingly okay with this, but she thinks she’s been at peace with her death since before Hollyleaf had stepped between her and a deathblow from one of the only friends she’d ever had.

(“You were my friend!” Ivypool screams in her worst nightmares, Hollyleaf’s blood dripping from her pelt.

“I was never anyone’s friend,” Hawkfrost murmurs in return, something aching-sad in his voice, Hollyleaf’s lifeless form pinned under his claws. “I was born to what I am. We’re the same, you and I.” He pushes the black cat away from his paws with disgust — not for the body, but for Ivypool herself. Blood bubbles from the horrible wound at the corpse’s throat. “She should have been the one,” he says sometimes, in the ones that shatter her already pieced-together heart. “She died in your place.”

“I know,” Ivypool says, and she does know — she knows it more than anyone else alive.)

“It should have been Hollyleaf,” she says to Squirrelstar, quietly, at the end of one of their dusk meetings.

Sorrow flashes in Squirrelstar’s gaze, but it’s buried as soon as it comes. “It’s you,” she says. “It has always been you.”

It is not a truth — not in the way Ivypool remembers them from her childhood — but it is not a lie, either. Hollyleaf chose her, in the way dying deputies might choose their successor. She is always an echo of another cat burned by starlight. It is a comfort, sometimes. In others, she begs the spirit who’d saved her life for mercy, for clemency, until she runs out of breath.

(“I’ll find her,” whispers a voice Ivypool had almost forgotten, in dreams she forgets as soon as she wakes. “I’ll walk the skies ceaselessly, I promise you.”

But there is no bringing Bristlefrost back, and a part of Ivypool has died with her.)

When Ivypool wakes, her Clanmates breathe around her, steadying her rabbit-quick heart. Fernsong’s tail wraps snugly around her flank, Thriftear curled only one nest behind, and she does not lose her breath at the way Flipclaw’s dark tabby stripes curl over his spine. She hasn’t in a long time, she knows, but the impulse is there, sharp as ice underneath her ribs.

(She’d once thought his brown tabby pelt a punishment from the stars. She loves her son, would give her life for him, but the feeling that StarClan may have meted some punishment down in the shade of his pelt remains long after he’s received his warrior name.

She’d begged Bramblestar to give him a suffix that was as unassumingly kind and silly as her son always was. Instead he’d given him -claw, as if to remind her of her failings. She is not sorry to see his form slip into the elders’ den, bereft of the nine lives he’d once so jealously hoarded.)

#ivypool #thunderclan #bristlefrost #squirrelflight #squirrelstar #brambleclaw #bramblestar #flipclaw #thriftear #fernsong #waca #warrior cats #wc #wc fic #thunder spoilers #ivypool's heart #i wrote this a while back and then the erins punched me through a brick wall with that super edition announcement #and i have to wonder if they're using 'heart' because they're trying to erase the OTHER 'heart' #which. yeah. yeah. #crazy how that works #work in progress #if they fridged a woman to fridge another woman i'm going to riot

[kudossi]

Go listen to this absolutely AMAZING podfic done for my fic, i've met the myth hanging heavy over you, by the wonderful and INSANELY TALENTED henrybelly. This is a true delight to have done for any fic and I am so honored and excited that Henry took the time out of his busy schedule (and his own insanely amazing writing) to do this! He has an exceptional voice and a truly amazing cadence you need to hear to truly appreciate.

THANK YOU, HENRY!

Everyone else, go on, go listen! If you like the original fic, you won't be disappointed. Even if you hate the original fic, Henry's dulcet tones may have you thinking differently about the podfic. ;P

i made a podfic of marvellous @kudossi's fic, i've met the myth hanging heavy over you

this is just a sample. the full podfic is available here

enjoy 🧡🎶🎶🎶

#i've met the myth #warrior cats #warrior cats fanfic #podfic #go listen to this!! #this is awesome! #henry has an AMAZING voice #go experience it #your life will be changed #hollyleaf #fireheart #henrybelly

[kudossi]

i've met the myth hanging heavy over you chapter 4

Chapter four is now posted!

Fireheart apprentices Hollypaw to himself. While her brother has Tigerstar’s piercing amber eyes, Hollypaw has his pelt and his blinding ambition, and that, he thinks, is far more dangerous.

Or,

Hollypaw, Jaypaw, and Lionpaw are the kits of Tigerstar and Goldenflower. This changes things.

#ao3 #warrior cats #waca #warrior cats fic #hjl are goldentiger kits #hollyleaf #fireheart #firestar #the prophecies begin au #warrior cats au

[kudossi]

Hello! Kudossi! Quick question, where do you find your fanfic chapter names? They're so aesthetic, and I need something for mine. So, that's why this ask exists. Feel free to delete! I don't mind.

I never get asks, so you've made my week, actually! Thank you so much for your question! Apologies for not getting to this sooner — I took an eight foot fall onto hard-packed dirt about a month ago and have been recovering since.

Anyway! Your question! My titles! I'm so pleased you like them. Really, maybe I should say this has made my month. That would be more accurate. :)

A lot of them are just things I've come up with myself (you will blaze like fire (and lack the oxygen to keep yourself burning); until the stars blink out; the moon glows softly tonight, my dear; etcetera).

The others are mostly carefully-chosen song lyrics! I pick particularly often from Fleet Foxes (through the forest, down to your grave; you will lift his body from the shore; i've met the myth hanging heavy over you; etcetera)

and Lord Huron (haunted by the letters of your name; to chase the sunlight mile after mile; let the rivers guide you in; etcetera).

Chapter names often come from some of my other favorite bands (Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Bear's Den, Everything Everything, etcetera), and though I love them, too, I avoid using some because of oversaturation (The Oh Hellos, Hozier, The Crane Wives, etcetera). I keep a list I update yearly where I track my favorite music and bands and such, as well as my top three songs from each. I call it Kudossi's Heckin' Good Music List [year]. Right now I can only find 2021's somehow, but I am recovering from severe injury, so I'm going to give myself a break on that one, lol.

Let me know if you'd like a full list or anything! I'm always happy to be able to help out where I can.

In related news, while I've been having a lot of health problems, I am deep into writing several works that should soon appear on my AO3 (also called kudossi) and have several starts to shorter works that I usually post here, so follow me there/stay tuned here for more warrior cats fic!

I'd also like to take this moment to thank everyone for being so kind. It makes me so happy to know that people enjoy what I write. <3

And thank you especially, @random-multifandom-nightmare, for sending an ask! It really does mean a lot to me. I hope this helped — please feel free to reach back out if you have any other questions!!

#not writing #ask #title name inspiration #brief mention of injury #song lyric titles #seriously i love getting asks this is the best #my main is kudos-si-do btw. if you want more than warriors content #fair warning once i get back to reblogging there will be a lot of psych content #i love that show #anyway i should probably stop rambling lol #how many times can i type etcetera in one post LOL

[kudossi]

Tigerclaw and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Senior Warrior Position AU

In a world where deputies can only be named after their first apprentice has been granted their warrior name, Tigerclaw struggles to keep an apprentice alive long enough to earn their name.

or, a comedy-tragedy AU in which having an apprentice isn't enough — you have to see them to their warrior name, and Tigerclaw cannot fucking get any of his goddamn apprentices to live, damn it.

—

It starts out mostly normally, except for the fact that Tigerclaw hasn't gotten any apprentices to their warrior name, and he needs that so he can accomplish his (very noble, of course) kitty genocide goals. And also be the supreme leader of the world or something. Darkpaw died stupidly, he hasn't had a chance since, and now he's got some tiny thing that's afraid of his own shadow.

Well. It'll have to do.

So naturally this man is so protective over Ravenpaw that Ravenpaw barely even leaves his sight. Firepaw and Graypaw think that this is adorable. Look how much Tigerclaw cares about his apprentice!!

Ravenpaw, of course, is fucking terrified and also slowly losing his mind, just in a different way.

—

"Redtail assigned us to go on a patrol to Snakerocks." "OH NO HE DID NOT. WE'RE STAYING IN THE SANDY HOLLOW WHERE IT'S SAFE."

"Nothing matters more to me than making you a warrior, Ravenpaw. Nothing." And the terrible thing is that Ravenpaw is sure he's being sincere.

—

Ravenpaw disappears and Tigerclaw nearly fucking has a conniption because the timing was all RIGHT and he was going to finally get the position AND HE NEVER GOT HIS DAMN NAME FUCK.

"Do you think I could convince the elders that Fireheart was my apprentice?" "Fireheart was Bluestar's apprentice, as approved by StarClan. You're going to have to wait for the next litter to be apprenticed."

So he begs and begs and gets Cinderpaw and then she accidentally falls into the trap he'd set for a better deputy candidate at the Thunderpath. Fuck.

—

Well. Time to resort to drastic measures.

"I was thinking that Darkstripe would have been a good name. Because he had dark stripes." "Again, Tigerclaw, it's admirable that you loved your apprentice so much, but I cannot grant him a name." "Are you sure?" "Honestly, Tigerclaw, I'm not sure he ever would have gotten a name. Missing quite a few feathers from his nest, that one..." Fuck. The worst part was that she wasn't even wrong.

— Swiftpaw and Brightpaw get mauled by the dogs he set up to happen like right after he got the title and they sprang it before and he's like FUCK NOW WHAT DO I DO WITH THESE DAMN DOGS? His world domination plans literally never come to fruition because he cannot keep his apprentices alive/in the clan/his own.

— "Brightheart counts. She HAS to count." "Actually, Cloudtail took over her training…" [demented noises]

—

Turns out that Ravenpaw is alive and no one — no one — in the Harper Collins Extended Universe is happier than Tigerclaw.

"You're alive! …You deserve your warrior name!" "Actually, I've come to peace with my name and my way of life. I have no need for a—" "GET YOUR FUCKING NAME RIGHT NOW RAVENPAW OR SO HELP ME STARCLAN—" "I know you really wanted Ravenpaw to become a warrior," Barley says gently, "but he's made his decision. It's very kind of you to acknowledge that he deserves it, though. You must have been so close as mentor and apprentice." Tigerclaw's eye twitches. "Yes. Close. Very... close." —

He finally, finally retires as an elder after his plans go absolutely nowhere for years on end. And maybe StarClan is still like "Brambleclaw would be chill actually, we can forget that pesky little law" and Tigerclaw is sitting there like "excuse me what the actual fuck?" —

But at this point Tigerclaw is about as dangerous as Ashfur without a freak forest fire. Which is to say about as dangerous as using a leaf as a weapon. Which is, incidentally, how Darkpaw managed to get himself killed in the first place.

—

"Is this the Dark Forest? This has to be the Dark Forest. It doesn't look like Thistleclaw described it, but it must be. This Clan is all an elaborate punishment meted down by StarClan for my sins." "Tigerclaw, sir, I'm just here to help you with your ticks. See? I have the mousebile right here." "…Yes, thank you, Alderpaw." — Graystripe joins him in the elder's den and he's like, "You know, Ravenpaw thought you were up to some… scheme, back in the day. Crazy, right? You've been a model Clanmate as long as I've been alive." [muffled screaming] "Huh, what do you think that is? It sounds almost like someone killed a rabbit, but they know not to come this close to camp…"

#tigerclaw #fireheart #firestar #bluestar #darkstripe #graystripe #ravenpaw #barley wc #brightheart #cloudtail #ashfur #alderheart #alderpaw #swiftpaw #cinderpelt #tigerstar #redtail #warrior cats #warrior cats au #wc #waca #wc au #warrior cats fic #alternate universe #strong language

[kudossi]

telephone

APPRENTICE SQUAD

[3:18PM]

[Graypaw added Firepaw to the chat]

[3:20PM]

Firepaw: Hello! It’s great to be here!

Sandpaw: …Ew, why?

Dustpaw: Did Bluestar authorize this?

Graypaw: I think Firepaw authorized this by beating the shit out of Longtail. That’s our boy!

Dustpaw: All that proves is that Darkstripe is a lousy mentor

Sandpaw: And we already knew that

Dustpaw: I bet Darkstripe would lose to Longtail

Dustpaw: Nothing against Tigerclaw’s mentoring, Ravenpaw

Graypaw: Maybe try apologizing to your brother when he isn’t unconscious??

Dustpaw: I wasn’t apologizing.

[3:43PM]

Firepaw: So what do we do with this, uh, vigil thing?

Sandpaw: You? Nothing. Go find moss to pad your nest, kittypet

Firepaw: Ouch.

Graypaw: Come to the den, I’ll tell you there.

[3:50PM]

Firepaw: Sorry about Redtail, Sandpaw. Dustpaw.

Sandpaw: I could have gone my entire life without letting the kittypet feel sorry for me

Dustpaw: Ditto.

Dustpaw: But, uh, I could use some extra sympathy right now.

Graypaw: Yeah, ouch. It’s like Bluestar was reading the chat.

Sandpaw: We’ll do tutoring sessions to make up for Darkstripe, don’t worry

Graypaw: …She wasn’t reading the chat, was she?

Sandpaw: I don’t think that’s possible unless someone specifically showed her. Wait. Firepaw?

Firepaw: …I thought the leader’s word was law?

Graypaw: The apprentice chat is sacred!! Firepaw!! What have you done???

Firepaw: No one told me!

Sandpaw: Well, there is a dead guy in the middle of camp.

Graypaw: Aw, Sandpaw, are you defending Firepaw?

Sandpaw: Absolutely not. I’d just like to get back to mourning my father in peace???

Graypaw: Oh yeah.

[8:38PM]

Graypaw: Who took the last squirrel from the fresh-kill pile???

Sandpaw: You snooze you lose.

#they're all still cats in this they can just text somehow #don't ask me how #warrior cats #warrior cats fic #waca #wc #fireheart #sandstorm #graystripe #dustpelt #ravenpaw #tigerclaw #darkstripe #longtail #bluestar #group chat #i see an opportunity for a crack fic and i must take it #texting #humor #crack fic

[kudossi]

I've been playing with a program called "Twine" and I made a little choose-your-own-adventure hunting patrol story. It's pretty simple, but there are some (hopefully) funny results you can get.

Works on desktop and mobile ❤️❤️

#this is so cool! #warrior cats #choose your own adventure #sandstorm #brightheart #brackenfur #well at least on the path i chose lol

[kudossi]

blue and gold (mix them together and find life within the green)

Ivyshade approaches her, after. Dovesight is busy starting clean-up, and the noises of battle ring dully in her ears. It seems oddly muffled, but Jayfeather had tilted his head and pronounced it shock, so Dovesight tries not to shake her head more than once every few minutes.

“Do you need something?” Dovesight forces past the limb she’s dragging from the center of camp. They’ll need to lay the bodies there, and right now it’s strewn with debris.

Ivyshade’s eyes are cast downward. “I don’t know,” she admits. She’s not meeting Dovesight’s eyes at first, but then her head raises and she backs away in something like shock.

“What?” Dovesight asks, a little annoyed. Her back aches and her wounds sting and this is not the time for Ivyshade to make amends, not the time for her to throw Dovesight away again like she’s the rotting carcass of a long-dead mouse.

“Your eyes,” Ivyshade breathes, her own dark blue eyes wide and shocked. “Dove, they’re green.”

#dovewing #ivypool #jayfeather #dovewing's eyes change color au #gold eyed dovewing #blue eyed dovewing #green eyed dovewing #warrior cats #waca #wc #warrior cats fic #normal eye color and eye color used while using powers combine to make green #or something #tw rot mention #tw death mention

[kudossi]

kept like jewelry, kept with devotion

Violetkit cries as Needlepaw picks her up. Her grip is gentle, but she’s being torn from Twigkit, and she reaches out toward her sister with desperate, clumsy paws. Twigkit runs after her, squeaking angrily, and ShadowClan almost surrounds them before Alderpaw’s voice comes, strong even in the chaos. “Stop!” he commands, and Needlepaw hesitates, her head turning toward him.

Alderpaw’s dark ginger pelt is fluffed up, his amber eyes narrow and angry. “Tearing apart two kits? Taking them from the only family they have? I never thought ShadowClan was heartless,” he hisses.

“ThunderClan has had enough prophecy cats!” Rowanstar growls from where he’s perched high in the oak, his claws digging furrows into the bark. “ShadowClan helped find these kits, and we have a rightful claim!”

There’s silence for a moment. Violetkit struggles, but Needlepaw’s grip gets stronger, and she isn’t able to escape.

“I am almost fully trained,” Alderpaw says at last, the words pulled from him slow but strong. “You have lost your medic. You have no one to heal your sick and injured.”

Rowanstar’s face scrunches angrily, eyes stormy. “What? Are you going to pull Flametail from the lake? Raise Littlecloud from his grave? Are you so special, royal-born?”

Royal-born? Violetkit thinks, but even her thoughts are drowned out by the ripple of offense from ThunderClan’s ranks.

“I am almost fully trained,” Alderpaw repeats calmly, stepping farther from the ranks of his agitated Clan, “and I will trade myself for Violetkit.”

“You can’t!” Squirrelflight’s voice comes. She’s standing on the roots, her eyes wide and desperate. “Alderpaw, no!”

Rowanstar turns a narrow gaze on ThunderClan’s medics. “Is it true? Is he ready for his full name?”

Leafpool’s mouth hangs open, but Jayfeather gathers himself. “He would have gotten his name at this half-moon or next,” he says, voice reedy.

Rowanstar sits back on his haunches, considering. Violetkit manages to wiggle from Needlepaw’s now-loose grip and runs back to her sister, who throws her paws around Violetkit’s black-spotted neck and pulls her nearly to the ground. They huddle under Alderpaw’s large paws, pressed against each other. Fear runs like ice through Violetkit’s veins. “Very well,” he says eventually, though he doesn’t sound happy about it. “ShadowClan accepts this trade.”

Squirrelflight wails. Alderpaw breathes a sigh of relief, dipping his head to touch first Twigkit’s and then Violetkit’s ears. “Be good. Be strong and clever and swift. May StarClan bless you both.”

And then he’s gone, striding across the clearing, not looking back. Needlepaw’s gaze meets Violetkit’s own, and then she too looks away.

(This is how Violetkit loses the only parents she’s ever known.)

#alderheart #violetkit #violetshine #twigkit #twigbranch #needlepaw #needletail #squirrelflight #rowanstar #shadowclan #thunderclan #gathering #warrior cats #waca #wc #warrior cats fic #alderpaw goes to shadowclan au #alderpaw trades himself for violetkit au #opening to a longer fic #to be posted to ao3 sometime soon i hope #leafpool #jayfeather #flametail #littlecloud #tw drowning mention #everyone hates thunderclan

[kudossi]

those violet omens shadowing you around

“I can’t be a medic,” Hollypaw says. Emotion rolls off of her in waves — grief, certainty, heartbreak.

Jaypaw means to say of course you can, because his sister is Hollypaw, and if anyone can do anything, it’s the cat who’s been blindingly ambitious since before she took her first pawstep. Instead he says, “I can’t be a warrior,” and then clicks his jaw shut as the self-pity immediately clears from Hollypaw’s pelt.

“What?” she says, strangled. “Of course you can!”

“I can’t,” Jaypaw growls. He isn’t in the mood for her optimism, not equipped to handle Hollypaw at her most annoying — when she burns like the sun with righteousness, with fairness, with some form of justice that she derives from the warrior code and her own particular set of morals. She doesn’t get it — the world isn’t fair, isn’t just, and she couldn’t force it to be through her own two paws, no matter how many games she’d refereed as kits. “I can’t fight,” he adds to her disbelief. “I can barely navigate the territory—”

“You can learn!” Hollypaw interrupts. He can hear the way her claws scrape on the stone of the hollow. “I’m not just—I won’t just let you throw away everything you’ve ever wanted.”

“How is that fair?” Jaypaw shoots back, pushing past her. “You don’t know what I want. All you’re concerned about is yourself, and whatever you perceive to be fair, but the Clans don’t work like that, and if you haven’t learned that by now—” He breaks off as Hollypaw steps in front of him, blocking his way to the medic's den, but he pushes onward, crashing into her shoulder with purpose. Hollypaw stumbles — for all her height, she’s just gangly limbs and no center of balance. It doesn’t help that her muscles are soft from lack of warrior training, and she fails to regain her footing and falls. Jaypaw pushes down a pang of guilt as she hits the packed earth with an oof, stepping on her side like they were playing a kit-game and he’d bowled her over, not like they were arguing over the course of their futures. “You can’t fix everything,” he hisses to her, his muzzle at her ear.

She hisses in return, but doesn’t get up, her muscles tense and rage pulsing over her fur. “When I’m leader, I will fix everything!” she promises, voice sure and angry. “When we all follow the warrior code—”

“Shut up!” Jaypaw hisses. “Shut up, shut up, shut up! The warrior code was made by cats just like us, with all our weaknesses and failures, so long ago that it’s all useless!”

Hollypaw gapes. Jaypaw doesn’t have to see to tell that. “Take it back,” she says weakly, and Jaypaw can feel the beginnings of panic in every one of Hollypaw’s clenched muscles.

“No,” he says. “The sooner you learn that dead warriors can’t help us, the better.”

Hollypaw is quiet. Jaypaw steps over her, heading to the medic's den. He hears her get up, slowly and with purpose, and, unwillingly, his ears twitch back to catch what she says. “You’ve always wanted to be a warrior,” she calls after him. “What changed?”

StarClan, Jaypaw doesn’t say, and then pushes past the hanging ferns and into the belly of the beast.

#hollypaw #jaypaw #hollyleaf #jayfeather #warrior #warrior cats #waca #wc #warrior cats fic #guilt #sibling dynamics #thunderclan pushing their disabled members into being doctors is stupid #being a doctor is harder than being a fighter #like seriously erins wtf #starclan #starclan is fucked up tbh