Moon 2 - Newleaf
Muscle Memory
TW - mentions of disease (and its graphic symptoms), implied death, blood in the second image
Finally. I’m far enough.
The gray tom could no longer hold his excitement. It took too long to convince his clanmates he was asleep, and even longer to navigate the bramble walls of the camp.
They’re waiting.
He quickened his pace and pushed through the undergrowth. It was a perfect night to spend with…
“Sunbloom?” He whispered. He recognized their scent, but they were nowhere to be seen. “Apologies, I’m late.”
“Oh, what a gentletom,” A teasing voice meowed from the treetops. He looked to a branch above, and there they were. The familiar ginger pelt and blue eyes. Almost violet, like iris flowers. “Come, the view up here is worth seeing.”
He sighed but obliged. The cats slowly climbed through the branches– until they were at the highest point.
Although the moon was as thin as a claw, it covered the forest in a soft, mellow glow. The stars twinkled above, and the cool Newleaf breeze brushed past them. A moment of peace, from all the bustling activity in the clans.
“How have you been?” Beetail meowed softly.
“You sound like we’re from different clans,” His partner let out a soft purr. “Like we haven’t seen each other in moons.”
“But you haven’t left the healers’ den all day.”
Sunbloom sighed, and rested their head against Beetail’s shoulder. He could feel their soft fur and steady breathing.
“Sunbloom?”
“...The sickness seems more complicated than we thought,” They meowed, no longer hiding the weariness in their voice.
“What happened?”
“The remedies for aching joints have done nothing. Gravelpelt can barely move. Nectarkit might not make it tomorrow.”
“I thought the kit visited you for bruises…” Beetail tried to suppress the dread building up in his throat.
“Ghostflood had shared prey with Gravelpelt,” They continued. “She hasn’t shown any symptoms, but maybe passed it through her milk. Even Rimethorn has told me to be careful around Fogstar’s reopened wounds. The blood could pass it.”
Beetail curled his tail tighter around Sunbloom.
“But I’m being careful, don’t worry.”
“That doesn’t change how dangerous this all is.”
“I know, but we can’t stop and do nothing,” Their blue eyes met his yellow ones. “StarClan gave us a prophecy. There will be a cure...”
================================
“Beetail?”
Windstar’s voice snapped the senior warrior out of his thoughts. He was no longer in the forests of IrisClan. Here and now, these were the meadows of ChimeClan.
“Can you repeat that?” Beetail flicked his ear, annoyed at himself. All this talk about StarClan was getting to him.
“Did you visit StarClan at the Moon Falls?” Windstar meowed as he padded along the border.
“...Nightsplash did,” Beetail finally meowed. “I don’t intend to visit until I drop dead.”
“But things are different now. Don’t you even want to see your mate again?”
Windstar’s met them?
“No.”
Beetail could feel Windstar’s gaze on his pelt. Although they were once from different clans, the journey made the leader familiar with his mannerisms. Including his shifting paws and shortened responses when he lied.
“Beetail…”
“It was their fault they died!” He spat. “So righteous… Thinking they were some invincible prophecy cat, then left to slowly die from the Rotting. I would’ve preferred if a monster had taken them!”
“It was Sunbloom’s choice–”
“A mousebrained choice!”
He didn’t want to leave his clan to die, but he couldn’t keep watching Sunbloom’s slow death. No, he didn’t even get to watch it.
After moons of toil, Sunbloom’s final moments were spent alone. Despite the pain from their bones, the blood dripping from their muzzle, they marched deep in the forest. A final desperate search for the strange herb StarClan had promised.
It was never found.
“I don’t know what StarClan was thinking back then,” He hissed. “I don’t know what Sunbloom– what anyone was thinking! None of it made sense. I don’t–”
Both cats stopped the moment they heard barking in the distance.
“GULLPAW!”
Their fur prickled as a cat screamed in pain. The small body of an apprentice was thrown out of the jaws of a dog.
With a nod, Windstar jumped across the SpikeClan border. Beetail shook his pelt and all his thoughts out. It was time to focus.
“Paws off him, mutt!” A brawny she-cat slashed at the dog’s muzzle.
Before it could retaliate, Windstar had landed and dug his claws into its back. It turned, trying to buck him off, but the she-cat swiped at its hind legs.
Beetail ran past them to check on the poor apprentice. The brown tabby’s eyes were wide with fear, and his leg had been mangled.
StarClan, he looks like he just turned six moons. I need to stop the bleeding.
“W-who… Who—”
“Don’t worry,” Beetail meowed as he searched the nearby trees for cobwebs. The battle between the dog and the two cats continued, but Beetail knew what Windstar was capable of. “I’m here to help.”
A soft breeze tugged at his fur and guided his gaze. He jumped and dug his claws into the tree trunk. He wanted to relish the familiar feeling of his claws in the wood, but a cat needed help.
The cobwebs were now in his mouth, and from above, he could spot the forest floor below. He leapt to where the stalks of a plant laid.
“Eat these,” He ran back to the apprentice. “Thyme will help with the shock.”
“T-Time? Am I–”
“The leaves.”
The apprentice obeyed as Beetail patched his leg with the cobwebs. The sounds of battle had died down, and two cats now approached them.
“Oi!” The brawny SpikeClan cat yelled. She, like Windstar, was lucky to avoid any injuries, and could run at full speed. “Is Gullpaw alright?”
“His condition is stable,” Beetail meowed. “But be careful bringing him back to camp.”
“You ChimeClan cats had no business bein’ here,” She meowed. “But. Uh. Thank you. As the deputy of SpikeClan, my clanmates will hear of this.”
She approached her apprentice who, with Windstar’s help, clambered onto her back.
“T-Thank you…” Gullpaw meowed softly. “ChimeClan…”
As the SpikeClan cats disappeared into the forest, Beetail suddenly sat down. The adrenaline had dissipated, and his aged muscles started to complain.
“Beetail?”
“...I’m alright,” He sighed. “I think… I’ll need a break from patrolling.”
Previous Moon Event - An Annoying Kitten
Next Moon Event - COMING SOON
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Don't mind me casually following the fellas who put this quality hanahaki content on my dash, absolutely thriving right now and thinking about if I made some art myself what it may be like. In the meanwhile simply lamenting the fact that I can't quite imagine Neon J himself struggling with something like this in the nsr era- at best, the potential of being familiar with it from before, but he strikes me as direct enough that he wouldn't let feelings linger long enough to develop.
OH!!! HELLO!! I deffo encourage you to make art and content for it, it's very fun to see what everyone comes up with!!!!
the other day was so fun, all of us going back and forth with really good additions and stuff, so I'd love to discuss this with more ppl <333
I'm not too familiar with Neon J since I focus on 1010 waaaaay more lmfao, but whatever floats your boat!! the fun part about NSR being purposefully vague is that ppl can fill in with their own theories and headcanons!!
like, you could deffo characterize Neon J as someone aware of the disease, but too direct and straightforward to experience it himself in any meaningful way so it just goes under his radar most of the time (heh...........radar......heh). or just straight up forgetting about his experiences with hanahaki before becoming a cyborg and all, if you wanna include that one popular characterization of his memories being all fucked up / not knowing if he's a true person or had fake implanted memories
and he could still get hanahaki disease over feelings he's not aware he's repressing, similar to Eve - maybe it's harder for Neon J to notice that he's growing flowers due to his status as a cyborg? since he lacks a proper mouth, it's not as easy as coughing up a few petals. maybe he confuses the feeling of things growing inside with the feeling of phantom limbs, and he just keeps on unconsciously tackling his feelings properly before they can become a SERIOUS problem. maybe discovering that 1010 has been hiding their own hanahaki from him is the catalyst that makes him realize it could be happening to him, who knows!
or you could also think that he's been struggling with hanahaki and hiding it from everyone as well, which is so fucking hilariously ironic to me
there's also the subject of him being a war veteran and all, if you wanna get more in-depth about hanahaki within the universe instead of just individual characters? like, there's probably some fucked up training to ensure soldiers and shit don't choke up with hanahaki. I VAGUELY remember some concepts from very early fandom days about hanahaki being a thing you could REMOVE from your body, at the cost of never feeling anything ever again - a metaphor for becoming entirely numb and isolated from your own feelings etc, so yeah! go wild!!
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