I Want More Doomed Magical Girl Peni And I Want It NOW. Make The Contract Peni. (repost Srryyyy)

accidental new hairstyle

Could you please explain why Cat Noir is no longer healing for Adrien after season 4? I technically know the answer but I love your metas <3

Thank you so much for your compliment!

Anyway, about your question. The short version? They made Ladybug treat Chat Noir like Gabriel treats Adrien.

Let me explain. The Ladynoir conflict was about how Ladybug and Chat Noir were experiencing a shift in their dynamic because of Ladybug’s new role as the guardian. Ladybug starts to keep secrets from Chat Noir and leave him out of the loop. She replaces him with Rena Rouge as her primary partner in all but name. And Chat Noir understandably feels neglected and ignored by someone who is supposed to be his partner. His home life is shit, and Ladybug and his life as Chat Noir have always been his escape. Ladybug has been the one who accepted him unconditionally and cared for him with no need for him to change himself to please her. He trusts her with his life and heart, and suddenly, she doesn’t do the same for him. Instead, she’s keeping secrets from him, she’s leaving him out of things and more or less treats him as “just another holder.” And yeah, this is because of her new responsibilities as the Guardian and her trauma from Chat Blanc. But the fact remains that even if she wants to make these changes, she should tell him.

It's pretty obvious now that Marinette has a controlling side to her, and that shows itself more than ever. She wants to control everything, she admits it herself in Strikeback. And that includes Chat Noir. She controls what he knows and what he can do, and denies him information he actually needs. She lashes out at him and dismisses him when he does try to talk to her, like in Kuro Neko. And this behavior is, how do I say it, very much like what Gabriel is. Of course it is more understandable than Gabe and it is certainly nowhere close to the level of Gabriel’s treatment of Adrien, which is abuse plain and simple, but there are some… similarities. They both keep him at a distance, they both start making decisions for him, they both want to have control over everything, and that includes him. They both take advantage of his trust and forgiveness and they both take him for granted.

Again, Ladybug doesn’t go anywhere near the levels Gabe has reached with his treatment of Adrien, but she does in fact take advantage of his trust. Ephemeral is the worst offender here, with Ladybug actively deciding to trick Chat Noir into an identity reveal without his consent. I think it’s awful to do that to someone. And what’s worse is that the episode ends with her not even realizing that she was wrong to do something like that.

Anyway, she’s treating him not unlike the way he’s treated at home. And while her actions are obviously not as severe and not as malicious as Gabe… it doesn’t change the fact that Chat Noir feels suddenly less like an escape, and Ladybug becomes not much different from the people who only like to see him as an object or a perfect little doll. He used to mean something to her as her partner, and now he doesn’t. He’s just another tool in her toolbox. He’s just someone who’s in the way. Ladybug doesn’t care for him anymore. He’s a bother.

She used to roll her eyes at his flirtations, but now she flips out and throws him in a trashcan for them. She used to treat him like an equal partner, but now she yells at him if he tries to talk to her or help her. He’s bothering her. He’s in the way. And he’s not good enough.

So he quits.

And then he decides that he wants to be the partner Ladybug wants. Not Chat Noir, who is his escape and the only way he can be free. No he’s going to be the Adrien side of himself, the perfect doll who wants for nothing except to cater to Ladybug’s needs.

Now, here is where the show loses the plot. Kuro Neko is supposed to be the resolution to the Ladynoir conflict, apparently. And the way it happens is… Adrien putting aside his valid concerns and emotions because Ladybug needs help, and apologizing to her for wanting to be treated with respect. Which is what Gabe taught him. That his feelings don’t matter, and that he should be perfect and cater to everybody’s desires for how he should be. That he shouldn’t have emotional needs because he’s too emotional and he’s a burden on others for having them. He literally says, “the boy who was Chat Noir was probably too sensitive,” which is what Gabe taught him! That Adrien was too emotional to be able to make his own decisions, and so Gabriel had to protect him and keep him in control. He had to be perfect for everyone because in reality, he was too emotional, and no one wanted to see that.

And Ladybug accepts this! She also thinks that Chat Noir is being a bother, and she starts crushing on Catwalker so quickly. And this isn’t salt on her for crushing on Catwalker, but it is so bad from a narrative standpoint and when you consider the implications of that. You see, what Adrien is doing with this whole Catwalker thing is something called fawning. It’s a trauma response because of Gabe's abuse. He pushes aside his own needs and desires to please Ladybug. He assumes responsibility for her mistakes and blames it on himself. At the end of the episode, he apologizes to her! And she just says some things about how he’s irreplaceable to her and how she needs him and all that.

And what is tells me is that Ladybug doesn’t like when Chat Noir has emotional needs and expectations of her in their partnership, and that she likes only boys who take care of her emotional needs without expecting anything in return. Adrien just seems so perfect and unbothered by anything, and he’s always praising and encouraging her. Luka always put her emotional needs first and was always in her corner even when she didn’t pay as much attention to their relationship. And now Catwalker, who says he’ll take care of her. And considering the Love Square from a writing standpoint is supposed to have Ladybug fall for both sides of Chat Noir, seeing her fall so quickly for him when he denies himself his needs and accepts being her emotional support partner is not the best look.

And what’s worse is that this reaction from Adrien is because he is an abuse victim. He is once again, putting on a mask to make himself into the person Ladybug wants. And they specifically say that he should act like the “perfect son” side of himself, so Adrien is acting the way for Ladybug the way he usually acts for Gabriel. And he ends the episode by apologizing for having emotions and for inconveniencing her. And since Adrien pushing aside his own desires is a trauma response, and Ladybug likes people who don’t inconvenience her with their emotions, it comes across as Ladybug benefitting from Chat Noir being traumatized, and it’s so great for her that Chat Noir comes pre-abused and ready to supress his emotional needs and cater to hers while demanding nothing from her.

Yikes.

But let’s move on to Strikeback, where Ladybug admits her mistakes. She admits she wanted to control things, that she pushed him away and left him in the dark. He hugs and reassures her he’s always here, and it’s beautiful and sweet. The Ladynoir conflict was not resolved, but surely, they would address it next season, right? Surely, we would get episodes of Ladybug apologizing and working to make up for her mistakes, right? Surely Chat Noir wouldn’t just forget this treatment, right?

It's never brought up again in Season 5. In fact, Season 5, where the Gabriel-Marinette parallels are really hammered down onto us, ends with Marinette siding with Gabriel and lying to Adrien about his entire existence. So, the entire conflict ends with Chat Noir putting aside his own emotional needs because Ladybug is sad, and he just accepts that he’ll never be treated with the respect that he wanted. Ladybug doesn’t learn squat, and she just does the same things again, but even worse this time.

At this point, they have their own toxic cycle. Ladybug does something to Chat, he puts his own needs aside to forgive and support her instead/accepts the blame onto himself, she does it again. All the while, he’s offering her emotional support while pushing away any of his feelings so that he doesn’t inconvenience her with them. When he does seem at the end of his rope, she says something along the lines of “I need you,” or “you’re irreplaceable to me,” and he comes right back to her, ready to continue being her emotional support partner even though she never actually fixes her mistakes. And while she obviously does mean what she says to him, her actions prove otherwise, and they end up coming across as similar to those little concessions Gabe gives Adrien so that he won’t get away from him. And this is never resolved. Season 5 ignored it, but it was never resolved, and the finale just brings it back full throttle with Marinette literally siding with Gabriel and doing what he wants.

This should have been an arc showing how Ladybug’s and Gabriel’s treatment of Adrien is ultimately different. They both make the same mistakes, though Gabriel is worse. But what’s different is that Ladybug actually does love and value Chat Noir, and she would never go as far as that because learns and grows, and because she is a good person. But instead, they had the protagonist act like the love interest’s abuser, established a bunch of parallels between them, and had her literally follow his request on how to treat his victim. They flat out went beyond it being a coincidental parallel. She’s literally doing what he wants at his own request. Not a good look for the abuse victim’s girlfriend to be behaving like the abuser.

But that was a long tangent. Anyway, to sum it up, Chat Noir was supposed to be Adrien’s escape from a toxic, controlling environment into one where he could be free. But everything changed when Season 4 attacked. And Adrien goes back to his trauma responses that he tries to escape from as Chat Noir, and this is treated as good and correct by the narrative. His hero life is also now being controlled, and Ladybug is behaving like Gabriel. His life where he once felt free is just another prison.

I hope this answers your question. Thank you for your ask!

when she says she doesn’t send nudes

if you had to compile a "best moments" compilation of the bonefall rewrite, what would you want in there?

Hmm... Like a top 5? Sure, here's some favorite moments I think about a lot in no particular order;

Fallen Leaves sees her mother Squirrelpaw as a young woman after a hundred years of isolation, knowing that her wait is almost over

Bristlefrost lining up to body check Ashfur out of heaven, burning up as a shooting star

Speckletail buying just a little bit more time by driving a bulldozer into a ravine

The moment that clarity washes over Mistyfoot in the middle of another Clan argument when she looks up at Leopardstar, catching her fascinated gaze, Tigerstar amber, Dark Forest red, the setting sun turning the highstump into the silhouette of the bonehill below her. She realizes that Hawkfrost wasn't the cause of the fighting in RiverClan, he was a victim in his own way, and these ideas will not die unless they are killed.

Bramblestar gives Stupidhead a dishonor title so funny and bad that it backfires and everyone just laughs at him

yaaay more incorrect quotes :3

Heartstar's Rise: Fragments

So I'm making a character sheet for Heartstar, which kind of ended up looking a lot like Hollyleaf's. Basically a summary of all the stories related to her so far, y'know?

And I realized that when I got to Heartstar's Rise, the redux of Tigerheart's Shadow, it was a lot messier than the other appearances. So I figured it may be good form to post the fragments here, separate, until the story's a bit more "solid" so I can edit this post a bunch of times while shuffling things around.

So yeah, as always, weigh in with your thoughts and feedback! This one's looking for changes.

HEARTSTAR'S RISE! The book where Tigerheart becomes leader and resurrects ShadowClan.

I have a couple goals here for Heartstar's Rise, which I'm trying to keep in mind.

First is to show the "growing pains" for the newly arrived SkyClan, and conflict between them and the Kin refugees they're hosting. Why it doesn't work to just be one big Clan.

Show why certain characters want to go home (Blossomfall), why others want ShadowClan back, and also add a couple of characters who want to stay with SkyClan (Violetshine and her polycule of Tree and Dragonfly, as well as Olivenose of ShadowClan and one RiverClan cat, for later drafts).

IMPORTANT: Build out the Guardian Cats that Heartstar and Dovewing are going to encounter into a full culture, with their own idea of an afterlife, and "Leader Power" like the expansion I gave to the Tribe.

And here's a couple of key changes I want to point out;

AVoS was Kin-centric. Heartstar's Rise takes place right after the defeat of the Kin. BB!AVoS ends with the death of Darktail and fleeing of the Kin remnants.

SkyClan was PRESENT for that final confrontation, helping to defeat the Kin and 'earning' their place at the Lake

A new code commandment was added out of solemn respect to the memory of ShadowClan; The Law of the Lake, that all Clans have a responsibility to the preservation of the others.

Several cats defected to the Kin, ones who felt excluded from the Clans after the Great Battle. Mainly young cats who wanted change, but also a fair amount of Dark Forest trainees, halfclan lovers, cats who will come to be called 'codebreakers.' Blossomfall was one of them.

Leaders can no longer give up their lives without losing them all, and they prevent the next leader from getting them as long as they're alive. EVEN IF they have only 1 life left. Rowanstar will call himself Rowanclaw, but he is still leader until he is dead.

Possible prophecy for Rowanstar: "Your heart will make ShadowClan rise"

Here's what I got so far;

I VERY MUCH WANT TO ADD THIS: Keep an eye out for a good moment to place a kit rescue. Several cats had kittens during the Kin's reign; Ivytail (1), Blossomfall (3), Yarrowleaf (2), and I know that I want the Kit Rescue to be a plot point somehow.

It will be replacing Rowanstar's 'canon' death, so maybe towards the end? Dovewing is also coming home with her two kits. Possible connection? But, maybe it would be better placed earlier... basically, keep an eye out, gang. It's towards the end for now unless I find a better spot.

I know I want to open up with Tigerheart in SkyClan, sorting through her thoughts.

First of all, she's thinking of how she spent time in ThunderClan as a refugee during the Kin Crisis, and got between 💕Dovewing💕 and bumblestripe.

She asked Dove to come with her when she left, but Dove felt that there was too much uncertainty. Tiger didn't even have her own Clan she was going back to.

Bitter, Tiger felt like she chose bumblestripe over her. The Drama.

But her Clanmates... well, what's left of ShadowClan, they need her.

Scenes of Tigerheart showing that she is friendly with lots of them, including Ivytail in particular who is suffering from lung damage from Yellowcough and the stress of the Kin Ordeal is just starting to catch up with her. Like she'd been hiding how badly the illness affected her so she'd stay useful.

Ivytail is the new mother of Gullswoop. Remember the Kit Rescue thing-- should Gullkit be taken from her right now and be possibly alive with the kin, and they don't know? May be nice to show her just wishing she knew what happened.

There's also been some tensions with SkyClan

SkyClan doesn't enjoy the bogland that was created during Blackstar's marsh project, and has set up camp in a patch of Pine Forest on the easternmost edge of ShadowClan's old territory, like they want to get away from it.

Leafstar is a fine leader and trying to integrate the big influx of new cats, but most of them are not trained to hunt well in exclusively pine forest.

SkyClan is also, well, polite about the cuisine differences, but... Tiger's going to admit it. Squirrel tastes like dirty butt. The food is dry as hell and they don't use enough juniper.

So ShadowClan and SkyClan cats are having tension when assigned to Kitchen Patrol, unable to come together to make meals that please everyone, and that's 'the indicator' of the same problem everywhere else. For example;

ShadowClan cats are forming cliques and having difficulty joining the Clan broadly

Patrols are awkward as ShadowClan isn't good at hunting the same land as their hosts, this is embarrassing.

Some ex-Shadow construction crew cats are concerned that Blackstar's old dam will degrade and they'll lose cultivated marshland, but Leafstar doesn't 'get' the value in sacrificing several cats for a dedicated patrol to maintain that structure

And all the while, Rowanclaw isn't doing anything.

He hasn't replaced his deputy since Crowfrost died of lung complications due to Yellowcough and the Kin took over ShadowClan.

He's tired. There were so few survivors. Everything happened under his watch and he can't do this anymore.

IMPORTANT: I want to frame this less as "Rowanstar was an incompetent leader and this is all his fault" like canon, and make it more like Rowanstar has lost faith in himself, and THAT is what's making everyone mad at him.

It was Onestar who didn't share the Mullein they needed for the Yellowcough outbreak. It was the other Clans who didn't step in. There was nothing Rowanstar could have done, though he's positive there must have been.

All the while, Tigerheart displays her characteristic cheekiness. I want to adapt this fun scene I wrote where she passes Reedclaw a crayfish soup in the hopes of unsettling her and it doesn't work

DOVEWING TIME

Now that we understand why Tigerheart cares so much about her Clanmates, what they mean to her, and why she was so desperate to get back to them, it's time to visit Dovewing!

DOVEWING IS VERY HARD OF HEARING.

The hearing loss has slowed down, but there is still the threat that she could lose the rest of it.

She wakes up next to Bumblestripe, trying to sneak out of the nest to not wake him too, happy to have a little bit of alone time

Unfortunately he shoots up right away. She wracks her brain trying to think of what did it-- and realizes the nest is dry and probably made a creek she didn't hear

Sneaking has become really hard lately.

Basically some action to show some of the difficulties she's now having with her hearing loss

We get to experience a ThunderClan contrasted to the Shadow Survivors living under SkyClan. How Dovewing feels resentful to how she can't get alone time, the fact that Ivypool was rude to Tigerheart when she was around and their relationship is sour again, Mom Cinderheart and Aunt Fallenleaf and Dad Lionblaze and Stepdad Toadstep

Everything frustrates her, even harmless things.

But what's testing her patience is how cats who were telling her what to do when she had her powers are STILL telling her what to do without them

She's losing her hearing, and several cats are encouraging her to stick to 'regiments' of training. Glyph reading and writing, lipreading, picking up the modified battle command tail signs that Whitewing uses, not letting her leave camp alone

Lionblaze in particular sets her off pretty badly, even when he's 'being nice.'

Contrast to Birchfall who always makes her feel better, her mentor.

After some time of buildup, she ends up snapping at someone innocent who wasn't even really doing anything wrong. Probably Poppyfrost

Poppyfrost: "...I know you've been through a lot lately, but... you have people here for you, Bumblestripe is a good mate, you shouldn't be so afraid of having kits-"

Dove: "???????????????????????????????????? WHAT"

Poppyfrost: *about to repeat her sentence but louder but realizes, ah, that's not how she meant that.*

Dove runs off and has a panic attack

She doesn't want to raise kits now

She doesn't want to raise kits here

She doesn't want to raise kits with Bumblestripe

She doesn't want to raise kits with a bunch of cats breathing down her neck all the time, treated like she's just as much of a child as her children will be

But where will she go??

She turned down Tigerheart's offer to join SkyClan with her, and now she's pregnant with Bumblestripe's litter and he will never leave her alone

Who would take her, if not Tigerheart?

There's no place to go besides twolegplaces

But she is panicking, overwhelmed, and can't handle the idea of being here for one more minute

IF IT SUCKS HIT DA BRICKS

She bolts east, beyond the territory, not caring where she goes as long as it's not here, leaving her entire family behind

GUARDIAN TIME

Tigerheart catches wind that Dovewing left ThunderClan, they're probably surprised and alarmed that she didn't join SkyClan

Poppyfrost/Whoever the cat was that realized Dove was pregnant should speak to Tiger and tell her where Dove was last seen

Tiger, being the cat who knows her best, wracks her brain thinking about where she would have gone

Barn? No, Dovewing hates that Smoky guy

North? No, probably would have scented her on the territory, and besides if you go North enough you hit a twolegplace. She can't hear the cars anymore but she would still hate the smell.

East. Definitely east.

It pains Tigerheart to leave, though. Her friends are all here, she left ThunderClan and Dovewing because they needed her, and they still do... but Dovewing is alone in the wilderness!

So, she goes. She has to.

At least a week or two later, she finds the old Church.

It's a gorgeous ruin, surrounded by lush flora that she's only ever seen in Twoleg gardens. The church is one of the most beautiful dens she's ever seen, in spite of being half-human construction, the other half is well-grown vines and sod. Like a living structure.

It's half as beautiful as Dovewing, so surely she must be here.

BIG WIP TERRITORY

I know that I want the Guardian's thing to be that they are very good caretakers of their areas. This is because these cats are BREAKAWAYS from the ancient Lake culture, the fact that their home was lost to environmental destruction gave them this cultural value.

They are much better builders than any other group. Clan cats have a specialty for Combat, Tribe cats have a specialty for Hunting, Guardians are Construction.

They rely on managing prey-rich territory and their fighting ability is really just enough to defend themselves.

The same way that Clan cats have Stars and Tribe cats have a Stoneteller, Guardians have their own unique power. Their leader ("Corekeeper", maybe? Seer? Gardener??) has a supernatural ability to understand what's inside their 'sphere of influence,' and the needs of any plants that live there.

So in a roundabout way, the leader is all-seeing as long as their territory is verdant. Grass and moss can tell them exactly where an animal is stepping, and how large it is.

So it was known immediately that Tigerheart was just a single cat, not an invading group

Dovewing has been fitting in pretty well with these cats. They speak a completely different language, one that Dovewing couldn't understand even if she could hear it.

They have a couple chapters exploring how life could be different. Tigerheart aches thinking about the dam back home and how the simple lattices they use just to grow flowers puts Blackstar's ambitious project to shame.

They grow close with some of the Guardians' younger members, plus an older one who tries to meet Tigerheart's language halfway. He teaches her the word for "Spire."

Some time later, there is a conversation just after Light and Shadow are born; "What does a Clan mean to you?"

Dovewing continues before she can answer: "To me it means trees, the forest, it's something you work for. Everyone gives something to it and it's greater than the sum of its parts."

Tigerheart frowns at that, thinking of how she's going to share her response.

She draws Rowanstar, Strikestone, and Ivytail. A crayfish. A bowl around the crayfish like she was making it into soup. The grave of Flametail with the flowers around it. Frogs. Dawnpelt with three little kittens at her side.

She really gets into it, pouring her heart into the drawing, it gets bigger and bigger, she has to stand up and move around

And just when Dovewing thinks that either Tigerheart's lost her marbles or forgotten she's there, she starts drawing circles around the little doodles, and then lines that connect the circles all together

The last thing she draws is a final bubble, and connects that to a line in the web that binds all these things together.

In that empty bubble, she writes, "Clan."

Dovewing stares at that, unmoving, her expression serious and thoughtful. After what seems to be a long time, she says simply;

"gay"

(NOTE: I wrote the line as a joke to show to my partner and they laughed at it and said I would be a coward if I didn't show it. Enjoy before i edit for draft 2)

It hits Dovewing, in that moment, that Tigerheart has a very different idea of what a Clan is. Dovewing believes it's about service, sacrifice, the things that Lionblaze taught her. That you're born as an asset, and your responsibility is to contribute to that collective as much as possible

But Tigerheart believes that a Clan is all the connections between the things associated with it. That it's a series of links between friends, family, land, and prey. That to be 'part' of a Clan is to be part of the fabric.

She thinks back to ThunderClan, even the people she loves like Birchfall, and the pressure they put on her to 'meet' her potential at all times

The contrast to what she likes about this life, with the Guardians, where there are no expectations

She thinks about her kittens, how Tigerheart fell in love with them immediately, her worries that she would have nowhere to go. That Tigerheart HAS somewhere to return to, where she wants to be.

I want to retool the line from the canon version, where Dovewing says "I will never make you choose between your Clan and me." Something about the line bugs me.

I want to retool it to either Tigerheart assuring her she'll stay with her no matter what and Dovewing deciding that's not right either, or the two of them having a synthesis where Dovewing decides that home is wherever Tigerheart is

Dunno, still thinking about it.

BUT IN ANY CASE--

Spire and some of the other cats Dovewing got close to come up. Spire is touched.

Drawing all that on the ground communicated something deep to them. It was a beautiful way to demonstrate Tigerheart's connections. Re:Guardian Power; connection to their territory.

(I want for at least Spire to be privy to the same power their leader has, still working on this)

Ant, Cinnamon, and Blaze all have their reason for why they want to come

Ant is a little older than Dovewing and Tigerheart, and became a good friend of theirs. He wants to help them get home with the kittens; he'll go wherever Dove goes.

Cinnamon is bored, she wants to try new things and go to new lands. She's tired of growing roses, and has never seen a 'swamp' before.

Blaze is young and restless, he's ready to set out and have his own life

In-canon, Spiresight comes along too. He's the adopted father of Blaze and that's why he came along, but I'm not sure if I need Spire to leave with them. I think it may be best for him to just remain behind, maybe be the leader of the Guardians, change his name to "Spire-Seer" as a title referencing the new Guardian ability.

But anyway, if Spiresight doesn't go as well, then Blaze wants to make a new legacy separate from his father, be his own person.

EMPTY SPACE... TIME

They go home and I'm still working on this

I do not care much about the journey back honestly, in-canon the whole thing with the train and drawbridge was cool but I'm not interested in retelling it honestly.

It's not what's emotionally important

I think I want to do something here where Tigerheart returns and we BRING UP THAT KIT RESCUE THING

Instead of Tiger like, dying to a random owl. In hindsight Canon!Tigerheart's Shadow feels like it's full of quicktime events.

Anyway, if that's the case, I need to construct a situation where Leafstar refuses to attack the Kin Remnants and steal children

Some of them belong to cats like Ivytail, but the kits are being cared for by the Kin Remnants, they have fathers/other mothers, and she does not feel right about attacking and stealing them.

Even when a cat like Yarrowleaf breaks away and begs them to go back and help her take her children because they aren't safe with Nettle.

Leafstar still can't say if Yarrowleaf is lying or not, she was part of the Kin just as much as Nettle was.

Like... something like that. She's not being unreasonable but the Shadow cats are understandly upset.

it's why i hesitate to have kits get actively stolen even though it works well for dramatic setup, that would cross a line and force Leafstar to go "save" them, else look like she's just taking stupid pills

I want to display that Tigerheart as a leader will make controversial, ShadowClan-centric choices, and has a very, "diplomacy is how I get what I want" mindset.

Leafstar: "Wow this is a complicated situation and I'm not sure what the right call is here, I think I'll play it safe and watch the situation evolve before making a choice I regret."

Tigerheart: "Wow this is a complicated situation. Good thing I'm always right and incapable of being wrong, ever 💕"

Rowanclaw is still refusing to lead, backing up Leafstar. He says there is no ShadowClan.

--Tigerheart has entered the group chat

"damn bitches youre living like this"

Big damn speech: "I've gone far in my travels, met strange cats and lived by their ways. I've become a refugee of ThunderClan, a warrior of SkyClan, a grower of the Guardians, and a traveler with no home at all. I became a lover, a mother, like a Star with each life I became something new and yet remained the same. We are ShadowClan cats, and it's time we made our own choices!"

YEEHOOO

Cats split. ShadowClan returns to its own territory and plans to attack and get their kits back

The Kin Remnants are small but fight ferociously

This is a big change from canon, btw, where Sleek comes home to steal children and bully Rowanstar because she's evil or something.

Insert battle here

Possible kill; Ivytail, who was willing to fight to the death to get her kitten back, reunited for only a brief moment.

Though it also works that no Clan deaths happen besides Heartstar, since I plan to kill a lot to the Kin and the final stand against Darktail

Either way, it's bloody, lots of injuries. Rowanstar arrives in the last minutes to aid the fight, and gets killed... along Tigerheart.

But Rowanstar comes back to life and Tiger doesn't

Got killed in her first fight. GIRLBOSS

Rowanstar wakes up at what should be his daughter's funeral.

Shadowkit is staring at Tigerheart's body (formative moment unlocked)

Dovewing should be sad, but she looks furious. She's a hulking, angry beast, glaring down at Tigerheart's tiny body.

Mid-obituary, interrupting whatever Puddleshine was saying, she straightup snatches the corpse

Explains NOTHING, BYE

In another draft I may just explain the aftermath here, have Rowanstar wake up after Dovewing has already done some preemptive graverobbing and learn from Tawnypelt that she's run to the Moonpool

I could keep Shadowsight's Formative Moment by having him get kidnapped, too, so Heartstar died trying to get her kids back

(See how it's a hard choice between kidnapping vs no kidnapping?)

In any case, the next scene is the climax

ROWANSTAR'S DEATH

Seeing Tigerheart here, at Dovewing's feet, the reflection of the pool turning her starry-silver...

Rowanclaw's stomach is cold like ice

Tawnypelt tries to reason with Dovewing, ask what she thought was going to happen

Dovewing doesn't answer, if she can hear her at all. The rage is melting away into despair.

Hope is slipping away like raindrops through claws, like stars at the start of a cruel dawn

Like a son to icy cracks, a daughter to rancid lies, a deputy to someone's selfish games

The thought of 7 more lives of losing everything is unbearable. His claws slide out. He had rejected his name, but he is a leader now.

"Tigerheart is my deputy!" He bellows at the stars, charges forth, and splashes into the water with her under his paws

He kicks furiously, swimming as deep as he can.

His vision blurs and fades, bursting into a starry field of colors and awestruck ancestors.

They say nothing. His gaze darts from cat to cat, until he spots Tigerheart there among them.

When he plunges back into life, he swims harder

His lungs are burning and his muscles ache, the pressure of the water crushing him, and there's no bottom in sight

Each time he dies, he sees Tigerheart there, next to Flametail and Dawnpelt, Newtspeck, Littlecloud

And each time he comes back he sees her face below his claws.

When he comes back the last time, her eyes burst open and she thrashes at the claws gently lodged in her chest fur with confusion

Rowanstar is exhausted, but finds the last bit of strength in his body to flip them, lodge his paws onto her belly, and thrust her up

Beams of starlight dancing on his face, Rowanstar is embraced by the endless darkness at the bottom of the Moonpool.

Heartstar bursts from the pool, coughing, sputtering, fur clinging to her body and looking like a wet rat

Without hestiarion, Dovewing leaps into the pool, teary eyed and calling her name

"dOVEWING you wont BELIEVE what I've been through"

Heartstar is marveling about her death, her fetching, how she was looking at the patrons of Silverpelt before Rowanstar plucked her out

Dovewing hauls her out of the water and starts licking her dry, and Tawnypelt hesitates to join them. She look back at the Moonpool

The thick ripples lap at the rim for a moment, vanishing rapidly as if she water was smoothing itself out. Soon, it's as still as the day it was discovered, liquid-black and reflecting starlight as if it were a fallen piece of the night sky.

Tawnypelt stares into the darkness, seeing nothing.

"Be starlight that lights my path, Rowanstar. I love you."

She goes to help Dovewing dry off her daughter

Epilogue

One week later, Heartstar is assessing her Clan.

The cats address her as Heartstar; confirmation that it is bad luck for cats to share a title.

That's a reason why the ancestors are consulted before warrior name ceremonies, and they gave Heartstar a new name when she rose

Translator's note: Though her suffix was -babun, "heartbeating," her new prefix is the future tense, Babi, "heart will beat." It's in reference to her resurrection.

The kittens that were won in the raid are acclimating

Especially Oat and Flax, Yarrowleaf's kids, now that they're away from Nettle.

If Ivytail died, Gullkit is still having a hard time. She follows the other kits around but has behavior problems, is a bit of a bully.

Apprenticeship will help her a lot.

While making the rounds, Blossomfall approaches Heartstar.

"I've been thinking about what you said, about living a dozen lives but still having ShadowClan be part of you. I think I feel the same way... I want my kits to know their auncles"

Heartstar does the cat equivalent of clucking her tongue, "will they take you take you tho"

"Yes assholestar. They reached out to me, my family wants me to come home"

Heartstar sighs lamentiously. One adult warrior and three future ones is a lot to lose. But,

"Divided loyalties won't do anyone any good. Well, if ThunderClan wants you back, it's worth taking a crackle at!"

"Your puns suck" (Blossomeese for thank you)

Construction patrol comes back, caked with mud. Cinnamontail fits right in. She's got some great ideas about lattices, whatever that means

After all this, assuring that everything is running smoothly, Heartstar finally gets to loaf down next to her wife and a crayfish soup, perfectly spiced.

There are still problems; SkyClan takes territory to the east, and RiverClan got waay too comfy with having exclusive fishing rights in the dammed pond and marshland to the west. Knowing Mistystar, she'll start throwing her weight around in the next moon as the seasons change, and when that happens SkyClan will be an issue as Shadow needs that territory

But for now, ShadowClan is thriving, Lightkit and Shadowkit are growing well, and Juniperclaw is a fine deputy like his father Crowfrost.

Next to Dovewing and the rest of her friends and allies, in the mud and the mushrooms, marshy moss underfoot and wet, chilly breeze that calms a wild heart above... they are finally home.

The ruikasa fandom is so funny /pos because what do you mean there's a whole dictionary of their ship names depending on the card set / universe they're based on that all have different vibes and tropes most popular to them and I can search for either whenever I need a specific trope and there's a high chance I'll find something at least close

Oh you want enemies to lovers? Just search up sorcevalier

Domestic fluff? Medieval ruikasa

Doomed lovers?? Kuroshiro

Ancient times?? Tactihina. Tactilin for bonus god x mortal

Royalty??? Roseking. Spadeclub

Futuristic?? Corruption in the system??? Cyberidol

Middle aged men office romance?????? Nakashira

Fesjest. Pandemonium. Hakapega. Merking. Dantoru. And even more

Not to mention ones that don't appear as much in the eng fandom but do in the Japanese one. And obviously people come up with more combinations and universes all the tjme, as well as these existing can obviously work as different tropes too

But it's just so funny and creative, I applaud whoever came up with this

♡ ┊ HOSHINO TWINS

self indulgent * reblog and credit to use

blue lock is so stupid im obsessed with it. sixty percent of you guys would be ten times better at midfield. this whole project is definitely illegal like are they all just skipping school for months that can’t be legal. the rin/sae conflict was building up to be this mysterious tragic event and it was just that sae’s the only person in the whole entire manga who can understand that some people are better at midfielder. reo needs to redistribute his fucking wealth instead of having a gay crisis in soccer hell. there is an on-page comparison of the soccer goal to a womb. one character vanished for several chapters and came back looking and acting like he’d literally been deployed to war this is not an exaggeration. i’m pretty sure every character needs therapy but i can’t even begin to figure out what for

what the everloving fuck