surprise second round

this one requires you to learn things about my ocs. i beg of you to stay with me. you could also vote randomly if you want, i guess i dont actually care too much. but im giving you info so enjoy my info. theres art at the end after the poll go vote on my poll and see kitty art

SETTING THE SCENE:

applepaw is blind in her left eye due to a wound given to her by the shadowclan apprentice streampaw. the two of them keep far apart from each other ever since then- though streampaw was the winner, he left that fight with far less blood than he came into it with. its the only fight he doesnt go on long bragging retellings of.

riding the triumph of winning a battle with skyclan, redstar of thunderclan begins plans for an attack on their other neighbor, shadowclan. he's aiming for a complete takeover. absorbing shadowclan into his rule and hopefully shaking some of their close-knit culture apart. applepaw lost another fight in the battle with skyclan and barely survived, and now she's desperate to regain redstar's good image of her. she cant afford to show weakness again.

but applepaw is still adjusting to her new daily life and mobility after nearly getting her throat torn out- washing is hard, learning her new range of motion is hard, recovering emotionally from almost dying is hard. when it comes time to attack shadowclan's camp, she has to be realistic in who she can take on. she needs to go for someone closer to her age, skillset, and experience.

ivystripe is shadowclan's youngest warrior, just a little older than applepaw. they probably would have become warriors around the same time if applepaw hadnt lost so much time to healer's den rest orders. ivystripe has more experience than the average new warrior due to thunderclan's onslaught of aggression over the past couple of seasons, but so does applepaw.

streampaw is a couple moons younger than applepaw. he's on par with applepaw's experience, but has more connections in his clan and individual victories that keep him confident and defiant towards thunderclan. he overdoes his disdain for applepaw in a way she knows is because he's scared of fighting her again.

(ivystripe is as stressed as anyone about the times he lives in, but he kind of hopes the unrest gives him more opportunities to prove himself, and get him an apprentice early. he wants to give someone the same sense of belonging and purpose training with a mentor gave him. he's friendly with the warriors his age, but keeps to himself more often than the average shadowclan cat. he thinks that maybe if he had an apprentice, he could become closer with their family and be a "better" shadowclan cat.)

(streampaw is the deputy's son and isnt shy about it. streampaw isnt shy about anything. he's a loud presence at gatherings and is exactly the kind of tryhard that would injure applepaw the way he did. he wears his scars with pride. he has a massive crush on a dopey apprentice named sunnypaw and genuinely admires how hard he works to keep up with the more skilled apprentices. streampaw is good at spinning stories and getting cats on his side. he was an only child, a bad omen, and quickly grew to charm everyone around him to keep them from thinking about it.)

i just remembered i noticed several cats in older allegiances that werent in my TH ones wen i was looking for who was whose mentor. i can use them for War Fodder. welcome back to the story marshbelly dustpaw jayflight and whoever else. to the front lines with you

i actually need to do so much work for shadowclan vis a vis making them real people considering thunderclan Takes Over and therefore spends a chunk of time living together. i also need to make a handful of redshirts so the battle/takeover is more impactful and can have more casualties without me having to kill characters i care about lol

who should DIE to give applestrike murder trauma

from youngest to oldest:

IVYSTRIPE: youngest warrior. no apprentice or listed family

FROSTCLOUD: mentor of a character i really like. which could equally add or detract to the appeal of killing him

HAILPELT: mentor of an unremarkable character. might be littermates with frostcloud idk

whoever is chosen will Receive personality and relationships and stuff to make them a real person. which isnt very helpful in trying to actually choose who dies i know

there arent a lot of good option for shadowclan cats for applepaw to kill. streampaw is the only non-warrior option which is funny because hes the ne who blinded her. i dont really want it to look like a revenge thing but its a definite option. i was aiming for apprentices because applepaw is one but at this point she's fully grown and only an apprentice by rank. she could easily measure up to the average shadowclan warrior. anyone on the younger half of the allegiance is an option

paces the room. applestrike

I'VE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT. APPLESTRIKE'S KILL COUNT. ive never stated her killing anyone but redstar or meadowmist (it switches every so often who i think she kills). it could be cool if the first and last person she kills is redfoot, but..... she was his apprentice. ive made it pretty clear she has a ruthless reputation. i honestly dotn know if she could get away with not killing anyone as redstars apprentice. he would absolutely encourage that at some point.

i think applestrike needs to kill One cat before redfoot. it needs to utterly haunt her. she needs to think about it when redfoot struggles against her.

timeline-wise, i dont think she could kill someone before what happened with gingerleap. she was Trying to seriously injure him in that fight and i dont think she would do that if she'd already watched someone die at her paws. so it happens after. it happens while lightningheart is in thnderclan. lightningpaw. applepaw kills someone when shes an apprentice.

the next big event battle i have around that time is thunderclan taking over shadowclan. it could absolutely happen there. applescar and lightningheart get their warrior names after that battle. applescar gets her warrior name for killing someone.

applestrike isnt a savior born pure of heart with a wish to free everyone from oppression. she's traumatized and angry and desperate and she thinks whats happening is wrong, yes, but from the start she's always been traumatized and angry and desperate

i think it might be kind of fun for applestrike to have a massive fuck up right at the triumphant end of her rebellion arc, ive been trying to figure out what to do with redstar and meadowmist. from day 1 of this plot they were meant to die in classic bad guy fashion and im still generally leaning that way. sometimes im like but what about the ethics and morals of killing oh nooo and then i remember im not required to teach anyone anything in my warriors oc story. this story is built for my own political venting and i can kill the tyrants if i want. but regardless redstar is still a leader with multiple lives. close to 9 if not the full 9. so killing him once in your epic final battle isnt enough and i dont feel like pulling a scourge. right now i like the idea of applestrike forcing him to rescind his position and him giving in to that magically makes his lives go away and then she kills him

but i think it would be cool. if making him give up his leadership was supposed to be the only thing they did. like thunderclan came to the decision that thats how he should be dealt with. and maybe they were still deciding if he should be exiled or not. thunderclan is dealing with a change of power and their new leader and deputy are trying to pick up the pieces and find the best way to move forward, how can we avoid becoming redstar's thunderclan again? how do we usher in peace without letting the other clans walk all over us in revenge? etcetera. but during that period of redstar being redfoot again and on camp arrest or something applestrike just fucking murders him. shes lost hope for thunderclan after they offered her the deputy position and she doesnt think theyll ever truly be incapable of becoming Redstar's ThunderClan again. thunderclan doesnt know what theyre doing. none of the clans know what theyre doing. applestrike has to do this herself again. shes also incredibly fueled by grief for her father and brothers, grief for the childhood she lost as redstars apprentice, grief for the pain lightningheart endured because he couldnt bear to be without her. so she murders him. either it happens pretty straightforward and the clan is horrified, or she's pretty easily able to claim he tried to finish her off and she only defended herself. either way shes done something terrible- the clan sees her dishonorably kill, or she knowingly lies to cover up her dishonorable kill

this veers back to moral-of-the-story and a "killing is bad" statement but idk. its cool. its not applestrike being the good moral protagonist putting an end to the war. its applestrike doing something horrible.

for me the best way to drive home how fucking reverent i am of applestrike and how i want her to be seen is that i put battle against a true hero on her playlist. i made applestrike a plot-armored tank that cannot be killed or silenced in any way. she becomes a solemn headstrong unstoppable force. i have so heavily mythologized her in my own feelings i want her to be so epic and impactful. she is going to save the world

this is the applesrike vibe im attached to rn

hollyfang and thrushleaf's current timeline is

holly gets sick as a tiny baby and is abandoned by his mother. hes found by another cat who takes him to a twolegplace colony

thrush is another little baby found alone but as a more cognizant little child than 1-moon kit like holly. thrush is definitely totally a boy dont worry about it. thrush is very interested in medicine and tells holly things and they are besties. holly said thrush was pretty like a molly once and thrush never stopped thinking about it but dont worry about it

holly and thrush get increasingly curious about the world outside their colony and eventually decide to leave together. their family and colony support them enthusiastically and miss them dearly

thrush and holly find windclan. they have a standardly not great introduction until meadowmist declares that these are Special Teens sent to windclan and we simply must bring them in and shower them with love and acceptance and also he wants to train the nervous vulnerable looking one as his apprentice

hollypaw is learning lots of cool things like how to wrap limbs with comfrey and what happens after you die and what god wants you to do to preserve your good standing with your warrior ancestors and get into heaven. thrushpaw is learning cool things like how to defend windclans glorious territory from treacherous outsiders and that you should really avoid that sagepaw, she isnt even a real apprentice and she just keeps to herself because she knows she doesnt belong here. hollypaw learns important things like how the other clans would have ignored starclans will and left him and his sibling to die but meadowmist has a special connection to starclan and he could tell from the start that they were special and no one else would have seen it so starclan sent you to meadowmist. and that you should really make sure you pay attention to your mentor and do what he says because even in windclan there are cats that dont see that you and thrushpaw are special and meadowmist is the only one who can keep you safe because hes the healer and they have to listen to him too. thrushpaw learns interesting things like how you really prefer to train and go on patrols with berryclaw and woolstripe and foxpaw more than, say, deermask or lizardpaw or- oh all the cats you feel the most comfortable with are mollies? wow what a weird coincidence. its not like you dislike toms- hollypaw is still your best friend even though hes really busy with important healer stuff- you only really "dislike" cats who are mean to you for not being clanborn. but you dont dislike anyone of course, you wouldnt want to cause any problems with the clan who so generously took you in! you wouldnt want to get in anyones way or make anyone annoyed or upset or be an inconvenience because maybe you want to be pretty like a molly to everyone else too but you dont want to bother the clan with adjusting the way they talk to you and getting used to yet another new thing from the rogues they took in and and and

i got. so carried away with that section and i cant properly line up this them-joining-as-kids timeline with applestrikes timeline. so have this. i love thrushleaf a lot if that wasnt clear

i can maybe go back on my "holly and thrush join windlcan as adults" change so that they have more like. screen time. in theory. and if meadowmist has control over hollyfang from childhood it would make more sense how badly stuck he and thrushleaf are

i have some age differences written down Somewhere but i have no idea where i might be. all i know is applestrike and sagespeckle are the same age bc i said it in a fic and committed it to canon. iirc hollyfang is the oldest WAIT I THINK I MADE AN AGE QUESTION IN A UQUIZ HOLD UP

HEH?

WHAT THE HELLLLLL. i refuse actually. that doesnt make any sense. lightningheart can be younger than applestrike idc but hollyfangs dad is mega old. its a whole thing. hollyfang CANNOT be the youngest im changing that. hes the oldest.

the age gaps on these guys are like two moons or less btw. theyre all very close in age. but even in this close in age world applestrike and sagespeckle are Basically the same age and lightningheart can be a little younger sure. hollyfang should be on the More side of older though. thrushleaf can be lightninghearts age. and cedarflame who i never talk about is like a moon younger than sagespeckle

i care so much abt hollyfang and i really think i could do something fun to compare/juxtapose him with applestrike as Apprentices Of The Bad Guys. ive already posted about them like that but with the way the Plots currently are theres just no room for proprly addressing that. its just a me posting about them meta thing rather than a (hypothetical) textual thing. its word of god canon. i want it to be canon canon

the things that Absolutely Need To Happen:

applestrikes main injuries. face scar neck scar and fuckign Skinned leg. leg should definitely stay where it is in the plot but in theory the eye injury could happen some other way. i think the neck has cemented itself in time/cause and become important. technically the timing could change.

i think her mom should stay pre-dead. it woudl be way too much to fit in her mom dying on screen. applepaw needs to be already bitter and fragile for any of this to work

apple-lightning friendship arc is good i think. any changes should be made around it to make it fit more as-is

amberstrike lightfall and sandtalon dying👍

subsequent applescar meltdown and subsubsequent lightningheart meltdown

applescar sagespeckle friendship + applestrike name change

hollyfang forced betrayal moment. the car part could change. maybe i try to find a better cause for applestrikes leg injury

redstar smokemist moment + camp exploding into chaos moment. the message passing is kind of cumbersome but i dont know how to make it any better

evrytime i think enough about The Timeline for my warriors stuff im like fuuuuckk i know this needs so much fixing and adjusting nothing makes any sense. redstars too damn young. too young to be a reasonable deputy pick in the first place and DEFINITELY too young to have the mentoring history i say he has. but i made his parents first and i care about them so i dont want them dead and i guess they can just be Even older than they already are. spottedshadow deserves to be a bajillion years old i love them. they actually dont have any listed mate at all im pretty sure their litter was a product of me shifting things around and the other parent just getting lost to the retcon void crossfire

the consequences of reworking the same story over and over for like 8 years is everything gets so overcomplicated and intertwined but you get attached to old concepts that dot fit anymore with your new changes and you wanna Make them work but they wont or you just force it and let it be clunky/live in denial