And here they all were. She gazed at them all with the same feeling of being crushed by the weight of responsibility but swallowed around the cotton in her throat. She licked her dry lips before finally addressing them all. Now was not the opportune time to get nervous.
"To open, I wish to apologize for my behavior." That hideous ugly face of hers she had kept so carefully hidden all this time was now showing through and she was disgusted by it and so were they. She shifted her paws beneath her. "Emotions... are not something that come easily for me. Attachments, even less so." Her golden gaze shifted subconsciously towards Slippaw, her heart breaking at the way she stared at her so pointedly. "...Even my own family. I was never taught was family is, much less loyalty or love or anything like that. I saw it as weakness. I always have." She wasn't going to get mushy on them, it just wasn't something she would do, but she had to explain herself. "I understand if my recent actions make me unfit to be your leader and should the majority see me as an unfit ruler I will step down without hesitance. But I want to say that when I came to the Skulls I came expecting to be able to leave without a trace, and when that damn pony stripped and picked at my mind that side of me shone through in all its hideousness. Yet I could barely make it across the border before my own paws sent me back here- I realize now that the Skulls is my family. My weakness, too, but it's a good weakness to have."
She took a deep breath. Enough of this me, I, mine *. She was in a bad mood still from Starlight and lifted her head, ears pinning backwards slightly. "That said, if you all truly want me gone, I refuse to accept that pathetic horse as a replacement. If you see her again, kill her instantly. I really would like to try horse meat...." She let her sentence drift off thoughtfully, tail flicking behind her. Her true side was shining through still but it was projected through her dedication to the Skulls, that much was obvious. "I would like to settle so,e affairs before you make your decision to dispose of me or not because honestly, I've been meaning to for a while. Let's start with promotions and demotions, since you guys get all jittery about those.
"Firstly, Basil, I would like you to fill the Quartermaster position. You have shown extreme dedication to the clan even though you are young- damn though, you still have more dedication in one foot than most able-bodied Warriors so I wouldn't want anybody else for the position honestly. Good work, keep at it." Haha, her praises were so awkward honestly. "Summerpaw is demoted- I warned her and there was little improvement. However, Jekyll. You've been working hard all this time and there's very little I can teach you that you don't know yourself. I'd still like to give you lessons, but you can step up as the full Apothecary now. Good work, good luck. Crookedpaw, Auresque, you two can step up to Cannoneers and Slippaw and Helix can fill their spots as Boatswains." Her gaze fell on her daughter to whom she gave a small smile, but like hell this promotion meant she was going to stop following her everywhere she went and keeping her out of trouble. "That's all for promotions but you all have been ridiculously dedicated through this all so I thank you for that."
Now for the fun part!! Politic hell!! She had spent hours working this out going through alliances but she had finally figured her * out. "I'm dropping the Ambassador program for now- it had potential but it's going nowhere and it'll be a mess with the alliance changes I'm making. A smaller version can be held if you want but for now, we'll just have people send gifts and regards every other meeting and of course, I have other ideas in mind too which are way more genuine and fun then these gift basket excuses, they're kind of lame. First of all, the Tribe of Submerged Paradise is being dropped to neutral because we don't really have similar alliances at all... not sure why were allies in the first place. I intend to seek alliance ship with the following: Boneclan, Bloodclan, Blizzardclan, Shadowclan, Scarclan, and Colouredclan. They have the same allies as us and honestly the same lifestyles too, plus they're ridiculously strong allies so damn, why wouldn't we be allies with them?" She was kind of shocked they limited themselves to such small allies when they could have much more but no matter, this ought to go smoothly as she had scoured over the other clans' alliances and they fit perfectly. "If you want to go to one or more of those to request it, just say so and off you go. I'll visit Bloodclan and Blizzardclan myself to stretch my legs and clear my head."
She paused and narrowed her eyes. "Sunclan is an ally who went through a tough tyranny lately and as an ally we ought to help out, they even went out of their way to give us gifts after such a blow. We will send aid to help them recover- I want like two or three people to come with me to send them gifts and stuff like food, medical supplies, extra paws, etc. You can even offer temporary dual-alliances to help them out until they're stable if you would like. We will do whatever they ask until they recover so I'm hoping you will work with me on this." So serious.
Here was the fun! She was pumped for this. Without warning she stood up and dug her claws into the floorboard, getting fired up in a matter of seconds. "Now, what you all have been waiting impatiently for! We're launching a raid on Solsticeclan right now to celebrate these new alliances and make sure to invite them all to the fun if they accept. If that's not fun enough we will also be holding a massive feast afterwards for all our new allies and old ones and maybe we'll smash some heads in and get drunk as well, good times. My task for you all is to make a friend in one of our allies- I don't care if it's on the battlefield checking each other's backs or getting wasted over cold turkey, just do it. It's literally a contest- for every friend you make (I.E. a series of five posts from each character interacting in either the raid or feast or a private thread invited through those two) you will get one thousand silver, and there's a first second and third place: getting one million, a half million, and a quarter million silver in order of such, if you get what I'm saying. First place also gets a special medallion to wear, except it's a snazzy eyepatch nicknack and more of a gag gift." She snickered. "That's all! I think. I might have missed something. Regardless, let's get scooting, we have Solsticeclanners to raid- I'll hold it tomorrow evening so be prepared."
[TL:DR—
- Personal apology and explanation for her behavior, allowing them to vote on her demotion.
- Summerpaw demoted.
- Crookedpaw and Auresque to Cannoneer, Basil to Quartermaster, Jekyll to Apothecary, Slippaw and Helix to Boatswain.
- Kill Starlight on sight.
- Requesting alliance with Boneclan, Bloodclan, Blizzardclan, Shadowclan, Scarclan, and Colouredclan.
- Dropping ToSP to neutrals.
- Helping Sunclan and asking 2-3 people to help her send supplies and help them recover.
- Invite new and old allies to a raid on Solsticeclan followed by a huge feast to celebrate.
- Challenge to make the most friends outside of the Skulls- winner gets 1M silver, 2nd .5M, and 3rd .25M. Proof by PMing Kuebiko either an interaction thread between the two characters with a minimum of five posts from each character, or five interaction posts from each (link all posts!!) in either/both raid and feast threads. You can reach out to them however you would like!