Posts by Auroradweller

Auroradweller watched intently as the fish spoke. Green eyes? Spiderstar had them. He even had them half the time when he was healthy. That wasn't very helpful. Being just as productive, the tabby gently tapped the ball with his paw, hoping to see it wobble a little bit.

Auroradweller glanced towards Brittlebark as the ball of fluff finished his praise and pondering. "Likewise," he meowed smoothly. The tabby once sat in prestige higher to this, and yet, he didn't want what it entitled. Dealing with irrational angsty clanmates through peaceful means (Auroradweller would have gagged at the thought not too long ago, had he been awake enough to do little more than rub his muzzle), pretending to want to put up with constant anti-clan interactions... it was busy work for other cats. ...And I mated with one of them. Master Warrior... Master simpleton... That was as high of a regard as he cared for anymore.

Therefore, it wasn't in pride that the tomcat was basking in as a few NPC warriors cheered the promotions. It was relief.

"Thank you, Spiderstar," The warrior chimed in. "...And seconding Danse's idea." 'Seconding?' Was that even a word? Maybe it was. He would need to find a dictionary from the library again, or ask Birdpaw to fetch one for him. He could spend all afternoon looking that word up, and countless other miscellaneous terms he would most likely never incorporate into his speech. That's it; just one afternoon. One afternoon less that he would charge into the Blackhearts's territory and commit a mass beheading frenzy.

[DwellsInHells]: Watch out.
[DwellsInHells]: We have a delusional grandpa over here.

DwellsInHells: What the * did you just * say about me, you little *? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the * out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my * words. You think you can get away with saying that * to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re * dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little *. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your * tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will * fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re * dead, kiddo.

[DwellsInHells] was muted for an hour by %Sixbot. (Automater Moderation: Your message contained profanity.)

The smell of dead baby was in the air, as was herbs, dirt, and wildflowers. Auroradweller's scent of the garden carried with it the presence of Stormclan's graveyard, in the air and in his cold, red eyes. The tomcat began to meow, without thinking, "Are you going to...." Then, he had a look around, withholding the words 'eat that' from ever parting his lips. The mother was still mourning, grasping her child's stolen life, trying with desperation to see it squirm by its own force. The tomcat started to read her emotions too well: each lick a silent plea to whatever malevolent divinity claiming her child to bring it back into her paws, and for the whole thing to be nothing more than just a scare. Each stroke made... and with it a hope that would never fruit that the kit would just start crying for the saliva assault to stop. A million little kits being born this day couldn't matter to their mother so long as one of them would never wake. "Be okay..?" The tabby finished.

She'll fade away forever? Auroradweller would have started laughing on the spot when he overheard that news, had it not been preoccupied with talking with Gilbert and Darudesandstorm. Visibly smiling, the tabby bounced over to the three queens, meowing, "So... that's what you've been hiding from us? Why didn't you just tell us sooner?" Something so... simple... yet there she was about to commit eternal suicide in front of them by keeping silent.

The tomcat closed his eyes, letting a small puff of air escape his lips. "It's funny because... she's lying." The danger of fading was there, but the tomcat's amber eyes fell on the formed spirit. "There isn't much time left, but if she had contacted either Dottie or I... well... there wouldn't be drama here now." Just ask a damn cat for help once in a while. That's all. All of these tears could be saved for cats passing onto the next world, rather than fading from all of them.

"A spirit no longer bound to this world will dissipate its energy with time, but I can tell of a way to prevent this by grounding the spirit into something material, to wield a physical spirit to be destroyed on your own terms." The tabby cat's eyes had long since turned amber at this point, but only at the end of his statement did they seem to solidify akin to glassy stones, about as radiant as the small piece of amber conjured beneath his paws. "I don't, frankly, care for drama, though. Bloomingskies..." Auroradweller's gaze turned towards the ghostly queen. "Do you want to stay with us for a little bit longer?" The tomcat left out the term of what accepting would make her: a creature of bastardized life belonging to a world long since passed, now living through sheer will in the spiteful aftermath of undeath. A creature that he could call himself. Do you want to live, not just as a ghost, but as a lich?

The gift baskets made it seem obvious, but Auroradweller still wanted to be sure before he walked up and took one of them for the clan. Besides, he couldn't quite smell the visitor's scent, so the purpose of this visit may or may not have been anything beyond just a delivery. "Name and business with Stormclan?" The tomcat inquired.

So it spoke. Auroradweller withheld disappointment that his brother-in-law hadn't actually converted into a zombie. The dead-eyed walking had inspired hope for the tabby that he could have found someone whom with he could share tongues. "Hm?" Auroradweller let out a soft hum of affirmation, at least acknowledging the oriental's justified paranoia. Why was he out here in this wasteland anyway?

"If it dies, can I eat it?" Captain Hungry was here, and this kit was a stranger, after all.

Auroradweller thought it was a good idea. "Can I drink her if Moonlitkit dies?" The orange tabby meowed with a deadpan expression.

The tomcat honestly had no idea what had happened.

The moment the zombie virus had reached his brain, the depression started to set in.

Many moons ago, the monster, one of Stormclan's finest brawlers, collapsed as he patrolled the border, feeling a mixture of anger and anticipation. His mate had been taken - his home in danger. Auroradweller could flay any beast that came forward to haunt his family, but as the outside world itself seemed to besiege the world, he started to realize that he couldn't fight it all. The depression crept in, altering his carefree composure and eventually slowing him down until, like the trees he offered company, he lay dormant on the ground.

He did not know how much time had passed. He didn't know where he clan was. He didn't know where Spiderstar was.

He did not know what had happened in the timeframe he was asleep.

His soul lay encapsulated in a void of ignorance, where his spent mind couldn't even exercise in useless pondering.

He couldn't, then, explain how or why he woke up, but he did.

The air felt much more crisp than he remembered. He didn't know why, nor whose scent it carried.

It was familiar, though.

Eventually, the tomcat followed the scent of Blackheart Rogues, sitting at the border, rehearsing his mixture of pleading, apology, and inquiry.

They dream of space, huh?

The tomcat padded along the edge of the mountain range, his mind ablaze with memories from both of his lives flooding about. He had heard rumors that the two clans he called home were no more - Skyclan and Stormclan had combined seemingly to burden his memory, and now they gazed outward to dream. He couldn't help but wonder if his namesake meant that this was fated, to return, but amongst the rumor he extracted from the rogues, the warrior- no, he didn't go by any title for moons... the tomcat knew his heart was lost in confusion, with a touch of anger. He had been reborn - the world he knew was no longer his own. He had no home except what to make now, and no recollection of the previous steps subsequent of each one taken. The snowy wind had dusted his tracks as he scaled a cliffside. High altitude, most likely. Or... maybe an elemental dragon... The warmth of nostalgia swept away in the icy breeze as the tomcat reminded himself that he would never have closure for some of his failures.

What he could get, though, was worth a troubled step or seven.

When he firmly scented the Frontier, the tomcat's nose twitched as he recalled their new name. He didn't want to hear anyone introduce themselves under that banner yet - if they needed an introduction, then they'd ask for one in return.

Auroradweller wouldn't know what to answer with if he needed to do so.

Expecting anything would have been too much, but Auroradweller knew better than to check who, or what, greeted him at the border. Two cats, a female who glanced at his ragged fur and marked skin with curiosity, and a feminine tomcat that kept giving him a stink-eye. The longhaired tomcat lifted his chin a little as his eyes fixated on the self-appointed guardian's tease of a snarl. If he only knew.. A particular area on the back of his front leg started to sting with memory from the last time he was at the Rogue's border. All that meant, though, was that the war was over.

"My name is... actually, maybe it's best if first I told you what.... .. ... .. ... You know what? I'm a little lost. Does a beast named 'Malakai' still rule the Blackheart Rogues?" He expected a firm "no," but for how outdated they would have thought the question, he didn't know. This might be another clan altogether from what I knew.If the Rogues were different, then what about his old clan? What about...?

Auroradweller kept his composure. He was practiced in hiding his worry. Still, a paw started to swipe uneasily in the dirt in front of himself.

Lunchbox's uncertainty crept into Auroradweller's psyche as the tomcat looked for any desperate excuse not to excuse her answer. A small cut on the tomcat's lip prevented him from scowling fully as he slowly tucked his legs under himself. Wow, now I feel old... So all of his knowledge of politics were just campfire stories and ramblings from the elders, then?

Another padded up, but Auroradweller didn't focus on her with his gaze, letting it wonder off into some aether while his mind took him back into seasons forever passed, then he welcomed to be snapped back into the chilled afternoon. He welcomed anything that might lead him to believe that he was only gone for a moment, and that his mate and kits were just waiting for him in some grotto, and the worst he would have to say is some awkward story about bumping his head.

His recollection began slowly. "My name is Auroradweller. The Blackheart Rogues were an enemy of my clan before I fell into a deep comatose, but if nobody remembers one of two of your leaders from those days, then the war between them must have ended." The tomcat's voice hollowed as he repeated what his mind realized, "...It must have been generations since then.." A deep breathe was needed to regain his neutral tone, but he wasn't as good of a liar as he was a marauder, but that's what his mate was for. Spiderstar.. from that same time long since passed.. And probably just as gone.. "...So I'm looking for anything that could explain what happened to Stormclan, how long since I've been unconscious or... ... ...Something to prove that the leader of Stormclan from that time, Spiderstar, is still alive."

The tomcat looked up to see a robot owl, letting his mind wonder off into the memory of an old drinking buddy of his. I wonder how he's doing... Given his trip to the Blackheart Rogues hinting at his worst fears, all he could hope was that old Dottie had at least one more good romp before he left. "Hello?" Huh, odd greeting. "I'm afraid I don't recognize you - is this really how Stormclan... or the Covenant... or whatever you're going by greets visitors now?" Back in Auroradweller's day, he would have threatened to eat anyone who didn't immediately tell him what they wanted. Those days though... are gone... "This is what Stormclan turned into, isn't it?" Though his wording was a bit accusatory, Auroradweller's voice couldn't conceal a small plead within it.

"Sheesh, ain't you morbid, telling the poor kid he's going to die like that..." Auroradweller walked up slowly as he went to investigate the commotion. The tomcat carried a scent of rot and wildflowers, to anyone who might have wanted to find him by scent. "It isn't like we can't scoop up his eyeballs and fix them ourselves." Some would call it dissection. Auroradweller was confident he could convince the owl to call it 'organic troubleshooting.'

The owl recited her lines, consistent with what the trip to the Blackheart Rogues implied. Would this have been the end goal of her outreach at our allies?There didn't seem to be any use in withholding informaiton, and if this... robot.. was going to be a walking squawking history book eager to tell what it knew without collectively giving him the stink-eye like the Blackhearts did, then it would be rude not to answer honestly anyway. Auroradweller blinked slowly, letting his eyes drift among the stars hoping that one of them would dance for his closure. "I guess I am... My name is Auroradweller. I've been in a coma for.. well.. I can't really tell you how long.. and right now I'm just trying to find any foothold of familiarity that I can right now. If I can stay for a while, do you know who was the leader of Stormclan whenever they merged, and if they're alive now?" Avoiding disjointed questions was a luxury for cats that weren't brainstorming any combination of relief and mourning as they spoke.

This was their ally's leader? A studdering little scrapling? No, not while the helpful self-titled Captain Munchie was on watch! Auroradweller walked up to the ambassador, glaring with an apathetic tilt of his head as he proclaimed, "Speak up, son, I can't hear you. The mountain air blows fiercely." Not like any of his old clanmates were there to stop him.

He concluded that it was about a year since he had fallen into a coma, maybe more. Stormclan was gone. His mate, Spiderstar, was dead. Their daughters were missing at best, and what survivors he may have known were scattered. All within a year, so much had changed, but part of Auroradweller that didn't want to accept the world he spent so much time living in had collapsed kept carrying his paws forward until he ended up in a field of flowers, with an odd tree uprooted in the middle. "Look, Spiderstar, it's our tree! Look at our tree! Its still here!" Cackling in a mad fit of nostalgia, the tomcat started repeating to himself "It's still here; I'M still here!" He repeated the line as he walked further passed, along the shore.

He didn't know how long he kept walking. A few times he would stop and proclaim he was transforming into a bush for photosynthesis in order to rest before continuing along the coast.

It wasn't long after he forgot what 'it' was, and caught the scent of a few rogues. Auroradweller knew that this meant that there was a clan nearby - rogues that sparsely spaced out their territory wanted neighbors when they could have someone to hug at night, but not at lunch. Redwood trees within the distance called to the tabby's amber eyes. "Look!" The tomcat encouraged himself. "Trees! The trees are here, and I am here with the trees! I'm still here!" Beneath the wild stare of his eyes, Auroradweller knew what his words meant to carry. Everything we've left behind in Stormclan may have changed, but I'm still alive, and maybe life can move on passed that.

The odd rogues gave him a confused glance, and in their scorn Auroradweller heard one name being passed about: Hawkclan.

Recalling what he saw most others wanting to join his old clan do, Auroradweller sat by the border of Hawkclan, puffing up his chest as he recited under his breath, "Hello, Hawkclan. I'm here for your trees." Okay, maybe that wasn't the best pitch...