Blackwater Bog

[Neptune.]

*-Larkwing-*
She/her | 17 moons | Mind Reader - ACTIVE
A sleek dilute tortie she-cat with green eyes

Water laps and splashes and boils, soaking soft grey and tan fur. As her eyes track the tom, Larkwing cannot bring herself to doubt the words he spews - the promises thinly veiled as threats. He says he will kill her if she does not succeed in restoring RiverClan to glory, and he means it, and Larkwing feels it deep in the very marrow of her bones. She does not wish to die, does not wish to be just another failure in the long line of RiverClan’s leaders.

…but she is not naïve or desperate enough to seek power or take the easy way out. She will work hard to protect her clan, despite this ancient cats potent doubts that protrude from every fiber of his being. He does not believe in her, perhaps he thinks her soft, perhaps he thinks her weak and inexperienced, and while the latter is true and often her heart rules over her head, she is not incapable of making decisions that her heart does not agree with - theoretically anyway.

The statement that she will receive no lies is… well, she should have expected such a thing for being brought here instead of among the stars. It’s still disheartening. How is she expected to throw herself into the fray to protect everyone if they know she has no lives to spare? How is she supposed to be a beacon for how the clan should behave if she has nothing more to spare than any of them? …Really, this new title she’s assuming is nothing but superficial nonsense, she’s nothing more than an ordinary warrior placed upon a pedastal.

”I don’t plan on slacking off,” she informs the ancient tuxedo as he stops right next to her, inches away. ”I’m young, I can serve my clan - our clan - for a long time if I play my cards correctly. I can- I’m going to raise us to the top of the forest again.” Bold words. She wants to believe them. She tries so hard to believe them. If she can restore them to their former glory… she’ll have made a real difference. She won’t be the imposter her brain keeps telling her she is. She wants so badly to believe she can really do such a thing. ”And I’m going to start by winning back Cattail Pond.” Resolute. Firm. Her gaze, though still uneasy, does not waver from Magpiewisp.

__________

[ magpiewisp - @SkeleStar ]

[Starfall]

Magpiewisp
He/Him || Ancient RiverClan Medicine Cat
World Weaver Tier I :: Nightmare Fuel Tier I
@FrostyGalaxy

The tom sniffs as the molly speaks up, the same determination he saw in the others when they accepted with star filled eyes. Excitement and filled with a promise they'd do good. Newsflash they never did. All those hollow promises fell apart the moment they realized they could slouch around and do nothing, while having the titles and lives. Slouch around and realize they don't have to put in work, that they don't want to put in work.

"They all said that. They all said they would make it what it used to be. Promises of what they will do, of what they will achieve. But than they realized it took work. Work and effort they didn't wish to put in." a click of his tongue. "You're a broken songbirds song. I'll break your beak." he gruffed. "If you don't live up to the expectations you put out for yourself. Because you already have to live up to mine." he said as he walked back to where he was previously standing. Walking forwards and turning so he was once again facing Larkwing.

"You can declare as many things as you please to make yourself feel any sort of big. You aren't. I could squash you in a moments notice. But you haven't given me a solid reason to yet. So you can wake up this time. With no lives and hopefully enough fear to fuel you to do better than those before you. If I feel you've earned something, maybe I'll give you a life." a pause as he took a breath. "You replaced the Ginger one, don't forget you can easily be replaced as well. Wake up. I'll be keeping a watch on you. So I'd suggest you work yourself ragged." he snapped, his jowels snapping together.

With this he ejected the molly from the Bog. Hoping she woke up like how the ThunderClan leader had.

(You're free to have Larkwing wake up now! I'd post your next post at the Moon Pool thread Larkwing will be achey and fatiuged /w\ )

[dino.]

Originally Posted by SkeleStar

Magpiewisp
He/Him || Dark Forest
@dino.

The feline twitched his ear and quirked a brow at the molly. She seemed somewhat bewildered...or so he thought she seemed to be. Ultimately he didn't care. He didn't have time to care. His wounds were sealing, slowly, but sealing as he walked further into the bog.

"Bit of a rude greeting with the information I'm about to give you. Doesn't matter." a pause as he stopped a fox length away from the molly. "You've been doing wonderful, giving me some...souls. I suppose we'll call them. A more recent one on the younger and dumber side, but no one could be worse than Beansprout." a snort.

"Your clan is Poisoned, if I'm recalling correctly. I'd direct your gaze down to the water." he suggested. Although he waited for no confirmation as he dipped his head down and touched his nose against the sludge colored water.

From the ripples a wonky yellow flower can be seen. Flickering between 5 long stems, or 4 short stems. Seemingly tucked away, hanging onto the edge of a cliff, or hidden within a rather damp cave. As fast as it appeared, it fizzled out of existence.

"A Blazing Torment of poison it seems. In your Clan that is." he hummed. Hopefully she would understand the hint. He wasn't one to just hand out answers after all. Lifting his head the tuxedo turned to begin making his way out of the pool. "Dunk your head whenever you're ready to wake up." he offered.

Bumblestar grunted. She was in a bad mood, he was just making it worse, with the water and the chill and the strange way it all dragged at her fur. He was referring to Cracklepaw, surely, and she shrugged. "He's outta my pelt now 'n that's all that matters." Good-for-nothing little rat of a nuisance.

He spoke of poison. Of course her Clan was poisoned; they had caught RiverClan red-clawed at Cattail Pond laying the vile stuff on her land. She thought it had only stretched as far as Wolfpaw, but perhaps not. She stared him down, wondering how many of her cats had been affected.

Bumblestar looked down at the murky water as Magpiewing touched his nose to the surface. The resulting image was hazy, but she could make out its contents all the same. Some sort of flower attached to cliffs, or inside a dark cave. There for only a second and then gone.

She glanced back up as he left the pool, then nodded once. Anger simmered just underneath her skin. She knew the culprits already and she would make sure they burned for what they had done.

Her head vanished underneath the water, and she awoke with a start in her den. It took a moment for the ache to set in before she curled in on herself with a groan, this time cursing the Dark Forest and Magpiewing both for whatever hellish pain they'd decided to inflict on her.

[Goopysharkboi]

William, surfacing from the water, quickly padded up and out, with a ripple following his movements. A dreamer had followed him as he needed someone to continue his legacy for him. "... Michael... It has been a while."
Michael suddenly burst from the bog, ears flat.
"I'd remain in the water, lest you wish for your pelt to ice over. " William growled.
"D-Dad! What do you want from me?!"
"I simply want you to continue my legacy, continue my killspree. But first, drag that worthless kit of yours to riverclan and get them to let her join 'em. You'll need an inside cat to help gather information about charredpaw's current state. If I'm right, that cat i killed- ashwolf- will have been found dead by now and his mate Berrie will have decided to attack those worthless fish-cats." He growled.
"I'll take her to riverclan, but no more than that. I know you can't do anything to me." He growled, flattening his ears in annoyance before diving back down into the water and waking up.

[Starfall]

Magpiewisp
Ancient RiverClan Medicine Cat || Dark Forest
@occultation

One after another, prawns that do nothing more than swim over a pebble and call it an accomplishment. These disgraces doing nothing more but failing him one after another, it had been an eon since he'd had a decent leader he'd actually bow his head to. One after another RiverClan jumped the streams, swam up their waterfalls, each one, one after another, claiming themselves as leader just due to the fact that they had gotten to the 'end' first. Aggravating, it made him want to pluck each and every fur follicle off of his body and consume it. Rot from the inside out before he had to deal with the disgrace that was his former Clan. Watching as it fell to ruin from it's former glory. All simply due to the fact that no one put in any effort any more.

So, when he brought his most recent victim, dragging the poor soul through the Bog water with little haste. Let them fear drowning, he didn't care. The seaweed and lichen slippery, slimy, goopy. Gross. "You will be telling me your worth, and how you plan on bringing RiverClan up from their self inflicted ashes, or else I'll simply kill you in your sleep and move on until I finally find someone I deem worthy enough to be granted the title 'leader.' " he said, his tone low and hushed, bubbling and boiling with pure, unfiltered, anger. "For it seems as though you living one's are incapable of choosing successors." a bark at the end of his sentence.

"You all talk of bleeding and dying for your Clans. Prove it, for I will happily make you bleed."

[occultation]

( @Starfall )

Fadingsun stretched in his nest, his jaws parting in a wide yawn. It had been nothing but chaos since he'd first stepped up as leader, but frankly he shouldn't expect anything less from this Clan at this point. Hopefully he'd be able to sleep without anyone disturbing him.

Circling a few times, he settled down into a tight ball and curled his tail around his nose. He fell into sleep quickly, his dreams bringing him into a choking, dark blackness. His paws immediately began flailing; was he dreaming of the storm again? It didn't seem like any of the dreams he'd had before, but...

Panic began to set in. No matter how much he tried to remind himself that this was all fake, it felt so real. His throat tightened, his lungs screamed. Just when he was certain he might actually die, he exploded out of the water and his paws made contact with soggy, murky soil.

The pain in his lungs and throat disappeared almost instantly, but it was quickly replaced by a deep sense of malaise. Fadingsun's eyes came to rest on a dark, shadowy figure, almost as soon as said cat began speaking to him.

It wasn't too hard for Fadingsun to deduce that this must be some sort of spirit. He'd always thought that a visit to the Starcave was necessary to meet with spirits, especially those concerned with issues of leadership, but perhaps he was wrong.

He'd never placed much faith in spirits. He'd always found it laughable that many of them, just like this one right here, thought they were somehow better than everyone else just because they were dead. He bit back a laugh at this cat's demands; he supposed having a fragile ego probably came with death for many, especially if they died in a way that they didn't perceive as satisfying enough.

While Fadingsun didn't particularly care if a bunch of dead cats cared about his leadership or not, he was in this cat's domain. That, and given that spirits could (supposedly) grant cats extra lives, perhaps they could indeed take them away. So, considering that, he decided to play this spirit's little game.

"Change is already starting. RiverClan has been allowed to run like a bunch of rogues for too long. Showing no respect or obedience to their high ranks, and putting themselves in absurd situations because of it. I've made it clear to my Clan that it won't be happening any longer, and I fully intend on following through with that. Either the warriors of this Clan begin to fall in line, or they'll be punished accordingly.

"Speaking of punishment, ThunderClan needs some of it. Invading our camp was too far; I'm sick and tired of the squirrels thinking they can cross our borders whenever they want. As soon as RiverClan is ready, we'll be making our first move for retaliation. I plan on attacking ThunderClan at two points, to seize two landmarks from them at once. I want to show them what happens when RiverClan is pushed too far."

His tail-tip twitched. "This Clan has suffered for seasons under terrible leaders. Skystar. Pikestar. Gingerstar. Larkstar. Birdsnow. All leaders who were either too spineless to lead or too weak to last. What they all lacked was an ability to get things done. As leader, I intend on doing just that- getting what needs to be done, done."

[Starfall]

Magpiewisp
Ancient RiverClan Medicine Cat || Dark Forest
@occultation

The tuxedo mix rolled his eyes as the tom began to speak. So full of ego, so full of himself, full of self righteousness. "I would swallow your ego before you drown in it." he drawled. Slowly, the tuxedo began to take steps around the Warrior he'd pulled into his bog. Circling. "Your past leaders and deputies, even your medicine cats, none of them deserved the respect nor their obedience. Your Clanmates are well within their rights to pull and pluck these Ranks apart if they don't do what it is their supposed to do." he said. "Protect, and serve." the water ripples.

"The last disappointments said the same exact thing, 'change is happening' , 'there will be change' , 'we'll no longer be trampled on', 'I'll be the one to finish things'." a snort. "You're all sounding like really sick morning songbirds." the water ripples more. "Yet one of the first things out of your mouth is how ThunderClan will pay? Your Clan is in shambles, kittypets could easily overpower them, and yet here you are already deciding to toss them into a war. Although I'm happy for the lives you'll be giving to me, you are rather stupid, aren't you." he sneered. The water begins to become shallow waves. Steam coming from the bog as sides of the rocks coagulate with more and more ice.

"My Clan has suffered because they have all become soft, and those leaders have helped enhance that lack of survival. Honey is only as good as the bees that put in the effort. You. are supposed to be the Bee...and yet all of the previous mistakes believed they were the honey. Through this whole conversation, you have yet to tell me what I asked you. So once again, I ask." the waves are now aggressive. Splashing, crashing, roaring and maybe even howling. Magpiewisp standing in the wake.

"What. Is your worth?"

[occultation]

( @Starfall )

Stars above, this cat was obnoxious. It took every ounce of effort within him to stay neutral, to avoid laughing in this cat's face. It was truly pathetic, how dead cats felt that being dead automatically gave them some sort of superiority over the living. No wonder so many had turned their backs on the spirits.

Even though he currently maintained his composure, his patience was beginning to run quite thin. "'My worth' is in the effort I'm already putting in. Birdsnow put barely a claw's worth of effort into changing RiverClan. I'm bringing order back into this Clan. And for what it's worth, I'm not going to send them into battle until they're clearly ready. But giving them something unifying to look towards, a common enemy that isn't each other, is a step towards bringing us back into a strong position. I have the drive and the determination that my predecessors lacked. I'm well aware you probably won't believe me, and given RiverClan's track record I wouldn't believe me either. But since you've given me hardly any time from when I became leader to now, I'm not exactly sure what you want other than words."

[Starfall]

Magpiewisp
Ancient RiverClan Medicine Cat || Dark Forest
@occultation

He didn't really care for how the other seemed to hold himself. Arrogant. He'd break him down. He'd been alive centuries, far longer than any reasonable being above should have let him be alive. Narrowed eyes scan over the tom standing in front of him, wondering if he should actually let him live. But than he started talking.

That earned a sudden burst of laughter from the Ancient feline. The Water rippling as the seaweed danced, as if ready to coil and choke. "What effort. So far you're just barking orders yet you do no work. You yell at your Clanmates and expect a difference while you yourself don't even lift a claw." a snicker as he slunk forwards. "Effort. Sure. Is that what it's being called now a days?" he muttered as he came to a stop. The water splashing at the stones beside him, some frosting upon leaving the Bog.

"If that's your 'worth' than I'd have no trouble simply drowning you. You dying in your sleep seems to be rather fit for what you think you're achieving." he sniffed. Rolling his eyes and taking a step back, now actively walking away from the tom he'd dreamnapped.

"They only targeted one another because the previous maggots pointed and shifted blame. I hope you own up to your mistakes, you'll definitely be doing nothing but making them based off of our interaction this very moment. You're a dolt with a hard head who can't see over their own ego. You best listen to your Clanmates and take into account what they say. Some of it is worth listening to." a pause as he himself paused. Looking down at the Bog below. An endless abyss, you couldn't see the bottom. Easy to pull someone beneath and drown them. That's how he'd killed many before. He was positive their bodies were still being swept away by the Water at the Beach. What was it called now? Lionsbeach? Some stupid name like that.

"You're right. I don't believe you. But here you are whining about how little time you've had. I don't care. RiverClan used to be a Clan that poisoned their enemies, won many battles, killed coyotes. Time matters not. So chop chop and get to it. Keep in mind. If you fail in any way, your death will be by my claws. I won't let you die a glorious death, you'll die in your sleep, alone and unaccomplished." a snurk. With that, heavy silence filled the crisp, yet moist, air before a heavy sigh came from the Tuxedo. His shoulders sagging.

"I suppose, for right now, you'll have to do. But you will not receive any lives. You must prove yourself first. You are free to take the leader suffix, however. Go wild." Magpiewisp said, rolling his shoulders as he turned to look at Fadingstar in the eyes. A glint of malice rolled within his gaze. Without another word, nor with any room to argue, the tuxedo flicked his paw, and down the visitor went. Once again pulled below the murky water's surface by the kelp.

Fadingsun has woken up achy and fatigued