The Starcave

[Abyssopelagic]

Halfstone suddenly felt.... a disturbance to his usual peaceful days.
It felt achingly familiar to when a Leader came foward to recieve their lives, but this felt.... darker, more sinister. Wrong. Corrupted.
He approached, curiosity morbidly piqued.
He saw Icestar, a cat he never cared for in life, but seeing her daughter and the horrible leader she would be, he retracted, fear and horror widening his eyes.
He looked to Dustpool and Daisyshade, openly denying her and his heart settled. But as Braveheart stepped foward and gave Dawnstripe a life, he hissed, irritated.
No, no, no,n o, no.
He turned to Icestar. How could she stand by her choice in her?
"She will be more treacherous and hated than you. No doubt she will cause as much death and hurt as when you were alive. You were punished for the way you ruled. Do you want the same for Dawnstripe?"
He hoped the use of Dawnstripe's name would shake the former leader, if nothing else, if she wouldn't listen.
She wrought death to many. He would not stand by it.


[[Hope y'all don't mind? @punkscape ; @Undertaker ]]

[marshy]

Pebblepool followed behind Halfstone and also was disappointed in this new leader. She had hope for Icestar a long while ago, but that hope had long since drained. To be honest, she was glad Icestar was dead. She deserved it. Anyway, Dawnstripe. She gave a long sigh before starting. "Dawnstripe I- You know what?" With a sudden change of tone she continued. "I fully don't believe you'll be a good leader. I fact, I feel you'll be a terrible one as Halfstone said. You will not be getting a life from me." She spat.
"I deny you the life of Perseverance." She then stepped back to let the next cat go." @Undertaker

[ChillCat]

Mothshade stepped up from behind Pebblepool. Dawnstripe is going to be a terrible leader. I had hope watching her as a deputy and warrior, but now I see that hope made me blind. She will bring nothing but death ad destruction to Shadowclan.

"You won't be a good leader, you won't protect Shadowclan, and you don't care for anyone but yourself. I deny you the life of justice." Mothshade was done with disloyal cats. @Undertaker

[Wildstripe]

Swiftheart loket upon the she-cat with a scornful look in his eyes. If this pile of fox dung ever became a leader, Shadowclan would der dark times. “Dawnstripe, you have the power and will to become a leader, but you miss the sense of the Code and you are a simple sadist. I deny you the life of Protection.”

[Undertaker]

[This Ends The Rejections]
Dawnstripe muscles stiffened as rather cold and offputting air radiated from her. She wasn't comfortable with dead strangers coming up and judging her. Yet that is what they began to do starting with the first tabby she-cat who came and asked her literally the dumbest question. It was so ridiculous that Dawnstripe didn't even bother answering, just sighed and rolled her eyes. The first cat was far too pitiful for Dawnstripe to bother getting worked up over. "Courage? It's no wonder you're dead." Dawnstripe laughter came from her low in her belly, loud and full. "I wouldn't even accept just a lousy life like that, courage, hahahahahaaaaa." If all the StarClan cats were going to be like this, Dawnstripe was going to be extremely entertained the whole time.
@wren

The second she-cat that came told her more or less of the same. It was a little more irksome the second time around considering the dead cat actually had the gull to insult her. "Dictator?! What in the world have I done that deserves such a title?" A smile grew on her face, but it lacked any mirth. The dimwit part did rub her the wrong way. Dawnstripe decided not to focus on that. "Do you even know what you're talking about or are you just going with the flow?" Who gave these cats any right to judge whether she was fit to lead or not. Besides the mild ruffle of her tail, Dawnstripe remained mostly unphased.
@wnder

The next tom didn't even come up and speak to her, sad sap. Instead, he turned his attention to her mother and tried to get her to side with him? It was extremely hard for her to keep her maw such when she heard what he said. Icestar could handle herself, but Dawnstripe just couldn't help herself. "Punished! My mother did nothing wrong, she was a great leader as so many cats in the clan like to rudely tell me." Dawnstripe didn't like being compared to Icestar. Her mother did the same thing with her and Hailstorm, it was infuriating. She'd have to deal with it, for now, soon enough she'd carve a place for herself in the clan. "My sister is spineless, pathetic, and a murderer. Yet it appears you condone her actions and call it a punishment as if my mother did something wrong or deserved such a death. You are perfectly fine with Hailstorm murdering whoever she pleases, causing pain and hurting ShadowClan, but can't deal with a little death from me?" Who did this cat thing he was to say such a thing. Dawnstripe's just could not even... she turned her attention away from both cats as another one stepped forward, having the audacity to acually talk to her instead of around her.
@Rainquail

It was getting bland and she felt like she was deal with a bunch of whining kittens. That small spark of anger was snuffed out in second, she couldn't bother getting upset with mice."I wouldn't take such a crappy life even if you threaten to destroy ShadowClan." Perseverance, damn did these lives get worse and worse. There was no boldness, nothing worth her attention, no lives that made her want to make any of these losers to rethink their actions.
@.:The Nightmare King:.

Did this cat think she was some kind of hero? It seemed like you only got lives in StarClan if these cats deemed you 'holy' enough. They wanted cats who did the 'right' thing, not the ones that would do the 'necessary' thing. It felt like most of them didn't even have their facts right. They were just spewing whatever came to mind so they could be selfish hypocrites and not give her lives. "Justice, EWWWWWW!" Dawnstripe stepped away from the fifth cats, wrinkling her nose as if she had some disease. "You'd have to kill me to take a life like that." If these were the kind of cats that got to StarClan, Dawnstripe didn't want to be here when her life was over. She felt bad if her mother got stuck with these rambling morons.
@ChillCat

If Dawnstripe was being truthful, she couldn't stand listening to this dribble any longer. She was done with these goody four paws, they were gross and feeble. Every single life they might have offered would have had her running for the hill. Dawnstripe didn't want their lives, and she certainly wouldn't be begging for them. "Mother, I wouldn't waste your breath on this." Dawnstripe snarled, turning away from the cats. These cats lacked any drive or passion, there was no point. She'd figure something else out. "They have nothing I want, nothing that will help ShadowClan, they're softer than kittypets." Why did they even worship such bellyachers, Dawnstripe was going to have to change that shortly.
@punkscape

Dawnstripe didn't bother waiting for her mother's response, instead, she began padding off, ears raised as she swore she heard whispers telling her that what she sought was this way. The leader stopped, noting that beyond this forest everything seemed so much darker. That's right, she did have the dark forest. Surely they would accept her, understand her, know that only she was fit to take Icestar's place. It was her destiny. Just when she stared forwards, her ears twisting catching the paw steps following her. She was expecting the bulky form of her mother, instead, it was that she-cat that had insulted her, calling her stupid, earlier.

"I told you that I don't want any of your lives, I don't want to hear your nonsense either."

[Abyssopelagic]

Halfstone turned to Dawnstripe, eyes lowering and brows furrowed.
She didn't know. Of course she didn't. She was alive.
"The punishment I speak of has nothing to do with your sister. I don't speak for the rest of the dead, but I don't care what Hailstorm has done. She lives still and she is not the one looking for lives. Your mother isn't allowed to live among either skies, in Starclan or the Dark Forest. This is what I had referred to."
He continued to stare indirectly at Dawnstripe.
Now he was intrigued, only if to find out how one or the other would react. Dawnstripe to the information or Icestar that he was spilling secrets that weren't his own.

[[I don't plan for him to be here much longer, so you may have most of the rest of the ceremony in peace]]
@Undertaker

[duckie]

Dustpool
__________

The elder starclanner sat back as this charade continued. Cats lining up to deny Dawnstripe her lives, only to have her laugh in their faces. She shook her head. What a mess this was. Something about the interaction as a whole rubbed her the wrong way but, in particular, the way Dawnstripe and Icestar regarded each other sparked a sense of familiarity. That was not exchange of a healthy mother-daughter relationship, it was that of a leader and their right-hand man.

It reminded her of her sisters.

She climbed to her paws - ignoring the stares of those who remained - and moved to follow. Dustpool held her ground and met Dawnstripe's yellow gaze with her own sharp green stare. She would not be intimidated by Icestar's little pawn. She would not back down.

"I've been up here too long to watch you walk over there," she nodded towards the darkened edges of the forest, "and gain your lives from a bunch of stars-damned traitors without lifting a paw to do anything about it. I know how this goes. You'll go back to ShadowClan with one StarClan life if I have any say in it."

She stepped forward and placed her nose to the leader's forehead, "Dawnstripe - with this life I give you independence. Use it to think for yourself and make your own decisions. Don't give power to those cats who would wish to whisper orders in your ear and foist their own influence."

[ @Undertaker ]

[marshy]

Pebblepool hissed in disgust. This cat thought brute force was the only way to run a clan. How selfish, How awful. Pebblepool only had to hope this cat would pass quickly by the claws of another cat. She was rooting for Lionstar, as she knew Riverclan would not take kindly to Dawnstripe in the slightest. (Just wanted her to have a reaction!)

[Wings]

[ @Undertaker ]
-Sagefeather-

Sagefeather, as always had been starving. That little wretched kit killer had done this to her. Had killed her! Had set up her little beautiful Dovekit’s death, and Deerstride’s! She should of just thrown the horrid creature into the river, let it down in it’s mirsery as it went here, in her place. She would of been in StarClan if it weren’t for Dovekiller!
Her pristine claws dug into the ground, retracting as she calmed herself into a more... ladylike stature. And through the dark mysterious forest, she felt something. Something very different. Not of feeling the small twinge in the air as a another sinner, unlike herself, arrived for their endless starvartion. Oh how those Staridiots were so... lucky. The word rang through her mind, oozing of venom. To be frank, Sagefeather was quite close to the misty boarder between the sunning lands her dear Dovekit was in and the misery she lived in. Always so... oozy, the ground never felt right. But, following that sense, of would you say, power? Yes. Power.
After seeing some StarClanner give the to-be leader a life, she pinned her ears. What kinda of life was that? Pitiful if you asked her. So now, coming out of the darkness of this.. dark forest, [the thought of her being in the dark forest dripped venom in her mind once more] Sagefeather could only look Dawnstripe up and down once. Examining the leader that would soon rule over that Dovekiller. The thought sent a spiral of happiness into her body. Doetuft, getting what she deserved. Her punishment for being such a burden to either of the clans she had belonged to. When Duskstar had tried to make her a warrior too early, Sagefeather had seen that as a chance to influence Doetuft, or was supposed to be Doelight. But, the chance had passed when she had journeyed to ShadowClan. Enough of that, the bare skin on her back, clearly from a monster of sorts, felt s trill of skin scrunch up and then relax. “Well, well, well. StarClan wouldn’t give you any lives?” She mocked the she-cat with a pouty face before padded forward closer. “Well except for that, what ever you call it. A meh life if you ask me.” She flicked her tail to where the StarClanner had disappeared. “Hmm, well. I’ll give you something that will actually help you. You seem to... how should I put it? Think with your claws? Yes well, while claws can do physical damage,...” She lifted a paw, pristine claws unsheathing for her to look at. ”Manipulating your enemies will do much more.” Sagefeather looked up at Dawnstripe with a grin and glinting dijon eyes. “You may think you can manipulate others, and even if you don’t, your way of dealing with your enemies is... undesirable for a leader of your stature. So, I give you the life of Manipulation.” She came closer, whether the she-cat liked it or not and gave her the life. Closing her eyes at she touched her nose to the she-cat’s forehead. Flashes of images, quickly Dovekit’s death, when she was scooped up by a hawk. Then to Doetuft’s [who was Doekit at the time] misery that she so deserved. Along with the pain that she caused her so called ‘daughter’ in her dreams after she had died from that wretched monster. All so enjoyable, all so deserved. But, it was all so blurry. Impossible to make out the actual cats, only the events. The death by hawk, the monster of her own death vaguely, the endless tormenting. All so blurry. Sagefeather wished it could be more clear so Dawnstripe could kill that Kitkiller once and for all. But then, she wouldn’t be able to torment her as well. Hopefully something good for herself would happen.
Pulling back away from her, she grinned, “Use this wisely, make it so your enemies feel mental pain, something that you can’t just num with that mangled witch’s herbs. And then combine it with those...“ She motioned to her paws. “...claws of yours. With them, you will be unstoppable!” Her black tail lashed, with her teeth bared with ambition in a smile. Before pulling back to see what other idiots who actually were mean’t to be here for eternity. What stupid useless lives they would give in comparison to what she gave.

[Terrestrial]

~Twilightheart~

Black paws slowly approached Dawnstripe, following the molly's scent as she waddled. Twilightheart's clouded gaze stared blankly, her once long and silky black fur matted. It'd been seasons since her death, too long to the point where she couldn't remember how she ended up in the Dark Forest!

Finally the elderly molly arrived to stand before Dawnstripe. Black lips parted as a rather raspy voice escaped "Dawnstripe, I'm sure you recognize me from the mischief I caused during life but that is not why I stand in front of you today- Pausing briefly Twilightheart began to collect her thoughts before speaking once more "I give you a life of deviance, use this well to create chaos among the other foolish Clans."

With those words Twilightheart rose to her paws, once again relying on her other senses before waddling away into the ranks of the Dark Forest cats.

@Undertaker