Yes - you were not forgotten! With permission from taillow and your Crown and Healers, we're kidnapping you for our ThunderClan outbreak plot.
What are you doing Bear???
Look, somebody had to ok.
This is the outline we have and we're looking for Atari members to participate in! Posts will be done in the fancy
Bone Crest Throne thread as that is the designated, ideally permanent Atari territory/camp.
Some of these details are subject to change, but this is what we're currently thinking.
Rewind.
Before RiverClan, before a small group of rogues - there was the Atari. They ruled over The Crag they called home, an impressive mountain range known as Bone Crest Throne to outsiders. Life was peaceful, with little conflict beyond navigable predators.
Then the small group came; a handful of cats that immediately earned the Atari's ire. It wasn't that they were intruders that ignited the Atari's flames - but that they brought with them the Devil and its spawn, a mountain lion with two cubs attracted by the easy prey of the small group. Initially, the Atari fought with the small groups in the hopes they'd leave and take the cougar with them - but by the time they drove the small group off, the Atari was already in the sight of the cougar.
Fighting the cougar proved ineffective. Throughout the cougar's time in the mountains, the Atari has tried to fend it off - from straight up attacking, to leading it into danger -- nothing has worked so far!
The cougar continues to terrorize the Atari, hauling cats off frequently to feed itself and its cubs. Unfortunately, RiverClan did not garner the cougar's attention - perhaps they were just out of range, or perhaps the cougar was saving them for later. Regardless, RiverClan came and went and The Atari largely kept away from them. They couldn't afford to fight both the cougar and RiverClan if it came to it.
Around the time RiverClan left, they've managed to kill one of the two cougar cubs, but not without some losses. Saturn, the Atari Crown, had led the attack into the den but the adult cougar had returned and slaughtered most of the intruding patrol. Though not confirmed, Saturn is presumed dead to the cougar's jaws. The only bright side to this is, with prey in its den, the attacks temporarily stall. Following this patrol, Nyx assumes the role of Crown.
But the Atari is still worn thin by the cougar. They don't know when it's going to strike next or where, and to make matters worse an outbreak has started. Cats are getting sick.. and no known treatment is working! Sickness symptoms are similar to what the Clans call white/greencough, but it is not the same illness and nothing for a standard respiratory infection is effective. This is because they have a fungal infection, and need an antifungal treatment.
Cue ARIES [ @
goodacacia !!!]. They are a wanderer, having been a stray for many moons, and recognize the symptoms of a fungal infection. In exchange for necessities, ARIES gives the Atari the medical knowledge and treatment needed to cure the plague (pale coneflower!).
Optionally, the Atari receive an omen from the Ancestors. A mild storm breaks out over their forest and as a result, the second cougar cub is found dead - crushed by a broken branch. They don't fully know what this means, but it does imply a coming storm will help solve their problems. Unfortunately, after this the cougar attacks again, taking one cat.
Then a small group of ThunderClan cats appear; in total there are 3 (Brackenclaw, Lavendersong, and Raggedear! [ @
Lightningpaw666, @
twizzypaw, @
TanghuluCat]. ThunderClan has a fungal infection outbreak with symptoms similar to the Atari, and two cats are chosen by StarClan to find ARIES and bring ThunderClan the cure. The third cat is simply a Hornet escort to ensure things go smoother. The Atari confront these cats when they are crossing over a tree bridge - this relates back to the omen with the mild storm and the tree that crushed the cub.
If the omen has taken place, the Atari probably won't be very standoffish. If it has not, they likely will be - and the ice will need broken in some way. Regardless of how the greeting goes, the endnote should be similar: ThunderClan tells them of their own plague and why they've come, and the Atari realizes they have the cure and ARIES. But....! This is an opportunity to get rid of cougar, so they offer a trade: help us kill the cougar, and we'll show you ARIES.
Then the ThunderClan trio works with the Atari to help figure out how to kill a cougar! Obviously, cats can't kill one to traditional means, so they'd need to lure it into a position to get killed. This could be an artificial rockfall or something else.. details can be left up to roleplayers as long as they try to make it semi-realistic. Once the cougar is dead, the Atari brings the TC trio to ARIES and ARIES goes with ThunderClan to resolve their own outbreak.
So what do you need??
First: we need folks willing to have sick cats! You don't need to kill your character, but should refer to the
ThunderClan thread for symptoms. Anyone can be a sick cat!
Second: we need the cat who is grabbed by the cougar after the second cub dies! This cat will die... whoops! But it keeps the cougar as a present threat, even though there was a lapse in hunting the Atari.
Next: we need the patrol who finds the ThunderClan trio! No kits, they should be initiate age+ and be accompanied by at least one adult.
How the cougar is handled from there will be done in-RP, this is just to kick things off and introduce their actual thread!