normal as it can be [closed]

herb key:

Daisybloom rose, eyeing the herb stocks. With leaf-bare approaching, she knew that collecting herbs was important. She needed to make sure that they had enough before they were gone. She would just go out by herself, but that wasn’t allowed anymore. And she would feel extremely nervous alone with an Asylum cat. So she decided that she would try to find someone to come with her. Besides, it would be some good interaction. Anything that was close to normal was perfectly fine. Exiting the medicine den, she found Thrushnose alone. Deciding to ask the warrior to come, she cleared her throat. "Uh, Thrushnose, do you want to go herb hunting with me?"

-

Griffon had been stationed near the exit of camp today. He was supposed to keep anyone from leaving without Asylum escort. His ears perked up as he heard a she-cat asking Thrushnose to go on a herb hunt. He walked over, tail swishing. She was one of the medicine cats he had seen. They tended to the sick and injured. The young tom was no expert, but Standard training included a little healing, and he knew basic herb remedies. "I’ll have to come with you." He said, trying to sound intimidating, like the older Nightstrikers. He couldn’t show them weakness, he had to seem strong. Then they would know that the Asylum was good. He had to convince them, it had become a bit of a personal mission. He felt compelled to do so, they had done so much for him. Without them, he would be dead. They had taken him in and given him a family. That was all they were tying to do for the clans, yet they didn’t accept that.

The voice jolted Thrushnose out of her daze. She turned, unwinding her tail from its place around her paws, to find Daisybloom. Faint confusion passed across her face. What could a medicine cat want with her? Daisybloom left her little time to wonder. Herb hunts, like any other kind of patrol, could be dangerous, more so with Asylum prowling over every inch of the forest. Thrushnose had never helped gather herbs before…but she was a quick learner. “Sure,” she said, and pushed herself to her feet. “You’ll have to tell me what I’m looking for, though.”

No sooner had she said that than an Asylum cat appeared, so well-timed Thrushnose wondered if he’d been listening in. Few things got under her skin, generally; she’d discovered that being under constant supervision by Pinefrost and Nettlestar’s killers was one of those things. She leveled a look that could only be called “pointedly neutral” in the Asylum cat’s direction. “Who are you?” He sounded young—younger than her, even. That didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat.

Daisybloom smiled and nodded. It was only a few seconds after she spoke that an Asylum cat approached, and she looked back at him startled. "Oh, uh, er, you could help too? M-maybe?" she blurted out, her words growing into a nervous mumble. She had seen these cats kill Nettlestar, and she knew they were powerful. Their new rules made it so you couldn’t leave camp without an escort, which was one of the medicine cat’s least favorite changes to the clan.

Answering the younger toms question, she mewed her name. Not wanting to waste anymore time, she turned and lead the trio off to a area to look for herbs. Turning to Thrushnose, she said, "A lot of plants you can find can be used, so j-just show me and I’ll make sure." In a patch of grass, the tabby spotted a flower. Inspecting the plant and realizing it was burnet, she grabbed a few and started a pile.

-

Griffon met the warrior’s eyes, looking determinedly back at her. "I’m Griffon." He introduced himself. "And you are?" Inquired the young tom, still trying to sound like the fiercest of the Nightstrikers. He wanted his position to be known, especially amongst the older cats. With the younger cats he didn’t care as much. They were easier to be around, easier to speak too. Of course, the easiest were the Asylum cats back at his home. Oh, how he wished he was there. Looking back towards the more nervous she-cat, he let his face slip into a smile. "Sure. I know a bit about herbs myself."

He followed after Daisybloom and Thrushnose, trying to keep up with their longer stides. As they reached a stop, he looked around, trying to find one of the more common herbs he had seen before. The young tom almost squashed the first herb he found, but he looked down just in time to move his paw. Although he didn’t know it by name, he knew it was useful, and grabbed a few of the spiky leaves to add to the pile.

The member 'flying reindeer' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 2, 5

Having a name to match the Asylum cat’s face shouldn’t have mattered, but something in Thrushnose’s head insisted that a threat with a name was easier to deal with than one without. At the very least, it meant Griffon was willing to be civil about this—and she could be civil in turn. The set of her shoulders loosened. “Thrushnose,” she meowed, with the slightest incline of her head toward Griffon. Asylum had shown their strength and cunning the day of the invasion; since then, they’d proven themselves capable of hunting and fighting on par with warriors as well. That a few of them might know herbs, like Griffon claimed to, seemed reasonable enough. Besides, an extra nose would be useful.

Daisybloom led them out of camp. Thrushnose followed close behind, measuring her pace to keep herself between Griffon and her medicine cat. The instructions were simple enough; still, it made her wish she’d paid more attention during the long nights she’d spent in the medicine den moons ago. Keeping one eye on Daisybloom, she drifted off to poke her nose into the nearest promising-looking patch of plant life. A flash of deep blue caught her eye, and she turned to see a cluster of star-shaped flowers. Not sure which part of the plant to take, Thrushnose snapped the stems off as close to the ground as she could. In the time she’d spent searching, Daisybloom had assembled a modest pile of herbs. After some uncertain hovering in front of the pile, unwilling to drop the plants in before knowing if they were useful, Thrushnose laid the flowers a pawstep away. “Are these any good?”

The member 'rhindon' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 2

Daisybloom looked back towards the warrior, eyeing the herbs she had collected. She nodded. Thrushnose had found some borage, which created milk for queens. It was always useful, especially when new litters were on the way. She kept looking for more plants, keeping one of her eyes trained on Griffon. She wasn’t sure if she could ever truly be trusting of the Asylum, and it made her feel better to know where he was.

Near a small puddle, she found a yellow flower and picked it up, grabbing a few more in the process.

Marigold. Treats infection. Stops bleeding. Helps stiff joints. the tabby recited mentally. She did this often, just to keep her memory fresh, and her mind off other things. As she went through the herb and its uses, she could almost forget all about her worries and recent events.
-

As the two Thunderclanners exchanged words, Griffon felt the heat of a gaze on his back. He knew they were looking at him, watching him. Did they really not trust him that much? Sure, he hadn’t been a part of their clan, but they were all together now. Surely she didn’t look at cats of her clan that way? He didn’t want to react, though. He didn’t want her to know he was weak, that he cared about such small things. He searched for herbs in silence, every so often meandering back to the pile to place them down.

Griffon spotted a small patch of color and headed towards it, curiously. He smiled when he found the tansy, and grabbed a few of its yellow leaves which he had initially spotted. It seemed his healing training as a Standard was starting to pay off. If he and his factionmates helped what had once been Thunderclan, they might be more trusting of the Asylum. And that was his goal, wasn’t it?

The member 'flying reindeer' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 2, 3

The moment Daisybloom nodded, Thrushnose’s uneasy expression morphed into a small smile. Later, she’d have to learn more about the star-shaped plant she’d found, both to satisfy her curiosity and to use for future reference. For now, she understood the plant was useful, and that knowledge was all that mattered. It gave her somewhere to start in the sea of green before her. Those plants were the first of their kind she’d noticed here; maybe there were more. With a sideways glance at Griffon as he passed her, holding a bunch of yellow leaves, she padded away from the herb pile, and her search resumed.

The next plant she found was nothing like the star-shaped ones; however, its bright yellow petals were still familiar. Though she didn’t know its name (not quite goldenrod; maybe marigold?), she recognized it from the many poultices the medicine cats had pressed into her back after the dogs left. Snagging a mouthful mostly made up of petals, Thrushnose trotted back to the pile.

The member 'rhindon' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 3

ooc: whenever you want to wrap this up, just let me know! it can go on for however long you want

Daisybloom had grow noticeably less tense throughout the herb hunt. Although she didn’t exactly welcome Griffon’s preference, he wasn’t the worst cat one could be stuck with. He actually helped, and didn’t make scathing remarks or threaten the she-cats. It seemed the bar was on the ground, any half-decent cat would be alright. It wasn’t like it normally was, for sure, but it was alright. Almost normal, almost like it used to be.

Her eyes caught on a rock with a plant sprouting from it. Padding closer, she recognized the chickweed. She smiled. The plant was doing what her clan had to do, to keep going even when things got tough. It was almost as if it were a sign, that life could grow even now. Feeling more motivated and a bit more cheerful, she hummed quietly as she added the leaves to the pile. It was good she found it now, greencough season was coming.

-

Griffon was just glad there wasn’t any trouble. He was glad nobody tried anything, and these she-cats seemed pretty reasonable. They didn’t speak much as they went along, but that was alright with him. It was only when his paws weren’t moving, weren’t doing something that he itched for conversation. So pretty much all of his time in Thunderclan camp. To be fair, he didn’t always make a huge effort to start a conversation, but he often wished someone would approach him. He didn’t want to force someone to speak with him.

Color was what had led the younger tom to a few plants now. He liked the way it struck his eye. He would never tell anyone this, but sometimes when he found an especially pretty feather, stone, or petal, he would store it in his nest, buried deep in the moss. He had brought some over to Thunderclan, and it made him a bit more cheerful. He trotted over towards the purple flower, grabbing a few petals and putting them near a base of a large tree, hoping he would remember to grab them. He grabbed a few more of the plant and added them to the herb pile.

The member 'flying reindeer' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 6, 5

ooc: maybe we could wrap it up in the next few posts?

To a cat who’d never helped collect herbs before, the pile the three of them had assembled seemed fairly impressive for how long they’d been working. Even the Asylum cat was pulling his weight despite Thrushnose’s reservations. He could still be planning to stage an ambush or confiscate the herbs for his leader, but so far, he hadn’t done anything suspicious aside from carrying Asylum’s scent. Though it wasn’t enough to convince her to lower her guard, it made her think…maybe they could push through this. ThunderClan could survive. It wouldn’t always be the takeover’s chaos or the fur-prickling feeling of being watched.

Her paws shuffled quietly across dried grass as she searched. Nothing here, nothing there… If she was passing useful herbs, she didn’t them as such. At last, she spotted something tall and green poking out from between two rocks. The shape seemed oddly familiar. Thrushnose paused, frowning; then she rushed back to the pile. Sure enough, the fat leaves of the plant she’d just found looked a lot like the ones Daisybloom had just dropped on top of the heap. She spun on her heel and hurried to the rocks. Wedging her paw between them took some work, and reaching the plant itself wasn’t any easier, but in the end, she returned to the pile with a decent-sized chunk of the plant’s stem and all of its attached leaves.

The member 'rhindon' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 6