February Gathering 2022

Mottlepaw had followed into the gathering with the rest of the apprentices. Given that her current mentor was the leader, she felt wrong walking alongside him. Keeping up towards the rear, she watched in amazement at just how many cats there all were. Finding a spot within her Clan's crowd, Mottlepaw simply allowed herself to observe and take everything in.

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Mallowpaw was extremely excited. Near all of the apprentices, she kept itching to be towards the front. She had heard about the Gathering going on, and was extremely excited to get to go. "Oh my gosh, I can't wait to meet everyone!"


Mallowpaw and Mottlepaw are open to talk to!

Generally, Newtspring tuned out the sound of pawsteps at Gatherings– there were far too many cats moving about to pay any attention to the constant sounds. But one marching step in particular was coming right for him, shouldering through whatever cats were in the way to come grinning right up to him. The large warrior's ears lowered briefly as he studied her, then he shrugged, regretfully deciding there could be worse company.

"'M Newtspring. SkyClan. Best Clan, 'n' all." A barking laugh left him, quickly devolving into a snort. "I'd love to let ya cheer me up kit, but I don't think yer Clan would love me too much if I started sendin' their apprentices on mouse-hunts lookin' for my family." Amber eyes flickered over Daisypaw, and Newtspring's breath billowed in front of him as he let out a heavy breath. A quiet nod next to him, an invitation for the little she-cat to sit; at least conversation could keep his brain busy, whether he wanted to talk or not.

Though it was likely that her new ruffled companion's attempt of a feigned bite was meant to ward her away, Elkpaw found it did little to dampen the deep-run trait of self-assuredness that coiled tightly within her veins. Instead of respecting the ruffled ginger's bidding for space, the scruffy little molly instead dropped down in close proximity to her self-declared friend, a secondary tremor roiling up her spine at the contact with sodden snow. Being spoken to with little caring for sacred formality or false manners felt normal, like how Crickethop and her friends would nip at her heels with little regard; it felt normal, thawed away the ring of anxiety that clung to her worried heart.

"It's not like every cat and their ancestor feels the need to sit as close together as possible- have you seen how difficult it is to move around out there?" Elkpaw complained, heavy voice sharp against the mouthful of pristine teeth flashed in a little frown, "Why would I bother trotting at the heels of my Clanmates for the entire evening as though I was a shaky-legged kit? I thought we were supposed to socialize- ya know, something something learn about other Clans type deal."

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Elkpaw continues to chat with/torture Fawnpaw!

Snowpaw had hung back, staying near Frostgaze, but she knew she couldn’t just stick with him, since he would be with the other deputies. She lifted her gaze from her shaky paws to the throng of cats present for the Gathering. Her first Gathering, to be exact, since she’d joined ShadowClan. She knew she should mingle and learn about the other Clans, but she couldn’t get up the courage to just prance up to some strange cat and start a conversation. Finally Snowpaw spotted her friend Deerpaw in the crowd, talking to a young warrior. She silently weaved through the crowd, whiskers twitching, and approached the two. “Deerpaw, there you are. Would you mind introducing me?” Her formal tone felt a little odd but still better than being overly casual.

Snowpaw has approached Deerpaw and Rabbitchaser.

Starlingflare had followed the rest of Thunderclan into the gahtering. Being more happier than some of his clanmates who were still grieving over their former leader's death. He wasn't ever close to Minkstar, even going as far as disagreeing with some of what the leader did, like letting in those fish faced cats that were formerly Riverclan. Who cares if they were starving? Thunderclan didn't need more mouths to feed when the already small clan couldn't even feed themselves. Thorns.. Minkstar was so stupid.

The dilute tom settled down among the rest of the clans, not really paying any mind to any particular cat. Yellow eye turned towards the great rock. If someone wanted to speak to him, they would have to approach him themselves.

Starlingflare is open to talk.
Batglow is at camp tending to wounded.
Dovefrost is on the herb patrol.

Shypaw let out a small silent sigh of relief when Webshadow appeared, the quiet tom giving her a nod as he sat beside her. Shypaw gave him a grateful blink, sitting and curling her slender tail over her small white paws, silvery eyes fixed on the great rock. She caught Frostgaze's cool searching eyes landing on Webshadow and a smile curled her maw.

Smallbean stood on the outskirts of the clearing, slowly edging his way into the crowd. Obviously, he had forgotten how much he hated being around this many cats. It made him feel sick to his stomach. Still, he dared to move closer. He had wanted to work on his social skills for ages, and there was no better time than now to do so. There were many cats who hadn't ever heard his name before. He took a deep breath and plunged into the crowd- only to run squarely into a large tom. "O-Oh, uh... HI?" He looked up at the tom in a panic. He was intimidating. "Hello, uhm... sorry, I'm S-Smallbean. What's... your name?" At least he tried.



Smallbean has run into Starlingflare

It appeared that no one knew the answer to that question. "Yeah, I suppose so." the apprentice mewed quietly in response. Another voice piped up beside the she-cat, an apprentice. Listening as the tom corrected himself, he realized that this tom was one of Stoatfur's litter. His mentor had never told him about his relationship with Appledapple, but it didn't bother him. "I'm sure he knows we're here. He just... doesn't express it as obviously." he reassured the younger apprentice.

Minnowpaw is responding to Appledapple and Softpaw.

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Her cheery call did not go unnoticed, the tom glancing up at her, ears lowered slightly. To her joy, the tom responded with an introduction as well. "Nice to meet you!" So the tom was from Skyclan. Newtspring was his name? Huh. The warrior's funny laugh made the apprentice smile in amusement. "Well, I guess I can't go looking for your family right now, but I'm sure I could find some other way to cheer you up... but if you don't mind me asking, what happened to your family?" was her inquisitive response.

Daisypaw is still talking with Newtspring and is enjoying herself!

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Her mother's tail brushed against her flank and wide yellow eyes took in the impossibly large number of cats all in one clearing. Searching eyes confirmed what her Swanmist said. "I was hoping to see him..." she mewed, disappointment evident in her voice. She didn't dare nor have the want to bring up their father, instead looking for a friendly face in the crowd. She spotted her former mentor, Bearspirit pushing another she-cat she didn't recognize around.

Flurrypaw is open to talk to.

Appledapple nodded in agreement with the other toms' points. "He knows, the big--" She remembered her adopted son was watching. "--the big ball of fuzz," she finished, refraining from calling him "mouse-brain" or "coward" like she was disposed to do in her internal monologue. "Sometimes he just forgets. And it isn't easy for him to express his feelings, or ask for help. We'll just have to be there for him anyway." Of course, it was far easier said than done, which she knew. But she couldn't help but think of how many troubles could probably be avoided if the coward would just make his feelings known to people. It was okay to yell sometimes, to feel sometimes, to fight sometimes. As a leader now, he did need control more than ever, but he also needed to let loose when he was with people he trusted. And unfortunately... she might not be on that list.

Appledapple is talking to Minnowpaw and Softpaw.

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Perchfall glanced over to see the new arrivals by the deputies' spot, and was surprised to see Stoatfur and Goldenfang jump on top of the Great Rock alongside the other leaders. From hushed voices, she gathered that Stoatfur must now be Stoatstar-- but if that was the case, why had he not appointed a deputy yet? Goldenstar (as she must be now) certainly had, as proved by the self-satisfied looking young tom that strutted over to their spot. He really looked quite full of himself, and Perchfall was soured towards his disposition immediately. Good grief, just what we needed.

The gray-and-white she-cat offered a solemn nod to Frostgaze, one of the few recognizable faces, as he approached. "Good to see you," she offered quietly, her voice neutral. Then her icy blue eyes flitted over to the newcomer, looking him up and down calculatedly. "And you are?" she inquired, not impolitely, but with no hint of warmth in her tone or expression. That was just typical for her, not any specific dislike towards the tom, but she knew it might come out that way.

Perchfall is talking to Frostgaze and Shrikestorm.

Shrikestorm was surprised for a moment by the tone that came from the RiverClan deputy. It wasn't rude exactly, but there was no warmth there. It was as if he was an enemy, which he supposed, in a way, he was. Then again, what rift did WindClan and RiverClan have? If this was SkyClan, then there would certainly be some fireworks. He almost laughed aloud in remembrance, but kept it down so as not to get any questions asked.

"Shrikestorm. I'm the new WindClan deputy." There was no need to go into specifics. No matter how excited he was, he knew there would be questions, and he had to only say what was necessary. Keep things close to the chest, as it were. Especially if the other deputies weren't exactly friendly. "The Gathering does look different from here," he admitted, looking around at all the cats from a new point of view.

Softpaw nodded looking at the small tom standing with the other leaders. He wished so much he could help his dad in any way through this.

He nodded an gave a grin to Minnowpaw
yeah I think you are right I just hope he does what mom mentioned and asks for help when he needs it. he responded ... after a pause he fixed his statement...

what appledapple mentioned he said in a quieter more somber voice he said with a sigh.

He really did not enjoy having to call them by their clan names, it felt so formal and he was not the formal type... rather they type to say whatever came to his head first. Speak first think second stricktly in that order. In a certain way he had gotten a bit of that from appledapple by watching how she handled situations... she never seemed scared to say things how they were straight up.

Softpaw is talking with appledapple and minnowpaw?

OOC: I dunno if minnowpaw is still app at this point or what ... am pretty sure he is.

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Batpaw gave slightpaw a glance as scorchpaw walked away... "hmm that could be fun... I bet I could beat you in a race.... even if you are the better fighter" she purred quietly in a playful flirting manner.
"us windclan cats are known to be pretty fast." she gave him a playful head bonk into his shoulder purring quietly.

Batpaw is talking with sligthpaw
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Deerpaw nodded. “Rabbitchaser, this is my friend Snowpaw. Snowpaw, this is Rabbitchaser of Skyclan,” she announced. Hopefully they would get along.

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Slightpaw nodded to Batpaw’s statement. Even though he was larger than her, he was a bit heavy on his paws. No way he could race any Windclan cat. “I’ll climb trees faster than you any time,” he added, not wanting to seem weak.

Deerpaw is talking to Snowpaw and Rabbitchaser
Slightpaw is talking to Batpaw and Scorchpaw
Reedpaw is open to interactions.

Batpaw giggled at his remark and nodded. She looked into his deep blue eyes, a wave of happiness overtaking her of course... there are not really any trees in windclan she said with a giggle.

Batpaw subtly realized something that made her very happy... Her stutter was completely gone when talking with Sligthpaw. She had gotten comfortable enough around him that it had disappeared when speaking with him.

She felt giddy for the first time in a long time. She felt her fur warm up.

Rabbitchaser smiled at the new apprentice that had joined them. Deerpaw had gotten the introductions out of the way, so Rabbitchaser just dipped her head. "It's nice to meet you, Snowpaw! I was just about to tell Deerpaw what being a warrior was like!"

Turning to be facing both of the apprentices, Rabbitchaser spun her tales as best as she could. "Being a warrior is a really big deal. You don't have to wait for your mentor to go out, you can take anyone you like. And you get to fight all these cool beasts! Did you know that I took down two dogs, all on my own! I even got this cool scar from it!" She showed her leg, where the dog had grabbed her. Of course, the molly elected not to mention that there was a huge patrol, or that she had passed out before she could even land a hit. She wanted to seem cool!

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Mistysky hummed in response to Hollyleaf. So, RiverClan was in poor condition? That was unfortunate. It seemed as if every Clan was struggling. "WindClan is, admittedly, going through some hardship as well. Let us hope that both of our Clans can recover then?"

She had heard of the tale when RiverClan had given WindClan aid in desperate times. Perhaps if they had not been suffering from illness, WindClan could have returned the favor with whatever struggle RiverClan was going through. But then again, she did not even know what their struggle was, and she was not keen to ask. She did not wish to tell how bad the illness was in her Clan, so she would not ask the same of another cat. It seemed as though both of the cats would suffer in silence, although she sent up a silent prayer to StarClan for a swift recovery for both Clans.

Beginning to get bored, Sootpaw looked around for someone to talk to. He wasn't exactly keen on chatting with cats from other clans, but he supposed he ought to at least learn about them in case he were to meet them in battle one day. He pushed his way through the crowd, settling his gaze on the first unoccupied cat he saw, who happened to be a gray-brown cat he'd never met before. Striding up to the cat, he introduced himself, his tail twitching warily.

"Hello. I'm Sootpaw. From Shadowclan. Who're you?"

He noticed some of the senior warriors keep a professional tone when speaking to cats from other clans, so he kept his voice flat and neutral. While he spoke he kept a safe distance from the apprentice's claws; he didn't expect every cat to be as honorable as Shadowclan.
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Scorchpaw walked around aimlessly, the race long-forgotten. When he'd been unable to round up enough cats within a few heartbeats of searching, boredom had taken over and completely pushed the idea from his mind. A slight breeze rattling the branches of the great oaks overhead drew his attention upwards, the brilliance of the full moon immediately entrancing him. He was so distracted that he didn't realize he was standing next to a Riverclan apprentice until he had almost crashed into her.

"Oops, sorry I didn't see you there! I'm Scorchpaw, what's your name?" He asked, his ears perked in cheerful curiosity.

Sootpaw has approached Cinderpaw!

Scorchpaw is trying to start a conversation with Mallowpaw!