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It had been three days since she had been in NightClan camp. She had given him plenty of time to get out. When she returned as she saw his face, she realized just how stupid her brother is. If he had any sense of self-preservation, he would have gone before it was his blood that was spilled. Any patience she had, any willingness to play his games, was gone, replaced by a horrific fire burning in her eyes, a burn that said : challenge me, I dare you. It was the same look she'd given the Loyal Guard when she instructed them to retrieve the medicine cat and meet her, Phantomfox and Larkspur in the leader's den. They all should have known this was coming, just as much as Pinesimmer should have. Normally, she let her brother slide, mostly because she didn't care. That had been amplified since the day StarClan had ordained him. Her time caring what StarClan did or did not have to say was over. They could smite her for all she cared; Pinesimmer was not going to get out scotch free. There were already a list of cats that wanted him dead, and she had half a mind to take turns swinging. But, that would be too easy for him, dangerous for NightClan. The danger to NightClan was the only real thing that saved him; he had a skill no one else had, and he had an apprentice. Until Jackdawpaw, the tom who sat next to Larkspur in the den, was trained, Pinesimmer still had a use.
Seeing the Loyal Guard file into the den, their prisoner in tow, made Aspenstar legitimately smile, the kind of smile that suggested that a part of her, the part that gripped tightly to devotion, was gone, ripped from her in the same way her sight was. "Well, well, well, if it isn't our guest of honor," she purred at her brother, her left eye twitching slightly at the desperate urge she had to give him a matching blindness. "Please, make yourself at home. I promise this will be the last time you are ever comfortable."
She then motioned for the guard to sit. "Make sure the exit to the den is closed. I will reveal the contents of our discussion to the clan once the details have been ironed out. Until then, nothing leaves this room, do you understand?"
The second Pinesimmer was pushed into the den and allowed to detach from the sides of his guards, he would find himself pressed into the dirt, lucky only for the fact that he was still on top of it rather than buried six feet under. The entirety of Phantomfox's weight crushed him beneath him, his claws embedded into Pinesimmer's skin. "Comfy yet, babe?" he snarled.
Post by Honeystorm on Jun 24, 2021 11:39:48 GMT -5
"Such a kind way to talk to someone who saved your life." Pinesimmer spat from his place in the earth, glaring up at Aspenstar. He tried to wriggle a bit, but Phantomfox had him in too tight a grip. "No wonder our siblings are dead, they'd rather be in StarClan than deal with an ungrateful brat like you. Try to help you and this is the thanks I get?" Whether he was telling the truth or not.... who knew, honestly. But it seemed to be the story he was going with.
Jackdawpaw raised his paw, "Hi, yeah, so does this place have snacks and why are we here?"
At first, being locked up in a den with some of the coolest people, plus that guy Pinesimmer was pretty cool. But then the realization that he didn't see any snacks suddenly made him alert. Like, how was he supposed to make important decisions if he missed his snack time? Not to mention he had no clue what was going on, but was willing to just go along with it. After all, when he had the whole medicine cat den to himself it wasn't like he was going to complain and ask why Pinesimmer wasn't there. You just don't question good things that come into your life.
Larkspur hisses at Pinesimmer's comment, and without thinking she swats him over the head. A few times, for good measure, surprisingly rough for the fact she didn't use her claws. Later, she would thank Phantomfox for holding him captive, but for now she would enjoy the fact she could so easily bonk him. "Hush, traitor," her blue eyes are alight with fury, the fur on the back of her neck prickling. She shoots Jackdawpaw a glare as well, harsher than she would have if this was any other situation. As she realizes what she has done, her gaze softens, and she touches her tail tip to his shoulder before redirecting her furious gaze to Pinesimmer. She stayed close to Aspenstar's side but at a professional distance, ready to jump in front of her if she had to.
Violetglass gave Jackdawpaw a dark look. "Do you apprentices ever talk about anything other than food?" she asked drily. "Or have you merely been hanging out with Crystalpaw and Berrypaw too much?" Her stomach rumbled loudly, and she blushed.
Aspenstar's ear flicked at the mention of Crystalpaw and Berrypaw, although her gaze stayed locked on Pinesimmer. In a quick motion, she padded over to him. She had left NightClan for three days to ensure that she didn't kill him, but that didn't mean that she wasn't going to harm him. While he was crushed under Phantomfox's weight, she took the opportunity to lean down to him. "If you ever talk to me like that again," she murmured in his ear, "I will tear off each and every one of your claws and then feed them to you." As if to solidify her threat, the she-cat slammed her paw onto his, unsheathing her claws into his foot. Being cut right on bone was never the most pleasant experience, and she made sure that her claws would draw blood. If it wasn't for Jackdawpaw, she would have taken a claw of his as a promise.
She then removed herself from Pinesimmer, retreating back to where she had originally sat. "Tonight, we must decide what to do with the traitor. As you all know by now, Pinesimmer has committed the ultimate act of treason against NightClan and against me." Her words were cold and flat, her gaze burning. "As a result of his actions, I have been permanently disfigured. It is only because of SunClan that I was able to walk out of the situation without losing my life. Although Pinesimmer has gone largely unpunished before," by Aspenstar at least, "I cannot and will not let this stand."
She then softened slightly, turning slightly. "Violetglass, go grab a squirrel for you and Jackdawpaw. I wouldn't want hunger to be a distraction from the fun." When speaking to her former mentor, her tone had changed. She wasn't angry with anyone else in the den, and she didn't want them to think she was.
Pinesimmer gritted his teeth, biting down hard enough that he tasted blood when Aspenstar clawed him, but refused to give her a reaction. It helped that this was less painful than the broken legs. "And you wonder why our siblings are dead, when you fly in the face of StarClan at every turn." His voice was low and bitter, lacking the usual arrogance in favor of what appeared to be actual dissapointment, or perhaps inner hurt. "StarClan, they told me you'd die if I didn't come to help you. And for once in my life I put aside my own pride, because guess what, I didn't want to bury another littermate. Shocking. It's true enough though. And instead, you put your faith into a clan that would happily see you dead if you don't convert, or would love to manipulate you into destroying NightClan for your benefit. I could have saved your eye, and yet, you refused to return and now won't even hear me out."
The tom shifted, well, as much as he was able, just barely able to look Aspenstar in the eyes from the angle. "But you don't care. You've never cared about me. I may be a brat to you who constantly embarrasses and mocks you, but that is nothing, NOTHING compared to what you've condoned against me. You've let me be beat within an inch of my life. You've cried over our siblings while practically saying to my face that you wished I would have died instead. And then you wonder why I'd resent you, why I think you're bad for NightClan, when you prove to NightClan that you're not above killing your own blood to get what you want, all to save yourself from from miniscule amount of social pushback. And you use that as justification for your own sadistic pleasure." He laid his head back down on the ground, but his anger and pain shone brightly in his eyes. It was impossible to tell if he was telling the truth or not.
"But you won't listen. You never have, never will, will you? I was willing to die to save your lives, but you won't ever be willing to do the same for me."
In the before times, Aspenstar would have screamed. All of NightClan would have been assaulted by the sound of her inhuman shriek of anger. There was still a part of her that really wanted to, wanted to let out a truly horrific roar, but she wouldn't. Just as he did not want to give her the satisfaction of a reaction, the new and improved Aspenstar refused to allow him the satisfaction of seeing her wince.
Instead, she blinked slowly, before composing herself with a breath. "Has StarClan given me any reason not to? I have done everything, everything that they have asked of me. I stayed away from the non-believers, I exiled the elementals who posed a challenge to the clan's alleigence to the clan, I let you become my medicine cat, and what? What, Pinesimmer, has it gotten me?" If he had ever heard true exasperation in her voice, it was now. "There is a pile of bodies that have dropped in the last moon that I can't count on my fingers. The water has claimed more lives than anything else. After all I've done, they still turn their backs on us. Why shouldn't I defy them? God knows they don't give a damn when I do everything right."
She paused for a moment, her single working eye turning away from him just long enough that she could return to where she had been seated. "First, before I even begin, I think that it's ironic that you think I've done this all to you. The very fact you are alive in this room right now says that although you frankly make me want to kill myself most days, I don't want you dead. See these faces around you? There are at least two of them that would love the opportunity to take you down. Hell, the buddy that's sitting on you right now, the only reason he isn't breaking your ribs is because I will not let him." She let out a cold laugh, shaking her head. "You aren't innocent in any of this, Pinesimmer. You are the one that makes other cats hate you. You're surprised that no one wants to put up with you? It's not my fault that you act the way you do. I will protect your life, Pinesimmer, but I will not protect you from the consequences of your actions."
If anything, I've enabled you. I've allowed you become the cat you are today because I didn't put a stop to your behavior sooner. She didn't say the words, instead only sighed.
"Stop acting like you've given me any reason too listen to you, Pinesimmer? At every single turn, you've been there to undermine me. You have sewn seeds of dissidence in my clan.Why would I suddenly believe that you were saving my life ?" She scoffed, her head shaking. "It's almost laughable. You tell me to listen, but what have you ever done to make it so I should listen to you? Even before I commited all of these supposed crimes against you, you made it your god foresaken life's mission to make my life as miserable as possible. What about any of that makes you trustable?"
"Everything? When you keep around a tom who took his lives and dipped out of leadership because all he ever had was brute force and not a lot of brain to go around? When you kept around a medicine cat for a long time who didn't care to follows StarClan's orders? When you started an alliance with a cult whose leaders have all been happy to throw StarClan believing felines to the rats? You only let me become Medicine Cat because you exiled the other one and NEED me to train a successor. You never followed StarClan, Aspenstar, except when it convenienced you. The second it causes you any problem, it gets thrown to the wayside. That's how you've always been. Use something, someone until they breaks and then blame them instead of taking responsibility for breaking it in the first place." Pinesimmer countered.
"After all, it's always been about you, hasn't it? Ever since we were kits, it's always been 'why can't you be more like your sister Aspen' and when we listened it was 'stop copying me, get your own life!'. It's 'oh your sister is so perfect', 'you're so lucky to be Aspen's sister', and 'ugh, why do I have to play with you' because you never wanted to spend time with your lesser siblings. And our parents always coddled you. You've been handed every single thing you ever got in life. Every single ounce of praise our parents ever gave was yours, the admiration of the clan, hell, even the rank of LEADERSHIP was simply handed to you. There's not one thing I could do, no matter how perfect it was, that could compare to anything you ever did, even if you just sat around and breathed. What did being nice ever get ME Aspenstar? Ignored? Ridiculed because I didn't dare to be born as YOU? The only thing that ever got me even an ounce of acknowledgement was pissing someone off." He was sick of it. Sick of her better-than-thou attitude, when she'd been the princess, when she never had to try to get adoration, when her prim and perfect life where everything went her way and anyone who looked at her wrong deserved to be beaten, broken, abused. "If I was going to get in trouble simply for existing in your space, I may as well give them a reason to hate me." The lanky tom spat.
"Even when our siblings died, it's 'you need to be strong for your sister', 'oh your poor sister, I hope she's doing okay', 'don't cause any trouble for Aspen, she's grieving'. WELL WHAT ABOUT ME? NOT ONE PERSON HAS ASKED ME HOW I'M DOING SINCE I LOST THE ONLY CATS, THE ONLY SIBLINGS OF MINE, WHO ACTUALLY GAVE A MOUSEDUNG ABOUT ME. NOT EVEN YOU, BECAUSE ALL YOU COULD EVER THINK ABOUT WAS HOW HURT YOU WERE. And it's so much easier to just pass me off as the bad guy when you never wanted anything to do with me unless you could use me as a prop, and then turn around and say 'he was just born an intolerable monster'. 'Pinesimmer sowed seeds of dissent'. HAH. PLEASE. I called out the fact you picked out cats for your ranks only cause they dream about having your kits? For telling everyone you're an unfit leader because you hide the fact you DIED from them? FROM ME. YOU THINK I WOULDN'T HAVE WANTED TO CHECK THAT YOU WERE OKAY? INSTEAD I HAD TO HEAR IT FROM THE MEDICINE CAT BECAUSE YOU HATE ME SO MUCH THAT I'M NEVER ALLOWED TO SHOW AN OUNCE OF CARE. BUT ONLY MY ANGER EVER COUNTS. Because when I show care, when I try to save your life, it has to be something else right? I have to be trying to kill you, just because a tyrant tells you so. StarClan has to be SOOOO bad for wanting you to survive, despite you being ready to throw them away. But I have to be grateful right? Grateful that you let me be beat near to death, and 'SAVED' me by doing the bare minimum of not letting me get killed and getting me medical attention and I could have easily died or never walked again? What punishment did Phantomfox ever face for any of it? I'm supposed to be ohhhh so thankful that you're not letting said cat who tried to murder me once, and is openly happy to attempt it again, that you're not 'letting' him break my bones after saving you life. WOW, Aspenstar, you clearly have your own clan under control." If Pinesimmer were anyone else, his voice box would have broken about now, but considering he made his entire life about not ever shutting up, this was all in a days work, one could suppose.
"How about you tell me this, Aspenstar? Why would I try to kill you in front of a whole group of cats? You and I both know NightClan would believe anyone, even SunClan, over me, any day of the week. You have multiple lives, I have one, in how many scenarios do I make it out alive, and you lose every life and never tell the tale of how I murdered you? Why would I pick your fight with a dog, when there's plenty of poisons in NightClan I could slip into your prey. This position is the first and only time ANYONE had ever acknowledged I can do something you can't. I learned healing in record time, while I couldn't even stand and was in constant pain. You never even gave me so much as a sarcastic congratulations, let alone a genuine one. NightClan can't stand me, but even they've had to pretend to be nice, and have to admit I have skills when they come to me because they can't even get a simple thorn out of their pad. StarClan acknowledged me, told me I meant something, and it's the first time in my life to not be compared to YOU. I would give up my one chance to be recognized as something more than scum that doesn't deserve to be related to the 'perfect Aspenstar', give up my opportunity to finally have a path to myself that you can't follow or lay claim to. For what? Have the 'satisfaction' of you losing ONE of your lives if I was lucky before I get tortured and publicly executed? Never in my life have I ever been a physical threat to you, and you know it. You like to prove it often enough. I know you think I'm just some stupid lowlife who doesn't deserve anything. And yet, for that, you're giving me a lot of credit to think I could mastermind dissent in NightClan, almost succeed in murdering you, and craft together all these lies about my innocence. You can't have it both ways. Either I'm SO smart and cunning and capable that I'm a genuine threat, or I'm just your stupid brother with an attitude problem. And you've never treated me like anything but the latter. So I pass it back onto you. Do you actually think I'm capable of all of this? And if I am, what do I get out of this? Are you really so arrogant as to think your death by my paws is worth so much I'd risk my position over it? Because whether you believe me when I say this or not, killing you is worth nothing to me. Since you seem so insistent on stating you want me alive, the second you die your final death, I die, because if you have that much control over Phantomfox, he's not going to hold back when you're dead. And whatever satisfaction you think I get from your death, it's not worth dying over. Get over yourself. You're not as important as you think you are. The clans do NOT revolve around you."
Aspenstar waved her tail, motioning Phantomfox to release Pinesimmer from his grasp. For the briefest of moments, there was a great distance in her eyes, a moment where she was lost deep within the caverns of her mind. Her visible eye closed and her jaw tensed. She was having a crisis, a war in her mind. There was one part of her that was enraged. The absolute audacity was astonishing. What was the tom even expecting her to say? Sorry for being better than you? Sorry for working harder and better than you? Sorry that you think I got handed things? Have you ever thought just for once that maybe I didn't want this? Maybe, just maybe, this was not how I expected my life would turn out? That part of her fumed, the part of her that was a hurt child. That part of her genuinely saw herself as the hero of the story. She was doing her god damned best. If she had just been handed the position, did he not understand that that meant she was woefully unprepared? Never once had she asked to be put in the positions that she had been put into. She didn't ask the world to love her. She didn't ask to suddenly bear the weight of an entire clan that was being slowly crushed. That part of her was so angry. At him for not seeing this, seeing that she was a victim.
As the angry child this part of her was, that part of her wanted to laugh. You don't think the clans revolve around me? Well, this one does. Whether you like it or not, this is not your game. You will lose. I will crush you every single time, Pinesimmer. You know it. You know it and you're jealous. You've always been jealous. You think I pick my staff to play a perverted game of house? Have you ever thought once that these were strategic decisions? Phantomfox was skilled and kept cats in line. Perhaps it wasn't the most ethical way of doing things, but in order to be strong, there could be no division. NightClan had to be one in everything that it did, everything that it was. Phantomfox ensured that there was no dissidence. He also provided the ability to sharpen the skills of every cat in the group. He was a battle captain, and under his guidance, NightClan would turn into a war machine that no one would challenge. Then, only when NightClan was powerful, would they know peace. Larkspur was tempered, diplomatic, even. She was easily likeable, yet incredibly dedicated. The exact kind of cat that she needed at her side: dependable in every aspect. You think I defy StarClan? Are you absolutely daft? Are you kidding me? What did you want me to do, Pinesimmer? Tell her to get the hell out and leave NightClan without anyone who knew anything about herbs? What then? Would StarClan have given me the oh so great gift of Pinesimmer's never ending brilliance earlier? Or would cats have died? Every single decision I have made has been to make sure cats do not die. How do you not see that? Are you absolutely daft?
There was a smaller part of her, though, deep inside her, that realized that there was at least a part of him that was right. She hated her brother with every ounce of her soul, but until this moment, she had always figured it was quite literally that she'd rather be hit by a monster than deal with his horrible attitude. But, there was a part of her that now realized it had always been deeper than that. Sure, he was a pain. But being a pain was not enough to illicit the kind of murderous rage she felt towards her brother. No, it was something else. He saw her. She hated him because he saw her. He knew who was she was deep at her core: a narcissist whose morals were based strictly in convienience. He saw the parts of her that were dark, the part of her that was anything but the hero. Perhaps she came across it innocently. If nothing else, he was right: the whole world had always loved her. Perhaps the bigger part of her couldn't recognize that she wasn't the hero she thought she was because the only cats she allowed in her inner circle were ones that saw her as such. Pinesimmer was one of the only cats to ever challenge this, the narrative she told to herself and the world that there was not one crack of imperfection lurking beneath the surface. And what did she do to him? She destroyed him, and the part of her that realized this also realized she would do it again, and again, and again. If given the chance, she wouldn't do anything differently. He knew that. And she hated him because he made her face that. He was the only cat that hadn't fallen to her charm, the only one who didn't see her as perfect Aspen, sent from above. She had always thought it was jealousy. He wanted to be her. Maybe there was a part of that that was true, in fact, it probably was. But it wasn't just that. He wasn't just jealous. He saw through the facade, and she couldn't stand it.
That was the part of her that realized that maybe he was right. The bigger part of her was still there thought. It raged. She had been so sure she could have made it. It was just a little while further, she would have gotten the dog away... She'd only not been ripped to actual shreds because there were SunClan cats there too. He couldn't have known that. No, he saw the opportunity. He knew that the dog would have disemboweled her. It was his only option to get his revenge on her, the ultimate end game. Willing to sacrifice yourself to come out on top. It would have looked like an accident, had SunClan not seen it. It would have looked like they both went down swinging, a tragic ending that the two that hated each other so much would die fighting for their lives together. The smaller part of her told her this was insane. Pinesimmer was (she almost puked just thinking about it) was being logical. Had her anger towards him made her oblivious? She had been quick to attack him, was she wrong to? She couldn't be, right?
The two sides truly, it seemed, were at war.
After a long moment, it seemed like the smaller part of her won, and none of it was said. Instead, she let out a defeated sigh. "I'm done. A guard is to be stationed in the medicine cat's den at all times. Phantomfox will distribute your shifts. You are dismissed."
"Oh my god, screw you two, I'm going to cash in my, I'm bored and seven moons old and leave you to do your adult talk," Jackdawpaw said walking to the other side of the den away from Larkspur and Violetglass. Like first time having a NightClan meeting and actually sitting at the cool kid table and he was already being glared and snapped at. And now Aspenstar was saying, as we know, as though he knew any of this. Which was why a snack would have been great because now he was angry and hungry!
Jackdawpaw stayed hunched over in the corner until he lit up at Aspenstar's decree of a snack. YES! Torment his mentor and a snack, Aspenstar was the best leader ever! However Larkspur seemed to be taking forever, probably because she had some weird thing against him for having a stomach that was hungry. But the good news was that he was certain his mentor was going to be executed. Like he was rambling on and on about everything. And like Aspenstar claimed she wasn't going to kill him, but like hopefully she locked him up, or threw him onto the back of a turtle to never be seen again so he could be in charge as a medicine cat instead of Pinesimmer.
"FLUFFIN' FOX DUNG!" Jackdawpaw cursed at Aspenstar's decision. No snack. No medicine cat position. UGH. He just sat here, got yelled at, and got to watch his mentor ramble on, which he got FOR FREE, on a daily basis, but y'know, whatever, so long as it wasn't Lakespur or Violetglass since they apparently feasted on cats positivity and happiness, sucking it dry.
Jackdawpaw stalked off, probably to take a nap so he wouldn't be so cranky.
