(honestly i think it's up to you because it really depends. i think they might be kind of confused honestly, i like the idea 95% of the time he refers to himself as their father, but on the rare occasions when he's actually being somewhat genuinely affectionate he uses papa so they might just use whichever they feel like, or switch it up like how he does based on feeling. orrerypaw isn't great on consistency or being a good example so keeping that in mind i think kind of means most anything goes xD )



Garnetkit too had risen, if only because they'd felt their sister do so. It was second later before she realized she heard the voice of their adoptive father. She was still slightly getting used to his voice, as she was everything else. Everything here was new, everything here was different; and the only grounding and consistent thing -- the only thing they knew since they had been dragged here from the cold, new spring nights in what felt now like a distant dream -- was her siblings and the tom that they had learned to call their father that was right in front of them.

In any other situation he might have been more a stranger than a paternal figure. In fact in some ways, the mothers that cared for them were more a paternal figure than he was. But imprinting was a funny thing, mixed both with the natural instinct of all things with emotion to want love, to want affection, and then made even more desperate with the way that love for children of their age meant survival, meant they would continue to live and thrive. That chemical cocktail, of course, was as far from Garnetkit's thoughts as it was from Orrerypaw's, who much like her was young, naive, and stripped from any sort of love and familial affection bar each other. The only difference was Garnetkit was tiny and knew no better; Orrerypaw was the closest thing to a father she could ever remember, ever know.

"Good evening." Garnetkit piped up too, following Sapphirekit's lead, even going so far as to watch her dip her head and mimicking the same. "We've been learning about of lot of things. Like Selene, and her grace." There was a note of anxiousness in her voice, like this was a quiz question she didn't want to get wrong. Was there a wrong answer? It was hard to know. Perhaps it was only made worse by Orrerypaw's lack of genuiness; the fledgling barely knew what genuine emotion sounded like. She knew his voice and his words perhaps better than she knew the voices and words of the mothers; because for reasons beyond her small, frail understanding of the world, she remembered his better. And so already, her understanding of emotions, of how to express them, read them, potray them, was starting to grow hollow and groundingless too.

---

Of course, Orrerypaw was oblivious to all this. Oblivious to Sapphirekit's feelings of something being wrong, of how opressive an enviorment these tiny, impressionable lives were being raised in. Oblivious to how Garnetkit was already being so warped in her perception of how people were suppose to interact, how real emotions should be shared. Oblivious even more to how all he was doing was making it worse, how he himself, with his power and authority, not just over them, but over Moonclan itself, only contributed more to it. And in that obliviousness and ignorance, he was spared any reason to feel that something was wrong. He was as proud, fully content in life, and now, with the realization that two of his adopted fledglings seemed to be taking their studies very seriously, happy as ever.

"Well that is wonderful! And I'm sure both of you are working hard to be top in your class? I expect great things from both of you. All of you." If nothing else was genuine, that last part, that expectation, was. These kits were nothing is not a badge of honor for him; his way of saying he was the first one of the new Chosen to bring in new blood for the clan. They were little trophies, each and every one of them. Perhaps in that context their names, so carefully chosen, made more sense. They made him look even more impressive to everyone around him when he touted them like prized jewels and possesions -- but they were only as good as the quality they were kept in. And Orrerypaw, of course, had vested interest in keeping them prestine; how else could he take such great pride in showing them off?

It was more instintual than it was a rational thing, nodding along with what Sapphirekit said. There was an odd safety in that, a reassurance that if it was wrong, well now they were both wrong, and then neither one of the two could be singled out as completely as the wrong one, the stupid one. And if it was right all the better, because then they were both right. "We're trying to memorize all the new prayers, and Selene's code." Garnetkit added on, before taking a small, hesitant pause, as if mulling over her words a second time over to make sure she had made no mistakes. "And the mothers say we're a lot farther ahead than they expected already." She tagged on, as if quoting the mothers, as if giving proof was the key to success, to being convincing. Perhaps it was, since Orrerypaw seemed visibly more pleased when she said it, and she felt some slight releif to ease the tenseness that she had been sitting with prior.

---

"Ah, well I'm sure they wouldn't say so unless it was true! So then tell me, what have you been praying about? Can you recite any of the prayers, Selene's Code?" It wasn't his intetion of course to practically give the kits a quiz right there and then, he really didn't realizie he was even doing so. Really, all he wanted was a small ego-trip that already this tiny kits could recite things that even some students -- with the switch to modern Moonclan being so sudden -- still stumbled on. And he believed them completely, that the mothers had said what the pair had said told him they had said, he had no reason to believe otherwise at all. Perhaps he should have been more suspicious or decerning; after all when he was there age, he would have done almost anything for the recognition of the adults in his life, to have appeased them and pleased them and to have looked much more big and impressive than he actually was. But for one, perhaps obviously, empathy wasn't his strong suite, and it was made doubly unthinkable considering the fact that even as praise-craving and attention-wanting of a child as he had been, he had always been pertified of lying to adults, always terrified that they would see right through him. Besides, Orrerypaw was sure that he commanded such respect, such devotion from these little lives that owed him their everything, that it was unthinkable that they would ever lie to him.