PrankFox

「 Persona: Reflections 」

I'm gonna get working on a CS for the Justice Arcana soon-ish

Clans of the Coast

Duskpaw's whiskers twitched in amusement as Albatrosspaw ducked his head down to groom rather than continue to look at her. She could almost feel the embarrassed heat radiating from the gray and white tom, but she wasn't about to mention it. She would tease him later when there was less tension swirling around. She was concerned about what Whitestar was thinking, aligning himself with BreezeClan like he had, but she wasn't going to go against her leaders decision. Not unless she had a really good reason to do so. She would sit back and watch as she always did to see what happened. That was how she collected all her gossip and so far a lot of it hadn't been completely false. If only she had really listened to the conversations going on whenever Dawnstar had come to camp. She should have known something was up.

She was glad to see the shy apprentice perk up a bit at the prospect of them getting to see each other more. It made her pelt heat up a bit and her tail twitched slightly. She really liked Albatrosspaw, despite Amberpaw telling her that spending time with him was a straight line to some kind of disaster. She could just consider him a friend right? He was a medicine cat so even if she did want something to come about between them it wasn't going to happen. Not unless she wanted to get him in huge trouble, which was the last thing she wanted. No, for now she'd just accept being a friend as much as she thought she might want something more.

"Well if Spiderstar and Coyotestar can shake the bugs out of their brains then we could all be strong together." She wasn't sure how Whitestar or Dawnstar was going to convince the other two, but what BreezeClan's leader had said made sense. Sure the clans had always been separate, but what if that was the wrong way to be? With everyone sharing territory, prey, herbs, and knowledge they wouldn't have to worry so much about going hungry or losing clanmates to preventable illness. She was just an apprentice though so what did she know.

Her ears swiveled backwards slightly as she heard Finchwhisker's voice calling for her. She stood from where she was crouched behind the rock and shook out her pelt. The waterfalls were nice, but they did send mists into the air that settled on her fur. "I should go before I get yelled at," her tail twitched, "Again." She couldn't help herself as she took a step towards Albatrosspaw and licked his cheek before turning and bounding off to join up with the rest of her clan, "I'll talk to you later!" She called over her shoulder before she caught up with Finchwhisker.

Amberpaw gave her a narrow-eyed look as Duskpaw dropped into step with the sandy she-cat, "What were you doing?"

She had told the other apprentice about her friendship with Albatrosspaw, but she was still suspicious that there was something more going on between the two of them. She rolled her eyes as she flicked the other she-cat with her tail. "I was just talking to Albatrosspaw. He seemed afraid after all the hostility, so I wanted to make sure he was alright." She could feel the blue eyes burning into her pelt as she was scrutinized, but Amberpaw finally just shrugged. She let out a mental sigh of relief as she sped up to keep step with her clanmates back to the cliffs.

Persona RP! [Based on Persona 5]

I arrive to formally state interest in the thread. Might go Justice, not sure yet

Clans of the Coast

There was always a chance that Embersky would turn around at an inopportune moment, but Duskpaw knew that he would be more focused on Dawnstar rather than what his apprentice was doing. She stayed crouched in the shadows, tail flicking lightly across the ground, as she waited for Albatrosspaw to come and join her behind the stone. She wasn't completely sure if he'd be able to slip away though so when he came to join her she perked up.

"I was here, just sitting in the back with Finchwhisker," she twitched her whiskers in amusement, "Have my stealth skills gotten that good that I'm no longer visible?" She teased him lightly, mostly because she could tell he was nervous about what had just happened. He always needed to loosen up a little bit and she had made it her personal goal to make sure that he at least had some kind of fun every so often. Embersky was a good medicine cat, but he was very serious most of the time and that wasn't fun.

She frowned as he spoke though, "Yeah everyone was really angry, but I guess it makes sense. No one likes when things change, but I think they're just stuck in their ways." Sure things were going fine now, but there were always so many problems. It was a crazy idea but Whitestar hadn't let them astray yet, so she'd trust his judgement until something else more interesting came along. She shrugged, "Even if they do try to start something we're stronger and StarClan didn't have anything to complain about."

All this talk about war and stuff was starting to make her pelt prickle a little bit. She perked up a bit, "Hey, if we're technically a part of the same clan now that means we could see each other more." No one would be able to fuss at them for going across borders anymore. She really liked Albatrosspaw and wanted to help the shy tom come out of his shell a little bit more. Even if they didn't have a lot of time she was glad she at least got to talk to him.

"Did you know anything about this? Dawnstar is your aunt and Embersky is her son so," she didn't know how much he'd be able to tell her. She really wanted to ask if he had had any dreams about it, but she was pretty sure she heard from Adderpaw at some point that they weren't allowed to talk about their dreams, which was dumb. If StarClan hadn't covered the moon, and they had sent dreams, then maybe this really was what they were supposed to do. The other leaders wouldn't be able to do anything if it was what StarClan wanted right?

PMD: Explorers of the Unknown

Sora and Cane both looked over to where Storm was standing. A look of concern was on Sora's face, but Cane quickly lost interest when he didn't hear anything and turned his attention back to the water. Sora let out a sigh as Lumi also said that she didn't hear anything. Storm wasn't one to joke around, but if none of the others had heard anything either than it was probably just his brother hearing things.

"What? No! I'm not!" Storm recoiled away as Lumi poked him in the side. "I could've sworn I heard something that sounded like a breath or a growl."

He hadn't heard his brother that worked up about anything in a long time, but still, none of them had heard it. "You're probably just hearing echoes or something Storm," Sora told him as he trotted away from Cane to start looking at the edges of the room. Cane seemed to be doing fine where he was so he didn't feel like he needed to hover as much. Instead he wanted to see if there were any other little gaps or things that they could slip through to get deeper in. He had seen the places where the river entered and left the cavern, far off at the edges, but he didn't really want to get wet.

He heard his brother grumble as he wandered back towards the crevice where they had come in and sat down. He really didn't want to deal with Storm's bad attitude right now, but there wasn't exactly a way to get away from it. As far as he could tell he couldn't see any other exits, but he also didn't see one the first time. "Hey Cane," he called out to his little brother who looked up at him and blinked curiously, "You were really good at finding that crevice. Can you look around for something similar in here?"

"Ok!" Cane chirped as he bounded away from the water to start looking around the edges.

Sora took that time to walk back over to Lumi. "Are we just going to take some of this stuff or do we want to keep going if Cane finds something?" He didn't know what time it was, or how long they'd been in the cave and he didn't want their dad to wake up before they got back, then they'd be in a world of trouble. It didn't seem like Storm would want to go any further, but he couldn't be sure. Either way they needed to decide what they were going to do here.

Clans of the Coast

What a mess. Duskpaw sat next to Finchwhisker towards the back of the Gathering, her dark pelt causing her to blend into the stone behind her. She had heard whispers in FireClan that Whitestar had been planning something crazy with their neighbors, but she had no idea that this is what they meant. Amberpaw had told her she overheard some conversation that the two leaders had been having while she was cleaning out the elders den, but she hadn't believed her at the time. Now she wished she had.

She kept her eyes fixed on the ledge where the leaders stood. They looked like they were about to attack each other. Wouldn't that be exciting. Whitestar sounded about as frustrated and angry as she had ever heard him. Their leader had a temper, that was for sure, but she hadn't expected to hear it at a Gathering. She tried to ignore the prickling of her pelt as the DarkClan and RainClan cats stared from across the other side of the clearing as tensions continued to rise upon the rocky ledge.

Dawnstar kept her mouth shut as Whitestar made their point clear. She seemed content enough to let him take the brunt of the anger from the other two clan leaders, though it didn't seem that Spiderstar had any retort to what it was that the FireClan leader had said. Instead he lashed his tail in anger and barred his teeth at the white-furred leader.

"I'm in agreement with Coyotestar. Whatever peace we may have had with your clans is over, and if we find either of your clans scents near our border beyond the usual patrols we will consider it a declaration of war," Spiderstar glared at Whitestar in particular as he stood and leapt to the ground after the RainClan leader with the deputies close behind.

As the Gathering was called to a close Duskpaw waited for her mentor to stand and move away before she ducked behind some stones and began to slip towards where she had seen the medicine cats sitting. She hadn't been able to see Albatrosspaw before everything began, but she could at least get a quick word in. She felt her heart race just a bit faster at the idea of seeing the other apprentice, though she wasn't sure exactly why. She caught the tail end of what Sagecloud said and Gullbreeze's response as she crouched in the shadows.

"I'll be there," Cloudwing told Sagecloud, "medicine cats are meant to be removed from things like this so we can continue to do our duties." His voice had lost the warmth that it usually held though, and he refused to look any of the other medicine cats in the eyes as he stood and pulled Rainwhisker along to join up with Spiderstar.

She watched the other apprentices stand to follow after their mentors as Embersky also pushed himself onto white paws. "We will be there as well. As Cloudwing said, our duties as medicine cats are above the squabbling of leaders." His voice was mild, but there was a slight undertone of annoyance to it that likely came from the immediate backlash from the other clans. He spoke quietly to Albatrosspaw, so much so that she had to prick her ears to hear what he said, "Come on, don't let them get to you. There's nothing they can do to hurt you here other than glare," as the smaller tom ducked behind his mentor.

An additional beat passed as Embersky stood to wait for Dawnstar's signal that they were to leave as well, she was still up on the ledge speaking quietly to Whitestar. It gave Duskpaw the opportunity to creep up behind Albatrosspaw, out of sight of his mentor, to bat at his tail with one dark furred paw. Hey! she whispered loudly at him with a toothy grin, "Come here a second." She flicked her tail in the direction she had come from, a shadowy space behind some taller stones, and backed up into the shadows to wait.

PMD: Explorers of the Unknown

Once Lumi stepped out of the crevice Cane bounded forward to stand a little ways in front of her, tail wagging. It seemed he had already somewhat forgotten the scolding he'd received, but he didn't wander too far ahead or out of sight. Instead he stared, eyes wide, around the cavernous space in front of them before trotting forward to stare down into the river that cut through the room.

"Be careful Cane, we won't be able to get you if you fall in," Sora called out to his younger brother as he padded quickly inside to stand next to where Storm had come to a stop after he entered. The area around them was amazing. He had never seen anything like it and he doubted he would again without coming back here. The blues and greens reflected off the water sending scattering, rippled patterns across the high ceiling above. The stones themselves seemed to almost pulse faintly in a way that made his pelt prickle; though he couldn't really tell if it felt good or bad.

Storm had wandered over to one of the stones and leaned in close to it without really touching it. The reflection was slightly distorted due to the planes of the crystal. "There's probably some small ones we could carry, or maybe break some pieces off?" The gray furred Eevee turned to look at Lumi, "Hopefully they'll be able to look past the fact we went against what that Luxray said."

Sora rolled his eyes at his brother. Storm was always playing both sides, but his brother did have a point. "Maybe we take some back but don't tell anyone until we can get an idea of whether or not we'd get in trouble." He really really did not want to be yelled at by their dad, or worse, the adventuring team that they all looked up to. He really wanted something from their adventure though and these stones seemed the best. He wondered if they would continue to glow once they removed them from the room. That would be so cool!

He looked over to where Cane was, to make sure that their littlest brother wasn't causing any trouble. Cane was still crouched by the water's edge and peering down even closer towards the river. Sora trotted quickly over to stand next to his brother, and to place a paw on his tail so he wouldn't tip forward into the water. "What is it? Is there something down there?" He leaned forward himself to look into the massive river, but he was struggling to see anything past the green and blue lights that reflected off the surface. He wrinkled his nose at the spray of water that hit his face as the river pushed up against the banks.

Cane just glanced up at him and shrugged, "I dunno, I was hoping maybe if I sat here long enough I would see something cool." He looked back down into the water with a slight frown, "But I haven't seen anything yet."

"Did you guys hear that?" Storm's voice called out to them in a loud whisper.

He turned to look at his brother who hadn't stepped away from the stone he'd been standing next to, but he could see the furrow of his brother's brow as he looked around the room. "I didn't hear anything," he strained his ears, "but all I can really hear is water right now." He didn't want to step away from Cane in case he did something stupid again, but he could start to feel his heart rate increasing. Storm wasn't one to play pranks so if he said he heard something he most likely did. That creeping feeling of regret and anxiety about whether or not this was a good idea starting to wiggle itself back to the forefront of his mind as he began to scan the room; keeping his ears pricked for any sound or movement.

PMD: Explorers of the Unknown

Cane's ears drooped a bit and he ducked his head low as Lumi patted him roughly, "Ok I will, I promise I'll remember this time." He told her while shuffling his way out of the crevice to let the older Eevee go first.

Sora waited for Lumi to head in still a bit shaky from the realization that their littlest brother had wandered off and very easily could have gotten hurt. He was starting to agree more and more with what Storm had said, as much as he hated to admit it. The grayish Eevee was keeping stride with them, but he looked like he would rather be anywhere else than in this cave. He really couldn't blame him at this point, but they were already here and there was no point in turning back now. Not when they had come this far. He pushed Cane into the crevice behind Lumi before following after; turning his gaze to Storm, "Come on, we don't wanna get split up."

They were forced to walk single file in the narrow crevice that Cane had found. He couldn't see anything beyond what his eyes had adjusted to in the darkness. The air around them was musty and smelled weird, a way that made his skin prickle under his fur. He almost slipped on the stone as it suddenly dipped down, but steadied himself before he could go careening into Cane.

Sora glanced towards the walls as Lumi spoke and could just make out the areas that were a darker shade than the rest of the wall around it. "I don't know, it was completely dry and warm up in the other part of the cave." Maybe it was just part of the way that the cave system was? Some places were dry and as they got deeper it got more damp. "Maybe there's an underground river or something." He didn't really know much about how caves worked but that seemed as logical an explanation as any. His mind briefly flashed back to the scars and wounds on the adventurers bodies. He didn't really want to think about what else might be making the walls around them wet.

He mostly kept his eyes on his paws, occasionally glancing behind him to make sure that Storm hadn't gotten left behind before turning his attention back to the front. He squinted forward, over Cane's head and past Lumi's ears as the crevice they were in started to widen out. "Hey, I think I can see some kind of light up there." It was dim and slightly blue in hue, but there was definitely something else that they were coming up on. He wanted to try and push ahead, sheer curiosity overriding common sense, but he couldn't get past Cane who plodded along in front of him. He settled for squinting even harder, trying to discern what it was that was coming up ahead.

Clans of the Coast

The dissent was expected in Embersky's opinion. He could hear the low growls and see the narrowed eyes from the opposite side of the clearing where DarkClan and RainClan sat in solidarity with each other. He knew this announcement was coming, Dawnstar had spoken with him at length about it to see if he had any signs from StarClan saying that it would end badly for everyone involved. He hadn't had any dreams or recieved any omens that told him his mother shouldn't go through with her plan. It would solve problems for both FireClan and BreezeClan. They could share resources, the medicine cats could travel freely between clans offering aid where it was needed, and they would need to worry less about prey because there would be so much more space to hunt. Not to mention the clan divides would be completely negated since everyone could go where they desired. It made perfect sense in his mind, but it seemed the other leaders didn't have the same depth of vision for the future.

He could see the shock and rage on some of the other medicine cats faces. Both Eaglepaw and Adderpaw were looking to their mentors for some kind of sign, open confusion on their faces. Cloudwing was still sat with his fluffy tail around his paws, but his gaze was wide and no longer friendly as he looked back at Embersky and Albatrosspaw. Fools. They just didn't understand the brilliance of it. Once they saw how much FireClan and BreezeClan flourished together they'd be begging to be brought into the fold.

There was a smug sort of satisfaction present on Dawnstar's face as the moon remained bright, though it was well hidden behind a façade of insistence. "We don't have intention of causing trouble for anyone else. We will simply be stronger together and with the ability to freely cross borders and share supplies the likelihood of deaths within our clans plummets." Her tail twitched with annoyance, "Like Whitestar said, you can remain as you are and we will cause no trouble for you. FireClan will remain on their territory and BreezeClan on ours, we're simply breaking down borders for the good of everyone." She gazed up at the sky before looking back towards the other two leaders "Even StarClan agrees."

Spiderstar's tail lashed, "You cannot speak for StarClan, only the medicine cats can do that with any authority! You have placed your own son in that position in order to ensure you hear what you want!" The dark tom looked about ready to lunge at Dawnstar's throat as the cats in the clearing below sent narrow-eyed glares at those who they previously saw as friends.

The cries of outrage had fallen back into murmurs as the leaders argued on the ledge. Embersky could hear some of the cats from other clans pondering what Dawnstar had said, though there were also mixed voices from their own side that questioned what Whitestar was thinking. War was not Dawnstar's want or intention, she had told him as much herself, but it seemed that the divides between clans and clanmates would only continue to grow in the coming moons.

PMD: Explorers of the Unknown

It was more of a pain to herd Cane quietly around the side of the house than Sora thought it would be, but once they finally crested around the corner to where their sister was waiting under the bright moon he prepared himself for the anger that would no doubt come from Lumi. "I know!" he told her in a loud whisper, "Cane is a light sleeper and then he woke up Storm. I figured it'd be faster just to bring them along rather risk them going to tell dad." He tried to ignore the sting of anger as he flattened his ears down in response.

"So where exactly are we going then?" Storm's disinterest tone rang from behind them as they began to pad quickly down the road in the direction of Ember Cave.

"You'll see," Sora told him. He didn't want to tell either of them anything in case they tried to back out and run home to tell dad or Sable what they were doing. He just heard an annoyed grumble from his brother as they continued on.

He was grateful for the fact that Ember Cave wasn't far away from home since he knew Cane would start to lag if they had to go too far. He kept their younger brother in between himself and Lumi with Storm trailing in the back as they shoved through thorns and splashed through puddles. By the time they got to the mouth of the cave their pelts were a thorough mess. Not to mention the faint shaking he could still feel in his legs after he'd looked down off the side of the narrow path they'd been on to the dark, watery depths below.

The excitement hit him hard though as they finally stood in front of the open mouth of the cave. The heat wasn't stifling, but he was grateful that his fur wasn't any thicker than it already was. He just hoped that it didn't get hotter the deeper they went. He glanced towards Lumi as she puffed out her chest and declared that she would lead the way. He wanted to argue that he should get to lead the way since it was his idea to come check out Ember Cave in the first place, but he already screwed up getting out of the house so he let her have it.

Cane looked a mix of nervous and excited as he peered into the darkness of the cave, but Storm looked apprehensive as Lumi spoke to them. "Ok, I can do that," their youngest brother said with a faint quiver to his voice.

"This is stupid," Storm told them, "If the adventuring team couldn't survive in there what makes you think we can?"

Sora looked back at the gray furred Eevee, "We're not gonna go super far in, and we're small which means they won't be able to see us as well. Besides we aren't looking for a fight, we just wanna see." Even with his words he could tell that Storm was still suspicious of the situation, but he sighed and followed after Lumi into the darkness of the cave.

His nerves were starting to get the better of him as they were forced into the narrow spaces of the tunnels. There was no noise that permeated the air around them except for the sound of their breathing and his own heart racing in his ears. Cane was pressed as close to either himself or Lumi as he could get when the opportunities arose, but Storm still trailed behind a bit; looking nervously around the tunnels with pinned ears.

Sora sucked in a quiet, sharp breath as he saw the torches illuminate the space ahead. The shadows cast across the walls reminded him of the nightmarish type abilities that their dad told them some Pokémon could have. He followed low to the ground after Lumi as she pulled them to the side. He peered out around the side of the wall of pointed stone to get a better look around. He couldn't see any small openings around the edges of the room, but he pulled back sharply as he saw a long tail pull itself deeper into the shadows that hid the edges of the room. A big part of him was starting to think this wasn't such a good idea.

He looked back to Lumi to tell her that he couldn't see anything, and as he did he noticed that the small, fluffy form of Cane had vanished from where he had been standing next to Lumi. He felt a massive spike of panic as he began to look around the area for his brother, "Lumi, Storm. Where's Cane?" Storm's yellow eyes went wide as he also began to look around the space nearby.

Sora was about to throw caution to the wind and call out for Cane when he caught sight of his brother's head poking out of a crevice in the wall a little ways deeper in the room. He looked rather pleased with himself as he waved a paw at them. Sora let out his breath slowly and Storm visibly sagged next to him. He padded up to Cane and whispered frantically to him, "We told you to stay close! This place is dangerous and you need to tell us when you're going somewhere."

"Oh, right, I'm sorry," Cane told him, ears drooping. "I found a way out though."