eye of the storm - an ever changing warriors oc story
my main is felidthing! this blog is for my warriors oc story that ive worked and reworked since like 2014. the reset that the current version stems from happened in 2018!
eye of the storm is about a thunderclan apprentice named applepaw working against her leader and mentor redstar, who has been waging war against shadowclan and skyclan.
toyhouse folder
i have some writing posted on ao3
base/beginning-of-story info on the main 4 characters under the cut!
last edited: january 27th, 2025
applepaw is a highly driven but emotionally unstable thunderclan apprentice, still feeling the effects of her mother's- and the clan's former leader's- death two and a half moons prior. her mentor was the deputy, and the newly appointed redstar is switching things up and pushing on the neighboring borders. she's desperate for the approval of her leader and mentor, and slowly grows apart from her father and brothers under his influence.
lightningpaw is a skyclan apprentice that joined as a rogue. his only strong bond is with his mentor gingerleap, who he sees as a father, until he meets applepaw at a gathering and latches on to her, oblivious to her passive aggressive attempts to push him away. he's loud and friendly but has a lot of deep-seated issues from his past.
sagepaw is an outcast in windclan- everyone can tell she's half-clan (even if they dont know which clan her father is from). she was never given an apprentice name; her mother trained her without the leader willowstar's permission. sagepaw doesn't go to gatherings and doesn't have any friends in her own clan.
hollypaw happens upon windlcan with his brother thrushpaw. they're taken in as the healer, meadowmist, is gaining power within the clan to take over as leader. unaware of just what he's gotten into, hollypaw trains as a healer apprentice and goes along with whatever meadowmist wants to keep himself and his brother sheltered and fed.
redstar is a very "end justifies the means" and opportunistic type cat. under emberstar's leadership he resented her friendliness towards the other clans, but was good at keeping it to himself. he believes in the strength of his family and was always a hard-working and upstanding citizen of thunderclan. he helped mentor lots of apprentices, in addition to his first apprentice asterpaw, who died before he could become a warrior. when emberstar's mate amberstrike had kits and she was busy helping in the nursery, redfoot took the responsibility well, and emberstar apprenticed her daughter applepaw as thanks- and in memory of asterpaw. as leader he finally acted on his ideas to strengthen thunderclan and cut friendly relationships with outsiders.
meadowmist is windclan's healer, an only child with a strong bond to his mother heathermist. when she died, he requested his suffix be in her honor. heathermist raised him with faith in starclan as his top priority. he's intensely devout even for a windclan cat. after his mentor retired, meadowmist started turning his clanmates against willowstar, sowing distrust until the right moment came to depose him.
my incredible soundtrack for drawing this cat i guess. willowstar is imbued with the powers of: nostalgia for this area of music. if hes ever given real personality it has to be informed by this being his secret canon music taste
situation #1: applepaw doesnt want to live in a battle focused society and expresses this to lightningpaw, lightningpaw suggests they leave the clans, applepaw declines because she doesnt want to leave her family. lightningheart is sad/confused/a little upset he isnt "enough" for her
situation #2: right after the final battle, applestrike is ranting about the clan power system. shes completely over it. lightningheart suggests again that they leave now that the war is over (and applestrikes immediate family is all dead). applestrike declines and is upset he wants her to leave while she thinks they should be helping in the aftermath. she also cites the friends she made in windclan. lightningheart is outright angry about this and feels like she replaced him. he starts talking about all the sacrifices hes made for her, and she snaps at him that she never asked him to do any of that. this is the first conversation theyve had since they were separated and lightninghearts whole world is crumbling around him over applestrike being mad at him. cue lightningheart appeasal arc where hes trying everything to get back on her "good side" (back to how they used to be). applestrike doesnt respond well to this so he tries to let her take out her anger on him just so she wont leave. applestrike is immediately horrified by this and her reaction kindof kickstarts lightninghearts understanding of their relationship up to this point being unhealthy. beginning of things improving
situation #3: applestrike has gone off the deep end, killed redfoot and told nobody it was a murder, and finally decided she cant live in the clan system anymore. she invites anyone interested to meet up and talk about it for a few weeks and then anyone who wants to can leave with her. lightningheart doesnt need to be asked. of course hes going with her. and then they live happily ever after eventually. they are dying peacefully of old age in their sleep right next to each other at the exact same time
situation 2 (well like the first half of it) now slapped onto my neocities. i never have the patience for css so theres no margins its text end to end on the screen. and the scene ends abruptly bc thats how i write. in scraps. its fun
also situation 1 is on ao3 and situation 3 has never really been written
literally just thinking about things that can happen in applestrike's story/the larger eots cast evokes the same feeling as like. inspecting an object/toy with a lot of parts and just staring at it and seeing how its pieces fit together or move and what you can jostle a bit. a feeling i am calling "a content(adj.) focus" where your thoughts are definitely occupied so its not an idle thing but its not particularly energizing or tiring its just enjoyable. hey am i autistic
i think the most common feelings about applestrike after she leaves is "applestrike was a huge help in the effort against redstar and meadowmist and its good that they were defeated, but, applestrike abandoned clan life to become a rogue and thats Not good." so its a varied balance of those two thoughts whenever that belief is used to describe her. theres also the belief that applestrike's disdain for the clan leadership system negates the good she did in redstar and meadowmists defeat. people also frequently get ableist/sanist fast when criticizing her, attributing her feelings about the clans to her brothers and father dying. a "everyone knows she hasnt been right in the head since xyz" thing. and theres a pretty much clans-wide desire to Return To Normal so applestrikes opinions on clan leadership are a very touchy subject as something that disrupts that desire. beechpool has kind of become my face for the conflicting opinions on applestrike, since she grew up with applestrike as a loving relative and deeply supports her, but feels confused and hurt and uncertain about the future because of applestrike leaving
i think theres a wave of clan and starclan criticism actually. with applestrike loudly and publicly making her opinions known and then inviting any cat to meet and talk every week for a month and convincing people to leave with her. any of the cats who left would have had family and friends that they probably said SOMETHING to, so even though the cats that wanted to leave have left, some of their ideas remain
and then the whole fucking crisis about meadowmist. meadmowmist thoroughly manipulated windlcan's faith in starclan to further his control, and now the clan is grappling with their historic pride in being particularly devoted to their spirituality vs incredible fear of something similar happening again. they need a healer and they desperately want their connection to starclan back, but theyre terrified of the wrong cat taking up that position. for now, the only cat with enough medical knowledge to be their healer is thrushleaf. former rogue and sister of meadowmists apprentice. many windclan cats are NOT happy with this situation
riverclan is horrified to find out how sagespeckle was treated in windclan and go into a self righteous frenzy about taking her and weaselbelly and thrushleaf in, and several cats so badly want to call windclan out about it at a gathering. in addition to the more annoying self righteous types there Are genuinely kind and well-meaning cats there that are kind of shaken by the story of sagespeckles life. the extreme mistreatment justified by the code against cross-clan relationships makes a lot of people doubtful of that rule's existence entirely, and start thinking more about the other codes theyve been raised with
i dont think i have anything unique to say about skyclan or shadowclan. shaodwclan is very retreated in on itself right now and theyre more concerned with keeping an eye on thunderclan and working out reparations-type deals with eaglestar to rebuild camp and search for missing warriors
and meadowmist? hes evil. and gay. and a mamas boy. and an only child. meadowmist is powergrabbing for the sake of it. hes entirely selfcentered except for his mothers spirit that stays nearby him and supports her evil gay sons schemes for power and self-importance
redstar is someone whos pretty much always gotten his way and had things go well for him until his first apprentice dies tragically and yes he does hold a grudge with shadowclan cats over it but mostly its just the first real bad thing hes ever actually had to deal with and he cant like. socialize his way out of it. theres no one to convince of anything his apprentice is just dead and he died terribly and it was unfair and shadowclan wouldnt help and his apprentice died 3 moons into his training. and This Event didnt turn redfoot mean or anything but it contributed to him solidifying his dedication to his clan and family and devaluing all other cats lives. its not like the clans werent already xenophobic and insular. redstar was a dutiful apprentice and a skilled sociable warrior and a beloved mentor and a reliable deupty and a strong leader. many thunderclan cats only began to take issue when it felt like too much blood was being shed. so no, redstar was not a sweet friendly teacher until shadowclan couldnt save his apprentices life any more than thunderclan could, redstar was a confident cat with the respect and support of his clanmates who could never take no for an answer and cared most about his clan being the strongest
"ThunderClan has had a great loss," Emberstar began. "A coyote was found on our territory, and chased one of our patrols into ShadowClan territory. We were fortunate enough for a ShadowClan patrol to come across the fight and help our warriors, but Asterpaw died of his injuries on the way back to camp. He is survived by his parents, Mintleap and Ryetuft; and his mentor, Redfoot."
Before the gathered cats could hold a silence for the fallen apprentice, a voice cut above the crowd. "ShadowClan refused to help him!" Redfoot stood tall, fur bushed and teeth bared. "He could barely walk, and collapsed before we could get home! He was bleeding internally and needed immediate attention, that ShadowClan denied." He swung his gaze to Comfreystar. "Were you made aware that your warriors broke our code and left a 9-moon old apprentice to die? Or is ShadowClan only concerned with keeping injured, exhausted cats off of their territory?"
As Redfoot described Asterpaw's injuries, Oakfoot looked more and more horrified in her spot under Comfreystar with the other healers. Smokemist leaned over to whisper something in her ear, and her face fell. Comfreystar stood and raised her tail, locking eyes with Redfoot.
"My warriors saved you from that coyote. They did everything they could, given the situation. It would have been impossible to bring Asterpaw to our camp any faster than it was to get to yours. And if I may add," She looked out over the crowd. "No codes were broken. The Clans agree that the obligation to help young cats ends between 6 and 8 moons." She dipped her head to ThunderClan, tail dropping. "I am truly sorry for your loss. No cat should die the way he did."
ThunderClan responded in mixed mumbles and growls. For a few heartbeats, Redfoot remained standing, trembling as his muscles tensed under his pelt. He sat back down slowly, forcefully, face intense and tail lashing.
"There is no other news worth reporting from ThunderClan," Emberstar said softly.
applestrike and redstar can be weird about each other too. applestrike can agonize over whether things couldve been avoided if she'd been stronger as an apprentice and resisted redstar more. applepaw can replace her remaining family with just him and hang on his every word because hes the only one that makes her feel understood. redstar can tell her too much about asterpaw's death and be overbearing about her safety and where she is but also train her extremely hard to make her powerful. i love Weird About Each Other like this because its not really a romantic relationship but its certainly Inappropriate and abusive
applepaw has the type of attachment to redstar that if she said he was like a father to her it would just make it look even worse. redstar's really an exemplary Friend Of The Family type of guy his appeal is often that he is not anyones parent and hanging out with him means u can do fun things with his blessing/supervision that your parents might otherwise not let u. "mom can we go to the river" "not by yourselves and i cant take you right now, go ask redfoot" type situation. "you wanna learn how to climb a tree?" "is that allowed?" "i'll make sure you dont get hurt. and as long as you stay safe we dont have to tell your parents either" type situation. like honestly its very fun to predator-code redfoot while keeping examples genuinely friendly and assault-free i like the discomfort it creates. feels really really yucky. which makes it fun to play around with in my head. redstar is someone whos never been forced to respect children and now hes The Fun Clanmate and if you ever feel uncomfortable around him youre being way too serious cmonnn its redfoot! hes like this with everyone and its fine why are you being so weird about it? so yeah. redfoot becoming deputy and then leader with THAT as his background makes for an absolutely untouchable authority figure with all the power in the world to throw around and he used it alllllll on applepaw
songs that i connect to applestrikes feelings about redstar/feelings during her apprenticeship and the war. in a somewhat chronological order so it follows redstar-feelings and feelings about herself and then her shift into opposing him and feelings about the war & her rebellion and the last several songs are about her killing him. actually full list below
sardonica - i wanna make it clear a girl died here no you wont remember it
.swvrm. - not quite self loathing more like apathy towards the self as a living person and resentment for the world around her
bloodeater - more panicked feeling about her life
dumbest girl alive - self negativity, distress about her life, can you show me how to cry
eat - this is the way the world works and its terrible but the alternative is dying to it
die your daughter - deeply tortured feelings about redstar. using "i will die your daughter" as "i will die the product of your teaching, you have affected me irreparably i will always carry this with me"
coffee's for closers - change will come but i will never believe in anything again
broken grace - the distress shifting from "i cant believe this is what the world i like" to "i have to get the fuck out of this this has to change"
bloodmoney - RAGE!!!!!!!!!! i know what it feels like to have my soul sucked out of my body i finally know what it feels like to be dead
hayloft ii - i just really liked imagining redstar's mounting panic as he realizes hes lost control of applestrike. this one and bloodmoney mark her shift to actively working against him
undefeatable - i usually place this song at the final battle in shadowclans camp even though the plot has shifted over time to applestrike not actually fighting in this battle. shes there though she just cant fight after getting hit by a car. anyway THINK IM ON 11 BUT IM ON A 9 GUESS YOU DONT REALLY KNOW ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
your friends are full of shit - i cant pretend that i can stomach your face. this is actually a very old add to the applestrike playlist but after looking at the lyrics again its really good for the post-war trapped rage and panic applestrike has after redfoot isnt killed or exiled
kool-aid - ive got my hands around your throat i love the way you choke 'cause i am your and your are mine i'll never let you go GET THE FUCK UP!!!!!!
clout strife - this song has nothing to do with her lyrically but theres one section i always imagine the actual fight where she kills him. so it goes here in the order
cortisol_inside [etc] - i dont care and i am so fucking at peace!!!!!!!!! <- is screaming and most definitely not at peace. ive put this in post-leaving the clans but still being freshly escaped from spending most of your life in unending trauma world and also you just murdered the guy at the center of it all in secret and left your surviving family and most of anyone you couldve considered friends behind
