#birchface

[scarechrow]

Could you draw Whitewater and/or Birchface?

birchface basically watching a car crash throughout all of mapleshades vengeance

[egg-on-a-legg]

do you think birchface stood up for her when starclan decided her fate? do you think he fought for her? i think he did.

[weevile-mantis]

[Incomplete Family tree]

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[chervzavod]

[fidgetflip]

Birchface

[lovesick-wc]

the love that you killed

[animatewarriorcats]

I also designed a cat for Frecklewish and Birchface's mom before realizing that there isn't a named character there lmao. have my extra drawing for her anyway!

[darkforestpetalkit]

I’ve always headcanonned that when Mapleshade’s kits entered StarClan, Birchface looked after them since Mapleshade wouldn’t be able to (since she went to the dark forest) and because he would never get the chance to raise kits of his own - does Birchface have any relevance to your story other than being someone for Petalkit to look up to up until her life got uprooted?

I'm a fan of that headcanon too actually! I haven't fully fleshed out all the details for StarClan's side of things yet, but I do have Birchface pretty much adopt Larchkit and Patchkit. He stepped up for them when Appledusk stepped down.

So now that you got me thinking about it, here is what I cooked!

I like to think Birchface had a very good relationship with Mapleshade, and he actually did have a small crush on her. But he was fine just being a close family friend, seeing she wasn't interested and didn't press (like Thrushpelt and Bluefur).

Frecklewish was also extremely close to Mapleshade, (possibly best friends) and secretly had a crush on Mapleshade too lol. She never let this known, but I like thinking Birchface being close enough to his sister that he can see the signs and would tease her about it. To which Frecklewish would just deny it, deflect and tease back. Anyways, the siblings both loved Mapleshade like kin.

Now, in StarClan Appledusk is evasive around the kits, both out of guilt, avoidance of responsibility or any obligation to them. He considers Reedshine's kits his true kits, and who he will watch over from StarClan, even if they will never meet him. He is bitter at Mapleshade and still pins all the blame on her, and refers to Larchkit and Patchkit as "Mapleshade's kits". 

But Appledusk isn't bitter at the kits themselves, doesn't even hate them, he just wants to be paws off as possible, and just avoids them. He did genuinely feel love when he first met them and cared for them—when it was convenient and it didn't cost him.

He didn’t want to put in any work for these kits when he is already dedicating himself to Reedshine's kits, being his true mate, and this is how he is showing his loyalty to her, especially when he cheated on her, and doesn’t like the kits reminding him. 

This pisses Birchface off. 

Birchface doesn't even care that Appledusk indirectly caused his death. He is angry about the kits and that Appledusk betrayed Mapleshade. He believed Mapleshade deserved better, and Appledusk is the one that caused all this grief in the first place. As far as Birchface is concerned Appledusk is responsible for breaking Mapleshade enough to go on a murderous rampage, firmly believing that Appledusk should be in the Dark Forest instead of Frecklewish. He is devastated to learn his sister has been killed by Mapleshade, and not in StarClan with him. 

Birchface believes the least he can do is love these kits with everything he is. His only connection to Frecklewish and Mapleshade.These kits deserved a father, so he will be theirs. 

Appledusk was fine with that, but he’s very self-preserving. So when he first noticed there are only two kits instead of the three he remembers, he doesn’t bother mentioning one is missing. No one in StarClan ever met the kits but him, so only he, Larchkit and Patchkit know about Petalkit.

Patchkit and Larchkit are still traumatized from drowning and being away from Mapleshade. They don’t really want to talk about it much, but eventually questions are asked. Where is their sister? Appledusk would discourage this, telling them to never talk about Petalkit again.

But Birchface catches on and confronts him. Appledusk denies there is a third kit. Larchkit and Patchkit are just confused. But when Birchface is able to fact check this, there is no kit to be found. StarClan can’t even find her because she is a time anomaly, thanks to the Affliction. Unfortunately this just proves Appledusk right and everything is tipped in his favor. Appledusk leans on this, and basically tries to gaslight the kits that they never had a sister, and insist to StarClan there were only two kits. Birchface still feels some suspension, but keeps it to himself because all the other StarClan cats believed Appledusk, and Oakstar (whenever he dies) even goes along with this confirming there were only two kits he exiled. He isn’t proud of what he did, and doesn't want to be blamed or have his reputation tarnished, so he keeps Appledusk blamed.

Birchface still isn’t convinced, he actually believes the kits, but unfortunately can’t do anything about it. So he just focuses all his love onto the kits.