I’ve always imagined that in the battle with the dark forest, Mapleshade’s kits died.
It would be horribly ironic if one of her trainees killed them, like Ivypool or Hollowflight (probably on accident though, I imagine they’d be super on edge). Maybe someone was coming to attack Maple. And her kits, despite everything, wanted to help their mom.
So it led me down the thought process of what would happen if a kit or apprentice showed up in the duplex? And what kind of abilities would be given to them?
:(
I've been thinking about Mapleshade's kits in StarClan. maybe someone took them in. I imagine the rest of StarClan shielding them from their mother's actions. It must've been confusing for them as Ravenwing, Frecklewish, and Appledusk show up one by one in the stars. I imagine Appledusk doesn't know if he should tell them he's their father. At least in StarClan Frecklewish would get the chance to apologize to them.
but we're talking about the ddd!au! maybe they fell victim to the environment shifting around. the dark forest changed forms a lot due to Ashfur - maybe the same happens in StarClan. the idea of it being caused by one of Mapleshade's trainees is juicy. it being Ivypool hurts my heart, probably because she's already gone through so much and her pain kind of gets highlighted in my au since there's so much focus on Bristlefrost's state.
there are definitely kits in the au for them to meet! Tadpole is there with Hawkfrost.
maybe Mapleshade's kits are taken in by Spottedleaf and Frecklewish, who were sad that they couldn't have kits of their own or adopt until the kits turned up. Frecklewish definitely recognizes them and hides it from Spotted at first.
I'm not really sure about their abilities though, I'll have to think on that! they lived such short lives so it'd be hard to make them different from each other. maybe they have powers as a group?
OH about ur ddd au… what do hawkfrost and bristlefrost think of each other? i thought it might be interesting if hawkfrost finds out that she’s ivypool’s daughter and kind of starts looking out for her without even realizing it. like he’s subconsciously trying to make up for the way he treated ivypool by looking after her kit but also idk if hawkfrost would ever get to that point. BUT i am curious
I like the idea of him trying to make up for how he treated Ivypool by helping Bristlefrost! maybe he’d get there after awhile. he probably wouldn’t admit that he’s purposefully helping her for a long time, though. he’d be doing something helpful and then be like “I’m doing this because I wanted to not to help!” and then do something minorly petty to even it out lol
(also, to give context to a later bit: I see ddd!hawkfrost as having thorny plants growing from his fur since brambleclaw/star killed him both times.)
I can’t remember if this is canon but I’m imagining Ivypool didn’t tell any of her kits specifics about her time in the dark forest, at least not until Bristlefrost went there to fight Ashfur. she’d hoped she’d never have to. so Bristlefrost vaguely knows who he is but not that he led her mom to the dark forest (not at first)
Antpelt gets protective of her and thinks Hawkfrost is up to no good. so he and Snowtuft and Redwillow confront Hawkfrost but can’t figure out what he’s up to (because, for once in his life, afterlife, and after-afterlife, he isn’t up to anything.)
Hawkfrost thinks Bristlefrost is a goody-two-shoes when she first arrives at the duplex. but he respects her leadership and her sacrifice as he learns more how she ended up there, the only cat in the duplex to die twice at once.
and when he finds out she was Ivypool’s daughter, that respect morphs into an uncomfortably heavy weight in his stomach. a sense of responsibility that’s foreign to him.
for the first time, Hawkfrost feels guilty.
and as he realizes this, the gnarled, brambly plants in his fur grow little flower buds.
Bristlefrost thinks Hawkfrost is full of hot air. she sees him working out at the gym and doesn’t give him much of a second thought other than “wonder how he sleeps with all those thorns in his fur.” not until someone anonymously starts helping her and her roommates out with little things. something they managed to lose in the vents shows up at their doorstep. and the one time she catches their mysterious helper and sees that it’s Hawkfrost, he’s so defensive and she has no clue why. she asks why he’s going out of his way to help her and he can’t answer. he even doesn’t seem to know himself.
Antpelt tells her more about his own time in the dark forest telling her about Hawkfrost.
Bristlefrost reels from the revelation that her mom killed one of her closest friends. but at the same time, she knows that if Ivypool hadn’t double-killed Antpelt he probably wouldn’t be in the duplex with her now. she feels a lot of conflicting emotions.
she leans on her friends. spottedleaf makes her a hot cup of tea. antpelt reassures her that while it was awful, he’s glad he can be here with her and their friends now.
later on, Antpelt breaks it to her that it was Hawkfrost who brought her mother to the dark forest in the first place.
so she goes from “I can’t believe my mom was a killer” to “the guy in the unit upstairs made my mom into a killer” and that really throws her. she sees red and nearly kicks his door in right then.
is there any difference between double dying and fading out after enough time has passed in the df or starclan? like do cats who fade get the double duplex or only cats who actively double die?
good question! what I’m thinking is that the cats who double-die because their spirits are killed are stuck in the duplex. the cats who fade from memory and disappear from the afterlife that way end up at the duplex but they can roam
the faded cats are more “at peace” since they had time to fade instead of being abruptly removed from what I’m imagining as the natural end of life in that world
the double-killed cats are free to leave the duplex once they’re at peace as well
which introduces a kind of sad idea actually - like if say snowtuft comes to terms with his past and how he’s changed because he’s in a supportive place now, that’s what allows him to leave that place (and that found family) behind if he chooses to.
I’m not 100% set on how that would work since I don’t want it to be like “forgive and forget your past and everything you’ve done.” I’m walking a fine line here that isn’t quite redemption stories all around
also, I really like the good place (which probably shows haha) so there’s an idea I’m borrowing from that (which I’m pretty sure was inspired by the concept of nirvana in buddhism, not 100% sure). it comes up towards the very end of the series though so I’ll put it under the cut in case anyone decides to watch it who hasn’t already
so that idea of the door that ends your afterlife and let’s you rejoin the universe or whatever and you don’t know what happens or what that feels like is what I’m thinking of!
like the double-killed duplex cats can’t leave the duplex even though they can spectate on the living world (and starclan and the dark forest and all the little afterlives too eventually).
but once someone is at peace with their actions in their life and afterlife and what’s happened to them and what they’ve done, they don’t start to fade but they’re free to leave the duplex.
hi!! for your ddd au, how strong does bristles power become?? also, is there any interaction with juniperclaw (sinces hes basically in cat purgatory)?
(spoilers for alitm)
hi! I ended up writing a lot about bristlefrost’s power, so here’s my answer for juniperclaw: I think that if anyone would have any awareness of the after-afterlife other than some medics and maybe fading cats and I guess rock but I don’t want to write about rock it’d be juniperclaw!
maybe he’s the first one they manage to get a message through to since the fabric of reality and the barriers between afterlives is already thin and wibbly in his tunnel. I also just think he’s really interesting so I’d like to work him in!
I have an au/headcanon that he and his siblings each went to a different afterlife. I think it’s in my drafts somewhere, but strikestone went to starclan, sleekwhisker is going to the dark forest, and juniperclaw stands in the place in between.
for your first question: you know how starclan watches the clans through ponds, and they have some control over who they're seeing? well, bristlefrost gains enough control over her power that she can fine tune who in the living world she's hearing - and eventually when she's hearing. and so she and her friends in the duplex get invested in what's going on on earth. they support her while she figures out how to use her power, and it ends up being a "hey make popcorn, bristle's gonna see what they're up to" type of thing. (until they tune in to something that they have to Do Something About)
I really like the idea that the "higher power" that starclan gets their own omens from is just this patchwork group of double-dead cats. and now that I think of it, that would explain how some prophecies forsee things that starclan straight up doesn't know about themselves (i.e. the three)
also, once some more antagonistic characters find out that some cat in the duplex can still reach the living world, that's when the real trouble begins...
(read more because it’s getting long but I also figured out an “in” for redwillow which I’ve been thinking about for awhile)
I've been trying to fit redwillow into the dynamic and figure out how he'd settle in. and now I'm thinking that he could be a saturday morning cartoon villain-type who's the first one the protagonists befriend. like he originally seeks them out because he learns about bristlefrost's power. but he ends up siding with them and getting absorbed into their ragtag little family. which so far is bristlefrost, her sapphic aunts spottedleaf and later frecklewish, and her gay uncles snowtuft and antpelt. (ik I said spottedleaf is likea big sister to her, tbh idk the difference between big sister vibes and aunt vibes)
also, since a lot of the au has been about how different characters come to terms with how they lead their lives (and afterlives) and what to do now, once bristlefrost is powerful enough to bounce around in time with the radio scanner, a LOT of memories get dredged up.
I also like the idea of the radio eventually being able to change form. it opens up more opportunities, and it'd helpful when lots of different cats want it - she could make it portable so they can play keepaway. like brokenstar or hawkfrost is about to break down the door and there's nothing else to do other than wish this thing wasn't so big and then poof! it's small
like it goes from being a console radio (first image) to a portable radio (second) which is also fun because it's getting more modern, moving in time.
[image description: a photo of a 1941 Zenith radio/record player wooden console cabinet. It has two cabinets open at the top, where the left side has a turntable and the right side has a radio dial indicator.]
[image description: a photo of a turquoise vintage vacuum tube bedside clock/radio with a square clock face on the left and a radio dial on the right.]
first image source / second image source
I want bristlefrost's power to hear from the living world via radio and eventually communicate back to get super strong, but I also like the finality of her separation from rootspring at the end of alitm so I'm torn. I think that it would be cool if she gets stronger and stronger and then can have one big moment where two-way communication is possible, and then it fades. but building up to that, a lot of the plot of the AU will revolve around bristlefrost's connection to the living world as a power that cats are willing to fight to get to.
If you don't already have an ability dead set for frecklewish I have a recommendation
She can summon liquids of any kind. Snake venom is a liquid soI thought what if in general? Like she can summon water to water plants etc
Ooh I like that!! And that goes nicely with the domestic apartment thing she has going on with Spottedleaf like she could water their plants no problem
I can’t remember now if I actually posted it but I was thinking of her being able to cry venom but that seems a little too specific. so now what I’m thinking is combing these ideas!
~
at first, frecklewish is too deep in her own sadness to summon anything but the venom that killed her. and as she learns that there’s more to her existence in the duplex than the trauma of her life or the confusion of her afterlife, her powers grow.
one day she’s spending time with spottedleaf at the apartment she shares with bristlefrost and ashfur and spottedleaf is showing her all her house plants. she can’t find her watering can — did one of those two misplace it again? she bets ashfur has it stowed away in his room.
while spottedleaf rummages around for the watering can, frecklewish watches her, a little amused. she hasn’t smiled in awhile, she realizes. it’s almost like her face forgot how. she down at her paws, a little embarrassed even though no one’s watching. spottedleaf has her back turned, rifling through a cabinet now. frecklewish finds a shimmering sphere of water hovering between her paws.
have you added any of your own characters in the ddd!au ? how do they interact with the canon cats?
I haven’t but I’m thinking about it! I don’t really have any of my own wc characters except for a couple I’ve just thought about a little bit. I’m still pretty new to posting wc stuff!
I have one idea that’s just. a shitpost that I think would be really funny. I was brainstorming a pirate au where each clan is a crew (maybe of privateers) and leaders are captains, deputies are first mates. I also found out that other ppl have had similar ideas too!
but in that draft, there’s just a line that says “sealegs” because it works as a name and was funny to me. but it could also have some meaning — finding your sea legs, etc. I think sealegs (they/them) would be a cat who isn’t from the clans at all and either ended up in a clan late in life or somehow wandered into starclan or the dark forest and got tangled up in clan nonsense.
the duplex isn’t exclusive to clan cats — I’m deciding that bc the idea that only clan cats “get” to go to starclan icks me out. maybe sealegs is the first true outsider they meet, and that’s how they find other wings of the duplex! that way, aus can exist in the duplex alongside canon which I think is cool!
I also like the name suncloud. I have some v vague ideas about who she’d be. I’m just starting to dip my toes into the cat oc waters lol (I do have a lot of my own characters from screenwriting tho! just no fully-formed cats yet)
I also want to add some starclan cats to the duplex! I’m reading dawn of the clans for the first time rn, and I really like the idea of the original clan founders showing up there in the distant future because they’ve been “forgotten” because the individual clans dissolve.
