concept: the double-killed cats’ appearances in the after-afterlife are influenced by both their death and their spirit death. for example:
ashfur: 1st death by neck bite + 2nd death drowning/dissipating = black water constantly seeping from neck wounds like some swamp cryptid
everyone else tries to get him to mop but he won’t and no one else will either until whoever lives in the unit below files a complaint to Scourge (that tag saying Scourge is the landlord is too good so now it’s true)
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.
maybe the faded cats (starclan and dark forest cats who faded from memory without their spirit being killed) can visit the duplex but aren’t bound there the way the double-killed cats are
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.
the cats’ appearances are affected by the way(s) they died but it doesn’t have to be major or literal.
for example, Bristlefrost might always have black dew shining in her fur from drowning. Hawkfrost was killed twice by Brambleclaw/star so he has vines and thorns sticking out of his fur.
each double-dead cat has an ability that they can discover once they’re in the duplex, but they discover their abilities rather than automatically knowing what they are
a lot of them are dark forest cats just because the majority of the dark forest cats had spirit deaths (between the last hope and alitm they’re almost all gone)
cats that “fade” rather than dying spirit deaths are also around but maybe they can come and go rather than being confined
