#ddd!juniperclaw

[shadowsight]

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.