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?
thinking about how spottedleaf would feel about how the cats who killed her in life (clawface) and in death (mapleshade) are both still in the dark forest. bristlefrost comforts her and tells her about seeing them, maybe what little ivypool told her about her own dark forest training.
they’re still in the dark forest for now, but in the back of her mind is the truth that they could arrive in the duplex any day. she doesn’t show it much, but she’s scared.
okay so everyone who was ever in the dark forest (except for silverhawk, mapleshade, clawface, thistleclaw, houndleap, rushtooth, maggottail, and sparrowfeather) is in the double-dead duplex
including cats who are just mentioned once and an infinite number of villains I could just. make up
SHES NOT DOUBLE DEAD YET but mapleshade if u havent done her 👉👈
hi! I’m finally done with this ask since I had to think for awhile about what where I want to take mapleshade in the ddd!au and because work was busy, thanks for waiting!
I mostly wrote about her goals and relationships with other duplex cats, especially emberdawn. it’s a little long, so it’s under the cut and broken up with headers.
(also, if this gets seen outside my little bubble: this is about my au in which there’s an apartment complex (the “duplex) where the double-dead cats live together! info in my pinned.)
mapleshade may not yet be double dead yet, but I have a feeling she will be within an arc or two. (still reading River atm.) seems like she's filling the role of ruler of the dark forest now that tigerstar and ashfur are gone. I imagine she was kinda in that role was before, since she got crookedstar to train there when he was young. (maybe also tigerclaw but don't quote me on that.) she's the og dark forest mentor.
who is (my version of) mapleshade?
a lot of my understandings of the characters’ psyched are mostly inferred from text and/or headcanon that I’m using to build mapleshade and others out as au characters.
while I don't have a concrete timeline for the au, mapleshade arrives at the duplex when things are seemingly peaceful and shakes everything up. especially for frecklewish — mapleshade’s arrival threatens to upturn the quiet happiness she’s found with spottedleaf.
mapleshade died when she was at her worst. then, she spent years and years in the dark forest, a place that actively actively makes you worse the longer you spend there. I imagine she was a little self-important even before the events of her novella, and I see her as having to ground herself in her belief that she’s always in the right or else her world will start to crumble.
in a different way, frecklewish died at her lowest point as well. she was torn up by grief over the loss of her brother, and then a different, new grief as she lost the comfort of believing her brother lived on in the kits, then the kits themselves and her kinship with mapleshade, and finally the loss of her vision.
if it weren’t for their history, mapleshade and frecklewish could be the only ones to truly relate to each other’s experience. too bad they’re also each the last cat the other wants to talk to.
what’s she up to in the duplex?
the power struggles in the duplex are weird at first since no one knows quite what there is to fight over or what would happen if someone were to be killed a third time here. (quick note: I have an idea for this now! but the cats don’t know until it happens)
there are some cats who are trapped in their power-hungry ways even here, but it’s hard to be power hungry when territory and life are both so fluid here. there are turf wars in the halls, but what do those mean when the passageways morph and remake themselves, never quite the same each time you walk them?
so mapleshade starts out trying to carve out her own part of the duplex and recruit others to her side, but she doesn’t really have power or sway over the other cats here. quite a few of them are disillusioned former dark forest cats who fell under her leadership.
still, she does eventually convince a small band of cats to follow her. I think it’d be fun if she had an all she-cat group, and emberdawn aligns with her temporarily. but emberdawn has been there longer than anyone, and she doesn’t tell mapleshade everything she knows so that she always quietly has the upper hand over the cat who thinks she knows everything.
rise and fall
mapleshade plots to take over the apartment that bristlefrost, spottedleaf, and ashfur share when word of bristlefrost’s power to connect with the living world spreads through the duplex like wildfire. (I’m imagining it’s probably hawkfrost who accidentally lets it slip to tigerstar when he’s torn between helping bristle and his loyalty to his father.)
mapleshade and emberdawn bond over how they were betrayed by their mates. it starts off as a terse, business-only bond, but eventually they let their walls fall down. they have wine together on thursdays.
this isn’t so bad, mapleshade thinks. this is the company I deserve. soon, emberdawn and I will walk the earth again and rule it as we should.
that’s why when emberdawn backstabs mapleshade, it cuts deeper than any other betrayal (or perceived betrayal) before it. this is worse than losing appledusk, than losing her chance to seize the forest as a spirit, maybe even worse than that day the usually calm river swept her kits away.
this was supposed to be the beginning of her happy ending, and instead it was the worst betrayal of all.
