sitcom that’s just the double-killed cats living in what’s beyond starclan and the dark forest: a shitty apartment building.
bristlefrost, ashfur, and spottedleaf are stuck in a lease together. ashfur never washes dishes. eerie father and son duo tigerstar and hawkfrost live in the unit above and they’re SO loud — are they wrestling 24/7 up there or what? the answer is yes: they spend all their time training and leaving tigerheartstar annoying voicemails
also darkstripe drops in unannounced once an episode. everyone swears they didn’t give him a key how does he keep getting in here
edit: calling it the double death duplex au for now! there are bunch of posts under the tag!
another edit: here’s a masterpost for the double death duplex au! it’s grown into a fullfledged au in the last two weeks, and I’m so excited that folks have taken to it so much. thank you!
I think what happens is that the rooms are randomly assigned (and time works differently there) so that bristlefrost, ashfur, and spottedleaf start out as roommates but then spottedleaf moves in with frecklewish and bristlefrost moves in with snowtuft and antpelt. then ashfur’s left alone with his dishes
in which the faded spirit cats end up in a sitcom-like apartment complex.
(spoiler warning for the broken code, including a light in the mist)
this au has grown a lot and gained traction, so I’m making this post to make the au more navigable!
I love getting asks! feel free to send asks about specific characters, hcs, story ideas, whatever!
ddd!au navigation
the first post - here
#ddd!au - all posts
4/30/22 edit: the old tag #double death duplex will stay on posts that already had it, but #ddd!au is the main tag!
#ddd!au art - au art (thank you artists! feel free to use this tag as well)
#ddd!au plot - using plot loosely. what happens and character development, things that happen
#ddd!au musings - working out the au
#ddd!au duplex - how the duplex afterlife itself works
#ddd!au powers - ideas for powers
#ddd!au asks - what it says on the tin
edit 4/30/22: the old tag #double death duplex will stay on posts that already had it, but #ddd!au is the main tag! and instead of #ddd!art it’s now #ddd!au art, etc.
more below the cut: au-specific character tags, ship tags, and who’s roommates with who. if you like this au, rbs are super appreciated!
ddd!au characters
in alphabetical order. main characters are bolded. if you don’t see who you’re looking for, drop me an ask!
#ddd!antpelt x
#ddd!ashfur x
#ddd!bristlefrost x
#ddd!brokenstar x
#ddd!clawface (dark forest) x
#ddd!darkstripe x
#ddd!darktail x
#ddd!emberdawn x
#ddd!frecklewish x (explanation & disclaimer)
#ddd!frostpaw (living - asc river spoilers) x
#ddd!hawkfrost x
#ddd!hopekit x
#ddd!ivypool (living) x
#ddd!juniperclaw x
#ddd!mapleshade x
#ddd!mosskit x
#ddd!onestar x (starclan)
#ddd!raggedstar x
#ddd!redwillow x
#ddd!ripplestar x
#ddd!root x
#ddd!rootspring (living) x
#ddd!scourge x
#ddd!shadowsight (living) x
#ddd!shredtail x
#ddd!silverhawk (dark forest) x
#ddd!snowtuft x
#ddd!spottedleaf x
#ddd!tree (living) x
#ddd!thrushpelt x
#ddd!tigerclawstar x
#ddd!tigerheartstar (living) x
#ddd!violetshine (living) x
#ddd!wishkit x
ddd!au ship tags
#ddd!spottedfreckle x (spottedleaf x tc frecklewish)
#ddd!bristleroot (bristlefrost x rootspring) x
#ddd!SnowAnt (snowtuft x antpelt) x
#ddd!RedAnt (redwillow x antpelt) x
#ddd!RedSnow (redwillow x snowtuft) x
#ddd!trio (antpelt x snowtuft x redwillow, has roommate posts too) x
ddd!au roommates
spottedleaf, bristlefrost, and ashfur start off as roommates. spottedleaf had her apartment to herself before the two of them show up
snowtuft and antpelt are also roommates, and they grow close to redwillow
the three of them are like bristlefrost’s cool uncles/big brothers who look after her along with spottedleaf
tigerstar and hawkfrost live together
darktail is an enigma - no one knows if he even has a room
darkstripe wants to be tigerstar’s roommate
spottedleaf leaves to move in with her girlfriend frecklewish
then, bristlefrost is taken in by snowtuft and antpelt (and maybe redwillow too) where she’s much happier
ashfur is left alone to confront his issues (and the dirty dishes)
and that’s where we’re at so far!
P.S. I know a duplex isn’t an apartment complex - the name stuck and I was originally imagining a duplex. that first post was something I typed out and posted without a second thought before work one day, and now it’s snowballed into this big beautiful story and I’m thrilled!
(for my double death duplex au. spoilers for the broken code. I’ll rb this with additions for other characters!)
the idea is that cats who have died twice (spirit deaths) end up in the duplex (which is actually an apartment complex but shh). the duplex cats have unique abilities.
here are the initial three roommates: Bristlefrost, Spottedleaf, and Ashfur.
Bristlefrost: item (radio, probably)
can connect with the living world
I’m imagining she has a console radio that at first only goes one way and it’d hard to tune, but eventually she learns to broadcast outwards and that’s how rootspring receives her peaceful final thoughts (time works differently in the duplex)
could be with a radio or a camera, or a journal/sketchbook, kind of up in the air atm. I like it being a radio because that can start off staticky. plus it works with the idea that the duplex is in a pocket dimension in the center of the earth - which hasn’t been super important to the au so far but is still fun
hers is the most vague so far but that’s okay! I originally wanted her to be the only one without an ability because she’s “meant” to live again rather than stay in the duplex
she can do this because she didn’t have a death and then a spirit death — it happened all at once (same as canon)
discussion in the notes of this post
Spottedleaf: item (perfume/mace)
can summon an old-fashioned perfume bottle
like one of these:
(left image: a pink heart-shaped perfume bottle with flower decorations growing from the base and a pink crystal top. right image: a pink crystal perfume bottle with a puffy thing and tassel on top)
it works both as perfume and mace — changes according to her needs each time she summons it
she may originally only be aware that it’s a weapon and only realized it can be used as something nice later
OR, she’s unaware that it can become a weapon until she’s confronted by someone she despised (probably Darkstripe or Ashfur when he shows up)
idea from this drawing by @vhs-warriors
Ashfur: shapeshifting
can shapeshift and change aspects of his form
his ability is an inversion of his powers over the dark forest: he has control over himself rather than controlling others and his environment (like the trapping the spirit cats and flooding the dark forest)
starts of with minor shape changes and gets more powerful over time. he can also change his fur color so he can give himself highlights lol
doesn’t discover his ability until he realizes his overly controlling nature is a flaw
this growth goes along with him finally doing the dishes
more to come in the reblogs eventually! the tag for this au is #double death duplex au. input/asks are always appreciated!
I have stuff for the ddd!au that I’ve been sitting on since I don’t have time to write it out all nice! but since the whole au came out of a post I didn’t think twice about I’m just going to list some duplex story moments around bristlefrost’s power and rootspring that have been living in my brain (and my drafts)
• bristlefrost’s power is the radio that lets her tune into the living world, but it’s difficult to control at first
• it’s also time-agnostic and so she hears into the future, the past, or the present at random when she first discovers it
• it might be easier to tune into rootspring (and other cats related to the sisters) since they have a connection to the afterlife
• bristlefrost definitely connects with her ivypool once she has a hold of rootspring. like “pass the you phone! I wanna hear my mom”
• that connection makes the whole “ivypool finds out that bristlefrost is in some sort of afterlife with hawkfrost” moment possible. that could be the first time bristle gets through to ivypool but the line goes dead after since it’s tied to emotions and it shorts out because ivy starts to panic
• there’s room here to work in rootspring and his family — especially after that ask earlier about tree’s dad, root! I like the idea of bristle learning about rootspring’s family and imagining what it’d be like to be a part of it (I’m about to listen to tree’s novella so I’ll have more later)
• also — if I can use the parents to get hawkwing in here that’d be great because I like him a lot after reading his super edition!
• rootspring, unaware at first that bristlefrost still has a connection to the living world, eventually moves on
• she knows, she watches him move on
• rootspring and shadowsight grow close after surviving the impostor and the dark forest together, as well as going through the strained guilty grief that comes from surviving a day that others (especially bristle) didn’t
• it doesn’t take long for them to become close friends, but they take a lot longer to admit that they feel something more
• but they do! and they’re happy together
• (I’m not too pressed about canon compliance but since the code and its interpretation are changing rn, maybe I’ll incorporate that. ideally the medicine cat “no mates” rule gets removed because it sucks)
• eventually, bristlefrost does manage some kind of two-way connection even temporarily and is happy he’s living his life even if it has to be without her.
• bristlefrost didn’t get to join rootspring’s family the way she’d hoped for in life (although they are in their own way still family I’d say!) she’s found a family of her own in the duplex.
• sometimes, a family is a girl and her gay aunts who share a murderer, three uncles who trained in hell together and now just share a cool apartment (oh my god they were roommates), and maybe even the guy who she died killing.
I genuinely hope this doesn’t make any bristleroot shippers upset — that’s part of why I was holding onto this. I just love mess and tragedy and falling apart, and then the slow-going, up and down journey that’s putting yourself back together after.
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)
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.
imagine spottedfreckle are baking one day but they don’t have enough baking soda and spottedleaf is like it’s okay snowtuft has some and frecklewish is like ??? that giant scary fighter dude with the battle scars? and spottedleaf is like yeah he gave me his merengue recipe once it’s great 🥰
