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)
since I had an ask that I partially answered yesterday about darktail and scourge, here’s scourge!
I feel like something blood-related is my go-to thought, but that feels to grimdark for the au (plus darktail and potentially frecklewish can already bloodbend) so I was looking through his wiki for ideas. I’ve only been back into the books for less than a year and I still haven’t reread the first two arcs since I was a kid, so it’s been awhile since I’ve read any scourge books! (also isn’t he only alive and on page for 1 main series book? an icon)
scourge’s image is tied to ice a lot, whether it’s his icy, uncaring gaze or his cold, unaffected demeanor. so I’m declaring scourge the Frozone of the ddd!au.
plus he has the one white paw — in life it was a cool quirk but now it’s the source of his freeze rays I guess lol
when scourge teams up with darktail (against bristlefrost’s group, tigerstar’s group, and mapleshade+emberdawn) they have a fun water-and-ice thing going!
Okay so, there are a lot of cats that die and the writers just simply forget about them (for example uhhh ThrushPelt, he had an off-screen death and they never mentioned him again) Are those cats considered double dead?
If yes, I need to know more about ddd!ThrushPelt, I absolutely adore him
Ooh another question! What about Scourge? He's dead but his spirit was never mentioned. Is he considered duble dead?
I think whoever I/we feel like considering double-dead can be double-dead for the sake of the au!
these are both long-ish, so they’re under the cut! thrushpelt is first, then scourge. this is the first time I’ve focused on either of them, so these are introductions to who they are in the duplex au!
ddd!Thrushpelt
I love Thrushpelt too! I’ll say he died the first time before into the wild, and his spirit death was in the last hope battle against the dark forest.
I see him get compared to Mapleshade in terms of the best vs worst ways to react to unrequited (or in Mapleshade’s case, retracted) love. so they’ll be good narrative foils to each other.
Thrushpelt was also a little bit older than Crookedjaw when he was alive, so whenever he finds out about how Mapleshade manipulated him that would affect him a bit.
also, a lot of the cats who were villains to his family specifically are there in the duplex with him. tigerstar, who led the purge of half-clan cats and terrorized bluestar; darkstripe, who killed thrushpelt’s adoptive son stonefur; and pretty much everyone who gave thunderclan trouble in the first arc.
I imagine he’d be protective over firestar from starclan since bluestar took him in, watching over him as well as mistystar. he hated whenever thunderclan and riverclan were in conflict. he takes care of mosskit in starclan, and though he’s sad when stonefur joins their ranks he’s glad to make up for lost time with the adoptive son what earliest, vaguest memories are of being coddled in the nursery by him and bluefur.
he starts off in the duplex on his own — ever the bachelor. there are also a LOT of new residents from both sides of the dark forest battle. he reconnects with Spottedleaf, who was briefly his apprentice way back when. when she needs to complain about Ashfur or gush about Frecklewish, she goes to Thrushpelt.
Thrushpelt is good at coaxing the shyer/more reclusive duplex cats out of their shells. he connects with Redwillow (before he joins Snowtuft and Antpelt), surprising them both.
one night, Thrushpelt finds Darktail wandering the halls. he’s the first cat who manages to speak more than just a few words before the reclusive rogue takes off again. Thrushpelt doesn’t know much about Darktail at first, but he asks, and eventually Darktail tells him about Onestar, about how he should be here too, why isn’t he here?
Thrushpelt doesn’t let on at first that he actually knew Darktail’s father a bit in starclan. Darktail mostly likes to talk about himself, to wallow. to defend his actions. and Thrushpelt is appalled, but he keeps coming back to listen. to be there for him, less of a shoulder to cry on at first and more of an observer, the way you can’t get an awful headline or news clip out of your mind once you see it and you keep going back to learn more.
ddd!Scourge
early on, I said scourge is the landlord of the duplex. I don’t think that quite fits anymore. I’m not sure when he would’ve died his second death — maybe he stayed vengeful as a spirit and came after clan ghosts and starclan cats.
you know what would really hurt? if Jake took down Scourge’s spirit to protect Firestar and the clans — killing one son to protect the other.
Scourge hates to feel inferior, less than, the last choice.
learning that this protective ghost of firestar’s father is his own father too undoes him. his last, fading thought, the realization that the wretched firestar was his brother all along and their father chose him, sets him spiraling into a vengeful rage.
needless to say, he isn’t fun to be around in the duplex.
I didn’t actually intend this, but ddd!Scourge and ddd!Darktail have a lot in common!
they’d probably be rivals who eventually team up in the struggle for Bristlefrost’s radio. it could be Scourge and Darktail vs. Mapleshade and Emberdawn (who turn on each other) vs. Tigerstar, Darkstripe, and Hawkfrost (who changes sides) vs. Bristlefrost’s friends defending and playing keepaway with the radio.
ddd!scourge was still killed by firestar the first time like in the books, but his spirit was killed reluctantly by jake. scourge was rallying other ghosts of cats wronged by the clans for revenge and jake chose to end one son to save the other.
