ok, for the apprentices, I think it would all come down to preparation. If it's a spontaneous fight, I think Hawkpaw gets the win. If there's time for planning ahead, I think Puddlepaw takes it. Whitepaw, bless his heart. he's a lover not a fighter. He gets taken out pretty quick. Mudpaw would be too worried about actually seriously hurting the others to give it his all, and that would hold him back. If it were life-or-death though, I think Mudpaw could eke out a victory.
For the mentors, I think it goes to Gullytuft. They're all pretty good fighters, Wrentail especially, but Gullytuft actually strategizes in fights. Wrentail just Lets The Madness Take Him, and that works really well against unprepared opponents, but this would be against other trained warriors, who already know how he fights. Sandleap would be slippery and fast, hard to get a hold of, but ultimately not much of a heavy hitter. Robinsong is a surprisingly capable fighter for all that she encourages people to use their words first in an altercation, but I don't think she'd be willing to fight dirty the way Gullytuft would.
👀 Wrentail was thw clan’s best storyteller?? What kind of stories did he tell? Could you mayhaps give us a little example? I mean I don’t expect you to have thought about the specific stories he told much but you got my curiosity so if possible I will take anything you’re willing to tell about this topic
I don't fully remember where the idea came from, but yeah I wanted Wrentail to actually have some kind of hobby outside of child abuse and rabid xenophobia HAHA, so with his special talent of Lying I figured he would've also been a good storyteller. Good at capturing imaginations, setting the mood through turns of phrase and gestures, and with a good sense for pacing in his story-telling. The stories told would vary, but they would probably range from personal anecdotes, to clan history, to folklore.
I imagine Micaclan as having a pretty rich folklore, with stories that impart lessons to their young members; practical lessons, but also moral lessons at the same time.
As for an example of a story Wrentail might tell, I was inspired to write a little snippet as an example!! I'm not a writer so this might be a lil clunky but I hope you enjoy anyway :P I'm putting it under a cut cause it got long haha
After a long day of training and hunting, Micaclan's apprentices and mentors gather close to discuss what they learned. Whitepaw shuffles nervously; he'd been so caught up in chasing a mouse, earlier, that he'd nearly careened off the edge of a cliff in his mad dash. Robinsong shakes her head at her apprentice, quietly disappointed and concerned.
She says, "You should know better than to chase so intently after prey like that—you weren't even looking at where you were going! Too focused on your prize. Haven't you heard the story of Pecanpaw's Tree?"
Hawkpaw snickers at the reminder of Whitepaw's earlier stunt, only to be quickly silenced as Puddlepaw's shoulder jabs into her side.
Whitepaw avoids looking at his mentor, and keeps his gaze fixed on his paws as he shakes his head, "No, I don't think so."
"Well, it's very applicable here. And that goes for all of you," Robinsong turns to look at the other gathered apprentices, "Hawkpaw, Puddlepaw, Mudpaw—This is an important story, an important lesson. Listen closely." Her eyes turn skyward, in apparent thought.
"Let's see... how does it start?"
Wrentail, beside Robinsong, lifts his head and touches the tip of his tail to her flank. She glances at her brother, before smiling and nodding. He straightens his posture, and begins speaking in a storyteller's lilt:
"It happened one day that a young apprentice, Pecanpaw, was readying for their assessment. The newleaf air was crisp and fresh, morning dew still clinging to the tender shoots of grass reaching up through the earth, and the pine needles under their paws were springy and soft, perfectly suited to cover the sound of their pawsteps as they hunted. All was calm, and the cool breeze carried with it the promise of abundant prey.
"Following the scent, they found their way to the base of a towering hemlock tree, so tall that the branches scraped the undersides of the clouds. And at its base, rummaging amongst the roots, was a squirrel. Not just any squirrel, either; from nose to tail tip, it was large enough to reach from the tip of their paw all the way to their shoulder. If they caught a piece of prey of that size, they would surely pass their assessment with no issue.
"Pecanpaw dropped into a hunter's crouch, and locked their eyes onto their quarry. With soundless pawsteps, they drew closer and closer to the squirrel. The air went still. With only the sound of their own heartbeat roaring in their ears, Pecanpaw readied themselves to leap—and then the wind changed. A gust coming from behind them alerted the squirrel to their scent, and it darted up the tree.
"Frustration tore through Pecanpaw, and they leapt up after their prize. Claws digging into the rough bark of the old hemlock, they kept their eyes locked onto the squirrel ahead of them. Up to the first branch, the second, the third—up and up and up. Always remaining just out of reach, the squirrel practically taunted Pecanpaw and their mission.
"With paws aching from exertion, they clawed their way higher. Before they knew it, the branches beneath them were willowy and thin, bending beneath their weight. Yet the squirrel continued to climb, and thus, so did Pecanpaw. They clung to the trunk of the old hemlock, continuing higher, higher, ever higher. Soon, there would be nowhere left for the squirrel to climb, and then Pecanpaw would have their prize.
"Finally, the end was in sight; only the thinnest of branches were left, and there was no further the squirrel could climb to. Pecanpaw, only a tail length away, could see the bristles of the squirrel's fluffy tail, see the twitch of its nose, its wide, glistening dark eyes. They could see it bunch its muscles, see it tuck into a crouch, and leap with reckless abandon to the waiting branches of the surrounding trees, hundreds of tail lengths below."
Wrentail pauses, taking the time to look at each of the apprentices in turn, before continuing.
"And as soon as their prize left their line of sight, Pecanpaw looked around them, and saw nothing but the tops of trees, felt nothing but the howling wind, smelled nothing but the cold moisture of the clouds. Their prey had been the only thing worth focusing on, they'd thought. Their prey had been the only thing they had focused on. But now, with the squirrel long gone, escaped into the branches below, they saw what they should have seen from the beginning. That the old hemlock tree reached into the sky itself, and that its branches were easy to climb up, but nearly impossible to climb down."
The apprentices wait with bated breath, eager to hear the rest. But Wrentail is already unwinding from the more formal storyteller's pose, lifting a paw to wash his face.
The tip of Hawkpaw's tail flicks from side to side, "So? What happened after that? How did Pecanpaw get down?"
Gullytuft, silent up until now, meows, "How do you think?"
A beat of silence.
"...They fell," Puddlepaw concludes, "They couldn't climb down. They were too focused on their prey and didn't pay attention to their surroundings, didn't stop to think. That's why it's a lesson, right? You're supposed to think about Pecanpaw before you start being reckless and chasing after prey without thinking. Or you might get hurt, like Whitepaw almost did."
"Spot on, Puddlepaw," Sandleap meows.
They preen a little at their mentor's praise, but sober quickly. Pecanpaw's Tree isn't a fun story, not when it feels so real. Any of the apprentices could've been Pecanpaw today. They promise their mentors that they will think before acting rashly.
if you ever wonder what it looks like for me when i get the "i cant draw today" status condition, here's two examples from one of the new videos of when my brain isn't art-ing compared to a redraw on a different day
hello! i didnt know you were on tumblr.
now, i have a little question to ask!
do you have any beta designs or something that was meant to be mudpaw or some other cat but you picked to change it? im very curious, but if not! thats okay ^^
I have a few! Usually I end up tweaking designs little by little until I like them and THEN I use them, but some characters had designs that started out fairly different from how they are now!
These were the first iterations of Mudpaw and the rest of the apprentices! I've talked a bit about them in the past on this blog (and also I think in my commentary video?). Mudpaw started off with a slight greenish tint to his fur, with bolder stripes and different overall shapes and proportions! Whitepaw and Puddlepaw both changed a lot, and Hawkpaw was initially a bit rounder in her face with lighter gray spots instead of black!
These were the designs I ended up using in Johnny, though if you pay attention to the designs in that video, you'll see that they change subtly as the video goes on lol. Wrentail used to be a lot more angular, and his colors were a higher saturation (though you wouldn't know from the video, since it's in greyscale lol)
The mentors don't look too different from their current day designs, but some of the proportions and shapes are a little different!
I once considered giving Wrentail stripes... don't like this very much now
These are some more old designs! The first is the old version of Foxjaw (which I mentioned in this post), then a scrapped hypothetical apprentice character for Owlpounce who was going to be Hawkpaw's sibling, and the last characters were old versions of Sweetpea and Possum!
The fact Gullytuft is Mudpaw's aunt is so interesting to me. I feel like she must not know just based on how she treats him. Which if so, there's like so much family drama just under her nose. Makes me even more sad for Mudpaw too
She definitely doesn't know!! At least not consciously. I think she subconsciously realizes that Mudpaw looks really similar to her brother, and that's an additional reason for her to avoid engaging with him
Gullytuft is officially a wine aunt. That is sure to create potential for an interesting dynamic between her and Mudpaw
Only if they find out about their family relation! I imagine Birchspeckle's explanation to Mudpaw about his past was kinda vague when it comes to the details, so maybe he only knows that his housecat mother died in a fire/snowstorm incident and his rogue father gave him to micaclan so he would have a chance to survive the winter. Maybe he knows his father was a former micaclan cat, but not his name or anything else about him! That would leave room for Mudpaw to do a little investigating about Possum, which could be fun! cue the 'we don't talk about bruno' music video with mudpaw asking all the cats of micaclan about who possum is and what he was like HAHA
If he finds out that Gullytuft of all cats is his aunt, he'd have no idea how to approach talking to her. Maybe he wouldn't talk to her, too weirded out by the knowledge of them being related when she barely even looks at him, maybe even looks at him less than most of his other clanmates.
If/when Gullytuft does find out, she wouldn't be able to look at Mudpaw without seeing all the similarities to Possum. I think she subconsciously already knows they look pretty similar, and as a result does her level best to never look at him with anything other than peripheral vision, for fear of Experiencing An Actual Emotion. If she manages to get over that, though, she'd probably quietly hover and try to do helpful things from a distance. she gets hawkpaw to report to her how mudpaw is doing HAHA. I can imagine Mudpaw coming back from harvesting some materials for Owlpounce and her being like "Gullytuft left you a mouse :)" and mudpaw being like. excuse me she did what
