it occurred to me I should prob write down all these fools stories so heres a VERY long one for these two under the cut
Joker was born into a happy household. He had both his parents, King and Queen, and a sweet elderly man as his twoleg. He was born with five other littermates; they were all given to other families once they were a couple moons old, but Joker’s twoleg decided to keep him because he was charmed by his odd coloured eyes. Sadly, not long after, when Joker was only 5 moons old, his family’s twoleg quietly passed away during the night and wouldn’t wake up the next morning. People came to collect their twoleg’s body, and nobody ever came back for the three of them. Joker, King, and Queen were forced to leave their home in hopes of finding food and hopefully even someone else to take care of them. They traveled around for a couple moons, living off of scraps from garbage cans, and eventually ended up a few towns over in a bigger city. Unbeknownst to them, they accidentally ended up in a group of rogue’s territory, and decided to bunker down for a while because food wasn’t too hard to come by compared to other places they had been. Joker had been able to pick up hunting live prey pretty easily since he was so young when they had left their old house, so he would often go out hunting on his own. On one of these hunting trips, he met a red tabby tom named Durian. Durian was kind to him, letting him know the best places to find rats and mice and hunt, and they’d usually see each other whenever Joker went out to hunt. One night, after witnessing Joker gulp down a mouse he had just caught, Durian approached Joker, carrying two plump rats. Durian told Joker he had hunted too much that night, and that Joker should take the rats back to his family for dinner. Joker happily accepted the prey and brought them back to King and Queen who were both pleased and proud by the large meal their son had accrued for them. A few sunrises later, Joker woke up late in the morning and both his parents were dead beside him. Joker was horrified by the sight before him, and gave in to the overwhelming instinct to run and run and not stop until he physically couldn’t go on anymore. By the time Joker found a bush to hide under and rest, he was multiple towns away, far from the bodies of his parents and far from Durian. Joker kept traveling for another few moons and ended up in some woods on the edge of a little town, and decided to settle down there. He lived there for a year, enjoying the privacy of the woods and easy access to the town if he needed anything from it. He took the year that he spent living in these woods to think about his actions and what exactly had put him in his situation without his dear parents, and after thinking about this for a year, he eventually came to the conclusion that Durian had tricked him into feeding his own parents poisoned prey. He immediately decided to retrace his old steps back to the city where Durian lived, where his parents had died. It took him another long few moons, but luckily when Joker got back, Durian was right where he had been all that time ago. Joker spied on and watched Durian and his group of cats for a little while, and slowly started picking them off and killing them, one by one, until Durian was the last rogue of his group left. Joker confronted Durian, forcing him to confess that he gave Joker those poisoned rats all those moons ago, because he hadn’t taken kindly to a group of soft and squishy housecats settling in his territory. Durian begged for his life, but Joker attacked him and they fought; Joker lost half of his right ear in this fight and Durian lost his life. Joker took up residence in what used to be Durian’s territory and set up a nest for himself in a nearby grassy park, which was the part of his new territory that most reminded him of the woods he used to call his home.
Slatekit was born to her mother Pikesplash and her father Graywillow. She was born with two other littermates, who sadly passed away a couple days after being born, having been very weak since Pikesplash had given birth to them. Slatekit was the only surviving kit of the litter and both her parents just loved her to death, especially after the death of their other two kits. When Slatekit reached 5 moons old, bored and unsupervised in camp, she ended up sneaking out and went exploring her clan’s territory. She ended up by the river flowing out from the lake, which had swelled from recent leaf-bare rains. Clumsy on her young paws, she slipped on some stone and fell into the river. She had practiced swimming in the shallows by the RiverClan camp enough to stay afloat for a little while, but she was too weak to fight the current to make it to shore, and so she was swept out of RiverClan territory. She was knocked unconscious at some point while she flowed down the river, and she briefly regained consciousness to find herself on a gross muddy shore, but she quickly passed out again. The next time that she woke up, she was in a shiny metal cage in what she assumed had to be a twoleg deg. She was too weak to try to escape, and let the resident twoleg take care of her for about a moon. Once she was feeling well and energetic again, though grateful for the twoleg’s care, she managed to escape the twoleg’s den through an open window and found herself in a rather large and daunting city. She had no idea how to make sense of this place she found herself in, and easily got lost looking for the river.
Slatekit eventually happened upon an open grassy area in this busy city of twoleg dens. She decided to stop here for the night, slightly comforted by the presence of the few groups of trees. Slatekit crawled under a scraggly bush and went to sleep. When she opened her eyes the next morning, she found herself being stared at by a scarred face with odd-coloured eyes. A large, older black and white tom loomed over her and he spooked her for a moment, but when he saw she was awake, he asked her what she was doing in that part of town. She quickly came over her slight fear, excited to finally see another cat and launched into her story about how she ended up there. The tom, whose name he revealed to be Joker, definitely hadn’t asked for her whole story, but since he was familiar with the river she mentioned, he pointed her in the direction of it and turned his back to stalk off into the rest of the park. Slatekit called after him, thanking him, and quickly ran off in the direction Joker had indicated. Try though she might, Slatekit ended up getting lost on her way to the river, completely bewildered by the maze of twoleg dens, but she managed to retrace her steps and her scent back to the park by nightfall. She crawled back under her bush, and tried to keep her eyes open for Joker, but she quickly fell asleep from how tired she was by trying to navigate all day. Come morning, Slatekit was ecstatic to see Joker glowering over her again when she woke up, and quickly told him about her attempt to leave the city and how lost she got and how hungry she was at that point, and begged him to lead her to the river. Joker reluctantly agreed after she pestered and pestered him, if only to just get her off of his territory. Joker quickly caught a meal for her and they headed out in the direction of the river, They reached the river by sun-down and Slatekit was overjoyed. Joker quickly turned to leave and Slatekit started to panic. She rushed in front of him, trying to block his way, telling him that she didn’t know how to hunt and she would never be able to make it home all on her own. Joker asked why he should bother concerning with her any longer and Slatekit said she’d follow him all around his territory and she knew that any threats he might make to her were empty because she could tell Joker would never think of doing anything sinister to a harmless kit like herself. Joker found himself again reluctantly agreeing to travel with Slatekit up the river until they found her home, promising to catch her food and possibly even teaching her how to hunt if they found the time.
Joker and Slatekit started on this journey as near strangers but grew closer and closer as they traveled together to find the lake territories. Joker was callous to her at first, but after a few nights of watching her shiver from the cold leaf-bare weather, he found himself curling up around her to keep her warm. Though a moon isn’t very long, with his own help, Joker felt like he watched Slatekit grow from a helpless little kit into a little bit more competent of a cat, able to survive on her own, and her endless energy and overall cheeriness ended up warming his old, hardened heart. After a number of years chasing other cats off of his territory in this city, Joker had forgotten how wonderful companionship is and by the time the two of them finally reached the lake, Joker found himself thinking of Slatekit as if she were his daughter and loving her as if they were really kin. Slatekit felt similarly; however reluctant Joker had taken care of her at first, he ended up putting his whole self into his care for her and his teaching her how to care for herself as well. Even though she loved her biological father, Graywillow, back in RiverClan all the same, Slatekit loved Joker like a father too.
Arriving back at RiverClan, Slatekit’s parents and the rest of RiverClan were overjoyed to see her alive and well again. Though, while Slatekit was gone, Pikesplash and Graywillow had fought over Slatekit’s disappearance and their relationship had fallen apart. Joker stayed as a guest for a couple of days, but then talked to the newly apprenticed Slatepaw about how he should probably leave, as he didn’t want to impose on her family and Clan. Slatepaw panicked again, and begged him not to leave, she told him she loved him so much and she couldn’t bear not having him around to look out for her and be there for her, if Eelstar didn’t think there was a place for him in RiverClan, Slatepaw could convince her that such a place existed for him. Though it broke his heart, Joker tried to convince Slatepaw to not make such a big deal of his leave, he’d lived alone for years and Slatepaw would forget about him not long after he left; Slatepaw never gave him the opportunity to argue that, though. She went to Eelstar, who quickly agreed to take him into RiverClan after all he went through for Slatepaw, and told him there would be an open nest for him in the warrior’s den. Though unsure at first, Joker took up the RiverClan leader on her offer. Joker found himself much happier being able to stay at Slatepaw’s side, and though he has trouble connecting with most of the rest of RiverClan, they mostly accepted his presence in their Clan, though swimming isn’t particularly Joker’s strong suit. After about a year of living with RiverClan, when Slatepaw earned her warrior name, Slateskip, Eelstar offered to give Joker his own warrior name, but he politely declined, claiming his name was his only real reminder of his beloved parents, and he wouldn’t be able to bear being called anything else. During that year with RiverClan as well, Joker found himself bonding with Graywillow over their similar feelings and relationship with Slateskip, and Graywillow confided in him about the demise of his relationship with Pikesplash, and the two toms fell in love with each other slowly, their daughter supporting each of them all the way.