(Oops I finished this art months ago and am just now making this profile)
[ID: The Better Bones version of Fernsong. He is a thick, pale golden tabby with thin stripes and a flat, round face.]
Clanmew Name: Nanyanaya
(Nan, generic term for fanned-leaf groundplants + Yanaya, singing)
Old Name: Fiddles
(Pronounced "Fibuls")
Alignment: ThunderClan, ex-Kittypet
Relationships:
Mate - Ivypool
Ex-Mate - Minty
Children - Bristlefrost, Flipclaw, Thriftear
Friends - Stormcloud, Jessy, Daisy, Briarlight
Person who hates his guts - Blossomfall
Mentor - Lionblaze
Sweet man! Den dad! Guy who gets washed in by a big flood and lands smack in the middle of a messy breakup before being getting his hardass nightmare dad-in-law assigned as a mentor!
In cleaning up the Kin of your Kin prophecy and reworking the plot of Po3 and OotS, I made it so Ivypool is now the daughter of Lionblaze and Cinderheart, and secretly the child of Jayfeather and Poppyfrost! I always found the sheer amount of kids Canon!Lionblaze has to be pretty ridiculous, since it does nothing with those relationships and makes half of ThunderClan descended from Firestar in the process.
So, instead, the tree has been overhauled and BB!Fernsong is an ex-kittypet. The Firekin family is traced exclusively through Dovewing, Ivypool, and Hollylark.
And BOY does he enter in a doozy! ThunderClan's Tempest replaces Bramblestar's Storm, now full of different perspectives as ThunderClan recovers from the Battle of the True Eclipse. Fiddles finds himself drawn to the Clan as a refugee, accidentally becoming the final straw that breaks the camel's back in Ivypool's toxic relationship with Blossomfall.
(Note: At the time, Blossomfall has a Dishonor Title, Shredbloom, for her involvement in the Dark Forest. Shredbloom = Blossomfall.)
When he finally has the chance to return home, he realizes that Clan life offers him something Kittypet life never quite did; Community. While he's not much of a hunter or a fighter, he comes to feel needed and fulfilled by the connections he makes to lots of cats within ThunderClan.
More under the cut!
In ThunderClan's Tempest, he came from the same home as Minty. The family couldn't evacuate them, because they ran and hid out of fear.
She was his mate a few times, but in the way that some kittypets of the same house are. Purebreds. They'd had litters that the humans made sure were well cared-for, brought to new homes at six months.
They had a sort of love more out of convenience and safety than passion.
When he was found by ThunderClan, they brought him back to their base in the caves, and Daisy was able to help break the language barrier.
Ivypool, still destroyed from seeing her Dark Forest mentor Hawkfrost make a stand against his father and "die," started helping Daisy out with them. At first, she just needed to feel useful.
She had been in a relationship with Blossomfall (Shredbloom at the time) for a long time, at this point, and had even begged her to stop during the final wave of the BOTTE.
In a way, Ivypool felt like she needed to "save" someone from the Dark Forest, and for a long time after, she felt like she needed to save Blossomfall from her own pain.
But it was incredibly toxic. Blossomfall was controlling, Ivypool was touchy. They were fighting constantly, and Blossomfall was about to repeat it again.
Ivypool spending time helping out with Daisy, acclimating the refugees to Clan life, learning to communicate with them... made Blossomfall jealous.
When Ivypool broke it off with Blossomfall, it wasn't because she loved Fiddles yet, thought Blossomfall DID accuse her of just wanting to move on "with the KITTYPET"
It was just because she was sick of living like this.
Fiddles happened to just... be there. They had become friends, but weren't anything more at that point.
For him, it felt good to pay her back for all the comfort she provided him, and she was grateful that she had someone without bias.
He didn't have a side yet, so when he told her that what she did was the right thing, it felt honest.
Ironically, Bossomfall accusing Ivypool of "just wanting to go googoo over the new kittypet" pushed Ivy and Fiddles closer together.
It wasn't JUST Ivypool he got close to, though! Briarlight was also starting to realize that she needed to start distancing herself from her family because of Millie's ableism... and Fiddles was there for her, too.
Emotional support king, quickly becoming friends with everyone.
The fact that he was close with Ivypool AND her sister, though?
To this DAY, even AFTER all she'd been through and having adult children of her own, Blossomfall still can't shake the negative feeling she gets when she looks at Fernsong. But she's wise enough now to know it's somewhat irrational.
The Impostor DID exploit this, however. But that is a story for another time.
What's most important is that in this moment, Ivypool, Fiddles, and Briarlight became good friends.
By the time the floods had receded and the humans were coming home, he found himself not wanting to go. Jessy was hard at work on improving Briarlight's mobility device, Frankie was taking to battle like a fish to water, and he was falling in love with Ivypool.
He walked Minty home, made her promise she'd prevent their twolegs from missing them, and headed back to ThunderClan...
Where Bramblestar made him the first apprentice of his father-in-law to be, the hardass hero of ThunderClan, Lionblaze! Gulp!
CLOSING TRIVIA
He is NOT named after Ferncloud! Ferncloud survived the BOTTE in Better Bones-- DUSTPELT died.
Birchfall and Whitewing's daughter, Duststripe (prev. sorrelstripe) is named after him.
Fernsong's name comes from how Fiddles was convinced his name referred to a type of fern. What type of fern? He didn't know!!
So when he eventually picked his prefix, he simply chose the generic term for ferns; Nan.
(Ferncloud's prefix, Marssi, is actually totally different in Clanmew. It's a specific species, Dryopteris filix-mas, known as Manfern in English. A species used in medicine for treating tapeworm.)
When I design ex-kittypets that aren't just common street cats, I intentionally avoid referencing one specific breed with the idea that this universe's history is slightly different. Fernsong is designed as a mix of an exotic shorthair and a british shorthair. An Exobrit, if you will.
I've decided to make him come from a home that bred cats, just because I think that's an interesting idea.
Not a mill or an abusive situation, but he's had a life before Ivypool, like she had a life before him.
He will be a den dad in BB. Ivypool comes in to nurse their kittens, but Fernsong is their Mi and she is their Ba.
new blorbo just dropped, do you have any small details you can share about stormcloud?
Mr. Monsterscar himself
Stormcloud, Fernsong, and Sweetbright are all from Hengest. It's the town over to the west, which Clan cats pass by during a Salt Patrol.
He used to be incredibly self-conscious about his massive scar, back when he was a kittypet. Other cats thought it was scary.
So he used to try and make himself look small, and make up for the fact he felt terrifying.
He was at a really low point during the storm. His owners got separated from him and Benny, but he FEELS like they abandoned him.
(They left out a cat flap and were out for a while, and when they came back to the house, they'd evacuated. The flood hit shortly after.)
Unfortunately, the Clan is really quick to confirm this bias for him. They feel it's proof of how uncaring humans really are, and it's a story Stormcloud has really internalized.
"They abandoned me. They never loved us. It's their fault Benny died... but I have a Clan now. The past is the past; let's talk about something nicer."
The confidence boost of joining the Clans was immediate and dramatic. People LOVE his scar, he took to fighting like a natural, and he made a bunch of friends.
Cherryfall, Ivypool, Daisy, Briarlight, Hazeltail... Plus Fernsong and Jessie, who he had only been vaguely aware of before the storm.
You could call him a "gentle giant." He's softspoken, a good listener, and pays attention to people's needs.
Whatever the kitty-equivalent of passing out gatorade at sportsball practice is, Stormcloud does that. He would go get a firkin full of water for everyone.
He REALLY loves to fight, especially because he's just really good at it. He loves the way they look at him with awe when he pulls off some flashy battle move.
He made up this super impressive tree-richochet move after a few years of being part of ThunderClan, which a ton of apprentices and reckless warriors have embarrassed themselves trying to mimic.
Cherryfall is his BEST friend. They're kind of romantic, but also kinda not. They'd get flustered if you pressed them on it but are pretty obviously not gonna make a move without being prodded.
It is very cute to see, though, because it's like they don't even notice how much they look like a couple.
I'd describe him as a pretty smart guy, in the creative sense. He's good at coming up with new ideas and very helpful at a spitball meeting. It's not easy to trick or fool him.
Especially in contrast to Cherryfall who is a moron (affectionate)
He doesn't like to defy authority, though. He was on the Impostor's side during TBC, even though he believed he was wrong and even dangerous.
He kept those opinions to himself, especially since Cherry's dad Berrynose was one of the Impostor's biggest supporters.
Hello! What's Millie like in the Bonefall Rewrite?
[ID: A headshot of Millie from Warrior Cats. She is a pale brown tabby with a big forehead, blue eyes, and a radio collar.]
Millie's Radio Collar is officially part of the Better Bones AU!
The collar is based on Product 35 of Sirtrack's catalogue, the same kind of collar used for Meerkat Manor, the product of choice for researchers back in 2008. I had to use the Wayback Machine to hunt this one down, because Sirtrack got bought out by Lotek Wireless.
02-X01 was a shelter cat saved from euthanasia and acclimated to 02-A01, a last-ditch effort to save the project after the Clan cats fled the destruction of the White Hart Woods. 02-A01 (Graystripe) was the only cat the researchers were able to hang onto after a coordinated 'rescue' of the Clan cats they had captured, and he could not be fitted with a collar because he was... visibly distressed as long as it was attached.
(Screeching and hissing and smashing it against the walls)
So, she was fitted with the collar, and the researchers held their breath as they "escaped" (a window was intentionally kept unlocked by the researchers and Millie was trained on how to shimmy it open) together, hoping she would be led right to the rest of the Clan cats.
But there's even more changes to BB!Millie! I have a lot of plans for her life.
She can't "speak dog." No one "speaks dog." Dogs don't have language, they are only able to mimic.
Clanmew, Townmew, Tribemew, etc are actual languages complete with linguistic drift, animals no longer have inborn 'species languages' and so far only humans and cats are capable of true grammar.
Millie is knowledgeable with dogs because she recognizes breeds and body language! (never again will her stupid magic ability to speak dog language suddenly falter for the plot)
Millie, Graystripe, and the other cats who were captured were vaccinated against common strains of Color Cough. They have a hard time catching it and it's usually less severe when they do.
She isn't perfect, though. Millie's over-concern and ableism for her daughter Briarlight is going to be addressed just after OotS, in ThunderClan's Tempest.
She is forcefully cut off from Briarlight for several months as Briar explores the freedom her new mobility device gives her.
They do reconcile, however! Millie does eventually die in AVoS, where Briarlight goes on to TBC before being killed by the Impostor.
Okay but if Honeysnake lives imagine her relationship with Briarlight? I think it'd be really sweet if they became close friends up until Honey's death!
SLAMS MY FUCKING HANDS ON THE TABLE
HONEYSNAKE CAN BE HER MENTOR
Honey was perfectly eligible for an apprentice at this point, sporting an Honor Title before having one
Considered an easy GOOD move on Bramble's part, so his choices aren't all terrible
They would be close after Honey saves her from the snake, and Thornclaw is acting deputy at the time of her apprenticeship ceremony. This makes the most sense.
They can remain close even after Briar's injury, and have a final scene together just before the BOTTE about the meaning of life, Briarlight finally venting out something about her internalized ableism like,
"I'm sorry I couldn't be the apprentice you deserved"
"Bri, I didn't save you to make a warrior. I did it because you have a life to live. I'm your mentor, I'm supposed to deserve you."
This way I can set up Briar's arc in ThunderClan's Tempest right after, how she finds the strength to cut Millie off, plus make the fallout of the BOTTE bite REALLY hard as Briarlight is mourning Honeysnake.
Cackling evilly as all the pieces fall into place!!
How do all five of Graystripe’s children feel about him?
BIG question, but here goes, brief intro to each of the Graykits and how they feel about their dad specifically in Better Bones:
Feathertail
At her core, Feather believes everything happens for a reason. She has immense faith in StarClan, and always rolls with the punches. Unflappable, fun-loving, and very calm, she likes telling jokes and usually says exactly what's on her mind.
So when Graystripe was exiled from RiverClan... she was upset until she got the full story. Then it made sense. She was sad she couldn't be around her dad, but, she imagines she would have done similar.
She returned to RiverClan after TigerClan's disbandment to support her mentor, Mistyfoot. If Leopardstar hadn't made her deputy, she would have stayed in ThunderClan.
If she didn't die, there would probably be more to this story. Stormfur wishes he was the easygoing type of person his sister was.
Stormfur
People have been disappointing him his whole life, everywhere he turns, cats are pulling him down, stabbing him in the back, and leaving him in a lurch.
He massively resents Graystripe for leaving RiverClan. At the time, he believed that a Clan was above all else, because RiverClan was his home. They fought for him, they wanted him, he was named for Crookedstar's pre-honor name, he saw himself as the inheritor of that legacy.
TigerClan didn't agree.
When Graystripe arrived to save him, Stormfur didn't WANT to go back to RiverClan. It made him think that he was wrong as a kid, and Graystripe was the one worth being loyal to. But Feathertail insisted that Mistyfoot was going to need her, that they had a duty to rebuild for the cats who had died saving them, and that RiverClan had learned its lesson.
The tumult in TNP, the death of his sister, and the capture of his dad... he felt like the Clans had nothing left for him. The LAST straw was when him, Brook, and Sheep (who would become Mintflower) were tossed out of RiverClan after some ridiculous "sign from StarClan" willed it. The Tribe cats had only been trying to help these jackasses get settled, and this was the thanks they got.
When Graystripe eventually comes to live his last days in the mountains, Stormfur is happy. The pain of losing him as a young apprentice is very far away, and he's grateful to finally be able to catch up with him after so long.
Bumblestripe
He wasn't reflective or articulate enough to put it into words, but Bumble always knew that Graystripe wasn't seeing him as a kitten. He just accepted that there was a distant Stormfur and Feathertail that he wasn't living up to, and if he worked hard, and tried to be like them, then maybe Graystripe could come to appreciate him too.
Briarlight and Blossomfall are able to reject that, with distance or with frustration, but even when it finally becomes clear to Bumble... it's not that easy. He can't just "get over it." He knows the problem, he knows that Graystripe is about to be happier than he's ever been here in the mountains where he last sees his father, but it can't change anything.
All his life Bumble is in pursuit of that. Shoving himself onto Dovewing, carrying out every demented task the Impostor comes up with, Bumblestripe NEEDS to be needed. He has to be helpful, and if you don't need him, he can't handle that. It's not enough to be wanted, there is no guarantee anyone wants anything forever, but NEEDING?
Basically Bumblestripe is fucked up and he's only just starting to work on it by the end of TBC. He is a major supporting character in Ferncloud's Parting along with Cloudtail, which is replacing Graystripe's Vow because Gray does not need a POV here lmao thanks.
Blossomfall
Blossom had very similar problems to Bumble growing up, but expressed them more through anger. She's a punk bitch, you know?
She's not a 'nice guy.' She's not out here trying to prove herself to Gray and Millie over and over, just to get a scrap of their affection. She leans into the label 'bad person' and wears it defensively, because if she's bad, that gives her agency over it. Like it's her choice that they see right through her.
But under that facade, she's the same sort of clingy, lonely person that Bumblestripe is. She was in a bad relationship with Ivypool from near the end of OotS up until ThunderClan's Tempest, before being dumped pretty hard when Fernsong joined the Clan, and allowed that resentment to fuel her.
I am planning for her to briefly become part of the Kin, to bolster their numbers, but she eventually defects either with Breezepelt or by rallying the other ex-Trainees to fight the Kin in the final battle. Her kits are from a Kin cat, though she invokes the Queen's Rights to not disclose which one it was. (she did not know she was pregnant when she defected.)
She never got the chance to really confront her resentment with Millie, something she massively regrets. However, she did reconcile with Briarlight in the end, though they were briefly on opposite sides of the Impostor.
But, anyway, the last time she sees Graystripe is when he decides to leave for the mountains. She tries to hide how much this hurts her, that her dad can't be with her after she just lost a son and a sister... but, she's had to learn twice that holding resentment never leads anywhere good.
Poor little meow meow material, this one
Briarlight
Graystripe was never there for her. He was terrified when she was disabled, just as overbearing as Millie, but then it became obvious that she was still going to have a full life... and he refused to do anything when Millie started treating her like a tragic glass doll.
Briarlight is SUPER nice, too fucking nice. She wants to snap so bad half of the time, when Millie's 'concern' is a backhanded insult, or when she speaks over her, or stops her from having literally any alone time, but how can she? When Graystripe is always there to smooth it over, and tell Briarlight that "your mom just loves you is all," excusing every little thing she does.
That hurts a lot, that Graystripe is too afraid of offending Millie to take Briarlight's side, or even validate her feelings in private. Something clicks for her when she's chatting with a sibling, and she connects it all
The death of Silverstream. Stormfur in the mountain. How she both gets too much "love" and they're starved for it.
Graystripe can't lose Millie too.
That's why he won't take her side. That's why he won't suggest anything about Bumble and Blossom. And that's why it'll never get better, not until Briarlight does something.
So her response is to FINALLY, in ThunderClan's Tempest, after Jessie has upgraded her mobility device to allow her more freedom than ever before, cut Millie off. By doing that, it meant cutting off Graystripe too, and for a while, that included Bumblestripe as he took their side.
Sometimes love is a boundary, even a temporary one. She only wishes that all this hadn't unfortunately aligned with Ivypool's and Blossomfall's huge fallout. They lose so much time because Blossomfall is angry and lashing out at everyone, when Briarlight could really use her sister, the ONE family member she has left, right about now
I think, of all the kits of Graystripe's second litter, Briarlight would have understood him best as he went back to the mountain... but, she was one of the Impostor's victims. Only Blossom and Bumble were there to work out what his motivations could possibly be.
Do you have any plans for Stormcloud? It's weird how he was important for one book and just faded into background, and for some reason not allowed to have babies? It's odd smh....
[Image ID: Stormcloud, formerly known as Frankie, from Warrior Cats. He is a gray tabby with a huge, indigo scar.]
This man is getting a glow-up like you wouldn't believe
He joins during the redux of 'Bramblestar's Storm,' known in the rewrite as "ThunderClan's Tempest." The redux focuses on the entire Clan and how they've moving on from the Great Battle.
Frankie, Jessie, and Fiddles join ThunderClan, becoming Stormcloud, Sweetlight, and Fernsong. Jessie leaves after her relationship with Bramblestar goes sour, taking Alderkit in the cat-divorce.
Stormcloud's scar came from surgery he needed after being hit by a car. He used to be very self-conscious about it, but when he joined ThunderClan, they all went "AWOOGA MRREOW HUMINA-HUMINA 1-800-WILL-YOU-SPAR-WITH-ME?"
Turns out scars are very desirable in Clan culture and surviving a head-on collision with a monster means you must be a pretty strong dude. Kittypet blood be damned have you seen this guy?
The confidence boost was immediate and dramatic. He took to battle training like a fish to water and LOVES coming up with fancy moves.
Cherryfall is his sparring partner, they're besties and sort-of-courting.
In terms of personality, Stormcloud is a lot more thoughtful and calm than his appearance suggests. He's not violent, he just likes to wrestle.
He's a good dude who cares a lot about his Clanmates, checking up on them when they need help, always there to lend an ear.
Hoping one day that he can earn an Honor Title and get renamed to Carscar or Monsterscar.
im sure youve discussed this before but what is blackstar like as a leader in bb? i really like what ive seen about your shadowclan and i loved your wildfur post and the tidbit of blackstar carrying wildfur during the mountain climb was my favorite
So early on, I was sitting with Leopardstar and Blackstar, deciding the stories I would tell for them. I agree in-canon Blackstar is a lot worse, but in my TNP rework I realized I had a GREAT story to tell about about Leopardstar.
So, I decided to tell a very long redemption arc with Blackstar, and the importance of preventing Thistle Law from ever taking root ever again with Leopardstar.
Blackstar is a character driven by his guilt, and desire to atone for what he's done. The story begins with his first visit to the Moonstone.
StarClan does not give him all his lives at once. He has trials over many years to earn them. This is symbolized by him being born with a black executioner's hood over his head, and over many years of pressing his nose to the stone and pool, it erodes away from his nose creeping up.
By the time he earns his last one, there's only a black thread across his chest holding the 'hood' together. It snaps when he earns the last one-- from Russetfur.
Russetfur, who was his lifelong best friend, soulmate, and deputy. She mattered more to him than anything else in the world. EVERYTHING he did was for her, and for the people like her, the cats he would have discarded or even killed during his time in TigerClan.
They had a similar sense of humor; dry and sardonic. They mutually FLIPPED their shit at the cats who let Berrynose writhe in that fox trap, and even came up with a very embarrassing punishment together.
Losing her was devastating. It now comes AFTER the Eclipse battle, too, during the reign of Bramblestar. It is the moment that causes him to lapse and be open to Sol's influence. In the meanwhile, Ratscar, Redwillow, and Applefur take control of the Clan to further the agenda of the Dark Forest.
Their dark plans are thwarted when ShadowClan begs Blackstar to come home and rule his Clan. No trickery, no guilt, just love.
He loses his second-to-last life in the Great Battle, with a 2-vs-1 battle. Him and Iceheart against Tigerstar.
His last life is spent guiding his Clan through the Great Storm just after the battle, as ThunderClan undergoes a reduxed super edition called ThunderClan's Tempest, but I'm going to have him pass away peacefully instead of drowning.
That's probably what ThunderClan had agreed his name should be lmao like
"A scar from a MONSTER??? Monsterscar!! Monsterscar!"
And they were allll just waiting for Bramblestar, but then he was like, "hm. No. Stormcloud because there were clouds and a storm."
Cherry leans over like "yeah dont get too upset buddy, he's not a super great namer. There's worse names. Squilf had to argue with him to not call that one Briarfall."
