SedatedDreams

I'm a scientist by day and a warrior cats fanfic author by night. I'll be using this blog mostly to share my writings and any thoughts that come along with that, as well as general Warriors-related musing. You can find the links and summaries of my Warriors fanfics below!

Cold Bloodlines

COMPLETE TRILOGY!

This is a "soft reboot" of Warriors, featuring a new cast of characters and conflict, a new time period (taking place in the past, after DotC but before SkyClan left the forest) and some additional worldbuilding around Clan cultures/traditions.

It follows Frost, a young rogue kit who is left alone in ShadowClan after being rejected by her father and orphaned after the death of her mother, as she tries to prove herself and find the place where she belongs.

Shaken Roots (A Rewrite of The New Prophecy)

My main focus, in progress: The first, second, and third books, "Shaken Roots: Midnight," “Shaken Roots: Moonrise,” and "Shaken Roots: Dawn" are complete!

"Shaken Roots: Starlight" is currently being released with chapter updates posted every-other-week!

It's basically what it says on the tin: The New Prophecy but I do my best to improve on the weaknesses of the arc to create a stronger, more cohesive narrative while not entirely destroying the Erins' original vision.

Lightning's Storm

Low priority, complete(ish.) This is a rewrite my first fic, originally published on Fanfiction.net from 2014-2017. The rewrite is only 75% finished, but the final 25% of the original remains on FF if you dare read my ancient writing.

This diverges from canon following "SkyClan's Destiny." Written in the style of the old super editions, it follows Leafstar's daughter, Lightningkit, from kithood to becoming a warrior in modern day SkyClan. The Clan is thriving until a new danger appears, and the young warrior finds herself in the middle of the conflict and the focus of an ominous prophecy.

This fic explores themes of destiny vs free will and asks the question of how much power a cat truly holds over their fate.

Warriors Characters' Spotlights

This is a collection of oneshots and novellas that are each focused on a particular canon warrior cat with the intent to show "missing scenes," or fill out gaps in the canon timeline. I write these sporadically, whenever I feel inspired to.

Fics in the series: "Leopardstar's Regret," exploring Leopardstar's emotions in the time after TigerClan. (The least canon-compliant of the bunch.)

"Ashfur's Judgment," exploring Ashfur's StarClan trial and how he weaseled his way in.

"Hawkfrost's Plot," exploring how Hawkfrost and Ashfur planned to kill Firestar together. Plus a little bit of toxic yaoi as a treat.

"Thrushpelt's Love," exploring Thrushpelt's relationship with Bluefur and their kits.

"Fernsong's Grief," exploring Fernsong's emotions after Bristlefrost's death.

"The Herb Thieves," which is my short story entry to the official 2021 Warriors competition about Brightpaw investigating some missing herbs. I didn't win, but I'm honored to have been mentioned among the top 10.

"Ashfur's Purgatory," exploring Ashfur's time in StarClan between his death and The Broken Code (and acts as a follow-up to Ashfur's Judgment.) He's only become more delusional.

“Squirrelflight’s Lives,” a fic about the nine lives ceremony that I’d like Squirrelflight to have!

"Mudfur's Lie," my submission for the official 2024 Warriors short-story competition, about Mudfur raising Leopardstar.

"Ridgeglow's Fondness," a cute little fic about Ridgeglow and Birchfeather falling in love.

"Hollyleaf's Penitence," explores Hollyleaf struggling with her guilt about her actions/life after she dies and ends up in StarClan. (A companion piece to Ashfur's Purgatory.)

"Squirrelstar's Solitude," takes place during "Hidden Moon," as Squirrelstar grapples with the thought of her life without Brambleclaw in it.

and finally...

Silverhawk’s Legacy

This used to be in the above series, since I originally wanted it to be a novella, but it had it's own plans.

This is an in-progress novel about Silverhawk’s life, his relationship with his mate Emberdawn, and his actions that eventually land him in the Dark Forest. It is set in the Clan’s distant past, right after the tradition of leaders being succeeded by their kin is replaced with the amended warrior code, which states that deputies always take over after their leader’s death. It's a little bit of an enemies-to-lovers romance with a big helping of political intrigue and murder on the side.

That is all, at least for now. Thank you so much for checking out my blog and for reading this far :)

My Ko-fi, if you are feeling generous <3

I can see StormHawk being tragic in canon because I can interpret Hawkfrost kicking Stormfur and Brook out of RiverClan as romantic jealousy, but I can't quite see a similar angst angle for StormBramble because Stormfur is so tied to being with Brook and also having had feelings for Squirrelflight, even if Brambleclaw is defending him staying in ThunderClan. So how would you make StormBramble endgame/angsty/have weight in a canon-compliant AU, is what I mean?

Well to be clear, I'd probably want StormBramble and StormHawk to happen in separate AUs lol (so Stormfur wouldn't be shipped with both of Tigerstar's sons at the same time.)

As for your question: my understanding of "canon compliant" is that it means a headcanon or idea that's not explicitly contradictory to canon. So I feel like by that definition, any version of StormBramble endgame already cannot be canon compliant, since Stormfur and Brambleclaw don't actually get together in the books. (Although you could make the case for something like the headcanon of Stormfur having a crush on Brambleclaw in Moonrise as being "canon compliant.")

Anyway, though, I can still try to think about an AU that at least sticks as closely as possible to canon. So I'd probably have the divergence happen around Dawn. Stormfur can still have his crush on Squirrelpaw and Brook (and Brambleclaw, like I mentioned in the previous ask response on BrambleStorm lol) in Moonrise. But once Dawn starts after Feathertail's death, Stormfur would no longer be interested in Brook romantically. He'd probably be grieving too much to think much about romance at all, at this point. But Brambleclaw would be a big comfort to him at the time (as his friend), and they could grow even closer as the Great Journey happens. Stormfur would start to feel distant from his RiverClan Clanmates, but again though, Stormfur would not choose to stay with the Tribe in this version. Instead, Brambleclaw could bring up that he's sure that Firestar's offer for Stormfur to join ThunderClan still stands, and Stormfur would accept, joining ThunderClan when they reach the lake.

Lol both toxic and doomed!

I don't have a super clear conception for how I'd see it playing out, but I'd imagine it's go something like: They have this rivalry as deputies of enemy Clans, but underlining the hostility there's a current of respect for the strength of the other warrior. Then when RiverClan and ShadowClan start to merge into TigerClan, Stonefur and Blackfoot would be forced to work more together, coordinating things like the day-to-day logistics of the merging Clans. (This would be before Tigerstar takes Stonefur, Mistyfoot, Featherpaw, and Stormpaw prisoners.) They'd keep up their bravado and banter, but as they started to get to know each other, they'd (probably grudgingly from both sides) start to genuinely like the other. There'd probably be a bit of back-and-forth of them denying that they like the other, while it's increasingly clear that their feelings are growing.

Lol I have nothing major against JayKestrel! It just doesn't really "speak" to me. I think part of it is that I'm very picky about Jayfeather ships in general. I think a lot of it is me seeing him on the aroace spectrum and also always feeling strongly opposed to Half Moon x Jay. So Jayfeather has got to have a very special connection to another character for me to see them together romantically. (I think the only Jayfeather ship that I actually have strong positive feelings towards is JayPoppy.)

The connection between Jay and Kestrel (or at least my perception of it) just isn't strong enough for me to see it romantically. It sort of feels like the ship is mostly just based on: "what if we were both boys and both medicine cats, and we kissed 👉👈" which, you know, would be a perfectly fine basis for a ship for another set of characters. But again because it's Jayfeather, who I have irrationally strong feelings on ships about for whatever reason lol, it just doesn't work for me in this case 😔

Yes!!! LongFire is such a good ship! It's probably my favorite Firestar ship (well, tied with FireSand. Call me basic, but I do also love them together lol.)

I like LongFire for the enemies-to-lovers aspect of it (which is a trope that I really enjoy when executed well.) I just love the arc of Longtail and Firestar going from hating each others guts, to grudgingly realizing that there are admirable aspects about the other, to then unabashed, unwaveringly loyalty.... Which I suppose is basically what happens in canon, just without the additional romantic aspect lol.

Yes, I think they're so cute! I think one of my many rereads of TNP Moonrise years ago is what got me interested in the ship initially. Just the way Stormfur thinks about Brambleclaw in that book gives off strong "confused bisexual" vibes to me lol. Like, even in the context of Stormfur's crush on Squirrelpaw: Stormfur feels like he can't compare against Brambleclaw as a potential love interest, and his thoughts on why that is (besides Brambleclaw being from ThunderClan) are basically: "Brambleclaw is so strong and loyal and brave and handsome..."

No need to apologize! I said I was open to questions about my ship rankings, so I'm happy to elaborate.

You're right that I think Brambleclaw and Crowfeather are fine as friends. But as for Brambleclaw x Crowfeather as a romantic ship, the way I've most often seen that ship presented is from people who dislike both characters, pitching the ship as something like: "why don't we just put the two horrible men together?"

I don't care if someone doesn't like Crowfeather or Brambleclaw, but pairing two characters just because you dislike them both isn't a particularly interesting reason for a ship for me personally. Even if we were all in agreement about Brambleclaw and Crowfeather being awful men, I don't think their dynamic as a couple would be compelling to me.

Like, I have nothing against ships with potentially toxic dynamics as you can see from my list lol. But I like those sorts of dynamics because there is something complex and interesting there to dig my teeth into. While this version of BrambleCrow just sounds like two dudes being miserable/making each other miserable (together.) It's just not fun to me!

Since it's pride month, and I can't ask about their sexualities because that ask was already answered before, have you ever thought about ranking ships in a tier list? like your character tier list, but with romantic queer ships! of course you don't have to if you don't want to accidentally offend someone by ranking their ship low or something like that! :D

Hello!! And it's only the second day of pride month, that's not late!

Oh this is a fun ask! I ended up using this ship tier list, but I disregarded any of the straight ships on the list to rank only the queer ones! I added in Stormfur x Hawkfrost and Hollyleaf x Honeyfern specifically, but besides that didn't change the list. I also didn't want my rankings to get so massive it would be incomprehensible, so I only ranked queer ships that I have feelings (negative or positive) towards. If I was neutral on a ship or didn't know the characters of the ship well enough, I didn't include it.

The categories are basically: 1) My favorites, strong positive feelings about the ship! 2) Ships I like (lots of positive feelings) but aren't insane about. 3) At least somewhat toxic ships that have the potential to be very compelling. 4) I see the appeal, and I'm mildly positive about them. But I'm not necessarily purposefully seeking content of these ships out. 5) I can see the appeal in some cases, but I'm personally not really interested. 6) Not a fan and probably would not read content that featured these ships predominantly.

I'm so incredibly sorry about this.......

Speaking of, I have a question about the neurodivergencies since that other person asked. Are you comfortable with getting other people's headcanons on SR's cast being neurodivergent? You as the writer said you don't want to portray anything harmful, but me as the reader doesn't want to tell you how to write and overstep your interpretation. Are you fine with people's headcanons and lived experiences of "this is what makes someone with this disorder/condition tick" or youd prefer not?

Oh no, I didn't mean to imply that I'm not attached to to Stormfur! When I said I had trouble with his POV, that was because I was worried that people would find my portrayal of him boring— not because I, personally, think he's boring. If I'm ranking the TNP gang by my favorites, it's true that Stormfur falls more towards the bottom for me. (And I stand by what I said about his personality not being as big or distinctive as the others in the TNP gang lol.) But Stormfur is still one of my favorite little guys of all time when comparing him to all the other warrior cats.

Shrewpaw though... yeah, I don't care for Shrewpaw lol. (Nothing against him, really. I just don't have any strong feelings, negative or positive, towards his character.)

As for your question on the characters' neurodivergence and/or other mental differences/disorders: Sure, I'm happy to hear other people's headcanons about the SR cast, especially if someone sees something in a character that they relate to on a personal level! I just don't feel comfortable as the writer "confirming" said diagnosis, if I didn't set out intentionally to write a portrayal of that thing.

To explain more on why, I'm going to use Hawkfrost for an example. If someone with borderline personality disorder told me that they see Hawkfrost as also having bpd, I would see where they were coming from given how I've portrayed Hawkfrost and how some of his actions line up with the symptoms of bpd. And I'd be happy that that person saw something in Hawkfrost to relate to!

Putting these asks together as I think they're getting at the same thing!

I love reading the theories, but yeah I don't want to confirm anything at this point as they are major plot points of the next fic :)