what is the crow/night/breeze family dynamic like in this au? you've mentioned crowfeather being the one still emotional over leafpool so that would definitely affect breezepelt, but im curious of the wider scale of it. love this au btw!
I'm trying to infuse more nuance into all three of them like they're a cold brew tea.
HOLD UP THOUGH; let me be CLEAR!! I don't think Nightcloud has done anything wrong in canon (besides the rebellion which they forgor about anyway). I do not like how the narrative put a lot of blame on her in Po3/OotS/field guides when her greatest sin was... loving her child.
So in BB she is going to do bad things because we support women's wrongs <3
NIGHTCLOUD
I keep going back and forth on when she was born, if she was nabbed as a kit after the WindClan Massacre or if she was a young warrior during the BloodClan battle.
In either case, she is the sister of a cat named Tawnyfur, and their Mi is Hillrunner. They were born to Hillrunner's identical twin Downwind, but she was killed during TPB.
Hillrunner was incredibly traumatized by the horrors. She was obsessed with strength and phobic of ShadowClan for her entire life.
If you met Hillrunner, you'd think Nightcloud was a sweetheart in comparison (and she will be)
Tawnyfur was killed in the BloodClan battle.
Nightcloud hated Tallstar agreeing to trade with them, and she was easily recruited by Mudclaw based on her fury at Leo, Snapper, and Spagbol joining WindClan.
When they got to the Lake, Nightcloud joined Mudclaw's Rebellion. She spoke out against involving cats of other Clans in the cause, but fell in line quick.
The rebellion sabotauged a muirburn. The controlled burn became uncontrolled FAST.
I think she wanted to blame the cats like Hawkfrost for how far it went, but after the rain doused the flames and WindClan had to keep putting out smouldering peat fires, she realized it didn't look good to keep blaming others.
Plus how Mudclaw got smote. THAT put fear of StarClan into her
So it wasn't neccesarily out of regret that she apologized for her role and begged forgiveness, but a mix of guilt, fear, and genuine desire to fix the collateral damage.
I think she did take Crowfeather as a mate for reputation purposes, but she did also like him and want a mate. It wasn't an Honor Siring, for her it was more of an "arrangement" which she hoped would strengthen
She wanted to prove her loyalty, but also that she is a good and loving cat.
When Breezekit came around, she tried her hardest to be a good mom. She really didn't want to be like Hillrunner.
But she hadn't worked through anything else. Still had a distaste for Brushblaze, Snapstorm, and Cranberrysplash. Strongly valued strength and aggression. Only approved of Onestar when he pushed for violence and rejected the notion that you can trust cats of other Clans.
Breezepelt struggles with it for most of Po3, because he gets very close to the Three and considers them friends. But when the reveal drops, he believes she was right all along
I don't know how to preserve it yet but I do want Nightcloud to keep the housecat friend she makes in CT. Eventually.
Basically... she's dealing with a lot of anger of her own, not really knowing how to sort it, following along with what she was taught.
And Breeze inherits many of those problems.
CROWFEATHER
Significantly different from canon. Not aloof; dramatic
He's also a REALLY good cook. He was Mudclaw's apprentice and it shows.
I'm actually going to wrap him up in the rebellion. He endorsed Mudclaw's claim over Onestar-- and over the word of Brambleclaw.
But he snitched and fetched help on the night of the sabotauge.
After that and then Leafpool, he was also looking for a way to boost his reputation. Having kits was a way to do that, and he's a cat who was chosen by StarClan to go on a great journey, son of an old deputy and a new deputy, with an honor title, who ran to fetch help and thwart the assassination attempt.
He knows he is a bit controversial but also that he is undeniably a big shot. And he's not going to pretend like he's not proud of that. He's not even 5 and hasn't even had an apprentice but he's the most significant cat in WindClan
So when Breezekit comes along? He should be grateful. But he's not, he's a snot nosed little brat (child) who backtalks (child) to his own father (adult)
And he sure doesn't appreciate Nightcloud always trying to fight him. How dare she tell him how to be a Ba?
She won't let him BE involved in the way he wants, turning his kit against him, this is all her fault.
"If it wasn't for her, Breezepaw would know discipline!"
The whole world is out to get Crowfeather and anything bad that happens around him is someone else's fault.
So obviously the mateship falls apart fast.
He doesn't respect anything about Breezepelt, and blames all of his kid's problems on Nightcloud.
In a furious fight, he likes to compare Nightcloud to his other lovers. He says Feathertail, even if he IS talking secretly about Leafpool, because she is dead and can't confirm it, and it always hurts Nightcloud to be compared to an outsider.
This is an exhausting person to be around, and the boost in status and resulting ego makes him insufferable in contrast to the young warrior he was on the Sundrown Patrol.
After the Secret Reveal though, when Leafpool is stripped of her Cleric status and Crowfeather starts talking openly about his love, it is the LAST straw with Onestar. He rips his warrior name off and exiles him for a month-- begone CROW, NO SUFFIX. No you're not going back to CrowFOOT either. Not even an entire Dishonor Title. Just Crow.
He does start improving after that, but he needed a drastic punishment
BREEZEPELT
The kid was only born as a status symbol. Do you blame him for being a special kind of messed up?
He really cannot remember a time where his parents weren't fighting. Never liked it when Crowfeather did parental duties either. Kids are really sensitive to bad vibes.
Was, and still is, really close to his mom. But he always spent a lot of time with his buddies.
Harepaw, Kestrelpaw, Breezepaw, and Heatherpaw were the oldest apprentices in WindClan, the first ones born in the new territory. They all hung out together, except Kestrelpaw who was in Cleric training as soon as possible. Not even 6 moons.
When he's in a good environment, Breezepelt really shines. He isn't like Crowfeather says he is, he's actually fine at making friends and getting along.
When Crow or Night are around, he will often noticeably get more rude and xenophobic, eyes darting back at them like he's looking for approval. Night is always approving of this and giving light chuckles, Crow will engage in it too, but snap if he feels like Breeze embarassed him somehow.
When they go away it's like it drains out of him.
His worst choices in BB always go back to him being pretty desperate for approval, snapping between idealizing people or thinking they're the absolute worst.
So yeah. It's a screwey little dynamic. They hate Crowf, Crowf hates them, the arrangement was massively based on status, Breezekit was always in an unstable environment from the get-go, Nightcloud did contribute to Breezepelt's mindset especially post-reveal.
