#bb!silverstream

Before I hop off I quickly went and made a quick BB!Silverstream

Consider these chibis I've been doing as like, "beta" designs. I plan to come back to them later for full summary art, really play up the shapes and make them more unique and cartoonish

Since we're all kinda likening Silverstream to Roxy Hart, I went ahead and made her look a bit "foxy."

THE EYESHADOW IS IMPORTANT. It's the Applekin Family trait. It looks like a fish, but it's actually a very abstract depiction of an apple leaf.

Silverstream is about as "sleek" as a RiverClan cat gets; they're always thick and usually longer than they are tall, like otters. Silvs only gets THIS thin because she's 25% WindClan.

Her lawyer is technically her uncle Oakheart; but in reality, Lizardstripe is the one actually planning everything out.

Aaand here's another headshot of Lizi because I still need to make her full art, along with the other Forget-Me-Nots

Very round tufts. The roundness shows up in Runningnose and Tangleburr.

Her ears are cut in the same place on both sides. There is a sad story behind it that she won't tell, she says she "liked how it looked."

She has one stripe. It starts above one eye, runs down her back, curls over her hip, and runs back up the other side symmetrically.

CLEFT LIP. It is split just below her nose and naturally exposes her top teeth.

Lizi and Oakheart usually wear Forget-Me-Nots in their fur. Specifically, Lizi is represented by Changing Forget-Me-Nots and Oakheart is represented by Water Forget-Me-Nots (also called scorpion grass).

Other cats who could be at Silvs' trial;

Mother, Willowbreeze

Ancestor, Reedshine

Sunfish, suckler and friend of Crookedstar (died to Thistleclaw)

I'm not sure if she's keeping those siblings who die, or at the very least there might be one less, because I may want to use them at some point.

Shoooott, I didn't consider that. She's going to have a BAD time with all the Thistle Law supporters up there

Here's how the situation would go;

REMEMBER: StarClan can famously be influenced by the lawyer who is chosen to represent you

The lawyer is always someone you knew-- and it CAN be someone you've harmed. StarClan trials are not fair.

So that in mind, the most likely Lawyer here is probably her uncle, the infamous himbo himself, Oakheart.

That would be VERY bad if Oakheart was on his own. He's a good deputy, very responsible, friendly, and connected... but he isn't a rhetorician. Thistleclaw and his supporters would have verbally torn him and his niece apart.

But Oak's not alone. He's got Lizardstripe.

I could absolutely use this for Bluestar's Flowers, with Oakheart insisting that she's going to be fine because Lizardstripe saved Silverstream from the Dark Forest by helping him.

("helping" = she was behind everything and Oakheart was a big beautiful fluffy teddy bear that StarClan can't get enough of)

Silverstream would have to work with Lizi though, which might have been a bit of an issue. Like you mentioned, she is stubbornly adamant of her convictions.

But if she shut her trap when Lizi tells her to and acts the part, she can do this.

Lizi's strategy is simple; play up the apologetic angle. Silverstream received her punishment in her death. She was a young but loyal warrior who served her Clan through a hard season.

Though she had lapsed in her loyalty, it had never impacted her ability to fight for RiverClan, and she had acted with honor towards all.

Additionally, she's missed in the living world and will surely be invoked to foresee the consequences of such terrible choices. To lose such a spirit to the Dark Forest when she's *KICKS HER ANKLE UNDER THE DESK* VERY. SORRY. would be a great loss.

Oakheart: "And she's VERY sorry!"

Silverstream: -_- "very sorry."

It would take finesse but I could use this as a bit of hope for Bluestar at the beginning of her Trial, especially to contrast how she learns that Featherwhisker went to the Dark Forest in spite of being such a good person.

But she would NEED to not offend StarClan. She would need to listen to her uncle and his weird friend. It all depends on her ability to put on a sob story-- and it would be the basis for how Lizardstripe realizes that, next time, she NEEDS to discredit these Thistle Law-leaning spirits and go for the throat.

UNG

I've talked about her before but I'd have to go digging for it, so I'm just going to gush about her and everyone is gonna listen up. Because I love her. I love her so much. I love everything about her and her death and I think anyone who boils her down to just "a fridge wife" needs to read TPB again, and open their hearts and minds to the IMPACT that she had on the entire narrative

Because she DOESN'T just die to give Graystripe man pain. She hits EVERYONE, she drives the plot, she was a really well characterized cat and her death is heartwrenching!!!

First of all, I like the explicit fact that Graystripe and Fireheart are very young at the time. New warriors, almost immediately given apprentices.

In BB, I decided to make this one point where Bluestar bends the code to a disastrous result (in BB, you aren't supposed to have an apprentice until you're at least a year out). Graystripe should not have an apprentice when he's barely out of apprenticeship himself! Young people do dumb and wreckless things, question rules, they do what they want. And he ignores Brackenpaw to hang out with Silverstream.

And it's easy to see why! Silverstream's a self-assured, hostile popstar who is daughter of the leader and PRIDES herself in that. She has a great heart but will not follow rules she thinks are dumb, because she feels she is above consequence.

And she likes Graystripe because he's HONEST. He does what he pleases and if he takes an interest in you, it's genuine and flattering. He's funny! He's good humored and laid back! Fireheart is frustrated by this because he's responsible, anxious, and serious, but Graystripe CAN'T stay serious for that long.

He needs to live and relax. YES that makes him irresponsible and even avoidant-- and I like that a lot! But he loves with such raw devotion, never able to do what Clan Culture expects of him!

So NO WONDER these two ended up as cross clan mates. They're like peanut butter and jelly. Silverstream who feels above the rules and Graystripe who is loyal to people over clan. To them, the Code is a guideline

AND YOU KNOW WHAT?? THEYRE RIGHT!!!!

The code IS flawed!!! This IS a bad fucking rule! Their love IS stronger than this! The "Law of Loyalty" (my bb term for it) EXISTS BECAUSE OF THE SIMPLE TRUTH;

IF YOU LOVE CATS OF OTHER CLANS, AS FRIENDS, LOVERS, OR FAMILY, YOU SEE THAT THE DIVISONS ARE BULLSHIT

And that destroys the battle culture!! We SEE this in TPB, there are several times where cats will back off of fighting Fireheart because he's their fucking friend! He refuses to hurt Silverstream because she's his best friend's lover!!

And when she dies it's DEVASTATING. It wouldn't be the same if Graystripe's choices following her death were about choosing his lover over his home clan!

It's childbirth, as if she's being punished by StarClan for codebreaking! She wanted to deliver her children with her mate by her side, and had a horrible death on the rocks away from an experienced medcat. Cinderpelt blames herself for not being good enough to save her, destroying her confidence for several chapters until she can realize it was never her fault

And after this, Bluestar doesn't punish Graystripe... because she knows how awful it is to lose a mate from another Clan. Her death should be enough; in spite of the baying from the Tiger Clique for a harsher sentence.

Like... what frustrates me most about Silv is how the later books reduced her, for a period of time, into JUST a sweet nicey fridgewife that gives Graystripe permission to move on. She was fierce. She was assertive. She is the person who said, "If the law says my love is wrong, then it's the CODE that's incorrect!"

I wish she kept that ferocity in Graystripe's dreams and memories of her. A voice that would tell him that his heart has never lead him astray, even when others told him he was on the wrong path.

It was nice to see her return to some form with a spike of jealousy in TBC, and for as much as I hated Leopardstar's Honor, at LEAST it remembered she wasn't a sweet nicey waif.

So in BB I plan to change very little. BB!Silverstream was beloved by a lot of people, and people will fight for her name. Her death has a huge, negative impact on Graystripe and he never totally gets over her death, even while he's raising his new family. During TigerClan, her children are stripped of their names and slapped with cruel Dishonor Titles (Stormpaw to Graypaw, Featherpaw to Silverpaw), to remind them of how their birth killed their mother, and that their father is not here to pay for his crimes.