#ddd!ivypool

It would be horribly ironic if one of her trainees killed them, like Ivypool or Hollowflight (probably on accident though, I imagine they’d be super on edge). Maybe someone was coming to attack Maple. And her kits, despite everything, wanted to help their mom.

So it led me down the thought process of what would happen if a kit or apprentice showed up in the duplex? And what kind of abilities would be given to them?

:(

I've been thinking about Mapleshade's kits in StarClan. maybe someone took them in. I imagine the rest of StarClan shielding them from their mother's actions. It must've been confusing for them as Ravenwing, Frecklewish, and Appledusk show up one by one in the stars. I imagine Appledusk doesn't know if he should tell them he's their father. At least in StarClan Frecklewish would get the chance to apologize to them.

but we're talking about the ddd!au! maybe they fell victim to the environment shifting around. the dark forest changed forms a lot due to Ashfur - maybe the same happens in StarClan. the idea of it being caused by one of Mapleshade's trainees is juicy. it being Ivypool hurts my heart, probably because she's already gone through so much and her pain kind of gets highlighted in my au since there's so much focus on Bristlefrost's state.

there are definitely kits in the au for them to meet! Tadpole is there with Hawkfrost.

maybe Mapleshade's kits are taken in by Spottedleaf and Frecklewish, who were sad that they couldn't have kits of their own or adopt until the kits turned up. Frecklewish definitely recognizes them and hides it from Spotted at first.

Bristlefrost and Antpelt meet in the pocket dimension after-afterlife hotel or whatever it is without knowing who the other was in life.

And ultimately they have to get through layers of heaven and hell and this weird motel to get through to Ivypool. to convince her that she deserves to mourn her daughter in peace and go on living.

• bristlefrost’s power is the radio that lets her tune into the living world, but it’s difficult to control at first

• it’s also time-agnostic and so she hears into the future, the past, or the present at random when she first discovers it

• it might be easier to tune into rootspring (and other cats related to the sisters) since they have a connection to the afterlife

• bristlefrost definitely connects with her ivypool once she has a hold of rootspring. like “pass the you phone! I wanna hear my mom”

• that connection makes the whole “ivypool finds out that bristlefrost is in some sort of afterlife with hawkfrost” moment possible. that could be the first time bristle gets through to ivypool but the line goes dead after since it’s tied to emotions and it shorts out because ivy starts to panic

• there’s room here to work in rootspring and his family — especially after that ask earlier about tree’s dad, root! I like the idea of bristle learning about rootspring’s family and imagining what it’d be like to be a part of it (I’m about to listen to tree’s novella so I’ll have more later)

• also — if I can use the parents to get hawkwing in here that’d be great because I like him a lot after reading his super edition!

• rootspring, unaware at first that bristlefrost still has a connection to the living world, eventually moves on

• she knows, she watches him move on

• rootspring and shadowsight grow close after surviving the impostor and the dark forest together, as well as going through the strained guilty grief that comes from surviving a day that others (especially bristle) didn’t

• it doesn’t take long for them to become close friends, but they take a lot longer to admit that they feel something more

• but they do! and they’re happy together

• (I’m not too pressed about canon compliance but since the code and its interpretation are changing rn, maybe I’ll incorporate that. ideally the medicine cat “no mates” rule gets removed because it sucks)

• eventually, bristlefrost does manage some kind of two-way connection even temporarily and is happy he’s living his life even if it has to be without her.

• bristlefrost didn’t get to join rootspring’s family the way she’d hoped for in life (although they are in their own way still family I’d say!) she’s found a family of her own in the duplex.

• sometimes, a family is a girl and her gay aunts who share a murderer, three uncles who trained in hell together and now just share a cool apartment (oh my god they were roommates), and maybe even the guy who she died killing.

"Your mom named you after me?!"

"No"

"Oh."

"Don't.. think so, anyways."

"She so did. Oh my goOoOOODDD"

YES lol

Hawkfrost is weirdly flattered until he realizes Bristlefrost doesn’t know his name or who he is and then he’s a little offended

until she’s like “well we knew mom was lured into the dark forest by a super evil cat” and he’s like “yup that’d be me”