#isopodbrain

Aliases / Nicknames: Isopod  

Gender: tom  

Sexuality: homosexual

Family: Milky (mother), Brokenpond (father), Mira (aunt), Frozenpounce, Boulderrun (brothers), Lilactail (sister

Other Relations: n/a  

Clan: N/A

Rank: rogue  

Characteristics: small, skinny, sweet and talkative, Devon Rex, collects feathers  

Number of Victims: 2 

Number of Murders: 2 

Murder Method: poisoning, asphyxiation, stuffing feathers and foxglove into prey, clawing eyes

Known Victims: unknown cat, Boulderrun  

Victim Profile: the infected, his brother  

Cause of Death: asphyxiation, choking  

Cautionary Tale: N/A  

Story:   

Isopodkit was found at the border, abandoned.  

He was considered scrawny, and his fur was too short to survive Leaf-bare.  Brokenpond wanted to leave him, but his kits begged their parents to take in the scared kit. And so, the absurdly tiny cat was taken in. He grew up with his siblings, who had apparently left the Clan when the sickness plague hit.   

Milky and Brokenpond had taken their kits and raised them as rogues. Growing up, he resented the teasing from kittypets and loners about how he was more of a mouse than a cat due to his small size. His brother supported him when the teasing turned to outright attacks.   

He felt pathetic. He couldn’t even fight a bunch of kittypets. Isopodpaw hated them. He constantly talked about how much they annoyed him, how mean they were.   

It was after he hissed at a Kittypet kit that his mom sat him down, and Milky confessed to him that she had been a Kittypet. He was so guilty he ran out.   How could he have said those things?   

He ran through the forest and fell into a ditch. He yowled for help, waiting for hours. The forest grew dark, and he shivered from the cold. He kept repeating that his brother would come for him, growing more desperate. Like always, his brother was there to pull him out.   

Boulderpaw was furious, and yelled at him about how he was reckless and useless. He instantly apologized to Isopodpaw, reassuring him that he wasn’t and that he was just stressed.   

When he got home, he cried and cried that he was sorry. And Isopodpaw broke. 

He didn’t talk much for weeks, barely leaving the den to do more than collect feathers. Isopodbrain didn’t realize how lucky they were to have taken him in until he saw his first infected. 

Its mouth was frothing, and its body was… rotting, and it rank of maggots. He didn’t even find out its name, his brother shoving him up a tree. They had waited for hours for it to go away, the cat scratching at the trunk in desperation to get at them.   

To their horror, it managed to climb up, its jaws snapping a tail-length away from them. Isopodbrain reached out in a panic, sinking his claws into its eyes, and it yowled a horrid scream that would repeat in his head for days. It fell back, and he heard a crack. Its body twitched, and went limp.   

Boulderrun carried him by the scruff back to camp, both in shock. 

He’d killed someone.   

He was skittish after that, but because they’d proved they could take care of themselves, he was finally allowed out alone for a short trip to Twolegplace.   Over the past few weeks, the kittypets stopped attacking him. Mostly. Bodies were being found in allyways, necks ripped apart.    

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and continued on the path to the Twoleg dens to find his brother. 

His trip went well, and he had a fun time hopping from fence to fence. He had paused to look at a cool flower below him, and felt claws dig into his tail, yanking him down.

He screamed and screamed as his tail was clawed, exposing bone. He was slammed against the ground, and felt dizzy. The large rogue wasn’t infected, though. It snarled at him that this was what he would get from killing the Kittypets, and Isopodbrain had gaped in confusion.   

He’d felt so dizzy from the pain, only glimpsing his brother on top of the fence before he squeezed his eyes shut. He heard his brother call down that he was the one they were looking for, and he felt sick. Boulderrun had killed all the kittypets? His sweet, protective brother?   

The claws removed from his tail, and he heard them tumble around in the yard for a few moments before he heard choking and gargling. He shivered, frozen in shock of the news and worried that his brother might be hurt.  

He was going to die, and his brother was dying. But, after a few moments, Boulderrun tapped his shoulder, and helped pull Isopodbrain to his feet. He was carried home, where his tail had to be amputated because of the damage. It took a long time to heal, and he began to recognize herbs quite easily.   

There was a lot of time to think. Every time his brother went out, was he killing someone? When he came home smelling of rogues, were they dead too?   When Mira the Kittypet had kits, they all went to meet them. Mira and Milky had been littermates, and the four kits were healthy, squirming at their mother’s belly.   

While their mothers talked, his gaze shifted to his brother, who was looking at the kits. Isopodbrain knew, right then and there, that his brother wanted to kill them.   

When they were home, he acted quickly. He stuffed as many feathers and foxglove into his prey as possible, and that night when Boulderrun started choking, his mouth frothing, his family panicked.   

They waited warily for an attack, assuming he’d been infected. But he only collapsed, and Isopodbrain ignored his families’ warnings as he pressed himself against Boulderrun’s side while he died, his head resting on Boulderrun’s back.   They stayed like that until the body grew cold, and Isopodbrain felt sick to his stomach.   

He had to do it.   

But as his mother turned over the prey, seeing the foxglove and feathers, she knew it was him, and a wave of guilt hit him.   

His head spun, and he impulsively bit into the prey, and stared choking on the feathers. His mom tried to help him, but it was too late.  

Additional information:   

--Submission by @wills-woodland-warriors

CW: Brief SH, Panic attack

His heart aches. It always does; Fadingstar will forever carry the weight of his past for the rest of his time as a spirit. But this isn’t his usual ache, it’s a stab of jagged claws that twist in his skin and leaves an ugly, open wound.

  He fights the whine that crawls up his throat at the sight of Fleathistle with his new ‘friend’, Isopodbrain. His skin crawls and his lungs constrict. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think that he was fading. The only other time he’d felt this horrid pain was when Starclan had rejected his leadership. This feeling that wracks his body with tremors as he lies in their shared nest, their second litter at his belly, is dread. Dread with a hint of anger. 

  Harlequinkit squeaks, unable to suckle due to his shaking. She baps at his tummy, earning a strained chuckle from the tom above her. He does his best to still himself so that the little ones can eat.

  A laugh sounds from outside the den, making tears cloud his vision. He looks out again to see Isopodbrain joking with Fleathistle in the garden. In their garden. His lip quivers as he fights his emotions. ‘What a stupid crybaby,’ he hears Ferretrunner in his head. He can practically smell his mentor’s rotten breath as his ghost lingers long after he’d been slaughtered by Jackdaw, Alder, and Myrtle. ‘Get it together. You should have known this would happen.’ The voice continues even as Fadingstar tries to tune it out. Just like in life, it doesn’t work. 

  His claws unsheathe and dig into the dusty ground, his brain reeling and shooting into overdrive. Fadingstar isn’t aware of how he grabs at his ears, creating shredded bits in the cartilage. He breathes heavily, trying desperately to regain control. ‘Pathetic. You know you’ll end up all alone’ The words make his claws flex, twisting the fur between his toes and pulling. 

  “Honeybee?” The words snap him out of his crazed state. His eyes shoot open --when had he even closed them?-- and his vision blurs from how tightly they were squeezed shut. He knows that voice. Fleathistle.

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