#milknose

lizardstripe is a Huge factor, of course. she resents and hates him, like she does her bio kits. she’s not quite as outwardly abusive as in canon, as she is kept in check by the head queen (most likely hollyflower at the time), who tells raggedpelt if lizardstripe is being particularly cruel to hopekit. raggedpelt punishes lizardstripe, and then lizardstripe punishes hopekit and/or the others. just an awful cycle.

this would just compound her resentfulness and turn her towards more neglectful behaviors. maybe increased aggression between the kits as a result.

that leads me to the siblings. tangleburr, deerfoot, milknose (runningnose). once that they become apprentices, they start getting along more. kind of. the playing field becomes more even, until raggedstar becomes leader, and hopepaw becomes a warrior. hopesnarl starts learning how to wield his politically influence as tanglepaw and deerpaw suddenly look to him as the leader of their little group. milkpaw... he hangs out sometimes, but he still has yellowfang.

yellowfang. she looks out for him, but she can’t do much. maybe he sees it as her not trying hard enough to step in as the clan’s cleric. he doesn’t know it, but she’s the one who gave him his name. hopekit. it gets to his head. he believes that he is destined for greater things, prophesied by the stars to save shadowclan from itself.

raggedstar. he spoils his son rotten. from the day that raggedstar gets his paws on him he lets his son know that he’s special, that he’s the son of the deputy, the leader, that he’s destined for great things. shadowclan’s hope. when raggedpelt is in the nursery to chew out lizardstripe, it’s only about her cruelty to hopekit, not milkkit, or deerkit, or tanglekit. they’re not special, not like hopekit.

the clear divide between his parents (raggedstar and lizardstripe) creates just a mess of dissonance and illusions of grandeur for hopestar. 

he is special, moreso than his adoptive siblings. lizardstripe didn’t see it, couldn’t see it. she’s just a she-cat who failed at her one job (line of reasoning from hollyflower lmao). he’s destined for leadership. raggedstar knows this.

hiya! I did work for Feral Heart Unleashed to promote the new cat model as a loading screen :)

made this probably just under a year ago, and to celebrate the release, here's the full piece!!!!

it's so early so I thought I'll draw some doodles.

First is leafpool and jayfeather

my rude guy polycule on gw2 >:)