#roseclaw

SangCheng Week Day 2: What hides in the dark

Based on @roseclaw's series The City that Never Sleeps (btw you should all go read!)

For @harriertail cover contest!

New collaboration, this time for the MDZS BigBang 2024. After my initial author dropped from the event Rose and Ari agreed to let me do additional art for their BB. Thank you guys!

💚💜TROUBLE IS A FRIEND💜💚 Written by Roseclaw and with amazing art from Ari

Nie Huaisang, reference librarian, is trying his best after his coworker disappears, but when a group of three people come in looking worse for wear and asking about vampires, he starts asking questions that powerful people don't want answered. Things only get worse from there. The end of the world. Again, he’s told. And only the Slayer can save everyone. That would be Jiang Wanyin’s sister, who with the help of Jiang Wanyin, Wei Wuxian, Nie Mingjue, Lan Qiren, and the reluctant Nie Huaisang, must avert the apocalypse. AKA: Yanli the Vampire Slayer

Today I have been amusing myself with playing around on Canva and making book covers for some of my favourite fics.

Roseclaw

Aliases / Nicknames: The Cursed Kit

Gender: trans molly

Sexuality: homosexual

Family: Strikespeck (mother), unnamed father, Coyotetuft (mate), Sundewtwine, Hopewater (daughters), 280 other cats in QuickStar’s family

Other Relations: Quietrunner (mentor), Thornpelt, Clawspring, Pikeheart (apprentices)

Clan: WolfsfootClan

Rank: warrior

Characteristics: sadistic, kinda cursed, manipulative, believes the Clan will suffer if there’s too many kits, good teacher

Number of Victims: 20

Number of Murders: 18

Murder Method: dropping in rivers, crushing lungs, slitting throat, leaving in active fox dens, breaking neck, luring them to dogs

Known Victims: Garlickit, BayouKit, Milkweedkit, Skykit, Bloomkit, Twigkit, Webkit, Bramblekit, Kinkkit, Whisperkit, Prancekit, Kalekit, Cicadatail, Ferngaze, Ospreyfur, Gravelheart, Harebracken, Sloefreckle, Hoprose, Coyotetuft

Victim Profile: kits, warriors she disliked

Cause of Death: killed by Coyotetuft

Cautionary Tale: ??

Story:

Roseclaw always thought that she was destined for more. As a kit, she could hear the voices of Starclan kits. But eventually, over time, they stopped speaking to her.

She hated herbs, and she wasn’t made a medicine apprentice.

Life went along somewhat normally, but she hated her Clanmates. All except one, who she fell in love with: Coyotetuft.

Or at least, that’s what she told Coyotetuft.

She vented to her a lot growing up, and Coyotetuft vented to her in turn. Roseclaw knew that if she was planning to  kill someone, which she had planned since she was a kit, she would need an ally. Someone to vouch for her.

Coyotetuft did vouch for her, and Roseclaw killed the Clanmates she deemed lazy to satisy her urges. Over time, it wasn’t enough.

Coyotetuft never got over the death of her littermates, and so she was easy to manipulate. Her siblings had died of kittencough. Roseclaw used this to her benefit.

She slowly fed Coyotetuft lies about how if there were too many kits, and how they would all die from kittencough.

That is why when Darkwhisker had five kits who she didn’t want anything to do with, and wouldn’t even acknowledge, Coyotetuft started getting worried. Then Pouncetalon had four kits. Birdfoot had six.

Two moons later, under the cover of night, they lured Milkweedkit, Garlickit, Bayoukit out into the forest. Roseclaw threw them into a fox den, and held her mate while she cried, listening to the pleasant sounds of the kits’ wails.

Four days later, they lured Skykit, Bloomkit, Twigkit into the forest and killed them as well. Roseclaw drowned Skykit, making the other two watch as she revived and killed him over and over again.

She slit Bloomkit’s throat, and made Twigkit try to stop the bleeding while he sobbed over his friend’s body. She crushed his lungs shortly after.

Coyotetuft grew quieter over the next few moons, flinching away from Roseclaw.

In the next three moons, ten more kits were born. She killed four, carrying the small newborn kits and tossing them to dogs.

But then seven more kits were born! Coyotetuft and Roseclaw argued more and more, and Coyotetuft started begging her not to kill. So, Roseclaw slashed at her with unsheathed claws whenever she spoke about it.

Coyotetuft went completely quiet from then on, barely speaking to her. After she killed Prancekit and Kalekit, having torn their ears, tongues, and noses off before killing them, she asked Coyotetuft to go grab the smallest of the litter, Cicadakit. 

Coyotetuft shook, terrified, but she stood over the small shaking kit, and killed Roseclaw, praying that Cicadakit was too young to remember.

Coyotetuft

Aliases / Nicknames: N/A

Gender: molly

Sexuality: bisexual

Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, Sundewtwine, Hopewater (daughters), 280 other cats in QuickStar’s family

Other Relations: Quietrunner (mentor)

Clan: WolfsfootClan

Rank: elder

Characteristics: wants to prevent kittencough, confident, great kitsitter, used to be very very insecure, loving grandma

Number of Victims: 20

Number of Murders: 13 (12 indirectly)

Murder Method: bashing skull

Known Victims: Garlickit, Bayoukit, Milkweedkit, Skykit, Bloomkit, Twigkit, Webkit, BrambleKkt, Kinkkit, Whisperkit, Prancekit, Kalekit, Roseclaw

Victim Profile: those Roseclaw manipulates her into killing, kills to protect kits

Cause of Death: age-related complications

Cautionary Tale: N/A

Story:

After killing Roseclaw, she found out that she was expecting kits. She had two kits, and supported her Clan as best as she could, hoping to repent for what happened. 

Her family grew, and she got even closer to her brother, Rookstar, who became her best friend. Their kits, too, became best friends, as did their kits.

She even ended up with more littermates! She supported her family, and never told a soul what she did.

Her heart was starting to fail, and not long before she passed, Cicadakit, now Cicadatail, came to her on her deathbed and thanked her for saving them. They cried, and he stayed with her and her family when she passed. She just hoped Starclan would accept her.

Additional information:

--Submission by @wills-woodland-warriors​

--To the Death Ring with Rose!

--Her family has to be restrained from joining her in the Dark Forest.

--Little does she know thirteen-ish moons after her death, her brother Rookstar joins Starclan and throws a fucking riot about her being sent to the Dark Forest.