#starbumble

At the moment it's just sort of indulgence because I think their dynamic is interesting, so I haven't completely leaned onto it yet. I probably will though.

What I like a lot about them is that they're so different, yet so alike. They're both victims of their canon's misogyny, in opposite ways. It killed Bumble and prevented Star Flower from being what she could fully be.

In BB, Star Flower was the high priestess of One Eye, in one way, a daughter in others. He was violent and controlling. She was charming and capable. She did exactly what he wanted from her, and she enjoyed being his devotee. They loved each other like a parent and child, and for him, she would stay blind to the pain in the world.

Because she KNOWS that what she does hurts and kills people. Clear Sky isn't the first cat she's skilfully bled out slowly. But when her God is involved, this is not a terrified, screaming person on an altar. It's meat to be prepared for her beloved father.

And as long as she has One Eye to serve, she doesn't have to think about the humanity that is part of her new form. In a way, she's the same extinct medicinal flowers she used to be, before she took a shape as a mortal. She's his treatment. His bouquet. The flowers at a funeral.

And that's a kind of toxic dynamic, too, yknow. To love someone who merely offers you the simplicity of being their butcher.

How could she ever have prepared for his DEATH? To be SEPARATED from him? She is like an angel separated from her lord, whose one purpose has been destroyed.

And then she seduces Clear Sky, the treacherous beast who betrayed them. She'll bleed him like a goat, and be reunited with her father. And even more--

She'll offer it to Thunderstar, too! He understands her anger! Skystar is a snake who's bitten him as well. He will be grateful. There will be more who worship the warmth of the God of Summer, just like her.

But he rejects it, and you know why?Because he's had a toxic dad too.

Not one he loved like she did her own, but it gave him the clarity to realize that sacrificing Skystar HERE, after being backstabbed at his lowest point and suffering for hours, to bring a MONSTER back into the world, would just be revenge.

...and revenge is what Star Flower wants, too. She's hurt, but doesn't recognize that emotion.

(Still working out the climax of Thunderstar's Justice. I'm thinking that One Eye pops up, half-ressurected, and turns on Star Flower for his last sacrifice and Thunderstar saves her from that)

And after that, she can't go back to SkyClan. Of course.

When she speaks to Bumble for the first times, Star Flower is still threatening betrayals. Insisting, chuckling, that she's done Terrible Things and will do them again.

And Bumbs clocks immediately, "You're doing that to get a rise out of me and it won't work because no one would tease their secret evil scheme."

Bumble is going through a lot right now, actually. Thunderstar is getting good at speaking Parkmew on his own, now. Sparrow Heart, her daughter, betrayed her to join SkyClan in the pursuit of power. Her son Pebble Heart goes by Owl Eyes these days, and he's a big strong warrior who doesn't need her. It seems like no one needs her.

She talks a big game about her self-worth, but a lot of it is bluster and self-assurance. She'll insist she's the BEST AND COOLEST CAT THIS SIDE OF THE EVERYWHERE but she's hiding a LOT of guilt, none of it deserved.

I feel like Star Flower is fascinated by this. The dishonesty here. How Bumble presents herself as boisterous and over-confident, but hides a great sadness within it.

Ahh, Bumble wants a God to serve too, doesn't she? Everyone does. Is a Clan a sort of God to serve? ...yes, this is making sense.

For Bumble to Star Flower... she's brand new, an outsider just like she was once. A very strange one with strange humor, who exists at a time when her life is undergoing a lot of changes. She likes the way Star Flower is so interested in her. She enjoys showing her around the territory.

God, sometimes it just... it reminds her of Turtle Heart, you know? Before Tom came. When it was just them, and they were young and they were learning all these wonderful things together.

It never got better, really, losing her lover and her best friend. She's just been GO GO GOing for years, GO out of this Clan, GO get your kittens, GO open negotiations. It wasn't until NOW that she's really had time to process the loss of Turtle Heart.

YES OFC OMG

I feel like Turtle Heart would get wigged out by Star Flower. Her presence is unsettling. She's not just a cat-- She's some sort of nature spirit, and she revels in the way her power can make others flinch.

Bumble doesn't know how to be scared of such things. What's there to even be afraid of? She's seen it all and come out safe through fire and flames. What's really terrifying about life is the existential dread of becoming obsolete and unneeded, people just pretending to like you as everyone who was a true ally dies and you can't save them, never being able to tell the difference until it's too late.

So if they did all end up in StarClan together, I feel like Bumble would end up having them seperate. She'd try not to make them mix. Bumble loves them both but there's something kind of scary to acknowledge here;

Bumble's not the same person who Turtle Heart was mates with, while she was feeding the little family all on her own and Bumble stayed home to raise the kits. She's become the unshakable diplomat of ThunderClan, mother of Owlstar, she who speaks all tongues. Bumble STILL loves her the same way she did-- but Turtle Heart has been up here waiting for a person who died with her.

And Star Flower would kind of revel in that. Turtle Heart is soft and simple. She did not live through the hard, hungry seasons and hurried relocations that Bumble did. Bumble has hardened and lived long and Star Flower is the cat she walks with as the final version of herself.

"Turtle Heart loved her when she was soft and flexible, like a young sapling. I had her when she was a sturdy oak bearing a hundred fruits. We are not the same."

BUT. That's an If Star Flower even goes up there in death. I'm not sure if she would want to. She's palling around with ThunderClan now, but I have a feeling that she is going to want to move on eventually. Her father is dead, and she loved him, but this world is vast.

Nature Spirits are still a WIP but I don't think they "die" like normal spirits. They can be killed, but always come back. There is no way to doublekill one, either. And they're functionally immortal, just going into "hibernation" when they feel satisfied.

AWWW THANK U SM,,, tbh i was super shocked nobody already had it when i first snagged it up. it was my Big Fixation at the time too...

ALSO.....

THANK U I’M 💗💗💗💜💜💕💗💕💜💕💗💕