✦ Stars Catvent 2022

[kyeza]

↬ catvent day: twenty

↬ username & id: galaxyy. + 803669
↬ clan archive: jadeclan

↬ word count: 212 words
↬ prompt: snow falling, a graceful adaigo center-stage, an unending pirouette; miniscule crystals fall with ease, joining the masses in a chalky, woollen blanket. the subdued sun flickers behind a barrier of half-empty branches, not quite lifeless nor dull. the winter environment awakens something once repressed. it tugs at the faded strings of sardonyxflower's mind, unwilling to let go of its catch so easily. forgotten fragrances dance just under their nose, some discernible, others just barely out of reach: carraway, tumeric, nutmeg.


hustle and bustle, festitivies and frolicking and fun. kits and adults alike tramp through the snow, the former hardly visible against the smothering blanket. standing aside, in the shade of a sizeable boulder, sandy grains of pale gold beneath his paws, sardonyx merely observes. they'd never been one to avoid the crowd, but this was his first winter festival; it was big, busy, and loud—moreso than expected.

cats pass, jovially poking fun at each other, bouncing on their paws, alight with excitement and holiday spirit. voices blend, a mix of bartering and jokes and song lost to time. it was almost another world, given the gleaming, frosted landscape and medley of sights and sounds.


sardonyx suppresses a grin, a faint smile hardly showing through; a memory never truly forgotten.

[faelyn]

↬ catvent day: 19

↬ username & id: faelyn
↬ clan archive: faerie <3

↬ word count: 534 words <3
↬ prompt: on sleepless nights such as these… blistered with the bliss of the cold, a lieu of daffodils are where i lie. the splintering touch of the angels taunted, their beady eyes ever-so beautiful as they cooed like non-existent doves. doves that once had been in these gardens.

for in these gardens, i once knew a princess.
i once knew a maiden, whose saltwater tears were split upon the crestfallen daffodils
i once knew a little queen, who longed to dance upon the waters i had whispered in her ears. such waters of sapphires and bliss… of daydreams that would never fade… of endless adventures and quests to venture to a place where no eye had never witnessed.
i once knew an angel. an angel in person. an angel whom i never deserved. an angel and a pirate boy… ha, such a fairytale isn’t it? it was a match made by the nethers, a twisted tale of star-crossed lovers.
i once knew my, radiant… beautiful juliet. curls as luminescent as the gold i would collect upon shores of stardust, and eyes overwhelmed with compassion that a pirate didn’t deserve.

for i was romeo… a wretched boy upon the streets.
i was romeo… climbing into an orchard garden, only to play with the auburn tresses of fire. only to enthrall a princess with bounties of the sea.
i was romeo… and she was juliet.

or… angellita.
her name was angellita. an angel in person.

a pirate and a princess, frolicking in gardens of crestfallen daffodils. frolicking upon the auburn tresses of fire - they would soon be burned. soon.

i knew it all too well.
i knew it since we were little.

“el… are you sure you aren’t giving them too much water?” petite paws upon crestfallen daffodils, wilted and drooping, el leaned in close. the soft greens of her gaze fluttering close, wide.

“i don’t think so?” soft curls elegantly ruffled as she tilted her head, her touch was gentle as she caressed every drooping petal. “they just need some encouragement… don’t you see?”

what-

a frown adorned his features.
“encouragement?”

“yes… encouragement, ed!” gently tugging him to kneel beside the crestfallen frames of the little daffodils, she snuggled close… a shiver bejewelling her still form. “don’t you see? they look…. sad.”

“they don’t look sad at all…” sniffing, he tottered closer, head pressed against each dainty, gold bud. “i don’t see any tears.”

her laughter was alluring, before it softened into a lyrical hush.
“you’re funny, ed.” pressing the roses of her nose to his, her head faltered, slanting ever-so slightly before resting on the ravens upon his shoulder. “you’re really funny.”

“i was just saying there weren’t any tears…” he shrugged a little. “you can’t be that sad if you aren’t crying.”

“that’s not true.” a lullaby laced with a songbird’s chime, the lilit of her voice seemed to falter. “you can be really sad without tears.”

her voice blossomed, before wilting into a hushed serenade. “and i think, ed… there’s a lot you are sad about.”

and beneath the starry skies and dead daffodils… i wept.
i wept for a princess i once knew.
i wept for the memory of romeo and juliet.

[sunny-skies]

↬ catvent day: twenty

↬ username & id: sunny-skies // #888283
↬ clan archive: valleyclan

↬ word count: 254 words
↬ prompt:
nutmeg stared as the light flurry of snow drifted through the air, spinning and twirling in the breeze before softly hitting the ground. she enjoyed moments like these, when the blizzards had subsided and she could enjoy the snowfall. although she wasn't sure how much longer the calm weather would last, she'd appreciate the calm silence while it lasted. her gaze drifted to the horizon, her mind wandering elsewhere as she recalled a similar memory from a long while ago.

it was the first winter that she had spent in valleyclan. nutmeg was still fairly new to the clan, only having joined months prior. even though such little time had passed, it had already felt like a lifetime ago since she had ventured outside of her old home. and, despite the uncertainty of her new life, she had already felt .

the season had just shifted from autumn to winter, and the first snowfall had begun to take place. the molly remembered staring in awe as the snow drift around her, settling on the ground ahead of her. nutmeg had never felt it snow before. she had rarely been let outside when she was living with her housefolk, especially during the wintertime. the closest that she had gotten to snow was watching it from outside the window.

even though it was a simple moment, it always has a way of making its way to the forefront of her mind. so much has happened since then, but nutmeg still looks back at that time with nostalgia.

[faelyn]

we had a lot of fun reading through your kitties' memories ━ thank you for sharing those with us! as always, all users
who entered received a random prize (first four lists) and we've also awarded a few responses that stood out
to us an additional prize (last three lists) <3

Catvent Day Twenty Results:
↬ the following users have earned +1 shooting star shard (c edit autopass for nursery)!


adamented
artmajor
coffee.berry
dragoness129
galaxyy.
hush
thani

↬ the following users have earned +1 shooting star fragment (uc edit autopass for nursery)!


aftonbuilt
archaeopteryx.
canadianhowl
kennymcnenny
mrs
néktar
unohdettu.lupaus
vivika

↬ the following users have earned +1 uncommon edit!


arrikanez
craig?
deercan
griff
i like bees
jay.
lili041
plushbunny
sunny-skies
tomura

↬ the following users have earned +1 rare edit!


0zero0
faelyn
feather '
nindroidzane

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Catvent Day Seventeen Judged Results:

↬ this user has earned +1 rare myo (one r edit, unlimited uc/c/nr)!


arrikanez ━ the development, the emotion and the atmosphere in your writing was breathtaking! the irony of such a warm-hearted memory in somewhere so dark really stuck with us. we also really enjoyed the dynamics and the depth behind each character that you introduced!

↬ the following users (below) have earned +1 uc myo (one uc edit, unlimited c/nr)!


archaeopteryx. ━ the undercurrent of mystery and intrigue really resonated in your entry from beginning to end <3 we loved how the darkness of their past was contrasted by more of a light-hearted acceptance in their present ━ we hope to see more of them around!

i like bees ━ one thing that really stood out to us was how you bridged the past and present, featuring pretzel directly looking back at his past self in the memory! the little blurb was also a nice addition with some interesting implications <33

néktar ━ aaaaa, watching echo’s growth from her first heartbreak honestly hit us hard! you captured that moment with an aching realism and her growth and acceptance in the present was really beautiful to see! <3

↬ the following users (below) have earned +1 common myo (unlimited c/nr edits)!


artmajor ━ dawnflower’s history was interesting to glimpse + the lore twined in there definitely sparked our interest! ^^ her insight/reflection into her situation really drew us in and we’re excited to see how the rest of her story unfolds!

jay. ━ the use of lighting to create an effect was lovely!! along with the snowy landscape, it definitely created a sense of intrigue as to what the memory was + poses you used in your piece was really charming too!

kennymcnenny ━ the history behind the empty shore’s role as a seer was really neat to witness! we loved seeing the lore behind the moon mother and the ending as to how they came to their current home ties things together really well <33
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
if you aren't on any of the first four lists and posted a response before rollover, please contact vivika (on cs/discord) as soon as you can! <3

[faelyn]

xxxxxxxxxxxx

↬ Catvent Day Twenty-One!

While exploring the territory, one of your cats made an amazing discovery a few
days before Christmas! What is this discovery? How do they react to it?

*this is meant to be a shorter/medium-ish prompt! <3

Code: Select all

[size=85][list][b]↬ catvent day:[/b] twenty-one

[b]↬ username & id:[/b]
[b]↬ clan archive:[/b]

[b]↬ word count:[/b]  000 words; n/a, if only art!
[b]↬ prompt:[/b] [/list][/size]

#activeprompt

[0Zero0]

↬ catvent day: twenty-one

↬ username & id: 0Zero0 780482
↬ clan archive: Forum/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=4611568

↬ word count: 84 words
↬ prompt: MottleWish dug at the ground. She had been traveling in the snow alone looking for answers. despite knowing the truth, she couldn't bring herself to kill the cat that murdered her father. Not yet. Wait. Is that? Under the snow was a small bell, with a red bow tied to a small cloth mouse. It made her incredibly happy. Playing in the snow, she found herself enjoying herself for the first time in days!

little did she know there was catnip in that toy.

[Arrikanez]

↬ catvent day: twenty-one

↬ username & id: Arrikanez 2105
↬ clan archive: The Dark Carnival

↬ word count: 872 words
↬ prompt:

Fortune's End had been sent on his first solo-hunt this morning. The snow lay fresh on the ground, but he could still see the tiny little pawprints from visitors last night. He was learning - albeit slowly - what scents were what, and which were the most profitable for a hunt. In this case, the scent of squirrel was stale, so he focused on the stronger scent wafting from the beach - fish. The snow had coated most of the beach-grass as he picked his way across their territory toward the sound of the roaring ocean. What he did not expect was to come to a void-place smack dab in the middle of the territory - just to the left of the place with the sinkholes.

He stopped short, and leaned out his head to sniff lightly at the hole in reality, poking at it quietly, with a paw, and yelping in fright as the hole in reality MOVED on its own. It swallowed Fortune up, and he squeezed his eyes shut... but nothing happened. Instead, he was in the in-between place. He could see The Dark Carnival's land on one side, and some sort of snowy, grassy plains on the other. But where he was? It was totally black. It was devoid of everything - no grass, no trees, no waves, no sound but for his own breathing and his heart.

The calico's feet felt soft earth, but there was no ground to be had. Just this flat, black, stretch of nothingness. But... wait... was that a... Yes. There was something alive in here. Something moving, pacing. A person? He inched closer. "Hello?" he called - no need to be rude.

The figure started, and whirled to face him, instantly growing closer as it snapped its fingers together. Or, now that it was close enough to share the same air with Fortune - HE, and HIS. The figure was a young man - probably no more than late teens, early twenties. Pale skin, dark eyes, and dark hair with hints of other colors. The young man was wearing all black, and had on fairly casual clothing of a t-shirt, jeans, and large boots. He was wearing a black choker of some kind too, but it seemed EMBEDDED in his skin.

"What... who are..." Fortune started to back up, feeling his tail bristling. This person felt wrong, off, sick. He smelled of disease and despair, and the Pawn didn't like it one bit.

"You aren't supposed to be here." the figure said, sighing, and scrubbing his hand over his face. The voice? Was Chroma's. This was Chroma? This in-between place was where he lived?

"You're Chroma, aren't you?" Fortune asked, still having his tail tucked around his back legs, tailtip twitching, and ears straight back. "Why do you smell... so strange? So sick? So sad?"

Chroma growled a bit. "Those aren't answers you need to know. I don't even know how you managed to get IN this far, but you have to go back. I can't keep you together if you stay here for long." Even now, he gestured to Fortune, and the cat saw his paws were starting to fade. Oh.

"I'll take you back." Chroma muttered, bending and scooping Fortune into his arms. "Don't squirm." he hissed to him. "And don't be scared - I know I'm scary. Look, I'm TRYING to scare Ian. Just... Maybe don't tell him you've seen me. This is a secret you've got to keep." the young man said, before finding a hole in the fabric of this inky blackness, and making a complex motion with his hand not holding Fortune.

He then chucked the cat through the opening, Fortune landing on all fours on the sand. "Wait!" Fortune turned, and gave Chroma a long look. "Why are you stuck in there?" he asked. "Can't you come out?"

"If I could, I would." Chroma grumbled. "Consider it MY penance for something you can't even comprehend. Now I have to check the border barriers all over again... great. Look, just... don't tell Viperstar. If you do, I can't promise your safety or his. Just... keep this between the two of us, yeah? I'll get you something special for Christmas to make up for it."

Fortune considered a moment, but the decision seemed insurmountable. He took a breath. "Okay." he muttered. "Okay. I won't tell him. But you have to talk to me - later. Tell me why you're in there? Why you chose us?"

Chroma shook his head, the barriers already starting to form, and his physical form starting to fade from Fortune's sight. "Not yet. The time isn't right. Just... keep this secret. It won't have to be forever."

Then, he was gone, and Fortune was alone on the beach, a little shaken by what had happened. He noticed it had started snowing again, as big, soft flakes fell into his coat, making him shiver. It would be best to get back to camp, and save the hunting for later... but this? This was new knowledge - he had to think about this. About what it meant. About how he was supposed to react. He had promised to keep it a secret from Viperstar, and he would...

But if that was Chroma, who had HIM trapped in that void?

Edited for grammar, because I have dumbbrain.

[mal du pays]

↬ catvent day: twenty-one

↬ username & id: aftonbuilt 186503
↬ clan archive: https://toyhou.se/aftonbuilt/characters/folder:2315966

↬ word count: 205 words
↬ prompt:


Starlight wanted to find a solution. It was the one thing he wanted more than anything, to solve his home's issues with Hymnal, and the death of Triptych.
Perhaps he just wanted answers, is all.
The island was quieter than normal as he made it to a rather secluded clearing, a bit aways from the camp, but still on their territory. He knew full well that Siren's Gale would be unhappy if he loitered on their territory, and he wasn't wanting any sort of fight. Not tonight, anyways.
"If someone hears me, what do I do?"
It was a silly plea. Was he really expecting someone to answer him? After what seemed like several minutes of silence, he figured that was his answer. He could do nothing, and Hymnal would just be there to stay.
However, in front of him, the pale red glow of a cat appeared. His attention shot forward as he saw who it was.
"...Triptych?"
Purple eyes met his own, and Starlight felt overwhelmed to the point of crying. Triptych came to give him a nudge, humming softly.
"I know what I must do to fix this." Triptych murmured, an echo laden under his tone. "Just hold on a little longer."

[mrs]

↬ catvent day: twenty-one

↬ username & id: mrs + 1026844
↬ clan archive: Whispering Winds

↬ word count: 68 words
↬ prompt:
As Wish strolled through the Whispering Winds territory, he found a gorgeous, flowing feather. Immediately drawn to it, he leaned down and picked it up in his mouth. The way the feather blew in the wind, blowing back and into his fur - he felt an immediate connection. Happy and cheerful, he continued his walk, but this time with this huge, rainbow colored feather held firmly in his mouth.

[néktar]

↬ catvent day: twenty-one

↬ username & id: nektar + 217991
↬ clan archive: shallowclan

↬ word count: 270 words
↬ prompt: pigeonthroat thought it would be a nice christmas treat for juniperkit to get out of the sanctuary and see the shores of the island. he walked alongside the young kit, watching their every move. holding them back with his paw as they tried to get closer to the water, though the whole time he had a deep rumble in his throat. his heart full of pride as he watched the kit toddle about in the sand. he noticed something glittering against the soft waves down the shore. he put his head close to juniper's and nudged them towards the foreign treasure, they were immediately intrigued and took off towards it as fast as their little legs could handle. which wasn't very fast. pigeonthroat decided to make the journey a little less tedious by picking them up by their scruff and carrying them the rest of the way. once arriving at the object juniperkit puffed out their chest to investigate. after some sand shuffling and small mews of excitement they uncovered a huge conch shell, big enough for the kit to fit inside of. as they suck their head inside they discovered that no one was home, pigeonthroat couldn't contain his laughter as juniperkit proceeded to fit their whole body inside of the seashell. finding it hard to say no to their big blue kitten eyes, he picked up the shell with the kit in tow and padded back to the sanctuary. where juniperkit proudly showed off their find to the entire clan, the youngly was found later cuddled inside of it for a well deserved nap.