《 wrath of asphodel ❖ warriors mafia / town of salem 》

round one :: day two

at dusk, fieldclan each left to their trees, tailed by tansyheart and rosewither to make sure no cat dared run away. only two cats remained: coneflower, who had been left to guard tansyheart's flowers... and the gravedigger.

the gravedigger's sights were set on one set of bones, the most interesting role to play. the one set of bones, which already lay before them like a piece of prey had jumped straight into their paws.

the gravedigger sat before the mock orange shrub. they laid their paw upon peonyleaf's skull. "i know who you were."

the bones did not reply.

"chaos... chaos is my passion." the gravedigger stared into the skull's empty eye sockets. "even if i face the same fate as you, my heart is set on your path."

"you could easily wait and join us," coneflower murmured, not looking at the gravedigger.

"i said chaos, not despair, you old bat." but the gravedigger's meow was not hostile. "i do not desire to be chained to one side of this game of yours. and..." the gravedigger leaned in, closer to the bones of their old clanmate. "who says i can't have a little fun myself?"

the gravedigger's eyes flashed towards coneflower, suddenly suspicious.

"do what you wish. i'm not rosewither; i don't care whether or not you join tansyheart's cause." coneflower licked the fur on his chest, casually flicking his tail tip around. "but know this: join neither side, and you'll make an enemy of both."

fire flared in the gravedigger's eyes. "you know my motives. you heard me: my only desire is to thrive. chaos will be my mission. nothing can take that away from me."

coneflower and the gravedigger locked gazes. coneflower's expression did not change, but the gravedigger's stare only grew more intense.

finally, coneflower huffed and looked back at the copse at the bottom of the rise.

"do what you wish. but i'll tell you this, young joker: watch your back."

***

the previous night had only been the calm before the storm.

jaded green eyes flared to life from beneath the scraggly elm tree. something was wrong, and the warrior knew it- yet they didn't act, didn't say a word, and closed their eyes again.

not a minute passed before a set of jaws grabbed the hapless cat by the throat. a strong bite down was enough to cut off the cat's airflow, and the assailant did not let go. staring their victim in the eye, they raked their claws against their belly, and the victim's scream was cut off with the sickening crack of bone.

"useless. you were just a waste of air in life." rosewither licked the cat's blood off her fangs and claws. "but tansyheart is too merciful to let even your corpse go to waste."

up on the cliffside, a long-furred cat's fur bristled with fear as tansyheart stepped closer and closer.

"w-what are you doing?"

one paw slipped off the overhang, and the cat would've fallen- if not for tansyheart's quick reflexes digging her claws into the other cat's paws, pinning them down, not letting gravity take hold.

"please, tansyheart! i-i-i'll do anything you want. just le-let me live..."

tansyheart only laughed. "my dear, i wouldn't dream of letting you fall."

the traitors and coneflower said nothing as tansyheart's victim was dragged back up, with tansyheart pulling them up by the foreleg with her jaws. the other cat took a breath- but never exhaled before tansyheart knocked them down again. in an instant, the she-cat raised one paw.

"why would i ever let good flesh go to waste?"

the victim screamed with pain as tansyheart's powerful blows rendered skin from muscle, bone from bone. and then the torturous noise stopped... not wasting a moment, not caring whether or not the victim was really dead, tansyheart ripped the stomach open with just a few slices. another scream rang out, louder, more chilling than before; the body convulsed, then lay still. tansyheart looked down at her cream-coloured paws, stained with the blood of a burden of an ally.

"my, my, won't this be difficult to clean off. maybe i should think before i act... ahh, who cares!" a carefree grin danced on tansyheart's face as she swirled a forepaw in the pooling blood. "oh, the poor, malnourished grass..." as the cream colourpoint spoke, the blood seemed to seep into the earth. "you can take the spare blood. go on, have your little feast!"

at another tree, where tansyheart had ordered her followers to pick and choose a victim, the traitors set their sights on one certain cat. actually, that wasn't true: pick and choose a victim, but without a reason, the slain cat was merely the unluckiest of the bunch.

the cat opened their eyes to two silhouettes towering over them, and the next second, a third life had been robbed.

but that wasn't all.

rosewither emerged from beneath one of the trees, struggling to carry not one, but two limp bodies in her jaws. one of the traitors rushed forward to take one of the carcasses.

"i thought you only had one victim in mind tonight."

"turns out, there's more truants to be slain." rosewither's olive eyes narrowed in distate. "anyone who refuses to participate in tansyheart's plan is of no use to us alive."

the next morning, four stout plants had sprouted all in a row, evenly spaced, almost barring sight to peonyleaf's mock oranges and the white calla lilies, all with their own skeletons curled around the bases. it was impossible to tell which plant had once been which cat.

there they were, the tributes to the fallen, whose good or evil could not be measured: the rosemary, already bearing blueish flowers, a lesser known sign of remembrance; the lavender, the sickly sweet stench that told a tale of caution and a lesson of purity; the borage, whose purple flowers symbolized courage, the harbinger of harmony- but where a life could've been defended, the promise of courage was proved a lie; the crimson-tipped petals of the asphodel flower, the flower of oblivion, of revenge, of death... and the unforgiven message, in this case a lie: 'my regrets follow you to the grave'.

━━

the gravedigger has chosen to be like the joker!

jasperflicker has been killed by rosewither for inactivity.

nettlecreek has been killed by tansyheart for inactivity.

hibiscuswave has been killed by the traitors.

willowheart has been killed by rosewither for inactivity.

━━

tansyheart's activity check

rosewither's discussion

coneflower's riddle

triumvirate's judgment [ 0 / 7 ]