[ti]Open[/ti]Rekindled (Party Games but it's Warrior Cats)

[Fireflake]

Mantisclaw's chest was heavy, both from the smoke that had filled her lungs as she escaped the fire, and from the later news that her brother Hornstrike hadn't been so lucky. She’d been carrying out her duties, and acting strong as ever most of the time, but it didn’t feel right. There was no way to act like the fire wasn’t a big thing, even as her paw-pads healed over and her breathing issues were soothed by a combination of rest and unpalatable herbs. Poultices were still lathered over patches of her legs where the fur wouldn’t grow back right, or maybe at all. Images of cool scars and stories flickered in her mind, then images of her distraught family and clan.

Mantisclaw dragged her paws out of her temporary nest and shook her head as if trying to clear cobwebs. What was she doing, sulking like this? This was her young dream realized. This was a camp full of other clans to mingle with, right in front of her, and not just for a brief night of peace, but for days on end. A time when she was literally forbidden from intense battle practice, due to the condition of her lungs and wounds, so there was no other reasonable option but to socialize. The she-cat had lost her own bet that she could do moonly challenges, proclaimed in the middle of MothClan's camp while she was still an apprentice.

They had been little things that had evolved from kithood bets, where she challenged her clanmates to complete a certain task, but they’d dwindled out as she focused more on her training. She'd never done one with her apprentice either, like she always swore she would. She'd never done one with her whole litter like she always hoped, if she could get them all together, and now she would never be able to. But now, it was time for a revival. It was time to test who was the best, just for the fun of it. Ideas blossomed in her mind. She wanted something everyone could do, but that wasn’t a whole lot right now. Mantisclaw sat down and thought for an immeasurable amount of time as she watched the waterfall with mild fascination. Eventually, an idea sprang to mind, signaled by her eyes lighting up. "I'm going to do another challenge," she muttered to a friend that was passing by, whose ears pricked immediately. For a moment the two of them fizzled in excitement.

"Go tell some others! Call it a game if it helps," Mantisclaw said in a scratchy voice, and the other cat skittered off to spread the word. The MothClan warrior looked around for a suitable place, then padded over to the spot her clan’s deputy had used for their ceremonies, near the middle of camp. She stood there with her ears pricked and her chest puffed out in a way that often made others stop and ask her what she was up to. At least, it had when she did it in her younger moons. It put a strain on her lungs, as would talking to anyone she could get to join in, but it was worth it as far as she was concerned.

[Ringtail]

With nothing better to do (besides visit family and the usual clan duties), a familiar cream and orange tabby trots around with his favorite items of all times; those human cap things. Even AFTER many moons of his mother and father telling him NO, this tom only started to collect more of these shiny cool cold beetle things.
Wingshine was most definitely a kit at heart, hoarding these items up like they're a trophy hoard to stock up on.
But oh, word was buzzing from one cat to another! A party game?! Heya, that sounds like fun! Games of all sorts perked interest in the tom, and he was quick to follow the announcement to find Mantisclaw.
"HEY MANTISCLAW, HEARD YOUS HAVING A PARTY GAME GOING?", He yowled from behind his bottlecap-covered mouth, approaching the much younger tabby with a curious expression on his face.

[Fireflake]

Mantisclaw's ears pricked at the sound of her name. A party game? So is that what her friend had decided to call this challenge? Mantisclaw let out a loud purr, which soon devolved into a mild, dry cough. The name definitely worked. "Yep, that's exactly what I'm doing," she answered. The she-cat realized as she grasped for it that she had no clue what the MistClan tom's name was. And he already knew hers, which either meant that her friend was spreading it or she already had a reputation among these cats, which only excited her more. "And who's my lucky first player?"

Away by the edge of camp, Pebbleshade watched with slowly flattening ears. What was she doing, commandeering some time-waster in the middle of MistClan's camp, standing there as if she owned the place? The grey tom would never think of displaying such hostility to one of his clanmates, who really did own the place, but she wasn't one of them. She was just a step away from an intruder, a MothClan refugee that had escaped the fire in their camp, just like RootClan had fled a rat attack and immediately come to MistClan for shelter. It made his fur bristle how quickly Sablestar had welcomed both of the clans.

Mantisclaw, meanwhile, felt her slightly-singed fur prick for a different reason. Energy was coursing through her at the prospect of trying out one of the ideas that had stuck a claim in her mind before she'd even earned her warrior name. The tabby knew there were MistClan warriors that would disapprove, of course. She wasn't oblivious to clan politics. She also knew there was nothing they could do about it, though, so she just waited happily for an introduction from the cat sporting a collection of odd round Twoleg things.

[Ringtail]

The tom gently put down his Twoleg item, puffing out his chest in his effort to look cool and tough, because Mistclan cats are so cool, amiright?

"First player? UH okay? But I'm Wingshine and I'm ready to play this game! Are there any other players too?" He seemed to buzz with excitement over finding someone to hang out with, besides his Clanmates and his family.

"SO how do you play this game?" Because rules to games are important, even if there weren't any. But having new faces around did really brighten up up the area, even though most cats would agree, like Pebbleshade. But Wingshine was probably a bit too friendly to harm any cat, heck, he couldn't hurt a fly. 
"Can I use my Twoleg beetles too? Are they allowed??". It totally dawned on him that maybe even this gathering could use a few toys to play with! Yeah, yeah, a warrior with toys? It sounds silly, but the Twoleg beetles were just so shiny and Wingshine couldn't pass them up! "We could chase and toss them around!"

[gingersnapsdacat]

    Tickstorm still felt weak, and could not speak for very long without her voice becoming hoarse and painful. But still, she had been deemed healthy enough that she did not need to stay cooped up in the medicine cat den. She just needed to be sure not to strain herself too much, and drink water. Luckily for her though, the same went for her sister. 
    “Hey Mantisclaw, what are you-”
    “"I'm going to do another challenge,"
    The moment her sister’s words reached her ears, Tickstorm could feel the excitement building. Tickstorm nodded eagerly, looking around for someone to join her sister’s game.
    Hornstrike would never give up a chance to...Oh…
    It dawned on her. She couldn’t ask her brother to play...he was gone. She would never be able to do anything with him. But she could not let that keep her from spending time with the family she had left. Not too far away, she had spotted her father, EveningStar. He could use some fun, she thought to herself, padding in his direction.
    “Father! Mantisclaw and I are going to do a challenge!” she purred, sidling up to the MothClan leader. “It could be...fun!”
    She smiled hopefully, giving her father an extra nudge of affection before she continued onto her next target.
    “Hello,” she said, padding up to an annoyed looking tomcat. “We are going to play a game. You should join us!”
    The tortoiseshell she-cat did not wait for a response from either of the toms before she scurried back to where her sister was waiting. It seemed that neither of them had quite managed to attract the crowd they were hoping for. But even one cat was better than nothing. 
    “Oh good! You found a player!”
Tickstorm plopped herself down beside Mantisclaw and the bottlecap-weilding tom.
    “So...what did we want to do?”
Fireflake Ringtail Miss Tactical

[Fireflake]

"First of all, it's great to meet you, Wingshine! Right now it's just you and me, and my sister Tickstorm when she comes back, since that tom looks like he's busy being a spoilsport."
She pawed at one of the bottle caps, feeling the familiar touch of metal under her paw from days when she'd dared a bunch of fellow apprentices to touch the thunder trails with her. It was odd, but also soothing to her injured paw-pads. "We can totally use these, but let's wait and see if we can fit it into a game a bit later on. I have an idea for right now."

She stood up tall. "This one is called the No-cabulary challenge. I tell you a word and you have to act it out until--"
The warrior froze in the middle of a dramatic performance of the explanation. Her jagged breath evened a bit.
"Tickstorm! You're back! As I was just telling our friend Wingshine here, this is the No-cabulary challenge. I tell someone a word, then they act it out, then the other cat has to guess what the word is. The hard bit is that you can't talk! You can make sounds, but no words. Since it's just us three right now, we'll change it a bit so two of us are acting out the word and one of us is trying to guess. So, who wants to act with me first?"

[Ringtail]

"Oh okay! Cool, Mantispaw! So me, you and your sister playing? Okay, okay." He nodded at his shiny metal beetles with pride before cocking his head curiously had the mention of her and Tickstorm's game. 

"I've never played this game before! Can we do an example round? I can try the acting part! That's like super fun right?? Or is that not you're favorite part of the game? Oh who cares, games are so much more fun playing with friends!!", the tom excitedly mewed, eager to learn this new game, No-cabulary challenge. Wait was it a game or a challenge? Probably both. "But could you go first, Mantispaw?? Since I don't know how to play the game right, and I don't wanna be a sucker and fail at this game..Though I think it's super easy right? Just no words?" He is such a chatter box but he wants to make sure he can play the game right and not look like a dork. He looked between the two Mothclan sisters. 
"I vote we play the No-cabulary game!! Do you Mothclan cats play it all the time? I've seriously never heard any Mistclan cats play this game before though." 

[gingersnapsdacat]

    Tickstorm listened to her sister, trying to catch up with what she had already explained to Wingshine. It sounded like she was talking about the game she and her siblings used to play as kits.
    "I've never played this game before! Can we do an example round? I can try the acting part! That's like super fun right?? Or is that not you're favorite part of the game? Oh who cares, games are so much more fun playing with friends!!”
    Tickstorm stared at the orange-coated tom. Will this cat be able to keep his voice off for long enough to act? She doubted it.
    “But could you go first, Mantispaw?? Since I don't know how to play the game right, and I don't wanna be a sucker and fail at this game..Though I think it's super easy right? Just no words?"
    Tickstorm nodded, moving to a sitting-up position.
    “Yep! You just have to guess what Mantisclaw and I are trying to do.”
    "I vote we play the No-cabulary game!! Do you Mothclan cats play it all the time? I've seriously never heard any Mistclan cats play this game before though."
    tickstorm offered Wingshine nothing more than a shrug. She could remember playing it as a kit, but she had no idea if it was a MothClan thing. It was entirely possible that her sister had just made it up one day.
“Lets be...snails!” she whispered to Mantisclaw.

[Fireflake]

Mantisclaw purred quietly at Wingshine's chatter. The tom definitely had the energy she was hoping for. He might have a hard time with this particular game, though. Noticing the subtle look on her sister's face, Mantisclaw guessed that Tickstorm was thinking the same thing. "I came up with it when I was a kit," she explained, "but it was just a game back then. I only named it and made it a real challenge today."

As Tickstorm took charge, Mantisclaw stepped back and let her littermate run with it. The competitive part of her that wasn't dedicated solely to beating Weevilbite assured her that she'd be the center of attention again soon enough. After a short pause, Tickstorm suggested they pretend to be snails, and Mantisclaw's ears perked. Good one! Realizing that her upright ears added to the image she needed, Mantisclaw forced them to prick even more.

The she-cat gathered her legs in under her body and left her tail out to drag along the ground. Shoving her hindquarters up like her first attempt at a crouch, Mantisclaw tried her best to make a defined lump there to be her 'shell'. Once she could balance in this position, the MothClan warrior began to inch forward. Clearly proud of her display, Mantisclaw looked over to see how Tickstorm was doing.

[Ringtail]

Wingshine gave a nod to Mantisclaw, curiously wanting the pair of cats begin the game. What an odd shape to start the game with. The young tom had to give them a walk over, circling the other cats before still trying to make up his mind on what they had decided to 'become'. 



"Uh, uh, uh..A rock? A pouncing warrior?" He randomly guessed, quite on sure on what to make out from the weird posture Mantisclaw and Tickstorm started to show off. But wow they were so flexible! The cream tom only wished he could do some crazy postures like that! He'd off to toughen up and get them both good when it became his turn for the game to start. 



"A bridge? A log? A BIRD, A BIRD? A tick on some warrior's back? Oh I don't know..Uh, uh..Am I getting close? Warm? Cold? In between? Is it brown? Is it colorful? Is it cool? Is it shiny?" He wasn't sure if they'd answer any of his questions but it was a start as his mind went forth and gave him all kinds of ideas of what possibly they were trying to mimic and display for him. 

"Wait, wait, IT'S A FLEA!", He happily chattered along, puffing out his choice of what seemed to be his final guessing answer to their pose.