Allegiances
Over your intervening initial month, you grow old enough to begin gracelessly toddling around. Whenever you lose your balance, you flop clumsily onto your stomach or tail - but you are still small enough that it barely bothers you.
The Broken, of course, is overjoyed to see you begin moving around. You're that much closer to becoming someone she can play with! Her paws reach out and bap at you, but you're still much too small at this age to properly wrestle with or do anything but clumsily swat back, squeaking indignation - especially when she accidentally bops you hard enough to bowl your unsteady legs over.
The Silky chitters disapprovingly, and The Broken bounces up and down in reply; conciliatory, an invitation to play.
The Pale seems fond of The Broken - sometimes while passing by the nursery or visiting you, he will pat them on the head and give them small round things, which they eagerly eat. If your father likes them, then they can be trusted.
Besides, you do want to play.
The first time you stumble out of the nursery, you are stunned by how many slugcats are in front of you. Their scents, familiar as your breath, but distant as the supposed sky, now mingle right in front of your little nose.
You can see older slugpups running around with their mentors, busy with learning and working, their hands always in motion.
You can see the adult slugcats of the clowder relaxing in the shade, puddled around each other or eating, or playing games with each other. [Adults play games too? You watch them trade around some smooth, round things.]
You see your father, and he trills his delight when he notices your presence. He jumps high into the air and then lands back down, tail slapping against the ground to show his pleasure and pride.
How you've grown! He might have said, if he had been in speaking range rather than all the way across the camp.
The camp is shadowed under the safety of a massive black shape, looming large in your vision - you gaze up at it in awe, barely able to make out the grey above it. It makes you think of yourself and your mother; the camp a small slugpup, and the box its doting parent.
You've noticed that you are the only one of the slugpups to have parents. You wonder where the rest of theirs went.
When The Little announces that The Silky is pregnant, you're nestled up against your mother's belly. The news confuses you, and makes you feel more than a little hurt. You know that you still have a long time in the nursery with her - so why is she pregnant again so fast? Isn't she supposed to be taking care of you? Is this what happened to the other slugpups? Their parents had more children, and left them?
You're not ready to stop being the baby of the clowder.
But what about me? You squeak softly to your mother, communicating your mounting distress. Where will I go?
She immediately scoops you up in her paws and rocks you, rumbling soothingly.
Of course I am going to still be looking after you, Your mother offers you the perch of her shoulders and head, but you don't want to nest anywhere but her arms right now. It is going to be some months more for the new pups to be born. You are going to be a much bigger pup by then - you might not even want your mother fussing over you anymore!
Nuh-uh. You grip your little paws against her fur tighter, nuzzling into her chest. I wanna stay with you forever.
She makes a fond little chuff. Well, then you will have some little siblings by then that you can play with, not just The Broken. You can be their big brother! They'll look up to you, and you can teach them what you know. Won't that be nice?
You have to admit that this idea does sound nice. You like playing with The Broken, but she's talked about games that are way more fun with more pups around.
You sniffle. Maybe it won't be so bad..? You're not really sure. You just know you don't want to let your mother go just yet.
Today, as everything cools down and darkens, you find yourself sitting outside of the nursery again, gazing out at the big, wide camp that made your world suddenly so much bigger than the small den you had been born in.
One of the slugpups that you'd seen before - though you're disappointed to note it's not the one who was, strangely, learning from another slugpup, rather than an adult - comes up to you, holding a chunk of something undefinable in their paw. She introduces herself as The Wind, and sits down beside you to eat.
Are you wondering what this is? It's meat. She notices your curious stare, and holds the food out to you. It smells delicious.
You're too young to eat it yet, sorry. She wiggles her ears in amusement as she pulls it away from your suddenly open mouth, to your disappointed whine. You don't even have all your teeth!
You give her a pout, your tail wiggling, and change the subject to a question you've been wondering about instead. Why are you called The Wind?
Hmm. She seems thoughtful at this question. Well, when I was in the nursery I was always whip-fast. I still am. So I move quick, like the wind.
What about the healer? Everyone calls them Little. But they aren't little, they're one of the biggest slugcats I've ever seen!
Maybe when he was born, he was really tiny? She flicks her tail, gesturing uncertainty.
But they've grown soooo tall. Why didn't they decide to be called something else?
That's not how it works! Your title is what others know you for. What you're like, what you've done or what you can do. I heard The Pale talking once about a slugcat that was known for killing lizards. So they're The Dragon-slayer.
Or what you look like?
Yes, exactly! The Wind seems pleased that you seem to be getting the gist of things. What makes everyone think of you immediately.
You think about this for a bit. Then, maybe everyone still calls The Little that 'cause everyone hears his name and thinks about how big he is instead.
She seems impressed with your reasoning, pointing emphatically to you with her half-gnawed hunk. Yeah, something like that! It's an opposite, so everyone still thinks about it. But you flip it.
The Wind's admiration soaks like heat into your body, and you bask in it.
You think you would like everyone to look at you this way, forever.
The Broken was trying to boss the other slugpups around again. [Not including you, this time!]
The Amber mentions seeing a lizard in the territory. They seem to be worried about it.
The Untouched seems embarrassed about something. It can't seem to refrain from grooming down its slick pelt, re-ruffling the thin fur.
The Olive seems pleased about something. They keep making small chrrs.
The Little looks worried. Their thick tail is thumping against the ground.
The Old Sun has been agitated since their walk outside the camp. Her hoarse growls and hisses as she circles around and around her nest are quiet, but you can hear them.
The majority of these actions are its own individual command; that is to say, you do not need agree with each other and vote together to speak to someone - by commanding for it, it shall transpire, as there is no limit to how often the action can be done. There are some noted exceptions, which will be explained further down below. You should also specify who you want to be the target of your action; you do not have to choose any of the individuals noted in the prompts. You can generally only do the action with a given cat once per month.
i.e. If we already Talked to The Pale this month, you can't do so again; however, you can talk to another slugcat if you like, as well as Listen in on The Pale.
When you choose to Listen to someone, you will eavesdrop upon the conversation they're having with someone else, or watch them as they conduct whatever task they're doing. Generally, it will allow you to get a better sense of what the situation they're in is. You can also think of it as a Check option, since its purpose is generally to allow you to understand more of the person and what they have been doing in the world this month.
While this option is Talk, technically it can be any interaction at all - however, if the command does not specify, it will simply be having a conversation with them. The difference between this one & Listen is that you are actively participating in some kind of interaction, be it playing, debating, or even grooming each other. [These are marely examples, and you can suggest whatever you wish.] This option will generally improve your relationship with the other slugcat.
Insult, meanwhile, does the opposite of Talk. It also doesn't have to be just verbal; if you want to shove someone, trip them, or something else similarly unkind, that will fall under this option. Of course, it will damage your relationship with the given slugcat.
Mediate lets you manually improve or sabotage The Winged's relationship with someone if so desired; this has a chance of going awry and having the opposite intended effect, but usually will reduce / increase negative emotions between the two slugcats, as well as improving / decreasing positive emotions. This can be used in conjunction with Talk to more quickly improve a soured relationship that would otherwise take time to rectify, or to burn bridges quickly.
When The Winged is older, one can also decide whether to allow for romantic emotions to be fostered or not. As this is an action being carried out via The Winged asking the mediators of the clowder to help with the relationship, the amount of times this can be done is limited by the amount of mediators present - this is an option that has to be chosen via majority vote.
Each mediator may only work once per month, and each relationship can only be worked on once per month. For example, Mediator 1 could work on the relationship between The Winged and its mother, The Silky. Then Mediator 1 would be done working for the month. However, while Mediator 2 still hasn't worked yet, they now cannot work on The Winged & The Silky, and must work on a different relationship The Winged has with someone.
There are currently 2 mediators in the clowder.
Murder does what it says on the tin; you can attempt to kill another slugcat. This is a very grave crime, as one can imagine, and will have consequences. It does not always succeed, and in fact may often not. This requires a majority vote to pass, but you can always ask to check the probability of how likely you are to successfully carry this out.
Choosing the >>> option will pass the time on to the next month. Once time passes, you will not be able to come back to this month, and any cats left unspoken to will not be examined. Therefore, it is also one that requires a majority vote.
You may notice that there are several [LOCKED] options. This is because The Winged is currently too young to be able to carry them out. As time goes on and the action becomes available, they will unlock themselves.
You can always Trans your Gender and change The Winged's pronouns as well as gender identity at will; consider it a free option that's always there, even though it's not listed in the available actions.
If there is another type of action you wish to conduct but is not on the list, feel free to ask me and I will consider whether it is possible or not.