your stare was holdin'

The first thread featuring Astrocracy as a world and the source of most information pertaining to the setting.

Synopsis

Demon Cam is summoned by Fireheart. Over the course of endeavoring to improve the cats' lives, he discovers the differences between his home world and the world he's been summoned to.

Summary

Due to the thread being over 200 pages and still updating, the following summary is a work in progress.

• Cam is summoned and discovers that he can now speak a language that consists of meowing.
  • He learns that cats can't understand human speech and of the clan/kittypet divide.
  • When consulting a video of a cat from Revelation meowing, he can't understand it. He discovers that one of the local human languages is extremely similar to English.
  • Cam offers to act as a liaison between the clans and the local humans; Fireheart needs to consult with other cats in ThunderClan about this. Cam agrees to wait.
• While Fireheart, his summoner, requests permission from his clanmates to introduce Cam to them, Princess shows up to investigate. 
  • She doesn't find it surprising that Cam meows at her, but is surprised that he can say anything more advanced than "hello" and understand her when she speaks.
  • Cam refuses to tell her about any cats he already saw, to her frustration, but agrees to pass on to Cloudpaw and Fireheart that she was looking for them.
  • Fireheart returns with Sandstorm and Cinderpelt. When Cam passes along Princess' message, Fireheart and Sandstorm leave to find her, leaving Cam alone with Cinderpelt.
• Cinderpelt has questions for Cam about human lifestyle and habits!
  • He answers her questions the best he can, revealing that he used to be a nonmagical human before he died, that he has demon powers, and that he has medical training that can be applied to said powers.
  • Cinderpelt asks Cam to heal her leg, which was injured in a car accident. He's willing to help, but cautious about anesthetizing her properly. They decide to wait until Fireheart and Sandstorm get back to proceed with the plan.
  • While they wait, Cam tells her about how humans practice medicine and introduces her to germ theory.
• Fireheart, Sandstorm, and Princess return, Princess having gotten injured running away from a dog.
  • With Princess' permission, Cam cleans and repairs the cut on her foot. Also with her permission, he pets her, which she enjoys.
  • Cinderpelt asks to be healed next. Sandstorm and Fireheart are suspicious, mostly that Cam might try to demand payment that they wouldn't want to or be able to give. Cam assures them that he just wants to establish positive relations with the clans.
  • In lieu of poppyseeds, Cam wants to use lidocaine as a painkiller. A basement dweller test doesn't uncover any allergic reactions, but a test on Cinderpelt reveals that it doesn't work as a painkiller. She decides to do it very quickly with poppyseeds and a stick to bite on.
  • The operation is a success! Cam burns the basement dweller and injured leg and Cinderpelt takes her new leg out for a spin.
• With that taken care of, the topic returns to whether Cam should act as a cat/human translator.
  • Princess, having many questions for her housefolk, is in favor. Sandstorm is more hesitant about the possibility of alerting the humans to the clans' existence. He proposes that the question be put on hold until the next Gathering, which will be held on the full moon.
  • Princess and Fireheart convince Sandstorm to allow Cam to talk to Princess' housefolk, as long as he doesn't bring up the topic of the clans. Cam agrees, since the situation could easily go wrong if handled poorly.
  • Concerned about the potential personhood of cat prey animals like voles and songbirds, Cam tries to convince the cats to allow him to make them demonic prey. All of the cats are extremely discomfited by this, especially when a plastic-wrapped sample Cam makes ends up tasting unpleasant to all the cats except Princess.
  • Fireheart decides that the stakes are high enough that he'll need to do some cat politics before even introducing Cam. They agree to meet at dawn of the next day and for Cam to make a day's worth of unwrapped prey that Fireheart, Cinderpelt, and Sandstorm can bring back to ThunderClan's camp.
• Princess and Cam set off to meet Princess' housefolk! En route, Cam hides his wings with a jacket and goes around to the front door so as to not arouse suspicion.
  • Jackie gets the door and is skeptical of Cam's claim that he can talk to Princess until he proves it by passing along a request for Princess to scratch Jackie. Princess (very gently) complies, convincing Jackie. She lets Cam in after making a brief phone call.
  • Cam passes along Princess' messages and gives Jackie a brief overview of some of his demonic abilities and traits.
  • Jackie, in the course of apologizing for holding Princess uncomfortably tightly, wonders aloud if that was her thing and explains to a curious Cam that she's a September 01 person. Calendar confusion and clarification ensues.
  • Further facts about the world come to light, including:
    • The human language that's extremely similar to Revelation!English is locally called Latin.
    • The Roman Empire is still kicking and has been for 785 years.
    • The world is flat, although there exist conspiracy theories about a spherical Earth.
    • Birthdays are a thing! Not for cats, though.
    • The stars are dead people, and their positions are responsible for things such as geminis and influenza. One can talk to the stars by taking a drug called omnilol. Space shuttles have not been invented.
    • Crystal healing is a thing! It's very complicated and involves birthstones and licensed professionals and sometimes herbs.
    • In addition to the sun and moon, which are always opposite each other, there is a moon-like celestial body known as Polaris that is responsible for the seasons.
  • Cam starts making plans, but before he can get very far, Jacqueline disclaims that she shouldn't provide any guidance or direction more specific than informing Cam of common knowledge lest she inadvertently invoke the summer solstice curse.
  • Jackie and Cam talk a little about the local Jesus, who is thirtyish and a spring equinox and somewhat of a spiritual leader, and also works with a summer solstice named Judas. Jackie very deliberately refuses to have opinions on what, if anything, Cam should do with this information, and decides to cycle back to some of Cam's earlier questions.
  • Cam reads a book aimed at children under eight (the legal age to take omnilol) about how star clouds work and speculates with Jackie and Princess about why the formerly-human stars have never mentioned the sapient cats and about how long cats have been people.
  • Princess, disappointed and annoyed at being ignored, reminds Cam of her questions. He passes them along for Jackie to answer and decides to make a picture board so Princess and Jackie can communicate without relying on Cam as a relay.
  • Princess proves to be very, very quick at picking up written language! Cam switches gears from "set up picture board" to "teach her how to read and type Latin" and in the process of this discovers that sapient cats have human-like color vision.
• While Princess works on the Latin program, Cam conjures a motorcycle and goes to a nearby animal shelter.
  • The receptionist lets him into the back to talk to the cats. The cats are very confused about a lot of things, such as:
    • Cam being able to talk!
    • Words like "universe," "acquisition," "language," and so on, though one cat spontaneously understands the word "spatially" shortly after asking what it means.
    • Why Cam is here.
  • Most, but not all, of the cats are able to talk to Cam. They describe the ones that can't as extremely quiet and mention that they've never picked up vocabulary from them. Nearly all the cats who can talk report that their parents could as well, but one mentions that its parents can't talk and that it spontaneously learned to talk one day.
  • None of the cats can read, including one who claims when asked to be able to read everything.
  • A local alt of Cricket exists, who reports becoming able to talk after taking "a very strange catnip trip." Cam asks the receptionist, who introduces herself as Ivy, to let him out. She's curious about the "some cats are people" card Cam made to test cat literacy, and because of this gives him leeway to stay until past closing time.
• Cam decides to take Cricket home, to Ivy's relief. He doesn't have a standard pamphlet prepared, so he answers her questions instead.
  • Ivy confesses that she'd suspected the cats of being people for a while, having picked up that they meowed in clear conversational patterns. She's not sure what to do about it aside from continuing to advocate for their welfare.
  • She takes Cam's weirdness in stride, provided that he demonstrates himself competent to care for Cricket. He makes a lot of items on the shelter's donation list and makes her some movies and a flatdisk player in exchange for some local currency he can use to pay the adoption fee and passes along feedback from Cricket.
• Cam returns to Jackie's place with Cricket in tow.
  • Jackie has been joined at home by Jordan and Ian.
  • Princess has made a fair amount of progress in learning Latin and is able to type with great enthusiasm (if limited vocabulary) about her feelings (Jackie and Ian and Jordan are great!) and desires (she wants to go outside and have treats). Ian and Jordan are all right with this until she requests the kind Nicholas gives her, which they suspect might be drugged. Cam gives her fish instead.
  • Cam and the local humans discuss differences between their worlds. Jordan in particular is fascinated by the concept of vacuum nearly everywhere.
  • Over the course of this conversation it comes out that Cam intends to set up a house in the woods. Princess pipes up to remind him not to build too close to any extant clan territory. Since he can't smell the boundaries and she only knows what ThunderClan's territory smells like, he decides to find an alternate solution.
• Cam and Cricket set out to a campground that Ian recommends, where Cam makes an RV. There he reads up about the state of the world:
  • He goes through a birthday guide book Ivy recommended him and learns about the autumn, winter, and spring solquinoxes and their reputations. He also learns about even people and people less odd than the solquinoxes.
  • He then looks for information about star clouds not directed at children too young to legally interact with them. He learns a bit about the history of the world, particularly as pertains to humanity discovering things about magic, stars, and birthdays. Not much is known about the underlying mechanisms of these things, since the One is notoriously cagey.
• Cam decides to try tripping on omnilol, with Cricket as his trip sitter.
  • His first try involves omnilol that he conjures and does not work. Suspecting that omnilol is magical and thus unconjurable, he goes to a drugstore about half an hour away from Chelford and picks up a dose, which works!
  • At first he looks for cats, but does not find any - searching for nonhuman star clouds only yields big clouds that aren't very human in their thought processes anymore. Trying for the most recently dead individual doesn't work because "who died most recently" keeps changing too quickly! He settles on talking to the closest non-cloud who wants to talk to him.
  • The resulting star is someone recently dead. They tell him that being dead is kind of like being high, without being able to go back - scary, but maybe it gets less scary when you're used to it. They plan to stay separate for a few more days to allow everyone who wanted to to say goodbye. They have a hope that a particular ex of theirs will show up before they merge so they can be petty to him.
  • They compare the feeling of staying single to not taking a sip from a glass of water in one's hand - not too hard, if you're paying attention, but increasingly hard over time as one gets "thirstier." Different people or clouds can be likened to different flavors of drinks, based on potential compatibility. One can also talk to parts of clouds, though it wouldn't be like talking to an individual person. The star compares this to the difference between an egg and a crumb from the cookie it's baked into.
  • They're curious and confused about why Cam is on a tiny dose intended for small children as an adult and become concerned when he confesses that not only has he never used omnilol, neither of his parents has either. He urges them to not worry about him or his safety.
  • As Cam's dose starts to wear off, he asks if there are any cats around. The star is unfamiliar with cats but, with Cam's permission, asks the One about it. The One isn't aware of any cat souls, but is aware of a couple hundred new stars (as in the physical representation of a dead person on the shell of the universe) without associated souls. Cam tries to find these but can't before his trip ends.
• At dawn, Cam and Cricket go out to meet with Fireheart. Cricket is rude to Fireheart, which does not seem to bother him.
  • Fireheart wants to know if Cam found out anything about the personhood of prey. Cam reports that everything he's found has suggested that prey animals are not people, and neither are most cats. He'd still like to be introduced to the clans, even absent a potential moral crisis.
  • Fireheart has a lot of questions about humans! He wants to know about writing, clothes, the purpose of collars on kittypets, cars, and how humans cope with not having a very good sense of smell.
  • Fireheart catches Cam up on some relevant cat politics, such as that RiverClan is going through a period of loss, that one of his friends, Graystripe, switched to RiverClan to be with his kits, and that the former deputy of FireClan who now leads ShadowClan betrayed ThunderClan.
  • Cam and Fireheart discuss StarClan briefly - Cam mentions that there doesn't seem to be communication between dead humans and dead cats. Fireheart finds this unsurprising and mentions that he's had prophetic dreams, which he doesn't feel comfortable disclosing at this time.
  • Cam has some questions that Fireheart thinks he should ask an elder, which he may have the opportunity to do so if invited to the next Gathering, between one and two weeks away. These questions include "how long have the clans been a thing" and "where did the warrior code come from."
• Cam, Fireheart, and Cricket arrive at RiverClan's territory, where Leopardfur greets them. Once it's established that the prey concern is no longer pressing, she wants to know if Cam has any other business.
  • Fireheart asks after Crookedstar's condition and Cam offers to help, though he disclaims that he doesn't know as much about cat medicine as he does about the human kind.
  • Leopardfur asks him to do something about the water, which has been polluted by garbage. Cam proposes setting up a filtration fountain for RiverClan, putting up a "no dumping" sign at the river, and adding new fish to the river. Leopardfur agrees and leads Cam to their camp.
  • Cam places the fountain and some of the RiverClan cats bring Crookedstar out. He's in very poor condition and has pneumonia. Cam does everything he can, but Crookedstar dies.
• While RiverClan buries Crookedstar, Mistyfoot leads Fireheart, Cam, and Cricket out of RiverClan territory to a spot near where Cam parked his RV.
  • Cam sets up the "no dumping" signs, replenishes the fish, and drags some garbage bags away from the riverbank.
  • Once this is done, Fireheart leads Cam to Fourtrees. On the way there, they talk about indestructibility and the positive impact Cam will have on clan life.
  • Representatives from WindClan arrive to speak with Cam. One of them, Gorsepaw, is very curious about Cricket. The leader, Tallstar, asks if Cam can do anything about the Thunderpath, since drivers frequently hit cats in a way that appears deliberate. Cam offers to make a bridge; Tallstar and Gorsepaw lead him to where he can do so.
  • On the way to do this, Cam talks about why humans do things, such as wanting cats to be kittypets. In turn, the cats explain some of the sentiment behind warrior disdain of kittypets.
• Cam sets up the bridge, which the cats are pleased by once they test it out.
  
  • A pair of barn cats, Barley and Ravenpaw, come by to talk. They tell Cam about barn cat life and their histories.
  • Barley mentions that he grew up as a stray until he "woke up." Cam questions him about this, and Cricket causes some friction by chiming in. Firepaw leads Cam back to Fourtrees.
• On the way there, Firepaw mentions that Ravenpaw left ThunderClan after Tigerclaw tried to kill him. This prompts Cam to take notes on cat politics.
  • The current clan leadership is as follows:
    • ThunderClan is led by Bluestar, deputy Fireheart.
    • RiverClan is led by Leopardstar, deputy currently unchosen.
    • WindClan is led by Tallstar, deputy Mudclaw.
    • ShadowClan is led by Tigerstar, deputy Blackfoot.
  • Fireheart also mentions that ThunderClan's deputies before him were Redtail, Lionheart, and Tigerclaw, and that ShadowClan was led by Brokenstar (who was terrible) and, briefly, Nightstar.
  • Sunningrocks is a piece of territory near the river. It used to be contested, but RiverClan attacked it shortly after Fireheart joined ThunderClan. The ensuing battle resulted in the deaths of Oakheart, deputy of RiverClan, and Redtail and in ThunderClan claiming the territory.
    • Tigerclaw's account was that Oakheart killed Redtail and Tigerclaw killed Oakheart in revenge.
    • Ravenpaw's account was that Tigerclaw attacked Redtail.
    • It was later determined by ThunderClan that Oakheart had been killed by falling rocks.
  • At the time of the Sunningrocks battle, ShadowClan was under the leadership of Brokenstar, who became leader by framing ShadowClan's medicine cat, Yellowfang, for the murder of his father, then clan leader. Yellowfang joined ThunderClan after being exiled by ShadowClan. Things that happened under Brokenstar's leadership included:
    • ShadowClan expanding their hunting ground, driving WindClan out of their territory.
    • Sending kits into battle at half the age dictated by the warrior code and training them too harshly, causing several deaths.
    • Stealing replacement kits from ThunderClan, which killed Spottedleaf, ThunderClan's medicine cat, in the process. (Yellowfang succeeded Spottedleaf as medicine cat.)
  • ThunderClan retrieved the kits, helping ShadowClan oust Brokenstar in the process. At the same time, they helped Ravenpaw fake his death when he went to live with Barley by telling Tigerclaw that one of Brokenstar's patrols killed him, since Tigerclaw had been trying to get Ravenpaw killed by sending him on dangerous missions.
  • Bluestar sent Fireheart and Graystripe to help return WindClan to their territory. There was "trouble" (Fireheart's words) that resulted in the death of an unnamed RiverClan warrior. At this time Graystripe started seeing Silverstream. Several ThunderClan cats contracted whitecough, which in Bluestar's case evolved into greencough bad enough that she lost one of her lives. Cinderpelt also got into the car accident that injured her leg, which Fireheart believes was a trap Tigerclaw intended for Bluestar. Princess had a kit, Cloudpaw, whom she entrusted to ThunderClan.
  • A Gathering was canceled by StarClan covering the full moon with clouds because of tensions arising due to Brokenstar and some rogues allied with him trespassing on clan territory. Most of the warriors went to ShadowClan to confront the trespassers, leaving Yellowfang and Fireheart as the only adults in the camp when the rogues attacked. Despite being outnumbered, they won. Bluestar allowed Brokenstar, blinded and down to his last life, to live in the camp.
  • Later, ShadowClan and RiverClan tried again to drive out WindClan, and ThunderClan came to their defense. At some point during this period, Leopardfur attempted to kill Fireheart, which Tigerclaw saw and did nothing about.
  • Graystripe and Fireheart then looked into the circumstances surrounding Redtail's death. They discovered some RiverClan kits, who were drowning in the river due to recently-melted snow, and returned them to camp. At this point they learned from RiverClan that the river had been poisoned and offered to share some of their prey. However, Cloudpaw and Tigerclaw discovered them, and they were punished for violating the warrior code.
  • A few days before the next Gathering, Bluestar sent Tigerclaw, Longtail, and Fireheart to find a way to cross the still-flooded river. Tigerclaw sent Fireheart to cross the stream on a very narrow branch, which would have killed him had it not been for Longtail's actions. Because the river was still impassable, ShadowClan allowed ThunderClan to pass through their territory to Fourtrees, but announced at the Gathering that ThunderClan was sheltering Brokenstar and revoked permission to pass through their territory. RiverClan allowed ThunderClan passage, but shortly afterwards WindClan and ShadowClan attacked ThunderClan. On Bluestar's orders, ThunderClan defended Brokenstar, along with the rest of their camp.
  • After the battle, Silverstream died in childbirth, which led to Graystripe and their kits living with RiverClan. The kits nearly died as well, but Cinderpelt and Tigerclaw warmed them up enough to save them. Goldenflower, Tigerclaw's mate, nursed the kits.
  • Fireheart discovered Tigerclaw was meeting with rogues to create an ambush where he sent out all of ThunderClan's warriors at the same time, leaving their camp undefended. Fireheart saved Bluestar's life, and the RiverClan patrol sent to retrieve Graystripe's kits helped defend the camp. Brokenstar sided with the rogues, but died. Afterwards, Bluestar exiled Tigerclaw from ThunderClan and named Fireheart her deputy.
  • Later, Bluestar and Fireheart were stopped from going to the Moonstone, where clan leaders share dreams with StarClan, by a WindClan patrol led by Mudclaw and escorted back to their camp. There they met two ShadowClan cats begging for food and herbs, as their clan was suffering a plague. Cinderpelt, against Yellowfang's advice, helped the cats hide in ThunderClan territory away from camp and took care of them.
  • Cloudpaw, Fireheart's apprentice, would occasionally sneak out of clan territory to be fed by humans. This eventually resulted in him being taken away in a car, though ThunderClan was able to rescue him. After this, there was a fire in ThunderClan territory. Yellowfang, Patchpelt, and Halftail all died, but Fireheart was able to rescue Bramblekit, Tigerstar's son. RiverClan let ThunderClan stay in their territory and gave them medicine and prey, and at the next Gathering Fireheart stood in for Bluestar, who was still sick of smoke inhalation.
• Caught up to the present day, Cam and Tigerheart discuss what to do about Tigerstar. It's at this point that Tigerstar reveals himself. He invites Cam to visit ShadowClan.
  • After Cam drops Cricket off at the RV, Tigerstar leads him to ShadowClan territory. En route, he implies that Fireheart's account is, if not dishonest, inaccurate. Cam offers to listen to his side of the story and do forensics; Tigerstar immediately accepts.
  • The first matter under investigation is Redtail's death. Cam conjures a series of dioramas, working backwards from the moment of Redtail's death. When put into a stop motion film, the sequence of events is as follows:
    • Oakheart and a grey cat (also from RiverClan, but unidentified) are sunning themselves together.
    • Redtail, Tigerclaw, and Ravenpaw arrive on scene, sparking a tense conversation that erupts into battle. Tigerclaw gains a scar on his muzzle during this battle.
    • Tigerclaw pins the grey RiverClan cat; Oakheart tackles Tigerclaw to get him off. When Tigerclaw recovers from this, Redtail is right behind him and Ravenpaw is hiding behind a bush.
    • A startled Tigerclaw attacks Redtail. Ravenpaw, terrified, runs away. Tigerclaw backs away, his ears flat and eyes wide.
    • Redtail bodychecks Oakheart into some falling rocks while Tigerclaw, his expression inscrutable to Cam, watches. Redtail and Oakheart die beneath the rocks.
  • Cam agrees that this is more ambiguous than Fireheart's account and asks for context on some more of Fireheart's claims. Tigerstar has reasonable-sounding explanations for all of them:
    • There is no possible way that any cat could have orchestrated the car accident that injured Cinderpelt aside from coordinating with humans. Tigerstar asserts that Cam is the first human he's spoken to.
    • The dangerous mission to Snakerocks hadn't been an attempt on Ravenpaw's life, but a routine hunting assessment that a group of warriors including Tigerclaw had supervised. Tigerstar notes that he was proud of Ravenpaw for catching an adder and that the medicine cats would have been able to help Ravenpaw in the event of a snakebite.
    • On the day that the river between ThunderClan territory and Fourtrees was flooded, Fireheart, being the lightest, was the best choice to test the tree branch. According to Tigerstar, the branch wasn't any more dangerous than going through ShadowClan territory.
    • He admits to having met with the rogues who later attacked ThunderClan's camp, but insists that he didn't coordinate or encourage the attack and was simply discussing the differences between rogue life and clan life. He claims that the attack, which he had nothing to do with, was an attempt to make up for having sided with Brokenstar, and that he'd set out more patrols in hopes of defending from them.
    • He also says that the rogues, who he accepted back into ShadowClan after gaining leadership, are integrating well and that most cats need structure and leadership to make up for difficulties with decision making.
    • He's deeply disturbed when Cam asks about him standing by while Leopardfur attacked Fireheart - according to him, it was during a battle and there were other cats who needed his help more. Conjuring reveals a battle of at least fifty cats, during which Fireheart is pinned by Leopardfur. Tigerclaw briefly glances over before intercepting someone else from attacking a dark brown tabby.
  • Cam asks Tigerstar if he knows why Fireheart is seemingly so determined to read ill intent into his actions.
    • Tigerstar demurs, but when pressed expresses an opinion that Fireheart's past as a kittypet has clouded his judgment - that he read ill intent into Tigerclaw's actions because kittypets love drama and hate rules.
    • Cam expresses an opinion that Tigerclaw's prejudice against kittypets caused friction between him and Fireheart.
    • Tigerstar defends himself, saying that he was fine with Cloudpaw, who was a small kit and less kittypet-socialized, and would have been fine with an adult with more experience and maturity than Fireheart, who was barely of apprenticing age.
    • He also tells Cam about a prophecy that "fire alone will save our clan" and opines that Bluestar jumped to conclusions based on little more than Fireheart's orange coat.
  • Tigerstar then demonstrates the cat ability to spontaneously Learn words and concepts. Cam has questions! Tigerstar doesn't have many answers - according to him all cats can do it and some say it's a gift from StarClan. Cam resolves to take a nap the next time it's convenient; Tigerstar gives him advice and philosophizes a bit about his attitudes towards StarClan.
  • Cam talks about his plans and a little about human lifestyles - how civilization is structured to enable artistic pursuits such as music, for instance. He plays some for Tigerstar, both manually and on a recording.
  • Tigerstar mentions that Bluestar is insane - easily confused and untrusting. A discussion about ages causes him to Learn how numbers with more than one digit work. They decide to set up a computer in ShadowClan's camp to make communication easier.
  • Tigerstar sends a message of utmost importance.
• Tigerstar's business with Cam having concluded, he leads Cam back to where Fireheart is waiting.