Spiderpaw's Campaign {The Experiment}

[Ten]

"W-when do w-we vote?" Shortwhisker shouted, frazzled and impatient. "I w-want to st-start n-now!"

"Peace, Shortwhisker. We - "

"I d-don't want to w-wait anym-more! I v-vote Redst-stream! I vote R-Redstream!"

Woodstripe stared at him and held her tongue.

[duckyaisha]

Patchfur sighed. He'd thought the annoying tom wouldn't speak up anymore, but he was wrong. "We already voted, Shortwhisker, Spiderpaw's leader. Yeah, I'm not happy either," he added, anticipating his response, "but we voted, and more people wanted Spiderpaw."

[Gosh]

"No, he means that he thinks we should go ahead and vote for the deputy," Spiderpaw meowed quickly. "Right?" she added, looking at the black and white tom, hoping that she had not misinterpreted him; she was the leader now, and she didn't want to make a fool of herself.

[Ten]

"Y-yes," he confirmed, his tone that of exasperated indignation. "Duh. H-haven't you n-noticed that we d-don't have a deputy y-yet? And don't s-say you're n-not happy with Spiderpaw! She's the l-leader! You h-have to resp-pect her!" After a slight pause, in which he fixed Patchfur with a solemn glare, he repeated, "Sh-she's the leader!" as if the implications were self-explanatory.

[duckyaisha]

"She's the leader for all of ten days! Besides, I don't /have/ to do anything. Now, can we please get on with the deputy election?" Patchfur was still stuck between Bronzefoot and Redstream, but he decided that Redstream would be better for that position. Bronzefoot couldn't really do anything as deputy; he'd still be controlled by the leader.

[Darky [Megan]]

Redstream felt rather alarmed that Shortwhisker was so persistently repeating her name. She had listened intently to the discussion about rules and guidelines and felt that they were very fair. She hastened to say something at this point, but wasn't sure what she could talk about at the moment. She decided to wait and see what topics the other cats might pose.

Speckledclaw had been waiting slightly impatiently for the deputy nominations to begin, but started feeling like she needed more time to prove herself once Shortwhisker brought the subject to light. "I agree that we ought to start the deputy nominations sometime soon. Perhaps it would be easier to lay out the guidelines and rules once a deputy has been chosen," she said.

Orangestorm felt like sleeping. All this clan talk was boring him, but he had an ear open all the same. The deputy nominations, he felt, weren't as important as the leader nominations, which meant he could slack off for a while. Hopefully this discussion would end soon and he would have some time to slip off and find other members of the Rebellion to relate everything to before he forgot them.

[Ten]

Woodstripe nodded in response to Speckledclaw. "Good - now for whom are each of you voting?" She then turned to the tuxedo tom and cut him off as he was opening his mouth. "Yes, Shortwhisker. We know your choice."

[duckyaisha]

Patchfur had decided on Redstream as deputy also. She was fair and seemed nice and intelligent. "I vote for Redstream also," he meowed.

[kayte103]

"Good, good! Now swipe; remember: the belly is the most vulnerable part of the cat."

Barkpaw sighed. He knew where to swipe. He knew that the belly was vulnerable. All this was review, but he had to go through with it if he wanted his warrior name.

He slid underneath his mentor, Blackfoot, battering at her underside with sheathed claws. She managed to kick at his flank, but he pushed up and toppled her. Then, he leaped onto her side, and bent over towards the throat.

Blackfoot struggled out of his grasp and shook. "Very good!" she praised. Barkpaw swelled with pride. "Now, you stay here. I'm going hunting." With that, she trotted off.

But Barkpaw had other plans. Why stay here when there were beautiful she-cats about? After cautiously glancing in the direction Blackfoot had gone, he stretched and trotted off.

Soon he found a large group of cats clustered together and chatting. Seems like the perfect place for females. He padded over, eying which cats looked the prettiest. Suddenly, he saw the perfect cat: a gorgeous orange tabby with green eyes and long ears. And after hearing her voice, he knew she was a she-cat. So, Barkpaw slid in next to her. "Hey, good-looking," he said smoothly. Being an excessive flirt, he always went straight for the compliments. "How'd you and me like to go hunt a few crickets together?"

[Darky [Megan]]

Redstream was rather heartened that everyone had begun voting for her, but she still felt disappointed nonetheless. If she wasn't leader, she'd honestly rather be just another participant in the Experiment. If she was voted deputy, she'd still carry a burden around with her. As such, she meowed, "I thank you all for the support, but please note that there are other very good potential deputies here. I've just gotten a bigger chance to make my point, and I wouldn't want to claim the place of deputy should someone else more fitting be available."

Suddenly the she-cat was made aware of brown tabby speaking to her. "Erm, hello," Redstream blinked, wondering why she was suddenly being complimented in the middle of the deputy votings. Redstream knew a flirt when she heard one, having met quite a few previously, and sighed. This was another tactless tom, it seemed, and needed to be rid of quickly or he might start being an annoyance.

"I'm quite busy at the moment, as you can see. We're discussing something quite important here," she responded. "Perhaps some other time would be better."

From the crowd came a low growl from Orangestorm.