Coalescence

[duckyaisha]

Patchfur breathed in deeply, trying to keep his cool. Of course Shortwhisker would say somthing completely cricketbrained. "Oh my. I'm going to die for the terrible crime of having a different opinion," he meowed dryly. If it came down to an actual fight, he could probably take Shortwhisker, though Woodstripe would interfere and stop him from actually attacking him. Sometimes it was handy to have her around, though he still couldn't understand her. Why would any cat want to be told that their opinion doesn't matter, that they are so insignificant that only the leader can make decisions?

[Cloud]

Dottedfoot's eyes had widened so that they seemed almost round stones. So much arguing, even within the cats of the Experiment. She'd join, of course, but she'd have to watch her step.

Walls only knew what would break out if a serious issue came to the fresh-kill pile. True, being an elder, she wouldn't have to fight, and her opinion would have little effect on how the Experiment was run, but trust of each other was important, and so far she was gaining little trust of any cat but Woodstripe. Really, even Littlestorm was better tempered than these two cats, especially the black and white one. She should thank him after they were done with their silly spat.

"If you're all quite finished, I'd like to agree to join the Experiment. Where are Spiderstripe and Redstream, does any cat know?"

Dottedfoot's icy, loud tone surprised even her. But she didn't back down, even though her paws were shaking slightly. She bravely met the eyes of both toms, hoping this would be enough to stop them.

OOC: I know "walls only knew" and "issue came to the fresh-kill pile" aren't actual sayings, but they're the closest I could think up to "heaven only knew" and "issue came to the table".

[Ten]

Patchfur had dared to open his big mouth. That was it. With a garbled yowl of "Dieyouevilraaat!" Shortwhisker lunged at his enemy -- or tried to. His yowl became a long, agonizing, bat-like screech when Woodstripe clamped down on his ruff with her teeth, preventing his attack.

The furious tom clawed at the ground, demanding, "W-why, Woodst-stripe? You heard him mocking a-auth-th-auth-author-r... l-leadership! With y-your own e-ears! A-and I kn-know you w-want to b-be leader!"

She did not make eye contact with him as she straightened into a sitting position and wrapped her tail over her paws. "Do not attack your fellow experiment participator, Shortwhisker. Spiderstripe would be angry with you for your behavior."

Horrified, Shortwhisker spoke no more, and seemed to hear nothing as the she-cat continued.

"I apologize for the discordant display, Dottedfoot. I assure you, the animosity you have witnessed between these two is not present among the rest; they are, you might say, an anomoly. Spiderstripe should return from the hunt soon, and Redstream cannot have wandered far. Just a moment more, if you please."

She titled her head sideways to whisper, "You appear to have a hunting wound, Shortwhisker. Find some water and wash it."

With a blank face, the tom turned an walked away.

ooc| I was going to let him attack, but then I figured Woodstripe would want to show off her ability to handle the situation.

And Cloud, you're pretty handy with those idioms.

[Cloud]

OOC: Why thank you. I simply adapt to the situation as best I can and hope my metaphors work. o3o

The mottled she-cat grunted. "An anomaly, eh? I wouldn't trust them in battle together. They'd probably attack each other rather than the cons. But then, perhaps that could be a challenge for them, to prove their loyalty. Although I wouldn't know."

She watched the black and white tom slink off, and felt an odd sympathy for him..perhaps he'd had a bad life, and that was why he got so upset over nothing. Shortwhisker...wasn't that his name? Maybe she should find out more about him...

[duckyaisha]

"Loyalty?!" Patchfur laughed, flopping down on the ground and laying in the cool sand. "Are you kidding me? Loyalty to Shortwhisker? I'd rather be loyal to a rock! I don't mind being loyal to everyone else in this experiment except him. See, he gets riled up over every little thing! Imagine if we were in a battle and some con happened to have a different opinion about Clans that he shared with Shortwhisker? He would go berserk! I may be argumentative, I'll admit that, but Shortwhisker has the brains of a day-old kit!" Of course, he knew his argument was futile. They would take Shortwhisker's side, he knew it. Since all three of them loved blindly following leaders until the day they died, they'd side with Shortwhisker since they thought the same way.

[Cloud]

Dottedfoot looked at the ginger and white tom with something close to disdain. Idiot.

"No, I meant loyalty to your Clan and your skills of cooperation. Obviously you don't take that seriously. It's true he overreacted, but you're making no attempt to either avoid pointless bickering with him or stop the situation altogether, you just had to make a smart remark, didn't you? I don't see you showing any intelligence on how to make things better. Arguing with each other is pointless, worse than pointless, when it causes such rifts as these. Obviously you don't care, or if you do, you hide it well."

Dottedfoot knew she wasn't endearing herself to Patchfur, but until he showed that he could behave better than he'd been acting, he deserved no respect from her. Stupid young hothead.

[duckyaisha]

"I care about the Clan," Patchfur replied, his voice now serious. "I care about working together and making life better for everyone. I care about my beliefs and I care about cats, all cats! I care about cats realizing that a leader is a bad idea, that it makes cats no better than ants, simply following someone else's orders and forgetting how to think for themselves! You can't talk; you just met me and I'm just trying to make cats' lives better. I, for one, would be happier if all cats had equal power and we voted on major decisions so every cat was just as powerful as any other cat. There would be no discrimination, no corruption, it's perfect! Because power is divided equally, corrupted cats wouldn't be able to take advantage of the system as they would a leadership. All cats would be treated the same, and everyone's vote would count, except for young kits of course. Maybe I'm not taking /this/ Clan serious, because a Clan led by a single leader is doomed to collapse. Just look at RiverClan! It's proof that the system does not work. No one's ever tried my way before, but everyone just assumes it's a stupid idea because it's different! All I want is equality!" Patchfur was surprised to find that his meow had risen to a loud shout, but it was something he felt strongly on.

[Cloud]

Dottedfoot's face lost its disdain and now held a faint trace of longing. Oh, how she wished he were right. But surely it couldn't be...Dottedfoot looked down at her broken leg. She'd grown used to it, hardly thought about it now. Still, it was a sign of her weakness and inability.

"You're right...I misunderstood, I guess." The gray and white she-cat sighed. It seemed she did that a lot nowadays. "Equality, wouldn't that be great." She said in a half-sad, half-wistful voice. "I don't think it's stupid. I just wish I could believe it. I mean, look at me. I'm hardly the equal of a strong, healthy, useful cat, am I? But maybe you're right...maybe we're all equal, somehow..." The old she-cat trailed off in a sigh, lost in memories.

[Darky [Megan]]

Speckledclaw watched the cats go about their business silently. It was unusual for her not to speak up whenever she felt she needed to, but for some reason she held back and simply observed today. Her impulsive temperament had been cooled slightly after having a bite of the rat and she felt no need to debate.

Personally, she was quite fond of Patchfur and liked how he believed so strongly in what he did. He made good points, but as far as she could see everything that he had talked about could be accomplished in a regular Clan, with one leader. Equality was important, yes, and it could be achieved, provided they had a good leader. Following a leader didn't necessarily mean that they had to be mindless and blind to their own decisions and wants or needs. Just because one leader had gone corrupt in the past it didn't guarantee that all leaders would go the same way. If they had a leader who was happy to listen to their Clan and respected their wishes but was clear-minded at the same time, that was a good enough way to live already. Speckledclaw began licking her bloody claws, which had started to crust over. In her opinion, a good society would not do without a leader. Even if so-called equality existed, there would eventually be one disrupting cat who thought they could take control of the rest, or a cat who would begin leading obliviously. There were too many cats with leadership potential here. Coupled with instinct, too - someone would have to rise in the end.

Redstream was already halfway to the commotion she had seen. She had recognised several cats from the Experiment and smelled the blood in the air. She could tell it was rat blood, so she wasn't worried about any fights. Then she saw a cat coming towards her.

She could see that it was Barkpaw. Before she had a chance to say anything, however, Barkpaw had greeted her ("... Darling?"), dropped something red and bloody at her feet, then bidded her goodbye, running off. Feeling quite stunned, a trifle annoyed and amused, Redstream picked up the meat and wove her way into the crowd of cats until she came to Woodstripe.

There, she began to eat. The blood in her mouth had tasted extremely enticing and to finally sink her teeth into flesh was bliss. She finished her share quickly, then sat down to clean herself, nodding at the cats around and waiting to be updated on recent events.

[duckyaisha]

"This is my point. In a regular Clan, you'd be shoved into the elder's den and your only purpose would be to tell stories to youngsters and advise the leader occasionally. Forget about ever making decisions! But in the Clan I imagine, your vote would count as much as anybody else's. It isn't your fault you broke your leg, so why should you suffer for it? Why should you feel like other cats are above you? You deserve better, Dottedfoot, everyone does. They just need to realize it," he meowed, hoping that maybe, finally, he would have a supporter.

Dingypaw remembered those words, the ones Patchfur had said before about equality, no leader, and all that stuff. She had shared his sentiments back she was a young hotheaded warrior, thinking that a leader would order her around, thinking that she could do everything by herself, thinking that all she needed was her mate and kits by her side. When he died, she realized that if there had been a Clan, he would've been protected. There was safety in numbers, and Clans could prevent cats from ever being killed by solitary killers like the occasional rat. "I said the same thing when I was a youngster," Dingypaw meowed. "But then, as I got older, I realized that the reason no one's tried it before is because the leader system has worked before. Corrupt leaders couldn't do anything- we could easily overthrow them using numbers."