One Puddle, Please

[Ten]

Shortwhisker wanted to believe her, until she said that all cats' lives are worth the same. "You s-sound like P-Patchfur," he grumbled. "A k-kit isn't w-worth the s-same as a leader. Th-that's ob-bvious."

[Cloud]

Dottedfoot sighed. How could she explain this to him without saying he was wrong?

"I admit he's influenced my beliefs a little. As for a question of worth...technically, you're right. Leaders are more valuable in a sense because of their position in a Clan. However, consider this: Every leader was a tiny kit once. Every cat was once of very little worth. Which means that, at the heart of things, we're all equal, whether we're cons or Clanners, whether we like it or not. The only things that set us apart are age, skill, power, and belief. Which are important, I grant you.

But...Ah, it's so hard to explain. It took me many seasons to understand all this. I don't blame you if you're getting confused."

The mottled elder shook her head, then bent down to lick her chest fur.

[Ten]

"W-well yeah, b-but kits aren't leaders n-now. They d-deserve to be t-treated like what th-they are." As for the rest of Dottedfoot's explanation, he didn't know what to say, because aside from age, skill, power, and belief, what else was there? He supposed they had to be equal if you took away their whole identity.

All this reasoning was making his head hurt. "I-I d-don't get what th-this means I'm s-supp-posedda do," he whined, grimacing.

[Cloud]

"And how are they, Shortwhisker? Things unworthy of respect because of their youth? That's not true. They are life, the same kind of life we are. Because all life is valuable. True, we eat life, but we respect them by not wasting prey and sharing with others." The gray and white she-cat spoke gently, starting to get slightly frustrated but determined not to give up to make Shortwhisker understand.

"What you must do, Shortwhisker, is learn how to treat every cat with respect. Even Patchfur."

The elder knew very well that she could be dropping a corpse into a rat pack, but it was worth the risk. If Shortwhisker acted like he should, then he would already show growth.

[Ten]

ooc| "The elder knew very well that she could be dropping a corpse into a rat pack" -- Nice.

bic|

"They're j-just k-- Wh-what? Why w-would I r-respect Patchf-fur? He's P-PATCHFUR!" Shortwhisker screwed up his face and asked her, in the manner he might ask a cat where to find a good source of water, "Are y-you o-out of your m-mind?" Dottedfoot had a curious habit of swinging back and forth between semi-sanity and semi-insanity, leaving the tom quite confused. She wasn't radical enough to attack or flee from, but he felt uneasy about continuing to listen to her.

[Cloud]

Sometimes the elder wondered that very thing.

Though it was just a silly comment of shock - obviously, he hadn't taken in a thing she'd said - it made the gray and white cat hesitate a moment. Was she? Was she losing her mind after all these seasons, listening to cat as radical as Patchfur? No. There was never any harm in considering new ideas; a Clan was about change, after all. Just because Shortwhisker was a lizardbra - er, very strongly opinionated - didn't mean someone older and wiser like her had to be.

"You don't get it, Shortwhisker. You just don't seem to get it." She huffed. Then the she-cat switched to a gentler tone. "Yes, Patchfur is Patchfur." No duh, she felt like adding. But that would be a comment reminiscent of a batbrained young fool. "But he's still life. He's still another cat, and a Clanner. You don't have to like him - I would never ask you to have to like any cat - but you have to admit and realize that you can't just attack him because of his beliefs. Especially when you're both in the Experiment. In fact, one of the best ways to do that is to just avoid him - that's not too hard, right? And just ignore him if he's saying something you don't like. If it helps, tell yourself he's crazy and therefore whatever he says is meaningless noise." Her whiskers twitched a little. Though she felt differently about the ginger and white tom, she hoped that would help Shortwhisker.

Why was teaching wisdom even harder than learning it sometimes?

OOC: Why thank you. Le gasp, a simile that works.

[Ten]

"N-no YOU d-don't g-get it," Shortwhisker blurted, a mindless knee-jerk reaction to her initial words, but he followed it up with more of his own. "I... I C-CAN at-tack him b-because he's EVIL. I d-don't have to r-respect opinions th-that are WRONG." He fluffed up his fur. "But y-you don't c-care about what's r-right! You j-just want t-to m-make the Clan w-weak by m-making everyone p-put up with evil, st-starting with me! I'm n-not going to l-let you w-weakify... w-weakitize... weaken-nate... er... I'm not g-going to listen t-to you!" he yelled, then turned and began walking away. Ha! Take that! He wasn't about to fall into her clutches.

[Cloud]

"Oh for crying out loud, Shortwhisker, you're such a hypocrite!" She snarled, actually losing control of herself for a moment. Then she closed her orange eyes, and tried to flatten her pelt. Just breathe. He's just a stupid young cat. Don't let him get to you.

Huh. He thought walking off was so clever. Idiot. Lizardbrain.

Then she felt ashamed. She'd behaved just like him. Just like this dumb, practically BRAINLESS excuse for a - there she went again! Ugh. He was a hypocrite, true - but worse, he was turning her into a hypocrite. No. She would not insult him. She would descend to this piece of stone-eared - stop, stop, Dottedfoot reminded herself. But she would not go down to where he was. She was better than that. He was just so...impossible. No. He wasn't impossible. She had to try harder.

So, going as fast her limp would allow, she came up behind him, and with no better way to get his attention, nipped his leg. It wouldn't hurt him too much.

Then she spoke.

"I don't get it? I'M not the one who's so blind that even though I 'want to learn,-'" She said in a sarcastic, mocking tone. "I just turn my face away, again, and again, and AGAIN! No, I'M not the one who just always thinks the SAME way, makes the SAME mistakes, and clings to the SAME judgments and prejudices, all in the name of 'goodness.' and 'not being weak.' I'll tell you what's being weak, Shortwhisker. Being weak is allowing yourself to see one way and one way only, so others can manipulate you for their own ends. I am not a manipulator. You ASKED me to teach you, yet you ignore me. And for your information, Patchfur isn't evil. He has some unusual ideas. They might be good, they might be bad. BUT THIS DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO ATTACK HIM. First off because he's an Experiment member. That's just obvious. But second is that he's not evil. Cats are too complicated to be labeled good or evil, Shortwhisker. And put up with evil? I think not." She snorted, and paused for breath. "Evil is destruction of a Clan, Shortwhisker. Patchfur's ideas do not include destroying a Clan, merely making it different. They may not be right, but they deserved to be listened to. And BESIDES. One of the laws of the Clan is that you DO NOT ATTACK ITS MEMBERS, SHORTWHISKER. EVER THINK OF THAT, he who is supposedly oh so loyal to a Clan?"

Dottedfoot felt so many things it was hard to describe them all, but one was a small, defiant feeling of triumph. Even if the black and white tom wouldn't listen - and she wouldn't be surprised if he didn't, he was so st - no. He was so...shortsighted. Ha ha. Short whiskers, short sight.

OOC: Because this is so long, I apologize beforehand for any mistakes in it.

[Ten]

Shortwhisker spun around at the sudden pain in his leg (minor though it was) and, with no better word to describe the sound, screamed. "You AT-TACKED m-me! You j-just-- Y-YOU ATTACKED ME!" Always having been a slow creature, he stared at her as he began to understand just how insane she really was -- and there she was yelling him about how bad it was to attack Experiment members. What a vile cat.

But he was still in danger. Whimpering, Shortwhisker flattened his ears and lowered his head. Then he remembered her limp. He could outrun her! With a slight hesitation, he turned and fled as fast as he could, searching for another member of the Experiment. The Clan needed to know of her treachery.

ooc| Dottedfoot's inner conflict made me smile. <3

I'll be moving him to the midst thread.

[Cloud]

"For a good reason, and besides I barely even hurt you and I didn't try to rip you apart because you believe differently! Not because you're 'EVIL' like you think Patchfur is. Because you're not. You're blind." She yelled after him. For some odd reason, she felt younger than she had in moons. Which was a bad sign, if yelling and arguing like this made her feel that way.

She found that in some very weird way, she liked Shortwhisker. She liked the challenge he posed as a...very strong word meaning stubborn and blind to the ninth degree. And maybe it wasn't his fault...maybe he'd been raised by Clanners even du -...more stubborn than he was.

It was her job to fix him. She would not give up. So, the gray and white she-cat resolutely followed the black and white tom, vowing to one day make him listen to reason.