"Wriggle away then."

🌻 Daphnepath

Daphnepath sniffed, finding herself unable to get out of this patrol. She glanced at the cats around her, and seeing the odd warrior Maggotscorn, her eyes focused on it, interested if it would be something intriguing again. Like be rude to her a second time.

🐛 Maggotscorn

Maggotscorn was sorting the freshkill pile again, carefully tugging the older prey out from the bottom and replacing it as a crown upon the top of the mound. It wasn’t work anyone asked of it – in fact, it was work Maggotscorn seldom believed anyone noticed or cared for. But it was important. The less prey went to rot, the less prey MonarchClan’s warriors needed to bring in, and the less prey they needed to catch, the more prey had opportunity to survive through leaf-bare and feed them when the stakes felt much, much higher.

Sorting through the pile attracted confused glances, but often, cats ignored it when it rearranged their meals. Daphnepath however, seemed intent on boring holes into the back of Maggotscorn’s skull.

After it had become apparent that she wanted something from them, they shifted towards her, ears flicked back frustratedly. ”Do you need something, or are you just here to gawk?” The scarred white warrior asked sharply.

🌻Daphnepath

She could see its ears pinning back, an obviously irritated gesture. She approached and tilted her head to the side with a grin, her ears flopping. "Depends, are you doing something interesting?" She shot back, her voice challenging. Daphnepath tapped a paw next to the piece of prey Maggotscorn was currently holding, egging the warrior on with her swagger. "I always see you rooting 'round the pile like a mole. What important work could you be doing? Or is there an actual meat-eating mole that's devouring the prey at the bottom of the pile?" She asked, a brow raised.

🐛 Maggotscorn

The pale brown warrior approached Maggotscorn with a light confidence that it found…grating. She asked her question of them, and they stared at her in silence for several long moments, studying her sharply. Her mannerisms reminded them of Pumpkinstem - though they couldn’t pinpoint why exactly. After their silence had stretched an uncomfortable amount of time, Maggotscorn snorted softly and answered in their deep, rough voice.

”The prey at the bottom of the pile is old. If it is left there, no one will take it, and it will slowly turn to rot. We do not eat rot, and so our hunting will have been for the maggots, and other small things of death.”

Was that answer enough? Her expression irritated them, and they shifted to turn away from her, pulling the piece of prey she had tapped back towards them before sniffing it and, satisfied that it was not too far gone, replacing it at the top of the pile.

🌻Daphnepath

There was a long pause where Daphnepath thought it wasn't going to answer, and she almost scoffed aloud.

But at Maggotscorn's eventual answer, she withdrew the paw she had extended, watching them continue their examination. She shifted her posture after hearing the word 'death,' growing quiet. "Aren't we small things of death, too? We may not eat rot, but we eat dead animals. We are small compared to wolves and cougars and eagles." She remembered that this cat was known for their odd outlook on death. Their name, for one; a grub that manifested from even the least edible of dead things.

🐛 Maggotscorn

Daphnepath had seemingly sobered after Maggotscorn had explained what they were doing, and the ragged white warrior couldn’t decide if that annoyed them more or soothed their tension with her. They paused in their sorting again as Daphnepath spoke, her words surprisingly insightful for someone who had born Pumpkinstem’s grating tone mere moments ago. Her choice of predatory example was…fitting, and Maggotscorn’s attention was briefly pulled to the ever-present dull ache in its right shoulder.

”We are small things of death.” It agreed, turning its attention back towards her. ”And I do not begrudge sharing with things smaller than myself. But our clan must feed first, and excess is, to us, waste; prey that has neither fed us, nor reproduced to feed us through leaf-bare.”

Maggotscorn studied Daphnepath again, pale eyes sliding over her spiked fur and sharp features, catching briefly on each of her small scars in turn. Did she want something from them, and if so, what? They recognized her as one of Rosestar’s children; did she often spend her time pelting strangers with questions, knowing that her mother’s status would protect her from any reprimand?

🌻Daphnepath

While its gaze raked across her form, Daphnepath was instead looking at the prey pile, studying the condition of jumbled prey. She didn't mind Maggotscorn's gaze; if anything, their actions and words added to their... indifferent aura, like one of a deity-creature far above the morals of the cats, not caring for anything but the natural cycle of things.

"That's true," she mused, going quiet again. Almost as if she was going to sit there and think too much on a quiet fact of life that Maggotscorn just stated: that they must eat first.

"You're smart," she mewed, complimenting the warrior bluntly, praising its words and ideas with a simple sentence. But she didn't move a paw to aid in this grand idea, instead rattling on. "Where'd you come from, again? If you want to say, that is-- not gonna force you. Just wondering what sort of walk of life you came from to have even an ounce of genius that the cats around in this Clan don't seem to have. You'd think we'd have figured out about this old prey business, but all cats do is throw themselves into trouble and danger and think they're the best." She sniffed.

🐛 Maggotscorn

Honeyed words fell from Daphnepath’s mouth like a judgement, and Maggotscorn’s expression grew hard. She put down her clanmates easily, dismissing them as brazen fools – a thought which Maggotscorn itself had shared at times, but never spoken. MonarchClan had taken it in, and in spite of the small handful of warriors Maggotscorn couldn’t be made to respect for any reason, the clan had done well for itself as a whole - and for Maggotscorn itself.

Did she want something from it, or did she just assume that it thought poorly of their shared clanmates? Perhaps it was a needle, meant to prick at the thinly-furred white warrior’s skin; hadn’t it been among those who had thrown themselves into trouble and danger when it had gone head-to-head with a cougar?

It considered the tawny she-cat’s potential motivations for a few moments before returning to its sorting.

”I was a rogue.” It answered simply, crouching and eyeing the pile carefully for several heartbeats before snaking its front left claw in to hook a ragged looking lemming out, dragging it back into the light. It inspected the prey for a moment, sniffing it before flaring its nostrils and setting the piece aside.

”You don’t respect your clanmates.” Maggotscorn stated bluntly. ”And you don’t think I do either.” They added, moving to stand from their crouch as they looked back to Daphnepath.

”If you want something from me, ask it plainly, and if you have something to say, say it without playing burning games.” It told her, impatience seeping into its voice.

🌻Daphnepath

She nodded as the white warrior divulged their history, then her eyes popped at Maggotscorn's accusation. Hissing with a paw coming to her chest, she mewed drily, "Do you jump to conclusions like all the time?"

Her paw raised up, upturning and gesturing with a grand sweep to the rest of the Clan. "I was just joking. You know how family-- close friends joke, right? A little barbed tongue on the ears 'cus it's all not serious." She sniffed, a little miffed by Maggotscorn's response now, and stuck her tail straight into the air in indignation.

"I didn't want anything in particular, so I guess I should leave. It's such a crime to think someone is interesting nowadays. If you don't like burning games..." Daphnepath paused after saying the unfamiliar term, "then I guess you aren't a fan of jokes then. My bad!"

🐛 Maggotscorn

As Daphnepath responded with frustration, Maggotscorn narrowed his eyes at the tawny striped warrior.

”Are we close friends then?” He asked, voice low and carrying a note of acidity. ”You are making an admirable attempt to wriggle out of this situation of your own making.” He added, voice rising a small measure.

He stared at the tawny she-cat before him that held herself with an indignance which Maggotscorn found grating once again. She had not earned this self-righteousness. No, she had strode into its day-to-day and made a mess of things, and when things hadn’t gone her way, she  had felt wronged.

”You approached me as an object for your amusement, told me that our clanmates are simple-minded fools who throw themselves into wild danger with the reckless abandon befitting kits, and finally twisted it around in your own head to make yourself out as a victim of my foul temper. If this is your interpretation of a joke, then no, I am not a fan of them.”

Maggotscorn spat the string of words like a curse, the fur on the back if its neck prickling furiously as it spoke. If she wanted to treat it like an object of her amusement, fine, but it wouldn't permit her to step away without knowing that she had done as much.

🌻Daphnepath

Daphnepath sniffed again. "You're seriously blowing this way outta paw." Her gaze hardened, thinking if she should leave, or if she should continue.

Of course, she choose to continue-- even if she knew she was going to regret this. "Did you really think I saw you as object? Couldn't I have wanted to see what my Clanmate was up to, since no one else is as peculiar as you to do this? I'm not sure who's playing at victim now!"

She raised a claw, pointing it at the white warrior. "I do stand by the reckless Clanmate thing though, since all my past friends are either dead or scarred up. I mean, look at you; you're marred too. It wouldn't ever hurt anyone to not be as brash as a kit."

Daphnepath shook her head out, ears flopping, then added a shrug on top of it. "But look, I get it, if you want me to shut up and leave, just say it. Just let me wiggle away instead of preaching, by the Stars."

🐛 Maggotscorn

Maggotscorn snorted, a humorless sort of laugh as Daphnepath argued her point against him. ”Wriggle away then. You know that you’re wrong; you’ve talked yourself into a circle, and feed upon your own lies as surely as you would a mouse. You have treated me as an object for your amusement; you had hoped to stir my disdain for our clanmates; you played with me as though I were a mouse and you a kit, and now that I’ve called attention to this you’re throwing a burning tantrum.”

Maggotscorn felt a burning sense of righteousness as he spoke. She was right, in a sense – he was preaching. Lecturing. Scorning her.

The thin-furred and thickly-scarred warrior curled his lip up at Daphnepath, pale eyes cold as he stared at her, brows knit in an irate scowl. Words bubbled in his throat; things he wanted to spit at her, to use to make her feel ashamed for the position she had put him in.

Bravestorm would think poorly of him for that. She would likely think poorly of him even now for his scathing words. Maggotscorn growled, a soft and frustrated sound in the depths of his throat. Fine.

He held his tongue, hooking the ragged looking lemming he'd pulled from the pile with a claw as he turned to leave.

”You don’t need to ‘shut up and leave’; you can stay or leave as you please, I am finished.”