pafp ten-thousand leaves | gathering moss

[Squishpaw]

Apprentices were frequently given tedious and menial tasks. There were many things taught through this process: discipline, respect, duty, and physical strength... The list went on. Despite what one may think from her constant buzzing attitude, Squishpaw enjoyed the "boring" jobs of tending to RiverClan. It was a good feeling to return the love shown to her as a child. She was training to be a warrior of RiverClan, and warriors took care of those who needed extra help. That was something she could be proud of learning.

Still, it was nice to have company when curling her claws just right to scrape the moss off the hundredth rock that morning.

"How's it going?" Squishpaw called over to Stalkingpaw. She carefully rolled her new moss into the ball that was starting to form, doing her level best to limit any debris from getting into the green mass. Her tongue stuck out as she concentrated before retracting as Squishpaw deemed the ball clean enough to gather under her chin to move on to the next area. She wandered over to Stalkingpaw just in case the other apprentice had found a particularly good spot for moss.

|| OOC: please wait for @Stalkingpaw. to post! ||​

 

[✧ Stalkingpaw.]

˚⊹ MEET ME UNDER SHINING LIGHTS ⊹˚

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stalkingpaw & 09 moons & polygender & any pronouns & riverclan apprentice​

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Stalkingpaw is more than used to doing menial tasks - an apprentice well into her training, and one who despite not being a drypaw is horrible at anything to do with the water, gathering moss is something she's done quite often. She lets her mind wander as she works, running through a thousand thoughts and conversations and what ifs until a voice startles her from her revere - "Hm? Oh! Yeah - I found some over here, but it's a bit damp, so it miiiiight be better for drinking than for nests, I think, unless we let it dry out a bit first" she calls out cheerfully, bundling what was left of her find. She wonders if this will be enough - she only has two little piles, and who knows how much their clanmates are actually wanting - there's so many of them, so many nests, and that's not even counting whatever ravensong may need to keep for his patients. "How about you squishpaw? Did you find a whole bunch?"

— I've been waiting right here all my life ⊹˚

• Actions && "Speech," && ' Thoughts/Quotes '
  
  ooc: —
  tw/cw: —
  
• — a beautiful white furred apprentice with a black face and stripe down her back, and starlike freckles upon her cheeks. emerald eyes are wide and expressive, by far her most stunning feature. stalkingpaw is an emotional feline, quick to act and react before she really thinks, but you know that whatever she says and does is always honest and well intentioned.
  
  — physically easy && mentally medium
  — non-violent powerplay allowed && healing powerplay allowed && minor injury powerplay not-allowed
  — please attack using [b][color=crimson]action here[/color][/b] and tag account

 

[Squishpaw]

Squishpaw's ears perked when Stalkingpaw confirmed she had found some and nodded thoughtfully as the apprentice mused aloud about damp moss. Squishpaw didn't hesitate to share her thoughts on the matter. "We should let it dry out for nests," she says with a perhaps misplaced sense of confidence. Her mind followed the same trails as Stalkingpaw, thinking about the number of nests needing their gathered supplies. In her mind, it was better to come back with a lot of dry moss that could be dampened again if needed than to return with damp moss that had one use only.

Squishpaw sighed in answer to Stalkingpaw's question but followed it up with words. "Not really," she admitted, refusing the urge to fidget with her paws. There was no need to feel shame or guilt with their poor luck - at least, not yet. "I think we should try somewhere else," Squishpaw continued. "Maybe the beech copse? That has a bunch of trees. Or we could follow the river...." She trailed off, thinking, and hoped that Stalkingpaw would either have some ideas to share or wouldn't mind Squishpaw's suggestions.​

 

[RAVENSONG]

Since he had employed Iciclefang in making several new nests, Ravensong was in short supply of moss. When he caught sound of the two apprentices chattering over the exact subject he had been thinking about for the past few days, he felt a slight purr release from his throat. Ravensong rarely went beyond the camp for anything other than herb patrols, so gathering moss outside was something he had to make apprentices do if he could not find any on his way back.

"If you do find extras, please send them my way." Ravensong blinked as he came upon the two, nodding at what they had managed to gather already. "I'm running low—for nest materials and water soaking."

☾₊ ⊹ темная ночь — dark is the night

•  
• 
  RAVENSONG of RIVERCLAN
  — LH BLACK POLYDACTYL MALE (CARRYING CINNAMON, DILUTE) a tall, slender creature with pitch-black feathery fur, large ears, and a sharply angled skull held up in an aloof manner. smells of dried herb, speaks with a low and rumbly accent and walks with an elegant slinking gait.
  
  — born in twolegplace and orphaned at a young age, he joined riverclan at its inception and began training as a drypaw warrior known for a bitter temperment until beesong made him his medicine cat apprentice. after his mentor's untimely death, he had been named ravensong at the moonstone, young heart revitalized with anger and guilt. he is a somber and thorough medicine cat that guards every word spoken in the confines of his den.
  
  — secretly loves "the stars but not so much what inhabits them"
  — openly suffers from chronic migraines
  — single, but "it's complicated"

​

 

[Jaypaw]

Midnight inkspill of a she-cat saunters along, pausing every other step to lift her paws and flex her toes, the soft ground pushed up the mud into her pads and she was already thinking about how annoying that was going to be to clean out later when it dried up because she'd have no time to go deal with it before it hardened. Treadful really. Her ears prick upward as she spots Squishpaw (heehee what a dumb name) and Stalkingpaw (ooooh so scary) chatting about moss. Moss, moss, moss, why moss? Were they put on moss collecting duty or were they doing it cause they wanted to? Who would want to?
"What are you LOSERS doing? Picking moss? Ain't that boring? You should do something better and leave the grunt work to some younger apprentices!"
The younger ones or ones in trouble often had to do that tedious nonsense, maybe even Boneripple and Lichentail had to though she didn't know if they were in that much trouble actually; did warrior-aged cats have to clean dens when they got in trouble too? Or was that tossed only at cats around her age. Who knew! The medicine cat's dark head looms over and adds on that he'd like some moss as well and suddenly it is significantly less boring of a matter to her. "OH YEAH? WELL, I bet I can get more moss than them-you wanna see this speed?"
​

 

[dovethroat.]

During Dovethroat's time as a 'paw (an era that, perhaps a bit embarrassingly, was really quite recent), he had been given the go-get-moss job plenty of times when he was particularly sour after he and a certain, stupid, long-limbed tom had fallen out, or when he was in between mentors after Hyacinthbreath had gotten the boot. It was something functionally rather easy; it was just time-consuming. Someone had to do it, but finding the right person was difficult. With Dovepaw, who had then had no mentor but was otherwise basically a warrior in all but name and responsibilities, he was a perfect choice for it.

Technically apprentices were not supposed to leave camp, but rule-breaking became easier when one was in a bad mood. It become a lot easier when nobody cared that you were breaking said rule. Moss could be find plenty outside of camp. Much like Squishpaw, he almost enjoyed it.

"I miss g-gathering moss," Dovethroat mumbled as he sat near Ravensong, seeming to have forgotten the fact that he hated him.

[⋆]​

​

 

[Squishpaw]

Squishpaw blinked at Ravensong's appearance, then smoothed her fur bashfully. Some warrior she was, getting snuck up on by a clanmate! Maybe she could blame little pieces of moss getting stuck up her nose? She sneezed. Well, it was as good a reason as any. She waved her tail to acknowledge she heard Ravensong and --

Jaypaw.

She was always so loud! Squishpaw could hardly fathom the hypocritical critique due to her depths of feeling towards the other apprentice. Squishpaw's eyes were narrowed to near slits as Jaypaw first insulted their activity and then changed routes dramatically for any sort of positive adult attention. Squishpaw snorted. Honestly, it was pathetic, and not because Squishpaw feared there was limited positive attention to go around, and Squishpaw was here first. No, that was just a coincidence.

"You can't gather any moss right if you go that fast," Squishpaw retorted. "Don't you know anything?" It was harsh, and Squishpaw regretted her words, but it was too late now.

Instead of facing the consequences, Squishpaw turned to face her ball of moss and picked it up. "I'm going to the beech copse," she announced, then glared fiercely at Jaypaw. "You aren't invited." She left in such a snit she didn't even notice poor Dovethroat being friendly with Ravensong again, and about time in what would have been Squishpaw's opinion.​

 

[✧ Stalkingpaw.]

˚⊹ MEET ME UNDER SHINING LIGHTS ⊹˚

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stalkingpaw & 09 moons & polygender & any pronouns & riverclan apprentice​

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Squishpaw talks almost as much as stalkingpaw does, and it brings a cheerful smile to her face. Its nice, she thinks, to have someone around who goes at her pace. "The beech copse is a good idea, there's always stuff growing there," not always moss, but her point stands.

Ravensongs appearance startles her just a bit, twitching and snapping her head to look at him with wide eyes, but she's quick to nod, excitement palpable. "Of course! We'll make sure to find lots n loooots, that way you have some too!" Dovethroats presence by the medicine cat is only to be expected, though she does wonder why they seem to be getting along today - oh well, it's none of her business.

What is however, is jaypaws rudeness - a frown crosses her face as she stands, pulling herself to her paws in a quick movement that has the long-legged girl staring down her muzzle at her denmate. "That's not very nice - why are you being so rude? The only loser here is you, perhaps we should tell your mentor when we get back, see if you like being on tick duty for a moon," of course, she's exaggerating just a bit, she doesn't think she's ever seen someone punished for that long, but really, jaypaw has gotten on her nerves - and unlike with iciclefang, she has no issues talking back to a fellow apprentice.

She doesn't stick around much longer past that - giving the two warriors a dip of her head in goodbye before gathering up her bundle and following after squishpaw.

— I've been waiting right here all my life ⊹˚

• Actions && "Speech," && ' Thoughts/Quotes '
  
  ooc: out
  tw/cw: —
  
• 
  — a beautiful white furred apprentice with a black face and stripe down her back, and starlike freckles upon her cheeks. emerald eyes are wide and expressive, by far her most stunning feature. stalkingpaw is an emotional feline, quick to act and react before she really thinks, but you know that whatever she says and does is always honest and well intentioned.
  
  — physically easy && mentally medium
  — non-violent powerplay allowed && healing powerplay allowed && minor injury powerplay not-allowed
  — please attack using [b][color=crimson]action here[/color][/b] and tag account

 

[DIPPERFROST]

Dipperpaw watches the other apprentices with features pulled into what could be misinterpreted as a bored expression. Really, she is watching, listening to them all. Jaypaw was right, weren't there younger apprentices that could do this? No matter, she would still do her best but there is a pinprick in the back of her mind like an annoying itch. A deep want to not be here doing this with these others who's voices grate against her ears. Annoying she thinks. They call her sister rude, tell her she is not invited to go moss gathering with them and then they threaten to tell their mother.

A low growl forms deep in her throat, a challenge on her lips and the way her claws curl into the sand it is clear she is ready to fight. Before she gets the chance though the apprentice is already turning around and leaving. Her blue eyes flash with anger and she shoots a look at Squishpaw, as if daring the calico to say anything else. "Come on Jaypaw, we can go get our own moss elsewhere" and we will come back with the most she thinks. She barely registers that Dovethroat and Ravensong are there but she does look at them out of the corner of one of her eyes as she turns, flicking her sisters shoulder with her plumed tail as she passes her to leave.
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