with friends like these | chrysalispaw

[Howlfire]

The sudden influx of snow had meant that many of the patrols outside of camp were small and brief. For Howlpaw it meant she was fortunate to stay within the camp for today - or at the very least for this morning. They were spared the worst of the snow in camp but it was still very cold. That morning she had been assigned the task of helping to clear out the elders den, one which she took with a surprising amount of gusto, even if that energy wasn't quite matched by the elders themselves. She wasn't alone in this task, being joined by the slightly older apprentice, Chrysalispaw, whose name she could not remember at that moment in time. "Remind me," She began, turning to her fellow apprentice after placing down some fresh bedding. "What was your name again? It's on the tip of my tongue...is it Cricketpaw?"

@CHRYSALISPAW ​

 

[CHRYSALISWING]

"It's Chrysalispaw." A stark rectification of a statement addressed Howlpaw, a tone bleak as the winter that bayed before them, as though the frigidity had chilled the apprentice down to his sour spirit. Chrysalispaw's heterochromatic glare turned towards the younger apprentice, who seemed more equipped for the winds and weather than he. To him, Howl almost looked like an oversized squirrel with her bushy tail and russet-and-tawny fleece. A scoff rippled across his own downy face, as that sentiment was no stranger to Chrys, as if judgment came as easy as breathing or eating. And it did, for Chrys was a critic first and foremost. When the world seemed to lack the barest of native intelligence, of course he would call it out. He was not without faults, but he was without obliviousness. Bitterness was a better bulwark than naivete, he found.

"And what's your name supposed to be? Hootpaw? Holepaw?" He rebutted to the molly - he did know her name, but he figured he should shoot back with a surly comment of his own. After all, if she couldn't be bothered to remember his name, then he shouldn't offer her the same respect. He scooped out the old bedding with one errant paw, using a cupped motion that resulted in moss and lichen strewn about, as if he cared naught for what craft could be found in the menial. Truthfully, he didn't mind the company if he were to do such a mindless drone of a task.

( ic opinions ofc he's just Like That )
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[Howlfire]

His name is Chrysalispaw apparently. Howlpaw bobs her head a little as he corrects her, acknowledging his actual name, but not having a clue as to what it meant or what he was named after. In turn the same question is asked of her - what was her name? Whilst Howlpaw's was genuinely an innocent question, Chrysalispaw's question is not. "What kind of names are those?" She scoffs, strangely more offended at what she deems to be a minor selection of jokey names, and not that he's actually being snarky with her. "If you're gonna call me a different name at least come up with better ones than that. Hootpaw though...that sounds pretty cool, I'll give you that."

She watches as he haphazardly dumped moss and lichen around the den. Howlpaw gave him a suspicious glance. "Is that the best you can do?" She pressed. "My uncle can do far better than that and he only has three paws. He'd put your efforts to shame."​

 

[CHRYSALISWING]

"Ugh, fine. How about Dungpaw? Dirtpaw? Stupid-idiot-bushytail-paw?" Chrysalispaw retorted to Howlpaw's less acerbic scoff, as he aimed to fight venom with his own venom, though few could ever match the astringent anathema that licked between fangs. He hadn't meant to give her any ideas or anything, especially not about 'Hootpaw' being a cool name. In response, he put his nose upwards in a snooty show, as if he couldn't even bear to look at his fellow apprentice, as if his eyes were too good to grace upon the common folk. The adder knew naught but the blades of bane that it was raised with, as the brandishing came as easy as breathing or eating. Despite bearing the attitude of a slithering snake, he held the arrogance of a sky-borne bird.

"Can you blame me? This stuff is so boring. I'd rather eat a sodden moss-bed whole than sort it for another minute longer." He stuck out his tongue to the old lichen, a childish display for a feline who prided himself on his intelligence and collectedness, for the watercolor of the true self always bled through the paper-thin surface. Even as he tried to put on a stony face, it would never hold for long. Below him was a disgusting matting of dull greens and flattened lichens, with strands of old bedding sticking to his pads and claws, like dried vomit to him. He'd once thrown up a hairball that looked suspiciously like it. Still, he continued picking at it and throwing it about, ears flattened in disgust. "Okay, well if your three-pawed uncle can do better, then why don't you call him here and show me how it's done?" He snorted.​

 

[Howlfire]

His second attempt to poke fun at her name only gets an even more amused chuckle from the younger apprentice. Well, they were more creative at the very least - even if she had to push him for them.

Seeing his display, Howlpaw frowned, perhaps for the first time she looked displeased and annoyed since they had begun their conversation. On the one hand, he wasn't wrong that it was boring, tedious work. Although Howlpaw was happy to help and would put her all into it, even she could admit to it being boring sometimes. "One day, StarClan willing, you'll be an elder," She mewed. "I hope for your sake you don't get an apprentice cleaning your nest who tackles it with the same approach you do." His following snorted comment that she invite her uncle here to show him how it was done gives her pause. For a brief moment, she falters, the still raw pain of being separated from half of her family rushing to the surface before she pushes it back down. Chrysalispaw is hardly the kind of apprentice she wanted to blurt out her emotions too. "I mean I would but he's currently serving as ThunderClan's medicine cat," She tells him honestly. "I doubt he'd appreciate the trek between clans just to show you how to do your job."[/font]​

 

[CHRYSALISWING]

Chrysalispaw sensed the twinge of annoyance within Howlpaw now, like prickles of burrs hanging upon tapers of fur, dragging strands down ever so slightly against the wind. To that, an indignant chuff escaped from his maw, as though a puff of smoke rippled from the fiery gut of a bite-sized beast. Just because he had to do these menial tasks didn't mean he had to don a happy face and hide his true feelings about it. In fact, he found it imperative to be bluntly honest about most things. He hated the way cats pretended to care about each other when they didn't, the tiptoeing dance of charcoals and eggshells. He never had much social grace, anyhow, nor did he care to gain any. "Well, I hope I die before I have to be bedridden like an elder, then. Can't imagine anything worse than sitting around all day and letting the ticks eat my fur off."

"Woowww. I'm so impressed." Chrys rolled his eyes at the mention of such a prestigious heritage, and to his muddled bloodline, any bluster towards one's pedigree earned a righteous scoff to him. Though, Howlpaw faltered for a heartbeat before she blurted out her honesty, as though the candle light paused for a split second, the extinguishing of flame before its continuation. A pang of regret rolled through him, though it quickly exited out of him, like the ephemeral state of the simple exhale. Guilt rarely stayed sedentary upon his stomach, as it was a roiling pebble upon a tumult-stricken sea, and something he rarely willed himself to feel. Did I hit a nerve? Ugh, I hope she doesn't cry about me to her Thunderclan-medicine-cat-uncle.

( ic opinions again </3 )
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