➳ Sunpoppy 🥀

Sunpoppy ground his teeth together, prickly. She had been given one job. A SINGLE request. Just, shut up if she had to be there instead of pestering the hell out of him -- but no. She couldn't even do that right, and he wasn't surprised by the failure.

His problems resided next to him right now, not back in ThunderClan. Of course she'd be oblivious like they always were, everyone was. It was proof they didn't truly care about what he was going through--the small subset that bothered to do more than give him degrading stares, rather they wanted to feel helpful and wanted and like they could 'save' him or something stupid. They could choke on their fake sympathy.

He had been trying to be kind about this, giving her space and letting her trot alongside him, but it was pushing a boundary to continuously bother him about his business. And it wasn't genuine either, he could discern that much. She didn't deserve it, but he would treat her to an honest discussion.

"Nobody actually likes that," he said, not expanding on the non-sequitur immediately while he plodded onward on numb legs. Sunpoppy cast a blank glance in her direction as if weighing the benefits of wasting his breath when he doubted she'd draw the right conclusions from it. "The 'I'm-so-caring' shtick. 'Ooh what's wrong? You can trust me'," he demonstrated in a higher pitch, ending it with a disgusted sound and a shake of his head. "It's fake. Get over yourself." She was no one special, just some stranger he happened across while feeling like his Clan had cast him aside, and he couldn't imagine anybody taking up the chance to spill their guts to someone like that.


@Beau

➳ Sunpoppy 🥀

Sunpoppy raised an eyebrow at her glare, waiting, then felt an acidic laugh rise from him at her reply. The words themselves weren't humorous, but he supposed his truthful critique of that tired old "caring she-cat" method must've inspired some honesty in return. And best of all, he'd been right. This was how she viewed him, not like some fragile stranger who needed her listening ears -- she was talking down to him, berating him, proving his earlier point.

After the initial rush of being right had faded, he tossed her an empty smile. I knew it. She was no better than anyone else. No empathy beyond what made her feel better and come off as a good cat.

And by the gods, he was relieved to be over that awful "I'm so pure and sweet" stage that she'd attempted passing off as her real personality. This cruel and shallow version of her that he only now saw had been his preconceived notion, always wary of strangers who claimed they wished to hear his side, and it was coming to life before his eyes. His suspicions were sufficiently validated, and he didn't know what else they sought to gain from this.

Like hell he would've trusted her with any vulnerable fears if she was capable and willing to throw it back like that, make a mockery of the whole thing. What an absolute joy of a she-cat.

Sunpoppy wasn't fussed about it, a yawn falling from him as he kept the pace onward. He didn't know if she'd bail or not but didn't make note of either decision, gaze set ahead on where ThunderClan territory would rest.


@Beau

➳ Sunpoppy 🥀

Sunpoppy didn't trust the evaluation of her behavior, aware she likely wouldn't be able to identify how she'd pushed for answers until he'd pushed back, now was turning it into an opportunity to lecture him--remind him that he was messed up, and terrible. He hadn't remembered saying anything to her to elicit this but kind of found it intriguing how she'd automatically jumped to defending herself despite his silence. If there was nothing to cover for, he doubted she'd be so quick to react or get emotional over this.

Meanwhile, he'd been doing nothing but padding alongside the road with her as she spouted off on him. She could puff up her own sense of what'd occurred with this little tangent, pretend she was the one who'd been verbally assaulted and prodded for no reason, and Sunpoppy blankly stared back during it to watch the wreckage unfold.

Really, it was beginning to sound like projection at this point. He'd stated a boundary several times over, she'd crossed it, and consequences were natural. It fed into his disappointment with the forest's residents at large to see not a shred of self-awareness or reflection about her half of the conversation. But he understood critique beyond pointing the blame would be too much to ask for.

Sunpoppy had assumed he'd be the one to drive her away through heavy implication that he'd meant to venture on a solo journey--but in the end, it appeared she scared herself off. For how extensively she'd vilified him, generating an entire psychological profile from the twenty words he'd managed to spit out, he supposed he didn't blame her.