[Dark]

Fishpaw
Go With the Flow
34/100
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Unbothered by his leader’s show of aggression, Fishpaw settled down into a laying position with his paws folded underneath him. ”Hold on now, don’t get your fur in a twist,” He said with a long yawn ”I’m not here to hurt you. Honestly, I couldn’t be bothered even if I didn’t like you enough to warrant aggression.” The truth. One, he was quite small and didn’t have any substantial training under his pelt after going missing. And two, the effort needed to attack her was just not worth it. Not even out of spite.

”But to answer your question, yes. Choosing a more experienced cat would have been ideal,” He said, squinting at her with disapproval. ”Now I won’t pretend to know everything that’s been going on, as I spent a great deal of time lost due to the flood and the accident…” He shuddered at the thought of his near-death experience in the river ”But I do know one thing, and that is picking Birdsnow as your deputy was a terrible idea.”

Waving his paw to silence any potential argument, he continued. ”She’s been an apprentice my entire life, and despite my small size, I am 15 moons old. Additionally, she was just made a warrior at the meeting before this most recent one, and now she’s the deputy? There would understandably be a lot of outrage.” He didn’t want to waste any time so he got straight to the root of the present issue. Birdsnow just wasn’t a candidate that made sense. Sure, she could’ve justified it by saying the deputy was experienced, but to what degree? And even if that were the case, with the current unrest in the clan, promoting a fresh warrior straight to deputy was a bad move.

Fixing his eyes on the leader, he stared at her scrutinizingly. Ugh. ”What I’d have done was this: I’d have promoted a senior warrior to the position of deputy, one that doesn’t seem to be a total crazy. Just to appease the group. Then I’d have surrounded myself with a group of cats that I could trust, which in your case would include Birdsnow and… Well, others I’m sure. From there I’d make sure that at least one of them is with me at all times should a murder be attempted. Lastly, I’d have worked to improve my standing within the clan. As to how? I’m not sure, but that’s a later problem.” Basic stuff really, he didn’t understand how Larkstar hadn’t thought of a similar plan before.

”Let’s be honest here, your position in the clan is… mediocre at best. Half the clan thinks you and Featherbrain killed Gingerstar. More believe you’re incompetent or too young for the position-” He frowned as he said this, as he was in the second group of cats. He then took a look at the she-cat’s wounds and shook his head in disapproval. “Evidently, you’ve had an attempt on your life as well. And lastly, you gave what is essentially a 30-moon-old apprentice the second most important role within the clan. What you need right now is more allies, and in my humble opinion you’re doing a crappy job of finding some.” A shake of his head, followed by an exasperated sigh. ”Oh, I nearly forgot!” He said, bristling a little himself as he recalled a certain small she-cat that he may have been an ass to ”Minkpaw was murdered on our territory!”

Officially, she was declared “drowned”, but the tom knew that was a load of mouse-droppings. He had reason to believe that she was murdered, but that may just be the skeptic in him. He hadn’t the faintest clue who it was, or why, but whoever did it likely wouldn’t just stop at her. Whatever, that was for Larkstar to deal with and not him. Should he even refer to her as Larkstar? She had one life just like the rest of them, what made her so special? A failure. Just like Beansprout and Gingerfrost before her. If StarClan wouldn’t recognize them, then neither would he!

Rising to his paws, he lazily (and non-threateningly) approached the she-cat until he was right in her face. ”It’s not too late for you to choose someone else, however, you’ve made your decision and I believe you should stick with it. The question now is: What are you going to do? Are you going to control this mess of a clan? Will you force them to submit? Or are you going to allow everyone to walk all over you?” He challenged, unable to keep the slight growl out of his voice. ”I’m going to tell you the truth and say that I don’t have any hopes for you. None at all. However, I’ll be damned before I allow RiverClan to continue this downward spiral into ruin without saying anything. So what I want you to do is get your act together. Stop being so nice to those who act out and show them that you’re the boss. Show them that you make the rules and that they are to do what you say.” A small grin tugged at his lips when he said this, delighting in the possibility that something in this stars-forsaken clan would change. ”Show me that you’re not a failure and you’re worthy of your position. Earn your lives and turn this mess of a clan into something worth fearing. The other clans in this forest don’t respect us, and your own warriors don’t respect you – which I couldn’t care less about but I digress. Get this clan into shape and maybe…” A brief pause, as if he was undecided on what he should say. ”Maybe I’ll consider helping you out. There’s not much I can do while I wait for my training to conclude – shouldn’t be too long now, however, I can see what I can do about gathering some of your supporters and gathering intel for the time being, though I loathe to talk to these idiots for extended periods of time.” He’d given the idea a bit of thought before, however, he was still undecided on whether it was worth his effort or not.

There, he was done. He spent that whole time pointing out Larkwing’s flaws, but he also offered her what he felt was a fair solution. He hated the idea of going out of his way to help someone out, but this was his clan. As much as he didn’t like where things were, this was his home, and he somewhat liked Cherryswirl so he figured he would do something so that she wasn’t stuck in a stagnant clan for the rest of her life (she wasn’t getting any younger!). She better thank him for this if this brat in front of him gave him the time of day to even consider his offer of help. Hell, he’d be disappointed if the young leader didn’t tell him off for being as bold as he was. Frankly, he just wasn’t scared of her. Hopefully, she’d provide him with a bit of entertainment before he was either kicked out, dragged out, or left of his own accord.

[ @FrostyGalaxy Sorry that he’s a meanie butt! Also I didn’t intend for this to be as long as it is, whoops! Additionally, if Lark gets mad, feel free to have pp perms to beat the lad up. Nothing permanently debilitating, but a little whack and a pow won’t hurt anyone. Ofc if it's more in character for Lark, I hereby grant you staff and pp perms to murder the rat]