i've got a bad case of turning it up [ HH x RdC DEN CLEANING, open ]

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px transparent; font-family: verdana; width: 470px;][justify][size=9px]This was just pathetic. Honestly! Why did he have to clean the dens? Why was he forced to do chores when he could be doing something useful, like hunting? Why didn't Styx intervene somehow and bring him on the patrol, instead of letting his apprentice get stuck with elder-care and den-tidying duties? If this was what being an apprentice was about, then forget it! Even though his mentor had offered him comfort and advice, this wasn't what he wanted to be doing.

Tycho was in a sour mood and it showed.
Oh, well. If someone was about to comment on his attitude, they could fight him. Bite me, the tom thought bitterly as he scratched at a clump of damp moss clinging to an ancient stone statue, having long ago fallen prey to both forest and time.

The young Hitchhiker's tail lashed hotly in an outward sign of his agitation, while he gathered a sufficient pile of the olive-green lichen in his jaws. Styx should have brought me with him, he thought with an inaudible sigh, the frayed moss billowing with his released breath. He began padding back towards the RadicalClan camp, hoping beyond hope that one of his siblings -- preferably Aries -- would join him in this lackluster, mundane task.

Or maybe one of the RadicalClanners, themselves? Perhaps a fellow apprentice? Anything, anything to make this even just a bit more entertaining![/fancypost]
[size=6px][c] lion | #HHxRdC | #HHxRdClion[/size]

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px transparent; font-family: verdana; width: 470px;][justify][size=9px]Tycho blinked wide, unappreciative eyes at the black-and-white long-hair that sort of magically appeared by the tabby's side. Expecto? Ah, yes, figures that he'd show up. His mentor was probably off doing her thing; ever since Misery Business had returned to the Hitchhikers she had been standoffish and cold, and though Tycho hadn't known the formerly bouncy she-cat, he had heard around that this new attitude of hers was unlike her. So now he had her apprentice to work with.

Well, there was worse company, and Tyke would take what he could get.

While pondering his new companion's mentor and imagining a training session between the two of them, the tabby-and-white tom barely missed what the other male had been saying. Something about cleaning not being all that bad. Tycho scoffed. "Cleaning is for girls," he sneered, though he didn't believe that one bit and prayed to StarClan that no RadicalClanner was in earshot to hear his near sexist gibe. "I'd rather be hunting. I see you've already caught something." Tycho couldn't help but feel jealous that Misery Business had allowed Expecto to be one of the apprentices to hunt for the elders and queens of RadicalClan, while Styx had had his apprentice hang back to collect moss. Dismissing the emotion from his mind with a flick of his ears, he was just about to answer the tom's next question: "We're cleaning out the elder's den first, so back to ca--" when the tuft of moss that Expecto had just gathered bounced off of Tycho's head.
For a fleeting moment Tyke was glaring, but then he dropped his bundle of moss with a contented purr and tossed Expecto's smaller clump back at him, so it gently hit him square in the flank.[/fancypost]
[size=6px][c] lion | #HHxRdC | #HHxRdClion[/size]

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px transparent; font-family: verdana; width: 470px;][justify][size=9px]The two of them had hardly even started playing before the wolf had interrupted them. Of course someone had overheard, and of course it was Melody.

Tycho's ears fell to the back of his head and he made a face at Expecto, one that no one could see, before turning to face the Valkyrie. She didn't have any place reprimanding him if she was about to, she didn't have any place interrupting their work -- which, he might mention, was for her own clan, anyway -- and just because she was friends with his dad didn't mean she was superior to him. In the scheme of things they were all just lives, it didn't matter what body you were in or how many powers you possessed or what rank you filled. The young tabby had come upon this revelation more than once in his own time with the scouts and high-positions of his clan.

With a flick of his long, slender tabby tail, Tycho cleared his throat and looked the wolf straight in the eyes, her crystal blue hues meeting his summer green shades. "You didn't mishear," he mewed matter-of-factly, twitching his whiskers when he stole a glance at his black-and-white furred companion. "I said that cleaning was for girls, but that's just because they're so much better at it then I am." Tycho was keeping surprisingly cool with this conversation, however annoyed at the fact that he had to deal with cleaning dens instead of hunting and now he was being interrogated by the RadicalClan Valkyrie.
It was then that he saw and heard Aries, his younger brother. The red tabby apprentice was picking his way through the patches of snow, his ears pricked and his eyes wide. Tycho nodded in response to his sibling's query - yes, they still needed help, RadicalClan had a lot of dens that needed cleaning - before turning back to the spice-pelted wolf. His eyes trained on her facial features, he meowed clearly, "If you don't believe me, I don't actually care; it's not like you could tell me what I meant by my own statement, even if you did pull my memories. That's an abuse of power. Especially over something so silly."

The apprentice turned his attention away from her then, and shook out his pelt, turning to gather the moss he had already scratched off the statue. "Can we get back to cleaning your clan's dens, now?" Tycho didn't mean the RadicalClanner any disrespect, really, but he the mature strategian part of him was surfacing like a maelstrom, and it did so whenever he was confronted like this, especially by someone of a higher rank than he. Tycho was born to be a leader, not a follower, and it showed.

He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the familiar voice of Vindicate. Now the scout was here, too? Wasn't this den-cleaning business supposed to be for the apprentices? StarClan!
The tabby-and-white tom dipped his head to the lynx, his chest fur beginning to bristle with frustration. "We were just leaving."

Tycho made quick work of regathering his moss, tucked it between his jaws and then gave Expecto's shoulder a shove with the top of his head and padded in the direction of his brother Aries, who was just a few paces away from the adults.[/fancypost]
[size=6px][c] lion | #HHxRdC | #HHxRdClion[/size]

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px transparent; font-family: verdana; width: 470px;][justify][size=9px]Tycho stopped in his tracks with a long and low sigh, eyes dully focused ahead of him while Melody corrected all the flaws in his statements and-- what, now she was reading his mind? Lovely, what an invasion of privacy. Tycho looked over his shoulder at the wolf and Vindicate. Who said anything about ordering others around? He was working, wasn't he? He was doing exactly as he was told without verbally complaining to anyone, really, and others were interfering; because he knew - or at least told himself that he knew - how to pad around a conversation, especially one where he felt like he needed to prove himself, he was speaking like a warrior. Others didn't like when he did that, when he talked like he knew what he was talking about. Put bluntly, they didn't like that he was smart enough to have an intelligent discussion with them. It rubbed them the wrong way. Well, too bad, he thought, though that was probably a bad idea with the telepathic she-wolf around. But whatever. She should probably know that before she started telling him how things were, and giving advice in leadership (haha, how predictable): it wasn't ambition that drove him, it was intelligence and turbulence, it was a zeal and a love of direction and strategy. He was a natural leader, even in the little things, not because he was ambitious, but because he filled the role of a director, a guiding hand. Even at his young age of seven moons[?].

Tycho exhaled smoothly through the moss in his mouth when the wolf finally admitted what she was here for. He was finished debating; if she wanted to help, so be it. She knew how to gather moss, she knew how to clean out dens, so no direction or further explaining was needed. "Well, thank you," he muttered around the clump of lichen.[/fancypost]
[size=6px][c] lion | #HHxRdC | #HHxRdClion[/size]

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px transparent; font-family: verdana; width: 470px;][justify][size=9px]The apprentice dropped the ball of moss in his teeth for a second time that afternoon, his whiskers twitching. He turned to Aries with wide and concerned eyes as the red tabby coughed on something, but Melody asked if the young hitchhiker was all right and he seemed to be fine so Tycho simply brushed his tail against the other's flank; then a RadicalClan kit padded over and asked if they needed any help. "Uhm, sure," Tyke muttered uneasily, glancing towards Vindicate as she left to gather more moss. So much was happening at once and-- oh, StarClan, now Yvaine was on his tail about the matter. His sister had just finished removing the soiled moss from the elder's den, so a part of him understood the sourness of her mood (though when was she not in a sour mood around him?) - but then she had to make a comment about hunting and how he wasn't going and his muzzle folded in a jealous sneer. "Shut up, Yvaine." Was his only retort.
Then he turned to Expecto and Aries with pleading eyes, begging that they leave now to start laying the new moss down as bedding; he gathered his pile for the last time and bounded off towards the elder's den, tail lashing impatiently in hopes that the other two toms would follow, and that Scout Vindicate or Melody would deal with Shacklekit. Who cared what Yvaine did.

But before he stepped foot into the den, Melody was speaking, her now familiar barks ringing in the air. Hunting? For the elders? Yes! Tycho turned to the assembled group of nomadic felines and the RadicalClan Valkyrie, his eyes suddenly bright. At least when they were finished with this he'd get to leave the camp for a while -- it was hard for him to spend his time on simple daily tasks like this when all he wanted to do was train. Styx had been so busy, though that was to be expected. If Melody was going to take the apprentices hunting, at least the tabby could get a little practice in.

ooc: yvaine vs tycho ftw xD[/fancypost]
[size=6px][c] lion | #HHxRdC | #HHxRdClion[/size]