Nearly as soon as Basil noticed Aspen Aspen noticed Basil, a smirk on his face. Bingo. He looked the tom up and down slowly and coolly, pretending well enough that adrenaline wasn't pounding through his veins in preparation for a fight. Still, he kept his claws sheathed, gazing down at Basil's unsheathed claws with a look of contempt, as if somehow the fact he didn't hold the appearance of looking for a fight make him the bigger cat of the two; as if it nullified the fact that he had come to their land particularly for a scuffle. "Heh. Well, that's just the problem isn't it? What in particular makes you guys so high and mighty to make it your land?" He half drawled half snapped back, before faking a rather disinterested expression as he took to looking around the land. It looked exactly the same as any other stretch of land around as far as the eye could see. The only difference was that their obnoxious band of cats had greedily snatched it up and kept it private by threatening to beat up any cat who set foot on it. Disgusting.

He let the hit land more on purpose than anything else. It hurt, but the last thing in the world he intended to do was let the other tom see that, and he glared back of the tom with a look of contempt as if the attack was the most pathetic thing he had ever witnessed. It was a slight intimidation tactic - trying to show that simple blows had no effect on him - as well as a way of being honorable and making sure he had certainly not been the one to start the fight, even if that was his whole purpose in being there in the first place. He hadn't laid a claw on the other tom yet, and in repayment for his cool, calm, noble presence, he had been barreled into and bashed across the face. Really, the other tom had left him no other choice.

Basil's words just reinforced the narrative playing on a loop in his head. These groups and clans were really just like school yard bullies with no sense of respect or honor to them. Ruffians was a bit of an cliche' term, but it seemed to fit them just right. "Oh, and that's such a respectable reason to attack wandering cats, isn't it?" Aspen snapped back, his brown-amber eyes narrowing to slits. He felt his words were rather pointless, however. What did a cat who would just barrel into strangers without as single question care with things like respect, honor, or even basic decency?

"You know," He said, holding back a growl. "I really did attempt to be civil. But honestly, I think it's time you and your band of land thieves learn to keep to your place underground. It's honestly the perfect place for cat like your kind who are literally lower than dirt." He sneered, allowing his claws to come unsheathed as he finally prepared himself to attack. Still, he waited, letting the other tom have the first attack. He was going to be the civil one here, after all.

Nothing probably could have helped Basil this far into the conversation, considering at this point Aspen had already made up his mind that these RR cats were malignant forces of evil who wanted to bully and scare innocent travelers with their intimidating numbers, and once Aspen got something into his head - especially something that he believed put him on a moral high ground - it was near impossible to change his mind. That being said, Basil's responses weren't doing him any favors with the golden tabby intruder. The moment the RR tom said it "wasn't worth spending time explaining" he basically took it as an admission of their unjustifiable moral failings, something that made his claws twitch. He would have never admitted it, not for anything, but he was getting excited to tear his claws into this cat.

"Sorry if I don't take opinions of my intelligence from backwoods savages very seriously." He sneered, standing even more proud than before, though still taking care to prepare for the attack he knew would be inevitable with his next sentence. "And sorry to say, but I don't have any plans on leaving at all. So do your worst, I suppose." He said, with the sort of arrogant dismissive tone one would give towards a kit threatening to beat up a full grown adult.

At the appearance of the she cat, Aspen stiffened, reluctantly retracting his previously unsheathed claws. Where he was from people said a lot about ladies in the clans, the type of stuff that was common among the old traditional folk of the nicer loner territories, that held that sort of homey feel akin to a nice upper-class suburban neighborhood. It was rather gruffly mentioned that clan and group girls were ruffians, cold femme fatales, and rumors came up now and again of some nice loner boy getting caught up with a pretty girl from the clans, before being back-stabbed and loosing his good reputation, or being converted to their - as it was called in these nicer parts - crude, brutish, and primitive life-style. It was also mentioned that clan girls tended to always be looking for a fight, and it shook Aspen a bit.

Chivalry was as important to him a nobility and honor, deeply intertwined with those ideals, and the last thing he wanted to do was fight a girl. It was so much as to say he was actually about to back off from the fight all together. What kind of person would he be if he beat up a lady, even if she was looking for a fight? Not to mention, though he would have never admitted it, Jasmine was certainly much more attractive than he'd ever expected a clan or group cat to be. To his relief, however, Jasmine seemed just as opposed to fighting him - and fighting in general - as he was about fighting her, and inwardly he breathed a sigh of relief that he probably wouldn't be forced to even lay a paw on this she cat.

He gave a half dip of his head in polite greeting to her, keeping up his guard just in case this was all some sort of act to get him to lower his defenses, which given his low opinion of these cats wouldn't have surprised him much. "I feel I aught to apologize for having kept you from you walk ma'am, especially considering I was just out doing the same thing." The apology, at least to Jasmine, was sincere, his slight and rather charming country drawl edging sympathy to his voice. Only a hint of sarcasm laced his voice when he mentioned that he too 'has just been taking a walk', which was aimed very specifically with an air of contempt toward Basil, though it was well hidden under his actual genuine apology given towards the newly arrived she cat.