[PRP] I must be cruel, only to be kind (Pur'Jed & Parisette)

[Princess_Feylin]

The day was grey and gloomy, but it wasn't actually raining. Not yet anyway. Pur was sick of this weather. Supposedly this was what happened this time of year, but she wouldn't know. It was the first time she'd lived through this time of year. So far she had nothing good to say about it. She hated that she'd grown conditioned to being thankful for days like this, rather than the bright days she remembered before it turned grey and wet. She also hated that the wet weather did unattractive things to her fur, making it unmanageable in a way that was just inappropriate for a noble.

Nevertheless, the green-eyed cub made her way away from her family's den, picking a path from not-so-damp spot to not-so-damp spot. Everything about her screamed her disgust at the general state of the world, and particularly the perpetual damp. She sneezed as she passed quickly under a tree. She'd learned that trees were decent shelter when it was actually raining, but given to dripping when it wasn't. As she passed the tree Pur thought irritably, I'll probably end up with a fever and die. Wouldn't that be wretched.

"Or maybe tragic," she amended aloud, though she knew she wasn't in circumstances that dictated a tragic death. There wasn't even another male her own age worth taking an interest in, let alone falling in love with, and tragic deaths required some sort of love interest to mourn. She decided it would probably be more wretched than tragic after all if she died of a fever.  

[Velveteen Angel]

Parisette had left her families den earlier, and had snuck down to see the Players perform, though they had quickly dispersed when it seemed the sky was going to open up and start to rain. Left alone in the clearing, she had stared at the sky, willing it to rain. Not that the juvenile particularly liked the rain, but well, when it rained it gave her an excuse to go cuddle up in the den with her family, and spend time with them. The queen didn't particularly like the cubs, but on a rainy day, she couldn't really force them out of the den, so she was safe.

The sky stayed tauntingly gray and she sighed, her shoulders slumping. She supposed she couldn't always get her way, but raining would have been so wonderful! Then she could go ask the queen questions, or bother her brothers and sisters, or cuddle up in her papa's mane. He would tell her stories and she would smile, because she loved spending time with papa, but the rain didn't come, so that idea didn't pan out, and so she had to find another form of entertainment.

Uncaring of the damp ground, the lioness padded back out of the clearing and up the mountain towards the dens, but she didn't particularly want to go back into the den, because she knew very few of her family members would be in there. Instead, she just hummed as she walked, keeping one eye on the sky and hoping that it would just rain already.



 

[Princess_Feylin]

Pur's attention was captured by motion in the grasses accompanied by humming. When she looked she saw one of the king's natural children, the girl who hadn't any purple in her coat at all. She wondered if that made it easier or harder for the queen to accept her. After all, there was no evidence of her father in her coat, but there was also nothing but proof her mother had been someone else. A double-edged blade, that was without a doubt, but Pur didn't feel sorry for the other cub. It was the life she had been born into, and thus is was the life she was meant to lead.

Her mother had been vague when it came to dealing with these natural cubs of Bwana's. She'd wanted Pur to come to her own conclusions about whether she should or not. Pur didn't usually have much interest in playing with them anyway, except when her siblings were otherwise occupied and she felt lonely, but in those instances she reminded herself that they were not appropriate playmates because of their unfortunate birth and status in the pride.

Pur's tail twitched with indecision. Should she talk to the older cub or let her pass by? Her paws decided she should talk to her by moving forward of their own volition. After all, Pur reasoned, she could always ask her mother's forgiveness. If she was found out and if she got in trouble. There was a possibility that neither would happen. But what would she say? Did she actually want to play with one of those cubs? She decided to just talk to her and see how things went.

"You haven't been down with the groundlings have you?" she asked. Her tone wasn't accusing, but it was somewhat disapproving, though there was so much about the other cub to disapprove of it would be difficult for Pur to pick one thing.  

[Velveteen Angel]

She had been off in her own world in her mind (which consisted of her chanting the word rain, rain, rain, rain, rain over and over again in her mind), so she hadn't heard the young cub approaching her, and she jumped slightly when the voice spoke to her. For a moment, she thought the god of rain was speaking to her, but glancing sharply to the side as she jumped, she spotted the purple pelt of the younger female. Her heart throbbed in shock, but it was not an unpleasant feeling, and she didn't mind the surprise.

"No!" She denied, but sounded guilty, as she had been down with the groundlings a few days ago. "I was watching the players but they went to their dens because they thought it was going to rain but it didn't rain, it's just cold, I wanted to see how the play ended, but it's okay, since I can make up how it ends in my head, and I bet my story line is much better than the scripted version, the best way to make a play is to do it from the heart, not from practice, I say." She nodded firmly, not aware that most people would say she had been rambling. She paused, and peered at the younger cub. "Why aren't you in your den?" Everyone else was, she sulked, even the Players. When she was a Player, she wouldn't stop just because it rained! The show must go on!

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Pur was young, but she wasn't born yesterday and she had her mother's keen eye for wrong-doing. She could tell that Parisette felt guilty and wondered if her tale about the players was a cover-up or whether it was the truth and the older lioness had simply been thinking something for which she ought to feel guilty. Pur might occasionally try to convince a person that they ought to think certain things, but she'd never been much interested in telling people what they couldn't thing, although she was curious as to what might caused that guilty tone.

"What were the players performing?" the purple cub asked casually. She'd seen her mother use this tactic to catch escaped cubs who had been where the oughtn't have. The problem was that her mother always knew what the players were performing and Pur had no idea, as she only saw them when she went with her entire family. Maybe she should go see them more often, considering how much of the pride was focused on them.

She had asked her question quickly, before the blue cub began on her monologue, but by the end of her speech Pur had forgotten she'd even asked. She was overwhelmed by the outpouring of unfiltered thoughts and had to take a moment to sort through them. She decided, having done so, that it had been a waste of her time to even try, as there was nothing worth responding to out of the whole thing, except possibly to point out that no one cared what she thought about how plays ought to be done, since they'd been doing them this way for generations and they all worked perfectly well.

"Don't you ever shut up?" Pur asked. "I'm not in my den because it's not raining, though it might as well be for how wet it is."  

[Velveteen Angel]

Parisette's eyes lit up at the opportunity to speak about the players performance. "They were playing this amazing love story about a boy and a girl and their family hated each other and she ran away from her family's pride, and he ran away too, but he was caught and taken prisoner and she had to give herself up so he wasn't killed, but she didn't want to return to her family because they were so overbearing, and then the players all left, so I have to wait until tomorrow to find out what happens," she sighed dramatically, her heart racing at the thought of the storyline.

She looked insulted at the cubs comment about her shutting up, and her ears dropped down. "Shut up? Am I talking too much?" She wasn't ashamed of her actions, but she didn't want to annoy other people! She blinked at the cub, then giggled. "You don't like water, do you?" She didn't think of it as wet, it was wet when it rained, not when it was just overcast.

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Pur couldn't remember if she'd heard that story before. She liked love stories, even though she couldn't quite understand why everyone got so worked up about them. Love couldn't be so great that people would die for it as regularly as the plays seemed to imply. They were all about earth-shattering, star-moving lovers she sometimes felt. Sometimes it made her worry that her parents didn't love each other enough, since theirs didn't seem to be that kind of love.

"It's not that you're talking too much," Pur admitted. "But you do talk a lot, don't you? And jump about from idea to idea. It's not very easy to follow."

If she was being fair, Pur might have acknowledged that Parisette wasn't really jumping about so much as following the progression of her thoughts whether or not it was appropriate to do so. It wasn't much more desirable in a conversation partner than the other thing, but it wasn't the same. Pur couldn't really see the distinction, because she still ended up getting lost along the way, unable to keep up with the older cub's thoughts.

"I drink water," Pur said. "But if we were meant to get this wet we would not have fur. It smells just awful in the den when anyone comes back from the outdoors after getting wet. Besides. Wet means mud, and I don't like getting dirty."  

[Velveteen Angel]

Parisette tilted her head, pausing to consider the girl's words. Well, it was true. She was a little bit of a scatter-brain at times, when a new idea popped into her mind, she simply kept talking and forgot that people couldn't follow her own internal monologue which seemed to be going constantly.

"Well, I suppose that's true," she agreed, blinking at the girl. "I hadn't realised. I shall try to stay more focused, but being focused isn't really a strong point of mine. I'm better at not thinking, it's more fun that way. I mean, why think about something? You'll just end up not doing it if you take too long thinking about it. How horrible, I know! I would hate to miss out on something in life by just thinking rather than doing." She didn't seem to realise she was rambling again.

Parisette had to agree though. Getting muddy wasn't fun, mostly because she'd have to be cleaned and she hated that process. Water wasn't horrible though, and she glanced down at her paws, surprised to see them muddy already. "Well, that makes sense! But, rain makes the flowers bloom, so you could just take flowers back to your den to make it smell prettier instead of smelling wet." There was a bright side to everything, after all.


 

[Princess_Feylin]

"It seems evident that you don't see much use in thinking," Pur said caustically. Her tone became less harsh as she continued, "Though what I don't understand is how you manage not to think. It's not really something I can control."

And she couldn't. Her mind generated thoughts no matter what she did. Even when trying to imagine, it took the form of verbal thoughts with appropriate pictorial accompaniment. Thinking was just a natural process. And acting without thinking? It was...unthinkable!

"Name one time when thinking caused you to miss out on something," Pur challenged Parisette. "I bet you can't think of a single one."

She glanced at her muddy paws with disgust. Her best efforts to keep them clean had not proven particularly successful, and she resented that. Her nose twitched in distaste, thinking of the idea of bringing flowers back to the den. It was so...childish. But it would probably make her mother happy. Maybe.

"It's a thought. The flowers. But I still don't like being rained on."  

[Velveteen Angel]

Parisette knew she probably should have been offended by the female's comment, but really, it was just how she was. Why think and waste time when you could be doing so much more exciting things when you don't think? "It's not hard to do, just let your body and your emotions take you where you will. Don't second guess it, and it's easy." She said, with a bright smile. She had a feeling that this female didn't understand, and probably wouldn't. Parisette was rather...odd, sometimes.

Parisette tilted her head, and paused. "Uhmmm," she hummed, trying to think quickly. Goodness. Now she's asked, she couldn't think of anything! "Oh! Last night! We were eating and I was going to offer daddy the last bit of meat on the leg I was having and when I stopped to consider if he'd want it, since he'd had a big meal already, my brother stole it and ate it himself! So I missed out on the chance to give daddy a gift because I stopped and thought." She nodded firmly, and was rather pleased with her example.

"You should wear flower crowns or flower bracelets!" She told the fellow female confidently. "Then if you do get rained on, you don't smell wet and just smell pretty instead!" She hadn't done it, but it seemed like a good idea.
"Or just stay out of the rain."
Well, that was an obvious idea.

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Pur could only blink in disbelief, and it was with a great effort that she stopped herself from shaking her head. She did not feel she had the slightest clue what Parisette was talking about. As far as she knew, her body and emotions were so much under her conscious control - or almost so - that if she just let them do what they wanted to do, she'd end up doing nothing at all. As for second-guessing herself...she wouldn't always be doing that. Once she was older and knew better what the correct response for every situation would be, she would be able to react appropriately without thinking about it. She would be a real lady.

"I might it sometime," Pur said politely, thinking that there was no way in the world she would ever let herself go like that. Maybe it was all right for someone of questionable class, like Parisette, but it was definitely not all right for nobility to just do and say whatever they pleased.

"All right. So you came up with one example," Pur admitted grudgingly. She couldn't have come up with any, but then she wasn't sure she'd have been able to come up with any counter-examples on demand, either. It was kind of impressive for someone so undisciplined to get their mind to obey so quickly, though she wasn't about to admit that much.

She smiled a little when the talk turned to jewelry, though she didn't think having wet plants ringing her legs or head would make it any more enjoyable to be rained on. But maybe on sunny days she might do it every so often. It was difficult to weave crowns and bracelets out of flowers, but practicing would be good for her, too, she thought.

"Thank you," she said, casting a quick glance at the ominous sky. "I'll have to do that. But right now I think I'll follow your other suggestion and stay out of the rain. I think it'll start very soon."

She dipped a quick curtsy, that of a superior acknowledging an inferior, and scampered off with little regard for dignity. She didn't want to get rained on at all.