[PRP] I Hit Things Hard & Knock Them Down (Jr. x Mitra)

[hibi-tea]

Jr. was having a fun time assimilating into her new pride. There were lots of people who liked to fight, and some of them took it very seriously, which she found kind of funny. She didn't understand the complexity in some of the relationships between the families, but she knew it wasn't too different from what her own had been back in the day. With the divide in the pride over who you followed, it dictated your life. It seemed at one point that was also a thing there, but she felt it was possibly resolved now and had no inclination to prod further into it. After all, what good did that serve her?

Jr. was back on on her way back from cleaning herself down by the river, which was very cold. That was one thing that Jr. was having a very hard time adjusting to: the cold. Her old home was never this cold. It was warm, almost hot daily, and if you were in the jungle below the massive mountain that liked to occasionally spew fire, then you were on the plains where it was just as hot, but with very little shade.

Jr. shook out her coat again, trying to flick as much moisture off her as she possibly could. Her wet coat didn't hide her scarring as well as her dry coat did, and they showed through her reds and gold as little or thick pink lines telling a history of what once was since the end of the war and the fall of her pride. She liked at one on her arm here the hair decided to never grow again and she watched it go from white to a pale pink.  

[Painted Moose]

Mitra was constantly busy trying to assimilate. After clawing her way into a Reaver's position, she had set forth finding a proper Captain, one who followed the laws, to work under. That search had so far...gone miserably. The ones she had spoken with either looked down on her because of her sex, knew of her pitiful attempts at fighting when she had first joined, or were simply too ruthless for her to consider. In truth, she had obtained two Thrall just to gain her position, but she treated them well. Fyffe and Amenophis were now solid members of her household; so long as they stayed a suitable distance from Thamina, that is.

She also preferred that they stay away from Kame, unless he should have need of them. It had caused unrest when she brought them back, and while she couldn't change the past, Mitra also didn't wish to provoke the future.

It was on her way to the river herself that Mitra came across a very large, very red lioness. The other practically dwarfed the former Banu. Her pelt was like that of a growing flame, but it was the scars that held Mitra's attention. Rudely she watched, her eyes transfixed by the little pink grooves. She herself only had a few; the only be being visible was a little pink spot on her left shoulder from her first fight in the pride where a former Pad of all things had beaten her.  

[hibi-tea]

Painted Moose

It didn't take long for Jr. to notice Mitra in the distance starring. She was relatively aware of everyone who moved back and forth around her, an old habit of her former position, and she wasn't too bothered by the starring. She got starred at a lot, even back in her old home. She smiled at the blue lioness and waved a paw at her, taking the prolonged eye contact as an invitation to bound her large self over to the other female with a grin.

"Hello!" Jr. boisterously greeted, a small but noticeable pep in her step wherever she managed to go. "Or, what is our greeting supposed to be again? Oh, I don't remember..., Who cares."

Jr. made a face at her forgetfulness in some of the pridal customs, but it was more or less a farce. She never bothered to learn the customary greeting, mostly because she thought it sounded silly. If you're going to tell someone you're going to kill them, you should probably mean that you're going to kill them.

"I am Botis. You are?" Jr. asked, having taken to introducing herself strictly with the name she once claimed as demon. Despite the downfall of her pride, Jr. found that the name stuck with her regardless. She had once been Botis, and Botis she shall continue to be, but this time as one whole being and not just some hidden secret. "You can call me Jr., though. That's what the others do."  

[Painted Moose]

hibi-tea

Haivng waved back at the larger lioness, Mitra found herself drug into a conversation. She hadn't meant for her starring to have been noticed, but now that it was she couldn't very well ignore her own actions.

"It is a good day to die," Mitra supplied pensively. "Remembering the greetings of your pride will go a long way to advancing your status." She said it easily, as if this was the concern of the whole and not just her own beliefs.

There was something in the devil may care attitude provided by the red lioness that chaffed Mitra. It concerned her that this lioness didn't seem to value traditional customs, and what was worse, she was still very intrigued by her, which only served to prickle her further.

"A pleasure, Jr. I am Mitra." As she spoke, Mitra gave a quick bow of her head. Though she never lost eye contact old habits and pleasantries were hard to break. Though, she had to wonder, what was Jr. short for? "I was rude to have stared. Your scars caught my attention, but now that we're speaking...would you mind if I asked how you acquired so many? You do not seem like a lioness who would have gotten them in anything other than a fight."  

[hibi-tea]

Painted Moose

"That's what it was!" Jr. exclaimed, a smile crossing her face at the other lioness's remembrance for things she had already decidedly forgotten.

Jr. hadn't expected to hear the lioness's half-chide, half-practiced rhetoric in regards to climbing the social ladder. Those were things Jr. had never occupied herself with. Pleasantries had never mattered where she was from. It was only the strength and skill you had that determined your worth, and to a large extent she felt that resonate throughout this pride.

"Unlearning the entirety of my life to acclimate to a new one also takes time," Jr. countered, matter-of-factly. Although, that was a bold-faced lie on her part. She still wasn't bothering. To this point she had been getting any information she needed from what she heard around the lands, and what she could annoy out of old pride members.

Jr. watched Mitra bow her head, and in response her won tilted to the side. Why on earth was she bowing? Bowing was to royalty. Or so she heard. She never really bowed to her father or her other father. She just kind of walked in and got their attention. She was their child after all. She respected her fathers, of course, but bowing?

When Mitra mentioned Jr.'s scar she smiled even wider at the other female and pepped up a bit proudly. Scars were a thing of honor in her old home. Some even intentionally scarred themselves as acts of fashion. Well, not fashion. Fashion is not the right word for it, but it was in a similar manner. Dominance? Maybe. Jr. wasn't sure at this point anymore. All her scars were genuine and none were self-inflicted.

"No, it's alright. I'm glad you admire them. I like being admired sometimes," Jr. smiled, beaming at the idea that she is something other than a little odd and could possibly even be viewed as attractive regardless of who it was that was looking at her.

"I got these scars doing my duty," Jr. explained, motioning to the different ones across her body like a storyteller trying to create a scene. "Where I was from I was a Guard. I guarded my pride from intruders. I made Mom proud, even if I wasn't like everyone else. I'm sure I made my Dad's proud too. I could have been worse things. I could have been a slave. I was also in a war. We won that war, but it wasn't worth the fight... families shouldn't fight like that."  

[Painted Moose]

hibi-tea

Nodding her head, Mitra was pleased to see the other lioness finally picking up on the information. Perhaps she was just slow of study? It would make since; after all, how many males had she known that could barely formulate words after being hit in the head one too many times?

"That it does," Mitra ceded. "I myself am finding it hard to adjust to the heathen lifestyle, but it has its perks. I am able to bring glory to my family in more ways than simply who my father chose for me to mate with." Kame'bufuu had always been a strangely endearing soul, but there had been a time that Mitra thought of herself as little more than a pawn. She had been spurned by love so young in life that it hadn't truly mattered until him. He knew the value of her bloodline, but hadn't let it over ride what it was he was looking for in a partner. He had chosen her based on merit alone, and for that she would be forever grateful. "I would be happy to assist you in learning the culture should you have need of me."

Ah, well, how strange for her to preen only after Mitra commented on those horrendous scars. They looked absolutely brutal, so could they have been from a war? "Ah, I thought as much," Mitra murmured, her eyes taking in the scars. "I can't say that I've ever seen this much scarring on a female in my life..." Her interest peeked, Mitra looked to Botis. The expression on her face might as well have been reserved for one who had seen a lion with a third head. "A female Guard?" And fathers, as in plural? Funny that should cause such a stir in her when Mitra had four mothers growing up. "You've lived quite an interesting life, one I can't begin to comprehend...but I understand slavery and war. In the end, we didn't win ours, and war are rarely worth the effort in the end."

While she knew little of the families that had fought in Botis' war, Mitra knew of the toll it took on families in general. She had seem them ripped apart at the joint, and after the downfall of the U'W she had only the family she had built with Kame to return to. There wasn't a day that passed when she didn't wonder over what had happened to them all. "...Do you think you could teach me to fight as you do? I'm a Reaver now, but only because I brought in thrall. I don't feel as if I earned the title." Not after the dressing down she'd had from Kame after bringing the boys home. Mitra turned her soft blue eyes to Botis.  

[hibi-tea]

Painted Moose

Eyyoo. I will taggooo.

"Oh, yes." Jr. smiled, enjoying the reaction she was getting from Mitra. It let her know more information than people thought. A reaction like that one meant that wherever this pretty blue female was from, they didn't actively war. And on top of not warring, they probably restricted the liberties of their women as well. Or at least, that is what Jr. suspected. She wouldn't be sure unless she asked directly, but why ruin a nice conversation with talk of lives past that weren't just interesting facts?

"Our lands were split into two families. One side held certain ranks, as did the others. My family were... a little less brutal than the other. We were guards, or warriors, or teachers of war. I know of others from my pride whose families were assassins, or torturers. They were... unnecessary, if you ask me." Jr. commented.

Although, truth be told, she found her way to this pride because she picked up on the scent from one of those households. It was certainly not her own. And she was certain that at least one scent was royalty. Possibly Phle... Possibly not. Didn't matter now. She was here.

"Anyway, that doesn't matter," Jr. said, waving her paw dismissively and smiling a brighter smile when Mitra asked her about fighting. Her teach someone of a higher ranking than her to fight? That was an opportunity. Maybe a chance for her to become a Reaver herself, bring home a slave, etc.

She nodded her head to Mitra, "I would love too. I can't seem to get anyone to spar with me in here who isn't so afraid of their precious reputation being ruined. So I guess if it's one female teaching another, it won't be such a big deal. They're really kind of backwards that way."