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 Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 4:08 pm
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The night was quiet in the Mwezi'Johari. Suspicion and sorrow still in the hearts of the pride, the new moon seemed especially loathsome as they gathered together for the ceremony dedicated to keeping them safe in this time when the Great Lion was not watching over them. As the ceremony dragged on, the crowd began to slowly disperse and it continued through the night. There was no official end before the news began to spread, loudly and frantically:
The Queen had been murdered. Princess Selene and Lord Fuu as well. It was Shangyue- and now he was looking for the Shaman, Stellaluna.
The first voice to cry out was a mystery, soon it was spread by many and it was impossible to determine the source. Scattered details began to accumulate through the chaos. The Prince was, clearly, after the throne. He had an unknown number of allies already within the pride, anybody could be working for him. The most emphasized fact, however, was that he had the slaves on his side. Who you can trust is no longer apparent, what happens next is not certain.. the quiet night very quickly turned to chaos. |
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 4:08 pm
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Important Notes
Prior to the attacks, word was spread to all of Shangyue's allies: Tonight was the night. When it happened, their job was to spread the word and feed into the ensuing chaos. What "it" was remained a secret until after the confrontations. They have fair numbers but their best chance to prevent an impromptu rebellion against this violent takeover is to keep everybody paranoid and confused.
Firaga, the black and orange lion pictured above, is just recently revealed (even to Shangyue's other allies) to be working closely with the prince. His identity and part in the assassinations may be considered part of the gossip but in a much more vague sense.
The implication of all slaves in the assassinations is intentional, Shangyue wants it to be hard to trust any slaves- at least for tonight.
Feel free to shuffle personal alliances now that his plan has been revealed/enacted. Not everybody has to agree that this was the right way to do it even if they may have previously agreed to help or support him. Of course, not everybody has to side against him.
Shangyue is looking for Stellaluna, who is now officially the highest ranking pride member. Technically Shangyue is now the king and on level with her but officially, his coronation would come later.
Shangyue's allies have also been told to watch out for the following pride members: Baba'nyota, Uchanjaa, Lailah K'chol, Unyezi, any other princes or princesses. They are considered the most likely to cause a problem.
Disclaimer - Since I do not own Queen Khathelela, I cannot actually kill her off. ICly, neither her body nor those of Selene and Fuu will be found but they will be assumed dead, as Shangyue will insist they are.
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 4:16 pm
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For once in her life in this pride, Akemi was starting to feel like she stood on equal ground. Her personal ambition had helped feed into Shangyue's ideals, and the lioness was only too happy to help. She hadn't quite expected so much murder, but her own paws were not bloodied with the task.
For now, she stayed where she was, not even pretending to be too worried. Instead, she kept her eyes on some of the lions in much higher ranks than her, wanting to feed the confusion and chaos with her mere presence. Part of her felt a stab of guilt, as some of the slaves she had befriended would probably no longer even speak to her, but....she couldn't just let herself be so snubbed by the Great Lion any longer. |
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 4:52 pm
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((None of my posts will be counting towards prizes. *trying to amass RPs for breedin'* XD ))
 
As things unfolded, Rishima had been lending more serious thought to the situation, yet he refused to get his paws wet by either stepping in, or providing information. He had instructed Stela and his children to also practice firm neutrality, unless such a situation was presented to them that benefited them. That advice seemed to be all well and good, and now he was dealing with a fretful and dramatic Stela, who was finally beginning to grasp some of the seriousness of the situation. After all, Stela's father was a slave. Rishima did what he could to reassure her. After all, he also had daughters who were slaves. In fact he had much family to depend on amongst all the ranks, which was perhaps why he was comfortable walking on the fine line of neutrality...
Stela did not leave Rishima's side, or if she did, she was not far from Astrith's sight, or one of her mate's other children, whom she held in just as high esteem as she did her mate, and trusted them with her life. As she came to understand the situation, the more worried it made her, but she took the words of her mate to heart and followed his lead. This might have made her appear weak, and easily puppeted, but truth of the matter was, she was never really the type to be her own person. She was always dependent, whether it be her own siblings whom she depended, or Rishima.
"What do we do, Rishima?"
"Do? We do nothing. If anything, we sit back and let things run their course. We are in the best position we can be in - neither high enough ranking to be a threat to the new order that is sure to come, or low enough ranking to be suspected of anything. So long as we do nothing, nothing will befall us." Rishima replied to Stela.
How many times had he told her this before? Not that he could blame her for worrying...
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 4:56 pm
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((Note: She has appeared/still appears/behaves entirely mortal.))
Oh, how Din could not believe her luck in recent weeks! She knew vaguely of most of the prides on the mortal plane, and this one had been just a minor blip on her radar. She couldn't resist, though, getting at least a little involved with what was rumored to go down. Most mortals were so boring- leading their boring lives, patrolling borders and having the smallest of skirmishes. Only now and then did they do something brilliant, amazing, drastic... desperate. Though she hid it well, that's how she saw the purple prince and spoke with him not long ago. She had to see just how far he would go, and how things around him would build up or collapse. Yes, in troubled times like this, mortals were unbearably interesting...
And so the dark goddess had disguised herself to observe and take part in what was absolutely certain to be an interesting turn of events. Though, she acted the part- a confused newly-joined rogue, feigning concern over recent events, when secretly she had been recruited to help the prince. King. Whatever he should be considered now. But she would do her job, as instructed by the mortal. While she never would pledge an allegiance or take orders, she would for the sake of being a part of a play- a play she would get to watch from directly on the stage.
She kept a wide-eyed clueless look about her, trying to remain as an unknown supporter to any onlookers. "What- what's happening? Can it be true?" She asked aloud to any of the pridemembers around her. |
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 5:16 pm
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 Things were falling wonderfully into place. Najisi skulked about the area, red eyes flashing. Even the little cloud-marked pink one was wary of him, as were many others. He liked it... A lot. Now he knew what Mahiri enjoyed about being such a dark presence on the land. The gold lion soon fund a familiar face from amid the slave rank, Nina-dini. The adolescent was a curious creature to him, with her heterochromatic eyes. Somewhere, a lion was going to want to latch to her and stay by her side, but until then... She gave every male's advances a cold shoulder. It amused him. "Are we ready for some chaos, Nina?"
 Nina had never felt so EXILERATED! She'd practically jumped up at the first call, forgetting her tiredness as she all but pranced after Najisi. "I didn't think things would turn out quite like THIS, but I'm... Excited, I think. SOME favor from the Great Lion will be WONDERFUL!" She hadn't expected Shangyue to kill anybody. Then again, she hadn't expected Najisi to actually be even remotely closely tied. Personally, she was a little surprised that he hadn't done it HIMSELF. Her gaze traveled, before she spied Akemi. Not born in, but joined, she looked quite related to much of the pride. As far as she could tell, though, the other lioness was... Picky. "Oh, look, there's Akemi..."
His gaze followed Nina's, before it landed on Akemi. "Akemi..." He walked over, smiling pleasantly at her. "Care to join us for a walk...?"
 Gyps all but ran back to the mourning place from his and Haggy's den. The wing-marked brown lion grimaced, eyes narrow. He'd not missed the word. He'd suspeced the gold-coated slave, but it had been Shangyue the whole time... How could he have missed the SIGNS? Haggy hadn't even been able to warn him! Had her visions stopped? No, they'd been focusing on happier things. Cubs, family... Little balls of fur with red and black eyes, brown and gold and cream fur... Maybe even some red... They'd never looked the same each vision, nor had the number remained consistent.
Now... He stopped when he spied the three slaves. His dark tail curled as he scowled at them. "Traitors, the lot of you!"
 "Is it wrong to want to be part of something greater?" Kin stepped out of the trees, near Akemi. He was like so many other members of his pride, marked with clouds and the strange angled markings on his shoulders, compliments of his... Grandfather? Great-grandfather? It was something like that... He was no guard, though if he wished to be he could have been, and at that moment he was starting to wish it as he stood between Gyps and the three slaves. "If you want to get at any of the slaves..." He held his head up, ears folding back. "You have to go through me." His loyalty because of his relatives was more with the slaves, and thus Shangyue, than anywhere else. He'd fight anybody he had to to protect them. |
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 5:47 pm
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 8:05 pm
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 Halili strolled through the rapidly panicking pride with her head held high and a slight glint in her eye that no one, not even her family, had ever seen before. The lioness had been born into the Mwezi'Johari, and under the new moon. She had known all her life that she was to be a slave, and despite this lack of blessing, she had smiled and worked cheerily through the pride. Most people she met, particularly in the higher classes, were simply pleased to see a happy slave, and didn't care to think much more of her.
Tonight, however, things had changed. Tonight Prince Shangyue had made certain that every slave was seen as a threat. Already she had seen many lions whom she worked with on a regular basis look at her with fear and distrust. Which, conversely, pleased Halili.
Tonight they saw her for herself, and not just as an extra pair of paws.
The lioness sauntered up near Gyps'fulvus. "And why are we traitors?" she asked calmly, with a hint of challenge. "Are we all guilty simply because of our class? Is it wrong to want a bit of respect? Or are we just offending your delicate sensibilities which demand that slaves stay in their dictated place?" Pale purple eyes bored into the brown lion as Halili attacked him verbally. |
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 8:18 pm
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 Adolescents her children might be, but as soon as Caritas made out what the criers were shouting, she had made certain that they understood they were to stay in the den until she or Ukarimu came back. She had no idea how violent things were likely to get, but with four royal deaths in such a short period of time, three of them tonight, the black lioness had no desire whatsoever to see her children in harm's way.
She knew, intellectually, that they were probably fairly safe, given that they weren't full adults, but they were still high class and she was a Priestess. Caritas didn't know what Shangyue was thinking, but she was going to keep her kids as safe as she could, damnit!
Things were fairly chaotic, from what she could tell. One lion was calling all the slaves traitors, and others were standing and defending themselves or their kin. The lioness wasn't even sure what to do...the news of the Queen's death, the Heiress' and Lord Fuu's...it was still raw, and the full implications had yet to sink in.
"Where is the Shaman?" Caritas whispered, almost to herself. "Where is my sister!" this time the question was louder, not yet a demand, but certainly noticeable. |
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Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2013 5:29 am
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The purpley, gradient maned lion made his own appearance a good distance from a group of arguing slaves/guards. He wasn't one to interrupt or cause a disturbance in something so fickle as who were traitors and who weren't. He yawned slightly than a grin settled on his face and he began wandering. Chaos was certainly having her way with the world, particularly within this pride. It was as though the pride had not seen such violence before? Murder was always unusual, no matter the scenario. But death was death.
"Some never get used to it I suppose." He muttered more to himself than anything, but kept his head up for any interaction.
Though he had known a bit about what was going, having been acquired by Shangyue from the Roguelands, he didn't know everything. Somewhere there was a dark pelted lion whom had tickled Shangyue's fancy more than others and Belial was curious to know who and why.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxBelial
___________________________
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxSabia`Nafsi
Sabia`Nafsi found herself distraught and nervous. She was a new member to the pride and already things were spiraling out of control. She had taken on the duty of a guard and expected it, not to be simple, but certainly not contain having an ear out to listen for murderous talk and chaos. So she made it her personal duty to keep walking, if she kept her paws busy she wouldn't have time to think. Though stories of her Uncle crept into mind and she shuddered. How could any lion do things like this? Than the rumor she remembered about her cousin, bearing the pelt of another lion.
Sabia was not usually one to get angry, upset yes, angry no and so when a rumble rippled from her chest she nearly jumped from her own pelt. The emotions she felt had never been like this and had certainly never made her to the point of growling. She let it go, let her thoughts fly away and brought herself closer to an inner calm.
"I will never see them again.. I have to focus on now." Her footing returned, stronger and so did her own character. She looked about, doing her due diligence to keep eyes and ears open for any troubles. With that on mind, she noticed the stir going on with slaves and a guard, one she wasn't to familiar with. There were enough paws in the pot though and so she stayed near and available, but wasn't readily going to jump in at that time.
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Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2013 8:01 am
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Little Suntail might not be so little anymore, but she felt very small just now. Everything was wrong, so wrong! Of course it all had to happen around this time of the moon, didn't it? She glanced anxiously skyward and shivered her coat. Lions were whispering about murder, and now there was shouting going on. She slunk into the area, her normally happy yellow tail curled in close to her body.
With wide eyes, Spiralia watched as slaves spoke haughtily and angrily to those born under the moon's blessing. Distressed, the slight adolescent prowled along the edges of the gathering crowd, searching for her family. However, when she saw her mother, she stopped dead. Staring, mouth open, her heart thudding within her like a crazed rabbit trying to escape, she watched her mother act very unlike the mother she'd always known.
Utterly confused, frightened, and feeling very vulnerable, she stepped away from the crowd. This wasn't how it was supposed to be! This was madness! Her ordered and calm life was shattered, leaving her nothing at all to cling to. |
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Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2013 12:02 pm
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"A walk indeed," Akemi replied to the gold lion, tagged along with the pretty little adolescent. Before they could really get anywhere, however, a confrontation was brewing. Two guards were yelling at them, and frankly, Akemi didn't care.
"What do you want?" she said, clearly offended. "The Great Lion does not watch over us low class, what you consider to be slaves. We have to watch over ourselves, and stay protected by our own paw."
Irritation was apparent as her tail violently twitched behind her as she continued. "You both, on the other hand have always had more blessings than us. Clearly only now you realize this, and decide that we're threatening your precious balance."
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