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 Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 11:51 pm
Damn, but it was hot today, and to make it worse, there wasn't even the slightest hint of a breeze. It was an oppressive, stagnant afternoon, and Shinda had all but given up on escaping it. Even the shade was hot, and that was just plain ridiculous. Despite the fact that nothing had actually happened, it was a Bad Day by virtue of the weather and nothing else. Walking felt rather like oozing, in some ways, but here she was regardless, walking along. Panting to relieve what little of the heat she could, she flipped her forelock out of her eyes and surveyed the area.
She was hot, which meant she was annoyed, but she was also bored. To tell the truth, she was bored more often than she wasn't, restless and discontent. Her life felt as stagnant as the afternoon heat, and it was wearing on her more and more lately. She was beginning to wonder why she stayed.
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 11:40 am
Mbari was taking a walk away from the den for a change. Infact, this was becoming more and more of a reaccurance. He loved spending time with his mother and father, and they had never forced him out, but they were growing older, silver flecking their warm familiar faces, and he felt like he was draining them of their last contented years together.
He could look after himself, that was more than certain, he was able to hunt, to find shelter. He could move out if he wanted to, find a den of his own that wasn't directly ajoined to his parents...But what was the use in all that space if you were the only one in it? Mbari imagined he would be rather lonely, and that made him worry. Again.
Kamba his familiar was a great calming influence, but he had found that he had even needed time away from her recently, as much as she was a great friend. He was spiralling into a panic about where his life was going, and as his golden paws thudded onto the scorching earth, he realised he didn't know where he was going, either.
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 11:53 am
It didn't take Shinda long to notice that someone was headed in her general direction, though it was almost certainly nothing more than circumstance. They weren't anyone she recognized, and didn't seem to have taken notice of her yet. This gave her a choice: stay her course and interact, or veer off in another direction and stay stubbornly bored and vaguely annoyed at nothing in particular. ...although some elements of those things weren't mutually exclusive.
Eh, whatever. Avoidance would have required more effort than she felt like expending right this moment, and besides, almost anyone was a pleasant change from talking to her mother, who was often half-aware of the world at best. That Acha continued to choose to be so was a constant source of frustration for her daughter.
As their paths brought them closer to each other, the lioness offered a simple, "Hey."
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:09 pm
A voice seemed to appear out of nowhere, like it had emerged from the bushes like a startled antelope. He acted much the same. "H-hello?" Oh dear, the first conversation was always the worst. His maroon eyes flickered over the savannah gently until they met an unusually coloured lioness, who seemed to offer an almost nonchalant greeting.
Mbari wondered if this would just be a passing and civil greeting, but as his nerves slowed him down, he had near enough parked himself right infront of the unsuspecting lioness.
"Er.. H-how are you?" He offered a toothy smile. She'd ignore him, or would she smirk and walk off, he mused.
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 2:16 pm
She hadn't meant to startle him, but when someone wasn't paying attention to what was going on around them in the first place, it was hard not to, so Shinda didn't feel particularly bad about. She surprised her mother, more often than not, so she'd become more or less immune to needing to apologize about it.
"Hot," she answered dryly, opting to neither ignore nor smirk at him - although she wasn't strictly aware that those were options. "A tie between that and miserable. You?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 2:31 pm
Well, she seemed a little.. blunt. Being surrounded by doting family his whole life probably hadn't prepared him for meeting those that were feeling less than chirpy or excitable. He mulled over the right way to answer her for a few seconds, and looked over her face to try and read her expression further. She did indeed look irritated. "I-it is indeed rather hot today, moreso than usual.. but why should you be miserable?" He had a genuine concern for even the most distant of strangers, but was still aware he might be opening a can of worms, or treading on a nerve.
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 2:39 pm
"I think it being this awful out is a pretty good reason to be miserable, don't you?" It made her feel all disgusting and wilted and just...ugh. Her pawpads were all sweaty and she even kind of wondered if her brain might be melting a little. Her long tuft of hair had fallen back into her eyes, and she flipped it out of the way again, frowning.
"Anyway, I'm Shinda. And you are?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 2:57 pm
With all the things on his mind he hadn't really thought about the heat, but now that she'd mentioned it, it did indeed begin to subconsciously take its toll. However, Mbari was often used to being physically warm and uncomfortable when he was nervous. The earth began to burn under his paws and his mane suddenly felt sticky. "Shinda, w-well, I'm Mbari." He gave her a curt nod, being this nervous about social interaction when it was this hot wasn't pleasant. "Do you think we should f-find somewhere more shady, perhaps? I-it might not be too much cooler, but its something? O-Or we could go to the watering hole?" He wanted to try and alleviate her discomfort, if he could.
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 8:41 pm
As he spoke further, Shinda became more aware that he was nervous. There was a hesitation in some of his words that was close to a stutter - not a really intense one, but it was still definitely there. Not that she really cared how he talked, but it made her wonder what he was nervous about in the first place. "Yeah, sure," she agreed with a shrug. "Unless you've got somewhere else to be. Do you? You seem tense."
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Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2012 6:18 pm
Did he appear nervous? He hoped not, but he tried to shrug it off and look cool. Mbari didn't understand the number of lions that could just float through life with a certain nonchalance, so laid back and yet with the ability to be serious when it was needed. His father was like that, why oh why couldn't he have inherited or followed in his behavior?
"I don't have anywhere else to be actually, I-im probably a bit tense due to the f-fact that I couldn't have anywhere else at the m-minute to be if I wanted to b-be. Besides." He paused to swallow as the heat was making his mouth and tongue seemingly stick together. "I'm a-always a bit tense."
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Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2012 10:54 pm
For her part, Shinda had difficulty understanding how some people could go through life so...so uncomfortable! It was mystifying, to a degree, although not quite as confusing as his reply. "What do you mean, you couldn't have anywhere else to be? The Pridelands is a big place!"
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Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 11:26 am
"I-I mean, well not physically." He didn't expect the lioness to take it in such a literal manner, but then again, that was the way some saw the world. "I-I mean, there's little to do, and I don't m-mean the usual things like h-hunting and stuff." He trailed off. He supposed blurting out the words "I'm lonely and want a family of my own" To a lone female certainly weren't appealing. "Y-you know, sometimes w-we feel like we've done e-everything we can, and want to try s-something else?" Now he just sounded creepy. He sighed to himself and shook his head, motioning towards a patch of shade just off to the left, under a large acacia tree. He started to move towards it, looking over his shoulder to see if Shinda was following.
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Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 10:35 pm
"...Oh, that." This admission from Mbari gave her pause, not because she found it creepy, but because that was exactly how she had been feeling. It startled her to hear it from someone else, and put so succintly (even if it was with a stutter). She'd recovered from the surprise within a moment, and moved after him towards the shade-tree. "I know exactly what you mean. I've started to wonder if I should even stay, or if I should just go."
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:59 am
He too, was surprised that another felt the same way as him. He wasn't sure why but he always assumed that everyone had a purpose, something bigger that they were doing, right now, right in this moment. His maroon eyes narrowed for a second, and he smiled. "I-I don't really have the trouble o-of decided whether I should stay or l-leave." Mbari didn't have an option with regards to that thought. "I-I can't leave my family, I don't w-want to, but then I supposed, I can't k-keep waiting for something to come to me." He debated whether, if he had no family ties, he would just up and leave, and try to find something bigger, something more exciting in the grand scheme of things. It was a selfish thought, and guilt began to wash over him. "D-Do you not have any family here, S-shinda?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:40 pm
"I do. A brother and sister, and my mother. The rest of my siblings have already left, and my mother...keeps to herself. We're not a close family." Shinda looked away for a moment, out at the waves of heat rising up. "Whether I stay or go, it would be for myself."
"You can only wait so long, and I'm tired of waiting. I don't want to waste my whole life just sitting here. Do you?"
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