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 Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:12 am
Shangyue was no longer comfortable lurking around the slave dens, every time he passed by he felt like his uncle was watching him. He didn't let it show but he didn't care for it. His questions had been innocent enough, it seemed perfectly reasonable to him for anybody to question the style of slavery around the pride. Especially when they grew up and started understanding more about what it meant.. and how it could be used.
He still had thoughts he wanted to get out, questions he wanted to ask.. but there didn't seem any appropriate outlet for it. He asked a few superficial questions during some lessons but hesitated to ask more.
Now he was staring off into the distance thoughtfully, not far from the royal dens but not on any popular path around the pride. Thinking.
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:40 am
Shuiyue was extremely bored. He proceeded through his lessons with little thought about them, as his life was destined to go no where. What else was he, a royal, supposed to do? Sit around and look pretty? Nah, his sisters got that job, and then some. He refused the thought to possibly marry into any lower class, and it drove a wedge between him and any possibility of making friends. He didn't want to risk anything lowering his status. Grump, grump. He was a grump. He went to see what his brother was up to. "Shangyue?" He approached his older brother, a clear look of boredom stretched across his face.
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:59 am
"Hm?"
He looked over when he heard his name called, surprised to see his brother approaching him. Shuiyue didn't look much like he was really bringing anything to him, just.. boredom. He nearly rolled his eyes, hoping this wasn't going to be a push for entertainment of some kind. He'd let himself fall into a more sour mood than even he realized.
"Shuiyue," he greeted his brother, "How are you?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 10:24 am
"Bored," Shuiyue said, flopping down on the ground near his brother. "I don't understand what our place is here. We learn about the pride, how we should act....but when are we ever going to use it? I don't want to lose my rank if I marry low, but there's nothing else that anyone expects from me but to continue the family line." He said the lasty part in a snooty tone, clearly not thrilled with it.
"I want...more meaning to my life, Shangyue. Don't you feel the same?" He rolled onto his back, rubbing it into the grass. Who cared? He could stain his fur a bit green if he wanted to, it was his fur.
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 10:33 am
He tilted his head at the complaints his brother had, listening and considering carefully. He even chuckled- which was poorly timed considering it was immediately followed by Shuiyue saying he wanted more meaning in his life.
"I don't know if anybody can expect anything else," he said, "Nobody in our family seems to really do anything, it's not that we can't."
Shangyue certainly didn't expect much from anybody. None of his aunts and uncles did anything in particular, he knew uncle Ptolemy was an apprentice only because mother had chosen it for him. Everybody else just let their royal title define them, even some cousins did it and they weren't even in the high class.
"The only time anybody seems to stray from the same old path is marrying a slave."
He didn't bother addressing the meaning of his own life. He would be king- someday. His grandparents weren't exactly young but they weren't old, his parents were plenty young.. there was a long way to go for it to happen naturally.
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 11:16 am
Shuiyue's nose wrinkled at that. It wasn't that wonderful to downtalk family, but it was way before his time, and he had a hard time imagining anyone even doing that.
"I'd never do something like that. Why turn your back on everything for a slave?" His leg twitched, and he rolled back onto his belly.
"Still...what else is there to do?" he sighed. Leaving the pride was something that would never cross Shuiyue's mind; this was home, it was just boring.
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 11:24 am
If Shangyue hadn't recently had an awkward discussion with Unyezi or been thinking so much about slaves, it might not have been so readily in his mind that Unyezi, his son and his son's son had all left the high class to marry slaves. But it was an undeniable pattern in that portion of the family.
He had nothing to say to either question, only shrugging- until he decided now was perhaps a good time to get a second opinion on his own thoughts. It seemed almost in line with their conversation, at least they were already talking about slaves.. and the meaning of their lives.
"I've been thinking a lot about slaves lately," he said, glancing back to the distance, around and then back to his brother, "It's all very .. complicated."
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 11:34 am
Shuiyue's ears swiveled forwards and back, not really sure what his brother meant. He...wasn't sure if he should pry. Shuiyue was a bit of a whiner, but he wasn't as assertive as is brother, or at least Shuiyue thought. When push came to shove, he'd follow behind Shangyue before trying to take the lead.
"Complicated?" he asked carefully, not sure if Shangyue was thinking about marrying into that rank or not. To be honest...Shuiyue wouldn't let him. There was no way he'd let his brother do something as foolish as that. "You're not implying..."
The white male shivered, just thinking about losing his brother to the low rank, to be unfavored by the Great Lion.
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 11:41 am
It was hard to tell for sure what Shuiyue was thinking but there was one obvious guess. Shangyue had been the one to bring up that sticking to your title or marrying a slave seemed to be the two primary options they all had. He wasn't as carefully and thoroughly educated as his mother had been because of the space between him and ruling so he didn't have as much opportunity to show his enthusiasm, so it would be easy to wonder if he was so dedicated to it.
"No," he said flatly, certain even if he was wrong at guessing what Shuiyue was thinking, it wasn't what he was, "I have just been wondering about the low class in general, how they are expected to serve us to share in our favor. Everything seems to go quite simply and predictably around here but I have wondered.. if a slave were to do something despicable, does it matter?"
He seemed not to be looking at his brother anymore, lost in thought and trailing off there without any more explanation. He'd asked Unyezi if he'd been told to do anything he disagreed with and been dismissed quickly, but he wasn't done thinking about it.
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 11:48 am
Hm. Shuiyue looked at his brother for a long moment, even if Shangyue wasn't looking at him any longer. It was a strange question, but it didn't bother Shuiyue. Hell, he was debating an even deeper topic; what was he to do with his life, in a more substantial way?
".....would anyone even notice that a slave stepped out of their bounds?" Shuiyue reflected. He honestly wondered if anyone would; he never much paid attention to the slaves, unless he needed something. They lived a pretty good life for being low class, at least Shuiyue thought so.
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 11:54 am
When Shuiyue finally answered, Shangyue focused back in on him. It was a valid point, there were probably many things the slaves could do without being noticed by the pride. Probably many of them did. Perhaps Unyezi's tone would have been unwelcome to some of the high class, even if Shangyue just let it go and moved on.
"Perhaps not," he said thoughtfully, "But even if someone did notice, we know the Great Lion definitely would not, right?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 12:49 pm
Hmmm. Shangyue was bring up some interesting points. Interesting enough that Shuiyue was wanting to pick his brother's brain a bit more.
"You have a point. As much as I want to have purpose in my life, the Great Lion would know everything I do, good or bad. Slaves on the other hand...the Great Lion never casts his eyes on them." He chuckled. "In the end, it is the Great Lion that watches over us, and brings us meaning."
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 1:10 pm
"Exactly," he agreed, falling silent for a moment before continuing his thought, his voice hushed in case they were overheard, "Slaves don't answer to the Great Lion directly, they answer to us. They are supposed to be motivated by our willingness to share the Great Lion with them, they need to satisfy the demands we make. Our souls may be in danger if we do wrong but if we direct them and they refuse, theirs may be."
And with that, Shangyue finally got his complete thought out. What he hadn't been able to ask Unyezi when carefully prying for information, something he wasn't entirely sure how to articulate and somehow his brother made so simple.
"I asked Unyezi if he had ever been asked to do anything he didn't agree with," he said, "He said no with a severity that suggested he would refuse in such a circumstance. I don't know if that decision is one he would be so comfortable making if he had never been a noble."
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 1:39 pm
Shuiyue's ears pricked forward at everything his brother was saying. Clearly he had been thinking about it for quite some time. It just so happened that Shuiyue was the one to hear it verbalized.
"That's interesting," Shuiyue answered. "I mean, it could be anything that they don't agree with, not that it would be dangerous or anything, right? That's a strange answer to hear from Unyezi," he answered with his lower jaw out. He of all should know that it wouldn't be good to refuse a reasonable request. Reasonable had an extremely flexible meaning, too.
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 1:45 pm
It was probably smart for Shuiyue to move the theory back towards general, harmless disagreeable requests. But Shangyue couldn't help but press it.
"But that's the point exactly," he said, "It doesn't have to be dangerous, but it could be, if there was just someone inclined to ask it."
His voice was back to a conversational volume and he sounded a little less serious but it was starting to border on enthusiastic. He wasn't wrong, he was more sure of that now than before. Naturally the pride was going to tend towards order and self-preservation as a whole, but now this whole strange loophole with the slaves seemed such an obvious risk.
"Perhaps that has contributed to how well treated the slaves are around here."
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