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 Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 2:36 am
A wiser lion would have at least tried to make a get away. Waseme would have told them they were a coward, and this ghost of a lion, so much more enlightened than she, would have looked upon her with both pity and contempt. She pictured this imaginary foe as her sister Kitambi. Hauntings must have run the family.
When there was nothing keeping her from it, she righted herself and bristled at him. The dirty fur settled after he had put some distance between them.
Oh, she felt it now, that grime all over her coat. It made her twitch and to ask her to keep from grooming herself free of it would be no more reasonable than to have her stop breathing.
She'd had enough suffocating for one day, thanks.
"Gods' forbid that you're so helpless that you can't feed yourself, that really would be the epitome of weak..."
Waseme glared at him but did not cease the incessant cleaning of her right front leg and paw. "I can hunt," she said, all full of piss and vinegar now. "What do you care of my family and my lovers? If you must know, they're dead." Well, the family was. The lover had never existed to die. More of a fling with a despicable rogue carting around too much ego and attitude.
Go figure.
"And I was a queen once, yes."
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 4:45 am
"I don't," Atsu'hara replied smoothly and gave a loose roll of his shoulder. Very little seemed to affect him, or at least little seemed to bother him on the outside. If there was something that turned him into a raging bull or a weak and pitiful creature, then it remained hidden from the public eye. "But oft-times others like to use such subjects as an excuse for losing their position in society," he pointed out, tone mild and otherwise conversational.
He took a few moments to inspect his claws, stretching out a leg and wriggling each toe before he returned his attention to Waseme. Unsurprisingly she was now attempting to save some face by making herself somewhat respectable, it was for that reason only that he provided her with the distance she sought...although he did have to admit he found her disgruntled tone to be quite comical!
"A lame and otherwise weak excuse for wallowing in self pity," he shrugged again, lifted a brow and fell silent. A few minutes later he spoke again, perhaps after considering what he wanted to say. "No wonder you lost your position as royalty."
"...A genuine and worthy leader aspires to strength, integrity and dignity regardless of adversity." he clucked his tongue. "If every ruler whimpered and fled as you did then society would be a complete and utter mess."
"Or perhaps you have another excuse? Surely one of such blue blood would not be such a phenomenal disappointment to her line, let alone to herself."
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Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 6:40 pm
There was a stinging sensation she felt all over her skin that came and went with the subject of her pride. In tones ribald or sympathetic, Waseme had heard it all. There was nothing he could say about the matter she hadn't heard in her own voice and with a much more degrading, personal edge.
"I didn't flee," she started bitterly, "I went to get my daughter and the heiress. She didn't want to rule, so she ran away. --Yes, yes. I'm a bad mother, too. Spare me. She got that attitude from her father, not me. He was an insufferable a*****e."
Waseme carried on with both her grooming and her explanation: "She went back on her own and drowned. Any hope for rebuilding had passed by time I got back."
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:48 am
Atsu'hara's eyebrow shot up as she made reference to her daughter and the 'insufferable a*****e' that had produced her. If there was ever a time when Atsu'hara had believed that someone had acted in an inappropriate manner, it would have been then and there. Had a royal really thrown herself at someone unworthy? By all measures she should have let the damn runt perish... it was something that he would have done.
"So allow me to get this straight..." he said in measured tones, his lips pursing as he regarded Waseme with the same unimpressed stare that she should have been used to by now. "You settled for an unworthy scrap, produced something less than blue blooded..." he was of course summing up her relationship and pregnancy in these words.
"This runt was highly inappropriate to rule and did you a favour by leaving, yet you followed it?" he enquired. There was a hint of incredulity in his voice in those moments, almost as though he was struggling to comprehend her decision to pursue her daughter. "Then, because the world does you a favour and removes it for you, you wallow in self pity?"
"I struggle to understand how all of this results in you abandoning your duties," he drawled and shook his head. "You start with a blank slate and an opportunity to find a more appropriate heir and yet you refuse to return to the lands that by right, are yours." he snorted in disgust at this and shook his head. The cultures, traditions and moral standings of the lions that lived far south of his own kind were bizarre... If the runt had been born in his - well no actually, if a lioness had been so utterly pathetic as to surrender royal blood to the unworthy then she would have been removed as well.
"As I suspected you are weak," he stated. "You fled. All 'hope' of rebuilding was gone? Your explanation is pathetic, it had nothing to do with hope. You lost the strength and resolve necessary to lead your kind... now you lie in ruin and exile."
"For all the venom you might have in you, you really are worth nothing. You are nothing more than a poisonous snake that is in need of beheading."
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Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 12:30 pm
Those lands were not hers by her birthright, a fact that hung over Waseme's head from the day she'd been given the chance to rule them. More importantly, they were flooded and inhabitable when at last she returned. Who would rebuild under such circumstances? Who could? The pressure and duress wasn't worth it.
No one but an eye witness could understand Waseme had as much chance of restoring the beauty and liveliness of her home as she did truly becoming a snake and lashing out at him. There was God capable of this transformation somewhere, but they would not come for her. Nor had the deity that she pleaded with to cast away the rising waters.
If he was right it had nothing to do with hope, then it was the Gods that had wronged her.
"What gives you the right to decide what others are worth?" Waseme felt her lip curl back, the tips of her teeth put on display. Some yellowed, some broken. "Are you a king?"
Or was he a God?
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 5:54 am
"I am not a king," Atsu'hara replied, his lips curling somewhat at the title. Where he came from superiority was determined by brute strength and trophies. He had quite a number of them, ample enough to keep him high enough in the ranks, but if he was unable to catch up to his target he might find that he lost them all. It left a bitter taste in his mouth and reminded him of how important it was to complete his mission, if only to reaffirm that he hadn't lost his touch - granted he would lose a trophy or two due to how long it had taken, but it was better than his life.
...Actually if he was quite honest he valued his dignity more than his life, but some lions were never able to put all their priorities into the right order.
"Where I come from kings and queens do not exist, the right to rule is determined by strength and proof of expertise," he pointed out and lifted a brow, his tone of voice belying that she wouldn't have had the slightest chance of becoming a ruler. Perhaps this was why he deemed himself capable of determining who had worth and who didn't? Given that he chose not to answer that particular question she was just going to have to make assumptions.
"If that individual fails to maintain their strength or their judgement is failing, then they can be replaced with considerable ease."Hopefolly Ermagerd I'm so sorry, I could get my SoA muses to talk for ages. x_X: I think I burnt them out.
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Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 7:47 am
Waseme wasn't short assumptions or ability to read between the lines. She'd heard his implications loud and clear, glowering at him in the wake of them. Wasn't the right to rule determined by those things everywhere? Even the Pridelands, which she heard was the most populated among them, had more hunters than anything else (according to word-of-mouth). Could they not overthrow their king or queen by sheer numbers alone? And didn't that mean you proved yourself worthy by keeping the commoners at bay?
Valid or not, she these points were only the runner-up for what was actually said. In the end, she chose to go with something more spiteful. "Is that why you're out here alone instead of with them?" she queried, almost having the audacity to smirk. "Did they replace you?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 9:28 am
"If I had been replaced then I would be dead," Atsuharu replied coolly. He was not one for hesitation and this much was evident in his reply, he hadn't wasted a moment in replying to her, her spite misplaced in regards to this. Granted, the fact she had mentioned he was alone was a mild pain point, but when it came to his task... well, it was something that he was required to complete alone. Success in a group was no doubt guaranteed but it did rather lower the significance of the achievement. Better to go alone and reap the rewards of your success!
"I am alone as a result of a task I was given, as I am not from here, it would be illogical to assume that there would be more of my kind," he pointed out. Casting a glance towards the lioness, he regarded her with disappointment, perhaps expecting so much more - ah, but why should he have expected more from a female so battered and weak? She had no backbone so logic wasn't necessarily going to be a strong point either, was it?
"It is considered a compliment," he stated at last, failing to mention that it was also the ultimate insult if he failed. "To go alone is to demonstrate strength, to go with company indicates there is a reliance on others," he shrugged his shoulders. "I think in this we differ, for you to be alone is the ultimate insult - you have been forsaken, at least I can expect a fitting end if I should fall from grace."
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:53 am
Fitting end?
"They'll kill you," Waseme concluded, voice low and thoughtful. She wasn't short logic, despite his assessment, and the pieces all fell together. Standing before him now she felt better than she looked — and granted, she did look better than before. Still an awful mess, but... better. "What task?" she demanded, staring him in the eyes.
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