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 Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:57 pm
 Iroh was having a nice enough day. Quiet, without much action. They were the kind of days he usually reveled in, because he was granted the time and the peace to listen to the sands he loved so much. His mind, however, was not as serene as the world around him, and he found he had no focus for listening.
Carrying pain was a new experience for him. Time was his only hope, yet no matter how many days moved by, the pain remained. It wasn't physical, the lion cub having not yet any experience with fighting or real violence and the injuries from play and practice were never too severe. This was a different kind of pain, anyway. In his heart and head, and a sadness that seemed to weigh down his muscles.
Sighing, sitting in a sandy valley of no particular interest, he stared at his paws thoughtfully, pondering everything and nothing at all.
Lowering himself to the ground, he breathed another deep sigh and closed his eyes. He couldn't tell if he was depressed or bored. Probably some combination of the two. He was doing his best to remain happy but, without anyone around to see him, he let his sadness out a bit. It wasn't healthy, after all, to not feel his emotions. And losing a family member was no easy thing to deal with, particularly for someone who had only just started understanding the basic principles of mortality.
Whimpering, Iroh hid his face under his paw and huffed into the sand. He wished he had something to take his mind off it all. Something fun and much less scary.
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Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:39 pm
 As if called to by a higher power, Jua'Mwiba arrived on the scene. Carrying his name-sake of Sun-Spike, he barroled across the sand, loudly decrying his poetry (freshly written in the sand, but long since blown-away and memorized) in seemingly meaningless verse. What he said was difficult to say, for it was mostly muffled battle-cries and declarations of love to the sun and battle. Even if one could have broken down word-for-word what the juvinile had invented for himself, it was unlikely that one would have been able to understand him.
But, like a wild force of nature, Jua ran across the desert. The newest technique by his new 'teacher', or perhaps his parents, who sought to either calm the boy down... or perhaps kill him from sun-stroke. Either would have been preferable, for the boy had proven himself to be more than a hand-ful on several occasion. Sitting still and blindly obeying orders was not his strong suit... though his superiors had noticed the boy had an uncanny ability for two skill-sets. Starting fights, and ending them by pummeling the other unforunate participant into submission.
"AND I DID IT MYYY WAY!" Was the last, and perhaps only part of the poem worth hearing, that Jua declared before skidding to a halt to catch his breath, less than a meter away from the other boy, who sat mopily near-by. Of course, Jua couldn't stand the idea of someone being depressed -only because it was dull and uninteresting, and not because he felt bad for them- so he quickly turned towards the boy and brought him into the conversation.
"What's wrong whitey? You look like someone just killed your slave!" He was well aware that there were no slaves in their pride, but it was the only worth-while comparison that came to mind.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:42 pm
Iroh lifted his head when he heard a voice explode onto the scene. He blinked, not hearing anything coherent, and what few words did reach him were baffling at best. He smiled though, already amused and his interest piqued. He wondered if he should sit and wait patiently for the voice to come to him, or get up and go find it for himself. Feeling more inclined for the latter, his mood still a bit too gloomy, he put his head back down and waited patiently. There was a chance the owner of the voice wouldn't even come his way, anyway.
He closed his eyes to wait, and the voice was suddenly very near to him, exploding in his ears. He flattened them against his head, looking up just in time to see the dark cub, a stark difference to his own white fur, addressing him. Lifting his head again, he cleared his throat and offered a smile.
"Well, no," he said, almost apologetically, "no one killed any... slaves... no, uh. I'm just thinking about something sad, and I guess it's making me look a little... well. Sad." He sat up, shaking sand from his fur before looking at the other cub and tilting his head. He didn't want to bring up his brother yet, though the mention of death made him wince visibly. He tried to shake it off, his soft and gentle eyes shining pleasantly.
"I heard you coming from a way off. What were you saying? And why were you running so hard? Not that it's any of my business, of course. If you don't want to tell me, I understand. I haven't even introduced myself properly. I'm Iroh."
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:58 pm
Jua sat down a minute, catching his breath and watching the other cub with interest. He had never really experienced sadness, and had no reason too. Well, dissapointment maybe since his family had a tendancy to never pay any attention to him. But never sadness. But the thought of being depressed didn't stay with him long, and he just shrugged it off. Maybe he'd ask later, if it proved to be something interesting. Maybe he could come up with a poem about it? Or... something.
"Eh, well that doesn't sound very fun. If being sad is so lame, you should really think about something else to get in a better mood. That's what I do anyway." Jua watched curiously as he saw the other cub wince. Weird. He had never seen anyone who looked that upset over something before. Oh well, he'd just have to wipe it off his new companion's face. He wasn't going to have any fun if the other lion was just going to be mopey!
"I," Jua said, sitting up straight and looking proud, "am called Jua'Mwiba. And I happened to be reciting poetry, which I wrote all by myself. And I was running around reciting it because that way I could be sure that someone would hear my brilliance and recogonize my ability. And also, running is good for you and builds your muscles, and yelling will probably make my breathing better later! Mom said it would keep me busy." She had also said 'make him sleep later'. Oh, if only she knew how wrong she was.
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Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 1:26 am
Iroh smiled. That logic was simple and pointed. He shouldn't dwell on the sadness. After all, he didn't like being depressed and he certainly didn't like driving others away because he looked sorrowful and non-approachable. He just needed to think about something else. What was so hard about that. He nodded slowly, doing his best to shake away the blues that were lingering around him.
This new cub was certainly helping. He was an odd creature, considering Iroh was not too familiar with the ideas of pride and confidence. He knew his abilities and he knew he had pride, of course, but he didn't wear either so clearly on his fur as this cub seemed to. Just looking at him Iroh knew that Jua was a fireball, brazen and, at the very least, entertaining. His smile turned into a grin.
"It's nice to meet you, Jua," he said, taking the liberty to shorten his name, a little show of friendship in hopes of keeping this company around for a bit, "I've never heard poetry before. Of it, yes, but only in stories and legends from around the pride. I don't know anyone who actually comes up with it on their own. That must be a difficult skill to master. I can see why you would want others to hear you." He closed his eyes, looking pleasantly content and sincere.
The rather pudgy cub nodded to himself before opening his eyes again, "I would very much like to know how you go about making up poems! If you want to share some of your secrets with me."
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Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 7:24 pm
Jua grinned, clearly quite pleased that he had managed to pull the other cub out of his depression. After all, he would have quickly left the other boy behind if Jua had thought that he would hold him up. He didn't like to stand still for longer than he had to. What fun would that be, after all? Letting the other boy shake away his depression, Jua sat up straight, preparing himself for his long explinations. Which he would just love to tell.
"Nice to meet you too whitey." He told the boy with a short nod, "And poetry is a very delicate art form! I've been trained in it by one of our pride's very own story-tellers!" Though she wasn't actually a story teller. She was a warrior. She just happened to know some very interesting stories, which she had told him, and then explained poetry to him. And he had absorbed everything... he just had yet to... grasp it. So to speak.
"To write poetry, you must simply have the desire in your heart." Jua explained, patting his chest where he assumed his heart was. "That's the only way to make it work! You have to really believe in what you're making poetry about!"
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 12:43 am
"Whitey?" Iroh said to himself quietly, not sure if he liked the nickname or not. It certainly seemed apt, of course. He was as white as they came, save his creamy mane. When he was curled up in the sand he often looked like a bleached rock under the sand. Shaking his head, he listened attentively to the other's explanation, growing increasingly interested.
"In my heart?" Iroh repeated thoughtfully, humming a bit. He didn't know if he could trust his heart too readily. After all, right now it was heavy and dark with the memory of his all-too-recently lost brother. Death had a way of tainting everything. He imagined if he tried to make a poem it would be sad, or haunted, in the memory of Ozai.
"That sounds very sincere," he said, with a nod. He was standing now, tail flicking behind him. Smiling, he continued to nod slowly as he spoke, "I can see you have a true passion for it. I would love to learn more about it. Maybe I should meet a story-teller some day. Or... you could make me an example? We can run, too, if that helps you. Since you were before."
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:41 pm
Jua seemed to be very fond of the nickname. But then, everyone had a nickname as far as he was concerned. Names didn't always suit people the way they should have... and frankly, the nicknames were a lot easier to remember. Jua didn't have the best memory for names really. "Don't worry about the nickname! Think of it as a warrior name!" He said, brushing it off as quickly as he could. Nicknames were hardly a good topic of conversation.
"Of course your heart. Every warrior and romantic should know that!" Jua declared, standing up and shaking off sand. He had no real knowledge of death himself, and his dad was more of a... helpless sex addict than a romantic. But Jua had no intention of being like him! "We must find our lady loves and deliver sweet poetry to them! That or declare our love of battle for the glorious firekin! Whichever happens to come about first!" And he needed to find himself a lady love to serenade with his sweet poetry at some point. He'd have to work on that one.
"Come! We must travel the desert in search of something to write the poem about! After all, these things don't just pop into your head, you need inspiration! A muse! My poem was about the great warrior I'll be. At some point. Until then we'll simply have to find something else..." Jua mumbled under his breath thoughtfully. "Let's think... what is worth devoting ourselves to? And maybe later I'll introduce you to her... she was very clever. Very useful if you will."
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:42 pm
Iroh grinned. He wanted to be a good warrior! Somehow he didn't imagine the name 'whitey' striking fear into the hearts of others, but then again... that's not what he wanted to do. He wanted to be respected, not feared, and perhaps a disarming nickname would do him good. It would show people he was kind heart, yet his reputation, he hoped, would back him as being strong and noble.
Thinking too much on the subject, he shook his head and refocused on the lesson at hand. He blinked. Lady loves? Iroh wasn't sure he had one of those. He had lots of friends, but no one he would want to use something as fine as poetry on. It felt to him that the notion of pronouncing feelings in verse had to be meant with the utter most sincerity. If he was going to do it, there had to be no doubt. Right?
But he also had no love of battle. He had a love of defending those that needed defending, and of honoring his pride, but battle itself... not so much.
Clearly perplexed, he frowned and mulled his choices over, but was distracted when Jua told him they would have to go searching. He nodded, thinking that the best tactic, and moved to follow him. Inspiration! Of course, that made perfect sense. Overthinking it wouldn't do him any good. He needed to find... a muse.
"I'm sure you will be a great warrior," Iroh said offhandedly, sounding as sure of it as he did that it was day, "who is 'her'? Or... she. Who is she?" He thought he heard Jua saying something, but he couldn't hear everything. Tilting his head, he smiled sheepishly. "Did you say 'her'? I'm sorry, I may have just heard the wind talking."
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Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:41 pm
Jua grinned back, rather liking the lion he had recebtly met. He had after all needed a companion for his little plans... and they were little plans, but who knew? Maybe one day he would be a great warrior-general, or something of the like. He would certainly like that... though knowing Jua he could very well run off into battle and completely forget to bring his army. As much as he liked to spread the fun around, he was one to keep all the wild glory for himself as he could. Not to lie about it, but simply because it wouldn't be right to not put one's self whole-heartedly into battle! Fighting to the death was the only way to go! And of course, he always romantizised the notion by having his as-yet-undiscovered-lady-love at his side during said event.
"Oh, of course I will be. There's never any doubt in that. After all, doubt just breeds fear, and fear breeds hate and... there was more to that, but I forget the rest." Jua said, brushing that off absently while he tried to get back onto his original train of thought, "The point of the matter is that we need to find muses! They could be the glory of battle, our lady-loves or just... I don't know... sand? I'm sure there's all kinds of muses..."
He sat down and held up his paw informatively, "Every great poet needs a teacher. If you show any potential, I shall introduce you to the lioness who taught me about poetry. You'd be suprised how many cubs our age don't know a thing about it!" Though his master, Azula had known it... which had impressed him a bit.
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Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:10 pm
Iroh smiled, trying not to look teasing. He thought it funny that this poet couldn't remember a saying. Wasn't that kind of like poetry? Maybe he wasn't understanding the concept just yet. Still, it was funny to see and he couldn't help but laugh a bit, shaking his head.
"Muses, right," he didn't know, exactly, what a muse was, though he had heard the word before this conversation and was drawing from experience for it's meaning. Inspiration, like they had talked about. A girl, as Jua said, that would just make the words come right out. No thinking involved.
Not that Iroh was particularly fond of not thinking. He was, by nature, a very thoughtful cub. He had a feeling he wasn't going to get the hang of this very easily. But that only made him want to try it more.
"I do like the sand! It sings and talks, and moves and lives. Maybe I can make a poem about the sand!" He said eagerly, ears perked forward, "and then if I do meet your master I'll have a poem all ready!"
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Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 6:56 pm
Jua didn't seem to mind the idea of being laughed at. Really, he was just an attention whore, so getting laughed at was just fine with him. Provided it wasn't over a serious error in a warrior stage... or his own personal poetry. That wouldn't have done at all. But this was harmless, so he dismissed it in favor of more promising action.
"Come on, you have to know what a muse is, don't you?" Jua asked, raising an confused eyebrow. He had thought that everyone knew that! But then, some lions didn't even know about poetry, so he supposed that not knowing about muses would go somewhere hand-in-hand with that.
"Well... I guess that using sand as a muse works just as well..." He shrugged a bit. His poems were more about his beautiful-future-mate... whoever she was. It would have probably have helped to have a face/name to go with, so mostly he pictured a beautiful red goddess. Or something along those lines. That, or the great bloody battles and wars that he was completely certain he would fight in.
"And she wasn't actually my master... my real master is Azula." He explained. "She... doesn't really like poetry. The other lioness, she's just a hunter who knows a lot about it. I think she was born outside the firekin."
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Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:33 pm
"Azula?" Iroh echoed, "I have family named Azula!" He laughed, honestly amused. He shook his head. Related or not, a master was a master. He knew he certainly did not possess the skill, so it couldn't possibly be genetic anyway. Whoever it was, he would treat them with the respect they deserved for their field, regardless. He shook his creamy-maned head, his mop of hair flopping over his forehead.
"I've met a few lions who were born outside of these lands. They've all been really nice. I accidentally got a cub hurt. She's younger than I am. Maybe I could make a poem that says I'm sorry to her? She was very brave."
Iroh smiled thoughtfully, now distracted by his efforts to find an appropriate topic. Sand was a good idea, and so was this new one. But what else could there be? He spoke as he thought, not funneling his thoughts and just letting them flop out of his mouth.
"I could make own about my family. My sister, who is so sad I think it would be good to make something to make her happier? Or about the brother we lost. But that's too sad, isn't it? I think I need an example."
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Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 4:54 pm
"Really? Wow... maybe you're related to my Master. She keeps kicking me around..." He mentioned thoughtfully, thinking back to his first -painful- lesson. "But she's pretty good at what she does. She seems to think that she's the best at everything... but I'm sure I'll be able to beat her some day. I just need to try my best, then I'll have her for sure." Maybe. Someday. When he was bigger than she was. But she was kinda fast too... he'd have to be extra careful if they ever had a real fight.
"I've met... one girl..." He thought back to the girl he had met from their enemy pride. She had been nice, if not a little... weird. But he had liked her. She hadn't ignored him, and had seemed to like his poetry too. Always a good way to earn points with him. "She was pretty cool. And then I think the girl who told me about poetry wasn't born here either... and there were some twins I met too... but mostly I've met cubs from here. Adults never seem to have time to talk."
He thought about the other ideas for poetry before he nodded, "Yeah, all those are good, much better than sand. And of course a poem can be sad! If you can make your audience cry, then you've done a good job! That's what poetry is supposed to do! Stir up emotion and all that! It can be the glory of battle, the splendor of battle, or the destruction of loss!" He said, a little over dramatically actually. He actually couldn't write a decent poem to save his life... but he liked to at least show that he knew what it was supposed to sound like.
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Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:58 pm
"I'm sure it isn't a contest," Iroh said sagefully, nodding his head in a wistful way, "but if you try your hardest and practice I believe you'll find it in yourself to surpass her. At least in your own reckoning. I mean, if you believe in yourself and prove to yourself that you're where you want to be, I can't see anyone else telling you differently and being right about it, right?"
He grinned. He was a strict optimist.
"I've not met that many, myself," he said, moving on to the topic of girls, "besides the one I mentioned, and a couple of others. You met twins? I met twins too! I wonder if they were the same? Ka and Kai were the two I met. We spoke about sparring. Come to think of it, I still haven't found a sparring partner to train with." He frowned, not liking this sudden memory. He had said he would find one, and would grow stronger from it. He would have to buckle down and get that search underway at some point.
"I met a couple adults who were very cool. One was a great warrior, and he couldn't see colors. I want to be like him, I know I do, though I only spoke to him the one time."
Iroh didn't know if he liked the idea of purposefully making someone cry, so he decided silently that his poem was going to be a happy one.
"How many poems have you made?"
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