[PRP] Flirting With Disaster (Fon Youn and Upholi)

[Mtorolite]

Upholi was not, by nature, the kind of cheetah to sit still. This made her a good gatherer, but once the gathering was done, she usually ended up pacing around, wandering, and generally getting underfoot.

Tonight, she ended up settling down under a tree to stay out of everyone's way. She kept turning over, and around, again and again to try and comfortably settle down. It wasn't working very well.  

[Princess_Feylin]

It would have been difficult to say whether Fon Youn was the sort of lion to sit still. On one paw, he did seem to spend a great deal of time getting into trouble for not doing things he ought to have done, but on the other paw he was also in trouble just as frequently for doing things he ought not to have done. So it wasn't so much that he didn't do anything as he just didn't do the things that were expected and desired of him.

Those things were not of great interest to him, largely because they presented no challenge, and contrary to what people might think about the friendly, feckless adolescent Fon Youn loved a challenge above all other things. It was one of the reasons, subconsciously, that he tended to flirt with anything female and of an age where flirting would not have been inappropriate. He didn't flirt with children, though he would tease and play with them. He limited his flirtations to people his own age and older. And females. He was definitely not into the males.

Today he was feeling sharp and clever and frustrated because there was no one around to appreciate how wonderfully witty he had the potential to be, and so it was with more than a little delight he noticed the slim form of a young cheetah turning over and over beneath a tree, obviously no more content with her current predicament than he was with his. An opportunity!

Casually the yellow-eyed male strolled over and greeted the young cheetah in his affected drawl, "'Afternoon, miss."  

[Mtorolite]

Upholi rarely took it upon herself to start conversations with the lions of the pride, largely because she felt herself to be of a lower class then they were. Aside from checking to see if there was anything they needed, of course.

Upholi turned from her back back on to her stomach, half standing on her front paws to take a look at the lion talking to her. It took her a minute to recognize him - one of the poupe if she was not mistaken. She wondered if he needed help getting anything for a ritual; otherwise what would he be talking to her for?

"Uh, hello, sir. Um, did you need anything?"  

[Princess_Feylin]

Fon Youn grinned and it was the grin of a predator. But a friendly predator. One which had decided that it liked this particular person, even though they were obviously prey, and would not hear anything negative said about their interest. The grin said, "Yes, I could do horrible things, but I would never even think of doing them to you, little lady." Yes. It was absolutely essential to add the "little lady" bit.

It wasn't that Fon Youn was oblivious to the cheetah's status in the pride. That is, while he was not personally acquainted with her specific situation, he did know that cheetahs were not as highly regarded as lions, which made sense since they were incapable of performing many of the more important duties pride members were responsible for, such as summoning and hosting loa. He didn't dispute that fact, and he didn't think it unreasonable. He simply didn't concern himself over the fact that he might lose some prestige by associating with this young cheetah.

Likely this was because any semblance of prestige he might have had because of his position as a poupe had long since been diminished by his own actions and lackadaisical personality. It didn't bother him, since he was generally too young to worry about such things. There was time enough for worries when he was older, and he wasn't going to bring them on himself any sooner than was absolutely necessary.

"Merely someone to pass time with, I think," he replied, settling into a comfortable crouch. He looked up at her - for now her eyes would be on a higher level than his - and said beseechingly, "Would you be that someone?"  

[Mtorolite]

Upholi still looked a bit confused at the attention. She never - well, hardly ever- talked to anyone who wasn't either another gatherer or someone asking her to bring back something specific when they went out, usually something needed for a live sacrifice. She was handy at herding things.

But this lion didn't want her to go retrieve anything for him. He just wanted to talk. Talking was alright, and it wasn't as if he was a Bokor or anything really scary. So it would be alright to just talk for a bit.

She wasn't shirking her duties or anything, and she was quite sure no lion would ever do something like that. It was just a conversation. Although why was he crouching down like that?

"We can talk for a bit if you like, I guess," she said, making a bit of a face. Was there actually anything to talk about? "I'm Upholi."  

[Princess_Feylin]

Simply put, Fon Youn crouched because it was more comfortable than standing and he didn't feel like sprawling. There weren't too many options for a cat, after all. But Upholi had been too polite to mention it, and Fon Youn thought nothing of it. Most of what he did, he did for his own pleasure or his own comfort, and others' opinions were mostly irrelevant, unless he was likely to get in trouble, and then he was willing to whine, squirm, lie, beg, and do whatever else was necessary to get out of trouble. Or, really, to get out of work.

"A name! That is an excellent starting place for any conversation. Though you might also assume a more comfortable position. At the moment you seem as though you're considering bolting, and I can't think why. I'm certainly not going to hurt you."

Fon Youn grinned and it was a charming, friendly expression. It was the sort of grin which would make mother antelope feel safe leaving their fawns in his care. In truth, the fawns probably would be fairly safe with him, since he didn't much care for hunting, but that wasn't the point. The point was that he looked trustworthy. Or he was trying to, at any rate. Not everyone was won over by this expression.

"I'm Fon Youn," he said in a way that implied it ought to have been accompanied by a flourish of some sort. "And I don't enjoy unpleasantness."  

[Mtorolite]

Upholi made a concentrated effort at relaxing. She was sure her tail, at least, looked relaxed. The rest of her would certainly follow after a bit.

It was good that he assured her he wasn't going to hurt her. But what meant she needed that assurance? Maybe that was why she couldn't relax. And the way he was grinning at her made her uncomfortable. It wasn't anything like her expression when she was hunting; she usually looked very serious. But it looked like he was trying to look like a nice lion, not like he was a nice lion.

That didn't mean he was a bad lion though, right?

"I don't think anyone really does enjoy unpleasantness. Um, I don't enjoy the taste of zebra."

Was this how conversations were supposed to go?  

[Princess_Feylin]

Fon Youn managed not to do more than blink in surprise when Upholi apparently decided that his attempt to be friendly and reassuring was actually the opening to a conversation. All right then...

"Really?" he asked, making an attempt to go with the topic she'd picked. He completely failed to see how it might be his fault she'd gone with such an opening. "I mean, I guess there's no arguing with personal preferences, but is there anything particular about zebra you find unappealing, or just the flavor in general?"

Fon Youn didn't have a lot of experience conversing with non-lions, and now that he had gotten himself into a conversation with one, he began to wonder if maybe there was a reason they weren't considered as important as lions were. Certainly this was a very strange little cheetah. But she was also pretty, in a lanky sort of way. Not exactly his taste, but then, nobody liked everything. Case in point, Upholi apparently didn't like zebra.  

[Mtorolite]

"It's the taste. I like gazelle and antelope better. Zebra just tastes weird - kind of tough and a bit more gamey then antelope does."
Not that many lions put that much concern about the taste of what they ate, she supposed, their minds being on higher matters. She, however, spent her life hunting down the meat and noticed the taste even when she was helping to drag the carcasses back to the center of the pridal lands. She avoided the zebras when possible.

"So. How is it, being a Poupe?"

Upholi couldn't think of anything else they would have to talk about. Her meat preference opinion had been exhausted.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Fon Youn nodded. As Upholi had guessed, he didn't put a great deal of thought into the taste of the meats he consumed. As long as it wasn't spoiled, Fon Youn wasn't picky, though he did like the finer portions of meat when he could get them, preferably seasoned to bring out whatever it was that made them the better pieces. Fon Youn simply liked to have the best and to enjoy his life as much as possible. But when it came to foods, he really wasn't all that picky, having been brought up consuming some very odd things as part of his training as a poupe.

"It's not a bad life," he admitted freely. "Unless there's some need for my abilities, I'm mostly left to my own devices, or else given a few small things to do around the pride to assist others."

He was not a very helpful lion, and more and more the lions in charge had been coming to see that it really was better just to leave the insouciant lion alone, rather than try to make him a contributing pride member. He was not very good at applying himself to anything that didn't hold his interest, and very little in the way of labor did hold his interest. It was all dull to him, and so he usually found ways to weasel out of it.

"What about you? What do you do with yourself?"  

[Mtorolite]

What did Upholi do all day? What didn't she do . . . food hunting, sacrifice hunting and herding, repairs on the mud walled pens the pride used to keep hares, mice, rats, and other sacrificial animals, gathering various ingredients for the Medsen Fey, the Houngan, Bokor, Caplata, and Mambo, even fetching and carrying for the Shrinekeeps, gathering the little things they needed to perform their duties.

"Fetching and gathering mostly. Herding. It's not very interesting, usually, but it keeps me busy."  

[Princess_Feylin]

Fon Youn would have been inclined to agree with Upholi that fetching, gathering, and herding did not sound very interesting, and he didn't feel like pretending otherwise. He had no problem practicing his flirting skills on non-lions, but in truth he was not going to expend the same amount of energy and time trying to win them over. He had been born and raised in the pride and their prejudices were his, mostly.

"Being busy can be overrated," he observed instead. "Isn't it so much pleasanter just to sit like this and enjoy fine company?"

There was always the chance that Upholi didn't have a lot of fine company to choose from though. Being a cheetah would make her less acceptable as a companion to most of the lions in the pride, particularly the ones their age and older. Cubs might find her interesting for a while, but they could also be very thoughtless and unkind because of it. What she needed was better company, and who better than Fon Youn?

The problem was that Fon Youn was easily bored, and so he might make her a project of sorts for a few days, or even a few weeks, but in the end it was unlikely that he would be much of a friend to her. He ignored that tendency in himself, however, and made the decision to befriend this very polite cheetah, and perhaps corrupt her a little bit.

"Perhaps later today we could share some dinner and you can tell me three things about yourself that I don't know, two true things and one lie, and I'll have to guess which is the lie. Until then, let me leave you with three things." He had to pause to come up with things that would catch her interest.

"I'm afraid of the dark. I see things that may be in shadows. I have a stash of ceremonial herbs to cause visions that I use recreationally." He thought those all sounded pretty implausible, though only one was untrue. "Remember, one is a lie. You have until dinner to guess which."

With that he got to his feet and bestowed on her one of his more charming smiles before trotting off. Always leave a lady wanting more.  

[Mtorolite]

Upholi was content to watch him go - the flirty lion unnerved her a lot, and she wasn't sure what to make of his lying game. Or the offer to share dinner But if he was serious, and came looking for her later, she would have to make a decision. Which would be the lie?