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 Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 11:52 am
 Rio watched her son trot off on another one of his excursions, one that usually involved him returning him all sorts of cuts and scrapes. Well, she was not treating anymore wounds for Lume. Surely he could find something better to do with his time than brawling. "Hijito! No fighting this time." She called out with a scowl. Her son glanced back at her with a grin. "Ui! Alright, no fighting, mama. Ay..." The leotah replied before taking off at a sprint. Rio snorted at his retreating figure. If he knew what was good for him, he would practice his dancing a little bit. The leopard was getting tired of her son's sloppiness.
Speaking of practicing, Rio could finally work on some more complex routines herself. She loved dancing with her son, but sometimes his lack of skill made her bored. The dancer started off with an easy weave to warm herself up. It was good to get the blood flowing before starting anything too strenuous. Rio bowed, dipped, and stretched as she swayed, loosening up her spine and muscles. Cramps could be common in the heat of the day like this, and stretching helped prevent that.
Once Rio had determined that she had done enough preparation, she leaped into the air, twisting her body in a tight circle. She landed oddly though, having not completed the move correctly. The leopard let herself sway in a circle until she returned to her previous starting point. Rio took more of a running start this time, repeating the move. This time she executed perfectly, moving in to the next part of the routine, a series of small, fast spins on the ground done while balancing on only one or two paws.
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 1:35 pm
A personality like hers came with a certain poise in the face of unforeseen circumstances; Koko was hard to rattle, thus it was too exaggerated to say she had been experiencing culture shock. More, um... culture surprise?
Her aberrant way of life was awkward to the rogues. Many strangers quickly excused themselves when, after being questioned about her tattoos (which were often mistaken as markings -- how silly!), Koko recited a story -- or four of them -- in the most theatrical way possible. These encounters did little to discourage her, but she was baffled by her inability to better relate to these vagabonds. Her parents had been born out here! She practically shared their blood!
After several such incidents, Koko realized the only thing these chance meetings had in common was her. What to do? Tone down her lavish stories to mere anecdotes? It couldn't hurt to try...
The next lion she saw, she was going to mute the impulse to be overly-friendly.
Koko came across Rio just as she executed her flawless leap and thought only one thing: That's not a lion.
Leopards, they called them. She knew about leopards.
Koko approached, though reminded herself to maintain a distance she felt was socially acceptable in these parts. That was, evidently, far enough she had to raise her voice to be heard.
"Leopard! Hey! What are you doing?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 4:24 pm
Rio stumbled mid-step, whipping around to the sound of the voice. Panting slightly, heart pounding from her routine, the dancer raised an eyebrow at the elaborately marked lioness. She looked around for a minute, making sure that she was, in fact, the leopard being addressed. Normally strangers were polite enough to call her miss or ma'am. But this stranger seemed young and bold, not unlike her own son. Plus she was interested in dancing so Rio could excuse the mild rude-ness.
The dancer smiled having caught her breath, taking a seat and curling her tail elegantly around her paws. "I am dancing. Is form of expression." She explained patiently, taking the time to look over the lioness and her markings. Was that en elephant? There was no way the lioness could have been born with those, could she? But that would mean her fur was dyed somehow, a strange concept indeed. However, Rio reminded herself that she was not one to judge. After all, it was apparent that to this lioness, Rio's dancing (an activity the leopard found perfectly normal) was very much strange.
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 5:54 pm
Had Koko been a mind reader, she'd have laughed and pointed out it was terribly funny a leopard with elaborate butterfly wings saddled across her back could think her elephant preposterous as a marking. Then she'd agreed it wasn't one, say it was her favorite tattoo, and boast of how she earned it.
But Koko was not a mind reader.
"I am dancing. Is form of expression."
That's all she had to go on.
The lioness padded closer, flicking her tail. It wasn't a sharp, alarming motion by any means. More of a sway. Nothing about the way she moved or spoke alluded to Rio being in the company of someone dangerous.
First things first.
"I'm Koko'Mila. Nice to meet you."
Second, she admired the wings up close. Her father was the grandson of a Goddess and had told her their offspring (or their offspring's offspring, in the case of her uncle) were often blessed with markings these. She couldn't help but inquiry about them. "Nice wings. You must have God blood somewhere in you, right?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 7:21 pm
Rio dipped her head in greeting. "Koko'Mila. Is good name. Strong, but elegant. Names say much about a person." Rio mused out loud, thinking for a moment. "I am Rio del Cor, though I prefer the shorter Rio." She bowed, a sweeping motion accompanied by the swaying of her tail. When she straightened up, the leopard took the time to consider Koko's question. God blood? It was a possibility. The stories Rio's mother had told her all mentioned a female who danced with the same grace and beauty as the butterfly of which her wings resembled, and who taught her skills to her daughters. Rio had always assumed that the wings were markings but perhaps..."God blood is possibility. The butterfly wings have been signature of family bloodline for many generations, so it would be very far back in past." Rio explained.
And if they were on the subject of markings, Rio would have the chance to ask about the elaborate markings the lioness had. Now that she had a better look at them, Rio noticed that they seemed...off somehow. They were too dull, too precise to be natural. Rio decided that they must be some kind of fur dye. "And your markings, they are...not markings?" She guessed, noticing the animals and different shapes.
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Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 11:37 am
 "These?" Koko couldn't so much as look down at her paws without reminders of the past staring her in the face. She chose instead to peer over her shoulder, hunting for the likeliness of an elephant. That one was her favorite, so by instinct, her eyes were pulled to it when the topic arose.
"They're tattoos," she explained. "Everyone has them where I come from. They tell you about your past. Every single one is some kind of story. They're kind of... Kind of a memorial that you take with you everywhere."
Koko's voice had no inkling of melancholy or nostalgia. As she spoke, her eyes swiveled back ahead to face Rio.
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Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:57 pm
Rio listened intently. Tattoos. Fascinating. The leopard wondered if it hurt when they were received. A permanent marking to one's fur and skin. The past must be important to the place that this Koko'Mila came from. Then again, the past was important to every living soul. It determined someone's identity, their actions, their thought. The past molded someone into who they were. "Is good thing, to honour past." Rio assured the lioness. "You honour with tattoos, I honour with dancing." She gave a small spin to punctuate the end of her sentence. "You are curious of dancing, no? Is what brought you to me." Rio could always appreciate a curious mind. Curiousity brought new knowledge and new experiences.
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 1:57 pm
New knowledge and experiences were something the Ela thrived on. It's how you earned the tattoos that she so confidently displayed. But Koko was curious by nature, hence her perhaps unwise decision to strike out on her own four paws.
They weren't paws practiced in dancing.
"I was --" Just happening to pass by, Koko was going to say. There wasn't really any point in correcting her, and she didn't want to hurt the leopard's feelings by coming off as nonchalant. Plus, that might dissuade her from acting as a mentor. "Yes," the lioness said, transition from one word to the other swiftly. "Can you teach me?"
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