Post by Avalikia on Oct 15, 2010 21:04:53 GMT -7
Characters:
Dushta - Male Black Tiger
Dalaja - Female Tiger
Setting:
Lower Waterfall
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Restlessness. Despite how he's lounging on his favorite shaded rock next to the pool, that is how Dushta feels. He needs to do... something. Though aside from the way he stares off into space at the reflection of the morning sunlight in the water rather than attending to his surroundings, he gives no sign of his mood. He hasn't had any /real/ fun since... Oh, right, that. Well it's been far too long then!
It's been a while since Dalaja has run into the black tiger, and if she had her way about everything, she wouldn't ever have to run into him again. But he is on her watch list, him and the other so called 'leader' of the Ran Garjana; which she is in a sense being forced to join sides with out of necessity. Spotting him doesn't prove to be too difficult when she finally does catch his scent trail, and with a rumble in her throat, she looks up at him on the rock and just stares for a moment, letting her irritation with his pelt boil over until she says something. "I don't see how you can blend in with the surroundings at all.. you're such a sore spot on the landscape."
Now this is where allowing someone to see him and live is beneficial: he's bored, and while talking to Dalaja won't exactly cure that, it will distract him from that for awhile. If he's surprised to see her here, he gives no sign of that. Instead he merely lifts his head and grins at her, straightening up slightly even though he doesn't bother to get up, assuming the manner of a king on his throne. "I /do/ hunt at night," he admits, "Though I rather think that my color /helps/ in that situation." Having said that he gives a sleepy yawn: hunting at night means that he's generally tired during the day. "So what brings you here?" he asks idly, not expecting for a minute that she wandered by just to insult his color. No, given how specifically she'd expressed her disgust for the clan he's sure she has a specific reason to be here.
Well, there was his stupid attitude again. While she was glad he wasn't particularly defensive or more importantly, offensive.. it still didn't mean that she liked him. At all. The grin he gives is mimicked in a more vicious fashion on behalf of the tigress, not so much a grin but more a baring of her teeth, even though she was aware he wasn't phased by such displays of aggression. "You think?" She asks sarcastically, but moves on. As much as she'd love to make this visit about what an abomination to tiger-kind he was and how much she was disgusted with the fact that he was even allowed to live past cubhood, there were more important things. Her mother had made a good point, and she generally did listen to her mother. Hesitant at first, Dalaja's tail flicks in annoyance when she begins to explain why she's here. "As I've said before, my intention is to kill Bhata.. but my /mother/ feels that such a feat would be better executed with the help of your clan." Looking away, she rolls her eyes and shakes her head.
"In my mind it only proves her senility.." She mutters, but otherwise shuts herself up for a moment.
Yes, he /does/ think that his color helps him at night, though he's unable to really have a basis of comparison - he's never been another color, after all, and no other tiger has quite his skill set. But Dushta doesn't particularly care anyways; he has no trouble catching prey and that's the important part. He listens attentively to the tigress, nodding when she's finished and commenting, "Yes, I'm sure it's a bit irritating to have your mother still trying to watch over you at your age. Still, it's good of you to listen - I'm sure she's just concerned for your well-being." Which might be surprising words to hear coming from Dushta, but he had a very good relationship with his own mother so he can hardly say anything less.
"It isn't so much 'irritating' as it is .. inconvenient." Dalaja says, thinking her words over carefully. "I would rather not give your clan the time of day because it isn't worth even /that/ much to me. But my mother feels differently.. and I don't want to upset her." As much of a monster Dalaja might've been, she did have a soft spot for her mother too, since the relationship between the two tigresses was good as well. 'Love' would be a strong word that Dalaja wouldn't care to use, but a 'steady partnership with similar interests', rather. Scoffing at the notion of Badajiva concerned about her well-being, the skinny tigress paces back and forth for a minute before finally sitting down and glaring back up at him, clearly not enjoying being in his company. "The last thing I need at the moment is my own mother going on and on about your excuse for a clan. To save myself another annoyance, I'd rather just have myself considered.. one of you.. or whatever, to get her off my back." There were more reasons to it than that, but she wouldn't admit those so freely.
Laughing lightly - strictly /with/ Dalaja and not /at/ her, of course, Dushta comments, "Well, of course, anything to get your mother off your back. The entire clan pretty much does as it pleases anyway so it's not like it makes much of a difference." Not that he actually /believes/ that, but he'll say so if it makes the tigress less bothered by joining them. "Though I must admit that there are benefits to having others with a common goal. Though I suggest, if you run into Baimei, please try to talk nicely to her. She's a golden tiger and very vain about it, and I wouldn't like it if you two got in a fight over how pretty she is," he adds, seemingly as an afterthought. Though come to think if it, he'd actually like to see that fight...
The black tiger might as well have not said anything before mentioning a golden tiger. A golden tiger? Perhaps they were more aesthetically pleasing than a black one, but they were still mutated and inferior, nonetheless. Pinning her ears back at just the thought of it, she snarls to herself and pushes herself back up onto all four paws, and begins to pace again. What would Vijayi think? His daughter and a beloved consort of his belonging to this rag-tag "clan" made up of disfigured tigers and supposed non-tiger species? Of course, he would be thoroughly against it. Hence her trouble accepting it, even now. "I will do no such thing." Dalaja says, trying to relax. "I will .. attempt to distance myself from such an atrocity, but if she invades on my space I will spare no feelings telling her what she really is."
Somehow Dushta manages to contain most of the amusement he feels at Dalaja's reaction to that. If those two tigresses ever /do/ get on the wrong side of eachother, he can only hope that he's there. To, um, break it up. Yeah, that's it. "That's all I ask," he says with a grin. "I wouldn't like to see either of you hurt - she has a son that I'm sure would meet even your standards," he adds, not without humor. /He/ certainly approves of the cub anyways. "And I suppose I should also warn you about Xynala - she's white but you won't have any trouble from her I suspect. The rest of the clan isn't as interesting to look at," he continues, figuring that's enough of an introduction to the clan.
"If he was born of a mutant, then he is one too." She says coldly, although she is not familiar with the cub or even the golden tigress in question. She's certain that she'll loathe each and every "member" of the Ran Garjana upon meeting them. So far, she does. Aside from her mother. Mentioning a /white/ tigress as well has Dalaja's blood boiling, and it's very possible that the news of a third and possibly the worst of all disfigurations did indeed make her snap, just a bit. Hesitant yet again, she doesn't even know how to properly react; how can she? This clan is nothing but a disgrace to her father's legacy, and it's acceptance of inferiors is downright insulting. "..Mother's interests come after what I believe Father would've agreed to.. and joining such a disgusting cesspool of.. ugh.." Literally gagging at the thought of a black, golden, /and/ white tiger all in the same area at once, she shakes her head, and turns around, having quite the tough decision to make; join the clan for her own selfish reasons, or distance herself on behalf of her father's expectations? Decisions, decisions.
Unwilling to argue about the worthiness of Tsuun - at least not until this tigress has a chance to actually see that the cub is perfectly normal, and quite delightful actually - Dushta instead sighs and says, "Well, in times like these I suppose that one must accept what one is able to get. Those who are used to being treated differently because of their appearance are easily convinced to do whatever you say if you simply treat them like anyone else. But I suppose you might not value such pawns." Of course, Dushta doesn't consider himself to be among those he's talking about. Being treated differently because of his color is actually more foreign to him than not - generally one doesn't stop to care what color you are when you kill them.
To Dalaja, it wouldn't matter if Tsuun had every quality that she admired in a cub /plus/ some. The fact that he was born of a golden tiger alone was enough for her to decide on detesting a cub she'd never met. Smirking, the tigress shakes her head. "Creatures like that hold no value to me, alive." She said, still mentally arguing with herself over the decision she had to make. Killing Bhata /would/ be more easily done with the help of a clan, that was for sure. And she did want him dead. Plus, Badajiva's influence. Flicking her tail, she let out a heavy breath, and in a rather displeased and dejected manner, knowing she had little other choice unless she gave up completely on the murder of Bhata, spoke again. "Know this, monster. The only reason I'm even considering this is to satisfy my mother. She is old and has had her share of disappointments in life, she deserves happiness for once." Looking away and harshly at the ground, she sat again, unsure of what to say next. Was that it?
"Hmm, yes, I thought you would feel that way," Dushta says idly, as if he finds that answer to be horribly predictable. Which is the truth actually; he's beginning to find that he's not so much bothered by the tigress's prejudice as he is by the fact that it seems to be based entirely on what her father taught her and not anything she's critically thought over herself. But perhaps she'll change her mind at least somewhat by being around the clan. And if she doesn't - well this should be fun to watch. He ignores the name-calling yet again; actually he rather likes the idea of being considered a monster: a scary, dangerous thing hiding in the dark that's gonna attack when you least expect it. He's been a monster to a great many creatures. "As I said, I understand wanting to keep your mother happy - they're a lot of trouble when they're not," he says with a grin, though if his mother had spared as much time worrying over him then he might not have turned out this way.
Predictable or not, it was certainly the way that Dalaja felt. And joining up with the rag-tag clan was something that she was sure would haunt her for the rest of her life. It was such a disgrace to the Sakht Nakh, words couldn't even describe it. Maybe as soon as Badajiva died, that would be her cue to leave the clan as well. After all, it was only for the elder tigress, like she said. Sneering up at Dushta, she rolled her eyes and growled lowly, unamused with his stupid accommodating attitude. "Was yours a lot of trouble, then? I'd assume so. I wouldn't be happy either if I'd given birth to something like you."
The question actually causes Dushta's ears to perk in surprise, though that quickly dissolves into a laugh and a smile. "No, actually my mother was just happy to have any cubs at all - though I was definitely a bit of a surprise. She /did/ pay more attention to my sisters, but I think that was more because she understood them better. See, she was a very miserable tigress, and my father told me she was like that even when they first met. I'm not really sure why, though I actually think she may have /enjoyed/ being miserable. My sisters followed suit, so I suppose she didn't really relate to her son who always found a way to keep himself amused. She didn't really pay all that much attention to me, actually," he explains easily, not having to really think about it because it's simply the unedited truth.
The reaction is the same with Dalaja as far as the the ear perk goes. She didn't expect to hear the story of his cubhood, anyway. And about half-way through it, her striped brow wrinkles and she looks away, clearly not interested in what happened to his mother, father, sisters, or him for that matter. Her business here was done, she figured. "Wonderful." She said sarcastically, and stood up again, ready to wander off back into the jungle, without so much as a good bye or anything of the sort.
Throughout his story he watches Dalaja, and when she turns away that amused grin returns. Yes, he thought that she wouldn't like to hear about it. Such tales reinforce that he's a tiger first, and black second, so of course she wouldn't want to pay it much attention. "I'll see you later, then," he says to her back, and starts idly groom his forepaws. Yes, she'll definitely make things more entertaining around here!
Dushta - Male Black Tiger
Dalaja - Female Tiger
Setting:
Lower Waterfall
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Restlessness. Despite how he's lounging on his favorite shaded rock next to the pool, that is how Dushta feels. He needs to do... something. Though aside from the way he stares off into space at the reflection of the morning sunlight in the water rather than attending to his surroundings, he gives no sign of his mood. He hasn't had any /real/ fun since... Oh, right, that. Well it's been far too long then!
It's been a while since Dalaja has run into the black tiger, and if she had her way about everything, she wouldn't ever have to run into him again. But he is on her watch list, him and the other so called 'leader' of the Ran Garjana; which she is in a sense being forced to join sides with out of necessity. Spotting him doesn't prove to be too difficult when she finally does catch his scent trail, and with a rumble in her throat, she looks up at him on the rock and just stares for a moment, letting her irritation with his pelt boil over until she says something. "I don't see how you can blend in with the surroundings at all.. you're such a sore spot on the landscape."
Now this is where allowing someone to see him and live is beneficial: he's bored, and while talking to Dalaja won't exactly cure that, it will distract him from that for awhile. If he's surprised to see her here, he gives no sign of that. Instead he merely lifts his head and grins at her, straightening up slightly even though he doesn't bother to get up, assuming the manner of a king on his throne. "I /do/ hunt at night," he admits, "Though I rather think that my color /helps/ in that situation." Having said that he gives a sleepy yawn: hunting at night means that he's generally tired during the day. "So what brings you here?" he asks idly, not expecting for a minute that she wandered by just to insult his color. No, given how specifically she'd expressed her disgust for the clan he's sure she has a specific reason to be here.
Well, there was his stupid attitude again. While she was glad he wasn't particularly defensive or more importantly, offensive.. it still didn't mean that she liked him. At all. The grin he gives is mimicked in a more vicious fashion on behalf of the tigress, not so much a grin but more a baring of her teeth, even though she was aware he wasn't phased by such displays of aggression. "You think?" She asks sarcastically, but moves on. As much as she'd love to make this visit about what an abomination to tiger-kind he was and how much she was disgusted with the fact that he was even allowed to live past cubhood, there were more important things. Her mother had made a good point, and she generally did listen to her mother. Hesitant at first, Dalaja's tail flicks in annoyance when she begins to explain why she's here. "As I've said before, my intention is to kill Bhata.. but my /mother/ feels that such a feat would be better executed with the help of your clan." Looking away, she rolls her eyes and shakes her head.
"In my mind it only proves her senility.." She mutters, but otherwise shuts herself up for a moment.
Yes, he /does/ think that his color helps him at night, though he's unable to really have a basis of comparison - he's never been another color, after all, and no other tiger has quite his skill set. But Dushta doesn't particularly care anyways; he has no trouble catching prey and that's the important part. He listens attentively to the tigress, nodding when she's finished and commenting, "Yes, I'm sure it's a bit irritating to have your mother still trying to watch over you at your age. Still, it's good of you to listen - I'm sure she's just concerned for your well-being." Which might be surprising words to hear coming from Dushta, but he had a very good relationship with his own mother so he can hardly say anything less.
"It isn't so much 'irritating' as it is .. inconvenient." Dalaja says, thinking her words over carefully. "I would rather not give your clan the time of day because it isn't worth even /that/ much to me. But my mother feels differently.. and I don't want to upset her." As much of a monster Dalaja might've been, she did have a soft spot for her mother too, since the relationship between the two tigresses was good as well. 'Love' would be a strong word that Dalaja wouldn't care to use, but a 'steady partnership with similar interests', rather. Scoffing at the notion of Badajiva concerned about her well-being, the skinny tigress paces back and forth for a minute before finally sitting down and glaring back up at him, clearly not enjoying being in his company. "The last thing I need at the moment is my own mother going on and on about your excuse for a clan. To save myself another annoyance, I'd rather just have myself considered.. one of you.. or whatever, to get her off my back." There were more reasons to it than that, but she wouldn't admit those so freely.
Laughing lightly - strictly /with/ Dalaja and not /at/ her, of course, Dushta comments, "Well, of course, anything to get your mother off your back. The entire clan pretty much does as it pleases anyway so it's not like it makes much of a difference." Not that he actually /believes/ that, but he'll say so if it makes the tigress less bothered by joining them. "Though I must admit that there are benefits to having others with a common goal. Though I suggest, if you run into Baimei, please try to talk nicely to her. She's a golden tiger and very vain about it, and I wouldn't like it if you two got in a fight over how pretty she is," he adds, seemingly as an afterthought. Though come to think if it, he'd actually like to see that fight...
The black tiger might as well have not said anything before mentioning a golden tiger. A golden tiger? Perhaps they were more aesthetically pleasing than a black one, but they were still mutated and inferior, nonetheless. Pinning her ears back at just the thought of it, she snarls to herself and pushes herself back up onto all four paws, and begins to pace again. What would Vijayi think? His daughter and a beloved consort of his belonging to this rag-tag "clan" made up of disfigured tigers and supposed non-tiger species? Of course, he would be thoroughly against it. Hence her trouble accepting it, even now. "I will do no such thing." Dalaja says, trying to relax. "I will .. attempt to distance myself from such an atrocity, but if she invades on my space I will spare no feelings telling her what she really is."
Somehow Dushta manages to contain most of the amusement he feels at Dalaja's reaction to that. If those two tigresses ever /do/ get on the wrong side of eachother, he can only hope that he's there. To, um, break it up. Yeah, that's it. "That's all I ask," he says with a grin. "I wouldn't like to see either of you hurt - she has a son that I'm sure would meet even your standards," he adds, not without humor. /He/ certainly approves of the cub anyways. "And I suppose I should also warn you about Xynala - she's white but you won't have any trouble from her I suspect. The rest of the clan isn't as interesting to look at," he continues, figuring that's enough of an introduction to the clan.
"If he was born of a mutant, then he is one too." She says coldly, although she is not familiar with the cub or even the golden tigress in question. She's certain that she'll loathe each and every "member" of the Ran Garjana upon meeting them. So far, she does. Aside from her mother. Mentioning a /white/ tigress as well has Dalaja's blood boiling, and it's very possible that the news of a third and possibly the worst of all disfigurations did indeed make her snap, just a bit. Hesitant yet again, she doesn't even know how to properly react; how can she? This clan is nothing but a disgrace to her father's legacy, and it's acceptance of inferiors is downright insulting. "..Mother's interests come after what I believe Father would've agreed to.. and joining such a disgusting cesspool of.. ugh.." Literally gagging at the thought of a black, golden, /and/ white tiger all in the same area at once, she shakes her head, and turns around, having quite the tough decision to make; join the clan for her own selfish reasons, or distance herself on behalf of her father's expectations? Decisions, decisions.
Unwilling to argue about the worthiness of Tsuun - at least not until this tigress has a chance to actually see that the cub is perfectly normal, and quite delightful actually - Dushta instead sighs and says, "Well, in times like these I suppose that one must accept what one is able to get. Those who are used to being treated differently because of their appearance are easily convinced to do whatever you say if you simply treat them like anyone else. But I suppose you might not value such pawns." Of course, Dushta doesn't consider himself to be among those he's talking about. Being treated differently because of his color is actually more foreign to him than not - generally one doesn't stop to care what color you are when you kill them.
To Dalaja, it wouldn't matter if Tsuun had every quality that she admired in a cub /plus/ some. The fact that he was born of a golden tiger alone was enough for her to decide on detesting a cub she'd never met. Smirking, the tigress shakes her head. "Creatures like that hold no value to me, alive." She said, still mentally arguing with herself over the decision she had to make. Killing Bhata /would/ be more easily done with the help of a clan, that was for sure. And she did want him dead. Plus, Badajiva's influence. Flicking her tail, she let out a heavy breath, and in a rather displeased and dejected manner, knowing she had little other choice unless she gave up completely on the murder of Bhata, spoke again. "Know this, monster. The only reason I'm even considering this is to satisfy my mother. She is old and has had her share of disappointments in life, she deserves happiness for once." Looking away and harshly at the ground, she sat again, unsure of what to say next. Was that it?
"Hmm, yes, I thought you would feel that way," Dushta says idly, as if he finds that answer to be horribly predictable. Which is the truth actually; he's beginning to find that he's not so much bothered by the tigress's prejudice as he is by the fact that it seems to be based entirely on what her father taught her and not anything she's critically thought over herself. But perhaps she'll change her mind at least somewhat by being around the clan. And if she doesn't - well this should be fun to watch. He ignores the name-calling yet again; actually he rather likes the idea of being considered a monster: a scary, dangerous thing hiding in the dark that's gonna attack when you least expect it. He's been a monster to a great many creatures. "As I said, I understand wanting to keep your mother happy - they're a lot of trouble when they're not," he says with a grin, though if his mother had spared as much time worrying over him then he might not have turned out this way.
Predictable or not, it was certainly the way that Dalaja felt. And joining up with the rag-tag clan was something that she was sure would haunt her for the rest of her life. It was such a disgrace to the Sakht Nakh, words couldn't even describe it. Maybe as soon as Badajiva died, that would be her cue to leave the clan as well. After all, it was only for the elder tigress, like she said. Sneering up at Dushta, she rolled her eyes and growled lowly, unamused with his stupid accommodating attitude. "Was yours a lot of trouble, then? I'd assume so. I wouldn't be happy either if I'd given birth to something like you."
The question actually causes Dushta's ears to perk in surprise, though that quickly dissolves into a laugh and a smile. "No, actually my mother was just happy to have any cubs at all - though I was definitely a bit of a surprise. She /did/ pay more attention to my sisters, but I think that was more because she understood them better. See, she was a very miserable tigress, and my father told me she was like that even when they first met. I'm not really sure why, though I actually think she may have /enjoyed/ being miserable. My sisters followed suit, so I suppose she didn't really relate to her son who always found a way to keep himself amused. She didn't really pay all that much attention to me, actually," he explains easily, not having to really think about it because it's simply the unedited truth.
The reaction is the same with Dalaja as far as the the ear perk goes. She didn't expect to hear the story of his cubhood, anyway. And about half-way through it, her striped brow wrinkles and she looks away, clearly not interested in what happened to his mother, father, sisters, or him for that matter. Her business here was done, she figured. "Wonderful." She said sarcastically, and stood up again, ready to wander off back into the jungle, without so much as a good bye or anything of the sort.
Throughout his story he watches Dalaja, and when she turns away that amused grin returns. Yes, he thought that she wouldn't like to hear about it. Such tales reinforce that he's a tiger first, and black second, so of course she wouldn't want to pay it much attention. "I'll see you later, then," he says to her back, and starts idly groom his forepaws. Yes, she'll definitely make things more entertaining around here!