[PRP] - Even when your hope is gone; Move along.

[Daffupanda]

-- AIM Rp between Kinyago and Kalama ((Krys and DFA))

Kinyago'vitimbi was expectedly moody at this point in time, a disgruntled frown darkening his face, ears pressed flat against the back of his head, causing his feathers to wiggle in the air. The juvenile sat underneath a tree, eyes casting grumpily out to the line of trees that hid the Kusini'mwezi pride from view. He was old enough to know his way in and out of the pride, and old enough to leave the lands (without his parents' knowledge, of course) when he got grumpy. Today one of his siblings (he wouldn't mention the name lest he get thrown into a fit of moodiness and emoness once again) had managed to pick on both of his sore points. Those sore points entitled the color of his mane, and his small size. Both traits he had inherited from his mother, which somehow made everything worse.

Kinya had expectedly snapped, and after a quick brawl with the sibling in question he had stormed off declaring that he was 'never coming back when he had to deal with a p***y for a brother'. That was a lie, because he would be back before it was dark. Being alone in the roguelands in the day set him on edge, and at night he imagined it would be intolerable. So, he would return home, pretend to still be upset, and bite his sibling before he went to bed. The brat deserved it, after 'mistakenly' calling Kinya his sister. SISTER. Did everyone really believe he looked that much like a girl?

Suddenly feeling rather self-conscious, the brown juvenile did a once-over of himself. Brown fur, black and tan legs. All very masculine colors. With dismay, though, he glanced to his tail where a bright streak of pink could be seen. That was the source of his trouble - he would have ripped it out if it didn't hurt so much, and if he didn't have a full head of pink. Kinya would rather have his pink mane then no mane at all. He could dream that when he hit maturity it would magically turn black. Maybe then girls would treat him like a man instead of a buddy-buddy girly-friend.. UGH.

The small juvenile groaned his frustration, and flopped down onto his side.

She was lost. Again.

But then again; this wasn't all that rare a feat as far as Kalama was concerned. The dark pelted lioness was used to wandering. Wasn't that how she'd got seperated from her mother, oh-so long ago? Wasn't that how she'd come across Anansi, the god? Wasn't that how she'd endded up befriending Rudo?

Her life had been full of small journeys and adventures, during which she'd gotten lost, but she was too cheerful to let any of it affect her. In fact, Kalama was quite interested in figuring out where she had endded up; would it show her anything new? Would she meet someone interesting? Her upbeat nature showed in the fact she hummed a song softly under her breath as she padded along. It was a tune she'd picked up from a random bird, not too long back, and she was happy to use it to express her high spirits to the world around her.

It was a clear contrast with the younger male she suddenly spotted in the near distance. Nothing about him seemed dangerous to her, and thus, her natural curiosity (which hadn't really become any smaller the more she grew), drew her to him. Smiling, she padded till she was near his side; in all honesty, she would've never understood why the boy was upset; what did having a pink mane matter? "You look..." a pause as she flicked an ear, "Upset, eh?" another pause and the soung was back in her voice, "Even when your hope is gone, move along, move along~~ like I know you do," she sang softly, then sat down beside him. After looking him over, her golden eyes twinkled, "I'm sort of lost; you know where this is? I got... uhm... I think I took a wrong turn."

He was so absorbed in his own thoughts that it did not come to his attention that a young lioness was making her way over to him. Only when she had came to his side and spoken did he realize that she was there, and he was caught by surprise, his smaller body jumping in shock at suddenly having someone hovering over him. Slowly his eyes rolled up to observe her, and moodily he groaned, thinking he would much rather prefer his peace than have to deal with her. But, she was here, and now he had to put up with her presence. So, with another exaggerated sigh, he sat up, making quite a show of being upset at his alone time being torn to shreds.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" he said grumpily, his tail flicking in irritation, little feathers getting rustled once again. He stared at her through narrowed eyes, wondering why the hell she had suddenly decided to come talk to him. She had noticed he was upset, so why hadn't she gotten the hint that Kinya did not want to be bothered by some talkative girl who would more than likely go 'Awww, your mane is so CUTE!' than anything else. When she began to sing, though, he considered throwing himself into a river full of crocodiles. She wasn't /bad/ at singing, he was just grumpy, and could not understand why she had the need to break out into song. It was too cheerful for his grumpy mood. Way too cheerful.

"Uhh... yeah," he said, crinkling his nose at her. Obviously his first impression of her was less than perfect, but he answered her nonetheless, simply because he was hoping it would send her on her way again so he could go back to his murderous thoughts. Of course, Kinya himself wouldn't realize he'd miss her company until she was gone. Kinya hated being alone, it only made him more moody. "This is near the Kusini pride. Rather, the Kusini is just in through those line of trees. The Pridelands are somewhere around here... and other prides."

Despite the fact he'd jumped, obviously startled, the female said nothing about up, instead opting for watching him through amused eyes. He was mildly interesting, if not due to his coloration, due to his constitution; he was small for a male, which really, suited Kala just fine, because she was small for a female herself. Not that it had ever really kept her from achieving what she wanted; hunting the bigger game was harder, but she'd always had her father's help, amongst others, "I don't know? Maybe it was the way you looked like you were pouting from a distance; cheer up, tis a fine day," a pause as she wrinkled her nose in amusement, "And you're grumpy too."

Sadly, Kalama was not all that aware she was not causing a good impression. Or maybe she WAS aware and simply didn't care of what he thought, one way or another; it was hard to figure out. Despite this, as soon as he answered her question, the lioness sat on her hind haunches and clapped her forepaws once together, "Lovely!" she seemed rather overjoyed by the information, "That means I didn't stray THAT far off, now doesn't it? The anansi caves must be.... somewhere around here," flopping her forepaws back on the ground, she turned to glance around her, and still had... no idea which way she should head; it was getting dark and if there was something Kalama didn't want to be doing, was wandering about in the dark, "Uhm," turning back to the male, she lowered her ears, "Despite that, would you mind me staying with you till morning? I don't like being alone at night."

His small size did not suit him, because half of the members of his family had gigantic genes that inconveniently decided to skip over Kinya. Kinya would never be the size of his older brother, and when standing next to him he did not doubt that he really would look like a girl when he was older. To him, that was quite distressing, because he was picked on enough as it was, and when everyone else got big in his family... he would stay small. It gave them more opportunity to pick on him. "I wasn't pouting!" He cried out indignantly, obviously thinking that pouting was too childish and girlish of an action for him. "And I'm not... that grumpy." He glared at her when she looked like she was amused, stuck between liking her and hating her. He did not doubt that he would come to despise her in the end. She was too happy and cheery for him.

An eyebrow crept up his forehead when she rocked back onto her hindpaws and clapped her forepaws together. He could feel the corner of his lip tick uncontrollably in annoyance at this display in her behavior. "Uhh... good for you." But, he still couldn't help but be amused when she still seemed to be lost, and her constant looking around for the right direction was... endearing. So, maybe he didn't totally hate her. Not yet.

What she asked next might have changed his mean.

"Uhh... /what/?" Did she just ask if she could stay with him for the night? His mind was left scrambling for an answer to her question, because he simply did not know if he wanted some cheerful stranger hanging around with him for the rest of the day. He was supposed to be heading home soon, too, and he didn't want to bring her with him! His siblings would make kissy noises and tease him endlessly about bringing a girl home. So, having her stay meant him camping out in the rogue lands... and he was scared and uncomfortable. "...Sure... I don't... mind." Wait! Why had he said that? Kinya's mind did a little flop in disbelief of his own actions, and considered itself doomed.  

[Daffupanda]

"Grumpy, grumpy," she wrinkled her nose again; not in distaste, but in amusement, "But that's okay," she was used to grumpy-people. In fact, her on father could get quite grumpy when he couldn't find his favorite food or if he couldn't find an audience to tell his stories to. Grumpy was just fine, in her mind, because it balanced out her naturaly cheerful ways, "You know? It's part of the balance," pausing, she tilted her head, as if she were a child, half amused, half curious, "Why were you grumpy?" of course, the question was in past tense because she knew VERY well he was grumpy at the present because of HER. What she wanted to know, was what had been distressing him prior to her arrival.

As he practicaly gawked at her (amusingly enough, not quite UP at her, for she was small too, even though it was clear her body was more near to fully maturing than his), the lioness blinked. She seemed confused for a moment, then tilted her head, another movement that made her look childish, even if her eyes did tend to twinkle in a means that signalled she knew more than she was letting on, "Can I stay with you till morning?" she asked slowly this time, dragging out the words, as if talking to a particularly stubburn, or thick person, then arched a brow, still partialy amused, partialy confused. His answer elicited yet another clap from her paws, followed by a cheerful chirp as she turned to pounce on him, as if aiming to hug to him.

Kalama had always been a rather physicaly inclined individual; but then again, that had to do with the fact she'd grown up in the anansi undergrounds, where the lions were almost entirely blind and contact was necesary to make sure they knew how one felt, "Oh, thank you, thank you!"

"I am not grumpy," he muttered at her, trying to drive the point home. But, obviously he wasn't quite as effective as he wanted to be, because she still seemed to think that he was grumpy. He was, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to deny it. "Part of the balance?" he asked her incredulously, giving her a look that clearly stated that he thought she was crazy. Her next question he almost didn't answer, just because he was beginning to think that she wasn't completely sound in the head. Someone that cheerful simply couldn't be. "Because people are stupid!" he exclaimed, surprised by the bitterness of that remark, and it led to him grumbling to himself about being called small and girly because of his pink mane. He doubted she would be able to make out the words, anwyays.

Repeating her question to him only roused a glare from Kinya, because his question was one of those questions that did not require an answer. That was the case especially when answering made it seem as if Kala thought Kinya was lame in the mind. He wasn't, but that didn't stop her from thinking it, and so he glared at her and hoped that she'd get the hint. "I know what you asked me! I was just... it was a natural response to say 'What?'!" He was being defensive, but he didn't want her thinking that he was stupid.

And then... what he imagined to be the worst thing ever.

She HUGGED him.

Kinya made a choking noise in his throat as she pounced on him, and instantly he was trying to wiggle away to safety. "It's all right, it's fine! Now... stop touching me!" He was beginning to doubt both her sanity and his own.

He was TOO grumpy, but Kalama had reached a point where she'd noticed that really, countering him with a 'Yuh-huh!' would probably be a tad over the line. A tilt of her head indicated she didn't QUITE agree with him, but regardless, she smiled again... softly, just so, her lids coming to hood her eyes, "People are usualy just misunderstood," she told him softly, her tone of voice having lowered from the earlier chirps, as if trying to drive her own point home.

Sadly, and no doubt to Kinya's dismay, the female heard him well enough. It paid off to have been raised by the Anansi; Kalama had been able to develop the use of her senses over time. She made no comment about his size or mane, because it was obvious (to her at least), that this was a sore subject to breach. So thus, instead, rather than comment, she kept her thoughts to herself. There was little doubt she'd voice her opinions at a later date, or upon reaching a better situation.

Oh, she think he was stupid; in fact, she'd only just met him, and Kalama had already decided he was unnaturaly amusing in more than one way. In fact, she'd come to the conclusion he was 'diferent'. She wasn't about to voice this thought just yet, but it was in her mind, making her smile at him as he attempted to defend himself against her non-exhistant verbal attacks.

Needless to say, the female was confussed (yet again!) upon his request that she stop touching him. Wrinkling her nose, she turned to him, unfortunately pressing her nose to his due to the awkward position, "What? Why?" she asked him, having no idea WHY a grateful hug would displease him so. Though she did let go of him, she made no motion to move herself from over his.

"No, people are stupid!" Kinya obviously was not at the age where countless bickering was considering stupid and pointless, because it was perfectly fine with him, so long as he won. With a bit of sadness to his voice, though, he continued on, "If people weren't stupid, then they wouldn't care that I'm small, or that my mane is pink. They'd accept me for who I am and would stop making fun of me because I look like a girl and my voice is a little girly and that almost everyone in my family is bigger than me so I look even more girly and..." He took a deep, steadying breath, feeling his anger rise the more he ranted about how stupid people could be at times.

Even if she hadn't heard him before, there was no doubt that she heard him now, and knew the source of his troubles. He was stunned into silence from the fact that he had let it all out of him in front of some random cheerful lioness. It wasn't like him! He was supposed to be the 'bad boy', the lion you didn't want to bother because he could insult your face off. He wasn't supposed to be this woeful little thing that poured his heart to everyone who inquired as to its state. Something was wrong with him, and he felt like he needed his mother to show up and tell him that he was himself and totally 'cool' and 'bad a**'.

"Because... because!" He had nothing, no reason behind why he didn't want to be touched by her. He wasn't even fully sure that he hated the hug, but he would still act as if it annoyed him. He couldn't ruin his image any further. It had taken him a lot of time, and a lot of zebra hide and feathers to get him to this state of 'don't mess with me 'cause I'm bad'.

Her nose touched his own, and his mind did another flop of cluelessness. He had no idea how to respond to that, and so for the time being he stayed immobile underneath her, suddenly feeling awkward and uncertain of himself.

And... she gave up trying to be reasonable, "Nuh-uh!" she chirped, "Just misunderstood!" it was posible that her claim was double-edged; as if it had double meaning, because arched a brow at him at that point, "Can't agree with everyone; someone once told me that it never rains in a way that pleases everyone," of course, that someone had been her father, but somehow, telling Kinya that her father was a lion with eight spider legs coming out of his back, seemed slightly odd at this point. Most mortals didn't really take on lightly towards Gods; specialy not towards slightly scarier looking ones. Though Kalama knew Anansi was harmless, many a rogue that had caught glimpse of them together, had ran for the metaphorical hills.

After his rant, she paused, her ears flopped back, and then, again, she sang for him, though this time softly, "When all you do is keep strong, move along, move along; when everything is wrong, we move along, move along~~" she told him, "And when hope seems gone, all you got to do is move along," the last few words were hardly sung out loud, but rather, said with a smile.

If anyone knew the meaning of 'Do not judge a book by it's cover', it was no doubt Kalama, evenough at times, she seemed off, in strange ways. It was obvious she couldn't care less what others thought of her, and that made her free. Unlike Kinya.

He'd fallen silent as their noses met, and thus Kalama had, once again, been plunged into confussion, "Hmmm?" she prompted, but when she got no answer, she drew her head back,looking down at him from where she'd 'pinned' him, "You looked like you could use a hug. Everyone needs one at some point," this said, she slipped off from him, but stay flopped by his side, peering down as if he were extremely interesting to her, "What have you to prove? Why does it matter what they call you? What they tell you?"  

[Daffupanda]

He gaped momentarily when she challenged his opinion like that, somehow having suspected that being older would have kept her from falling into the 'game'. But, since she had stooped down to his level, it was clear that he would retaliate. "No! You're wrong. They're all stupid! Everyone's stupid, you're stupid, I'm stupid, everyone! 'Cause we all just can't leave each other alone!" He was at that point in life when everyone seemed against him, when everything seemed wrong and nothing seemed right. Maybe it was a little early for that stage to kick in, but at the very least it meant Kinya would get over it sooner and be made the wiser for it.

She was singing again, and he really had no idea why. The fact that she was singing to him distracted him from the actual words of the song, or at least it took a few minutes for the lyrics to settle into his head. He glared at her once again, obviously now seeing that she was trying to aid him by singing to him, which seemed stupid in his opinion. "I don't know why you're talking about losing hope, I still have mine. And I moved along. I moved from home to here. Duh." He gave her a blank look to emphasize the 'duh'.

Yes, Kinya was the kind of lion that believed what everyone thought of him was more important than what he thought of himself. For him everything was more materialistic, which was demonstrated by his jewelry and piercings. It would be a while yet before he grew up to the same level that Kala was on, where it didn't matter what people thought of you.

He stared stubbornly at her, obviously in no mood to satisfy her curiosity. When she finally got off of him he rolled back onto his feet and eyed her some more. "Yeah, but not by random strangers that I barely know." He despised how she looked at him, as if he was intriguing, something that she wanted desperately to figure out. It just didn't sit right with him. "Because I want them to like me, and if they keep on saying it all so much it has to be true, that I'm more of a girl than I am a guy. I gotta prove that I'm not girly, that I'm big and bad... that I'm not small and weak." He stared at her as if he believed she would never understand.

A pause followed, and then laughter bubbled up her throat; good natured laughter, as if really, she couldn't be any more amused as she was at that particular moment. It was clear she wasn't laughing AT him, for some odd reason, but rather, at his words, "You're silly," she told him as she bit her lip, as if to keep herself from falling into the trap of countering him, however, if anything, all what she was doing was postponing the inevitable, "And diferent," she proclaimed with a smile, "But that's okay; I like diferent," his ideals were not rebuked, but she tilted her head, as if to accentuate that he WAS indeed silly! WHY would everyone in the world be concidered stupid? Wasn't that a little too much?

Taking a moment to look around, Kalama blinked, "Here, huh?" sitting up, she made a show of looking all around, as if expecting something spectacular to be found, "Lonely, isn't it?" a brow was arched down at him, that perpetual smile still lingering her maw, "Silly notion," she rebuked then, "You're grumpy, but oddly endearing. I like you," a pause as she wrinkled her nose, "And it has nothing to do with your mane, or size; you know? It's the personality that counts, and the way you use what you have," of course, Kala had been born with a fleeting mind; she'd never cared what others thought of her. Both lions were oposites in many ways; while he was passionate, she was laid back, and tended to shy away when it boiled down to the stranger, harder situations, "If I say the sky is green, it doesn't make it any more true; I could ask that elephant over there to say so too, and that genet over there, and they'd comply and say so... it still wouldn't make it any more true."

"There's a really easy way to prove you're a male!" she chirped rather happily, "Cause obviously, you and I are extremely diferent, physicaly and..." then she paused and pressed a paw to her maw, as if pondering, "Then again, my father never got over that part of the lecture," she'd always wondered what 'birds and bees' had to do with it all, but whatever.

He simply gawked at her when she spontaneously started to laugh, and he was simply unable to figure out the older lioness. His gawk was prolonged when she called him silly, and he was simply too stunned to be offended. This lioness was crazy! "You /like/ me?" Yup, Kala was definitely crazy. He was doing his best to be as unlikable as possible, and she still was liking him. He was grumpy and moody, and she didn't seem to care. In fact, she liked him being 'different'. Kinya had no idea how she could have even begun to remotely like him. The only explination was that she had been dropped on her head and against a rock as a cub. Yes, that had to be the reason behind everything about her! She was dropped onto a sharp rock (and he had to resist the urge to glance to the back of her head to see if there a hole there).

Her casual glance of their surroundings made him look suspiciously around him, at least until he realized why she was looking around, and then all she got from him was another sour glare. "I don't mind being alone," he replied stiffly. Then, once again she had to go on with the 'I like you' thing, and it made him feel vaguely uncomfortable. How could a nearly complete stranger like him? The rock thing made sense, but he was beginning to doubt his own theory. "No one cares to look at my personality. They see my mane and my size... and that's all that matters to them." He frowned as she began to reason with him, and though he saw the truth to her statements... he was stubborn. So, instead of replying, he bowed his head and stared at his feet. It was the best she was going to get from him, and it did show that he conceded to her logic for the time being.

His nose twitched up as she tried to explain something to him, something he vaguely suspected was the 'birds and the bees' talk (he hung around with an iffy crowd, so naturally he knew of that kind of stuff). When he realized that she really was trying to say that's how he could prove he was a male, he nearly suffered an early and fatal heart attack. "U-uh-uhhh... I think I... wow. I'll just content myself with believing I'm a boy."