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 Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 6:45 am
 Ok so singing and simple crafting from banu Kifa. Manners, rules, hunting, and natural beauty from her mother beybanu Amani. This was not enough at all, certainly not. She had to be the most desirable banu to get the best pad for herself.
Vashti set out on a search for more banu to help her. She needed more skills!!! Her paws led her to the river, where she stopped to make sure each hair was in place. "Now lets see what other skills would be good for a banu or dare I hope it a beybanu need. Hmm well I can sing...maybe someone in the pride can dance. Hmm what else? Oh maybe babysitting to learn child care? I wonder if Im old enough to do that? Ill ask my mother later." Vashti looked around a bit before deciding to practice singing. "Doe a deer a female deer. Rei a drop of golden sun. Mi a name I call myself. Fa a long long way to run. So a needle pulling thread. La a note to follow so. Ti a drink with jam and bread. That will bring us back to doe! Oh oh oh!" She sighed a bit she didn't sound as good as Kifa.
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Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 12:34 pm
Mirsajadi knew perfectly well that he was not supposed to be wandering the pride on his own. He knew his mother would worry and if anyone went to his father, his father would probably be unhappy with both him and his mother. In truth, Mirsajadi didn't care.
Or, that was what he told himself at any rate. He was a strong lion, the son of a strong lion, and there was no reason for him to concern himself over what happened to his mother because he'd slipped her watch. And the only reason his stomach hurt was that he'd eaten too much that morning. It had nothing to do with feeling sorry for anyone.
"Besides, it's her fault anyway," he muttered, arguing against his guilty gut. "If she'd been paying better attention, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to get away."
As he made his way farther from his mother's loving care Mirsajadi's eyes grew wide at all the sights. There was so much to take in, he hardly knew where to look. Clearly he was being smothered, he thought to himself. He should have been exposed to all this ages ago. And then, maybe, he would know who all these people were, and be able to address them.
The sound of someone singing reached his ears and Mirsajadi turned his head. He had little experience so far with music, and so he felt obliged to investigate this sound. He followed his ears until he came upon a cub larger than he was with golden markings along her flanks and purple eyes. A stranger, and she spoke very oddly, and not all of her words made any sense.
"Good morning," he said, unconsciously exercising the good manners his mother had been working to instill in him. "Why are you talking so oddly?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 5:35 pm
"Hmm?" Vashti turned to look at the other cub. He was male, but he was younger then her so not really someone she was going to go out of her way to impress. "Good Morning Pesar." She nodded her head to show respect to a male, no matter how young he was.
Curling her tail around herself as elegantly as she could she gave him a confused look. "What ever do you mean Pesar, I was singing."
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 6:53 am
So that was singing. Mirsajadi had suspected that might be the case, but no one had really explained to him what it was. If he strained, he could recall his mother doing something like that, singing to him and his siblings as they were falling asleep sometimes. Hearing it when he was fully awake had been unusual, though, with all the changing pitches and strangely prolonged syllables. Mirsajadi decided he would have to learn to appreciate it when he was awake as well as when he was falling asleep.
"You do it well," Mirsajadi said, though in truth he had no real basis of comparison. "Why are you singing?"
He really did like the way it sounded when she sang, but he wasn't sure if he should offer her more praise than the carefully chosen words he'd already spoken. He tried to think what his father would do, and realized that he didn't know for sure. He would have to find a way to spend more time with his father so that he could better learn how he thought and acted in order that he could replicate his father's actions with his own.
It also struck him that he did not know her name, and he did not know who her father was, or if she was supposed to be out like this. He had no doubt that if her father was the sort to worry, or the sort who wanted to ensure his daughters' upbringing, he would not be pleased to have her speaking to Mirsajadi. At least until Mirsajadi introduced himself. He knew his father was important in the pride, and that many people deferred to him, some out of fear and others out of respect. Mirsajadi wanted that for himself, and was willing to get his start building on his father's reputation.
"I don't know your name, Banu."
Someone should have been there to introduce him. He knew that, but it was too late at this point to do anything about it. He refused to run away in search of someone to make proper introductions. He knew her title, if nothing else, and could call her by that, as she had called him Pesar. Perhaps it would be best, so that if they should ever happen to meet in the future and be officially introduced, he could honestly claim not to have known her name before. He could make a game of it. He grinned at the thought, a grin which was still too pleasant to be mistaken for his father's.
"Don't tell me your name," he said. "I think I prefer not to know for now."
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 7:56 pm
Vashti looked around starting to feel a little uncomfortable without a proper introduction. She knew she was aloud to wander, but this pesar was certainly to young to be out. Vashti couldn't tell him to go back though so she guessed it should just be ignored. She lay down crossing her front paws delicately.
"Oh..why thank you, pesar!" Vashti blushed a little. "But I pale in comparison to my teacher Banu Kifaranga." She blinked for his next question before flicking her ears a little. "I must! I'm practicing to be a good banu. I wish to learn every little skill I can to be the most desirable banu that all the pads will want. And the pad who gets me will be so proud of his perfect banu. I'm learning singing and minor crafting from banu Kifaranga, Manners, hunting, and a bunch of other stuff from my mother. My father is teaching me things about gods and how to properly give care to my pad's mane. I really really really want to learn to dance, but Ive yet to find a teacher.......Oh my...I must be boring you pesar. The dreams of a female must be so...stupid to you." Vashti covered her face with her paw embarrassed.
"Its Banu......." She had started to reply when the pesar interrupted her. She raised her brow curiously before smiling catching on to the little game herself. "Alright as you say pesar. I do hope you will learn it some day as do I hope to know yours one day. So you know what I'm doing away from my den and just so you know I do have permission. What are you doing out and about is I may ask pesar?" If she could not know his name she wanted to know something about him.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 8:23 pm
He knew it shouldn't please him to see the little banu light up at his compliment, but Mirsajadi was a clever boy and even at his age he was able to twist his perceptions. By doing so, he was able to look at the effects of his compliment as a successful effort in manipulating another's emotions, just as his father did, rather than an unnecessary and possibly excessive display of kindness. Kindness had its place, but it would not do to be too kind. That sort of behavior bespoke weakness in its practitioners.
"That is a good goal," Mirsajadi had to admit. "I'm sure it pleases your father to have a daughter who cares so much."
He wondered if his sister would apply herself so diligently to the task of preparing to please her pad in the future, or if she would prove to be more like their mother, who did not seem to be good for very much, and tended to behave very oddly at times. Just the thought of his mother's behavior made him cringe inwardly as he hoped that it was not something she had passed on to him. He wanted to be as much like his father as he could. His father was a truly admirable figure.
"Who -"
He stopped himself before he could finish the question. If he asked who Bana Kifaranga was it would betray his near-total ignorance of the pride, which was something he wished to avoid, and if he asked who her father and mother were it would spoil some of his game of not knowing who she was. Besides, he would learn everyone's name soon enough. Even the insignificant ones, for it seemed like the sort of thing a sultan's adviser ought to know.
"Which of those skills do you most enjoy?" Mirsajadi asked.
His mother made him learn manners, too, and he tolerated the lessons and lectures because it seemed to please his father, too, to see that his children could comport themselves well. He neither enjoyed the lessons nor despised them. They simply were. Hunting seemed like an interesting thing to learn, though he doubted his mother would be able to teach him much of that. Maybe his father's other banu could.
He didn't care one whit whether the banu had permission to be away from her den. At least he didn't until he considered the consequences for both of them if she hadn't permission, and then he decided it was a good thing she did. He wasn't sure that answering her question would be a good idea though. Still, he could just answer part of it without mentioning that he didn't have permission to be out.
"I thought I might like to see some of the pride. It's been interesting so far."
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Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2010 9:21 pm
"I'm glad you think so, it means I'm on the right path." Vashti replied with a smile she rolled on her side and looked to the sky for a moment.
"Who what?" She asked tilting her head sideways while still laying down. Vashti pawed at the ground a little feeling a bit playful but knowing she was really only aloud to play with banu or her brothers.
"Oh well I guess." Vashti placed her paw on her bottom jaw in thought for a moment. "Singing is nice but I'm nut sure I'm good at it. Hunting is a more practical skill though so both are my favorites I guess. I just have this feeling though that I want to dance, but I do not know how." She sat up a bit and smiled again at the younger cub. He had asked many questions of her, but not told her much about himself. As a male though she figured it was his right to do such a thing.
"Oh? I love the pride! Wish I knew everyone, but I mostly know banus. That's not a bad thing, but I would love to meet pesars and pads too. Just so I can learn more about them. Maybe adult banu know a lot, but I want to learn for myself too. Sorry if I'm rambling, my father says I get that from him." Vashti replied with and embarrassed look.
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Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:38 am
Mirsajadi, still sitting up at polite attention, wondered if he might also make himself more comfortable. It seemed to him that he should be allowed to. After all, he was a pesar, and she was only a banu, and if she was allowed to be comfortable, he definitely ought to be allowed the same thing. Not that he was uncomfortable, but he could be more comfortable.
"I was going to ask who Banu Kifaranga is, but then I realized that if I knew that it would be too much like telling me who you are."
Thinking about it, Mirsajadi realized that his behavior would definitely qualify as eccentric, but he didn't mind that so much. It was his right to be eccentric if he chose to be. His father was certainly different, and no one told him he couldn't do as he pleased. It was one of the many things Mirsajadi admired about Tariq'ra'd. Still, his father was a grown-up and Mirsajadi wasn't, and he didn't want the banu to mistake his eccentricity for childishness.
"I'm making a game of not knowing who you are, you see," Mirsajadi explained. "That way when we're introduced properly - and I'm sure we will be at some point - we really won't know each other's names. Also, I can see if I can figure out who you are without being told."
He listened to Vashti as she talked over the advantages of the skills she was learning. When she mentioned dance, something Mirsajadi had even less experience with than singing, he was at a loss, so he offered a suggestion based on something he thought sounded fun. "You could try to guess who I am. That might be fun, though probably very little like dancing."
Mirsajadi barely caught a frown when the banu said that she wanted to meet pesars and pads. He was relatively certain that it wasn't appropriate for banu, particularly young ones, to go around meeting lots of males. The double standard which made it fine for pesars and pads to know lots of banus did not occur to him, for he accepted that was the way things were.
"I don't mind listening to you, as long as you don't get boring. So far you haven't." He grinned and it was unconsciously reminiscent of his father's, though nowhere near as potent.
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Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2010 2:16 am
Vashti still didn't know all she should and it her father was not as strict on females like most males of the pride were.
"Well not really she isn't related to me nor is she my father's banu. I met her while exploring and she was singing and I got her to agree to teach me. Turns out she knows a little crafting to, not much though. She is interesting, she wasn't born here...she seems sad a lot. Kifa comes from a weird world where its one male to one female. That seems silly if you ask me. Taking care of all the banu duties and all the hunting and the cubs as one female seems impossible!!! Don't you agree pesar? It is much better here I think." Vashti mused thinking about how hard it would be to just be a beybanu with banu to help.
Vashti never thought of his actions as eccentric she was also enjoying this game quite thoroughly. She smiled at him as he explained himself even though she had figured out what was going on. "Oh what a clever game pesar! I wish you luck in figuring it out. If you want a clue don't hesitate to ask! Although you could say I have given you one already if you skim over our conversations so far." Vashti played like she hadn't figured out his game.
"I like this idea pesar. Shall I tell you as I guess or shall I keep my guesses to myself?" She asked as she started to ponder over who he was. Vashti had a small advantage he was from one of the new litters that was for sure.
Vashti did see the frown, had she said something wrong? Perhaps it was bad for her to want to meet males? She just wanted to learn from them! How could she please her pad if she didn't understand males? Plus she had a little crazy dream, she wanted to be fought over. She wanted to make sure several pads and pesars saw her skills, so when the time came she would please her father by many males trying to have her given to them. That would be amazing!!! Plus that would give her a better chance of ending up with a good pad.
"I promise I will try to stay entertaining for you pesar." Vashti said giggling and rolling over once.
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Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2010 6:26 am
Oh. Mirsajadi had thought that Kifaranga would turn out to be a banu of this banu's father, but if she wasn't, that was all right. He smiled, pleased not to have had his game spoiled while still learning more of the pride. He was beginning to think that he might like this banu. Just as a person, mind, but still.
"One male to one female?" Mirsajadi repeated, trying the idea on for size. He knew from listening to his father that some pads had only one female, and they were not very highly regarded within the pride. Social stigma aside, however, the banu raised a very good point. It took many banus to properly provide and care for a family, as he had witnessed in his own home.
"I think the way we do things is much more fair," he agreed. "As you say, it would be a lot of work to have to do everything, and some people aren't good at everything. I don't think it's a good arrangement for anyone."
The striped cub was pleased - perhaps inordinately so - by the banu's praise, and completely unaware in his youthful arrogance that she had already figured out what he was about. He basked for a moment in the glow of his own cleverness, and said proudly, "I won't need to ask for any clues, but since you feel you've already given one, I will have to try to remember our conversation later."
It made it more challenging for Mirsajadi, as he knew almost no one in the pride outside of his family, and so he had to find out everything. The fact that he was willing to make such an effort spoke well for his determination, but perhaps also indicated a lack of sense, considering the disadvantage he was at. The disadvantage did not occur to him, and all he thought of was his pleasure at having someone to play the game with...
...Or against! He grinned delightedly and said, "You can tell me as you guess, if you want, but you have to figure out what my name is, just as I have to figure out yours. We can make it a race, and whichever of us guesses first wins...Well, they win."
"See that you do," he said imperiously. Despite his tone, there was a certain look about him which said he wasn't actually being stern or issuing an order.
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Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 2:21 am
"Its just crazy isn't it pesar!" Vashti shook her head thinking about the poor banu forced to do everything by herself.
Vashti giggled this little game felt fun already. She tried to memorize his markings to help with her quest in guessing who he was.
"Well just winning doesn't seem like a prize. How about winner gets to choose a game to play or something. What do you think of this idea pad?" Vashti asked tilting her head.
"Oh I will pesar." She giggled, she liked this pesar. He seemed cute and easy to manipulate. She would have to keep track of this pesar that's for sure.
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:46 am
Mirsajadi was amazed by how strange the world outside could be. And someday he'd have to go out into it to bring back a banu. He wouldn't be considered an adult until he did so. He'd have to make sure that any banu he brought back would both please and impress his father. And his older siblings would all go out first, thinking the exact same way. He would have to take time to look at it from another point of view sometime in the coming year or so.
But not now.
"That sounds like a good prize," Mirsajadi acknowledged. He really would have played simply for the satisfaction of knowing he was right and that he'd won, but having an incentive - even a slight one like getting to choose a game - was better.
"Should we set up some actual rules for this game? Like...we can't specifically ask anyone for each other's names. We have to find them out through other means." That sounded like it would be more fun, and definitely more challenging. He was already wondering if it would be considered cheating to lead people into conversations which would cause them to enumerate people's cubs, though he'd still have to learn the name of at least one of her family members first.
"Oh! And we should work out a way that we can let the other one know when we think we've figured it out. Who knows when we'll run into each other again after this?" This sounded like an excellent opportunity for Mirsajadi to meet lots of people in the pride as well as improve certain useful skills.
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Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 9:15 pm
"That is a fantastic rule pesar!" Vashti chimed smiling and tilting her head just slightly. This was going to be great great fun! She pranced a little in place while giggling.
"Yes, hmm well I can just ask my father to bring me to the litter I think you're in. And I will randomly shout you're name? No..no then they will know we met without introductions.....do you have any ideas pesar? A male's mind is more suited for this I believe." Vashti grinned trying out her ways of complimenting males.
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 5:17 am
The banu's exclamation made Mirsajadi preen, very proud to have come up with a rule that was 'fantastic.' He found himself more and more disposed to like the pretty purple-eyed girl. She had the right sort of values, and she played interesting games, and - most importantly - she thought he was clever. Mirsajadi happened to agree that he was a clever young lion, and so he was inclined to think that those who also held this point of view were at least reasonably intelligent, though he also believed his intelligence and cleverness were such that any fool could see them.
He grinned at her, but made no attempt at modesty. If he'd been a little older and more experienced, he might have teasingly said that he was so glad she approved, but he didn't know any better, and had only a limited grasp of how to be truly clever and quick-tongued. It was a skill that would come to him eventually, but for now he still walked the line between wanting to be charming and clever, and actually being charming and clever.
"Mrr...I suppose, if we both knew we could trust each other to be honest, we could simply wait to be introduced and give a signal if the name we're introduced by turns out to be the one we'd suspected." He was imagining that the banu might suspect him of duplicity in this scenario, since he doubted someone so eager to be a proper banu would be inclined to lie, just for the sake of winning a game. He might, but that was about proving himself.
"We'll have to go with that, I think. I shouldn't stay out any longer." He sounded more certain than he felt, and hoped she'd go along with it, so he wouldn't have to stay much more. He had a very strong feeling that he would soon be missed at home, if not by his father, then definitely by his mother. "It was good meeting you."
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