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 Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 6:53 pm
It was late into the night and Aysu was standing alone in the open air, with no apparent concern for whoever was around her. Her night was done, she'd been hunting and now she was waiting for it to end, thinking. She was looking up at the full moon through narrowed eyes, looking very much like she was in the middle of a staring contest. In truth, to her mind, she was. She had never accepted the changes to the pride but she had had no choice but to go along as life settled back into a routine. Should she have been more vocal? She wasn't exactly quiet about her opinion in this case, though she wasn't going around picking fights.. except for her last encounter with her youngest son, and far too many lions had seen how that went. She hadn't lost touch with the gossip around the pride but in this case, she was also a topic of it- and that hadn't happened since her first litter of cubs.
The Great Lion had no answers for her, staring was doing her no good, but she refused to look away.
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:03 pm
 "Trying to bargain with the Great Lion?" Tyfu asked the other lioness with a sneer. She didn't know that she believed in the so-called "Great Lion" worshipped by the Mwezi'Johari, but the dark lioness wasn't at all opposed to playing off of and preying on the believe of the suckers living in the pride. So long as it worked out in her favor, of course. Aysu had been a troublemaker from the start, even if she hadn't been one of those who'd actually tried to attack Shangyue. Tyfu had made it a point to pick up as much information as she could about those who opposed the King and frankly, there was an awful lot to learn about Aysu. She was a well-known gossip, her brother had been evicted from the pride after some problems with a slave, she had a litter of high class kids - including the apprentice Shaman - and a low class litter that included not one but two Royal Guards. Not to mention that recently she'd had a confrontation with one of those and it hadn't gone well for her. No, things weren't going well for Aysu at all. Which was, of course, just how Tyfu liked it. "I doubt He'll listen to you, after all, Shangyue is His favored one while your family's falling to pieces around you," the Guard continued nastily, yellow eyes smirking at the other lioness.
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:12 pm
Aysu was startled out of her anxious thoughts by the sound of a voice. She looked calmly from the moon to Tyfu and immediately scowled. It wasn't one of his royal guards but it was a lioness Shangyue had recruited, one that had a reputation for strictly supporting him. It was like a slap in the face knowing this lioness had the attention of the Great Lion moreso than most of the pride and her motivations were questionable at best- at least in Aysu's opinion.
"Shut up," she hissed, glaring in response to the smirk. It wasn't a particularly clever response, especially since almost anybody would immediately see that the guard was trying to get a rise out of her, but Aysu wasn't thinking.
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:22 pm
"Shut up!" the black lioness returned mockingly, yellow eyes glittering. Clearly the lighter lioness wasn't doing very well in thinking up rejoinders tonight. Such a pity. Tyfu would have to...educate her.
"Why Aysu, you sound like a whiny little cub...is that leftover from losing an argument with your own son?" Not that Tyfu had anything against Ikwezi. He was a loyal Royal Guard and showed promise. She was simply using him as a lever against Aysu. That was the problem with public arguments - it made it obvious to the pride what your weak points were. Then a less-than polite individual could make cold and calculating use out of them.
Not that Tyfu knew any lions like that. Not in the least.
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:52 pm
She drew in a deep breath, realizing her mistake as soon as Tyfu responded-- but all attempts at calculating a better response disappeared as the dark lioness went on. Aysu glared, not surprised that the story of her stubborn idiot of a son finally standing up to her had reached this unfriendly face. It was beyond obvious what was happening now but it seemed that this was what Aysu was waiting for.
"Enjoyed the show, did you?" she snapped, "If you're expecting an encore, you're out of luck."
It wasn't smart to challenge Tyfu, but getting defensive would not spare her pride and she wasn't yet to the point of decrying her idiot son to a malicious stranger. And walking away was simply not in her. More than anything, she wanted an excuse to fight- something she didn't realize was perfectly obvious to anybody who knew anything about her and heard about Ikwezi brushing her off. She did see, however, that this was probably as close as she would get to actually confronting Shangyue himself.
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:59 pm
The black lioness chuckled nastily as Aysu began to try and climb out of the verbal pit she'd dug for herself. Oh, this was nearly as much fun as watching one's prey squirm around and try to escape. It was, of course, always in vain.
"Oh, I don't know about that," she replied, and though her tone was still light (and cruel), there was an undertone of seriousness to her words. "I can be quite patient, and I know enough about you, Aysu." For the first time that night, Tyfu's smile reached her eyes.
"You can't stand things as they are right now. And you keep fretting at the bounds of what is permitted. Sooner or later you won't be able to take it anymore," the darker female predicted. Then she took a menacing step forward, followed by another.
"And on that day, I'll be there. Watching." The smile she revealed to Aysu as she stepped back once more was so full of malicious intent that it should have qualified as a weapon in its own right.
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 8:08 pm
Aysu didn't move even as Tyfu chuckled and moved in and threatened her. Deep inside, some part of her was scared that she was putting a target on herself by caring so deeply and not bothering to hide it.. but someone had to stand for what was right. Tyfu's words were unsettling but not surprising, so it was easy to shrug off with a petulant roll of her eyes.
"Do you have nothing better to do than wait for the king to say jump?" she asked, her emphasis of Shangyue's title clearly stating that she didn't truly consider him a king, "Do you have any thoughts that are your own or do you just do everything he tells you?"
She wasn't a royal guard so she wasn't necessarily under the direct influence of Shangyue or his fiery shadow.. and yet her intense, aggressive loyalty was unmistakable.
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 8:16 pm
The dark lioness laughed long and loud at Aysu's pathetic attempt at a rejoinder. Clearly the other female had no idea about who Tyfu really was and what motivated her. Nor how Shangyue operated. Really, the King was a clever individual. He simply recruited those whose inclinations were useful to him and then set them loose on the pride. That was all. And it worked out rather well in her case.
"You don't get it," she taunted once she'd regained control of her laughter. "I do this of my own free will, because it serves King Shangyue's purposes." Her use of the title was perfectly respectful, and almost corrective on the heels of Aysu's response.
To be able to do almost everything she pleased, and with royal favor to back it? It was a dream come true in so many ways. And this was why, when Shangyue had asked it, Tyfu had given her loyalty to him.
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 8:47 pm
Tyfu's response got another eye roll out of Aysu, though under normal circumstances she would see how perfectly reasonable it was for someone to follow and support their king freely. How even seeming like that was your whole purpose was typically reasonable. The situation just didn't fit and Aysu couldn't see it, especially for an outsider.
"No, you don't get it," she growled, "It won't last. Only a few of us will speak out now but Shangyue has set himself up for his own violent end, and he'll get it."
Alone with a vicious supporter of the king, in plain sight of the Great Lion, Aysu dared to threaten Shangyue. It was indirect but she could feel the weight of it. Aysu herself was hardly a physical threat to Shangyue even without his lackeys, but the words mattered more than that. It was dangerous but actually saying it made her feel very powerful.
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Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:49 am
Tyfu laughed again, though this time there was a nastier undertone. Aysu really didn't get anything at all, now did she? Maybe that was why her own life seemed to be falling apart.
"Nothing lasts forever," the black lioness confirmed. "But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it while it lasts," she added with a toothy grin. Tyfu wasn't stupid, after all. She did understand how her actions, along with Shangyue's and so many of his supporters, were undermining the society of the Mwezi'Johari. She simply didn't care so long as she was able to do as she pleased.
"Still, you should be careful," the dark female observed, "or else a nice Guard like me might take you prisoner for threats like that. And," she added as if the thought had just occurred to her, "I don't think there's any rules governing the treatment of prisoners!"
Her mouth might look concerned, but Tyfu's yellow eyes danced with sickening glee at the thought of being able to torture Aysu.
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Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:02 pm
Aysu glared but didn't take Tyfu's laugh or comment to heart this time. So she knew nothing lasts forever, she didn't seem to care that your actions now mattered later. The vicious guard would prove herself a coward when the time came, not that Aysu felt she (or anybody else around here) had done much so far to prove they weren't.
At the threat of being taken prisoner, she laughed. She couldn't remember a time they ever had really had a prisoner. She'd been born just before the end of Alcmene's rule, so she didn't know for sure, but she didn't think even then that the Ilanga'Izwe lions had been anything but under a kind of probation.
"You don't scare me."
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Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:07 pm
The dark lioness shrugged, the lithe movement rippling with unspoken threat, none of which was reflected in her voice when she spoke.
"Suit yourself. We may find out the truth of that soon enough."
With these less than comforting words, Tyfu headed on her way, to make her nightly rounds of the pride. What Aysu chose to do now was her own business...but the black lioness was sure that their paths would cross again soon. Or whenever she chose to arrange things.
More reasons to be glad Shangyue had approached her when he did.
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Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:17 pm
She hissed under her breath, watching the guard go. She was riled up now, decidedly tired of being quiet. It could only mean trouble, especially since now it was likely Shangyue would know her mind before the end of the night. But Aysu didn't care. She watched Tyfu walk off before glaring up at the moon, silently cursing the Great Lion's poor judgement, and then she took off.
Fin!
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