AIM RP Log: Tikiti/Taabu
Tikiti was very confused. He'd ventured outside of the Kusini lands twice now, ran into a little god (something he was going to keep to himself) and the same blue lioness both times. She was irritating the first time, but after the second meeting they hadn't argued but rather played around and talked a good deal. He'd had some trouble deciding if he wanted to stick around and chat or just walk away, but he'd been intrigued enough to stick around. However, he still felt some level of annoyance with the lioness he still considered slightly out of her mind. He wasn't sure how to approach the situation, he didn't have many friends and had even less experience with females that were not family. Back home and hanging out near the den (but far enough that he didn't have to deal with younger siblings), he waited for the only lion he could dare to ask anything about this. Dads were supposed to help, right?
A soft hum floated through the air, happy and carefree, as the lumbering giant made his way home towards his den. When his rounds for the day were complete, his only thought in the world was to come back home to Nyunya and his cubs, at least those that were still living at home. As it were, the day had gone smoothly and quickly and he found himself staring down the path towards home, imagining he could already see the den from where he was. A ridiculous notion, of course, but he was prone to being a bit ridiculous.
At first, the pink dot before him made him think that Nyunya had come out to see him. The closer he got, however, the more he realized that the pink dot was far too pink, in fact, to be his mate. Squinting his eyes to make out who it was at that distance (he was sure it had to be one of his cubs, regardless), he finally chuckled to himself. Tikiti, no doubt. The closer he got, the more obvious it became, until he let out a booming laugh of simple joy. He was an easy fellow to please, really. "Tikiti, you waiting for something?" That's exactly what he looked like he was doing, anyway.
Waiting patiently for once in his life, Tiki's tail swayed from side to side behind him and he just listened. It was full of familiar sounds, and there was something very soothing about just waiting- and paying attention to things like that, keeping himself occupied, made the time pass faster. He was looking around idly when he spotted the familiar brown figure of his father, and he got to his feet. The only downside of talking to his father was that his small size was emphasized greatly when standing side-by-side with him. And irritating though that was, he didn't dwell on it anymore.
"Hey!" he greeted his father cheerfully, though he took a moment to tone it down when he realized the awkwardness of the situation he'd put himself in, "Yeah, I was waiting for you actually."
"Oh, waiting for me, were you?" he asked with a quirked brow, curiosity gleamining in his deep red eyes. It was inherited honestly, his constant curiosity, though the mischevious grin that plastered his maw was far more open and playful than his mother's ever had been.
He sat slowly at his son's side, noting the ever present difference in their sizes though saying nothing. It seemed that very few of his cubs had ended up 'average' in that area, swinging to either end of the spectrum instead. And, just like their mother, those unfortunate enough to end up tiny typically had a tendency to get rather foul when it was brought to their attention. Thus, he simply smiled that odd smile at his son and tilted his head, the dark mane around his face rustling a bit. "Alright then, let's have it."
Tiki remained standing, a habit developed because it helped him feel taller whether or not it actually had an impact- and perhaps because it would be easier to escape if he changed his mind part way through the conversation but.. that wasn't very likely to happen. Leaving a conversation unfinished wouldn't make things better, and he wondered the best way to ask the questions he had. He was a full grown lion, he had older siblings and younger siblings.. he knew technically how things work, he just didn't know the rest of how things worked. He made an attempt to smile back at his father but it didn't really stay, and he just blurted out what the whole conversation was going to be about.
"Are all girls weird?"
Taabu's brows rose slightly, though he could only chuckle in response for a moment - a low, throaty sound. He forgot, sometimes, that his cubs were getting so old. It seemed like only yesterday that Njozi himself had been a lumbering cub and yet, here he was with nearly grown cubs of his own. Now, looking at Tikiti, the bright cub from his second litter, he couldn't help but think that life was passing far too quickly.
"Well, that's really hard to say," he said as he pursed his lips together in an odd little frown of thought. "I'd say yes, yes they are, but each one has her own special brand of weird," he shifted his eyes back to his son from where he had been staring off in thought, giving an amusing little sort of sage nod.
The small lion put up with the laughter, he wasn't surprised by it so he did his best not to be effected by it. He watched his father, doing his best not to frown. Taabu and Nyunya had so many cubs, they must have had questions like this before- but maybe that was part of why it was so funny. But at least Tiki could only blame himself for this and his father wasn't laughing at him in any malicious manner. The answer he got wasn't entirely hopeful, though it was helpful enough. Making a face, he sat down.
"Why, though?" he asked, "I'm not too weird, am I?" He made another face at the idea, not having considered that concept before.
Taabu's sly grin slid right back into place at his son's question, trying for the moment to keep a mostly straight face. "Well, you're not a girl, are you?" He used his inherited abilities for jesting and fun where his mother was much better at using them to tear someone down. He probably could have if he put his mind to it, but this was certainly not someone he cared to hurt. A little joke here and there went a long way to cheer someone up in his opinion.
"No, I think you're perfectly normal, given our family. We're odd enough, aren't we?" He flickered his tail, pawing at a stalk of grass in front of him. "Don't think of yourself as being weird, Tiki, just think of yourself as having quirks. They come in all different flavors, you just have to find someone that likes yours."
"No, no I'm not," Tiki agreed very quickly at his not being a girl. His mane coming in fully was something he was proud of, especially since his size put him at a disadvantage for being really obvious about his gender. He nodded along with what his dad said, smiling at comment about them all being odd enough. There were so many of them, it depended on who you asked which one was the weirdest. He might have thought about this with respect to Kinyamkela had he not been completely convinced that she was actually really weird. What worried him was how he was both annoyed and amused, and that he just might actually like her.
"How do you figure out if you like someone's .. special brand of weird?" he asked, using the term his father had used, "I mean, it's annoying but she's not that bad."
Taabu hid his smile at Tiki's next question, realizing where this was headed. So, his son had found himself a girl he was particularly interested in, had he? Even if Tiki denied it, parents simply seemed to know these things, though it was more of a mother's intuition than a father's. He wondered if Nyunya had already figured this out without Tiki saying a word to her? Taabu was smart, and he knew it, but something about a mother meant that she knew everything about her cubs without them saying, and before anyone else.
"Well, that question is a little harder to answer," he said with a shrug, letting his eyes roll off towards the horizon, "everyone likes a different brand and how that 'liking' manifests isn't the same for any two alike." He shrugged his shoulders a bit, staring at he horizon as he thought. "Take your mother and I, for example. When we were young, before we were mates, before we were even friends, we were almost enemies, really." He chuckled lightly at the memories before he turned his bright eyes back upon his son. "We infuriated one another, got under each other's skin, and then one day.. it all changed."
Tiki listened with special interest in the topic, and instead of drawing attention by explaining about Kinyamkela, he decided to just talk about it, continue the conversation without saying it. It was just better that way, he didn't even know if he liked her that much and even less about if she really even cared if they spoke again. But he could (and would) make a point of talking to her again if he could just figure it out. Maybe he'd have to make a point of not doing so if he realized he was being ridiculous and was too embarassed to even acknowledge she existed. Talking to his father was where he started trying to figure that out.
"You and mom didn't get along?" he asked curiously, not terribly surprised by what he knew about his parents. They obviously loved each other and everything, but he just.. didn't find it all that surprising, "I guess we didn't really get along but we pretty much just met too. How long did you know mom? How long before you knew her kind of weird wasn't just irritating?"
"Nope, we didn't get along at all," he said calmly, not surprised by the fact that Tiki himself wasn't all that surprised. It wasn't hard to believe at one point that he and Nyunya didn't get along, just like it wasn't hard to believe that of his own parents (who actually still didn't get along at times). If that had been said, perhaps, of Njozi and Ihlo, it might have been different. Some couples were just different than others.
"Well, we met when we were about the age of your little brothers and sister, actually," he said, tilting his head as he tried to remember all the little details about age and time. That was pretty far back, as far as he was concerned. "I realized she didn't irritate me so much when I was younger than you, probably about the age of Njozi's brood." He turned his head to look at Tiki, "and we had the first litter when we were younger than you as well." It was hard to believe that Tiki might actually be old enough to be starting a family soon. Then again, he'd been through this all before.
Tiki listened, and in his head he tried to work out the age differences in his head. His little siblings weren't too young, and Njozi's bunch weren't that old yet either. It was a while but not a long time. It was at least comforting to know maybe he wasn't the only one who was ever confused about stuff like this. He didn't say anything else, though, only stared off in the distance thoughtfully. He pawed at the dirt and looked back to his father, trying to figure out how much of an explanation his father would really want from here or if he could just make a getaway.
"Ok," he said finally, daring to grin, "Thanks, dad."
With a nod, confident that he had done enough to quell whatever emotions were stirring in his son's head, Taabu pushed himself back onto his feet. "No problem, squirt," he said softly, smiling down at his son before reaching out with a paw to tussle his mane. No matter how old he got, he would still always be his cub. "I'm going to go help your ma with the little ones, don't give that girl too much of a hard time, y'here?" He chuckled softly to himself as he turned to leave, letting his hum fall from his maw once more.
Fin!
