[PRP] Make More Space (Kitwana & Syél)

[mouselet]

When she'd offered to help Kitwana clean out the s**t from his den, Syél had thought it would be a relatively simple process. She'd point out some stupid, ugly object taking up space and suggest the male get rid of it. He'd look at it, talk about it, and sometimes agree, but not always. The lioness was starting to get frustrated, considering that she could discern no pattern in what he was willing to part with as compared to what he insisted on keeping. They'd been at this for a couple days now, as Syél's first insistence had been cleaning the objects themselves. Dust-covered skulls were no one's best bet for anything.

"Look," the wing-marked female said finally. "You want to clean up this den, right? How can you call it clean if you're only willing to get rid of a quarter of this crap?"

Frankly, if she had her way, all of it would go. But there was no point in telling Kitwana that.  

[SilverLutz]

Kitwana exhaled heavily, directing the flow upward to make his bangs flop out of his eyes. It was an extremely hot and muggy day and it wasn't one he had wanted to spend cleaning out his den, but Syél had kept her word and although it was taking longer than he had thought it might, she was here day after day to help him organize and clear out some of his treasures. Unfortunately her idea of 'clean out' seemed to be 'get rid of everything'.

"Some of it has sentimental value," he said with a sigh, swatting at an old bone that definitely wasn't part of the mentioned stuff. "Long Vikings, hard battles, interesting finds...they all have a story." Some just had more interesting stories than others.

"It's a quarter less than I started with, though," he added, glancing at the winged female with a little smile. Although they hadn't known one another very long, she had been around him enough the past few days for Kitwana to find she was more than just a pretty face. He certainly didn't loathe their time together and although her approach every morning meant he was going to suffer through cleaning for a few hours, it was a little easier because he had her to do it with.  

[mouselet]

"So you're saying you are incapable of retelling stories of your past glory without a physical reminder?" Syél replied in exasperation. "Please! You know how it works. The old, retired Reavers tell how they fought off twenty lions at once, with an injured foreleg, all so that we can grow up safe and sound in the Myrsky Syntynyt. And the one who downed them (from which they obviously recovered) was five times as large as any lion has a right to be! And if you show them his skull, and it's the same size as any other lion's, or a bit smaller, you're doing it wrong!"

The lioness stopped, huffing and glaring at Kitwana. There was still a sparkle in her eyes that indicated she wasn't nearly as angry as she might seem. Exasperated, maybe. But definitely not angry. It hadn't been a bad time, helping the male with his hoarding problem. The job wasn't done yet, however...  

[SilverLutz]

"What? No! Of course not," Kit said with a little huff. He was no Bard but he certainly could remember his victories and battles. But when he was older and his mind began to cloud he wanted little things to hold on to that could help jog his memory. That, and as they had mentioned before, the stuff he had collected was partly to simply fill the empty space in his den.

"Maybe they just had an incredibly small head. Ever think of that?" he returned with an amused smirk before looking back down at the pile at their feet. They were taking the hoard in chunks, working on a bit at a time. So far the 'toss' pile was much larger than the 'keep', but with a sigh he began to go through it all again, pulling out a few items that he supposed he could part ways with.

"I suppose having evidence of stories I might embellish is a bad idea," he conceded as he pushed aside a few little trinkets he had decided to hang on to, moving them to the 'toss' pile. Some cub would certainly enjoy finding all the things he was throwing away, at least  

[mouselet]

Syél was tempted to reply with "you think!?" but decided it would be...more diplomatic to avoid the words. At least her scolding had done the trick and Kitwana was relegating more items to the trash pile. Instead she just shook her head with an audible sigh as she turned her attention to the mass of objects which hadn't yet been touched.

"Honestly, do you bring something back from every single Viking you go on?" she demanded, looking at the daunting pile. "You've been a Reaver for years, and you've got tons more trips in you, and if you keep this up there won't be space in your den for you, let alone some mythical mate."  

[SilverLutz]

Kit shook his head slightly at the question. No, not every Viking. Some were busts, after all, and some were simply to go out and stretch his legs. Only the ones he did something worth remembering during did he ever try to bring something back. Her comment about a mythical mate did made him narrow his eyes at her a bit, the words cutting a little deeper than the rest of her teasing had.

"I prefer the term 'future', thank you very much," he said with a little huff before shoving his 'toss' pile further from the 'keep'. It was about even now in terms of size, although the 'toss' pile certainly had a lot more in it. Tiny bits of broken bones, baubles that weren't shiny anymore or had lost their color, pelts that he'd had for years that were nearly completely ruined. The 'keep' pile held much newer shiny things, the skull of a fierce leopard he had battled, and a bit of cloth that was a vibrant red that he fancied quite a bit.

"There. That's better."  

[mouselet]

Hmm. So she'd touched a nerve, had she? Well good. Kitwana was a nice guy, sure, but to be a real Stormborn meant a lion needed some spine and a bit of temper to keep it straight. A male who simply gave in to every demand was not at all ideal. But that line of thought led places and Syél wasn't quite ready to follow through. So she refocused her attention on the piles of crap before her.

"Better, yes. But I think we still need to cut that "keep" pile in half," she informed the male. Holding up a paw to forestall his automatic protest, the lioness continued. "Not only do you want space for someone else to live in this den - someone who may have possessions of their own to add - but you want to be able to keep bringing things home without having to end up sorting through everything in one big lot again. You know it'll happen otherwise."

Not to mention that he really didn't need more than one skull, or antler, or whatever junk it was he insisted on keeping.  

[SilverLutz]

Although he had felt good about reducing the pile before them, Kit knew there was more lurking in his den. They'd shuffled through a lot of it in the past few days but there was more to uncover and the things he kept at the back of the den were by far the ones he prized the most. He saw them most often and slept near them, after all! It was a place of honor to be along the back wall, in his mind.

Her comment made his ears flatten and he turned to argue, but the raised paw held his tongue for just a moment. She had fair points to argue, of course, but that didn't mean he liked to hear it. He gave a frustrated snarl and turned away from Syél for a moment, pacing back and forth along the mouth of his den. At the end of the day it was all his stuff and she was just some random lioness who had offered to help. He could keep everything, her opinion really didn't matter...and yet it did. She was a female, after all, and he had never had the chance to bring one into his den even it was just to help him clear it out. She offered a fresh perspective and if all females felt the same way about a cluttered den then he should at least take her advice and try to work with it to make his home a little more inviting.

Lifting his head, it was clear he was still irritated at the thought of tossing more. They'd been at it for a while, though, and he knew his irritation was from the long day and his suddenly rumbling stomach, not at Syél.

"Then let's stop here for today and get something to eat," he grumbled, walking forward to shove the 'toss' pile over to the larger one that sat a few paces from the mouth of his den that they'd worked on the past few days. Already it was larger than he knew it would have been if he had done this alone and as he glanced at it he began to realize that the things in the pile were just...things. He didn't care as much about them as he thought.  

[mouselet]

The lioness had opened her mouth to say something else when Kitwana mentioned food. Almost on cue, her stomach rumbled. It was a good thing her fur was dark enough to mostly conceal her flush, but that didn't stop her from feeling awkward about it.

"I guess you're right. This is probably going to take at least one more day," Syél added, looking at the pile. Not to mention that they probably wouldn't return to the task after eating. The lion definitely needed some time to cool off, if she was any judge, and she was frustrated enough to want to push the entire "keep" pile into the discards and have done with it.

Well, as her mother always said, tomorrow was another day.  

[SilverLutz]

When Syél agreed that it was time to eat Kit turned away from his den and the piles outside of it. He needed to stay positive about the situation because he did know that she was right. If he continued down this path of taking things home with him on every Viking worthy of a story he'd eventually have to find a second den just for himself to sleep in. He was helping himself even if it wasn't fun.

He led the way towards where kills were brought in daily, eager to get his mind off the task at hand. One more day...ugh. Hopefully it would all be worth it in the end.