Players|| San (alpaca Chobi) x Byu (Shia bean)
Word Count || 2,478
San had a questionable interaction with one of the crystal lords and was now just a tad bit annoyed with the whole thing. Her tail swished from side to side ever so casually as she padded along the gem crusted corridors. The steam was blowing off the further away she walked from the conflict zone.
He could figure his own s**t out after all and she wasn't about to find her self caring. This huff she was in would blow away and she'd be whole again in no time.
An exit to the silver beaches was approaching as her paws moved her to no objective in particular. The silver beaches naturally had crossed her path so the silver lioness thought nothing more of it and decided this would be the point where she would find calm for her now stormy soul. His bad mood had rubbed off on her and she wasn't about to admit that it had so instead the inner turmoil of angst would cycle her mind giving her unrest as she stubbornly tried to let this go with out actually letting it go.
There was a soft squish beneath her paws as she was nearing the ocean the sands were beginning to be rich with its waters. The lioness lifted her paw and watched as water spilled in, not from the waves, but from the ground it self. She defiantly sank her paw back in it making it an imperfect shape matching her mood more closely.
Time had escaped him entirely, and if it weren't for the migraines he would have lived blissfully unaware of it. But the pain kept him grounded in the present. It reminded him of the long life he had already lived and the long life he had yet explore, and all of that was a pit of a feeling in his stomach. More than anything else.
Perhaps that was why the beach had called to him? Perhaps that was why he had followed the lioness here? It's cold, neutral exterior hiding a story beneath its otherworldly grit?
Byu sat on the sands alone. His gaze low and focused on where his toes would be if not for the blanket of silver covering them. He remained remarkably still, like that of a gargoyle overlooking the shoreline, the only hint of life being his fur as it was played with by the wind. Old habits died hard, as he sat with his back to the pride lands, completely exposed and visible to any and all who might wander by.
if you're in plain sight, you might go unseen. But if you are noticed, you're less likely to be accused of hiding from punishment.
The male was still acclimating to... this. To a sense of freedom that did not feel free. Not to the pale seer. To being in a prides territory and not being abused. Even the words he had been met with here were hard to revisit. They were kind. He had almost forgotten what it meant. Some of those initial conversations had begun to meld with those he had been rattled by during his enslavement. It hadn't fully clicked for him that he was no longer a slave. That he had a choice. He followed the directions given to him and would not leave without the direction to do so...
But then he was left to his own devices. And where his tour had left him last, is where he remained now. What could, or would, he do next?
Hopefully someone would tell him.
There was nothing surprising about another lion being on the silver sands as the pride spent a good deal of time on them when the weather would permit it so it wasn't unusual that the male lion had followed San out on to the silver shores or that he would take a seat on its sands. Something about this male had Sans attention though but it was vague to what that was.
The young lioness had just dealt with a spoiled princes temper tantrum and moping and had his angst absorbed with in her core so maybe it was some kind of problem San had where pondering lost looking males subconsciously called to her. San was no seer but you didn't have to be a seer to hold empathy in your heart.
This pull of curiosity and mild concern had the lioness approach this pale pelted male despite her own absorbed angst. It was possible she was a gluten for negative auras.
"Hey." She called out a hint of reluctant caution edged her voice as she greeted the male.
"I don't think I'm familiar with your face and you seem like you're deep in thought. You know like the the scribes or something.. ? Are you out here pondering your next scroll or .. " Yeah San knew she was being really forward but the lioness didn't care much for over politeness.
Her tail casually swished from side to side and her piercing pink eyes were entirely focused on this male.
She was right. It wasn't uncommon for the common areas to be populated. Byu half expected to be seen, to be approached, to be questioned... It was only a matter of time, really.
But he was also half expecting to be washed away in the ocean. So she surprised him all the same.
When her voice met his ears the lion stiffened instinctually. He dipped his head further into its state of submission while the rest of him refrained from bristling. To keep his cool was to keep his head. And where he might have been looking down in contemplation at first, he now kept his gaze low out of respect, or fear, or both. What was the difference? What he saw out of the corner of his eyes was fur that matched the ground she walked. And what accompanied his posture was a cacophony of thoughts, louder than before, that made her common tongue muffle in and out of recognition. All he caught for sure was that she was unfamiliar with him.
And he had a response for that.
"Byu." He said autonomically. His voice raspy from limited use. He repeated it to be sure she heard him, but quickly took in a sharp breath of regret immediately after.
Assuming was a dangerous game.
He had offered his name but not answered her questioning which got a crisp edging of the corners of Sans mouth. He wasn't obligated to answer her questions but it annoyed San all the same having been in a bad mood her self by default. The lioness swished her tail from side to side in unspoken frustration before she decided to let out a very heavy breath.
"San." She offered back after a long moment of frustrated hesitation and awaiting something more.
Byu's motives seemed to be solitary to be out on the silver sands and San her self would normally respect that but she was in a foul mood and the lioness was not satisfied with only a name being offered.
"You're not much for talking hm." The tone was obviously one of annoyance. There was no hiding her frustration from her body language to her tone. Only part of her was aware that she was the one invading this lions space and time.
Byu moved from experience. For a lion who felt plagued by his visions, he often seemed to rely on their basic principles. If he could always take what he learned from his past and apply it to the present, in every situation he seemed to find himself in, his future would be secured. Or so he assumed.
And for a lion who was often unsure as to whether or not he wanted a future, Byu never seemed to stop acting, speaking, and thinking preemptively. Old habits...
So as it was, her own breath made him wince, as the lionesses aggravation became all but tangible. No powers were necessary to read that much, and he knew what frustration often led to.
When her words were whipped away by the wind he quickly made to fill the void.
"How may I be of service, San?"
San leaned in a little closer with out fully invading the other space at the strange question. He was asking how he could be of service but she hadn't asked him for his services. The confusion was mixing with her frustration now and the lioness was not exactly sure what to do about it.
"I don't want your service. Are you mocking me? I was trying to talk to you but you're ..." She fumed unable to really verbalize what it was she was trying to get across. San wasn't even sure what it was she wanted with this pale pelted male anymore and she was frustrated by that.
It had been her who had invaded this lions solitary on the beach and now she was getting all worked up with emotions carried over from an encounter before this one. Byu had done nothing wrong except for having poor timing for being on the beach. He was not the male who had gotten her goat but he was in the wake of the aftermath of it.
San took a breath.
"Listen. Lets start over. " She put a paw to her temple. "Hi I'm San and I gather you're Byu but I haven't seen your face before. I want to know who you are and not enlist your services what ever you mean by that." In all honesty she didn't even really want to get to know him in the first place as much as unload this inner frustration she was feeling swelling in side her mind. In truth it was San who needed to walk away and find some solitary of her own to gather her self and reflect.
Some would have argued in return, others might have begrudgingly held their tongue, but Byu was neither of those types and simply winced for a second time before hunkering in preparation.
Byu took her frustrations as if he were, indeed, the cause of them. Regardless of where they might have otherwise originated, the seer only saw this moment. Maybe the beach was a sacred space for the higher ranking members? Maybe it was off limits? Or maybe it was just the poorest of timings. It didn't have to make sense for him to make sense of it.
He listened. Just listened. Awaiting cues to speak up or to shut down, to move or to stay, hoping that if nothing else she would leave him be and forget all about this. When she sighed, it's tone had changed, but Byu remained tense.
Lets start over. What.
...I want to know who you are... What.
Right. Okay.
Byu's lips moved without words at first, a stammering of silence as the male searched for responses. Then, as if something clicked, he lifted his gaze ever so slightly in hopes that it would appease her 'seeing' his face better.
"I am Byu. I am... here. What else would you like to know, San?"
And with the words came a feeling he had not experienced in months, beginning to blossom from within. Something whispered to him. A voice, perhaps... was it his mothers? Or his own? Saying something he could not so much as hear but feel. Whosever it was, it vanished as quickly as it had come. And in its place, a seedling of a thought remained...
Curiosity was germinating.
The lioness was now certain this was the most she was going to get out of this pale lion and, in all honesty, she didn't deserve more or even what the male had offered her. The frustration was building even so and it wasn't being done any services hanging around this pale male. Even San in her state could feel she was making things worse for her self.
So San counted to three in her mind and took a deep breath hoping to at least appease her inner storm before opening her maw in reply.
"Well enjoy here." She managed not to grumble which was an amazement even to her self. "I was only trying to start polite conversation but if you're going to stone wall me thats fine." There had been nothing polite about the way she'd tried to start the conversation and everything was not fine. Byu had been placed on her not so keen list whether he or she knew it.
The silver pelted lioness pivoted her position and started to pad towards the opposite end of the beach. She didn't offer any pleasant farewells or offers for Byu to join her on her walk which in itself was quite rude. This frustration had only been made worse by her own paw and she needed to distant her self from others as a whole now, not just Byu.
San was not a hot headed lioness normally but she didn't deal well with her frustrations when they happened.
And all at once, she was gone. It was over. The Gods had, for a second time in all his life, taken pity on him.
San's words should have cut through like the blade she had intended but one had to have an ego to bite into. Byu was only just beginning to reconnect with his, with all that he was. And her dismissive attitude was not unfamiliar either, in fact he welcomed it. If that was the worse to come out of the unexpected encounter, so be it. He was grateful.
...when was the last time he had felt gratitude?
That thought spiraled into another where, strangely, he realized her departure charged his curiosity further. Perspectives began to shift, and there were several small epiphanies setting off like fireworks. She had become a player in his slow burn of a reawakening, whether they knew of it or not. And where San had marked him off as a deterrent, he had written her name in the stars of his mind.
And in that same involuntary way he had spoken his name for her, his eyes lifted to meet with San's back. The choice surprised him, and his allowance to do so felt rebellious. That secondary voice rose up against some unspoken rule/law/whatever it was that reigned over his every move. It gave him... courage? No, that wasn't it.
The distance was growing between San and himself, but all at once, all of a sudden, Byu felt inclined to follow.
He didn't. Of course. And it didn't take much to keep him resigned to said seat, as he returned to the toes hidden beneath the sands. The gargoyle, hunched over the beach with an eerie calm about him, only now with the slightest hint of a grin pulling at his maw.
.:. Shadows of Africa - New Guild! .:.