Lion of Prideless
Played by KittyKookiez
If a lion could blush, he'd be doing exactly that right now. The laughing, at first, was taken the wrong way. Jessie knew he was terrible at hiding his emotions, especially towards females, and he realized she must be laughing at his absolute ineptitude. Ears fold downwards and he watches sheepishly as her giggles turn to laughs. He's not...weak-willed, per se. Wouldn't up and leave at this alone. It was simply a reminder, from his perspective, that he needed to get better, and he did not judge her for finding the situation funny.
But after she was done, the confession was made that she was not laughing at him. Moreso, it was a declaration that she was enjoying her time with him. This made his ears perk back up and his head rise just a little, “Oh,” there it is again, that same 'o' shape of his maw when he speaks, except this time, there a small smile to replace it. Relieved that it wasn't a moment of ridicule, Jessie feels more at ease opening up to her, “Yeah, sorry--I'm just not used to talking to girls I'm not related to,” he felt he should probably explain more, but he wasn't quite ready to do that.
The man began to inquire about Ignis--this time without the prickle of disappointment--before mentioning home. When she asks about his own, he seems to forget all about finding out about Ignis, “We lived farther up North...Very cold, it was,” he muses, “Our pride, and all the prides around it, had big bushy coats, and our native language was Romanian. In case you wondered where the accent came from.
“My English is good because, so I've been told, some Southerners who came to our area spoke English, and the surrounding prides had been infatuated with learning the language since. It's why we learn English alongside Romanian when we're born. Home itself, oh...it was so beautiful, in my eyes,” his eyes seem to glisten now, staring over the waters as if he could see it over on the other side, “in autumn and winter, glistening frost flaked the trees. Soft snowflakes fell and sprinkled the land everywhere you went. Those days, foxes, rabbits, and other animals gained their white, wintery coats. There were also owls, who hooted a lot in the night, but otherwise it was so quiet that you could hear the scurrying of voles and squirrels going about their day. Sometimes there were blizzards, but we found caves in the side of a mountain and lived there. There were many tunnels, many hours of exploring...each tunnel was different, with their own unique treasures to find. Sometimes they lead above ground, where there were more places to explore. In the spring and summer, the river that was in the valley below would spring to life, teeming with migrating fish, otters, beavers, all kinds of things, you name it. And the valley itself had its fair share of lynx, caribou, elk, moose...I love the colder weather, but I also love the vast array of colorful flowers that always came back every year,” he sighed, remembering the flora and fauna as if he'd only left yesterday. Then, he looked back at her.
“I was forced to leave by my father. All of the prides, including mine, followed the traditional pride hierarchy: one male to rule them all. I'm not a leader, and I don't like conflict, so I just left. But enough about that,” a shift in position makes it so that he was now resting his head on his front paws, “I could talk for hours about my home land. Now it's your turn...why have you been moving around so much your whole life? And what did you do?” his eyes were teeming with curiosity as he hoped for a story.
