[Frisco]

inspired by year of the ox
left it open for two days ooops

are they likely to forgive and forget?

max 750 words
Ends: Feb 21st

Edits: Medium horn edit
White & gold markings are tattoos and are not passable in breedings.

Code: Select all

[b]Username:[/b]
[b]Yeena name:[/b]
[b]Yeena gender:[/b]
[b]Pride:[/b]
[b]Pride status:[/b]
[b]Prompt:[/b]

[beebun]

M!

[Alckatraz]

Username: Alckatraz
Yeena name: Xiáng (祥) meaning "lucky, fortunate"
Yeena gender: Male
Pride: Ingonyama Pride
Pride status: a special guest which came from far away to live among the lions. He is a kind of spiritual guide/shaman (luck-bringer)
Prompt: For Xiang, a peaceful and harmonious environment has a very important role in the relationships he settles with the others. That's why he rarely gets upset on somebody or argues with his friends. Yet, even the most calm individual loses his temper from time to time. And Xiang can't stand the persistence of some pride members to do mischievous things now and then. Even the innocent lies become annoying if you keep hearing them. The hiena tries to keep his emotions well balanced, because the pride members have enough problems to deal with and an unnecessary drama won't help solving them. So he forgives easily, but he doesn't forget.
As considered luck-bringer, Xiang a good reputation and great influence among his pride fellows. Having the gift of the words, he gets easily trusted and the others rely on him without thinking too much before. In normal circumstances, the manipulative personality of the hiena could have caused conflicts, but the way he treats others, the way he listens to everyone's problems determins his new pride mates to forgive and forget him too.
Given these circumstances, Xiang is doing his best to positively guide the others, so instead of keeping contempt and hatred towards someone, he prefers to solve peacefully the conflict. In this way, everyone has something to learn from the other and such argues can be avoided in the future.
Although the hienna is new in the pride and he has a different manner to manifest himself, Xiang is considered the living representative of the ancestors spirits and one of their unspoken laws describe that forgiving others is the key to understanding them. So it is his duty to learn others about "forgiving and forgetting" for the peace's sake.

[minifun990]

Username: minifun990
Lion Name: Niviah
Lion Gender: Female
Link to pride: Mystic Isles
Pride Status: Wild Woman
Prompt: In the tribe that Niviah came from forgiving and forgetting was an important part of their lifestyle. They were a small tribe and as such no one could harbour much ill will towards another member or the tribe would be least likely to hunt well together and to protect each other from the dangerous creatures and weather that they lived in.

But it had never fit Niviah as well as it did the others.

Forgive she could do. It was important for cooperation, it was a way to move past old wrongs. Some things were forgivable. One of her sisters pulling her hair, or biting her paws too hard. A boy forgetting your favourite food, or deciding it was time to split up. Many things hurt at the time, but they can be moved past. They can be learnt from, both by the victim and the perpetrator. Niviah had nothing against forgiving, if the crime were small enough.

But Forgetting was another matter entirely. Forgetting was saying that the slight was insignificant and didn't matter at all. It wasn't a learning experience, or a red flag, or anything else. It was a foolish attempt as denial. At saying that an injustice didn't occur, or if it did then it was no longer relevant. And Niviah did not believe in that at all.

[Runnersback]

Username: Runnersback
Yeena name: Jautis (Lithuanian for “ox”)
Yeena gender: Female
Pride: Realms of L’Oasis Lo
Pride status: Letaba’s Lunar New Year sidekick
Prompt:
She was never sure if she could truly forgive and forget. Yet here she was, making the exception just for him once again. A lot of hyenas and lions asked her why? Why do you do this Jautis, your powerful enough to move on and to find others that can’t hurt your feelings like he does.

But no one realized and no one saw that red heart strings that tied the two together.

He was her soulmate and she was absolutely his. She was the devoted and he was the dishonest. She was the yin and he was the yang. Jautis was the water to his fire and well she couldn’t believe how oblivious others was to their relationship. Especially Letaba.

How could Letaba be the one to scold her when she herself was stuck in a stupid love rectangle. So Jautis had forgiven them for all there harsh words and hard times they had given her and moved on.

No one was going to snip her heart strings and no one was going to snip her mates either, she would make sure they would be knitted and knotted and tangled in the thorniest bush. They were just getting used to each other, it is phase really. But maybe just maybe Jautis will one day learn to not forgive him but to forget him.

[captain dude]

Username: DewFromJupiter
Yeena name: Zuri \\ “Good, beautiful”
Yeena gender: Female
Pride: The People of the Painted Valley
Pride status: Founder
Prompt: A better question for her is can she truly forgive and forget? The luxury is rare for her, like many others. Forgiveness is an easy value to hold to when one doesn’t have mouths to feed or cubs to look after. And being an inherent outsider whose trust is often looked at with a sideways glance by other prides, forgiveness always comes at a cost. Some see her pride as a rogue tribe led by an unfit ruler, but in reality, she tries her best to be caring to those who need it yet shrewd and wise. No, her motto is forgive, but don’t forget. Her own pride is too important to her to risk their lives.

She gives all equal consideration and shows kindness, yet her memory never fails her and neither do her instincts. She leads with her intuition and past wisdom of her ancestors. She was trained up with the intents to lead her own clan of hyenas but after a rogue pride of lions came in and decimated their numbers, leaving them disillusioned with life in a group, she decided the best thing for her was to go and start her own group. But when lions came to her, seeking refuge and leadership, she made the decision to open her heart and to love. Her pride means the world to her and is a unity between the two species, a reconciliation between them all. The surrounding prides don’t all understand or accept it, but she will protect, defend, and love her pride until her dying death.

When she was born, there were whisperings that she was to be a leader. Horns were always the symbol of a wise and powerful chief and she lives feeling the mantle of this role. Of course, that doesn’t mean that she’s unduly strict or serious, far from it. Rather she realizes that she owes it to her people to look after them no matter what. And that includes protecting them from those who have wronged them in the past. Forgiveness is always available, but trust? Trust is to be earned. Hyena or lion, she realizes that all of her pride benefit from someone who cares about leaders who care enough to distinguish between foe and friend, to gracefully extend second and third chances when needed and when to shun those who take advantage recklessly.



(394 words) Wow! You did such a great job on this guy! Congrats to the winner! <3

[Julius525]

Username: Julius525
Yeena name: Astartea
Yeena gender: Female
Pride: Kandadhawo's Pride
Pride status: Warrior
Prompt: She used to forgive and forget when she was like any other hyena. She cared about others and didn’t really mind when something unexpected happened and she was affected. But after a close friend betrayed her and made her clan to banish her, she swore to have her revenge.
This feeling trapped her for many years, growing a bit more every day, consuming her soul to the point of killing the nice hyena she was once. She ended going back to her clan and achieved her revenge, she killed her friend’s offspring and left it badly injured. She was then pursued for what she has done for days, but at the very end, she was able to get it with no consequences, or at least, no mortal consequences.
The gods saw what she has done and decided to intervene. They gave her a fitting appearance to what her soul turned into, wanting to warn everyone that was around her of her sins and what she was able to.
This shapeshift took the worst of her visible, and somehow, also brought back part of her kind soul, as the crime committed against her friend was all she needed to recover some clarity to her lost mind. That was how, she travelled for years until she found Kandadhawo’s pride, the only one who accepted her despite her appearance, the one who was able to see some light in her darkness.
[238]

[MySpoons]

Username: MySpoons
Yeena name: Arthur
Yeena gender: Male
Pride: The New Guard
Pride status: Former Knight Errant; Gang Leader
Prompt:

Forget, not forgive.

Arthur hardly ever returns to the places he's visited. It is just so unlikely he needs to return for anything at all. He provides for himself well enough, straying into towns and small villages when he needs more involved repairs to his gear that he cannot do alone.

He isn't the most chivalrous of knights. Better than the average citizen, of course, but he is a little too scrappy, a little too easy to rile up and challenge. If he stays in once place too long he turns from an entertaining, intriguing stranger into a menace that threatens the status quo. He takes the local jobs and payment. Enjoys a celebration or two, or a night with good company. And heads off before he can really do something stupid like insult the local lord past what they consider to be in good jest.

It is a life of fire-intense danger interspersed with quiet and dangerous roads between settlements. Arthur doesn't let grudges hold him down. Too much to do at the next place, always. Too much company and good fights to spend any energy over the angry citizens or lords left behind. The chances he'll see them again are slim, if not non-existent. And if he does? Well, that's something he will leave up to his future self.

A stronger and more experienced self.

Why did he ever think it was a good idea to leave enemies in his wake?

Head out of town, marking the places he stayed with bloody scrapes and those who curse his name, even if they aren't baying for his blood? The memory of him does not turn fond-- it curdles and festers long before real problems come to grow the rift between his people and the rest of the land.

They cannot afford it-- but it the past is sealed. No one is going to help.

Arthur is older. Sicker. Weary of the world and the way it crushes his clan underfoot. Who knows how many bad deeds he has forgotten over the years? Only to walk straight into a hostile town with too much responsibility and never enough to prove himself any different than his arrogant past.

The little ones are always sick and sleepy. The girls are worn thin. The men are wasting away under the weight of keeping their group afloat. Arthur has a cough that won't go away and a body that is failing faster than he can work to get them to safety. No one will take him. Even if they don't know him personally, decades of bad blood and prejudice is entrenched in these communities

He'll never forgive himself.

[ToxicShadow]

Username: ToxicShadow
Yeena name: Nixie
Yeena gender: Female
Pride: Otherworldly Overseers [Oddity Pride]
Pride status: House Demon
Prompt:

"You're only here to serve me!" "You're rubbish! You don't even deserve the food we give you!" "You know you're at the lowest level, right? You're just here to clean up our garbage." "You're just a stupid monster!"

There are many, many happenings within Nixie's existence that she cannot forget, nor can she ever forgive. She was born as a creature that has come to be known as a "house demon," a strange creature with strange powers and a fear of the sun that are bound into servitude. Through her long, long lifetime, Nixie has had many masters and families to serve. Of course, never was she treated as an equal. She was always lower than everyone she served, little more than a nasty vermin or even the dirt that they walked on. In most situations, she was left verbally, if not physically, abused, with even her needs for survival largely neglected. She survived even when on the brink of starvation or even with commonly fatal wounds simply because of her species' ability to endure and heal even from such things. Still, healing from something doesn't mean that she didn't feel the pain.

For all of those that she encountered in the past, Nixie will hold her grudges against them until she ceases to exist within this world, and she may even carry them with her after that. For them, forgiveness is not an option, even if they were to lower themselves to the ground before her and beg for her forgiveness.

However, as much as Nixie holds grudges against them all, she doesn't necessarily hold onto her ill feelings and let them consume her. Yes, she will never forgive them, but she doesn't let what happened in the past ensnare her and prevent her from looking forward to the present and the future, nor does she begrudge them to the point of wanting to do them harm, now that she has nothing to do with them. Those that hurt her are not even on her radar anymore.

Presently, Nixie stays beside Lethality, the captain of the group that calls themselves the Otherworldly Overseers. They don't often speak of the circumstances, but Lethality rescued Nixie by severing the magical binding that kept her in servitude as she was tossed around to different folks and families, and Nixie's gratitude came forth in her desire to then help Lethality in some way. She stayed beside her, at first, in order to find some way to pay her back for her act of kindness, but the two have since formed an unbreakable friendship.

"I'm so sorry, Nixie. I know what I said was careless and I hurt you. It's okay for you to be mad at me, I deserve it."

But, of course, Nixie is fully well and capable of forgiving and forgetting when she needs to. If her friend makes a mistake and apologizes, of course she will forgive them, and she will forget the matter, as though it never even happened.

For her, the intention matters. Those that harmed and belittled her in the past we never remorseful of their actions, because, to them, Nixie was not an equal. She was less than. Toward her friends, and even strangers, if they own up to their mistakes, and treat her with some manner of respect, then she has no reason not to forgive and forget.

[568]

[Frisco]

Username: DewFromJupiter
Yeena name: Zuri \\ “Good, beautiful”
Yeena gender: Female
Pride: The People of the Painted Valley
Pride status: Founder

Congrats on your founder!
Thank you everyone for the entries, I loved your stories.