Tafari

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The Next Generation
Staring
Tafari

General Information

Name: Tafari
Age: Young Teenager
Gender: Male
Species: African Lion
Alliance: Pridelander

Personality

Just reaching that age where he stops being seen as a cute little harmless cub and begins to walk in the footsteps of adult lions, Tafari is a bit of a confused character. An outsider who was accepted into the Pridelands at a young age, he grew up in the face of ridicule, bullying, teasing and general disapproval from his peers- a stranger in a strange land. He has no claim to his name, other than being "that weirdo they found in the river", and has finally reached the age at which he's started to care about that.

Tafari is not a particularly malevolent cat. In fact, when not provoked, he can be quite gentle and rather affectionate. All he wants in his life is what every living being wants- to be loved, to be accepted, to be worth something. But a childhood of being "the odd ball" of the pride has left him without any of that, has left him in terrible need of such things. He longs for approval, begs for attention- not in a selfish way, mind you, simply in the interest of being happy. And the only way he knows how to get it is to act out. So, in social situations, especially those involving other cubs his age, Tafari is a loud-mouthed, boisterous, arrogant teenager. He puts up this facade that he can do anything, that he fears nothing, that the world is too small for him and all of his might.

But Tafari, unfortunately, is a terrible liar. So though he may talk a big game and can act like a jerk in the name of appearing "strong", when push comes to shove, he just isn't good enough. He fails at hunting- being a bit of a clumsy oaf who trips on his own feet, he has a crippling fear of water and is therefore instantly thwarted by creaks and streams, and his balance is terrible. So all of his bragging and boasting and general headstrong demeanor is really a grand exaggeration. A fairy tale spun by a cub who tries too hard to fit in, and pays the price in humiliation, ridicule, and isolation. His hatred of being laughed at has combined with his tendency to do laughably stupid things to make him awfully bitter and somewhat obnoxious for his age. But don't let him fool you. Tafari is just confused- trying too hard to be someone that he is not, too blind to see that who he is is good enough.

Appearance

Appearance-wise, Tafari looks more like an outlander than a pridelander. Even for a teenager, he is a somewhat lanky individual. His body is lean and very sinewy, featuring very prominent but flexible joints and a lot of square and pointed shapes. He does not appear unhealthy though, as he is a member of the pride with all of the food. But his low status in the group sometimes thwarts his attempts to eat, so his weight is what one could consider "average" for his age and size.

His face is generally angular. His chin is somewhat understated for a male, giving him a somewhat small and generally dainty sort of appearance, especially when coupled with his large eyes and prominent ears. He has a very baby-ish sort of look to him, especially for his age. Some of his cub spots can still be faintly seen on his legs and rump, and what little mane he has growing in is awfully scruffy and unkempt. His tail even has a kink in it where he was almost eaten by a crocodile. He's generally what most lionesses consider "unattractive". Not ugly, of course, but certainly someone unstunning... a fact that Tafari relives over and over and over again.

Which is a shame when one considers all of his potential. He is a medium sized lion- not small but he certainly won't grow up to be huge either, with a rather brilliant pair of gray-blue eyes. They are almost a dark teal, faded like the greenery of a swamp or marsh and there is some talk that he might actually hail from some sort of backwoods marsh-dwelling pride that has yet to be discovered. But, even if they were discovered, they'd likely consider him an outcast too. Tafari has an exceptionally lightly colored coat of short, scruffy fur. At a glance, some might call him a "white" lion, but his color is actually more dingy than that- closer to a really light tan/brown than it is to white. Either way it's a very unique color, which only serves to make Tafari stand out even more. It likely contributes to his terrible hunting abilities.

History

Very little is known about Tafari's past. He was found in the crocodile river out in the Outlands, simply floating there in the water like a dead body. It is likely that many lions saw his limp form and passed him by, assuming he was either drift wood or too far gone to be worth the trouble of fetching. But, fortunately for him, Pridelanders are not the kind of lions to do such a thing, especially not to such a young cub. A sentry group patrolling the outer boarders of the Pridelands saw him floating near shore and fetched him, cold and weak from the water, his tail almost ripped from his body and his skin covered in wounds and sores from biting insects. Whatever had dumped him there, he'd been out there for a very long time. Most of the lionnesses in the group thought very little of the half dead cub. Many saw his pointed nose and scruffy ears and immediately assumed he was an Outlander, perhaps left there as a spy or as part of some other devious plan.

But one lioness had the heart to disagree.

Marjani. A young lioness who'd just lost her first cub was immediately drawn to the white cub of the crocodiles and would be the one to take charge of him. She too had Outlander blood in her veins, but much less, only contributing to a red coloration and nothing more. Still, she could sympathize with the homeless, wayward cub and refused to allow any of the other Pridelanders to discard or dispose of him. In a sense, she became his mother and is all the family that Tafari knows. She is the reason that he is alive and he is forever grateful to her for that, especially now that she is growing older. Tafari is protective of his mother, he wants to be strong for her, since his existence has dragged down her status in the pride.

But, on the flip side, he relies on her. Unable to hunt very well on his own, he frequently (and very sheepishly) seeks her out for food or advice. She was his emotional support when he was small, when he was being teased or bullied about his colors or his messed up tail. His mother is everything to him and he would do anything to make sure that all of her sacrifices in life, sacrifices made for him, were not in vein.

[Army Wife]