Maji

MAJI

the basics

the appearance

Species • African Lion
Eye Colour • Deep Blue
Markings & Scars • Has painfully obvious scarring on his hindlegs marked by long crooked claw marks, has a few smaller ones further up his torso
Height • Average
Weight • Average
Voice Actor • Keith Mitchell as Young Tod
Basic Appearance • Smaller and a little more dainty than his brother, Maji is generally considered to be a cute cub who promises to grow up into a healthy, and handsome, young man. His body is light-weight and lean, he has a smaller frame than most lions but that does not appear to be affecting his size too much, as he is still the same height as most cubs his age, just slightly shorter than his brother Moto. No matter how much weight he puts on, he never seems to lose his angular appearance, the points of his pelvis and a number of ribs always showing through his skin, despite being a relatively healthy weight. He just seems to be designed to be slender, it doesn't bother him at all, in fact he uses it to his advantage- small size means he's light-weight and super fast and agile. What he lacks in brute strength, he makes up for with his intelligence and his determination.

His coat is a beautiful golden brown with lighter highlights on his toes, muzzle, neck and underside. He sports a little more hair than most of his peers do, sporting tufts of dark hair on his elbows even despite his young age. He also has a tuft of hair on his head that promises to grow into an incredible mane. His head tuft is brown, just like his elbow hair and his tail tip, however the hair on his head is a noticeably lighter shade of brown compared to the rest of him, promising a nice two-toned mane for him once he's old enough to grow one. His eyes are a brilliant but somewhat subdued shade of blue, big and circular and very expressive, Maji cannot tell lies because his body language always makes it obvious that he is doing so. His claws are small and black in color, always somewhat visible even when he is not using them. His nose and muzzle bridge are also darkly colored.

the personality

Personality • Though they share the same birthday and were born only minutes apart from one another, Maji is nothing like his younger brother Moto. Where the red lion is loud and boisterous, Maji is quiet and reserved, often avoiding others and letting his brother lead the way in social situations, often keeping his distance and trying to keep his brain from imploding. He suffers from both PTSD and some kind of panic disorder, he has frequent nightmares that are always simply horrifying and it means that his sleep is restless and often interrupted. He often wakes up screaming and crying and panicking to the point of hyperventilating and sometimes even literally passing out because of the rapid breathing. He is just sensitive, remembering all of his own flaws and mistakes, which makes it hard for him to play the role of an outgoing Aries. However, certain things do peek through.

For example, Maji is a super passionate soul. Whatever he decides to do, he will do it, come hell or high water, and is in that way very goal oriented. When he wants something, he will go get it or he will die trying, determined and unrelenting. But he is also soft, caring and though he fumbles a lot with his emotions, he does honestly have the best intentions for everyone in mind. He does not really focus on himself at all, instead burying his problems deep in his sub-conscious until they blow up and spill out like cuts from a ripped up torso, he just loses it. Whereas Moto tends to display anger when crossed, Maji does a lot of crying instead, sometimes lashing out if he feels trapped or betrayed, he values nothing more than honesty, so liars and cheats he tries to avoid. But, corner him, and the claws will come out. Maji is very intelligent and knows how to strike others in ways that will kill them almost instantly, but sensitive with a love of life, other animals' lives, not his own, he has only used this knowledge once. Instead, he tends to injure others in specifically chosen non-vital areas. He does not approve of killing for no reason- he has no trouble with hunting of course, lions have to eat but a better example would be the relationship with lions and hyenas. He thinks hyenas are great creatures with so much to teach the world, and he genuinely tries to help and protect them. They're not evil, just misunderstood... kind of how he is.

Likes • Water and swimming | Fish and seafood | Cool nights, sleeping beneath the stars | Listening to stories, vents or problems of others | Being helpful in any way that he can, very self-sacrificing
Dislikes • Thunderstorms | Being alone | Being touched by strangers | Being a burden in any way | Himself

History • Maji and Moto were born into a pride well north of the Pridelands, living so far away that they did not even know about it, about Simba and about Scar. They stumbled upon their new lives accidentally after not just leaving their birth pride but actively being chased away, hunted down even, to be slaughtered.

You see, the pride was ruled by a big, somewhat old, but completely disturbed and deranged individual. The male was not Moto or Maji's father, he was a rogue who simply visited the pride from time to time, apparently they had some kind of deal with him that involved him gathering resources for the pride in exchange for some time with one of the pride's lionesses. At first, the alpha male simply allowed this, they needed those resources. But cold hearted and jealous, when the rogue male chose one of his favorite females to covert with, the alpha was furious, and that anger was only exacerbated when it was revealed that the lioness was pregnant. The rogue male was hunted down mercilessly and the alpha male made a promise to the dying lion, who laid on the ground, ganged up on and mutilated before being left to die, that he'd see his bastard children again very soon. It was a loosely veiled threat.

From the moment that they were born, Moto and Maji were targeted by their pride's violent and disgusting alpha. At first, he was just going to kill the cubs, but though he was a heartless bastard, most of the other pride members were reasonable creatures that saw nothing good coming from murdering a pair of newborn cubs. So the cubs were spared for a little while, lionesses standing up for them, guarding them from the cruel beast of an alpha. But the cubs grew quickly and, super sheltered up until that point, they had a penchant for exploring, which is what ended up being their doom. Regularly, the alpha came across them, almost seemed to be searching for them and always encouraged them to do stuff away from the lionesses. He called it "play time", and acted as though they were going to frolic in the grass or roll around in some mud. But what he really was doing... well... Maji bears the scars from it. It was brutal, it was cruel, it was unbearably painful and there was nothing Moto could do to stop it. He was just swatted away.

Though Moto tried to go to the lionesses about it, Maji was the one who was traumatized. He did not think that telling anyone would help anything. If anything, it'd just piss off the alpha even more, which would only make things worse. So he encouraged his brother to be silent, to just forget about it and move on. But it happened again... and again... and again. Maji was a hollow husk of a child by the time they were big enough to fight back. He just kind of laid there while Moto did his best to fight the massive male off of his brother. But of course, they were just cubs, and all it took was a single strike to the head and Moto was unconscious. Though usually calm and mild-mannered, Maji exploded upon seeing his brother hurt and only in that moment found the strength to turn around and face the disgusting old male. He was unable to do any physical damage, but his yelling and distressed brought the other lionesses in the pride to see what was going on and, once they realized what was happening, the females had no tolerance.

The following struggle was severe. Lionesses both agreeing with and horribly disgusted by the male's actions drove a rift through the middle of the pride which became very obvious in that moment of absolutely bloody violence and craziness. There were claws everywhere. Moto took the opportunity to get Maji away from the chaos, first just looking for a place to hide to recover from their wounds but, terrified of being found by their pride's alpha, who was probably furious that the cubs got the best of him. They did not know if he was dead or alive or anything, they just fled, ran together until they could run no more. Maji's injuries were pretty severe and getting him up and moving was tough but they had to, they had to get away.

By the time they reached the Pridelands, the cubs were exhausted and dying, having not stopped for food or water or anything, they just ran. It left Maji with a pretty significant infection and it took a lot of work to heal him physically, but mentally, he's really been messed up by this experience. At first, Moto was rejected by the Prideland's king. Maji could stay until his injuries healed but Moto was healthy beyond a simple scratch to the face, so he was looked at as competition. But Sarabi could not let her son through two young cubs back out into the wild, especially when they revealed that their birth pride might be after them. Simba did not want to endanger his pride by keeping the two cubs around but Sarabi- beautiful, sensitive, and kind- insisted that they be allowed to stay. She became the cubs' main advocate and Maji especially spent a lot of time with her as he healed, feeling safe by her side, the first lion who ever really personally stood up for him, who personally put their neck out to be sure he was safe, healthy and happy.

That was several months ago. The cubs are older now and are very comfortable in the Pridelands, but there is some talk about a particular rogue lion seen scouting the Pridelands and making passes and threats, marking important landmarks to make sure the Pridelanders know that he is around. Though Moto is unafraid, knowing that there was no way they could be tracked to the Pridelands because of the huge distance they had traveled. But when they found out that the interloper was moving south, that he had come from the far north, even Moto has been a little on edge. Maji has been downright inconsolable, rightfully terrified of what might happen should he find them. It's been making him more skittish than usual so he has not really made any friends yet, too preoccupied with his traumatic memories and the threat of more of them to come. But even though Moto is weary of this interloper chatter going on in the pride, he still takes Maji out to make friends and explore and just enjoy the beautiful land that they were so graciously gifted. Though Maji follows his brother, his nervousness is practically tangible.

the FAMILy

Father • Basa (deceased)
Mother • Abayomi (deceased)
Siblings • None that they know of, though it's pretty safe to assume that Zahur fathered other cubs from their mother, half-siblings are very likely out there
Mate • None. Too young for this nonsense.
Offspring • Pffft...
Others • Zahur- birth pride's alpha male (status unknown)

the role player

Name • Heapass
Nickname • Heapass is fine, can be shortened to Heap, my real name is Joey which some of my friends use sometimes
Age • Thirty
Password • Don't post this until you're COMPLETELY finished with your app.
Other Characters • Tojo @nyongeza

roleplay Sample

Missy had always been a finicky horse, which was not saying a lot since she was only a few years old, still a teenager by horse standards. She was still getting used to eating solid food, still getting used to the idea that her mother was now ten stalls down the row from her rather than being within muzzle reach, and the whole concept of life in this big, bad adult world seemed to hit the leggy filly hard. It was not odd for her to reject her feed every few days or so. But she'd pace, get some exercise the next morning and return that night for dinner sporting a healthy appetite again and all would be well. Not eating for three days straight was a bit odd, even for her and her young jaw, her unground teeth.

That was how the oldest De Luca child found the cremello filly that damp evening- pacing restlessly in her stall, a full bag of oats hanging from the sliding wood door to her stall, still heavy and completely untouched. She was starting to wear a track in the bedding on the floor as well, a perfect oval of kicked sawdust marking every step of her shoed hooves for the past 72 hours, where as all of the other horses, her mother included, stood stock still in the slowly darkening evening air. They probably had never worn tracks in their stalls in their lives. Carson's eyebrows dropped toward his brilliant blue eyes in an expression of deep puzzlement. To be fair, Missy was always a fidgety filly- taking after her sire and sporting boundless amounts of energy, she promised to be an excellent racehorse one of these days. But a healthy amount of energy was also usually accompanied by a crazy appetite, and even when at her most finicky, she'd go maybe six to twelve hours maximum without nibbling on something. This three day stint was unheard of.

Unsure of what else to do, the tallest of the De Luca family used his long strides and well built legs to close the small gap between himself and his favorite horse, casually coming to a stop with his chest leaned against the soggy wooden doorframe. Outside of the stables, the sky was cast over with darkened clouds and a lazy rain fell from the heavens in low, gentle rumbles. But the shingled roof was solid and the thoroughbred paused in her stall to eye the soaking wet figure that now peered at her through the bars, swiveling her ears once or twice curiously before silently walking over to where his hand lay outstretched through the door. Without hesitation, she sniffed and then casually nibbled his extended fingers, tugging on the wet sleeve of his jacket, as though to ask why he'd be foolish enough to come out here in the bad weather. But the werewolf only smiled knowingly at the animal and patted her nose gingerly.

"What's the matter with you? Your favorite rolled oats and you've barely touched 'em."

WORDS: 507 (and that's pretty short for me, I can regularly type between 700 and 900 words)