The Cure for Boredom?

It was one of those days. The days where one would feel the desire than to do nothing more than lounge around, awaiting some epiphany to drag you back to reality. Only that it didn't usually arrive, at least, not in a timely manner.

Solasta found herself suffering right now, idly sitting beneath the BAT. A finger would languidly trail circles in the grass beside her, while her other arm balanced against her folded knee to support her chin. Her head was ducked down, rather than raised with that usual valiant regard she usually had.

If it hadn't already been assumed from her rather downcast image - she was bored. And terribly so. It seemed that kicking over vases and breaking the wooden frames of stair banisters failed to entertain her any more. The hobbies had been more trouble than it was worth anyway. All these rules - what sick-minded individual thought it would be a pleasant idea to impose so many? Don't break this, don't assault her... Such a restricted lifestyle. Her brows creased with a trace of annoyance.

Exhaling loudly, the junkai would resort to inspecting the frayed hairs at the tip of her tail. There was little else to do.

The feline huffed. He didn't particularly have anywhere to be and as such, was wandering the castle. Bare feet padded on the floor, long pant legs pooling about his feet and riding low on slim hips with hands stuffed in his pockets. As such, he decided to meander on over to the courtyard to lay in a spot of sun, if he could find one.

Stepping out on to the grass, Ndale looked around with a bored expression. In his scan, though, his caught a familiar figure, even if the posture was a bit misplaced. He raised an eyebrow and the corner of his mouth lifted in to a smirk. Without missing a beat, the human cheetah sauntered over to plop himself down directly beside the girl, casually moving to land an arm over the purple shoulders.

"Heya there, beautiful. Long time no see." Ndale's air was cheeky and confident. He wondered why she was looking so down, but never mind the reason, he was going to make it better, he was sure.

Solasta didn't appear to notice that there was any presence other than herself roaming the courtyard. And even if there was, the junkai doubted that there would be any willing enough to approach. Not that she longed company, however; she was perfectly contended sitting here by herself, just sort of imagining how many times she'd be able to set her tail on fire before the hairs stopped growing back at all...

As soon as an arm reached around her shoulders, her eyes flashed widely with alarm, as she made a swift movement to writhe away from the predator, whipping out an arm in preperation to karate-chop the offending limb off. Luckily, she would recognise both the voice and that cheeky face before landing such an assault, and she lowered her arm slowly. Her expression was quickly straightened into something a big more calmer, as if trying to hide the fact that she'd been at all flustered by his sudden appearance. "You," she breathed, her eyes leering over his form once more.

"Don't do that, or I really will hit yo' arm off," she snapped, still looking rather disgruntled. As if angry at him, she turned her head away, giving a sort of ungraceful huff.

At the rather sudden movement, Ndale lifted his arm slightly, startled at the violent reaction, and froze. Though, as the attacking arm lowered, the boy sighed a relief and let his arm settle back around her shoulders. He gave a light chuckle.

"Me." The feline purred back. "Sorry. That was stupid of me. Point noted though, thanks for not hitting me." With the way the boy's body was leaning, he really seemed to have no love for personal space. Though really, the way she was acting was a bit concerning. Sure, the grumpiness wasn't all that unusual, but she was being...somewhat quiet. He pursed his lips in thought, watching her as she turned away and hummed.

Raising an eyebrow, Ndale's tail flicked idly off to the side. He moved to gently pull Solasta to lean towards him.

"Aw, common Sol. You seem down. You're not upset at me for something are you? What's up?"

This time, Solasta managed to restrain herself from lashing out violently as the arm crept around her shoulders. Physical contact; it was tricky to get used to when it wasn't some sort of launched assault. And it almost never was - the people here were so soft.

Despite the cheetah's gentle pulls, the junkai remained much unmoved, still avoiding eye contact like the plague. And perhaps it was for the better, for if looks could kill, the patch of daintily arranged flowers by the gardens would surely be a wilted, trampled mess. Her lip twitched as if struggling to resist the temptation to release a verbal torrent of inordinate frustration, and her brows had started to gather like clouds of an impending storm.

Then, in a flash, it faded, like someone had erased the anger written clearly on her face. Blinking, she twisted her neck around to quietly regard Ndale with a look of utter nonchalance, that it would be difficult to determine if it had been the very same person.

"Was it dat obvious?" she asked, the bitterness not yet absent from her tone. "What business is it of yours anyweh? I am perfectleh happy just sitting here wi' not'ink to do. Ai? Just see,"

And, as if in demonstration of her absolute exuberance, a forced grin worked its way onto her face - a grin that looked more painful than pleasant.

Honestly, the vibe coming off Solasta was hitting the feline's senses as a little murderous, setting him a bit on edge. The forced smile did little to help alleviate it. He gave her an exasperated smile, brows up, then sighed and shook his head.

"Alright, cutie, but you asked for it." He warned in good humor before pulling back. Ndale then moved a hand forward to give Solasta's shoulder a good shove. He furrowed his brow. He huffed and did his best imitation.

"'What business is it of yours anyweh? I am perfectleh happy just sitting here wi' not'ink to do. Ai?' Ai, sure, sure. Lik 'ell it is. Duh yuh lie to me cause t'is dat obvious." It wasn't perfect, but it was a good attempt, and he thought it got the point across. Now...he only hoped he wasn't going to be skinned...perhaps he should be ready to run. His muscles tensed instinctively.

Solasta's borderline demented grin didn't ease at Ndale's response. In fact, her teeth grinded as a hand pushed her shoulder back. But at his imitation, it was plain to see that her smile was twisting into wry, furious frown.

At first, she mentally denied that it sounded anything like herself at all. But it did, in some way. And that did not settle well with her already aggravated nerves.

Abruptly, she stood, whipping around to face him fully. A hand reached out to grasp for his neck but at the last moment, she managed to stop herself, changing her reaching hand into a pointing finger instead. Back hunched over, red eyes leered directly into the cheetah's. "Wh... Wat'chu jus' did! I dare you-- no, I double dare you to do et again!"

He was expecting some type of response, though, he didn't know how violent. His tense muscles were ready to spring, so as Solasta moved suddenly, he was only but a second later that he was as well. Of course, the projected motion backwards was halted as he saw that she was merely pointing - though angrily - and it resulted in the feline boy falling back on his butt. Ndale stared at the girl, but didn't let his confidence waver.

He did a mental systems check. He was wearing pants. Now, he was a great sprinter even in his human shape, but Solasta had long legs and he had never seen her running full out... he hoped that it would be alright, but if he had to, he could morph. His pants were silky matt black pants. They were long, which wasn't good, but they had a draw string and stretched slightly. He would probably loose them when he shifted and ran, but they might stay with him. Either way, if he had to change, he was going to have to ignore the pants not matter what they did. He grinned wider, turning it into something more of a sneer.

"Do et again? Wat'chai jus' did, you mean imitating yer accent? Why, ai? Wat'chu goin' ta do about et? Go back en ta moping?" Okay, talking this way was harder than he thought, especially making up his own sentences rather than repeating what he had heard from her. Ah well. His hands were braced on the ground, feet planted, muscles loaded. The feline was ready to twist and dart away, and he sincerely hoped he was fast enough.

"You wanna know wat I'm gonna do 'bout it, ey? Ey?!" This cheetah was pushing all of Solasta's buttons, and unfortunately for him, they all happened to be red ones. The only positive aspect was the fact that the junkai had at least asserted some self control since arriving here, or she was certain that Ndale would've been carrion by now. A slight shame, seeing as she'd enjoyed their little date.

Expression visibly twitching, it was easy to see how tempted Solasta was to just throttle him right there and then. She had to remind himself that she knew he was only trying to annoy her, but that reminder did little in soothing her growing temper. "Well ah ain't--" She cleared her throat. "I am... not going to mope... about it!" In the attempt at dropping her own accent, her voice did end up sounding rigid and uncertain rather than carrying that usual, aggressive flair. But hey; no accent, no mockery.

"Try... making fun of... this!" Nope, she couldn't resist for any longer. Her previously pointing hand grasped out towards the cheetah's neck, fully intending to teach him a lesson.

Oooooh dear. The feline's ears angled back just a bit. He was walking a dangerous line here...he couldn't help but be slightly thrilled. Probably one of his worst habits: riling people up. Especially when that someone was perfectly capable of murdering his sorry hide.

Really...Ndale couldn't help but grin as Solasta amended her speech to take out the accent, even though it was obvious that it was awkward for her.

"Gooood." He purred out as the hand came at him. He only lifted his chin as the fingers settled around his throat, giving a slight wince, though the grin only widened. "There's the fiery girl I love. I don't know what was with that false cheer crap, but I like this much better." Amber eyes glanced up and down the girl with, completely obvious, appreciation. He had never really 'checked out' Solasta before, but he was realizing, now that he was, that she really wasn't all that bad look-wise.

Why wasn't Ndale trying to escape? Why did he seem... happy at his predicament? Solasta's eyes narrowed, still tempered, but also rather perplexed. Right now, if she tightened her grip just a little more, she could strangle him to death; his life was literally in her hands. Yet he seemed anything but panicked. It was... easy. Too easy. She released her grip; but in a harsh, reluctant sort of way, as if trying not to appear that she was being at all merciful.

"What di 'eck are you talking about?!" she hissed, yet she'd glance around in a subtle manner, as if wary of the presence of others. "Yo' insane?! I can kill you easileh right now, but you just grinning dere all stupid-like, makin' sweet talk at meh..."

Her expression scrunched. "Dis some sorta game to you? Flattery ain't goink t'get you nowhere!" She looked to the side purposefully, folding her arms in a sort of defiance.

As the grasp around his throat was harshly dropped, the feline winced again and brought his own hand up to lightly rub at the spot. However, it seemed his mood was not dampened, even at Solasta's scathing words. He pushed himself to his feet and shrugged.

"That's entirely possible, but hey, what better thing to do when someone is about to murder you? Everything is a game. Makes perfect sense to me." Ndale chuckled lightly. "And I am not really flattering. That might just be a side effect, but really all I am doing is saying the truth upon my mind." The boy tilted his head and gave a smooth, roguish expression. "Though it seems to have helped me by making you decide not to choke me. Good choice though."

He took a step defiantly forward towards the girl.

"I am so much more entertaining and useful alive."

The junkai didn't seem the slightest bit amused as Ndale rattled on with his explanation, unable to believe the sheer stupidity. What better thing to do? For a start, there was always escaping (though she was stubborn enough to believe that an attempt at escape would be very much futile). In fact, given his attitude, she couldn't understand just how he was still standing here right now in front of her; alive.

Nor why she had even let him go.

But her scowl remained as he dared to take a step closer. She glowered down at him, her expression the very epitome of annoyance. "Oh realleh?" she retorted, her tone challenging. "Prove it. Make me laugh." With that, she narrowed her eyes, fully prepared to not be entertained.

He paused, blinked and stared up at Solasta.

What?

His ears turned back, uh oh. Frantically, his brain scanned over what he knew about this girl. What he thought would make her laugh was the ridicule or abuse of others...which he was good at, but there was no one else around. His smirk was crooked and he raised an eyebrow.

"I said I was entertaining and useful, not that I was funny." He hummed and glanced up and down. Then, he shrugged as if seeming to come to conclusion about something. "What's the difference between sin and shame?"

Solasta's assumptions had been true - she was thoroughly unentertained by the cheetah's words. Never mind the fact that she'd set him in a difficult spotlight; he should never have advertised himself as something that he clearly wasn't.

She snorted with disbelief at his attempted excuses. An entertainer that could not crack any laughter was hardly an entertainer at all, she believed. However, it was his latter question that caught her by surprise. What did that have to do with anything? While she very well could explain the differences between them, she didn't particularly want to, at least, not so suddenly. She gave him a wary glance.

"Is dat a trick question?"

The feline's tail flicked and he rolled his eyes at her in turn.

"Of a sort. Jokes tend to have tricky answers, which is why they're jokes."

Ndale raised an eyebrow as if to question Solasta's knowledge on this subject, and crossed his arms. In a slightly lordly fashion, he made to circle the girl, as if scrutinizing and evaluating. Out seeped a predatory manner, though he doubted it would have much an effect on Solasta of all people.

"Soo, I ask again. What's the difference between a sin and a shame?"

Solasta's expression seemed a tad offended at his eyerolling. Quickly, she became tense again, keeping her red eyes trained on her as he moved to circle her. "You tryin' to be funny wi' me?" she accused, before stopping short at the hypocrisy - she had just requested that he make her laugh.

Dismissing her previous statement with the careless flip of her hair, she turned to address his latter question. "For a sin, you are hated. For a shame, you are 'umiliated."

As if missing the thought of saying anything funny, she placed an hand to her hip, shifting her weight to the side. She squinted at him expectantly, lips drawn into a thin line, disrupted only by her tusks. "What your answer be, o' entertainink one?" The mocking, incredulous tone was anything but subtle.

At her comment, Ndale simply paused, raised an eyebrow while strengthening his smirk, before continuing again. He opted not to comment, tail flicking. Her answer though, was a bit more intriguing.

"Well, that was more poetic an answer than I thought you'd give. Though, I'd say you were slightly off. No one has to be humiliated for something to be a shame." His grin grew slightly wicked. "One answer that will always be true, however, is this." Ndale turned to face her as he came around to her front again, head tilted slightly to the side, ears at off angles. His answer was given with a casual easiness, a lax quality that somehow made the answer seem all that more profound and meaningful.

"It's is a sin to put it in, and a shame to pull it out."

Only irritation filled Solasta's mind at every word that the cheetah spoke. Who did he think he was, telling her what they did and didn't mean? Her loud huff emphasized that she, in fact, did not care about the feline's opinion. As he approached her from the front, she merely glowered down at hi, her expression hardened and cold, even as the answer was spoken to her.

There was a pause. A moment in time in which the junkai's unamused look slowly started to contort in realisation. Eyes widened slightly as the joke suddenly started to make sense. Her lips twitched, as if against her will, they were being tugged into some sort of freakish grin, before they were quickly pulled into a forced frown before it could be mistaken as laughter. But it was to no avail; she almost looked pained in her attempts to suppress the snickers that escaped only as snorts.

Finally, she exhaled deeply after her rather undignified moment or amusement. Blowing at the strands of hair that had flopped in front of her face, she faced Ndale straight again. "Okay. Fine. You got meh," she admitted. "I liked dat. I demand another!" Her raised voice might've sounded like fury, but there was a wide, uncanny grin on her face that clearly wanted more.

Ndale had stared back up at Solasta, expression unchanging, as he waited to see the outcome of his course of action. He figured the rough girl would either be pleased or sorely displeased with him. He really hoped for the sake of his flawless complexion that she would be satisfied.

And so it was that when her expression showed signs of cracking, and when she finally broke, that the cheetah looked increasingly victorious and please with himself and his accomplishment. A look of 'I told you so' crossed his face. How could she have ever doubted his ability to be entertaining.

"Told you I was entertaining."

The slight flinch as Solasta yelled out for more was purely left-over animal instinct and only just noticeable. He shrugged it off with a smirk and thought quickly.

"Hmm...alright." He crossed his arms casually across his chest and shifted his weight to one leg. "There was a boy playing in the farm field when his mom called him in for breakfast. On his way in he kicked a cow, pig, and a chicken. So when he gets to the table he sees a dry bowl of cereal. "What's the deal?" he asks. His mom says " You kicked the cow so no milk for you, you kicked the pig so no bacon for you, and you kicked the chicken so no eggs for you." Then his father walks into the kitchen and accidentally kicks the cat. The the boy says "Do you want me to tell him or should you?""

A wheeze that sounded not entirely indistinct of 'shut up' escaped her as she shook her head, still failing in her attempts to wipe the stupid grin off her face. Regardless, she listened to his following joke with anticipation. Kicking animals? What was this about kicking animals? What's so funny about kicking a cat--

Oh. OH.

A grin bloomed across her face yet again as she broke down in a fit of snorts and giggles. The noise was about as appealing as a squealing pig before she eventually calmed a little, returning upright with some semblance of dignity. "So yo' got a few jokes up yo' sleeve. So what? I got'cha a joke too."

"Dere's a chicken and a squirrel. The chicken asks the squirrel how he is feeling today. But the squirrel doesn't reply. 'Cuz it's dead an' I killed it." An almost murderous look crossed the junkai's face as she stared at him - the sort of look that demanded him to laugh. Or else.

The second victory was just as sweet. There was something about being able to someone as rough as Solasta laugh that he found great pride in. He was already grinning, and so it was easy to call up laughter when it was needed for his self-preservation.

That, and the joke wasn't all that bad. It was endearing, in a way. So very like her that is was amusing. His deep, purring chuckle was appreciative of the whole situation rather than any hilarity the joke had or, rather, lacked. Though, he did exaggerate the bounce of his shoulders and the length for which he snickered.

"Oh, how mean. Poor squirrel, it didn't stand a chance." The verbal poke was given with affectionate and playful accusation. "Go on. How about another?"

Was that laughing mockery, or was it genuine? The sceptical stare that the cheetah was regarded with lasted all throughout his comments. The grin that had been etched on her face from her previous bouts of laughter was starting to fade, with the novelty of Ndale's cracks wearing off. It didn't take long until his question wiped it off for good.

"Another?!" she shrieked, all too quickly snapping back to her usual level of crankiness. "What do I look like to you? I am not heah for yo' entertainment! I do nat tell jokes on command!"

And with that, she twisted away with an exaggerated huff, arms crossed.
"Ain't ne' fekkink puppeh."
The mumble was quiet, but Ndale was sure to hear it.

His eyebrow raised incredulously at the sudden mood-flip. Ah, he had been doing so well too...

Ndale hummed quietly with thought. For some reason, he thought correcting the fact that he never called her such a thing, or apologizing, wouldn't go over well. So instead, he did something equally stupid.

"But I'm here for yours." Using how she had turned away to his advantage, he stepped up to place a hand firmly on her back and give a solid, but not harsh, push. "Tag. You're it, sexy lady." A crooked grin was flash as he quickly retreated to regain distance in the event she took the bait.

Ndale's reassurance was so thick with cheese that Solasta could've sworn that she tasted it on her tongue. She would've cringed if it weren't for the fact she was too busy fuming at his sheer ignorance. Despite the fact that, not moments before, she'd been chortling along to his cracks, she stubbornly convinced herself that Ndale's jokes were all awful and she didn't want to hear any of them.

With her back still turned to the cheetah, Solasta promised herself that if he made one more move, she was going to cave his face in with her fist. Such mental imagery was enough to crack a grin, that is, until he actually did touch her. What was actually just a small shove could've easily been a backstab, and it was no surprise that Solasta would immediately twist around to face the assaulter, eyes blazing with fury.

"You."
There was no trace of humour in her voice as she stared, sporting a grin that seemed more bloodthirsty than playful. He might've thought that he could get away, but with Solasta, there was no such thing as uncertainty. She was going to catch him, and she was going to wrangle his skinny neck.
With an ugly battlecry, she took pursuit, hoping to close the distance with the long strides of her legs.