Personality:
Harsh. Even Katili admits her pranks are not the most painless, though she really does not care. It matters not to her that those that cause her pain are scared of her because they have ended up on the bad end of one of her more cruel jokes. She also is in control of a very, very sarcastic vocabulary.
Depressed. Though she claims kids would slow her down, and the parenting life is not for her, a small part of her agrees with her base instinct, and wishes for a young one to call her own. Her pranks distract her from this, however, so it is impossible to know about this facet of her without digging past her evasive sarcasm.
Cold-hearted. Katili feels no remorse for her actions. Even more so, she’s actually proud about the fact that she has young kids scared to death of her. Though she half wants someone to settle down with, someone to actually care about whether or not she is alive, she cannot fathom anyone loving her.
Uncouth. Because any and all socialization that she has had in her life has resulted negatively, she has no idea how to be polite. She is blunt at the worst of times, and aggravatingly evasive when she knows she’s in trouble. She does not eat with her mouth closed, and refuses to acknowledge ranks.
Dramatic. Katili has a flair for the dramatics. She is an accomplished actress, able to feign innocence and fool the Primes into believing that her pranks are either accidents, or the results of pure coincidence.
Likes:
Practical Jokes. Katili loves playing jokes on others, as the entire process of planning, executing, and escaping from the resulting upset victim takes her mind off of her own problems. She is able to remove her situation from her mind and shoulders when she’s working on her- admittedly, quite cruel- pranks.
Startled noises. Katili’s pranks are never lighthearted. She finds the most satisfaction in started yelps and bleats, then the clattering of hooves as the victim tries to get out of the way, and only achieves getting even more caught up in the trap. Some of her most memorable pranks ended in the Prime brothers being washed downstream on a fallen log, Aussie getting covered in various biting insects, and Rannoch getting his perfectly-groomed fur covered in mud and feathers, and stuck in a particularly slow pit of quicksand.
Distractions. A true prankster knows that distractions are key in pulling off a particularly complicated prank, andKatili is no amateur. Because she’s living a distraction, setting one up for others is absolutely no problem.
The Siv. Though she cannot actively participate in the Siv, much to her chagrin, it is the perfect season for her to play her most complex and wildest pranks, because most everyone is completely distracted by their hormones and need to breed.
Dislikes:
Kids. Not only are they a reminder that she will never have her own, she finds that they slow their parents down by being generally annoying. Kids are usually the victims of her pranks, and she has been nearly exiled multiple times for putting them in danger. She was saved only by pleading with Lazuli, who was almost too eager to let her go.
Being the victim. Being the victim in her own pranks, as well as the pranks of others, is next in line to her dislike of being ridiculed and hated for her lack of contribution, population-wise, to the herd. After all, it is not her fault that she cannot bear young.
The color yellow. Katili cannot explain why she hates it. The symbol of cheer is extremely obnoxious to her, and she loves to focus her pranks on any and all Goennecs with any shade of the blinding, horrifying color.
High-Maintenance Goennecs. She absolutely cannot stand both ewes and rams that insist on having the best and being immaculate. She believes in Functional Anarchy- that is, her own version of Goennec Socialism that has no bearings on status or ability. This is, perhaps, the sole reason Lazuli’s brother has not overridden the mentally disabled Goennec’s command to let her stay.
The nickname “Kat” She believes this nickname should be reserved only for the one that can truly love her, and sees it as an insult for any others to call her as such. The punishment for calling her by this nickname is a particularly vicious prank, followed by two little ewe-horns to the face.
Background:
Katili watched as her female yearmates began to flirt with the young rams, positively throwing themselves at the most muscled, and swooning over the idea of possibly winning over the affections of the tall, strong –and now missing- ram, Rannoch. She shook her head. Idiots.
Katili’s hormones failed to respond during her first Siv. This, of course, led to questions as to why a fine ewe like her didn’t seem at all interested in the battles. It was a young ram that asked her to join him that year. A Peasant, he had no others for his harem. However, she didn’t conceive. To distract herself from the depression inherent with failing to give her harem leader an heir, she began to plan pranks.
The goldfinch sat in its nest, eyes closed, settled to the task of warming her eggs. Below her, Katili’s body blended in to the tall, sun-damaged grass. With a sharp bleat, she jumped, her hooves crashing onto the small rock she’d placed there. The finch, scared witless, flew away.
She began with small pranks. Scaring birds. Setting insects on their backs and watching them struggle. The occasional, “Boo!”. But they soon became too predictable, and the reactions and planning just weren’t enough to ward off the loneliness. The depression. It became worse when the other ewes caught on to her kid-lessness, and mocked her, calling her “unworthy”, “inadequate”, and “So unfit, even nature doesn’t want her to have kids.” And so, she started her revenge. And what she found was a goldmine of satisfaction.
Just… there. The log would probably hold a light Goennec like Katili, but the fat, spoiled ewes with the weight they had gained during pregnancy would take it down, no problem. She called out, mentioning fresh, dew-covered dandelions, then ducked into a bush. Within seconds, half of the herd was galloping her way, with the ewes that had mocked her at the front. They reached the river and sprinted onto the log without a second thought, only to find themselves neck-deep in the swelled, flooded river.
Her first prank resulted in part of the herd nearly drowning in the river as its flood stage ebbed. None died, as the elders and kids were left either in the rear of the crowd, or remained in the fields, oblivious or stubborn. All of those that were on the log when it slid into the water were the young, strong Goennecs that could fight the current. But she did not notice this. No, she was too busy relishing their startled cries, their screams, their bleats of fright. Let them be humiliated, she decided. They deserved nothing less.
God, there it was again. A kid with bright yellow horns danced through dandelions, singing in a high-pitched voice.Katili had pranked it once before- nearly had it tossed to one of the hyenas, really- but no, its mother had to come save it. Pfft. She waited for several long moments as the little… thing… approached, then perked up as it disappeared- down into the hole she had so religiously dug and concealed. Mission complete.
The color yellow has always irritated her. Yellow Goennecs always seemed so… cheerful around her, trying fruitlessly to cheer her up, even after the depression from being barren set in. So she made it a point to focus many of her crueler pranks on them, sometimes by splattering their coat with mud to hide the yellow, or perhaps finding ways of hiding the Goennecs themselves out of sight. Unfortunately, the kid with the yellow horns nearly died from one of these cruel traps.
She could have been banished. Sent away to be slaughtered by the hyenas. Or perhaps beaten to death by the Soldiers. She turned her sad, teal eyes to Lazuli, her ears swept low. “Please… it was an accident… A- a game….” A moment’s consideration- please, please, let me go….- and the Prime’s silver and blue body stepped aside. She nuzzled his side flirtatiously, like the other ewes had done during the Siv, and pranced off.
Deception. It was easy enough when one learned how to be highly dramatic, and had mastered the acting skills necessary for getting out of anything and everything. Sure, Lazuli was not the brightest Goennec, but he was the one that she had to dupe. He had to think she was innocent. Luckily, it worked without any problems, and she was allowed to remain within the herd.
”Oh, look! Kat’s off plotting again! Better run, better hide!” Then, laughter. The ewes were pregnant again, this being their third Siv, and their bloated, gravid bellies contrasted starkly with Katili’s thin, fit body. She stuck out like a thorned paw. Immediately, she began plotting. That ewe would pay… That name was reserved for someone who didn’t care that she could never give them young. Not for someone who wished to mock her….
… And that ewe, and every other ewe that called her “that name”, did pay. Usually in some form of grievous manner that, if done while the victim was pregnant, sometimes resulted in miscarriage, as well as two scars on the fools’ faces- reminders that to ridicule her is to face her wrath, and her little white horns. Only the brave, foolish ones call her that name anymore.
Newcomers. They were tall, and spoke with a funny accent. Their manes didn’t do all of the way to their tails, but, outside of their blue and grey coloring… they looked very, very similar to her. The smaller one- Muta, with a voice of sweetened honey- approached her, the huge blue and grey head inches from Katili’s own tan and brown one. “And who are you?”
When the travelers Aibu and Muta approached the herd, Katili noticed instantly how alike they were in coat patterns. While the older quagga consulted with the Primes, Muta approached her, curious as to why a little creature could look so similar to herself. And Katiliinstantaneously felt different, singled out from the herd because all of the ewes and rams could and would never be able to see her without seeing these beasts, these monsters. And so, she decided to prank them while they hung around. Though, because of their sheer size, they eventually left, completely unharmed despite her best efforts, leaving the concealed holes, sand traps, bent-back branches and river setups unsolicited for Katili and her herdmates to stumble upon. All in all, not the best week for her.
The hyenas’ eyes watched them from all sides. Aussie stood on the Prime’s rock, having won it from his father and uncle several weeks prior. He’d heard from “his best spy” that they were planning to attack tonight, and he had asked her to set up traps in return for some privacy- to plot, to settle, to do whatever she wanted. She was allowed to be as cruel as necessary…. And so, with a malicious glint in her eye, she took the task.
After the visitors left and Aussie took over Primacy, he started being kinder to the bitter doe that had once tripped him with a cleverly-placed stick, and sent him sprawling into the muddy banks of the river. He learned of her “currency”- time and space spent by herself- and used it to his advantage. She was to set up traps to protect the herd from hyenas, allowing her to be as cruel as she wanted to be to her victims. Several hyenas ended up being stoned to death because of her, and others found themselves at the not-so-tender mercies of a hole full of thorn bush branches. Though she despised having to protect the herd consisting of Goennecs she so hated, she was beyond pleased with the distracting planning and execution involved in such a project. It was even better when the annoying members of the herd also got caught up in the traps, but that was another situation entirely.
Yelps. Screams. The intended predator was rapidly becoming the prey, falling into the holes and sandpits she had so diligently scouted out and concealed. Shifting, thundering- they’d set off the rock trap, and the large rocks she had coaxed several strong rams into piling up were now falling, landing on the scared, hungry beasts as they tried to get away. Soon, they’d hit the log trap. And then…. Goodbye, hyenas.
The soldiers and Aussie watched in surprise as the ewe’s traps set to work, and the last hyena was sent down the flooded river. Katili, for her part, had her eyes closed and ears pricked, sighing happily with the sounds of surprised suffering dancing in her ears. Music, she decided, could never get better than this.
”Kat’s back! Look at her! What a disgrace!”
Oho. Them again. Katili’s smirk widened viciously, her teal eyes taking on their much-feared devious glint.
They’d pay for that one.
Craptasticness by me
