"They are not long, the days of wine and roses. Or so it's been said. Everything ends, and everything will die and wither to nothing. You know that. You know what it means to wither and die, and you have your eyes on the final breath. If it is your destiny to drag that end closer, then you will be just that: the end of Wine and Roses."
Retired
Personality
Wine was never really welcome in this pride, bearing a festering anger and cruelty that is despised by most of the other lions. She's a clever lioness who uses this wit for her own purposes, scheming and lying to get her way. She gets involved in every situation to make it worse, to bring out conflict and anger in other lions. She's constantly manipulating others to get what she wants. She's not outright mean, but is cold and calculating, simmering with hatred for every lion in this pride, but especially for Monarch. She's difficult to understand to speak to, because she simply has no interest in getting to know other lions. She's generally hard to read, but when confronted with a lion trying to "fix her," she can be harsh and abrupt. She's constantly putting other lions down in small ways, crushing their dreams with a façade of emotionless logic. She can make anything she says sound so reasonable.
Backstory
Wine wasn't supposed to be born. Her mother, Euphoria, is a lioness in the pride which serves her current one, was Monarch's wife. When the droughts came, though, and things got harder for their pride, Euphoria met a young savage lion named Muyana. He made it clear from the start that he couldn't stay long: as soon as the prides were thriving again, the kinds would be focused on chasing out savage males. But he would come to visit Euphoria often, always in secret. It was only after he left that Euphoria discovered she was pregnant. She planned to pass the cubs off as Monarch's, but as soon as they were born, it was clear that they were descended from a savage. Monarch, under the influence of So Sweet, decided to punish Euphoria by taking her cubs. He brought them to this pride. Wine was only a baby when her brother, Anouk, died during the night. Sweet told her that Monarch had killed him, and even though it didn't make sense, Wine was young and she believed it. She was meant to be taken care of by Horizon Red, but So Sweet immediately named her her heir and took her in for training, essentially raising her. She told Wine terrible secrets and lies about the other lions, making her hate and fear them. She brought her up with the knowledge of how to use poisons to slowly kill off other lions. When the omens began to show themselves, Wine was still just a cub. She learned of the horse of pestilence, and would carve the symbol into the ground. It made her feel rotten inside, until she could feel that rot pouring outside of her. The other lionesses in the pride came to fear her, and avoided her as best they could. Wine was not truly powerful, though, until she met Luna. This medic from a neighboring pride saw Wine's evil for what it was, and inducted her to complete a powerful ceremony to summon the demon Morpheus. Wine could easily have been killed by Morpheus, but he chose instead to work through her. She wanted revenge on her pride, and he promised that. She brought Monarch to him to be killed, but Morpheus made a deal with Monarch instead. Wine was furious. Morpheus laughed at her anger. She was already under his control. She hated him, and she loved him. When Prairie Charm's soul was awakened, she came to Wine and Roses for help. Realizing that Windward was reincarnated in her, Wine promised to help Prairie. She planed to drag her to Morpheus, but before she could, Prairie disappeared with Black Adder. Wine realized that Moon at Dusk had lost her soul trying to contact Windward, but kept it quiet. Wine needed a helper, and knew Morpheus could give her one. She was soon pregnant, and gave birth to a single son. When he killed Horizon Red with wickedly sharp teeth, Wine grew afraid of him. She stitched shut his mouth, and raised him secretly to serve her, and called him The Silence. She soon took care of their servant pride's leader, Champagne Quartz, and suggested that her son be the leader. She had instated him as leader, and warned Morpheus that Windward would be back soon. Morpheus gave Monarch a false Windward as a "gift," and so when Black Adder and a newly-awoken Windward returned, Monach wouldn't listen to them. Black Adder was considered a rebel, and stripped of her title. Prairie Charm/Windward started searching for a lioness to link the orishas back to them, and soon found one.
  
How do you feel about Monarch?
"Monarch tore me from my family . . . he took me from my mother, he killed my brother. He made my life a nightmare, and I hope to return the favor. But he betrayed me, Morpheus betrayed me. Monarch is powerful now, more than me, and I hate him more than ever, a venom coursing through my veins. If I didn't serve Morpheus still, I would have tortured Monarch and killed him ever so slowly."
Who is your favorite lion?
"The only lion in this pride who ever gave me anything was So Sweet. And now she's gone, now I'm on my own amongst tittering idiots and hopefuls. I hold no warm feeling towards any of them. All I have left is my monster of a son, and I don't pretend to love him either - he's useful, but I hate him."
Who is your least favorite lion?
"I hate each and every one of them in unique ways, for reasons they would rather others not know about. But the only one who could save Monarch and ruin all of this is Prairie Charm, now more Windward. She is a link to the orishas, to goodness, and to death, which is all that will let Monarch escape."
|
