Anthro-Hyena Tales Part 1
AN: Welcome to the The Lion King Anthro AU. Those of you who know me are aware that my most favorite Disney movie is The Lion King. My favorite characters are the hyena trio of Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed. While browsing through hyena fan art on Deviant Art I stumbled upon some anthropomorphized versions of the trio and most of them looked fabulous. Shenzi is gorgeous and Banzai and Ed are so cute and funny. Anyway, that anthro art inspired me to build an AU based on The Lion king with a focus on the hyenas, specifically Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed's clans. I really hope my fathful readers who have stuck with me for years enjoy this. (I'm looking at you, Seth! Lots and love and hugs to you!) I also hope any new readers enjoy this as well. As always feedback is welcome! Here's a little intro to the universe.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Lion King. That is the property of Disney. All OC's are mine though.
Main Character List
The Mchezaji Clan
Shenzi (Barbarous)- Future matriarch of her clan. Calm, clever, with a laid back sense of humor. Respects her grandmother, who stepped down as matriarch after her health started to decline. Shenzi respects and fears her mother. She occasionally leads the dance troupe her grandmother started before Shenzi was even born. She loves her family including her grandmother, parents, sister, and cousins, but she's not overly affectionate. She wears her dark mane in Senegalese twists with beads made of the bones from the spoils of her first hunt. Shenzi tends to be even tempered and nice to a point, but can be very cruel when disrespected or challenged to a fight, especially by another female.
Hahdi (Dignity) - The current matriarch of the Mchezaji clan, Hahdi is a no nonsense lady. She keeps all of her people in line and settles any disputes among them. For those who are part of the clan dance troupe she has a low tolerance for goofing off, lateness, or the inability to learn choreography. She rewards those who have the discipline and talent to keep up with the routines and occasionally lets them choreograph a number now and then. Hahdi is tough, but she loves her family dearly and pushes them to succeed in all their endeavors. She negotiated a contract/merger of the Mchezaji Dance Troupe and the Mchinjaji Catering Company with Banzai and Ed's mother to form the Pop-Up Party Promotions company.
Shwari (Calm)- Hahdi's husband and Shenzi and Tamu's father. He's as his name suggests. Calm. He balances out his wife's aggressive alpha-female personality. He's supportive of his wife and protective of his daughters to a point. He knows when to step back and let the ladies do their thing. He's suspicious of Banzai's intensions towards Shenzi and gives Banzai a bit of a hard time in a passive aggressive manner for the most part. Shwari is chill most of the time but can become vicious when it comes to protecting his loved ones.
Tamu(Sweet)- Tamu is Shenzi's younger sister. Tamu is very energetic and tends to release that high energy through her style of freestyle dancing, which includes pop-n-lock, wakking, vogue, and the occasional death drop. Though her older sister is more reserved, Tamu is very friendly and out going. She loves her sister and looks up to her. At the same time she's a bit jealous of the attention her mother gives to Shenzi to prepare her to become the next matriarch when the time comes. Tamu is very affectionate towards her family and friends. She also tends to break out into a victory dance when something wonderful happens to a loved one. Tamu wears her mane loose and wavy.
Bukola (Added wealth) – Bukola (nickname Buuki) is one of Shenzi and Tamu's cousins. Bukola is the tallest of the girls. She's also the most thickly built. In fact she's so noticeably thick that some of her family members tease her using the nickname 'Booty' instead of Buuki. Nonetheless, Bukola is pretty proud of her bountiful assets and puts them to good use, especially when dancing or flirting. Among hyenas, big and thickly built females tend to get the most attention from males. Buuki enjoys the attention most of the time, but doesn't like the negative effects it has on her reputation at times. When she's not dancing with the troupe or working a party Bukola works part-time as a teaching assistant at a school for hearing and/or speech impaired children. Buuki has a not so secret crush on Ed that she thinks no one notices, which is pretty funny. She got a little salty when Tamu called Ed cute. Bukola wears her mane in either Bantu knots or short, thick twists.
Shaima (Good natured)- Shaima (nickname Shai) is another one of Shenzi's cousins and Bukola's sister. She isn't very talkative. She tends to show up for rehearsal, learn the choreography, then leave. Shai tries to stay out of her aunt Hahdi's line of sight during rehearsal for one reason. Shaima has trouble memorizing choreography. Hahdi tends to catch her niece trying to fake it till she makes it though, which incurs her aunt's wrath. Shai doesn't dare speak up for herself. She, like many others in their clan, is terrified of her aunt. Shaima prefers to freestyle. Hahdi only uses her for back-up to balance out the number of dancers for a routine, and only in a real pinch. Shaima is tall like her sister, Bukola, but lean. She wears her mane in box braids.
Ovu (Nasty)- Shenzi's male cousin who also dances with the troupe and does some of the choreography. He often assigns Shenzi to be his dance partner, which Shenzi finds strange and disturbing since the dance moves he choreographs tend to cause them to be uncomfortably close.
The Mchinjaji Clan
Banzai (Lurk)- Banzai is the oldest son of the matriarch. He comes from a family of skilled hunters. He works as a butcher in his father's meat packing plant, which provides meat for his mother's catering business. Banzai has a muscular build and is one of the strongest males in his clan. He's also a brawler who can hold his own in a fight. He has quite a temper and will beat the shit out of anyone who pisses him off. He won't fight a female though. He respects the size and strength of female hyenas too much. In spite of his short temper, Banzai has quite a dark sense of humor. He tends to like puns mixed with violent imagery. Although he enjoys verbally roasting a family member now and then, he doesn't roast his younger brother, Eduma (Ed). He does get annoyed at his brother's tendency to laugh at inappropriate times though. He cuts Ed a little slack because of his speech impediment. Banzai is very vocal about his feelings, which tend to be pretty intense. He has a very strong attraction to Shenzi, whom he met during a meet and greet among local small business owners. He saw her dance with her troupe and was immediately enamored with her. He finds her cool demeanor very sexy and does all he can to get and keep her attention with his sense of humor. Banzai is a few inches shorter than Shenzi, and taller than Ed. Like most males, Banzai's mane is short. He sports a tuft of dark hair on top of his head. He sometimes wears a kufi, but only for formal occasions.
Eduma (Shout)- Eduma aka Ed is Banzai's younger brother. He used to be very loud and talkative before he developed a speech impediment due to a head injury when he was a child. His laughter is still loud, but his speech impediment makes it extremely difficult to hold a conversation. So he uses sign language and hand gestures a lot. Ed is musically inclined and creative. He's a freelance DJ with a huge repertoire and even creates his own beats in a studio in his aunt's basement. Because he has such difficulty with his speech, Ed enjoys expressing himself though music. Sometimes he enjoys it so much he gets caught up in his own little mindscape. Ed isn't as social as his older brother, but he does show interest in females, especially Bukola. He was quite smitten with her when they met at the meet and greet. He was grateful that Banzai introduced him to the girls. Unfortunately he was too shy and anxious about his speech impediment to hold a decent conversation with her. It took him a while to realize that Buuki liked him too…and thought he was cute. Ed's mane is extremely short to the point he appears bald. He usually wears hats or a kufi to cover the top of his head. He's a couple inches shorter than Banzai.
Stadi (Clever)- Stadi is the matriarch of the Mchinjaji clan. She has a notably nasally voice (think Sophia Vergara) and an odd sounding laugh. Banzai sort of inherited her laugh, but his isn't as jarring as his mother's. Stadi is the founder of Mchinjaji Catering, which is an offshoot of her husband's meat packing and butchering business. She merged her catering business with Hahdi's to form Pop-Up Party Promotions to provide food to go along with the dance troupe's entertainment. Stadi dotes over her sons and treats them like princes. When Banzai and Eduma were very young she took the time to teach them how to be charmers and hopefully capture the heart of a matriarch. Although she's doting, Stadi is not overbearing. Once she realized that Banzai's love interest was a matriarch in training she stood back to let the relationship run its course. Every now and then she would give Banzai advice when he and Shenzi had a falling out so he could get back in her good graces. As for Ed, she was concerned that he would have a hard time finding a suitable and willing mate because of his speech impediment. Fortunately, Ed's flirting game was on point after he met Buuki and he turned out to be quite the charmer with a great sense of humor. Stadi doesn't dote over her husband at all since he hates that. He even complains that she's making their sons soft by the way she treats them. She disagrees because she taught their sons how to pick their fights wisely and also to never challenge a female. That's a no-no among hyenas. Stadi has a twin sister that she beat for the position of matriarch. Stadi's mane is fluffy and curly with bangs that brush against the left side of her face. She also has spots on her cheeks.
Mbaya(Rough)-Banzai and Ed's father is a rugged alpha male. Banzai gets a lot of his looks from his father. Mbaya rarely smiles, but when he does it looks more like a smirk. He doesn't believe in coddling his sons. He's proud of how hard Banzai works as a butcher, and glad Ed found a way to express himself through his work as a DJ. He runs a pretty tight ship at the meat processing plant where the specialty meats are zebra and antelope. He enjoys going hunting with his family. He gets along ok with his wife's twin sister, which annoys Stadi, who has had a long standing rivalry with Wakali. Mbaya looks a lot like Banzai with a dark muzzle and a tuft of fur on top of his head that has a single curl in the middle of his forehead. He's about an inch taller than Banzai but shorter than Stadi.
Wakali (Harsh)- Banzai and Ed's aunt and Stadi's twin sister is a bit bitter about some things. Losing to her twin sister cost her the chance to become matriarch. In addition to that, her husband died due to a hunting accident when their son was still young. In spite of her bitterness, Wakali adores her nephews, Banzai and Eduma, especially the latter. She put together a home recording studio in her basement so whenever Ed came over he could express his creativity or prep his repertoire for parties. Wakali is a health and quality inspector at the meat packing plant late at night. She doesn't mind her nephews spending the night with her son as long as they don't throw any parties or do anything crazy. If the boys screw up in any way she's quick on the draw to give them a verbal beat down and/or even a physical one if she deems it necessary. Wakali looks identical to her twin sister, Stadi, except she doesn't smile as much.
Mjanja(Sneaky)-Wakali's son and Banzai and Ed's cousin is a bit of a trouble maker. He was always getting his younger cousins mixed up in some kind of mischief when they were children. He's also quite a player. He had a habit of sneaking girls into his mother's home to have sex with them while she worked the night shift. Mjanaja is attracted to Shenzi but he doesn't dare make a move on her because he knows his cousin Banzai can get kind of crazy when he's jealous. Mjanja helps Ed in the basement studio every now and then. Mjanja is about Ed's height with a mane that's a little thicker than his male cousins' but nowhere nearly as thick as a female's mane.
Now that you've met all the main characters the story will officially begin in the next chapter. Enjoy!