The King Has Arrived [October Catch All]

[pantheraleo]

Characters: Simba and YOU
Date: All of October
Location: Throughout Keeliai
Situation: Simba arrives and stuff.
Warnings/Rating: N/A

It was strange. One moment he had been wandering around in a hot, parched desert, and the next he was waking up with a raindrop landing on his nose. Followed shortly after by a steady rain that fell all around him. 

He sat up, startled, and looked around as he quickly became soaked. The landscape was strange... he was on some hard stone that covered the area in long and wide flat strips. While massive things rose above him, some reaching to the sky, light coming out of holes in many of them. Not knowing where he was or what was going on, Simba shivered in the rain and sat there for a few moments. Eventually he got up and started to walk around the streets of central late at night, lost and confused, but strangely calm and melancholy despite it all. 

He didn't stop to wonder at the strange weight around his neck. Instead he just wandered miserably and aimlessly as the rain continued to pelt him. Thanks to the late hour and the rain, there wasn't many people wandering about, but Simba stared at the first few he saw. He would then just continue on his way.

---

Once Simba has gotten somewhat used to the place, he'll continue to wander around and explore no matter what circumstances befalls him after his arrival. Thus he will easily be found just about anywhere in or around the city. 

Comments

[highprofilerichkid]

Tony and Gene are walking home after a late lunch when Tony spies a very odd-looking feline creeping through an alley. Odd, because it doesn't have scales or feathers or any of the other odd extra features that usually distinguish Konryu fauna from their counterparts on Earth.

Tony stops. "Gene, check that out. I didn't think we had cats in Keeliai." He takes a step closer to get a better look. "Am I going crazy, or does that look exactly like a lion cub?"

He crouches down and holds his hand out to the bedraggled cat. "Hey there, little guy. Where'd you come from?" And what the heck are you? Surely it can't actually be a lion. Unless the spell has gone completely haywire and started picking up random animals in addition to people.

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene would caution Tony against holding his hand out for strange animals to bite (you don't know where it's been!) but he knows that would have approximately zero effect.

"Yeah, I think it's a lion," he says, crouching down too. "But what..." And then he sees the gem around its neck. "Tony, look."

[dragonaught]

New to the turtle, Casey didn't notice anything wrong with there being a lion in the streets. Well, nothing more than usual. It was more than a bit odd to see a wildlands animal out and about in a city but the fact that it was weaving in and out more as if exploring than prowling told them there wasn't any outright danger. Not exactly the best situation for an animal to be in, regardless.

There was something around the cub's neck, and Casey wondered if someone had managed to adopt an exotic animal and collared it before letting it outside. Clicking their tongue, they crouched down several feet away from the lion and held out their hand, loosely closed, and waited to see if the cub would notice them and approach.

[pantheraleo]

Most of the strange animals walking around hadn't paid him much attention, but when one of them bends down and sticks out his paw and makes a clicking sound... Simba does notice. He looks up, giving Casey a bit of a blank stare.

"What do you want?" he asks glumly.

[dragonaught]

It was the speech that really threw Casey off. Not that it was impossible, not that it was even weird, but this was a creature very thoroughly documented as being non-sentient where they were from and suddenly they felt like a total heel. They started, hand pulling away immediately to raise in a harmless gesture.

"Oh gods! I'm so sorry! I—I thought you were a lost animal," they explained, face turning thoroughly pink for the embarrassment and shame. "We don't... there aren't sentients like you where I'm from...! I'm... so sorry... I just wanted to help—" Which, they realized as they were speaking, could still be done. "Are you okay?"

[pantheraleo]

The cub hardly seemed fazed by Casey's sudden apologies and rambling. In fact he just gave a slow blink of his eyes as he stared. But as the question was directed towards him, Simba's ears tilted back and he turned his face away, trying to hide the tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

"No," he said quietly. "Just leave me alone."

[dragonaught]

Casey didn't stand despite the information that they were dealing with a sentient. This was obviously a child and something was obviously wrong, two things that Casey couldn't really abide by when put together. If this cub was like the rest of the arrivals and alone, then Casey really couldn't just step away from the situation.

"If you're not okay, then I can't do that," they said softly, not uncaring at all. "Could you come closer? Let me take a look at you?"

[pantheraleo]

Looking up again with teary eyes, he blinked again. But didn't really have it in him to argue or put up a fight.

Thus Simba got up slowly and came over before sitting down again a couple of feet away.

[dragonaught]

That was better. Progress, at any rate, and Casey moved forward a few feet themselves in experimentation. If the cub didn't want them closer, they would stop on a dime.

"What's your name? Mine is Casey," they introduced. Better to get them on closer ground before they really started asking after the kid's health. He seemed rather shaken up.

[pantheraleo]

"Simba," was the only reply as he sat slightly hunched over. A paw absently rubbing at his nose. He didn't seem to mind or care as Casey got closer. In fact, he didn't seem to care about much at all.

[dragonaught]

At least his disinterest made it easy for Casey to get close and a better look at him. Check for injuries or any other signs of illness. Non-humanoid health wasn't their best subject, but animalistic health was second on the list due to Casey's own interest in domesticated animals. It would probably transfer over if Simba was actually just a lion who happened to be a sentient instead of another, similar-looking creature.

"Can you tell me anything that happened?" Again, gentle and not-pushing or judgmental at all. "Or—how long have you been here so far?"

[pantheraleo]

Overall Simba looked to be physically fine. Aside from being tired and wet and just generally unkempt. There were no signs of illness or injury. At least not yet. His mental state on the other hand is certainly rather questionable.

Simba just shrugged his shoulders, not having really kept track of how long he'd been here.

"I don't want to talk about it."

[dragonaught]

His general demeanor definitely spoke of not having been here too long, but also not having faculties or resources to take care of himself. Casey reached out a hesitant hand, hoping to fix some of the unkempt fur where he either didn't care or notice. Sometimes people felt better if others helped without asking, but Casey was still wary of being overly touchy with a stranger who might have plenty of his own issues.

"That's okay," Casey said. "Me, I'm new here. Only a few days. Everything here is so different from how I'm used to it being... like magic. Do you have magic where you're from?"

[michaeljangelo]

It's nothing but sheer force of habit that gets Mike out of the house in the middle of the night to run the streets of Keeliai. Sheer force of habit, and maybe smidge of longing for his family.

It was always the same, night after night: the sun would go down, the neon would flicker on, and they'd be out running the rooftops of New York City. And even though Mike routinely made a show of not wanting to go, once he was outside it was all his brothers could do to keep up with him.

Rainy nights were a particular favorite. Along with the added difficulty the slick surfaces presented, the bad weather also meant fewer people would be out and about. Fewer people meant they could get closer to the sidewalk. That they could move about the city like real people, and not like freaks of nature that had to cling to the shadows.

These days Mike isn't confined to the shadows or the night time, but old habits are hard to break... and so he's roof running in the rain, and thinking of his family as he scales down the sides of buildings to tag the sidewalk down below.

And then suddenly there's a lion cub...and everything goes to hell.

"wooooaaaaaaah....oooof," is the sound he makes as he lands in a heap, his distraction once again leading to an unscheduled descent. "i'mokay."

[pantheraleo]

Walking through the streets, Simba hadn't noticed anyone leaping about above him. Thus when something, or someone, comes crashing down out of nowhere, the cub is suddenly running for cover. Darting into a discarded box, it tips over and falls on top of the little cub. A pair of eyes peeking out from under it a moment later to see what exactly had just dropped from the sky.

[michaeljangelo]

He shakes his head to clear it, and then looks around the alleyway for the cub.
Because...KITTY!
No seriously, that's totally what he's thinking.

He spots the box, and the eyes peering out from underneath it.
HOMG! KITTY!

"hi...hi there," Mike says in the most soothing voice he can manage. "It's okay...I'm not going to hurt you."

[solo_patria]

Enjolras has been friends with dragons, helped raise a giant turtle, and seen various other creatures at the royal menagerie, where the cages somewhat bothered him, but to find a...cub of some kind wandering the street is strange. He's not sure what the animal he spots as he wanders between districts is, besides some sort of cat, but he's curious, and worried enough, to stop, crouching near him and holding out a hand for sniffing before he gets close enough to overcrowd the poor newcomer.

"You seem lost." He offers, as if this is an everyday occurrence, and assuming that he's speaking with someone sentient. After all, he's got a soul gem. "May I help you somehow?"

[pantheraleo]

Simba is just minding his own business when another one of those weird monkeys approaches him, holding out his hand. Why do they keep doing that? That's not how animals greet each other after all.

Thus Simba just stares at him when he speaks, and then looks away. "Not unless you can change the past," he says dejectedly before continuing to move on.

[solo_patria]

Ouch, well. There is a place that Enjolras has been. And something in the cub's face reminds him of Gavroche, as well. He wants to help. He wants to help more than he can say. And well. He's moving his hand when it seems like that's something weird for the newcomer.

"Ah, the past. I know a little of how that can feel." He's not going to go into TOO many details, to overwhelm him, but. "I think a lot of us wish we could do that. But I'm told the past makes us who we are, our past. ...Eventually, at least. But in the meantime..." He winched a little.

"...is it something you prefer to forget, or would speaking help?"

[risingwinds]

Random animals were no biggie in Ven's book. He'd already befriended mice, aliens, and ducklings, so what was a lion cub? If anything, Simba's appearance brought wide eyed wonder, and beneath the shelter of his umbrella, he crept closer, watching for a moment before clearing his throat.

"Y'know, it's a lot drier over here." He pointed to the ground below the umbrella. "Wouldn't want you to get sick!" Gosh, he sounded like Aqua now, fretting like this, but it'd be pretty heartless of him to just ignore the little guy, especially when he looked so glum.

[pantheraleo]

It's one thing to be in a strange place. It's another to be in a strange place with even stranger animals. Along with foreign sounds and smells. At least the rain was familiar, even if not exactly pleasant. But when one of those strange animals talks to him, Simba looks up with a perplexed look.

He looks about to say something, but then changes his mind and keeps walking.

[risingwinds]

Ven deflates the moment Simba trudges away. That could've gone better. Way, way better. Still, he's not the sort to throw in the towel that easily, so he toddles along, umbrella held high.

"You sure about that? It's not as scary as it looks!" Did it look scary? He's not entirely sure, but maybe all the cub needs is reassurance.