revivalproject | Just Lion Around

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Just Lion Around

WHO: Simba and You!
WHERE: Around Temba
WHAT: A cub has arrived!
WHEN: Late July
WARNINGS: Possible talk of death and trauma.

With the laughter of the hyenas still ringing in his ears, Simba had collapsed somewhere in the desert. Everything was dark and death seemed to be closing in. That is until he blinked open his eyes to a world that was not his own. Startled and confused, the cub jumped to his feet and looked around in near panic. His eyes then settling on a strange glowing orb hovering above him. Drawn to it like a moth to a flame, he reached out a paw to touch it. A sudden surge of information suddenly flowing into the young mind of the lion cub. Terrifying images of storms and suffering and death of the Agrii threatening to overwhelm his already troubled mind.

With tears in his eyes, Simba darts away as soon as its over. As if trying to escape the nightmare that he's suddenly found himself in. A new home, but a terrifying one. The cub racing across the square and into the Soup Lies building. Without much of a thought he runs to the large bright pink box and jumps, his paws catching the edge of it. He dangles for a moment and then scrambles with his back paws to flip over the edge and drop into the box. It's there that he huddles and shivers, ears pressed against his head and eyes wide. He hides there until exhaustion overcomes him again and he falls asleep.

Looking to request some supplies from the Agrii? SURPRISE! It seems they pre-emptively left a He Row Lion for you!

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Catra's ear twitches, looking down at the cub with a frown, her tail swishing slowly behind her. Any normal person might have had sympathy for the lion, or found it cute, or maybe been a little frightening, but she's just annoyed the little fur ball is in the way, and unceremoniously dumps the box over to empty it out again.

"Get outta here, this is our box," she dismisses, thinking this is some kind of Temba wildlife she hasn't run into before.

Alberto wasn't looking to ask anything from the Agrii, he's been exploring the city and just happened to walk into this building by accident.

Being new, he's been looking for a good place to start a new hideout to use as proper shelter. Instead, he finds a big kitty in a box. Strange, but it does make him smile fondly. This is one of the few land dwellers creatures he knows, and Alberto happens to be a cat person.

"Oh, ey, you're even bigger than Machiavelli." He doesn't reach down to touch Simba or rouse him awake, he doesn't want to be scratched, thank you very much, but he's staring at the lion with curiosity. "Hm...maybe you're lost too?"

Grogu's curious about the Soup Lies box. He hasn't had much use for it, especially since he can't write or really speak his requests. But he has a strange feeling he should go look at it today.

He makes his way over, ears perking up curiously. Grabbing hold of the edge, he pulls himself up a little bit so he can peek inside. Oh! What is this? He makes a curious noise, looking down at the strange new creature.

Wow Catra, rude!

Simba gets a very abrupt awakening as he goes tumbling out of the box. The cub blinking open his eyes and shaking his head to look... up... at Catra with a frown on his face. "Hey!"

Hearing someone talk, Simba's ears twitch and he rouses from his sleep to look up at a face peering down at him. Which is a little unnerving to say the least! Startled, the cub stares at Alberto, not sure if he should be afraid or not.

"Who... who are you?" Or maybe more appropriately, what is this animal looking down at him?

It's a sleeping fuzzy kitty! Simba has managed to roll on his back and has his mouth open, breathing loudly. He's so deep asleep that he doesn't even notice that Grogu is there. Not yet anyway. His tail then starting to twitch and a paw, pawing at the air as he starts dreaming.

What are you going to do about it, Grogu?

It talks. That's...unexpected. Her ears fold back with a frown, tail swaying behind her.

"...Hey yourself," she recovers quickly, narrowing her eyes at the cub and nodding her head for him to get out, "This isn't a bed. Get out of here, twerp. You're in the way."

Simba's own ears fold back and he swishes his tail in annoyance as he glares up at her.

"Make me why don't ya!"

Yeah, he's got a lot of guts for a pint-size twerp. But he's not about to be bullied by a... whatever she is. His fur bristling and his teeth bared. Bring it on!

Awww he's sleeping.

Grogu makes a louder noise, trying to wake him. If that doesn't work, he may try to grab hold of that tail... It's the only thing in his reach.

Alberto takes a step back, just as surprised as the lion, but for a completely different reason.

"You can talk? Machi doesn't talk. He just growls when he's annoyed." Which is often, or it used to be. Things were better now, Alberto has managed to get on Machiavelli's good side with some time (and also thanks to bribing him with fish). He wonders briefly if the new cat is also in a bad mood because he's hungry.

"I'm Alberto Scorfano, piacere! I just got here, so I was looking around for anything that looked interesting. What's your name? And why are you in a box?"

The tail does the trick. Because he SCREAMS!

“They got me! They got me! Let me go!”

The cub flails around in a panic to the point it tips the box over on Grogu’s side!

Simba gives him a weird look. “Pia-what?”

This Alberto doesn’t seem like a bad guy though so the little lion sits up, a bit more curious now.

“I’m Simba and I just got here too. Um…” He looks around at the… box. Is that what it is? “It just looked like a good place to hide.”

Continued from here.

“Okay I’ll wait here,” Dimba says to the device and parks his butt down on the ground. And he waits, just looking around and not really moving.

Because the last time he was told to wait he had caused a stampede and… Yeah he doesn’t want a repeat of that again.

Grogu makes a distressed noise, releasing the tail. He slips off of the box and tumbles backwards, thankfully out of the way as it tips over. Sitting up and shaking his head, his ears lower and he looks hesitantly back at the creature. Sorry?

"It means 'a pleasure to meet you'. It's Italian." No one around here seemed to know the language, it was almost heartbreaking. Alberto had just started learning it, and he wanted to practice it more.

He sits on the ground as well, with his legs crossed, so they're at the same eye level.

"Hi, Simba. Ah...It doesn't look very comfortable, though, and it gets a bit colder at night. You sure you want to stay there? I was exploring around."

Rolling out of the box himself, Simba shakes his head and blinks open his eyes to see a… green… something. It’s not any bigger than him though and he looks at Grogu strangely.

“Um… hi.”

Simba then sits up and leans in close to get a better look at him.

“What are you?”

“Oh… it’s a pleasure to meet you too. I think.”

The lion cub tilts his head at Alberto. His tail tapping lightly against the bottom of the box. He’s never seen anything quite like the people he’s seen here before. He frowns at the question though.

“I dunno. Where else would I go?” Exploring does sound kind of fun.

Alberto would shake Simba's hand, but he doesn't really have fingers, so... he gives a friendly smile instead. That tail wagging is cute and so far he's learned that it means cats are happy, so he will take it as a good sign.

"Anywhere you want! The world is your oyster, as they say." There's a pause before she adds. "Come to think of it, I don't know why some people say that. Oysters are really boring and terrible conversationalists."

Oh, he's getting sidetracked. Alberto clears his throat and focuses. "I'm thinking about going to the beach to get food, if you want any. It doesn't seem like throe's anything good around here."

"My oyster, huh?" That's a funny saying and he can't help but give a toothy grin at it. He likes this guy already.

"Yeah well, probably not as boring as hornbills." Because Zazu was definitely dull. He really knew how to spoil a cub's fun.

At the mention of food though, Simba is jumping to all fours. "YES! ... I mean, yeah, getting food would be great. I'm so hungry I could eat a whole zebra."

When Quill arrives, he has a moment where he's not sure if the lion's real after all, because he's being so still. But he crouches down and waves, anyway.

"Hey, little dude. You okay?"

Once Quill speaks, Simba turns around and gets back onto his paws with a grin.

"Hey! Yeah, I'm okay."

He then trots over, looking up at Quill with those big eyes of his. This one is definitely a lion. A little baby talking lion.

"So what are ya gonna show me?"

"Oh, all kinds'a stuff." Quill grins. "C'mon. I have a feeling first I should show you where you can find food. You're still a little guy, you're gonna need a lot of it."

He starts off toward the diner, hands in his pockets. "So where are you from? Like, what planet?"

Quill is a cool guy. Simba likes him already. Even if he's a weird looking monkey creature. He trots after him, the idea of food definitely getting him excited. His stomach too as it growls noisily.

"Oh, um... Africa?"

Because what is a planet. He has no idea. That's the best he can do.

Grogu tilts his head, looking the strange creature over. No, sir. What are you?!

But he's nothing if not friendly. He waves a greeting.

Excuse you, he asked first!

When he waves back, Simba tilts his head too curiously. Not getting an answer to his question, but yeah he's friendly.

"Hi," he says again. "I'm Simba. What your name?"

Maybe this green guy is just shy?

Edited 2021-08-09 19:12 (UTC)

"That's on Earth," Quill tells him with a smile. "I'm from Earth, too, but pretty far away from Africa. I didn't think lions could talk, but ... then again, maybe it's because the Agrii brought you here? I'm not gonna think about it too hard, there's not really a point."

He pauses, trying to remember what he'd read about Africa in school forever and ever ago. "What's a zebra taste like?"

“Whoa, really?” That’s hard for Simba to imagine because all that he’s known in his short life is Africa. Until now that is. “So where do you come from?” He’s going to go with that topic because he’s still not sure about the Agrii.

The question about zebra though draws a weird look. “Like zebra.” Duh. But because also, how does he even describe that? Not much to compare it to.

"Yup! Some have pearls inside, they're round and very pretty. Oysters are also tasty, I need to see if there's any in the ocean. This place is a bit strange, the sand at the beach is the wrong color." Granted, Alberto didn't know a lot about the human world, nowhere as much as he claimed, but he is sure that sand isn't supposed to be purple.

"Hornbills? Are they mean?" He's never heard that word before, so he doesn't even know it's a type of bird. Not a lot of Hornbills on the coast of Italy, you see. but he focus on

"Let's fix that. Come with me, the ocean isn't that far away. Do you like fish?"

Trotting along with his ears up and tail flagged, Simba listened to Alberto talk about the ocean. Which seemed very foreign to him as the ocean wasn't a thing in the middle of the savannah.

"Sometimes. Mostly just a huge pain," Simba says about hornbills. Zazu was the stuffiest bird he had ever known! Really that guy could learn to have some fun.

"You mean to eat?" Simba then says, a bit puzzled. "I've never tried eating fish." Lions weren't fishers after all. His mom had never brought him anything like that.

Grogu makes a cheerful sounding noise. Sorry, Simba. He hasn't learned to talk just yet. But he's happy to meet you!

Huh. Okay, no talking. He can handle that, right.

“I’ll just call you green guy, then. Okay?”

Yeah that’s the best he can come up with at the moment.

Grogu shrugs and nods. Eh, that's good enough. Better than being called Kid for ages. He tilts his head, looking over at the box. What were you doing in the box?

Simba looks over at the box too. Now on its side and he frowns.

“I didn’t know where else to go.”

He paces around it, trying to figure out how to get it upright again.

"... I deserved that," Quill decides with an amused snort. "What did I think you were gonna say, 'oh you know, like pork but without the barbecue sauce'? Psh."

The urge to reach down and scritch him between the ears like a kitten was strong, but he knew how much Rocket abhorred that sort of thing. He considered it an insult. He didn't want to do that to Simba, who seemed like a completely nice kid ... er, cub.

"I'm from America, which is on the other side of the ocean. ... Which is just a word for 'a whole lot of water that goes farther than you can see'. They've got big cities with buildings like these, only they're not broken. And farms where people grow fruit and vegetables and keep big herds of cows - which are kinda like what we eat instead of zebras. We just have them in fields with fences, and when we need some we just go get one. No hunting."

Tilting his head, Simba listens to this description of the fanciful land of America. Which sounds completely different to anything he has ever known. A land past a bunch of water that you can’t see past where nobody has to hunt for their food with big… buildings?

“Wow, that sounds really cool. You don’t need lionesses to bring you food, huh?”

Because that’s how it works where he’s from. The lionesses, like his mom, always do the hunting and bringing back food.

“So what do you do with those buildings?”

That's a shame because the ocean is very pretty and there's a lot of fun to be had in it. He can tell more to Simba about it, and in turn, the lion can let him know about the wonders of the African continent. Alberto has never traveled much.

"I know about seagulls, they can be really annoying too and often try to steal food. I haven't seen any here, so we don't have to worry about them." Looking around, Alberto turned to the left, following the path leading towards the ocean and walking alongside Simba to make sure his new companion doesn't get lost.

"Yes, to eat. They're very tasty and there's a lot of different ones. I thought all cats liked fish?"

Simba follows along easily, happy to chat with his new friend as they go. The idea that cats like fish though confuses him a little. There's a lot of cats where he lives, and not just lions, but he doesn't think any of them eat fish.

"I don't think there's a lot of fish in the savannah," Simba admits. "Most of us eat things like zebra and antelope." His stomach growls at the thought of it. He was really getting hungry.

He then stops in his tracks though as they get closer to the ocean. Hearing the rushing of the waves before seeing it and tilting an ear in that direction. "What's that sound?"

Grogu reaches out a hand and nudges the box back into place with The Force.

Simba doesn't have anywhere to go? Well... He knows one place we're he'll be safe. He gestures to him to follow and starts walking back towards the temple.

Not seeing what Grogu did, Simba blinks as the box suddenly rights itself again. The cub just staring for a moment before rolling his shoulders in a shrug.

"Are you wanting to take me somewhere," he asks before picking up the fish toy that he had found before Grogu had come and woken him up again. The cub completely forgetting about his own device. Following after Grogu wherever he planned to take him.

"I mean, a lioness is like, your mom, right? When we're kids, our moms and dads still have to get us food because we can't, uh, cook? But they make it for us until we can do it ourselves."

He leads Simba toward one of the ruins that looks a little less blasted, where you can still see the divisions of rooms and the suggestion of a doorway or two. "Buildings, we live in. And we work in. And all kinds of stuff. Some of them are where you go to get food, or clothes, or neat stuff like music and movies. But they're like ... uh ... super fancy caves, I guess. There are a bunch here that aren't as ruined as this. You'll see."

Alberto hasn't really seen a large variety of animals in person. He's learned more recently thanks to books, but anything that looks vaguely feline or furry is always categorized as 'cat'. And since the real cat he knows does love fish, he assumes all the rest do.

"No? I thought you could get fish anywhere if there was water. Do you not have rivers or oceans in the Savannah too? What does a Zebra look like?" That one's a new one, and so are antelopes. He's pretty sure these don't hang around the beaches of Italy. Alberto grins once Simba's ears perk up, realizing why the little big kitty did that.

"That's the sea! Come on, you'll love it." After waving a hand, Alberto starts to run towards the ocean, looking over his shoulder briefly to make sure Simba's following. Once they get to the beach, Simba will be greeted by the purple sand first, and then the expanse of water that is the alien ocean of Temba. It's really striking at this time of the day.

"Yeah, my mom she's uh..." he almost says the Queen but stops himself. "She's like that."

But yay for going on to the next topic. "Oh, I live in a cave! Or at least I used to. So humans make their own caves to live in?" Seems weird but it kinda makes sense? If there's not a cave around it would be pretty handy to be able to make one.

"Yeah, there are people called architects, and that's their job, making caves for everyone. Some of 'em look the same, but you can paint them different colors and stuff so they look cool. My house was yellow, and there was a big white porch, which is like ... okay, it's like a smaller cave attached to the big one, but no walls. Just a roof. So you can sit and look at stuff outside, but not get wet if it rains."

He gestured with his hands, approximating the posts of a porch first, then holding them over his head.

"We used to sit out there after dinner and watch the sun go down. Listen to the crickets and the birds come out."

"Well there's one river, I think," Simba says thoughtfully. "But the water doesn't always stay for very long. And a zebra is big and walks on four legs like me, but they have hooves and lots of stripes all over!"

The cub lights up again as Alberto runs in the direction of the sound and bounds off after him. Running across the purple sand until he suddenly skids to a stop to look out with wide eyes.

"Whoa. That's a lot of water." He's pretty sure he's never seen so much water in his entire life!

Simba tries to picture all of this in his mind, which admittedly probably isn't what its really like but he kind of gets the idea.

"That sounds really nice. You would sit out there with your mom and dad?"

It doesn't sound all that different than what his parents used to do with him. Except they might have sat on a rock or out on the plain or something.

"Just mom," he admits easily. "My dad wasn't around. I didn't meet him until ... well, not long before I showed up here. That's kind of a really long story."

And honestly, he wasn't sure Simba was ready for it yet. If he didn't get buildings, he sure as heck wasn't going to be able to wrap his head around spaceships and Celestials and such yet.

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Just Lion Around

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