Outsiders. [Laguna || Closed]

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Some African animals were lucky. Some weren’t far off from the watering hole. Those who needn’t travel so far would survive the blistering heat. Elephants, giraffes, antelope, warthogs, cheetahs, bird and other animals small and large all gathered around the mile long watering hole. There was more than enough water to go around for all the animals. The only down side were the crocodiles which lurked beneath the waters. Some laid along the lake’s edge, soaking up the sun. Others floated quietly against the surface, minding their own business. From time to time, one of them would snap at the drinking animals and drag them into the water if successful in capturing their soon to be food. Some animals would escape their giant razor like teeth, others wouldn’t be as lucky. 

Vanellope had had her fill of water. Luckily, she had glitched herself to a safe place...or rather, as safe as one could get in the wilderness of Africa. When she first arrived in the Pride Lands, she was in awe of all the beasts which surrounded her. Some had tried to walk over her, others completely ignored her. Her attention quickly moved onto the fact that she had suddenly developed four legs...and fur...and a tail. This was all so exciting to the young racer. She had not only visited another game altogether through her glitching powers; but she had also transformed into a small black lion cub. It took a while for Vanellope to get used to walking on four paws instead of her usual two feet. But after much practice, she started to get the hang of it pretty quickly. Soon enough, she was running along the dried grass towards the waterhole where she now stood.

Whereas most of the animals rested by the water’s edge, Vanellope had decided to go and rest on top of the rocks which sat close by to the watering hole. From there, she would be able to view the area and watch all the animals drink, eat and sleep. However, she had to climb up the rocks first. 

“Ready...get set....POUNCE!” All four paws pushed against the solid ground, forcing her small furry body into the air and against the grey stone of the large rocks. Her black claws extracted, scraping against the solid surface and leaving a long scratch mark against it as her body slowly slid back down. “Oof!” Vanellope landed on her tail, before rolling onto her back. Growling in frustration, Vanellope rolled onto her front and glared up at the rocks. How hard could it be to leap onto a few pebbles?! Clearly this lion thing was too much for the racer. She wasn’t a true lion, thus lacking the skills needed to walk and talk like a lion. “Ohh, forget it. The grass is much more comfortable anyway.” Vanellope rolled onto her side, watching the animals at the water’s edge at a side view. She wouldn’t lay there for too long, however, as a young voice snapped her attention away from the other large beasts.

“You’re not from here are you?”

“Of course she’s not. She can’t even climb a rock!” Another voice appeared from on top of the rocks. 

“She smells strange, too!” A third voice startled Vanellope to all fours as a young brown cub sniffed at her black fur.

Vanellope took in turn to eye up the three lion cubs which surrounded her. One was a golden colour with green eyes; she was the first to speak. The second was of a similar colour but with darkening tuffs growing from the corner of his cheeks and between his ears – he stood on top of the rocks smirking down towards the black furred outsider. The third was a brown furred cub, another female from what Vanellope could gather. Although she wasn’t from here, the racer had a feeling she wasn’t quite welcomed. None the less, the quirky girl would brush off these native cubs as though she had no idea what they were on about. 

“Hello, fellow lion cubs-“

“Shut your jaw up, outsider!” The golden male on top of the rocks growled. After snapping at Vanellope, he leaped from the rocks and circled the strange black furred cub. “Who gave you permission to speak to the future king?!” He snarled, looking down on the feline Vanellope. 

“Future king?” Vanellope scoffed, rolling her eyes at the ego headed cub. “So you’re not actually king yet then...no?” She noticed the other two female cubs glance at one another with shocked expression, as though they couldn’t quite believe the tongue of this outsider. 

“He will be! Toku will be a great king!” The golden feline spoke up. “And he will banish you from the Pride Lands for speaking to him like that!” A paw pushed against Vanellope’s cheek, forcing her head to turn at the push. Vanellope grinned, her tail waving from side to side before she shrugged her shoulders and laid on her belly, uninterested by the royalty around her. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Vanellope jaws parted into a long and tiresome yawn. “Just let me know when he is king. Until then, I’m just gonna lay here and lick my fur.” That’s what lions do, right? Lick their fur? She hoped so, otherwise she may have sounded stupid right then. Vanellope didn’t have much time to react, but before she even had time to lay her head against her paws, one of the lions leaped onto her back. “Hey, whatcha-OW, get off!!” She cried, realising she was being attacked by the two female cubs. The brown one had swiped at her cheek, whereas the golden one pulled at the extra skin which surrounded her neck with her teeth. That didn’t hurt as much as it should have, but the golden cub was managing to pull Vanellope’s head down towards the ground. Vanellope, completely unprepared for this scrap of a fight, was being dragged along the dried earth by the golden cub, as the brown cub continued to leap on her side, sticking in her claws whenever she was able to.

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What flew through the air was neither plane nor bird but a male who had lost his voyager, the adult had in fact travelled in a metallic craft but had lost control mid-flight. Laguna had thought he could fly it no problem and to be honest it wasn’t that difficult but fuel…well, that was something he probably should have stocked up on when leaving Traverse Town. He was just so excited by the prospect of piloting the thing that it didn’t even cross his mind, Squall probably told him…but once Laguna had an idea in his head it was difficult to talk him out of it (or just get through to him). He thought he had enough to land the thing but unfortunately it conked out before the machine could safely reach the ground. This left Laguna with no other option but to evacuate the vehicle using the emergency switch, pulling the lever had sent Laguna flying through the air.

“AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!”

At this point, Laguna was flailing his arms around as though doing so would spurt his wings and he himself would be able to land to safety instead. His screams bellowed from the sky as his body changed mid-air, fur began sprouting from his chin, face….everywhere! A panicked look was secured upon his face as his eyes dropped to the floor, gravity was pulling him quickly into the…water! What relief it was to see water and not the hard golden ground beneath him. With a gigantic splash, the once human Laguna had hit the water like a brick causing waves to cascade over the other animals nearby.

Laguna held his breath as his now paws tried to carry him to the surface, luckily it wasn’t too difficult to manoeuvre, it was just like a doggy paddle…kind of. As his nose broke the surface of the water Laguna glanced around at all the animals and then at his paws. “Whoa what happened?!” His voice sounded different…but he wasn’t sure how to describe it…more…growly? The animals around his began to shout and push him out of the pool in anger, they clearly didn’t appreciate the interruption and Laguna was more than happy to get out of their way.

It was strange to be around animals in this way, they seemed to be more…on his level socially and it was strange to think it. This thought was what distracted him from being shunned from the animals, “Sorry!” he would call, he seemed to be saying that a lot lately. His paws plodded along the plains as he tried to get used to walking with four paws. All Laguna knew was that he was furry and wet with a floppy black mane that covered part of his eye like his hair as a human. He tried to shake himself off a little but it didn’t seem to be working, luckily for him the sun was out and would dry him off in no time.

Now…if only he could find his ship…then maybe he could leave this place and turn back into himself.

As he began to veer around the corner, Laguna could hear some children’s voices and then what seemed to sound like a scuffle. As they came into his vision, Laguna looked them over, he wasn’t sure whether they were playing or actually fighting but whatever was going on it seemed to be an unfair battle. “Hey!” His voice carried over to them but he wasn’t sure they could hear however when he had gotten closer to the cubs he could see in their eyes that this wasn’t play time.

“I said, HEY!” His body rapidly carried itself over to the young cub being tossed around by the others and his nose scooped under one of them with one strong sweep to get them off her. The president wasn’t entirely comfortable using his new found claws just yet and it was just as well really, he didn’t want to get into trouble with these…unknown beings. His body covered the young girls protectively, standing tall and he looked over the others, “I’m a lion…” he whispered quietly as his eyes looked back and forth as he struggled to find his next step, “Uh…RAAA!”

What came from his lips was a feeble cat like cry and he shook his head embarrassed at the call, “Let me try that one again.” He spoke to the young girl and readied himself with his whole body, his throat itself preparing for what came a powerful roar, that was it…that was what lions did right?

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[/font] Vanellope cried after she felt another pull of her neck fur, yanking her head strongly to one side, causing the young cub to pull a neck muscle. [/span][/div]

“Stop-p-p-p-p-p-p-p it!”

Enough was enough. During the stress and the pain, Vanellope found herself glitching. She didn’t mean for it to happen, as she was still unable to fully control her glitch. The black furred cub flickered into a ray of coloured pixels; from black to white to a pale blue and black again. Her body failed to teleport during the process. However, the unusual glow of colours from the outsider was enough to pause the beating from the other cubs. The two female cubs backed off for only a moment. Addressing what they had just saw...if they say anything at all, that is. “What just happened?!”

“Did you see that? She...she went all...weird?!” The golden cub looked down at the black cub with disgust. The two were about to back off, thinking this outsider was itching with some kind of disease. Their end to the battle was quickly halted, as the male cub climbed down from the rock and stalked over towards Vanellope. He circled the small black furred cub, watching her with golden eyes as she slowly pushed herself onto all fours. The sight of the pathetic outside made the young prince chuckle. Without a word, he pushed her over after she finally managed to get back up on her feet. As though his actions were a sign, the other two cubs pounced back onto Vanellope to continue the attack. 

Just as the fight started, it was quickly ended by a dark shadow. Feeling someone safe to open her large eyes, Vanellope found herself being stood over by a larger beast. Her attention quickly fell towards the three cubs which had been scattered away from her. The trio seeming pretty annoyed that their fight was interrupted by a lion which wasn’t their father or king for that matter. The male which stood over Vanellope, protecting her from the threesome cubs, decided to go all out and scare them away with a lion’s warning roar...only it wasn’t quite as powerful as it should have been.

“Ha, what was that? My younger cub brother giggles louder than that!” The cheeky so called prince chuckled. The two female followed suit and started to laugh seconds after. 

Feeling somewhat embarrassed for the new lion, Vanellope held her head up with a paw as she laid in the shadow of the dark lion. “Knock yourself out, kittens.” Vanellope spoke with an uninterested voice. She was forever insulting those she didn’t know...and those she did. It was her defence mechanism. Usually when she insulted someone with a nickname the name often stuck, unless a new name was given to her. Even then Vanellope would continue to dish out nicknames for her friends or foes. 

The dark lion cleared his throat and let rip a loud and powerful roar. Vanellope felt herself glitch for a moment at the shock of his sound. She rolled onto her belly and quickly scurried from underneath his protective body so she could stand away from this powerful animal. The other three cubs were quick to scamper away from the watering hole, as did some of the other docile animals. The roar of a lion was a powerful one, and this strange lion here was living proof of it. 

The feeling of being targeted by the trio of cubs quickly vanished the second their sorry hides fled over the plains. They would no doubt run back to their pride, with their tails tucked between their legs and cry to their parents. The racer only hoped mummy and daddy wouldn’t come chasing after her or the stranger which had scared them. 

“Hey, kittens, I had it all under control, you know!” Vanellope pounced in front of this new lion. Her front paws stretched out and her rear stuck up in the air with her tail waving slowly above her. “But that roar was AWESOME!” Her body hoped from side to side in a playful manner with nothing but pure excitement at the events she had just witnessed. “Did you see how fast they ran away?!” Vanellope turned on her paws and attempted a roar of her own, as if mimicking the male lion. Her roar wasn’t quite as powerful as his...or even much of a roar. It was more of a loud yawn gone completely wrong. Realising that she couldn’t quite master the roar, Vanellope cocked her head to one side. “Hmm, maybe I have to unlock it as a side mission or something?” Blissfully unaware she was in the real world; Vanellope assumed that the roar was a power which was earned during the game play of this world. 

The young black cub turned back to face the larger African beast, placing herself in a sitting position as she stared up at the male lion with large hazel eyes. “So are you the good guy in this game?” Vanellope found herself eyeing up his dark hue of fur. “You look more like the bad guy. Are you a bad guy?” She asked, excited to discover more about this world and who this large lion actually is.

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While the reactions from the younger cubs were expected as Laguna’s first attempt at a roar went horribly pear shaped, usually the President would be embarrassed. However this time due to his transformation, the man wasn’t exactly himself and so had a major obstacle he could blame for his…rather feeble attempt a scaring the children away. Despite the initial set back though, Laguna’s second roar bellowed throughout the lands and it had in fact scared the kids away. “Huh…” he pondered whilst tilting his head, “I mean…I saw that on TV once but…” Looking down to the little girl who had now moved away from him, Laguna began to feel a little bad…that was until she started to talk.

“Hey, kittens, I had it all under control, you know!”

“Okay-okay I’m sorry.” He laughed and looked over the small cub, when she praised him for his roar he smiled showing his now sharp, ivory teeth. It was pretty cool being a lion, although he did wonder how long this transformation was going to last for…he couldn’t be a lion forever. “Hahaaa, that’s right!” Laguna said puffing his chest out in pride, “I’m a natural.” Although it didn’t look like the young cub was listening to him at all, she was a ball of energy and was trying to roar just like he did. She obviously hadn’t developed…er well whatever sort of lungs that being an adult had allowed, Laguna laughed as she rolled around growling trying to mimic him.

“They did leave pretty fast…hope I didn’t scare them too badly.” Laguna raised an arm to his head meaning to scratch it, it was a habit he couldn’t shake off even as a lion. But as he realised he still had paws he instead flicked his mane out of his eyes and dropped it back to the floor, it was hard being a lion. The male’s head tilted as she mentioned a side mission, she was too young for SeeD and this clearly wasn’t his world but she was also too young for the army. Laguna looked quizzically at the girl and before he could answer her she then asked if he was the good guy in this ‘game’.

“Erm…what? I’m the-wait I’m not a bad guy!” Laguna raised an eyebrow and then scowled like a child, “Listen, I'm the hero…the good guy!” He glanced around, even he wasn’t so sure what this was, “…and I’m guessin’ that like me you’re not from here. Well then I can give you a lift back in my Gummi Ship.” Laguna turned from her and stared back at the way he came from and then the opposite way….and then everywhere else. “I uh…just don’t know where it is.” The girl had reminded him of Ellone, kind of spunky with a little attitude and probably around a similar age…probably, Laguna wasn’t very good at that type of thing. Still, he felt a little protective of the girl cub, in fact, he wasn’t even sure of her name.

“Name’s Laguna, I’m a President and…trying to get back to my world, what about you?”

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Notes: A Ship made out of Gummi Bears?! Tagged: @laguna

Vanellope scoffed, followed with her large hazel eyes rolling at the mention of scaring away the cubs. In case he had forgotten, those cubs he frightened were attacking her. “It’s a little late for feeling guilty, Phoenix Wright.” The lion cub smiled a wide and toothy grin. A brow arched at the realisation of what could happen next. “If anything they’ll go get daddy to come beat you up.” The smug little lion strolled casually before the black furred outsider, as if she had no care in the world. Even if the future king did go and get his father, Vanellope hadn’t done anything wrong. The poor girl only wanted a snooze on top of the rock before she was pounced on by the king’s little bullies. The glitch wasn’t too worried about the mighty lion coming to take revenge on this stranger. Surly a king would be too busy to tend to such petty shenanigans. Heck, she wasn’t even sure if that so called ‘future king’ was even royalty. He could have been bluffing for all the racer knew. “So what makes you a hero, chump?” Vanellope stretched her paws, yawning widely before she placed her rear on the dried patch of grass. Finally she gave the stranger her full attention. She knew heroes; and this lion hadn’t convinced her he was one of them. Sure, he had a powerful roar – but she had a powerful ear piercing scream. That doesn’t make her a hero. Her large round ears shifted at the word Gummi Ship. She sat there, pondering what on earth he was speaking about. Clearly it was from some sort of boat game, like Battleship, maybe? The glitch thought how a floating boat made out of a gummy bear texture would stand on water. Who would even play a game like that?! “Wait, a Gummi Ship? As in…sweets?” Vanellope knew all about sweets and sugary goods. The idea of stepping into a ship made out of sticky stuff was exciting! She could tear off some bits and use it to upgrade her kart. A cunning smile tickled her lips as she pictured a cannon sitting on the hood of her kart. “I need to see this ship!” Her hopes were quickly shattered when he made it clear he had lost his ship. “Really? We are in a desert wonderland and you’ve managed to lose a ship?!” A tiresome sigh escaped her lips as she shook her head in disbelief. Vanellope leaped onto all four paws as the black lion introduced himself. Intriguing eyes widened in amazement as he announced he was a president. “Me too!” The cub clapped her paws against the ground with excitement. “A president, I mean…” Wanting to make a better introduction for herself, Vanellope cleared her throat and rolled her right paw out, followed with a bow. “I am President Vanellope von Schweets. Well, Queen Vanellope, actually…but don’t worry about that. You can call me Vanellope.” Her voice started out with a thick British tone, mocking her own royalty until she altered back to her usual croaky high voice. “I’m from Sugar Rush. I’ve only just got out of there to see other games. I’m not going Turbo, don’t worry!” Two paws reached out in a defensive manner as she felt the need to defend herself before she got accused of trying to take over other games. The glitch was in no hurry to go back to Sugar Rush. She wanted to continue travelling to other games and see new things. This African desert was just the first of many games she was to see. If Laguna wished to take her back to her own game, she would decline. Although she knew she had to go back sooner or later with the players coming to play Sugar Rush, Vanellope decided she was in no hurry since the game was constantly crashing due to those stupid boxes which kept appearing. A worried feeling struck her stomach as she wondered if there would be a home to go to. For all she knew Sugar Rush could have been unplugged. No. Mentally she shook her head at the thought. It was such a popular game. They’d get the repair guys in to take a look at it first. She had plenty of time yet. “So, mister president…wanna go sight see and see if we stumble upon your Gummi Bear ship?”

Made by Sifr @ THQ.

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“Phoenix who?” Laguna blurted out, rubbing his eyes, what was this young girl talking about? She was a strange one with strange ideas about the world. Was she from here? No…otherwise she wouldn’t have asked the other questions, still Laguna hadn’t heard of the name and the way she said it implied this person was pretty well known. With the threat of the father coming to get them Laguna paced a little, “Uh…you know, I’ve only been a lion for less than half an hour…” His eyes darted from side to side looking for anything suspicious, “I don’t think I want to tackle a real lion any time soon.” He couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen any time soon, call it paranoia or intuition, Laguna couldn’t ignore the feeling.

The kid soon questioned why he was a hero, Laguna tried to cross his arms in thought, “A good question…” He pondered, “Well I sent an evil witch into space and got made President so I guess that’s pretty cool, huh?” He was a soldier back then but he didn’t feel that anything he really had done was heroic apart from getting rid of Adel, even then he had friends to help him. Still, if he were a real hero then he wouldn’t have made all the mistakes he had done with Raine, he missed her even if he never spoke her name any more. Ellone would pry about it gently, just wondering what things were like for them both and then would remind him of Squall, oh yeah. “My son’s a hero too, y’know. Sent some Sorceresses away with their tails between their legs…hey wait, what does that make you then, kid?”

A few moments later at the mention of his Gummi Ship, the dark haired child seemed to get a little excited, she wanted to see this ship that may or may not be made out of sweets. Sure the name was funny, Laguna figured it was because the bricks to build them were soft and squashy which meant they were easily malleable. Still it was hard to break it to her, she seemed pretty psyched up for the adventure to find his ship and he just hoped it safely landed somewhere…oh man. Laguna shook his head in response though, he had to break it to her and tell her she couldn’t eat the thing, hey he still wanted to go home. “Hey you can see the ship if you wanna but it isn’t one you can eat, got it?” He sighed at her response, “Hey, it wasn’t my fault! But don’t worry, Uncle Laguna is on the case.” The uncle part slipped out, he hadn’t meant to say it but it was old habits with Ellone and this kid reminded him of her a lot.

Finally she introduced herself and gave a name, Laguna smiled with his teeth just about sticking out at the mention of her too being a President. Was that a game? She was a little young to be one however Laguna didn’t want to burst her bubble, she was a strange one and there may actually be some truth in it. She did however mention she was a Queen, perhaps she was an orphan? That’d be another tick on the Ellone checklist, he wondered whether she had any powers too…it was all quite strange. “Turbo? I don’t even know what that is…and this isn’t a game kid, you could get seriously hurt wandering around by yourself.” Laguna was beginning to get a little worried for her, she seemed to think everything here was a game.

“Well listen, you can come and help me find my ship and I’ll take you where you need to go but after that, your majesty.” Laguna bowed playfully, “Seriously though, us Presidents have to stick together.” Laguna did want her to come with him, he was almost feeling fatherly to the kid although he wondered how much she trusted him, it was good for her to be a little wary…she wasn’t 100 percent naïve at least.

“So, mister president…wanna go sight see and see if we stumble upon your Gummi Bear ship?”

“Sure. I’ll try and climb this cliff to see if I can spot anything…” Laguna peered up at the ledge, “Or…y’know try.” He mumbled before leaping forward and then in a circle before he headed towards the very short cliff. It would be enough to get a better look at everything at least, it wasn’t as high as he’d have liked but it’d have to do. “Okay, you wait down here a minute!” Pouncing on the first rock, Laguna laughed to himself, his hind legs pushed off one rock and then another until he lost his footing and almost slid off a rock smoother than the rest. Luckily for the President he was able to cling onto it and pull himself back up. “Almost.” His voice was strained but he managed to keep on going.

As he reached the top, Laguna panted deeply and looked around, the land went as far as the eye could see. Before him were various rock shapes, one particular caught his eye, it looked as though it were a steep ledge overlooking everything, still he couldn’t see his Gummi ship. His gaze passed over the land until he could see a dark expanse and what looked like deep engraved markings into the soil. Perhaps the gummi ship had skidded into there, there wasn’t any smoke so hopefully it was still in one piece.

“Hey kid, you ready to move!?” He shouted down to Vanellope, “I think I see something over in that dark patch there!”