[open]

[rainscented]

Characters: Rat, every Disney film ever, and YOU.
Setting: Floor 14
Format: Up to you.
Summary: Rat drowns out months-worth of his dead world by watching cartoons about talking animals.
Warnings: Dystopian angst and Lion King spoilers idek. Potentially boys kissing other boys if when Shion shows up.

[ He's been back for barely a day, and it's a nightmare. Eating is still off-limits, the idea of consuming anything more than a little soup makes him nauseated. He can't sleep, too jumpy to relax and too full of thoughts to close his eyes. He'll be forced back to his bed eventually, but he's resisting for as long as he can. So instead, he's reclined in a bean-bag chair on the media floor, watching an old film about lions. Animals are safe. He doesn't remember animal corpses.

And then a film about mice. Fairies. Dogs. Birds. Foxes. Cats. And then another about lions. He's never seen half of these animals in real life.

He's not going to move for a while. ]

Comments

[savedbyasong]

It's the lions that make him pause. Because Shion has never seen one either but he spent his childhood learning about such extinct animals and to see them even on a screen was something rare.

But if there was anything to distract him from cartoon lions it was the boy on the bean bag. "Rat..." Shion had started to doubt he would ever return. He ran over peering at Rat as if checking that he was still whole, still there despite what he must have gone through.

He might have got distracted by his eyes...

[rainscented]

Rat startled at his name, eyes flicking from the screen to Shion's face like a trapped animal. He didn't want to think about the past months now. With heroic effort, his expression smoothed and he raised a finger to his lips.

"Shh." With his other hand, he snagged another nearby beanbag chair, pulled it next to his, and glared expectantly at Shion until he sat down.

[savedbyasong]

Shion hadn't been speaking but his lips pressed together anyways to stop any sound from escaping and he flopped into the chair still watching Rat carefully rather than the screen.

[geometry]

[Someone joins Rat right around the second bit of lions. The someone is grey-skinned and looks about as rattled as he does. Equius stands behind the chair with his hands in his pockets, and then sinks onto a nearby couch without comment; he had no idea what he wanted to watch in the first place, but these animated movies were usually pretty good.]

[notsogrimreaper]

[Ryoji nervously enters the room, still a little uncomfortable with human contact after being affected. He doesn't want to scare anyone, or hurt them, or upset them, so he's been trying to keep to himself as much as possible.

...But a movie sounded like a distraction from all his worries, even if there was someone else already sitting there. Ryoji approaches him, standing a safe distance away.]

Mind if I join you?

[A smile. A little shy, but it's a smile. He can control his feelings now. Hide them, hopefully.]

[rainscented]

[ Oh, one of those aliens he's seen around. This is the first time he's met one when not trying his utmost to avoid conversation, so he offers an actor's smile in welcome. He doesn't speak until they've reached a quiet scene - or at least one without any lions he likes. ]

It's quite interesting, this film... But do you even have lions on whatever planet you come from?

[rainscented]

Make yourself at home. [ he says, not looking away from the screen. He already checked the guy out when he came in, and he looks as jumpy as Rat feels. So, hey, far be it from him to bar access to cartoon animals. He glances over afterwards, blinks, and nods towards the chair next to his. ] You haven't missed much.

[rainscented]

Eyes now fixed back on the song-and-dance number going on in front of them, he nevertheless reached out sideways, caught Shion's chin with graceful fingers and turned his head to face the screen.

[savedbyasong]

Shion stared at the film wondering idly why the lions weren't eating the other animals, they were predators... "Who are they? Why does that cub want to be king?"

He asked the questions outloud because in the space of thirty seconds the colourful cartoon had utterly confused him. "Why is that bird trying to control two lion cubs? It seems like a dangerous occupation."

[geometry]

[Equius shook his head.] Yes and no... we do have creatures similar to lions, but they're not called the same thing, so I don't really know. [Like most Earth people, however, he's never actually seen one up close, or indeed seen one at all; there have been wild manebeasts roaming around, and of course the lion lusus who raised... uh... someone he knew (he couldn't remember the name anymore), but real lions? No.]

[notsogrimreaper]

Ah, good.

[He sits where he has a good view of the screen, though he's careful to keep space between himself and the other man. He watches for a while, before nervously, awkwardly, he manages to provide some short conversation.]

What movie is this?

[rainscented]

"The cub is Hamlet," Rat pointed out Simba. "The bird is Zazu, adviser to the king... who hasn't died yet. It's a film for sheltered children, so they're saving the death for a more dramatic moment. You'll love it."

[rainscented]

I've only read about them in books, myself. [ So, same. ] Do yours have horns, or is that a unique thing?

[rainscented]

Madagascar. It's about a group of talking animals from a zoo. Caged elites released into a merciless world. It's actually nostalgic. [ It reminds him of his not!boyfriend, yep. ]

[notsogrimreaper]

Oh, cute! I like talking animals...

[Wait, um, what was that?]

Nostalgic? Don't tell me you knew a pack of zoo animals!

[He jokes about it, even if he knows the man isn't, trying to lighten the mood a bit.]

[geometry]

[Horns? Wha-- ...oh.]

Uh. No. No horns.

Only trolls have horns. And some lusii, I guess, but mostly trolls.

[rainscented]

[ Which is the name of their race, from what he's heard. Information for free, score. ] Pity. It's an interesting look.

[ Oh wait, there's singing coming from the TV again. ]

[rainscented]

[ Nope, but he'll take that dramatic cue. With a flourish, he holds out a hand so the mouse previously asleep in his sleeve can pop its head out along his wrist. ] Nothing big, I'm afraid. We were a little short on lions and elephants, so I had to make do.

[savedbyasong]

Oh so it was Hamlet with lions and singing... whichever world this came from was a very odd one. He frowned though at the last and pulled himself away from Rat, though he didn't go far, insulted that he had been called a sheltered child.

[rainscented]

Rat's shoulders stiffened at the withdrawal, but other than that he continued watching apparently unaffected. The song ended. A new scene began. He shifted. Working out how to phrase his decisions regarding Shion in his head was taking an irritatingly long time.

[savedbyasong]

Shion watched as Hamlet and the girl lion, he thought was probably Ophelia? Wandered to the one place they had been told not to, he soon got distracted though and went back to watching Rat, still hurt and a little annoyed that even now Rat so flippantly called him a sheltered child.

[rainscented]

"It's a very flimsy transformation," Rat remarked, finally. Like it had been written by someone who'd read a sentence out of a review of a single playing of Hamlet. Or something equally asinine. "Are you just going to keep staring? I can turn it off if you are."

[savedbyasong]

"I guessed that from the fact the main characters were lions." Shion blushed but didn't quite manage to turn back to the screen. "Are you alright? You're not hurt are you?"

[rainscented]

"No," he didn't roll his eyes, but it was a close call. "I'm tired, hungry, and I haven't seen a living human being for over a month, but I'm not hurt."

He turned to Shion, then, eyes narrowing. "But I wasn't in this damned tower. So the more relevant question is: are you hurt?"

[savedbyasong]

There were more ways to be hurt than just physical, if there was one thing Shion had learned in the tower it was this. Shion wondered if he should go and get food, not that Rat wasn't capable of fetching food himself, but for some reason he hadn't.

Shion had once been in his dead world for two weeks and that had been an awful long time, Rat had been there for more than twice as long.

He shook his head at the question, "Not at the moment."