Prompts
Part 1
Lights were flashing everywhere around her. Kaisa was aggressively aware of them. Aware. That was what this was. She hadn't been aware before. Strapped to a metal table she curled and uncurled the toes of her paws. A beast. That was what she'd been before. An animal with barely any grasp of what was going on. Like a bullet, her former life pierced past her mind. Growing up in a cramped zoo. The caretakers did their best- they cared for her, and her mother. She never knew her father. But there was no space. There just wasn't enough space. That's when the tests began. She remembered her mother's passing, after years of sorrow and loneliness. She remembered being brought away. Prodded with all sorts of things. They never hurt her- no, her caretakers were kind. She couldn't decipher their words, not in that version of herself- but she could sense some somberness to them. They gave her strange serums of different natures, hoping for some result that never came. There were other animals- others deemed failures, surrendered to a government to be taken...well, Kaisa certainly didn't know where. Animals who were deemed 'inefficient'. Unvaluable- to society. Kaisa had no semblance of an idea now what precisely this meant for her- nor how it would save her life, but she was different.
She blinked in the bright beam as a scientist shone a flashlight into her eyes, to see if she'd respond. Normally, she'd bite, or growl. This time she didn't. She just watched her caretaker- a young woman with long brown hair, With intelligent eyes. The woman spoke, and Kaisa didn't understand her tongue- not yet anyway, but she understood that she was speaking. These walls suddenly held new meaning to the young lioness.
Kaisa became a patient zero of a drastic plan of action to save any animals that could be saved from being removed for being what their superiors dictated a "wasteful use of dwindling resources". After an effective serum was invented, she helped many other animals to undergo the same change. Her kind-and other animals were given productive roles in a workforce, earning their keep on an earth that was no longer wild. They became commonplace in metal streets and crowded hubs of technology. Over the years, she learned to talk, she taught others of her kind to talk, she became a mentor, a teacher, and an ambassador of her kind as she eased them into their new 'human efficient' lives.
But her role was not to last, not for long anyway. Eventually, a rival company to the one who had created her instead created a robot taskforce, programmed to hunt and exterminate any creature deemed to be a wasteful use of earth's resources. As these things typically do, they went wrong. Registering humankind as a drain on the earth and choosing to launch an assault that would result in a massive loss of life across the globe. Humans went into hiding, leaving the surface of the earth to return to the wild, and to the animals they had created. With extended lifespans due to highly advanced medicines, different groups began to form across the ruined city landscapes, rebuilding what they could of a society that had faltered, while still trying to reach towards their roots as beasts to try and survive in a harsh environment that had long ago been taken from them.
Kaisa, being the longest intelligent of all the lions- known for her age, her advancements- and for her wisdom, quickly became a beacon of this new society. Setting up her home in the crumbling tower that used to be the research lab where she was "Reborn", she invited others to return to her as well, to create a home worth living in amid all the destruction. It was not a home made for them, but it was one they would make their own. Doors made for human hands, operated by large paws and fanged mouths. Delicate equipment managed by the most careful of the group, using their claws to gently press buttons and maneuver small equipment. Generating their own food through scientific creation and trying, first and foremost- to continue.
They watched as nature took back her lands, as cities began to overgrow, as plants reclaimed the iron pavings and skyscrapers of steel- a world they had never seen before, but marveled in fascination.
On the outskirts of their small paradise of discovery, other beings loomed. Threats beyond the high natural walls of the deep ridges around the city of creatures who lost themselves and turned back to their feral roots- quick to kill to survive and eat anything they can get their deadly grasp around.
With the looming danger of their former brothers outside, Kaisa's dedicated search for a way to bring them safely back to their senses without endangering their own, while still offering a refuge to any looking for safety.
They hope there are others out there, other societies- whether of man or beast, and hope that the world will repair itself- just as it always has. But without contact beyond their home, they have no idea how far the influence of the mechanical hunters has reached.
Kaisa stared out at the chaos, the screaming, the flames. The city of metal was burning, the melted iron and steel from the high powered beams let loose from the human's robotic constructions seared through the structures they thought so safe and reliable- boiling them down to their wooden roots. She watched the machines as they attacked the humankind she had come to see as friends, and allies. And she could do nothing but stare. At first she tried to fight them, but it quickly became futile. She was swatted away like the smallest fly, nothing in comparison to this pinnacle of technology. She was never a match for them. But to her surprise- they showed her no interest. She wasn't human. She wasn't deemed a danger. She was allowed to exist. Something she'd struggled and fought so hard to prove to a society that wanted so highly to assert otherwise.
But watching this destruction, she wasn't sure she wanted to anymore. In the mix of deserving people destroyed by their own hubris- there were plenty of innocents who didn't deserve this. She lost friends, the closest she had to family. And these memories she feared would never leave her. A haunting memory of how fleeting anything could be that she'd carry with her. But too, she chose to carry something else. A strong will to persevere, to survive. If the humans could make this world theirs - to the point they could make their own rules, than she was confident that she, and others like her could too.
She wasn't a leader, not by nature. She was sheepish and preferred to learn. But she didn't have much choice. Others looked up to her. She was seen as the brightest star of them all, even though in relativity- she was only blessed with an early advancement in experience. Whether she liked it or not, she'd have to mold herself into the leader they expected and needed of her.
It all started with Jaga. Kaisa had been close to him even before the fall of the labs, he had been altered soon after her and they'd taken quite the liking to one another. The humans often joked they were "Dating" or something of that nature- but Kaisa hadn't quite grasped the concept well enough to agree with them at the time. What he became was someone with hope, who'd drag her back from doubts, who'd push her to be the leader he knew she could be. After the fall, he became her confidant and the one pushing her to grow.
Being rather introverted, and capable of charisma mostly when in her element and allowed confidence by her knowledge to back it up, Kaisa doesn't exactly excel at winning people over. As a result, recruiting others and earning their trust was something that fell to her partner. Between the two of them, they manage the group well enough, though they certainly aren't fighters-being natively attuned to the role of researchers. In the case of physical threats, they have their loyal soldiers to protect them and the others, lions who have trained in combat through strict discipline to fight away the risk of regressing if pushed into a corner- only the most trusted of the group are allowed to be their defenders.