Leopold
this is an introduction to Leopold, son of Mayor Lionheart from Zootopia
Leopold smiles in the mirror looking over his dress. Yes, the blue suit was the better choice, he thought of the black suit but that just didn’t work for tonight, and of course the complete lack of a tie will irritate his father, but that is the whole point of leaving it out. Not a bad looking lion if he says himself, he doesn’t have the bulk of many of his kind, but it is lean muscle. His fur a darker shade then his father, almost a chestnut color and his hear, still only the juvenile mane, a simple strip. Oh, he could grow a full mane, but he has always like the look of a juvenile mane, with slicked back and the end tied in a tail, it is rather dashing look. Carefully he pats himself down and makes sure that he has everything that he will need. He hates these events, but his father insisted that he be there and if he were absent it would be noticed. So, taking his keys out of his pocket he locks his place up and makes his way to his father’s gala.
As he drives though the city, he wonders what is so important that he must be there, the dinner is nothing more then a simple meet and greet for those of the upper crust. Although he was told that the new officer Judy Hopps would be there. He hopes so, he wants to talk to her. Pick her brain on a few things, and that whole event with his father little lamb what was her name, Dawn Bellwether, he already has put in a request to speak to her in the prison. But his professor will have to put it before the board before he can either get a pass or a denial. Pulling up to the mansion he steps out of his car, nothing special but still nice and hands the keys to the valet. Then strides right up to the place and steps in.
The place is just as he thought it would be, all decked out for the upper crust, men in tuxedo’s and woman in evening gowns. So many people here that he knows, and cares nothing for. And in the center of it all is his father Mayor Leodore Lionheart. The first person to greet him however is not his father, or any of his mothers, he has five of them (this is a lion pride after all) but his younger sister. Seeing her with her pale golden fur now dressed in a silver sheath his eyes look her up and down and he begins to wonder where the time had gone. He remembers this cute but irritating cub that constantly followed him and pestered him, now she stands before him a young woman and already he wonders if she is fighting of the guys.
“Father wasn’t sure you would make it” Sarah says smiling at him.
“Mom made it clear that I had to come, wow, look at you, so anyone I need to keep an eye out for” He says wondering if she is seeing anyone.
“I am dating a young tiger, Jessie, he’s not here, dads not a fan” She says and the two walk into the main area
As soon as the two are seen the greetings begin and instantly Leopold is board. He has never been a fan of these things, but he knows they are important for his father to keep his position, especially after what had happened. So, he mingles and greets and laughs with the best of them, and quickly makes sure he has a drink in his hand, simple rum and coke. But soon his father spots him and gesturing to one of the people hovering nearby he approaches.
“Leopold, I am glad you made it….a blue suit, and no tie. I thought you understood that this was formal wear” Lionheart says with a sigh
“This is formal, and the tie…. just for you dad” He says smiling and lifts his glass in a kind of toast.
“this is the Victor, and his daughter Elsa” Lionheart says and gestures to the two leopards at his side.
“a pleasure” Leopold says and nods to victor but gently takes Elsa’s hand and kisses that back of it.
The leopardess is stunning looking and Leopold takes his time looking her up and down, her golden spotted coat enhanced with the simple emerald green sheath and gently green pastel scarf over her shoulders. Seeing the lion stare at her with his piercing green eyes she shies away and blushes slightly.
“I was just telling Victor about you, about that paper you are trying to get published” Lionheart says happy that his son has taken to the leopardess, it was after all the reason she was brought. The two would make a good match, and victor could be a powerful ally in his political circles.
“Yes, your father was trying but I have to admit that it was a bit beyond me, perhaps you could explain it better if you do not mind” Victor says smiling at the young lion.
“It is an examination into the predatorial mind and how Zootopia, well society as a whole is going to be its own destruction” Leopold says and licks his chops and grins at the leopardess.
“How bleak, but we are doing well enough” Victor says shocked.
“Yes and no. as predators we face millions of years of evolution giving us the instincts and needs to hunt, to kill, and defend what is ours, yet now we are faced to live side by side what used to be our dinner. Are you aware that nine out of every ten violent crimes are committed by a predator? I believe that it is our instincts acting out. We also have prey now taking jobs that would best be served by predators.” Leopold says smiling, for years he has been deep in the studies of phycology, specifically that of predators
“You mean miss Judy Hopps” His father says and spotting her waves her over to join them.
Leopold watches as the young rabbit rolls her eyes but pastes a smile on her face and makes her way to the crowd.
“Ah Miss Hopps, this is Victor Hess, his daughter Elsa and my son Leopold. We were just discussing something that might interest you. My son was stating that you are a bit…. what would be the right term son” Lionheart says looking at his son
“Wrong” He says plainly
“Excuse me” Judy says irritated already, after all she was hoping she was beyond this kind of prejudice.
“This is not a matter of prejudice miss Hopps, as I sure someone like you would instantly come to the conclusion. I’m sure you have faced much of it. In actuality I quite admire what you have become and what you do, we were discussing the base physiology of predator and prey. I was trying to inform them that our society as it stands cannot hold. I know the ZPD and know that most of your fellow officers are not just men, but predators, from a physiological standpoint this makes sense, it is a violent job and one would best be served with a violent nature. You are a rabbit, evolution has given you many gifts, speed, agility and a cunning nature, but not violence at least not on the same level it would be given to someone like myself or miss Elsa here. Yet you have given a job in violence. Now does this make sense to you. You yourself are an amazing officer and I applaud you, but you cannot tell me that sometimes, deep in you, your first reaction isn’t to run” Leopold says and stares deep into her eyes
Judy is taken back at what this lion is saying, and those eyes, it is like he is seeing right through her. There were more then a few times in this last case where her instinct was to run, to save her life rather then go on. And looking at this particular lion, she definitely sees a predator. His father has had a calmer and more bumbling attitude to him, but this one, he is sharp and his eyes flash with intelligence.
“Well, yes, but it is our duty to move past our instincts to get along and co-exist wouldn’t you say” She asks calmly but nervous at his gaze.
“Actually, I must disagree, In the paper that I am writing about all of this my conclusion has been that by fighting our instincts we only lead to our own destruction. I am not saying that we predators should go out and start killing prey to our satisfaction, but I think if this society is going to hold we will have to find some kind of middle ground, a way for our instincts to be satisfied and no one dies. Take miss Bellwether, let us ignore the oddity of a sheep criminal, but her elixir did show that those savage tendencies are really just below the surface on all of us.” Leopold says and with this his eyes cut to the leopardess, letting her know that he has a few other instincts just below the surface.
“What would you suggest” Judy asks, shocked at what he has to say, but really finding little to argue with.
“oh, I’m not so arrogant as to say I have the solution, only an observation” He says and with a chuckle immediately lightens the mood.
Leopold stares at all of them as they laugh and take a sip of their drinks. But it was Judy that he watched the closest, he caught the rapid heartbeat as he spoke of predators and as he locked his gaze on her, and her scent, yes there was fear in it, not as much as he would have thought, but still there. And Elsa, yes, her scent changed too, but not fear, no hers was a scent of a female spotting a strong male. And indeed, it did rouse him.
“Are you sure your not interested in politics, you have your fathers gift for speech, for a second I thought you were going to suggest we all strip to our fur and chase the help for dinner” Victor says with a nervous chuckle.
“Oh, I am always interested in politics, just not interested enough to join. No I much prefer the science of the mind. As for chasing the pray, I’m afraid I am as much a house cat as my father here.” Leopold says with a chuckle.
Judy chuckle with the rest but in her mind all of her own instincts are screaming at her that this one, is no house cat, this one is indeed a predator.
“gentlemen if you do not mind, I believe I have humored my father long enough, I am not comfortable in parties such as this, read the papers and you would know, my scandal behavior has made quite the reading for some time. It was a pleasure meeting you all, miss Elsa, I believe my sister Sarah wished to speak to you, and officer Hopps, it was a delight meeting you. In fact, it was the hopes of meeting you that brought me here.” Leopold says and like with Elsa takes her hand and kisses the back of it.
With that he bows his head to all the men in the group and placing his unfinished drink on a tray leaves the event. Sighing he makes his way to the entrance where he hands his ticket to the valet and in a few minutes his car is brought to him. God how he hates events like that, but he was a good son and did his duty, there were some upsides to it though, he was able to meet miss Hopps, and it was just as he thought, a clever cop that would be foolish to underestimate just cause she was a rabbit. No, he would not want to cross her. And miss Elsa, she will talk to Sarah who will know that he sent her to her so that she can get his address. And she will show up there, perhaps not for a day or so, but she’ll show. he drives his car tell soon he comes in to the rain forest district. This is no where near his home, but it is where he will take his fun. Stepping out of the car he pops the trunk, then strips himself of all his clothing. Then shuts the trunk and slips the key under the car, a small box is attached just for this.
Calmly he slows his breathing and closes his eyes, breathing though his nose he takes in everything, the sound of the rain, the feel of the water, the smells of the forest and then the scents of those around him, there are not many, and most a distance away, then he catches the scent of something he likes, a gazelle, young, female, fit, and alone. Calmly he drops to all fours and all rational thought leaves his mind.
She is feet away, slowly he creeps up keeping to the brush, calmly he stalks her, keeping his senses to their highest peak he hears nothing from himself, but everything from her, his nose tells him that she is alone, no one is around, he feels each grain of dirt under him, slowly he stalks to her, then like a flash of red in his mind he knows he is close enough. With a dash, still on all fours he strikes, the gazelle is too stunned and there is no time for her to even scream or dash, instead the lion is upon her slamming her to the ground, his jaws on her neck, clamping down, then a quick twist and there is a snap. Hot rich blood trickles into his mouth and the sensation is almost orgasmic. A few more deep breaths and he comes back to himself
Quickly he takes the gazelle shirt and wraps it around her neck, there can be no blood. Then just as carefully he looks around and grabs everything that belongs to her. He then lifts her in his arms and takes her back to his car. Grabbing the key from it’ hiding place he pops the trunk, he takes his cloths out, and puts the gazelle in. then dressing, gets back into his car and goes home.
He pulls his care into the garage and closes the door behind him. Sure that no one can see him now he strips once more, then taking the body out of the trunk he carries it though the house and into his work area. In the back of the house is a room that he refurbished to make it what you could best call a butcher station. The walls, floor, and ceiling are all steel along the walls are steel counters with multiple cupboards, the floor has runners for blood to be guided to a center drain, there are several buckets for leftovers such and entrails and other organs. Along the wall are several hoses and extensions and across from that is a large incinerator shoot. Along another wall is a large magnetic strip that holds several large knives and cleavers, every kind of tool he could need. in the center are a large table for meat to be butchered it too has rivulets for the blood to spill onto the floor. The place took a while to build and when he was asked, he told the workers he prefers to butcher his own meat.
Leopold tosses the body onto the table then taking a simple knife he cuts the clothing off her, then searching her clothing and purse finds her phone. Quickly he takes the phone and smashes it, making sure to destroy the memory chip, then tosses this into one of the buckets as he slides it next to the table, he will need it for much more than just the phone. He then takes the wallet and takes the cash from it, this done he tosses the rest into the purse, and tosses this into the bucket as well. Now down to work, this of course means a basic field dressing, slicing her open and removing her entrails, and organs of course making sure to not cut into the entrails and taint the meat. As he removes them, he keeps the heart and liver but pour the rest into the bucket. Walking to the wall he takes one of the hoses hooking it to nozzle and then hooks a not quite high pressure spray, that done he sprays out the chest and abdominal cavity making sure the carcass is clean. Finished he goes to the magnetic strip and takes his skinning knife, carefully he slips the knife between the skin and muscle, right about where the fat layers, the skinning takes a bit of time but that done he folds it up and makes a note to begin treating it later, he keeps all the pelts of his kills. Of course, he has paperwork saying that all of them are fake. He then sprays down the carcass. Looking at his work he smiles, it took him a long time to get this right, but now that he has a lot of practice, most of these on actual food and not prey, he has it down to an art. He then sets the knife on the counter then takes one of his larger cleavers from the magnetic strips and begins the actual butchering, cutting it into parts that any real butcher would. Smiling he begins to whistle to himself doing his work. The whole process from cleaning to butchering takes almost four hours and by the end of it he is exhausted.
Finished he wraps each cut of meat in butcher paper then slides these into a different bucket, he will use this to transfer them into the freezer, He then slips the knives and the cleaver into the sink and carefully washes them over with steaming hot water and powerful soap. This finished he takes a sharpening stone and hones the edges of each of them again, he always sharpens right after work, and like any perfectionist he slips them back in their place on the magnetic strip. The tools put away he then takes the hose he sprays down the table and floors making sure all the blood goes down the drain. He then wheels the tub holding leftovers and trash, taking a deep breath he pulls handfuls of the organs and innards into the chute, once this is light enough he tips it and used a small squeegee to get the most of the blood and bit of plastic out. Once this is empty, he washes it in the sink as well with the hose and the same powerful soap. Taking one last look around he smiles to see that everything is clean. He then takes the bucket holding the meat and takes it though his kitchen and opens the door to his walk-in freezer, hangs the larger cuts of meat on actual hooks and sets the rest on shelves. Letting out a sigh he takes the bucket takes this to his sink and washes it as thoroughly as he washed everything else. God how he wished the job was easy, but every time he goes hunting it means about a minute of shear pleasure and 4 to 6 hours of actually work, but if you don’t want to get caught you take your time and do it right.
Finally finished with the whole he takes himself upstairs and steps into a steaming hot shower. Soaking his fur and enjoying the feel of the shower he grabs his bar of soap and cleans himself completely off. Then toweling off he walks back to his living room and pours himself a drink, a simple rum and coke. Looking at his answering machine he sees a blinking light and smiling he hits it. a few messages from people he could care less for, a rant from his father about leaving early and showing no respect, ah, then Elsa
“your sister didn’t want to talk to me but when I went to see her she gave me a card telling me you wanted to see talk, it was something you rigged with her….listen to me going on, anyway, I wouldn’t mind seeing you for coffee or something, my number is 485 – 844 – 3765 call me” She says and with that the machine is empty.
Leopold smiles at the thought, she was an attractive leopardess ya he will call her, have coffee, maybe see if there are any sparks. For now, it’s too damn late and slugging his drink he sets the glass on his coffee table and calls it a day