The Comic-Con was cooler than he had been expecting. People walking up and down the lobby of the ‘Con, with smiles on their faces and different forms of cosplay. He saw Knights, he saw Dragon Ball characters, he even saw Darth Vader and some Stormtroopers flanking him on both sides. It made him feel a little lame coming to the ‘Con with just his Lakers’ jersey. Not to mention his sons’ and daughter’s “cosplay” well, more of his sons than anything. His daughter looked like a star; like she always was.
His eldest son was wearing a plastic “military-grade” helmet along with a foam vest that resembled a bulletproof vest. Under that vest was a camouflage shirt along with pants matching the theme. His boots were a dark brown. Around his hands were fingerless gloves and in his hands was a wooden AK-47. As if it was fresh out of the carpentry. It had no paint on it whatsoever. His younger son – the middle child – more or less wore the same outfit but with a different gun; a sniper rifle. And his youngest, the beautiful young girl that she is, was wearing a dress similar to Tiana from Princess and the Frog.
He scanned the lobby once again before glancing back to his family. The younger ones were a bit antsy, wanting to explore the place as much as they could. Seeing that, he turned to his oldest, “Bronny,” the big bodied man began, gaining his attention.
“Bronny” turned over to his father, looking up at him slightly given his smaller stature compared to the man. “Yeah, Pops?” He heard the muffled voice of the eldest, likely from his helmet.
“You’re in charge, okay? Make sure none of these two get lost,” He gestured to the younger two of the trio.
“Got it,” “Bronny” nodded his head.
“And remember,” The father turned to face the daughter, “Whatever you buy is coming off your allowance. So, be careful with what you spend.”
The daughter nodded, “Okay!” she chirped.
He repeated the gesture back and looked between his kids, “Alright, now bring it in,” he opened his arms and like moths to light, they clung to him. Holding him in a tight embrace that he gladly reciprocated. A smile graces his lips and he holds them tight, “Have fun, you three.”
He let go of them and all his kids gave him a final nod, “Okay!” and with that. The three started to make their way to wherever they could stumble on. But before the daughter was too far, she spun on a dime and quickly walked back over to the father. This led “Bronny” and the middle son to stop and turn back around. The man raised a brow, but when he saw her arms opening, a smile reappeared.
The daughter wrapped her smaller arms around him, not quite being able to do so given the big bodied man’s, well, big body. He hugged back and leaned down to give her a quick kiss on the forehead, “Have fun, Zhuri.”
“I will,” “Zhuri” grinned before she let go and turned to join back with her brothers. With the trio reunited, they made their way deeper into the ‘Con and out of sight. Leaving the father all alone.
He put his hands on his hips and looked around again. He couldn’t help but be in awe at the creativity of the people around him. “Man, I wish they had told me about ‘Comic-Con’ sooner. Maybe then, I could have been more prepared.” He thought to himself before chuckling, “Who am I kidding? I probably would have come in the Space Jam jersey,” he shook his head and kept taking in his surroundings. Eventually, his eyes laid upon a prop; a long katana.
The person holding had a petite, feminine figure; so, probably a girl. But you could never be too sure. Regardless, they had to have been at least five-foot or lower. They were wearing black shorts, a white t-shirt under a black shirt, a black tie, and black shoes with a short heel. Their pink shiny hair is long and voluminous, going down to their waist. Resting on their left shoulder in the respective hand, is a foam katana that was easily taller than their torso. So it made sense why they had it on their shoulder. Though he wondered why she didn’t have a sheath for it. But still, that sword…
“I have got to get a sword,” He said to himself out loud. Without a moment of hesitation, he made his way over to the person as they were walking past him. “Hey, uh, ma’am,” he began, leading to the figure turning around. Upon their eyes laying upon him, her jaw nearly dropped to the floor at who she saw. She saw an African-American man standing at a height of six-foot-nine, wearing a Lakers’ jersey with the number ‘23’ being on the front – and if he would turn around, the number was probably on his back. The jersey had some sponsors on it, one from Nike and one from Wish. He had tattoos that went from his shoulders down to his wrist. But on his right arm was a Nike performance sleeve that’s common among players of basketball. He had black Nikes if that didn’t emphasize it enough that he was sponsored by them. Around his chin, connecting to his sideburns like a chin strap is a mighty black beard. And his hair was shortly cut, not quite a buzz, but getting there.
Their eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, and they stumbled back a little. Staggered at the height of the man, “U–uh… Um… Y–yes, sir?” they stammered out, their grip on the sword being shaky. The only thing that kept it in their grip was the fact they were resting it on their shoulder.
He pointed to their foam sword, “Do you know where I could get something like that?” wordlessly, they pointed to a sign pointing towards a direction that said: ‘B-Hall’. The man’s eyebrows were raised slightly as he saw the sign, “Got it. Thank you, ma’am, have a good day,” he gave a pat to their shoulder. He walked past them, but before he could get too far, they walked over to him.
“H–hey!” The man paused and looked back at them, “Uh, could I get– could I get a picture?”
“Oh, of course,” they nodded and walked back to them as they fumbled their phone out of their pocket. They put their sword in their left hand and in the other, tried to aim the phone camera so that it could include her and the full picture of the man. Seeing they were struggling, he offered a hand. The pink haired person took notice and looked up.
“T–thanks,” they gave him the phone. Holding the small phone firmly in his grip, he raised it high so it could include the two of them. He gave the camera a goofy smile.
“Say cheese,” he grinned, he heard a soft squeak that sounded like ‘cheese’ before he took the photo. He put his arm back down and gave the phone to them. The person looked at the camera and clicked on the photo to full screen it so they and the man could see the photo. Upon seeing it, he raised his brows and made a face, “That’s a good photo,” he noted.
“Yeah,” they looked up at him, “thanks, uh… Mr. James.”
“LeBron,” The man said, but then he tilted his head, “but Mr. James works too.” He turned around and pushed off his foot to walk towards ‘B-Hall’.
After walking to ‘B-Hall’ and taking plenty of selfies and photos with cosplayers as he went by, he noticed that he was lacking something. It wasn’t the costume or the confidence that radiated off of him. It was his lack of something that made him stand out from everyone else. Every cosplayer that he saw or took a photo with had something to them; a prop. From swords, to shields, to bows, even a guitar. He needed something and that something is what he was searching for in the shopping district of the Comic-Con.
LeBron scanned each stand as he passed by, each of them having something unique to them or even a specific theme in mind. There was a stand for medieval weaponry, one for cute anime girls – which he had to stop and think for a moment if he should get one of those cat ears for Zhuri. But then again, would Zhuri like the ears? She’s always been better at him in fashion. He shrugged; he could always take her back to the shopping area and have her decide for herself. “If she still has money in her allowance,” he thought to himself before shaking his head with a soft smile.
The big bodied man continued walking and used his height to his advantage. Taking glimpses at another stand before something caught his eye. He turned his head and looked directly in front of him. There was a stand with a basketball that looked similar– no, it was an exact replica of the Lakers’ logo. To say his eyebrows were raised was an understatement; they were nearly touching his hairline. The golden basketball was on a red pillow cushion and appeared to have been glowing, almost calling him to it. To be quite honest, it was creepy but kind of cool at the same time.
Which is why he approached the stand like a moth to a flame. Upon seeing him, a figure stumbled over behind the stall. The figure had broad shoulders but also a hunched back – they were probably a guy. A guy that liked to keep himself hidden, he had a cloak on his body and a mask covering his face from the nose down. But he was likely doing cosplay, “Even the sellers are cosplaying? Damn,” he thought to himself with his brows finally furrowing back down.
“Ah, welcome, welcome,” The man behind the stand said as LeBron approached, stopping at a comfortable distance. “I am The Merchant, welcome to my shop. I have all you wish, all you desire,” the shopkeeper said. He put his hands together and intertwined his fingers.
“Yeah, you look like you do,” He glanced at the Lakers’ basketball, “That looks like the Lakers’ basketball from the logo.”
The Merchant looked down at the golden basketball, “Huh, you’re right. So it does,” he gave a glance back up at the giant of a man, “Do you want it?”
LeBron nodded, “I do, but can I see how well it bounces first?”
“Oh, sure, go ahead,” The Merchant grabbed the golden basketball and handed it over to LeBron. He wrapped one hand around the ball and held it in a firm grip. He started rubbing it, feeling the texture of it underneath. He was surprised to feel how smooth it was, yet despite that, it had some grip to it. He tilted his head in intrigue and took a step back from the stand and gave it a bounce.
The ball hit the floor and bounced with a boing. It went straight back into LeBron’s hand, “Huh,” he said aloud and started to dribble the ball. One bounce quickly became several and before anyone could blink, he was bouncing the golden ball between his legs at a rapid pace. The ball was almost a blur with the speed it was being bounced at. Some people who stopped to look at him feared that he would lose grip of the ball, but he never did. He stopped dribbling and bounced it up to spin the ball on a finger.
LeBron’s eyes were on the ball as it spun. It was so smooth it felt like his finger was spinning silk. It was so shiny that when he looked at the ball, it was reflecting almost as well as a mirror would. He stopped spinning the ball and it fell back into his right hand. He turned to The Merchant, “How much?”
“Fifteen bucks. Just cash.”
“Fifteen bucks? For this?” LeBron scoffed and looked at the ball in his hand, “This is easily seventy-five. It might be priceless. Hold on,” he put the ball in his other hand and dug his right hand under his jersey shorts to reach into some shorts he had underneath. He reached for his pocket and pulled out a wallet. He hugged the basketball with his left arm and opened his wallet. He reached for cash and grabbed a ten and a five, but then he paused and grabbed a fifty and another five. Looking back down at The Merchant, he handed eighty bucks over to him.
The Merchant grabbed onto the cash and his eyes widened underneath his hood, “Ah… You’re so generous, King James.”
LeBron cocked his head back, “You recognize me?” he had thought that since he was at a convention, people would have just thought this was a cosplay. Then again, he was taking all those photos before…
“Your ‘cosplay’ is too good to be considered one; you have got to be the real deal,” The Merchant said. LeBron could see a smile poke from under his mask and for some odd reason, he could feel himself starting to sweat. “Which makes this all the more interesting.”
LeBron raised a brow, “Which makes what all the more interesti–”
Before he could finish, The Merchant swiftly cut him off, “Have fun~!”
LeBron started to see everything start to become bright and he blinked, “Was this basketball laced?! Did I get laced by touching this?!” He looked down at the basketball and saw it start to shine. “Oh shit.”
And with a flash, LeBron disappeared.
Riiiiiinnnnnggg~!
Everything felt so bright. Yet, despite this, he could feel his eyes were closed. All he saw was white and all he felt was warmth. He winced as his senses came back to him, he was still holding the basketball in his left arm and dropped it so he could hold his face with both hands. He groaned and started to rub his eyes.
“What the fuck…?” He winced. He kept rubbing his eyes and as he saw the white starting to fade, he slowly dropped his hands from his face. His eyelids fluttered open to look at… A dirt road. But this dirt road was strange, it looked like it was something out of a cartoon.
…A cartoon.
He blinked and brought his hands up to his face again, but at a distance. When his eyes met his hands, it only brought more confusion, his hands were real. But the dirt road looked like a cartoon. He picked his gaze up from the floor and turned around. He saw houses. Houses with what looks like hay for rooftops. Not only that, but he saw a fountain with a pony that looked exactly like something out of a cartoon. He looked up and saw a yellow blur pass by his vision, he could swear the blur squeaked as they flew by. It couldn’t be a flying squirrel, there are no squirrels that are big and yellow. Right?
He shook his head, that wasn’t important right now. He finally turned back around, only for his nose to poke a pink one.
He saw two large, round blue eyes staring at him.
“Hiya, stranger!” Whoever was nose to nose with him stepped back and revealed themselves to be a small pony with a darker pink curly mane, a pink pastel coat. And also standing on air. LeBron’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and without hesitation, without thought–
–He screamed.
Author's Note
And so LeJourney begins.
I just wanna quickly say this is going to shake up the Displaced community for all the wrong reasons and I am happy with that. To those who don't typically like Displaced, I hope this eases you into the community and I hope you have fun reading this. Because I will be having fun writing this.
By the way, guess who the girl with the long katana is cosplaying as and I'll give you a cookie.
