Chapter 03 - Meet and Greet

Abu walked alongside Aladdin that morning through the streets of Agrabah. Everything was quiet, which made it easier to take in the sights around him. It felt awkward having a different vantage point of view of the city streets while walking on his own. His body as a monkey had its own familiar rhythm, so it was a little difficult adjusting to his present form. Not that it was too offputting. Genie had transformed Abu into all kinds of different beings; he'd naturally adjusted to every form he'd ever been in. Elephant, camel, horse, rhino, unicorn, dinosaur, giraffe, pelican, flamingo - you name it, Abu had been it. He'd even been human on more than a few occasions, but there was always the feeling that it was temporary. That he was playing a role for whatever adventure they were going on.

This though? This felt different. His appearance, the way his legs carried him forward, the sound of his voice - all of it felt like it was a part of him he'd never known about. All uniquely him, while human. Once Aladdin had recognized him, their dialogue had been more like the usual. But he wondered if the others would take to him so easily once they found out. He looked at his arms and hands, turned his palms downward and up, and flexed his fingers.

Abu hadn't realized he'd stopped walking until Aladdin called out to him. "Hey Abu, you okay?" Abu looked up to see Aladdin looking over his shoulder at him.

Abu figured he'd at least tell a partial truth to lighten the worried look on his friend's face. "Keep trying to talk myself out of walking on all-fours because that would be weird."

Aladdin shook his head. "I don't think that's odd, honestly. You're used to being one way and then you suddenly woke up different. It's okay to feel out of it because of how quickly you changed. The sooner we figure out what happened and why, the better we can have a handle on what to do next."

"Guess you're right, but I have so many questions. Aladdin, what would you do if you suddenly woke up in a body you didn't recognize?"

Aladdin raised a brow at Abu. "You say that like our friend isn't a semi-phenomenal Genie. Like we haven't been in numerous situations where I've been turned into something different than human. You were there for almost every occasion that happened."

Abu smacked a palm against his forehead. He winced not just for asking an obvious thing, but also since he wasn't used to doing the motion as a human versus a monkey. His human hand felt different than having paws and his forehead hurt as a result. "That wasn't a great question. Ignore me."

Aladdin laughed. "Some of those times were scary and others were fun, depending. But I can't imagine what you're going through right now. If it's the same for the others, though, you might want to ask them what they think once we get to the Palace."

When they both arrived, the very first thing Aladdin and Abu heard was a very familiar yell - of frustration, fear or both, they weren't sure - in the Palace courtyard. They didn't see him at first, but they definitely heard him.

"Nope, this isn't happening. This. Is NOT. Happening. Maybe if I douse my face with water enough times, it'll go away. Yeah, that's right. Gotta wake up from the nightmare. Come on, already! And where's Blue Boy where you need 'im?!"

"That's definitely Iago, from the sound of it," Aladdin said. "Guessing he might be in the same situation as you, Abu."

Abu winced. "He doesn't sound too happy about the way he looks."

When they both arrived at the fountain, they saw an average height man with loosely curled, dark red hair, matching beard, wearing a rather nice - and expensive - tailored uniform with dark auburn accents, gold buttons and dark boots. His turban was decorated with feathers that would mimic the colors and pattern of Iago's usual tail.

"That's Iago?" Abu said, his mouth dropping open.

"Who wants to know?!" Iago stopped what he was doing as he looked up at Aladdin and Abu. His turban fell into the fountain's water. When Iago went to pick it up and put it back on his head, he forgot that the turban was full of water, ending up with his face, hair, beard and the upper part of his attire soaked with water. "This is not my finest moment," he muttered. He removed the turban from his head, used his hands to wring out all of the excess water, before shaking it out back to form and putting it back over his hair.

"I think you might want to take a minute to breathe, Iago," Aladdin said with a wince.

"Breathe? How can I?" Iago marched up to Aladdin, his hands taking each side of Aladdin's vest and pulling the prince close enough to where their noses touched. "I woke up lookin' like this! I mean, not that I look bad or anythin'. This guy kinda looks handsome enough on his own and would be the kind of guy I'd tag along with at dignitary parties. But this ain't me! This is NOT my body." Iago paused a moment, his brows furrowed in confusion. "Hey, how did you know it was me?"

"You sound exactly like you usually do, without the squawks," Aladdin said, gently moving away from the once parrot, now human being. The prince's hands smoothed his vest back into place. "Not hard to guess."

"You're bein' awfully calm about this whole thing. Almost like you're not surprised that I changed into somethin' different overnight. Unlike you, I'm traumatized!" At that point, Iago noticed Abu standing next to Aladdin. Abu hadn't moved, hadn't stopped staring and blinking at the newly transformed parrot. "And who's this guy? Are you sure you should be givin' tours to the locals today? Especially when we're in the middle of a crisis?"

"Actually, you know this guy pretty well," Aladdin said, before looking at Abu. "You wanna tell him, or should I?"

But Iago was already slowly recognizing Abu, based on the way the former parrot did a double take. His eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. "Monkey?"

Abu raised a tenative hand in a wave, looking sheepish. "Hiya Iago."

"Man, look at you gettin' a glow up." Iago grinned, but it was the sort of sly grin that signaled to Abu and Aladdin that what he had to say next was not a compilment. "No longer smellin' bad, sheddin' fur, or carryin' fleas all over the place."

Abu's face turned red hot with anger, so much that it could rival one of Iago's usual feathers. "Why I oughtta...do you wanna fight? You might look different, but you're still the same selfish, arrogant brute you were from before!"

"Guys!" Aladdin had to position himself between Iago and Abu as their tempers flared. "Cool it. I wasn't a fan of separating you two fighting as parrot and monkey before and I'm definitely not a fan of doing it when you're human now. Focus. We need to find Genie and figure out what happened."

"But Aladdin, he started it!" Abu said, but he instantly backed down when he saw Aladdin's expression, a clear warning look that meant the prince was serious. "Okay. Fine. Sorry."

Iago rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest. "Whatever. I was out lookin' for Blue Boy anyway. Haven't seen him since last night."

Aladdin lowered his arms when he realized the two weren't interested in fighting anymore. "It's just past dawn now, so I wouldn't expect him to have left the Palace. He must be somewhere around here." Aladdin took the lamp from his hip and rubbed it again. This time the lamp did respond, but Genie was nowhere to be seen. Instead there was a message that clicked in and out.

"Hi, can't come to the lamp right now. In the middle of an unforeseen crisis that I'm still trying to figure out. Leave a message, and I'll answer your wish in the order it was received."

"Seriously?" Aladdin said with a groan.

"What other crisis could he be solvin' right now?!" Iago complained. "This current one we have is pretty big, I'd say!"

"Something makes me think that what he's in the middle of solving and our problems might not be too far apart," Abu said.

Aladdin nodded. "Yeah, wouldn't doubt it. Guess that means we should check in with the Sultan and Jasmine. I'm not sure if Jasmine would still be sleeping now, but we could probably see if the Sultan's available. He would be up, probably in his throne room." Aladdin whistled, waited a beat, but his shoulders sagged when there was no response. "Carpet's still not answering either."

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen the Rug either," Iago said with a shrug. "Maybe Genie really is treating a crisis. Woke up, everyone was gone. Next thing I knew, was lookin' at a reflection of this." Iago pointed to his face for emphasis.

"But it doesn't make sense that Genie wouldn't answer me rubbing the lamp. Nor Carpet not arriving when I whistle," Aladdin said. "Hopefully they're all okay. Come on, let's get to the Sultan's throne room."

Aladdin walked ahead of them, but Abu shared a worried look with Iago, the two of them forgetting their momentary fight. Abu realized that Iago wasn't acting any different around him than usual. At least the familiarity was a comfort, but he wasn't sure how things would be beyond that.

Aladdin opened the double doors to the throne room. "Sultan, there's something I have to...Oh." The prince startled as he realized the Sultan was sitting at his throne, with Jasmine, Genie, and two people he'd never seen before standing in what seemed to be a formal meeting between them. "Didn't realize you were in the middle of something. I can come back later."

The Sultan's brows lifted in recognition. "No, no, my boy. You have perfect timing. This is a most unusual situation for all of us. We had quite the incident this morning; we're all conveneing to discuss it."

"An incident?" Aladdin was surprised by how Genie looked - not just at the guilt that wore on his friend's expression, but also exhaustion. He'd probably been up all night, judging from several saucers and cups of coffee that floated midair around him. Genie recognized Aladdin's worried glance and used his magic to make all of the cups disappear, putting on a smile that wasn't quite himself.

"Genie, you shouldn't have left Aladdin waiting all this time," Jasmine said, her tone light but still scolding. "He was probably worried and walked all the way here. Also, what if he'd been summoning you to help him?"

"Wasn't that serious. I didn't mind the walk at all," Aladdin said quickly. "But I was worried something had happened. Are you guys okay? Genie, you definitely don't look okay. You look really freaked out."

"Yeah, even more freaked out than I was earlier this morning," Abu said.

Genie had been about to say something, but his eyes went wide as he saw Abu. Jasmine also noticed both Iago and Abu standing behind Aladdin, her eyes going wide. "We're fine now, but Aladdin...are they who I think they are?"

Aladdin frowned. "Guessing from the way we're standing here - we all know each other. But to say it plainly - all of the people standing here that we don't readily recognize used to be non-human."

A tall, burly man standing next to Jasmine eyed Aladdin with an unamused expression. He spoke with a formal tone. "You're correct. You didn't answer the princess's question about your two companions. But it's understandable given the current situation and knowing you as long as I have."

Aladdin realized exactly who the man was, based on how Jasmine looked up at him and he seemed to calm as Jasmine lightly touched his arm. But it was still a shock to his senses that he recognized the muscled stranger with a shoulder-length mane of hair, slightly stubbled beard and thick brows over tawny skin. "Rajah?"

"Correct." Rajah's expression shifted to one of guilt. "At least you recognized me."

Jasmine sighed. "Rajah had been sleeping on the floor and transformed sometime between last night and this morning. The rotating guard briefly came in to check on things and...well, they assumed he was an intruder. I woke up, somehow I knew it was Rajah. I tried to stop them from taking Rajah straight to the dungeons. Genie had to intervene."

"Man, you know it's bad when the Sultan puts Razoul and some of the usual guards in timeout over something like that," Genie said with a wince. "But considering Jas was almost in the crossfire over a misunderstanding, that's essentially what happened."

"I did so because Razoul was clearly out of line," the Sultan said, frowning. "Despite Jasmine's judgment, he was not willing to listen to her and acted against her orders."

"That's not all of it," Jasmine said. "Poor Carpet was in the middle of it too."

Aladdin looked at the other stranger in the room, a boy with hair that reached his waist who looked between Abu, Iago, Genie, Jasmine, Rajah and the Sultan with curious glances. Aladdin could tell who he was just from the color of his attire - the same purple and multi-color patterns that had defined his threads. He wore gold cuffs on his wrists that looked like woven braided coils. His attention settled on Aladdin, to whom he gave a sheepish wave. Aladdin waived back, though he was so stunned, he couldn't find words.

"Carpet doesn't speak, but it's still really easy to understand him," Genie said cheerfully. " You can tell what he's saying, per the universal language he speaks with his hands. I don't think he's speaking much right now because he's confused and overwhelmed about everything going on."

"But he's only a kid!" Iago said. "Can he still fly?"

Carpet was quick to answer Iago by briefly jumping, hovering in mid-air before flying around the room for a few moments. He landed just as quickly and easily as he started.

Abu was quick to applaud. "Whoa. That's impressive."

Iago frowned. "Still not the same as being able to take us everywhere on a moment's notice, but ya know."

"Carpet might look young, but he's actually older than he looks. Don't mean that in a bad way." Genie said the latter quickly as Carpet turned to give him a stern look, his lower lip pushed out in a pout. "I think it's just how he presents himself per the spell."

"So the spell you accidentally spoke yesterday - it did all of this?" Aladdin asked.

Genie's brief smile deflated just as quickly as it came. "Yeah, this is mea culpa."

"Genie, look..." Aladdin's voice was quiet as he began to say more, but Genie shook his head, cutting the prince's words short.

"Nope, don't try to make me feel better about this, Al. This is on me. I hate saying it, but everyone affected by the spell, for now, is stuck as they are. I might have deactivated the initiation of the spell, which was why they all had that weird, painful reaction yesterday. I didn't reverse anything for the after effects, though."

"Ya mean I'm gonna have to get used to this?!" Iago said, horrified. He turned his attention directly to Genie. "Can't you zap us with your semi-phenomenal magic and have us temporarily go back to the usual?"

Genie shook his head. "Could do that, but it would reverse quickly. This is a really old spell. The tome it's from is powerful. But look on the bright side, Iago, it's not exactly a 'bad' spell. You might have to wait a little bit until we can figure out if it's reversible."

Carpet and Rajah looked surprised, as did Jasmine and the Sultan at Genie's tentative admission.

Iago's eyes flashed with anger. "IF?!" He marched past Aladdin and Abu, right up to Genie. Iago used his hand to pull at Genie's beard so that the semi-phenomenal being's face was eye-level with his own. "Look here, Blue Boy. You are gonna use every single resource you can to figure out how to reverse this spell. NONE of us signed up for this. It would be one thing if we elected to have the option to turn human, but none of this should have been a permanent thing with you speakin' a spell you had no business speakin' to begin with!"

Abu leaned in close to Aladdin's ear, speaking only loud enough for the prince to hear as Iago continued to argue. "I've seen Iago mad before, but he's really letting Genie have it this time."

"No kidding," Aladdin agreed. "Not that I blame Iago or any of you being upset, but Genie needs time to set things right. Yelling at him won't make the process any faster."

"So what are we doing in the meantime?" Abu asked as the argument between Iago and Genie grew more intense in the background as Jasmine and the Sultan tried to talk.

Aladdin sighed. "Guess we'll have to teach you guys how to get used to being human, for now." But even as Aladdin spoke the words, he knew that was an easier said task than done.