[h1]Donkey Kong[/h1]
[@VitaVitaAR][@Lugubrious]
[hr]
[hider=DK Island Swing][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMudHClToL0[/youtube][/hider]
Not the most graceful of landings; then again, Donkey Kong was a gorilla, and gorillas aren't exactly known for their ballet or interpretive dance.

Upon slamming into the ground unhurt, Donkey Kong hopped to his feet, before realizing that the fur on his rear end had a couple of glowing embers. DK patted them out, gritting his teeth in a little panic. When his butt was safely [i]not on fire,[/i] Donkey Kong figured that there were certain other things to take care of now that his little free-fall had finished.

Donkey Kong rubbed his head, grunting once before opening his dollop-like eyes and looking around. He blinked a couple of times; this place was certainly brighter and less full of trees than Donkey Kong Island was. The ape placed his fists on the ground and swiveled a bit, peeking left and right. DK stepped back a bit, surveying the large red classroom building before him. He pulled his fists off the pavement and stood in a somewhat-hunched upright position, before accidentally falling down the stairs. DK yelped and grunted as he rolled down each step and slammed into the grass in the planter at the base of the stairs. Little bananas with wings fluttered about his head, as his eyes rolled in opposite directions. He rattled his head and looked up at the building again.

Donkey Kong thought it was quite the idyllic setting, but he was an ape that needed answers, and so he clambered back up the stairs and, on all fours, sprinted to the front of the building. He screeched to a halt and looked for a route to climb up; he noted the protruding details on the building and decided to climb in to get a better peek at the world around him. Because for certain, Donkey Kong wasn't in the Mushroom World anymore.

DK swung from windowsill to windowsill, making agile leaps and bounds across the wall. Each windowsill met Donkey Kong with the satisfying tug of opposite force, letting his palms know that they are on solid ground and in good hands, in the figurative sense. Donkey Kong's brown fur rustled in the wind as he ascended, with tufts sticking here or there. Surprisingly, not a soul noticed Donkey Kong's swift commute across the front of the building. Up and up Donkey Kong climbed, agilely making his way up the bricks and the windowframes, before finally coming to rest at the roof's gutter. DK lifted his left leg onto the roof and pulled his heavy body up, before clumping his way across the roof to get a good look at the campus. The Kong put a palm up to his face and squinted to get a better view, placing the side of his palm on his round, thick brow.

Donkey Kong saw in the distance a large tree; it looked to be a massive oak standing proudly atop the hill. (DK wasn't sure; he was pretty far away from it.) Other school buildings dotted the beautiful campus, and Donkey Kong made a mental note to explore a bit more; after all, he was an adventurous ape, and he needed to have that sated. But here, on this rooftop, seemed like a good place to stop and have a little smackerel. And so, Donkey Kong adjusted his signature red tie emblazoned with his initials, then pulled out a banana bunch, wiggled his fingers, tore a banana off, and peeled it open. He took a bite and grunted in approval. A Kong properly equipped with a banana is a happy Kong.

DK licked his fingers when he finished the banana and threw the peel over his shoulder; it tumbled off the roof of the school building and landed in the back field. Donkey Kong, on the other hand, clambered down from whence he came, carefully descending the windowsills, and reaching the courtyard once more. He hopped down from the first-floor windows and with a heavy [i]thud,[/i] returned his palms and feet to the pavement.

Donkey Kong heard the faint, but familiar, rumble of an engine nearby. He turned his head towards the source of the noise. [i]Mario Kart?[/i] he thought. Curious, the ape sauntered across the courtyard, running into a planter and ducking behind a tree, comically disappearing behind it before sticking his large head out to watch a young woman talking to a motorcycle. DK cocked his head, somewhat confused. [i]She's talking to a bike,[/i] he thought. Or, that's the closest approximation to what he thought in our terms; Kongs speak somewhat differently from the tongue of humans.

Donkey Kong paced out from behind the tree, before simply walking up to Kino and Hermes. Donkey Kong sniffed Hermes twice, before gently, with his right palm, shaking Hermes's upholstered seat. The gorilla circled around the young woman and the sentient motorcycle, wondering if the motorcycle was in fact sentient. (With the number of things that have eyes in Mario's world, Donkey Kong wasn't sure what had a consciousness. The hills have eyes.)

Donkey Kong then turned towards the young schoolgirl with the purple hair. The gorilla stepped back from the motorcycle and sized up both of the young women before him. He then grunted, before grinning and raising a palm.

After a tense and somewhat confused moment, Filia cracked a smile.  It wasn't everyday a girl got to meet a gorilla, and while his size made him a little intimidating, this rather goofy-looking ape seemed to be friendly.  Before turning back to Kino, Filia reached up and gave Donkey Kong a delighted and enthusiastic high-five.  Evidently the strangeness of the situation hadn't fully sunk in on her; that, or the events in the world Fila had left behind were weird enough to make greeting a gregarious gorilla a positively mundane experience.

Donkey Kong grinned wider, his brow raising in amusement and giddiness. He winked at Filia and gave her a "right-back-atcha" with two finger-guns.