Eli has been bouncing from one location to the next. Mostly woods/forests, but sometimes he would brave sneaking around in a settlement. Today, he has arrived at Mobotropolis and he's unsure what to do. The worried boy holds his hands to his mouth as he tries to decide how he's going to go about this, or if he should turn and run.

  Joe does a quick universe check... Okay, Coyote, check.  Mobotropolis, also check.  So he probably won't have to stab anything today, which can be nice.  We also take this moment of existence confirmation as an added detail of why he hasn't noticed Eli lurking around yet.

  At least he's not narrating to himself as he goes over things this time.  Progress!

Eli is not Maverick, but that doesn't mean a normal boy trying to be sneaky is guaranteed to be noticed. But when he turns to run, dumb luck does have him bump into a mobian who's about his size. A ram. Who looks rather angry at the sight of Eli. "O-O-OVERLA-A-ANDER!" the ram yells.

Eli trips over himself backup up and falls on his butt. So much for going un-noticed.

  Joe looks over towards the commotion, then comments "Overlander like half your age." Not that Age matters a lot for competence these days, but still.  "Please do not punt them unless it turns out they actually deserve it or something.  We got enough problems leftover without adding kid stomping to the list."

The ram says, "He's an o-o-overla-a-ander! Of course he deserves it!"

Eli scrambles to his feet as the ram scrapes a hoof against the ground, ducking his head down, ready to ram Eli.

  Joe facepalms.  "Why is the guy with knives so often less violent by comparison?"   Perhaps it may be due to working out built up aggression already stabbing acceptable targets?  "If they punch you in the groin mid charge, you can only blame yourself."   Hint hint... Oh wait this is Eli.

  He wanders over and says "If he turns out to be evil, I will personally kick them off a reasonably tall structure, okay?  Just settle down already."

The ram calms himself a bit, still looking annoyed. "Fine. Yo-o-ou watch over him then!" and huffs off. Eli looks relieved and looks towards Joe. "....thanks." he says shyly.

  Joe pleasantly waves goodbye to the Ram, his lack of manners doesn't have to be complete after all... Unless that was a sarcastic wave, we can't tell.  "You're welcome.  I think he agreed because he knows I'll do it.  So let's hope you are not, in fact evil.  Win win for everyone that way."

  He'd offer a hand up, but Eli seems to have pulled that of himself.  "So, what brings you around here anyways?"

Eli looks at Joe's feet. "I'm from all over the place. Just traveling, really... looking for a home."

  Joe nods,  "Well, hopefully one will turn up soon enough.  Common enough problem these days, you'd think solving it would be easier.  Who knows, people actually bothered to take the time to threaten you first so it might be better odds here than elsewhere."  Ah, isn't that lovely?  'People only sort of hate your guts, isn't it great?

Eli says, "I sometimes wonder just how few of my kind are left. I haven't run into another overlander in... well I don't even remember."

  "Everyone seems to forget Julian was just as much of a problem to Overlanders."   And at least on the TV Show, Overlanders clearly had less Plot Technology keeping them safe than Mobians.  Unless they had so much hey could just hide out like every other advanced yet does nothing helpful civilization.

  "Wish I could point out where to go to find more of your kind offhand.  But that's something I haven't figured out recently."   Probably.  Jigsaw Puzzle Backgrounds can be confusing on those topics.

Sally approaches the two and says, "Well hello there." with a smile. "Welcome to Mobotropolis."

Eli says, "Thank you..."

Sally looks at Joe. "I heard about a ram and an overlander boy. Tell me your side of the story?"

  Joe gives a condensed version of events.  "Kid shows up, Ram screams at them, Kid falls down, Ram threatens to headbutt small child to death.  I delay this by promising to kick the kid off a building if he turns out to be evil."

  He looks down to Eli and asks "You're still not Evil, right?  A lot can happen in five minutes."  That's like, a fifth of an episode after all.

Eli head-shakes in response to Joe. "no..."

Sally huhs. "Well where are his parents?"

Eli kicks at the dirt. "I don't have any parents."

Sally looks at Joe. "Wanna take care of the kid until parents are found for him?"

  Joe considers this for a moment,  "Yeah, I'll keep an eye on him.  But mostly because I'd feel like a jerk for ditching a homeless kid on the curb and not from any parenting qualifications."

  At this point, a highly important details occurs to him.  "Anyways, I'm Joe.  What's your name so I don't rudely refer to you as generic terms constantly?"