5972/THE SAVAGE LANDS II, Creative Title!

THE SAVAGE LANDS II, Creative Title!
Date of Scene:	18 April 2021
Location:	The Savage Lands! Native village / Dr. Martinson's Camp
Synopsis:	After arriving with supplies in the prior scene, Jean and Rogue relax at a research outpost-slash-village in the SAVAGE LANDS. There's a small party in their honor, and all seems well... or does it? What's with the creepy villager? Is something going on with Dr. Martinson? DUN DUN DUNNNNNN.
Cast of Characters:	Rogue, Jean Grey

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Rogue has posed:
Jean and Rogue had been brought to the village at the foot of the hills that they landed the Blackbird on. They'd spent an hour or so touring the village before their hosts took them out on a bit of a scouting adventure where they saw some dinosaurs and some of the local stranger creatures hiding in the jungles.

When they returned, the villagers had taken a liking to the two X-Women and asked them to stay for a feast of celebration for the gratitude of bringing the needed supplies. Medical supplies were rare her ein the Savage Lands, after all.

When they accepted, Rogue had made a trip back to the Blackbird to get her green and gold suit on which was in a locker on the 'Bird. IT was more comfortable and breathed better than the black one she'd had on. It was a crowd pleaser too, to say the least, getting a lot of locals grinning and making comments to the Belle who palyed them off good naturedly.Here and now, the celebration was on, the sun was down and the bonfires were lit. There was food being passed around with music being played. People were dancing and have quite the fun time.

Rogue, with a necklace of flowers on is drinking some sweet alcoholic beverage out of a mug and smiling at the show being put on.

"How do they keep dinos from just like bargin' in on this stuff?" She asks, unsure of the logistics behind all of this, so it seems.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean is not QUITE the attention-seeker Rogue is, but nonetheless is still susceptible to the surprising jungle heat (they're in Antarctica, damnit!), so by the time they've made it back to the village (and away from the land of roaming dinos), she's removed the armored jacket that forms the the upper part of her costume, down to just the tank top worn beneath. Which feels much better! It has been replaced by a similar flower garland.

"Well, contrary to popular depiction-" begins one of Dr. Martison's graduate student assistants.

"-they're still just animals," finishes Jean, grinning over as she steps in to one-up her fellow fancy academic in explaining things to Rogue. "It's not like Jurassic Park, where they're mindless monsters who want to go to great lengths to murder everyone. It's like with bears. Usually they're just afraid of people as the other way around, and unless they're very hungry, they're not going to go to a lot of effort to hunt something that puts up resistance. Plus some of the ones we think of as the most dangerous are actually scavengers, like the T-Rex..." She takes an innocent sip of her jungle juice.

These may be fateful words, as the creatures of the SAVAGE LANDS do not always respect what their normal behavior should be. After all, if they were normal, they'd all be extinct!

"Have you had many opportunities to study that?" Jean goes, now looking over to the Doctor himself. "To confirm what paleontologists have theorized, I mean?" Then she looks over her shoulder. "I suppose you must have some defenses to discourage them from wandering into the camp, too?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is sipping her drink as she leans on the corner of one of the tables with her left arm crossed over her stomach and her right hand holding on to her mug. She smacks her lips for a moment while listening to the others, her eyes going from one to the other as they talk about it.

The Doctor, Martinson, is seated in a fold out lounge chair that he's leaned back in with a notepad on his lap that he's been scribbling on all evening. He looks up to Jean. "Mm? Oh, well yes, we have some measures in place to keep the more aggressive ones away. Such as a sound system that plays the sounds of predators to hopefully discourage them if they get near. We also have strong tranq darts incase we see any on the perimeters, but really the locals have figured out other methods. Such as... well, urines." The doctor trails off there as he adjsuts his hat and looks back to his notes.

Rogue wrinkles her nose at that last part before she looks over at Jean. "This place is bonkers." She comments to the redhead with a grin.

Some of the locals are dancing near to the fires and one of them rushes over to Jean to offer his hand to take her out to dance. Rogue hip bumps Jean to make her go, but not a second later one of them is coming to Rogue to do the same thing.

They speak in their native language, big smiles on their lips as they try to encourage the visitors to come and dance! It takes Rogue just a second to set her cup down before she goes along with it. "When in Rome!" She says on her way to the edge of the fires to dance. She certainly looks like an outsider her in suit, even if it's unzipped over a black tanktop underneath it.

The College aged guy whose been hanging around them all today clearly has a liking for Jean and has been smiling at her since they arrived. "IF you don't go, they'll be insulted." He jests with Jean.

Jean Grey has posed:
Of course, Jean ends up being pretty intrigued and even impressed by the talk of all their innovative dino defenses. Poor Rogue, this place is full of NERRRRRRDS. "Oh, I hadn't even thought of that, but it's very clever," she remarks of their audio mimicry-based system. "And very low-impact on the natural environment and biosphere. I know you go to a lot of efforts with that, to make sure that the expeditition here is minimally disruptive. Given all the history, especially." Of people wanting roll in and exploit the crap out of it, that is!

Rogue also gets a grin as she makes that face, like she can't believe the other woman would actually object. "What? That one with the pee sounds like the sort if thing you'd be familiar with!" Gasp! Redneck stereotypes and slander! "It is really strange, though. To think that all of this could be preserved, and then see it up close, it's almost like getting in a time machine. Strange, but fascinating too, just getting to experience all of-"

Speaking of experiences, dance partner!

It doesn't actually take so much convincing to get Jean out to join them (the beverage helps too!), although the grad student that gives her that advice gets a sympathetic smile as she's led off. "Does that go for you too, hmm?" Soon enough, though, she's rejoined Rogue near the fire with their new partners, and puts her best effort into picking up the steps of the local dance, or at least, following along to the local rhythm. Somewhere between official steps, the veers over to give Rogue a hip-check back in return for earlier!

Rogue has posed:
The dancing lasts for a little while, the two women are treated like true honored guests, the men and women of the village are happy to have them here and are thrilled to celebrate with them for the supplies that they brought. It's shaping up to be a very memorable night for what was arguably pitched as a mundane delivery mission for the two ladies of the X-Men.

Rogue and Jean are treated to several dance partners, changing hands from man to woman, to man and more men, because well... obviously. But the dancing continues Jean is even invited to a dance with one of those college guys who is eager to get a little closer to the redhead, so it seems.

This dance, as it were, happens to be a bit of a slower one, with wood instruments playing low lulls as a woman is signing a song about the locals and their lives here in the hardships of the savage lands.

IT's not OVERLy romantic, just borderline overly romantic.

But during it, Jean is move around and briefly catches a glimpse of a man with a painted face standing off away from the rest. He's... not the same. Something about him feels different. He doesn't look happy, or festive or anything of the sort.

But the dance continues onward and by the time Jean is spun around again, that man is no longer standing where he was. It's just empty background now off toward the grass lands...

Rogue is still dancing with two of the natives, jumping from one to the other, laughing and having fun, not aware of any such oddities.

Jean Grey has posed:
It's definitely something to be able to let loose: around the school, Jean has a reputation to uphold, an image. Sure, she can get out on the floor with Scott at a school dance, but out here... well, hey, who's gonna tell the students if she pulls out the GOOD moves?! There's shades of young Jean, New York model, out for a night at the clubs goin' on here. Indeed, perhaps nerdy college dude is a little surprised to discover DOCTOR Grey has this side as well!

Fortunately, things slow down before she can give him a heart attack.

And all would be well, the pair swaying to the slower rhythms, if it wasn't for just that strange glimpse of the odd villager standiing outside of the circle, away from the festivities. Now presumably, the local tribes have their own wallflowers, introverts and party-poopers among their number, just like people everywhere. But there is something about his strange, fixated stare that frankly just gives Jean the willies. Normally, she'd be a little circumspect about her own curiousity...

...but she's been drinking.

So in the moment before he quite disappears, almost without thinking by a reflex that comes all too naturally, she reaches out. Even as she spins and twirls, she reaches past the sea of happy, carefree minds that surround her and toward that one lone set of thoughts, different than the rest.

She gets... something. It's not clear, not really distinct, only a brief flicker, before he vanishes to wherever he goes, and her understanding is muddled by her buzz and the bit of a mental cultural and language gap.

"... the doctor?" she wonders, aloud, looking around a bit. She's looking for Dr. Martinson, who's departed the party, albeit not for any sinister reasons himself.

As the current song slows and ends, she finally makes a break to go over and find her friend, managing to politely decline her next dance, confident that she's not doing any great cultural insults NOW, considering how long they've been at it. "Did you see where Dr. Martinson went? I got a kind of weird vibe about something, from one of the villagers."

Rogue has posed:
The party is continuing even though the sun is long down and the fires are still going nice and bright. The village is getting summarily drunk though with onlyt he older members (or at leas thte responsible ones) having already retired to their simplistic homes.

When Jean finds Rogue, Rogue's body suit is rolled down to her hips and around her leather belt around her waist. Her arms are bare now and she's just got that tank top on her upper half. She's standing in a group of the locals and drinking from her mug laughing at some story she's telling them about a time where they played a prank on some of the other X-Men and cut the butts out of all their suits, so none of them knew it when they pulled their suits on.

The laughing subsides when Jean comes in to talk to Rogue and after a moment, Rogue looks over to her, still smiling. It takes her a second to focus in on what Jean is asking before she nods once and takes another sip from her mug.

She motions toward his (the Doctor's) fancy walk-in tent. "Saw him waddle off in there." the Belle says. "Somethin'? Up?" She asks before already moving on.

Rogue leans in to Jean, her limited power control is clearly on as she touches shoulders to Jean. "I think Marcus likes you." The Belle whispers to the redhead with a bitg silly intoxicated smile and laugh.

Jean Grey has posed:
"I'm not sure," Jean answers, her tone equally uncertain. She's a little more alert now, or rather, a bit more focused on her extra senses, although the size of the gathering of variously intoxicated, party-minded, overly passionate and excited locals creates quite a lot of overlapping mental noise. Her thoughts flicker here and there, trying to pick out anything that foretells trouble, anything out of place, but after that brief moment of suspicion, nothing else seems much amiss or out of place.

And without a firm answer, without anything to really latch on to, she relents a bit, tension relaxing as she falls back into the familiar kind of back-and-forth banter with her friend, grinning down as she leans closer.

"I think half of the village likes you," she tells her dopily-grinning counterpart. "Also, we're supposed to be back... ugh, probably at least an hour ago, but I'm in no condition to fly like this. How long do you think it'll take you to sober up, Miss Mighty Woman? If you, uh, stop drinking any more now, that is."

"Or are we gonna end up staying the night?" As they chat, she ends up looking over at the indicated tent. "I should probably check in with the Doctor, either way."

Rogue has posed:
The major saving grace for Jean here is that her partner in this trip wasn't entirely a party girl.

Carol was in there still, you know? And nobody can flat-stare away all fun like Carol Danvers can!

So while Rogue is a bit of a party girl, she's got another influence inside of her mind that actively helps bring her down from these crazy heights she'd like to get herself up to.

It means Rogue is able to be talked to a bit easier than otherwise maybe would be without that presence in her mind. She steps away from the locals and grins at Jean. "The other half is all about you, Red." Rogue telsl her in a happy sort've way. She glances back up the hill where the Blackbird is basically impossible to see in the dark, save for a few small lights under the wings that are on. "We'll sleep on the bird." Rogue motions to it with her mug. "There's sleepin' bags in the foot lockers under the benches in the back. Fancy ones, all weather kinda things. Scott talked about them for like an hour one day. It was so boring." Rogue laughs overly hard at that memory.

She then glances to the Doctor's tent and back to Jean, she quirks an eyebrow. "Not the one I think you'd be goin' back to the tent with tonight, but hey, you do you, Jeanie." Rogue states, now grinning and taking another sip of her drink.

She puts a hand on Jean's shoulder and shove sher sooooftly. "Find me when ya get back. We'll go setup the sleepin' bags. We'll hit the sky before sun up and be back before Lunch."

Probably not, but it sounds nice!

Jean Grey has posed:
The plan that Rogue -- empowered with the much more reliable sensiblities of Carol Danvers!! -- comes up with seems to reassure Jean a bit, of whatever worries she's developed. As much as she didn't show too much outward concern earlier toward the presence of roaming DINOSAURS, this is still a sort of wild and unknown place, full of uncertain dangers. They came here as X-Men, after all, and there are some damn good reasons they didn't just use FedEx!

So she seems relieved, bobbing her head in agreement. "Yeah, good. Sounds like a plan." And laughs along with her friend, over the bit about Scott and his very long and detailed lecture about sleeping bags. They seem like a boring detail until you really need them, so who's laughing now, huh? Oh right, they are.

Finally, she just rooooooolllls her eyes up. So far up!

"Don't be juvenile," she snarks back, swaying a little at the push, before stepping off in that direction. "We're his guests, and we ought to keep him up to date on our schedule. Plus I want to double check that there aren't any procedures or things we should know about their uh, dino-defense system. The Blackbird's tough, but I wouldn't want a big one stepping on it. I'll come and join you in A COUPLE MINUTES." EMPHASIS.

Then, turning to make her way, she angles past where she had been sitting earlier to grab her jacket, slinging it over her shoulder as she walks toward the tent.

<<"DON'T GET ANY FUNNY IDEAS!">>