Mz. Dane-It-Is-Lorna (_verdigris) wrote in marvel_united, @ 2010-10-10 17:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | havok, polaris |
WHO: Lorna and Alex
NPCs: ---
WHAT: Lorna and ALex are camping as part of their anniversary trip, and get bested by small woodland creatures.
WHEN: Oct. 9
WHERE: Secluded campground near some cave they went spelunking in!
Sitting outside of the tent, Alex was not being anal about the gear that they were using for spelunking. They had made it through the day without incident, but now Alex was just being thorough, and going over all the equipment that he and Lorna had used while they went cave spelunking. He was making sure harnesses were in working order, flashlights all had batteries, ropes weren’t frayed, and all that. He reached out and knocked on one of the hard hats they had, looking over at Lorna and grinning as he did so.
“Okay. I think we are all set for tomorrow.” All right so Alex was a bit anal about making sure that all equipment was in order and working order -- blame it on the whole “oh whopps, not enough parachutes” incident from his childhood (just because he didn’t remember it, didn’t mean Alex wasn’t aware of what had happened).
“Now the next question is ... where are the graham crackers?”
Lorna had been through the equipment as well already. She’d given him to okay on it, but she knew how he was sometimes. So she simply shook her head as he grinned over the hard hat towards her. But she didn’t say, “told ya!” She’d had far longer than the year they’d been together to deal with Alex’s anal retentive side. She didn’t take most of it seriously anymore. So instead she dropped the stick she’d been pushing things in the fire around with into said fire.
“I have them.” She chirped happily. She liked times like these. Sometimes HQ could just seem so crowded, and she really did think that getting Alex out of there for a few days did really help his mood. She stretched, before reaching behind the log she was sitting against for the bag that housed supplies. Alright so it was s’mores time. Lorna was a glutton for s’mores. She pulled out some stuff. “So, Mr. Summers. Just melted or most blow out the marshmallow?” AKA how well done did he want his?
“Good. Because while I think s’mores are vital part of camping, I wouldn’t want to drive out of here, and go in search of an all night grocery store.” Alex was not the glutton for s’mores that Lorna was, but he knew how his girlfriend felt about them, so he had made sure that they had lots and lots of graham crackers, and chocolate, and marshmallows.
For Alex’s part he liked moments like this. Where it seemed like everything was nice and normal. Like there was no X-team, or “surprise” biological parents ... it was nice to come out here camping and play pretend for a the duration of the trip.
“Just melted ... by the end of the night I’m sure I’ll be in the mood for marshmallow flambe.” Because Alex’s marshmallows always ended up on fire.
Oh gosh, if they hadn’t had graham crackers she would have inwardly pouted all night. Alex probably would have trekked into town for her, because Alex, too, tended to sulk when something he really wanted wasn’t around. She smiled to herself as she poked four marshmallows on two different metal kabob pokers.
The metal pokers went straight to the top of the fire, and Lorna moved sitting back a bit against him as they cooked. “No,” she said smile on her face, shaking her head lightly. “You don’t get to make them. You have the worst luck and lose them all to the fire!”
“I have bad hand eye coordination or ... no. You know what it is? Your powers lend themselves to this kind of thing.” He motioned at the metal kabobs. “I mean you really don’t want plasmaed marshmallows.” There had been a time when Alex had tried his powers out on everything, but the end result had been that Alex had discovered his powers just destroyed food.
He put his arm around Lorna as they sat there watching the fire. He dind’t want to jinx anything but ....
“Don’t spear me with a kabob ... but are you expecting a dinosaur to pop out of the woods at any moment?”
She shook her head as Alex tried to explain. “It has nothing at all to do with mutant powers.” She teased. “I made kickass s’mores before I even manifested.” She pointed out. “I was the best at girl scout camp.” She turned her head then, giving him a firm kiss on the mouth to show that she really wasn’t being mean. “But it’s alright. I love you, and I’m fine with being on s’more duty.”
”Oh my God, Alex, no.” She said suddenly, giving him a bit of a look. “You’re going to jinx it, and the one remaining rogue dino will come and smother out our fire.”
“I was too busy looking at the rocks on the boy scout field trips I took, to learn how to make kickass s’mores.” He teased because well, Alex hadn’t been in boy scouts. His parents had said something about not liking the conformity of the uniforms, and not being into the whole thing. They had mellowed enough that they weren’t daming the man for everything by the time Alex was in high school, and relented then and got cable TV for the house.
The kiss stopped further conversation for a few moments.
And then ... “Well as long as the dino doesn’t eat our s’mores.”
The statement was met with a half hearted elbow to the stomach as punishment for not stopping that train of thought. “And if you continue to try to jinx us, it’ll be the first thing it goes for.” She explained, trying to sound very annoyed, even if she really wasn’t. She twisted around so she could face him straight on and put her hand over his mouth with a sort of playful look on her face. “So shut up.” She said smiling and shaking her head. “You really don’t want me to make you.”
Alex was going to tell her that they would be terribly lucky if the dino didn’t eat them, and focused on the s’mores instead, but then Lorna went and put her hand over his mouth. He grinned at her, and reached up and took a hold of her hand, moving it so that he could talk. And he kept a grip on her hand with his -- because hey he liked holding his girlfriends hand.
“Oh I don’t know, you don’t scare me -- too much.”
When he pulled her hand away from his mouth, she seriously made a move to clamp her other hand over it. But he’d already begun speaking. Drat. Her very bad, teasing master plan wasn’t working. She did, however, have a half smirk on her face at his saying that she didn’t scare him. She scooted a bit closer, still facing him.
“A girl might take that as a challenge.” She pointed out, but it was their anniversary vacation and she was nice. “Anyway, you’re lucky I’m content with you being scared just a little.”
“Opps. Okay, don’t take that as a challenge, I take it back. You scare me a lot Lorna.” He grinned at her, and then closed the remaining space between them to kiss her. It was their anniversary, it was just the two of them, so Alex wanted to enjoy alone time with Lorna (and not worry that at any moment a team member was going to show up, or some sort of mutant crisis was going to break out, or the news was going to run a story on the West Coast Avengers, and Alex was going to feel his teeth start to grind because of that ...).
Lorna really was a lot more bark than bite when it came to her friends and family being in front of her temper. She really didn’t want Alex afraid of her. That’s not how relationships work, and she’d be perturbed if she thought he was serious for even a second. Her free hand snaked to the back of his neck when she kissed him back, scooting closer to him. Alright so for the first time ever she was totally forgetting about the s’mores. She forgot a lot of things when he kissed her though.
She pulled away suddenly mid extremely hot kiss with a look of confusion. She thought she’d heard something. The freaking talk of dinosaurs was getting to her obviously. Before he could even ask. “Though I heard something.” She said quickly, giving her head a slight shake, before pulling him back towards her to continue.
As nice as it was to just enjoy spending time with Lorna, as much as he wanted to continue with the general s’mores ignoring and the kissing, Alex had to hold up a hand. “Umm. Lorna. I think I heard something too.” He glanced around at the woods that surrounded them. “Something that sounded like something moving ...”
Shit. She reluctantly untangled herself from him as she listened carefully to her surroundings. For the moment she only heard their breath and the crackling of the fire. Surely it was just a regular forest sound and nothing actually serious. Talk about a fast jinxing. “I don’t here anything now.” She said sounding a bit unsure about that. “It was probably talk about all the things that go bump in the night.”
Alex was trying really hard to distinguish between; “the noises that you heard in a forest” and “noises that could mean there was a dinosaur or something lurking in the woods.” He wasn’t a stranger to camping, but he was use to the noises in the X-Factor HQ. And he really wasnt sure if that was wind in the trees or something else . . .
“I don’t know, I think -- I think there’s something there.” Alex kept his eyes on the woods, and reached behind him to grab one of the pieces of wood he had placed aside for the fire. Yes, he had mutant powers, but if there was a person (a lost camper maybe? Or someones pet who had escaped from their campsite?) out there in the woods he didn’t want to blast them with his powers. Just bean them with a stick ....
So Lorna couldn’t help but look at his stick kind of incredulously. Almost as if to say, “What you gonna go play stickball with the neighborhood kids in a nearby vacant lot?” But he’d said he heard something too. While they were secluded it was an actual campground. It couldn’t be too bad, could it? She was being hyper alert, but that didn’t matter. Just then something shot out by them from one side of the forest to the other looking much larger in the shadow of the campfire. “Oh my God!” She exclaimed one of the kabobs landing pointy end down on the ground, trailing behind the animal. She instantly got to her feet.
Alex hurled the stick he had been holding, but the whatever it was had streaked across the cleared area they had made camp in, and had disappeared into the woods. The stick fell short (and shorter then the kabob that Lorna had used her powers to launch at the thing).
“Quick grab one of the flash lights.” As he was speaking, Alex grabbed a flashlight himself and shone it around, aiming the beam at the woods. Whatever it was had been small to be a dinosaur, but there were small dinosaurs .... and Alex knew that they were in the woods, there was animals in the woods ... but both he and Lorna had an x-gene. And x-gene’s seemed to attract trouble.
“What do you think that was?” He glanced over at Lorna, trying not to smile. Yes. He was worried . . . but the ridiculousness of the situation was starting to strike him.
Lorna bent down instantly to grab the other flashlight. She straightened back out and shone the light in the other direction looking into the woods for any sign of what might have spooked them. Yes, she was very much aware at this moment that the shining flashlights had been what had got the T-rex’s attention in Jurrasic Park. She shook her head.
She glanced towards him when he asked what it was and she couldn’t help the narrowing her eyes did when she heard a hint of a smile in his question. It didn’t help that the adrenaline was running through her, and her heart was still beating a bit hard from the sudden fright. “I have no idea.” She said instantly back to business shining the flashlight. “This is one of our not great ideas, Alex. Camping right after a Dinosaur invasion.” Tomorrow night, hell, tonight was a hotel night.
“Well -- it was power swap, then dinosaur invasion .. it seemed that if we were going to get to go camping before we got to our second year anniversary, that we should go ... now.” Even if “now” had been right after a dinosaur invasion. Alex shone his flashlight into the woods, shaking his head as he did so ...
Something glinted in the woods, it looked an awful lot like a flashlight shinning off some animals eyes. Then there was noise from the woods like something was moving around in there, Alex moved his flashlight around, trying to locate the source of the nose, and shine his light on it. Forget Dinosaurs, Alex was feeling like he was in some sort of B-Grade horror movie here.
Alright, so Lorna had stopped searching and the flashlight was shining on the ground held limply in her hand as she listened to him. The extremely minor annoyance she for that fraction of a second was completely gone, and she was looking at him with a bit of an indescribable look on her face. “Our second year anniversary?” She said, smile tugging at her lips.
She was about to tell him to just forget about the annoying things that went bump in the night and just hug him or something, when she heard the rustling of leaves again, and her flashlight finally came back up. Scanning the area. “Alright so want to yell into the woods that we’re not drunk teens so they can go eat the people at the next campsite instead?” That’s how you died in horror movies... drunk, promiscuous teens.
Oh. Right. He had gone and said second year there. He gave a shrug of his shoulders; “Well you know. Provided no one gets any better offers ...” He was teasing, and grinning as he talked. “And of course provided that we survive this, our first year anniversary trip ...”
“You hear that?” Alex asked the woods at large (although he wasn’t yelling -- no need to really upset the people at campsites within shouting distance). “This is the campsite with the ... boring rock geeks. The sorority camping trip is a few campsites over.”
There was silence from the woods, and then this weird kind of noise. It probably wouldn’t have unnerved Alex so much if it hadn’t been dark out. And if they hadn’t been making jokes about crazy killer people.
It was a bit of a strange moment in Lorna’s head. He was joking and teasing, but she was hit with the fact that she was fairly certain that over the next year no matter what happened she wasn’t going to get a better offer. She smiled though. “If I die here, Alex. I don’t care if you die too. I’ll haunt your ghost.” Which might not work really, but the pair of them did sometimes have random conversations.
“If it was capable of understanding speech, it wouldn’t believe that sorority girls go camping.” She said with a laugh, but it was quickly cut off when she heard that noise. That thing sounded scary and rabid. “That sounds horri-” She cut out giving out a tiny screech and jumping a mile as the breeze caused a couple of random leaves to brush her ankle. “Don’t laugh.” She said, holding out a finger at Alex, even if she was beginning to laugh at the ridiculousness of this herself.
“Promise, no dying.” He’d have pinky swore that there would be no dying here, but he was busy holding the flashlight with the hand that was closest to Lorna.
When Lorna gave out a yell in the aftermath of the noise (which to Alex did sound yes, that it could belong to something that was scary and rabid ... something like Cujo perhaps) Alex jumped as well, swinging the beam of his flashlight around to illuminate Lorna and --- well Lorna. For a second he just stood there, and then when she told him not to laugh, it sunk in that she was okay, that the screech had been a false alarm.
“No,” Alex paused to “cough” while he covered up a laugh. “No laughing.” He shone the flashlight around for a few more moments, letting the beam linger for a moment on the tent, and then on the car they had rented to drive here to the campground. “You know. The car has locks on it.” And he’d feel safer sleeping in something with locks.
So in the morning Lorna would find this ridiculous. In fact she’d probably run her head into the dash a couple of times at the thought that they were getting owned by what was most likely a small woodland creature. It wasn’t the morning though. Instead of common sense coming forth, Lorna couldn’t help look at him (She did notice he was laughing but she didn’t comment on it.). “Oh, I’m so glad you thought of that.” She said sounding more relieved than anything at that moment.
Sure it was ridiculous, they’d get cricks in their necks, and it’d probably get stuffy.... It just seemed better than staying out in the open, waiting for Old Yeller to attack and give them lockjaw. They could pack up their gear in the morning. Lorna stooped down, going through the front pocket of one of the bags for the keys. “C’mon, Summers. Before you get eaten.”
Alex was shining the flashlight around the woods, in one last ditch effort to see if he could see what was making that terrible noise. No dice. Whatever was terrorizing them was obviously a master at making awful noises, and camaflouge. Then he grabbed some of the camping gear (in case in addition to making noises, and being a master of disguise, the whatever it was in the woods was also a theif).
“You find those keys yet?”
“Got ‘em!” She said quickly, heading towards the car. She unlocked the doors and popped the trunk so that Alex could toss the bag back there, but it was a quick maneuver, as if the X-men had strange sound in the woods on a camping trip plan.
So it didn’t take her long to get settled in the back seat (She figured there’d be more room there). That was when the full situation weighed in on her. “We’re morons.” She said shaking her head with a laugh as she dropping the iPod she was in charge of back into the front passengers seat.
“Excellent.” Alex admired the way Lorna got the bag into the back of the car so quickly -- maybe all the training they did to be X-men could be applied to other aspects of their life. Alex figured if he went back to being a student, and finished his studies in geophysics he’d be prepared for anything.
He had grabbed the drivers seat, at least temporarily. He was thinking that he would probably move in a bit -- but for now he wanted to be in the drivers seat, in case he had to grab the wheel in case they had to make a quick getaway. Lorna’s laugh made him glance back at her, watching as she dropped the iPod into the seat next to him.
“We aren’t ..” He was going to say they were being cautious, but even as he was speaking something was emerging from the woods. And it was . .. a racoon. Alex stared at the creature that was now moving across the campsite.
“We are.” He agreeged with Lorna. “Epic morons.”
“Oh my God, is that a raccoon?” She asked, although it was very much a rhetorical question. She leaned up, her head near his as she watched the raccoon cross in front of the car and into some foliage on the other side. “You would think we’d never been camping before in our lives.” Lorna was going to blame stress. If not she’d just be depressed with herself.
She smiled at him and gave him an affectionate peck on the cheek. “At least our IQs are plummeting at an alarming rate together.”
“Well. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been camping before in the aftermath of a dinosaur -- well a dinosaur whatever that was.” Alex felt a little stupid, but he was trying to rationalize out his reaction. He grinned back at Lorna; “And yes, if I’m going to have my IQ dro, at least I’m in good company. Attractive, smart, and funny company.” Hey, he might be feeling foolish, but he really did feel he was in good company.
Lorna understood Alex’s hesitation at calling it a dinosaur invasion. After all, invasion sort of implied intelligent military maneuver. This was just insanity. “The IQ dropping negates the smart compliment, unless, of course, you mean in relation to you.” She said leaning back in the back seat to relax. “Although I think we’d be better company if you got back here.” She said, smiling into the rearview mirror. Sure, it was a raccoon, but the car seats were comfortable.
“Of course I mean in relation to me. Everyone knows your the brains. And the get away driver if one is ever needed.”
Alex was keeping one eye on the campsite, and one eye on the rearview mirror so he could see Lorna. The eye on the campsite was in case the raccoon came back, or brought some friends with him. Friends like a bear. That would be scary, but also make Alex feel slightly better about things - he could say they had taken refuge in the car from a bear. And he was also looking at Lorna because well -- duh.
He twisted around a bit in his seat, so he was turned around and looking at her.
“Okay give me a second ... I’m not the graceful one.” He managed to scramble into the backseat with a minimum of fuss. Hey, all those teenager years spent maneuvering from front seat to back had come in handy!
Lorna was fairly sure that in the case of a getaway driver it’d be the only time Alex would let her drive without there being begging or accusation of not letting her drive on her part. She smiled brightly at him though, since she knew he was watching the campsite. She figured they were fairly safe at the moment. It had been a raccoon, and she was fairly certain they weren’t besties with like mountain lions. So she moved out of his way when he agree to climb into the back seat, but once he was seated she moved back beside him.
“We’re telling no one about this, alright? Ever?” She said holding out her pinky for him to promise on. After all she didn’t want to be known as Lorna Dane: kick villian butt. afraid of raccoons. She wouldn’t live it down.
“Ever.” He swore, extending his own pinky finger for a very solemn vow. Because seriously, he didn’t want to be the guy who was afraid of raccoons, but also lead an X-team.