Savage: The Human King

July 09, 2016:

Cyclops gets a really, really bad reality check. (Emits by Phoenix)

Savage Land

Characters

NPCs: Bit and villagers.

Mentions: Jean Grey, Charles Xavier

Plot:

Mood Music: [*\# None.]


Fade In…

It was hot..

The temperature in that particular hut was near smouldering. The feeling of sticks beneath the skin of the one who lays there, though the smell of freshly cooked meat loomed in the air. A stone was set out in front of the sun, frying the meat with a touch of nature, while the young woman hovered over the miniature cauldron to stir the soup in the pot. She looked no older than twenty, and she was a small little whip with slightly orangish skin and gills upon her neck. She was clearly a mutant. Probably one that didn't belong along the rest of the natives.

Her hair was a stark orange, hung close to the small of her back, skins upon her hips to cover the most important parts of her. Her feet were bare, lightly tapping her foot against the wood as she looks back towards the sleeping man. The man who was bandaged, his eyes covered as well as the back of his head. Blood dried there.

"Up up!" Her voice calls out! "Up up up up!" She drops the spoon to move towards the man, her small, clawed like grip grasping his biceps. "Up up up up strange hooman up up up!"


Scott's groggy as he starts to come conscious again. Luckily, he knows the pressure of his glasses or visor on his face enough that he recognizes that he's unprotected. He keeps his eyes closed as he slowly pushes himself up.

"Who are you? Where am I? Where's Jean?" he says. He shakes off the grip on his arm, trying to get up to his feet and stumbling a bit as the dizziness hits him, the mild concussion still keeping him woozy. He can't see anything, with his eyes shut like this, but, if he doesn't get answers, he'll open his eyes and get them the hard way.


"Woah!" The little woman laughs, falling back upon her bottom with her legs sprawling almost comically. Her hands smack against the ground as she gets herself up, and he could immediately hear the sounds of scrambling. "Hooman!" The little woman cries out, rushing to his side to grip his arm to try to lead him to the chair. "Your eyeballs are over here hooman!" She takes his hand, trying to lead him towards the table and chair, answering his questions in succession.

"I am Bit. You are in the Matron Mother's hut. Is that the hooman who has fire? I don't know where hooman is but you must sit and eat, or I will get a whipping."


Scott Summers allows himselfe to be lead over, although he's still wary. Just because someone acts helpless doesn't make them so. Just because they act friendly doesn't make them friends. He makes his way to the chair, taking a seat slowly and searching around for his visor with one hand.

"Fire? The woman, with the red hair," he says. "The one I was with when we were attacked," he says. "We can here in peace, looking for help. We mean no harm, but if you've harmed a hair on her head…" he says, even as he tries to reach out with their rapport, seeking to feel her psychic presence.


Once Scott settles, he'd find his visor not too far from where he feels. The little woman already had her back turned, the broth soon poured into a stone bowl, the meat that was fried by the sun dropped inside, mixed with and turned, and soon brought to his table. She turns to make her own, performing the same tasks, all the while bopping around cheerily.

"Yes. The fire hooman." She states. "They took her somewheres.. somewheres.." She stares off, her eyes slitting, the nictating membrane closing over her eyes as she pushes forward to sit down. "..she was angries. Like reaaal mads. But they gave her some.. leaves and she was quiet again. They say.. give the hooman more! And they gave the hooman more. Hooman gonna sleep for a whiiiille.." *SLUUUUUUURP

Scott wouldn't feel a thing except for a calming presence. Where ever Jean was.. she was calm.


Scott Summers doesn't like the idea of Jean being drugged, but he can at least feel that she's alive and okay. Until he gets a better sense of what he's dealing with, he'll play along. "People tend to get angry when they're kidnapped," he says. "Even more so when they get hit in the head," he says, reaching up and stroking the sore spot on his skull.

"There isn't anything to…calm me in this, is there?" he says. Not that he could tell if she was lying, but it didn't hurt to ask. "And you say Hooman, as if you're not human. If you're not human, what are you?" he says, finally sinking his visor back into place, feeling relief as it clicks and he can finally see.


"Ooh.. Bit don't know about that. Bit thought you were found hurt cause you were sleeping." She nods seriously, her eyes blinking quickly.

She continues to eat, watching him carefully, her eyes almost akin to a frog.. or some sort of amphibian that was born from water.

"I don't know what you ask." She says quietly, then slurps down more of her broth. She does perk up, her smile grand as he finally clicks on his visor, the razor row sharp teeth effect showing as she answers. "Bit is monster. Family calls Bit monster. Bit don't know what she is but Bit is happy here." She lifts a long finger, the claw hooking slightly into his bowl. "Bit wants to eat the meat. Hooman gonna eat that?"


Scott Summers shakes his head, "Monster? No. You're not a monster. Maybe you're a mutant, like me," he says. He considers for a moment and then pushes the bowl over to her. He's hungry, but he wagers the 'monster' of the family probably has to get every bit of food she can. "You go ahead," he says.

"Somebody hit me. From behind. Which is impressive, because Jean is hard to sneak up on," he says. "Do you know where she's being kept?"


"Mmhmm. Bit is okay with monster. Bit finds deals no too big than Bit." She grins again, then dips into the bowl with her fingers to take the meat. It nearly slips from her grasp, which she quickly juggles then eats by smashing her face into her palm.

"Mootant? You no mootant. You hooman." Well, he looks human. To her anyways.

"Hmm. No wonder. You leak on the sticks." She gestures towards the bed, the cloth on it. Then picks up her bowl to take a hearty drink. "Bit can guess. But Bit was told to show you place? And leave you there. Place not bad place. Its quiet though. But Bit doesn't know what will happen when she leaves you at the place. But eat eat flavor water. Then we go. Maybe find fire hooman on way. Jeans? Yes Jeans. Fire hooman Jeans.. yup yup yup."


Scott Summers shakes his head, "Not all mutants look different," he says. "My eyes are different than regular humans, though. That's why I wear this," he says, tapping his visor. "It lets me see," he says. He doesn't explain about his optic blasts, not wanting to give himself away necessarily if they didn't know his capabilities.

"I'm ready to go when you are," he says, taking a quick sip of the broth and pushing himself up. He didn't care about much of anything but finding Jean and getting them loose. THe rest could be sorted out in time.


"Huh. Mootants." Bit was confused, but she wasn't going to linger on the subject for too long.

As he states he was ready, she immediately stands from her place, the green skinned woman reaching out to take his hand.. in which hers felt clammy, almost a little ticklish. Like small little ants were crawling against his skin. It was the suction at work. "Hookay!"

And they were off.

She leads him down the winding staircase made from the finest wood, out into the village proper. He could see then, that the village itself was surrounded by walls, sectioned off to give a few of those who live within those walls a hint of privacy. There were people who dressed just like Bit about, yet they seem human themselves. Their skin a very light brown, reddened by the kiss of the sun, primative in the fact that paint decorates their faces and the baskets that the women carry atop of their heads were filled with odd fruit.

A few of them notice Bit and Scott walking, their eyes widening, soft little gasps as a few of the men and women pick up their children to hold protectively. Some of the guards arm themselves with the spears, seemingly blocking the villagers from the sight of Bit and Scott as she cheerily begins to wave. It was painfully obvious that the guards? They were protecting Scott from the villagers.

"Bit thinks family likes you!" She says, tugging him along. "Bit can understand! Bit thinks hooman brighter than family. Your fleshy parts." She lifts her hand that hold his, and lightly pets the top of it.


Scott Summers doesn't like the signs of obvious prejudice he sees, nor does he feel much in need of protection. He's angry, of course. Angry at what Bit has clearly been through. Angry about being attacked and kidnapped when they came looking for help. Angry about the woman he loves being drugged docile out of their fear.

He keeps his free hand by his side, clenched into a fist, "Yes," he says, agreeing with Bit for the moment as he tries to get a feel for things, trying to get a sense of how big the village is.


Bit didn't know of any injustice. This was how her world was and how everything remained.

It was a small community, but the village itself was vast. The various paths that were marked off by different sized walls told of the geography and of where some people could be found. A path, with a medium sized wall was soon taken up, the two guards who guard the entrance to that path look on almost waringly. "It's okay! Matron told Bit to bring hooman!"
"We know." One guard grunts. And the other.. just grunts.

The path itself was uneven, made with clay and dirt that had long since dried. The stick wall soon clears out and leads them to a field where a cave sits, the entrance tall and wide, looks almost to be carved by man. Two guards remain, spears pointed to the side, each of them taking a few steps to the left to show that they pose no threat to Scott, or the one whom everyone calls Bit.

"Kay. So we're here!"

Foilage surrounded the mouth of the cave, little flowers that bloom and sprout, what looks like daisies seemingly move at their presense, some crawling and smacking against the wall like live octopusus to take residence at the top. There was a fire that remain off to the side, which Bit drags Scott towards. "We need light!"

There was a little cackle as she pries her hand away from his, the suctioning nearly sticking against his skin, her hand drops to a bit of wood as she sticks it into the flame to bring the fire to life. "Get cho light!"


Scott Summers was frankly tempted to light the place crimson with his eyes, but he was trying to be patient. And, in truth, he was a patient man, far more so than some of the hotheads he was used to handling. He makes himself a torch, glancing back over his shoulder at the guards, getting a general sense of their location. Always good to know your escape routes.

"Why is it so dark?" he says, considering the foliage and not discounting the possibility that it's dangerous.


The foilage -is- dangerous. Scott was right about that. Those particular little flowers packed a bite that would paralyze and slowly liquify the victims organs.

"Cause. Told Bit that they want to keep the wall pictures safe…"

She leads him carefully into that dark space, using the torch to light a few along the wall, her body fast so much that she speeds around the cavernous room to light the lights within. Scott could help, of course. Or maybe she just wanted him to feel safe with the fire. Because his fire lady was on the wall, right to his left.

It was a small series of pictures that told a story; the woman in red, arms bent and head turned.. stick figure drawings but the most obvious and telling sign that it was her was the symbol of the phoenix upon her chest. Further down, a bald man who seemed to lift from his chair.. obviously Charles.

"OOoh.. no wonder.." Bit says from the darkness.. "..no wonder no wonder no wonder! This is good news! Good news!"


Scott Summers almost wants to mutter under his breath. Of course they had prophecies about Jean. He was beginning to think everyone did. They'd probably find a Cro-Magnon fossil with a sketch of her in chalk painted on its wall any day now back in the world.

He wondered, though, if this was foreetelling a future - or detailing a past. It could be that someone they knew - or who, at least, knew them - had come here before. "If you say so," he nods to Bit, moving carefully along, his torch in hand, crouched and careful as he moves cautiously forward.


As Scott moves forward, the pictures pick up in dramatics.

The villagers having taken up arms against the lone woman, the fire bird prominent in the sky behind her. She was drawn bigger than everyone else, which brings a looming sense of evil.. and red eyes. There were red eyes that were planted behind her.

Though the scene seemingly escalates until he moves to the back of the wall, scores of villagers still fighting within the effigy, but there was something different. A man with the red eyes that shot lasers from them towards the phoenix stood at the front of the natural army, and the phoenix fell..

As soon as he reaches the end.. upon the back of the wall, the figures were larger than life. It was clear that it was Scott, the very visor that he wore.. the moon serving as the go between of the angered Jean. Her hands lifted almost as if she tried to shield herself.. but the laser beam cuts through her body. There was no sign of her face.. only the fading of the picture.. the effigy of the phoenix smattered with blood..

And below the moon sits a throne. A throne made of shimmering, shining gold.

And Scott.. with his ruined crown sits atop of it. His eyes a fantastical red glow..

"..You're the hooman king! You're going to save us from the fire lady! YAY! HOOMAN KING HOOMAN KING!" Bit dances around, her stick of fire blazing as she continually chants.. illuminating those same red eyes that rest upon the ceiling.. barely noticed.


Scott Summers stands and stares for a long moment and then just says the only thing that comes to mind.

"Oh, shit."

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