2025-07-02 - What Lies Beyond the Cave Entrance

Peyton arrives as she's part of the magical department studies as well. It's the first new world adventure and she hears 'large lizards'. "Are we talking dragons, because I was meant to be Daenerys." She is wearing warmer clothing but it's still all black. She has some leather gloves with her and a hat that sports some cat ears. "I have a fair amount of skill with guns. I know to point them at things you want to shoot. I know how to turn the safety on and off..."

Jean had dressed accordingly, a thick and dark green parka pulled on over the rest of her clothes, which consist of an off-white sweater, a durable pair of denim jeans, and a weathered pair of hiking boots. A pair of gloves sticks out of one pocket.

She listens carefully to what Jonas has to say in the briefing and then, when he asks if anyone has experience with firearms, she looks around at the rest, and then raises her hand. "Basic marksmanship," she offers. "Or I can use other means of subduing."

Dressing in long sleeves and layers for help against the cold, Hawthorne has his hair pulled up into a messy bun to keep it out of his face. Boots are on for easier trekking as well and gloves. Listening to the instructions, he nods and does not protest any at the idea of avoiding large carnivorous lizards.

At the question about firearms he shakes his head to indicate he does not have experience, letting those with relevant experience speak up. He'd never been on one of these trips before, but was curious to see how the plant life in other places might look. Still, he wonders, "Have people been able to use their abilities when they go through? If so I have an available defense. No experience with firearms."

Upon hearing the brief for today’s excursion, Micah reorganized his field kit to include things to account for possible lizard bites (antiseptic powder and wipes, for example) and a heavy-duty flashlight for caving. Now, these things rattle alongside his other medical gear as he hoists the messenger bag-style kit and listens to the further briefing alongside the others.

Firearms experience? He shakes his head and looks to Jonas for that one. “Not here, but uh…what he said.” A nod to Hawthorne now as he gets curious about whether the powers they’ve developed here will work in the other world.

"I've shot some," Hayley volunteers as she lifts her hand. "Never anything too seriously but I took out a lot of cans along the fence when I was a kid." She's in clothes made for more rugged terrain, canvas and denim, and a small bag hooked over her shoulder with a walking stick -- traveling light (in case there is anything adorable to abduct.)

Peyton casts her eyes towards the inflatable rafe and then nods her head. Her eyes that are a sterling silver color today turn towards Hawthorne to make sure he's ready to grab some items. "While it's deflated one of us can probably take it and then the other take the oars." She indicates a sweeping gesture of her head to let him choose. "Peyton by the way. If we are going to observe some lizards and go cave exploring, we might as well share names." Her eyes slide over to Jonas as she seems to size them up. Then she turns to do it to the others as well. It's not unfriendly, but it's not overly friendly either. Sort of a weighing and measuring.

Jean takes custody of the tranquilizer gun Jonas hands her, looking it over and familiarizing herself with it quickly; all the better to do so now than when she'll need it. Safety, trigger, point and squeeze. Simple enough.

She looks up at Jonas as he finishes his briefing and asks for questions. "You mentioned the small ones. What about the large one?" she asks the obvious. "Should we be prepared to do something else about the large one if it becomes aggressive or pursues us?"

She offers a quick glance to the rest, and a quick and terse "Dr. Thompson" is offered in lieu of a proper introduction.

Micah eyes the tranquilizer guns first, then the inflatable raft, and the image he has of what they're about walk into snaps into sharper focus. Nodding to Jonas, he says, "Thanks for the heads up." Vibrating bones would definitely be a cause for concern otherwise. Later, he might dwell on any long-term effects of portal travel. As for now, though, he doesn't have any more questions.

As the group grabs their gear and prepares to head out, he flashes a quick grin at Peyton and the others. "I'm Micah, with medical, so if you start feeling weird in there, please let me know." Which of course includes feeling weird because of lizard bites. Jean's follow-up is important regarding that.

Walking over to the raft and oars, Hawthorne offers a small smile to Peyton. "Hawthorne. Nice to meet you." He bends down to take the oars, careful to keep them held in a way that doesn't put anyone at risk of being hit with them or him at risk of tripping over them.

"Vibrated...your bones...from the inside?" There's a definite concern to his tone. It'll be fine. Hopefully. Following the direction of the group, he sticks close. Sticking by Peyton specifically since they're on raft duty.

Hayley hefts the gun in her hand, testing it and nodding her understanding as she checks it over and lifts her hand. "Hayley," she introduces herself as she looks around at the others, lips pursed. "If there are plant things, I can help with that," she offers.

Peyton has never been through the portal. She listens to the conversations around her and shakes the appropriate hands. Her touch doesn't linger though as if not really a fan of doing so. As she walks throught the portal and ends up on the other side. She stops. For a moment, her eyes close as she takes a few deep breaths. It almost appears that she's trying to decide if she gets sick and for her brain to take a moment to comprehend the sudden change in everything. A slight nod of her head with a mental pep talk and her eyes open again.

She moves on her long legs over towards the area noted to start inflating the raft. She shifts to put her back to a wall and scans to watch the others of her team and to sweep her eyes in the direction of the boat from time to time.

Jean exchanges a look with Hayley, the other tranquilizer bearer, when Jonas advises them to 'run' in the event of a Larger Lizard Encounter.

She steps through the portal behind Jonas, inhaling the cold air deeply once through to the other side, and heads towards the shore that curves away from the galleon as they are indicated to do so. She keeps an eye out should any lizards become curious about their sudden presence, but otherwise studies the galleon from a distance, eyes then drifting upwards to examine the ceiling of the ice cave.

Run. Hawthorne can do that. Still, the single word serious answer sends a chill through him.

Walking through the portal after the others, he steps onto the other side with eyes closed and form tense. Yep, definitely vibrating bones feeling. Opening his eyes then he looks around and is awestruck for a brief moment, "Oh wow." He doesn't let himself stay distracted for long though. Following after the others and staying with Peyton and the raft.

As they walk, he looks around, both to take in their surroundings and to keep an eye out for the lizards. With the location for the raft indicated, he steps over with Peyton and keeps his back to the same wall. Because that seemed like a smart idea.

Hayley's been through a portal like this once before, and this time, when she's going through again, she's more ready for the sensation, her eyes closing as she feels the weird flow through her, then opening again once they're in the other world. The chill settles on her instantly, and she reaches into her bag to pull out a heavier layer, a tight-fitting wool top, that she slides on her torso with a quick wriggle, then hefts it back up again.

She nods to Jonas, looking in that direction -- and glancing around at the notably barren terrain they find themselves in, her lips pursing close. Well. At least she's useful with the gun, theoretically. At which point she returns Jean's look with a sheepish smile, and says, "I can shoot while running, if need be."

Micah hesitates for a moment before following the others through the portal. His grip on the strap of his medical kit tightens and he grits his teeth before taking that first step. As Jonas promised, there’s a strange feeling passing from one world to the other, but he tries to put that out of mind as he adjusts to the sudden temperature drop and their new surroundings.

It takes a moment to realize his mouth is hanging open like an idiot. When he does, he snaps it shut as the group heads down the tunnel and toward the spot Jonas indicates. All the while, he’s on the lookout for lizards, though his attention is snagged by the distant ship when it comes into view. “Wow.”

Peyton nods to the directions and continues to study the ship. She pulls out a small pad of paper and a pencil to do a quick drawing of it. She then starts to do some sketches of the cave they are in and the various channels. It's not going to be framed in some studio, but it does give her a slight map and rough picture.

She nods and then moves to help get the raft established. She will wait until most are on it before getting on. She's not going to be the first or the very last. Then she situates where she can draw on her pad of paper.

The lack of Big Red or scaly friends is cause for some relief, and Jean climbs into the raft once it's set up, peering down into the dark and frigid water below.

"This is an unusual place for lizards to take shelter," she observes. "Reptiles are cold-blooded. They don't produce enough heat to warm their bodies, so they're drawn to sources of warmth. Their physiology might be significantly different from the reptiles we're used to. Size notwithstanding."

Hayley glances toward Jonas like he's crazy for a moment when she hears 'blow up the boat', and then she realizes that this is not the same as 'explode the ship', and she relaxes a touch. Her hand still stays on the tranq as she looks out into the water, into the quiet of the cavern, their very movements likely loud and echoing through.

Especially that pump, she realizes, eyeing it with a glance.

"It definitely doesn't feel like the place I would think of lizards in, but I also don't expect lizards big enough to bite off my foot -- or worse," she says softly. "Are we the sources of warmth for them?"

Micah stands of to the side of the raft as its inflated, surveying the cavern with a sweeping gaze. He slips his phone out of a pocket and levels it at the galleon to snap a picture, then does the same of a few sections of the cavern.

“I wonder what the story is there.” He turns from the old ship without expecting an answer, then unshoulders his kit so he can set it in the raft. Once he’s in beside it, he glances between Jean and Hayley. “What do you think they eat down here?” This has him looking over the side of the raft for signs of fish or water bugs. Presumably, they don't subsist on otherworldly explorers.

The raft is blowing up, in a non Michael Bay way, and Hawthorne gives another glance around to make sure they're still lizard free.

"Maybe the creatures here follow a different pattern than the ones we're used to. Given the ones we've seen show up at the park and all they can do, I wouldn't put it past other realms to have entirely different ecosystems or evolutionary traits that apply."

Or it's a theory at least. With the raft inflated, he hands off the oars and waits his turn before taking a seat and helping push off if needed. As the raft makes it's way over the water, his gaze goes to the side to make sure he doesn't see anything that might be visible from the surface.

Micah's question has him furrowing a brow. Hopefully they don't get a first hand answer to that one.

"Maybe they were unloading the lizards and that's how they got here." Peyton muses. Her eyes do slide over those rowing as she draws a couple more sketches. There is a long lingering glance at the boat. "Maybe lizardville wouldn't be so bad. If we just distracted them away or something, perhaps others could explore it." She's musing this outloud rather than suggesting it for this trip.

Peyton does nod in agreement to this not being Earth exactly, but she doesn't speak on it. As they start to move forwards, she watching the ship and the area like a good suspicious type who always looks for ambush does.

Jean takes one of the oars from Hawthorne when he hands them off, lowering the business end into the water and starting to row with the others with the general heading of that light.

"Or if someone with the sleeping ability could safely knock them out," she appends to what Peyton has mused. "I'd be curious to see if abilities worked on life forms here the same way we expect them to back home."

"I'll take a rowing shift on the way back, I just --" Hayley offers, holding up the gun in quiet explanation, and she nods over at Jonas once he explains what the creatures are drawn to. "That feels like maybe they're good at hunting things in water, or whatever might wander in here. I mean, who knows, maybe on the surface, this world is a lush paradise?" she offers, with just a touch of hope as her head tilts toward the light at the mouth of the cave.

She's not a biologist, though, and when Jean speaks, she turns her head to listen to her, eyes on Peyton for a bit at that voiced idea, then turning her head to watch the ship, specifically, making sure nothing starts to emerge from there.

With Jonas working to push them a bit away from shore, Micah reaches for one of the oars Hawthorne hands off and helps paddle their raft toward the distant light source. “You serious?” He seems more impressed to hear that someone can view the past than anything else; he’s still so new to all this “I guess one day we’ll find out.”

His paddle slips in and out of the still water as they pick up a bit of speed. The cold seems to settle even further out here, and he finds himself hoping the light is also a sense of warmth. “Wouldn’t that be great,” he tells Hayley. Paradise.

As Jonas explains about the lizards, Hawthorne wonders if them having worse eyesight means standing still would be a better approach if face to face or if the smell and warmth from him would negate that. He doesn't want to find out. So hopefully they don't have to.

With each splash of the paddle into the water, no matter how quiet they try to keep their movements, Hawthorne can't help but tense and shoot his gaze back to the water.

The cold starts to settle more and he looks ahead of them. Seeing the light. He agrees with the others that warmth and paradise would be a welcome alternative to cold and evading lizards.

Jean eyes that cave wall as it gives way to an opening beyond a U-shaped bend, and then the vast cave mouth beyond it, stretching like a wide maw. "Open water," she muses. "Might get a little choppier," she adds in a word of warning.

And towards Micah and Jonas, she adds, "I have postcog. It only works for a max of a few hours, but it can still be very useful."

Peyton nods her head to that. "It would be an interesting thing as well as figuring out what would distract them as they don't see well you said. Maybe a fire source could draw them one way while we go another to the boat." Peyton really wants to see the boat now. It's like someone just told her she couldn't and now she wants to.

"I do not have postcog. I have other tricks but not that one." Peyton is just shifting her weight for the choppy water.

Hayley nods toward Micah, turning to say, "If it is, I call the third tree of forbidden knowledge of good and evil from the left as my home," she says jokingly. "No one's allowed to eat from it, though. That's my tree." She gives one more look toward the water, chewing on her lip softly as she keeps an eye out for immediate danger that may or may not be coming.

She looks a little guilty, watching the others row, but her grip tightens around the gun in her hand for now and says, "It always amazes me what people can do here. So much variety. So many things I never would have thought possible."

"Yeah?" Micah looks from Jonas to Jean, then around to everybody as the urge to learn all that they can do comes over him. But no, now's not the time. "That's...so dope."

He continues to paddle, feeling a burn in his arms as they cut across the still area of the cave. To Hayley, he lifts a brow, but grins. "Heard. No eating from your tree." And on they go, cutting U-bend and toward what looks like open water. It's bound to get tougher here on out, at least when it comes to rowing.

"I can control plants which, unless there does end up being a paradise on the surface, doesn't seem super useful here," Hawthorne offers of the cave. His rows across the water are a bit more struggled as the raft continues it's course towards the light.

His oar gets stuck on something. A rock maybe? Nope. That would be too easy. As he goes to pull the oar back, a set of sharp teeth chomp down fiercely as the lizard tries to to pull the oar into the water. "Shit!" Or pull Hawthorne into the water. Because that's almost what happens. Luckily, his reaction is fast and his fight to not be lizard chow is mighty as he pulls back and eventually wins the tug of war with the lizard.

"I'm fine," he assures the others, "We're fine. Keep rowing!" Just keep rowing. Just keep rowing. This is fine!

Peyton looks at the lizard and the snapping. She leans over to Hawthorne and offers very low. "Water puppy." However, they are coming up to choppy water and she does turn around to look back and draw it quickly as well as the little path that's almost hidden. "I think we should see what's up that path. We could be finding a lost civilization." On another world. Hopefully without apes.

Jean is about to say something when she hears Hawthorne react to his oar getting stuck in the water, and because she happens to be seated on the same side as him, she also gets a look at the lizard snout chomping on the oar and trying to drag it into the dark water. That tranquilizer gun feels heavy in her pocket.

"I suddenly wish we could see to the bottom of this water," she mutters, although that would come with its own drawbacks. Like being able to see to the bottom of the water. "There might be other creatures down there. Maybe their food source."

The ward protects the boat and Jean keeps a close eye on her oar until the lone lizard crawls up on some rocks and hisses angrily at them. But it's the opening of the cave mouth that soon demands her attention, and when they find a place to tie off the raft, her eyes follow the narrow path up the rock face.

"Or someone who didn't want to be followed," she appends to Peyton's hypothesis. "Or both."

"We'll se-" Hayley starts to say in the direction of Micah, and then she sees Hawthorne starting to struggle with his oar -- and the lizard coming up. The gun is lifted and pointed in that direction, and she actually moves her finger to the trigger -- just in case. But he breaks free, he wards the boat, and the thing bounces off and hissing, goes away, so she lowers the gun as a frown spreads across her face. "Entirely too close."

Her head turns, and she tilts her head up the wall. "I can try to scale that, lower a rope back down to help people get up?" she offers.

Hayley nods to Jonas, and then looks at the nearly-sheer face in front of her, taking a deep breath, and waits until the boat is secured. She's still fresh, not having used an oar, so she gets the tranq tucked away and a rope looped around a shoulder, hoisting it up and then rocking her head from side-to-side to loosen her shoulders.

Then, she's moving. Her hands find the holds in the rock, hoisting herself with each movement, feet finding secure purchase every time they come down. It's not a record-setting pace, and wind drives water against her wool top, whips her hair around, but she is steady, offering a hand to help Jonas up once she's at the top, then finding a spot to stabilize herself and loop the rope around a boulder, securing it with a knot and then grabbing on to help hoist. "On belay!" she calls down.

Hawthorne exhales as the ward is successful, "That should hold for awhile." Hopefully long enough for them to look around and get out. He continues rowing until they are at their destination and he helps get the boat out of the water and secured.

Hearing the plan, he looks up to where the path is and furrows his brow. "Be careful." Not in a tone that doubts their ability, but more just one of concern. He'd normally suggest someone stay with the boat, but in this situation splitting up seemed like a worse idea. So he follows the others' lead for their next course of action.

Peyton isn't exactly lazy (she is). However, the idea of climbing a rock face causes a small little wrinkle of her nose in the most kittenish of fashions. She mutters softly under her breath, "Fuck my life." Then there might have been a prayer to whatever deity hellspawned her to this world. She takes the rope and blinks a moment.

"Hey, I don't think I'm going to need a rescue from this." She gets herself up the rope since Hayley and Jonas did the hard work and then flashes a sincere smile. She's adorable when those rare things show through. "That was not as bad as gym class." Then she waits for the others.

Jean follows the rest of the group up the rope with surprising spryness, given her academic and erudite affect, joining Hayley, Jonas, Hawthorne and Peyton up at the top and casting a narrowed glance back down the way they had come. Then she turns her attention on what's ahead of them rather than what's behind.

Micah tucks his oar into the boat when they hit shore, then crawls onto solid ground to help carry it where it won't drift away. "That was pretty dope back there," he tells Hawthorne of his ward, the way the lizard just bounced right off; a handy bit of magic.

He grabs his bag from the raft once it's secure and drapes the strap over one shoulder, watching Hayley and Jonas carefully. "Go ahead, I'll hang back." He gestures for the others to climb first, because should anyone fall, at least the medic will be where they end up.

When it's his turn, he follows after a single, steadying breath.

At the top, now, everyone else helped up, Hayley finally takes a moment to appreciate the view, her breathing a little shaky but her eyes wide as she surveys it all. "Well, okay, it's not paradise," she says softly, stepping back to give Micah his room to settle, being the last of the group up. "I still love this."

The climb is a bit intimidating, but not difficult. Once they're all up, Hawthorne stands and takes in the view too. There is an obvious excited expression, "Oh hey trees!" That was a good sign, at least to him.

Then, he sees the ships. "Oh wow. I wonder if it's people here like us or...I don't know...some other inhabitants?" Like planet of the apes or maybe some kind of weird middle earth. His mind races with the possibilities.

Peyton pulls out her tucked in writing pad and starts to draw the landscape as she sees it. Her artistic flair isn't just for food. She does turn her eyes towards the rope to make sure nothing else came up after them and then over those gathered. Everyone seems in one piece. The ships are watched for a few moments. "I'm more curious if they are friend or foe. Like if the ice age didn't happen would we be here?" Her eyes slide over the islands that she can see, "Also, what do they eat?"

By the time Micah makes it to the top, his arms and shoulders are burning, especially where the heavyish medical bag has dug into him. He slowly sets it on the ground at his feet and rubs the tender area while everyone takes in the view. His instinct is to look at his companions, at their hands, especially, where there could be rope burn or small cuts, but the landscape fights for his attention.

"Huh." More ships like the old galleon they passed. "Well, I guess if we want to know what happened down there..." They can always talk to the crew of those things. He doesn't seem in a rush, though; now he's wondering whether they eat lizard.

Jean's eyes widen as she takes in the scenery that spreads out before them, paying particular attention to the two galleons out in the distance. "Not paradise, but it's fascinating," she murmurs in echo after Hayley, pulling a small notebook out of her satchel and starting to scribble a series of notes on one of the blank pages.

"I'm going to chance a guess that these are inhabitants, or else they've been here for quite some time to have created a fleet of ships, and crashed at least one," she hypothesizes. She indicates some of the flora. "Can we take samples of these?"

"Hawthorne, you work with plants a lot, right?" Hayley asks the man. "We can probably help the doctor get the samples she's asking for, and I'd like a second set of eyes for spotting them. I can be a real dingus sometimes and miss something right in front of my face."

At Jonas' say-so, Jean nods and pulls on her gloves, and starts withdrawing small sample vials from her satchel, along pairs of tweezers and cutting scissors. Unsurprisingly, she has enough for Hayley and Hawthorne, too, should they want them, including some disposable rubber gloves that she produces.

"I'd be very interested in both the foliage and the radicles, the root systems of whatever plants we can find," she lets them both know. "I also have some sample jars for rock and mineral collections," she adds, because of course she does.

Micah glances between Hayley and Hawthorne, noting an interest in plants that he can follow up on another time. "I probably should stick close by it," he tells Jonas. If there's an emergency, he'll be happy he did. Still, as some of the others start prepping to gather samples, he reaches for the offered pair of binoculars so he can watch the ships more closely as they come and go.

Hawthorne offers a nod, "Yeah. Definitely." He's more than ready to help. "I wonder if I can make these grow like the plants at home."

There's an excitement to his tone. "How can I help?"

Peyton is more than content to her drawings and using skill there. She will take her turn on the binoculars. "I really would like to see the people and learn more there." Her brows draw downwards in concentration as she tries to find people or sailors or anything on that ship. "I probably should have learned languages or something." She does use the binoculars to help her drawings of the area like a map of what is seen and a hint of what could be beyond. She tries to draw the ships still in use to the best of her ability too. She takes in the sails, the crew if she can see them. It's like she's planning the perfect cat burgler.

"I think trying to use your magic is a great idea," Hayley tells Hawthorne with a smile, giving him a gentle nod of encouragement as she takes the gloves and tools from Jean, protecting herself from whatever toxins might be in the plants and soil here, then moving quickly to try to extract a few.

With that being easy enough, the samples are handed back over to the specialist, and she stands and stretches her arms lazily over her head, asking, "Are they modern? They don't look modern at all. I'm getting pirate ship vibes," she wonders toward those with the binoculars.

Then she turns, looking down toward the island. "I'm going to poke a little deeper in, see if I see anything. I'll stay in screaming range," she offers to Jonas in particular.

Jean offers both Hayley and Hawthorne a pair of disposable gloves, vials, tiny scissors and tweezers to assist with the effort, then setting her satchel on the ground for them to place the collected samples into when they're done.

"Opportunistic, stress-tolerant plant species adapted to poor soil quality, high drainage, and high exposure," she mutters, surveying one of the samples inside its vials. "Deep roots suggest wind or erosion stress and intense seasonal weather patterns, as well as a stabilizing function, so this ecosystem has endured long enough for some succession, but perhaps not long enough for complex flora to establish." She's writing all this down. "These plants are binders. Classic early-stage stabilizers. This place gets harsh weather, probably some pretty strong coastal winds. But the fact that this kind of flora is thriving says it’s not a dead zone--there’s water, nutrients, a cycle. Which means fauna, too. Probably small burrowers or grazers keeping the scrub trimmed."

When she's done with that, she takes a turn with the binoculars once they're available, taking an interest in the ships and their occupants. "Almost certainly inhabitants," she muses to herself, turning again to her notebook to scribble a few more things. "Predator-prey relationships. And if they’re using harpoons, something out there’s big enough to warrant it, and valuable enough to hunt. Maybe the lizards but probably something else, too." She takes another look.

"Those sails and hulls suggest long-distance travel. They're marine-adapted. But if they’re still using cannons and harpoons, they're not just explorers; they’re extractors. We might be looking at the dominant ecological force in this region, and that means we’re studying an ecosystem that’s actively being shaped by its apex predator." People, of course.

"I'll walk with you," she offers Hayley, bringing more of her sample vials and jars.

Micah eventually hands the binoculars over to Peyton so she can make her drawings. Having seen enough of the ship and crew through them to learn to satisfy any immediate curiosities, he turns back to their comparatively desolate surroundings. "They don't seem modern," he tells Hayley. "Our modern, I mean."

Sticking close to his medical supplies, he pores over the landscape, less interested in the plants that others are gathering, and more for evidence of critter life - insects, small lizards, tufts of hair (?) - that could speak to the biodiversity here.

As Hayley mentions using his magic, Hawthorne nods and starts to gather a sample. The plant is taken carefully and put into the jar, Hawthorne adding soil to the jar as well and trying to get the plant to take root again so it survives the journey better. "There you go. That's better than being on a cold sharp rock ledge huh?"

"We're going to get you somewhere warmer where we can help figure out the best way to help you grow huh? How does that sound?" Yes, he's talking to a plant. Look, who knows how long they've been out here clinging for dear life. Maybe they could use the conversation!

He hears Jean talk about going forward, "I'll stay here. See if I can get anything else from working with the plants. Let me know if you need help though."

Peyton turns her drawn pages so that Hayley can see them if she wants an idea through sketch until she can get her turn with the binoculars. When there is a talk of heading further in, Peyton swivels on her foot to follow. "I'm down for an adventure. This is where we find fun things and we make friends."

As the pollinators flit around them, even in the cold temperature, Hayley smiles to herself, looking over at those who joined her and motioning to them. "Do we want to bring some of these back, if at all possible? They might be part of the reproductive cycle of these plants, right?" She had been quietly taking mental notes as Jean spoke, and looks to her as the authority on this sort of thing as she slides one hand into her pocket, keeping it warm, the left out and ready to stabilize her should anything need to happen.

"I think the lizards might eat the birds, and any type of fish," she theorizes as they look around, eyes sweeping through the brush. "Can we adopt a squirrel-thing?" she asks after a moment. "Anyone able to bring one of them to chill out with us?"

Jean walks downhill towards the basin, occaionally pausing to write more notes in her notebook.

"It would be unethical to extract any living thing, even a bug, without knowing that we have the resources and materials to sustain its lifecycle," she says to Hayley. "If they subsist on specific plant life, have a hive, or rely on other extraneous factors that we're not bringing back with us, we should study them in their own environment for now." She smirks slightly. "Even a cute squirrel-thing."

Peyton allows her eyes to follow the chipmunk and she may be thinking what Hayley says. There is definitely a look that she's about to try to scoop it up and take it. A step in that directions before Jean says it will be unethical. This is the only reason that Peyton stops and then sighs a bit to that. "I'm sure that Puff won't mind if I bring home another ..." Pet would not keep on her side. "... friend." She turns to look at both of them and then sighs and moves with them.

Micah claps his hands together as the environment becomes clearer to them, small lifeforms suddenly dotting a landscape that immediately presented itself as barren. "And make sure it won't spread anything to our world," he piggybacks off Jean, concern for the health risks involved with trips like this.

As more of them head inland, he hoists his med kit and heads after them in the direction of the basin-crater, eyes alert for threats now.

Hawthorne gives an encouraging smile to the plant in the jar, "There you go! Settle on in. Just like that."

What a good plant! Standing up, he keeps the jar close and protected. Looking around again he can't help but still be in wonder of their surroundings, "This really is amazing." Then, he realizes more of the group seems to be moving forward. So he follows so that they all stay together.

"Okay, Mom," Hayley says with overexaggerated, pouty resignation, before calling back up, "Okay, Dad!" to Jonas, her tone definitely edging on the side of playful rather than snippy as she lifts her hand, waving back in acknowledgement to Jonas, more relaxed now that there seem to be, at least, no (obvious) threats. She looks over at Micah, and asks him, "You don't want to be the one to figure out the treatment for a new disease, have it named after you?" with curiosity, motioning toward the gap in the trees that might indicate a larger pond and heading that way idly.

"I wonder if there's anything interesting growing over here," she muses, peeking her head that way to check it out.

When Jonas calls that they shouldn't go much farther, Jean comes to a pause near one of the tree gaps, scanning the area for more features of the landscape and its ecosystem.

While Hayley checks out what's beyond the trees, Jean takes inventory of the collected samples, pulling out a small marker and writing on each one using a numbering system that includes the world designation. "We've got a good array of specimens to examine when we get back," she says, indicating a likely late night for herself. Who knows how long the plant life will last once it's back home? They'll have to be examined immediately.

Peyton looks one more time at the small critters before she turns to go back. "Yeah, we should go before that protection spell thing wears off and we lose a raft to get back where we were going."

Micah has never once considered being the one to cure a new disease, and the look he gives Hayley speaks to that. Yet now he figures they're bound to run into something alien if they keep exploring new worlds. "Let's not try to make that happen," he says before nodding to Jean and Peyton. "I don't mind going back. We've got plenty." Another team can take things from here.

There's a nod of confirmation given from Hawthorne at the instruction to not go much further. As Hayley talks about a new disease it has him thinking a less intimidating route, "Unknown everything really. Can you imagine? A whole ecosystem unexplored, at least by us, in each realm these portals could lead to. Think of the discoveries." Think of the plants!

At Jean's concern for the durability of the plants though, he looks and offers, "I can continue helping preserve the samples when we get back. Or in the following days too, feel free to reach out if needed." He's sure they have all the resources to help the plants on their own. Still, he feels better offering the help.

The talk of the plants possibly not holding up well has him looking to the one in his jar just to make sure it's ok. Giving the others a nod. "I'm ok heading back too." No use risking the samples they already have. Besides. They could come back at some point...hopefully.