OOM: Travelling with Jemma.

[runningred]

Jay leans on the bar, dressed in his scruffy black leathers. His bike parked just inside the door, ready to go.

He grins to Jemma as she joins him. "Ready to go, Princess?"

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[runningred]

Jay grabs a cloth and cleans off his hands, tossing money on the table for breakfast.

He grins warmly and bumps her shoulder gently. "I know, I'm just teasing. I still want to meet him anyway."

He throws his leg over the bike and waits for her to get comfortable before they head off.

[protect_and_survey]

She trails him out of the cafe, still muttering protests about how that just isn't right, not Fitz, that's different, but settles well enough once she's on the bike. Once they get going (that part still makes her nervous, when there isn't enough energy to make the bike feel grounded, when one wobble could be a wobble too many) and she can relax again, she pipes up again.
"I think you two would get on wonderfully - and the bar might become awash in mechanical widgets."

[runningred]

The ride to Chellah doesn't take long at all and Jay pulls the bike up a respectful distance from the World Heritage site. "I present to you, the necropolis of Chellah." Massive pelicans nesting in the trees above them call out as they enter the city. "Do you want to find a tour group of just wonder?"

[protect_and_survey]

Oh.

She's shaking her head as she dismounts because no, not people, people are slow and ask a multitude of dull questions and keep wanting to do silly things like take pictures of each other when there's this whole marvelous place right in front of them so full of history and the detail still carved into the stone is amazing and she's never seen those birds before and oh it's Christmas.

There's a happy squeak of excitement, and Jay gets a hug for his pains. That's pretty much all of the explanation he's going to get at the moment as she hurries off into the ruins - Jemma Simmons is too excited to use her words, and too distracted by awesome to come up with a different mode of communication. Words are boring anyway, in comparison.

[runningred]

Jay laughs and hugs her back. He follows along after her happily, enjoying her glee as she darts from sight to sight. He stops to take a couple of photos of his own.

"Check these out." He points to a tree of hanging white flowers. "Angel Trumpets, stunning but very poisonous."

{ooc: found some fantastic photos.}

[protect_and_survey]

"In Peru, a version of this plant was fed to the women and slaves of dead royalty so they would submit to being buried with their lord." She replies cheerfully, because she'll always have words for her primary field of study, "From all reports the effects are quite rapid and horrific."

She pauses, reviews that, and pulls a face.

"And they're also very pretty?" With cool toxic properties!

[runningred]

"Really? I didn't know that." Jay smiles, not teasing at all. "I can imagine it wouldn't be pleasant. You have thought they've have gone with something faster. But I guess the lord really doesn't care what state the slaves arrive in the afterlife."

{ooc: sorry!}

[protect_and_survey]

"It seems about par for the course for the civilization at the time." She shrugs, and fails to mention that many of the toxins in these plants have found a home in her own lab, for various purposes - some to aid field agents, as an addition to their medical kits, some... well. She did make a decent attempt at re-creating the Haitian zombie drug with some of those compounds.

"But did you see the turquoise above the archway? I have no idea what pigment could be used to get such a long-standing effect, it's simply stunning..." Now it seems that she's found her words again, she has an over-abundance of them, and has an opinion or questions for just about everything.

[runningred]

Oh what Jay wouldn't give to have a play with her lab. "I guess that's true."

Jay follows her over to have a closer look. "I'd offer to take a sample and find out for you but it is a world heritage listed area. It'd be sacrilegious." He's been an assassin but he has lines. And defacing monuments is one of them. "We could always find a museum with a research department and ask."

{ooc: Sorry, seriously having a shocker tonight.}

[protect_and_survey]

"What? Oh, no, you needn't do that, really," (She would, given opportunity, but she's aware enough to know that's definitely not going to happen ever) "It's just rather curious, don't you think? I wonder if there were other colors that were less persistent."

[runningred]

"There is no blue without yellow and without orange." Jay quotes wistfully, wandering between the pillars and frescos.

[protect_and_survey]

There's a pause while she tries to remember from boarding-school forced-culture classes. The quote sounds familiar, but she can't quite place it.

She's deep into copying an interesting pattern carved into a lintel when suddenly she laughs.

"Van Gogh! I knew I had heard that somewhere."

[runningred]

"I got caught up in a stake out at the Gotham Museum of Art for... about a week and a half. I think I can give almost every tour they have."

[protect_and_survey]

"Oh, that sounds wonderful." She grins, then pauses and backpedals furiously. "Oh, not the stake-out bit, I'm sure it isn't wonderful waiting for someone who might be violent and it's terrible they were at a museum but... a week at an art museum."
That'd probably actually be her upper limit before she needed to do some hard science, stat, but it'd be a wonderful few days in the meantime.

[runningred]

"It wasn't that bad, even when the stake-out paid off. Turned out to be someone we knew and it wasn't hard to distract her from when she had in mind." Well, that's not exactly what happened but close enough. "On the upside I learnt a lot about art."

[protect_and_survey]

"It's a very good upside - I know just enough to get myself in trouble, and sound vaguely intelligent when someone talks about what they did on the weekend." Just enough that when someone mentions a name she can reply with 'oh, French Impressionism!' and then pray that they don't ask what she thinks about their use of color.

[runningred]

"I pretty much knew nothing before that week. It was impressively educational. The tour guides assumed I was hiding out from bullies or something and kinda took me under their wing. It made for a fantastic cover and I learnt a lot." He wonders through the ruins, stopping every now and then to take photos or admire the architecture.

[protect_and_survey]

She burns through half of a notebook before finding herself on a rocky outcropping on what was probably once a very important road, soaking in sunlight and watching the birds argue amongst themselves overhead.

Even workaholic diehard science geeks have a hard time resisting the lure of a nice sunny spot with a gorgeous view.

[runningred]

Jay pulls himself up a seat next to her, closing his eyes as he turns his face up to the sun. "Having fun?"

[protect_and_survey]

"Loads." Her smile has lost it's manic edge of 'Must Study All The Things' in the face of this place's tranquility. "I never could have imagined there are places in the world like this. It's so different than just pictures."

[runningred]

Jay shoulder bumps her warmly. "Some things can't be studied from afar. Sometimes you've got to throw yourself over the edge and just feel."

His phone rings and he excuses himself for a moment, chatting away in fluent French.

He comes back after a few minutes with a grin on his face. "Pulled a few stings. We have a dinner reservation and a place to crash tonight."

[protect_and_survey]

"Fantastic - in Tangiers, or...?" She trails off questioningly, tucking the bangs that have inevitably escaped her pony tail behind her ear.

[runningred]

"Talassemtane actually. It's a bit of a ride but I promise it'll be worth it."

[protect_and_survey]

"I'm looking forward to it then. I suppose that means we should be getting on?" She asks, dusting rock dust off her trousers as she stands. She's fully aware that she can happily get buried in the details of any interesting project, and as much as she could very easily spend days here, it would be a shame to miss everything else.

[runningred]

"We can take our time and stop along the way if you spot something you want to check out." He gets up and dusts himself off, wandering back towards the bike.