@a-roguish-gambit, @ariel-seagull-wings
This is an idea I've had for an AU for a good while!
During an infiltration of Sinister's lair, Logan and Remy stumble upon a massive group of animals being held captive.
It turns out that Sinister was planning on doing an experiment where he combined mutant DNA with animal DNA, creating an army of mutant/animal hybrids.
Which let's be real, sounds like something Sinister would definitely do.
And funnily enough, animal cruelty is canonically among his laundry list of crimes.
(This is like, a 1/3 of the list by the way)
Luckily, Logan and Remy aren't standing for this.
The duo have always had a soft spot for animals.
Logan has the ability to communicate with and understand animals.
And Remy was always secretly keeping and taking care of animals during his days in the bayou.
And so, Logan and Remy break the animals loose and bring them back home with them.
As you would expect, the other X-Men are basically responding to this like.....
Elephant and Penguin: Logan and Remy
Noah: The other X-Men (specifically Xavier and Scott)
And with that, the team agrees that they need to do something about the animals.
Over the next couple of days, they contact just about every zoo in the state of New York to see if they could possibly take the animals.
Unfortunately, they all say that they can't take the animals.
Largely because they don't have enough space for them and/or not having any exhibits for specific animals.
The team then consider sneaking the animals back into the wild.
However, they fear that they could possibly end up breaking international laws.
And they're already not on good terms with The FBI.
You gotta ask Remy for that.
But when it seems that nothing is gonna work, Remy suggests.....
"How about we start a zoo?"
Everyone is left immediately shocked by the suggestion.
Jean, Ororo, Henry, Rogue, and especially S,cott and Xavier are not really down for the idea.
None of them really know how to take care of animals.
Where would they even build the zoo?
However; Logan, Morph, Jubilee, Kurt, Bobby, Kitty and Piotr are all down for the idea.
They all love animals, and in the case of Kurt and Piotr, they already have experience taking care of animals (the former grew up in the circus and the latter was raised on a farm).
Remy points out that they could all take the time to learn about the animals they have and how to care for them.
And in the terms of location, Logan points out how there's a massive stretch of uninhabited woodland behind the mansion, so they could use that for the zoo.
Kitty also points out how they could use the the profit from the zoo for both the school and to send to animal conservation organizations.
And most importantly, Morph points out how this zoo thing can keep the animals safe from the clutches of Sinister and stifle his ongoing crimes against.....all species on the planet.
And so, everyone eventually agreed on the zoo.
Over the next two months, the team works with Forge to come up with the look of the zoo, the clearing out the woodland, and building the zoo.
And during that time, the team takes special lessons from one Sophia Sanduval aka Chat, who teaches them all about animals and how to take care of them.
And so, after two months of planning, learning and building, the zoo finally opens to the public!
And it manages to become a success overnight since, well, it's a zoo!
As for the layout of the zoo, it features six habitats.
-Northern Wilderness: Themed around North America. Features three sub-habitats: one themed around the forests and mountains that features buildings of rustic architecture, one themed around the drawers with Western architecture, and one themed around the swamps with rustic architecture as well.
-Mysterious Rainforest: Themed around Central and South America. Features buildings of Mesoamerican architecture.
-Wild Safari: Themed around Africa. Features two sub-habitats: one themed around the savannahs and jungles that features tribal architecture, and the other themed around the deserts that feature Islamic architecture.
-Oriental Passage: Themed around Asia. Features two sub-habitats: one themed around bamboo forests and mountains with Oriental architecture, and the other themed around the jungles with Hindu architecture.
-Treacherous Outback: Themed around Australia. Features rustic architecture.
-Polar Pass: Themed around The Arctic and Antarctic.
Remy and Rogue primarily work with the big cats. So you'll often see them aorkingt in the first four habitats. The two (especially Remy) have always loved cats. All of them! So this was kind of a dream come true.
The two even straight up consider them their babies and sometimes, bring them back into the mansion for the night.
Sleeping with a lion or tiger is surprisingly comfortable to these two.
However, Remy and Rogue have accidentally scared off visitors (not for the zoo) because of their cats.
Since let's be real, if you came into a mansion and saw a lion, a tiger, a leopard, a jaguar, a cougar, or a snow leopard walking about with no leash on, you would run for the hills!
Logan primarily works in Northern Wilderness, particularly with the wolves and bears.
Whenever he's with the wolves, it always takes him back to his time with the wolf pack.
He also likes to wrestle with the bears, which he can luckily withstand thanks to his healing factor.
Morph works with all the animals of the zoo.
He's among the members who connects with the best thanks to his shapeshifting.
Jubilee primarily works with the young and baby animals.
She always loves playing with them and she entertains them with her fireworks.
Bobby primarily works in Polar Pass (get it?).
He loves playing around with the animals them.
Having snowball fights with polar bears, making ice blocks for the walruses to snack on, and crafting all kinds of the slides for the seals and penguins.
Kitty primarily works with the reptiles, thanks to her good ol' friend Lockheed!
Rattlesnakes, pythons, cobras, anacondas, crocodiles, alligators, and Komodo dragons.
And Kitty doesn't show any fear whenever she's around them!
Same can't be said for the guests.
Everytime they see Kitty working up-close with the reptiles, they're always on edge, fearing that she's gonna get either mauled, bit or strangled.
Piotr primarily works with the larger animals of the zoo.
His favorite are the elephants.
He loves do paintings with them.
Henry primarily works with the primates.
He loves getting to play around with them, especially the gorillas.
The babies see him as an uncle of shorts.
Same goes for Kurt, who loves swinging around with the gibbons.
Ororo primarily works in Wild Safari, as it takes her back to childhood, exploring the wilderness of Africa.
And if people didn't think she was a goddess already, they definitely do now since she's able to work closely with this on a regular basis.....
Jean primarily works with the birds, as she feels some kind of.....connection to them.
And lastly for Scott, he serves as the tour guide of the zoo.
That's largely because he can't work with animals.
Not because he doesn't like working with them, it's because they don't like him.
Everytime he comes remotely close to them, it's always on sight.
It's only thanks to the other X-Men that he hasn't gotten eaten or completely mauled.
Nobody knows why the all animals have it out for Scott, but they make sure to keep him away from them as much as possible.
