20262/Checking on the Stars

Checking on the Stars
Date of Scene:	17 March 2025
Location:	Office - Darcy Lewis - Triskelion
Synopsis:	Lara and Darcy reconnect after some time away from them getting each other in to trouble.
Cast of Characters:	Darcy Lewis, Lara Croft

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Darcy Lewis has posed:
Letting out a sigh, Darcy leaned over her desk - scribbling in the corners of one of the many sheets of paper on  her desk with an odd wizard character. "Please Math Wizard, show me the way..." she practically whined, her head flopping forward. It was -her- office, but even with the seclusion of 'Don't knock on my door' it seemed she couldn't get any work done. It was a nightmare, trying to work through an equation. Cradling her head in her palm, she held her chin in one hand as she doodled on her papers between idly sipping at her now far too cold coffee - even with a SHIELD designed thermos.

"What do we pay -taxes- for if they can't keep my coffee hot?" she snapped to herself, fuming silently at her desk as she slammed the thermos down. "You're absolutely useless, Math Wizard!" she spat aloud - it wasn't insanity, just anger, as she talked to herself through this doodle. "The symbiotes ARE communicating, and it's right -there- staring us in the face, why can't we figure it out?!" she ranted. For all her anger, she didn't really show it, instead it was just a tapping of her foot and the drumming of her fingers on her desk as her free hand held a pencil of all things over the scribbles in the edge of her 'official' work.

"Nobody ever asks -art- majors to do stuff like this..."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara had been absent from SHIELD HQ a lot lately. Ever since she had opened the Adventurer's Club of NYC's own main site in Manhattan, she had mostly been working remotely from it. She still was employed as a WAND 'Acquisitions Agent' but her work was better served immersed in the Yorkville Library's resources. However, today? She was on site in the Triskelion, and because she hadn't spoken to Darcy much since their last sojourn together, she was here to knock on Darcy's door. She delivered two such knocks, soft but audible enough to draw attention, and with the door slightly pushed ajar, she tipped her head inside. "Fresh coffee?" The British woman asked, her voice a calming tone, naturally sultry, and in a way that was pleasing to most people's ears.

Lara held up a cardboard drink carrier, and offered a smile, as she stood in the doorway of the astro physicist's personal space within the mighty Triskelion's inner depths.

"Is it a good time?" Lara asked, her posh accent laced with an underlying concern that she'd be pestering the other woman. "I can come back, if so." She spoke, due to noticing Darcy looking a bit stressed.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Papers practically flew as Darcy pushed her work aside, letting out an exasperated sigh at the sigh of Lara and fresh coffee. "Lara! Good -god- - gods?" she hazarded, snorting in laughter. "Come in," she enthused as she stood up and immediately began reaching for the coffee. "You have no idea how painful this has all been... i'd rather deal with getting kidnapped," she remarked, snorting in laughter as she disregarded her work.

So easily distracted, the scientist gripped for the coffee Lara had brought. "You have no idea what i'm dealing with..." she remarked candidly, "You've dealt with symbiotes? Well - I was just in space, and trying to figure out how they communicate, and..." she paused, gesturing to the table as she attempted to cradle her new coffee. "So that's what i'm working on now, and I guess it beats some sort of fish man... but... -gods- it's so hard not just posting all of this on Facebook and seeing what the internet thinks."

Lara Croft has posed:
The British archaeologist was dressed in a SHIELD duty jacket, a dark navy canvas jacket with a SHIELD logo on her left shoulder and a WAND logo on her right. Lara had joined WAND a few months after her shipwreck incident in late 2019. She'd gone through a rather abrupt training in London, where she'd then been assigned to the Triskelion in NYC. Why on Earth would a British noble want to work for SHIELD? Many have asked her that, and many have gotten a coy smile in response. The truth was, SHIELD opened up a lot more doors than would be open to her ability to cross borders otherwise. In Lara's line of work? Crossing a border with impunity was utterly priceless. SHIELD resources was the answer, and they had been a boon to her ability to follow the work of her father, and her own work that has come from the past 5 years of exploration, discovery, and the dangers that were wrapped up in it all.

Darcy got a warm smile from the brunette, as she moved in closer, and offered Darcy a large cup, lidded with a cardboard sleeve, steaming hot cup of exactly how Darcy likes it. Lara always remembered the details.

She smiled at the other's words, as she found a place to settle in, adjusting the black satchel she wore around her body, to get it out of her way, her own cup settled on her lap still in the carrier. "I don't think sharing sensitive information with the internet would be a wise career choice, Darcy. But I understand the motivation. The internet has a way of figuring out literally every mystery. But at what cost?" She flashed the woman a grin.

She raised her cup up to her lips, sampled a sip, and then shook her head. "I am sorry I haven't been by lately. But if you're taking regular trips in to space? Then I imagine you've been busy anyway yourself. It's been awhile since I took a trip to space, courtesy of Wonder Woman, and her fancy jet. Have you had a chance to ride on that thing?" Lara asked, tilting her head, as she held the cardboard drink carrier between her knees now.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
There was a huff of exasperation, a smile creasing Darcy's features as she accepted her coffee and leaned back in her seat. "God, you don't even know!" she enthused, giggling madly. "I mean, ok - lets say that wherever I go bad things seem to follow right?" Darcy asked, slipping into very casual behaviour as she cradled her new cup of coffee and idly sipped at it. "But it just seems like no matter what I do things end up -bad-,"

As she offered a vague explanation to her quasi-mentor, she shrugged. "It all just seems sort of backwards, doesn't it? I mean - if it weren't SHIELD business I -know- the internet could figure this out, I mean, they saw a picture of me and I was NOT dressed well, and they somehow figured out my cup size..." she explained, waving a hand around wildly. "The internet is -scary- Lara, like Dr. Doom scary," she finished, snarking in laughter.

As she recovered - she definitely didn't snort between the laughs - she turned to Lara and flashed a smile. "What have you been up to? I went to space, uh... did some things... but, we haven't gotten to do much! I'm sorry work got in the way, did you miss me?" she asked as she leaned forward, hunching over with her elbows on her knees and flashing a smile. "I missed you."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara cradled her cup of coffee in her palms, feeling the warmth transfer from the cup in to the soft flesh of her hands. She drew in a light breath, and even laughed very softly at some of what Darcy said. "If there is anything that the internet excells at best, it is things related to breasts. So I wouldn't be too surprised by that one." She stated in a dry British fashion, showing a small smile to accompany it. "And of /course/ I missed you. Honestly,m I thought I would have driven you completely off from associating yourself with me, after... all of it." So many different events, where Lara's life found a way to make Darcy's that much more wild, though she did rescue her from a seized cargo plane. That one, at least, had not been Lara's fault!

Keeping that soft smile on her facial features, Lara sampled another sip of her drink, before lowering it again. "I've been.... as you can expect, chasing down myths and legends. Vying for the discovery of secrets buried beneath lies, deceit, and generations of cover-ups." She drew in a deeper breath, causing her shoulders to rise, before they dropped again when she exhaled lightly. "We just returned from Rome, some of us from the Club. We discovered something rather remarkable, but it was not quite what we had set out for. Related! But... not quite the target of our would-be desires... Still, it was quite a discovery all in and of itself. A lost relative of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Something that had been taken to a very strange place beneath the streets of Rome. It's in our hands now, though, and we hope to get back on target from what its secrets will spill to us." She states, speaking confidently, if a bit vague.

She smiled over the table toward Darcy. "But yes, it's good to see you again, and I'm glad you're still 'at it', as it were. You shouldn't qualify yourself as 'all bad' either. I mean... this is a nice spacious office." Lara said, glancing around the well appointed private space, before she shot a sweet smile back to the other.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Darcy leaned over - maybe a little more enthusiastically than might be appropriate. "You found something from the Dead Sea Scrolls?!" she asked - her own task abandoned. "Lara, I mean... even if it's just a piece of it, do you know what you could do to the world?" she asked, licking her lips before eagerly sipping at her -new- coffee cup. "So, imagine, for just a moment, we have something that puts a -date- -" she paused, her eyes widening. "Just -any- date in religious history! I mean, imagine what that could do!"

Beaming, Darcy turned this way and that in her chair as she licked her lips and continued to sip at her coffee. "So, I mean, we've always -kind- of thought this was the thing right? I mean... the Council of Nicea, all that... ugh, it just seems so -great-! I mean, you could really upset things!" she enthused, leaning over her desk and dragging some papers from her 'pile'.

"But, I mean, ok, listen," she began throwing her hands up as her eyes lit up - she stammered off, losing herself in her own excitement as she tried tried to sort through her papers, beaming wildly to Lara.

Lara Croft has posed:
Once more Lara had a soft laugh escape between her lips, as she watched the other woman react to her admission of recovering a lost Dead Sea scroll. "I know..." Lara faintly said, barely above a whisper. "Normally I would be over the Moon at the very notion of such a discovery... Sadly, though, what we're after might be on a very limited time table. There are... others after it. It could be a relic of considerable power, if it is actually real." She drew in a breath, and softly shook her head. "I hate to ramble on at you about it all. You know how this stuff goes. 'Indiana Jones' and all of that." She smirked, quite largely, before she reached a hand up to brush a few tendrils of dark hair from her brow, and tucked them behind her right ear.

"We've both been busy then. I mean, good. I half expected you to ... I dunno, call for security, and have them march me away from your office door."

Lara's eyes went to the white boards along the wall on her left, she eyed them over, trying to make sense of whatever was written upon them. When she looked back to Darcy, across from her, she tilted her head. "Have you asked for a raise lately? I think they're overworking you." Lara noted, nodding her head toward the stacks of papers, and notebooks. "You look like a wealthy entrepreneur, terrified at the encroaching tax deadline... Have you had a chance to go out, and get your mind off of all of this at all lately?"

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Shaking her head, Darcy stood up - as interesting as the Dead Sea Scrolls were her own passion quickly overcame them. "Oh no, Lara, you have to understand - listen. Look - so..." she began, taking a long gulp of coffee. "So, these symbiotes - do you know of them?" she asked, "Anyway, even if you don't, they're this race of parasites... and somehow they're communicating across space - quickly. REALLY quickly," she enthused, spinning on her heels as she licked her lips. "All we need to do is find out how, that's why I was in space. Uhm... I mean, listen, look... what if, imagine this for a minute..."

Darcy began to pad around her office frantically, licking her lips and waving her hands. "So, everything we know about dark matter is basically zilch, right? But, what if the way these little germs communicate is the key to it - they shouldn't be able to talk this fast, but apparently they can, and... and then... well, we can avoid something like Ender's Game - we don't have to nuke a whole society because if we figure -THIS- out, we can talk to people," she explained rapidly.

She ran a hand through her hair, shaking her head. "And I don't mean like we can just talk, I mean the same kind of things that could have prevented all of this kind of... misunderstanding of things. You see?"

Lara Croft has posed:
When Darcy rose, so did Lara's eyes. She stayed in her chair, but she followed Darcy as she moved, sitting up a bit straighter though. She watched the astrophysicist's hands move wildly around, which was ever endearing to see, but the topic at-hand was an interesting one all itself. "Parasites?" Lara questioned, seated on the edge of the office chair. "That does not sound very encouraging toward something we would wish to increase activity with... Is there any connection with them at all, to this date? Symbiotes you said? What is its partner organism? Us, I assume?" She asks, her cup going back up to her lips for a sip again, before it is lowered, and Lara moves to stand up too, the satchel on her left hip sagging against her thigh as she stood.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Nodding wildly, Darcy continued to pad about - looking for the moment like the mad scientist. "Yes! Us! I think... I mean, I don't know... but..." she trailed off, biting her bottom lip as she padded around - stealing a sip of coffee as she turned her glance back toward Lara. "But it doesn't really matter, -what- it is, it's just..." she trailed off, her spirit flagging.

Turning to Lara she shrugged. "I've been trying to figure this out for a week now, and... I mean, it just doesn't Lmake sense... they -can- communicate across space, I know that... I just can't figure out how... I mean, it -is- almost religious," she conceded, slumping down to sit on her desk and take a longer draught from her coffee cup.

There was a long pause, as Darcy stared off over Lara's shoulder in an absent fashion before she finally snapped her gaze to her mentor. "There -has- to be some kind of... connection, or parallel, or something, right? I mean... there are too many parallels between -our- religion and things in space... it's just... a matter of figuring out the specifics, right?"

Lara Croft has posed:
When Darcy spoke of religious connotations, Lara moved over to sit beside her on the edge of the large desk. She held her coffee cup in her left hand, her right hjooked a thumb under the body strap that crossed over her chest from her satchel. "All roads lead back to religion..." Lara quietly said, distant for a second herself, before she looked to her right, at Darcy and showed her a slight grin.

She shook her head, as her eyes went back to the white board. "Do you have any of these Symbiotes in ... custdy? Here at the Trisk? If that is even the right word for it. I mean, alive... samples? Something to poke at, prod at? Perhaps try to communicate with?" She drew in a breath, her chest rising and falling as she released it. "Everything tends to fall in the category of religion or magic, when it is a subject we traditionally know very little about. Science is the key here, though. Right?" She asked, glancing toward Darcy again, grinning once more. "Magic is for us nerds in WAND. Not you guys down here in the labs."

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Taking another sip of her coffee, Darcy bit her bottom lip as she paced around. "That's the thing Lara, I mean... I spent a week up on that space station and the way they communicate -seems- like magic," she remarked, stopping suddenly to take a sip of her coffee and offer a weak smile. "It's been my entire life. We could block it with a chromium tarp lined with an alloy of metals, but..." she paused, shrugging.

Turning back to her desk she took another sip of her coffee. "I don't -know- if we have live samples, I mean... I can't even talk about what happened up there with you but... it wasn't according to protocol," she remarked, fixing Lara with a stare. "Certain parties that -my- people don't have power over may have brought them home," she remarked.

Spinning away on her heels, she bit her bottom lip and waved a hand around. "But it doesn't even matter - I mean, the symbiotes... they... uh... they basically became docile when we gave up someone they called a 'Skrull'. I don't even know what that MEANS!"

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's phone buzzed inside a pocket on the side of her black canvas satchel. She glanced down at it, but ignored it for the time being. Instead, her brown eyes went back up to Darcy, and she showed a significant frown at some of what the other woman said. "Someone brought some of these parasites home? god. I hope they're being careful with that. Look what the Europeans did to the Amazon rainforest, when they crossed the seas. Diseases that an entire society wasn't ready for. Mm... I perish the thought of what an alien disease might do to our entire planet, were one to get loose, and ..." She drew in another breath, and sighed. "Well, yes... You get the idea."

With another smirk given to Darcy, Lara upnodded once at Darcy. "Look, this is unusual for me, because we share a very specific trait. But under the circumstances, I can see it being a right and proper suggestion to offer you a night away from this stuff. Come back to it with a fresh perspective. A movie? a night at the local watering hole of one's choice? Hell, I imagine I could swing us some tickets to some stage performance taking place in the city tonight. Whatever you'd enjoy." She smiled toward her friend, "Call it a bit of medicine for the mind... Which is what my friend Jonah always refers to it as." She huffed out a light laugh. "He might be shocked to hear me repeating the things he's tried to hammer home in to my thick head too."

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Darcy frowned, literally squirming as she considered the idea of 'taking a day off' despite her usual predilection for slacking off at work. "Lara, I mean, we -could- do that... but..." she paused, frowning. "I don't know the people in charge of the people in charge of the people that came to save me so... maybe it's their problem..." she suggested hesitantly, even as it was obvious the idea sat poorly on her person. Darcy might be SHIELD's biggest slacker, but she still had a semblance of a work ethic.

"What if we went and caught a play? I hear Hamilton is playing off Broadway, we could go watch that... but..." she trailed off, frowning. "I -have- a job to do, even if it isn't that important a job..." she professed, already caving as she took another sip of her coffee. "But... the world won't end tomorrow I guess..."

Lara Croft has posed:
That reaction, it drew a much larger smile across Lara's lips. she sat up a little higher on the corner of Darcy's desk, and even slightly shook her head. "Improve your disposition toward what you're doing here, Darcy..." Lara said, her voice filled with a sweet warmth, her accent dancing gracefully through the syllable of each spoken word. "You're doing very important stuff here. Symbiotes, alien life forms, and communication between our species, and theirs? Dark matter? Finding new ways to speak to one another. It is all quite exciting. So fear not, and deny lumping yourself in with the likes of those who ... I don't know... change the napkins in the cafeteria dispensors. Bless their hearts, but still."

She made an affectionately soft murmur of a laugh, before she stood up straight again. "Look. I'll head back to my office, and I'll check on the tickets for Hamilton. I'll text you once I've acquired them, and... in a few hours? We'll be enjoying some high society lifestyle. Tomorrow?" She motioned toward the white board. "You'll be back at your Dark Matter and Symbiotes. Hopefully with a /fresh/ perspective!"