1131/A Journey to Somewhere

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A Journey to Somewhere
Date of Scene: 13 April 2020
Location: Stay tuned!
Synopsis: Lara meets a mysterious man on her trip to Africa to recover a mask that might control the rain!
Cast of Characters: Edward Crane, Lara Croft




Edward Crane has posed:
Ah, Africa. Not the place one expects to wake up at, when one stepped foot here exactly once about a century ago. But the forces at work have decided to give Edward Crane, Once Releveant Maybe-Villain, a second chance at life. So what is he doing, exactly?

Trying to get back to the states, of course! It's where he keeps his stuff!

Before that, though, he needs to look over this map of his. A paper traveller's atlas, barted for with a coin from the 20's. Turns out his pocket change is worth something now. Go figure. The yellow three-piece and matching fedora? Not so much, probably, but it does make him stand out some, map spread on a car hood, cigarette firmly clamped in jaw.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara had enough leads on this mission to get her this far. She'd rented an old rugged Jeep in a nearby town after her long plane flight in, and she'd headed out. It'd taken quite awhile of long road travel to get to this roadside market, but here she was, her jeep now pulling in off of the main road with it's tires crunching on gravel while it slows and rolls on in.

Once parked with a little squeak of it's breaks, the vehicle comes to a halt and turns off. The dust settles around it's base as the driver inside can be seen moving about, then popping the door open.

She steps out of the vehicle, her hair tied back in a loose ponytail, sunglasses on over her eyes, a tanktop and cargo pants outfit mixing with leather boots and a sport watch around one wrist. In her right hand she holds a plastic bottle of water and in her other her jeep keys and her phone.

Lara steps away from her vehicle, her sunglasses-covered eyes scan around, she sees Edward and if making eye contact she'll offer him a quick smile before she goes to meet with one of the market vendors. What Edward might overhear is her British voice, and eventually asking about the very location that he's searching for, as irony would have it.

Edward Crane has posed:
So one thing about being out of time, is you pick up on what doesn't match with what you remember really quickly. Cellphone? Check. That car model? Check. That outfit on a woman? Check. Eddie knows the accent, though, and he very much knows that location.

The ember on his cigarette flares as the maybe-criminal smiles to himself, tossing his jacket over his shoulder and making his way over to the stand. He's slow, hand up in a 'Don't shoot me' type of look. When he speaks, it's an Mid-Atlantic accent that's been dead for decades. "Hey there, Miss. Mind if I drop a line? Looks like we're eyeing the same prize here."

Lara Croft has posed:
One thing about the life that Lara has elected to live, that she's quickly growing to understand the full scope of, is that she's liable to meet very suspicious people throughout her journey's. The greater the mystery of the prize, the greater the risk of having someone nefarious (if not far more than just one person) try to intervene at some point, in some capacity.

Whether that's this man approaching her now or not? Who's to say, yet.

Lara looks over at him as he speaks to her and she glances between the vendor, and the man. "Is that so?" Lara asks him. After a second of just staring out from behind her sunglasses she offers him her right hand once she transfers the water bottle to the other. "I'm Lara. Croft." She introduces herself. "Who might you be?"

Edward Crane has posed:
Eddie shakes her hand without a second thought. It's firm, polite, and a bit sweaty. There's a reason the jacket is off. Does he look suspicious anyway? Entirely. If you cracked open an old dime novel about capers and looked at the pictures, Eddie'd be there training a gat on the detective. Or maybe /be/ the detective.

"Eddie. Eddie Crane. Birdy says you're hoppin' to get your bread hooks into a special hunk of silver and ceramic, yeah?" He pauses as the stallperson looks over Lara's shoulder like Edward's grown another head. Right. Well. "...You're looking for Rain Mask. Can't say it pops my monocle that you are, but I figure a livin' fossil like me should get a fair shake when it comes to gettin' their grave goods back."

Another look, another pause. They didn't empty out his suit, thank the lord, when they put it on display like that. THere should beeeee- Ha!

Hello there, 1920's identification. Have a looksee, Lara. "Old soul seeks modern women, see?"

Lara Croft has posed:
The man's peculiar mannerisms and an accent she hasn't heard outside of an old movie, makes her crack a small smile - initial impressions are quite a lot, as they say. Her own hand had been a bit chilled and wet as well, due to the water bottle she'd had in it moments before.

"You're a perceptive one." Lara replies to the man then before she nods her head and raises her hand up to pull some of her loose brown bangs out of her face so that they're not shielding her vision any more than the sunglasses already are.

"And you're right, I am. But... you say it belongs to you?" She asks. "Do you mean your family? Crane, you said?"

Edward Crane has posed:
Another smile, a slightly theatric tip of the hat. "I try. Avalanche ain't stopping when you ain't lookin'." Good ol' wide brim fedora, keeping Mr. Sun at bay. /Somebody/ set the crown wrong when it got stored up. Nothing some elbow grease and tremendously dry heat couldn't help.

"Ehhh. Could say that. Whipped it from a Frenchman when he was a half-sea over and spilling aces. Eh. Drunk at cards. Now he /said/ what it could do, but ol' Eddie here isn't looking to flash-flood the South Side." Edward tosses his smoke down, stubbing it out and lighting another from a case, proferred to Lara. "Yeah, Crane. Why? I got little Eddie's about? Chee. Ain't makin' no payments."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara places the water bottle back in to her right hand and lowers it down to one of the pockets on the outside of her right thigh. She slips the bottole into the pocket and then puts the other items away into her left hip pocket. Her hands then go to her hips.

"The Cranes were the family who were last known in possession of this Mask." She replies to him. "Though I wasn't aware any members of the family were yet still alive today." She waits a second or two before she shows him a soft smile. "I'm an archaeologist. I'm under the employ of... SHIELD. An agency that spans the globe, hoping to protect it from the great powers that-be who might wish to harm it, and all of us."

A glance is given to her side as she watches some others at the market a bit away moving past them. But her stare goes back to Edward. "I have reason to believe that that mask is being sought after by some ... potentially unsavory individuals. I was hoping to locate it before they do, so that it can be taken to a more secure location."

Edward Crane has posed:
Crane nods, face going a little funny. Worry? Surely not. "There isn't. I'm a walkin' stiff. Died in '25 from some mama-sown Cape. Back in the day they plugged you, straight and simple-like." He blinks, patting his sides. Speaking of plugged. No way they didn't miss the gun. Drat.

"Can't say /why/ I'm sucking dust again, but if you're a letterma-woman, figure it's decent on the ol' heavenly scales to give you the skinny."

Edward looks serious enough, offering his old ID again if he needs to get the point across. It's legit. "Unsavory? We talking capes? Hoods? Mojo-folk? The Reds? T- Ahhhhh, it don't matter it don't matter. You get me back stateside and you can play ball in the thing."

Lara Croft has posed:
The bold claim, the ID, the general revelation that this man is out of time... it's all considered and Lara looks it at the ID before back to him. They can be faked, of course, but this man is quite a character none the less.

"I see." She says. "That's an intriguing story, Mister Crane." She replies to him. "If you're an American citizen, even so far removed in year, I'm sure you can return to the States easily enough. I happen to be working out of Manhattan myself as of the past few months."

Lara looks back toward where she'd seen him with his map, then puts her shielded eyes back on to him. "Are you on your way to the location of... the Mask?" She asks, keeping her voice relatively quiet. If you help me acquire it, I'll see to it you get back to New York, free and easy. No charge in fact. You can come along with me when I return."

Edward Crane has posed:
"Aces. I'd call that a deal I can get behind. Manhatten ain't bad at all." And he may or may not have some more money there. Provided they didn't find it in the century or so he was off chatting with angels. Only one way to find out.

"As it so happens, I am." Quiet voice, a hood voice, fit for the speakeasy. Easy speakin'? Eh? Ehhh? Eh. "Need to get my hands on a decent roscoe. Ain't buried under the Ritz, even back in the day." He walks back to the truck, smoothing the map down a bit. "You alright in a rumble?"

Lara Croft has posed:
He's either telling the truth.

Or he's a mad man.

Either way, he might have some additional information on the whereabouts of this mask that she doesn't yet possess, so Lara simply nods her head toward him. "Well then, we have a deal." She turns to walk as well but she doesn't head toward his vehicle. She pauses between his and hers. "I know how to handle myself, I assure you." She says with a faint smirk before she motiosn to her Jeep.

"I'll follow you, okay?" She asks then as she fishes her keys back out of her left hip pocket, the sun shining on her front now since she's facing due west in the market's dusty parking lot.

Edward Crane has posed:
He could even be both!

Luckily the car he's in is ancient, so it's easy for him to get it working. Down the road they go, allll the way to the nearest town. It's a few hours of nothing but sandy road, Eddie checking his mirror to make sure out of habit. It's a bit strange to /want/ to be followed by a lawm-woman's vehicle.

But the ride must end eventually and so it does, in a parking lot bordering one of the more exciting slums in town. Engine off, key sorted, gun purchased at some point between then and now, and it's back to the hood for a quick map session.

"Stashed in an opium den, back in the day. If it's still standing it'll be under the marked stone, back room where the pill girls rolled that dreamsmoke up. Rough place back then, bound to be worse now."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's Jeep pulls up alongside the man's ancient truck and she parks it once more. She steps out of it this time and comes around with a light weather jacket that she's pulling up and on to her shoulders then, which Edward might notice has a large handgun inside of an interior holster poking out by it's handgrip that comes to settle in over her left side before the jacket closers over it.

Lara's right hand raises up to put her sunglasses on top of her head then as she stands beside him. "Here?" She asks, as she glances to the slummy section of this run down village. "Well..." She draws in a breath and shows the man a light smirk. "We'll do our best, maybe with any luck it hasn't vanished years upon years ago, yes?" Seems like small chance of that, however, as well lived in as this place appears to be.

Edward Crane has posed:
"Here's hoping. Seems like they left the old buildings to rot proper-like, built around 'em. Right. We're goin' here." Map folding up, jacket on, cufflinks secured, gun...gunnified. It's not a good one, some Chinese surplus bought for a song. It's /something/, at least.

So it's a walk. Furtive, guarded, very much tense. These are bad slums, desperate slums, but they get through. "And here we are. Like what they've done with it?"

The Jewel Of The Sands opium den has seen better days. It's still an opium den, but heroin decided to drop by and that's just made it all worse, cracked sandstome valiantly keeping the whole thing together.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's been in towns like this before, several times, though generally it was back when she had her mentor Conrad Roth with her. He's since passed away though, and she's come to have to learn how to exist in places like this on her own. She's used to the looks she gets in them, but she just carries herself with confidence and stares down anyone who she feels she needs to.

As they walk together, she does glance to her companion on this trip as she's still not sure she entirely trusts him. "You're sure it's here of all places?" She asks him then as she looks to the rundown building and then back to Edward. "How do you plan to get it out... of there?" She then asks. "I can't imagine they're privy to a man simply walking inside their ... establishment, and walking out with something from it? They'll claim it's theirs now, after all. Whatever it is."

Edward Crane has posed:
Eddie sucks on his teeth, thinking. "Well, I know three phrases in Berber, thanks to this place. I got 'More opium, dollface', 'how much does this cost', and the third one." He's loading a gun. Why is he loading his gun?

"We might want into that lovely alley after this."

BOOM BOOM.

<POLICE! THIS IS A RAID!>

...

And so comes the flood of people, scattering out of the place like it's on fire. Which it might be. This is some grade-A scattering, you see.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara releases a soft huff of a laugh at the 3 phrases comment. "I think I might be able to help a bit with that." She's not great at that particular language, but she knows others for this region that usually get her by just fine. Her eyes go to the alley that he speaks of moments before the 'Boom Boom'.

When that happens, she reflexively ducks and steps out of the center of the pathway to take a more defensive position on the street. Her stare goes to the source of the chaos that breaks out and she watches it for a matter of moments before her stare goes to Edward.

"Are you responsible for this?" She asks of him then before looking back to the 'Police' action unfolding.

Edward Crane has posed:
"What, was my grammar off?" Holstering his gun in his waistband, Eddie walks back out of the alley. "Yup. Dare say I am. Bought some breathing space, I'm thinking."

"Saw a high window, if you don't mind a boost up. Better than waltzing in the front, yeah?" Eddie hikes his thumb back to the alley. Even the rats packed up and left from /that/ place.

Lara Croft has posed:
"A little warning would've been appreciated." Lara quips back to the man as he ducks back out of the alley. She keeps her eyes on the Raid going on down the street a moment later before she turns to follow after him down in to the alley.

In the alley now, Lara looks to the wall they need a boost up to get to that high window. She takes a moment to sway on her booted feet before she makes her move. What Edward will see next is the young woman putting to use her impressive parkour skills. With well placed footings, Lara propels herself up the side of the building, leaping side to side up the wooden support beams before she lunges forward and grabs the window's sill!

Up and in she goes before she looks back to him a moment later. "Do you need me to find something to lower down?" She asks then with a loud whisper-shout. He can likely make it up himself with enough upper body strength, unless he too has some skills at improvised structure scaling.

Edward Crane has posed:
"Fair enough. I'll run it by you next time." Right, let's...wow. "Never seen a dame move like that." And he can't do that either, instead climbing more like a soldier, all upper body and footrests. Grunt.

"Right. Let's get us a mask." Gun ready, Eddie drops down into the opium den. It's even worse than he remembered, which is almost impressive in itself.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara would have offered him a hand up once he was in reach too, if he'd so desired it. But once he was inside and drawing a gun, she was doing the same. Her weapon is pulled and her fingers fan over it's grip as she settles her squeeze on to it. "Quite a place you've brought us, Mister Crane." Lara says softly to him. "Usually run down drug parlors are reserved for second dates." She teases, dryly, and shows him a faint smirk before her eyes glance around a little more to take in their surroundings.

"I imagine things have considerably changed since you were here last. Yes?" She then asks of him. "Can you remember where this item was... stashed?"

Edward Crane has posed:
"Miss Croft, you wound me. Ain't a guy supposed to make dates a bit exciting?" Edward smiles back, face sliding back into a grim set. They left most of the addicts on the matresses, too gonked out to provide any sort of threat. Everyone who could run did, leaving the place eerily quiet.

"Yeah. TV. Radio. Lighting. All this tech. But looks like they kept the floor plan. In the back, through here."

And so Eddie creeps about. His stance is old-school, shooting one handed and squared up. Not the worst one to take, given the ranges they'd need to shoot at. Right. Just gotta move this carpet...

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara had smirked to his rebuttal but once they'd set out deeper into the building that had just had a Police raid clear it out she peers through the darkened interior toward the sounds of the voices outside. "This whole place will likely be tossed soon." She warns the man as she then glances toward the 'tech' he speaks of. Most of it is at least 30 years old, which makes her softly smirk as he talks of it like it's mysteriously futuristic.

She follows behind him.

When they reach the room with the carpet, Lara's gun is tucked into the back of her trousers and she moves around it to the opposite side of it to start to push some of the items off of it's edges. Shoving them out of the way quickly before she takes hold of the carpet's corners.

"Roll it with me?" She asks of him as she begins to do just that.

Edward Crane has posed:
"Cops move fast, always have." Rolling the carpet aside, Edward and Lara reveal a stone tile. It's marked with a triangle in the corner. Right. Up you go, to the side, and...

"It's here. Blazes, it's here." There's a silver mask, looking like it came from a south african culture. Among the gleaming artifact is some faded bills in a sack, a gun kept well-oiled in a different sack, and yet another sack containing some...food? Tinned stew, old army issue.

Edward immediately begins gathering everything up, handing the mask to Lara and looting everything else. "We can talk about cuts after we leg it, deal?"

Lara Croft has posed:
With the rug rolled up and out of the way, Lara waves a hand in front of her face at the dust that comes off of it. "Foul." She mutters before she turns back to the man and the symbol he finds on the floor. Her eyes scan over it as she steps around him and it. She watches him as he starts to open the secret safe and then crouches as he reveals what's inside of it.

The mask, is what matters most to her and she watches him pull it forth annd hold it up. "Unbelievable." Lara whispers. When he hands it to her she reaches her hands up to take hold of it and instantly starts to fully inspect it with her eyes and light touches with her fingertips.

After he speaks of cuts, she just glances up to him. "I'm only here for this." She says of the mask before she pulls her own hip bag forward by it's strap and opens it up to deposit the mask. "It's your ticket to New York too, remember?" She asks with a small smile.

When she hears some voices outside she glances toward them, then back to him. "We should get going. I think we should take my Jeep together. Your truck is already on it's last leg."

Edward Crane has posed:
"Hey, ain't complainin' about a higher take. Let's book." Even if it is really neat how she looks at that artifact. Take notes, Eddie. A sharp woman, smooth moves, knows her way around a heater, and she's got a wit. Eddie knew some like that back in the day, but they were trailblazers. Maybe Lara is too.

But the brass is on their tail, time to bug. New York awaits!