13561/There's No Shoes Like Snow Shoes Pt 2

There's No Shoes Like Snow Shoes Pt 2
Date of Scene:	12 December 2022
Location:	Upstate New York
Synopsis:	The snowshoe trip ends at a pair of snowmobiles that belong to Steve's friend. A spirited ride ensues across the frozen farmlands.
Cast of Characters:	Steve Rogers, Lara Croft

---

Steve Rogers has posed:
The pair of snowmobiles are waiting at the end of the snowshoe hike that Steve and Lara take. Settled into a clearing in a stand of trees on the property of Earl, the man from Steve's veteran group who helped him set this up.

Steve grabs a pair of helmets from one of the snowmobiles and hands it over to Lara. "Apparently the trails around here are great. A few places Earl said you can even catch some air," he tells Lara.

The backpack with food and hot beverages is strapped onto Steve's snowmobile and he looks over the controls, which aren't all that different from his motorcycle. He turns the key and the engine turns over right away. Well-maintained, it has a deep-throated purr to it. But one as if it is anxious to get opened up!

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is placing her backpack upon the rear of the snowmobile when Steve offers the helmet. She accepts it, hangs it over one of the handlebars, and then tightens the strap on her bag. She exhales then, her helmet being taken up in both hands as she adjusts the strap on its chinguard. "It's been awhile since I operated one of these." She tells him, her helmet settled over her head, her ponytail sticking out the back of it. She smiles at him then. "They're quite fun, but even more fun to take off jumps." She states, a grin chasing her words before she throws a leg over her own, and settles her backside down on to the seat.

With his starting up, she keys hers on too, and her gloved hands then move up to drop her sunglasses down over her eyes. She casts him a smile before she settles her boots in place. A second later and she's off! The snowmobile is sent down the trail, Lara leaning forward on it as she glances in her rear view mirror to make sure Steve is keeping up!

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve waits for Lara's snowmobile to take off and then he's pulling out as well. The fresh powder makes for perfect conditions, the trails deep enough, while some of the more open areas give the opportunity to drive through deeper snow if they desire, throwing it up from the back of the treads!

As they hit a wider section of trail, Steve pulls his up alongside of Lara. With the helmets and the goggles they pretty much aren't recognizable, but his grin can be seen beneath the goggles as he looks over at the Englishwoman.

Up ahead the trail crests a gradual hill. It goes down the hill to where there's a slight climb that then gives way to the downhill slope again. A first chance to catch some air!

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is a skilled rider, which probably isn't too surprising to Steve at this point. She seems to 'own' everything when it comes to outdoor activities like this. She's not too hard to catch up with though, since her focus is on the path ahead, learning as they go. But, she does look over at him, and smiles to him again before she zooms off ahead of him, her engine rumbling ahead of his as she kicks up a little bit of snow in her wake, with it spraying around Steve.

She's feisty!

When she spies the incline up ahead down the path, Lara stands up on the snowmobile's skids. She applies more gass and while leaning forward just a little she hits the jump with good speed, the gold and orange snowmobile taking to the sky! She gets several feet of clearance before coming down with a relatively gentle spoof in to the fresh snow up ahead!

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers laughs as he wards some of the snow spray off with an arm as he steers back off to the side of Lara. He throttles back at the top of the hill so he can watch the Englishwoman as she zooms down to the jump and catches air!

He can't quite see her landing, but throttles up and steering to what should be the side of where she flew over the hill, just to be safe. His black and silver snowmobile races over the snow and then over the hill's lip. He stands up on the running boards, hands on the controls still as he guides the snowmobile to tip just the right amount for a clean landing, sending a spray of snow up to either side as the vehicle gives a little bounce and then continues racing down the hill.

Up ahead they can see the trail go through a series of sharp turns as it weaves back and forth around trees that stand between different sections of field.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's covered eyes are on the mirror as she watches Steve complete the jump behind her. He got higher up, she thinks, which makes her grin, but soon her eyes are darting forward...

Through those reflective sea-blue lenses covering her gaze, she sees the waving pathway to take, and zips around one tree, followed by a reversing course back in the other direction! The sound of her vehicle's motor bounces around through the snowy landscape, also weaving through the trees, just like the rider upon it.

Throughout it, Lara is switching between fully sitting down on the seat, and standing up just a little in a crouch, depending on how much legwork and adjusting the angle of her weight she needs to apply.

When he inevitably catches up with her again, she glances over at him before weaving closer to ride along side him for as long as she's able to.

Steve Rogers has posed:
A small rabbit emerges from its burrow. Nose wiggling it sniffs at the snow and hops forward tentatively, sinking down a little bit into the white powder as it pokes around, seeking any plants that are sticking up through the snowfall.

The sound of the snowmobiles comes nearly as fast as the vehicles themselves, the pair of high performance snowcraft zooming past on the nearby trail, the rabbit barely having time to jump in reaction before they are past!

Steve keeps his throttle high as he turns hard and leans into the turn, then throws himself to the other side as the snowmobiles skis reverse directions to cut into the next turn.

He has an excited smile on his face as he and Lara pull along side of each other. He shouts over to her, "Is this more... or less fun... when people aren't... shooting at you!?" He grins and then steers over to the side a bit, catching just a little rise, only enough to just jump the snowmobile over the snow by a few inches before it comes back down.

Lara Croft has posed:
Good thing for the Bunbun, Lara sees it up ahead, and manages to steer away from it before it could be in harm's way. She is sweeping herself back toward Steve, before ducking under a branch. "Far better!" She calls back out to him as they weave past one another where the trails separate in to two options.

Lara takes the option that has her going up a slight incline leaving her up on a snowy ledge off to Steve's right. She's racing past trees, with the sunlight flowing down over her from behind her shoulders now.

That same ridge pathway slopes back down then, and Lara sweeps her vehicle back on to the merging pathway with Steve's own, leading them out over a frozen stream now!

Lara races ahead across the stream, and back up toward the bank on the other side where the path continues up between two more snowy inclines.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers hits his throttle as they come up that sharp incline from the stream, reaching the lip and flying over it into the air. Grasping the handlebars, he pushes off with his feet, briefly horizontal above his seat with his just hands grasping the snowmobile. He pulls himself back down as he hits into a big snow drift! The nose of the snowmobile digs deep and sends a plume of snow flowing over the front of the snowmobile and into his face and sending snow everywhere!

He comes out of the big explosion of snow. White snow clings thickly to his arms and shoulders, and Steve slows as he wipes his goggles clear of the clump of snow that is sticking to them. From the way his head is tipped back he's laughing.

As soon as he can see clearly again he puts on more throttle to try to catch back up to Lara as he watches her racing towards the inclines ahead.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara made it up that incline from the stream with only minor issue. Once she's back up in the main stretch of the snow covered field though, she's whipping around the embankment that Steve just plows right through, and she sees it in her mirror. It makes her laugh too, though the sound is completely lost in the freezing wind, and the sound of her rumbling engine!

She does slow down to let him catch up, giving him a playful smile on her visible lips, along with a thumbs up from her gloved right hand.

That hand shoots forward to her handle grip then as she sees the inclines coming up! She is standing / crouching again as she approaches the first one, and is soon to be heading up them while trying to keep her balance and weight shifting appropriately to aid the snow-mobile to get up these hills!

Rrrrwoooom! rrrrrooooowm! Her engine revs as she bobs up and down atop the seat until cresting over the last incline and getting a little more air again!

Thump! The Briton lands the vehicle on its skis flat and solidly there-after!

Steve Rogers has posed:
There's only a moment's respite from the engine's roar after Lara's snowmobile leaps over the hilltop, as Steve's vehicle follows, arcing through the air to land in the fresh powdered snow, if not digging in quite so deep on this landing!

Steve pulls along side and pumps his hand in an energetic recognition of the jumps. Up ahead the trail comes out on an unused field, completely covered with snow, and ringed with trees, though trails can be seen splitting off in two directions through gaps in their coverage.

Taking advantage of the wide open space, Steve guns the engine and then begins a hard turn. Leaning into it, turning as hard as he can as he does the snowmobile equivalent of donuts. As he circles around, the snowmobile starts to tip precariously, the inside ski coming up off the ground, and only throwing his weight over hard is enough to keep it from tipping over onto its side.

Steve lets up the throttle, coasting as he straightens it back out, letting it putter along as he turns about to locate Lara after the nearly dizzying tight turns.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara observes Steve's landing, his weight causing him to sink down further in the snow on his vehicle, than she does on her own. She can tell this does introduce new challenges for him, than with her own as she glides a bit more easily across the fairly deep white powder here.

She's not far away when he's tipping up in the air, and she's even adjusting her course to take herself closer to him.

Of course by the time she sweeps in close, he's already pulled himself out of the tipping threat.

"Don't die!" Lara calls out. "I don't want to have to explain it to the media!" She adds in a cheeky chide back at him.

"Where are we headed from here?" Lara then calls out to him. "The track looks less defined through this field!"

Steve Rogers has posed:
With the engines not revving quite so high it's easy enough to talk with yells back and forth. "I assure you, the last thing I want my death to do is inconvenience you!" he teases her back.

Steve swings his head about, looking at the two different passes. He reaches into a pocket pulling out his old compass and checking it briefly. "That trail," he calls, pointing off to the left. "Should lead us to a big firepit where Earl said we could start up a fire and warm up if we needed! Want to head over there and have lunch?" he calls over to her. He gives the engine a little rev. They are giving the snowmobiles a good workout, but they seem up to the task. Both are in great condition, fairly new looking at that.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's gaze goes to his compass, and then to where he points. She looks back to him, and raises up another thumbs-up. She slows her vehicle down long enough to let him take the lead now, and she falls in behind him.

Lara revs her engine a few moments later, and beeps her horn to get his attention. In his mirror, he'll see her pointing off to the north where a family of deer are walking together, though they're eyeing the loud vehicles from afar.

When they arrive at the site that Steve spoke of, Lara sweeps her snowmobile around it before she kills the engine and just sits there on its seat, her back straight as she drops her hands to atop her thighs, taking in the scenery around them now...

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers pulls his snowmobile into the clearing. Though it's covered with snow, there are logs that are placed to make a square with what is probably the firepit in the center. There is also a good sized stack of firewood, some of it split, but most of it just loose branches that the surrounding farms have likely dragged over here for community use when they came down in their various stands of trees.

The switch on his snowmobile silences the motor. Once Lara's is turned off as well, the serenity of the snow-covered New York countryside is quick to reimpose itself. The sun is trying to peek through cloud cover that diffuses the light and lets everything seem to light up at once.

Sliding off his vehicle, Steve walks over, his boots sinking into the snow a little bit as he reaches Lara's side. "You handle yourself pretty well on that," he tells her as he pulls his helmet off, removing a glove and then ruffling his hair to free it from helmet-head. "If a Duchess rides like that I can only imagine what the Princess or a Queen might manage," he teases warmly.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is just sitting there soaking up the scenery as he approaches her and makes his comments. She just grins back at him, though she does reach up to pull her goggles off her head to drape them over the helmet that she pulls up and off then too. "The Queen drove trucks in World War II. I bet she would have flown right past me on one of these things..." She fires back with a continued grin chasing her words.

Her helmet is hung on the handlbar as she stands up, placing a gloved hand over his chest through his layers of clothing.

"Practice makes perfect though..." She tells him in that lovely soothing British tone of hers.

She leans up and on her tip toes in her snow boots, pecks a kiss on his nose before she drops back down to her heels and exhales. "This place is serene." She notes of their surroundings. "So... fire duty versus food duty?" She asks him with another soft smile.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Of the Queen, Steve agrees with a warm chuckle, "I have no doubt that she would have left us both covered in snow." He smiles at the brush of lips to his nose, his gloveless hand briefly touching Lara's rosy cheek in a fond caress before he turns to regard the firepit.

"Well, I'd usually bow to the fire-making skills of the adventuring lady. Though that's quite a bit of snow to clear away," he says thoughtfully. His eyes go to the logs. "Though those need the same. "Tell you what, you get the firepit, I'll clear some of the firewood. Then while you get the fire going I'll get the logs cleared off and the food out," he suggests.

He moves back to his snowmobile, opening up the pack. He pulls out a smaller kit, walking back over to offer it to Lara. It has kindling that will burn in most any circumstance, even wet, as well as a firestarter and a small hatchet.

Lara Croft has posed:
The offered kit is accepted and Lara sets to task. "Far from the hardest fire I've had to build." She laments quietly, as Steve is likely quite sure of that fact based on the stories she's told him of her various perilous situations. Soon she's on the ground on her knees adjusting some of the materials, and soon after that she's got a glowing foundation of fire already going.

With a few gentle brushes of the materials, and a few gentle blows of air across the firewood where the flames lick, it's going quite good.

Lara's gloves are off and she's holding her hands up to absorb the warmth.

"This reminds me of some time that Roth and I spent in rural Germany." She says, turning her hands around. "We were searching for a lost convoy of trucks from World War II in fact. They were said to have come under fire in a rain storm, only to be swept under by a river current. Of course, the convoy was carrying a lot of very valuable items, from gold bars to reclaimed jewelry from the Nazi army... We actually did manage to find one of the vehicles too. It was ... quite an experience."

Steve Rogers has posed:
The logs, once dusted clean of snow, are not bad seats to use, certainly better than sitting in the snow itself. After clearing one off, Steve lifts it and drags it over to be much nearer to the fire. "No doubt it's fine back there on a summer night," he comments of the distance. "Will replace it before we go," he says with a quick wink.

"So what did you find in the trucks? Anything that you were able to return to an original owner?" he asks Lara. As they talk he gets out the food. There's the aforementioned sandwiches. Also some cold fried chicken in a Tupperware container, a bag with carrot and celery sticks, and some jerky which Steve comments, "This is venison. Apparently there's quite a few of those deer, enough that hunting season is necessary so they don't overpopulate and starve themselves," Steve comments. "At least that's what Earl said." He offers the bag of venison jerky for Lara to try and then gets a piece for himself to chew on while he gets the other food set out.

There's also the hot chocolate, and Lara's tea if she has any more. "I have a kettle and some water if you want to make a fresh pot," Steve comments of the tea, pulling out a few packages of Earl Grey.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara just flashes him a smile while watching him easily rearrange the furniture out here. His strength is unbelievable to her, but she hasn't spent a lot of time around super strength enhanced individuals in her life. She does end up taking a seat, along with that jerky. She has had such stuff before too, of course, and is quick to sample it. "It's good." She says a few moments later before trying some more. Her eyes go to the fire then as she recalls that series of memories again.

"We found a lot of ruined items, clothing, paintings, stuff that couldn't have survived such a fate. But, we did find a number of containers filled with smaller boxes of jewelry. I'm not sure what it all added up to, but Roth was very pleased with the results. He said we'd come back in the summer time to search for more, but we never did get a chance to do that..."

Lara looks over to him, smiles at him, accepting the tea with a soft 'thank you' whispered.

She drapes it all over her lap, her knees together and starts to prepare a cup to place over the flames.

"You and Roth would've gotten along quite well, I think. You're similar, in a lot of ways." She says, before getting the metal cup in place to warm the water.

"Brave, strong, always up for an adventure..." She tells Steve, showing another grin toward him with the warm firelight bathing over her visage here in the snowy backdrop.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve gets his other glove off, hanging them from a clip on his jacket so they don't get lost, and soon is seated beside Lara. The nearby fire does a nice job with the bite of the cold weather, allowing them relax more while they eat.

True blue eyes focus on Lara as Steve listens to her tale from her adventure in Germany. "I get the sense he's been a real influence on who you ended up becoming. I can only imagine then, given what a great job he did, that I would have enjoyed meeting him, yes," Steve agrees.

"How long had he been a friend of your family?" Steve inquires as he gets out a cold drumstick to begin eating. The fire crackles, but is the only noise besides their voices. The farmlands are beautiful and pristine white around them, with a pair of farmhouses only visible in the far distance. One of them with a little line of smoke wending up from its chimney, someone else enjoying a fire during the cold winter weather.

"I didn't really get a lot of outdoors activity like that in, not until the Army," Steve comments. "There just isn't a lot of room for camping out in Brooklyn," he says with a quiet grin. "It took some getting used to, I can tell you that. There were a few jokes at my expense on the part of the other Commandos before my orienteering and camping skills were fully developed."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara finishes off that jerky with her eyes upon him as he speaks. She then smiles while chewing a little. Her eyes do then move around the scenery, noting the houses off in the distance. She leans forward to retrieve the water as it gets good and hot.

"Roth, and my father, were friends long before I was born." She explains. "I was very lucky to end up with him after my father's passing too. My aunt and uncle were eager to take me in too, if not for all the wrong reasons though..."

Steve has heard about the Uncle already, and his desire to usurp the family's heritage.

"I'm not sure what I would've ended up like, if I had been forced to spend the next decade with them, rather than the wild outdoorsman in Conrad Roth." She says with no small amount of affection clear on her tone.

She gets the tea bag in to the cup of hot water then and wraps her hands around its base.

"I would've liked to see you in your younger days... Especially before the Captain America times." She now is smiling at /him/ with the affection. "You sound like a ... well... like someone I could've related to as a child myself."

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers gets a wry smile, looking down at his cup of hot chocolate. "Well, thanks to Doctor Erskine I'm definitely a bit different than I was then. I owe him a lot. I've been able to help people in ways I don't know that I could have managed without him." Even if he would have tried just as hard, super soldier or not, if given the chance.

The man looks like he's lost in his thoughts for a moment and then lets out a sigh. "They are putting together an exhibit. Down at the Smithstonian. It is kind of about the Howling Commandos, but after I saw the layout for it... ah, it had a more specific focus than I was hoping for, truth be told," he says, letting out another quiet sigh.

"Well. The guys deserve it though. I'm just hoping to get them to expand that part. But," Steve says, looking back up and over to Lara. "The reason that came to mind is they said they would be making a... well I'm not sure if it's a mannequin or what. But what I looked like before, side by side with now," he says in a tone as if he could do without the exhibit's focus on him. "I think they are going to want me down there for the opening of it. If you'd like to go... well we can spend most of the day going through the museum if you like. I'm guessing you might know it better than I do already though?"

Lara Croft has posed:
While he speaks, Lara samples her tea, and then lowers the cup. She looks over at him, leans over against him and laughs softly when he touches on the discomfort hinted in the idea of a before and after mannequin comparison.

She nods once. "I made sure that the Smithsonian was one of the very first museums I visited when coming to the States for the first time when I was little. My father was more than happy to accomodate me on that desire too." She fires back with a turn of her head to smile up at him.

"I'd be thrilled to go and see this exhibit with you though, and like it or not, you're a draw. I know that the other commandos did just as much as you did, in your eyes... but, people are psychological creatures, and thus they have behaviors and patterns. One pattern being that kids really love you, and your shield." She states with a laugh there-after.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers slides an arm gently about Lara, the hot chocolate balanced on his knee as he reaches up with the other to gently tuck a few locks of dark hair back behind her ear. "See, it's all just branding. That's the right word for it isn't it?" he says with a quiet chuckle about the kids, and his shield. "I'm pretty fond of the shield too. Saved me more times than I can count," he says, his expression growing both fond and wistful.

"Well, I just hope to live up to being the kind of role model that is worthy of that kind of attention. Though I think there's probably better people in their lives for them to look up to," he says, giving a small shrug. Accepting it is how it is.

Steve Rogers draws in a slow, deep breath of the clean winter air, and glances around at the beautiful landscape. "I'm glad we did this. I don't really get out and do things like this on my own very much. I'd say maybe you're having a good effect on me then. But there's no maybe about it," he says, smiling warmly over at the Englishwoman.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara just holds her smile as she feels him toying with her hair, not one to deny such a nice touch either, not from him now anyway. She spares a exchange of looking at the fire, then looking over at him. "I wonder if your humility was also improved by your time at war, or if it was this high even before it." She says back to him, teasing just a little maybe...

After another sip from her drink, she gives a look around the area again. A breath is taken before she talks again though. She considers how to respond to that last bit before she just finally looks back over at him, and up a little since he sits higher than she does on the log.

"I'm glad to help you get away from ... all of it. I think I can see just how much you need to do things like this, to help you make it feel that... it's all worth it. Not to say that you doubt that for even a second, but, with as much as you have weighted upon your shoulders-- sturdy as they may very well be --We... could all use some refreshing reminders, from time to time." She says softly, her voice quite sincere and thoughtful in the moment they're sharing here beside the fire.