1468/Dropa Stones: Seeing Red

Dropa Stones: Seeing Red
Date of Scene:	01 May 2020
Location:	Secure Storage: Triskelion
Synopsis:	Lara introduces her new partner on the Dropa Stones expeditions to all she has on the stones so far!
Cast of Characters:	Lara Croft, Hellboy

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Lara Croft has posed:
Hellboy had received a message that he would be teaming up as a bit of muscle and a guardian to an archaeologist from the WAND division. He may or may not be excited about that, but he was told very little of 'why' he was being assigned to her. He would've been told 'She'll brief you'.

So this is that day.

Down in the secure storage that looks like something straight out of an Indiana Jones film, Hellboy would be sent and once there he'd be picked up via an electric powered cart that would hall his big red butt across the warehouse. Passing by countless rows of boxes, crates, storage containers and other strange things.

The whole facility is well lit though, so it's all easily visible. Bright white lights shine down on the floor below and he'd have no problem seeing their destination when they came around a corner.

A giant black Tent has been setup in the middle of a wide aisle of boxes. The tent is supported by a series of metal wires that reach up to the ceiling.

When the SHIELD employee parks the cart outside of the tent, he tells Hellboy to head on inside of it.

Hellboy has posed:
To be fair, the electric cart leans a bit to Hellboy's side, making it a bit precarious and awkward for the poor guy to drive. Hellboy sits back and hunches low so he can fit, an annoyed expression on his big red face. He glances aside to watch the rows of boxes pass him by, his big stone hand leaning out to tap a corner as they pass it, like when you run down a hallway and jump up to slap a low overhang.

"So, you know anything about this guy? The archaeologist?," he asks the employee in his deep, rather impressive voice. He doesn't get any answers, though the man is clearly amused at the question. That makes Hellboy a bit grumpy, and he's happy to climb out of the cart when it parks.

There's an almost cartoonish creak and clank as the cart rights itself once he climbs out of it, and he reaches up to brush his normal fingers back through black hair. He eyes the tent before he adjusts his coat, and then he heads on inside.

Lara Croft has posed:
The man who was driving the cart was going a little fast, maybe a little too fast, and taking sharp turns. He's one of those typical strong-jawed jarhead types. Definitely ex-military. He looks over to Hellboy and gives the big red man-thing a smirk, then looks forward again. "She's hot. Like, the kind of hot that you have to go home and beat off to just thinking about her. Beyond that, I don't even know, some WAND geek." That's horribly crude.

After he parks the cart he just waits for the big guy to disembark and then grins. "Have fun." He says before the cart's electric engine makes a little silly whine as it accelerates to full speed again and vanishes around a corner with the tires squeaking on the polished concrete floor.

The black tent looms. The tent's opening is fairly easy to spot for Hellboy with a little light coming from inside of it.

When he passes in, he'll see a number of things, a single dangling wire with an orante golden sphere the size of a Soft Ball dangles from above, about 5 and a half feet off of the ground. Off to one side is a table with a lamp on it, lit up, and beside that table is the archaeologist beside it, leaned over just a little as she's reading a tablet computer propped up on the table's surface.

Whether the guard who taxi'd him here was right or not, who's to say, she's clearly in her early 20s and has her brown hair tied back behind her head. Wearing a grey button-up shirt tucked into some brown cargo pants, and leather boots, Lara looks up and spies the large Hellboy as he enters.

"Oh." She starts. "Oh, hello, yes." She's British, very British. She starts to walk toward him and offers him her hand. "I'm Lara. Croft. You must be... uh. Hellboy was it?" She asks, raising her right slender brow after saying his name.

Hellboy has posed:
The big red half-demon furrows his brow at the driver and grunts a bit. Huh. "Well, upgrade from the last guy, then..." Hellboy trails off and makes his way towards the tent. He ducks through the mouth of the tent and peers about to take it all in. He's huge, and he looms over everything in here...the beautiful Brit included.

His gaze dips over her and he blinks, grunting something to himself under his breath about 'that guy being right', and 'definatly better then the last guy.' He glances down at her offered hand, and he reaches out with his left one. His normal hand, which still dwarfs her own. He shakes it gently, and she can feel a surprising amount of heat through his skin, like a weirdly pleasant furnace.

"Yeah, Hellboy. The pro-SHIELD guys who found me as a kid gave me that name. Well, SHIELD and Cap." He shrugs those massive shoulders of his. "Lara Croft? Hm. Like the Croft Family?," he asks. So, the big guy might at least be educated (Oh, he is!).

"I'm supposed to be your new muscle. I've been sent over from the BPRD." The weird branch of SHIELD...and that's saying something, noting the other branches of SHIELD. Bizarre, half-crazy wizards, occultists and otherworldly monsters doing their work in old-oak archives and magical circles. The kind of stuff WAND tries -not- to be most of the time.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara does note the rather heated handshake, as well as everything else about the very tall and large demonic man before her. "Well, I'll admit that I've never been around someone quite like you before, and I hope that comes across more as a compliment than it might be taken by someone else." She states this and chases it with a small and brief smile.

As she draws her hand back she laces her fingers together with the opposite hand and rests them in front of her lap. "And yes, Sir Richard Croft was my father, though I'm the last of the Croft line as of today. Are you familiar with the lineage?" She asks then, tilting her head as she starts to turn and make to move back to the table where many items are stacked, sitting and stowed.

"I've meant to come check out your division, I know it's loosely affiliated with WAND, I've just been... very busy ever since being assigned here to the United States."

Hellboy has posed:
"A bit. Your lineage came up a few times when I was doing work out in the UK," the big guy replies. "Especially when I was looking into Excalibur and the location of the Lake and all that. Don't even know if you were born yet," he grunts. He turns and walks slowly around the tent, his white eyes dipping over various things as he passes them. Lara happens to be one of them.

"We're a fun little bunch. Just moved our main HQ from New Mexico, too. Still settling in out in Brooklyn with the new digs. Definatly different, but I like being so close to so, so many Starbucks." He smirks a bit to himself, and he leans down to peer at something or other before he straightens again and glances back at her.

"Thoughts on cats?," he asks, seemingly out of nowhere.

Lara Croft has posed:
Once back at the table, Lara leans back over it with her left hand supporting her and her right hand moving out to organize some of the things upon it while she listens to him. "Well, I hope to live up to whatever it is you heard of us, or exceed it if possible." She states with a glance and a smile toward him before she looks back to her work. "I have to return there soon to do some traditional public appearances, I'm not thrilled about that, but it's what my mother would've wanted, so I'll honor that." Both of her parents have passed, he may or may not know the details about that. Mother was a plane crash, and father was an apparent suicide a few years later.

Lara straigtens then and she reaches in to her backpack on the table to pull out a small leather wrapped item. "I've not been to New Mexico yet, though I'd like to. I've heard a great many things about a number of places there." She looks to him then and turns to face him, holding that wrapped item. "I've never had any pets before. Are you a cat man, Hellboy?" She asks, showing a hint of a playful grin.

She glances down at her hand and unfolds the leather wrapped item. "Have you heard of Dropa stones, by chance" She then asks.

Hellboy has posed:
"I like cats," he replies with a bit of a nod. "All kinds." He glances down at the envelope and watches as she unwraps it, cocking his head a bit to the side. He crosses his muscled arms over his bare chest and considers whatever it is she pulls into view.

"Not in particular. I've dealt with a lotta things, but that one is a miss for me. Mighta missed it while I was tossing Anubis through a gas station wall." He pauses, and then offers her a lopsided grin. "Sorry, just needed to bring that one up. Kinda proud of that one." He shrugs his heavy shoulder, then, and he brushes his fingers back over his sawed-off horns.

"Tell me about Droppa stones, Croft."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara pauses then after he says all of that and she grins very faintly while tipping her head to the side. She has to look up since he's considerably taller than her. "I think you might have a lot of stories I'd be interested in hearing sometime." She tells him softly then before she shakes her head gently and glances back down to the item in her hand. She lifts it up and sets the leather wrap it had been in aside. She offers it to him. It's a jade disc about the size of a CD, and similar shaped in that it has a hole in it's center. It's textured with an array of tiny diamond shapes. "Dropa stones have become a bit of a novelty item in gift shops, especially in China, where they were originally discovered. They're said to be ancient, the type of thing that was created before any such tools could've existed to create such an item. Though..." She smiles softly then. "Most of them are utterly fake, something to sell to tourists. Maybe to give to a child after a trip over seas, or put on a cat's head to take a funny photo for social media." That last bit makes her smirk at herself then.

Hellboy has posed:
He reaches out with his normal hand and takes the item. He turns it over in his hand and brings it up close to his eyes. He sniffs it and grunts, before looking at it very carefully.

He chuckles a bit and lowers it before holding it out to her. "Sounds like there's a 'but' to that, though. So what's the real story, hmm? Based on actual relics from pre-history? Lotsa crazy shit happened back then. All kindsa weirdness that would make your average scholar speak in tongues and end up in a padded cell. I know from experience."

Hellboy pauses, then adds, "Because I've seen it happen. Not that I spent time in a padded cell." He glances down a the item again now that he's offered it back to her.

Lara Croft has posed:
"There's always a but." Lara says back to him with a small smirk still showing for him before she steps away from him - letting him hold on to the stone for now. She walks toward the center of the black tent that they reside within and she motions to the golden sphere that hangs from it's center at about shoulder-level with her. "And no padded cells yet, for either of us I should hope. Maybe later, if my life continues on a similar course, but let's hope not." She stops at the sphere and looks back to him.

"The stones are largely fake, it's true. But not all of them seem to be. Some of them seem to be, quite unique, like yourself." She motions to the table. "Could you shut that lamp off and then bring the stone over here?" She asks him then.

Her hands go up to the sphere and she toys with it for a moment, thumb and fingertips moving to pop the golden sphere open with a little metal clink.

"Place the stone inside of this, if you would be so kind, good sir.." She then tells him.

Hellboy has posed:
"Can't think of the last time someone called me 'good sir'. I kinda like it."

He crosses the tent towards her. It takes a lot fewer steps for him then it does for her. He takes another look at the disc before he leans down to place it where she says. "And I guess I'm pretty unique, but I figure you are, too. Just different reasons. Might not be a demon and shit, but you're top of your field -and- could make a living as a model if you wanted to. Bet that's not super common, huh?"

The big man steps back and turns his attention towards the golden sphere fully, waiting and watching.

Lara Croft has posed:
His counter compliment for her makes her show a honest and sincere smile to him, albeit soft, like most things seem to be about her personality thus-far. "That's so sweet." She tells him then. "I appreciate the kind words."

After he sets the stone disc down inside of the sphere's interior, Lara steps forward again and she checks on it and then seals the sphere up again with another metal clink. "There." She tells him as she turns then and walks to the table in the room and turns the lamp off, which leaves them both in pitch black inside of the tent.

"One second..." Lara says within the black, her voice quiet and coming from Hellboy's right side.

Another moment passes and there's new light within the tent, coming from the sphere, a minty green hue that starts to grow brighter and brighter as the sphere is now beginning to rotate? It's starting to spin, and with it a quiet sound is growing louder. It's a melodic little tune, that is almost like a strange ghostly whistle, or a haunting bird's song.

Both Hellboy and Lara are now bathed in that minty green glow, with the music softly playing as the sphere spins before them. "As you can see, an interesting reaction once placed inside this device. Yes?"

Hellboy has posed:
"Mmm," he responds to her question. Hellboy steps closer, leaning in a bit to watch it. He cocks his head to listen to the haunting sound, and then glances back at her. "Definatly Weird. Capital W. Where'd you find the thing to play it in?," Big Red asks curiously. He then turns back to the device and steps back until he's standing by her side.

"Occult science isn't that rare of a thing. Well, not if you know where to look. Kinda reminds me of some of the Ogru machines Rasputin was using...or that nazi prick down in Brazil. Not exactly the same, but...they share enough similarities to set my teeth on edge a bit."

Lara Croft has posed:
"A colleague, in fact, lead me to the stones, which were located in a small curio shop in Manhattan's Chinatown." Lara replies as to where she started on this journey. She looks over and up at him in the dim light. "The owner of that shop spoke of the stone's origins and how they came from the sky." She points upward, implying aliens?

Her stare goes forward again to the glow and she continues. "The shop owner spoke of a device that could read the information stored on the stones, if it could be found and retrieved. Which is what I just spent the better part of the past two weeks accomplishing. I found it on the black market, well... previously on the black market. It was in the hands of a freighter captain who believed it to be an ancient map that could guide him to lost treasures under the sea." She glances back to the large one beside her and shows a grin in the dark.

"It took some convincing and a fair amount of dollars, but I acquired it from him." It wasn't a grand tomb raiding adventure, but it was an exciting trip none the less. "I've been testing it with the stones that I have, and if you pay close attention... not to the device itself, but..."

Lara turns to put the glowing sphere behind her and she reaches up and over to place a hand on HB's arm to coax him to turn around too. She then motions to the walls of the tent they're inside.

On the walls is a map... of the Earth. It's slowly spinning around them and it's being constantly shifted and updated as though it's tracking 'things' across the continents, like a light green laser show.

Hellboy has posed:
He is just as warm as before through his red skin, and she can feel the tight muscle beneath it. He turns with her to peer at the map of the Earth. Hellboy grunts and steps towards it, his spaded tail whipping about behind him a bit, as if restless or anxious. It seems to show his real emotion, even as he acts stoic. That might be annoying sometimes...or rather informative.

"Pick up any Mogwai while you were there?," he asks absently. His white eyes flick about, the big man taking in the shifting points to see if he might remember anything important about the specific places being marked, or if he can note any kind of pattern. "The Big Bads...the terrifying things just beyond our layer of reality...like the stuff that old racist Lovecraft wrote about? That's spacewards, too. Well, kinda beyond that, but..." He shrugs.

"So this could be connected to legit aliens, in which case I'll help as muscle but I'm gonna be useless as a scholar...or one of those eldritch things. In that case I'm more then a fist and a pretty face." He glances back towards her.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara isn't very good at the Pop Culture references, she didn't grow up watching television or movies. She's probably sell less movies than years on Earth. She watches him step over closer to the tent's wall with the map being slowly rotated before them, then glances to his tail as it brushes against her leg and catches her a bit off guard as she hadn't seen that part of him yet. She catches herself watching it for a moment before his words draw her eyes back and she then steps to join him and motions toward the map before them.

"I know that they likely pitched all of this as just muscle support for me. When I signed up for this job, I'd told them that I'd preferred to work alone, but they'd told me they also prefer their agents coming back alive." She smirks in the dark before nodding toward the map as a new continent swings around toward them.

Africa.

"There." Lara says in that silky smooth British flavored voice of hers. He reaches her right hand out and motions to just in in front of him before the landmass passes in front of him and will be blocked out by his considerable frame.

In the upper center of the continent, there's a swirling mark, almost like a Hurricane. "Something is telling us to go there." She says, then looks over and up at him. "Every stone I have has a different indicator positioned in a different spot across the globe. Whatever is there, I'd be happy to have your assistance in finding out."

Hellboy has posed:
"Well, you got it," he replies. He glances down at her and offers a lopsided grin. His tail brushes her calf again, and he reaches down to slap it aside. "I was just reading the Codex Gygas for the fourth time, so I could use some fresh air. I mean, don't get me wrong, those 13th-Century Czech devil-worshipping monks really knew how to make a compelling narrative but..." He winks at her and turns back towards the map.

He brushes his coat aside on one side, and he idly pats the enormous handcannon resting there, beside a belt of odd looking bullets. This is also when she'll likely see the way his pants cling to his clearly inhuman legs...and the large hooves beneath it all.

"Besides, the Good Samaritan hasn't seen action in awhile. He's feelin' all pent-up. Needs some release." He pauses then, and shakes his head, glancing back at the map. "Too much time around soldiers, and not ladies. Sorry about that one."

Lara Croft has posed:
The tail gets another glance and a light smile as she sees him bat it away. She doesn't comment on it though as she just lets it slide and she looks back up to him when he mentions that book. It's hard to pull Lara Croft off of whatever topic she's currently enamored with, but that book is a subject that's capable of it. "You have a copy of the Codex Gigas?" She asks him then. "I would love to see it some time. I've yet to get a chance to..." She stops herself and shows him a grin in the dim light.

"I could ramble. I should stay on topic." And as they turn back around and he speaks further, she glances at his gun and after realizing his insinuation she has to softly laugh. "I understand your meaning, and that weapon looks rather intimidating. I'm sure it could leave a hole inside the average person, if not halve them straight in to two."

Lara approaches the sphere and she starts to take the stone from it which causes the song to quietly discontinue along with the light. "I'm not yet sure what the significance of the music that plays is, but it plays differently with every stone as well. I'm still researching that." She says as they're both bathed in darkness again and she has to walk toward the table to get to the lamp that is there.

She bumps in to him on the way and laughs lightly. "Sorry." She states.

Hellboy has posed:
"I might be able to sneak ya in," he responds, glancing down at her with a lopsided grin. "If you're good." He's clearly teasing her by his tone. He nods, then, and glances back towards the map. "He's a good boy," he grunts, patting the gun again. "But I really prefer getting up close and personal. But I've got all kinds special ammo. Cold iron. Blessed. Salt. Silver. Moonrock dust. You'd be surprised what kinda weird thing works on what beastie."

Hellboy turns to follow her back over when she removes the disc from the sphere. His hand slips out and catches her side when she bumps him, as if worried his size might knock her over. It's that enormous, odd stoneish hand this time. He withdraws it with a chuckle.

"Croft, you bumpin' into me is the last thing you gotta apologise for."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara laughs quietly at what Hellboy says as she side steps him and then the light at the table comes back on to illuminate the tent. "I didn't want to step on your tail by accident." She responds then before picking up the leather wrap and placing it back inside then putting it back within her leather backpack.

"But yes, now you're filled in on the basics of why they sent you to team up with me on this project. Of course, I still have some more research to do... But by the sounds of it, you're well equipped for the job. I can't imagine we'll... you know, find any living threats at these locations, but you can never tell, yes?"

As she faces him now she place sher hands on the back of her hips with her elbows out. "I was told you've gone up a great many types of enemies and though I was given a small description of your... stature, now that I see you face to face, I can see that there's probably not many things in this world that could intimidate quite as well as yourself." She's smiling softly then again.

"So thank you for my little, presentation on all of this. I hope it wasn't boring."

Hellboy has posed:
"I grew up around dusty old occultists and government agents, Croft. Trust me. I know boring...and you're about as far from it as you can get."

His gaze dips down over her when she stands like that, and he grunts before he glances aside. "Well, I'm your man for as long as you need me. If there aren't threats then we'll enjoy a romp around the world. If there are...well...that'll be fun, too." He glances back at her and grins with his big white teeth. His brow furrows a bit, then, and he takes a step towards her, looming a bit before he grins down at her.

"I don't scare ya, do I? I don't mean to. I'm just a big guy. I mean, I can throw cars at people and shit, but..." He shrugs those massive shoulders.

Lara Croft has posed:
"Heavens no." Lara replies to his question if he scares her. She moves her right hand forward and motions toward him. "Quite honestly, now that we've met I'm not as anxiety ridden with the notion of being assigned a partner on the expeditions for these locations. I was worried that we wouldn't get along, but now that we've had a chance to speak a little, I think it sounds as though we might have a number of similar interests."

She moves to cross her arms over her stomach then and she offers him another light smile. "So yes, I think this will be an enlightening duo. I look forward to hearing many of your stories." She certainly does her best to be as kind and accepting as she's able to be, perhaps it's related to her upbringing as British nobility. "Or it's just who she in her heart."