14894/Lara's Boulders Look Better Than Indy's

Lara's Boulders Look Better Than Indy's
Date of Scene:	10 May 2023
Location:	Ancient Ruins
Synopsis:	Lara leads Cap to a Savage Lands temple in search of artifacts to help with the problems there.
Cast of Characters:	Lara Croft, Steve Rogers

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Lara Croft has posed:
The drive in to 'The Pit' area of the dense jungle was not an easy one. The small road that lead down here wasn't ever designed for modern vehicles, and the jungle had mostly claimed it over, requiring a lot of front line work to clear the path. But the 'bridge' had been the part everyone was most nervous about. Crossing heavy vehicles over a stone bridge dating back to who even knows how long ago. It was clear it had some maintenance done on it to keep it functional from local inhabitants, but it was not safe for travel by any means. Sadly it was the most direct, easiest way to get this much of a team in to the heart of the Pit area itself.

And that is where all of Lara's research was pointing toward finding information that could benefit the operations here in the Savage Lands.

Once the expedition made it over the bridge though, it became a matter of cutting one's way through the foliage to the ruins that eventually became visible through the thick jungle cover.

Now, three hours after arriving, the team was in full research mode. Not one temple ruins had been found, but five of them had been found. Massively overgrown, there were work crews using all manner of chainsaws and machetes to clear the area out as much as humanly possible. Some armed groups were patrolling, and had already dealt with some pretty unsettling wildlife, which made tensions a little high amongst those in the know on that.

But the bulk of the researchers were exploring the temple ruins themselves, and many of the teams were pulling recovered artifacts out of the ruins.

Lara had overseen all of it, but she wasn't satisfied with the results overall. Steve would know her feelings on this, as she'd be sharing them with him in private. She'd said that they were finding remarkable evidence of cultural fingerprints here. Stone carvings of other worldly beings. Tablets etched in languages she'd never even seen before. But something hadn't been right for her.

Eventually she'd pulled Steve aside and showed him something. One of her long researched 'Dropa Stones' and a brass sphere that she said to Steve was one of the main reasons she'd come here. She'd shown him the Dropa Stone, and how it interacted with the sphere itself. She'd found a dark room for the two of them to put the stone and sphere together... which had created a hell of a lightshow for them within the dark space.

Lara had paced around within the light show, that was showing them a 3d map of the Earth as it looked ages ago, an untold number of years gone by.

Ultimately Lara had pointed to a specific spot on one of the stone walls where it was indicated 'This is it. This is where we are right now...' She'd told Steve. 'Almost anyway. We're not quite there yet...'

And she'd proceeded to show him some coordinates to a specific spot only a couple miles from where they were at the newly discovered temple hub.

'We have to go to these coordinates. We have to see what lies in wait for us there. It could entirely be connected to what we need for this place.' She'd said to him with passion. 'But we need to go alone, just the two of us. If we go with a large force, we might draw unwanted attention from the jungle, or from whatever might be there...'

And so it was, Lara and Steve had gathered some gear, told the right people their plans, and they'd set out.

Here and now, the two are trekking through the jungle not unlike they had in New Guinea.. though with the afternoon sun covered by clouds, and a light rain falling it's created a bit of a humidly uncomfortable condition.

Lara pauses to wipe a thumb across her wrist watch, she looked up to the sky, then back down to Steve. "We're almost there." She tells him, dressed in a drab green expedition shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, a pair of shorts that go down to her mid thighs, and a pair of tall boots that go up nearly to her knees. Not her usual attire for this sort of thing, but they were a nice way to stay somewhat away from overheating. She adjusts he

Lara Croft has posed:
She adjusts her small backpack and pushes a fingerless gloved covered had past some foliage in her way before she leads them around a curve in the natural land. When they come around the curve, they find themselves face to face with something right out of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Or the Temple of Doomk more like it. A wooden suspension bridge over a deep chasm, with two sinister looking statues standing guard on either side of the bridge's entry mouth. Lara pauses, and looks back to Steve, then back to the bridge. It is in utter disrepair, and doesn't remotely look safe to venture across...
.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers was glad to get away from the other site. Though most of the SHIELD field agents and Helicarrier personnel keep their reactions to him a bit toned down, he's found that is often not the case with the science specialists.

"Really. And so it chased him under the tree roots? That does sound like the kind of thing that could happen here. Though I haven't seen this Avatar movie," Steve had had to remind Jensen on more than one occasion. Getting away from the main camp was a chance to get away from the man's attempts to buddy up, which Steve had just endured in good-natured fashion.

"Well," Steve comments to Lara as they hike through the jungle, the man wearing his dark blue costume with some silver trim on it. This particular one breathes pretty well so isn't quite as hot as it looks. Not that it is exactly cool either. "I mean one nice thing about the Savage Lands is the lack of mosquitos. Or, normal sized ones anyway. The ones that pick you up and fly off with you are a different sort of concern, granted," he is saying as they round the corner and get a look at the bridge.

Steve walks over to it, eyeing the statue and then reach out to give a very gentle tug on one of the ropes. "I think this is older than I am," he comments warily. Though it doesn't give way on that tug, he moves over to try each of the main ropes. He looks around both directions. "I don't see another way to cross without adding a few days," he tells her, looking back to Lara. He gives it another few tugs, enough to simulate his weight. "Don't think the planks can be trusted so best if we give it a try, to keep our feet on the ropes themselves."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara stands off to Steve's right as he makes that quip about the rope bridge's age. She was running her eyes along it, taking in the state of it before she steps up to him again. "At least parts of it." She says back to him, showing him a sweet smile at her little jab before her left half-gloved hand touches his arm lovingly. "But yes, it looks like some of the locals have tried to upkeep it, but probably not in a long... long time."

Lara spares a look at the statues then, since they're standing right up close and personal with them, they're both reptilian in shape with wicked eyes, their mouths open and massive fangs jutting from their mouths.

"Not very inviting either. Likely intentionally so..." She comments as she takes her backpack off her shoulders, working her arms out of it before she starts to set something up. "We'll cross it, but I think I can help make it a little safer..." She notes.

What Steve will see her doing next is putting together her archery equipment. The limbs snapping in to the base of the bow, the strings snapping taut once they're deployed, and then a stretch of rope being taken from her backpack. It might become clear what her plan is, at some point during the setup, but by the time she has it ready it's quite clear indeed.

"Hold this." Lara tells him with regard to the length of rope. "By its end, here.." She softly indicates.

Just a moment later and the young woman is raising up her bow in her left hand, while her right is pulling back on an arrow tipped with a broadhead anchor... tied to the other end of the rope.

And she fires it.

Her bow 'thwaps' and Steve will find he's holding on to the far end of a rope that is rapidly uncoiling as the arrow its attached to flies gracefully across the gorge before spearing right in to the trunk of a huge old tree on the other side.

Lara had just stood there, stepping back to watch as a bit of light rain drops fall down upon them both. When she sees the arrow securely staying inside the trunk of the tree, she looks over to Steve and smiles flatly. "Want to tie it off to one of our kind welcoming friends?" She asks him of the statues beside them. "I'll get the climbing gear out..." She then adds.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers watches Lara prepare the bow. It doesn't take much to draw up his admiration for the young woman. Her competence and intelligence are appealing to Steve, and he never stops appreciating seeing her at this when they are in the field together.

He holds the rope, and gives it a few careful test pulls to make sure the anchor can support their weight. "Nice shot," he says when it seems to be stable. He moves over to the statue, eyeing it. "I wonder if these are the ones who were keeping the maintenance up," he comments. He gives the statue a few tugs and pushes, making sure it too is securely enough anchored. When it meets his approval, he loops the rope around it and ties it off securely so that the rope runs across the same space as the bridge.

He pulls out a quartet of carabiners from his pack, affixing a strong rope between pairs and then moves over to Lara, hooking one onto her belt and then onto the rope. Then repeats the process for himself. "I can go first," he says. "If it's going to hold for me it should hold for you after I've crossed," Steve comments, before starting out across the bridge.

Lara Croft has posed:
Another smile is given to Steve as Lara listens to him offer to go first. "Ever the gentleman." She fires back in her soft English accented voice. She gives his arm another stroke before she finishes resecuring her equipment to her backpack which is once more slung over her shoulders. Once she gets herself hooked to the rope she nods softly to him once. "I've done this quite a few times in the past. It has had... mixed results, but these conditions are a lot better for it than some of the previous attempts I've made. It should be solid. Thank Roth," her former mentor. "As this was all his training. Recklessly Effective, is what I believe he would call it." She flashes a grin then before she approaches the bridge and attaches herself to what he setup.

"i'm good to go though... Gentlemen first." She adds with another playful expression.

She'll follow after him, and soon they're testing the bridge, her following his footsteps as she holds on to the old ropes on either sides of them... It's pretty damn precarious, and as they get out over the chasm, they'll see nothing but trees beneath them, and what looks like a running stream of water mixed in with a lot of mud and jungle... a good two hundred feet down.

Steve Rogers has posed:
"Some people don't have a head for heights," Steve comments as he makes his way slowly, feet spread wide to step on the ropes rather than the wooden planks that look like they might be lucky even supporting their own weight. "Was never really a problem for me," he says. "We used to climb the Brooklyn Bridge sometimes in the summer. Watch the fireworks on the 4th from it," he says.

He stops as there's an ominous sounding creak from one of the ropes. Though it continues to hold. He continues forward slowly. "Though Bucky always said they didn't bother me because I was too stupid to know better. Sometimes I wonder if he might be right about that," Steve says, sparing a moment to glance over his shoulder to flash Lara a small smile, before turning back to focus on his footing as he moves forward. He slides the carabiner along their safety rope as he goes.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is right there behind Steve as they start out over the bridge and proceed further across it toward its middle. She has her eyes down to watch her footing closely.

"You should invite Bucky over for drinks some time." She says to him as she spares a glance up to him to meet his eyes when he looks back over his shoulder at her. She flashes him a smile. "I need to hear some of these old stories from his perspective... It is only fair that I get the full, unbiased, version of these tall tales." She lightly teases him as she steps over one of the unappealing boards, and around some that are long gone from the bridge, fallen below and consumed by the jungle some untold years ago...

"In fact... If Bucky has anyone he'd like to bring as a plus one, it could be fu--"

There's a crack and Lara's right foot goes down through one of the boards, the ropes of the old bridge tense up as she pulls on them for balance, and the rope they newly connected over their heads pulls a little tighter as the woman tests its strength for real, likely pulling Steve back a little too!

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers steadies himself as the safety rope suddenly dips, taking Lara's weight. He turns around towards her, but rather than going to her and putting both their weight right at the same spot, he asks, "Are you ok?" can you get back up?"

He glances towards the arrow-delivered anchor, which seems to be holding up well with the safety rope. And then over towards the statue. Seeing a few little pebbles falling off of it where the rope is attached doesn't make him feel any better, but he doesn't burden Lara with that yet seeing as there is nothing they can do about it.

Lara Croft has posed:
Adrenaline was a drug that Lara was quite addicted to, and those who knew her well were likely well aware of it. She grips the old ropes with her half gloved hands, and steadies herself as his question comes. "I'm good." She says, pulling herself up again to partially view the way back and the statue that their rope is anchored to behind them. "That one looked deceptively sturdy." She adds with a heavy exhale coming out from between her lips.

When Steve turns forward again, he'll see something up by the tree that their securing arrow is embedded inside of, movement. Something is moving behind the tree's leaves.

The rope bridge sways as the two progress onward, and with just a few more steps taken Steve will be able to see a red and black furred monkey creature appearing in the tree down near the arrow. It is looking all around it, and it is reaching out tentatively to touch the arrow...

They're about twenty feet from the other side of the gorge with a pretty nasty gap ahead of them in missing boards too before they can reach the other side...

"How are you? Ever crossed one of these before?" Lara asks, not aware of the monkey as she has her eyes down between them.

Steve Rogers has posed:
"Oh sure," Steve says, keeping his voice nonchalant as he feels anything else while watching the monkey. "You should have been with me on a really rickety one," he says, though in that tone that she'll be able to detect some of Steve's lighthearted humor.

He wraps one leg around one of the ropes that connect the bottom lines of the bridge to the handrail-like ones, and slowly pulls his shield off of his back. "Bucky's seeing Wanda as it turns out. I suggested the other day that the four of us should-" he says, and then hurls his shield.

It flies across the gorge, bouncing off the ground and ricocheting up to bounce off the tree just above where the arrow is. Missing the monkey, but hopefully scaring it off as the shield bounces back and flies overhead of the bridge to where Steve can reach up and grab it back out of the air.

"-get together for dinner some night," Steve says as if the interruption hadn't taken place. He glances back over his shoulder again at Lara. "He liked the idea," he says, smiling to Lara and then turning back to continue on to the far side.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara has her eyes down when Steve nonchalantly removes his shield from his back. She doesn't look up until he throws it, as that movement draws her attention. From behind his left shoulder, Croft leans over to watch where he was throwing it...

The shield soars the distance, makes an expertly crafted diversion that causes the monkey to shriek and leap back up in to the tree, terrified for its little fuzzy life at whatever the hell that star spangled UFO had been!

When the shield is caught back in Steve's hand, Lara looks up to him again with an expression of befuddlement mementarily gracing her visage.

"Remind me never to play against you in a game of pool... or bowling, for that matter..." She idly says before they resume their precarious trek...

They reach the other side then without incident, and Lara takes a moment to disconnect herself from the rope she'd shot across the gorge. She slips her connector in to the mirrored statue that sits waiting on the opposite side from where they started, though this one's head has broken off in to many pieces that sit stuck deep down in to the earth around their feet.

"Well that wasn't so bad." She tells him with a smile. "Aside from a bit of monkeying around... of course." Oh British humor.

Lara pays Steve a sweet smile as she steps past him now on to the overgrown pathway ahead of them.

"We're almost there." She says, her map device pulled up from her belt. She takes several steps down the pathway before stopping on a old stone placed deep inside the ground. Before them is a set of winding stairs of the same old stones, sweeping down in to the jungle to some unseen place below. "More walking." She says. "At least this is down hill though, right?" She asks as she starts on downward.

It only takes them a few minutes before they're passing between stone pillars, etched in strange markings, symbols, icons, and pictures of strange alien faces, mixtures of humans, animals, and unrecognizable imagery.

All around them life is teaming, the sounds of the jungle thick in the air, with a cacophony of different fauna sounds echoing through the lavish region.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Blue eyes shine with warmth back at Lara at her idle comment. After unhooking himself from the rope, Steve returns the equipment to his pack and slings it over a shoulder as they start forward again.

He eyes the markings on the pillars. "Any of this looking familiar to you?" he asks, calling on Lara's expertise with such things. He turns his head as he hears a roar that sounds like a great feline of some type, but no sign of whatever might have caused it emerges from the jungle.

Steve walks forward, looking about for any signs of anyone else having passed this way. "I wonder how long since the last people walked here," he comments aloud. "And what it's purpose was."

Lara Croft has posed:
"I think there was conflict here." Lara starts her response after he asks about the symbols. "I think that whatever this place was, it had a tumultuous beginning." She states as she pauses beside one of the pillars and places her right hand upon one of them. She points with her half gloved bare finger aimed at one of the alien faces. "These are the Settlers, as I've come to call them." She tells him, her brown eyes looking over to his blue. She drops her finger down to one of the Humans wearing what looks like a dragon head on top of his own head. "These are the origins of the Fall People..."

She draws in a breath then, and shakes her head as her other hand rests on her hip. "I'm not sure how old any of this place is, so it makes it hard to really pinpoint ideas down. But if I had to guess, I think this place could very well likely predate the Younger Dryas period. Are you familiar with it?" She asks him before she draws in a breath. "So... twelve to thirteen thousand years?" She questions in-general, with her eyes looking around at the other pillars. "Some of this looks far older, while other bits of it look as though different local tribes have tried to restore it, keep it going... keep the memories alive..."

She looks back to Steve then, and just smiles softly. "It's a lot to take in though." She tells him before she turns and starts off down the sloped staircase.

Soon, they're coming around another bend and this time with a stone pathway that leads forward in to a long series of pillars and archways that approach a temple peaking out from behind foliage. Another one like the rest of their team remained back at, though this one looks smaller, in this much more secluded area within the Pit.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve observes the stone pillars, reaching out to run a finger over a couple of the pictographs. He gives a little shake of his head to Lara's question as he looks them over. "I don't think the Younger Dryas period was on the curriculum for P.S. 112," he says, naming the public school he attended in Brooklyn.

He turns as they start forward. "You know I kind of envy you the whole college experience. I've heard any number of people refer to living in that kind of environment being the best years of their lives. Not that I'd trade how things went for me. But it would have been nice to experience," he comments.

They take the turn in the path and Steve spies the temple and the lush vegetation growing up everywhere around it. "You know, this wouldn't be too bad of a spot for some kind of getaway," he says, looking around. Then fixing his gaze on Lara and grinning a bit. "I mean, other than the dinosaurs, the giant bugs, the man-eating jungle predators. And whatever it was that gave Hopkins those boils."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara had laughed softly at the college comments. "I think the people who feel that way about it are the ones who just did a lot of... recreational social drinking." She said with a grin cast back at him, but soon they're facing that temple across the stoney pathway, and Lara is left to run her eyes across it. Her hands go up to her backpack straps as she just takes in the sight of it all.

She looks back to Steve after the mention of Hopkins' boils, and she just breezes on past that.

"You know what the hardest part of being an archaeologist is?" She asks him then, letting only a small silence linger before she continues. "Knowing that everything in the history books, from when I was a kid... from when you were a kid... has been entirely wrong. But that's the point of all of this. We have to ever keep going, ever keep searching, ever keep changing the history books... which is what so many refuse to do. We, as a society, constantly get in our own way... out of hubriss, out of greed.... out of, you name it."

Lara continues on ahead now, walking with a more dedicated stride to her step. They pass beneath the archways until they reach a set of steps that are not so easily climbed, as they are at least 4 times taller than your average modern staircase.

"It is one reason I don't look forward to conversations with my peers in this field, as very few of them are willing to step out of the educations they received in their college years." Lara says as she works her way up those steps, her body moving with a expert conditioning, a ever-present grace, and when she stops at their apex she looks back over to him. "I was the same way in college... in fact. It wasn't until I got out of it, and experienced my first 'adventure' that I began to see the truth... and the truth is much more exciting, in so far as to say that so much of what we think is true, just isn't..."

And now the two face a deep dark entryway to the temple, filled with old foliage gathered around the edges of the corridor that can be seen.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve follows along at Lara's side, listening. Though his expression turns to a little bit of concern at how tall those steps are. He doesn't break her train of thought though, knowing that letting Lara get things like that off of her chest are one of the ways that he can be there for her.

Though when she's finished the thoughts, he looks back at the steps. "So, would something like that be decorative? Or, designed to match the stride of something that normal steps would be a bit too small for?" he asks.

He drops his shield off his back and slips his arm into the straps to hold it securely, as if he's suspecting the latter. "Though granted a lot of years have passed since they designed it."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's mind was racing over a variety of things when he asked about the steps. She had to refocus her mind on the here and now to get what he was implying. It makes her grin to him. "Massive feet. Huge. Like 'The Hulk'." She says back at him, though that expression on her youthful face is one he knows well by now, one of her teasing. A moment later and she continues. "It was a very long time ago. There likely were wooden steps on each shelf once upon a time... Dust in the wind, as they say." She says as she bumps shoulders with him.

A second later and her belt light is flipped on, and a beam of LED light streams out from her left hip in to the dark tunnel ahead of them. Lara's booted feet carry her forward, the sounds of crunching leaves under foot carrying the pair in to the ancient corridor.

Soon they're passing more ominous statues that are looking down at them from niches inside the walls. More of those 'Settlers' as Lara had called them, all staring down at the new visitors to their long lost temple.

"But as I was saying..." Lara starts again, her eyes looking around, her throat stretched a bit as she's looking up above them, on either side of them. "I believe the ancient Fall People revolted against the Settlers. I have gotten enough in to the texts, the stories, and the various imagery to see indications that the Fall People tried to push back against possible experimentation... possible exploitation... and though some are believing that these 'extra-terrestials' created this place to help the natives of it... I'm not yet convinced myself, that that is the case."

Lara's belt light shines now upon a stone column, a door, sealed and blocking their further progress. It's covered in symbols, line patterns, and a few different niches that are empty now, but look as though they may have once contained candles, or some kind of apparatuses.

Lara is already scanning over it all, stepping up to it as she reaches a hand out to stroke bare fingers across the various lines carved in to the old rock.

"I think this is like the map... that I showed you. From the Dropa Stone device." She says, paying Steve a side glance then.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers had taken a last look down at the too-large steps after Lara's explanation. "It's not really the Hulk's feet that concern me," he says in a good-natured tone before turning to join Lara on moving further into the ancient temple.

Captain America's eyes survey the hallway, pausing to look at one and another of the statues as if perhaps intuiting what he can on what they might have been like. "Life felt a bit simpler before we knew about all the other life out there," he comments quietly. "Whether it had already visited us or not," he says, lost in thoughts for a moment before he finally turns back to join Lara at the end. He moves over to one of the empty niches, giving it a closer examination. Pulling out a light to illuminate it better.

Lara Croft has posed:
Once more Lara's backpack was removed from her shoulders, the woman finding a place to crouch down to pull items from it. When she came back up she offered him something. It's one of those metal spheres, the same kind that she put the Dropa Stone inside of back at the base camp amongst the larger temples. "It's the 'Small Town Effect'." Lara says to him then as she hands him a Dropa Stone as well. It's a small jade disc, almost like ancient history's version of a CD or record. "There is a comforting feeling to the idea that you're safely amongst a small community of faces that you know, that you can guess what the next day will be like, because it most likely will be like the last several thousand..." She continues as she produces two more of those spheres, and two more Dropa Stones. "Believing that Earth was alone, as weird as it might seem, is a comforting thought compared to the notion that Earth is just another planet amongst a countless amount who we are so utterly vulnerable to the whims of..." She idly says as she slips one of the jade discs in to one of the sphers, then repeats with the other.

She nods to the ones he's holding. "Slip it in there, then fasten it here.." She helps him before she motions to the upper niche in the door. "I have a feeling this is what we're looking for..." The young woman says as she goes for the two lower niches in the stone doorway, and is soon to gently places the metal spheres in to small grooves within the niches themselves.

Once they're in place, she'll take Cap's elbow in her right hand and pull him to step back, offering him another light separate from his own belt light as she detaches hers from her hip. "Shine both of these lights upon those two." She points to the upper one he'd placed, and the one on the right while she focuses her own light on the left Dropa Sphere, twisting the edge of her light's lense until it's a tight small beam upon the Dropa Sphere's body...