15541/The Breast Stroke

The Breast Stroke
Date of Scene:	03 August 2023
Location:	Olympic Pool: Triskelion
Synopsis:	Lara and Darcy catch up at the olympic swimming pool in the Triskelion.
Cast of Characters:	Lara Croft, Darcy Lewis

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Lara Croft has posed:
It is around 8pm at the Triskelion and most people are either off-shift or embracing the late shift. At this hour the hallways are a bit less occupied, though the gym and athletics of the Trisk are always in-use by someone. The pool, a little less so at this hour, but still... even it gets occupied at this time of day, especially because it's a little bit more quiet.

Lara was on-site late tonight, working at the WAND office all day, seeking a reprieve from her studies. As such, she's stepping out of the ladies changing area now, wearing a black and silver two-piece suit that is similar in material to a wet-suit, snug and form-fit, but still practical and not the kind you might find at a public beach.

The brunette British woman is carrying her towel over to a seating area where she drops it down with a small bag, and her phone. She stands beside it, music playing on her phone, as she raises her hands up to take hold of her loose hair, her hands starting to tie it back as her eyes go to the big blue pool with its shimmering waters in front of her.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Darcy sometimes keeps weird hours!

There are days when she works her more normie 'day jobs,' be that at Columbia where she has her research position (and thus unfortunately is sometimes forced to teach a class!) during the school year, or at the AMNH - the umbrella for the planetarium. When she's at SHIELD, though? Those tend to be long nights filled with unusual work. She spent months fighting aliens, and almost got mind-probed by one. Now she's trying to learn time travel. It's not going particularly well, but still. The latter may be particularly appropos to losing track of all time and space.

Thus, while cut off from natural light, she sometimes gets in her daily physical routines at strange times. She's evidently already at it when Lara emerges from the locker room (sparing them an initial encounter there!), swimming laps in the sizable pool. By far one of the LEAST athletic SHIELD agents you'll find, this is a nice, low-impact, generally less hardcore thing she can do to not feel like she's totally slacking!

Splish, splish!

Swimming in from the further end of the pool, it's not until she reaches the nearby edge that she's in a position to encounter the fact she has company. Clinging to the side, she comes up with a splash and a deep breath. Darcy is wearing the whole deal: she's only lightly stuffed into a SHIELD-issue basic athletic swimsuit, with goggles on over her eyes and even a swim cap to keep her fairly voluminous hair from plastering all over the place as she swims.

"Oh! Hey. Didn't see you come in- Agent Croft?" The question mark highlights that the goggles do limit visibility a bit. Or maybe she's hesitant even to wear contacts in the pool? Some combination of those.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is in that process of tying her hair back when Darcy's well accessoried head pops out of the water. Lara recognizes her immediately, even through the goggles and swim cap, and it summons a happy little smile upon her youthful visage. "Darcy." She says with a friendly affection for the other woman. They may not be best friends, but they've had the pleasure of working with one another several times, and even went on a trip to Mexico for the Day of the Dead celebration there last year.

"You're in later than I would've expected." The Briton says to the star-girl of SHIELD>

Lara pads across the edge of the pool on her bare feet, ending up near one of the swimming race starting points a lane or two over from where Darcy is treading water.

"How have you been?" She asks then, her eyes going to the water, then back to Darcy. "I haven't seen you since the Svage Lands ordeal. You haven't been assigned there this whole time, have you?" She inquires further before she unceremoniously dives in to the water, her form absolutely perfect as she knives right under the surface, her body moving in a blurry shimmering wave beneath the water's blue hue.

It takes her about a minute before she surfaces again, only a handful of feet away from where Darcy would've been when she dived in.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"Lost track of time in the lab," Darcy answers, somewhat predictably. Then she pauses, as if realizing what she's just said. "... possibly literally. I hope it didn't get away too far."

Her recent work is all very strange!

Leaning on the edge of the pool, she pushes the little swim goggles up onto her forehead, turning as Lara crosses over to grab her own lane. "I'm pretty good," she answers first, in the socially normalized way people always say that, before considering the actual question. "In Antarctica? No, no. Xenobiology isn't my thing at all, so I'd be pretty useless to the follow-up."

"In fact, that whole thing was pretty- well, I guess when you work around here, you start to learn other skill-sets whether you ever planned to or not." Darcy would never have in a million years ever imagined herself in a military vehicle on a clandestine mission in Kazakhstan, for instance. "But no, after that I took my vacation weeks, and now, no, I'm working on this... have you seen the intel briefs on the Damocles? Anyway, they have me back in the lab."

Which she says as if it's very much the best possible outcome "Or on rotations up to the Peak." When your daily commute involves going into high orbit...

Any other thoughts stay in her head as she opens her mouth only to watch Lara dive into the water. It stays open, a little bit, because that top-notch form really is something to watch. "Gee, a Countess AND an Olympic athlete and..." she mutters to herself, long before Lara swims back! She hasn't moved. "Oh! You're there. Hello. Well, ah, and what about you? Anything interesting?"

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is graceful in her swimming strokes that carry her back to the edge of the pool where Darcy is in the neighboring lane of. The Brit places one wet hand upon the edge of the pool now as her right foot finds the edge footing against the wall, used during races, which she leans on as she runs her left hand up out of the water to stroke it across her face and clear her vision. She opens her eyes then to show a light smile to Darcy. "Actually, I meant to try and get ahold of you after the Savage Lands. I'm still loosely connected to what is happening there, though I haven't been back physically in several weeks now. I mean to, but my research has been connected to the sites that I already explored there. We brought back so much to go through, and I wanted to confer with you on some of the star-charts that we found etched on the walls of several of the interior chamber sites. I've been hoping to further narrow down just how old some of these sites are, as ... well..."

Lara treads water, her bare shoulders going back against the pool's edge as she kicks her feet out ahead of her, and waves her arms gently under the surface of the water on either sides of her.

Lara cuts off her last thought, and takes a breath as she picks up anew. "Every time I find a site like this..." She looks over to Darcy, an expression somewhere between playful and mischievous touches her facial features. "Every time, it feels like we re-invent the idea of just how far back Humanity goes on this planet. It's such a hot debate in today's world too. The dogmatic views of the old archaeological ideologies, ever pitted against the 'young and wild' explorers of today." She states, sounding almost smug at the last part, as though she's been labeled something akin to that herself.

She slowly shakes her head as she leans back against the edge of the pool.

"I'll e-mail you the pictures of the astrological patterns and murals that were discovered, if you're interested. I know you're already dealing with actual living aliens today though, so delving deep in to the past, it may not suit your fancy, and you're free to tell me to wander off." She states, with a grin upon her glistening face.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"Oh. Yeah, star charts are definitely something I can do. There's SOME complexity given the fact of their unknown age, since the position of the stars as seen from Earth is always changing with time. If you're talking ten, hundreds of thousands, even millions of years, the sky they were looking at would be totally unfamiliar to us now." And while Darcy spends all that effort talking up the subject, the conclusion is a lot more to the point: "Mostly, it just means sticking numbers in the computer and running simulations to get you a match. If whatever you give me has legit re-creations of the sky as they would have seen it, working back to the time is something I can totally do."

Well, there's a problem solved.

"It's kind of funny. I know a ton of people at the museum who would just go nuts for the chance to go down there, study the dinosaurs up-close, all of that stuff. But me? I'm really not much of a fan of the giant megapredators angle." She shakes her head, looking over at the floating adventurer beside her. "Still, it's definitely beautiful down there. And depending on what you find in those ruins..." Whelp, Darcy might get stuck doing it anyway! Savage Land alternate costume, here we go!

"Yeah, absolutely," she agrees, on the research questions that may be at stake. "You'd know the anthropology far, far better than I would. But if there was extraterrestrial interference, which we do have some evidence of... the rammifications are huge. And whatever they've left behind, well, that's something I'd definitely want to get a look at."

As for the work involved? "Nah, send 'em my way. It's pretty easy, computer will be doing most of the work. Honestly, one of my grad students could handle it." Now she's just bragging! As for the standing there tredding water, she looks curiously at Lara, but then back onto the tiled poolside. "This is exhausting, I'm gonna haul myself out before I go prune."

Lara Croft has posed:
That response that Darcy gives to Lara garners another happy little expression with the corners of her lips upturning in a visually pleasing style. She turns her head to look coyly over to the other scientist in the lane to her right. "I look forward to seeing the results then." Lara states as Darcy is on the move to exit the pool. "It's been a project though, to say the very least. I have several speaking engagements lined up here in the States, and back in the UK, concerning all of it. Up until now, it really has just been ... your average crackpot theories on reddit that there were such secrets hiding within Antarctica, but now we know otherwise. The first ships to touch the shores of the continent may have been in the 1890s, but clearly much has been happening there long, long before that."

Lara turns then to put her feet back on the wall, her hands back to the edge of the pool as she stays within its lightly waving waters. "If you're gone by the time I finish my laps, consider yourself invited to my flat in Greenwich Village some time too. We should grab a bite to eat at my friend's restaurant a few blocks down from my building, if ever you're interested in a eatery themed after a nautical adventure."

The Briton grins to the other brunette, before she pushes off and starts to backstroke several paces before she turns her body over in the water, and begins to swim with that continued perfect grace, speed and style to her maneuvers. Some people are just annoying like that!

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"Oh yeah, I bet. And even with all the discoveries, we can't even begin to tell them half, heck, probably not ten percent of what all we're finding... You know I'm not actually going to have a grad student do it, right? Because they don't have the security clearance." Not that a map of the stars is a state secret, exactly. But the underlying details of the project, when they get right down to it? That's some heavy stuff.

And in the midst of pondering ancient aliens, it may still be Lara's invitation that is more of a surprise. "Oh? Uh, well, yeah, sure, I'd love to. Nautical? In the village? I guess some of that area used to be portside, before all the landfill." Leave it to her, to sweat the nerdy details.

Darcy, in the meanwhile, goes the short ways over to find a ladder up out of the pool, because she's absolutely not flop-crawling her way up out of there in front of said NOBLEWOMAN. She climbs up a ways, pauses to tug at one of the leg openings of the suit, and then makes it fully out, dripping water as she goes. She's not immediately running out, but rather seems inclined to take a bit to dry off and enjoy the poolside, where she'd evidently set up at one of the chairs earlier, with towels and her tablet. Sitting down, she does pull the cap off, shaking out her damp hair. And all the while, she watches Lara go back and forth. It is sure a sight.

Lara Croft has posed:
For Darcy's viewing pleasure, if she's counting, Lara does there-and-backs 15 times before she too lingers in the water near the ladder for a few moments, clearing her mind and enjoying the feeling of the pool before she starts up it much as Darcy had minutes before.

Shedding water down her body, Lara steps on to the pool's patio, her bare feet making soft padding noises as they wetly carry her toward her towel, and other sundries resting upon the lounge chair she'd picked out.

With Darcy being there still, Lara smiles at her as she takes a seat, gathering up her sky-blue towel to start to wrap it over her shoulders, though she mostly allows herself to air dry as she pulls her hair up from under the towel, draping it back behind her where it wetly slaps against her mostly bare back.

"It's a nautical themed restaurant because my friend, Jonah, was in the US Military... and he grew up traveling between families from New Zealand to Hawaii. Plus, he was the Chef aboard the freighter that my mentor contracted for us, and... well, survived it's sinking. He has a love for the sea, now, I suppose you could say." Lara notes as she turns to her small duffle where she pulls out a bottle of water that she twists the cap off of, before taking a sip from it.

"They have more than just sea food though, I promise." She says with another little silly grin tugging at the edges of her lips.

"So what got you interested in the field of astro-physics?" Lara then asks, as she recaps her water, and glances down at herself, her towel's left corner being brought up to dab at her forehead and cheeks then.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Darcy isn't really just sitting up there and staring! It's just hard not to admire the form, as elegant as it is. Having the tablet on hand, it's easy for her to settle in to kill a little time, flicking across the screen with Lara doing her laps in the background. Reports, requisitions, inventory on alien doodads, all the usual.

She looks up with a smile as Lara re-emerges, of course. Dripping as she is... ahem!

"Oh! Ah, right, the restaurant. Yeah, that makes sense. Not like you can't find a bit of anything and everything in the city, I'm just used to- you know, how you always get those tourist-y crab shack places at the shore. Got a weird image in my head." It's probably hard to get the zoning to install a giant crab in the Village! As for the rest of the story? It impresses one thing on her: "You sure know a lot of interesting people. Guess that goes with being a famous, world-hopping adventurer." Plus, a quick shake of her head. "Oh no, I love a good oyster. It sounds great."

The question about her own career is, conveniently, extremely easy to answer: "Uh, well. I did a summer internship for Jane and ended up meeting-" she lowers her voice briefly "-and tasering, ah, a fabulous blonde space god." That'll do it. "I was still kind of 'finding myself' major-wise before that, so once I started working for her and Dr. Selvig, I just kinda fell into it." Of course, one has to be awful smart to 'fall' into something like that.

Lara Croft has posed:
@emit
While Darcy speaks, Lara continues to dry herself off a bit so she's not just sitting there dripping all over the place. She ends up just unfurling her pretty blue towel and laying it over her lap, with her phone falling down over that. She shoots another friendly smile to the other woman then, and conveys her agreement with her via a pair of small nods.

"It's very obvious that you're smart, that is most certain." She initially replies before showing a quick smile that comes and goes before she continues. "You have that edge of curiosity in your eyes... My mentor used to talk about that. He'd say that the people who were the easiest to train in the hardest of things, were the ones who looked at the world with a desire to know its secrets. I wasn't entirely sure what he meant when I first heard him say that, but now... some... ten years later, I can see it in people. Case in point--" and she motions to Darcy with her right hand.

Lara then lets out a soft sigh. "I miss Jane..." She says with a touch more dramatics tangling within her words then and there as she looks across the pool at nothing in particular. She does return her gaze to Darcy though. "She used to have the desk directly beside mine in the WAND offices. I used to prattle on at her about my childhood, and all the interesting people that I've been graced with knowing..." She dances through those words, the drama-flavored edge to how she speaks continuing within them, as her British accent touches on each of the sylables with a measure of impact put on each word individually.

Finally, though, she smiles softly again. "I think she was eager to get a new desk assignment. But still, she was quite a smart woman herself... We need more of those around here." Lara states that just as quietly, with her left hand raising her towel up then to run her ponytail through it to wick away the water droplets still trickling down her tendrils of dark hair there.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"Plus, after getting tangled up in all of that, I knew enough that I was a security risk, so SHIELD came a-knockin." Darcy smirks a little thinking back on that incident. "On the upside, they paid for a whole bunch of my school and stuff, so it wasn't a bad deal. I've had way worse jobs. Waitressing, for instance. Ugh. Never again! Though the whole 'spy' thing? I've picked it up, I guess, learned fast, maybe... but it was way worse than the astrophysics." Which is saying something! "I was a real activist type up until then, you know? Never would have imagined myself working for the government in a million years. But I guess I can't be too snarky about doing what we do when it means dealing with genuine 'infest all of humanity' alien threats on occasion. Saving the world and all of that."

She can live with it.

"I do too," she echoes Lara about their shared friend, her own voice tinging wistful. "I didn't realize you two worked so close together. Guess a lot of it woulda been while I was finishing some of my training qualifications here." Which is only a reminder for her, of that grueling training. "Oof, that was rough."

As for Jane? She can't argue with Lara's assessment. "Smart isn't half of it. All this stuff I pretty much learned from her, eve now, basically everything I've ever done, it's barely playing catch up with her. She's, well, a huge celebrity, at least as far as us science types ever get to be. Just kind of on another level." She sighs. It's a sound that mixes awe and affection, with just that touch of playful frustration at being in the shadow of someone she admires.

Coming back to reality from whatever short reverie, she flicks something on her screen. "I should go get changed. But lemme know about dinner. And get me those images. Oh! And if you do end up planning any expeditions down south, let me know..."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's light smile lingers through some of what Darcy says before she just lightly shifts her weight on the edge of that lounge chair. "I am right there with you." She starts. "This Agency, what they're trying to accomplish. It is so far out of where I thought I'd be in my life. But after I was approached, and the pitch to join was given... I realized it'd open up so many opportunities to make what I wanted to do easier. I wouldn't have to rely on luck, nor arguments with unwilling border security quite as often. It began to just feel more and more like a no brainer of a choice to join. I think our training coincided too, roughly anyway, though mine mostly took place in the London offices until I was asked if I'd like to transfer to Manhattan. I needed to get away from the ... drama of my homeland, after all that happened back then."

She spaces for just another moment before Darcy is up and speaking of heading in to the locker area again. Lara gives her another smile. "Sounds good." She surmizes. "If we do end up having a night out, we shall dedicate it to Jane. I'd like to hear some of your stories together in more detail, including the one that I suspect involves one rather fetching Asgardian Prince." She eludes to with a grin given up to Darcy.

"Enjoy the rest of your evening, and I'll have the files sent to you tonight. "

Lara stands up also, but she moves around to her duffle bag, and within moments after Darcy is off a few more Agents stride in to the pool area, and stop to speak to Lara, all three of them male, all three of them playing up the 'cool bro' angle for the British noble, because it's the nature of this kind of place, and its many young adult members, after all, nevermind her well known association with Captain Rogers! It doesn't seem to discourage these three, at least.