17622/Horrors of Hyborea

Horrors of Hyborea
Date of Scene:	11 April 2024
Location:	Cloisters - Metropolitan Museum of Art
Synopsis:	Mary Jane and Lara Croft talk about twisted memories from Hyborea, and the reflections of the persona inside of her.
Cast of Characters:	Mary Jane Watson, Lara Croft

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Mary Jane Watson has posed:
There's on display various artifacts from the Hyborean Era that have been setup over in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Taken from central Europe, in what would now be somewhere along the Symkarian/Latverian border.. Chains. Long, long rows of rusted chains that had been put on remnants of wood long since rotted away. Along with bits of what seemed like manacles. Dated back to a time more than fifteen thousand years ago, when the Gods had fled the Earth..
    And one of the few people with memories of that era was here with Lady Croft, reminiscing. The part of Mary Jane that was often buried, let out in random sprees of enthusiastic violence.. Now looked upon them with melancholy.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara was always one to visit a good exhibition at a place as renowned as this museum. Here today, Lara is idly wandering through the displays, letting her eyes wander over the contents there-in. Dressed casually, with a light jacket over a soft shirt, dark jeans and leather boots, she seems like a curious guest, which is precisely what she is today. Of course she knew quite a few of the people involved with the recovery of the items viewable today, but she was keeping herself uninvolved in this as she had her own projects in various states of research and exploration already in progress.

"Mmh. Curious." Lara quietly says, before she looks toward the form of MJ, showing her a soft smile. "Quite a collection they've amassed." Lady Lara quietly states.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would look over at the things on display, caught back in a memory, closing her eyes and shaking her head to come out of it. "There's not a lot from then. It was a.." She would look down at it. "Not particularly good time to be alive." She takes a breath in and out.

"It's not a period where you see many things having been.." Recovered. Virtually nothing from the era had survived. Almost no ruins, few artifacts, almost no records of the era. There were records, archives, and artifacts in plenty from before that period.. And after it. But very little from it.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is using her phone to access the museum app, which is giving more insider information on what she's looking at, as well as videos and images from the archaeological recovery process. She does adjust her eyes to look toward Mary again, and shows her a soft smile. "I fully believe there is more out there, it is just yet to be found. A time, such as this, with the reach that it had across the maps... to distances that ever seem to grow larger with every new related discovery.... There has to be more."

She takes a step down the row, and peers at the chains, admiring their craftsmanship. "We found the Savage Lands, which is a veritable treasure trove of Atlantean cultural impact. I am sure the Hyborians have just as much of a treasure trove out there, waiting to be found."

She shoots a sly grin toward MJ then.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
That would have Mary Jane laugh a bit. "The Savage Lands is big, weird, and has some weird ancient stuff keeping it going." A forced laugh coming from her turning into a real one. "But from there? You need things to last to have things to recover. Uh, sorry. That didn't come out well." She tries to figure out how to put it.

"There's not going to be a lot more left of there to find. There wasn't a lot then in the first place." Most of what had been found from that era was weapons. Well used ones. But few pockets of civilization. No remnants of inns, of castles, or places that had long term habitation.

But that didn't mean that they weren't there. As Ms Croft had said, they just hadn't been found.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is quiet for a moment, as her eyes scan over the exhibits before them both. She stares at the artistry of what the completed Hyborian ships are said to have looked like, and though sea faring vessels were not her expertise, she did admire the work that went in to such adventurers from so long ago.

"Well.." she starts, with another glance to MJ to her right. "It was only a handful of years ago that my mental imagery of this world was far more narrow than it is today. I've seen the glimpses of just how little we know about our world, and how much our history books have gotten wrong. We can yet still improve, and yet still find answers to questions thought to be forever unanswerable." She smiles faintly, before nodding toward MJ.

"Tell me a bit about your connection to... all of this?" She asks, motioning toward the displays before them as they stand within the museum corridor.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
That gets a 'huh' from Mary Jane and a nod. "All right. First of all, the climate almost everywhere was really bad. Very little was viable for agriculture. Most people from that time were nomadic. Resources were few and far between, and didn't last long. So anytime someone would set up a claim on something or somewhere, a lot of others would try to take it from them. And they'd fail in the attempt or succeed, and then someone would try and do the same to them. That goes back and forth a few times, then resources are gone and no reason to stay there."

She would gesture at the chains. "Those are from a slaveship. Rowers were anchored down to them. If the ship went down, so did they. Supposed to make them more enthusiastic. They weren't that hard to get out of though." Mary Jane's face turns morbid for just a moment. "They were one size fits all, and the slaves tended to starve enough that eventually they could slip out of most of them if they were there long enough. At that point was kind of hard to get away though." Her eyes have shifted, her posture is different, and her voice is a different tone.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara adjusts the small leather bag she has hanging from a shoulder as she uses her phone to further scroll through the social media page for this exhibit which is loaded with more images related, and fans of what is on display here.

another look is sent to MJ, however, as she listens closely. "Honestly, that is not that far off from many other cultures treatment of slaves for thousands of years to come, and... well... further illustrates just how terrible Humans have been to one another, and yet still are."

She smirks again, before turning to look at the other display that had been behind her.

"Fifteen thousand years ago... that was about thirty five hundred years before the Younger Dryas impacts. when the world's climate radically changed..."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would nod, "Just a lot fewer of them around then. And a lot less useful area to have. Stability didn't last long because someone else wanted it. You built up a city, someone wanted to sack it. You had a castle, someone wanted to seize it. By the time anyone tended to get more than enough for just substinence, someone else would notice and take it." She's thoughtful.

"Humans have always been scum, I guess. Not that I've got a great perspective, but that seems consistent. Then.. Then, just a lot less to fight over and all the more desperation because of it." she would purse her lips. "Cimmeria. You could probably point out on a map where it was and maybe the people living there could tell you that was where they were from. There was a god there named Crom. God of a bull headed, insufferable people."

Lara Croft has posed:
With a swipe of her thumb over her phone's screen, Lara taps on a series of images to store them to a favorites section to keep them for reviewing further later. She listens to MJ, and offers pause, looking toward the woman with a curious expression.

"Tell me a bit about yourself, Mary Jane?" She asks. "How did you come to have this knowledge, and these experiences, inside of your head? I'm curious to know more about it, about what that is like for you. You're not physically older than even I am, are you?" She inquires.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
There's a sigh from Mary Jane as the two personalities would talk to one another. "It's a long story. But kind of simple I guess." She would look over the displays, contemplative. "I'm from then. Or part of me is? Lived then. Not survived. Just went along with the misery." Took part in it enthusiastically, even.

"But it's someone else's story, really. And.. It's pretty complicated to tell and something that'd take awhile. I can give you the.. Reader's Digest? That's what it's called, right?" She would quip.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara glances toward a group of onlookers who past them by, she noting some of them looking at the two, but only for a moment. What MJ states, draws Lara's eyes back toward her. She nods two small times to what she hears. "And this was something that you started to feel as a child, I assume?" She questions, gently shaking her head in disbelief.

"I am not sure what I would do if I were tasked with trying to discern the memories from my base mind, and the mind of another that was trapped inside my own." She exhales a sharp breath a second later, before she refocuses her stare upon MJ, and nods a single time toward her.

"And you've never discovered what may have caused this?"

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would shake her head, "No, uh.. I think that she was a distant ancestor." Given it was from a minimum of ten thousand years ago, a very, very distant ancestor. "There was a sword here. I think it used to be her's. Then she was in my brain. She's just a fragment. Not an entire persona, nto an entire soul. Just a part fractured off of who she was. She can't remember what happened to her, or why there was a part of her in it. I'm not too keen on having a mystic poke around at the two of us to figure it out. But she's just a shadow."

That was the term that Mary Jane used. Sonja used fragment. A way to tell which of them was speaking.

Lara Croft has posed:
What MJ informs Lara of, has the British noble woman simply falling quiet in thought for a few moments. She'd nodded, and she'd put her eyes back on the display before them. She stared at the pieces of the broken ship that were lit beneath softly glowing lamps from the exhibit ceiling, but after a few silent moments she regarded MJ once more.

"You said it started when you came across a sword?" She asks. "When did you find the sword, and where, if I might be so bold to ask?"

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would close her eyes and take a moment, before gesturing over and pointing at a spot some meters away. "There. It was on display for another exhibit. Something was going on, and I ended up touching it." Probably something supervillain-y.
    "Then she was just in my head and things were.. Pretty chaotic. About four years ago. It's not around anymore."

Lara Croft has posed:
With the physical indication of where the sword had been when MaryJane had discovered it, Lara does a look in said direction before back to the young woman she was with. She peers at her with a slightly confused expression touching her facial features. "The sword transfered a ghost in to you?" She questions. "though you said you believe it was a distant relative who was awakened inside of you, by this sword?" She further questions.

A second is taken, Lara tips her head to the right ever so gently. "And the weapon is gone now?" She asks. "Well that is curious..." She adjusts the strap of that satchel on her shoulder, shoots MJ another smile, and starts walking down the row of displays again, a measured pace to her steps.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would twitch her lips upwards, "Well, in about ten thousand years I think you can call the relation pretty distant if it's there at all. And that seems to be it. She's not sure why though. The sword was to her just a random one she took into fights a few times. It was never her's, never imbued with power, nothing special. Never slaughtered anyone of specific importance or noteworthy. No great stories about it. It was just a blade. She doesn't know why something of her was bound do it."

As the question is asked about the sword being gone. "Uh, it was kind of smashed to bits." By a very upset Red She-Hulk.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara continues to casually peruse the displays, as she listens to MJ's rundown of her situation. She does stop to admire another collection of items, as she checks her phone for more information on them. When she finishes reading the blurb regarding the display before her, she spares another look to MJ to her left. "You know, sometimes the lack of visual beauty doesn't mean the item itself doesn't contain immense importance." She comments, her eyes going back to the items behind the glass.

"I once found a simple jade bracelet, that commanded the shadows of a cave to part at the bracelet's presence. It was a simple little thing, but the power that it held was impressive." She smirks toward MJ again. "You never know, is what I mean."

"And if you still have those bits, I've met a few weapon smiths who I bet could reforge it. Perhaps even add a bit of beauty to it in a new phase of its life, no less."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
There's a sad smile from Mary Jane, "It's stories. Stories and narrative have purpose and power. Intent, importance. The sword didn't have any to it, as far as she can recall. No grand wars or conquests, no great names, no great slaughters, no wielders of reknown or power. It was just a sword. And maybe there's more to it." she would shrug.

"And maybe not. Maybe it was just a freakish thing. A fragment of a world that had damned itself so many times over." The offer on reforging the sword deflected.