18087/Uninvited Guest

Uninvited Guest
Date of Scene:	28 May 2024
Location:	3C - Lara's Greenwich Loft
Synopsis:	Two Brits in the Big Apple meet up. Lara finds herself up against a threat out of her league, while Mary gains an interest in artifacts and a brand new buddy who'll get them for her...
Cast of Characters:	Lara Croft, Mary Seward

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Lara Croft has posed:
The clock on the end table beside Lara's bedroom reads 1:45 am. Lara had turned in around an hour ago. She'd been at her computer desk in the living room area, working on a project that would see her out of the States and back to the Savage Lands, hopefully soon. But by 1:00am she knew she needed to be in shut down mode. She'd spent a few minutes doing just so, before the lights had finally gone out, and the British explorer was likely fast asleep.

Her apartment is currently empty, save for herself, with her dog Max staying at a friend's house. Lara had only returned to the States a matter of days ago, and she'd not had a chance to pick Max up yet, as such the place was quiet, and a little more vulnerable than normal.

It did have a number of bolts on the front door, with the windows secured as well, but there's only so much one can do against some powered individuals, should such a person wish to gain entry.

The apartment loft is dark, save for a lantern on Lara's desk in the living area, that flickers a fake LED flame light, casting dancing orange glows across her desk, and the immediate area around it.

Mary Seward has posed:
Smashing through the door or windows would be quick and to the point....but would no doubt wake up anyone inside at this hour...and Mary wasn't in the mood for a chase, just a quick feeding/possible turning. So, moving under the door as mist would solve that issue for her nice and quietly. She smirks as she reforms in the center of the room, the faux-lantern catching her eye. "Cute..."

She remarks...only to find much more interesting things atop the shelves. Being a nocturnal creature, she saw perfectly within the darkness even without the novelty lantern.

She approaches these, reaching for these...artifacts, getting a closer look.

"Well, what have we here?...A collector, huh?" She reaches out and takes one. Just snatches it. "Think I've seen one of these before..."

Lara Croft has posed:
The apartment remains quiet, as Mary boldly enters in to its interior. She finds herself at the bookshelves, adorned in a wide array of items spanning the globe. From a few jade dropa stones from Asia, to a collection of tribal masks that each hold a different Human facial expression, covered in striking swaths of paint. But what Mary gathers up is a sinister looking animal skull, with an elongated snout, jagged teeth and a piercing stare. It's an 'Aztec Death Whistle', and seems to be of legitimate heritage, and not some random trinket bought on the internet.

There are a wide variety of items strewn about the bookshelves, all generally small in size, but all seemingly true of their points of origin, with even a glimmering crystal skull resting in the middle of the kitchen table upon a wooden stand seemingly built specifically to hold it aloft, its sunken crystaline eyes staring directly at Mary as she browses through the collection.

In the bedroom, Lara is comfortably hidden beneath the covers of her bed, her eyes closed and her phone resting upon her nightstand. A little red LED light is blinking upon it, as it seems a camera geared toward motion within Lara's apartment may be triggering a silent alarm, but the would-be one in danger is sound asleep, at least for now.

Mary Seward has posed:
Mary Seward smiles widely to herself, as she begins to take even more from the shelves. "Jackpot." She plucks the crystal skull from it's stand, keeping it alongside the newly acquired whistle. Dropa stones, Masks, bundled in her arms like she was at the store.

"...New York, New York, you treat me so well."

With all these ancient items so neatly placed in this ordinary seeming apartment, no doubt a few of them could end up furthering her goals of vampiric domination. Though, finding out which ones could accomplish this would take some time.

Best to take them all, just to be safe...

Lara Croft has posed:
Throughout Mary's attempts to pilfer the various items from their housed locations upon the many shelves, the motion sensor continued to attempt to alert the home owner, and though Mary might be trying to be quiet-- or not-- something seems to be working against her.

Because it is not too many minutes in to the little Vampiric 'raid' that the sound of a hammer being drawn back on a gun is heard, and a light suddenly comes on in the middle of the apartment.

Now, standing there in the doorway to the bedroom, Lara holds a handgun aimed directly at the Vampire. The brunette woman is wearing a dark grey tanktop, and a pair of black sport shorts, her legs and arms otherwise bare, her dark hair tied back in a loose ponytail behind her shoulders.

"You have one second to drop it all, and get the Hell out, before I fill your face full of lead." The British woman says, her voice naturally pleasing to most ears, but in the moment it is laced with thick vitriol, and her brown eyes are certainly staring similar daggers toward Mary.

Mary Seward has posed:
Mary Seward slowly looks behind herself, getting a good glance at the woman who has her at gunpoint. "...Oh, that's just adorable." A smirk finds itself on her face. "...Also, a fellow Briton girl! How's about that? Here I thought I'd be trapped with nothing but Yanks..."

She seems intent on paying barely any mind to the gun aimed right at her head.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara had suffered breaking and enterings in this apartment before. The whole reason of getting a guard dog was related to that, but as luck would have it, said dog was not here on this night. Instead, Lara was in this on her own... not that she hadn't faced dangerous situations many times over throughout her trips around the globe.

Something about this woman was unsettling, however, the gait in which she moved, the arrogant way in which she replied, and the fact that with a brief look, Lara had seen no point of entry, to indicate how she got inside.

"Cute." The living woman stated, before she showed a soft smirk, and raised her left hand up, showing off her phone. "Notified the authorities. They're on their way..." She responds in-kind, giving a flick of her gun hand toward the front door. "You'd best go find some other home to invade, less you end up in jail tonight... Or the morgue."

Clearly she didn't know what Mary truly was.

Mary Seward has posed:
Mary Seward snorts loudly. "Is this because I touched all your collectibles...Sorry, I didn't know that they were mint condition or whatever."

She quickly turns around, now that the gun was no longer up against her head. "I'm very interested in where you got all this fancy stuff, though..." Now, here she is making direct eye contact... "Care to enlighten a fellow hobbyist?"

The longer those eyes held, the more they started to glow...A power tries to work it's way through Lara's mind.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara remains standing on the opposite side of the kitchen area, a good seven or so feet away. She keeps her gun up, her phone in her opposite hand, as she watches Mary closely. In her time within the United States, Lara had come to see the vastly diverse array of dangers that were lurking around this city, but the adrenaline that her spirit was addicted to was partly attached to that danger too. She was a thrill seeker, and anyone who knew her well would know that.

"You've broken in to my home. You've clearly come with the intention of robbing me blind, and God only knows what you'd have done if I had not been awakened..."

The light in the eyes seems to confuse the woman with the gun, and with a split second motion, she pulled the trigger!

Apparently she'd reached her limit on patience!

Mary Seward has posed:
Had she been any ordinary woman, that would be where Mary went down, but as Lara could tell...she was no ordinary woman. In the instant it took for the gun to fire, Mary dodged out of the way.

In a blink, she was gone.

Before suddenly...she was right up behind her, a pale arm going around Ms. Croft's gun arm and torso.

"...Oh, that's easy...I was planning on doing this..."

She leans into Lara's neck, fangs bared...to sink in. To shed her blood.

Lara Croft has posed:
One bullet being discharged was likely enough to alert others in her apartment building of something going on somewhere within it, or at least nearby. But there wasn't any time to truly deal with that, because the woman she'd just shot at, just vanished in to thin air?

"Shit..." Lara uttered, before she felt a presence form behind her, a second later she was being grasped hold of, only to feel the presence close behind.

But, Lara was not one to give in easily, and as Mary would move to take advantage of a seemingly exposed neck, Lara would twist herself to the side, and headbutt Mary with the back of her head!

The agile Briton lunged forward, a expertly performed tumble that had her rolling across the floor toward the front door of her apartment. When she sprang back up upon her muscled legs, she raised her gun again in one hand, while the other began to rapidly pull the chains on her locks!

Mary Seward has posed:
Mary Seward staggers slightly from the headbutt.

"Rude."

Her hand that had been restraining Lara, went up to the front of her face. Rubbing it as Lara made her somersault away from her. She sees the gun go up once more. "Really? You're trying that again?"

Perhaps a bit hypocritically, she also follows suit in repeating herself. She dashes towards Lara in practically no time at all, swinging her arm towards the gun in her hand. She was more annoyed by it than anything else. Eager to see it go flying.

Lara Croft has posed:
The speed of the Vampire was something to be impressed by, to be sure.

Lara's hand was rapidly undoing the locks on her door, the chains clattering against the reinforced wood, as her opposite hand kept her gun aloft. She was focused on both tasks, and just as she was about to fire again, Mary was there. She felt the slap to her wrist, the woman's advanced strength causing the handgun to spin out of Lara's grasp, tumbling across her desk and down over her office chair, where it falls upon the floor behind it.

With only half of the six locks undone, Lara was forced to put her full focus upon Mary, and as such she lunged back at her in a counter move of physicality, jumping up with her right knee aimed for Mary's stomach, and another headbutt aimed for the Vampire's nose, this time with her forehead!

It was a valiant effort, showcasing Lara's agility, her combat prowess, and her likely wealth of trained martial experience. But, Mary was a Vampire, so how much would it even ultimately do?

Mary Seward has posed:
Evidently, not much. The moment she knocked the gun from Lara's hand, she saw her flying knee coming...and she just stood there, with a glare aimed down towards it. It lands, as does the headbutt. Yet the vampire is unmoved, physically or emotionally.

"...Alright, that's enough."

She goes for the eyes again, locking hers with Lara's. They glow bright. Her seeking to work her hypnotic magic on her Lara's mind.

"Alright, then...Listen, I didn't come for a fight. So let's just start this off over again...I'd like to know more about your very, very pretty collection..."

Lara Croft has posed:
With a gasp of heavy exhale at the exersion of her combative moves, Lara is not rewarded with any measure of a successful result. Instead, she's left landing upon bare feet upon hardwood floor. She staggers back a pair of half steps, before her eyes are locked upon Mary's, and she's vulnerable to the glamour of the Vampiric gaze. It causes her to stiffen up at first, before she visibly relaxes in a way that Mary has likely seen countless times up to this point.

She's got her.

Lara stands before her, her hands at her sides, and her fingers splayed out at first, before they just gently curl in to a relaxed position. "I..." she starts to answer, a breathy edge to her voice. "I'm an archaeologist." She states with a bit of renewed confidence. "What I have here are only nick-nacks, barely valuable. I wouldn't keep actually valuable items in a place this unsecure..."

Her eyes remain on Mary's own, transfixed by them, but her head does shake gently side to side. "I work for SHIELD. Their agency helps get me across borders, to places otherwise much more challenging to reach on my own..." The woman explains, her voice still a bit breathy from the action.

Mary Seward has posed:
Mary Seward lets out an annoyed sigh at the revelation that everything around really was just a bunch of neat stuff put up for show. She actually kinda figured that. As a being capable of sensing magical presences, a lot of the artifacts were giving her nothing but she got so excited anyway.

Though, that certainly wouldn't dissuade her from keeping a few. She did like the look of them and they were put up for a reason.

"...SHIELD, huh? Interesting. Interesting indeed....Well, gee, that's nice and all. So...where exactly ARE you keeping the real-deal super special magic stuff, if not here?"

Lara Croft has posed:
With a slight tremble in her stance, not exactly one of fear, but perhaps one of a very strong will trying to fight against the glamour, Lara watches Mary intensely.

"Items of magical potency are kept in a SHIELD storage facility north of Manhattan, at the SHIELD Triskelion. They're kept under heavy lockdown, and are filed away within secured storage containers." The fellow British woman explains.

She sways a bit upon her bare feet, seemingly locked in that desire to break free again, her mind channeling that desire in to a steady rocking of her body's muscles, but her eyes remain fixed on Mary's own.

Mary Seward has posed:
Mary Seward clicks her tongue. "Oh, wow, sounds pretty tough." She saunters up a bit closer to the resisting Lara, placing a hand on her shoulder. As though she were talking to a friend. Maybe, this was a means of somehow trying to disarm her. Make her more passive. "...But, it'd probably be easy for you to get access to all that nice stuff, right? After all...you got it." She leans in, smiling.

"...I'd really appreciate it...one English Beauty to another...if you'd be so kind as to bring some of your lovely findings over for me to see."

Lara Croft has posed:
Naturally when the Vampire's cold hand touches the shoulder of the living woman, she finds that her form is quite hot to the touch, the blood rushing through her veins as heated as one might expect in a healthy specimen such as Lady Lara Croft. She stares at Mary with a fixed expression, the inquiery garnering a slight shake of her head from side to side, while her words betray the muscle motion of her neck. "I could, but they would question anything I checked out that I have already turned in." She explains, against her better judgement.

"I could attempt to fool them, but it may be unsuccessful." She adds, giving a bit of a glimmer in to the creative nature of the woman, even when in a state of unnatural mind control such as she is now.

Outside the apartment, a passing car can be heard, along with the sound of a honking horn here late in the night of a New York landscape, but no sign of the Police as of yet. Either they're very slow, or Lara was bluffing about putting in an emergency call to the authorities.

Mary Seward has posed:
"...I see." Mary pouts. Of course. That sounds about right. Nothing could ever be just easy enough for her. Think, think, think. "...Know anybody then? Maybe a third party?...A middle man or woman or person, I don't discriminate, who could ease the difficulty and get those toys into your hands...with little questions asked?"

Lara Croft has posed:
The woman that the Vampire has under her mind controling stare simpley continues to gently sway from one bared foot to the other. She does clench her fingers up in to balled-up fists again, but they relent soon there-after and go loose once more.

"I would have to investigate options." Is Lara's simple answer. "SHIELD's mandate is to gather the most powerful artifacts across the world, to keep them out of the hands that would use them for ill-intentions. Since this was the very goal I had as a career choice, it was only natural for us to work hand-in-hand together." She might be rambling now!

lara draws in a light breath. "Should I come across items not yet turned in, I may be able to deliver them before they are given to SHIELD." She does suggest, though it's clear it's challenging for her to mentally defy her own better judgement here in the dark of her own home at the wee hours of the night...

Mary Seward has posed:
"Works for me..." She nods. "...I guess I'll settle for that then...I'll be waiting for what you've got for me...Stop by Mutant Town in Brooklyn...for your special deliveries."

Her eyes went down to Lara's neck. She had been intent on getting a drink...maybe making a new vampire. But, that couldn't happen...Not yet. She needed fancy artifacts from the woman before that. Can't have her getting weak in the sunlight when treasure hunting.

"...Before I go...I'd like a quick drink. I won't bite so if you could just...make a quick incision..."

Lara Croft has posed:
The glamoured woman stares forward with a disconnected stare, an internal fight ebbing at the edges of her conscience, but the magical elements of the Vampire before her seemingly winning the war happening inside her mind.

The request is voiced, and with a casual step toward, Lara retrieves a slender letter opener from a container on the corner of her desk. She raises it up, and with a simple motion, tweaks a corner of her left palm, drawing out a glint of beeding red blood. Her lip twitches up in a further display of her inner desires fighting the commanding will of the Vampire who'd broken in to her home, while her hand is raised up, and offered out.

"I'll do my beste." She quietly replied then and there.

Mary Seward has posed:
Mary Seward took Lara's wrist gently and raised it up with a smirk on her face. She licks across the wound a few times, before just shamelessly slurping up blood, lacking the patience or manners to savor it.

"Ah...That hits the spot..." She pats Lara on the cheek.

"Alright, this is goodbye for now...Go to sleep...Forget about all this but keep it in your subconscious...When the time comes, you'll know what to do...and you will do it for me."