4226/KNOCK KNOCK!

KNOCK KNOCK!
Date of Scene:	26 November 2020
Location:	3B - Alexander's Greenwich Loft
Synopsis:	Someone dares to insult Alexander by robbing Lara. He takes steps to defend his honor.
Cast of Characters:	Lara Croft, Alexander Aaron, Johanna Mitchell

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Lara Croft has posed:
Lara has been... busy lately. Between everything that happened in Central Park and a trip there-after that took her to the Middle East. She's been back for a few days now and hasn't been back to her apartment until this very moment, coming back to find that her apartment has been broken in to, in fact... A window is smashed, and things have been... rooted through.

After about an hour of looking around, Lara exhales softly and moves back out in to the hallway, wearing a black Henley long sleeved shirt with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows, a navy blue tanktop beneath it poking out of the low scooped neckline, a pair of slim fit cargo pants and a pair of leather boots, Lara is tired, but mostly just mentally worn out.

A knock comes to Alexander's door, a soft but decisive knock.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    She'll likely hear a thump. Followed by a thump-thump like something heavy dropped from on high in that apartment whose door she knocks on. Inside the place one might well see the youth who lives in that apartment flipping off the pull up bar he had been hanging from upside down, landing with that almost too casual ease and then straightening up to stroll towards the door.
    Both without and within the Apartment 3B people will hear his voice lift as he calls out, "I'll get it!" Which is how Lara will first know that he's home and then the soft click-ca-click of the door being unlocked with it being pulled open and suddenly.
    Alexander!
    Though not exactly in all his divine glory. More his laze around the house after class glory. He's wearing a red t-shirt that proclaims prominently, 'WARNING!:' and then underneath it the words in smaller type, 'This Individual Suffers from Poor Impulse Control.' along with some hazmat symbols apparently with a little QR code image in the bottom right corner. Those and a pair of black basketball shorts are all he wears at the moment as he draws that door open and says.
    "Oh hey." He smiles and steps back, gesturing her inside. "C'mon in. How are..." He seems about to say, then stops as he realizes her mood might not be the best so he changes his question into, "You okay?"

Johanna Mitchell has posed:
     Just past Alexander, Lara will be able to see inside the apartment. There's someone laying on his couch in the background! It's difficult to see them, they're wrapped in a big ol' fuzzy throw blanket that is barely long enough to cover her toes in, and so it's stretched from the tuck underneath her heels, to where she pulls it over her shoulder and underneath her chin for that snug feeling.
    The TV is on. There's some type of show being played in the background but the sound is so quiet that it can barely be heard. By the time that Alexander greets Lara, Johanna has already begun a half-hearted, sluggish reach for the remote to pause it entirely. Only it doesn't quite work for her, with her pointing the remote several times at the entertainment set before finally giving up altogether and hitting the power button.
    Afterward, she pulls herself up into sitting in the middle of the couch with the blanket still wrapped around her. Her fingers run through her hair several times, trying to pull it under submission (she fails), before lifting a hand to offer Lara a mute wave.
    Then, she retreats off the couch entirely, sloughing off the blanket in the process. Black gym-shorts and a white tee are revealed, but unlike Alex, there's a boring lack of cutesy sayings. "Can I get you anything from the kitchen?" She offers Lara once she walks in.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's hands are on the small of her back when Alexander makes it to the doorway. When he opens it she shows him a half-hearted smile (about as strong as any of her smiles for that matter.) "I'm fine." He knows her well enough by now to tell otherwise though, clearly.

She does step in to his apartment, and is there when Johanna is rising up and moving toward the kitchen area. It's a surprise to see her, she didn't know he had a guest after all, but Alex probably hasn't seen her around the building in a month or more either.

"I uh..." lara takes a second before smiling to Johanna. "No, thank you though. I won't stay long. I simply--" She looks back to Alexander, her British flavored voice is weary in tone. "Someone broke in to my place." She tells him specifically, though doesn't hinder her voice from Johanna hearing too.

"So I'm just... checking in, making sure you're okay, or if you had, any insight on it at all?"

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "No hey, it's cool. This is my counterpart R2D2." Alexander says at first, then adds. "Or Johanna." He seems about to say something else in way of introduction even as he steps back further, "This is Lara she's the..."
    But then her news stops the youth from his usual rambling train of thought. Which has him frowning severely, his expression grim as he says. "They... who did what now?" And it's an almost palpable transition in the young man's body language. An intensity that wasn't there a moment ago, as if whomever broke into Lara's house did not exercise a trespass against her. But against /him./
    "No, I didn't..." Alex looks over toward Johanna then, a hand uncurling as he asks silently and quickly if she had seen anything, all with just a twist of his head and a shake of it. Then he's looking back at Lara and frowns.
    "Is it something work-related? Any idea who?"
    Just queries given, and perhaps it's some measure of proof that Alexander knows Lara and knows what she's capable of... that there's no cooing or concern given to her health and status since she's able to handle herself quite well.

Johanna Mitchell has posed:
    "Beep blorp beep," Johanna grins at being called R2D2. "Though I think that technically makes you Anakin since you've got the blonde hair and the ego. And the disposition to whine about sand."
    However, the attempted lightening of the mood is shattered as the break-in is mentioned. "Someone broke into your place?" The question is asked in a breath of air. Almost the same way that another might utter the phrase, 'holy shit', with.
    Alex's glance gets a short, and quick shake of Johanna's head as her hand rises to cover over the front of her mouth. The expression of shock, however, carries past the woman's mouth and well up into her opened eyes and raised eyebrows. Her feet patter bare across the floor until she's standing in a more intimate proximity with the other two.
    "Do you want us to come over with you and help you look around? Are you -okay-?" There's more questions she wants to ask but she holds onto them, not trying to completely overwhelm Lara in one go.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's hands drop down to her sides and she looks between the two of them. She's never seen Star Wars before so the R2-D2 stuff goes right over her head, but she does get the gist of the joking which makes her smile softly. "Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you. Yes, I'm Lara, Croft. An Agent with SHIELD." She offers a bit more clarification on who she is. "So yes, this might be work related, I'm not sure yet. Nothing seems to be missing, that I've found yet, so I don't know if I need help going through it all."

She turns around to put her back toward them both as she motions toward one of Alex's living room windows-- a 1911 handgun with a silver skeletal trigger tucked into the back of Lara's pants is visible. "They came in there." She says of the window. Smashed a pane and reached the lock, then pushed the window up."

She turns back toward them and once more places her hands on to her hips. "I'll... call it in to my employers, perhaps they can help me setup some additional security. I really didn't mean to barge in on the two of you though, I just thought I'd come in and ask, see if anything had been witnessed, or heard." She starts to turn as though she's headed toward the door again.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    Gesturing over his shoulder, Alexander tells Lara. "She knows about my family." So she doesn't have to be so subtle if needs be. The Olympian youth then follows her motions and her explanation, paying rapt attention with a severity clear on his features.
    Though when Lara starts to retreat he shakes his head and steps forward, a hand lifting to touch her shoulder just gently. But lightly enough to perhaps show that he does not wish to startle her. He looks over at Johanna as if in silent apology before he tries to meet Lara's eyes again. "We've both been out for a good chunk of time off and on, so we're kinda shitty neighbors." He steps to the side and says, "If..." He starts, trying to puzzle things out but says, "If you want to crash here, for safety's sake, that's cool. Or..." He lifts a hand to the back of his neck, "You can crash here and I can crash in your place in case they come back or something?" His brow furrows as he likely goes over various scenarios.
    "Or. I guess what I'm meaning is, I can help. Johanna is actually pretty good in a fight too." Another look is shot in her direction, since he basically just volunteered her for Operation Save Lara's Stuff.

Johanna Mitchell has posed:
    As Alexander lifts a hand to place it on Lara's shoulder, Johanna had already lifted a hand herself--but either due to Alexander having a handle on it, or just that she's not all that confident with touching a virtual stranger, she curls her fingers and drops the hand after. Better for him to do the physical portion of comforting!
    Again, he gives her a glance, and again she shakes her head, banishing the need for any sort of apology, silently expressed or not. "Honestly...? I think you should probably stay. I know you said you were just here temporarily, but like... No one wants to be alone after something like that." She rubs a hand awkwardly along the side of her own neck, massaging the area idly as she admits. "I wouldn't. If someone broke in on me I'd be calling every number I've got to see if someone wants a couch buddy for the night. Even if you want to go back to your apartment, we could all three go..." Her eyes flick back to Alexander for a moment, consideringly.
    "Are you sure you don't want anything?" she dangles again, cajolingly. She puts on a warm smile before revealing, as though she were flaunting off goods here, "I've got this great loose leaf tea blend. From one of them specialty stores. We can sit with you while you make your calls."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara stops as prompted by Alex and just afford him a quick and soft smile, it comes and goes like a breeze through an open window. She listens to the offers from both of them, but ultimately she just starts to shake her head from side to side. "I'll be fine, I think." She says. "If they came for something, that I haven't figured out what yet, then it's likely already gone and they're not planning to return. Clearly I've been naive about my personal security here, but I'll take steps to fix that. It probably has to do with the event in Central Park, as my name hit quite a few public media sources after that again." She has theories, to be sure.

At the offer of tea though, Lara does relent and shows another quick brief smile to Johanna. "That'd be lovely, thank you. You're both welcome to come and check the place over if you'd like too, but yes, I'll inform SHIELD of what's happened and I imagine they'll take steps to help with this."

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    Eyeing her sidelong, Alexander scrunches up one eyeball shrewdly as if making sure there is no hidden subtext in the words she's giving them. Then he turns and checks with Johanna as if she might be the best translator of the curious dialect of girls which at times does confuse him. He sniffs a bit, straightening up to his not too entirely considerable height but more than either of them. He crosses his arms over his chest and says calmly, "Can come over there, and I'll accidentally fall asleep and fail to leave until the morning. Alright? Alright." There, decided.
    He starts to head to the door once again, resting a hand on the knob but taking a moment to slip his shoes on just by stepping into them and adjusting the heel to slip over his own. Once that's set he pulls the door open. "I mean I'm sure you can handle yourself and likely would pop them if they checked back in, but I can't risk the possible embarrassment if a friend of mine was killed while living so near me. Then I'd have to swear vengeance and vendetta and traipse all over the world chasing the evil-doers down."
    He sighs as he leans against the doorjam, "And then it's nothing but 'work work work' from then on."

Johanna Mitchell has posed:
    "I'll go get the tea," Johanna beams a bright smile at the two of them, inviting herself along for the sleep over.
    It takes her minutes to prepare. Using a cloth bag from underneath the sink, she collects various things, one being a tin of loose leaf tea mixes, some beers from the fridge. A book laying on the tabletop is tossed in, and then on top of that she bundles the blanket she'd been using on the couch to cap off her baggage.
    The last thing she grabs is a pair of flip-flops, which are just there at the door. She stuffs her feet into them, clutches them by the thong between her toes. "Plan's in motion. Things are grabbed," she announces then, glancing between the two of them. "Let's go protect Alexander's dignity."