Owner	Pose
Lara Croft	Dia de los Muertos. The Day of the Dead. The Day of the Souls... Okay, it really is just a big touristy thing these days in Mexico City. The locals, and the tourists, come together in a massive display of fun, if a bit macabre, celebration. OF what? Loved ones who have passed away. People come out on to the streets, they build alters of all sizes and designs, to honor their loved ones. There are parades, and festivities of all sizes across the city. But. Captain America, Lara Croft, and Darcy Lewis did not come here tonight specifically for this reason. They came here to talk to a contact of Lara's who had recently told her that he thinks he'd come across something that would interest her, especially after the disappearance of Thor... What could it be? Well, he says he believes it's a weapon crafted out of the same metal as that of Mjolnir. There are legends of other Asgardian weapons that were strategically hidden across Earth, across 'Midgard', for a variety of reasons... one of which was 'emergencies' by Thor himself. Or at least a version of Thor... Here and now, the Quinjet had arrived a couple hours ago, our trio of explorers found their hotel, settled in, and are now out on the street enjoying a bit of the festival atmosphere before the parade in the main city square this evening. Lara, dressed in a flowing white top over her hiking pants of a drab green, and leather boots on her feet, has found herself a mask stand loaded up with a variety of different 'spooky' themed masks, the kind that cover just the face, or the entire head. This stand is right beside a popular face-painting vendor too who is currently painting up the faces of several children, and their parents. "We should at least pretend like we're normal, shouldn't we?" Lara asks of her companions. "Come on, pick one, I'll buy." She tells them with a soft smile.
Steve Rogers	During the flight down, Steve had given a bit of an introduction to the quinjet controls. And let each of the women have a bit of time on the stick if they liked, getting used to the crafts handling at least in modest turns and ascending and descending. Steve departed the plane, wearing a pair of blue jeans and boots, and a long-sleeve blue cotton shirt that doesn't go far to disguising his physique. While he brought his shield, and in a leather case so it is less conspicuous, he left it behind so they would blend in, with no immediate concerns of a threat. The streets are really something as he turns about, looking at the fanciful costumes with skeleton or other death-related themes. "It definitely has a little more spooky of a feel to it than Halloween in Manhattan," he comments to the ladies. Cap pauses at one of the tables with a multitude of masks sitting out. He select a skull mask that is adorned with spades like from a deck of cards, but replaces it on the table. Next is a sheer red mask with bright white skeleton teeth. Seeing that one in the mirror, Steve pulls it off immediately, a wince on his face. "Bad memories," he comments as he replaces it. Finally he settles on a sugar mask that just covers the jaw up to the nose but leaves his eyes completely uncovered. The mask has a grinning skull mouth on it, with a curly moustache above it where the nose would be.
Darcy Lewis	The somewhat catchall category of 'Thor stuff' occupies a particularly large SHIELD file all of its own, and its one of those where Darcy Lewis has some particular familiarity with the case. What with the whole, well, being Jane's grad-student assistant back in the day. She may have also tasered him just a little. Although she's since moved on to other departments and a larger SWORD role, the disbursment of alien metal across the planet is very much still in her wheelhouse. There's a lot of that going around these days, in fact. Different aliens, different space junk. But a unifying theme is it's all stuff SHIELD would rather have a handle on, than having floating around and maybe getting into the wrong hands. So she's here. She spends less time in the field than in the lab, but it's 'only' Mexico, not some supervillain compound. She's been a college student. She's done road trips. This is doable! "It's nice here," she remarks of the somewhat more mild local weather. Back home, she's quick to bundle up, to drape herself in appropriately hipster-ish wool hats and scarves and all manner of layers. But there's no excuse for it here. And they're supposed to blend in. So she's adopted festive dress for the festive season. It's a rare sight, in fact. At SHIELD, no one would ever see her in a dress. But here, she's done the whole nine. Shoulderless blouse with embroidery. Long ruffled skirt. Headress. All of it in black and red, with various spooky details fit to the event. And, forget the mask, she's in line for the face-painting! She's going the whole way on this. "I'm totally normal," she interjects, somewhat defensively. "It's the rest of you that are weird." Really, its a sliding scale. Although she's wearing a rather dress-y costume, its flowing enough that she can run if she needs to, and she's NOT doing heels. "Any idea what we're looking for? I took some readings while we were airborn, but Uru is notoriously kind of blank to scans. Energy-absorbant, or something." Thor does quite a bit of that!
Lara Croft	Lara is doing much the same as Steve, standing on his right side, she's browsing the masks. She watches him disregard the red one, and softly smirks at it... thinking she knows the reason why. When he chooses the lower-half mask, she reaches to the one above it and picks up the counter-part, a mask that goes over just half the upper face. She gathers it up and brushes her hair aside from her forehead. The mask is placed against her face and she looks to Steve through the black ringed eyeholes, the mask being a ghostly skeleton skull down to her mouth and chin which are left bare. "I like this one, it will make drinking easier." She says in jest. She turns to show it to Darcy, only to see the lovely dressed SHIELD / SWORD agent next in line for the face-painting. This gets Lara to laugh softly. "You are really embracing all of this, Darcy..." Lara says in an affectionate sort of way. "I admire that." The kid at the painting booth jumps up and displays his scary face to his parents who laugh and pay for the work done, then the man doing the work looks to the three and motions Darcy over. He speaks to her, and offers her a leather bound book filled with options, six per page, seven pages total. "He says choose whichever strikes your soul the most." Lara translates for the man and then speaks back to him, causing him to chuckle. He nods and speaks back to her. Lara looks to Darcy again. "He also says you're very pretty." She says with a sly smile for Darcy. Passing by on the cobblestone street is a ghostly avatar on stilts, with a whole cadre of kids chasing around his feet, the man somehow managing to stay up on those things, displaying his mastery skill level. Lara looks toward it, and then to Steve and grins for him. "Fly a jet? Sure... But i don't think I could do that." She takes in a breath then and raises her leather backpack up to pay for the masks, and the face painting job. As she does this she speaks up about what they're here for. "We're here to see a friend of a friend. His name is Miguel. We're going to meet him at a pub just..." Her eyes look up from the cash exchange, and she nods down the city square. "It's just over there. A nice place, or... well, it was nice the last time I was here..."
Steve Rogers	Steve Rogers reaches over as Lara tries on the mask, fingers brushing some of her hair back to help her tuck it in back away from the mask. As she makes the comment about drinking more easily, it gives him pause and he looks down at the sugar mask he chose. "Now, that is the voice of wisdom speaking," he says as he shakes a finger towards Lara and her wise comment. He sticks with the mask though as he moves over to join Lara in watching Darcy sitting to get her face painted. He gives at hearing the flirtation, and then again at Lara translating it for Darcy. "Man knows his business," he says, giving the artist that quick grin and murmuring in Spanish that the woman is indeed. A group troops on past, drumming out a percussive beat on drums, castanets and a few other instruments Steve hasn't seen before. "Usually flying the jet is the easy part. It's landing it that's the rougher part," he teases. "I imagine the same with getting up and down on those," Steve says, turning to shade his eyes as he looks at the stilts. "So what are you going to get, Darcy?" he asks, forgoing the more formal 'Agent Lewis' he might have used but for them being in the field in a public street.
Darcy Lewis	"Well, I spent Halloween in the lab, so I'm making up for it," Darcy answers back. This is that secret love of dress-up sneaking out. Though she definitely wore a costume to work, too! She spends a moment going through the book, and the variety of styles. They have all manner of spooky vibes, from the very typical skulls to details with spider webs, zombie-like stiching, etc. And then, in total contrast, all manner of flowers, hearts, butterflies, and other colorful sorts of embellishments. There's a whole page of skulls with fancy painted mustaches! She picks out one that's a little more spooky than vibrant, a skull with especially deep set and dark shadows for the eye-sockets and 'missing' nose, decorated with vine-like embellishments, red roses and other crimson details that could be blood as easily as foliage. It matches reasonably well with her dress. And she puts on a more clearly tolerant, knowing when Lara passes on the last extra bit translation detail. Perhaps 'hey pretty lady' is one of those phrases that she may have picked up in the city... As the paint is being applied, she's limited in how much she can turn her head or otherwise look around, so it's just her eyes that shift over toward the other two, or try and catch the passing details that Lara highlights. The bar is out of range! "Get? To drink?" she wonders. "Or you mean the pattern? I picked one, it's uh, well you'll see in a minute when he's got a bit more of the detail on." The white is pretty easy to do quickly, and the larger black patches. Even the quick hatch lines that mark out skeletal 'teeth' around her lips. Really, its the last little details, the little floral embellishments, that will take the majority of the effort!
Lara Croft	As Darcy is settling in to her stool to get the paint job done, Lara steps around to the chairs setup for those waiting to watch and enjoy the sight of their friend or loved one getting all fancied up. Her brown leather backpack is set down on the ground between her feet, and she adjusts her light poncho-like top over her body before she glances to Steve with a grin, and then raises the leather strap of the half-mask she bought to place it over her face. She looks to Steve then with the mask one and smiles beneath it, fluttering her lashes at him before she looks back to Darcy and just watches. Soon Lara has her legs crossed at the knees, back straight in the chair as she leans on the left arm of it. "We're likely going to have time to eat a bit of food and have a bit of drink before Miguel arrives too, and I've brought a number of notes on what we're here for too that I will pass around to you both so you can get some more information on it. As said, the items that we're looking in to are not very easily found, and this may all be for not... but I believed it was worth a shot, as well... You Know Who is a man worth trying to find, and help, if he really has found himself in peril somewhere." Lara's eyes look out from behind the mask now toward the city square. "It looks like the parade is gearing up. By the time we finish in the pub it should be in fully swing too. I'm not sure if we'll be heading anywhere else after this tomorrow, or ... well, I suppose we'll see how things pan out, so to speak." She looks back to Darcy then and smiles warmly at the sight of the paint being applied. "I'm more afraid of her already..." Lara calmly chides.
Steve Rogers	Steve Rogers fits his own lower half mask on, a blue eye winking back to the Englishwoman before Steve turns his gaze back to watching the artist do his work with Darcy. "Oh yes," Steve agrees with Lara's commentary on Darcy. "I'm thinking I should have brought my shield," he ad libs, eyes twinkling at American woman even if the mask hides the grin on his face. A group of gigantic skeletons go by, each at least 15 feet tall, and each operated by a half dozen people who have a sticks that go up to the limbs allowing them to make the arms move and the legs seem to walk. Someone goes past, handing out candy skulls. Steve ends up with a few of them, passing one over to Lara, and setting one on the table for Darcy for when she's at a point of the face painting she's able to have it. "I couldn't believe how many kids came by the apartment for trick or treating," he comments. "Also glad that we didn't go truly authentic on the bottle to keep witches away," he says, glancing over towards Lara, one eyebrow going up in what is probably meant to be a humorously curious look. "I wouldn't have wanted to explain it to some of the parents."
Darcy Lewis	"Ooh. Food sounds great." That is probably the most universally familiar aspect of Mexican culture for Americans, after all. But, like any good hipster, she aspires to something higher! "I'm definitely curious what the more authentic local grub is like." Its always about finding the most authentic spot. Soon, the simple black and white skull is growing more colorful, even if the palette becomes largely one of three colors instead of two. But the crimson is vivid and dark, definitely chosen for that 'bloody' look, even when it is used to draw more whimsical or pretty details. It's generously applied to her lips, and then to floral edgework around the eyesockets, with actual full-sized blossoms eventually painted on her forehead and each cheek. "Anything for the big guy," she shoots back at Lara, after detailing out the scope of their task. "Even if he's a big muscle-y dope, he kinda grows on you. And Jane must be worried, but she's got so much on her plate these days, big-shot and all... So you know, whatever we can do to pitch in." As for Steve's adventures in youth sugar addiction, she laughs a bit, finally being given a mirror by the face-painter to check the results. "A surprise? Didn't you have trick-or-treating back in your day?" She puts on a little 'mental calculations' face as if trying to make sure she didn't screw up the math. "You must've. We've just got way stronger candy these days, and way skimpier costumes." She knows! "Did you give them the full-sized candy bars, at least?!" Surely Captain America himself wouldn't disappoint! Soon enough, she's given approval on the paintjob, and hops down from the stool. "Pay the man!" she commands Lara, grinning. "And then its off for some cervezas!"
Lara Croft	Lara is letting out a light laugh at what Steve says with regard to the Witch Bottle she'd setup outside his door. "Well, yes. I wasn't prepared to go to that level, but ... should your home actually get a witch problem, I would. So let that sink in." She tells him with a sweet smile before she bumps shoulders with him in the chair beside her own. Lara's gaze then goes over to Darcy and she's still smiling at the finished product shown on the woman's face. "I love it." Lara states in her English accent. "And yes, I'm partly doing this for Jane too, so that she knows there are people out there trying something..." While saying this, Lara is standing up and chatting with the artist in his native tongue. They exchange a few words and he accepts a tip from Lara in the form of several bills of local currency, then Lara just softly says her thanks with a light 'Gracias.' offered before she sweeps her leather backpack over her shoulder and turns to the both of them. "Well then, now that we look the part..." She grins from behind that half-mask. "Shall we go and sample the local cuisine? At least Miguel knows what table we'll be at... as he's purchased it for the whole day, and told them we'd be expected..." Making her way out in to the foot traffic, Lara gathers up that skull candy that Steve had bought and she offers Darcy's too hers. She samples her own then as they start to walk, then dabs at her lips with the back of her wrist. "Ish good." She says with a full mouth now. --- Small time jump! The trio find themselves within the lovely restaurant / bar. It has hanging lights spread out between the wooden columns in the main room, with a balcony level setup with boothes and tables. The main floor is packed, while the balcony level are reserved seats for wealthy people. It is one of these boothes that has been bought up for the man they've come to meet, and its here that Lara, Darcy and Steve are all seated at by the place's staff. Lara shares some words with their server and orders them all a round of drinks before they're given wooden menus with the pub's wide variety of authentic options scrawled out with what appears to be etchings done with a knife and strokes of paint with small brushes. "Admittedly I'm not evne sure I'm that hungry..." Lara says as she views the menu and lets her eyes roam over the pub, music coming from a live band down on the main floor making the atmosphere quite lively and very enjoyable.
Steve Rogers	A shake of Steve's head, and that half-mask, are given in reply to Darcy's question. "Nope, we didn't trick or treat in my day. Halloween was when kids went out and were hooligans. Breaking things. Throwing things off of roofs to smash on the street below. Pumpkins especially. Shopkeepers locked up, some stood guard over their windows," he replies. "I don't know how they ended up transitioning to trick or treating, but it's a very good change if you ask me," he tells Darcy as they move to follow Lara over to the pub where they are supposed to meet her contact. Once seated, Steve glances over the menu. "I think this translates to some kind of sampler. At least it has a lot of different things listed. Maybe something like that to pick from while we wait?" he asks. Outside on the street, a float goes by, showing someone tied to a stake to be burnt with fake flames made of lights and tissue paper blown by a fan, while devils are crawling out as if to take the person away.
Darcy Lewis	"Huh." Darcy has learned something from Steve about Ye Olden Thymes. "Didn't realize it was quite so recent. Well, don't worry. Plenty of kids still get up to that kinda thing too! Egging houses, TPing and whatnot. Little monsters, the lot of them." Not the most maternal sort, she... "Maybe you're just in too nice of a building for it. They probably frown pretty hard on that." Once they've all gone in to meet Lara's friend, Darcy is quite happily swept up in the atmosphere of the place, the bustling party atmosphere that they have to navigate below, and the excellent view they get of the same once they're seated up on the balcony. And if Lara isn't hungry, she'll make up for it! She pours through the menu with great interest. "Oooh this looks good, and this..." She glances over to see what Steve has discovered. "We could totally go family style, just order a bunch of stuff and share. There's so much I wanna try. Cochinita pibil or pescado a la talla, so hard to decide..." Obviously she's got some kinda pre-planned strategy for native dishes of maximum fame and interest. "Oooh. Plus we gotta do something 'fun' while we're here. Chinicuiles, chapulines or escamoles, maybe..." Her food vocabulary is clearly superior to other varieties. And while the first pair of dishes are hardly controversial, varieties of roast succulent pig and a sort of grilled fish with mayo and pico, the last three are the exotic options. They're uh. Bugs. All of them!
Lara Croft	Lara leans over to look at Steve's menu to make sure they both got the same selection, which it seems so. She raises her eyes up to look at him then and grins. Her hand comes up then to push her mask up on to the top of her head over her dark hair. "Again..." She notes, looking up to Darcy who is already digging in quite thoroughly on the offerings. "I'm buying, so the sky is the limit. This is business, but it is also fun. We have to enjoy the moments like this that we can get. If nothing else, I'm sure that Thor would agree, if he were here." She shoots a smile to them both before she averts her eyes to a serving woman who steps up to speak to them then. Lara holds conversation with her, referencing the menu. While they speak, a man delivers them a platter of drinks 'on the house' for being patrons of the special balcony level boothes. He hands them around the table, and then happily says his goodbyes before the waitress wields her pencil and paper pad to take down their orders. "She said that is a sampler of sorts, though they're large enough portions to likely feed all of us. I told her I think we're open to that challenge, and if nothing else we can take some with us when we leave, maybe pass food around to those who are interested. Spread the joy, if you will." Lara says while raising up one of those complimentary drinks to take a whiff of its contents. "Mmm... that smells strong. Tequilas..." Once the orders are placed the waitress will sweep herself away, her festive attire swaying around her form as she goes to fulfill the orders. Lara grins at Darcy then. "Perhaps the face painting should've come after the food..." She says with a smile, her left hand propping her chin up in its palm now on the edge of the table.
Steve Rogers	"Or at least after the mask," Steve says as he removes his mask so he can eat and drink. "Though at least it's not quite as permanent." He picks up his drink and takes a sip, giving an approving nod of the beverage as he rests it back on the table. "So Darcy, any positive news about our friend that you can share?" he asks her. "I'm afraid Lara and I accompanied some others to a location that might have shed light on why he didn't return with us. But it was all for naught in the end," Steve says of the trip to Alfheim. Gaze swinging back to Lara, Steve asks, "So how do you know your contact? Worked together before? Or from before your time with SHIELD?"
Darcy Lewis	Darcy is all in on this. On top of the sampler, between the two competing dishes from earlier, she decides on the fish, explaining, "Roast pig they got pretty much everywhere. Stuff up in Washington Heights? So good. But fish is kinda always about what's local." She has put some thought into all of this, maximizing her cullinary experience. Basically, she's a big nerd wherever she is! Plus! "Quiero el chapulines, por favor." The waitress gives her a bit of an 'are you sure' look at that one, but Darcy just grins. She knows what she's doing! With the orders away, its time to drink! Apparently, despite any concerns, the facepaint isn't slowing her down. If it leaves some smudges on the glassware, surely they're pretty used to that around the holiday. However, Steve's inquiry earns a quick shake of her head. "I figure you two know way more than I do. I wasn't really working on this, since we had a whole bunch of other stuff on our plate. What with, you know, having official alien visitors now, rather than just the usual 'lost in space' variety that's been the Superman-normal." She gives a sort of disinterested shrug. "Course they bring all their problems with them. So I've been doing uh, well, it's hard to explain if you're not into astrophysics. Keeping track of ships, or trying, more or less." "I figure I just got roped in because of my old connection. Or 'cause Jane's busy." Darcy is used to being back-up for her more renowned colleague and mentor!
Lara Croft	Lara samples the drink following Steve. She's never been one to indulge too heavily in alcohol, but in such moment's it is always a nice added bit of fun. She shows a smile at what Darcy orders, and grins at the waitress before she goes. Her eyes sweep back to the two of them then and she nods to Darcy's answer at what Steve asks. "Really, darcy is exceptionally intelligent." She says with a smile to the other woman. "That's why I was happy to have you along on this, and should you wish to come on other such expeditions, it's always nice to have another's viewpoint. I'm told that I get lost inside my own head far too often." A sideways glance to Steve beside her has Lara exhaling then. "Miguel? Yes, he was a friend of my father's, and my mentor's, Roth. He works for, and with the Anthropology museum here in Mexico City... though... I think he's toned back on how involved he is in the past few years, based on e-mails we've shared. Speaking of---" Lara starts to dig in to her backpack beside her on the booth's bench before she pulls out a tablet screen and a leather bound notebook. She activates the tablet and sets it upon the table for them both to view should they so choose, while she starts to flip through the journal. "I told him what had happened at the Atlantic Starport event, and what had become of Thor. He sent me this...." She pulls a small photo out of the journal then and sets it down beside the tablet screen. Both the tablet, and the photo are showing imagery of a dagger. IT's dark, and hard to see clearly. "The one on the tablet is a drawing based on first hand accounts of those who have seen it in the Peruvian jungles. The one in the photo was given to Miguel by a member of his research team. He said they discovered it's whereabouts, and believe it might be Asgardian in origin. He said they were unable to retrieve it due to seismic activity if they got at all close to it. The team was forced to stay back... far from it, several meters, he indicated." She says in a calm tone amongst the ambience of the pub. The lit candles gathered around their booth flutter in a wind as their food arrives on two trays, the waitress holding them both out. She smiles, greets, and starts to hand out the meals... or just set them in the center of the table and let the three sort it out. "If Miguel believes he can send us in the right direction... we might be able to figure out how to retrieve the dagger, and if it is of Asgardian origins? Well... it might be able to take us to Thor. Though, this is a lot of 'mights'." Lara states while accepting a small plate of food.
Steve Rogers	Steve keeps an eye on the rest of the pub, having taken a seat that would give him a good angle to see who approaches the table. He slides his napkin over atop the tablet and the photo as the waitress brings their food over. "Ah, smells delicious," he tells her warmly. "Muchas gracias," he thanks her in Spanish. He looks thoughtfully at the tablet and photo again as he moves the napkin back to his lap. "Hmm. Seismic problems. Could also call in Agent Johnson if needed. Though I don't know if she's as good about calming as she is causing such," he says of Daisy. Steve's hand holds his glass, though he's not drinking from it for the moment. A look of frustration can be evidenced on his face, the man too transparent for some of it to not show through. "I feel so out of my element with this situation," he says of Thor, shaking his head and letting out a frustrated sigh. "Beyond following the advice of Sif and Zatanna and the others, I wouldn't even know where to begin on how to find him."
Darcy Lewis	"I am," Darcy is happy to agree with Lara's high assessment of her smarty-smarts. "And also very modest!" She grins. "But usually, well, I don't do a whole lot of field work. At least not by choice." She's kind of in that 'get sucked into adventure by happenstance' side-character space! "Always seems like a lot of, you know, running involved." As the food arrives, she's happy to reach out for various things, grabbing her fish dish to cut a large portion before putting the platter back in case anyone else wants to try. And then there's her special order... ...which is a bowl of fried crickets in a cream sauce of some sort. "Oh boy, lookit these." She doesn't even hesitate to portion out a little pile, then scoop one off the top and into her mouth. One, two... "Mrph. It's got a kind of crunch to it, but I wouldn't say it really tastes like much itself. Sauce is good though." After this cullinary experiment, she leans to glance closer at the tablet Lara has produced. "So the activity starts up in reaction to them approaching it? That's definitely, well, it could be a few things. Either some actual kind of intentional defensive setup, or... Well, possibly some kind of reaction from the object itself. My experience with exotic materials science is a little more uh, well, it's kind of a 'learn-as-you-go' discipline, considering many of the things we run into just plain out don't observe the physical constants we're familiar with." A furrowing of her brow, and another mouth full of crunchy critters, which she talks around. "'Course that just means our physics is, well, not wrong, but incomplete. And we've always known that." She meanders like this, but eventually gets back to the topic. "Weird materials can have weird properties as regards the fundamental forces- gravity or your strong and weak nuclear forces. So, yeah, even a little bit of weird alien metal could cause seismic activity, although I don't know why it would do it more or less based on people being nearby." Looking over at Steve, she smirks a bit. "Out of my element is basically me all the time. But you get used to it. If it helps, I've seen that guy take some major licks and come right back, so wherever he is, I'm sure he'll manage."
Lara Croft	Lara reaches her left hand over to put it upon Steve's shoulder. She knows Thor is a friend, and she's well aware of how Steve feels when his friend's are in any measure of danger. "He'll turn up again, one way or another..." She reassures him while Darcy enjoys her bugs. In fact, Lara looks back over to her and flashes her a grin, she doesn't comment on it though, as she's certainly dined on bugs before herself... Inztead she reaches for one of the small tacos and raises it up to break it in halves before sampling one half of it. Once she chases that with a sip of her drink, she looks between the two of them then. "There's more too." She says then before fishing the journal out from under the cloth. "I wrote it down here." She says, pushing it to Darcy. "Miguel's men said that the chamber that the dagger was within, was covered in constellations. This is what lead one of his people to believe it was a map to Asgard. But... their photography of the constellations didn't turn up high enough in quality to be of any use..." The journal talks of this, speaking of constellations that were identified by eyewitness reports, and how they lit up the chamber when approaching the dagger, and accompanying the seismic shifts. Lara is about to say something else when her eyes are drawn down to the first floor. A man strides in to the pub, and starts toward the stairs up to the balcony level. "I think I know him." She quietly says to Steve and Darcy the Bug Lady. The man, dressed in a black suit, with a red silk shirt beneath, steps toward their table and pauses beside it. He nods toward them then. "Lady Croft." He says in a thick Spanish accent, only nodding toward the two with her as he doesn't know their names. "Marcino?" Lara questions. The man nods his head then, speaking to her in his native tongue for just a moment to affirm. "Miguel asked me to come. He won't be able to make it tonight. Something has come up... He sent this along with me though, to bring to you." The man reaches in to his jacket then, over his left breast and fishes around for something before he slowly pulls out a envelope and offers it to all three of them really, any of them able to take it in equal measure over the table's surface. "He wishes you the best, though and hopes that you enjoy the rest of your time here..." Once the letter is taken, the man will bow gently and make his leave again...
Steve Rogers	The tough from Lara draws Steve's eyes over to her to shine a grateful look, and he reaches up for a moment to rest his hand on hers and give it a brief rub before letting it go. He can't help but have his attention drawn to Darcy trying the cooked insects before. "I've had to have a few meals like that," he says slowly. "Though never in circumstances they were something I chose to order or pay money for," he tells her. "Still, it'll get you through a night if there's enough." He doesn't mention, when you're down to eating insects, there's never really enough. Steve moves some of the appetizer to his plate, though is attention is more on what Lara is showing them of the chamber. "Hmm. So not only do we want to try to recover it, but to try to figure out the significance of the star maps," he comments quietly. The approach of Marcino has Steve keeping a close eye on him. As the letter is offered, and meant for Lara, Steve sits quietly to let her take it.
Darcy Lewis	"Well, if we can get proper high-def images... or really just anything better than 'shitty'-def version of the constellations, IDing them shouldn't be any problem. That's mere astronomy, the weaker, inferior cousin to astrophyiscs," Darcy explains, cheekily. "Well, with some caveats, depending on what the constellations truly depict. There are septillions of stars in the universe, by our estimates, and while we've got some pretty good telescopes the resolution goes down the further you go. Stuff in galaxies past the nearest few, or even dimmer stars on the Scutum-Centaurus arm, those might be a little harder." Uh. Yep. Those are space words! "Of course we've also got some new alien 'friends' so maybe we could ask them for a bigger map to compare against. That is, if we don't find an obvious correlation in the Milky Way." The latter has her looking extra-thoughtful, over another mouthful of bugs. After eating them, she looks over at Steve, and grins. "I'm sure these are better. Should try 'em!" But she won't push more than that. They have a new visitor, who of course she's likely to assume to be Miguel. The tipoff that he's not is probably, well, when Lara calls him another name, although there might be a point prior to that, with his shirt looking very fancy for a supposed archeologist type. So. Different guy. Envelope. She looks to Lara expectantly. "What's in the envelope?"
Lara Croft	Lara accepts the letter, giving a glance to her companions. She looks back to Marcino to watch him grab the railing of the balcony and start back down the stairs at a casual trot. She then looks back to Darcy then and shows her a soft smirk while she opens the letter up. "Don't eat all of those." She says of the bugs. "I'm willing to give them a try." Once the letter is open, Lara looks down to what she pulls out from within. She reaches up with her free hand to pull her half-mask off of her head to keep it from slipping down while she's got her vision downcast.... Her pink lips gently move as she reads whats written out while she sets her mask down on the table gently, the skull shaped upper-face staring up at the lamplight of their table's light source. A picture slips down off of the letter and on to Lara's lap, but she picks it up and glances at it before she offers it over to Darcy... "Here..." She tells her. Her eyes then go over to Steve. "Miguel says that a rich investor has been pushing his weight around the Museum of late. A ... Doctor Pedro Dominguez. I feel like I've read this name before in some of my father's notes, but it's been awhile." She draws in a breath and offers Steve the note since it is written in English. "Dominguez has taken all of Miguel's work on the subject, and 'locked him out' of pursuing the relocating of this dagger's place." She notes grimly. The photograph that Lara hands Darcy is just what she spoke of, a high res image of the constellations from that chamber, though it's unfortunately zoomed in on just a small snippet of them, but at least it's glowing, and glowing quite brightly, centered directly on the constellation of Hydra. A booming of fireworks rumbles the air outside the cantina, rolling across the horizon and being chased by the crackling of smaller, popping fireworks to accompany it. The parade is picking up momentum outside...
Steve Rogers	After listening to what Lara has to say, Steve takes the letter as it is offered. He reads through it himself, though keeping an ear on the conversation, splitting his attention back and forth. "If he sounds familiar it would definitely be good to look into him further," Steve agrees. "Trying to block him from the project definitely does raise some suspicions about what his interest is." He glances outside at the sound of the fireworks. "If need be we could investigate his offices and see if there is more information there on it," Steve says thoughtfully. "It would be good too, to know what his role is at the museum that he's able to do that. Find out just how high up his influence might go."
Darcy Lewis	Eager to share her strange delicacy, Darcy pushes the bowl over to Lara. When she's given the image in 'trade,' she identifies it easily enough, no need to go back to her computer or dig through the James Webb archives for matches. "Oh, easy, that's Alphard, or more properly alpha Hydrae," she notes, immediately tapping a finger on the brightest star in the group. This is, after all, exactly the sort of stuff she does. "It's a huge constellation, but most of the stars aren't very bright. Little under a hundred and eighty lightyears from Earth. Give or take. No known exoplanets, although there's probably hundreds in the larger constellation." Despite working for SHIELD, she's very much always been more invested in the science side, so the other possible association of the name doesn't seem like it jumps out at her at all. "Trying to take control of the research is definitely fishy, although it could just as easily be simple academic pettiness. Academia is a rough place." This is at least in part a joke, since she's talking to the actual Nazi fighting, Tomb raiding pair of adventurers. "Does the stuff he locked out include the location? All the cloak and dagger stuff might be kind of moot, real question is who can figure out a way around that whole seismic deal to gain access to it, yeah?"
Lara Croft	Lara looks to Steve before she watches Darcy's reaction to the photo and just smiles at it being so scientifically precise, admittedly a lot more precise than Lara had expected. "Impressive..." She says of the face-painted scientist while she reaches out for the little bowl of fried bugs in sauce. Lara stabs one with a small fork and raises it up for a sampling before she takes a sip of the drink to wash it down. "Mmh. Also interesting." She says, hitting those syllables of that words rather hard with her accent. Her eyes go outside to the sounds of the party across the city before she looks back to Steve then. "We could. If he's taken over a lot of the research within the museum, I'm sure he has an office there, and it's a rather busy night. A distraction rich environment." She says with a slight grin tugging at the corner of her lips. A nod is sent to Darcy then as Lara reaches for that second half of the taco she'd started beforeMarcino arrived. "Miguel's people had their maps and notes on how to find the dagger's location. If this letter is true, it's a safe bet all of that is in this Doctor Dominguez's hands now... After another sip of her amber tequila beverage, Lara looks between the two of them. "So... parade... or breaking and entering?" She asks them together, with a small smile shown.