Owner	Pose
Daniel Hastings	'Old' arcade games. The concept had Daniel chuckling to himself but he was trying to figure out what it was about the eighties that had these devices exploding into every corner of society and then.. suddenly vanishing. The microchip was the easy answer but there was a certain innocence about them. The simple pixel displays. The arcade quality noises. It's no wonder they were called 'arcade games' by some. He recalled Brighton from his time during the war. So he decided to give them a go. Once again, he was dressed in a SHIELD uniform but with no rank or insignia on it as he was still technically a guest. What might be odd though is there was a saucer and cup.. floating.. in the air beside him as he wiggled joystick and pushed buttons on a game called 'Pitfall'.
Lara Croft	Lara has been with SHIELD for a little over a month now. Mostly keeping to the WAND offices as she works on her new job there and settles in to a comfortable routine whilst figuring out her next move. She's already vanished once for a few days on an expedition to the far east, but she'd returned this past weekend with a few bumps and bruises, but nothing too serious as far as injuries. In this moment, Lara is arriving within the rec lounge and carrying with her a bag on a strap over her shoulder. She's got on a dark navy blue SHIELD jacket with some civilian-style clothing on beneath it, a white tanktop and a pair of light gray cargo pants. Her hair is tied back into a loose ponytail and her eyes scan the room, she lingers them on the man near the arcade machines with the floating saucer behind him and she offers him a faint smile. "Nice trick." She says, finding a place to set her back and sit herself down.
Daniel Hastings	"Hmm?" Daniel doesn't so much catch the words as the accent that said them. It also means his digital character gets eaten by an alligator. Alas. Turning from the machine in question, he takes his tea and saucer out of the air and lets his gaze settle on Lara. "You mean the tea? Yes. It's quite handy actually." Yes, he has a British accent and seems to be drawn over towards where she sat down, sipping his tea as he goes. "Forgive me if I'm intruding but I don't think we've met." The cup sets on the saucer in his left hand as he offers the right. "Daniel Hastings. Applied physics with a long history."
Lara Croft	Lara is still organizing her stuff on the table, so she hasn't settled down into the chair that she'd pulled out for herself yet. When he approaches and spekas, she's pulling a few books, a laptop and a tablet computer out of her bag and setting them on the table's top. She looks over at him then and regards him, his voice sounding of similar origin as hers. She smiles softly to him and then reaches out to shake his offered hand. "Hello, Mister Hastings." She says to him then. "I'm Lara. Croft." She pauses between her two names, delivering them individually. Her hand is then brought back and swept over some of the loose strands of her dark brown hair to tuck them behind an ear. "A long history you say?" She asks him then as she then turns herself around and sits down on to the chair she'd drawn out. "A good history, I hope? Applied physics is an interesting field, though I keep hearing we've reached 'the end of physics'." She grins faintly then. "I cannot imagine that to be true, however."
Daniel Hastings	Daniel can't help but laugh at that phrase. "The end of physics? That's like saying we've reached the end of all knowledge. Terribly sorry, old chap, but we've shut down our brains. Learned everything there is to know. So it's off to Brighton for the rest of creation." Still in a fit of mirth, he smiles gesturing to the chair as if it was an inquiry. "So what do you do? For SHIELD or fun. Assuming you can tell me. Half of everything is classified around here."
Lara Croft	Daniel's response to her makes her softly laugh, a short and light sound, as she's rarely one to laugh much harder than that. When he motions to the seat to join her at the table she nods once telling him to sit if he'd like. At his question she leans back in her chair and lets her hands layin in her lap together at the palms. "I'm an archaeologist by profession. I've been brought on to... search out and discover lost locations, artifacts, arguably even people... that might be of great importance to SHIELD, or other groups. Be it an ancient city, long forgotten, or a 'magical item' that could threaten the world's safety." She almost sounds as if she's mocking her own job, almost. She has a light smile on her face though, so if she is, she's doing it in good humor. "I suppose I do my work for fun too, so they're interconnected as it were."
Daniel Hastings	Daniel Hastings pulls out the chair before her with a gracious nod then settles his tea on the table before him. "Sounds fascinating. I suppose you could consider me a walking exhibit if you will. Temporally displaced from nineteen forty seven. Though.. not much dust on this artifact, I'm afraid so there's not much to call me ancient." A beat. "I'll be a hundred in june." There's a pragmatic tip of the head as he takes up his tea and sips it again. "Don't feel a day over.. twenty seven. Give or take a few spins around a star called Gamma Epsilon 36." He sniffs, lowers the cup again to look over at her. "Now magic.. that's a mystery for which I have no knack. I'm glad someone does." Daniel admits candidly. "Up until forty three, I'd have laughed at the notion.. now.. I discount nothing beyond the possible." It's a sobering thought but he smiles at the end of it. "I am glad you enjoy what you do, though. Work shouldn't be work. It should.. feed the soul."
Lara Croft	Lara had glanced over the arcade machine that Daniel stepped away from to join her, she'd seen that game before in various places but had never played it herself, it looked intriguing in so far as any video game has ever looked to a girl who's never played any. She looks back to him then as he unfolds a bit of his story and it makes her tilt her head while staring at his visage. "That sounds like you've had quite an experience in life." She tells him. "I'm not terribly sure how I'd handle being transported so far ahead in to the future and then..." Her eyes sweep around the room they occupy before going back to him. "Be forced to cope with fitting in." She shows a grin after a little huff of air. "I'm from this time and I barely 'fit in' as it stands." With another little shake of her head at the self deprecating humor, she smiles faintly at him. "I do enjoy my work, very much so. I'm eager to dive in to it as well. But make no mistake, I'm no magician... I'm more of a... acquisitions agent for magicians and historians, I suppose you could say." There's a brief pause then and Lara sits a little higher in her chair. "How did you end up here?"
Daniel Hastings	"Oh my." Daniel was listening attentively, catching her look to the arcade with a glance of his own. Her question at the end though garnered a reaction that immediately said 'no short answers here'. "That. Part of it is classified." There's no small bit of irony in his tone when he says it. "There was a laboratory accident. Due to a.. tear in the fabric of space-time.. I was transported to the Andromeda galaxy and presumed dead. There.. I.. survived on my wits and the discovery of a new gift. A few years passed before I learned the native language and their advanced technologies.. then got myself back home. Naturally, that trip was bumpy as well which resulted in still another tear in space-time.. that dropped me in the present." Call it the highlight reel. "But. I was a SHIELD agent then. Now.. I've got some meat back on my bones, a new passport, and.. I think soon my old job back." His brow knits. "Or a new one. It's hard to say around here."
Lara Croft	All of that keeps Lara's attention as she listens to his fanciful tale. Normally, if she'd met this man somewhere in public, she might question his sanity but since he's here in SHIELD... that tends to offer some credence to his story. Her's isn't exactly 'normal every day life' either really, though arguably much more-so than his seems to be. "I can't even... again, imagine." She laughs softly once more. "An entire other star system. Having to learn a language likely nothing close to what exists here, I would imagine, and then surviving on an alien world? Mm, I'll pass on that, yes. Though, my curiosity is already somewhat peaked." She smirks to the man. "What's the word for 'Hello' in this language you had to learn?" She's a sucker for new languages and new cultures after all.
Daniel Hastings	There's a moment of reflection as Daniel recalls details of his trial. "I'll be honest.. once I got a hang of my new.. ability. Surviving was more a matter of finding food that wasn't going to kill me if I swallowed it. Thankfully, water is water everywhere it seems. So that helped." He snapped himself out of his reverie to lift his cup. "But tea. Tea is not." He grins and looks.. at his empty cup. "Care for a cup? I seem to be in need of a refill." Her question is noted as it slips past his own thoughts and he spits out a phrase for her benefit. "They're a monarchy behind a supreme intelligence of sorts. Never did get the precise details on that but then I didn't exactly have existential conversations with the natives. Who, by the by, look an awful lot like us. There are white kree and blue kree. The white are in the majority but the blue are xenophobic. Thankfully, I looked enough like the white that I kept my head down and pilfered the odd fruit until I had things.. more or less understood."
Lara Croft	At the question of tea, Lara smiles softly again and nods her head. "I'd love some, thank you." She tells him before sitting forward on her chair and placing her hands on to the edge of the table. His story is intriguing to her though, as it pertains to skills that she's been passionate about her whole life, specially the past decade of it. Surviving in harsh or unknown conditions. "You chose wisely." Lara says to him then. "Keeping your head down, that is. It likely kept attention off of you which, I'm assuming, made your entire experience that much more livable. But still... it's quite a tale. You should write a book about it." She shows the hint of a grin then. "Perhaps they'd turn it into a 'block buster film' no less. They're all the rage these days, after all, right?"
Daniel Hastings	Daniel Hastings laughs with a lift of his chin. "Hold that thought." Maybe he doesn't have to actually walk to the tea station.. but he does. Refilling his own. Making her a cup. There's a moment where he frowns then takes another saucer to lay out some options for additions to the tea. Then he walks back, setting the saucer down between them (sugars, creamers, lemon wedges, packets of honey), and sliding the tea over to her before sitting down. "I keep thinking about how public I want to be with my life and waffling between public and private." His spoon is stirred to mix the cream he'd poured into his own. "For instance, I spoke at the Genosha memoriam. But now if I return to SHIELD they'll likely want me to keep a lower profile. Still.. humanitarian efforts on Genosha will be greatly aided by the use of my abilities and I can hardly be private and use them openly like that. And so.. I have an inner war there."
Lara Croft	When Daniel separates himself to go retrieve tea, Lara spends a moment looking down at her stuff she'd laid out on the table and she sorts them into neater piles but doesn't engage with any of it since she knows he's returning shortly. When he does return, she looks up again and then drops her hands down between her knees to press her fingertips and palms together between them. She watches him deposit the tea and extras down upon the table, which draws a soft smile from her. "Thank you. You got it all, it seems." She adds with a look up to him then. While he speaks she takes her delivered drink and prepares it with a careful and experienced motion. She then raises it up to sip from it, but before she does she replies to him in-short with a follow-up question. "What are the extent of your powers?" She asks, then sips her tea. After the sip she shakes her head. "I've none, not in the... modern sense, I suppose. No cape, no abilities to see through 'walls' or what have you. I'm just an average person. The kind that the people in capes need to 'save' I suppose." She smirks then at real world comic book tropes that they live in every day.
Daniel Hastings	"I'm going to have a care in my response to that." Daniel replies with a raise of his finger to tap his nose. "I was recently speaking to someone who.. liked to put themselves in risky spots. But they had no powers. So I will NOT tell you that you are an average person. First of all, you're a SHIELD agent. That does rather express a level of competence above and beyond the norm. Second, Agent Romanov.. would likely break something in our next session. So. There's that to consider." He smirks faintly and sips his tea. "In shortest terms, I fold space. So.. when you saw the cup floating? It wasn't floating. It was sitting on that table over there." He thumbs the empty table near the arcade he was playing. "But it was more convenient to me to bend space such that it presented next to me. For easy drinking."
Lara Croft	Lara glances down at her tea when he speaks of the SHIELD Agent status making her very much not an average person. She smiles at this reply and then sips her drink again before looking back up and over to him. The mention of Agent Romanov gets a hint of a grin, but Lara hasn't met her only heard the name tossed around here and there which has lead to Natasha being a bit of an intimidating or daunting figure to maybe meet someday - though Lara knows she's an Avenger as well, but her ability to name off all of the Avengers is... lacking. She's never been a big buff on that kind of subject. When he talks of the cup and his ability to fold it's place in reality, Lara glances to the table he indicates it truly had been on, then back to him. "My." She says firstly. "That is impressive then. I can see why you're in the field of physics too now. Maybe I'll come to you when I need to have my luggage reliably sent to a future destination then." She shows the hint of a grin toward him. "So does that ability allow you to travel great distances? Or is it just used for tea cups?"
Daniel Hastings	"Mostly tea." Daniel offers sagaciously. "Occasionally helps with shaving." He sips. "Have to have a care near the ladies powder room though as they often share walls." His free hand is held aloft as if to assure her he's a gentleman in that respect. "Does make the the occasional vacation to Sinapore a lot easier though I must say. Especially on the salary of a homeless man." Which is to say, him. "The largest jump I'm made thus far was lunar though.. I did rather miss the landing. Was hoping to walk up to the front door and knock. Ended up in the R&D lab." He fingers off to his left as if he knows instinctively where that is.
Lara Croft	All of the initial words that he speaks of the tea and the ladies powder room just rouses a smile from Lara followed by another sip from her own cup. She glances over to a pair of agents who pass by their table and are lost in a chat amongst themselves but she looks back to Daniel when he further details his use of his ability. "That is all very... difficult to wrap my head around." She states with a small smirk then. "Impressive as it is, it sounds like you place yourself at a great amount of risk when you send yourself somewhere with that power. I would tell you to 'wear a helmet, please' but I suppose that is a bit of an understatement." There's a pause then and she tilts her head as she looks toward him. "Homeless though, that seems like a stretch for someone with your abilities. Plus I'm assuming you are employed here too, yes?"
Daniel Hastings	Again the British pragmatism brings a shrug when she speaks of safety. "When you've been legally dead for eighty years, it's hard to rent an apartment. For the last month, I've been a guest in quarters here. Homeless might be too strong a word but it's hardly my own place and I've no money to my name. Well. A few loonies I kept for nostalgia but they don't spend here." There's a faint laugh and a sip of his tea. "That and my status as an agent is.. in limbo. I /believe/ Fury is like to approve it but that's hardly a guarantee. They had to prod me with needles first and make sure I wasn't a Skrull." A beat. "Alien shapeshifter at war with the Kree. Not.. that the Kree are much likely to be our allies either." It alls ounds complicated.
Lara Croft	At the mention of the Kree and the Skrull, Lara nods her head softly to it. "I've heard a bit about all of that since coming here. It's an interesting... thing to be involved in conversations of this nature now. Such things were, are, very foreign to me. I guess you could say I've grown up a bit isolated from such concerns. Though if you knew my story that probably wouldn't surprise you too much." She shows a light smile then before glancing toward the exit and back to him. "They have apartments here, you know. But I suppose those are for full Agents. I was assigned one, but I haven't done more than step through it once. I much preferred to get a place in Manhattan rather than stay here. The thought of working and living in the same space seemed a bit too much for me. Plus, while I'm in the United States, I might as well enjoy the city that is New York." She smiles lightly again. "Always something to see and do there, so they say. I'm quite fond of the Museums too. Imagine that." Another smirk is followed by another sip of her tea.
Daniel Hastings	"That's rather the point I made about my quarters." Daniel replies wanly. "Mostly, they were issued so I'd be convenient to them during all of the lab testing and interrogations and.. brain scans." Seriously? "It was just short of a prison.. and would have been were it not for my ability to get around." A tilt of his head and.. then he's lowering his cup and looking across the table at her.. not quite staring. "Not.. of the Surrey.. Crofts.. is it?" Somehow, he's looking at her face as if he's noting something in it. Or maybe not. Mostly, he just wants to check and see if he's mad or seeing things that aren't there. Or are there but not here. This is a problem in his world.
Lara Croft	The subject of brain scans and testings that seem almost borderline in their invasiveness is an tough one to lump into casual conversation like this, but Lara does just nod to them and show a quick light smile. "I hope all of that is behind you now. You may have some rather 'mind bending' powers, but you deserve to live your life free of such things, like the rest of us." At his question to come though, Lara shows a quick smile again and looks away from him. He'd figured it out. She'd thought he might be of the ilk to do so, well educated and of the same relative geographical heritage even if they grew up in different times. She looks back to him then and accepts it with a nod. "The same. My father Richard Croft, his father Edwin. Both deceased. I am the last Croft of Surrey, currently. Though our extended family seems to wish that there were none at all." Which would undoubtedly benefit them by replacing the Crofts then.
Daniel Hastings	"Edwin.." The name is at least vaguely familiar to him. "Well.. the line's not dead yet. So you can tell your cousins to piss off and get off the lawn." Daniel winks and lifts his tea in toast. "I.." He glances left then right. "take it you'd rather be avoiding the.. honorifics?" Aka Lady Croft. Clearly, now that he's put it together he seems keen on it but his told suggests he'll respect her wishes either way. "It also explains what you said earlier." He's a sharp one.
Lara Croft	There's a light laugh from Lara to both of those initial responses, comment and question. She glances down to her tea that she sweeps a bit with a small spoon and then looks back up to him and bobs her head two small times to. "I do prefer not to have that title associated to me, at least not in moments where it isn't required. I... it was important to my father, it was there-by important to my mother - who is also no longer with us - so there for it has to be important to me. I'll attend the public events that are scheduled for me, I'll even fly all the way across the 'pond' to do so. But, at the end of the day, I'm not sure my presence there is anything more than..." She pauses and tries to choose her words very careful as she glances over to the Dig Dug machine, then back to him. "Well, I just have never mixed well with it. 'Galas' and 'Ceremony'. I do have guilt over it though, I do wish to be a better public figure, but I hope to do it later in life. If possible. When what it is I'm doing now becomes... less appealing. If it ever does." Then the young Croft shows him a sly grin and raises her tea up for another sip.
Daniel Hastings	Daniel Hastings cannot help but laugh at that last. "First of all. If what you're doing ever gets boring then it likely isn't your true calling. And since I can see you have a passion for it.. I doubt that will be a problem for you. For them perhaps. But not you." He takes a slow breath. "Still. Duty is.. duty." Damnable Brits. "I tell you what. If you're ever required a plus one, I will be happy to fall on the sword for you and put on my old uniform. That ought to raise a few brows." A WW2 British Royal Navy uniform sure would for sure. "Though if I did that, there'd be no hiding it. My presence that is." He muses a moment then tilts his head. "Let me ask you this. No. I." There's a frown and he leans back in his chair. "Ahh Daniel you bollocksed this one. Nevermind. Forget I was speaking. Please."
Lara Croft	What he says makes her softly chuckle again as she lowers the tea down, holding it between both of her hands. She too leans back in her chair, but it's a high backed seat so it keeps her upright quite well. "I imagine a lot of sly commentary on an archaeologists' plus one being a a rather old person, no offense. You don't look it by any means." She grins softly then before she shakes her head at his dismissal of whatever question he'd had spark inside his head. "No please, do ask it. It's perfectly fine. And you're right, I do have a passion for my work. It isn't really work at all to me. I'd be doing what I'm doing whether I was employed with SHIELD or not. That is what lead me to /take/ the job offer when it was proposed to me. I knew I'd be doing this anyway. I may as well get paid and not rely on my family's past to fund my future endeavors." She pauses then and nods again to him. "But yes, feel free to ask whatever you wish."
Daniel Hastings	Daniel Hastings looks to the ceiling. "It wouldn't be proper of me, Miss Croft." His gaze returning. "Anyway, I'm sure its the same sort of nonsense you get letters for. Sponsorships, nobless oblige appearances.. the sort of thing you say is not what you enjoy. So.. please accept my apology for it even entering my thought. I was having a lovely cup of tea with a lovely individual and went and soured my own milk." A hand comes up to massage his forehead. "To be honest.. I wish I hadn't recognized the name. It was a donor list, you see. One of those Galas that the doctors and hopefuls attend looking for sponsors for their work. Shaking hands.. kissing..up." Ass? "Not that I have bad memories of your grandfather. He was actually fairly young when I met him. His father brought him. Lord Croft, of course. I don't recall his name."
Lara Croft	The compliments he affords her are enough to make her smile with a true inner sense of... happiness? It's an emotion Lara doesn't feel /too/ often. Both of her parents had died tragically, she'd lived a life of wealth, yes, but she'd lived a life of hardships in other ways too. Her first 'adventure' had been one fraught with danger, death, intrigue, more death and a lot of danger... plus more danger and death. So she just smiles at him and gives a light shrug of her shoulders inside of her dark navy blue jacket. "Really, you've no need to apologize. You're one of the few people here who've approached me and been a good conversation. I value that a lot alone. I'd expected to come down here in my off hour to simply stare at more work." She motions to all the items she'd strewn about on the table. "You've lived a very fascinating life too, one that I'm quite intrigued by. So really, you've done nothing to put me off or insult me in the slightest."
Daniel Hastings	"Still." Daniel seems to insist upon the point. "Allow me to profess the faux pas and.. let it to that. I would much rather be remembered for respecting the lady before me not as a lady but.. as a lady." There's a difference. Somehow. Nuance. It's a British thing. "I will say that I'm enjoying a little too much down time. Down time that will soon be ending I'm sure. Once I'm reinstated that is." There's a tip of his chin. "I.. would like to.. have another conversation sometime. It's nice being able to speak with someone and enjoy tea." Because tea is important. "I could even arrange for a jaunt somewhere if you've a notion for any place specific. Free of paparazzi and airports." He picks up his tea again. "I promise you won't need a helmet."
Lara Croft	There's a slow but prominent smile that slides over Lara's lips then as she stares at him and nods her head a single time to him. "You're a gentleman, Mister Hastings." She tells him. "Those are rare these days." She takes another sip of her tea before she sets it forward on the table again. "So yes, I'd be happy to join you for tea here as often as we're able to. It would be nice to share such a thing with someone who's a good conversation." She grins at the latter comments as well. "Paparazzi..." She looks away across the room for a moment before returning her stare. "Thankfully not as big of an issue here in the States. Especially since things have calmed down." Since the event that took place in the young Lara's life back in October. "But yes, I imagine travel times with you are much shorter than how I'm used to as well." This makes her smile yet again then.
Daniel Hastings	"No lines. No lost luggage. I promise you a swift flight with no turbulence and the rates are quite reasonable." Daniel lifts his tea in toast to her. "I found a quaint little island a few hundred nautical miles from the Phillipines that's quite relaxing. Though if you were looking for amenities, I might recommend New Zealand. Pleasant weather, nice folk, and not one of the expected travel destinations for the rich and famous." He winks. "Thankfully, I'm neither."
Lara Croft	There's another soft laugh from the WAND Archaeologist and she quickly nods her head a couple times to him. "I've been to New Zealand. My... mentor was friend's with a man who owns a winery there. I absolutely love it there. The landscape, the people. It's a tremendous place, and of course, quaint islands sound quite nice as well. So yes, we should look in to that some time. Consider me on board for your travel arrangements. Just... no Alpha Centauri. Not quite yet. I think I'd need to pack a little heavier for that one." She exchanges in the clanking of teacups and she laughs softly again as she glances around. "We look dreadfully British right now, you realize this, yes?" She's teasing of course, because they're surrounded by Americans, mostly.
Daniel Hastings	"No?" Daniel feigns disappointment. "It's just as well. Neither one of us has any manner of galactic pass. Customs would be a nightmare." Not that he can't bypass customs. "New Zealand it is then. I have to say I loved it myself and.. for someone who's not been but once and then just a glance around.. I would consider it an honor if you would show me the sights. Though.. perhaps wait until after I have a job. A gentleman has his dignity, after all." Can't have her paying his way, that wouldn't be proper! He gives a glance about at the last comment then profers, "They didn't object to the last British invasion, the Beattles by the by are fabulous, so they'll just have to suffer this one. Cheers." Sip tea.