Lara Croft ☥ 003

[nvrtheeasyway]

Who: nvrtheeasyway and givemenames
Where: From Lara's manor in Somni to the statue in the desert
Style: Third
Status: Closed (PM if you want in)

After a few days of shopping around for the proper equipment and supplies, Lara had packed all she felt she needed to explore the sink hole as well as the statue erected there. Climbing equipment, ropes, light sticks, ammunition,

Comments

[nvrtheeasyway]

Turning halfway on the seat to look at the Assassin, Lara couldn't help herself and laughed softly at his comment. She then smirked teasingly:

"It's called a motorcycle. And don't worry, Altaïr. I promise to take really good care of you..."

Even though she knew the man enough to anticipate the innuendos to fly over his head, she couldn't help stop herself from making it either, for her own amusement, to the least.

"Though, there is a few tricks you need to know. First, you will have to lean forward, against my back. Also, when I negotiate turns, you'll need to lean into the curve, not against it, or else you'll counterbalance the bike and make it difficult for me to drive it. And lastly, you'll need to hang on tight." And so saying, seeing as it was obvious Altaïr hadn't figured out how to hang on to the bike, Lara reached for his right hand and wrapped his arm around her waist, letting the man take the hint about his left arm. If he was too shy to hang on to her, her back pack strapped in front of her offered a good grip as well.

Turning back to face the road, she started the engine, reeving it up slightly before shifting the bike into gears. Despite the temptation of showing off her driving skills, the young woman held on to her promise, keeping the speed and turns to a casual ride. Still the bike was made for speed and this method of transport had them reach the edge of the city quickly. When the road disappeared into the desert sand, Lara parked the bike in the shadow of the decorative wall at the edge of the city.

"We'll have to travel the rest by foot. My bike isn't made for the sand."

But already they could see the statue gleaming in the distance. The young woman climbed off the motorcycle and unclipped her equipment and backpack, watching closely the Assassin and his reaction to his ride.

[givemenames]

If the car had been bad then the motorbike was a thousand times worse. He'd held onto Lara because she'd seemed a better bet than the damn bike but his jaw ached from clenching it the entire time. Traveling at such speeds was beyond the insane and his hood had blown back and away from his face and in the end he'd shut his eyes too, leaning instinctively the way she had said.

So he was more than glad to be on his feet again, not speeding along and he rubbed at his jaw, nodding at her.

Hopefully on the ride back she'd take it easier seeing as there would be no rush.

"In my day we would have traveled the whole way by foot or by horse. Not that horses are much better in the sand at times." But at least you could make the horse carry whatever supplies you had brought with you.

[nvrtheeasyway]

By way of her mirrors, she had seen how tensed Altaïr had looked and how he had finally closed his eyes. The expression he had worn was probably one that very few would see in their life and the young woman chose not to ever mention it. Still, she had had no intention of scaring the man, but perhaps he wasn't made for speed. For a moment, she was almost tempted to apologize to him, but then it would have meant that she was acknowledging he hadn't like his ride very much. Instead, Lara simply nodded and started to make her way towards the statue.

It took them less than an hour to reach it and when they did, the young woman's expression changed into a mix of surprise, puzzlement and fascination. This was like nothing she had seen before, and she had seen many statues and temples. The statue reminded her of a few symbols back in her time, but nothing definite. Taking it out her binoculars, she took a moment to give the monument a better look from afar. The strange hole around it would need some attention of its own to make sure it was safe.

"This is...truly impressive..." she whispered, adjusting the focus of the glasses. "....Interesting....there seem to have some inscriptions at the statue's foot. But I cannot make out what it says from here..."

Out of habit and not entirely thinking straight--her mind reeling at the possibilities the statue offered--, Lara gave the binoculars to the Master Assassin so he too could have a closer look.

[givemenames]

Altaïr had already pulled out the pieces of paper once they had reached it, crouching down as he quickly made some sketches that he could study later and hand over to Malik for further analysis. Once that was done they would go into the pages of the Codex at the bureau for the time being. He slipped the papers away again once the ink had dried and got to his feet, wishing there were something high to climb to get a look at it from above first.

He took the binoculars when offered them, turning them over in his hands once or twice before he copied what she had done, lifting them to his face, feeling rather foolish but no, he could see it more clearly.

"Perhaps the inscription is something related to this place." Whether that was good or ill he couldn't say - Somarium had many mysteries and there was so little information out there in the library and the locals often ran from him, ignored him or prattled on with useless claptrap until he gave up. He handed her the binoculars back and started walking closer, casting a look back over his shoulder. "Well then, there is only one way to find out what exactly it says."

[nvrtheeasyway]

While the Assassin was drawing on a sheet of paper, the Tomb Raider was taking pictures with her Dreamberry. Surprisingly, the phone had a pretty good resolution. Hearing the soft scribbles, Lara turned her attention back to Altaïr and slowly raised an eyebrow. In between them, in between the manners they took on the exploring of the statue, there was centuries apart, their own way to take back with them the details of the monument a proof of that. And so it didn't come as a surprise to the young woman when Altaïr had turned the binoculars a few times in his hand before bringing them to his eyes skeptically. For a brief moment, Lara wondered how much the man would be willing--and capable--of taking in from hundreds of years after his time. Perhaps, with the right pacing, the man could adapt to new technologies.

His words snapped her back to reality and she nodded, a small enthusiast smile on her lips: "I would truly hope so." After all, knowing this place better was the reason of her coming out here.

She followed the Master Assassin, stepping careful when they reached the edge of the sink hole. It was strange, how they seemed to walk on air, with only black emptiness beneath their feet. Midway to the monument, Lara knelt down, tapping on the glass-like material: "Incredible..." she whispered to herself. The material looked thin and clear, and yet it seemed indestructible. Well, there was only one way to test it, right?

Taking our her gun, she aimed far away from them, at the floor and pressed the trigger once, only to watch her bullet bounce off the ground. No marks, no cracks, no hints of the trajectory of her projectile. The glass was unbreakable. She turned back her attention to Altaïr, smirking lightly: "I think we're safe."

[givemenames]

As his own Dreamberry had been subjected to some rather extensive damage - Mahdi's clawing and pecking, being dropped or knocked around in the stone and heavy wood of the bureau - he wasn't in the habit of keeping important things on it anyway. And there was still the worry that someone could stumble across it and find anything private as he had no way of knowing how to conceal the words he didn't want others to know. But some things like the gun and the thing he'd held to his face...they were useful, less threatening and something he could adjust to although he would always rely on the skills he had known all his life.

Reaching the statue, he ran fingers across it lightly, tapping here and there. It was nothing like the statues of his time and he freed a throwing knife, trying to scrape at it but there was no scratch to observe nor any mark upon the blade he had used. There was a temptation to try with the hidden blade, made of a far stronger steel but he was loathe to damage the most important part of his arsenal for something as trifling as this so he returned the throwing knife and took a few steps back, as if assessing it as Lara spoke.

Once he was sure she wasn't going to fire another bullet to check he took a step or two back and then broke into a run, leaping up and nimbly finding enough of a fingerhold to grip into to haul himself up to see if there was anything different about it from a higher angle or further inscriptions.

"I wonder how they would construct such a thing without the notice of citizens." Surely someone would have heard something - that was always the way of things. "Or for it to just appear over night. Something of this scale and magnitude would require a great amount of manpower to erect."

[nvrtheeasyway]

She moved away from his course, watching with a rather impressed expression as the Assassin climbed up the structure. She had seen a few free-runners back in her world, but never this close, nor this skilled. She walked around the statue, letting her fingers move across the steely surface and nodded slowly:

"Yes, it would. Though seeing that this statue stands in the middle of a hole on a strange...ground, it's not that far fetched for it to have been raised within a night. I wouldn't be surprised if it hadn't been brought here by men."

Lara wasn't a very religious person, but after seeing some of things she had seen in her world, she wasn't against the idea of a higher power above them. Perhaps, this world had its own Gods and Goddesses as well?

Looking down as her fingers ran across some inscriptions, she raised an eyebrow as she read them out loud:

"To find the answers you seek,
Follow the rabbit down its hole.
Don't forget to use force!
The statue can be heavy."

The young woman tilted her head as her forehead creased slowly and she knelt by the foot of the statue, trying to see there truly was a way to move it.

"I don't think it can be moved that easily...Is there anything interesting up there?" She said, looking back up at Altaïr, hoping the Master Assassin would find some sort of better hints at moving the statue than her.

[givemenames]

"There must be something beneath then, a deep channel or chasm that it is currently covering." He ran his hands over the statue as he spoke, climbing right up to the top although there wasn't a great deal to see beyond the empty expanse of desert. It was such a strange shape though that he knew another visit to the library would be in order to see if there was anything remotely similar to it in construction and if there was some meaning to it.

Satisfied that he'd seen what he needed to see, he made his way back down and once again pulled out his writing tools, making note of the inscription.

"Odd," he murmured aloud as he noted the words both in English and in Arabic, "It sounds almost like the rhymes told to children when they are very small."

Or a riddle. A riddle and the mysterious statue and the castle falling from the sky. Could it all be down to some supernatural entity? He thought back to the Apple as it had rolled from Al Mualim's hand, the gold glow that had emerged from it, that map and the way his masters voice had still echoed despite him being dead.

"From above there was nothing to indicate how to move it. If anything, it looks even more outlandish looking down on it. But given the shapes, it may have been twisted up rather than pushed straight." He motioned in the air with his hands to demonstrate exactly what he meant but still...where had the damn thing come from. What was down there, beneath the sand?

[nvrtheeasyway]

"Yes, most probably. And I'm guessing whatever one would find at the end of the tunnel would be important information about this world. And perhaps on how to get back to our world."

Lara didn't remember any symbols nor similar structures in her world, but this one would have to be accounted for. If this was part of a the worship of the Gods of this world, there would surely be more of this symbol scattered in Somarium.

"In my time, there is a book, a story for children that became classical literature with time. In it, a young girl follows a white rabbit down a hole, only to find herself in a completely different world." Strangely enough, this was sounding familiar. "An interesting thought to add, is that the young girl from the story? I have met her here, in this world." This couldn't have been a coincidence, right? Perhaps Lara should try to call Alice to try and know more about how the young girl arrived in this world and how her stay here had been so far. There might be some hints in her story.

Taking her Dreamberry out again, she used it to take a picture of the inscriptions. Perhaps she should give a call to the programmer she met at the mall. The young man might be able to check if the inscriptions were to be read plainly or if they were hiding a coded message.

Looking up at the structure again, she nodded before looking down at its base again:

"That would perfectly make sense. Or the statue can also only be the key that needs to be turned in the lock to open a hidden door. The entrance to the tunnel might not be underneath the statue."

[givemenames]

He wandered around the statue in a wide circle, taking it all in once more until he was back and standing beside Lara as he listened to her.

"That girl is here?" A fictional being, here and present in Somarium? Although that should not be so farfetched given the revelations of home. The characters in the Bible, in the religious texts and of myth had all been real but merely those wielding Pieces of Eden but if that girl was here...what could she do. "I wonder what she knows of this although if she is young then she may know nothing."

"The question then would be how to unlock it." He cast a skeptical look up at the structure from his crouched position, trying to see what else he could see from that angle. "There was nothing that was remotely movable on the statue from where I was unless things must be moved in some specific pattern or order."

[nvrtheeasyway]

The sound of the Assassin's voice by her side startled her slightly. Lara had been so focusing on writing notes in her own notebook and on thinking of a way to speak with Alice, that she hadn't notice his movement. She had to give him that, the man was certainly silent and stealthy.

"Yes, she is. Her name is Alice. I have briefly spoken to her, I suppose I could always call her and meet with her, in case she might know something about this world without even realizing it." She turned her head to face Altaïr and tilted it, a small teasing smile on her face: "You are welcome to come and eavesdrop if you want." Two persons trying to solve a riddle was always better than one.

The young woman gave the statue another look, frowning lightly:

"Yes, but I doubt the means to learn how to unlock it can be found around here. It wouldn't be very bright to hide the key near the lock, wouldn't you say? Since you have arrived here, have you seen other statues or monuments in this world? Perhaps the key is hidden within them and not here", she asked him, assuming the Master Assassin has explored this world thoroughly.

[givemenames]

Alice? His eyes widened and he cursed under his breath in Arabic for a moment before he apologised.

"I have spoken with an Alice as has Malik. A girl with fair hair and blue eyes?" He had not even suspected anything amiss about her beyond the effects of the card she had described to him and his brother and he rubbed his temples. Never take anything for certain in this land, words he was now living by although things did still manage to catch him by surprise. "I could eavesdrop," he agreed. If he asked questions or was obviously present, it would be intimidating for a young girl. Meeting him by chance whilst hunting was one thing but that would be something entirely different.

"Nothing that looks like this, no. Although there are things I have heard some call statues that I would give other names to or no name at all. The architecture differs greatly. You could ask Leonardo, the artist, if he knows of statues and show him this one." Leonardo had a keen and agile mind too as he had learned from their conversations and from the fact that he had managed to decode the pages of the mysterious Codex. "He would likely spot patterns or similarities that you or I do not."

[nvrtheeasyway]

Altaïr's little bout in Arabic made Lara raise an eyebrow, amused and she nodded when he apologized. She wasn't better with language as well.

"Yes, of about seven or eight years old, with an accent not unlike mine. We come from the same country, England, even though she is a character from a book."

The young woman had thought the same when she had offered the Assassin to eavesdrop on them. Even if he had met her, Lara was certain she could sway the young girl easier on her own. Some 'girl time', or the promise of helping the child to become a real lady, seeing as Lara held already that title, could probably help in convincing Alice to help them.

"Perhaps you could text me the questions that you want answers to, in case I do not think of it. That way, there would be no reason for you to reveal yourself and yet have all the information you need."

The man's answer clearly didn't please her, but her expression lightened at the mention of the artist. Altaïr was right, Leonardo had a sharp mind and she wouldn't be surprise if the man got excited at trying his hand on a new puzzle.

"I believe I will. I wouldn't be surprise if he does find something we both have missed."

[givemenames]

That sounded like the girl he had spoken with as a woman and before when she had talked of monsters and he had tried to reassure her that such things were figments of the mind and nothing else. She hadn't been convinced though but their second meeting had gone better, even if he and Malik had accidentally offended her with not understanding the way the cards she had described had worked.

"I can do that, I am far more competent with the communication device now than I was previously." Although he preferred not to call it a Dreamberry; what an utterly ridiculous name. It looked nothing like a berry.

"There is much Leonardo knows and can decipher if you have the patience to listen through all the rambling he goes on with." Which Altaïr managed, just about.

[nvrtheeasyway]

Lara nodded: "I'll let you know when I'll be able to talk to her. Hopefully, she will not mind coming to the mansion; it'll be far easier for you to eavesdrop out of the public's eye." Not that the woman doubted the Assassin's ability to blend with a crowd, but better safe than sorry.

The mention of the painter's rambling habit made the Tomb Raider smirk lightly. Clearly the Arabian was not used to be around Latin people, although she had to admit that the inventor was quite a verbal one. Still, she find it quite endearing from Leonardo, more so that she would have never guessed him to be like that.

The sound of slightly screeching steel made Lara look up and she looked surprised as she watched the blades of the statue twirl slowly as the wind started to pick up the desert. She blinked away the sand that caught in her eyes and she looked down to make note of that in her notebook. If there was a part moving on the statue, there has to be a good reason for it, right?

[givemenames]

"I have a feeling that if I'm caught eavesdropping in public, word will reach the Inspector and he will find some reason to object to it more strenuously than he should." Not that he was worried about that but it would be troublesome and inconvenient. He'd been ignored by the man for a good couple of months now and long may it continue.

The second he'd heard that sound, his head had snapped around to locate it. After all, he was still used to that meaning a weapon was being drawn and he regarded the statue as though it might spring to life and attack but no, it remained stationary.

Or parts of it did.

He was on his feet then and approaching it, climbing up and holding the main structure with one hand while he tested the blade with the other and sure enough it moved beneath his hand. Testing it, he changed direction and planted his feet against the side as best he could to see just how much give there was in it. If he managed to pull one off, the fall would be a short one and the sand beneath was soft although landing on his feet would still be simple to pull off.