1834/The Alamo Doesn't Have a Basement

The Alamo Doesn't Have a Basement
Date of Scene:	05 August 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Lara Croft, Doctor Strange

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Lara Croft has posed:
The Alamo doesn't have a basement, but thew New York Public Library does. Rumor says its haunted too, though that rumor kind of caught fire about 20 years ago after a certain film came out.

Lara Croft hardly cared for the worries of ghosts, however, she'd seen enough of them in her short lifetime to have them effect her at all, really.

After Stephen had forced Lara to leave the Summer Sphere where it was, she'd parted ways with him. She had a boat waiting for her at the base of that Chinese Mountain Range and a plane waiting for her down river from it...

She'd return to Manhattan, and had immediately begun her research on the next leg of her journey... to recover the Winter Sphere.

This is why the young archaeologist is in the studty office deep within the depths of the world reknowned library, she had her own peace and quiet down here as she was friends with many of the staff of this establishment.

Lara sits at a large dark wooden desk, its covered in books she'd claimed from the library's 'closed sections' and she was preparing her notes.

"Death Valley..." She quietly uttered. "I'm sure thats where it is."

Doctor Strange has posed:
A head pokes through reality, about two feet above Lara's book and looking down and then to the left towards Lara, "Wonderful guess. But that's actually why they chose the Mojave desert, but not death valley specifically. Like how they didn't pick Everst exactly." Stephen says, a hand bursting through reality with a purple effect coming off the origin of the limb and his neck, so that he can scratch at his nose slightly before it disappears back to his corner of reality.

"I will show you where this one is, but again. I can not let you take it." Stephen's disembodied floating head says to the woman, his grey eyes further emphasizing the importance of his words.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara takes a step back as its not a ghost in the basement that startles her, but rather a living breathing man.

"You're following me!" Lara said aloud to him then, slapping the book in her hands shut as she lowered it then down to her sides. She glared up at his head floating there through that little portal he'd created. "This is absurd." She told him further then.

Lara stepped forward and dropped the book onto the table. "By all means, show me where it is. But remember that if I'm not permitted... by you... to take these items to our safe-place then I'll still be reporting their locations to my superior."

Lara looked up at him then and she watched him closely, measuring him up a bit more now that they weren't under the immediate threat of enemy soldiers trying to murder them. "I'm just trying to do whats 'right' here." She said in a soft an indignent voice.

Doctor Strange has posed:
"It's not hard to follow anyone in this world." Stephen says and again his hand appears through at the same plane and incline as his head just, further apart. "You said on twitbook you were going to the library, l, o, l, winky face, winky face, kissy face, kissy face." Stephen lowers the phone and his hand back through to his side.

"Heart." His voice growing more and more dejected with each description of an emoji.

"I know that in your heart of hearts you think you're doing the right thing, but do you honestly think you should hand over the decision to move the season controlling orbs to a bureaucrat in a suit that answers to a less than unanimous government construct. Or should we protect them where they are, where they've been for generations?"

Lara Croft has posed:
"Threats change, Doctor Strange." Lara replied to him after hearing this. She sat down on the edge of the chair she'd had pulled out from under the table and her hands came together between her knees. "This world is evolving, rapidly, quite literaly in the case of mutants and the abilities that they possess." Lara's head would gently shake and her voice and demeanor seemed to suggest a peron who was tired physicallya nd mentally. "We have threats coming from outer space on a nearly daily basis, each one telling another large number of their friends how to find Earth in their wake... We have people opening portals as easily as the average person opens a refridgerator door."

She'd draw in a breath and let it out sharply. "Its time that this planet take its most dangerous relics, and lock them into safer places, Doctor."

Doctor Strange has posed:
"Do you trust your SHIELD employers and co workers to head the warnings and truths of the spheres completely and to the letter?" Stephen asks softly, his head moving over above the table before the purple aura radiates large and moves down, towards the floor before it vanishes and the whole of Doctor Strange is standing in the same room with Lara. His hand lifts to rest on her back and comfort the woman.

She has one shot to convince him that SHIELD wont mess anything up by moving these powerful and important objects.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara didn't react overly-so to him arriving, she'd gotten fairly used to the magic that he inately possessed, as well as all the others around her with their abilities that always ade her feel so weak and powerless. Feelings she had to push away, down deep, to focus on just surviving what she was going through at any given moment.

At his question, the hand on her back, she just looked across the table and thought about it, his word resonating inside of her mind. Eventually her head just shook side to side. "They've been doing this, long before either of us. Over a hundred years, so I'm told..." She then looked over and up at him. "They have entire warehouses filled with strange and wonderous items... That they are safe guarding. I've walked the rows of wooden crates myself, peered inside many of them. I've seen things I can't even describe, that they have in their coffers."

She looked back to the table with her study materials on it. "I've seen the pedestals that they've already created for these four spheres. Each one is designed to maintain their sphere in perfect harmony, so each can rest 'happily' aside one another. Protected by the seemingly limitless resources of SHIELD's army... Which, no, may not be perfect. But when I compare the options available, I sleep more comofortably knowing that SHIELD has them, rather than 'no one'."

Doctor Strange has posed:
"Fair enough." Stephen says, pulling his hand away, to cross both arms in front of his chest.

He paces around the sizeable room slowly, mulling over his words. "I won't stop you any further, Lara." His eyes soften as he turns his head to gaze at her. "But it's not in me to help you directly." Stephen says, meaning he can't just snap his fingers and have her in the antechamber with the orbs. He's the Sorcerer Supreme, not the Teleporter.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara watched him say this and she looked a bit surprised that he 'gave in' to her. But she also looked appreciative and offered him a single nod and a sincere. "Thank you." She told him. "I hope that you can trust me, if not them. I mean to do these items right... We've reached a point in our existence as a people that we can protect things like this better than ever before. I want to be one of the people who protects them."

She'd show him a soft grin then. "And don't worry about the 'getting there' part. I'm quite used to getting myself to these kinds of items by now... And if I had the abilities that you have, I might feel as though I was 'cheating' somehow." She glanced down at her hands and her thumb rubbed at the palm of her left. "Though it might do wonders for the amount of scars I'm starting to collect, to be able to skip the adventures."

Doctor Strange has posed:
Stephen laughs and nods. "Scars are a part of life." The man suddenly self conscious of his own scared and ruined hands.

"I trust you Lara, just don't break it. I'm not someone you want as an enemy." The doctor says, pulling out a chair beside Lara and taking a seat. "However, if you're going on an adventure to find these orbs, I'd be more than pleased to accompany you."

"If you'll have me."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara heard this from him and she couldn't help but release a light and airy laugh before glancing upward toward the light fixtures hanging from the basement's ceiling. "You'd really want to do that?" She asked him, now looking over to him as he sat there beside her. "Skipping over how you can simply... Do that... thing you do..." She lifted up her right hand did a mocking-portal-drawing motion with her fingertips just ashse'd seen him do several times.

"You do realize that I spend hours... days sometimes, treavling to remote and random locations on foot, in crappy old vehicles, sometimes covered in filth, sweat and often blood." She showed him a sly grin. "Sure, I meet a lot of locals that way who're quite nice to me, but also many that are very unfriendly as well."

She watched him for a moment, staring right at his face as she studied him. "You don't strike me as the type to enjoy all of that. You're far too... 'precise'." Her bare shoulders would shrug in the dark blue tanktop she had on. "Maybe I'm wrong though. People never have been my strong suit."

Doctor Strange has posed:
"I tend to make it a habit to never make an idle offer." Strange says, leaning back in the chair, watching her still, enjoying her reaction and the idea of a more mundane adventure, something akin to when he was rediscovering his purpose in this world.

It may just be what the doctor ordered.

"I didn't know I had a type." Stephen says, his hand lifting to brush and comb his goatee.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara watched him stroke the facial hair and it made her smile very faintly. "Then I guess you do need to do a bit more self exploration, Doctor." She said at him. "It would seem as though you don't know yourself as well as you might want to." She'd let her smile morph into a little grin before she'd glance away toward the books in front of her.

"I look forward to you coming with me then... but I hope you don't mind being around me as I stumble over myself trying to find the Autumn and Spring Spheres..." Lara released a heavy sigh then, her body lowering a little. "Because I haven't yet got the slightest... where those two might be located." She glanced back over her right shoulder at him, her elbows on the edge of the table. "Don't worry. I won't beg you for hints." She said with a slight stronger smile.

Doctor Strange has posed:
"Good. I'm not going to give you hints like that. Ruins the game, don't you agree?" Stephen asks playfully, and moves towards the edge of his seat and looks at the books she's got opened and spread across the table.

"I am impressed at how quickly you deduced the general location of the Winter Sphere." Strange compliments Lara, stealing a glance at the extreme archeologist.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara leaned back after he said this and she placed her hands on the tops of her thighs. "Well, thank you." She told him quietly. "Everything we do... leaves a mark." Her eyes were looking at the table and all the books while her mind focused on random thoughts. "The clues are all around us about the past that crafted the future, we just have to open our eyes on how to find them. Whether it be through archaeology, anthropology or iconography. Whatever sort of 'ogrophy' is your plreasure." She glanced at him and showed a soft smile.

"I haven't narrowed down any solid guesses on where the Sphere could be within the valley, but I have started looking. Obviously they don't have giant castles to roam around in, but they do have small rural locations. Perhaps an old church could be our goal. There's less than a thousand people living in Death Valley, and of those less than four hundred homes with residents. The possible locations for a sphere of wintery power should start to dwindle rather quickly once I begin to chip away at them."

Doctor Strange has posed:
Stephen nods along, she's got a good eye for pinpointing rare artifacts. "You're on the right track." The wizard replies, looking at the books deeper himself, even reaching out and pulling on to him and eyeing it, turning a few pages as he reads.

From the blue he asks, "Do you recall anything about where the Summer Orb was located?" Maybe a round about hint even.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's brown eyes went over to him as he moved and asked this question of her. She took a second to process the question before she exhaled a light breath. "The location, in itself, was remarkable in retrospect... There were items inside of that castle that easily could've been my primary reason for even going there to begin with. I wish I'd had more time to investigate its hallowed halls a little more thoroughly before leaving it...."

Her head shook side to side slowly.

"But I don't think that that sphere was there -because- of that castle. I believe that was just a happenstance of its chosen location." Lara's left hand lifted up and she motioned at a stack of books. "What I can discern is that the owners of the spherse were chosen by a council of, well, magick users..." She gave him a side long look. "I believe each person who was selected to guard their sphere, was chosen because of many different reasons and none of them had to do with how amazing their 'home' was. So the Summer sphere simply ended up in the hands of the person they felt best suited, and not simply because his home was on an icy mountain, but because he... as a person... was best suited to guard over it."

Lara drew in another breath and her right hand went up to the back of her neck to rub there gently. "I'm a rambler though... I apologize. My mind runs like a dam-less river."

Doctor Strange has posed:
Stephen taps his nose at Lara as she continues to deduce things out loud. "Your rambling is correct though." The wizard says with a smirk as he lowers the book, the page he turned to was an artist's depiction of the council and meeting. He taps it a few times with his gloved finger.

"Would knowing the men charged with the spheres assist you at all, or would it simply be a distraction?"

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's hands came together on her lap and she looked over at him after he asked this, her head shook side to side once. "I don't do this simply for the items, I do this to understand. Understand all of it, I want to know why these spheres were created to begin with, how they were created, what were they used for precisely. And yes, this includes knowing everyone who was tasked with guarding them. I'm not here, doing this, to throw a wrench in the protection of these wonderous relics. I'm here to offer a hand of support, to those... that I Really do believe, need it. Even if they don't know they need it."

Lara would show a faint smirk then. "Which is my roundabout way of saying 'Yes, it would assist me.'"

Doctor Strange has posed:
Stephen stands up, closing the book he was pointing at and then turns towards Lara and extends a hand towards her. "Come with me then." The man with the grey temples smiles towards the tomb raider and aims to show her something truely incredible today. Something that he thinks will impress, help and motivate Lara in ways she's never known possible. The Sorcerer Supreme is going to show a girl true magic and the infinite possibilities that are at his disposal.

"First, a stop home for a change of clothes." Stephen says casually.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara stood up when he said this, though she looked a bit unsure of what his intentions wore. She reached behind her chair and picked up her jacket... a navy blue jacket with SHIELD patches on either shoulder.

"When do I get a high collared cape of mine?" She asked him then, following the question up with a warm smile. And who said British people weren't capable of cracking good jokes?

"If you're planning to use one of your portals, you must realize that you're going to start spoil me quite a lot. Especially after I've experienced Manhattan traffick in all its glory this past year."

Doctor Strange has posed:
"My dear Lara, you'll quickly learn with me that flying and teleporting at the ONLY way to travel." And with that, Stephen winks. "Come on. We don't have all the time in the world." He says with a faint smirk of his lips at his own humor.

Oh how she will laugh about this some day.