5222/The Return to the City

The Return to the City
Date of Scene:	22 August 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Catwoman, Lara Croft

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Catwoman has posed:
After some considerable excitement, the Tomb Raider known as Lara Croft and the master thief known as Catwoman are back in the United States. Catwoman had blagged her way into tagging along on a trip to recover an ancient map from its hiding place in South America. There was some commotion with mercenaries who had been hired to get the map first. One consequence of that was Selina discovering that Lara wasn't quite the bookish nerd that she'd figured the Englishwoman to be.

Manhattan is a stop on the way back to Gotham. Lara needed to take care of the business end of their expedition, after all, and after entirely too long in the rainforest, Selina was content to bum around Lara's place, enjoying amenities and luxuries such as 'a shower.'

And by this time in the evening, Selina has made herself truly at home. She's lounging in Lara's bathrobe on the sofa. Nothing APPEARS to be missing right now, though a more thorough check might be necessary later. She's looking through one of the big archaeological tomes that Lara keeps on her shelves, flipping through it with a facial expression that mixes idle curiosity and just plain bored idleness.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara had owned a home on the ground level of Greenwich Village until the start of the year where she decided to lease the place out to some friends from work (Clint and Skye) and since then, she's moved her things to this apartment in Croft Centre tower, a tower owned by her deceased father... well, the family owns it still. Primarily the building is associated with her father's law firm, but there are other floors rented out in this building to other businesses as well. This particular level was all apartments though, for guests to the city to use.

Lara has taken one of the apartments over, for now, until she finds a new place in the NYC area.

The front door opens and Lara returns from her duties at the SHIELD outpost that was just down the street from here. She'd logged her report and the information that she and Selina had retrieved with the WAND database for her companion agents to start to decipher... she has a whole team of agents that she works with back at the main branch, the Triskelion.

Lara turns and walks to the dark wood polished table where she sets her backpack down and then starts to take off her jacket. She half expected to find Selina gone when she got back, but when she sees her reading a book she shows a soft smile. "Feeling better now, I hope?" Lara asks, stepping into the generall area and putting her fingertips down into the tops of her pants pockets on the front of either of her hips.

Catwoman has posed:
Selina lifts her gaze and turns her head to spy Lara's entrance. The thief meets her with a smile of her own, and all but purrs, "I never thought I'd be so thrilled to see an air conditioner in my entire life." She laughs, then closes the book and leans to set it on the coffee table near her.

"Hope you don't mind me borrowing the robe. Don't worry, I won't keep it." Selina taps the fabric above her left breast. "I don't think I could convince anyone the 'LC' monogram would have been anything I'd have sewn on myself."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara has to release a light laugh of her own at the air conditioner comment. "I don't know." She says. "The heat helps you burn calories." She shows a faint grin then and pulls her hands from her pockets to start to walk to her left toward the little archway that leads toward the kitchen. She glances back at her guest when the embroidered robe is mentioned. This gets a bigger grin. "Don't get me started on stuff like that. Being that I'm the last living Croft, they do these sorts of things for me even though I haven't sat in on a single board meeting since coming to the United States."

Lara vanishes into the kitchen but the pure white light coming out of the door after she flips the switch still shows her shadow just a bit across the hardwood floor.

"If you're hungry or thirst. I have some... things. But not much. Water, orange juice... There's, wine here, but I'm not sure what kind..." A cabinet door can be heard opening as she takes a bottle out and stares at it. "I'm glad to be back too though. And I owe you money for all the help you gave me on the trip." This was likely something new, Lara offering Selina money for helping.

Catwoman has posed:
Selina gets up off of the couch after a moment. She fusses with her robe to make sure it's still tied tightly and follows Lara to the kitchen, leaning in the doorway and folding her arms. The robe was sewn to Lara's measurements, which means it looks too small on Selina. In places, anyway.

"Don't sweat the money. I think I'd rather have a favor, anyway." Selina grins broadly, like some kind of Cheshire Cat(woman). "I've found those come in handy a lot more often than just having a truckload of cash on hand."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is staring down at the wine. "A basic pinot noir..." Lara mutters while eyeing the label, her lips move a little more while she reads more on the label's surface but doesn't vocalize any of it. Then she realizes Selina is leaning into the kitchen and she looks over at her.

"A favor?" Lara asks. "I suppose thats fair enough." She'll say, holding the bottle up to see if Selina wants any of this or would rather a drink. "I can order food to be brought up to us. The kitchen is open all night for the other guests in the building." She moves to gether up a couple of glasses off of a dark wood wine glass rack. "What sort've favor do you have in mind?" She glances back over to Selina and then shows a faint grin. "Or is this one of those open ended favors, that comes later once you've figured out something I can achieve that will be beneficial?" She'd learned enough about Selina on their trip to know that this was likely the case!

Catwoman has posed:
Selina nods to the bottle, silently confirming that yes, in fact, a drink would be just lovely. She steps forward to come closer to Lara, and rests a hand on the countertop, standing next to the other woman so that Lara doesn't have to walk a glass of wine across the kitchen.

"That's what I like about you, Croft," Selina says, sounding pleased. "I don't have to spell things out for you. You just pick up on them~."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is reaching into the drawer in front of her to root around for the bottle open while Selina steps into the kitchen. She smiles at the other's words and slowly nods her head. "The bane of my teacher's in school, however, that." She says, glancing back to the woman. "You know that on one occassion I had a history teacher actually tell me not to raise my hand and let the rest of the class have a chance to answer some of his questions?" She shows a grin then while she works on the cork of the bottle to open. With a quiet pop it is opened and then she's pouring them both a glass of red wine. "At University, they just promoted me to the class aide and let me do all the paper grading. I guess thats the same solution, just an... evolution of it?" Lara turns then and offers Selina her glass and then a small toast.

"To a successful trip, where neither one of us lost limb or life. And we gained everything we wanted."

Catwoman has posed:
"To new friends. Chin chin," Selina replies with a gentle purr in her tone, lifting her glass to toast, and then having a sip. "I could tell you all kinds of tales of what ~I~ excelled at when I was that age, but I really don't want to make you blush so hard that you end up in the hospital. At least, not right now. I figure after you're fully rested up from our little trip, you'll be fair game."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara smiles softly at the addition to the toast and then sips from the wine glass while she listens tot he rest. Once she lowers it down to the counter next to her she places her hand down upon the cool polished granite countertop and then shakes her head side to side lightly. "I don't think that in all my time on this world, I have ever blushed to the point that would require a hospital visit." She tells her new found friend. "Though, my last trip to the amazon jungle did end with me getting a claw across my back that left quite a wound. And it was the claw of a sabertooth tiger no less."

A soft smirk is shown then to Selina. "That, was certainly a hospital trip to remember. Trying to explain what had done that to the doctors. They thought I had gone completely mad."

Catwoman has posed:
"Should've had me along for that one," Selina says with a sly, muted smile. "I'm great with cats."

The thief has another sip of her wine, and adds, "Though whatever they ended up doing, they must've done it well. I definitely didn't see anything on your back that made me think 'oh, she must have been gored by a giant prehistoric feline tusk' the entire time we were down there.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara laughs softly at this and she shakes her head side to side. "Oh its there. Here as well." She raises her right hand up then and holds the palm-out toward Selina's eyes. She motions to the upper-outer corner of it and crosses down toward her thumb where there is a scar all along the palm. "From his tooth." She tells the other.

"I ended up in a cavern that he'd been cornered in. There was a small access corridor that I slipped up and into, not realizing that a tribe of locals had been tossing victims down into its lair as sacrifices... Once I was stepping across the pile of bones though, I realized I was alone." She shows a little smile then. "I barely got back into the crevace I'd crawled through."

Catwoman has posed:
Selina laughs and shakes her head. "I'm going to tell you my secret, Croft. Listen well, because this wisdom may help you out in any number of future situations. My trick to not getting any scars like that... is to not let them hit me in the first place." Selina smiles, then has another pull of wine.

"It's worked for me for years. Though I tend to face off against... ARGUABLY more civilized enemies than you. I'm just dodging bullets and the occasional themed boomerang, not trying to keep my head out of the mouths of feral beasts." Selina fusses with her robe, which is to say, Lara's robe. "But if it works for you..."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's scarred hand drops back down to the countertop with a quiet slap and she shakes her head, laughing lightly. "That is sound advice and I shall take it to heart." She tells the other. "Though I fully expect to be a much uglier person within the next twenty years. If even alive." She reaches up to touch the sacr on the side of her face. "These will likely only add up until there's nothing left to recognize me by." She then grins faintly and puts her hand down again to the wine glass to take it up for another sip.

"I have read a bit about your exploits in Gotham. You've done quite a lot of daring things, its a wonder you haven't hurt yourself or gotten hurt in the process. I admire the skill it takes, to be sure. Even if I'm a little unsure of the ethics... But, I don't want to make you uncomfortable by judging your actions. Thats really not my place to do. I, after all, steal things as well... arguably at least." She grins lightly then. "I just seem to lack some of your finesse?"

Catwoman has posed:
"Oh, sweetie," Selina says, cupping Lara's cheek gently and rubbing her softly. "Don't say that. You're rich. You'll be able to afford so much cosmetic surgery people will think you just stopped aging after a while." She grins again.

"And I appreciate the lack of judgment. That sort of thing just gets so BORING to hear after a while..." Selina rolls her eyes good-naturedly. She's long since made peace with the idea of taking things that don't belong to her. "And finesse... you're either born with it, or you practice until you make people think you were. I might be a little of both."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara shows a quick and soft smile then and glances down toward the wine glass in her right hand held in front of her. "I can imagine it would." She tells the other. Her eyes raise back up then and she nods once. "My life has lead me to treat danger with a... kill or be killed attitude. The first time I was faced with a life threatening situation, I thought all I was going to do was... puke. And then, after I killed the first time, I quite literally did just that. But..." She slowly shakes her head and sips from her glass.

Once she lowers it down again she adds further. "I'm not sure if I should be okay with the fact that the people I've killed since the first, its gotten easier." Her tongue can be seen pushing out the side of her cheek as she stares past Selina's right shoulder for a moment lost in her own thoughts, and then she looks back to the Catwoman before her and she smiles. "I'm being weird. I apologize."

Catwoman has posed:
Normally, Selina tries to avoid getting evolved in other people's emotional hang-ups. They're often a drag and she just doesn't have the time or the energy. However, Lara is someone she's just spent the last while camping out in the jungle with, fighting mercenaries together, borrowing one another's bathrobes...

Selina breathes in, and allows herself to extend that concern she usually withholds. "You okay, Croft?" Her usual sarcastic, carefree attitude has slipped away a bit. "You need to talk about it? Or... not talk about it? Or just, I don't know, a hug or something...? I'm not good at this. But I'll give it a shot."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara listens to the response from Selina and she just cracks a smile and quickly shakes her head. "I'm fine. I promise." She tells her. "I wouldn't have passed the SHIELD psych exam last month if I weren't, right?" And then she quickly grins before she takes another sip from her wine.

Lara sets the glass down and then steps away past the other, moving past her shoulder back toward the exit of the kitchen. "You're welcome to stay here tonight if you need to rest, I can have a company towncar take you the rest of the way back to Gotham, whenever you'd like." She says once stepping back out into the dining area where she picks up her backpack off of the table and moves toward the desk in the living area which is PILED up with books and trinkets, maps and strange things she'd gathered on her trips. Its the one part of this luxury apartment that looks 'like her' which begs to indicate its the part she spends the most time at.

Catwoman has posed:
Selina follows Lara to the dining room, bringing the bottle of wine with her in case Lara wants a refill. She's already pouring herself one. She eyes the desk from a safe distance, and smirks. "Thanks. Tell you what. Let's order up from the kitchen, get some food in us, and then we can figure out who gets which bedroom," Selina says, with that humor back in her tone.

Lara Croft has posed:
Once at her desk, Lara sets the backpack down ontop of it and roots around inside of it to start pulling out some of her spplies. Three iPads, a satelite phone, a holstered handgun... she sets all of this stuff down and grins while doing so. "That sounds like a plan." She tells her guest. "The food here really is quite wonderful. I think its the primary reason I haven't moved into a place of my own again." She glances back to Selina. "Being able to just call down and have a meal brought to me is far superior to how it was when I'd go home and have to cook it myself." She holds her grin to the other for a second before she lowers herself down to sit on the edge of her chair and reaches for the tower's restaurant menu. "Lets see whats on the docket for this hour..."