6695/Mysteries in Madripoor

Mysteries in Madripoor
Date of Scene:	27 February 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Lara Croft meets with the Wolverine to discuss some of his history in Madripoor and hwo it connects to something she's searching for.
Cast of Characters:	Wolverine, Lara Croft

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Wolverine has posed:
    Drop boxes, dead numbers, one way comms, and clandestine meetings are all ways that members of intelligence organizations get in touch with one another. Some lead to one or another of those things, other give enough information for some operative to have one bit of information already and follow it up. But for the SHIELD agent, Lara Croft, to get in contact with one of the older assets available to SHIELD... she had only to send an email.
    Perhaps that email triggered a chain of its own contacts to bring it to the attention of the asset. He was a man she had met before, Xavier's for that period of time. But the cross-reference of intel also connected him to some early early SHIELD operations.
    And some in Madripoor of all things, right in the window she was looking to cover.
    Contact came back almost instantly, perhaps not from the man himself but perhaps from a SHIELD handler. The meet would be arranged for a 16:30 hours, beneath the veteran's memorial off the East River, the charging horse that was rearing. He'd be sitting under the hoof, at that minute, during that day. And when she arrived. Well, he was.
    Sitting there in his raggedy old brown leather jacket, with jeans and a black t-shirt. He didn't seem to care about the dusting of snow coming down. And when he looked up his lip twisted as he saw her and said simply.
    "Small world."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara always had multiple 'cases' in-progress and under investigation, it helped to do that when you lived in a world where your had to wait for information to come to you sometimes, it meant that you could switch to another case or mission to focus on while another was working itself out.

This was one of those. She had some information finally come her way and the contact was setup.

Now, Lara Croft's black Jeep pulls up near to this memorial and she steps out it, pulling her black leather jacket on around her shoulders once outside, she walks across the small plaza area toward where he is seated waiting for her, her right hand pulling her dark brown ponytail out from behind her jacket so its not stuck inside it, but draped down behind her shoulders instead.

"Logan." She says, using his first name because its the only one she's ever heard for him and honestly its the only one she has for him, other than his codename, which she's never been big on codenames. She's even been reprimanded at SHIELD once for not calling an agent by it, even when they were in the Triskelion and in privacy with a SHIELD supervisor!

"Lovely place." Lara says, glancing around then as she remains standing, her hands going into her leather jacket pockets now.

Wolverine has posed:
    "Croft." The answer back is casual as he leans forwards on the bench seat, resting his forearms on his knees and looking up at her with a quirked eyebrow, "Think so?" Whether the place is lovely or not. It does have its charm, but has lost a bit of it with the chotchki sellers and the wandering snack vendors. Touristy, but then again with that much chaos it does provide a good bit of cover.
    "Remember when they were proposing it, used to be a bowling alley." He then leans to the side and brushes off the bench beside him, knocking some of the errant snow onto the ground and making room for her as he says, "Sit down. You make me nervous and I reckon you wouldn't wanna offend my delicate sensibilities."
    That having been said he takes up the last bit of snow and rubs it between his fingers and the palm of his hand, then wipes them on his jacket. "What's all this about?"

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara gives another glance around them and she has to show a light grin. "I've certainly seen worse." She says then before she looks back to see him dusting off a place for her on the bench. "Thank you." She says in her proper British way before she turns around to lower down onto the seat, her hands coming down to the tops of her thighs where she's wearing a pair of dark green slim-fit cargo pants with pockets up the thighs and hips.

"Bowling." Lara then comments, idly. "That is something, I've never done." She leans back on the bench and then looks over to him again. She cracks a grin at his last words and softly shakes her head side to side. "Nothing about you screams 'delicate', might I say." She says back then.

Lara then sits up a little straighter on the bench and releases an exhale. "I'm sorry for the entirely random invite to this rather impromptu meeting in the middle of a random park in the dead of winter... but, I've questions." She says that last two words and punctuates them with a small smile. "Regarding your time in Madripoor, nothing specific about you, more-so about the area itself and some of its... legends."

Wolverine has posed:
    He's not looking at her, just sort of looking forwards and watching the small snow fall, though he does link his hands together. A few nods are given as he looks up towards the sky, nostrils flaring for a moment as he sniffs the air, then he says sidelong. "Yeah, which ones?"
    There's a scuff and a scrape of his boots as he shuffles a small groove in the snow, looking down at it for now and frowning. "Madripoor is a wild place." It's then that he looks back towards her, his eyes flitting between hers as if trying to see what was behind each iris. "Means a lot of different things to a lot of different folks."
    As quick as that he looks away, not nervous, but more wary. "What's it mean ta you, Ms. Croft?"

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara holds a soft smiles at his reaction and she dips her chin in a little single nod to him. "Indeed it is. I've gotten myself into some interesting situations there in the past, both times that I've been there. One of those situations I'd very much hope not to repeat in the future, when I return." Vague, but she often is!

With a light exhale, Lara looks down at herself and she raises her left hand to cross over herself to reach inside her jacket and pull out a small slip of paper with a name scribed on it in her flawless and annoying proper handwriting. 'Phuna Vdu Hnaw' it says on the slip.

"I'm researching this name and the legend associated with it." She tells him, looking from the paper up to his eyes. "Is it anything that you might be familiar with? Its important to what I'm working on. Any help you might have, it'd be greatly appreciated." She has a charming way of trying to persuade people, its casual, friendly and calming. It may not work on everyone though!

Wolverine has posed:
    Turning to the side he leans against her for a moment to look at the slip of paper before presuming he should take it from her hand. He'll focus on it for a time and his brow creases, but only a second before she'll hear the translation given. "The Winter. No." He scritches a fingertip along the curve of his jaw, "The _Bringers_ of Winter."
    "Yeah..." He hands the slip back towards her and says, "Yeah. I mean, it mighta been sometin' else. Or mighta been nothin'." He waves his hand to the side, "But back in those days I wasn't exactly as all nice-nice on the up and up as I am now."
    His smirk is wry as he looks away, but then sneaks a squinting glance at her. "Got hired by one of the Yangtze Tong, a guy known as Kikkonan? I think that was it. Wanted to try and find this pass across the Honshin mountain range."
    He lifts a hand and waggles fingers a bit distantly as if indicating something just over the horizon. "So about twenny of us loaded up, started wanderin'. Followed a map he had. Didn't go too well," He takes a breath and grimaces then adds, "Four of the coolies went missin' one night after we made camp. S'cold, since we were high up, but not Winter cold, since word was the pass would close up with snow in the later months."
    He chews on his lower lip and grimaces, "So me and my pal Kona, we did a perimeter sweep in the mornin', expanding outwards, normal search pattern." He frowns, eyes distancing a moment. "Heard him yell, came runnin' over to where he was. He was standing over the four coolies. Dead. All of'em. Naked, frozen. Figured they got lost durin' the night and flipped out. But the other coolies..."
    He points at the slip of paper, "Kept sayin' that name, and they wouldn't go no further. That was that. Kikkonan wanted ta kill em, but was a bit freaked. Decided ta head back."
    A pause, then he adds. "N'that was it."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's eyes remain on him throughout what he says, displaying that every word he says is another piece to the puzzle she's seeking to complete. After he finishes his story is when she looks away again to a pair of children who're rushing to a drift of snow to grab snowballs to throw at each other, while their father is moving to stop them and corral them up again to keep going wherever they're going.

"I think..." Lara starts to reply, as her eyes sweep back over to him. "And forgive me for this sound potentially rude. But I think that your expedition went better than you might believe it." She says to him before softly shaking her head right to left. "I just believe that you, as a group, weren't ready for what you found."

With that said, Lara's hands come together between her knees and she softly rubs her palms together, she doesn't have gloves on and its cold outside after all. "Would you happen to know how I might track anyone from that expedition down? This person who had the map, specifically perhaps?"

Wolverine has posed:
    A small rough laugh slips from him as he perhaps spares a glimpse towads the children, but then looks away as if they didn't exist. To her he says, "Well, this was... a while ago." He lifts a hand to push it roughly through that wild mane of his hair, some of the snowflakes melting from his touch. He undoes tightens his jacket a little further around himself and then looks at her askance.
    "Most of the people who were on that expedition're dead now." Logan's brow furrows as he considers their fates, but says little else as to what befell them. "But then again..." He smirks a little and confesses, "I was the last one to look at the map." The Canadian mutant scratches at the stubble along the curve of his jaw.
    "Might still be in the bar. Left it with a buncha other junk and knick knacks."

Lara Croft has posed:
As he starts to explain that everyone is likely long gone by now, Lara comes back down to reality. Logan has an extended lifespan, he's not quite got the same limitation on life that... well, she does, let alone those who he's already known live and die around him throughout his life.

"Of course, yes." Lara quietly says to that reminder. She looks away for a second, only long enough for him to say the rest which draws her brown-eyed gaze back onto him. "You might know where it is?" She then asks, a spark of renewed hope clear on the 20-something year old woman's face.

"What bar?" She asks him then. "Could you take me there?" Sometimes she comes across as a bit of a giddy child when it comes to find potential 'hot' leads on the various adventures she's cooking up... its obvious that she holds a hell of a lot of passion for the work she's dedicating her life to.

Wolverine has posed:
    "Well, here's the thing." Logan says as he withdraws his cigar from inside his coat and produces a lighter from somewhere, flicking the flame to life and applying it to the end of the stogey until he has a nice glowing ember. "If we're gonna go get this stuff..."
    Suddenly it's a 'we'.
    "Then I gotta be there. Lots of connections and sentimental significance." That jerk is holding out on her and presuming he's going with!
    "And here's the other bit, with all the stuff goin' down lately... I can't exactly drop everythin' and go traipsin' across the globe."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's life, job and everything... wasn't generally associated with there 'here and now' elements of what is threatening their world. Her sphere is usually related to things from the past, that might threaten the future.

So when Logan speaks of this last part, she has to take a second to regroup and refocus on what IS happening in the here and now and thats when she nods softly. "Ah." She says. "Right. The uh... Sentinels." She says. "I've heard about it. They're, dreadful. I wish there were something I could do to help with that, but I'm not precisely suere where or now I could."

She glances away from him again as two people fight over a cab near the street, arguing over who the cabbie had decided to stop to pick up. Classic New York.

She looks back to Logan then as he has his lit cigar. "Can you contact me when you're ready to embark upon this?" She asks, speaking sometimes as though she's directly from one of the old dusty books her nose is stuffed into on the regular. "I'm patient. I can wait." Thats not exactly true, but she has to try to be a team player.

Wolverine has posed:
    A nod is given as he takes a drag on the cigar and says, "Alright," A puff of smoke escapes him and then he adds, "If things get too crazy or if somethin' happens ta me I'll make sure you get the intel ya need." He looks across the way towards the departing cab, but then shifts his gaze back towards her.
    "If you got a time sensitive thing going on, then I'll see what I can do, but I sorta always wanted ta head back there." He rubs his thumb at the corner of his mouth, the cigar ashing slightly with the motion as he adds, "Would be good ta see what's happened to the ole neighborhood."
    That said he pushes himself to his feet and then slips a hand into his back pocket, producing a card that he hands towards her. Xavier Academy. Logan. History and Phys. Ed. Cute. "Here, easier way ta get a hold of me."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara shows a light smile then and she shakes her head. "Its not precisely time sensitive." She replies at first. "Only my natural desire to rush to the end and see it through to completion... But, I can find other things to keep me busy until the time comes where we're ready to set out."

As he rises up, so does she, while he reaches for his card she reaches for her sunglasses that were hooked into the neckline of her shirt beneath her jacket. She starts to unfold their limbs and slip them onto his face as he offers the card and she reaches out to take it.

After a second of staring at it, she smiles softly. "I miss that school." She says then, her sunshaded eyes now looking up to him again. "Tell everyone that I'm thinking of them, and hoping all is well."

The card is slipped into her jacket. "Thank you, Logan. I'm eager to hear from you on this."

Wolverine has posed:
    A small half-smile is given as he replies, "Sure thing." He turns his back on her and starts walking, lifting a hand to the side to wave without looking back. "Seeya around, Croft." His hands then slip into the pockets of his jacket as he moves, hunching his shoulders a bit. "Try not ta get in over yet head without me."
    That said he slips into the crowd, and after a few moments he'll be gone from view.