9064/Word of Mouth Spreads Fast

Word of Mouth Spreads Fast
Date of Scene:	03 September 2019
Location:	Tribeca - Manhattan
Synopsis:	Lara has a question for the former Sorcerer Supreme
Cast of Characters:	Doctor Strange, Lara Croft

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Doctor Strange has posed:
    It's another long day at the Sanctum Zootorum, with the crews helping set up the building, Stephen is left alone in the darkening foyer of the clinic. He is seated on one of the many chairs that will be for those waiting, and he's sitting here with his legs crossed and is winding down the day before he heads back to Felicia's place.

    Strange has his phone out and is reading the latest news and sighs. It's been so long since he's actually done that and is now finding the world itself a more somber place that he remembered it being.

Lara Croft has posed:
Word gets around, everyone finds out about things like this eventually. Lara had discovered it early this morning when she'd first gotten to work at the Triskelion. She'd been in the Amazon rain forest for the last two weeks, on a dig that had gone more than a little awry... but nothing she couldn't handle.

When she'd heard about Stephen she'd made sure to check in after work. So here she is, arriving via her black Jeep Wrangler.

Once out of the vehicle her eyes are exposed when she removes her sunglasses and steps toward the Sanctum Zootorum... the sign is noted and it gets a small smirk before the woman in the dark navy blue tank top, gray jeans and black boots walks toward the door to the lobby of the vet clinic.

It opens and Lara Croft strides in, she spies him almost immediately and she allows the door to close just behind her, her hands raise up and her thumbs go into the pockets of her jeans. "This is an unexpected alteration to our my usual ways of finding you." Lara says to him, skipping past the traditional greetings it would seem.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "Didn't you hear? This is New York. The unexpected is the norm." Stephen says, lowering his phone and closing the lock screen as he does so. The former surgeon flips it over and slides it into the pocket of his black slacks as he stands up off the chair. The dark grey long sleeve button down shirt rests easily on his upper half though the sleeves are rolled up to the elbows, showing off the scars of the crash that has defined his life and the scars he's earned as the sorcerer supreme.

    The wizard stands tall before Lara and lifts a black eyebrow over his chromatic-like color changing eyes. "Are you in need of my services again? I will help as I can but as you said, alterations have occured and I'm not the same man I was." Stephen explains.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara simply draws in a breath at this response and she takes another few steps into the store's lobby to look arond it before she looks back onto him. His scars are noted, she hadn't seen those before but they don't look 'fresh' by any means. There's a lot about this man that she doesn't know about after all, they're practically still strangers to one another.

She looks up to his eyes though when he says he's still here if she needs his assistance. "I can see that." She quietly says about his last summation about himself. "In truth, I do have a question for you regarding an ancient magic, a threat to this area that I think might show itself soon. But..." A look is given to a nearby display of a dog on a leash and a happy owner of said dogging rolling around in the grass of some nameless park on a sunny day... and she looks back to him.

"I won't burden you with those things any more if you needn't hear about it." She states then. "I do have a dog though, not with me of course, but at home. If you're looking for another customer, I could bring him by sometime for a checkup?" She shows a light smile for him then.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "I'm still a sorcerer miss Croft." Stephen says as he watches her eyes flit over to the calming art he's had put up but then he frowns. "I recall all the spells and books and tombs I read as the Sorcerer Supreme, and yet if you're here to patronize my latest endeavor to help others in need, then I must inform you that you know where the door is." Stephen says moving towards the door between the foyer and the back rooms.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara tilts her head to the side as he reacts to her like that. "Relax." She softly says to him. "I'm not here to patronize you. I'm not here to question you. You live in your own world with your own consequences and effects there-in. Just as all of us do." The Briton tells him. "I am on no position to question you for your life choices, nor would I." There's a pause then to him before she glances around. "I assume Felicia is well then?" She does ask.

"She came to me at Jonah's restaurant to ask me to help find you. I had contacted Wanda Maximoff but we were unable to schedule an arrangement as Wanda has been busy..." A light exhale then from Croft. "Felicia was very worried." She then softly adds.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen stops with his hand on the brushed aluminum knob with a start as Lara says the name of Felicia. "Felicia is ... well." Stephen says and turns around, and brushes a speck off his pants as he faces Lara. "She found me a few nights later near the warf. Just staring out at the waters, not sure what to do with myself." The wizard remarks with a solemn look across his face. "You were going to track me down with your ... science satellites and uplinks and all that gizmo tech?"

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara watches him now beside the door but she remains where she is in the middle of the lobby with her thumbs in the pockets of her slim fit gray jeans. "I'm glad she found you." The young woman says then. "I've changed my opinion on Felicia, from where it was when I first met her." Lara states then as she takes a step to her right toward a counter in the lobby (?). She glances at the items upon it and then looks back over to Stephen who seems to be urging her to gtfo, but she's lingering anyway.

"SHIELD is aware that you're not at the Sanctum Santorum, but admittedly they're not interested in it until it becomes a threat. My superior specifically told me 'Let the Wizards play with their Wands'." She draws in a breath then and shakes her head from right to left once. "So long as whatever it is that is going on, doesn't create a public disturbance then there won't be any 'high tech' aimed at you, I promise." Not that she can really make that promise, she's a mid-tier agent in SHIELD at best.

After a second, Lara pulls her phone from her pocket on the front of her right hip. She keys it on and steps toward Stephen, on it is an amulet with two halves, one is obsidian and the other half is gold. "Have you ever seen this before?" She asks of him, waiting to see if he recognizes it. The amulet almost resembles the ying-yang symbol, but its different enough to be a very lame mistake to make to label it as that. Instead, its engrabed with a small sun on the golden half and a pair of black eyes on the obsidian half.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen takes in a breath and then leans forward to look at the phone and Stephen's eyes widen for a brief moment. "Belobog and Chernobog." Stephen says to himself in a hushed whisper. "This is supposed to have only been a rumor. Something lost during the great expansion westwards. It was theorized to have been lost in a ship wreck." Stephen says before looking to Lara and his eyebrows shoot up. "You mean you've found it?"

Lara Croft has posed:
At the first part of what Strange replies with, Lara nods her head. "Right." She says to him and that part, but its soft and quiet. The second part of what he says to her, questions her of, she shakes her head in dismissal. "No." She quietly says then. "It was found by a diving team who was bringing it to the United States to auction it off." A deep breath is taken then... "But. They went to a bar the night before the auction, and they flaunted the amulet about. Low and behold, before their night of drinking was complete, they found that the amulet had been taken from them."

She deactivates her phone and slides it back into her pocket. "My associate at the WAND offices believes that this amulet holds a great deal of power, and if its been taken by the wrong people it might be used to achieve all manner of things. Apparently the amulet has the ability to control light. It can create unbreakable shadows, shadows so deep that a directly shined flashlight cannot illuminate anything within its radius... it swallows the beam of light entirely." She pauses briefly then.

"Or in reverse, the light power can illuminate one's surroundings creating an absence of any darkness what so ever. On the surface level, neither of those things sound tremendously terrible in and of themselves. But, with a bit of creative application, either could be a resourceful benefit put to use by nefarious individuals. Such as... thieves." She stares pointedly at Strange, because he might know a thief of some importance to him.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen squints and nods softly. "They sound like fools who deserve to have their fortunes quite literally pilfered." Stephen says with a roll of his eyes at the story Lara gave to him. Then the wizard leans back to his full height to look at the WAND agent with a squint of his eyes. "You don't think Felicia was the one who took it, do you? Or are you wanting to ask me to ask her to get it back for... you?" Stephen asks as he crosses his arms and leans against the doorway and he waits for the response.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara just stands across from him now at the front of his new pet clinic and she shakes her head as the light from the outside street filters through the windows to illuminate the left side of her face and body. "I don't think Felicia took it, no. The odds of that would be astronomical in a city with eleven million people living in it." She replies then as she draws in a short breath. "But I think that its a bold decision to steal it from some men who likely were well armed, considering they knew the value of the item. This leads me to think that whomever did pilfer it from their possession, did it with a well trained set of skills to back them up..."

There's a pregnant pause then as she lets those words linger. "Maybe I'm romanticizing thief culture, but I've been lead to believe that the best trained thieves know one another. Or at least of one another. If you could ask her to... look into it, maybe she could locate it and we could get it back. Its a valuable antique, its a powerful relic, and it may yet hold more secrets than we even know about. The powers that I described are theoretical based on historical accounts... who knows what truths actually lie within that amulet."

Lara then shows a soft nod to Stephen. "But yes, if you could ask her, tell her I would be indebted for her assistance... I would appreciate it. Yours as well, if you can think of anything."

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen nods slowly and even closes his eyes. "I will ask Felicia on your behalf, though I can't promise her responses." Stephen says as he motions towards the doorway out to the city and nods. "It's getting late, I'm sure she'll be worried about me again." Stephen notes as he starts towards the large glass door with the briefest motion that she should go first or at least follow.

    "As far as your dog, you're free to bring him by any time, but because you're you, I'll have to charge you extra for all the trouble with those seasonal orbs." Stephen says with the flash of a smirk across his face, as he did attempt a joke.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara shifts her posture from slightly relaxed to more rigid when he speaks of it being late. "Thank you." She says quietly in that calming British voice of hers. She shows him a warm smile to before she turns to the door and prepares to leave. She's halfway out the door when he speaks of her dog.

A light huff of a laugh escapes the Tomb Raider's lips then. "He's a new addition to the family." She says to him of her dog. "I picked him up just this past weekend. A former SHIELD agent in Westchester had to pass him off because he was too energetic for his children. He's young still, only barely two years old." She's stepping outside now to get out of his hair.

"His name is Aces. I'll bring him by sometime soon." She says then. "Thanks again, Doctor." She says to Stephen as she now moves on toward her Jeep.