9588/In The Avengers Safehouse

In The Avengers Safehouse
Date of Scene:	15 October 2019
Location:	An Avengers Safehouse, Queens, NYC
Synopsis:	Lara finds out more about Vi, and shows her some images and video from her past.
Cast of Characters:	Vi, Lara Croft, Wasp (van Dyne)

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Vi has posed:
Vi was found by Janet van Dyne and Steve Rogers the night before and taken to the Avengers safehouse, a small apartment building in Queens. While Captain American and Wasp went off to deal with other things, the Avengers security personnel took over.

The call placed to SHIELD about the wet, soggy research papers that had taken a dunk in the ocean, resulted in Lara Croft being sent to retrieve them after getting a quick briefing on what had transpired. Whenever Janet returns, she would be able to find out from the Avengers staffers that Lara is still there in the room with Vi, and had gotten the girl to clean herself up and eat.

Vi is actually just stepping back out of the bedroom in which she'd slept. She'd gone back in to put a brush to better use than she had when she first showered and changed into the unfamiliar clothing. Now the small teen walks back out, still barefoot, but wearing the denim jeans and the Henley shirt that seems to fit her fairly well. Lara did a good job guessing at sizes from the description she'd been given.

Vi stuffs her hands into her pockets. "You have a different sound when you speak, than the other two did," Vi comments. Her own accent is somewhat Eastern European, a bit like Wanda Maximoff's. "Do people here sound like you then?" she asks.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara has taken her jacket off now and draped it over the back of one of the kitchen table chairs. It is there that she's standing with her phone out sending a text to Jonah to let her know that she'll be at his restaurant tonight to try out the new dishes he's been begging her to come by and sample. She's ever so busy and ever so guilted for not spending more time with her friends...

Its Vi's return that draws Lara's eyes from her phone, she lowers the device and puts it around her hip to slide it gently into her back pocket behind her. She takes a second to fully grasp what Vi just asked her and it makes a smile spread across Lara's pink hued lips.

She releases a little laugh and shakes her head right to left. "Oh, no... no. I'm from... far away." She states then. "Closer to where I believe you come from. Though a little northwest of there, most likely. People all over the world have different... flavor to their voices and how they form words. They're called accents." A glance is given to the windows. "There's a number of very colorful ones here in Manhattan, in fact." She states with a softly affectionate smile she sends back to Vi then.

"Your hair looks nice."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
In contrast to the English aristocracy and the Transian accent, a Long Island voice joins the conversation. "Wow, this is so why I'm not actually *in* SHIELD," Janet comments upon entering the room. She's changed out of her black and gold attire into something more 'casual', though with designer jeans, high-heeled cavalry boots and a jacket in matching leather, she looks like she stepped off the cover of Cosmo rather than being 'dressed down'. Even her makeup is on point.

"Listen," she says, clasping her hands. "I talked to SHIELD and you've got as long here as you need to debrief and clear their ... security... nonsense," she says, button nose wrinkling. "I don't know. Whatever it is they do. Then they'll move you to longer-term housing. This safehouse isn't really suitable for people to live in," she adds, looking around. It's a fairly nice apartment by New York standards. "You've got neighbors upstairs and down, *and* the laundry facilities are down in the basement. But, the upshot is that you've got guards around here 24/7, so no one's gonna sneak in here and snatch you out in the dead of night."

Vi has posed:
The only things remaining from what what Vi was wearing earlier are an hand-made pouch hanging from her belt, and the metal case stamped with the Hydra logo as an indentation in the metal. The pouch is the one that Janet saw Vi cause a pair of large metal washers to fly out of and into her hand.

The comment about her hair causes Vi to self-consciously move a hand up to the frequently tousled locks, that at the moment are actually nicely combed. They clearly haven't been cut by anyone with any idea of how to cut hair though, the dark tresses are uneven and not what one would call, styled.

The small teen looks over as Janet returns. "Thank you," Vi says softly. She glances to Lara, and then back to Janet again. "It looked like there are so many people here," Vi says, glancing back at the window that has the curtains drawn, through which she'd peeked earlier. Vi look back to Janet again. "So, you have wings? Are they... how... um..." Vi says, before trailing off uncertainly, as if unsure if she should even ask about them.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's smiling to Vi when Janet Van Dyne comes into the apartment, larger than life with a presence that could light up a midtown skyscraper. A soft smile crosses Lara's lips and she quiets down to let Janet speak then to Vi. A nod is given ot the fashionista then and Lara motions toward Vi.

"I've been setting her up with a modest new wardrobe, shirts, pants, boots, a jacket and a few other things. Odds and ends." The Briton says to the New York native. "She... has a lot to learn before I think she'll be comfortable here in the city, in fact... I think she might need some help with it. Someone she can possibly shadow for a while who could show her how things work around here, someone who wouldn't be overbearing, but would be wonderfully kind and understanding."

A small smile is given to Vi then. "You're doing great so far though, don't get me wrong. I just don't want you to get... overwhelmed by... that." Lara motions to the window outside and the millions of people outside of it.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"Well, it's better than a potato sack, I guess," Janet says critically. Her own outfit probably cost more than a used car. She examines Vi's outfit disdainfully. "But definitely let's try to find her something that didn't come out of an outlet mall," she advises Lara, a second later.

"If you wanna do the 'big sister' thing, though, go for it," she tells the Brit. "You've got the clearances to come and go, and seems like you two are already getting on well."

Her phone buzzzes, and Janet lifts it to her ear. "Yes? Oh! Hi, yeah, one sec, lemme step into the other room." She moves the phone from her lips and mouths 'another time' at Vi. A beaming smile is flashed and the socialite flounces back out to disappear into another room.

Vi has posed:
Vi was wearing something not too much better than a potato sack when she came off the boat. And her face and arms dirty, and the clothing too, like she'd been rolling in the dirt. Or maybe in ash. Though she's clean now, and there's even a hint of the scent of the shampoo she figured out thanks to the picture on the front of the woman massaging it into her hair.

Vi doesn't seem offended by anything that was said. She keeps her eyes down mostly, only peeking up at the two women to check their expressions and body language now and then. "So, will I look like the people here, like this?" Vi asks, looking down at her clothing, and touching the shirt, which to her is the softest thing she's ever worn.

Vi knows the importance of blending in though. Not drawing notice is what keeps you safe, her brother used to say. As Janet departs, Vi nods and says, "Ok. Good bye," in a soft voice. She looks back to Lara. "If there isn't ash here, where you with the picture you have? Is that from where you are from?"

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara smirks at Janet talking down the clothing she'd bought Vi. It was all from REI outdoor sporting goods store, which was just a few blocks from Lara's apartment in Greenwich and it was a place she'd put a lot of money into so far in her life here in Manhattan.

Definitely not Janet's style though. She understands that. She comes from a country of people who wouldn't hesitate to look down at how she dresses--or more specifically a family who wouldn't and didn't hesitate.

Before Janet Leaves, Lara uncrosses her arms and speaks up to her, whether she hears her or not. "I'm afraid I don't have time to be the shadow that I think this young woman needs. In fact, if her blood tests show that she's of mutant in origink, I'm going to recommend she be transfered to Xavier's School...." But Janet was gone.

With a light sigh, Lara looks back to Vi then. She affords her a soft smile. "Xavier's is a wonderful place, just a few minutes north of here." At the question of the picture, Lara takes a second to remember she'd shown Vi a rather graphic picture of her covered in mud and gunk from one of her adventures.

"Oh, right, yes. No that wasn't ash." Lara says then. "That was... the environment, from a country far south of here. In a jungle, of all places. It was the same expedition where I was clawed across my back by a sabretooth tiger that I... stumbled across inside of a cavern." Lara smirks at herself then. "He wasn't very happy to see me and left a rather nasty wound down my back."

Vi has posed:
Vi begins to move around the room slowly as they talk. She stops at a low table along one wall near the door that has a pair of candles set it on it, and a dish for holding keys or the mail. Vi notes the candles with a little nod, assuming from their presence the power must frequently go out here too. She picks one up to sniff it as she catches the orange citrus scent from them.

Vi turns back to say, "Xavier's," as if to make sure she has the name of the place right. The girl drifts silently on her bare feet further around the apartment as she listens. "What is a sabretooth tiger?" she asks curiously, the girl's head tilting to the side as she lifts her eyes to meet Lara's gaze for a moment, her brow furrowed.

"What were you doing there? Was it some of your... your arche-... arche-..." Vi says, twice taking a running start at archeology but not remembering the word despite the attempt. "The... the thing you do?" she asks.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara shows a sympathetic smile to Vi and pulls her phone out again. "Archaeology, yes." She states to her. "I was there with a colleague of mine, we were investigating some ancient ruins associated with a set of mysterious stones called Dropa Stones. Unfortunately the expedition had to be called off due to the nature of danger that we ran into, such as the tiger itself... Here." Lara steps over to the sofa and settles down onto the edge of it, she raises her phone up and spends a little while searching for something.

"Come, sit." Lara says then and should Vi join her, she'll turn the phone to Vi can see it. Its footage from within the jungles. Its a shaky but HD video of Lara up in a tree covered in mud and a severe look of pain on her face, she's talking about her situation and explaining that there's a living sabretooth tiger down below, that she'd freed it and set it loose on a camp of mercenaries who'd taken her colleague hostage.

"There." Lara says as she points to the screen, the phone is showing the view aimed down below to the ground amongst the jungle and sure enough a massive tiger with huge teeth is stalking it's way toward a camp ahead. "That is a saber-tooth tiger. They were thought to all be extinct, that there were none alive for twelve thousand years..."

Lara also does not let the camera roll any longer, because that wouldn't be footage Vi needed to see. "Very dangerous animal, it took months for me to heal up. And during that time, I taught at Xavier's. A school for people with gifts, like yourself."

Vi has posed:
Vi continues her slow perusal of the apartment. There's a flat screen TV on the wall which Vi stops in front of. It's not on, and after a moment she reaches up to brush at her hair, and it'll be clear she's looking at her reflection in the screen.

As Lara invites her over to sit down, the slight girl moves over to settle onto the edge of the couch beside the beautiful SHIELD agent. Vi rests her hands in her lap as she looks over at the phone's screen.

Her eyes widen as she watches what plays out upon it. "I'd be running and hiding and hoping it never found me," Vi says, wide-eyed as she manages to get an idea of the size of the animal as it moves in front of other objects she can relate to.

"I've never seen anything like it. Some of the people who handle food raise chickens. And sometimes there would be a cat that would get inside the fence, though they wouldn't last very long," she says. "And sometimes birds, but not very often," she says with a shake of her head. "So they don't have that kind of animal here in... in Man-hat-tan?" she asks.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara puts one of her booted feet up onto the edge of the nice wooden AIKEA coffee table in front of her as she smiles softly to Vi's words. "No." She laughs lightly. "There are not tigers like this roaming around out there... at least none that have been witnessed and recorded, of course. There an uncountable number of alley cats though, but they're not six hundred pounds. They're closer to ten or fifteen at most. Not very threatening." She smiles to the young woman then before Lara sets her phone aside and then leans forward to grab the television remote off of the table beside her foot.

"I'm going to do something that you may not fully understand..." Lara says as she activates the television and starts to search through its menus. "I'm going to show you a movie. Bare in mind it isn't a very good movie, and it isn't really what happened..."

Lara is typing in the first few letters in the Search function to find it. She locates it and charges it to the room's bill (Take that Tony).

Once she has it queued up she looks over to Vi. "This movie, is... very loosely based on, well, my first hand accounts of what happened on my very first adventure. Much of the events, and people involved are entirely changed for legal purposes... and it is far far from the best movie out there, but I think you might like it and we clearly have some time to spend before Captain Rogers returns."

Vi has posed:
The teenaged girl glances at the box that Lara picks up, and there's just the tiniest start as the dull mirror on the wall suddenly lights up with colors and images much like the ones on Lara's phone.

The girl looks from the TV, to Lara and back. When the movie starts showing the actress, Vi's head tilts to the side and then she looks around the room as if trying to find something. "Where is this?" she asks.

Vi looks back as Lara Croft on the screen starts talking to someone. Vi looks around the room again, head swiveling. "Who is the girl? It isn't you... but it has to do with you? I don't understand?" Vi asks, her shoulders hunching a little bit in an insecure posture.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is pretty quick to pause the movie upon hearing this reaction from Vi, she smiles for a brief moment but it would be rude to be overly amused by this reaction from the confused young woman.

"No no... this..." She tries to explain, but Lara's not even the biggest movie buff herself. "This is a story put to picture. It's recorded with camera's and people... pretending. They're putting on a show to entertain us. It isn't real, it is just like... a book, acted out by performers who are recorded by cameras. Like I recorded that imagery of the tiger and showed it to you. Only that was real, this is... like I said, just a performance, meant to be fun."

She glances to the paused screen then and offers Vi the remote. "See?" She asks. "This button pauses it. This button here... resumes it. So you can keep watching if you'd like, and pause it if you need to go get a drink or take a break." Lara looks up to her and offers her a light smile then.

Vi has posed:
The brown-haired girl listens to the explanation. She looks back to the TV screen with the paused image of Lara speaking to someone about his boat. "So, the woman, she knows this is going on and... she's pretending to be you? Why did she do that? Did you ask her to, so you could show people things you didn't capture?" Vi asks, motioning to Lara's phone.

There might be a small sense of embarrassment from Vi, though Lara's gentle way helps. It seems Vi is picking up that what she's seeing is probably usual to Lara, that other people don't need the explanation she does. And those slightly hunched shoulders and downcast eyes result.

Vi takes the plastic box as it is given to her. She looks at the buttons when they are pointed out. Vi holds the remote in one hand, and reaches over with her other, tentatively poking at it with her index finger until the show resumes. She tries the other and it pauses. "So she isn't waiting for us, this was from before," she says, nodding slowly. "The men, they would have pictures like this of me doing the things they made me. But I did not know how they created them," she says.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is still lightly amused by Vi's reactions and words, though she's trying to maintain some civility here for the young woman's sake. That amusement fades when she hears the last part of what Vi says though, as nothing about that sounds good or amusing.

Lara looks away then toward the television. "Yes, this was filmed... Oh I don't know, a couple of years ago now, I imagine. And no, I didn't ask for any of this to be made, it is... complicated. A part of a deal I struck to avoid legal issues myself, which are... themselves, complicated and can make one's life much harder, as they are essentially designed to do just that."

A nod is given to the television then. "The events in this film mostly did not happen." Such as Lara finding her father alive on Yamatai, or there being a secret shadowy organization working within her father's company. "Something similar to this all did happen... but it was much, much different."

Another soft smile is shown then. Lara wants to ask her about what these men forced her to do, but she think it might be best to leave that for another time. There's not much Lara is afraid to dig up, but such things could ruin Vi's spirit right now, which she doesn't want to do.