paradisalogs | Expedition Log 1

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Expedition Log 1

Who: Lara Croft and YOU
What: Lara's arrival to Paradisa
When: June 12.
Where: Woods near the Castle Grounds/Infirmary
Rating: PG-R for language

In the middle of the woods, one could hear rustling bushes and some branches snapping as a female figure in the dark is running with a torch in hand.

"Sam! Reyes! Jonah!" the woman called out. "Shit... What is this place? I could have sworn we got out of that island..."

She looks battered, bruised, and armed with two mismatched handguns on her thigh holsters. She looks like she's been through hell and back, with dried blood, torn clothes and a thousand-yard stare. She doesn't even care about possible wolves, with what she's been through, wolves don't scare her anymore. She just wants to find her friends.

And after a minute of walking, she could see already the exterior of the castle from a distance. Not sure about what's in there, so she grabbed her gun and headed towards the castle grounds...

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Lara took a second to scan the rest of the surroundings, but she complied and puts her gun back on it's holster. Her gut says she could trust this woman for now. The similar accent probably helped.

"Okay..."

"Thank you." She nodded, offering Lara a polite, close smile: the sort that comes with practice and ease after years of democracy and social maneuvering. "First things first. Friends here call me Emma, and this place is called Paradisa, which takes the Guinness for misnomers. ... You're a bloody mess. Are you hurt badly? I can take you to the clinic, get you cleaned up while we talk."

Edited (needs moar teal deer) 2013-06-14 23:04 (UTC)

Lara frowned when M said the name Paradisa is a misnomer. She may have gotten out of that island, but it seems trouble is not done with her just yet.

"I'm fine, ma'am. I sho-- Ugh!" Lara grunts. Just when she consciously thought of her injuries, her brain decided to be a jerk and made her feel the pain of all of her injuries at once. It made her lose her balance. "Or I was" Lara sighed and rolled her eyes.

Edited 2013-06-14 23:09 (UTC)

"It does certainly like its bodily harm, these days," the older woman muttered under her breath, moving to catch Lara as she tottered, and steady her. "Breathe deep, I'm in no hurry. We won't go until you're ready. ... What happened to you, before you walked onto the grounds?"

If she's going to be bringing the young woman to the clinic, she figures, the more she's able to pre-emptively gather for triage, the better.

"So much had happened, I don't even know where to begin..." Lara took a deep breath and allowed M to assist her. "But I got here from the river. Not too far from here. I woke up floating on a stream, and fell atop a waterfall..."

"And you're still alive. I must say, I don't know too many people as resilient as you." She frowned. "Do you feel as though anything internally has been broken? Ribs, especially? I might send for a chair, if you do. I'm not sure you should be walking."

There's definitely some bone damage all over, having fallen from great heights multiple times before all of this. But Lara doesn't want to bother M more than she's already doing. So she shook her head no.

"I think I could walk with some assistance. Thank you"

"Alright. Well, let's head in that direction, then." She nodded toward the castle and slipped an arm around her waist, mindful of a prominent blood stain on one of the girl's hips.

"What's your name?"

"Lara. Lara Croft"

"Lovely. ... Well, Lara," she nodded to herself as she began to guide them toward the castle proper, carefully. "I suppose the first thing we should establish is that you're on another world, presently. You've been brought here by a sort of creature that lives off the emotions and reactions of others."

Another quick glance at Lara's attire - and the fact that she'd mentioned a waterfall - made M realize she had a safe analogy at hand, and she slipped it into the conversation easily. "It's quite similar to the way that plover birds and crocodiles coexist. Only, well - some days the people who live here are the bird instead of the crocodile."

"Another world? I guess I shouldn't be so surprised" Lara scoffed lightly as she looked around the inside of the castle. She then listened to M's analogy, and it made her smile a little. She's feeling too exhausted to talk more, though.

"I'll save the finer details for when you've rested, but the gist of it all is this..." Carefully, she moved them across the lobby toward the elevator which would take them up a floor to the clinic. "Paradisa - the castle, itself - is the living entity. I've no explanation for it, though I've seen evidence in the last few months since my arrival to confirm quite confidently that it is. It gathers the energy it needs from us by changing things - both in ways large and small. The first way it does this is by taking something from every resident: an ability, a memory, an important possession ... it varies, but whatever has been taken from you can't be regained."

She pressed the call button for the elevator and studied Lara's face. As exhausted as she was, there was intelligence in her bearing, and she knew she didn't have to mince words or pussyfoot around with the girl. "Do you follow so far?"

"I do follow, yes" Lara nodded. She's starting to feel lightheaded, but she followed what everything M had to say. A living entity? That isn't too different from Yamatai, an entire island still under control by the spirit of the long dead queen Himiko, stuck in a decaying body.

At least this place didn't have a cult of crazy people with guns. As far as she knows.

Carefully, M shepherded Lara into the elevator and pushed the button for the 2nd floor that would take them near the clinic. "Stay with me, Lara. Just a moment longer and you'll be able to rest. ... The other ways that the castle changes vary drastically - sometimes it will alter one thing about our environment for a day or so, or even just one person ... and other times, the entire environment changes drastically for days at a time. Most recently, we woke up on ships in space. I'll spare you the details: it was less than a pleasant experience for all involved."

"This place sounds less appealing by the second..." Lara said in a low voice. She's starting to nod off.

"Lara." M says her name sharply, mostly to bring her back to attention. "Stay with me. We're almost there. Tell me - where are you from, originally?"

Filling her in was important, yes, but keeping her actively involved in the conversation was more likely to keep her awake.

"Surrey. But I've been living in London for 5 years now"

A fellow Londoner? Well, that was certainly going to make keeping her talking far easier. "I'm from London as well - there's a hell of a coincidence for you. This is going to sound like a strange question, Lara, but what year is it for you?"

Lara smiled, but her vision starts to get blurry and her head is starting to spin.

"It was 2013"

So if M asked what year is she from, does this mean there are many people from different times in the castle? Lara's fading consciousness thought of that, meeting people from different time periods in Earth just to answer her many questions.

"A year ahead of me," she murmurs, as she hustles Lara into the clinic. The concept suddenly makes her a little unsteady on her own feet. She knows what's waiting at home. Likely, 2013 is a year she won't see... and the thought of talking to someone from such a time is strange.

"What?" Lara barely heard Emma's murmured words. She's quite surprised that she's still conscious after all she's been through.

Thank god the clinic is open. M maneuvers Lara through the doors, glad that they arrived in time. "I have someone wounded here, critical, needs a cot...!"

"I think I can get on a cot" Lara said in almost whispering voice. The clinic seems to be empty...

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Expedition Log 1

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