capeandcowllogs | (no subject)

WHO: Laura and Aradia
WHERE: Central Park
WHEN: Saturday Evening
WARNINGS: Probably none?
SUMMARY: Laura stumbles across Aradia playing Indiana Jones.
FORMAT: Para to start, then whatever.

Laura made a point to not go after dealers in the park very often, only when she was feeling particularly restless or her usual haunts were empty. Both of which qualified tonight. Unfortunately, the park itself wasn't as dangerous as it used to be, between the various wars that had been fought there, the reconstruction, and just the constant superhero presence throughout the city.

But she could usually find <i>something</i>.

Although what she wasn't expecting was a thirteen year old with more hair than seemed reasonable, wearing a fedora and apparently digging a hole. Hmm. She thought it was the troll girl she had spoken to before, but she wasn't positive...

Laura stood watching for a few minutes, standing hidden in the shadows of a tree, her black clothing and hair mostly hiding her from view. Once she was certain whatever was going on wasn't dangerous, she let herself come out into view, walking towards the girl quietly.

"What are you doing?" She asked as she came to a stop standing on the opposite side of Aradia's project.

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Aradia looked up, foot still on the blade of the shovel. Sometimes people tried to chase her off of her projects, in which case she tended to just make a speedy time getaway and come back a few hours later, but this sounded more like a question than a demand for explanation.

"Digging," she said cheerfully, pushing some of that excessive hair off her forehead. "I heard that there used to be a town here!"

Laura crouched down next to the hole, peering into it for a moment, then over at the other girl. She seemed to be trying to work out how those two facts were linked, and eventually she frowns faintly.

"You are digging for a town?"

"Mmhmm. Well, not really the town, just artifacts left over from it!" She leaned the shovel against the side of the hole and stepped back up onto ground height, sticking out her hand cheerfully. "I'm Aradia."

Laura hesitated for a moment, as she stood back up herself, before she reached out to return the handshake. "Laura." She gave her own name after a moment. "I've met you before, actually." A little pause. "Well, not you. You from before. But we spoke on the phones also."

"Right, I remember! We talked about funerals." Aradia glanced around, trying to see what Laura was doing here. She didn't seem to be interested in telling Aradia off, so she was welcome to stop for a chat, but in Aradia's experience humans seemed pretty concerned about not being out alone at night. "Are you taking a walk?"

"Yes. And you once tried to explain certain aspects of your society to me," Laura shrugged. It wasn't exactly important.

She looked around for a moment and then shook her head. "No. I was...patrolling." That seemed to be the nice word for beating up criminals. At least, that's what a lot of the people seemed to say they were doing.

"Patrolling for what? Criminals?" She crossed her arms, because this does not remotely count as a criminal act. It is far too interesting to count as a criminal act!

"Yes. Usually drug dealers," she shifted faintly. "But the park is almost empty. And then I saw you."

And she'd been curious, though she leaves that bit off.

"They bother me sometimes," Aradia said with a nod. "It's kind of a pain. And then sometimes I get stopped by police. It's like there's something wrong with being out at night! It's pretty weird, no offense."

"They are probably just making sure you are alright." Laura wasn't a huge fan of the police, but they served their purpose. "You look young to be out here, it can be dangerous."

Yep, that thing about human children again. Seriously, how does this culture expect their kids to grow up strong if they're protecting them all the time? Still, troll culture isn't all it's cracked up to be either, so Aradia replies with a neutral shrug. "I can take care of myself. I don't mind the company, though, if you want to hang out here for a bit!"

"Yes, I have seen some of your abilities," she paused. "Before. The first you." Sometimes this place could be so complicated.

Laura considered the hole in the ground for a moment at her offer, and then shrugged. "Okay." She wasn't really sure why, but why not? Tonight was mostly a loss anyway.

"Do you expect to find anything?"

"It's kind of a crapshoot! I can't do any large-scale excavating, so I'm really just digging at random. I don't mind, though." She hands Laura her second reserve shovel and hops back down in the hole, poking around with her shovel blade to look for likely spots. "Finding things isn't really the point."

Laura took the shovel, turning it over a few times in her hand but making no attempt to actually start digging. Instead she just crouched at the edge of the hole again, watching the younger girl work.

"Then why?"

"I used to really like archaeology. Then there was a pretty long time when I didn't like much of anything. So even if I don't find anything, I'm still enjoying it!" She isn't digging either; she's not in a rush to find anything, as she's saying, so a distraction doesn't bother her.

Laura couldn't argue with that. Although there weren't really things she 'used to like to do' that she'd been stopped from doing. Still...

"But if you aren't trying to find something, you are just digging a hole."

"There are things to find, but it's not whether I find them or not that's important. It's that I'm trying to find them. Does that make sense?" Having spent a little while as a game construct, it was sometimes a little difficult for her to tell if she was being obtuse for no reason or exactly as vague as the situation called for.

Laura didn't understand that at all. She needed goals, direction, 'mission objectives', even if they were little things like 'get these things at the store.' She shifted faintly. "No," she answered, but followed it up with a shrug. "But it does not have to if it makes you happy."

She was learning! Sort of.

"There are places where you could look for specific things, if you wanted. But they are not in the city."

"Really? Where are they?" Now that made her perk up. Yes, a lot of it was the experience of actually being able to enjoy a hobby again, but come on, how amazingly awesome would it be to find some sweet artifacts?

Laura paused for a moment. She wasn't...entirely sure how to answer that question, since everything she knew about archeology came from second-hand television show watching.

Still, Aradia didn't seem intent on digging up necessarily ancient things, just old things. "There are abandoned towns in the surrounding states. I don't know specifically where."

"Maybe I can take a weekend trip! I'm sure I can find something about them on the internet." Aradia resumed digging, slinging clods of earth up over the lip of the hole. "You'll let me know if anyone's coming, right?"

"Maybe," was all Laura agreed about the trip thing. It certainly seemed to have Aradia excited.

At the second question she paused, then nodded. "Yes. Are you worried someone will stop you?"