[Sodium_noir] Hell is other people

[Eric]

Dr. Lazarus, 'Sandra Scoland'
  Mage, Bastet
      Lady Sinclaire's Mansion
    
    [Hiram]
    "So, if I interpret what you're telling me correctly," he went on,  pushing his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose, "you know  someone who has this artifact in their possession as we speak?"
    
    [Sandra] 
    "Not at this time, no. But honestly, my client never told me one way or the other," 'Sandra' said.
     
    Which  is technically the truth, she thinks to herself.  Her friend and mentor  Naglaa Habib El Zahlawi with the Egyptian Supreme Council of  Antiquities never did tell her whether he was in possession of the Hand  of the Guardian before she was contacted by him to come out to  Alexandria.
     
    And  technically she didn't know of anyone else who had it their possession  either as she and Dr. Lazarus spoke.  She had it stored away in a safe  place away from prying eyes... and hands. And she wasn't about to carry  it with her to a party!
    
    [Sandra] 
    "I was mearly asked to research it and get back to them if and when I  came up with anything.  Naturally you were at the top of the list," she  smiles charmingly with a slight wink as she takes another sip of her  drink.
     
   "Did either Professor Carter or Dr. Tweaksbury ever  come up with anything on it? I know that Carter was supposed to have  some interesting theories on egyptian legacy ties between Egypt and  Meso America. Would it's background have played any part in that  research?" she asked.
    
    [Hiram]
   "Carter only scratched the  surface," Hiram said, his tone mirthful, "Reg was the one who really  got the ball rolling for that kind of research in the community." He  took another drink. "Gotham Museum actually has a team down in Peru  right now. An old correspondent of Reg, Dr. Ruth Shady, is one of the  leading archeologists in the region and she has found something  absolutely spectacular at a site she called Caral. My assistant Cate is  heading up the team. Though very little has yet been uncovered at this  site, other less aged cities in Mexico have revealed some collation  between Egypt, the Americas, and even the Rama empire to the far east."
    
    He finished his drink, and took an uncomfortable scratch at his collar  line. ('Sandra' rolls Perception, diff; 8, scores: 9, 5. She notices a  glint of gold under Hiram's collar)
    
    [Sandra]
  Sandra discreetly catches a glimpse of the gold under Hiram's shirt.  The man certainly didn't impress her as one for flaunting jewlry, so  why wear the necklace under a shirt and out of view? She chides herself  that she's reading way too much into things, but then again, first  impressions can sometimes be decieving. She 'files it away' for future  reference.
  
    [Hiram]
    "In all cases there are particular notes on a 'guardian' in temple  carvings and papyruses in Egypt, as well as tablets found in Mexican  and South American pyramids, and ancient Sanskrit poems from India."
    
    [Sandra]
  "Really?" she asks, sincerly interested in more. "I'm familiar with a  few digs around Peru, but I've never heard of 'Caral'. I've seen Dr.  Shady's name referenced a couple of times, but never really explored  her work indepth.  What is this 'absolutely spectacular something' she  found there?"
  
  [Hiram]
  Hiram grinned knowingly.
  
    "The leading theory is that Caral was the 'mother city' of the local  civilization," he said, "and that every society that sprang up  in its wake has that city at its root. The Mayans, the Inca, and so  on." He took another drink. "And, what's more, the  preponderance of evidence shows that it was founded with peaceful  intentions, whereas most theories before this discovery stated that  cities were founded out of a need for mutual defence, and other  aggressive means."
  
    He rolled up to the railing and looked out over Gotham's cityscape, then  back to 'Sandra'.
  
  [Sandra]
  Sandra turned around and followed suit with Hiram, leaning against the  railing and looking out at the citylights and taking it all in.   She turned back to him as he spoke.
  
  [Hiram]
    "There are also some findings, which Dr. Shady has shared with us,  that go to prove another theory that Reg and I had been working from.  That the ancient world, and the civilizations that occupied it, was far  more advanced than anyone had previously concieved. And, in fact, was a  global society."
  
    He sat back, and let her take it in before going on...
  
  [Sandra]
  She nodded agreeing with Hiram's last statement, but her reaction was  more of keen interest than of surprise.  "A personal theory I've  lived by for sometime," she says. "I've seen too many coincidences in  my own research between civilizations on different sides of the ocean  for there not to have been at least some form of mutual  communication.  Use of a type of cuneal writing in one form or  another, detailed knowledge of astronomy, mathmatics, cartography and  similar building structures..."
  
  She then looked at Hiram. "But traditional academia tends to refute  many 'new theories' on mankinds origins," she says in a matter-of-fact  tones, "if only because the academic elite are too proud to admit they  are wrong and would have to go back and rewrite a whole lot of history  books."
  
  But there was something more to Hiram's smile, she noted. This was  something bigger. The corner of her mouth turned up in a sly smile as  she spoke in faux conspiratorial tones leaning closer to him. "But  something tells me you aren't just talking about a few pottery shards,  are you Dr. Lazarus? Just what exactly is this 'proof' you are speaking  of, oh Wily One?" she asks.  
  
  ~ New Tags are always suspected, and  usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not  already common. - John Locke
  
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