[video, using alias Tanith Ponta]

[kestreldawn]

OOC: This post is in relation to this and this

I'm not sure if this is the best way to do it, or if this will lead to anything, but - I'm afraid it's a bit of a Missing Persons ad. [Her voice is a bit unsteady in a way that suggests she's trying her hardest to maintain her composure. The apples of her cheeks are a bit flushed, the rims of her eyes a bit pinker than normal. She offers a very, very tight-lipped, twitching smile before her face goes sullen again.]

I'm wondering if anyone has seen the man in the image I'm about to show. He was last seen in De Chima yesterday morning and has not been seen or heard of since. His communicator was broken, though any message sent to him, regardless of format, bounces back as though there's - [She pauses, inhaling a short breath to steel herself to continue.]

As though there's no recipient to be found.

If you've any information, please let me know. Any assistance would - would be greatly appreciated.

[An image comes on the screen until the message goes black.]

001. video. okay, but cults tho.

[crofts]

Good evening.

( Said with all the politeness of someone raised with impeccable manners, rather than because there is anything remotely pleasant about the evening. She's not bothered to clean up very much from her arrival; still messy and smoky and bloody, though the smears would suggest she has at least attempted to make herself less alarming for the purpose of this message. )

My name is Lara Croft, of the Endurance. We were recently shipwrecked on the lost island of Yamatai. ( Simple, matter of fact. This was not so simple as keeping a diary in the hopes that someone would find it on her body, if she failed and if there was a body to be found. This was more like blogging, and when that occurs to her she's briefly at a loss for how to continue.

What would Sam do? )

I... appreciate that you must get a good many of these message broadcast so soon after arrivals come in, but it is imperative that I find my friends. A number of them were taken captive by a— madman called Mathias, acting as a figurehead for a cult who call themselves the Solarii. If any other survivors are here, I must find them. ( Lara's voice become a little quieter, more pensive, more like she's speaking to herself even as she continues to address the camera. ) They— try to burn women as a test for some sort of ritual, but I don't know what it all means, yet.


( She shakes her head, and her tone becomes more matter of fact. )

And I don't know what this means, either. Becoming open to the possibility that my father's fascination with myths and the mystical wasn't utter foolishness was onething, but.... this place is enough to make me wonder. Was something as bizarre as this the goal of the Solarii? Or perhaps I've finally lost my mind from exposure or blunt-force trauma, and this is simply the delusion that will make my demise a little less grim. Certainly it's a bit different from all those things people say about seeing you life flash before your eyes.

( There is a moment of quiet self-awareness, a very slight smile. ) If everything we see and hear is to be believed, I imagine that's a line of thought you're all rather familiar with, as well.

( The moment of softness is whisked away. )

Samantha Nishimura, Conrad Roth, Joslin Reyes, Jonah Maiava, Alex Weiss, and James Whitman. If those names are familiar to you, please advise me immediately.