The Book of Thoth

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It took a long moment of serious thought before Daniel responded. "Settle down? Maybe. Once I have enough cash to take it easy for the rest of my life," he began, then paused. "Never would go for a desk job, though. I couldn't do that shit." He looked at her quickly, then lifted a knee to hold the wheel steady while he shrugged off his jacket. He offered the item to her, as he didn't really need it. "You?" He put his hands back on the wheel, exposing the tattoos on both arms to the cold night air.
 
"Enough cash," Amelia repeated. "That's what I keep telling myself. But then the money I make from one expedition all goes into funding the next expedition and the money from there goes into the next. And then, I have to bribe some people, get some information, secure passage and smuggle some weapons. Next thing you know, any savings I have is completely depleted. Still, I really despise the idea of having a nine-to-five job. That's one of the perks of being a treasure hunter, you never know what's going to happen next," she said proudly.

Amelia raised a brow as Daniel let go completely of the steering wheel and she wasn't sure whether or not to be concerned or impressed, but after the little stunt he pulled earlier, she could say it was more of the latter. He obviously was a pretty good driver, if not a little insane. "Ah, sure," she said, a little embarrassed at having been caught shivering, but reaching for the jacket nonetheless and shrugging it on. It was definitely a lot warmer. "Was I that obvious?" she asked with a small smirk. She eyed his tattooed arms with a curious eye. "So do those have a backstory to them?" she asked, changing the subject to what was hopefully a lighter topic.
 
Well, that was one thing he hadn't expected her to understand. The unpredictability of this life was the reason why he loved it, and it was the reason he'd only leave it for a damn good reason. Like...the right woman. "Backstory? Bit of one, I guess." Daniel looked at her, then smiled softly. His tattoos were something he was proud of. Both were colorful and full of detail, but that was hard to see with the light they had. "The right one, the full sleeve, is pretty much abstract. Bunch of things that mean something to me. The left is still a work in progress; it's going to be a dragon." He didn't go into why, or into much detail. She was still his rival, even though they were working together this time. "I get work done whenever I get downtime. Healing up after a grab, waiting for another discovery, something like that." A smile spread across his face, and he glanced at her. "Why? You got any ink?" Daniel paused for a moment but not long enough for her to reply. The smile turned into a grin, and with a joking tone, he added, "Maybe somewhere...special?"
 
Amelia noticed how Daniel was being vague on the tattoos but didn't press further. He had every right to be weary of her, just as she had every right to be weary of him. In the dark, it was hard to see any one part of the sleeves clearly, so she didn't try. At his questioning, Amelia rolled her eyes and punched Daniel, but laughed nonetheless. "Not at all," she said with a smile. "Call me boring, but the only image you can see on my skin is that of the big dipper when you connect the freckles on my back together. I wanted some for a while but couldn't afford to get any tattoos back in college. After I got into this business, I found I was better off not getting any. 'That girl with the brown hair' is a lot harder to find in a crowd than 'that girl with a butterfly trampstamp,' " she explained.
 
The strength of the blow, even a playful one, was surprising. Amelia was just chock full of them, he noticed. Count that down as one of the things about her he liked. Much to Daniel's chagrin. "Well, if you walk around with pants low enough or a shirt high enough so that someone can recognize you by a trampstamp," Daniel responded, voice trailing off at the end. "Wait, you want a butterfly trampstamp?"
 
Amelia flushed slightly. "I was eighteen, alright?" She said defensively, throwing her hands into the air. "Which is why I'm double-glad that I never got a tattoo in the first place." She huffed and crossed her arms again, although this time it wasn't from the cold (Daniel's jacket was surprisingly much warmer than she had expected). "Like you've never done something when you were younger that you're embarrassed of now," she accused, jabbing a finger at him.
 
"Well, I walked into a tree branch when I was seven. I was talking to one of the girls from school, had my head turned, and BAM! Down I went. Broke my nose, too." Daniel smiled widely, not sure why he was telling her this but determined to make up for the teasing. "Then, in high school, I puked on some guy's shoes after a hockey game." He thought for a moment, then continued. "Couple years ago, I was looking for a guy. Real sleeze-bag, had some intel on an item I was looking for. Got the wrong address, busted in on a couple," he paused, scrunching up his face in a mix of wincing and looking disgusted. "doing the 'deed'."
 
Amelia laughed at his stories, feeling in a much lighter mood. "One time, in high school, I got my dream crush to go on a date with me. I was so nervous driving to the restaurant that I got lost and popped a tire in the middle of the woods. I had no signal on my phone and getting my mom to drop me off at the place as they towed my car away. He was just leaving and didn't believe a word of my story, claiming that I stood him up. He definitely didn't go for a second date," she said, adding her own story. "Then at my first college party it was Halloween and I got super drunk, ran to the balcony and threw up two stories high and it landed on some girl dressed as a slutty Batman who was so pissed and tried to fight me. I think I won but I got a black eye and then blacked out, but I woke up the next morning with a sprained ankle and was wearing the cape of some guy who was dressed as Superman."
 
Daniel had more than a few of his own embarrassing date stories, but those were not things he shared with others. Unless he was drunk, or you were talking with his parents. He also had the good grace to not comment and/or laugh at her mishap, turning his attention to the college party story. "Damn," he said, looking at her. "Not exactly what I'd expect from a girl majoring in anthropology." He grinned widely. "I just can't see you going to one of those." He was surprised by the whole story. Amelia didn't seem to be the type to go to college parties, let alone get drunk enough to black out at one of them.
 
Amelia snorted. "I rarely went to those parties," she admitted, leaning back against the seat of the car. "But it was my first time away from home and I was eighteen and I wanted to do be stupid for a night." Amelia could count on one hand the amount of times she's drunk that much (all but one were from her first four years of college), but these days, she never let her guard down long enough to even get tipsy let alone shit-faced drunk. There were people out there who very much wanted her dead, and she wouldn't want to know what people would do if she left herself vulnerable by becoming inebriated. She didn't exactly have anyone to make sure she got home alright. Which was fine with Amelia.
 
(( Alright....I have a half-baked idea kinda thing. Which would be awkward for the characters and (hopefully) entertaining for us. ))
 
(( Okay, so, say Daniel's friend doesn't know about his profession. So, they have to fake being married or some similarly awkward thing in order to get the use of the plane. ))
 
((That'd be really funny, maybe pretending they went to Egypt for the honeymoon?))
 
(( That's what I was thinking. :D And yes, I do put my characters into awkward and embarrassing situations for my own amusement. ))
"Never been much of a drinker, myself. Hate the feeling of being intoxicated. Slows you down too much." Daniel turned the Jeep off onto a side road, one that likely acted as a long driveway for somebody's house.
"Son of a bitch!" he yelled, slamming on the breaks. Asad didn't know about his profession, and definitely didn't know about Tamir.
"Look," he said after a moment, looking at Amelia. "I need to ask you a favor."
 
((Hahaha same!))

Amelia jerked forward in her seat as Daniel slammed on the brakes. "Fuck! What was that for?" she yelled at him. At his next question, her eyes narrowed, instantly suspicious. They may have opened up to each other just a bit on the ride, but that didn't mean Amelia trusted the man. Far from it. "A favor?" She repeated, saying the words slowly, distastefully. "And what would this favor entail, may I ask?"
 
(( It tends to be pretty funny. c: So, offer any plot bunnies that come to you, and we'll turn this into something really fun. ))
"Getting us on the goddamn plane." Daniel sighed, clenched his hand into a fist, and almost punched the dash. That wasn't something he wanted to pay for, however, so he relaxed and rubbed his chin. "Asad doesn't know about my profession. And he has some nasty history with Tamir. I can't fly a plane, and hijacking it would be rude, so we're going to have to," he paused, trying to figure out how to word the next part. "fake being newlyweds or something. Unless you have a better reason for why a man and a woman who are not related would want to fly to Egypt in the middle of the night."
 
((Will do! I think stuff like this will keep the RP very interesting!))

Amelia made a noise in the back of her throat, and bit her lip as she thought. She really didn't want to do this, but the newlywed scenario was the most probable one that would arouse the least amount of suspicion. But it still fucking sucked. "Fine," she finally conceded. "I can play along with the newlywed thing, but I swear to God, as soon as we're off that plane, you are never to touch me again unless we're in a life-or-death situation, got it?" She threatened.
 
(( Agreed. Keeps it engaging. ^^ ))
Daniel snorted. "Done." Not like that was hard to agree to. They were only working together for this find, and that was it. This time next week, they'd probably just go back to being rivals. Just...rivals that knew a bit more about each other, maybe more than they should. "Alright, so, what's the story? Better to have it prepared now than improvise on the spot." He looked at her, car still stopped. "Unless you're better with improv."
 
"Just keep it simple," Amelia said. "Stick with my real name so you don't accidentally flub. We met while I was still in Grad School at a bar, and hit it off right away. The wedding was last month." She wanted to cringe at the idea of what they were about to do, but Amelia supposed they didn't have much of a choice.
 
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