#♫ archaeology ›› IT’S PROBABLY RITUAL.

[m-bardbattled]

❝ it’s a ship burial. ❞   elsie traces the outline of the underground anomaly on the display screen. the shape is incredibly well defined on the scan and they’re too far inland, even considering historic coastlines, for it to be a shipwreck. she leans against the table, hands taking most of her weight, and tucks one foot behind the other. it’s summer, and it’s more humid than she thought it would be. she reaches for the cloth tucked into the back pocket of her pants to wipe the sweat from her forehead. fieldwork can be miserable sometimes.   ❝ well, we know where to break ground. ❞

archaeology v starters        ♡        @runaljod​.

[m-bardbattled]

❝ sorry i’m late. traffic sucks, boss sucks, couldn’t find the right shoes... take your pick. ❞   elsie shrugs her jacket off as she joins torvi at the table, finally being able to decompress from the harried state she’s spent the day in. she withdraws a manuscript, marked up in a rainbow assortment of gel pens, and pushes it across.   ❝ finished it. whole thing. it’s brilliant, actually, but i did have a few notes about the particulars. ❞

archaeology v starters        ♡        @lokadottr​.

[m-bardbattled]

VERSE  EDITS  :  THE ARCHAEOLOGIST !

after being orphaned at nine, elsie is raised by her uncle iain brightmore, a specialist in iron age cultures. she grew up in forests and trenches and roman ruins, and developed a burning curiosity about the human story. she graduated with a master's degree in comparative mythology, and is pursuing a doctorate in the same field whilst working as a teaching assistant. she lives in an apartment with her cat sigeberht.     /     suitable for interactions in most "modern" universes.

psd.

[m-bardbattled]

“ could you run any fucking slower ?!! “        ♡        @aetoforos​.

❝ i have short legs, and we’re running down stairs! you’re lucky i don’t have a broken neck right now! ❞   elsie’s hand skims the railing as they pound their way for the lower levels, and the door to the outside. she’s never run for her life from the halls of a library before, but there’s a first time for everything, she supposes. it’s starting to feel like her life’s become an adventure film, with the excavations turning up evidence pointing to a real atlantis and now this.   ❝ you haven’t told me who you are! ❞

[m-bardbattled]

gives elsie a big ol smooch        ♡        @fynan​​.  

     ❝ i think i figured out, it’s a map to —— ❞   excited explanation is stolen from her lips when finan moves in to kiss her. she doesn’t protest; she responds eagerly, one hand moving to rest against his chest. elsie doesn’t need to understand what’s going on. ever since they got their act together and figured themselves out, this has been a common occurrence. he’s only been gone for a few hours though so he shouldn’t be this desperate. unless something happened. reluctantly, she pushes him back a bit.   ❝ are you alright...? ❞

[m-bardbattled]

     ❝ i can’t believe i’m saying this but i think i’d rather be writing these papers than grading them... ❞   at least then she’d only need to deal with the fourteen page monster once, instead of sixty something times, spread across two classes. frankly this shouldn’t even be solely her job but the professor has better things to do. 

starter call        ♡        @pizzalegacy​.

[m-bardbattled]

“It wasn’t a question, you need to take a break. We’ve been going at it for hours.”        ♡        @timesense​.  

     ❝ i’ll never be any good if i don’t push through and practice. ❞   doesn’t the danger they face so constantly necessitate that she learn how to protect herself? elsie remembers how scared she was last time her life was threatened. she’s determined to never be that scared again; she’s determined to at least try to be the most dangerous thing in the room... second to river, of course. she doesn’t at all believe she’ll ever match her mentor for that. elsie lays winded on the floor, trying to tell herself she can stand, but her legs don’t seem to agree.   ❝ but maybe... maybe you’re right. breaks are good. ❞

[m-bardbattled]

💖        ♡        @foxflew​.

     ❝ it’s like a road trip, rem. you’ve gotta expect it’s gonna take a while. ❞   his head is on her shoulder and he’s slipped his hand into hers, lacing their fingers together. it seems like he’s pouting. admittedly they’ve been driving for a few hours but this could be it. they might be about to discover something important - and ancient - about shifters. her uncle’s excavation is pretty far from them but it’s worth the journey, she’s sure of it. 

[m-bardbattled]

 07 .   a  kiss  to  say  what  you  can’t  say  aloud .        ♡        @inabsentiia​.  

words; they’re difficult, especially in life or death situations. this temple could crash down all around them right now but it doesn’t even matter because lucan is alive. he sits up - gods, she’s so glad he can sit up, that he doesn’t have to lie broken on this stone floor forever - and wastes absolutely no time in reaching for her. his hand is tight in her hair but it doesn’t hurt. his lips move against hers and she feels like she’s invincible. she cups his jaw in both her hands and kisses him back eagerly, desperately.   ❝ ... we can’t... we can’t stay here, ❞   she breathes finally, speaking in the few seconds their lips aren’t locked, before they find each other again. 

[m-bardbattled]

❝ you had the dreams again, didn’t you? ❞   elsie sits on the edge of the bed and puts the coffee she’d brought on the nightstand. he doesn’t sleep much - doesn’t seem to need to - but what little he does get is almost never restful anymore. her own dreams had brought her to him, but she’s mostly stopped having those ones; it’s not as if they’d given her any concrete answers anyways.   ❝ there has to be something we can do about it. ❞

archaeology v starters        ♡        @inabsentiia​.

[m-bardbattled]

❝ barclay has some kind of... vendetta against me, which makes working for him a living nightmare. ❞   elsie complains about this sort of thing over the phone all the time, but it feels much more relieving to say it in person. amelia’s a good shoulder to lean on in times like this; she has been since their student days.   ❝ i almost miss being in undergrad... i actually do miss being in the field. can you believe i’d rather dig trenches? ❞   she was always better at the archival work, but her uncle made his name in the field. 

archaeology v starters        ♡        @talesspin.   

[m-bardbattled]

12)  receiver walks into kitchen while sender is cooking,  sender picks them up and sets them on the counter.        ♡        @fynan​.

❝ hang on a minute. are you... making breakfast? ❞   elsie had wondered why she hadn’t woken up wrapped in the standard bear hug. her nose had led her from their bunk into the kitchen, which wasn’t much of a journey in the cramped quarters of their trailer, but she’d assumed someone else was cooking and finan had simply decided to fill his stomach. now she stands in the doorway and admires him at work, at least until he turns to lift her and deposit her on the counter, leaving her with a mug of coffee in her hands. she sips long and slow, leaning in slightly to get a look at the pan he’s got on the stove.   ❝ it smells delicious. is this because i found those pillars? because we don’t actually know they’re the entrance to the temple. ❞

[m-bardbattled]

tag dump iii because i have some more tags now