Owner Pose
Lady Shiva POWER MAN AND LEOPARD BLOW ISSUE #2
THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM

'I'll be ready at 5', Luke Cage said. Thus, Lady Shiva's fully dressed with two bowls of chicken-infused congee steaming on Luke's counter at the appointed time, each with an egg leaned against its side and waiting. Ideally, they would wait until the evening; they would find some Maggia haunt and raid it, shaking its denizens down for information.

But Luke's going to be ready at 5, and Luke seems impatient.

And Shiva is not one to cling too tightly to a plan while it's in flux.
Luke Cage Luke Cage is, well, trying to get this unwanted partnership over as quickly as possible. Which is why he's ready at 4:55. He doesn't come out of his room until 5 though and when he does, he's dressed as though it was still the night before. His outfit rarely changes. The jeans are a different color though so that's something.

"Ready?"

Luke Cage hasn't even bothered to look about for prepared food or anything like that because his very first thought is to get this crazy woman out of his apartment, get this job done and the client helped and he can go back to living alone and not having to deal with this ever again.

"I gotta' get to work after this." More reasons to speed this along.
Lady Shiva "This IS your work, Luke," Shiva reminds.

'''*krk!*'''

Shiva stirs her egg into her bowl with a wide-mouthed spoon. Before taking a bite, she makes a point of looking Luke in the eye while taking another spoon - plain metal, waiting between the two bowls for this express purpose - and dipping it into his bowl for a taste.

Just in case he still thinks he's being poisoned.

"And I won't allow you to do it on an empty stomach. You gave me shelter in the night; think of it as an even trade," she muses before flicking the spoon towards his sink. "Take your bowl; sit. Eat quickly, if you like," she instructs while taking her bowl and pacing towards the couch.

Sitting.

Stirring.

"Ask me a question about myself, and I will answer it honestly."
Luke Cage Luke narrows his eyes at the bowl and moves right over to his snack cabinet and grabs a protein bar. Two of them. Sealed packages but that doesn't mean they can't be poisoned but he's more willing to take that risk. Also, who the hell in Harlem eats congee?

"We don't have to become friends. We ain't gonna' be workin' together long." Cage leans onto the counter, pushing the congee bowl away and opening his protein bar. The first one anyway. "But fine, if it'll help you eat faster so we can get this over with..."

Luke takes a moment while chewing his protein bar to look Shiva over while pondering his question. "Why you break into my apartment? Why not just come find me in the bar? Like a sane person?" Yes, he still annoyed by that.
Lady Shiva "Luke."

She watches him take the protein bars. Her response - succinct, faintly bewildered, amused - comes as the cabinet closes as a threaded brow arches.

"Walk me through my process, so that we're on the same page: I, knowing that you are superhuman in numerous ways which render you resilient to harm, have chosen to poison you. I do not know what poisons might affect you, if any. I do not know what quantities would be effective, if any. I have thus chosen to roll the dice on random agents in random amounts-- and, conveniently, I chose substances to which I am immune, so that when I taste them in front of you to build your confidence, I remain unaffected."

She looks down just long enough to tap her spoon against the side of the bowl, allowing congee to drip back in with the rest. A tiny, bemused smile's on her lips when she looks back up.

"Have I missed a step...? Or is that the extent of my machinations?" she wonders with a canting head.

Afterwards, she looks back to the bowl and scoops out a small bite, blowing on it. "Finding you at the bar would've entailed a wait. You have a second job to do; this doesn't strike me as a case that would encourage an early closure."

She pauses, briefly, brow arching further as she waits to be corrected on that point. Either way, one bite later:

"I chose to spend my wait in comfort, having gathered tokens of appreciation and apology in exchange for my presumption-- and your hospitality. I am not a woman who accepts waste lightly-- of time, least of all."
Luke Cage Luke just kind of stares at Shiva throughout her entire poison conversation and it makes the eating of his protein bar even slower. Though, he does follow her long enough to get to the point and he nods along with it. "Fine. I get it. You're not trying to kill me. But this?" Luke elbows the bowl. "That ain't my kind of breakfast. But thanks for making it." There, see, Luke Cage has shown Lady Shiva some modicum of respectful conversation in what has clearly become something of a rarity considering the breaking and entering.

He'll get over that too. Eventually.

The explanation of which is what he listens to next while he chews through some more protein bar chunks. "Fair enough." He wanted an honest answer and he got one, he can't really complain about this.

"Next question. And I'm sure we covered this last night but refresh my memory because I was incredibly annoyed. Why exactly do you insist on staying /here/ while we work this case that neither one of us actually need the other to solve?" Luke does have a point there but he might as well get as many cards out onto the table as possible.
Lady Shiva At first, Shiva just smiles. It's a small one, muted for sure -- and lacking the bold, wholly assured air with which she has thus far carried herself. As a bar owner and active member of the community, Luke might well recognize a soul not in the habit of great shows of emotion, and Shiva certainly fits the bill--

-- but what's missing in brightness, in ''certainty'' is balanced by the raw sincerity of it, the sliver of humanity peeking through an uncannily composed presence.

"I'm familiar with what you do -- in passing terms, mostly; enough to recognize where the similarities and differences between us lie," she softly begins, swirling her spoon slowly around the bowl. "And I find it noble."

    "I find it ''fascinating''."

        "I find it alien, as someone who sells her services out of financial necessity and the lingering hope for a worthy challenge..."

            "... and I want to experience it for myself," she concludes before bringing the spoon to her lips and blowing gently.

"And that means experiencing YOU. Your life; your environment," she punctuates with a bite of porridge.
Luke Cage "Hol' up. Let's get this straight right now. We gonna' keep this here, whatever this is between us, professional. There will be no experiencing me of any kind. I don't usually make a habit out of getting involved with people I'm workin' a case with." Luke crosses his arms to try and make sure that the 'usually' isn't picked up on. He can't help his honest nature. There's been a few times.

Anyway!

"My life, my environment? I guess I can do. But you gotta' get a piece of all the action. I'm talkin' the bar, I'm talkin' Pop's." Luke seems to be coming around on this here topic now that he's seeing it in a different and more potentially productive light. Especially when it comes to his community.

"I'm talkin' Harlem."
Lady Shiva "I don't want to sleep with you, Luke."

For a moment, the smile's that much bigger, that swollen with mirth; her eyes even flicker with amusement at his leap.

"I swear," she adds, folding her hand over her heart, leaning nearer, "with every solemn atom of my being, that you ''will'' be entirely safe from my feminine wiles."

And then there's a full-on smirk, a beat of play-- albeit briefly.

The spoon that's been softly clinking around the insides of her bowl all this time finally lifts for another, indulgently deliberate bite.

"With that being said," she then, well-- says: "I would be honored to experience a slice of your existence for however long our paths intertwine," and tacks a brisk thing between a curtsey and a bow to the end of the sentiment.
Luke Cage Luke takes this opportunity to get a smirk in. If only because he's doing a little beat or two of his own play. Coy doesn't really work for him so he just gets his smirk out to show that he's more relaxed at the notion of working alongside Shiva at this point. This has been a bit of a rocky start but things seem to be heading in a more amicable direction.

"Aight then. You're hired." Luke holds up a hand and does a distance knighting signal. "You start today. We're gonna' show you how to be less of an assassin and more of a servant to the people." Luke almost sounds like he's going to be looking forward to this.

"Think you can handle it?"
Lady Shiva After straightening from her gesture of respect, Shiva strolls back to the kitchen, stirring and eating periodically along the way until she sets the bowl on a counter. Hands free, she rummages--

        -- rummages--

                -- '''rummages'''---

                        -- until she's placing last night's cake on the counter too.

She then shoots a pointed look towards Luke while searching out a knife, making ''sure'' to show him a free hand raised nice and high while she carefully cuts another slice -- another offering of good faith -- for her reluctant host.

"You may rest assured that I am capable of a great many things, Luke," she offers, along with a napkinful of cake upon her return.

"Besides:"

Plucking a bite for herself, she pops it into her mouth with another small smile.

"The two are not so incompatible as you might think," she remarks.

"It's all a matter of perspective -- and a discriminating eye for clients and cases alike."
Luke Cage Luke is already holding up a hand. "Nope. Don't wanna' hear any stories about any targets or whatever. I'm good." Luke's once again grabbing his keys and giving them a bit of a jangle because he's already been in the apartment longer than he normally would've by now. He's entertaining a slightly more welcome guest though.

"Bring your cake with you. I've got a couple stops to make before we open the bar." Cage always likes to do a few rounds around the neighborhood to make sure people know he's up and at 'em for the day. Sometimes just being seen is enough to deter and deescalate.

"... also, how are you eating that other stuff /and/ cake? Seriously?" Oh, it looks like Luke is lightening up a bit. He's got jokes now.
Lady Shiva "The cake is for you, Luke," she notes, extending the napkin his way with a small, taut smile.

"Congee is enough for now; I just wanted to indulge in another taste of your world."

And indeed, when or if the cake's taken, she'll retrieve her bowl. Even if it's not, she'll retrieve her bowl, eventually; she means to take ''that'' with her on these rounds, to this bar opening.

"You needn't worry about my figure," she adds-- ''intones'', really. "I'll find a way to manage."
Luke Cage Luke just stands there for the longest moment with this look on is face like this some ol' BS. Just straight up keeps that look going for maybe a whole minute. Before he just snatches the napkin of cake out Shiva's hand. "Gimmie this cake." Luke's playful frustration might be real to people not professionally trained to read body language and such.

"Come on. Ain't nobody got time for these edible riddles." Luke starts stomping his way to the door, reaching out to yank it open so that Shiva can exit first, all the while getting his mumbling on.

"... all y'all martial artists is the same, I swear. Porridge, cake, riddles, and getting on my nerves. Don't make no sense." His mumbling tapers off as he bites into the cake.