8071/The Man At The End Of The Bar

The Man At The End Of The Bar
Date of Scene:	27 June 2019
Location:	Luke's Bar, Central Harlem
Synopsis:	Lara croft dodges the rain and ducks into Luke Cage's bar
Cast of Characters:	Luke Cage, Lara Croft

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Luke Cage has posed:
The sound of thunder had started a half hour ago, though only recently is the crackle of lightning visible somewhere in the depths of the cloud cover above the city. Both are signs of the coming rain though that does not disappoint. It starts out with just a few drops here and there, but big drops. As if the storm is going everyone one last chance to realize what is coming. And that is when it starts to rain, and harder and harder as the storm front reaches the city. Lightning arcs down to hit lightning rods on skyscrapers.

Within Luke's Bar, a large muscular black man is sitting down at the end of the bar by himself. He has a glass, and a bottle of Maker's Mark whiskey sitting there which he adds a little more to his glass from. He has a magazine that's flipping through, looking at boats. He turns a page and and examines the graphics on it. There's a beautiful woman in a bikini, waterskiing behind a sleek looking power boat. It's difficult to say if the black man with the shaven head is admiring the boat, or the woman. Of course the answer is, both.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara had been in Harlem to visit a specific professor in a local community college outreach program. He is an extremely smart, well researched and intelligent professor from Harlem who gave up the glitz and glamor of the bigger university responsibilities and that kind of social life that goes with it, to focus on Harlem itself.

All the same, Lara needed his feedback on some research she's doing and she'd come up to his office to meet with him.

The meeting was over now and on her way back to the parking garage she'd left her jeep in, the rain had started. She wasn't prepared for that kind of weather and instead of walking through it, Lara ducks into the first public place she comes to, Luke's Bar.

The door opens, the woman rushes in, shedding water. She raises her hands up to stroke them both over her face, thankfully she had her light SHIELD jacket with her to put over the light gray tank top she has on beneath it, but that also means she's flying SHIELD patches on the shoulders of both of her arms... something she doesn't like to do that often in places like this.

With a heavy exhale, she looks around the 'joint' (as Americans call it) and she moves toward the bar itself, a hesitant step to her dripping wet form.

Luke Cage has posed:
At the end of the bar, Luke glances up from his magazine of idealized aquatic adventure, and over to the woman who looks like she just stepped in from a real-life aquatic adventure. The large black man pauses a moment as he sees the bedraggled wet hair, strands of it trying to cling to the woman's face, curling and wet. How it is that women can go through something like that, have it erase most of whatever careful preparation they might have made for their appearance, and STILL come out looking amazing.

The man reaches across the bar where there are a stack of small towels, bar rags that are clean and folded as if unused tonight. He grabs three of them and swivels on his chair to offer them over to her. His eyes glance over at the SHIELD logo. So do a few of the other people in the bar, though for the moment no one seems to be making a fuss over it.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara doesn't immediately sit, so when Luke makes a reach for the towels and then offers them to her, she looks over to him and the corners of her lips upturn into a grateful smile. "Thank you." She says calmly. "I haven't seen a storm come in that quickly here in the United States, ever." The very very British/London accented voice says to the large man offering her the towels. She sets two of them on the bar in front of her and then uses the third to dab at her face and over the sides of her bangs. Truth be told, being soaking wet isn't something entirely new to Lara, though it makes city-interactions a little more awkward, especially if she's the only one.

Lara looks over to Luke as she dries off the side of her face, her head slightly tilted downward. "Do you work here?" She asks him, her general presence and demeanor is soft, she seems extremely relaxed or perhaps even tired? Or she just has a calming personality about her.

She then glances to the bar itself to see if there was a tender at the far end that she might've missed when she came inside. She should order something... not just be here to hide from a storm.

Luke Cage has posed:
An older man is tending bar and he comes down to to greet Lara in time to hear her question to Luke? "This man? Wouldn't have him. Cage's never worked an honest day in his life," the shorter white man says, but in a tone that makes it obvious teasing of a friend. The black man just nods his head and says, "Keep going on, we'll see how big of a tip you get today, Roy."

Roy just laughs and waves his hand. "What can I get you lady?" he asks. Luke motions to his bottle and says, "If she'd like, a glass and she can drink with me." Roy looks over to Lara to see if that is alright with her, and if so he'll slide up a clean glass.

"So, Britain," the black man that was just called Cage says. "I think you just made it inside in time," he comments, looking out the window at the street. "I think I just saw Noah float by an on arc." And he's only slightly kidding. It's quite a downpour outside. One of those rains that isn't just hard. It's loud.

Lara Croft has posed:
The friendly exchange between the two men gets warrant another light smile from the young woman as she nods and moves to sit on the stool on the other side of the corner from the one that Luke is at. "Yes, that would be fine." She says about the offered drinking arrangements. She looks over to him, Luke that is, he's huge, she can't imagine he wasn't anything but military or an athlete of some variety, which doesn't suggest he's not a hard worker at all!

"Britain yes." Lara replies to him. "London--well, Surrey, but yes... Most here don't really recognize that location's name." She gives a glance to one of the brightly colored windows to look back out into the rain. "Yes, I almost wish I'd packed a canoe." She tells him with another look in his direction and a little smirk showing upon her visage now.

"Maybe I can catch Noah on his way back by. I'm sure he has to pick up another animal or two before he sails off on his next zoological preserve mission." She says back to Luke, as she's now pulled her ponytail around over her right shoulder and is running it through her fist holding the towel around it.

Luke Cage has posed:
Luke picks up the bottle of Maker's Mark and pours some of the smooth brown liquid into Lara's glass. "England always has such interesting names for places," the man comments. "I don't know why we didn't steal some of those back in the colonial days. New York and New Hampshire and Newport and New Haven and even New Orleans. Why couldn't we have a New Surrey or a New Plumpton or... what was the one in Harry Potter?" he asks, trying to come up with the name.

Roy comes down and shakes his head. "That was Surrey, you under-read behemoth," he tells Luke. The older man glances over to Lara and gives her a quick smile and wink before getting called down to the other end of the bar. Luke, or Cage as he was called, says, "Ahhhh... /that's/ where I heard it from," he says, chuckling.

Luke picks up his glass and offers it to clink against Lara's. "Well, hear's hoping Noah stops for you if you try to flag him down. I've been eyeing some different types of boats," he says, sliding the magazine over for her to see. "Though, it's just a pipe dream. But a /good/ pipedream."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara listens to Luke and she smiles here and there at what he says, especially the exchange between the two men. "Is that so?" Lara ask about Harry Potter. "I never knew that..." She folds the damp towel up that she'd used and then sets it on the bar with the others that she hadn't yet needed. "Of course, I've never seen those films before. But still." This isn't something Lara says a lot, or tells people, but these two gentlemen seem, nice and like they won't really go too mad over it. "I'm the Countess of Surrey." She just throws it out there, admitting that she's royalty here to the two of them. And though it may normally sound like a joke, she presented it as nothing but fact.

She glances down to the magazine though as she takes in the look at the boat. "Lovely." She says up to Luke then without even lingering on the Surrey bit. "I hope its everything you dreamed it to be, once you acquire it, Mister Cage." She smiles again to him before she lifts up the drink for another sip of it. She's not great with alcohol, not even close, but she's a sport and hides it well.

Luke Cage has posed:
Roy leans on the bar, crossing his arms and resting on both elbows. "Why I'll be. Really? Or are you just having fun with us?" Roy asks her. "The missus would be... well, nothing impresses her really. She'll probably tell me, 'And I bet you embarrassed us with our neighbors from across the sea, Roy," he says, affecting a voice that is somewhat female and nasally.

It leaves Luke chuckling and shaking his head. "You are so in trouble if she ever hears that impersonation," Luke shares. Roy waves his hand at Luke as if to say, forget you, and he goes to pour a beer for someone down the bar.

Luke glances over at Lara more curiously. "A Countess, you don't say?" he asks. He looks over her over for a moment. The poise. The posture. The beauty too though he does his best not to linger upon her face as long as he would like. "I can believe it of you, Britain," he tells her with a nod. "So, how does English royalty end up working where you work?" he asks, motioning towards the SHIELD logo. "Or is that your boyfriend's coat?" he asks as he reaches over to lightly tap the patch. He's wearing a short sleeved shirt. It slides up just enough with the motion to notice at tattoo of some sort beneath. Maybe the bottom of a globe?

Lara Croft has posed:
The exchange from the men once more make Lara lightly laugh and she nods to what Luke says back to Roy. "I believe he's likely right about that impression." She casually adds onto Luke's rebuttal before she opens the jacket she's wearing enough to reach inside while her eyes drift from Luke back to Roy. "You have a phone, yes?" She asks. "Look up the County of Surrey's current sitting Countess." She states to him while she pulls out a small leather wallet of sorts and rests it on the edge of the bar.

Her eyes then drift over to Luke after she feels him tap on the shoulder and the badge-there-in. She notes his Tattoo but just smiles softly to him. "It is mine." Lara then draws in a deep breath and sits a little higher while doing-so. "I'm an archaeologist, an explorer and a... child of a man who was utterly obsessed with discovering things that no one was ever met to find again. You could say he put the 'bug in me' to do much the same." She then rests her hands on the bar's edge. "SHIELD is just a means to an end. They give me clearance to cross borders and boundries I would otherwise have to fight to step over... among other perks."

When Roy looks up that information on his phone (assuming he does) Lara opens that wallet and pushes it across the bar to show him her SHIELD ID and Badge.

Luke Cage has posed:
Roy does indeed pull out his phone and start tapping on it. Meanwhile Luke's attention stays on Lara as she gives the explanation. "So, basically you're saying that you're a royal, archeologist, secret agent lady," Luke asks her, head tilting to the side.

"Beautiful," Roy ventures.

Luke points to Roy as if agreeing with the correction. "Right. Beautiful, royal, archeologist secret agent lady," Luke confirms as he looks back over to Lara. "And if you're that good at finding the forever lost, I have a TV remote I'd like to engage your services for. But I suspect that might be quite a bit below your paygrade," he says with a soft grin.

Roy brings his phone over and shows a picture of Lara. This time without wet hair or clothing. "Darned if you aren't telling the truth. Roy is this the first time you've served a secret agent?" he asks the bartender. Roy waves his hand at Luke and flashes a wink at Lara. "I could tell him, but then I'd have to kill him. And he's a big one to try to drag the body out of here," Roy kids before heading off to tend to more customers.

Lara Croft has posed:
The compliments that both of them are affording her just make her smile in a way that sends her shoulders slumping just a little, because its just pure kind words and thats something one doesn't hear a whole lot. Its not those kind of bold flirtatious compliments, its just kindness.

"You two are going to make me leave a very kind review for this place online after I leave." She quips back at them both as she sees Roy confirm her story. She smiles at the affirmation and sips again from the whiskey Luke had given her. "When you line all the titles up like that I start to feel a little self conscious." She states to both of the men. "I guess I'm just a bit of an over-achiever. I think that comes from having no television or video games to sink myself into as a child. At least partly anyway. Its far more related to my parents influences."

"Not to break your hearts, gentleman, but I'm not that high up of an Agent. I'm actually in a division that is generally looked down upon within the agency, in fact." It would seem that Lady Croft is trying to take a little air of her own balloon now.

Luke Cage has posed:
Luke takes a sip of his own whiskey, and adds a bit more from the bottle. He closes up the magazine and sets it aside as he refocuses on Lara. "Wait... they have online reviews for places like this?" he asks, looking over towards Roy. The elderly man shakes his head and sighs. "This one still thinks email is how everyone communications," Roy tells Lara. Luke looks between them in that way that suggests he knows Roy's saying it as a dig, but it might be news to him that people don't mainly use emails anymore. "Ah, this is one of those social media things, right?" he says, shaking his head.

Roy chuckles and walks back off down the bar, leaving Luke and Lara together. "No need to be self-conscious. I'll keep calling you 'Britain' so you blend in. The guy down there in the green jacket? That's Brooklyn. Over there on the stool by the window, that's Dallas. And the guy playing darts? Well, he's Joe. Not really sure where he's from," Luke comments with a curious look.

"But I don't want to be disrespectful. Let me know on England's bit holidays and I'll call you Lady Britain or something like that," he offers, giving Lara a quick wink of one of his brown eyes. "So how did you end up getting recruited into there, anyway?" he asks, glancing at the SHIELD jacket.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara gives a warm smile to Roy as he chides Luke for his lack of experience on the internet. "There are even full satellite maps of this city that give you recommendations on the best local food and drink establishments that you should visit while you're in said area. Though... I'll admit, it was the rain that lead me here this time." She grins softly as Roy makes his way further down the bar.

Her eyes drift back to Luke then and she regards him up to where he speaks of the other people named after locations and she looks to each of them in turn, then releases a soft and melodic little laugh at the last one, since Luke doesn't know where he's from. "Perhaps we should ask him in a bit." She says as she looks back to that of the big man beside her at the corner of the bar counter itself.

"What happens if you meet two people from the same place? Or heaven forbid, many more than that?" She raises her drink up to her lips then while her other hand presses the soft of her palm to the side of her jawline to casually lean one elbow on the bar while she chit chats. At his question she cracks another big smile and her brown eyes flicker to the ceiling. "Its a long story." She tells him, before she looks back down and over to him. "I was in a shipwreck. I survived it and helped others survive. Word of it all got back to SHIELD and I got an invite due to my efforts on the island we were lost upon."

She pauses then and flashes him a playful grin. "Thats the shortest way I can sum it all up." The true story is much, much more horrific and hard for most to believe, as it was for her while it was happening to her...

"What about you?" She then asks. "I saw your military service mark, on your arm." She glances to where the tat is upon Luke.

Luke Cage has posed:
The question about the nicknames causes Luke to give a little gesture with his hands as if to suggest it isn't all that difficult. "You just add another adjective. So you can have Chicago, Little Chicago. Big Chicago. White Chicago. Breezy Town," he says. "Though sometimes someone owns the name and then you can't do that," Luke adds.

He takes another long sip of his whiskey as he listens to Lara. Someone his size it probably takes a fair amount before it gets to him. He smiles a bit at the mention of the shipwreck. "Really. So you were like a modern day... what's her name. Viola. Right? From Shakespeare," Luke says.

Roy chooses that moment to come down and check on the pair. He pours a glass of ice water for Lara and sets it on the bar for her as he asks Luke, "What? Shakespeare! Since when did you read Shakespeare?" he asks the large black man. Luke looks him back in the eye. "I can know Shakespeare. Why, does that surprise you?" he asks.

Roy just stares back at him, until finally Luke says. "Alright, it was in the movie. At the end. Shakespeare In Love," he says. Roy breaks out laughing and walks back down the bar. Whether he's well-read or not, Luke breaks the stereotype some might have about how people in Harlem speak. Not just the lack of urban vernacular. He just seems well-spoken, and his voice is easy on the ears to boot.

Luke glances over at Lara again as she asks about his tattoo. "Ah, yes," he says, reaching over and pulling up his sleeve. The emblem is that Marine emblem. Across the top though are a pair of wings and the words, "Force Recon". The bicep bulges with muscle and brawn, leaving plenty of room for the tattoo to have been inscribed. "That was awhile ago, almost another life I think sometimes," he says. And it was. The life of Carl Lucas, not of Luke Cage.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is about to speak on the topic of Viola before Roy shows up and drags down the show of well read illusion by Luke. It just serves to make her smile in great amusement at the both of them again before she just shakes her head. "All the same, the knowledge is there inside your mind and you recalled it, thats ultimately what matters most." Lara tries to help Luke out a bit as she softly thanks Roy for the water before he leaves again.

She looks back onto the man then. "And yes, Viola's story is an entertaining one though, where mine was... something else." Lara might be a beautiful face, but she has a visible scar across it that Luke would definitely spot and could tell was born from a violent encounter most likely.

She drops her eyes to his tattoo and she turns her head on the palm of her hand to stare at it and his impressive arm for a spell. "Another lifetime ago... I know that feeling well." She says back to him with a smile. A moment later and she's look away down ot her drink, her hand no longer supporting her chin but instead falling to the bar's surface again. She draws in another breath and takes another pull of the whiskey. "Which life do you like more?" Lara then asks, glancing back over to him. "This one, or that?"

Luke Cage has posed:
Luke Cage has found himself enjoying the company and the conversation. Many of his evenings in the bar when he's not working are spent rather quietly despite the place having a nice neighborhood feel. Luke's head tilts to the side a bit as he looks over at Lara, his eyes seeming to have spotted the scar as they follow its course for a moment before his dark brown eyes drift back over to hers. "But you survived it," he comments. "And /that's/ ultimately what matters most," he says quietly.

The question from Lara that follows seems to give the large African-American pause. His head turns back to the side and his eyes drift off into space with thought. "That..." he says slowly and trailing off, before finally continuing, "... is a really good question, Britain," he tells her. Luke sits quietly in thought before slowly shaking his head. "I don't think I have an answer to it," he says finally.

Luke glances over at a clock on the wall and then back to Lara. "What do you say I give the question some thought, and you... well I don't know if there'll be rain to bring you back in here. Say, this coming Tuesday? About 8? But if not, maybe a nice gust of wind would get you back here?" he asks.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara looks over to Luke again when she realizes he's struggling with the answer. She honestly though he'd say the life he has now, since he seemed rather calm and at peace, but then again she's worked relatively close to military men most of her life, Conrad Roth being the one she was closest to--her mentor, the one who trained her how to fight, how to survive and was essentially her father after her real father took his own life, but now Conrad was gone too...

Lara summons up an understand expression for Luke and gives him a gentle nod. "I think I can understand that too." She says softly to him before she takes a drink from the ice water as thats ultimately what she's mot accustomed to drinking anyway.

At the last of what he says, another smile is shown, this one larger and warmer again. "I'll be back and forth from Harlem for the next week or so, as I'm visiting a professor at the community college down the street from here. So yes, I can stop in again to check in on your status, Mister Cage."

Luke Cage has posed:
The large man looks back at the British woman, and as she nods, he slowly does so as well, thought without going into the why. Luke finally looks away and puts the top back on the bottle of whiskey and slides it across to the other side of the bar for Roy. His attention returns to Lara as she says she'll be in this part of New York for a bit. "That makes me happy to hear, Britain. Now I have a reason to come back in here," Luke says as Roy comes down to check on them.

Luke continues, "Lord knows this guy's old sour puss is more likely to drive people away than bring them in," he says, unable to hide his grin as he does. Roy just gives him a two handed wave to take that on out of here.

Luke chuckles and stands up, picking up his magazine and then finishing off the last of his drink. "Have to see if I can't come up with an answer in the meantime," he tells Lara. "Take care of yourself, Britain," he tells her. He'll linger for anything she has left to say before heading on out, using his magazine to keep some of the rain off his head.

Roy chuckles and gets a rag to wipe down the bar, and takes Luke's empty glass, setting it in the dishwasher behind the bar.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara watches as Luke exchanges again with his friend the bartender, Lara assumes the Bar Owner really, and it again makes her smile at their closeness and friendship. But when Luke moves to stand up she looks back to him to watch.

"Have a good rest of your evening, Mister Cage." Lara says back to him. "And thank you for offering the towels, that was very kind of you." She'll show another light smile to him before he makes to leave and then she looks back down to her glass. Its still raining outside, she can still hear it, but it doesn't sound quite as bad.

Lara reaches to grab her wallet and pull out some money to leave on the bar, but she's not planning to leave just yet anyway. She has time, she can give the rain a little longer, especially now that her phone is buzzing with a message from... who knows!