Owner	Pose
Wu	College-aged customers. Trendy, college-aged customers. Let's be blunt: HIPSTER customers. This is totally Alice's scene. Why just the other day she was ironically appreciating the pain in her shoulder caused by not one, but two supernatural assaults in as many days! Why she's just a beard away from being one of them!     Seriously, though, she really, really, really does stand out. She's too old by halves, to begin with. And while her clothing is suitably unfashionable (in her case out of practicality, rather than a statement), there are small things that just don't have her fitting in, to wit: she has a pair of large handguns strapped into holsters under her shoulders and her black leather vest.     There's a ghost of a smile flitting over her lips as she observes from the corner table, able to see the intersection outside and all the people inside in a single glance. Apparently she's enjoying the sight of people scurrying around her, giving her a wide berth as she drinks her cup of ... plain tea.     Yeah, that's the other thing that doesn't match. Her source of caffeine and her utter lack of fat-free-soy-milk-frapping or whatever.
Rose Kolodny	Molly Millions also doesn't have a hope of fitting in with this kind of crowd. Except for that insistance of wearing sunglasses at night. Or... well. Most people generally assume they're sunglasses at least. She's sans sheet-cape, or dishrag mask or oversized sunglasses, but really it's not that much of a difference. She prowls in the direction of the counter to fish out a couple of crumpled bills and drop them on the counter to request,"Coffee." in a flat tone. "What kind?" is of course the question asked by the 'barista' on the other side of the counter. "The hot and black kind." is the response with a tilt of her head and just the slight sound of irritation. It's probably for the best that she hasn't noticed Alice... yet... as she steps aside from the counter to find a place to lean and wait with the titter of some of the co-ed's for the fashion victim lack of cool.
Wu	Oh, isn't that interesting. Look at what just dragged itself in.     Alice stands and approaches the waiting Molly, not particularly calling attention to herself, but not sneaking either. Time to test Molly's situational awareness.     "Her coffee will be on me," she says quietly, flipping the $4.5 over to the server, sliding Molly's rumpled bills back over to Molly's direction. She tosses another bill on top. "Make hers a large one."     The co-eds get The Stare. The stare she uses on suspects to make them think seriously about consider confessing. The stare she once used on a too-frisky boyfriend th... Well, let's not go there.     "My treat," she says, finally, addressing Molly.
Rose Kolodny	Even with the lenses over Molly's eyes, it's probably easy for Alice to pick up the moment that she registers to the woman in black. Most people might not notice the very slight shift in the way her weight is settled or the minute movement of her head. But a trained cop looking for such a thing? It's probably as obvious as the slight bulk under her left arm that indicates 'concealed firearm'. There's consideration in the fact that she doesn't say anything immediately, slow about reaching for the crumpled bills with pearlescent false nails. "Officer." is offered Alice's way warily with a dip of her head, the co-eds barely a blip on her radar for all that they note Alice's look and suddenly seem to decide that maybe it's time to head out. "How is your shoulder?"
Wu	Alice looks down at her shoulder with a look of annoyance. The arm isn't dangling uselessly like it was at their last meeting, but it's very clearly kept safe: hand in pocket, elbow pulled in, as immobilized as it can be made short of slinging it.     "It's still attached," she grudgingly admits. "Feeling has returned to it. I wish it hadn't." She looks up at Molly. "You and your boy toy friend should have stuck around for the party," she adds accusingly. "I had to write a report. I had to fill out 17 pages of different ways of saying 'I don't know what happened.' This was inconvenient."
Rose Kolodny	"Points for doing what needed to be done." Molly offers with regards to her arm, only the slight tilt of her head to suggest that she's listening to the street and slightest tension of her muscles as if she suspects that at any second there's going to be a 'gotcha'. "...my boy... toy?" she can't help it, that brings a burble of laughter from her before a hand is raised to ward off potential offense,"I barely know him. And I don't... know what happened either. I caught the movement but until the screaming started didn't... know what it was about. And before you ask... no, I'm not going to give a statement on the record about that."
Wu	"I'd gathered as much already," Alice says, shrugging. Then wincing in that way that shows she'd be doubling over in pain but for the loss of face that would entail. "It's not important. I wrote my report. It will get filed. Someone five years from now will read it over and ask me about it. I will have forgotten everything by then. It will be thrown out."     She snorts.     "And this presumes I'll still be here in five years; my attachment here is open-ended but not permanent. I may be home next year."     The coffee is finally delivered. The barista actually had to ask for help in making a plain, black coffee so rare is that order. Alice picks up the cup and heads back to her seat.     "Won't you join me." It's not a question.
Rose Kolodny	Does Molly want to? Signs point to no. Very much no. Like a long-tailed cat in a room of rocking chairs she might be endeavoring to remain surfacely placid but the slight turn of her head towards the door likely betrays that she more than just considered the number of steps it would take for her to flee. But with her coffee held captive apparently she elects to grunt and follow with all the reluctance of a recalitrant schoolchild. There's silence from Molly at Alice's words, the expellation of breath and a slight shake of her head before she elects to ask,"Do you have a cell phone? With one of those memory slices in it?"
Wu	"I'm not sure what a 'memory slice' is," Alice confesses as she sets down the coffee on the table across from her seat. The seat she subsequently slips into. "Technology is really not my thing unless it involves propelling things at high velocities into other things." She fishes in her pocket, eventually pulling out a fairly old LexOS phone. "This is what I've got. Is that what you're talking about?"
Rose Kolodny	Molly Millions makes a gesture for the phone. The technology of the phone itself to her is a relic so old that it might as well be a brick, still she's developed enough of a familiarity with them to scan for a micro-SD card slot, ignoring her coffee for the moment,"I'll give you what I can of what I saw. From that point it's not my problem." she offers. "Or is this simply to keep me occupied until your back-up arrives?" she asks bluntly.
Wu	Alice laughs. She flips the lapel of her vest over, showing the GCPD badge. The silver one. Not the usual gold one. She then flips over the other lapel to show the HKP badge. An actual gold one.     "Detective Alice Gulliver of the HONG KONG Police," she says with a grin. "On attachment to the Gotham City Police Department. Unless you're part of my investigative purview, I honestly don't care enough about you to get involved."     Another shrug. Another wince.     "So there is no backup coming. I'm here for tea and to make a bunch of students uncomfortable with my dour presence because it amuses me."
Rose Kolodny	There's a lack of reaction from Molly, no doubt those silver lenses note both badges, but for her they are relatively meaningless. There's no shift in the the reflection of the lenses, but there's still a pause before she utters,"Jyutping?" with a fair approximation of the Cantonese, if a little 'off' for native pronunciation. There's small furrow of her brow and the parting of her lips, as if something about it all confused her. It's dismissed with the shake of her head as she reaches for the coffee at last,"I'm not... familiar, with the way law enforcement works here. I have no desire to interfere in your investigations... but it does make me wonder why?"
Wu	"Why what? Why I'm here? Why the exchange program? The latter is easy: international criminal gangs need international responses. HKP and GCPD working in isolation are at a disadvantage, so we, under the auspices of a dozen federal agencies in the USA and a bunch more agencies in China, have formed a task force to lessen our disadvantage. As to why me? Because I'm not very popular and thus lack the guanxi clout to get out of the duty."     A lazy smile hints that this may not be the entire truth.     "So I'm here in Gotham, duly deputized with law enforcement powers for the duration of my stay, but essentially not part of the command chain here. Which suits me; I wasn't particularly fond of the command chain at home either."     Pause.     "And yes, I do prefer the Jyutping romanization system. Yale doesn't feel right and Cantonese Pinyin is an abomination."
Rose Kolodny	"For a start." Molly elects to agree with a faint smile,"So you are here for... international criminal organizations?" she taps a couple of those nails on the surface of the table with a smile that's mostly for herself, as if she finds that vaguely amusing,"Do you think that I can... help you with this endeavor, then? Is that why you chose to stop me?" she enquires even as her brain churns, busily looking up the references on the inside of her lenses,"...huh." she says, as if she'd never even heard of the other two forms of romanization before. "It looks like a very interesting city." she opts for.
Wu	"What? Hong Kong? Yes. It can be interesting. So can this place, however. Hong Kong and the USA are both melting pots with all the stresses and strains this involves. It's just that Hong Kong is a pressure cooker, given its small space, where the USA is more a crock pot."     She looks around the coffee shop dourly. "And just like here, in Hong Kong you have to go into the lower reaches to find the diversity. And the real people; the non-phonies."     She says this modulated just right to reach a few nearby customers who glare at her before blinking and deciding they have somewhere else to be or something else to look at.     "As for why I'm talking to you, it's largely my instincts to build relationships with the demimonde. The small-time hoods and crooks and other low-level vice dealers. Because you usually know what the big-time ones are up to and tend to get as upset with them as I do."
Rose Kolodny	"What's a cro..." Molly starts and falls silent, smiling vaguely,"From what I see it looks... comfortable. This place is... sometimes offensive in its demand for space." at least in her opinion. She takes another sip of the coffee, giving a quiet laugh,"I'm sorry to disappoint then." not really, there's no actual trace of sorry in her voice at all,"I'm not a hood, or a dealer... and I'm new to the area, myself. I prefer to worry about my own troubles, than invite other people's onto my plate." This despite last night, it seems, certainly there's a pause where she leans back a little in her seat with just a tilt of her head in the vague direction of the door,"I've no idea what last night was about. And if there was any... meaning... to the style of the Boryokudan who attacked those people it's not one I'm familiar with... but as I said... I am willing to share what I saw if you think it will help you."
Wu	"It will be useful in my role as avenger," Alice admits quietly. "As protector I failed; one of the two ... creatures ... is dead. The other is at large and will have to be destroyed." She leaves Molly's denial of demimonde life alone with a ghost of an amused grin. "For example I was unaware of a Japanese connection here; this will have to be followed-up on. This alone is valuable." A dismissive wave in the direction of Molly's cup. "Worth far more than a cup of coffee, truth be told."     She looks up at the door as someone walks in, frowning a moment and clutching a pendant around her neck. She then turns her attention back to Molly. "The troubles you allude to. They can be alleviated. I have a budget to that effect. I pay, in short, for information." Terse smile. "More than a cup of fucking coffee too," she adds with deliberate, albeit slightly skewed, pronunciation.
Rose Kolodny	"You... think I am associated with that?" Molly actually finds that entertaining,"I was just in the area, officer. I chose to assist. Beyond that... I know nothing. The Boryokudan here seem to take their identities as seriously as any others, but I am certain you've seen just as many of them as I have." she doesn't turn to look, but there's the angle of her head, most might miss that what she's doing is shifting her perspective to look at the door in the reflection of one of the prints on the wall rather than look directly in that direction,"Everyone has troubles, itachi. If you were not having troubles, you wouldn't be offering to alleviate mine. But I think you have vastly overestimated my connections."
Wu	"Connections are important. So are observations. Things seen and heard." The SD card is indicated. "You seem to have tools for this. This alone is of value." She pauses to watch Molly a moment, her eyes boring into Molly's head seemingly. "I don't think you're in the gangs. If you were I would not be sitting here. But you're in the cracks of society. You move where I can only occasionally peer. So yes, I have troubles. I have people to protect. And if your information and perspective can help there, I will gladly pay for them."
Rose Kolodny	Molly Millions takes the SD card, and doesn't hide the fact in the slightest when she raises it to the back of her head and finds the slot into whcih it will fit, twisting her neck slightly to get a kink out of it and expelling a breath as she collects her coffee again, the show deliberate for all that her eyes remain hidden, not precisely meeting that gaze,"Who do you have to protect, itachi?" she enquires, tongue pressing against the back of her teeth as she mentally flicks through the SD card, deciding without consultation what might be dumped,"My perspective so far is that this place is full of lies. It makes an art of pretending to be clean and civilized but is anything but. In terms of... international organized crime... I come from a place where the importance of nations and... police... took a back seat to corporations a long time ago." It's not easy, to try and pull up memory, in enough clarity and cohesion to pass it to a medium as technologically primitive as the SD card, and the discomfort of it is also somthing that leaves a bitter taste in her mouth, but still she endeavors to carefully unspool and extract the moments leading up to the attack. And is why she stops talking, at least for a few moments while her attention is diverted to the more complex task.
Wu	"I protect people," Alice says simply. "Like my mother and my father both before me. It's in my blood." She runs her hand through her hair awkwardly, obviously neither ambidextrous nor sinister. "It's why I don't care about the small fry; unless they hurt someone. They're trying to survive and thrive. I care about the large, predator fish." A bitter chuckle. "Which is, of course, why I ultimately wound up in what people back at home viewed as a good way to get me out of their hair."
Rose Kolodny	Molly Millions's sluggish to respond, it's not that she doesn't hear Alice, it's that the majority of her attention is otherwise focused,"Trying to be a hero will get you killed, itachi." she offers in a slightly slurred tone,"And some people deserve to be hurt." still, once she's satisfied that she's included what might be relevant for the space on the card her fingers come up to extract the card and offer it back,"This is me paying forward a debt owed." she declares it, the segment from her perspective starting with the moments before the cannister came into her field of vision and up to the point where she refused to stay and give a statement. "Do you not consider predators to be people, itachi? Or do you believe that your badge will stop them from doing what is in their nature?"
Wu	"It isn't the badge that stops them, puhngyao," Alice says. "It's the violence." Her face is deadpan; not a hint of irony. "And if they're people, they're still people who hurt others. One dead predator. Many dead prey. The math does itself."     She leans back in her seat, regarding Molly appraisingly, eyes raking over the mechanical marvel.     "I'm aware of the costs. I follow in the footsteps of my parents, both dead, both dying while doing the same thing I do now."     There's something ever-so-evasive in her face as she says this.     "I know and accept the price. I know and accept that I will wind up in an alley somewhere, my blood draining from me as my vision darkens."     Now a smile.     "I know this and do it anyway. I do this because ... it is what is expected. And I am nothing, if not conventional."
Rose Kolodny	The smile Molly gives has too many teeth, a brief glitter before her lips close again,"I like your math." the razorgirl grunts, collecting her coffee and relaxing just a little,"Perhaps we should start anew." That hand, with it's too smooth fingertips and false nails is offered Alice's way,"Molly. And perhaps, if I hear something useful regarding large... fish. I could share it. Some sharks are larger than the resources available."
Wu	"Next time, however," Alice says, "if you don't mind the advice, please consider ditching the cape. It ... doesn't suit the rest of your image." She takes Molly's hand, gravely shaking it. "I know that capes and spandex are increasingly popular, but ... take a bit of friendly advice? They really don't suit you."
Rose Kolodny	"Ca..." Molly starts, then laughs,"It was a sheet. I shouldn't be... surprised, the Lo Teks started the trend the Panther's picked up, it's only marginally different... but it still looks ridiculous. And... impractical. But I'm not going to start taking it up any time soon." that hand is flawless, considering that last night she practically thrust it into a pool of acid, the fingertips lacking the ridges and whorls of a fingerprint and underlaying structure heavier and more angular than fingerbones have any right to be. There's consideration to her as she withdraws her hand, collecting her cup and finishing it before she rises,"That graveyard, there. Kid in red with a motorcycle. Did he survive?" Robin, for all her minimalist description of him.
Wu	Alice blinks impassively. She then laughs. A genuine, self-deprecating laugh. "I did think you looked a bit naff. Now I know why." More chuckling. "I apologize for my thoughts at the time then. I thought you were aspiring to Z-grade spandex."     She stands up, painfully cringeing as her arm flexes.     "I know nothing of anything in a graveyard, I'm afraid," she says, "but in the spirit of mutual cooperation I will find out for you." A business card materializes in her hand and is presented two-handed, despite the pain it obviously causes her. "Call me later. I will have your answers for you."     With that she leaves for the exit, a small circle of people subconsciously moving out of her way as she goes.
Rose Kolodny	"Hell no. If I wanted to feel like I was running around naked, I wouldn't bother putting on some skin-tight crap." Molly watches as she extends the card, and in what might be considered an odd gesture for all her obvious whiteness, she accepts it with a solemn bow of her own, her lenses shifting down to look at the card. There's a ping from Alice's phone a few seconds later; it's not really a phone number, at least... the telecommunications system wasn't designed to recognize it as such, but for all the garbled characters of the phone number it still at least 'reads' as a text message simply stating 'molly'. She doesn't follow, letting Alice get distance before choosing to prowl out the door herself in the opposite direction.