Owner	Pose
Wu	It's a Blade Runner night. Streaming, endlessly-pouring rain. And this is Gotham's Blade Runner neighbourhood with sights and smells that blend, harshly or gently both, the Asian world with the western.     And let's be honest, not the cream of either.     Between the rain-slicked buildings impromptu streams flow on the streets, bypassing the overwhelmed (and clogged) drainage gates, forming interlocking S shapes to connect the miniature lakes formed by the poorly-maintained potholes.     This is where Alice calls home for now. And this is where Alice finds herself out for her evening stroll and late-night snack, perusing the small stalls and vendors for something of interest.
Angela Davis	And it's not the normal place Angela normally goes. But... well, when one is looking for authentic spices, one comes to China Basin. She walks away from a store, stepping into the rain as she has the bag held in one hand. Her head swivels back and forth, and then she sees Alice. The angel smiles a bit, and goes over casually to Alice, talking to her when she gets close enough, "Hey stranger. How's it going?"
Wu	"Oh, hello ..." The detective's brain races momentarily. "... Angela," she continues. "You've picked an interesting day to come visiting the neighbourhood." Her nostrils flare briefly. "Ah. Yes. Fresh Sichuan peppercorn is hard to find outside of China basin. I presume, too, from the scent, that you've found Ms. Zhang's soy sauce?"     She smiles warmly--well, warmly for her--at the visiting angel. "If not, I recommend her shop both for the variety of soy sauces and the bewildering variety of rice vinegars she offers."     She peers up at the sky. "It doesn't look like it's going to let up, but just in case it does, why not stop by Wang Li's baozi restaurant to see if we can wait it out?" she asks. "My treat. Well, really, in the end, your treat. As in if you're not blown away by Lao Wang's food you have no soul."
Angela Davis	Angela grins, "I did, actually... and I'd love to hit the restaurant with you." She smiles, "Occasionally I do have to come here for authentic spices, and the soy sauce from dear Ms. Zhang." With that, she gestures towards Alice, "Lead on, and let's have a bite to eat together."     Falling into step with Alice, she continues, "And there were a few rice vinegars that looked intriguing... I needed to restock, after all. Especially if I have any more guests for dinner." Her eyes flash towards Alice, her smile growing just a little bit.
Wu	"I think you'll find that your guests will be fewer in number over time," Alice says, voice and face completely deadpan, "if you keep having them for dinner. That sounds like a terrible, and unsustainable habit."     She's joking, right? She has to be joking. But the face says 'no'. Well, except for that hint of a twinkle in the eyes.     "I think you'll find Lao Wang's offerings interesting. He views the humble steamed bun as an art form and has spent his life creating unexpected, yet unexpectedly delicious, fillings for them to supplement the old standbys." Now she smiles, a suppressed one. "We have a good relationship. It's easy for this to be my treat since he will probably not charge me."
Angela Davis	At that, Angela smirks a bit, "Well, I seem to have adopted a stray... but that's a bit of a story." She shakes her head, "Of course, I don't really need to eat. I just like the flavor of certain things." She says it pretty deadpan, so she's probably serious.     Then she perks up at the mention of steamed buns, "Oh, that's delightful. Steamed buns are so unappreciated... I can't wait to try them."
Wu	"I had a stray cat once," Alice says as she steers the pair through the winding streets, keeping Angela under the overhangs and impromptu shelters while she stays in the rain ... yet somehow not getting wet. "We had a good partnership. I put food outside, he visited, ate, played a bit, then left. He was eaten by a demon."     She turns her head. "Don't get too attached to strays, in short," she says to Angela. "Bad things happen to them and you feel lousy for not having taken them closer in."
Angela Davis	Angela smiles faintly, "A would be hunter typically has a shorter lifespan. But I'm going to teach her what I can, and hopefully she'll learn." She shakes her head, and gives Alice a wry look, "I'm quite possibly the oldest person you'll ever meet. What makes you think I get attached to anything?" Her eyes look a bit amused at that, mainly because it's true. Though there's a hint of something else in her voice.
Wu	"Because you're still here. You're still among us. There's something that attracts you to us."     She looks across very gravely at Angela, rain streaming down her hair, face, clothes, and to the ground. "Because," she adds, "as much as you put up this shell of yours, I don't believe that you are as detached as you pretend. Remember the sword I broke?"
Angela Davis	Angela grins and looks back, "Yes, I do. It was a pretty good sword, that didn't deserve the person that commissioned it." She tilts her head, looking at Alice with a curious expression, waiting for her to continue...
Wu	"You cared," Alice says simply. "You cared about the girl. You cared that the boy met with justice. You were also happy that I cared enough to intervene." Left unsaid: how shaken Alice was that she was spotted doing that. "And caring leads to attachment. Your age and your lifespan means your attachments will feel different from mine, were I foolish enough to make any, but they remain attachments."     A smile.     "In short, I don't believe your insinuation that you don't make attachments. I think you do. Have done. And get hurt by them often."
Angela Davis	Angela looks about to protest, then she smiles, giving Alice a wry expression as she slips her hand over Alice's. "You're right. I do care. I /have/ to care. It's who I am. Ever since humans discovered what real Faith is, a Faith in the Name they could never see, could never experience directly save rarely." She shrugs a little, "I've cared for people through the ages. I've lost track of the years, but never those I cared for. I loved every single one of them, more than anything save Her."
Wu	""Her" being, of course, Tathagata in one of his many facets," Alice responds with a grin. "I would say "It" but that would be disrespectful, so I default to He. And you to She." Her eyes twinkle with merriment at the arrogance of her statement.     "And here we are. It doesn't look like much, but that's because Lao Wang spends his money perfecting his craft, not his seating. Pull up a chair. I'll be back."     With that she goes over to the proprietor, who greets her with a respectful, but very warm, smile. Words are exchanged in a quickly-shifting array of languages. Alice gestures toward Angela. The man behind the counter looks over at Angela. Pauses. Looks over Angela. Pauses. Looks her over again. Then turns back to Alice and nods, smiling.     "OK, I've taken the liberty of ordering," she says as she winds her way through the cramped space to the table Angela sat at. "I hope you've got a lot of space to put food into because he's bringing us two of each."     Her hand waves to encompass the menu on the back wall. The one that COVERS the back wall.     "I told him you were a fairy maiden come down from the heavens because you'd heard of his baozi. He agrees that you could pass for that. He's a romantic at heart."
Angela Davis	Angela actually blushes, and smiles, "Flatterer. I just hope no sidhe actually heard that. They might take offense." She smiles and rests her cheek on her hand, elbow on the table as she looks at Alicia. "I don't think he's the only one, though."
Wu	"Fairy is a bad translation. We don't mean the Sidhe," Alice says. "We mean the immortal sky-maidens like Chang'e on the moon and such. Unfortunately in Victorian times ignorant people translated terms so we're stuck with silliness like "dragon" or "phoenix" or "lion" or, in this case, "fairy". She tsks and shakes her head.     "So you know other romantics? Ares? Is he a romantic? He seems rather stuck on his son; quite a good father from what I've seen. Has he developed romance late in his life or something?"
Angela Davis	Angela shakes her head, "Romantic isn't something I'd ever use to describe Ares, even as far as 80 years ago. I last saw him in Vichy France, as I mentioned." She smiles, "Now, well... I'm not entirely sure. He seems far different. For one, he actually /asked/ for my help with something. He never would have before." She looks a bit bemused at that fact. "He's more a friend than anything else, a constant the past few thousand years."
Wu	"The advantage of sticking with your kind, I guess," Alice says, nodding. "What's the disadvantage though?"     The question is left hanging as Lao Wang himself personally delivers a massive tray of paired baozi arranged artfully to the point that a stack of stuffed steamed buns on bamboo steamer trays looks like a work of modern art.     "Xiao Alice tells me you speak a civilized tongue," he says, addressing Angela effusively. "Thank you for gracing my shop with your esteemed presence and heavenly beauty." He says all of this in Cantonese, so only about half the restaurant understands. And of those only about a quarter paid enough attention to hear it. They all stare, however, at Angela and, as the renao characteristic of Chinese restaurants goes, begin to loudly talk about her. Most of it is praise of her appearance and bearing, although there's some tsking at the shoes.     "Please, enjoy my baozi, and maybe tell your father, the Jade Emperor, about my shop?" he adds with a self-deprecating laugh.
Angela Davis	Angela smiles, "Rest assured that I shall say nothing but good things about you and your shop, Lao Wang. These buns look positively delightful, and I am certain I will be most pleased." She speaks that perfect Cantonese, sounding like a native despite her appearance, and her smile widens a bit, "You might have more frequenting your shop as a result." It isn't like she's not in touch with the other Hosts, and angels might not /need/ to eat... but they still like it.
Wu	"You've just made his week," Alice says dryly as the owner nearly floats away. "You'll be the talk of the alley for weeks to come until some scandal arises to unseat you."     She shakes her head and laughs. "Dig in. These only get colder with time. I'll let you work out the ingredients. They're all delicious; just be aware that some of his Sichuan-inspired ones can blow the heads off of mortals. I doubt that's a problem for you, but you know, better safe than sorry."     She picks up a bun and bites into it, chewing thoughtfully. "So what's the disadvantage," she repeats, "of sticking with your own kind? Why are you here among us instead?"
Angela Davis	Angela mmms and eats one of the buns, taking her time to savor the tastes of it as she is perfectly polite. Then she says, "Honestly? We all have our own things to do. It's... complicated to explain, but it's hard to deal with the same thing over the course of centuries... or millennia." She shrugs a bit, "I mean, Ares? He and I don't see each other more than maybe once per century. And other angels I do see now and again, but typically those of us on Earth have jobs to do. That keeps us pretty busy."
Wu	"You retired, though," Alice points out. "Empty scabbard and all that. What's your job if you've resigned?"     She eyes the mound of buns like a hawk eyeing potential prey in a colony of gophers foraging. She picks her target, swoops in, and grabs it in her claws, savouring the little shrill whistle as her bite squirts some juices onto her cheek. Laughing she cleans up the little spot and chews.     "I really can't imagine, to be honest, what immortality would feel like. I'm the precise opposite. I probably won't live to see forty."
Angela Davis	Angela smiles a bit, "Then you should live as much as you can in those forty years." She chuckles, "But I haven't retired from being an Angel, just Vengeance Alice. I serve Creation now, and all that it entails."     She hmms, "Though, immortality? It's... hard to describe. Time just seems to fly sometimes. I just try to remember to fake a death and find a new birth certificate to have." Her eyes dance a bit
Wu	"Sounds like a wonderful problem to have. Or like a recipe for lifelong boredom. Which is what I'd be most afraid of if someone offered me immortality." Alice looks off in the distance, chewing thoughtfully after taking an outsized bite from her bun.     "Living life to the fullest sounds good until you realize the costs. My mother did that. Had a husband and a daughter. And then was killed. Brutally. I saw what that did to my father and decided I'd never cause that much pain to someone ever myself."
Angela Davis	Angela looks curiously at Alice at that, "You mean, you've never thought about love, because you didn't want to inflict the pain of loss on someone else?" She nibbles absently on her steamed bun, savoring the different flavors as she arches a brow at Alice.
Wu	"Yes." Alice says that as bluntly and matter-of-factly as if discussing the use of ink on paper. "That is precisely what I mean. I know I will die young. I know that this will cause whomever is foolish enough to get involved with me a lot of pain. It would be selfish of me to do this."     Her face is flat. Her voice level. Her eyes, however, are tortured.     "I became a cop because I respected, honoured, and loved my father. And in the end because I wanted to commemorate his death. It was by natural causes, in that a piece of led a few grains in mass going through the heart will naturally kill anybody. But he died from the distraction of his pain; the bullet was merely the final physical cause. He didn't pay attention and he paid for it. Because he'd lost the will to continue."     She resolutely looks down at the buns, as if it were a life or death decision which to take. Selects one. Takes a bite. All to prevent any need from continued speech.
Angela Davis	Angela looks rather saddened by that, "Pain is part of existence. You can't just wish it weren't there, no matter how hard you try." She reaches out, her hand looking like it's about to touch Alice's, but she stops just short. Though her eyes look right at Alice's, the merest hint of amber in the angel's eyes, even in her human guise.
Wu	"Existence is pain," Alice amplifies. "I'm aware of this. It's the foundation of my faith. Propagating that pain is not, however."     She looks up and straight into Angela's eyes. "If I were the normal workaday wife, getting up, going to work, coming home, doing the wifely things, then yes, it would be worthwhile. I'd probably live out my life. The risk of causing gratuitous and unnecessary pain is low."     She spreads her arms in a grand shrug.     "I hunt, and am hunted by, demons. Among other things. I will not be living a long life. I will always have my husband or child worrying if I'm going to come home tonight or if I'll instead wind up partially dismembered, possibly eaten, in an alleyway somewhere. The risk is too high."
Angela Davis	Angela looks a bit pained at that, and she does lightly touch the back of Alice's hand, lips curling in a bit of a smile, "Though, compared to some, you have a pretty short life regardless." She arches a brow towards Alice, withdrawing her fingers after that brief touch, finishing one of the steamed buns in front of her.
Wu	"Well, yes, compared to an Immortal I naturally have a short life," Alice says, smiling for the first time in a while, though the pressure of the smile at the edge of her eyes causes a tear to spill, a tear that had been very carefully suppressed up to that point. "But compared to my kind, I still have ... poor prognosis. I don't know how my mother did it. She so obviously loved me and my father, but ..." Her voice thickens a bit. "... my hair still turned red one night as my mother's blood flowed. I ... can't do that."