2012-07-26 Loquacious

Pharmacies, they come in all shapes and sizes. Most of them are buildings with little old people behind the counters, nickel candy ageing into dust in plastic bowls sitting next to packs of gum so outrageously priced only the completely stoned would ever purchase them. That is not the sort of pharmacy taking up space here however. Jerry leans against the corner of a building, looking as unobtrusive as a man his size can, his gaze seemingly downcast and at the same time, not. In the alley way he guards, Mark Ettson's small time pusher minion Slide works his magic. Jerry hates this job. Not that he's got anything against drug dealers per say, it's not like they're out there forcing idiots to partake of the table, but sometimes Slide takes things that aren't money in exchange for his product. Those are the days Jerry can't stand. There are four other look outs, those that are actually part of the crew and not just hired out for the day like Stonewall is, strapped heavily and keeping an eye out for the cops. The fact that this is New York and that Stonewall is... well he's a giant wall of flesh that could be mistaken for stone given its size, keeps the eyes of passersbys straight ahead and nowhere near the shady alley way.

Illyana comes out of the 7-11 on the corner with a single bag that's looped over one arm, resting in the crook of her elbow. That's because her hands are busy with a pack of gum that *wasn't* exorbitantly priced! She works on unwrapping it, conscientiously putting the wrapper into the bag instead of dropping it to the ground as she walks down the sidewalk to find herself a nice shadowy alley to make with the teleporting. There should be one right about-- The blonde is actually turning towards said alleyway when she notices Jerry standing there. Her feet pause, her body already turned towards him and her gaze makes the long, long trip up to his face. Given that her brother is six and a half feet tall, she's used to looking up at big guys but this... "Huh." She says, mildly surprised. The stick of gum is pushed into her mouth and she holds out the pack towards the large man. "Gum?"

Stonewall stares down at her. Some men work at menacing, some men have it beaten into them, ground like fine seasoning into a steak before it's placed in the fire. This is the second sort of man. And he is, actually, rather menacing. Sadly... he's just a guy and not, say, a demon. Jerry reaches out with a pair of fingers and pinches the packet of gum. He takes a piece out and then hands it back, "Beat it kid." he says, returning the pack to her. Some of his menace is lost in the transaction of course. Hard to be scary when you're /returning/ candy after only having taken a single stick.

Chew. Chew. Chew. Illyana takes her gum back, sliding it into the package as she watches him. Maybe she's mentally deficient, because she just arches one blonde brow when he tells her to beat it. "Rude." She chastises him. Chew. Chew. Chew. She's still standing there. She turns her upper body, looking behind her at what one would expect Jerry to be looking at. No. Nothing very interesting there. She looks back to Jerry. "Let me guess. The building will fall down if you stop holding it up."

Stonewall doesn't smile. Mostly because he doesn't smile. But the 'rude' makes his eyelid twitch. Once. "No." he says flatly. Apparently, while larger than her brother, he's also not half the conversationalist. Something's wrong. No one but no one just stands there when Jerry eyes them. Even cops react one way or another. Little blond girls? Yeah. Something isn't normal.

If she says 'They're heeeeeere!' then it's time to be very, very afraid. But so far she's just standing there, his monosyllabic answer causing her lips to curve into a smirk. Or maybe it's the way his eyelid twitches in response. She definitely shouldn't be this calm with him staring down at her. Fleeing or frenetic threatening is usually the norm. "Not watching anything, unless you have a fascination for paint drying, and not holding up the building..." She mimes looking thoughtful, tapping her her lips with one fingertip. "I wonder what you could be doing..."

Stonewall doesn't even pause, "Protection." he says, not bothering to lie. What's he going to say? Selling Thin Mints door to door? He's obviously not a cop, he's not a vendor, he's not some performance artist, and he's certainly not on a smoke break or coffee break or whatever break from one of the big office buildings around them.

The honesty gets a mild flicker of surprise from the blonde. Sure, she could head on to find another alleyway but trying to get the big man to say more than one word at a time is actually kind of entertaining. "Whatcha protecting?" She asks just as bluntly as his reply.

Stonewall looks her up and down, "You." he replies. Yeah, she's gonna have to try harder than that. There is some scuffling in the alleyway behind them, not like a fight, more like a bum getting to his feet and preparing to walk out into the street.

"Seriously? Did I get a bodyguard and no one told me? I don't think you'll fit in my closet when I don't need you." Illyana quips. She's dressed about as normal as she gets. Worn jeans, NYU T-shirt with a Xavier's hoodie on over that. The thick-soled boots that come up to her knees with silver skulls for the buckles are almost out of place with all that normal. Her blue eyes shift down from his face, towards his elbow and the alleyway behind it at the shuffling sounds.

Stonewall's eyelid twitches again as she quips at him. She's got brass, he'll give her that. When her eyes move towards the alleyway he turns his body, thoroughly blocking off access to the narrow little passage. "Nope." he says, his arms crossing over his rather wide chest.

Chew. Chew. Chew. Illyana doesn't really like being told 'no'. But on the other hand she's got ice cream that's getting warm. Quandary. "Well, if you're protecting me, you should probably come along then." She says, lifting the arm with the bag slung on it. "My ice cream is getting warm. I'll try to tetris you into my closet or something." She gives an absent wave of her hand. "Eh. I'll make it work."

Stonewall eyes the blond as if she were... well crazy really. The shuffling ends as someone taps Stonewall on the arm, guiding the giant guy to take a step to the left, which he does. Behind him is a short man, a little over five feet tall, wearing a track suit with a gold chain... It's bad. His face is pinched, a bit like a weasel, and he has bad acne. "Slidin' outa here bigguy. Say... the Market." The weasely guy eyes Illyana, giving her the slimey updown look. "Lookit that. Bigguy likes 'em with tits after all. Whoda thought? Anyway, the Market." He waves a hand and a pencil thing slice of white opens in the air and the guy just seems to slide into it, vanishing.

As the slimy little guy gives Illyana the once-over, the teasing air about the blonde drops and it feels like the temperature crashes a few degrees too as she just looks back at the guy. When he disappears she doesn't jump or scream, but her eyes do narrow consideringly. Then she looks back up to Stonewall. "If that's your boss, I feel very sorry for you."

Stonewall shrugs as the guy slides into nothing, and his door quickly follows, zipping back up behind him. "Unemployment's high." he points out. Hey look at that! More than one word... Win?

Illyana mmmms softly, watching Stonewall and his lack of reaction to the guy's teleporting trick. "C'mon big guy. You like ice cream?" She asks, turning to start walking down the street. "I should have an extra... Ah!" She says as she roots around in the back and comes up with a pair of spoons. "See?"

Stonewall eyes her, the place where Slide used to be, shrugs and turns to follow, "Sure." he says falling into step next to her.

Illyana walks down the street with her huge shadow until she finds one of those small little parks that aren't really large enough to be called 'park' but have some trees and benches and stuff like that. She sits down on a bench, folding one leg under her and pulls out a container of ice cream as she hands him a spoon. "So. What do they call you?" She dips her spoon in and then offers it over to him as she takes a bite.

Stonewall eyes the bench suspiciously, tests it, then settles in, "Stonewall." he says as he takes the spoon which is so very very very small in his giant hand. He sticks it in the tiny ice cream container and comes out with a decidedly small dainty bite. "You?"

Illyana sucks on her spoon a bit as she eats her ice cream, squinting him at the name. "Really? Hmm. I guess I can see it. 'Brickwall' doesn't have the same ring to it, eh? Illyana." She says, setting the ice cream down so that she can offer him her hand. "Nice to meet you."

Stonewall reaches across the way and shakes her hand, but he does it in the way the Piotr does, ever so careful not to break her sort of shake, careful, but still taking up the majority of her forearm. "Pleasure."

Illyana doesn't seem put off by how much *bigger* he is than she. She scoops out another bite, her one foot swinging back and forth. "So I'm guessing that this isn't a job that you get a regular paycheck from." She says, rolling her attention up at him.

Stonewall pauses mid lick on the spoon to eye her. He considers, then shakes his head, "Nope." he says, turning his attention back to the ice cream. "Pay is pay." he's so talkative now! Another noncommittal shrug.

Illyana tilts her head a bit as she watches him, licking her spoon again. "Can't find regular work?" She asks, just diving into his personal bizniss. Not like he's talkative enough to ask her questions back!

Stonewall keeps an eye on her as she asks, and he takes a long time to answer, considering things carefully. "Regular? Yeah." he looks down at himself. One can imagine a guy his size? Can find regular work as a leg breaker or something. "Good?" he shakes his head again.

Illyana mmmms and nods thoughtfully. Hey, she deals with demons. They aren't always very vocal. "So this is paying well for you then?" She asks with a quirk of her brow.

Stonewall raises a hand and waffles it as he licks at the spoon again. "Well enough." he's not in designer clothes that's for sure, though anything in his size, she likely knows from experience, ain't cheap. Not like he fits into Wal-Mart fare after all. He points at her get up and quirks a questioning brow. "Mall?" sure, she could work at the mall, why not?

Illyana plucks at her NYU shirt. "Student." She's actually getting paid for the Titan's gig, but that's new. "And I uh, make a lot of my own clothes." With magic, but hey. She's still the one making them! "I know, I'm lucky." She can afford to go to school.

Stonewall nods his agreement, "Never was much for school." one can see how that might be really, though he looks like a shoe in for a scholarship for one sport or another. "You design?" he eyes her clothes again.

Illyana gives a small tilt of a nod. "Not that my brother appreciates my sense of style." That brings a smirk from the blonde. "Neither am I really." She admits. "But I'm not really the nine-to-five sort so I figured it was my best choice. You fight too, or just look scary?"

Stonewall smirks, "Scary enough, don't need to fight." he pauses, "Most of the time." he amends the statement. He licks his spoon a couple more times and then looks for more ice cream.

"So no formal training, huh?" Certainly wouldn't seem so. Someone with his size and strength, Illyana would expect him to make his money on underground fighting instead of guarding an alleyway. Illyana seems to nibble on her spoon thoughtfully. Notice Stonewall looking, she nudges the rest of the ice cream container towards him. She really got it for the demons more than herself anyhow.

Stonewall snorts, "Define formal." he says as he takes the ice cream and gets another spoonful. He doesn't get the stuff that often, he'll take it when it's there.

"Structured. With a teacher. Not just what you pick up on the street by trying not to get hurt or putting down other people." Illyana says, smirking a bit at the snort.

You paged Nate Grey with 'he was in a scene until like... less than 2 hrs ago. this is a scene we started the other night. tried to finish last night but first his comp freaked out and then my internet went out'

Stonewall shakes his head, "Then no." he was right the first time, formal means schooling. Naw. He just punches stuff really hard. He peers into the ice cream container and then pushes it back her way. If he has anymore she won't get any, and it was her to begin with.

Illyana shakes her head, pushing it back towards him. "Nah, you finish it. You look like you'll burn it off faster than me." She seems to look at him a long moment, considering, and then sets her spoon down so she can reach both hands up behind her neck. She undoes the clasp of a short choker of silver beads that, on close inspection are actually little silver skulls and black and red crystals, and reaches out towards his wrist. Apparently she plans to put it on him without even asking.

Stonewall, eyes her, checking to see if she's messing with him... ... ...Nope. He takes the ice cream then and scoops out the remainder on a giant spoonful. He glances up when she moves to take his wrist, his eyes narrowing slightly. The addition of the bracelet leaves him with a curious expression.

Necklace for her but yeah, only a bracelet on him. Illyana pats his wrist after it's secure and then stands up. "Keep hold of that. Maybe I'll see you again. There's tai chi classes in the park on Fridays. I know, what use is tai chi, right?" She shrugs, sliding her hands into her back pockets. "You'd be surprised." Then, without seeming to feel the need to say 'goodbye' or make him answer, she just starts to... walk off.

Stonewall blinks as she drops the bit about yoga or whatever and then walks off, his eyes settling on the bracelet. He pokes one of the tiny skulls with a finger, "She likes you, she likes you not, she likes you..." he mutters under his breath in a self-deprecating tone as he goes around the little charm bracelet. Idly he wonders what it's made of, maybe something he can play with at some point... eh. He'll keep it for now. Worst case? He can always pawn it for a meal or two, right? "Bye." he says louder as she walks off, leaving him with a spoon and an empty carton.