2013-01-17 Junkyard Man and the Green Cager

Lower East Side Manhattan; a clear yet chilled day that still has frost caping the corners of one brownstone building to the next mirrored on the leafless boney looking trees spaced out along the roadway. Connor has finally resurfaced after several months of being M.I.A. declaring he had something important to do and abruptly vanishing from the rest of Stormwatch or he supposes that is what they're calling themselves now. He had no clue, he is as out of touch with his 'team members' as he is the rest of reality.

Dressed in a casual grey sweater and jeans he stands against a canopy covered Puerto Rican resteraunt's wall a mug full of something steamy and hot in one hand another rested on the window sill next to him. The only member he had any major connection to being of course his one time tormentor, Rose Wilson aka the Ravager. Simple stuff really - "I'm back in town. Meet me here."

Rose was still never idle, despite her holiday absence. Calls ignored, everything ignored except for what kept her mind in tact, at that was teetering on the very edge of her blades and taking risks that resembled the sharpened and honed edge. One call prior to holidays did not go ignored and it gave her money to spend... On what? Partying, even if it was at the cost of another Rorshach spatter of blood on her hands. Rose was getting attached, and she took to the only thing she knew that required her to sever that. Stopping at the side of the street when he phone rang she stared at the number that came across on it with the identifying name. Connor. Booted feet, remained as frozen as her thumb hovering over the answer or decline buttons. Answering.. "Rose.." Her tone is seemingly cold, that distance teetering again as those few words were spoken and the screen flicked to black. Call over. That is all it took. Shoving it in the pocket of her leather jacket borne of buckled and cinched sides, plates running like that studded maille she bore on her armor transferred to civvie wear, leather groaned its own resistance as she debated and then turned on heel, heading for the destination. Standing across the street from where Connor had said to meet she pushed strands of that white hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear, thumbs hooking into the belt loops of form fitting leather pants her chilled blue gaze found Connor easily and remaining on him as she walked when the traffic broke, stepping up before him and tilting her head as a once over is passed over him. "Doing well I see Connor.."

Connor's own stare meets Rose in that ever defiant confident manner. A look he managed to bare even while posted up in a tube like some show piece experimental guinea pig. Weariness rests behind those steel blue eyes - the Metropolis Kid just very well may be tired for once. His cup laden hand waves up in her direction, "Hot chocolate?" A peace offering? Who knew. "I'm fine as always. Kind of surprised you showed. Wasn't even sure I had the right number still I finally figure out how to use my cell phone and I cracked the glass on it." Ultra mega super strength is fun like that.

"If you called me, I figured you must need something, or want familiarity no matter how uncomfortable." Rose states rather blankly, nothing behind those words save the one corner of her lips curling upward, cold and steel meeting of the eyes before hers dropped to the gesture of hot chocolate, one shoulder rolls in a shrug. "Why not.." Rocking back on her heels she looks at the cafe's sign, lacking amaretto to add for pleasure and -flavor- but it would do, none the less. Taking the cup from him, she sipped, carefully at first. "Learn to be more gentle Connor, or use your warranty. You got one, right?" Stepping to the side one booted toe hooks around a seat's leg, tugging it out for her to claim, gesturing for him to join her unless he intended to keep moving. "If you have questions about the group, i can't answer them. I've been as absent as you have, just not as much. Where did you go?" Nosey, but she asked it as casually as she would have -then-.

"It's pretty good." Connor adds on about the hot chocolate. It's not. It tastes horrible for what it is and stands up to the whole East Village expectations. "I don't know." He admits honestly about the phone. "Illyana gave it to me and half the buttons don't really work anyways." The seat is taken up and elbows drop on to the table across from her as he gets cozy. "Oh... I haven't really been in contact with anyone, nothing new has happened? At all?" Slightly confused by that since it was the holidays - shouldn't villains and monsters be running amock or were they too busy trying to stay off the naughtly list? "I was just... away. Nothing was happening with Stormwatch so I wanted to go where I could help. Had to get away and really just... guess had to go for a bit." Not entirely the whole story but it'll work for now.

Aside from scalding her tongue she couldn't give an answer to Connor's claim of it being -good- save a nod. Setting it down in front of her and popping the lid off to let it cool, tossing the plastic topper to the side. "I am sure you had to play a role in why they don't work. All this time and you'd think you learned to be a bit more -tender-." Rose states as she leans back in her chair and tosses an arm over the back in her crooked seating, pressing her back against the glass. "The team was doing decently, you just got antsy. As did I. As far as I know they are fine, and...maybe...two newcomers?" One had knocked her for a loop though and on her return she was put in Limbo with him and Illyana, then she left. That was all she left it at, if her is going to play elusive so can she, it was part and parcel to Ravager anyway. Looking out across the street Rose pulled her gaze from Connor to watch the civilian's as they went on, leaving work and heading to where they truly desired to be - home or not. "No troubles while you were gone at least?" Inquiring about Cadmus, obviously as her eyes finally trailed back to him.

"They just need to make things more durable is all. Cheap plastic junk. Two newcomers? Who?" Maybe it is someone he knows or has seen on television or read about. The hot chocolate in his hands gets another slug at it as he downs some more. Too hot or not never occurred to him. He discovered you do, however, get funny looks if you chug down a boiling drink in front of a crowd of clueless people. "No, no troubles. Been boring really." Kind of lonesome also, Christmas and New Years especially. A lot of self-discovery had occurred in this time at least. He needed this team, Rose and friends. That is one ephihany he hit during his away time and not just for the added strength side of things. Not that he will gush about this or say a damn word to a woman as hard as Ravager or anyone really. He just isn't that sort.

"They don't cater to super-boys." Rose smirks then, looking away from him, not commenting any further in regards to Cadmus or N.O.W.H.E.R.E. He got through it without interruption, good. He likely would not have been sitting here, or she'd have seen the results in the news if it had been the case anyway. She would not have to do boring if she took on her back-burning hobby full time. but job conflictions came into play. Stormwatch was not necessarily a pay-n-kill profession. Reaching and gathering her hot chocolate she sipped it, finding it easier as it had cooled enough in the open air. One wears all green... and has a ring...thing he can cage people with." Rose's eyes seemed to search from memory for a name, shrugging it off as she gave yet another vague and broken description of the last. "..and a man that looks like he was made from a bunch of scrap.. I seriously was just as gone as you Connor. Anything more is a mystery to me unless I go back.." Gone so long, would she even be welcome, just uprooting and leaving nothing where she had once been welcomed. It was in her nature, but they didn't know that

"So... the Junkyard Man and the Green Cager? Stormwatch has some serious standards." A small smile appears across Connor's handsome features. "I'm sure there is more to them." He hopes. "Good. More numbers means more strength, right? What do you mean gone? What have you been doing since I left, Rose?" His chair groans as the legs scrape across the concrete under them while he re-adjusts.

Rose sets her hot chocolate down and swallows, both brows rising as he speaks, smiling at first as he names the nameless - at least to Connor and Rose for now. "I am sure there is, I hope there is.." When he asked what she had been doing her eyes met his, nearly deadpan in the stare and his lean forward has her leaning back, rocking the chair back onto its back two legs, the metal unbending under her weight, still remaining casual, or attempting to in repose. "They're too good for me Connor. All of them. Saying as much her eyes never left his until she finished that sentence, dropping back to the cocoa that still steamed against the chilled air. "I've been having a good time, what I couldn't do... before."

"Good? You haven't seen what I did then. While we were in Limbo. I don't think you'd sound so certain about that." Connor counters. His words full of conviction and obvious belief in what he has just said. His own hot cocoa now on E. "But, I guess we'll see. Won't we?" He seems curious about what she couldn't do before, obviously read on his face but doesn't ask. Instead letting the chill night air creep over them. Cold, no doubt - for humans at least.

Rose rocked forward the legs coming to slam against the 'crete as he spoke of Limbo, the smile darker but settling more like home across her features as she recalled her time in Limbo. "I sparred with those...things, in Limbo." As she said it her shoulders rolled back, not finding the holsters for her swords and that space seemed barren at the thoughts. "..Worthy opponents to keep me up to par." Even her side seemed to sting at the reminder, the smile never leaving. "I'm not really -good- enough Connor." Not only was the whole team bearing their -super- secrets, including Connor the phone wrecker, but they were inherently /good/. Good intentions and alla that.. Rose shakes her head lightly, watching Connor as she did so, knowing the curiousity that laid behind his attempted mask. "You ever been to a club, Connor? Danced? Drank.." Indulged in everything.. The glutton in Rose ever present.

"You went there?" Connor's laid back expression he has been sporting actually changes to a barely noticeable cringe. "Not sure why you keep saying it like that. You're fine, Rose. I don't think Illyana is all that 'good' either or Nate. And drinking is pointless for me... I've seen clubs. I don't get it and I don't dance. It looks stupid. Why, do you want to go to a club or something?" Curious eyebrow quirk time and easy subject change from Limbo. That place sucks.

"Yeah, been there done that." Rose grins, rubbing it in lightly even as fingers flicked as if dusting off her shoulder. It really was not a big deal to her once you got past the demons, which she did easily - seeing them as targets instead of eyesores. From shoulder to air Rose waved his comments off about how good, or not good they were in comparison, giving up. She had to give Connor some credit, the young man had high damn hopes. His comment on clubs has Rose sighing and grabbing up her cocoa, swirling it in the cup and staring at its surface. "It's part of what I have been doing. Maybe if you eased up a bit and tried, it wouldn't look so stupid..." Over half the stock at the bar later...maybe, Connor would find a mildly drunken amusement of the drug and alcohol addled fools. ".. It's a way to just let go some. Seriously, is work all you think about?" Pot/kettle right there, but she'd push at him anyway, it was what she was here for now, afterall. "Relax, or try to. You've got all the time in the world..." And how.

"You been club-hopping and dancing this whole time?" It seems like such a waste of ability, talent, energy, skills and time to Kon. Some perks in there of course like girls, obviously, but with everything in the world and beyond it... "I am sure it would still look stupid and I think about more than just work. You don't know half of what I think about, well, I guess maybe you do, huh?" Raw subject still. That defensiveness rising up in the half-Kryptonian saying as much. A lot of it hinged on the fact he has never really had anyone to press him towards acting out or behaving in a manner that wasn't predetermined and out of the program.

Rose tucks that hot cocoa in closer once a wind sweeps down between the strips of buildings, blwing her white hair from its settle down her back around her face that tucked down and away. So the replacement jacket Nate had gotten her after an incident was warm, but not enough for that kind of climactic battering. "No.." She responds as he asks what she had been doing the whole time, sighing as before she wanted the drink to cool, now she wanted to crawl into it and wrap into the confectioned heat. "I have things I think about as well. -You- wouldn't know the half of." She stabs back, and if eyes were daggers they both would be cutting at eachother. A held breath releases then and Rose shakes her head, gripping the cup between thighs and using both hands to push her hair back again, gathering her cup once more and pushing to a stand. "I know part of what goes on, and if you think I would ever use it against you... Or.. Nevermind." She exhales and steps to the side, as if it would dodge the next gust of wind. "I'm going somewhere indoors, and if the next best thing is a place you think is stupid, maybe try it with me?" So...maybe he wasn't the only one that possibly had a lonely holiday, but like him, she wasn't going to admit it. "Maybe see if the team is around still after?"

"OKay. Whatever." Connor replies to the bit of 'from the past' dueling there. Pushing back away from the table he stands, tosses his empty cup in the garbage and joins her side. "Need to head there anyways so I guess I'll survive a detour. Even if it means putting up with you as company." A small smile and a nudge of his elbow. It's a work in progress.

Good, she needed the alcohol, he made her unbearably tense and she was good at handling it in his presence to a degree. She was trained to hunt, and kill Connor all the while her cyber image dated him. And she had to watch as they ripped a life asunder from the ground up that they had built. Something in Rose did not agree with it, and it showed in that singing tension that held her back ramrod straight when he nudged her, making her laugh to cover the inward shudder or the first thought that came to mind. "I'm not -that- bad. I at least know how to loosen up." Hip-checking him she smiled until the rim of the cocoa bearing cup was brought to lips and finished, disposed of in a passing garbage can.