ArchivedLogs:He Followed Me Home

He Followed Me Home
Dramatis Personae Noah Ringe, Cage	2013-12-16 Can I keep him?
Location <NYC> Heroes for Hire - Midtown East
The front room of the Heroes for Hire office has the secretary's desk, a small filing cabinet, a computer, and a ceiling fan. Janice, the aforementioned secretary is a sixty-something woman who's accent clearly marks her as being from Eastern European descent, though probably one generation removed judging by how well she speaks English. Janice was almost certainly selected by some busy-body lawyer on Luke's behalf, probably to keep him free of any more accidental law suits. The paint is faded, but everything pretty much works. Off to one side is the bathroom, and the other door leads back to Luke's office. There's isn't much in Luke's actual office but a small desk and a swivel chair pushed into one corner, with a pair of straight backed chairs on the other side of it. A couch is by the window that looks out over the city, with Times Square in the distance. All things considered, its actually a pretty decent little spot. The outdoors is miserable. Just MISERABLE. Snow and cold that are pure torture for those that don't have good warm places to be. Staying near the heart of the city, though, does promise lots of places to lurk that have some good heat to them --which also means alternate options if one place doesn't work out as well. Fortunately, Noah can climb, and has fairly good access ability. In this case, though, the large, mutated shape that drops to the pavement, having climbed down in front of one of the skyscrapers. He's a bizarre sight: he has three blankets and one coat stuck to his body on the sharp black protrusions on his back and spine. One of the blankets is quite happy, with smiling clouds on baby blue, the other is a hello Kitty blanket, a bit less cheerful with several spikes sticking out of Hello Kitty's eye socket and forehead. And so, the sight of this is sending innocent, bundled up people scattering everywhere, by his simple presence, even though he does it relatively quietly. If anyone was going to call the police, perhaps they opt not to-- since he's clearly going directly into the front of the Heroes for Hire building. Clearly the heroes can deal with that monster, although the doorway itself may be an issue: the spined mutant is pretty massive, and his hands are cruel distortions of hooked claws, several fingers fused together in ugly curls. Even so, he can still push a door open with them... When the door bangs open to the office, we can all be silently grateful that Janice is out getting lunch. From his back office Luke can be heard getting out of his chair and walking toward the front room. "Wow, that was fa-" he's saying when he comes into view and then takes an involuntary step back. "Sweet Christmas!" His eyes go wide as he regards the 'monster' in his door and he glances from side-to-side as if looking for something. He licks his lips and holds his ground otherwise though, standing in the doorway from the foyer to his actual office. Eyes still wide, he takes a moment to assess the situation, and seems to get the sense that Noah is not immediately on the attack here. He searches the other man's face for a moment and nods. "Come in, close the door, and start talkin'." The strange visitor drops his upper torso, skeletal hands dropping to the carpet in front of the door, and tries to kind of pull his ass in sideways. The door slams promptly on a length of armored tail, which pulses just slightly against the door, making it shiver, the glass rattling. His 'face', if you want to be nice and suggest he has one on his head, orients back and aside a little like a snake, as if smelling with no nose. He 'coughs' once, if it could be that, a sharp sonic 'sneeze' really that causes a brief rattle. But he answers right away verbally, hinged jaw staying shut despite that he says a few things--- "I think I'm breaking your door," is observed, in a voice that's thick and rapsy like a smoker's, but has an uncomfortable high keen inside it. He sounds more grumpy than anything, trying to jerk free of the door-- which, seeing as there's a massive spiked weight at the end of the tail, might not go well for the door's health. It's probably clear that he's at least not TRYING to wreck the doorway. "Is this Heroes place?" He asks tiredly. It isn't ironic; it'll sounds like he has no idea, and has asked a few other places without good results. "Uh... yeah," Luke says, looking over the groaning door frame. His facial expression, if Noah can read it, is clearly chagrined at having responded so poorly to someone in need, purely because of his appearance. But his embarrassment is also in his tone of voice, for the record. "Hey, don't worry about it. I break that door like... once a month at least. I got a regular guy who fixes it." Luke hesitates just half a breath more and then crosses the room to where the big mutant is stuck. He takes a knee next to him, and says, "Here, take my shoulder. I think if we just angle you a bit... We can get you in here." "I'm not /stuck/, I'm just trying not to break your door," Noah answers, with some impatience coming through. He's making an effort but it isn't working out, and there's some frustration with the mutant that's showing up. "I'm trying /not/ to throw your door across the room, just open it wider maybe," Noah adds in a way that probably reads of some pride, and doesn't take Luke's shoulder. Getting close to Noah shows that he doesn't smell very great. He smells kind of like a dumpster, but it's probably mostly at least one of the blankets. But not worse than one would expect from something that crawled out of the underbelly of the city. Noah may damage the floor some, but it won't look intentional, just a byproduct of clawed hands and feet. "You're pretty big, must be the Cage fellow?" Noah questions, while trying to jerk his tail into the room. "I came because I heard things. Registering and things," Noah adds, trailing off, a scowl in his tone, but it can't reach his expressionless, masklike face. "Yeah ok, my bad," Luke says, a little flustered. He stands again and pulls the door open as wide as he can, and stands back from the door. In the time while he's holding the door and trying to make room for Noah to enter, he fires off a quick text to Janice to give her the afternoon off, and pockets his phone again. "Yeah, I'm Luke Cage," he says, finding his mental footing again. "And this is Heroes for Hire. Registration is gonna be a real bitch if it sticks. What can I help you with?" Noah seems much happier to get his tail inside, and turns about, proving that he actually CAN lift the thing and arch it, but had chose not to when it was stuck. He stands up fully. He lack Luke's mass, but his weirdly long legs and torso draw him up to 7', now that he's fully standing. His arms curl in and back with a shudder, pulling at the Hello Kitty blanket more around his upper torso, curling it to chest. Kind of pathetic, if it wasn't for the overall look that's less than charming. "I don' give my real name anymore. Just Roach now," Noah/Roach says, not even reacting to the phone business at all. "Don't have any money," he adds, scratchy voice dismayed, and dropping into a southern accent briefly, probably by accident. "But have an ability like you. Maybe you know how to shut yours off," he continues, with some obvious attempt to be careful and tactful. Luke moves to close the door softly behind Noah once he's all the way inside, noting the cracks and scrapes in the frame silently. Cost of doing business, really. "Hey, you wanna be called 'Roach', I call you Roach. I'm easy, brother." Luke doesn't bother inviting Roach into the back office though. That would just be more trouble with doors. Instead he spins a chair around to straddle it backwards and gestures at the collection of similar, non-rolling chairs in the foyer. "Have a seat, if you want. You want a coffee or something? You don't have to worry about money here. You probably haven't heard, cuz the news just broke this morning, but we're applying for non-profit status and I'm just making it active as of now." Luke's quiet for a long moment when Roach asks about his powers. "Honestly man, I went years without even realizing I /had/ powers, you know? No idea how to shut it off though. As far as I know, I can't. Even when I'm asleep. Assholes tried to gimme the shiv in my bunk back in prison. The thing just broke." He shrugs and adds, "Hey, can you see me at all? Don't mean to be rude, just... checking, you know?" While Luke moves to sit in a chair, Roach doesn't seem to register or react at all to the gesture at the chairs. He simply squats exactly where he is, as if that was his default manuever, to sit against his distended, spiked heels. "I like coffee and anything," Roach says, perking up a little bit vocally. Which, though, is dashed to little bits when Luke says he doesn't know how to shut it off. He releases a frustrated sound that has a startling upper register, and will rattle the glass in the room. "I know where you are," Roach says, his tone sulky. Then again, if this was a big hope of his, the tone can't be unexpected. "But no, I can't tell if you're polka-dot or not," Roach says, grumpy, darkening pretty rapidly. "or watch tv or read the sign on the door that says whether or not this place is actually a hair stylist's." Luke winces at the high-pitched sound, and then nods, but seems to remember he should be more expressive when Roach indicates he'd like something to drink. "Yeah ok, I got coffee, and some day-old blueberry muffins, if you want." He gets up and crosses to the coffee maker, which sits on top of a little mini-fridge. He fills a large ceramic mug with coffee, pulls a muffin out of the fridge, and walks both over to Roach, subtly trying to breathe through his mouth so he doesn't have to sniff the smelly mutant. Holding them out, he says uncertainly, "Here uh, hold out your hands." If Roach does so, Cage will try to put each item into a hand, taking care nothing is dropped if he can help it. "How are you for living space? You must be underground somewhere, right? Man... people must give you shit /every/where you go..." It's not really a question, just him realizing things out loud. Roach does track him... just not intently. He orients without much issue on the items, possibly due to Cage calling attention to them. He's better with the muffin, which he simply spears, wrapper and all. The coffee gets fumbled, and he uses only index and thumb to obviously feel it with a few loud taps, and then confidently take it, like one might expect from a blind person that can use touch and sound. Seeing as ring and pinky look like they're merged into a horrendous warped appendage, this grab style is probably normal to Roach. Watching him eat and drink is probably even more interesting: he takes the muffin first. Low slung fanged jaw unlocks with a rasp of rubbing armor plate, showing an array of interal, wet armor plates, and muffin is inserted against them. The plates shift and press the muffin, folding it in. The coffee is handled more directly-- head tipped fully back like a bird and coffee is dumped, with good accuracy, down onto the plates, jaw finally snaps shut, and he drops his head back down again. Nothing leaks. He puts the cup down with care, but it does end up on it's side. "I give them shit back, mostly they run away," Roach says, matter-of-factly. "It's so /cold/ right now. So harder to find places that aren't more trouble than worth," the armored mutant complains. "I'm not pretty enough to be a bodyguard, but did do hero things," he remarks. Luke carefully makes sure each item makes it into Roach's hands, and lingers a little too long in his grasp. He watches curiously as one of the mutant's huge claws grazes against the back of his hand, creasing the skin there. Luke has long since dulled his sense of danger in situations like this, and just watches as it happens. Then that fascination is trumped by watching Roach eat. He just stares, open-mouthed at the process, backing away to be able to see it better, and make the barest attempt at politeness. Eventually he gets his own cup of coffee, adds /way/ too much cream and sugar to it, and sits down again. "Yeah, man I /bet/ they fuckin' run. Serves 'em right for being assholes." Luke sounds amused in a good-natured way when Roach talks about 'hero work'. "Oh yeah? What kinda stuff you been up to?" If Roach is bothered by Luke's behavior while he eats, he doesn't show any of it. Similarly, he doesn't apologize for scratching Luke: either he isn't aware of it, or found no reason to say anything about it. "I liked the coffee. Hot," Roach says, simply, as if realizing he'd better say something one way or the other about the food. "Heehee," Roach chuckles when Luke agrees with him about running, pleased that Luke sounds impressed. "Yes, I crushed loads and loads of zombies," Roach asserts proudly. "They got a little stuck on me but I can scrape them off on things," he adds, which probably paints a lovely image. "Well for what it's worth man," Luke says, sitting forward in his chair. "As a fellow street cleaner, we appreciated the help. This town isn't ever gonna give us medals for it, but thanks all the same." Luckily Luke doesn't have to worry about the grim expression on his face as he flashes back to his own violent encounters with the zombies. He sips his coffee and says, "So look, our vents come out on the roof here. And hardly anyone goes up there. It's probably at least a /little/ warmer by the vents, and there's one side where you could make a little shelter that should be hard for neighboring buildings to see." Luke sips, thinking, and adds, "Plus, I can give you a heads up if someone has to go up and do some work or something. Whaddya think?" Noah misunderstands, or mishears. "You want me to /stay/?" he says, loudly, clearly not having expected any of that, and infers more: "I would love a job," Roach says similarly loudly, as if that were his default volume, not the tame conversational tone he'd put on so far, sitting up more in a funny little bounce, tail arching and curling to land across a chair. Not hard, but the chair will creak. "If someone has a job I will come and help, yes yes," Roach says, leaking his age all over-- he's acting like a teenager in maturity level. Or perhaps just desperate to be good for something. "I'm better than I look, really," Roach adds rapidly, reeking of hope, moving towards Cage, and probably crowding him a little, but Roach doesn't touch at all. "Can't call it a 'job' because I can't promise you any money," Luke says, his eyes wide at Roach's reaction. He stands up when Roach approaches but manages to suppress his instinct to back away. "But yeah, man, you can squat on the roof at least. I can definitely imagine how we could use your help at some point." No he definitely can /not/, but how could he say such a thing at this point? "Tell you what, come back after dark tonight and we'll go up and scope it out together." Luke forces himself to reach out and pat Noah gently on the shoulder. "I'm sure it'll... work out."