11279/Freshly Baked Pizza Pies

Freshly Baked Pizza Pies
Date of Scene:	21 May 2022
Location:	Angelo's Pizza
Synopsis:	Jon and Chas get pizza, and talk about the events of the last few days--and have a bit of a breakthrough in understanding how to figure out Chas' new situation.
Cast of Characters:	Jonathan Sims, Chas Chandler

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Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon and Chas were supposed to get pizza after Chas went all 'heavenly avenger' on Robbie, but Cael's panic attack kind of short-circuited that. Jon had to take her home, and Chas presumably went home to Asariel, and then there was Phoebe's haunted meat packing plant, and recovering from /that/, the cold that chilled the very soul.

    So it isn't until late Saturday, after Jon's talked to Phoebe again, that Jon makes good on his insistence and takes Chas to Angelo's, because it's a great place to go for pizza. It's hot in New York today, still in the 80's even in the early evening, so Jon's wearing a t-shirt and hoping notices the glowing emerald arm--but given that a group of mutant turtles comes in here on the regular, it's possible nobody would notice anyway.

    "I know you're not as much of a New Yorker as I am--if at all--so I don't know if you ever managed to have some proper New York pizza," they say with a grin as the pair enter. "But by the gods, I am /going/ to figure out a way to let you enjoy food. /Lydia/ can enjoy food, it's not fair that you can't."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas shrugs. "I'm not complaining as it's not essential," he says. "But I'll not stop you from trying" he adds as he takes a look around the parlor. "You have truly gone native, haven't you?" he asks his friend. "Finding a Brit who likes pizza is a rare thing, indeed."

    He's had a couple of days to calm down from the ordeal earlier in the week. He still had visions of that creature that lurked in the black and the feeling of darkness and evil that lingered in his memory and what it meant for his daughter. But time with Asariel had calmed him.

    "Maybe all the grease will help the flavor come through some?" he muses, a grin splitting his features. "If that's your theory, let's give it a shot. It's not like I'm in danger of a heart attack or anything."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon snorts. "It's not /that/ hard, Chas. There's plenty of pizza places in London. But... have you really not /ever/ had a proper New York slice? Like, they're huge, and you fold them, and..." Well, Chas probably knows about Jon's interest in street food--he used to try to pull them to food trucks when that had just started to be a thing in the UK. And pizza's a street food, in its way.

    He sighs and heads over to the counter, ordering a large cheese pizza and a large pepperoni pizza. Two whole pizzas, not just slices. When that's done he goes to sit at one of the tables and says, "I'm actually working on citizenship. I... before the siege, in that break between when you'd gone to Heaven and the angels invaded I started to really realize how much I love this city. America too, in all its messy annoying... /Americana/. I'm hardly the first Brit to decide to become a colonial."

    A pause, and then he snorts. "I mean, why d'you think curry's so popular? Before the Raj, a lot of the company men from England just went entirely native in India. It... happens, you know? People adapt to the places they move to, especially if it suits them better."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas sits and nods with Jon. "Oh, I know" he says. "I've not gone through the hassel myself. Then again, only been here a bit over a year. I've got a card--have to to drive--but full citzenship?" He shakes his head. "That might be a bridge too far for me. Though... technically... I think the entire process is out for me since I ceased to exist for four months."

    He shrugs. "Maybe it'll come up at some point. For now, I'll just continue as I have been, upping the paperwork when it's time to keep my visa." He sits in silence for a moment. "How have you been holding up?" he asks. "I know I sort of buggered up back at the factory" he says, his eyes dropping to the table top. "It's just... I couldn't lose her... not like that. Not to whatever -thing- was trying to take her."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I've been living here for over a decade, Chas," Jon notes. "When I think about 'home' it's New York. It's... been a point of contention between me and Martin, actually. He always kind of hoped to retire back to England someday. Me... well. I love this messy, confusing, upstart brat of a country, and New York is kind of the prime example of what it all... is. At its worst it's a rat-infested hellhole where people yell at you for existing and nobody gives a shit about each other, but at its best?"

    He looks up and around at the pizzeria. "At its best... so many people came out to help the militia, Chas. So many people... donated, or fought, or... or even just the other boroughs, taking in refugees from Manhattan. We had to turn people from Brooklyn away at the bridge." He smiles, blinks away tears from his eyes. "London's older, and maybe just as multicultural, but in London I'm pretty sure nobody /actually/ gives a shit. Here, people might spit on you one minute but they'll help you up if you slip and fall in the street, even if they're telling you you're a dumb fuck while they do it."

    He sighs, then, and eyes Chas a moment. "Buggered it up? Just a little. Look, I'm not... I'm not going to scold you for trying to help Phoebe. Going in there to grab her, to help Red? That wasn't a mistake."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Jon's words bring Chas up short. "Then... what had you in such a state afterwards? You were angry with me for... for something, right?" he asks, a frown marring his near symetrical features. "If not diving in after Phoebe, then what?" He seems genuinely confused.

    "I feel everything else was handled... accordingly. I mean, I even kept the sunfire out of the situation, for Lydia. I drew a sword but did my best to keep myself from Robbie... I think given yesterday that would be viewed as a step in the right direction." Another shake of his head as he regards Jon directly.

    "What did I do that was so bad that you had to pull out my given name? -No one- calls me by that name... well, no one except..." He scowls, as the memory of late night shouting matches with his ex wife come to mind. "Except occasionally Renee."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I was worried. You were talking about maybe /staying/ down there to fight that demon. I wanted to make it /very clear/ that you should /not/ do that." Jon glowers at his friend. "Maybe someday, you'll have power and experience enough to fight whatever that thing is alone, but I doubt even Rien would just charge in there without getting /any/ help. And frankly, Rien's the only one of the JLD I'd trust to actually take on a demon of that caliber alone given that it's what she was /created/ for."

    The pizza arrives, and Jon thanks the server, but then just stares at it for a moment. "I can't... I don't want to lose anyone else," he says, with a frown. "And as your teacher I need to be clear that you understand the boundaries. Going down was okay. Staying would not have been."

    A pause, then, "And maybe sometimes I lash out a bit, when I'm angry and scared."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas nods and stares at the pizzas for a moment. "That's reasonable and... makes sense. It would've been really stupid to try and face that thing on my own. I barely survived against Robbie... who knows what -that- thing would've done to me. Even if I have the ability, I don't have the skill or knowledge." He smirks again and rubs at the back of his neck. "I need to get a handle on this... rightrousness inside me or I'm going to end up as brightly colored paste real quick."

    "Are they... did they cut it right?" he asks, looking dubiously at the pizza. The slices are nearly the size of a man's head. "I mean... is this... normal?" he asks. There is a level of intimidation in him. He's never had a true New York slice and on first impression the concept of such a thing is rather daunting. Being faced with an entire pizza of it might even be overwhelming to the uninitiated.

    He looks up at Jon. "Look, Jon. I will do what I can to ensure that I don't bite off more than I can chew. I'll do better. I promise." He give his friend a smile. "You're not going to lose me prematurely, that I promise you. I might get hurt, I might get really hurt... but I'm going to stick around. I'm just as resilient as I was before and I'm too damn stubborn to bite it so soon after being free."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Slices the size of your head," Jon says cheerily, in a bad imitation of a Brooklyn accent. The cheese is in front of Chas and the pepperoni in front of Jon. He has experience, and so can handle the extra topping. In his own voice, he says, "You do it like this." He picks up a slice, holding it at the crust and pinching it to fold the slice together. He lets some of the oil run off the tip and onto the plate before him, then goes in to take a bite.

    "You can blot it," he adds, "but the grease is part of the point, to my mind."

    Another bite or two and then he goes on, "That's... good. I've not been... dealing with nearly losing Cael very well, on top of everything else going on." He sighs. "And then Phoebe... well. I really think you need to find a way to go talk to her, as soon as you can. Did you know she's planning to go after the demon on her own?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas had been about to bite into the slice he took up. He had it folded and everything. Jon's statement however stops him in his tracks. He blinks and takes a slow breath... it's clear that he's doing it calm a rise of anger in him. "Please elaborate..." he says.

    His tone of voice is very dangerous and some of the light bulbs in the location flicker some as his own aura increases the ambient energy in the air. "Where did you hear this?" he adds. "-When- did you hear this? And I hope you managed to talk her out of it? Or at least, attempted to... before speaking with me."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Chas," Jon says, looking his friend in the eye, "take a deep breath. Okay?"

    After a moment, he goes on, "She was in the Velvet Room, talking to Cael and Gabby Kinney, and she started talking about the demon, and... summoning and binding it herself. A demon that negates her healing magic, so she'd be reliant on the other spellwork she knows. Her grand backup plan for the demon killing her is a spell that she thinks will erase everyone's memories of her--which, I will note, likely /won't work/. I am hardly the only person who knows and cares about her who'd be resistant to memory tampering." He shakes his head. "When I pointed out that if she dies and the demon escapes, she just told me to talk to Midnite about the name.

    He sighs. "She doesn't want to take anyone she knows to help her, because she might get them hurt. She doesn't want to take Rien, who was /created/ to bind demons, because she doesn't know Rien. But it isn't even that, I don't think... she's depressed. She's grieving. She's in pain. If... if I thought it would do any good, I'd have her involuntarily committed. She's sick, and she's a danger to herself and others."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas continues to stew. "I don't need to breathe Jon. It doesn't actually do anything to help physiologically. Psychologically maybe... but there is no true heart to beat and push oxygen through my bloodstream." He grits his teeth and bites into the pizza slice. The action is vicious and carries a measure of his frustration at the news he's just received.

    "Committing her won't do anything. She'd just escape and then do what she was going to do anyway" he says. As he chews some of the ambient energy pouring off of him calms and the lights in the place return to their normal state. "I think the only way to stop her is to talk some sense into her... or bind her own magic so she can't do it. Which... I don't know how to do." He sighs. "I'll talk to her soon. Before she goes to deal with this thing."

    He takes another bite and chews it. "I can taste it more. The grease actually does the trick. Intense flavours seem to do the trick..." he says, even though a lot of the mirth of the experience seems to have gone out of it. Even so, he takes another large bite.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "It was /meant/ psychologically, Chas," Jon replies, briefly irritated, but he takes his own deep breaths, eating more pizza as he listens to his friend speak. "And yes, that's why... sedation wouldn't work, any medications they tried wouldn't work, and if she wanted to get out it'd be far too easy. So there's not much they could do to help, and it would just put more people in danger."

    He sighs. "There are other possibilities... if she /truly/ became a threat. But I don't think... I think she's just... depressed, and her brain's not finished forming, and she's had a rough time of things. And it doesn't help that most people are either berating her for her attitude, or else... well, I have no idea what her home life's like, now." A shrug.

    He frowns. "She, ahh... she thinks you've been 'saddled' with her, Chas. She insists she went to get you down off the door only for Geraldine's sake, or maybe Geraldine's and Asariel's, but not her own. And I've heard the adoption fell through. Are you... I mean..." A huffed-out breath. "I am not about to suggest that you shouldn't care about her, or that she isn't your daughter, but have you talked to her about her issues with the nature of your relationship?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas finishes another large bite and then finishes off his first slice. He takes up another staring at it for a moment. "I didn't even know there were issues in the first place. Sure, the adoption fall through but that doesn't make her any less of my responsibility. She's where she is because of me and that thing that was wearing his face."

    He takes another bite, chews, swallows. "I feel it's on me to try and give her some stability, but if she isn't willing to accept that then..." he shakes his head. "What is it that I can even do? It's not like I can send her to her room and let her think about what she's doing."

    "Even if she's got another 7 years before she's done growing up," he takes another bite. Doing his best to enjoy the first true meal he's had since coming back. "She's an adult in all the legal ways here and so that means that she has to live with her decisions, even if they are detrimental to herself and others."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon raises a brow. "So... she hasn't told you any of this? I mean, that's precisely what she's saying--she thinks it's unfair that you're 'saddled' with her. She's said this... more than once, implied she's not really your daughter, and so on. And she doesn't act like that around you... at all?" He frowns.

    "Look... talk to her, okay? Maybe she's just afraid that you'll push her away and trying to prepare herself for that. Maybe she's being melodramatic for effect. Or maybe she has a real issue and can't figure out how to bring it up with you. I don't know. I just... I don't want to see you lose her because of all this if it can be avoided."

    He tilts his head. Then, gently, carefully, "...Chas, you... you /are/ doing all of this because you care about her, right? Not out of some misplaced sense of duty or guilt? Kids can sense that stuff, you know that."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas considers the questions for a moment, taking a bite to fill the space while he mulls it over. "It can be both" he finally replies. "Or well... mabye not misplaced, but it can be because I can and because I have a duty to give her some stability when she's had none before."

    He shakes his head. "Guilt? No. I'm not guilty about the demon that held sway over us both... I'm guilty in that I've not hunted it down and disposed of it once and for all, but that was more a product of being mind controlled by an angel in the immediate aftermath." Another bite sends this slice to the past tense as well and Chas takes up yet another.

    "I care about her. But I can't stop her if she's going to do something that might ruin her life. I can only hope that what little influence I've had on her will show her she doesn't -have- to follow in his footsteps just because he trained her." He shakes his head. "You'd think that a second generation would have the ability to see past the mistakes made by the first."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon sighs. "Damn it, Chas... do you care about her /as a parent/? Or are you just... stringing her along? Parenting doesn't end when the child turns 18. Parenting means you're /there/, the rest of her life, /especially/ when it's chosen and not by blood. It means grandparenting any children she has, helping her learn how to be an adult."

    He shakes his head. "I've got /no/ clue what the damn demon wanted with Phoebe--maybe it tapped into some latent desire for John to have a student, or kids. But jumping from 'I barely know you' to 'I am going to adopt you without telling you' in a matter of /weeks/ was suspicious as hell and if I'd known..." Another shake of the head. "Well, I doubt I would've said anything, but in hindsight it's so damned obvious, coupled with pulling her away from her friends in Gotham. It's love-bombing, is my point. Give the girl what she's never had, so she'll be grateful, and trust it. Isolate her in Hell's Kitchen, tell her you--and only you--understand her. Same thing it tried to do to me. Same thing it /did/ do to me. It just worked better on her. She's still all... wrapped up in the damn thing, and John too. Tried to /defend/ him when I said I wanted to punch him for what he's done to her."

    He takes in a long breath and lets it out. "That said? You're already a dad. You've seen her life, and you know her better now. Would you adopt her if you could? Are you /willing/ to be her father, whatever that means to the two of you?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas nods. "I am. After what I've seen... yes. I think that my influence could be good for her... if she'd take it" he replies. "But you're right. She's too wrapped up in what the demon did to her... and she can't separate it from the true John. Who... let's be honest, did about as much for her peace of mind as the demon did. I can't get through that if she won't let me."

    He takes a bite. "She's wrong though... I'm not saddled with her. No more than I'm saddled with Geraldine." He frowns. "And that's something she doesn't seem to understand... parents aren't saddled with their children. We can disagree and be disappointed in their actions, but regardless of what they do... if they need us and come back to us... we're there."

    He lets out an unnecessary breath. "I don't know if I can stop her from doing what she's going to do. I'll try... but if she does it, then she does it and we pick up whatever is left. Because there will be a mess. But after that... I'm not going to go out of my way to try and guide her. I'm a father. Not a teacher." He takes another big bite from the obnoxiously sized slice of pizza. "If she decides she wants to change... she can come to me. But I'm not going to go out of my way to try and help someone when they've denied my offer before, even if that someone is my kid."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon eyes Chas quietly for a long moment, then says, "And you'll think the same, act the same, with Geraldine, when she's 18? If she won't talk to you and only listens to Renee? Or nobody at all?" He raises his eyebrows.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas nods after another bite. Once he clears his mouth he adds. "If I offer Geraldine advice to take another route and she goes down a bad way... which, I don't is likely for her but if so..." He continues. "If she takes a left hand path when offered an alternative and the pieces fall through her fingers... yeah. If she's 18, then absolutely. I'll be there for her, but I'm not going to seek her out when she turned away my original offer for help."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon sighs, and nods. "Well... you have a different parenting style than I do, I suppose. Then again, my daughter is going to be Archivist someday. She's heir to a terribly important legacy, so if she falters... that doesn't only affect her, or only me. I owe it to the ancestors to get it right." He shrugs.

    "I'm /really/ worried about this business of the spell to erase memories. I don't know that it will work, at all. She thinks she has it under control, but she hadn't even considered that the /Archive/ will remember her. I mean... either she's convinced she knows what she's doing and she doesn't, or she has some way to remove memories from /gods/, and that's a truly terrifying amount of power. Either way, it's bad."

    A pause, and then, "But that's not even... the mere /idea/ of having her memories modified almost sent Cael into a panic attack. She told Phoebe, flat-out, that she does not consent to having her memories changed. Gabby was screaming at her about it, too. People will miss her terribly if she dies--and Phoebe thinks it's okay, so long as they don't remember. To hurt someone, to scare them, to mess with their heads /without their consent/ and tell yourself it's okay so long as they don't remember?"

    He shakes his head. "I wouldn't say pain is a good thing, but... but a /lie/ like that? To pretend... pretend someone never existed? No. I do not want that, I cannot believe she thinks that's the /good/ thing to do. It's monstrous, Chas. Truly, truly monstrous."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    The ambient power around Chas swells once more. "And on that... I agree." He says, savaging the slice of pizza with his teeth. He swallows the bite and frowns. "I will disuade her of that attempt alone if I must. If she wants to go on this suicide mission against the demon regardless of what I say, so be it... but trying to erase the memory of her from so many people... one of them being her sister. That I will not allow" he says, and it's not just his voice speaking.

    The echo of power in his words is a promise from a creature that would have been made at the dawn of time. "She can do what she wants with regard to herself... but affecting others just to satisfy her own failure?" he shakes his head. "No. That will not stand. If she refuses to see reason." He shakes his head again. "As much as the thought of doing so is abhorent to me, I'll stop her from all of it right then and there, if I must."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    For a long moment while Jon wipes his fingers on a napkin, having finished his first slice, he looks at Chas. /Really/ looks at the man, at his aura, at the echo of power in his words. He can see, faintly, the threads of fate woven about his friend, the lines of possibility, of could-have-been and never-were. He's not about to summon his wings right there in the booth, but he casts back in his memory to the first time he saw Chas through Ma'at's eyes, when they'd taken him down off the door. To the moment when Chas had first pulled out that holy sword and faced down Robbie. Remembering threads of fate, teal-colored in his sight, that he'd been too distracted to notice at the time.

    "You know," he says slowly, "I think I've been approaching this all wrong. You becoming an angel, I mean. It's harder to tell, right now, but I think... I think you were always meant for power of some kind. Maybe not /this/, specifically, but... something. Power that connects you to higher purpose. You've always been... kind, and firm, and reliable. Believing in trying to do what's right, even when you weren't entirely sure what that was. I think you're more like me than I realized. I wasn't /born/ to be Ma'at's avatar... but the more I learn about it, the more I realize that so much of what I think is Ma'at changing me is really just me shedding the persona I adopted to be safe from the world, and becoming who I truly /am/."

    He smiles at Chas. "So maybe... this is who you /truly/ are. Oh, there's physiological changes, but really, this aura you're putting off, this determination... it's /you/, at the core. It's just you with extra power laid on top. I have to wonder if you and John were drawn together for a reason. Counterparts, opposites." The smile slips, at that. "Well, maybe you'll make up some day. One hopes."

    He drums his fingers on the table for a moment, then says abruptly, "I'm going to release you from the restrictions I put on you when you asked me to be your teacher. You've proven that you can keep yourself under control, and I think we need to focus on you understanding /yourself/ in order to understand your powers. Does that make sense?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas blinks at Jon's disection of his situation. "Wait... what? You're saying me being an angel is some sort of... cosmic counterpart to John being as... tangled with the other side as he is?" He pauses. "You can't be serious. That's... preposterous." He absorbs the other part of the statement, how his restrictions have been lifted and his eyebrows climb higher.

    "You're sure?" he asks. At the question he nods. "Oh... sure. Yeah. Can't grow unless I know my upper limit and to do that I need to not be holding back quite so much. Keep control but let some of the excess go when it's used. See where the boundaries lie. Yeah?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon waggles a hand. "Sort of. You're still thinking in terms of 'power levels,' Chas. Like I said--this isn't a video game. Power alone won't fix all problems." He taps at his chest. "What's in here is more important. Your knowledge of yourself, your ethics, your will. Raw power will do a lot, but without focus and knowledge... at best it's going to be like that ball you conjured up that goes nowhere. At worst... well. Not everyone you punch is going to be able to heal a broken jaw."

    They pick up another slice of pizza. "I don't know for sure that your being an angel is tied to John... what I'm saying is that it isn't at odds with your deepest nature. If we /do/ have to think of things in terms of 'power' then it's a natural progression of your initial situation. What /would've/ been odd would you serving, say, the Egyptian gods. Entirely out of nowhere, you know?" They smirk. "Make sense?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas thinks about the words and then nods. "Yeah. I hear you" he replies and moves to finish his third (or has it been forth, he has been packing them away with relative ease.) "And... you're right. I need to stop thinking in terms of numbers and focus on the why rather than the how much." He lets out an unecessary breath. "Alright. But yeah, I will keep my eyes open and use what I can do for the right reasons."

    He frowns. "God knows I've learned abot doing it for the wrong well enough." He sits back and relaxes some. "First order of business, tracking down my daughter and finding out if I can talk her out of a suicide mission and put a stop to this whole memory tampering shite."

    He peers at Jon. "Thank you, mate. Truly. For telling me and for understanding that my way of doing things, while different than yours makes me no less a father than you are." He smiles. "I appreciate it and it means a lot that someone gets that I'm more than just some screw up at the job."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon shrugs. "There are as many ways to be a good parent as there are good parents. Geraldine knows you love her, and she's happy--and that's the most important bits. The rest is details, really. Phoebe... well... you can work on that." He smiles, though it's a bit sad.

    "Speaking of 'your way,' I'd suggest you start training in the Velvet Room when you've got some time. Just summon up enemies, get used to your powers, try to restrain yourself against demons, even if they're fake ones. Things like that." They smile. "I might even join you some time, hmm?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas smiles at the suggestion and nods. "I'll do that and... yeah, that sounds like fun" he says with a smile to the Archivist and his best friend. "Safer there than out on the streets or on the roof of Asa's place."

    He looks down at the pizzas before them, one still increibly large and one only half finished. "Well, looks like we got a ways to go. Let's dig in and see if we can put these away. At least with this it doesn't taste like partly flavored cardstock." He reaches out for yet another slice. One thing is certain, even without the need for it, his appetite hasn't diminished at all.