11305/Pizza Brings all the Heroes to the Yard

Pizza Brings all the Heroes to the Yard
Date of Scene:	23 May 2022
Location:	Angelo's Pizza
Synopsis:	Gabby, and Tommy meet Billy and Jon Kent over some shared pizza. Nothing sus happens.
Cast of Characters:	Gabby Kinney, Jon Kent, Tommy Shepherd, Billy Batson

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Gabby Kinney has posed:
There was nothing as alluring as the scent of fresh pizza. A good slice or five was always to be found at Angelo's. Given the size of pizzas that could be made here it was a perfect place for someone with a large appetite to hit up. Gabby could eat a lot when she needed the extra energy. For the moment? She was intending to binge eat, just a bit, to get rid of some stress from the past few days dealing with both normal and magical issues on the teams she was on. Sometimes it was nice to just be a kid.

A quick text to Tommy invites him along because people were less likely to give her the side eye ordering large quantities of pizza if she weren't alone. 'My treat!' she assures via text only to tuck her phone away knowing he'd be here quick as could be if he were up for it.

"Okay, so..." She narrows her eyes at the waitress. "Is there a limit to how much I can order? Like 'this pie serves five' or something. Because I can get more people here." Even if she had to yoink in some strangers.

Jon Kent has posed:
In the door walks Jon, a tall, lanky teen wearing glasses with thick, black frames, and a Kansas City Chiefs cap on his head. He accidentally bumps into a very thin, small woman on his way in. The kid probably should do some push-ups or something because that tiny woman knocks him back like three feet into a trash can. His face reddens.

"Ma'am, I'm so sorry. I didn't notice you. M-my mistake."

The woman gives him an odd glance and heads out with her to-go order in hand. Jon smooths his shirt down a bit and walks in farther. He stands staring at the posted menu board. He lets out a slow sigh.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    At this very moment, Tommy is currently over in Manhattan, running food orders for a delivery service. And it's absolute torture. He's two days into this, the newest of his string of gig jobs, and as it turns out being constantly hungry because of an omnipresent caloric deficit is not the kind of mood you want to be in when you're carting around some yuppie's Chipotle order.

    Dammit.

    Good tips, though.

    He's just dropped off a trio of orders -- Upper East Side, West Village, Tribeca -- when he stops to check his phone. It's always the kitchens that hold him up, but it's not like he can go in there and cook the food himself. Waitaminute... maybe he could...

    Oh, pizza.

    He does not pretend to be anything other than a mutant speedster as he zooms in through the slowly-closing door after a petite woman with a bag of food exits. Admittedly you don't really have to pretend to be anything when normal human eyesight doesn't have the FPS required to pick up that you've appeared from outta nowhere. But there Tommy is, slumping into a chair across from Gabby. "Sup G," he says as he picks up the menu and begins to, you guessed it, SPEED READ. Ehehehehehe.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson's just on the outside of Angelo's. He's not really paying too much attention to the restaurant or the door opening for customers going in and coming out. He's more focused on flinging out a few more tweets across the socials at this moment.

@MagicWordCast: New Episode drops on Saturday! "Family". Special returning guest! #TheMagicWord #FIsFor

Billy swipes his Twitter screen away and tucks the phone before turning his attention to Angelo's finally. He straightens his messenger bag strap a bit (was that a random gust of wind?) and reaches for the door handle to take himself inside... making sure to stay out of the way of the odd glancing woman. She seems to be in a rush. Weird.

Billy keeps his head lowered for the most part and moves to take himself into a position where he can check out the menu and also look for the line. All without looking like he's doing either. He's totally a New Yorker, guys. He knows all about Angelo's. Yup.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney glances up from her own menu toward the door where she catches the sight of Jon almost getting mauled by the woman on her way out. Before she can even blink over the oddity of it, Tommy has zipped in the door to sit across from her. "Hey Tommy. Eh usual 'we know better than you because we're older stuff' but otherwise okay. You decided yet?" Didn't he JUST sit down? Yes. But she knew he probably had already.

Her finger jabs to the menu item with a broadening grin as she holds it out to the waitress. "I totally want to do the party pizza!" The 26 inch pie declared it as 'for big ass parties' and she's grinning over the thought.

"Are you sure? There's only two of you." The waitress is sus. No way was she getting stuck with leftovers from a girl that had eyes bigger than her stomach.

"See?" Gabby bemoans to Tommy with a grin. "I can fix that." She leans to the side, sticking her arm out to wave toward the newest two in line. "Hey you guys are tourists, right? Wanna come join us? My treat!"

Jon Kent has posed:
Jon is talking to someone behind the counter. "How much is two slices of cheese and a bottle of water?" The girl replies, "Eleven bucks." Jon exhales. "Okay, how much is one slice of pizza and a bottle of..." He looks over as some stranger waves at him.

"Pardon me?" he asks, sounding a bit skittish and nervous. Yep. Tourist through and through. He looks around and behind him because there is no way she's talking to him. But nobody is standing behind him. "Why, why would you buy a total stranger food?" he asks. "Is this one of those kidnappings you see on YouTube?" BUUUUUT he is walking closer to the table as he talks. He's really hungry and *might* be able to afford one slice of pizza and some water. So if he gets a full stomach and has to get kidnapped for it to happen, well it's the price one pays.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Tommy's still wearing his hat from making deliveries, because he's a fair skinned guy and those UVA and UVB rays still hit you even when you're traveling at Mach 1. Proudly advertising the Cedar Rapids Kernels, the premiere Minor League team of Iowa... yeah, he's pretty sure this is from Iowa. Their mascot is a corn cob. 100% serious here. It's the only reason why he picked up the hat.

    And why is it notable, in this instance? Because when Gabby starts waving over total strangers to come help her eat pizza, Tommy pulls his cap down hard and groans. "They could be axe-murderers, Gab! Or worse, they could be from the *West Coast*."

    Which is ironic because all of fifteen seconds ago he proudly proclaimed his pizza selection of choice to be the Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad pizza, which yes, is a thing. Tommy had even said "That sounds offensively California, I gotta have it."

    Now he's sharing a commiserating look with the waitress.

    No one has to know that Tommy isn't even a New Yorker. He was born in Jersey!

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy does a triple take and looks at himself, the counter, the menu, Jon, then back over in the direction of Gabby and Tommy all in the span of a moment that seems like it's in some sort of slow motion sequence because he definitely shouldn't be invited to go sit down at a table with total strangers.

"Me?" Billy tosses out a psh and a half-shrug, leaning a bit like he's some sort of New York street tough he's seen on movies. "I ain't no tourist." Billy's horrible Brooklyn accent is not doing him any favors. And he knows it.

Billy drops his head and the act almost immediately before heading over towards the Gabby and Tommy with a small grin on his face and offers a wave of gratitude.

"Hi. Uh, thanks. I'm Billy." His eyes cut over to Tommy for a second even though he's greeting everyone. "From Philly. We don't even have axes out there." May the assureds be rested!

Gabby Kinney has posed:
The dark haired girl with old scars on her face that Jon was suspicious about kidnapping him just gives a rather warm laugh at his concern. "Naw, they've got a limit to how many people they'll serve this pizza to, and I really want it. Besides, if you're a tourist, then you've gotta try Angelo's while you're here. Plus," she adds a bit knowingly while her smile turns more reassuring, "I know New York is expensive if you're not prepared for it. Why not share?" The same reasurances are stated loud enough for Billy to hear while he gives that awful accent. A LOOK is cast toward him though she's still grinning.

"I'm Gabby, and this is Tommy," she introduces gesturing across toward the boy slumped with his hat pulled down ridiculously far over his face. "And we met about the same way, Tommy, don't be melodramatic. Axe murderers don't hang out in cities." There's a pause before she adds, "Usually."

Jon Kent has posed:
A startled expression comes over Jon's face. "A-axe murders?" he says, pushing his glasses up tighter to his face with one finger. He looks around and his troubled gaze lands on Billy. He takes one step back and clumsily backs into a chair and falls on it in a sitting position. This kid is a klutz. And nervous. But hey, he's now sitting at the table where free food is about to be served, so it all worked out in the end.

"Nice to meet you all. I'm Jon. I don't get to New York very often. I live in Metropolis," Jon explains. Billy gets one last please-don't-axe-murder-me look.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Both Billy's and Gabby's assertions get narrow-eyed looks from Tommy. "Yeah, I don't think that's how axe murderers work on both accounts," he mutters as he balls the paper wrapper from his straw (also paper, because that's the law in NYC) up and then pings it in the direction of the nearest trashcan.

    It does not make it all the way, but the only thing your average pizza-eating person would see is Tommy's chair shift slightly as he (at superspeed) picks it up and throws it away. Because believe it or not, he has manners.

    He eventually consents to give a loose two-fingered salute when Gabby introduces him, even if he still looks dubious about this whole thing.

    At least until Jon speaks up. "Oh, yeah, this kid's fine. If there's any city I believe actually doesn't have axe murderers, it's Metropolis." After a beat (an eternity, to Tommy's perception) he sighs and follows up with, "Okay, what brings you both to New York?" It sounds almost pained, but he's trying. Really.

Billy Batson has posed:
"Ah, just passing through. Y'know, uh, tourism." Billy offers as he pulls his messenger bag strap over his head and sets it down on the ground next to the chair he's dropping into. He's just kind of going through these motions here to make sure nobody gets murdered by an axe but also so that he's being thankful to these people that are buying him food.

"Nice meeting everyone." Billy says with a nod to Gabby, Tommy, and Jon. "And uh, thanks, really. For inviting me... us." Billy nods at Jon. And almost immediately looks for a new topic.

"So uh, Angelo's huh? Is it better than Ray's? My tourist app says there's like seven different pizza places with Ray's in the name. And that they're all five stars." Nervous Billy Rambles.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney grins broadly at the mention of Metropolis as well as Tommy's apparent acceptance of that being a 'safe' place. "Oh! I went there to visit once when I was younger. Saw the globe on the Daily Planet building." She hesitates here as if she were thinking hard a moment. Should she say she *climbed* the building to try and put a baby bird back in it's nest and then was visited by Superman who was curious what the heck she was doing?

Her gaze dips around the table considering how much she ought to babble. Usually she just blurted everything, but... It was something she was working on.

"Not a problem at all," she assure Billy with dip of her head in his direction. Only to pause, and lift her hand with a single finger up. "Oh, you don't want to open that can of worms. There's the Original Rays, and the Rays that claims they're the original Rays--No one really knows. They're constantly at war. Then the Ray's that is from some of the chefs of both Original Rays that got tired of the argument and opened up their own shop together. I think they got married," She adds uncertainly as even the story there starts to blur togther for her. "Then the NEW Rays... Anyway. They're all good. Just. It's a lot."

Jon Kent has posed:
Jon's gaze shifts over toward the trash for a moment for some reason, his brow furrowing, then he looks to Tommy. He that expression one gets when they see something...odd. He swallows and crosses one leg over the other, but as he does he smacks his knee on the underside of the table.

He grabs the knee and lets out a slow, pained breath. "Ow, that...that really hurt." He tries to save the situation with a small laugh. "I guess New York tables are lower than Metropolis tables?"

His gaze ping-pongs back and forth between Gabby and Billy as they talk Rays. He...looks like he doesn't have a clue. The things one does for free food.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    "The one in Greenwich Village actually closed down but the Chinese restaurant that opened up in its place is pretty legit. Their Sichuan noodles are awesome."

    Tommy lifts the hat off his head long enough to run a hand through his hair, but to avoid the comments about his resemblance to any prior members of the Brotherhood of Mutants (and-or current members of the Avengers) he pulls it back on right after. "Anyway, the point is if you're going for a slice of traditional cheese and you're paying around 3 or 4 bucks, you're gonna have the standard New York pizza experience. I've eaten a lot of pizza in a lot of places and I gotta admit that NYC does it best," he explains. Then, with a sniff, "Something in the water, I think."

    He looks back and forth between Jon and the trash can a couple of times before he continues onward, because he apparently has many Opinions about food. Happens when you gotta eat so much of it to survive. Though he's momentarily waylaid so that he can offer a sympathetic wince in Jon's direction (and then an 'Are you seeing this?' look at Gabby). "Either way, though, it's not going to be some kinda religious experience. There are some places in this city with food *that* good but you pay for what you get, y'know?"

    By the end of his spiel, the accent is out in full force. And yeah, it's definitely more Jersey than New Yorker. But they don't vary that much.

    "I know a guy who can get you cheap tickets for Broadway stuff, day-of. Just don't go see Avengers: The Musical. It sucks."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy's staring at Gabby for a long moment because he honestly cannot believe there's that much drama about pizza. "New York, am I right?" Billy offers with a small grin and a shrug before getting a little more comfortable. "What am I talking about over here, anyway? Fuggedaboutit." And there's another horrible accent that is quite possibly offensive to Jersyians but since none of them are around, this should be okay.

"You good?" Billy glances over at Jon and the klutziness abound. "We don't really have table issues in Philly. Mostly because we eat our cheesesteaks standing outside of the papi store."

This is about the same time that Billy realizes he might've just mocked Tommy's accent and almost immediately does a full on visible gulp. Followed by a silent wince and a looking around for a brief moment that's probably super long. "... Right?!" Billy tries to play this off as much as he can. "So bad." He has not seen it. Obviously. Thus the sinking into his chair a bit. More. Mooooore. There we go. Shame Sitting.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Oh there's definitely something in the water from what I've heard," Gabby has to agree before she pauses to sniff at the air herself. It was hard even with enhanced sense to smell more than pizza in here. It was kind of a relief since she wasn't used to them yet.

The knock to Jon's knee on the underside of the table gets a sympathetic wince and without thinking about it she reaches over to pat his knee consolingly. "Ouch yeah careful. It's probably because you're just so tall. I mean I guess most guys are your height these days but I'm vertically challenged."

Thankfully with all the talk of pizza aside, the pizza that was ordered comes out. One pizza of Tommy's fancy weird California variety, and one good old party pizza that takes up the entire surface of the tabletops. "Drinks are free with this pizza," the waitress offers as she plops cups down by each of them as well. Half the pizza was good old cheese while the other half was slathered with pepperoni.

Gabby's arms shoot upward with a woop of excitement. "AW YEAH look at this it's amazing!"

Jon Kent has posed:
The tall, lanky teens shifts his weight in his seat when Gabby touches his knee as though he is unaccustomed to that sort of touch from strangers. Then he nods to Billy to acknowledge that he's fine.

Jon blinks as the massive pizza is laid out. He sits up straight and eyes the pizza hungrily...very hungrily. In fact, his stomach growls embarrassingly loudly. "So you're sure this is cool? To just dig in?" he says to Gabby.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Meanwhile on the other end of the table, Tommy's already chewed his way through half a slice from the party pizza. And given that it's an entire party in a pizza, them slices be big. Like... larger than your head big. Maybe it's the arrival of glorious greasy goodness that saves Billy from any backlach about his bad accent. Maybe Tommy just doesn't care. Who knows!

    Either way the easiest way to deal with it is to pretend it doesn't happen because Tommy's allllll about that healthy communication. Yup.

    "I'm not saying you need to drop a million dollars on stage dressing or whatever, Hamilton does a lot with a little, yannow? But you'd think a musical debuting *in* New York City about the *Battle* of New York City wouldn't be hot garbo." The slice is gone. Even the crust. How did he manage to take bites in-between all those words?

    After wiping his fingers on the wad of see-through paper napkins necessary to actually manage any kind of cleaning, he pulls the plate with his grotesque Chicken Caesar Salad pizza slice closer towards himself. Yes, there is (fresh) lettuce on top, though it's already starting to wilt from the heat emanating from the melted cheese below. And then Tommy picks something off of it. "Oh my god they really put croutons on this!"

    He shows it first to Gabby. Yes, he has an actual Italian crouton pinched between his fingers. "This is WILD. Thanks for the invite."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy sits up a bit straighter when the food arrives and just kind of tries to keep his commentary to himself as much as possible. "I might have to get one of these to take home." Billy comments while looking over the pizza. He then looks up to explain that, "I got a lot of brothers and sisters." There's a nod that follows those words along.

Billy's a bit hesitant as well, looking over at Jon before turning his attention to the pizza and reaching for a slice to pull onto a plate or something. He'll nurse this one for a while. Also, he can't do dumb accents while chewing on pizza. "Thanks again." Nom.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney is apparently aware of Jon's unease at her touch which was quick at least. An equally quick, "Sorry, I'm the touchy feely type. I'll be careful from now on," she assures. Besides that the pizza that was here was certainly enough to keep her busy! The uncertainty from Jon earns a grin, and a quick, "Go for it! I probably could eat it all but I'd die. And no one wants that least of all me."

She's already snagged a slice deftly folding it like you HAVE to do for a proper New York slice so that it doesn't end up falling in on itself. Billy's remark of a lot of siblings earns a nod of apparent understanding. "Oh, yeah, I've got a ton of sisters and a few brothers. Well most of my sisters are..." She pauses, shifting a glance over to Tommy. "Er, not around."

The crouton is scrutinized before she dips her gaze down to the pizza itself. "Okay. I know I try a lot of things because I'm making up for lost time, but that is ALL yours Tommy," she assures. The slice is lifted for a quick bite or two chomping away on it.

Jon Kent has posed:
Sure, Jon seems to be a bit awkward and shy, but he's an eater. Once Gabby encourages him, he grabs two big slices of cheese, and puts one upside-down on top of the other. 1,800 calories worth of pizza sandwich! His mouth opens wide and he is *JUST* about to shove a bunch of pizza in when he stops and stares at Tommy. He's just kind of suspended there, mouth agape, pizza inches from the promised land.

"Are you eating pizza with...*lettuce*?" he asks oddly. There is a small grin, then he resumes the task of putting an heroic, super amount of pizza in his mouth.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    All Tommy has to say to that is "Yup," though now that he is faced with his own (poor) choices, he looks somewhat hesitant. Enough that he actually jut sits there for a moment or two, perceivable to others. "Whatever, I've eaten worse."

    And then he's struck silent as he chews with grim dissatisfaction.

    Each bite progressively takes less time to go through until that monstrosity of a slice is gone. Then he stares down at the empty plate. Slowly, Tommy slides down in his chair until his head is resting against the back of it, and now he's staring up at the ceiling instead.

    "I have many regrets in my life and that is now the greatest of them."

Billy Batson has posed:
"That looked absolutely horrible." Billy manages to squeak that out in between chomping down on his huge pizza slice. He's very clearly referring to the weird pizza obscenity that Tommy has consumed. There may even be a bit of a shudder following that.

Billy grins through a couple more bites of his own pepperoni slice and grabs a napkin to wipe at his mouth. He's learned manners since becoming part of a family. "Okay, I'm going to go on record and say that Angelo's is better than any of the Ray's. Might have to shout this place out on the pod." And then he's reaching for a drink to get his sip on.

Another glance is given to Tommy. "That pizza, better or worse than Avengers: The Musical?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Tommy," Gabby states solemnly. "You're not allowed to die. I can only heal myself," she states simply before giving a knowing nod. An odd remark for the newbies at the table perhaps, but it's not as if she ever really hid her abilities. Just in this case they weren't on display at all.

"I only ever saw Avenue Q with my sister-in-law. It was good though! I thought it was funny. So did she, couldn't stop laughing." Pausing she informs everyone, "I'm the youngest in my family, most of them are all way older." Thus explaining how she has a sister-in-law at her age.

The pizza is chomped down on and she gives a 'MmHMM' of agreement to Billy's mention of this place being better than Ray's. Then again anything you were currently eating was usually better than one you weren't eating. After gulping down the mouthful she goes, "Oh you got a podcast? Gotta link me. I usually just do memes."

Jon Kent has posed:
After Jon finishes the double-slice-mega-pizza sandwich, he washes it down with some water. There is an odd cocking of his head, like he is somehow focused somewhere else for a moment. "Gabby, thank you very much for the pizza. But I have to get out of here before this guys axe murders me," he says with a playful expression on his face as he gestures to Billy. Billy gets a warm smile just to show he's not being serious. "Tommy, you keep eating that gross pizza so there is less for the rest of us."

And then the kid sort of rushes for the door. That awkward, bumbling, clumsy teen weaves through the crowd like a professional football player and vanishes out the door. And did he tug off his glasses as he got outside??

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    At least with how fast Tommy's metabolism works, his lettuce-on-pizza stomach ache only lasts a couple of seconds. Long enough for him to raise a hand and wobble it back and forth in the universal 'ehhhh' gesture towards Billy. And then he sits back up, ready to go again.

    Which means capitalizing on Jon's genius invention and making himself a pizza sandwich. Pepperoni on the top, cheese on the bottom. Kind of a struggle to fold, but it's still NYC pizza, so thin enough that with some effort Tommy manages.

    "I found a program that can speed audio up to, like, 50 times faster than its original format so I've been listening to some stuff too. The soundtrack for Six is at the top of my playlist right now, Get Down slaps. But I can listen to podcasts too." He snaps his fingers. Wait, where did that pizza sandwich go? "Six the Musical is still on Broadway, you should see that. Or Beetlejuice, it's--later, man!"

    Somehow Tommy is already working on his next slice of pizza as he watches Jon exit stage left.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson grins a bit through all of this chatter and almost spills his drink trying to set it back down and toss a wave after Jon. "Later!" Jon is long gone but at least he tried.

"Hm?" Billy looks back over to Gabby. "Oh! Sure, yeah, uh.... follow me at @MagicWordPod pretty much everywhere. Got a show dropping on Saturday!" Billy grins. "I..." Billy's interrupted by his phone alarm, which his phone is on the table and the alarm is marked CURFEW! "Gee Whiz!" Except, well, it almost sounds like he's dropping a curse word instead of saying something super silly like that.

"Uh, I gotta' run. I'm super late. So sorry." Billy's up and frantically scooping up his bag and downing the rest of his drink and balancing the last of his pizza slice. "Thanks again. Nice meeting you both. Listen to the pod!" And Billy's scrambling to make his--

-- stumbles back to grab his phone. "Sorry!" Okay, NOW he's scrambling out of the exit and running past Angelo's window and off down the street.

Pay no attention to distant thunder and a potential flash of light that happens.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney lifts a hand to wave to Jon who is already well off into the crowd. Apparently taking his glasses off... Huh. Her attention shifts back to Billy only to nod at him as well. "Sure no problem! I'll check it out--" And he's gone too. She takes another bite of her pizza slide, tilting her head to the side at the sound of distant thunder clapping.

"So. Level of zero to sus, how sus were they?"

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    "Real sus," is Tommy's answer in-between bites. "I mean, Metropolis kid was so un-sus that he came around full circle BACk to sus, yannow?"

    How many slices has he eaten at this point? Wait, when did the entire party pizza disappear?!