12906/What Do You Want On Your...

What Do You Want On Your...
Date of Scene:	28 September 2022
Location:	Courtyard and Arena
Synopsis:	In which a good honest Italian girl is tempted to the dark side by ease. What price convenience?
Cast of Characters:	Toni Monetti, Cassie Sandsmark

---

Toni Monetti has posed:
It has been a hard 'late afternoon' of training. This has perhaps not really been a mutual kind of workout given that Toni, for instance, is only like about as strong as a Homo sapiens (and not the big muscly kind that's hopped up on tren) and has to work with other skills, and Cassie is a blonde goddess or something, but it is still plausible to work up a Sweat in a situation like this, and that is what Toni has done.

She is in a black tank top and sweat pants, both of them moderately sweaty as she plops down on a bench and lets out a huge breath. "Oh my GOD," she says. "I got like, eight out of ten this time. RUNNING. Do I get like a merit badge or something for this? Like do they have prizes on Themyscria? Like girl scouts or something? Anyway," Toni says, looking over towards Cassie, "How you doing. I'm just high on beating my personal best here."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Cassie is a big old chater, it's true!

There are times when it can seem gloriously unfair. Counterintuively, it isn't so much the obvious things like strength and speed: She can hold back on throwing around any tanks (or maybe large statues, here!). What there's little to be done to change is her endurance and stamina, the fact that the same things that might have Toni feeling like she's about to vomit up her own lungs will leave Cassie with little more than a slight (and rather photogenic) glisten of sweat. She's dressed similarly, albeit with her tendency toward being almost painfully mainstream, in some Lululemon sports bra and yoga pants. It all works rather well for her!

Thus, she's grinning as she follows Toni to her place of refuge, remaining on her feet as the other young woman settles with such obvious weight of expended effort. The grin, though, is the encouraging kind. The Amazons are harsh in their training, and Cassie lives up to her training as no less of a taskmistress. Yet it all oozes with that 'suffer for progress' vibe, and her beaming smile is a proud one.

"That was really good!" she enthuses, before pausing to think. "For the proper Amazon training? Not really. Mostly it's kinda all-or-nothing, proven or trainee. I suppose there are... well, like certain people are renowned for a particular talent or mastery. But that's kinda..." She probably only has a few centuries of training to go. "But merit badges? We run some youth programs." That last one might just be a -little- bit of a jab.

She lifts her hands, lacing fingers behind her head. "Things are pretty good, I guess. I've been helping Di with some... I don't know, it's a whole thing. But we went on a trip to meet one of her old friends, that was cool."

Toni Monetti has posed:
Somehow Toni doesn't mind most of this at all.

Some of it is probably just that she is in fact an honestly good and generous person at heart, jealous only of things like attention or being the best dressed at a party. But there are other factors; pain, mostly, and terror and disorientation. She can make some kind of silver plasma stuff. Who else can? Is that normal for 'her' people? Is she doing it right? Is she doing something they can't? Is she actually *crippled* compared to them, like a dachshund/Rottwieler crossbreed?

She doesn't know.

Anyway, it works out. "Yeah?" Toni asks. "Tell me about it while I like, regenerate my lactic acid. I'm just proud of myself because they have that course and I hit like eight spears out of ten which is getting up there." (Toni has kept up the javelin throwing, possibly by random chance.)

"How is she? Wonder Woman, I mean. Tell her I said hi."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"Okay sooo...." Cassie draws out that lead in, maybe for effect, maybe for the more practical purpose of giving her a moment to gather all the pertinent details. It has a 'this is kind of a long story' sound to it!

"I guess the basic bit is that there's sort of these weird monsters that have been showing up all over the place. Big ones! Like outta that movie with the sand worm things. Though they don't just show up in the sand, even if we DID fight one out in the Sahara. But also one was in the ocean!" So Anywhere Worms. "Also they can fly. So maybe they're more like, I dunno, air worms? Space worms? Right I'm getting ahead of myself." She can get overly rambling when a topic gets going!

"Anyway. Big monsters are a thing, part of the gig. But there's some kinda ongoing bit with these, like, they have these 'heart' things inside them. More than one. But I wouldn't call them organs exactly, cause they're more like... uh, maybe big eggs? Cause they're not just keeping them running, but also seem like they're maybe part of their life-cycle, somehow." Fidgeting as she speaks, her hands shift down to her hips, even as she steps up with one leg onto the bench, like she's doing some kind of lunge stretch. "Removing them helps with defeating the creatures, kinda turns them dormant I guess. But I guess the hearts, eggs, whatever, when some have fallen and not been recovered, they seem to attract local wildlife and transform them? So who knows. Maybe that's how they got here in the first place. Space eggs fall off some meteor, then grow to the big version?"

She shrugs her shoulders as if the precise details aren't really all that interesting. For her, it's run of the mill monster-slaying. "Di's good, I think. What I was saying about meeting that friend of hers, is that one of the hearts from the one in the Sahara got lost, and we ended up in Cairo to meet someone who'd tracked it down. Turns out this guy was like, one her old crew from waaay back, when she first came here from the island and ended up in the war. Think it was nice for her to see him. She's always thinking about the others, I think, even though the rest of them are all, well, long gone."

Toni Monetti has posed:
Toni says, "I ain't going anywhere" and then

IT BEGINS! RECAP TIME!

"Oh yeah," Toni says, "Dune. Love that shit. You know, they say Timothee Chalamet's a mutant? I had no idea, really, you can't tell or anything..." But there's monsters. Flying evil worm monsters. Toni's brow furrows but she nods.

"So you got this space worm shit and it's like, they leave pollution when they die and they hurt regular animals, I mean, Earth animals. Right? Am I with you so far?" She sweeps a hand with her fingers splayed through her hair. "Ohhh, so she met someone she used to know~."

Toni pauses.

"How far back is way back here?" she asks.

A beat.

"Do you want pizza? I kinda want pizza. Actually, I really want pizza, and I burned like three million calories just now."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Celebrity mutants? Cassie is intrigued! "What's his power, though? Awesome cheekbones?"

I haven't actually seen it happen, if it's... something they secrete, or more like magic, or what?" she goes on to explain. "Maybe it's magic. The guy was kinda into that stuff too. But I've never really seen them in action for that part, actually... transforming anything. My chicken did seem awful interested in the one we went to pick up from her friend, though."

'My chicken' may be something worth circling back to!

"She left the island for World War I, when this pilot guy crashed there." Maybe the story isn't so widely famous here. Also, immediately the math is gonna sound pretty sketchy. It's a century ago! "And there was this whole thing, with Ares messing around with people. So they got a team together. Her, the pilot, some smuggler type, a tracker? You know, kinda like one of those movie heist crews. She and the pilot fell in love, but he died, so she's kinda..." This causes a dimming of Cassie's normally bright look. "She really hasn't moved on, in all this time. But I guess the tracker guy, he's another one of 'us.'" She gestures to herself, and if it's not clear enough. "You know, some god's kid. So he's still around, after all that. Seemed really nice for the two of them to catch up, at least."

As for food? Especially the junky, not-at-all healthy despite her theoretical high-performance lifestyle kind? "Pizza? Yes please! I'm staaaaarving too."

Toni Monetti has posed:
"I don't know," Toni says. "I mean it might just be like a metaphor, I know in Europe they're supposedly a lot more casual about this stuff? Not Latveria, obviously." A couple of beats pass, and she asks, "I want to hear more about the chicken but --"

"World war ONE? The one with the kaiser and the onions and shit?" Toni says, eyes going wide. "What the fuck! I mean, I'm sorry I'm swearing so much about Wonder Woman here. This sounds like some Star Wars stuff, or I guess Star Wars was based on alla this. And, uh, hm." Beat, beat... a second, passing beat.

"Do you guys have like, a community about that now?" Toni asks, a little hesitantly. "About being like the children of, uh, you know, gods? And yeah, alright," she says, getting up, "we might as well just bounce. Is there a place that's like, three blocks or less away? You know the area."

"Or we could order," Toni muses. "I kinda want sausage though and I know they don't do meat here that much."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"Well, yeah." Weirdly casual, Cassie's own take on it. "Tho, onions? Anyway, she's older than that, and she's actually young by Amazon standards... they go back to, well, you know. Greek times." 'Greek times'. Does she have a date range? Her mom would be mad. "But it's what got her interested in the wider world. Just wish it was a happier memory, what with Steve and all. Honestly? She really needs to move on, get laid." In whichever order! And this language seems to absolve Toni's!

"I don't think there's really like a club or anything," she answers after a moment more of thought. "I, we, run into the rest of the 'extended' family fairly often, other Olympians. And dad was just about the biggest fuckboi in history, so I got a lot of those. But that's, you know, just one pantheon out of a gajillion. I've met some Asgardians, but not a lot of others." Which, at this point, sounds like a bit of a disappointment to her. "I didn't really know about this guy's - his name is Napi - but I looked it all up after. Kind of a big deal, like the Blackfoot version of uh, not their chief god but I guess his immediate, semi-mortal servant, kinda?"

The suggestion that they travel to get something sees Cassie pushing off back from the bench, doing a couple stretches more, one to each side, before standing straight. "There's a Domino's like right up the block," she notes, "but probably something better if we go a block or two more either way. It's fancy around here, so like, probably brick oven stuff."

Toni Monetti has posed:
Toni laughs abruptly. "CASSIE," she says, "oh my god you can't just say Wonder Woman needs to get LAID. Who's she gonna date, Superman? C'mon. Besides, I heard he's-"

Something else is coming on, though, the question of family. Pantheons. Colleagues. Toni folds her arms loosely as she raises upwards and says, vaguely, "You know, I'm jealous? Not like jealous jealous but like, that sounds really... nice."

"I oughta go to that space port thing Diana put together (can I call her Diana? is that weird? I know we're not close) and like, ask around about the H'san Natall," Toni asks. "I just didn't want to, I guess, since it's like embarrassing?"

Toni then pauses.

In her eyes, there is pain - conflict. Struggles. There's Domino's there. RIGHT there. She is hungry -- her stomach yearns for filling.. for heat, and salt, and fat, and acid, and flavor... for FOOD! That burns within her. The need... the hunger gnaws!

And yet, Toni remembers her mother, her father. She remembers basil, wilted and rendered into pesto. The taste of a fresh grown tomato -- of that same tomato's kinfolk rendered into fine rich sauce, ladeled over home made pasta. The taste of a slice of pizza with the pounding of the surf and the screams of the Jersey shore in the distance. All of these things, rich, vital, vibrant--

Can she accept it? Can she compromise? If she compromises once, will she ever recover? Where will it end?

But then the die is cast--

"Alright, domino's this time," Toni says, "but only because I'm literally dying of hunger rn."

"So do they get old at ALL, or is it just like," Toni says, "forever, or, I guess, semi-forever anyway. Hippolyta looked older - NOT old, just, oldER, you understand me."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Clearly, this sidekicking is going to Cassie's head a bit! But she's totally blase about the topic, as if it comes up a lot. "My suggestion's always been the Embassy chef. You met Ferdinand? I forget." If she hasn't, it's an innocent-enough sounding suggestion. If she has...

"Mmm, I wouldn't be too jealous. Like, I get what you're imagining, the idea of some kind of closeness, but... As families go, well, it's more like some Game of Thrones shit. Take every Thanksgiving stereotype you can imagine, then dial it up with legendary pettiness, a bunch trying to usurp each other's divine domains, a touch of incest, and, well..." She shrugs. "It's all in the stories. They're pretty much accurate. I go to the zoo? Gotta be careful the peacocks don't peck my eyes out."

"I mean, don't get me wrong, it also means I have the Amazons and they're great. And Di- of course you can, haha -and the others, they're a different story. Just the family in the sky's a whole different thing." Which leads to an upward glance, as the figurative shifts toward the literal as sky-bound relatives go. "You could definitely stop by, ask around, see if any alien visitors have met 'em. Space is big, but like, the fact that they came here, kinda narrows the odds."

Whether or not Cassie can appreciate the DEEP TURMOIL in regard to any dilution of that centerpiece of Italian-American culture, she can grok the basic tradeoff. And for her? Either goes. She may be a city girl, but more broadly so. And also quite used to stacks of delivery boxes at various heroic gatherings that often trade in quality for quantity of food delivered in 30 minutes or less (and eaten by Wally or Bart in as many seconds!). "Yeah, sounds great. I'm starving too." In preparation, she goes to nab a discarded hoodie jacket, to throw it on quickly to give her some semblance of sensible dress for the quickly cooling weather.

"For the Amazons?" Again, Cassie has to give it a think, just how everything works. "I've always heard that they don't age on the island. I dunno if that's literal and the ones who are coming out here are, you know, trading on immortality for the novel experience or if it's more, like... a metaphorical thing about BEING an Amazon, living to the creed of the island and returning there. And, well, they were all different when they first went there, I guess, so it's not like they're all exactly the same age. For us, me and Diana, I don't know exactly..." And then she seems to remember something. "When we met Napi, he looked, well, old. Not going on a hundred and fifty, but old. Older that the picture Di has, of all of them back then. So I asked, and he said... he appears that way because he feels old. And maybe if he feels different he won't? I don't know."

Toni Monetti has posed:
"I haven't, no," Toni says about Ferdinand. "Is he Spanish?"

It sounds Spanish.

Toni listens, grimacing at a TOUCH of incest because really how can you have a TOUCH of incest, she asks you, the reader; that's like being SLIGHTLY pregnant. And the two may come up together, depending on how you feel about your brother.

"Well the reason I worry is that they were kind of evil conquerer types or something," Toni says. "So on the one hand-- you know, fuck 'em, right? On the other hand, like, you know, I don't KNOW anything. I lost touch with them, but there were other people in the same boat as me and we had like nothing in common."

Toni puts on a crop-top with long sleeves from Gucci which she doesn't zip up. It sits a little clingily but it does look warm. And well knit. And expensive. So it goes. "Hhhuh," Toni says, then, during the walk. "So I guess you're as old as you feel. Kind of."

Walk, walk. "Do you wonder what it's gonna be like?" Fortunately, Domino's is not far away, even if it may lack the wonders of being HOT'N'READY.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"Ah, no. Not exactly. I never really thought to ask about the name actually, figure he musta picked it up along the way somewhere." Cassie's all grins now, because there's secret knowledge there. "Great guy. Great food. Next time we meet up, you come by the Embassy and I'll introduce ya, have him make us something. You'll love it." And for now... she keeps the secret, and the lingering surprise factor, for another time!

"Def seems like all that conquering stuff is pretty popular. Definitely not a 'humans are uniquely shitty to each other' situation, it turns out. But we're not uniquely, well, unique either, you know? Individuals and all. So maybe there's some chill H'san Natall out there." She holds her hands up, lets them fall in a more exaggerated motion. "Who knows."

The jounrey begins! "So far I'm about as old as I should be, far as I can tell. The state of mind stuff, I don't know. But yeah, I do kinda think about it. It's always so weird, you know, with Di or any of the others, to imagine everything they've seen and done, all rolled up into one person and still with them even now. The crazy amount of experience, the perspective on things. When I'm still thinking of, you know, oh, what will things be like after college."

Even though they're only heading a short ways, Cassie has her phone out of a hoodie pocket. There's an app, and she has it! Proof of prior pizza crimes. "You said sausage, anything else on it? I'm getting a cheesy bread." Tap, tap.

Toni Monetti has posed:
"Maybe," Toni says. There's doubt.

But there's also promise: "Absolutely. Ferdinand! He sounds great. Like even if that's not his real name," Toni continues as they walk out onto the city streets, fall sneaking in through the air. "Heh," she continues. "You're gonna have to get a job!"

Toni looks over her shoulder.

"Though I mean sometimes that feels screwed up, right? Getting just, 'a job.' After everything." Then back to Cassie. At the app. "Uh? Oh, yeah, pepperoni and pepper and onion. I'm gonna kill like half of it in two minutes, I swear."

Perhaps one of the slower eaters of the Titans.