13497/Big Gay Mental Breakdowns at the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop

Big Gay Mental Breakdowns at the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop
Date of Scene:	03 December 2022
Location:	Big Gay Ice Cream Shop
Synopsis:	Actually, it turns out ice cream can do wonders for averting breakdowns.
Cast of Characters:	Tommy Shepherd, Bunny Macleod, Gabby Kinney

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Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    There will be no furniture shopping today. After finding a woman's shelter that would take their new friend in -- obviously Tommy himself had to wait out in the van for that, but he had at least been the one doing the Googling and making the phone calls -- there was certainly no time left for going to the outlets.

    Not that Tommy was feeling up for that, anyway. Not after... whatever the hell that was.

    At least Bunny isn't barefoot. The Uggs they'd given her at the shelter were her size, if not particularly stylish, and Tommy has already promised to buy her some new Chucks. It's his fault, after all. With great Speed comes great upchuckability. But hey! There's a nearby ice cream shop, and it's open. It's also hella gay, which is a vibe. Even if Tommy is feeling very much a disaster bi at the moment. He slumps into one of the seats, and somehow still manages to look like he's about to pass out or cry... even though he's dual-wielding ice cream cones. Dorothy in one hand, Salty Pimp in the other.

    Yes, those are the real names from the menu.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Big Gay Ice Cream is definitely a vibe, and it was a vibe that fit Bunny perfectly well, from her pink hair to the color clothing to the rainbow shining personality, to the way that she's bounced back, holding the second of two Mermaids she had ordered (because KEY LIME CURD is YAS).

    "-- and then I said to the guy 'Well it's sure as heck not a pizza!'" motioning in the air with her spoon, sporting the plain uggs (but heck, they were comfy), and she rolls her wrist a moment "And then no one in the building believed that I was there delivering important documents and kept on calling my dad and I was like 'OH MY GAWD' I'm wearin' his NAME ON ME YO."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney meanwhile was feeling FiiiIiiiine at least for a few minutes, max. That was a significant cloud of particulated drugs that she'd inhaled, and unfortunately a nostril full took awhile to clean out. Her healing factor kept her from going off the deep end, definitely from overdosing, but in the meantime she just keeps blowing her nose into a napkin trying to clear out the rest.

By the time they finish with dropping the girl off, and have arrived at the icecream shop, she's feeling just a bit cruddy. That was the thing with drugs: Highs and then lows, even with a healing factor. It just went a LOT quicker in her case.

Resting her cheek on the table she slumps staring at her icecream sundae which she stabs her spoon into swirling around the icecream and whipped cream between bites of her American Globs.

"People are stupid. I'm stupid." Mouthful of icecream with a sigh. "This is why I quit testing drugs for people."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    What a microcosm of moods they are. Bunny's waving her spoon in the air while vividly painting a picture with her storytelling, Gabby's beating herself up while also beating up her sundae, and Tommy...

    ...Tommy looks like he might cry, actually. But he takes a big bite from one cone, mutters "Ow brain freeze," and then immediately takes a bite from the other cone before the process repeats. The thing about his metabolism, like Gabby's, is that things clear out real fast from his system. Including a bad case of sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia.

    That's the medical term for brain freeze, FYI.

    "You're not stupid," Tommy says to Gabby, then repeats her, "People are stupid," for Bunny's sake, because even down in the dumps Tommy can feel sympathy for a fellow gig worker. It's like working retail: if you know, you know.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "In spite a what I said in the car, you're not stupid. You were stupid HIGH on some unknown shit though and it was really, REALLY scary driving, but I'm pretty sure Tommy woulda gotten us out." Bunny states with the utmost confidence in Tommy's abilities and also in Gabby's abilities to not kill them all driving.

    "And people are stupid. Otherwise we wouldn't have so many problems in Bushwick that some rich asshole tries to pick us out for his passion project like he's gonna waltz in like Gawd's Gift ta Brooklyn an' just fix everything up but it's a proven Gawddamm fact that throwing money at a problem place ain't gonna solve the problem unless ya get to the root of tha problem, which is rooted in a lack of opportunity an' social safety net. Assholes think that there's bootstraps when there's not even boots. People are jerks." Bunny states, with the utmost confidence and not changing her tone as she eats another bite of mermaid, without sphenopalpatine ganglandneurological striking at her.

    She doesn't have a healing factor, but she does have good common sense eating ice cream.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney levers herself up to sit properly or at least not with her face on the table. There's a little red smoosh spot on her cheek from laying that way though. It actually lasts a bit longer than an injury might because it was just blood rushing to the area, and not an injury. Not everything was a 'healing factor' issue needs to work' issue.

"Yeah. Sorry. I was trying to distract him so you guys would be safe--I mean I can always get away and survive most things." Reaching up she rubs her hands over her face with the spoon still in hand. A bad idea since it ends up with a spot of icecream on her forehead for her efforts. A little smidge of chocolate something.

"I dunno what that thing was, but ... Ew. You did great, by the way, Tommy." Wait. What was it Bunny had called him? With a slow, tired grin she corrects to, "Thomathan. You as well Bunny. Glad we all got out okay."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    "I toured a couple of apartments in Bushwick but it was full slumlord shit," Tommy says with a vigorous shake of his head. "Like, definitely money changing hands under the table to not get fined into bankruptcy. I'd rather have my tiny closet in Brooklyn than live there."

    How is he done with both cones already? Does he ever stop to breathe? He wipes his hands clean on some napkins from the table's dispenser while he crunches through the cones (both inexplicably in his mouth at the same time) and then gets another napkin to distractedly wipe off the chocolate on Gabby's forehead.

    Once his mouth is clear, though, he shakes his head and adds, "You're the only one out of us who knows how to deal with any of that stuff, Gabs. Unless Bunny has a secret superhero life I don't know about. But who the hell was the big goop guy?"

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "Nah. I once shot mustahd into some feeze guy's goggles which is how I met AntMan, but uh... I ain't no hero, not a real one anyways." Bunny admits quietly, pursing her lips. "An' I mean I know some people have their whole hidden identity thing. I try to hide what I can do. An' sometimes it works. Sometimes I gotta just let a bullet bounce offa me and hope for the best, yaknow?" she states and gives a sloooow shrug of her shoulders. "An' you're the only two I can talk about it with. Not like I can call up Ant Man and be like 'yo my favorite ant, how you doin' today?' and I got told about this school up north but it's just not for me. New Yawk? My city's my home."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney blinks a single time at the wiped off icecream from her face. Cracking a smile she simply mumbles, "Thanks," without much embarassment over it at least. Too tired for that. The spoon goes back into the bowl where it belongs for the time being.

"That'd be Xavier's School for the Gifted. That's where I go. Where I went? Eh. I'm mostly doing my classes online these days. It's not *terrible* there," she admits. "Great place to meet others like yourself. But, you know, adults can be adults."

"I'm not sure who goop guy was," she admits. "I'll have to ask one of the Oracles to find out for me. They mostly do intel in Gotham but I don't think it'd be too much of a stretch to find out otherwise."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Tommy slumps down a little bit. "His kid still has my hat," he says, and spares a brief thought for Cassie Lang and that terrible time they all had in the IKEA. He heaves one great big sigh as his eyes close, and he leans his head backwards until it can rest on the booth.

    "That was the place you mentioned to that awful woman, right?" He lifts his head to look at Gabby, and then with his brow furrowed, he turns to do the same to Bunny. "You got invited too?" he asks.

    This seems to cause him some great confusion, as he falls silent -- pretty rare for Thomathan Shepherd -- while Gabby and Bunny ruminate about big goopy monster guy.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "Yeah. A tall southern guy with light blonde hair and a decent smile an' a couple others from there showed up at a skate night. I met my friend Rahne who goes there. Once chilled with a girl who was invisible from birth who went there. Some seemed real understanding about me not wantin' to leave..." she shrugs her shoulders.

    "I'm just a delivery girl with *barely* a highschool education. I can't even get my GED. I got no business goin' to a big fancy school like Xavier's School for the Gifted. Gawd that sounds like a Catholic school. Izzit a Catholic school, Gabs?" she questions, and she taps her spoon against her cup for a moment.

    "I never seen nothin' like that. He picked that guy up an' slammed him down like he was nothin'. Like when I was watchin the rhino on TikTok ripping up a desk, for a split second ya forget people with super-strength exist 'cause you fear for your life."

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Bunny pauses a moment "Ah Gawd, no one in the super hero business has common sense or self-preservation do they?!"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney points to Tommy at his remark only to grin a little bit in amusement over it. "Yeah, but I met more awesome people there than just her. Just... they were all older and have graduated or moved on. My roomie there is cool, but she's also a tough cookie to crack. Very emo goth or whatever. Mostly whatever," she reasons with a thoughtful glance to the ceiling as she nods. Then the mention of the Southern guy is brought up causing her eyes to narrow. "That's either Sam, or my brother Jimmy. Swear he's the only one that got the tall gene."

A quick shake of her head comes. "Oh yeah Rahne's awesome. She's good people." Grinning her head shakes a little like that. "Nah it's not religion based. Just some rich guy who can do things like us who wanted to give people a place to go without, you know." A small wave is given around. "Worrying about people finding out about us and being dicks." The clarification on what that guy could do causes her to pause. "Still could be either one of them."

"I think a certain lack of self-preservation is what makes us want to do this, yeah. But if you know what you're doing too it helps."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Tommy stands up abruptly. Which is maybe not all that unusual, as with his speed sometimes that can just be the way it looks from other peoples' perspective, but his expression is clouded as he does so. Brows drawn together, corners of his lips turning downwards.

    "I'm--gonna go to the bathroom," he announces. And then he turns on his heel and marches in that direction.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    ". . . I mean... I didn't go. 'Cause I'm... there's no one else to watch my younger siblings, you know? Even going out a couple nights a week I get guilted on it. I can't take 'em everywhere with me. An' it's nice to be out with you two. 'S different in the dojo. I get to be myself out here..." she shifts her weight, and then looks at Tommy's retreat.

    "... did... did I mess it up? Oh Gawd did I say somethin' wrong? 'Cause you two are the only two who actually talk to me and don't treat me like a little kid and Rahne is so quiet and Raz just hates whatever I suggest to do things and Tommy's just so cool and *oh Gawd Gabby does he hate me?!*"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney glances at Tommy when he gets up noticing that frown on his face. Oh, no, he's upset. Something she notices around the same time as Bunny does which causes her to wince. Reaching out she places a calming hand on Bunny's arm with a squeeze. "No, no I think I may have. We both got invited there but Tommy's been on his own for ages," she points out quietly. "We both got family that doesn't suck. And I get it," she adds with a smile of reassurance. "Why you chose not to. I really only got in there because I'm a clone of one of their ... alumni I guess you could say." Technically Logan never attended Xavier's though.

"He doesn't hate you. But I'm gonna go buy him another icecream for when he gets out. Maybe hug the shit out of him," she decides while pushing back from the table to get up. "You want anything else, too?"

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Tommy is not having a breakdown in the bathroom of the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop. He's not. Really! Mostly because he is shoving all of those emotions down somewhere nice and safe, because that's totally healthy.

    No. He knows it's not. But after being in juvie, he just can't do the "vulnerable in public" thing. Those wounds get licked in private (not like that, ew).

    Instead, though, he washes his face, and then pulls out a sharpie from his back pocket (of course he always carries one with him) to add to the already prolific graffiti on the wall. Right under a phone number with the note "for a good time call", Tommy adds "and for a bad time call your local government representative #vote". This seems to steady him enough that he actually doesn't look like he's going to cry when he emerges from the bathroom to slide back into the booth.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "You're a C--" Bunny begins a bit loudly, and then leans forward "You're a clone? I heard they don't have belly-buttons. Is that true?" she asks, the younger mutant fully engaged with her bad scifi habit and she rubs the back of ehr head a moment, causing the bright pink hair to change up its normal messiness with EXTREME MESSINESS.

    "... well. I mean, I've known since I was fourteen. After my dad pulled me outta school to help with the business and watching the younger siblings." she explains, "I haven't been to school in years. I'm kinna dumb." she whispers to Gabby as if it were some big secret, "... and you guys are kinda the only real friends I got other than Rahne. I don't wanna screw this up, 'cause I like Tommy. He's got a good heart in him, you know? You probably know, 'cause you're smart an' capable and all I can do is roller skate and deliver packages real good and oh god if my father found out I was a mutant he'd he so mad --" Bunny begins in a little bit of a scared whisper, then it went into a curious hiss, and then she ended up with her hands on her cheeks and then her head slowly but surely sinking down to the table where she just lightly baps her head against the table.

    "Naw. I don't got super calorie crunching. It'll go straight to mah butt!"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney allows herself to grin a bit as Bunny gushes out the way she does. "You're not dumb. Uneducated doesn't mean dumb... and anyway, I'm only as smart as I am because I didn't get to have a childhood. Learning, learning, learning, and fighting." Really she didn't talk a whole lot about the earlier days of her life at the labs. Just the part right before they got out. It was her turn to get an odd little expression on her face thinking of it. There's one part at least that snaps her out of it as she pauses to pull up her shirt to show off her stomach. Which was pretty toned for someone her age, and definitely had a belly button.

"Nah, I got one. Used to joke I didn't, but embryos don't work that way. We still get nutrients that way till we're fully formed just... it was more like I was in a tank of nutrient ooze."

For the second time this week Tommy comes back to Gabby with her shirt up. It's dropped back in place again and she leans over to give him a quick one-armed hug from the side. Nothing said, just... just hugged. "Grabbing more icecream, whatcha want?" He's released, a quick grab and go snug, before she heads for the counter.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    This time around there's not as much being flashed, so Tommy only blinks once before carefully averting his eyes as he retakes his seat. Then Gabby's pressed against him, and he curls an arm around her, his chin brushing the top of her head for just a second before they pull apart.

    "Uh... maybe just a root beer float?" he asks. "Oh, no... they have the Mexican Fanta with the real sugar, that's what I want as a float. Thanks"

    He peers over at Bunny with her head on the table after, and he cups his chin in his palm, staring at the messy swirl of pink hair he's confronted with. "Do you have to bleach your hair before you dye it?"

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "Aaah, so the books are bull an' you still have a placenta an' cord. Neat!" she gives a smile to Gabby, and then leans back in her seat.

    "That sounds amazing, Mexican Fanta with a-" Bunny goes for her wallet, opens it, makes a face, and then closes it. "Right to my butt." she states, and then gives a momentary grump, watching Tommy and Gabby interact with a slight smile to her face, and she sets her chin in her arms, looking at Tommy as she looks cross-eyed, adn then looks up.

    "Yeah. In order to get the color to stay bright. I wish it was my natural color, but I'm actually a blonde." she states, sticking her tongue out. "A light blonde too. My hair would turn green if I went to the pool 'cause of the bleach."

    She gives a puff of air out.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney grins with amusement by the time she's reached the counter. The almost ordering of the Fanta-float by Bunny was heard as well. The orders are placed, and quickly made as floats didn't take too long thankfully. By the time Bunny is bemoaning her natural hair color turning green she's back with three on a tray.

One clunks down next to Bunny, one next to Tommy, and she settles back in her seat with her own. "There we go. My treat." Kind of obviously as it was already bought. "Thanks for everything today, both of you. I know it didn't really go as planned but... I mean. I'm glad we were all there together." Awww.