7296/Role Rehearsal

Role Rehearsal
Date of Scene:	10 August 2021
Location:	Folkvangr
Synopsis:	Bea's dinner with Billy has its ups and downs.
Cast of Characters:	Billy Batson, Beatriz da Costa

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Billy Batson has posed:
Folkvangr? Volkzfangr? Shazam wasn't sure Bea or he got the pronunciation down. He was getting a language lesson today between 'Folkvangr' and 'pou-show'... He makes a note not to use that word around Bea. She slapped him on the mouth when he tried it. Not that it hurt, but it was a little embarrassing. But he was merely the Champion of Mankind. She was Brazilian. Also way more together, cooler and though she would be ticked to hear it older. But in a good way. Now after a huge dinner of venison, vegetables and some demitasse Shazam actually feels a little sleepy. Obviously all in his mind but the place is nice, Bea is the greatest and school is turning out to be a blast. Man if she had adopted him, how different would things be... not that Frank and Rosa weren't tops! Now... how to pay for this?

Beatriz da Costa has posed:
It started off shaky, truth be told. The place didn't know what a caipirinha was. That was bad. The server, however, know what one was at least and suggested perhaps that mead might be to her palate.

It was.

This brightened Bea's mood considerably as she drained her horn after the first tentative taste and called out for another.

The homey, friendly atmosphere of the place, livening up the place helped, of course. The initial dark web was cast in the corner for the bright, sunny, effervescent, Bea that usually took place, molding herself into the place to fit in (while calling all attention to herself subtly--a habit she has).

"The food here is pretty good. Who knew people living in the ice and snow could roast meat properly!" she enthuses. With a slight list to the right. That was two more meads. It's sneaking up on her. "So tell me, what have you been doin' while I was away? Goin' to school here in the Harbor, I know. But you got friends?" She winks. "A girlfriend? You noticing girls yet?"

Billy Batson has posed:
Shazam colors a little. "Uhm things have been busy with me... you know how it is. I had a girlfriend... for a while. She had to go away -power issues. She loves life like you. I hope I see her again. friends -I'm starting to make a bunch of friends. We're supposed to get together. Girls are all right. You're a girl." Little smirk at that. Truthfully, Bea had done something for his self-confidence.

Mocking laughter echoes, unheard. The great god Pan waves a hand and time freezes... not that he can keep it up for long. "Let's get this done...

I wander like a cloud... cold and damp
Alone again,fires banked
I seek Mankind's Champ
My goal Shazam to prank
Do I think oughta?
Aye, for the pleasures
Of Satan's hot daughter

So hurl your lightning
Roll your thunder
Say Shazam and you will blunder
While 'round you the storm rages
Your friends will soon be lost in different ages!" He gives himself a slow clap. He doesn't have to make it rhyme. That was a fad Uncle Apollo started. He tries to do it right.

Pan saunters by their table and regards Bea a moment. She is no succubus but wow!

Pity that. Maybe she'll make it look good.

Beatriz da Costa has posed:
"I only wish!" Bea says ... in a world where apparently dramatic irony is a real force. "I ain't been a girl in ages. Wish you coulda seen me then."

She considers a moment.

"No. Best you didn't. I was loud, obnoxious, foul-mouthed, and pretty damned scary back then. You hadda be if you no want to go from tourist picture fishin' to ... ah ... different kind of paid job. I not want to..." Her grammar is starting to fail her badly now that she's five meads deep. "...so I learn instead to kick up fuss like I'm some kinda pessoa louca. You want take picture with me on shining beach and perfect sea and sky? Ten bucks. You wanna touch while take picture, you run in fear. Sometimes drop camera. I sell that in market."

Billy Batson has posed:
Shazam reaches out to take Bea's hand. Achilles advises, just listen. Don't speak.

After a moment he says, "Listen, I need to hit an ATM to pay for all this. I'll be right back. I want to see you home. You put away more horns than the shipping department of a bugle factory." He straightens her up a little. "Don't you go anywhere and do not, do not pay for all this." He was eating Ramen the rest of the week. Who cares. With a word to the head waiter, Shazam hurries out a back exit.

Out in the alley Shazam pauses and realizes he needs to be Billy to use his ATM card because banks have cameras. He throws his head back and says sharply, "Shazam!"

<BOOM!> Billy hurries off.

Beatriz da Costa has posed:
"Oh...." The precocious teen, unattended in a fully-licensed restaurant, smaller body simply not enough to properly cope with the booze she's imbibed, sits in her loose clothing at the table and watches the world spin around her. "I don't feel so good!" she says. She starts to rise. It becomes a race between the dizziness forcing her to sit again, or the embarrassment of too-loose leather pants slipping too far down for a family restaurant. Or a PG-13 scene.

Dizziness wins. Because PG-13.

"What is going on!?" she complains loudly. "What's happenin'?!"

A passing server--not theirs--pauses and notes the obviously-underaged girl in front of a table filled with food and, worse, drink. "How did you get in here!?" he demands, grabbing Bea's slender arm to toss her out before the cops get involved and underage drinking loses the place its license. "And how did you get all that food without being carded!?"

He attempts to drag her away. This is ... an unfortunate choice. Years of training and instinct, unimpeded by the suddenly smaller, frailer body, kick in and he finds his own arm pulled WAY up behind his back in a way that causes him to yelp in pain, loudly before his face collides with ...

... the roast meat remnants on the platter before him.

"You don't touch a woman who don't ask you to, ..."

What streams forth from her mouth now is a detailed discussion, in Brazilian Portuguese, thankfully, of the server's parentage and in specific his mother's incestuous relationship with the family dog. Using the worst profanities Portuguese has to offer.

She even calls God a pig once. She's out for blood.

"You wanna touch me again puxao!? I feed your ..." More Portuguese profanity. Refering to anatomy. "... to you the hard way!"

Billy Batson has posed:
Score? ATM down the street. Also people coming out for dinner. Carp! So it's Billy Batson walking back to the restaurant and sometimes ya just can't find a place to yell a magic word. He manages a sickly smile for people he encounters, a few from the school. Shoot. He should get to the alleyway to change of course. /That/ was deserted. It was also past the restaurant entrance. It is there that he sees his friend and companion being forcibly ejected.One waiter holding his nose, another holding himself a bit lower. It has to be her. She has green hair, though it obscures her face. He recognizes the leather pans too. As she stumbles out Billy steps up and braces himself to hold her up. She's taller and probably outweighs him by a little. Also she's hammered. It's with absolute shock he manages to grab her arms and stop her stumble. "I got... you? Bea? What happened?" Obviously there was another female in there with green hair. This one is shorter and way slimmer. Then he takes another look.

Beatriz da Costa has posed:
Grabbed her by the arm? Grabbed the drunken Bea-poster by the arm? That brings a leg around with stunning speed, headed straight for Billy's ...

Nowhere because the nose-clutching server sees the hellion he's evicting about to brutalize another child and bravely steps in.

The keening noise he makes as he clutches himself, doubling over, is not a noise any man should ever hear coming from another man. It is the sound of every pain in the world concentrated and made manifest in a very small space.

It's enough to even get through the drunken haze that Bea's in. Who stands there, one hand holding aloft pants that keep wanting to fall down, other hand over her mouth.

"Oh, I am so sorry, I wanted to hit him for touching me. I already hit you for touching! I ..."

At this point she realizes she's free. Nothing's holding on to her, such is the violence she's delivered to the poor guy curled up on the ground groaning in pain.

She bolts.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy realizes there are still people around so no magic yet. He takes off after the violent girl, before she can hurt someone or herself, He realizes he skipped out on a check but Billy can smooth that over tomorrow. He also left a hammered Bea in there to chase a cosplayer or fan, he isn't sure which. Her shoes and clothes are ill fitting. She's got shorter legs. She's drunk. Billy for his abundance of scrawn has lived on the streets and it kept him fit, and also taught him how to run when he had to . So he's gaining but then he sees the street she's about to run into and... he may have to say good-bye secret ID. "Wait, stop! I didn't want you to fall. I just want to help. I can introduce you to Bea da Costa if you're a fan..." he decides with that temper she must be Brazilian.

Beatriz da Costa has posed:
In the end it's the pants.

In a straight run, even the smaller, slimmer Bea could run like lightning and had agility and sheer spitfiredness (to coin a word) to match. In a run down city streets, she'd have given Billy a run for his money, in the end her reserves giving out before his.

But with pants that keep slipping?

The disaster starts with a desperate turn down an alley, arm outstretched to grab a telephone pole to whip her around. It turned out the alleyway was cluttered and, stumbling, the other hand, holding the waistband, had to let go to catch herself on the wall before her face took the blow. Then the downward grab of the waistband fails to catch it as the pants slide down faster than expected, binding at the thighs and sending Bea flying into the alleyway.

Stunned. Drunk. In a little bit of pain. Scared.

Great combo.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy thinks fast, he's good at that, as Billy anyway. He barks his magic word as he is between street lamps. In almost the same moment lightning seems to strike twice. The first bolt transforms the teen into Shazam. Shazam flies into the alleyway.

He's not a Kryptonian. He can't see very well in the dark. He doesn't see the small figure become lithe and lovely or it change back to a skinny girl as he changes back to Billy. Billy is less threatening than Shazam." Oh man, what to do?" She's a mess. Billy also senses something amiss as Shazam. He has some ability to sense power and workings.He decides to throw his hoodie over her. He then steps back. She thinks she knows kung fu or something.

"Hey, Supergirl? Are you all right? I was trying to keep you from falling. Let me help you up. I'm Billy Batson."

Beatriz da Costa has posed:
There's a brief moment of (relative) lucidity as Bea gets her form back. She has the presence of mind to scramble to pull back the pants just as ... there she goes again. Smaller. Drunker. More frightened.

"I know who you are!" she says, curled up beneath the hoodie, staring up at Billy. "You louca or somethin' Billy?" She staggers to her feet. Sort of. Two feet. One hand. Resting against ... ugh. She's going to have to wash that. Whatever that is on the wall. "What's goin' on? Why you chase me down the road? Why those guys roughhouse me out? Why I feel..."

And the alcohol poisoning catches up with her and ... well, she's crouching and being miserable making sounds that indicate to anybody in roughly a 50m radius that she's going to be very hungry soon.

Good news? The thing she put her hand in is no longer the nastiest thing in the alley.

"Oh God whattsa matter with me?!" she moans. "I only had five or six. That's like ... a big lunch."

She peers up to Billy. "I gotta go home. Sorry 'bout this. Better stand back 'cause I don't know how hot I'll get."

Beat.

"What the ..." A stream of profanity in Portuguese, Spanish, and English intermixed pours from her mouth. "WHY I CAN'T FLAME!?"

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy puts a hand out to Bea's shoulder, about five inches lower than he's used to and a lot thinner, when he sees no fire is left in her.

"Something happened to you. You're like twelve now. I don't know what did it. You were freaking out and you attacked some waiters and even tried to hit me. So you are the louca one Beatriz. So let me help. Do you kmnow me now? Do you trust me now, because I need to get you home..."

About that point he realizes there are still police and news vans in front of her building, and a couple people in the upstairs apartments are yelling at him and her.

"Beat it ya dumb kids!" Good advice actually.

Beatriz da Costa has posed:
"Of course I know you. Of course I trust you. You Billy. Also Captain Thunderpants." Her fogged brain processes that for a second and then starts her giggling.

*sigh*

And there's that hand on the nasty spot on the wall again.

"I mean you Sha-guy who I won't say 'cause lighting hits. I need go home. I need shower. Sleep off this head. I not be this drunk since 14. Never again I said but here we are."

She looks at Billy. "You go be SHa-guy and fly me in back window, K? Nobody see there. I got apartment for that. I go in out in flames all time."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy nods reluctantly. He tries to get used to looking slightly below his eye level. He hands her a bandana to wipe her hands. he finally sees they have a quiet moment and he says softly but forcefully 'Shazam!" He tries again and this time lightning hits. Boom!

Shazam sniffs the night air. He head tilts. He looks at the Bea he knew so well. He gets an intense look.

"Something... something is off. With me, with you... I don't want you to fly home. I'll take you. That way no one will see you. If you're flying and turn into a powerless kid... you go splat." Without waiting he picks Bea up and shoots into the sky.

Beatriz da Costa has posed:
"What. The. Fudge." Only the word she uses isn't 'fudge'. It's the Big Bad. The F-bomb. Spoken with vehemence and precision.

"What's going on, Shazam!?" she asks, back to Bea-as-he-knows-her and back to being only marginally tipsy. "Why am I a girl sometimes and a woman others? And why it paired with you being boy and adult and oh my God I know what's going on!"

She backs away from Shazam.

"You want girlfriend when Billy, so you make one!?"

Beat.

"No, wait. That make no sense. You as surprised by this as me. I need shower and sleep. We need to figure this out. Tomorrow."

She looks up at the sky. Remembers the helplessness of not having power.

"Yeah," she adds with a shiver. "You need to give me flight 'cause I don't know when I change."