9332/Dinner Date at Angelo's

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Dinner Date at Angelo's
Date of Scene: 28 December 2021
Location: Angelo's Pizza
Synopsis: Roy and Franklin have some pizza, flirt a lil, and get to know each other better.
Cast of Characters: Roy Harper, Franklin Richards




Roy Harper has posed:
Roy routinely does things like single-handedly fight a dozen men with nothing more than a bow or leap off the roofs of multi-story buildings or infiltrate gang headquarters. But he is rarely as nervous as he is right now walking beside Franklin Richards. Roy is dirt poor (he had to borrow money for the date) and doesn't have nice clothes, but he did the best he can. He's wearing black slacks and a maroon sweater.

Drawing a deep breath, Roy opens the front door for Franklin...and smacks himself in the forehead with it. Oh my gods. "I meant that," he says playfully to Franklin. "I like to test doors to make sure they're, you know, safe."

Franklin Richards has posed:
    It's no easy task, sneaking out of the Four Freedoms Plaza. Valeria was too smart for Franklin to keep secrets from, but his father was another story, constantly obsessive over his inventions. Living with the Invisible Mom is its own sort of nightmare, though. She could always just be there. Franklin developed a way to evade her a few years ago: open his window and fly out.
    Franklin chuckles and slips past Roy. "Not so quick on your feet now, huh?" It's a playful tease and accompanied by a toothy grin. "Are you nervous?"
Roy Harper has posed:
After a moment's thought Roy nods candidly. "Yeah," he confesses. "I haven't done this kind of thing for a minute. I kinda lost interest in dating or whatever." He follows Franklin into the restaurant. When the smell of baking pizzas hits him he gets embarrassed again, this time by his stomach, which growls wildly. "ohmygod" is all he can mutter.

With red cheeks and red ears and red sides of his neck (hey, now his whole head matches his hair!) he smiles to the hostess and says, "Table for two, please?"

After he and Franklin are seated he continues, "What 'bout you? Do you do a lot of dating?"

Franklin Richards has posed:
    "Nah, not really," says Franklin. He's too polite to mention the growling, but the corner of his lips turn upward slightly. He's wearing a brown leather jacket over a white tee and a pair of dark, ripped jeans. "I don't really get to meet a lot of people my age, and when I do, they're usually not human."
    He peeks down at the menu, "Mmm, smells good. You been here before?"

Roy Harper has posed:
Roy can't help but snort out a little laugh at 'and when I do, they're usually not human.' "THAT," he opines, "might be a problem uniquely Fantastic Four." Given that Franklin doesn't maintain a secret identity he doesn't seem uncomfortable saying that aloud. "I don't think I ever had that problem." He smiles over to Franklin. "Well I'm glad you said yes."

He, too, peers over the menu. The menu is the beautiful wall of protection for first-date goers the world over. "Nope, never been here. But pizza sounded safe. Plus there's an arcade in the back. I'm a pretty good shooter." A glitter in his eyes.

Franklin Richards has posed:
    Despite having one of the most normal personas within the Fantastic Four, Franklin was born into their cosmic madness (quite literally). He doesn't remember a time when he's had mundane issues. "I don't think I would be necessarily //opposed// to dating an alien. They'd have to be willing to move to Earth, though. Long-distance over planets seems like a recipe for disaster," His eyes bounce back to Roy. "I'm good with pepperoni."
    "I've been in shootouts with the best gunslingers in the Milky Way," Technically true. He doesn't mention that he was shooting cosmic powerballs the size of canons. The arcade sounds like a good idea for later in the evening, though. "You're on."

Roy Harper has posed:
When the server returns, Roy asks him for an extra large pepperoni pizza, a basket of garlic knots, and some drinks (an iced tea for him plus whatever Franklin wants). "Oh boy," he says in response to the gun slinger comment. "Why do I have this feeling that I just jumped into the very deep end of the pool?"

It's clear that our resident warrior is a bit nervous, and maybe it's even a little cute that he is. This is evidenced by the way he fiddles with a napkin between his fingertips. "So are you out? Like to friends and family or whatever?" he inquires casually. He peers back up to Franklin, one eyebrow arched inquisitively.

Franklin Richards has posed:
    "We'll have to see," Franklin grins. He's actually a profoundly average marksman, but Roy's nervousness is kind of adorable, so he doesn't let up the rouse. He orders a root beer.
    "It's not something that's ever come up," This is one of the few dates he's ever been on, after all. "Not with my parents or uncles, anyway. Val knows about all my crushes. I know they wouldn't care, though. What about you?"

Roy Harper has posed:
Roy gives the server a polite smile and thank-you when he brings the drinks and the basket of garlic knots. Roy's a nervous eater. Big time. After he pushes the basket so it's within easy reach of Franklin he immediately pops one of the hot, buttery knots in his mouth and makes short work of it. It gets washed down with a sip of iced tea.

"Me?" he asks rhetorically. "I mean, I never had like one of those fancy coming out moments that you see on YouTube," he says and then gives a brief shrug of one shoulder. "But pretty much everyone knows. I couldn't give a shit what people think about me. I do me. I let other people do them. With what I do, I could die any day. So if I meet someone I like and they like me too, then I go for it." There's something else there, though, beneath and behind. It's hard to be utterly candid about certain things with someone you barely know.

Franklin Richards has posed:
    There's a pensive look in Franklin's eyes when Roy says that he could die any day. Frankie learned the truth of that statement young, shifting in his dreams between timelines where he witnessed the death of his loved ones. Roy's, he saw only a day ago. The storm passes soon, and he recovers with a soft smile. "I've never had a reason to tell them, but I hope to."
    After taking a sip of soda, he says, "It occurs to me that I don't know much about you, but you know everything about me," not an uncommon situation when there are museums dedicated to his family's deeds. "Why'd you pick up the bow?"

Roy Harper has posed:
He's trying not to be an overbearing eater, but he's really hungry and it's one of the few things outside of using that calms his nerves. So he pops another garlic knot in his mouth. He starts talking about halfway through chewing it down. Poor kid raised poor. No fancy table manners like his adoptive uncle Oliver, who was raised in a billionaire household.

"When I was a little kid, my dad was a park ranger in Arizona. He had a friend named Brave Bow from one of the Navajo tribes. Me and Brave became really good friends. He was a good dude. He started teaching me how to shoot. That dude...oh my god...he could do anything with a bow and arrow I swear!"

Roy quirks one corner of his mouth up in a partial grin, shaking his head. "I was a little shit. I sucked at school. I sucked at sports. I couldn't do anything right. But man did I take to that bow and arrow." He looks into Franklin's eyes to see how he's digesting the tale. "At that young age, it was the very first thing I was ever good at." He shrugs one shoulder. "It was kinda nice to feel like I could do something, y'know?"

Franklin Richards has posed:
    "You're amazing with it, dude. Any profession other than heroics would've been a waste," Franklin says, making sure to say the last part in a low voice. He's biased, of course. "It's good that you have friends...or coworkers," He isn't really sure about Roy's relationship with the other Outsiders, though him and Phoebe looked close. "that can patch you up."

Roy Harper has posed:
It wouldn't take a genius to see that Roy is uncomfortable or unused (or both) to talking about himself. There's a good deal of fidgeting, of rearranging stuff on the table, of intermittent eye contact. His tone of voice is very gentle and unassuming. There are grown men who run in fear from Arsenal, and here he is like a nervous little kid in front of Franklin.

"When I was sixteen I worked at a gas station convenience store," he starts. "It was my first like real job. I worked there for a grand total of an hour and a half before I got fired." He looks down at the table, grinning and shaking his head. There's those ears turning red again. "Some dude shoplifted a two dollar pack of Hostess Snoballs and I saw him. I jumped over the counter and went at him. By the time I knocked him out, I had done like a few hundred dollars worth of damage to the store." He glances back up, hoping not to find a look of horror on Franklin's pretty face. "That's when I knew that regular jobs prolly weren't gonna work out for me."

Franklin Richards has posed:
    "Dude, why!" Franklin guffaws unabashedly. "You just got the job, and you were worried about snoballs?" He's laughing as he tries to get the question out. "Oh man, poor guy. He did not know what he was walking into."
    He takes a garlic knot and bites into it. Franklin's grinning and shaking his head lightly, but he's impressed all the same. Swallowing, "I feel like you might be trouble."

Roy Harper has posed:
Roy lowers the volume of his voice so it doesn't carry and leans in a bit for this next part. "Really? I dress up with a uniform and a mask. I swoop around Gotham at night beating the shit out of bad guys. And you're just now deciding that I might be trouble?" Roy says, a sly grin on his face.

He clears his throat and sits back up straight when the server returns with the pizza, which he puts up on a metal stand that keeps it up off the table. The server takes the spatula and puts one slice of each of the young men's plates and returns the utensil to the pizza tray. After asking if they needed anything else, he goes on to his next task. Roy sprinkles a very generous amount of red pepper flakes on his slice of pizza.

"I feel like your parents would prolly hate me," he says conspiratorially. "Is that why you agreed to this date?"

Franklin Richards has posed:
    "Weelll, right now, we're just having dinner," says Franklin, blue eyes twinkling with amusement. He takes a bite into a hot slice of pizza, then a sip from his bottle of root beer. "We'd have to do a lot more than that to really piss them off."

Roy Harper has posed:
The young, off-duty vigilante tears into his slice of pizza. We covered already that he's a nervous eater, right? Right. First he forms the pizza slice into a U-shape down the long axis of the slice and plops a garlic knot into the curve. As he bites into the concoction he blurts out a laugh, his eyes sparkling energetically.

"So, breakfast tomorrow morning will piss them off?" He takes a nice big drink of iced tea.

Franklin Richards has posed:
    Franklin holds Roy's gaze, hiding a grin behind the bottle. "I'll have to think about it. Last time you were over, you nearly died," he points out. He lets himself get distracted by the flashing lights and sounds of the arcade. "Do you live at -- what did Balm call it, a lair?" The question's seemingly innocent, but Roy did just invite himself to spend the night. It's relevant for Franklin.

Roy Harper has posed:
Roy slides a second piece of pizza onto his plate and absolutely carpet bombs it with red pepper flakes just like the first. He tears in heartily. Kid must really be nervous tonight.

"Well, in theory I guess I do," Roy replies. "But you just popped in out of nowhere. I can tell you that's going to kick off a long series of security reviews." He snorts as he pictures something in his head. "Yeah, Red Robin's gonna shit."

After he finishes his second slice he says, "Our operation isn't like what you guys have going. We rely on secrecy or people end up dead. Know what I mean?"

Franklin Richards has posed:
    Franklin got to talk his sister's ear off all night before this date. He got most of his nervous energy out then. "Pretty sure Freedom Plaza's one of the safest places on Earth, as long as you're cool with, like, weekly invasions," He runs a hand through his dark hair. "Our neighbors used to give us so much shit about it back when the Baxter Building was still up."
    He finishes his first pizza and moves on to the second, leaving it on his paper plate. "I get what you mean, though. To be honest, I was hoping you'd be asleep," He smiles sheepishly, that admission causing his cheeks to redden. "Sometimes I forget how fucked my sleeping patterns are."

Roy Harper has posed:
One eyebrow tics up on Roy's face and he grins as he swallows down some tea. "So, what, you were going to spy on me while I slept?" A small laugh. "That's kinda hot."

"And to be fair," Roy continues, "I didn't almost die the last time I was over your place. That happened in the subway." He sticks his tongue out victoriously.

Franklin Richards has posed:
    "Technically, I was watching you when you slept. Just not this you. When I have dreams about the future, I'm actually just projecting to a possible reality," says Franklin. He watches Roy intently, looking for signs of discomfort. Its a weirdness that the people around Franklin have to get used to. The closer they get, the more they get wrapped up in his future sight. It can lead to instant red flags like projecting to them while they sleep, just to make sure they're still okay. "I don't always have control over it."
    "That's a fair point," He nods, playing with a stud in his ear. "I won't pop in like that again, buuut that means you'll have to invite me back."

Roy Harper has posed:
Roy's gaze flits over Franklin, evaluating, studying. He's a survivor and survival starts with evaluation. He's an uncanny student of people.

"You like me and you're concerned I won't want to spend time with you because I'll think you're weird or that your powers are frightening. People in your life have done this to you before," Roy posits.

He shakes his head. "We both have had fucked up lives, each in our own way. How about I won't hold my past against you and you don't hold your past against me." He lets a comfortable smile cross his features as he playfully lobs a garlic knot at Franklin.

Franklin Richards has posed:
    As if by instinct, the lobbed knot is caught in a blue aura. Franklin pierces it with a fork, a thoughtful look on his face. "Deal," He pops it into his mouth. "Don't say I didn't warn you, though. Given how you reacted in the subway, I'm willing to bet you've experienced your own fair share of the bizarre."

Roy Harper has posed:
After a few more bites of pizza, Roy wipes his mouth with a napkin. He reaches across the table and takes Frankie's index finger between his forefinger and thumb and gently massages that sensitive region around the fingernail. His hand is calloused and obviously strong, but the touch is gentle and affectionate.

"I promise I won't say you didn't warn me," he says simply.