Pizza Planet, Saturday

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Okay, so nothing had happened down by the port yet.

This wasn't exactly reassuring Jen, who kept wandering out front of the restaurant to peer semi-futilely in that direction.

This nervous preoccupation was very likely the reason that all the pizzas on display had toppings arranged into city streets, upon which monsters made of mushrooms and olives on toothpicks rampaged.

Today's Special
Downtown Delight
Pick your pizza toppings and industrial district, then have fun demolishing it!

It was entirely possible Jen had been worrying about this too much.

[OOC: OCD-free, and I'm going to be AFK for the next few hours, though I may be able to tag a bit off the phone. Will be back in the evening though!]

Comments

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

It was nearly dinner time and Ichigo was hungry and pizza sounded good. Really, really good and he couldn't think of one reason to not have pizza. So he was going to have pizza.

Hands in his pockets, he wanted up to the counter so he could better read the menu board.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Hey," said Jen distractedly. "Can I get you something?"

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"Um yeah," he paused and made sure he'd read the sign right. "Industrial?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Well," Jen amended, "not necessarily industrial. You could pick a rock quarry if you wanted to, or a downtown city street . . . or something. It just wouldn't all fit on the sign."

That probably didn't clarify things much.

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

It didn't and he gave her a weird look. "On my pizza?" he asked, as if he was making sure she wasn't selling him a street or rock quarry.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Not a real one," she said quickly. "Just a model in pizza toppings. It's sort of . . . well, a joke from my world."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"You're going to have to explain it," he replied and then added, "Edible toppings?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Yes, edible ones." A slight smile quirked one side of Jen's mouth. "My world has sort of a history of . . . this is going to sound crazy, I know . . . giant monsters trying to destroy cities."

No, that really didn't sound any less insane every time she said it.

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Well, Ichigo had fought a Menos Grande once so... It didn't sound that crazy.

"I've heard a lot of stuff that sounds crazy since I came here," he pointed out. "So how about Paris? I wouldn't mind eating Paris."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen laughed. "I think I can do an Eiffel Tower in bell peppers or something. Got something against Paris, or just because?"

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"Not really," he said with a shrug. "It just seemed fun to say."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Paris it is," Jen declared. "What do you want on the pizza?"

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"Mushrooms, green peppers, onions, ham and lots of cheese," he asked.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen nodded and scribbled down the order for the kitchen, then slipped on a pair of gloves and started assembling something that vaguely resembled the Eiffel Tower with peppers and toothpicks. "I can't believe the summer's almost over," she remarked after a moment.

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Ichigo picked a seat, vaguely fascinated by the whole Eiffel Tower making process. "Yeah, it doesn't feel like I've been here that long," he agreed.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"I've been here almost nine months now." She sounded almost awed by the realization. "How about you?"

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"Since July," he replied. "I'm Ichigo Kurosaki, by the way. I should probably have started with that."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen's brow furrowed as she slid a bell pepper onto the end of a toothpick. "That's okay. I could've done that too. Name's Jen Scotts."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"So... how many giant city destroying monsters have you beaten, Jen?" he asked next, because it was an interesting question.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Me?" She chuckled as she put one last slice of pepper in place to make the tower's spire. "A couple dozen, I guess. You do anything like that?"

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"Just the once, but I didn't kill it. I just manage to chase it away," Ichigo deadpanned, for once speaking a sort of truth.

Then he shrugged his shoulders and gave her a crooked grin. "Nah, just kidding. It gets tiring telling everyone you're just normal."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen gave him a brief mock glare that softened into a smile. "I don't have any special powers or anything either, if that's what you mean. Not that I don't rely on technology for, at least."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"It was," he replied and he tilted his head. "What sort of technology?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Well," hedged Jen, who didn't exactly want that technology to end up in the wrong hands somehow -- not that she distrusted Ichigo, necessarily, but there were squirrels and you never knew, "I'm not actually sure how it really works, but it improves my reflexes and . . . things."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Ichigo could imagine something to that effect, but it didn't have to do with technology or anything. "So you're from the future too?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Thirty-first century," she said with a nod. "Just the beginning of it, though. You're . . . ?"

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"Two months?" he tried. "Now I feel pathetic." Only not really.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Hey, come on," Jen told him as she tried to carve a crude Arc de Triomphe out of mozzarella. (He'd said he wanted lots of cheese, after all.) "Most of us here are from some other time anyway, seems like."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"I'm just being stupid," he told her. "I don't mind. I'm from Karakura Town in Japan. I was supposed to start here in September, but for some reason I got here in July."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen nodded slowly. "This place doesn't seem to follow the usual rules of time, so that doesn't surprise me," she said. "When I got here, I had no idea what day or even year it would be when I exited the time vortex."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"So why did you come here?" he asked. "There's got to be schools in the future."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"It's a long story." Jen drew a deep breath. "I . . . learned things people didn't want me to know, and they were going to wipe a year of my memory. I wasn't about to let that happen."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

His shoulders tensed and for a moment he remembered how Soul Society just loved wiping certain memories from people's minds. Not that he minded when it just happened to save him from embarrassment, but this was something entirely different. "No, I think I can see that," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"It's okay," Jen assured him. "I guess I'm still pretty bitter about it. Sorry."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"No, if someone told me they'd take my memories from the past year... I'd be bitter too," he said with a grimace. "So you ran here?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"That's pretty much exactly what I did." The pizza was ready now, toppings assembled like city streets leading to a central circular plaza, and she arranged the monuments she'd designed on top of it when it came out from the kitchen. "And I don't think I can ever go back, now."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Ichigo had never had a pizza with a city on top of it, but he was distracted by the conversation now. "That sucks," he said eloquently, eyebrows knitted together. Not that that was unusual.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Tell me about it," Jen agreed wryly. "But it's better than losing that year, as far as I'm concerned. I worry about my friends, though. Last I saw of them, they were about to get their memories wiped."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

He glanced up from the pizza, looking surprised. "You couldn't get them out?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

She'd been holding onto the guilt from that for a while, and her shoulders sagged. "We could only manage to get one person out. Everybody voted for me."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Ichigo stilled and he wasn't sure why she was trusting him with this. He glanced down at the pizza with the pepper shaped Eiffel Tower and Cheesy Arc de Triomphe. "That's a lot to live up to."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Mostly, it was just a case of him asking about it right when she'd been so worried about those stupid empty warehouses and missing her team. Even someone as good at repressing as Jen could only repress for so long, but her face reflected the chagrin she felt at just dumping all of that on someone she'd just met. "Someone had to remember, right?"

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"Yes," he picked a piece of ham off his pizza, feeling loathe for some reason to destroy the construction. "I think it's easiest to sacrifice yourself for someone. Having everyone fight so you can keep going, it means that you can't let them down."

Not that he had any experience with that. Nope. None at all.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

None at all, which was why that wasn't the reason Jen was studying him so curiously. No, that was entirely because she had a sudden vivid memory of older Wes, standing alone and surrounded by hundreds of Cyclobots while she and the others escaped back to the 31st century under orders. Really.

"Yeah," she said, a bit dully. "Doesn't mean it's fair, but yeah."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Ichigo nodded and he suddenly felt like he was really prying so he glanced back at the pizza, looking for a quick way out to make this less awkward. "You um... want a slice? I probably can't eat this all on my own."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"No, thanks. I ate Chicago earlier," Jen demurred. "I can get you a to go box if you want?"

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"Nah, that's cool. I was thinking of eating here," he picked up a slice that wouldn't upset the monuments. "Who knows who I'd have to share with at the cabins."