Pizza Time [Private with Az & Al]

[Azoireda Ikteris]

Irony of ironies, sayeth Qoheleth: all things are irony.

Before coming to Beacon, Az had never in her life had as much choice in what, how much, or even when to eat for any given meal as she had now. Figures that as soon as she'd be guaranteed sustenance that she'd immediately find a reason to pout about it - which, given her previous 'nothing is guaranteed, least of all a good night's sleep' situation, was the irony to end all ironies.

"What, no pizza today?" she complained under her breath as she looked over the dinner menu board at the entrance to the cafeteria. She'd first tried a pizza after she and Lauren had gone to the beach and met June (and Nox, the goodest of boys), and to call it her latest food obsession was a bit of an understatement. The cafeteria had it on offer for dinner at least once a week, but that wasn't enough for her current fascination.

[Al Ciendra]

Al had no issues with food in the past, both her parents, her brother and even herself were good enough cooks and food had almost never been a scarcity in Azmarine.
But she did have certain and very strong prefferences, so seeing a menu almost devoid of any hearty or meat based meals for today, instead there were plenty of vegtables and other such nonsense, vegtables were a sidedish or ingridient, not a full meal.

So Al stood infront the sign aswell, guess she was just gonna hit up Vale for food instead today, her ears perkee up how ever when she heard the student next to her, Az ? Yeah that was her name talk about Pizza, she sounded pretty bummed about it not being on the menu, something Al coukd relate to.
"Whats this Pizza thing that you're talking about ?"
Al asked leaning a bit closer to Az.

[Azoireda Ikteris]

WOAH personal space invader

"Hey! Az said brightly, throwing on a smile as she turned in surprise. Oh, neat, I know her already!

Her smile grew, dimples appearing as her happy exterior became genuine at Al's - that was her name, right? right - question about Az's current hyperfixation. "Pizza's kind of my food obsession right now - they take this disc made of dough, throw sauce, cheese, and meat on it, and then set the whole thing on fire: it is AWESOME." Man, she was almost drooling just thinking about it.

Idea: "Wanna go get some?" she asked, jerking her thumb behind her at the cafeteria door as her other hand tilted back and forth. "Today's selection is kinda... 'meh' on the excitement scale anyway."

[Al Ciendra]

Listening to Az explanation did make this pizza thing sound pretty good, Al was always happy about meat and cheese, but a food that was set on fire ?!
That just yelled her name, fiery food for the fiery wolf.
Al had leaned back, nodding her head in approval as Az spoke, the nod being followed by a sigh as she mentioned today's menu.
"Too right, who ever decided today's menu should get their taste buds checked."
Only then did Az invitation click with Al, she wasn't sure, Az was nice enough, she seemed very enthusiastic about the grenades Al and Aster had made back in Mr C's class, so she was cool in her book...a grumble of her stomach convinced Al.
"Sure, I guess you know a good place to get this Pizza stuff ?"
Al asked, tilting her head in place of her lack of a facial expression

[Azoireda Ikteris]

Az chuckled at Al’s characterization of the day’s menu, her smile brightening even further when the latter agreed to come with her.

HELL yes, +1 pizza fren, going by myself would be HELLA cringe

”I have made it my goal to try every place in Vale that makes it before the holidays, but I still like the first place I went better than any of the places I’ve been to.” She bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, excited that she now had dinner plans.

Sticking her hand out for Al to shake, she introduced herself. ”We didn’t really get introduced in Copper’s class, what with the grenades and everything. I’m Azoireda, but please, just call me Az, it’ll save us time. My Semblance makes me late to everything, so saving time wherever I can has become something of a necessity.” She grinned. ”Plus, it’s tons of fun just running around Beacon looking for shortcuts.”

[Al Ciendra]

For someone that was apparently late to everything, Az was real quick to introduce herself, Al felt a little overwhelmed by the flood of words that came her way, which is why she hesitated to shake Az's hand.
"Azroi...azoir...reda..."
She tried saying the whole name under her breath but gave up.
"Yeah, Imma stick with Az."
She chuckled and gave the offered hand a firm squeeze, as she then pointed to her masked self.
"I'm Al, which isn't short for anything. If there's some fire related move or ability yiu can think off, I can probably pull it off, if not I'll learn how to!"
She exclaimed proudly, chest pushed out as she, for show, let a few embers come from her mask's mouth with an audible huff.

[Azoireda Ikteris]

Az had been pretty sure that Al's Semblance was fire-related, but it was nice to get confirmation.

"I don't doubt it - the explosion you made was awesome," she said giving her new friend a wide grin.

"Let's go get a pizza!" she cheered, practically skipping out of the cafeteria, trusting Al to follow her.

[Al Ciendra]

"Ah, the explosion was just combustion does, I barely put any nails in my grenade in favor of a bigger boom...I could have made it bigger using my semblance, but Mr.C was already on edge."
Al rubbed the back of her head with a nervous chuckle, she really didn't want to get on the professor's actual bad side.

"Right, let's do it!"
Al exclaimed and happily followed Az, lagging behind just a little as she didn't want to make things weird with the gal, whose semblance apparently made her late for everything, she couldn't be late if Al was moving behind her, right ?

Soon enough, the two of them made it to Vale, Al remained quiet during the airship ride, she always hated those, ALOT.
They were walking down a place called Everashen street, just passing a fountain.
Al was still quiet, she always hated airship travel, and it never put her in a talking mood.
"So uh...how far is this shop ?"

[Azoireda Ikteris]

Al seemed to be making an effort to follow her rather than keep up. That was nice of her, but Az really didn't mind. "Keep up, silly! I'm late, not slow," she giggled.

They made it to the airship yard and soon found themselves on the streets of Vale. "It's right over there," she said, pointing to the shop, which had a big pizza-shaped sign out front.

She tugged the door open when they arrived, flashing a big grin at Al as they went inside. "Ooh, it's buffet day," she exclaimed happily as her eyes fell on the table in the middle of the dining area. "That solves the problem of ordering anything: we can just try one of everything," she said happily. Scanning the room, she spied an open booth and bounced over to it.

[Al Ciendra]

With that comment about being late but not slow, Al was oficially confused.
When she was too late it was usually because she was too slow, in some regard.

Being preoccupied with her own thoughts was a good distraction, as just like this, they had arrived.

The place seemed homely enough for Al to be relativly at ease, but what put any thought of discomfort aside was the delicious looking selection of goods right out in the open.

Al just stood there for a second, before following Az, she had no idea how this worked, so she would copy her classmate for now.

[Azoireda Ikteris]

Unbuckling her sword belt, Az set it down on one of the booth seats before turning to give Al a smile. "Okay, let's grab some plates and pile them up with the good stuff," she said brightly, rubbing her hands together in anticipation before making her way toward the buffet.

A new friend, an excuse to eat pizza, and that pizza being all-you-can-eat? Today was turning out to be AWESOME.

[Al Ciendra]

Al did notice Az putting away her weapon but choose to ignore it, her weapons remained safely tucked into her cloak and out of view.

With a plate in hand, Al followed Az toward the buffet, there were A LOT of options.
Two that immediately got her attention were a pizza with ham and the other with salami, both seemed appealing, so Al grabbed 4 slices of each, additionally putting some extra spices on top, mostly just pepper and what ever else smelled good.

Soon she was back at their table, yet Al seemed to hesitate, she looked around for a bit, looking to see if there was anyone staring at her, luckily not, she still pulled her hood a bit deeper into her face before lifting her mask just enough to eat.
"Bon appetit"
Al cheered, lifting a slice of pizza, now offering Az an unmasked smile, with her razor sharp teeth now on display, making her faunus heritage very apparent.

Al happily began to eat, with the speed she was scarfing down her pizza and the coos of delight she was making it was very apparent she loved it.

[Azoireda Ikteris]

Az watched as Al assembled an entire pizza’s worth of food on the latter’s plate for the first round and smiled. She wasn’t sure if she could eat that much in one go (though she HAD missed lunch today, hooray studying), but thankfully she didn’t have to eat it all in one go.

Grabbing a few slices of a meat-lover’s special, she sprinkled some pepper flakes and parmesan over the top of her chosen slices before joining her friend at their booth. ”いただきます!” she said, clapping her hands together happily before starting in on her own pizza.

Az knew Al was a Faunus already, but she had proper canine canines. Her ability to wolf down food was also impressive.

Taking her time to savor each bite, Az sighed happily. Pizza was the best.

[Al Ciendra]

Al perked up as she heard Az's cheer, Al did not recognize that...word ?
Was it a word, was it a sentence ?
She couldn't tell, even with her excellent hearing, maybe she should wear her hood less when talking to Az ?

Anyway, she was too busy with her food to give Az any real thought at the moment, well besides that she was really thankful that she had taken her here.
Pizza was great, not the best, that spot still belonged to dad's steaks and mom's pig roast.
But the creamy cheese and the sauce, along with the spice and ham, was delicious!
Al didn't even need to blow on the spicy hot goodness to enjoy it, given her semblance, she greedily wolfed down slice after slice, her face and mask getting a bit of tomato sauce on them, something Al did not seem to notice.
Soon enough, the wolf girl's plate was empty, at a much faster rate than usual even for her, new food was just too exciting.
"Can we get more ?"
Al asked, staring down at her empty plate and the still quite full buffet, not yet grasping the concept of this buffet thing yet.

[Azoireda Ikteris]

Al finished her plate in record time, and Az smiled at the tomato sauce on her mask. "Hm? Oh, yeah, go for it. It's all-you-can-eat, so I guess keep going until you're full?" Az had a feeling that 'Al' and 'full' were not words that could be used in the same sentence very often. They might be here for a while.

After a moment, she finished her own (much smaller) plate, and went back to get more, this time taking a barbecue chicken topping and adding some basil.

[Al Ciendra]

Wait, All you can eat LITERALLY meant she could eat all she could ?!
Al was stunned silent for a bit before a gleam could be seen under her mask, one of joy as the wolf girl giddy stood up and loaded her plate once more, meat lovers, cheese paradise all the delicious hearty goodness that would probably give a normal person heart burn just thinking about it.

And she dug right back in, as Az had guessed already, full and Al didn't mix very well, especially if the wood was free, so Al tore into burning hot slice after slice, even at the speed she was going it took her about 20 minutes to be done.
As she was finally done, Al wiped off her face with the back of her hand, smiling contently as she let out a light burp.
"Haaah, now I got enough food for some extensive training, gonna literally burn these calories."
Al noted with a chuckle as, with another satisfied sigh, a few motes of flame came from her mouth.
She then looked to Az, pulling down her mask once more, she was gonna be polite and wait for her new eating buddy.

[Azoireda Ikteris]

Al's second plate was somehow bigger than her first. Was she really going to eat all that?

Al did exactly that, Az having got up to get a third plate at some point. She finished this just as a few wisps of fire leaked out from under the mask as Al leaned back with a satisfied posture.

Training, huh? "Wanna hit the training rooms together? I haven't had much practice fighting next to other people, and Professor Noire says I need to do that."

[Al Ciendra]

Al lifted an eyebrow under her mask, Az wanted to train with her...or against her ?
She was a bit confused about that, and she also felt really unsure about it, a "Hrmmm was heard from Al as she leaned back in her chair.
"Sorry, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea...
For Al to be the voice of reason was rare, in this case it was only because she had prior experience with the subject, that subject being to train with someone that didn't have a strong power, worse even, from what Al understood it sounded more like a detriment.
"I'm a horrible teammate cuz ya know...not so friendly fire. Al raised a burning fist for emphasis.
"And I feel pretty bad fighting someone who isn't on equal ground with me, semblance wise, at least from what I got of your semblance being late ain't that good of an answer to pyromancy."
Al really did try her best to sound nice, but she really did not want to have a repeat of the duel she had with Johnny and some other students who still lacked their semblance.

[Azoireda Ikteris]

Az had initially meant that they should team up against whatever the training room could throw at them, but Al's comment kinda sounded like a challenge, and Lauren said that she should charge headlong into those as long as it was on-campus and safe, since she needed to find more self-confidence or something.

"You'd be surprised how much being late to things helps when you're trying to dodge an attack," she said with a shrug. "Besides, it's not like I'm never going to run into a Grimm that uses area attacks - I should train now while I can, right?" She smacked a fist into her palm, clearly getting fired up at the thought. "I've never actually sparred against someone else who had a Semblance, so it'll be good practice anyway."

[Al Ciendra]

Al was torn, the excitement in Az's voice and the fire in her eyes was infectious, it made her want to fight her here and now.

But she had to use her head, caution, that thing she had been practicing, sides that this was a pizza place and Al did not want to get kicked out of a restaurant she had just taken a liking too, even if they went to Beacon should she really fight Az, she wasn't sure...

But in the end the confidence and excitement of Az had won Al over, she would just take it easy on her, if Az's confidence was warranted she could always go serious then.

"Alright, I'll be happy to show you the ropes!"

[Azoireda Ikteris]

"Yay!" Az cheered, throwing up both arms in victory. "Let's compare schedules and block off some time." Their check had been dropped off as she was finishing up, so she grabbed it and headed up to the front to pay, skipping happily.

Pizza was great, Al was nice, and having a training partner was awesome. Today had been a winner for sure.

[Al Ciendra]

"Right, sounds good."
Al nodded as she then rummaged around in her pockets, pulling out her scroll.
But Az had left...to pay?!
Al felt a cold chill crawl down her spine, she thought this was free food ?!
She had just eaten three peoples worth of pizza and had Az pay for it.
Al sunk in on herself, a hand just clasping at the forehead of her mask in disbelief and embarrassment.

[Azoireda Ikteris]

Az loved buffet dinners, they were always super affordable for the quantity of food consumed.

She skipped back to the table, finding Al palming her head through her mask. "All good?" she asked, a little concerned. "You didn't eat too much, did you?"

[Al Ciendra]

Al looked up, just staying silent for a bit.
Urgh, this hurt, she was already halfway trough her allowance for this month, but she did already buy dust and ammo.
She'd just have to stick to the dining hall for the rest of the month, no more delicious honey ribs from her favorite steakhouse.

Al sighed and pulled out her wallet, giving Az the money she had just paid in her stead.

[Azoireda Ikteris]

Oh. Al was worried about paying for her food. Well, that was an easy fix.

"Don't worry about it," she said, waving off Al's handful of lien. "It didn't cost any more than the dining hall, plus I asked you. You can get it next time," she added, since she was pretty sure they'd be going to get food together in the future, especially if the dining hall continued to offer mid-tier dinner options.

[Al Ciendra]

Al paused, just looking at Az with what could be counted as relief and shock.
"Oh."
It took her just a second longer for her to gather herself, shake her head and finally get up.
"Well that's all good and fine then, thanks for the invite, Az."
She said, back to her old excited self.
"I'll be happy to take you out for pizza, or some other place, anytime then, it's only fair."

[Azoireda Ikteris]

"My pleasure," Az told her with a big smile. At Al's mention of a next time, she nodded. "Deal. We can try out another place and see which one we like better!" There was bound to be another place that could make enough food to feed Al around Vale somewhere, right? Besides, Az was on a mission to try every restaurant in the city, even if it took her until graduation.

[Al Ciendra]

Yeah this was nice, Al could repay Az and get that of her mind, she had a new food buddy and she could explore more of Vale and her new food buddy had just challanged her to a duel, which she was a bit conflicted with, but still, duels a duel and a duel was always exciting.
"Yeah that sounds great!"
Al cheered as she pulled out her scroll and showed Az her contact info.
"Here so we can plan our duel. And ya know, just stay in touch, Pizza Pal."[/colopr]

[Azoireda Ikteris]

Az typed in Al's contact info, double-checking to make sure it was correct before snapping a quick selfie and sending it to Al to use as a contact photo.

"Absolutely. See you around, Al!" With a bright smile and a big wave, she set off toward the dorms.

Today had been awesome.