Spaghetti & Meatballs

April 21, 2015:

Some members of the JLA eat dinner together!

Metropolis

JLA Lakehouse

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Mood Music: [*\# None.]


Fade In…

Kara Zor-El was presently in the Lakehouse Kitchen, cooking food for Kate and Jon who she had invited to come eat dinner with her at the Lakehouse while she tried her hand at preparing Earth Cuisine.

It was likely, given everything that happened, Kara needed to talk seriously to friends and figure out just exactly what to do next.

+MEET: Calvin Rankin has arrived via +meet.

Kara Zor-El was presently in the Lakehouse Kitchen, cooking food for Kate, Calvin and Jon who she had invited to come eat dinner with her at the Lakehouse while she tried her hand at preparing Earth Cuisine.

It was likely, given everything that happened, Kara needed to talk seriously to friends and figure out just exactly what to do next.

Kate has absolutely no room to throw stones when it comes to cooking. Which is why she's sitting at the counter, watching the preparations with something between curiosity and trepidation. After all, Kara's projects have a tendency to end…interestingly. Chin propped in her hand, she keeps an eye on the other girl. Just in case.

Booster flies in from downtown Metropolis, although he is not really in costume at the moment. He tends to fly around when dressed in 'civilian' clothing, however, because flying is awesome and he does not have a secret identity to protect. Done on the set of Secret Hospital for the day, he looks a little tired when he lands and walks into the lakehouse, unslinging his messenger bag, which contains stuff like scripts, wrist-mounted blasters, and Skeets. The latter pops out of the bag and flies around the room. "Hey," says Booster, to announce his arrival.

Getting a hold of Mimic involved passing a message through the X-Men Red Team and having him call Kara back. He needed to know where to show up since he wasn't actually a member but once he knew, he ported into the yard and knocked on the door.

"Hey Jon! Take a seat with Kate, I'm just finishing up dinner. Calvin should be joining us s-" Kara grins, "There he is. Hold on a second!" Using her superspeed she opens the door for Calvin, telling him, "Come in." Before racing off to the kitchen again to finish cooking what looked like a simple meal of spaghetti and meatballs, a good first meal for her to tackle, "Welcome to the Lakehouse Cal."

"Hey, Booster," Kate looks up with a small smile as he shows up, turning toward the door at the knock. Kara's got it answered before she's even out of her chair, though, so she settles back into the seat, waving over toward Calvin. "Hey, Mimic," she calls over. "Come on in, have a seat. Kara's doing kitchen magic. Sort of. I don't know, nothing's actually caught on fire yet, so this is new territory for me."

"Is that Kryptonian?" Booster wonders, peeking into the kitchen. Apparently he has not experienced spaghetti, before. "I should learn how to do that. Life without a replicator has been … interesting." With a sigh that is both tired and relieved he drops into a chair, and nods to Mimic. "Dude," he greets.

Logedit: Kara said Mimic, not Cal

Mimic enters at the invitation and gives the women a smile. "Hi Kara. Kate. Thanks for the invite." He looks around a moment then nods to Booster. "Hey. Don't think we've met yet. I'm Mimic."

Kara shook her head at Booster, "Oh, no. It's typical Earth food, at least here in the United States of America. It seemed like an easy enough thing to start with, I mean I can't explode the kitchen or anything." It even smelled good, but it was true; how badly could you mess up spaghetti

Allowing the noodles to finish boiling for now she sits down with the others and bites her lower lip a little, "Nobody has really said much about France and I'm just not sure what I should be doing now. I made a mistake and I just feel like I'm never going to be able to fix it. I thought I was doing good when I destroyed that Hydra carrier and now I really just regret it. I wasn't thinking clearly, I lost control and I don't think that's acceptable.." Kara looks down at her hands for a moment before literally sitting on them.

"Kara…" Kate scoots a little closer, leaning over to wrap an arm around Kara's shoulders. "I'm not going to tell you it's okay. You're right. You made a mistake, and you can't fix it. It happened. But there are things you can do. We've all been so busy trying to pull things together. And I've been being so careful because you're my friend and I didn't want to hurt your feelings. But we really, really need to work on some tactics. Training. Not in strength or speed, because you've got that in spades. But in choosing your actions. We all need that, though. We're not quite a team that works together yet."

Booster rises from his seat and extends a hand to Mimic, saying, "I'm Michael Jon Carter, I go by Booster Gold in costume. Although just 'Booster' is fine too, whether I'm in costume or out of it. It's nice to meet you." After this introduction, he looks to the young women and says, "Kate's right. I don't think we're doing a bad job but we have to be better. A lot better."

Mimic clasps Booster's hand then makes himself comfortable in a couch and listens to the conversation. "Oh, was it you who destroyed it?" he asks Kara. "I don't think that detail made the news, did it?" If so, he missed it. "I have to disagree, actually. I don't think it was a mistake at all. It was an enemy vessel, a direct threat and they'd gladly have killed as many people as possible. Hell, they already do. HYDRA has basically declared war on mutants, America and probably all other countries that try to do some good in the world. You took out a huge threat."

Kara nodded to Kate slowly, "I thought I was ready for all of this, maybe I wasn't? I have a lot of power and a responsibility to use it properly." She smiled at Booster, "You're right Jon, but it seems to be just me making all of the stupid mistakes, not the team. There's an Earth saying I read on the internet 'You are the weakest link, goodbye'. That feels like me."

To Calvin she considers his words before biting her lip nervously again, "That's what I thought, but Superman pointed out to me that I had other options. I could have simply grabbed their whole carrier and plunged it into the ocean, disabled the engines or anything else and force those men to go to trial. I mean, I did think of that to but I was scared others would get hurt at the time and I just, acted rashly with my anger. Hydra are terrorists, but they are people to, with families and it was wrong of me to think of them as monsters."

"Please. One of these days we'll sit down and I'll spend a weekend telling you one tenth of the stupid things Clint's done," Kate snorts softly, tightening her arm around Kara. "We all make mistakes. We all do stupid things we regret. And Mimic's got a point. But the important thing is, JLA doesn't kill. It shouldn't be our first reaction. That's a training issue. There's a reason the military puts recruits through drills. It's so when you don't have time to think, you always make the decision you were trained to make. So we train."

Booster drops down into his seat again. "It's something we have to discuss, anyway. They were talking about calling us in for questioning. If they do that, we should talk… I don't see any reasons not to." He stretches and settles back in his chair before he adds, "The last thing I want the public to think, is that we were working with HYDRA and intentionally messed things up so the President would get killed. I just have a bad feeling about how things are going."

"No, I think monsters sums it up pretty well." Mimic disagrees again. "By their actions shall you know them. Or whatever the exact bible quote is. Now was there a better way? You kept innocent lives form being lost. Would another way have endangered them? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Tactics are something you learn not something you're born with. Inexperience is not something to be ashamed of but something to be remedied by training, as Kate pointed out. So basically, you didn't do anything wrong, they chose their actions, and you'll learn with time and dedication. You can still feel bad about the waste of their lives but you did nothing to feel guilty about." He looks over at Booster and slowly nods. "When I heard you were being subpoenaed, I had the same thought. I'm familiar with government sponsored witch hunts. If I were paranoid, I'd say that regardless of what you say, you'll end up being blamed either through action or inaction and they'll use that as the foundation to implement some kind of registration laws. If I were paranoid." Not that he's actually said he wasn't.

Kara put her arm around Kate and leaned on the other girl, smiling, "I'd love to hear about all of Clint's mistakes one day, preferably with lots of popcorn and milkshakes ready." It seemed to cheer her up at least a little.

Nodding to Calvin and Booster she sighed a little, "Thank you Cal, it helps a little but I've been paranoid to. After I announced I was an alien, suddenly we had anti-alien movements to go along with anti-mutant and now.." She trails off, silently agreeing with the possibility of registration or worse.

Giving Kate's shoulder a squeeze she stood up and went to go check on the noodles, stirring them a little before turning off the stove, "Hopefully this Spaghetti isn't another mistake, nobody is allergic to anything right?" She points to a spice rack on the counter to make sure.

Log edit: Kara is Superditz and she meant CAL not MIMIC

Log edit: Kara is SUPER DUPER Superditz and she meant MIMIC not CAL

"They can try." Kate leans back in her chair a bit, propping one knee against the edge of the counter. "It's part of why I've been trying to tie more of us together. If they're going to try to make us register, then we're going to need our own sort of…union. Some sort of levels of protection for people who can't or won't be public."

"That's a problem, yes. When you make hero identities public, that can make them or the people around them targets," Booster nods slowly. "For all I know, this is the first step towards the situation we have in my native era. I was talking to Kara about it the other night. No superheroes, no supervillains, no usage of superhuman powers. The claim is that it keeps everyone safer when you don't have people running around blasting targets with lightning or whatever."

"I've seen it myself." Mimic says, nodding to Booster. "It never turns out well. But if they do it, I'm going to advise the X-Men just move to another country. We, all of us, have a responsibility to the world as a whole not juts America. If they don't want us, let them sleep in the bed they make. Fighting it just leads to disaster."

Kara goes about dishing out spaghetti and meatballs for everyone and sets it down where they are seated before taking a seat herself, "That's a scary thought Jon, very scary considering what we were speaking about last night with your era" She started eating her spaghetti, which was fairly good by the way!

"I'm not leaving," Kate shakes her head. "And I'm not registering, either. I mean. Granted, it's not like it's a secret or anything. But I'm not working for the government, following their targets. If I'd wanted to do that, I would've joined SHIELD. I'm just going to do everything I can to make sure that the good work we do keeps happening. If that means going undercover, then I'll figure out a way." She leans back as Kara fills plates, looking up with a swift smile. "It looks good, Kara."

"Moving away might prolong it, dunno that it'll solve it." Booster picks up a fork and pokes at his spaghetti for a few moments, as is his normal habit when approaching 21st century cuisine. "I'm from about five hundred years from now," he adds, for Mimic's benefit. "Anyone who has innate powers gets genetically conditioned from childhood. It's for our own protection, that's what they say. I have to admit, they don't have much in the way of big superbattles wrecking the landscape." He considers this for a moment, then says, "Will have. Whatever, you know what I mean. But for anyone who didn't have enough money, they still suffered a lot. It's easy to say what is and isn't legal when the people in power can write laws that benefit themselves the most."

"That kind of future can be a reality right now without needing several centuries. It's happened elsewhere and it's not something I want to see. I just don't know how to avoid it." He may have been to other realities but how they get to that point is something Mimic doesn't necessarily know. "I'm not really familiar with Upton. Anyone know about him and what his underlying agenda is?" He's going to have to look into that.

Kara is filling her face with spaghetti due to that enhanced Kryptonian physiology, she may have been small but she could definitely eat, "I think the important thing is we stay put and show the people of the world that we're here to protect them and we can't be bullied." When the question is asked about Upton, she points out, "He's kind of the opposite of Pershing, he's more left wing and has more militant views from what I've heard…" She sets her fork down and pulls out her phone, quickly reading any information she can find on the internet, "He was former secretary of state under President Abbot, and he served in the marine corps. He was brought in because of his ability to draw in voters from the southern states."

Log edit: Left wing = Right wing

Kate shakes her head to Booster. "I don't so much do politics," she admits. "But I probably know some people who know some people." The story of Kate's life. She takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "We'll figure it out one way or another."

"Oh, it doesn't need centuries, no," Booster agrees, with Mimic. "It's well entrenched by my time. Give or take a massive disaster that happens at some point between now and then." He shrugs a little at this, an expression of 'what can you do?' on his face. "Kara, this food you've made is very good. It reminds me a little bit of pizza. With uh, animal." He breaks a meatball with his fork, a little uncertainly, but he eats it anyway. "I have no problems with trying to squash anything that could lead to my future."

"The trick will be in knowing what squashes and what will make it worse." Mimic point out between forkfuls. And unfortunately, he has no clue. At least there are no giant robots.

"Thanks Jon, glad you're enjoying it." Kara finishes up her plate of food and goes for seconds while the other's chat and taking the opportunity to feed Streaky some scraps of food which he was more than happy for.

Kate eats a few bites, looking around at the others. "Well. One way or another." She points at Booster and Mimic with her fork. "And if you two doom crows don't lighten up a little bit, I'm going to make up the most ridiculous stories about your alternate selves I can come up with and post them on the internet."

Booster smirks at Kate. "I've met several of my alt-selves. But per your wishes I won't talk about any of yours. Anyway," he cuts at the pasta on his plate with the side of his fork, because twirling the stuff is not a skill he ever had the chance to learn. "I know there are fiction stories about me on the internet, there are a lot of people out there who like to speculate about folks like us, and they write it down and share it."

"So have I." Mimic says. One, anyway. Then he laughs at what Booster says. "Oh, hell yeah. The slashfic can get ridiculous with its pairings. Some of it's rather well written though."

Kara snickers a little at Kate and says, "We can just write Booster Gold, Mimic Slash Fic on the internet as revenge." She sits back down with her pasta and smiles at Mimic, "Who knows, you might even read it."

"Not reading that, either," Kate says around a mouthful of spaghetti. "Vorpal already threatened me with the Green Arrow. As if. I mean, he's nice enough, but he called me an elbow-dropper. I don't just run around forgiving that sort of thing."

"I don't care what people write about me in their leisure time," Booster replies airily, shaking his head. "I like attention. It's not like they're sending me death threats. Anyway it's doubled for me because they write about my Colwyn Grayden character on Secret Hospital, too. If people want to have fun and get off with their imagination, good for them."

Mimic glances over at Booster a moment. "Who knows." he agrees, grinning at Kara. Kate though gets a puzzled look. "An elbow dropper? Anyway, to get back to the original topic, you should definitely set up some regular training. I'd also check the internet for any video footage of Superman so you can see what he does under different circumstances."

"I kind of want to know what an elbow dropper is too.." Kara sighed, having never heard the term before, "I just have to work harder to follow his example, he was pretty disappointed when he got the news. It was enough to bring him back to Metropolis from wherever in the world he had been these past few months." She shrugged her shoulders, "It might also be good for me to stop trying to be Supergirl all the time and live a normal life to, I've been far too caught up in trying to be a hero. Maybe that's the problem."

"It's an archery form thing," Kate explains, setting down her fork. "If you've got the right form, your elbow is parallel to the ground. Gives you the best draw, the most strength behind it. People who don't know what they're doing or are weak in the arm or the shoulders will tend to drop their elbow down toward their side, thinking being closer to the core will give them better leverage. Instead, it just gives you a shitty draw."

"Ehh, I bet he's just jealous," Booster tells Kate. "Anyway, Superman tends to do things like… breathe on stuff to freeze it, I still don't know how he does that," he shakes his head, gesturing vaguely with his fork. "Drop stuff into the sea, or throw stuff into orbit. I'm not sure how he avoids taking out satellites and stuff though, when I took that nuclear missle out there I accidentally clobbered one on the way out." After taking a bite of spaghetti, he explains, "I majored in History, a lot of my courses dealt with the people involved in the Heroic Age."

Well, now he knows. Mimic just nods at that little bit of information that'll never come in useful as he doesn't plan on taking up the bow. "You know Kara, pushing the thing below the ocean probably wouldn't have worked either. HYDRA agents are known to kill themselves before letting themselves be captured. They not only wouldn't have abandoned the carrier, they'd probably have blown it up anyway."

"Wow, what a jerk. You're probably a thousand times the Archer that guy is, don't worry about it Kate." Kara listens to Booster and Mimic before she raises her eyebrows a little at Mimic, "So basically, no matter what I did, they would have probably killed themselves or avoided capture? Can we even win with an enemy like that? It doesn't make me feel any less bad, especially after how disappointed Superman was. He's never been like that with me, that I can remember." Kara rubbed her forehead, "I had a sort of amnesia or something I think before about certain things.." That wasn't confusing or vague in the least..

Kate shrugs about the elbow-dropper comment, going back to her food. "They would've killed themselves anyhow is kind of hard to prove, though. Probably not going to win us a lot of support. But if it makes you feel less bad, yeah. Mimic's probably right about that."

"What Kate said," Booster tilts his head to indicate the archer. "I still think an apology is a good idea. We all know you're compassionate, Kara, but the public needs to be assured of that, too. I think it'll help that we prevented a lot of civilian casualties, too." He sighs a little. "We saved a lot of lives in this, I don't want anyone to lose sight of that."

"You might want to issue a statement before you all testify." Mimic suggests. "If you do it now, on your own, you make sure that no one can claim you were trying to cover things up. You can also frame the debate in your own terms and stress the parts that are good. Otherwise, Ballard can claim they 'discovered' it as a result of your being questioned."

Kara agrees with the sentiments and nods, "Maybe you can all help me? Kate do you think Hawkeye and the others will mind? I don't want to get in anymore trouble or cause more problems for anyone but I do want to at least say something so people can understand what happened and know that I am sorry."

"Let's talk to them," Kate suggests. "Sit down, decide how we want to present this, and then get a statement in. Sooner rather than later, of course," she nods to Mimic. "He's right. Acting sooner's going to give us the chance to control the conversation."

"We really don't want those in power who have an agenda to spin this against us," Booster agrees, glumly, idly tapping his fork against his plate. "Once that gets rolling, it'll steamroll extenuating details and obliterate intention. PR disaster."

"You need to hire a PR spokesman." Mimic tells them. "There are people who specialize in that kind of thing. Someone trained in psychology who knows how to convey ideas in exactly the way you want."

Kara sighed softly and poked at her food, sort of losing her appetite or getting full either was possible, "Well, I trust all of your judgement. In my time on Earth, I feel like misconstruing intent is one of the most powerful tools utilized to discredit others and push an agenda. So, it does seem smarter to try and talk to the others as soon as possible." She frowns and adds, "I guess I would understand to if the league kicked me out to distance everyone before it becomes an issue." Yep, that had definitely been on her mind.

"Those, I definitely know," Kate replies to Mimic's suggestion, pointing her fork at the mutant. "Lawyer's not a bad idea, either. And I've been thinking we probably need someone to keep an eye on things here. I just haven't had a chance to go out and hire a staff, you know?"

"The JL:A may get people demanding that you get kicked out, Kara," Booster admits. "I'd be against that. Anyway I think it'd come across as a pandering move, a 'quick fix', you know? Skeets…" he turns his head as he calls for his robot pal.

"Yes, sir?" The little golden robot queries as it flies in, hovering near the table.

"Skeets, please scrutinize all media that is even remotely related to the JL:A," Booster tells his valet droid. "Even if it's just personal blogposts and comments. World-wide. I'd like to get a feel for opinion trends, it'll help when we make our statements. Oh… uh, no reading anyone's email this time. Thanks."

Kara watches as Mimic walks over to get more spaghetti and smiles brightly, "At least I made spaghetti right." Pondering things for a moment, she changes the topic entirely and asks Booster, "So, I was thinking if I had to do a normal job I kind of want to do what you do but without being a public figure. Is it possible, you could pull some strings and maybe get me some kind of job on Secret Hospital? I'd like to be an actress, even if it's just a minor role.."

"Careful, Kara," Kate says ruefully. "The acting business is even more cutthroat than the hero business. And if you think the media's bad when you're fighting crime, you should hear the things they say about what you're wearing, or who you're sleeping with, or anything else that no one else should care about."

"I could see if I can get you an audition, Kara. Kate's right though," Booster nods, resuming eating his dinner, rather slowly. "It can be pretty harsh. I audition for stuff all the time, and I only ever get a few jobs. It's nearly as rough as modeling." His eyes roll as he says this. "It's a little demoralizing sometimes, having someone judge and criticise you while you're standing right there with your shirt off." After a thoughtful moment he says, "Don't do any modeling where they make you take your shirt off, though."

Kara managed a nod at that, "An audition would be nice but yeah I'm not an idiot, I'm not interested in doing that other kind of thing. I just thought it would be neat to be on television and bring joy and entertainment to others, because I know I really enjoy watching Secret Hospital and stuff."

Kate points at Booster when he mentions not taking off tops for auditions, then stands up to gather up any empty plates. "And now, I shall introduce you to the Earth custom that is she who cooks doesn't have to do the dishes," she grins at Kara. "Thanks, Kara. It was really good."

"That's the weird thing about this era," opines Booster, as he rises from his seat and collects his own plate. "People get scandalized if women work as underwear models, they don't seem to care if guys do it. If anything I get more fans when I do and no one tries to question my morals. Kara, you should teach me how to cook, sometime." As he walks his share of the dirty dishes to the kitchen, he adds, "And before either of you pin that on my being a guy, I used to work the replicator for my mom and sister all the time."

Kara smiles at the pair as they start doing the dishes, she wouldn't break it to them that she could have finished it all in under a second, "Thanks you two and I'd be glad to show you how as I learn Booster, it's not as easy as using a replicator though. BUT you're welcome to visit Sanctuary anytime you like and use it, just remember to take Skeets sometime and visit Sanctuary, it acts weird sometimes and I think it hates that it's stuck with me."

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