2013.08.25 - Zombie Pizza, Hold The Anchovies

Leo's apartment is expensive, though not the most expensive in the Metropolis apartment building. It's theme is 'white', but the interior decorating has accents of black and colors (especially blue and red). The colorful throw pillows are tossed about on seating. It's a big place, where Leo not only has a large living room, full kitchen, and bedroom...but he also has a personal bath, a public hall bath, but also a nice-sized study room/office room. There is a door man at the main apartment entrance and security guards, it's quite classy really.

Leo actually mentioned to Bart at school he bought a new console and all the new games associated with it. That is what called about this impromptu meeting. A text sent to Fern inviting her over with a comment of: 'Don't make me suffer and die alone!!!'

Leo today is in a snug black t-shirt, low riding jeans, barefoot and no belt. Casual. Even the jeans look worn, though they were of course bought that way.

A visitor from just yesterday is returning, and the same doorman is on duty that let Fern in then. She's got a smile for him, exchanging brief pleasantries as she balances a pizza box on one arm. Getting up to Leo's floor, she steps out of the now pizza scented elevator, and heads for the younger Luthor's door. She's dressed casually, a denim skirt that hits at her knees, and a day-glo orange tank top. Taking a second to adjust the bag at her hip, she hits the doorbell with her thumb.

Bart shows up promptly at Leo's door, dressed in his usual jeans and loudly colored T-shirt, today bright red with a giant white "!" mark down the front. His backpack is slung over his shoulders, and he has on his trademark goofy grin. Upon approaching the swanky pad, he greets Fern, now standing at the door beside her. "Hey! Are you here to see Leo, too? He invited me over to play video games."

And then Leo is there! The door opens, he's peeking out and grins, "Fern," then smirks a bit, "Alright, that's a cool shirt Bart. Come on in." He steps back and opens the door wider, though he examines the pizza box. "Mmmm." Pizza. Every boy's love. The door is closed behind the two of you. "Fern, this is Bart, one of my school mates and...a friend," as if testing out the word, and then nods slightly as he appears to like the sound of it. "Bart, this is Fern." He doesn't say 'she's cute' in front of Fern, he restrains himself. "Fern and I met at the Stark Expo. She likes zombie games." See, custom introductions!

Fern turns, looking toward the approaching new face, her smile coming automatically. "Hey," she returns, the greeting friendly. "I'm pizza delivery and color commentary." Before she can say more, the door swings open and Leo is there. "Hey Leo." She sidesteps inside quickly, unslinging her bag and letting it drop to the floor as she passes through to the kitchen. "I figured pizza goes with games." She deposits the box and is back immediately. "Nice to meetcha, Bart."

"Thanks!" Bart says to Leo's compliment as he cheerfully follows Fern in, reaching to offer a fist-bump to Leo. That grin doesn't fade a bit. After all, there's pizza. "Pizza goes with EVERYTHING," he declares brightly. "And if you like zombie games you're obviously COOL." He dumps his bag in a likely looking spot, tapping one of his huge sneakers against the other and trying for all the world not to fly into a frenzy of the video game enlightenment that Leo so clearly needs.

And yes, Leo actually dares to participate in a 'fist-bump', which of course amuses him to no end. There is a reason he really likes Bart. The electronics in this place are top of the line LexCorp projects, including the console and games. Everything looks hooked up too, and on, though no game is loaded.

Leo then sighs dramatically, on purpose, "You can let loose Bart. Why don't you tell us both what is the up and what is the down buttons," a grin spreading across his face. "In the meantime, I'll grab sodas. Same thing as last time Fern?" Then to Bart, "What's your favorite drink anyway Bart?" As if Leo wouldn't have paid attention at lunch time and made sure to memorize it and buy it for tonight.

"I wasn't sure what you guys like, so I went with half pepperoni and half mushroom," Fern offers into the fray, and she nods to Leo. "Yes, please." Her attention shifts to Bart and there's a sheepishness to her smile. "I'm not really much of a gamer. My folks were the 'get outside' sort. But I do like zombies, and we played a game at the Expo for about three minutes, wasn't it, Leo?" She looks over to Leo with a grin, teasing lightly about their spectacular mutual fail. "I can use all the tips and teaching that I can get."

So Bart bumps fists, and them of course he "blows it up" just for style points. "With pizza, definitely root beer!" he declares his soda preference. Then, grinning wider than ever, he scoots around to plunk down on the couch and load up a game on the LexBox. Calling back over to Fern, he says, "As long as it's nothing weird like ANCHOVIES then it's cool!" In point of fact, the easiest way to get Bart to eat vegetables is probably to put them on a pizza. Loading up the latest Deft-Or-Dead game, he says, "This one's multiplayer! You guys should grab a controller and pick a character."

Leo half pretend scowls at that, "Umm..can I lie and say it was at least five minutes? Would that be considered fair?" Leo is getting out a glass and putting ice in it before pouring a cold can of pepsi into it for Fern. Hey, a guy has to have some pride! "And any pizza is fine, not picky. Good pizza is good pizza, just no anchovies or pineapple please."

A cold bottle of root beer is pulled out of the fridge, the lid easily popped off with Leo's thumb as he tosses it away in recycle same as the pepsi can after rinsing it out. He grabs a cold can of cherry coke for himself as he carries the drinks out to the living room to hand them out. "Alright, alright. What's the purpose of the game?" Leave it to a Luthor to ask that.

Fern moves around Leo, boldly rummaging for dishes and napkins as he gets the drinks. "I suppose, since I'm feeling generous, I'll even let you call it six minutes," she allows, speaking loudly enough for Bart to hear. She leans over, looking toward Bart, and if she catches his eye will mouth it was only three exaggeratedly. She gets back to her task, acknowledging, "No little fishies for either, no pineapple for the golden boy. Check." She follows Leo out, looking to the television as Bart gets the game set up, then sets plates, napkins and the pizza box onto the coffee table. "Thanks, Leo," she says softly, flashing him a smile.

"Pineapple on pizza is just weird," Bart says, lightly toying with the controller's thumbsticks. "It's like, why is there fruit on the pizza? Would you put oranges on it too?" Then, as Leo brings in the drinks, Bart laughs. "The rules are really easy," he promises. "Waste all the zombies, collect all the loot, and SURVIVE!" He seems to miss the bits about how many minutes they played the video game, probably since in his world it all boils down to "not enough." As Fern brings over the pizza, Bart declares, "Thanks!" He snags a slice of pepperoni, nibbling on it rapidly, though he seems more focused on getting them to actually play the video game than eating. (And for him, that's saying something!)

Leo rolls his eyes at Fern and whispers at her, "Caught that." But he then takes a sip of his coke before he settles down with a controller and grabs a napkin and a slice of mushroom pizza. "Ya, fruit and pizza? Never quite understood that either. Imagine strawberries or grapes?" Geez, boys. Still, he takes a bite of pizza and eyes the controls.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Fern responds mildly back to Leo, waiting until it's safe to take her own piece of pizza. Mushroom for her, and she holds it by the crust to bite the pointed tip off. As she chews she sets her plate down, wiping her fingers quickly and picking up one of the remaining controllers. "At least we can't do any worse, Leo." Hopefully. She looks down at the controller and pauses. "Which button does what again?"

Bart somehow manages to work on that slice of pizza and juggle the controller at the same time, declaring between bites, "You can pick your character with the left thumb stick and the yellow button. I got the Quick Guy, but you can pick the Strong Guy, the Sneaky Girl, or the Tough Girl." He snags another bite of pizza, then he balances his plate on one knee while reaching for the soda. "The game teaches you to play when it starts. It'll flash what button you need to push on your screen." Because obviously Leo has four networked TVs instead of just one split into fourths.

Leo of course goes for the Strong Guy since Bart got the Quick Guy. And that totally works for Leo! (Cool Idea Bart!) He works on his pizza while he settles in with his 'guy'. "So, guess tough girl knocks things about while sneaky girl stabs things in the back or something?" Leo winks over at Fern when Bart is occupied with his soda. Honestly...dying quickly will bug Leo, but it also makes him happy strangely to see Bart so hyper and delighted.

Fern ponders her character choices for a moment, eating more pizza thoughtfully, before she finally says, "Yeah, I think I'm more a sneaky girl type than a tough girl type." She starts tapping buttons, getting her character set, not without a little bit of difficulty. She'll catch on, or at least she hopes, but she not the fastest at picking up something like this. Hopefully she won't cause any deaths but her own until she gets the hang of it.

The game comes at them pretty fast, but it does seek to teach them how to play. They start out at a typical "haunted mansion" location, and early on Fern finds a hidden weapons cache using her stealthy character skills. So, about ten seconds later, Bart sends his character blasting out the front door with a fully automatic "zombie zapper," which appears to be a kind of hyperactive Tesla coil designed to vaporize the undead. Somehow, he manages not to kill his character, instead ending up perched on top of the gazebo and sending sparky blasts at the waves of undead. "I love this level!" he declares. "They had a preview out earlier this year." And from there, Bart is solidly in the zone. He offers advice here and there--"Leo, hit the blue button to smack him with your gun!"--and occasionally attacks his food, but mostly he just seems to be in a state of profound bliss at playing the game with a couple of friends.

Leo on the other hand is struggling to survive. He has almost died a couple times, but manages to retreat just in time. But when he thinks he is about to bite the dust for sure this time the helpful advice from Bart is quickly used! He lets out a pent up breath. "Wow...who knew games could be so intense." Only for those that actually care if they die. Leo is the type to try and use tactics in the game, making sure he has a retreat spot in case he gets overwhelmed, and the type to draw attention away from sneaky girl so she can do her stuff as well. He makes a habit of keeping track of his 'team members' and has run like a punk bitch just to lead zombies to a kill zone for Bart at least once. "This is kind of neat though, having team mates, and being able to use tactics to take out more zombies. It would be harder to survive solo."

The sole female on the team isn't what you would call a stoic player. No, Fern's more prone to wiggling as if it'll help her character get out of a tight spot, flinching when a zombie gets too close for comfort, and mumbling odd curses under her breath, like 'oh Belgium!' and 'fudge!'. It takes more than a game to break her into the real deal. She's also easily distracted from the action, giggling and nearly getting killed when Bart gets particularly enthusiastic and she can't help but watch him get lost in the zombie killing. Several times she looks gratefully to them both, offering thanks for saving her butt yet again.

"Wow, you're really good at this!" Bart declares, giving a whoop when they clear the mansion's front grounds and break into the street. "Okay, Sneaky Girl can hotwire the sports car, so Fern gets to drive!" He's perched on the arm of the sofa, now, his character similarly crouching in the backseat of the in-game convertible. "Leo should clear our path with the grenade launcher--make sure you shoot way ahead of us!--and I'll zap 'em if they get too close behind us!" He seems to take their fervor as all part of the fun, and he's perfectly willing to get in on the fun of crying out frantic suggestions or warnings. Even if he happens to have a mouthful of pizza. (Of course, at least he remembers to say "excuse me" if that happens.) Soon enough, it looks like their goal may be in sight!

"Wait, girls can drive?!" Leo then steals an amused glance over to Fern. But then he goes to work remembering how to use the grande launcher. Another piece of pizza is raided at that point. Aiming is something that Leo is good at once he gets the hang of the controls...which earlier in the game Bart permitted by protecting him and keeping him alive while he practiced. Playing games with Bart is better...he's so good at them, that Leo can leech on his awesomeness and not die...least on the beginner levels.

There's a raised eyebrow at Leo's comment, and Fern says softly, "You better hold on, boys. It's gonna be a bumpy ride." She's actually not bad at maneuvering the vehicle, even getting daring, swinging them back around at the clusters of zombies to get more points by taking more out. She's forgotten about her half eaten pizza, but it'll be just fine after a few seconds in the microwave later on. There are more important things than eating!

The level is beat, and a break is taken to finish the now cold pizza - reheating is offered however - and there is talk of video games, game tactics, recapping of awesome stunts and events, and of course plenty of teasing of Fern's driving skillz and how elite they are.