Once Lucas and Jonathan are mostly settled into their seats, the service bot that led them over approaches and sets the two menus it brought with it in front of them. Upon Lucas noticing just how thick the nearly 20-page black leather-bound menu is, he flinches and grimaces slightly.‘Holy shit. After the way today’s been, I do NOT have the energy left to choose between that many options.’[Executive functions aren’t exactly your strong suit in the first place.]‘Hey! Watch it, buddy! Not cool!’[...The amount of money you wasted on excessive clothing because

Once Josephine is done with her introduction, Alley Cat’s soft gasp carries through the phone.“Oh! Josephine Hendry, the violinist, right? Your latest album was lovely! Hehe, Miss Calculated wouldn’t stop gushing over it. Will you be doing any more performances anytime soon?” Alley Cat’s genuine enthusiasm makes it clear that they aren’t just being polite.Mark snickers, but largely represses it. Sort-of.Josephine smiles at first, but it shifts into a sheepish expression after the reminder of Miss Calculated’s relatively recent antics. She quietly clears her throat as she subconsciously leans closer to the phone before speaking up.“Yes, thank you. She, ah, told me herself.” Josephine pauses in the middle of giving her answer, waiting out the mixed laughter from both her local and remote companions. “And, yes, actually. I just finished the negotiations for the dates and venues for several performances not that long ago.”“Oh! I’ll be sure to have someone on the lookout for tickets o

Abe glances over at Lucas as he sets down his fork, then turns his attention over to Mark. “And on the subject of busy days, some of us are going to continue being quite busy for a long time. Until those fancy new sewing machines you were talking about are ready, assuming they even work, I have no business staying up too late.”‘Abe is my hero. 10/10 cranky old man.’[...]Mark sighs as he waves a hand back and forth. “Yes, yes, I know. I’ll walk you home. We’ll all be seeing each other plenty anyway, I just wanted to make sure you, Lucas, and Jonathan actually met each other. Well, and also so Josephine could let everyone know the results of her meeting.”Dan, who finished eating while the others were chatting and quietly switched to using his phone like Jonathan, glances at Mark and rolls his eyes.He could be hanging out with Willy right now, he didn’t need to be dragged into this. So rude.‘Pff, walk him home?’[Well, Abe’s power isn’t particularly well-suited for self-defense. Me

Post proprio-perfect landing, Lucas barely maintains a neutral expression as he heads off in pursuit of the nearest subway station. The difficulty of his self-imposed Try Not to Laugh Challenge is further enhanced by the hasty departure of a random pedestrian that was clearly alarmed by his sudden arrival from above.‘Man, this’ll never get old. It must be even better with speed too... 427, go convince Boss System that I should be able to take speed without increasing the tasks I gotta do, kay thanks.’[...It’s highly unlikely that it would be approved. And that’s even if we tried to argue that it was an emergency purposes only power, considering you have no business letting anyone else see you using any additional powers. Unfortunately, until such time as you no longer need to hide your status as a member of the Superhero Enhancement System, taking any obvious powers like speed or invisibility would be ill-advised. Thanks to your viral popularity online, which demonstrated both your

Lucas clears his throat once he’s done milking his cookie for all the extra time he can manage.“Uhh, actually I got noticed by Boss System around lunch the day before we met.” Lucas’s casual address for the Superhero Enhancement System elicits an amused smile from Jonathan, though he looks mildly surprised after processing the timespan.“Remember Clara, er, Clarissa?” Lucas pauses for a moment, quickly answered by Jonathan nodding. “Well, tryin’ to help her get her purse back from some asshole ended up with me gettin’ stabbed.” Lucas gestures at the serrated knife in the dish drying rack as Jonathan’s eyebrows subconsciously scrunch up. “That sounds like it was j-just a minor task? D-did you do something big to get that close?” It’s now Lucas’s turn to nod in answer to Jonathan’s question.“Yeah, it was. I’ll get to why my GDV was where it was in a minute, though.“So, I was bleedin’ out and 427 showed up an’ gave me a rollback with superstrength. I wasn’t exactly ready to make any