Xaviers!

Will had changed into a nice dress -- nothing super formal or anything like that, but at least a little bit fancier than normal. And by "changed into a dress", I mean "put a dress on"; a meaningful description when it comes to Will.

It was just a regular Mediterranean place in downtown Maldon. Will thought the food would be good and relatively inexpensive -- her wallet, of course, was not infinite -- but she technically hadn't been to this universe's version. Maybe it would be terrible! Who knew?

There were people she had to thank, and so she sat down and waited for friends to arrive.

Natalie arrives, relatively punctual. Hard to be late when all sorts of signals carried timestamps. She had done something with her hair, though what she had done was difficult to describe in that it wasn't much really. She had opted for skirt and a sweater, which somehow managed to make a 19-year-old look frumpy. She seems a little surprised by Will, but she covers it and waves shyly as she makes her way over to the table.

"Natalie! Come, sit," Will waved, patting the chair next to her.

"This place does a great Pollo ai Funghi; or, at least, the alternate-universe son of the owner will do in a few years. Best I could do on short notice," she smiled.

"It's fine. Haven't tried a lot of Mediterranean food before, so this is as good a time as any."

"And, worst come to worst, they have a burger. Can't really go wrong with a burger."

"It's difficult, but all things are possible in a university cafeteria," she says with a small laugh.

"Sweet, burgers!" Nailah announces to the world that she's an ignorant American, having caught the tail-end of the conversation. She's swapped out her usual t-shirt for a nice blouse and that's about it, the jeans are the same torn-at-the-knees one she wears most of the time. It's hard to tell if it's just the same pair or if all her jeans are torn.

Will observed the jeans with a disapproving look, but otherwise without comment.

"Come in, come in one and all."

"... restaurant, so I gotta go Sho. Have a nice flight," Tosh said into his phone as he came into the restaurant. He hung up and pocketed it as he approached. He looked rather like an office intern in his black slacks, white button-up shirt, and clip-on black tie.

"Hey guys."

"Look at all the people here. I'll have to get in mortal peril more often," Will joked, motioning to everyone else to take a seat. "Make this a monthly thing or somewhat, right?"

"I hope not," Natalie says. Now that more people were here, she was starting to fidget.

Natalie Denisov wrote:"I hope not," Natalie says. Now that more people were here, she was starting to fidget.

Will made no outward signs of noticing, but scooted her chair a bit closer to Natalie.

"I dunno, I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie. Maybe next week I'll accidentally upload my brain to YouTube or something, and you'll have to pull it back down."

"Please don't," she says quickly, noting that she's closer and adding quickly, "I mean, I could probably do it, but YouTube's encoding stuff is a pain to work with."

"Hrm. Well, we wouldn't want my brain weirdly encoded. I'll have to ponder this one a little more and get back to you," she grinned.

Sam finally makes her way in wearing a black dress, the feathers she was sporting earlier gone.

"Hey guys, sorry if I kept you waiting. Just had to get... presentable."

"Says the shapeshifter." Nailah chuckles.

"Hey, I'll have you know that makes it even harder to get ready. We don't all just have one pair of jeans," Will laughed.

"Hey, these are my good jeans! They come pre-torn and that makes them fashionable."

"Until the fad passes anyway. Now my discount intern style, that's timeless," he joked.

"I hear a million threads crying out, and then: silence," Will joked, shaking his head sadly.

"Black dresses never go out of fashion," she chuckles, going to take a seat.

"I find green's usually a color in great demand," Will smiled. "But to each their own."

"Green doesn't work with everything, although some people really should rethink black," Natalie comments before her face turns a little red, "but not you, Sam, you look fine."

Tosh examined his tie. "Damn. I knew I should have worn the blue tie."

Will smiled at the conversation, but brought one hand to his temple, rubbing it somewhat. "Mmm. No, Tosh, I think you look fine. I think everyone looks fine."

"All that matters is that we're here, aye? Let's see what they have."

The menu was a decent cross-section of Mediterranean foods -- pastas, chicken, fresh fish, risotto, a couple different varieties of spaghetti, lasagna. A burger and pizza margarita, for the less adventurous. Also weird things like pate, calimari and lamb's liver, because Europeans eat very strange things.

Natalie pours over the menu, finding something safe, but not un-adventurous to order. She settles back in her chair and sips at her water, occasionally glancing Will's direction.

Tosh picked out a fish entree because of course he did.

"Anyone else weirdly tempted by the calimari appetizer? I've never actually tasted squid."

"It's chewy, but not too bad, if seafood is your thing," Will laughed. "Deep fried makes everything a little bit better,"

She seemed at ease around everyone -- but Natalie's occasional glances would catch Will occasionally glancing over at Sam perhaps a little more than at everyone else.

"Might give you flashbacks to that thing we fought."

"Fight things long enough, and I bet everything on the menu will do just that.

Oh nos! A flying spaghetti monster!"

"I'm perfectly fine with flashbacks of how I kicked its butt," he smirked.

Natalie doesn't have any cool team stories to share, or at least she doesn't think she does, so she's content to watch the conversation unfold while her phone does a search for "giant squid battle." It doesn't find anything that isn't some movie so she gives up on that search.

Tosh glanced at Natalie as she searched and leaned over to whisper, "Parallel dimension. Evil me built a cyborg squid submarine... and my goofy cousin was... MechaBruce."

"I'll split a squid with you, Tosh!" Nailah interjects, still looking over the menu. "I wanna try it but I also want the risotto."

"I think Nailah wants dealt in on any future monster-punching."

"Around here? Just wait five minutes and something'll turn up," Will joked.

"Dude. You just described the last month of my life."

"Yeah, your last month sounds pretty rough," Will deadpanned. "I can't imagine what that would have been like," she added, with a wink.