Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

[BlackAkuma]

Through all of this, Dizzy just had the softest, happiest smile. The Sotos couldn't have known, but this was the first time they’d had company like this in - God, maybe ever. They were always quick to pull up from wherever they were at any given time, Dizzy had never had the chance to establish a relationship beyond a fun fly-by-night romp. She’d gotten used to that, even liked it, but having a friend she could take home and hang with was something she was liking. Plus, it was nice that she and her mother were no longer at loggerheads.

Though they were still sniping each other, just a little, but she could write that off territorial stuff. Two lionesses growling at each other in the savannah. Nothing serious.

She snickered at Alicia’s little comment: ”No poison. Don’t worry; I checked. A little taste test.” She flicked her tongue at the Hollywood Siren and went to make her plate. ”The meatballs might fight you on the way down, though. Got some kick to them.”

She loaded up a plate for her and Alicia while her mother took care of Gabby, making sure to give both women heaping helpings of what was on offer. She was surprised to see her stuffed up the young Soto sister’s plate, but then the woman seemed starving for it, and she wouldn’t have the chance to treat a guest like this for a long while, so she was likely making the best of it.

Dizzy kept her plate small - she tended to fatten up way too quickly thanks to her size, so she kept to smaller portions whenever possible. She sat opposite of Alicia and slid in as her mother came back with a filled plate. ”’Hollywood Overdose’.” Her face wrinkled up just repeating it, but softened again soon enough, as she brought over glasses of ice and a pitcher of tea for them to pour. ”A little crass, but I suppose it fits the theme.”

Dizzy poured herself a glass, sat back, and offered some tea for Alicia, looking between them with a knowing smirk the whole while. ”Hey, it took you down. I’d say it fits.”

”That time it did, yes.” Her mother got in her quick jab before holding up her hand, signaling a pause in their verbal sparring match. She closed her eyes and whispered under her breath as Dizzy did the same. ”Benedici, Signore, noi e questi tuoi doni, che stiamo per ricevere dalla tua generosità. Per Cristo nostro Signore. Amen.”

”Amen.” Dizzy opened and nodded Alicia’s way. ”Enjoy, bella.”

[HotWheels]

"Good thing I got kick to me too."

Alicia highly doubted anything Italian would eat her up more than a lot of what her mama cooked, all her traditional Latino dishes always spiced up that little bit extra because she had been born in California herself and that was how the culture had developed. More of interest to her was noticing how Dizzy played the good, obedient daughter game in front of mama... for the most part. The little seeds of rebellion popped through, but it did seem like they got along pretty well. Made sense. Nothing Dizzy had said made Angela out as a villain, but she had expected a little more tension. Just hadn't prepared Gabby for it. Good thing she didn't need to.

"Thank you. It's been a while since I've been to such a well-organized dinner." Gabby and mama were already best friends, anyway. It was kind of sickening.

Mama couldn't have known it, but she couldn't have given Alicia much more of a compliment than to call her naming conventions "crass, but fitting of the theme," and her smugness only stretched more thoroughly across her face as she stretched her glass out for Dizzy. Before she could even say anything about such a "crass" move dropping her for a three count, Dizzy had said it for her, and Alicia just ushered a loud mmmmhmmm that could have been heard out the window. But nah... she would save the smack talk for the gym, the training rooms, where she guessed she'd see Angela more now, huh? She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

She also didn't know what the hell mama was doing for a couple of seconds before Gabby caught on and ducked her head. Was that... Italian? A prayer? Prayer she got: Catholic family on her own mama's side. Didn't understand a damn word she was saying, but out of habit, she let her head fall anyway to stare into the plate since it was habit.

But food time arrived shortly after. Definitely a shorter prayer than they would have had back home. Alicia fixed Dizzy with her own version of the challenging look as she went straight for a meatball and shoved it into her mouth unabashedly, and the sound of scraping utensils briefly filled the air. Gabby spoke first, even though Alicia was getting to the same point of appreciation.

"Okay, yes. This is incredible," her sister said, and Alicia's second mmmmhmmm might have been even louder than the first.

Gabby would have been petrified if she had seen the sauce already painting her lower lip, too. Alicia shared a glance with Dizzy and raised a finger for her to shush about it.

[BlackAkuma]

Dizzy wasn’t all that religious - anyone who’d been around her for more than five minutes could tell that - but her mother was big on tradition, and this was a little thing they’d always done before eating. She honestly got the impression that she wasn’t all that into it, either, but little things that tied them to their home, helped ground them despite all their time away. It was kind of strange to think about, but overall, she’d spent little time in her home country, more of a child of the world than anything, and it would’ve been easy to lose that part of herself through their travels. But her mother always made sure she remembered where she came from. Taught her how to speak the language, kept up with the customs, and took some of Italy wherever they went. Even in Japan, in this apartment, everything felt familiar and safe.

With that little hit of nostalgia out of the way, dinner was on, and Dizzy proceeded to poke at her plate gingerly. She would’ve gone hog wild most times, but she was trying to appear dignified for their guests, be the good host, and stay polite…not a consideration for Alicia. She stifled a laugh when the Latina stuffed a meatball in her mouth and chomped it down. She tried to do the same, but when her tiny mouth couldn't open wide enough to get it all in, she had to settle for taking big bites.

She also spied the sauce on Gabby’s lip, dripping down onto the plate, proof her mother had gone overboard with the marinara. She almost opened her mouth to say something, but Alicia’s playful look kept her in check, giving them a silent game to play. She shook her head with a knowing smirk and inched forward in her seat, just enough for her to slip out of a sandal and give her friend a little kick on her thigh. Or, at least, where she imagined her thigh would be.

”I’m glad you like it, dear. Please, eat as much as you wish - I want those plates emptied.” She said it a loving, jovial tone, but Dizzy knew she wasn’t kidding. She got many lectures about world hunger over such things. ”Oh, and you have a little…”

Angela pointed to her own chin, giving Gabby the hint and spoiling their fun. Dizzy enjoyed the sight for a few more seconds, letting the younger Soto sibling handle her business before she spoke up, throwing out a question she’d been curious about. ”So, Gabby,” She brought up her glass but didn’t drink quite yet. ”You’ve joined up with LAW, right? What brought you out here? Heck, why wrestling at all? We just met, but you don’t seem like the type, if that makes sense. No offense.”

She glanced at Alicia, making sure she wasn’t stepping out of line or stepping on any landmines. It seemed like a perfectly fine question to ask, but you could never know how people would react.

[HotWheels]

"Oh, don't you worry."

Gabby found herself lost in the sauce. For a few seconds, the world seemed to disappear, and she let all of her inhibitions go as she practically drowned herself in the tasty food. For all Alicia had the size to show she ate doubly more than Gabby, the younger, smaller sister had the bigger appetite for plain old good food, and she knew it. At a dinner like this one, she could eat Alicia under the table, which was something she probably shouldn't have been proud of but was anyway. Let her bigger sister have her protein shakes, Gabby would-

Oh. Oh no. Gabby's eyes flew wide as Ms. Belti's comment drew her out of the reverie. "Oh... oh I'm-" She fumbled for her napkin and quickly covered the entirety of the lower half of her face with it, wiping everything to make sure that she got rid of the entirety of her embarrassment. That only led to her smearing it over her entire chin and lip, but now that she was conscious of it, she wiped again to render herself clean. She tried to bury it beneath an awkward smile and a desire not to smack Alicia, who had surely noticed and said nothing as per usual.

She regained her composure, slowed down, and Dizzy made conversation. Good - Gabby wanted to hear more from her. She still couldn't figure this whole thing out at all, but for the moment, the questions were at her. Even though... she looked at Alicia as if for confirmation. And Alicia was looking at Gabby as if she wanted those "damn" answers too. Alright.

She stalled long enough to swallow and dab her mouth again. "I'm... really not, admittedly. About the most I ever did before training was kick someone- you know." That was not something to share at the dinner table, especially in what she intended to be a deep, thoughtful explanation. "But when Alicia left to make things happen for the family and our mom was ready to start a new life, I figured I should try to do the same. I knew there were more opportunities here for people who weren't just big brawlers, and since I was a gymnast and a dancer, I thought I might have a shot."

She would not be dropping the "I wanted to meet new people and do flirty matches that exist only in my dreams" bit of the rest of the explanation. "And Alicia's big, but she wasn't a fighter before starting into wrestling before I knew it, either." She pointedly avoided looking at her sister, who would probably smack her on the back of the head when she finished. "She was a model and a soap opera star."

Surprisingly, Alicia did not slap her. She just looked like she wanted to, and Gabby smirked.

[BlackAkuma]

It took every ounce of Dizzy’s self-control to not burst out laughing.

Well, being fair, there was also the knowing glare that her mother was shooting her, as if anticipating that the growing smile on her face could evolve into something much ruder. But mostly, she desired to keep this civil and cordial, at least as much as any involving Alicia could ever be. They were getting along; this was pleasant, miles ahead of where they started when they first crossed paths. The last thing she wanted was to lose that progress over a few mean-spirited guffaws.

So she kept everything in check long enough for Gabby to find her composure and slip over to the next topic of conversation: How this sweet, innocent-looking wallflower of a person found herself in the lewdest wrestling outfit on the planet. The answer wasn’t quite as salacious as Dizzy had hoped, but then, she doubted all the beans would be spilled even if it were. Gabby seemed to give all the fucks that her elder sibling had no time for. Even so, there were some interesting nuggets to carve out, some diamonds in the rough.

”Dancer? Hm.” Dizzy hummed as she chewed on a mouthful and gave Gabby a look over, trying to picture it. She clearly didn’t mean that kind of dancer, but it wouldn’t have been too hard to picture, at least going off her body. She seemed fit enough, even with all the finery she wore to cover that body. Lithe and limber, maybe a high-flyer? She was curious to find, wanting to see how much of her sister’s fire she had in the ring. Speaking of which…

‘Model’. ‘Soap Opera star’.

Dizzy perked up at the former, her mother more to the latter. For her part, the surprise didn’t last too long, though. It made sense, the more she thought about it. ”That actually kind of tracks. right? I can see it in your entrance, you really know how to work with the camera. Most people just sort of slink down the ramp, but with you it’s this whole big thing.” She sloshed her tea around and bounced in her seat, bopping to the beat of LA Devotee without thinking about it. She might have watched Alicia’s entrance a few dozen times. ”Pretty cool.”

Angela, for her part, was busy concealing her grin behind her glass, as she took a long swig, loving the little bit of ammunition that had fallen into her lap. Heaven help her, she couldn't resist. ”Soap operas. That’s something.” She shuffled forward and planted her elbows on the table. ”I like a good soap opera from time to time, old lady that I am. Which one were you in? Maybe I’ve seen it.”

[HotWheels]

Fucking sisters.

Alicia didn't hold any shame about modeling or dipping her toes into the acting world, but it sure as hell screwed with her aura to go spreading that news to the four winds. The modeling, not so much a problem. The soap operas, yeah. She knew they were shit, the arena of bad acting. Though she wanted to bore a hole through Gabby's smug face like she had heat vision, she turned her dirty gaze away from her sister to pull together her composure, look tough... while also searching Dizzy's face first, then mama's, for their judgment.

Angela was hidden. Dizzy was just pondering, continuing the conversation. Alicia violently jabbed at a meatball that Gabby was lucky didn't fly into her ear. Her answer to Dizzy amounted to little more than a brief twitch of an eyebrow and shoulder as if in reluctant agreement. Nevermind that her whole aura was to be the Hollywood floozy that she had started to see from people who had hit it big and making a mockery of it, but she supposed it all worked in a bubble.

Mama Belti, though. She didn't have a compliment like Dizzy. Alicia groaned through the bite of meatball and leaned back in her seat, resisting that small urge to leap straight across the table or, better yet, to come up with something snappy and shitty to say before Angela fired her own comment. But it wasn't half as sassy as Alicia would have expected - just enough to make her roll her eyes, prompted to discuss something she didn't really care to discuss.

She took her sweet time piping up, though. "It was one shitty episode of Bold and Beautiful," she said, telling half the story before she got to the rest of it. Everyone had heard of that one, anyway. Gabby tried to fill in the rest of the gaps herself. "And a-" Alicia reached over to put a hand over her mouth, but missed and got a small handful of hair as Gabby pushed her wrist away.

"And like, five days recording for a 90210 daytime web series ripoff thing." Ugh. Worst five days of her life. She attacked her food for having to admit to it.

"Youthful Daze. She didn't like it, but she was really good in it." She was going to show Gabby what she was good at once they got back in the hall.

[BlackAkuma]

Dizzy could sense a slight simmering tension. While she and her mother weren’t at loggerheads anymore, there were still the lingering embers between them, the sort of sparks you’d expect when two queens sat at the same table. Both of them were the type to challenge, and neither was the type to back down, so a little ribbing was inevitable—and not even a problem, so long as it stayed good-natured. She feared that it might tip over for a moment, with her mother latching onto what was not Alicia’s favorite subject, but she kept it relatively light. Just a little poke, something to make her simmer but not boil. There might have even been some genuine interest. She hadn't been lying about loving her soaps.

Angela tensed up at the cursing, but kept her face placid otherwise, content to let Alicia get it all out, without interruption. After a moment, she returned to her plate, satisfied with the answer, and began on that pasta salad. ”I’m more of a Young and the Restless fan, can’t say I’ve seen you. Still, not a bad place to start. And your modeling-”

Dizzy figured this was as good a time to step in as any, not wanting to let her mother pry too deep, especially when there was a way to bring this back on her and give Alicia something to chew on. ”Didn’t you used to model, Mom?”

Angela looked off to the side, as if she were trying to pull in some memories from ancient history. ”Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, yes.” She ran a napkin over her mouth, trying to hide the smile. ”During my bodybuilding days, before I even touched a wrestling ring. ‘The Perfect Woman’, my manager’s idea.” She shook her head, just thinking about it. ”It paid well. Got me established. Looking back, though, I think I hated it.” Angela had a long, rueful sigh and slumped back into her chair, creaking under the shifting weight. ”Too many false smiles.” She tipped a glass Alicia’s way. ”Was it the same for you, Alicia?”

[HotWheels]

Haaaa.

Gabby didn't even mean her sister ill by her comments, but it was still fun to watch her stew. Alicia had been genuinely promising as an actress, and that much more as a model. She had also been excited at the time - at least as excited as Alicia ever showed others - to land those parts, though now she wore them more as an embarrassment for whatever reason. Maybe she just preferred to be seen as big and tough with her life's path leaving her in a big, tough woman's career arena. Gabby saw it as a point of pride. She would have never gotten those roles.

Still, Alicia seemed to calm down from Angela's not having seen her act. Smiling to herself, Gabby went back to digging into her plate, quietly happy that the attention was on her sister so she could eat. And not answer too many questions about why she had wanted to get into wrestling. Overexplaining that, not good.

"They have cameras then?", Alicia asked in response to Ms. Belti's comment about the dinosaurs, and Gabby just shook her head as she shoveled in a few more bites. Maybe that was why Alicia hadn't liked soap acting - she couldn't insult everyone around her. But the elder wrestler's story got Gabby's attention as much as it seemed to surprisingly get Alicia's. Gabby peered at her sister. That was a point of commonality, at least.

Of course, Alicia never shared too much expression of feeling, but she took off into a longer explanation than Gabby expected after a dismissive shrug. "Fake people were nothin' new to me. We grew up near Hollywood," she said, and gosh, did she have that right. It was part of the reason why Gabby played things so close to her own chest with feelings, needs. "Just didn't like the thought of being used up then thrown away. Happens every damn day to a lot of people I knew." Other prospective actors, models, their mom, school friends with big dreams... Gabby was picking up what Alicia was putting down. "I'd rather do this where someone can throw me wherever they want me until I kick someone's..." To her credit, she trailed off.

"People with the money gotta pay attention then."

That was one of the more thoughtful things she could remember her sister saying in some time, even as ineloquent as it was.

[BlackAkuma]

Angela took the little jab in stride - she opened herself up to it, after all, only fair. ”Polaroids, yes.” She thought back to the little one she’d gotten as a child, with the pack of ten she had to buy from the store each time. She’d thought it was the peak of technology at the time. If she’d only known.

She listened on, taking a few nibbles as Alicia spoke her truths, hitting closer to home than she could’ve known. ”It does happen all the time. You did well to get out when you did.” Angela grew quiet as memories she long kept buried made their way to the surface, a wistful gaze sweeping across her face. She hesitated, not wanting to risk bringing down the mood, but some things needed to be said at the right time and the right time only. This felt like a good one.

She rubbed the back of her hands as she looked over at Dizzy, happily munching away without a care. ”It consumes you—that life. I still keep in touch with some of my old friends, and the stories are all the same. The need to stay relevant, maintain the look, keep the body. Drugs, parties. Steroid abuse. Not that wrestling doesn’t have that, here and there, but it was so much worse on the bodybuilding scene, especially in the 90s. It took a toll on all of them, and when they reached my age, well…”

She trailed off with that one, not wanting to get into such gory details over the dinner table. Whatever they filled the blanks in with, the reality would be worse. She kept her tone low and light, as if recalling a dream on the edge of her mind. Melancholy thoughts of a path not taken. ”I think - I know - I’d started to circle that drain. I made the full transition to wrestling and changed it up just in time.”

There was a silence over things, just a moment, as Dizzy paused in her chomping and looked about, unsure what to make of it. Understandable. Angela didn’t talk much about her past, even with prodding. Certainly not with guests. ”What, uh…” She cleared her throat and finally broke through. ”What changed?”

”You were born.”

She side-eyed her daughter and saw her face redden with the dopiest little smile. She looked between her and the two sisters, down at the plate as she returned to her meal, trying her best to hide. Angela reached over and gave her a love pat on the head, like she often did when she was small. Smaller.

”Sorry.” She nodded to the sisters, then reached over to the counter for the pitcher of tea, needing a refill. ”The older you grow, the more you reminisce. You’ll see.”

[HotWheels]

Alicia didn't need mama to tell her that. Yeah, she had barely gotten into the modeling shit. A couple dozen shoots over a couple of years, nothing major. Enough to put some spending money in her pocket outside of her mom's business. Vanity shit, mostly. But the girls she knew that had stuck to that career? A bunch got stuck with lives she was sure she didn't want, compared to the two or three whose names she still heard in the modeling world. Yeah, maybe she would have been making millions of dollars of an Instagram or showing up on a runway somewhere, but she still wouldn't have much control of her life. That sounded worse to her than anything mama mentioned, to be honest. She wouldn't say that to the old prude, though. Hell, that was the whole world Alicia had decided to parody. People ate it up.

"And now you add social media and all its dangers," Gabby said, obviously still picking up what Angela was putting down, though Alicia could hardly believe she had found a moment to talk in between her frantic eating now that the attention had been directed to the two oldest women at the table. "Alicia's always been quick to pick up on those things. She got herself out of a lot of bad situations." That ranged toward oversharing, but Alicia let it pass, mostly because she thought Angela might bring something up about whatever had happened with Dizzy and her father.

Dizzy beat her to the question, though, when mama went quiet, and for seemingly the first time, Alicia looked the older woman square in the face. And while the answer wasn't as juicy as anyone here probably wanted - it was a good answer.

Alicia had never been a good student, but she paid a little more attention in Psychology than most other classes. At least it gave her shit to think about. Didn't mean she wanted to start handing out advice 'cause she was still figuring out so much of it herself. What she had told Dizzy a couple of weeks before her match with mama was about as much as she would give. But she knew there was something to the whole deal where two people could love one another to death and still not get each other at all. Alicia and Gabby were in that range, yeah, but a lot of that was being siblings who had gone through week-long debates over who got the top cot when they were younger. This parent-kid thing? That was different, deeper.

And seeing Dizzy go red from the comment actually brought out a straight-up smile from the big Latina, though one she hid beneath staring down into her plate. They were good people. Better than Alicia.

She let it all sit for a bit, but she figured it was best to bring back some of the vitriol. Made it less awkward for everyone. "Chlidbirth that bad?," she quipped, keeping her head down, and Gabby outright kicked her.