8 ball in the Awakened pocket

[Star]

His heels lifted and he bounced on his toes as a grin burst out. Veiled. Threats. It was totally a great name.

"Yep, yep, that's us," he affirmed, nodding and still grinning. "I mean, it sounds a little strange when I say it? In my head. Or one of the others says it, but, like, hearing a stranger say it? Sounds awesome. Not that you're a total stranger. Obviously. We've done laundry in close proximity, after all. At least. I think we did. I wasn't, uh, looking that close. At your clothes. Or whatever."

Speaking of, whatever happened to the Space Invader? Kiss 'de Girl? He had.

Laundry's a thing, yo.

"I Yelp'ed it," he admitted, settling on his heels and giving the place another look-see. He considered Pepper. What would people call her?

"And, I'll ask. I, uh, have no clue. Like. At all. Do I get a hint?"

Suddenly, fingers came up and snapped. "Oh. Wait. Wait. Before I forget? Seriously, got any funny nick-names or pet peeves for Zoey you'd want to share? I'd be, like, totally indebted. I can throw in some detergent pods to sweeten the deal."

He nodded. Totally.

[Pepper]

Pepper giggled at Stars rambling, hand coming up to stiffle the noise somewhat. She wasn't trying to be rude, just, It was cute. "Sorry. I get what you mean though." Pepper herself always liked the idea of naming a Cabal ]Panthera Nox' but rarely spoke it out loud.

But at his question about what Guardians used to call her she wagged a finger. "Ask Zoey, but I can say that 'rebellious punk phase' is totally a hint."

Embarrassing things about Zoey? Pepper glanced to Mace, not sure what to say, then blurted out, "I used to call her Princess Ozma when she was being annoying, though it's a really sarcastic reference?"

[Star]

Rebellious punk phase. Okay. A small grin echoed her laugh while he spun the hint around the hamster wheel. A finger tapped at the air, poinint at her hair.

"Okay. Wait. I'm going to take two guesses? The first one is," the finger closed into a fist, that he held up, knuckles outward. One corner of his upper lip curled up. "Rebel Yell. The second is," the hand formed an 'L' with fingers, and brows furrowed into a glare before popping upward and his eyes going wide. "Rotten."

Okay, maybe using band wasn't totally random. He might have A Thing for music.

The Ozma comment got a curious look. Wasn't Ozma originally a guy? He was pretty sure Zoey wasn't originally a guy. Pretty. Sure. Eyes skated over to Mace when she talked about fearing for her organs for spreading stories. They were totally jerking him around, right? Because awfully big coincidence. Seriously. Weird, yo. Since Zoey didn't seem like the type to Hook Up And Tell. But, seriously. Ozma? Organs? Stories? Eyebrows lifted and a finger scratched at his temple. Play. It. Off. Either it was a coincidence, or wasn't, but ignore. Because baiting. Skip story swapping. He didn't have any Zoey stories. Nope.

Double fingers pointed at Mace and bounced.

"Adoring fans? I like the way you think. Totally. If I ever have a legit band? You're so first row." Hey. Magician. He could appreciate a good audience, even if she was totally talking about something else.

"But, like, something interesting?" He shrugged. "I actually kind of sort of like pool? Unless that was like a super nice way of ditching? Which is cool. I'm just pretty bad at knowing, you know, when that happens. The ditching segue brush off polite peace out thing. But I can go back over there," his head nodded the direction he'd come from, "If you two are doing, like, family time."

Just because they'd all done laundry together didn't mean anything.

[Pepper]

Pepper shook her head at his guesses. "Clearly, you think in ways different than I do. Let's see... A hint for the musically inclined..." She frowned clearly not the same kind of guru with the groove that Jack was. "Okay, I'm ninety percent sure one of Mama's favorite heavy metal bands in the eighties had the same name."

And oh man, the amount of 'nope' on Jack's face from Mace's joke was hilarious. "To be fair, I was only calling her Princess Ozma because for a short time while she was in charge of keeping me from causing trouble she had the total opposite personality, and I was trying to play with what she was going buy at the time? Wait, do you know what she went by in Boston?" If he didn't know that she used to be Ozymandius... "And seriously, She's joking about the organs. Zoey never told us much of anything, and she definitely never gave us leverage like embarrassing stories. But her hair in a bob. Wow, not the haircut for her."

Huh. Pool? Pepper glanced over to Mace, doin' the twin thing and letting Tinker-Thinker know that pool was not objectionable. Then for Star's benefit she added, "I am not utter shit at it, but how a game goes for me tends to vary a lot."

[Star]

Maiden? Crue? Metallica? Poison? There were more metal bands in the eighties than around the palm trees in Hawaii. When had he been in Hawaii, and what for? Don't. Ask. Don't ever ask about the one tree missing a band. Ever. GnR? Leppard? Sabbath? Megadeth? Slayer?

None of them jumped out. At. All.

"...Queensryche?"

Okay, admittedly, that didn't jump out. It just sounded super cool. When in doubt, with no clue? Go with cool. Metal wasn't really his thing, especially metal that was totally half a century old. Or, at least on the wrong side of the halfway mark.

"Oh, snap. Ozma. Right. I get it, now. Mandy. We, uh, kind of picked new stage names. For the new band. Two of us," he added, grinning and shrugging. "But, yeah, it makes sense now. Strange, like, it wasn't that long ago? But I guess maybe the new thing is the regular thing once it's been around longer than the old thing? Kind of like skateboard wheels. The small ones. They used to be big. One of these days, I'll find out why. About the wheels. I know why we did new stage names."

A finger spun in a circular motion as he talked about the wheels. Curious eyes flickered over to Mace. Was... she... ? Nah.

"Zoey wouldn't do that. She's super cool about sharing embarrassing stories!" His head shook 'No'. File away: Hair. Bob. "And, hmmmm. Pool. There's this game? For three people. Called Cut-Throat. We could do that?"

He gave the pair a curious look, seeing if they knew the game before he explained. Explaining something someone knows? Patronizing, yo.

[Pepper]

Pepper gave a shrug, though she couldn't quiet hide the mischief in the smile that accompanied it. "Two clues and three guesses. You're gonna have to ask Zoey." It was too bad she wouldn't be there to see his reaction. Unless she could talk him into asking Zoey over the phone? That was a thought.

"Yeah. I've known her as Mandy for ages, I was was wondering why she swapped to Zoey." Awww, Mandy swapped for her first cabal. That was cute.

Once her giggles over the fantastic silent no Jack was giving, she tilted her head at him knowing a three-player pool game. "Never heard of Cutthroat Pool before. How's it done?"