#ayce

Illuso doesn’t mind KBBQ but he can’t stand smelling like grilled meat and gas/coal after a meal, so he spends most of his time in the mirror world when the crew goes out to eat. At one point, using the mirror world was La squadra’s way of doing AYCE without having to pay for more per people (because they can just have Risotto bring a mirror, hand the food to them there, and everyone else is in said mirror grilling as they please), but the team ultimately decided that it was way better to just pay for everyone and eat in the restaurant than stay in the mirror world with Illuso just to eat for cheaper. Illuso will complain about how the meat is cooked or how he’s going to smell awful afterwards- and then proceeds to eat all the meats before anyone can have barely a taste. Every time the team goes to eat, someone simply brings and props up a mirror near the grill and have him grab meats from it whenever he pleases. Servers are scratching their heads when they notice a random arm popping out of seemingly nowhere to grab a piece of sam gyeob sal like a horror movie. 

Prosciutto doesn’t mind having his clothes smell after KBBQ surprisingly; he claims he is doing what South Koreans do when it comes to walking out of a restaurant smelling like grilled meats after a good meal. In fact, he’s on meat grilling duty most of the time. His job is to make sure everything is cooked to order quickly and properly so that all the team members are fed. Like any senior citizen, he’s a karen who would complain about things like not getting any meats in quickly, the wait time being too long, the grills not being changed quickly enough, etc. He’s ordering the meats too and wants to make sure that the team get’s their money’s worth. That means ordering the better cuts of meats if available like kalbi and duck and yelling at his teammates for eating 5 hours before dinner (not even a cookie is acceptable). He gets pissy if anyone tries to order what he deems as “cheaper cuts of meats” like chicken or fish or spends more of their time eating banchan instead. 

Pesci gets yelled at for wanting said cheaper cuts because his stomach can’t always handle heavier meats and wants to eat items oftentimes on the non-AYCE menu. He prefers a-la-carte since he can control how much meat he can get, which is sometimes okay if the team is just wanting a simple meal but kind of annoying when they’re at an AYCE area.  The team likes to use Pesci to get free stuff, so they would come in saying it’s Pesci’s birthday or that Pesci is way younger than he is to get a children’s discount. Pesci, being the good boi he is, tries to correct them, which results in Formaggio or Prosciutto to elbow him to not expose their lies. He likes his meat more well done and is willing to wait for his other members to eat first so that the meat he wants cooks longer, sometimes making him a garbage disposal for meats he can eat. Prosciutto always hounds on him to finish his meats so that nothing is wasted and therefore no extra fees are paid regardless of his stomach. Still, Pesci still enjoys these times since its fun to people watch the chaos that unfolds. 

Melone backs Pesci up regarding the non-AYCE because he sometimes craves those items too and will offer to pay for the non-AYCE items himself so Prosciutto could shut up and let them eat stuff outside of the AYCE menu for once. He can still eat the meats on the grill but he spends much of his time making wraps with the vegetarian banchans and non-AYCE items at the table. He loves banchan like Kongnamul Muchim and Oi Muchim and is always asking the servers to refill on them every second. He’s also an expert in creating wraps. Rice wraps, radish wraps, lettuce wraps- all the wraps that could be made, Melone makes them all and with various combinations. He will make them for himself and his team members if they ask, sometimes teasing them to “open wide” so he can personally feed them. Formaggio still wonders how Melone can fit his wraps, which are often large and very compacted, into his mouth sometimes in one go. But the man manages. Somehow the man manages to eat a log of food and moans in the process. Thank God the restaurant is loud enough so no one would hear that. 

Formaggio loves his meats, but he also loves his sauces and seasonings. He prefers ordering the non-marinated stuff so he can season the meats right on the table and dips his meats in EVERYTHING. He loves the KBBQ places where you can DIY your sauces and would make his own combos of peanut sauces, chili sauces, garlic sauces, all the sauces. Get this man away from corn cheese because he will never leave. Part of why Illuso stays in the mirror world is because Formaggio once spilled fish sauce on him while trying to get back to his seats. When it comes to the non-marinated meats like steak cuts, Formaggio puts on a show. He’ll salt and pepper the meat before using the butter to mix with the free garlic from the sauce bar and melt the complimentary butter so the steak could be based in it later on. When it comes to eating however, he’s more on eating meats than eating banchan, mainly because he’s not a vegetable kind of guy and wants to “get all his protein in”. Formaggio wouldn’t mind sneaking in a bit of Eomuk Bokkeum or Gamja Jorim to cleanse his palate though. 

Ghiaccio is also on team “only meat so I can get my protein in” but he tries to steer away from eating the marinated stuff to really optimize his macros; if anything he prefers Yakiniku more because there’s less marinated meats in that style, but he will never say no to KBBQ nonetheless. He’s also the person trying to get the most bang for his buck but rather than starve he just works himself out even more that day to have more calories to eat or hits the gym right after. An unofficial garbage disposal, he takes up left over meats not only to avoid waste fees but to really get as much protein regardless of taste. He does balance it with an occiasional grilled veggie or vegetable banchan as a means to cleanse his palatte but he’s often trying to fight over getting meat in his mouth first. He’s also down to experiment if there’s an unusual dishes to grill, especially if he’s at a KBBQ place that’s less conventional. Organ meat? Other animals? Meat is meat and Ghiaccio is immediately wanting to try it out. 

Sorbet helps Prosciutto in terms of choosing which meats are best to pick. He knows his meats and knows which one would be worth eating loads on. However, unlike Prosciutto, he likes variety and would convince the former to order other meats besides pork and beef if it’s worth it. It’s also because he feels sorry for Pesci and would have Prosciutto order non-marinated meats and seafood so the guy can eat with the rest of the team. He definitely pregamed before the meal yet somehow he managed to eat way more, saying that he needs to train his stomach to eat lots of food when it comes to these. Sorbet actually prefers marinated meats the most, since he believes its a good indicator of whether the restaurant is good and he’s not too fond of dipping into sauces to flavor the meat. He also likes going to places that have more unusual banchan, either complimentary or at additional costs, like Yangnyeom Gejang.

Gelato is mostly sitting back when it comes to KBBQ but he’s on drink duty! He’s the one ordering soju shots, beers, cocktails, and doing all those twists and rituals needed before opening a soju bottle. He’s also the one setting up and getting the team to play drinking games, hounding everyone to get into the action and laughing at how competitive everyone gets in the end. His goal is to make everyone as drunk as possible so he could get some potential blackmail to use against his members in case someone crosses him but also because his idea of fun involved drunken shenanigans. Usually, he ends up being the drunkest, so La Squadra lives another day not getting blackmail. Of course, he also times it well enough to make sure no one that’s going to drive will be sober enough to drive once the meal is done. The only person he doesn’t have drink is Risotto, mainly because Risotto is always the designated driver and the only driver everyone collectively trust to get home in one piece. 

Risotto is unofficial main garbage disposal alongside Pesci and Ghiaccio. All the cooked meats that are left uneatened, either because the team doesn’t want to eat it anymore or they’re becoming full but they don’t want to charge extra for waste, it goes to Risotto. Given how big he is and how high his metabolism is as well, he doesn’t mind eating the leftovers and finishing the meal if needed. Secretly, this is also because he doesn’t mind eating well-done, slightly overcooked meats, so this is his opportunity to eat such meats without getting ridiculed under the guise that he’s helping out. Given that it is his birthday, everyone tries to order the best meats for him and shelling a few extra bucks for the premium menu options. In reality, he’s fine with the sliced briskets and various Bulgogi. He doesn’t need anything fancy. He’s just glad that he and his boys are having dinner together despite their hectic schedules. 

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At the end of the meal, everyone is stuffed. Formaggio is crying because his stomach is hurting from overeating. Illuso exaggerates on how he can’t walk and throws himself onto members before getting pushed off by them. Prosciutto says he never wants to do KBBQ again if he keeps feeling awful after every time he eats. Pesci is whimpering because his stomach is also hurting but doesn’t want to appear weak. Everyone collectively say they can no longer eat another bite and walk back to the parking lot in silence for the rest of the way out. When they reach to their cars, Melone speaks up. 

“Anyone want to go get boba?”

“Oh hell yeah!”

“So down.”