Archive of Our Own

Peppino was looking around when he stumbled to Gustavo and Brick looking around as well. Peppino was ready to punch before he realizing what he was doing. Gustavo punched him on instinct to snap out of it, "Aye, you should watch where you're going! Peppino could-a hit poor Brick head!". Realizing what had happaned, Peppino immediately hugs Brick and Gustavo shook his head and patted Peppino's back. "Scusa, Gustavo, Mi dispiace Brick. " He apologized.

"Ah, Gustavo. Ehhh.. sapevi di questo? " Peppino asked if Gustavo knew about any of this. Gustavo shook his head and gestured an X.

"No Peppino, non lo so. Anch'io sono rimasto sorpreso! Ma è una bella sorpresa! "Gustavo replied that he didn't know. He was surprised, but very happy with it.

" C'è anche un negozio qui! Peppino deve vederlo! " Gustavo pointed to another side of the road Peppino has yet to explore.

Peppino was immediately intrigued, the Pizzamart in the tower was jam packed full of items. Having a store here means he doesn't have to buy ingredients from a far away place. Immediately excited, he waved Gustavo and Brick goodbye.

"Okay, lo vedrò. Ciao You two. " They both waved back.

Peppino enters the store and sees a Pizzard cashier. Seems like the clerk sausages has gotten a promotion to manager. He heard the Pizzard saying he wanted to finish their studies to get a PhD but Peppino's attention was taken by the hot cheap deals that are currently going on. He reached into his pocket to see if he had any money on him. 20 bucks. It was worth the shot.

He looked over the isles and it turns out they still sold cans of chicken, beans and pizza. However they also now sell a bunch of other ingredients, like pepperoni, flour, different kinds of cheeses and stuff Peppino hasn’t seen for a good few years now. Peppino is reminded a little bit of visiting grocery stores during black fridays back when he was in a much bigger city. Despite everything, he still preferred being in a secluded area, even if it made him pull hair at times.

Peppino pulled out a notepad he always had hidden inside the pockets of his black pants. He started writing down the following ingredients he needed to buy or eventually stock up.

He looked at his list for a good while and concluded he’s probably not going to get any corn or spinach by the time he’s finished with his 20 dollars. Guess eating healthy is out of the menu once again, he was looking forward to eating more greens. He feels a little guilty that Gustavo always made him the best salads he ever had but doesn’t have the resources to pay him back despite Gustavo insisting it’s fine.

He first goes to the isle where all sorts of flours are located. Though the flour here is different from the ones he had back in his hometown, they still made absolutely scrumptious pizzas. “Only 4.99? For such a large box? Must’a be my lucky day.” He put the box of corn flour into the handheld cart. He then checked the yeast in the same aisle, but it seemed to be in the same row with.. mushrooms? “Huh? That don’t go there. I thought-a this is only a flour-like aisle?” Peppino has never seen this many varieties of mushrooms before either. He wondered where these came from as he hasn’t been keeping up with the outside world all too much due to his hyperfocus on getting rid of his debt. He checked the price and.. Also 4.99! Peppino smiled at the box and put it into the cart. It had about 20 packets or so and it should be enough for the dough for probably another 6 months if there aren't too many customers.

Peppino wondered about his future, though he didn't believe that anyone would come to his pizzeria for an actual meal, he’d still have to stock up in case some loser decided to show up. Peppino then went to another aisle and browsed its content. There’s so many new things Peppino had never seen, from selling things in a can this is a huge upgrade. So many things that made Peppino wish he wasn’t poor, he sees all sorts of potential ingredients he can add to the pies and additional new recipes he can cook up and toy with.

He sees a bar of chocolate and immediately thought about two things: Chocolate Pizza and The Noise eating said Chocolate Pizza. He thought since Noise loved sweets, if he ever wanted to shut his trap, he should stuff it with something that would pay him! He then sees a marshmallow and thinks about Noisette who also happened to be a little freak, though not as malignant as Noise is. He thought about making smores with the marshmallows but the melting fluff made him remember about Fake Peppino. He shivers at the thought of remembering his own face being skewed and mangled. The fact that thing even followed him outside the tower made him nearly go pale.

Oh no. He could be hiding in Peppino’s walls right now, under Peppino’s bed. He could be standing there, waiting. Present, yet unknown.

Peppino tried to not indulge himself in those kinds of thoughts. But he can’t help but be afraid, what if it’s true? He shakes his head, and breathes slowly. Trying to set himself back to reality, where the sky occasionally changes to red for dramatic effect and the fact that cows stack on each other. He continues on and sees even more variety of cheeses. It reminded him of a few cheese slimes he kicked ass along the way, The Vigilante he can’t stop shooting at and the fact he didn’t kill Snotty was a miracle.

He then looked around to see in the vegetable section. There are some frozen meats nearby but Peppino wasn’t interested in getting more protein on his food. He wanted some actual nutrients inside of it! He picked up the corn and was tempted to peel off the husk to see if the inside was rotten or not. But he knew better, he felt it with the tips of his hand to see if any of them squished. Very gently he felt it, it wasn’t mushy at all so it must be good. He bought 2 pieces of corn for 3 dollars and then went to pick up the onion. He smelt it and it was.. extremely fresh! Peppino instantly put 5 into the cart and it cost around 5 dollars. He only had 3 dollars left and bought the rest of the money for a bag of garlic. However, he took one last peek into the vegetable section and sees that with 3 dollars he could buy 6 bundles of spinach.
Conflict arises. Should Peppino buy the 2 corn cobs for 3 dollars? Or the 6 bundles of spinach for the same price? Dio Santo this is a tragedy! He hasn’t eaten corn in a while, terribly reminded by the visions of chocolate corn cob made by Noisette. But the spinach is very much more apparent in abundance, but being made of leaves it’ll shrink down half of its size when cooked. And corn cobs tend to not have much to eat, even if you had 2. Peppino thought about this carefully until a pig cop shows up.

“Raise your hands in the air!” The cop oinked at him. Peppino immediately raises his hands up in the air while holding the cart. The cop gets closer and inspects Peppino. “Huh, so the rumours are true. You’re the one who destroyed our city!” The piggy cop’s baton started to poke at Peppino’s large tummy. “Do you have any idea how much we struggle keeping that city afloat?!” The piggy cop was about to hit Peppino and Peppino nearly reflexed when another piggy cop stopped their partner. “Dude that guy is innocent. Our police force was corrupt anyway, we can start over now so no need to be so hard on the guy. He’s the one who self-reported to being abused by the way.”

The piggy cop with the baton glanced at his partner and glanced back at Peppino back and forth. “This guy? He destroyed our city, the tower and so much more!I don’t think he’s a victim at all!” The piggy cop with a baton said. Their partner whispered to their ear, “He knows about the bacon God.” And the piggy cop with the baton immediately went pale. He looked at Peppino and tilts his hat. “Apologies for the aggression sir. I hope you can forgive me for the sudden impulse. I will be leaving you now. Try not to destroy buildings while we’re on the clock, okay?” Both piggy cops left the Pizzamart.

Peppino stood there for a moment, processing what had just happened to him. He concluded that everyone in this town must have an agenda against him so he should probably be more alert now that his pizzeria is in the center of the town. Peppino had also concluded he wanted spinach instead of corn. Maybe next he can have corn.

He went to the Pizzard cashier and checked his items. Everything cost a perfect 20 dollars, just like Peppino had calculated. He left Pizzamart and returned to his pizzeria to put the groceries inside the fridge. He sat down for a bit to cool off after the piggy cop jumpscare.

Afterwards, for safe measure, he closes his pizzeria for a day with a note saying “Be back whenever”. Peppino is going to spend rest of the day seeing what’s next on the block.