The Pickle Hut, Los Angeles, Thursday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

The Pickle Hut was quietly popular; it had a normal crowd and a decent-sized rush around lunch and dinner, but there were definitely parts of the day that diners could head in and have the restaurant to themselves. Nick, having grown up not far away, could practically set his watch by those times. They were his preferred times to eat there, since he was getting to be a well-known agent for a very known firm. And in LA, where an agent went, the paparazzi had learned that stars often followed after. So days when Nick wanted to lunch in relative peace, he headed down to The Pickle Hut during one of those empty time slots and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Those dead times also came in handy when you were a superhero meeting up with other superheroes to discuss a zombie invasion over delicious burgers and brined foods. It was pretty inevitable that they'd all find themselves here; Nick had introduced Kathy to it a year ago and sometimes their schedules overlapped enough that they'd end up catching a meal together. So when Max had started complaining about needing to eat, they'd both suggested The Pickle Hut in unison. It was close, cheap, and filling; Mona was content to leave them alone to talk with only the occasional interruption for refills; and they had the chance to eat truly addictive pickles and talk about hordes of the undead without being overheard.

The Mighty Dragon (who just as often went by George) and Stealth (who remained Stealth and had yet to be seen unmasked), had elected to stay and talk strategy. Zzzap had flown back to Boston or wherever, and the rest of the heroes were still at their day jobs. That left Kathy, Max, Nick, and Josh to head to the diner and continue to go over the information they'd gathered during the last few days--while enjoying amazing burgers, giant milkshakes, and random pickled sides--including authentic kimchi which delighted Kathy to no end.

[For the two aggravated ones, please! Link to Dante at the club]

Comments

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"I'm sad we were inside so I couldn't do worse," Anders said firmly. "If anyone ever needed to find out why mages are feared, it's him."

He pursed his lips as he glanced to Dante. "What happened to you, anyhow?"

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante was five seconds from making some off-handed pun about how he'd bet Anders fireballing Nick would've been hot, just to get the fuck away from that question. But the anger was beginning to eb, and it was leaving traces of exhaustion in its wake.

"I dunno," he said, giving a small shrug he hoped didn't show anything important. "He was digging into me, something just snapped back."

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"Whatever it was, we should send it flowers for making him back off," came Anders' reasoned judgement. His expression went more curious, though he tried to shape it into something neutral. "That's never happened before?"

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

"Once, maybe?" Dante said. He looked up. "Long time ago."

St. Lamia's was not exactly the cheeriest topic of conversation, so he left it at that, unless Anders decided to press, in favor of taking another swig from his bottle.

RE: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"Was it the same kind of thing?" Anders -- who was not known for leaving well enough alone -- queried. "Getting attacked when you didn't expect it, I mean."

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

"When I was a kid, I was at this orphanage," Dante said, after a long pause. "Run by nuns. Turned out they were demons. Sometimes they got hungry."

He shrugged again. "Snapped, and the world went white for-- way shorter than this time. That's when I remembered I had the sword, so I took some heads off."

The version of this story currently rattling through his head was a lot more verbose, involving shit like feelings and fears and the endless terror that he might've been hallucinating the whole time or whatever. But he wasn't going to cough that one up out loud. "Worked like a charm," he finished instead.

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"Sweet Andraste," Anders swore, with a good deal of compassion for the child Dante had been behind his words. "I suppose we should be glad you didn't remember the sword this time."

Sure, he'd just been talking about burning Nick to a crisp, but somehow it was different when he said it.

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

"Oh, now I know I've got it," Dante said. "I'm not a kid anymore. I've got this shit handled."

Was there whiskey left in that little bottle? Hey, look. There was. "Not going to take anyone's head off just for being a dick. Now punching him, that was a good idea."

And a better topic.

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"Probably all he deserved," Anders conceded, and adding more vodka to his cup and skipping the juice this time sounded like a brilliant idea. He sulked over his cup for a minute,then:

"Do you think Kathy really went right back to them?"

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nah," Dante said. He stretched his legs out, staring at the wall. Yeah. Definitely felt tired, now, in a way he didn't often do. "Don't think she wants them to see her upset."

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"I don't think so either," Anders admitted, and stretched out next to Dante. "She'll come back when she's ready."

Not that the idea of Kathy alone and crying was a happy thought for him, either. But there weren't a lot of happy thoughts on offer in the situation.

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante hadn't meant to be as vicious as he'd been, though the general idea behind it - Kathy didn't know her limits and she was gonna run up against them - was something he firmly believed. He was going to have to deal with that when she got back, but he wasn't sure he could find a reason to apologize.

"Probably. I mean," he said, shooting something that at least attempted to be an amused look at Anders, "There's gonna be pizza any minute."

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"And if anything gets her to come round, it'll be food," Anders said, with a tiny, crooked smile. "We should eat, anyhow."

He thought what Dante had said was harsh but -- given Kathy's refusal to listen at all -- understandable. He hoped she'd feel the same once she had calmed down.

Re: Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

"Why can't I make pizza show up with the power of my brain?" Dante asked, flopping back so he was side-by-side with Anders. "I get all these powers, and nothing as useful as that."

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"For the same reason I can't wave my staff and make pizza happen," Anders told him. "Nobody asked us what kind of powers we wanted. We should file a complaint."

Re: Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

"Now that is a real sack of shit," Dante said, making big, none-too-serious eyes at Anders. "You guys have a ton of books on magic back home, right? No one ever even tried to figure this one out? That has got to be rigged."

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

Anders shook his head, making equally woeful eyes back.

"Five hundred volumes on what the Divine Whoever told the Aequitarians in Blessed whatever, and nothing on making food appear," he said. "Honestly, I'm not sure what the point is of being a mage at all when it's such a let-down."

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, you should not be going back to that," Dante decided, dropping his head back onto the bed. "You could be gifting a way more grateful world with instant pizza."

Heh. Grateful.

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"I could be a professional pizza oven and ice cream machine," Anders said, resting his head against Dante's shoulder. Physical comfort was nice; helped shut up his racing mind. "You and Kathy are right. I should never go home when I have all that to look forward to."

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

"Way better than hanging around a stuffy library in a skirt getting yelled at by assholes."

He patted Anders on the arm, then left his hand there.. Seemed like the right thing to do.

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"So much better," Anders agreed,though with a worried look on his face. He'd been planning to follow Kathy after his graduation, but now ...

Well, now that didn't look like such a safe plan.

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante had kind of expected there to be more after that so much better, so when there wasn't, and the tone was off, he turned his head and looked over. "Anders?"

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"Nothing, just thinking," Anders frowned. "I had a whole idea about following Kathy out here in a year, but if this world's going to shit, there goes that plan."

He tried to say it lightly, but it always hurt to lose a dream -- even one you hadn't had for long.

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, she mentioned."

Dante'd been encouraging the idea, even.

He looked back up at the ceiling. "Maybe you can... stay on the island? There's people who've done that, right?"

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

Anders frowned again -- not because it was a terrible idea, exactly, but because it had never been his plan.

"I don't think I want to," he said finally. "It's so small and so strange. "

Another frown.

"Would you want to?"