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

[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?"

Re: Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

"Doesn't matter where I go," Dante said, a shrug audible in his voice. "Just seems better than you being on the run or stuck in some tower."

RE: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"Maybe," Anders said, but slowly. He didn't want a whole life on the island, but there wasn't a good reason for it besides a vague sense of wanting more.

But then, maybe he'd want more no matter where he ended up.

He put that aside to raise an eyebrow at Dante. "Why doesn't it matter?"

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

Funny, how that question suddenly made Dante remember he still had a third of whiskey in a tiny bottle in his hand. "If the demons can track me down to the island, they can find me anywhere," he said. "So it doesn't matter where I go."

He dodged talking about the serious stuff. He didn't lie straight to people's faces. (Most of the time.)

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"But you do lots of things where the demons aren't bothering you," Anders said, brow crinkled. "Don't you?"

He worried that it meant things were worse for Dante than he'd realized, and felt a tiny pang of guilt for not noticing.

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante put in actual work to make sure people didn't notice. People didn't need to get drawn into his shit; it was shit nobody had a chance in hell in changing.

"Sure," he said. "But they always come back." There went the last of his whiskey. Had the minibar held more? But that'd mean moving. Dilemma. "It's fine. I'm used to this shit."

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[spin_kick_snap]

There was a knock at the door; not Kathy but pizza. Fortunately, it had already been paid for and the delivery girl didn't give a damn whether anyone in the room looked like a 'Katherine Li' so long as someone was willing to sign the slip and add a tip.

An hour passed after the pizza arrived and still no Kathy. Her phone lay on the bed, where she'd left it after ordering the pizza, so that was no help, unless they wanted to call the heroes she had numbers for. It was getting close to the two hour mark before they finally heard the click of the key card in the door and the buzzing of the internal electronic mechanism within.

She came in, face pale and drawn, except the faint redness around her eyes that she'd appreciate them ignoring. Her arms were crossed over her chest, hands clutching her upper arms. "Hey," she said, voice low. "Any pizza left."

Re: Los Angeles At Large

[not_every_mage]

"Lots," Anders said, pulling away from Dante to stand up almost by instinct. "I -- are you all right?"

He'd eaten most of one piece of pizza, and picked the pepperoni off another. The situation wasn't great for his appetite.