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 - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"Suit yourself," Max said with a shrug, drinking it instead. Who was he to let a free drink go to waste? "And I just wanted to talk without bullshit drama getting in the way. I don't care who's sleeping with who, or who wants to, or anything like that. Not when there are better things to talk about."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

"What, like bingo?" Since Max was vagueing around the point - and Dante didn't really want to be talking to him anyway - he was getting a shit-eating grin and a dumb comment.

Where'd that pretty couple go he was hanging with five minutes ago?

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

Max had suggested they go away. They'd been interfering with his objective for the evening.

"I was thinking more like that sudden spike of power," he said mildly. "Pretty interesting, wouldn't you say? I wouldn't have thought that someone like you could produce a power like that."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

"You stalked me all this way to talk shit?" Dante asked, raising his eyebrows. "Wow. You're dedicated."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"Talk shit?" Max asked, brow furrowed. "What do you me--oh!" He snapped his fingers, then started laughing. "You don't know! You have no idea, do you? That's just precious!"

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

"What the fuck are you talking about."

Dante half-swallowed the words. He wasn't in the mood for dicking around most days, and tonight, he was completely out of patience.

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"I'm talking about that supernova you've got inside of you and where that comes from," Max said, tapping the medallion on his chest. "I have something similar."

Ish. His power came from a gate that could allow him to possess a trapped Reaver Lord. Dante's--well, he'd have to do a lot more studying to figure out where Dante's came from.

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

It took sheer force of will to keep from touching the pendant on his own chest; the only reason Dante didn't go for it was that he didn't want to give this guy more than the guy already thought he had.

"Yeah, I doubt that," he said. "All that tells me is you like shitty jewelry."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"Because your necklace is oh-so-subtle," Max snarked back. He gave Dante a long up and down. "There's not much about you that is subtle, which half-explains that light show back at the diner."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes. He pulled away from the general vicinity of the bar - and Max. "Go creep over some other teenager somewhere, you weird-as-fuck creep."

He had no clue what Max was talking about.

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

That was painfully obvious.

"Look me up if you want to know more about that power inside you!" he called, waggling his fingers after Dante. "The ignorance is precious but it's not going to do you much good against the Abyss! Ta!"

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante paused mid-step and looked over his shoulder. "Okay, what the hell is the Abyss? Is that like Limbo?"

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

Max thought about making Dante agree to a drink before providing an answer, but the kid seemed too wild for that. Definitely the kind to choose spite over answers if pushed.

"It's a different realm, where demons like to fuck around," Max said, jerking his head towards a table in a corner. "Sound familiar?"

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah."

Good choice, Max, or he might've just taken all of his pent-up frustration out on your face. And not in the fun way.

But now Dante was turning in full to look at him again.

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

Not the face, Dante! Max was too pretty for all of that!

"So you know a little bit about what's going on around you after all," Max said. "That's more than I can say for most people. It's not just people being happier not knowing, which is the usual excuse for people being ignorant as shit about something, but most people can't comprehend what's happening at all. Their brains are't build for it."

And then he was sauntering over to that table he'd spotted, leaving Dante to decide whether to follow or not.

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante watched him go for a second - the guy was too sleazy to register anywhere on the pretty scale, at least under the current circumstances, so he wasn't tabling the 'punch him in the face' plan yet. At all.

But fuck, curiosity got the better of him.

He let out a frustrated grunt and followed not long after.

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

Max lounged at the table, legs sprawled obnoxiously in the way of people going by, making them either trip or have to walk around him.

"So," he said, grinning up at Dante. "What do you know about the Abyss. Or Limbo, if that's what you want to call it. Seeing "

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes. "I know it's fucked up and full of demons," he said, "Why the fuck do you care?"

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"Because I've spent my life studying it," Max said. "Crimefighting's only for haha's. I fight evil. I mean real evil. The stuff that burns your eyes to look at. The stuff that makes you taste metal and dog shit when you hear it speak. The shit that lives in the Abyss and does its best to break into this world. And you, kiddo, are brimming with demonic energy."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante's heart felt like it'd just stopped beating in his chest. He didn't want to acknowledge it by swallowing or letting it show or any of that, but his, "You're full of shit," would've been more convincing if his eyes didn't suddenly feel like they were inexorably drawn towards the ground.

What he'd done to Kathy in six words, Max was threatening to do to him in five.

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"Oh really?" Max didn't sound like he believed Dante at all. If anything, Max just sounded more amused. "So, then, Dante, why don't you tell me how you felt after all that energy drained away. Huggy? Convinced of the goodness of your fellow man? Cheerful and happy and all those twee little emotions?"

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

"I don't know, but if you're going to keep pushing it, you're going to find out," Dante snapped. "Asshole."

He needed to get the fuck out of this conversation, grab anyone on this dance floor and get out of his head.

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"Charming," Max drawled. "I don't know how I could have mistaken you for being a powderkeg of demon essence when you're such a fuckin' sweetheart, Dante. I'll have to let Cairax Murrain know he's totally wrong about you."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes as he tried to figure out why the fuck he wasn't leaving right now. "I don't know who the fuck that is, but you do that," he said. "I don't know where you're getting this from, but I'm no demon scum."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"In my circles, the most dangerous kind of demon we run into are called reavers," Max said, his perpetual smirk nowhere in evidence. "Cairax Murrain is the Reaver Lord of the Abyss. And the one that recognized what was going on with you. Though the red eyes was probably a decent clue."