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

[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."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

Yeaaah. Dante wasn't about to sit down, but he took a step closer to the table. "You're talking to a fuckin' demon?" he said. "What are you, nuts?"

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

Max gave Dante a deeply unimpressed look. "No, of course not, that would be fucking stupid," he said, rolling his eyes and finishing his drink. "I enslaved the fucker instead."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

"So you are nuts."

That was a deeply improved conversational topic over 'I'm apparently full of demon energy'.

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

He shrugged. "You're not the first person to say so," he said. "The other people at least knew what the fuck they were talking about. You know jack and shit about reavers, kid, and jack left town."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

"I know enough about demons that you don't go 'enslaving' them," Dante said. "You keep one close, they'll keep coming for you. You keep 'em far, they'll still keep coming for you, but at least you can run."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"And then you use the one you've got chained up to claw them all to shreds and suddenly you've got a lot fewer on your ass," Max said, shrugging. "Considering you don't even know you're swimming up to your eyeballs in demonic energy, you understand I'm not too worried about your opinion. Besides, if I wanted a lecture, I'd go see what dear little Banzai's up to."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante pulled away from the table. Nope. Done. Fucking done. "You leave her alone," he said. "Maybe she'll actually wise up and blow this place."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

Max laughed at that. "Leave her alone? I'm thinking of taking her on as an apprentice! See what all that desire to do good does in a was against real evil."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

Yeah, sorry, Max. You'd been courting getting punched in the nose this entire time. You couldn't be surprised that Dante was swinging for it right now.

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

Surprised? No. That didn't mean he wasn't displeased when it happened. His eyes flashed an odd gold for a minute, the color of ancient coins, right before his head rocked back and his nose all-but exploded in a gout of blood.

"So it is a dibs thing," he wheezed heavily, bringing his face back up. "You should have just said."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

"No dibs," Dante said, voice a growl. "I don't do dibs. But this shit is gonna get her killed, and if I find out you've been making it worse, I'm comin' for you and your demon, you fucking sleazy-ass dickhead."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"Cairax Murrain looks forward to seeing what you can do, whelp," Max said, running his tongue over his upper lip before putting a napkin to his bleeding nose.

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

"Let him know he can kiss my ass," Dante said, turning away from the table.

He was pretty sure nobody had seen that shit, but he was gonna try and vanish into the crowd anyway. He needed to get this out of his head right now before--

Fuck, before his brain got rolling again.

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

A voice followed him through the crowd like a fishhook through his ear. It was Max's voice and yet not. "Tell him yourself. Next time you look in a mirror, boy."

Re: Los Angeles At Large - A Club, Somewhere

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante startled. Hadn't meant to give the guy the satisfaction, but that was-- "The fuck?" he hissed.

This trip had been great for his vocabulary.