spin_kick_snap | The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

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The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

The last time anyone from Fandom had been in Kathy's LA, the heroes had been living inside the walls that surrounded Paramount Studios, with the exes and the South Seventeens laying claim to everything else. Since then, they'd expanded; the Big Wall pushing the borders out almost a mile in all four directions. In some spots, it was hard to tell that there had ever been a zombocalypse; the streets were clean, the buildings repaired, the blood all scrubbed away. There was a proper school, lots of farms and gardens, several churches, and even a small library. The studio was still the heart of the community, but people had started to spread out and settle. It was still a tight fit, several thousand people into one square mile, but honestly not much worse than Los Angeles used to be, back before the world died and reanimated again.

Life had fallen back into a rhythm again. People got up, got ready for the day. Kids were sent off to school, adults took themselves to various jobs, though there were fewer sales people, baristas, and aspiring actors and a lot more guards, scavengers, and farmers these days. There was a brewery down on Larchmont and a still over on Monroe. Burns Park let people enjoy a bit of nature where the kids could run around and burn off steam and a Gold's Gym practically against the Big Wall. That was where the Unbreakables spent most of their free time, with curious gawkers watching them put more and more weight onto the machines.

It was a bustling little community of survivors, as safe as a place could be, surrounded on all sides by millions of undead waiting to find a way inside to devour them all.

[For them that are there! NFB, and ~~please wait for the~~ OCD is up! Previous entry Next Entry]

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... and just like that, the aimless ambling came to a sudden stop.

"Didn't I kill you?" Dante said, voice sharp but restrained.

"Mmm, technically," Max said, lounging against the wall, all studied insouciance. "But that doesn't really seem to stick around here. Didn't for our dear little Banzai, did it?"

"Yeah, but I didn't think you were that high up on anybody's 'Nice' list," Dante said.

Okay, now his voice was inching towards a growl. He looked at Max, at last, eyes narrowed.

"See, I never paid much attention to where other people try to put me," Max said. He grinned at Dante, ignoring the rising hostility. "Pretty sure we have that in common. Among other things."

"What the fuck did you do to get Kathy here?" Dante snapped. "And why shouldn't I kick your ass for it?"

"I did a magic ritual," Max said. "Obviously. And I did it before I died the first time, when I thought she'd be traveling a few miles at worst. Surely she explained that it was all one big misunderstanding?"

He gave Dante sad eyes. "I feel just horrible about it, really. And even worse now that the rest of you are here, too."

Dante considered that argument.

"I'm going to fucking punch you."

Edited 2018-09-27 07:36 (UTC)

"Whoa, hey hey!" Max said, holding up his hands. "I would have thought we were beyond the random acts of ultra-violence! What is this, a night club in 2015 again?"

Dante said nothing.

Dante just stalked towards him, fist raised.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Max said, scrambling backwards. "I thought reunion sex was supposed to mellow a dude out!"

Not gonna help your face look less punchable, dude.

It didn't.

Which is probably why Dante gave in to temptation and punched it.

Max's head rocked back and his hands came up to hold his cheek. "Owwwww!" he howled, looking up at Dante with a baleful eye. "You get one," he said. "Because I do feel bad."

He even sounded sincere about that.

"Come at me again and it's gonna be a fight. And then they'll probably sic Gorgon and Freedom on us. And if you think I'm an asshole..."

On the other hand, Dante and Nick had the same taste in girls. Maybe they'd bond?

"Max, if you come at me, it's not gonna be a fight," Dante said flatly. "It's gonna be you on the fucking floor in five seconds flat."

"If you come for me again, I'm going to use magic," Max said, pulling himself back upright. He dropped his hand again, his cheek reddening from the punch. "I'm willing to talk to you, but not if you're gonna keep leading with your fists."

"I'm not scared of your magic," Dante snapped back. "The next word out of your mouth better be sorry."

"Maybe you should be," Max said softly. "You're not the first demon I've tangled with."

He held up a hand. "That being said, I am sorry. It sucks that Kathy's here. If I had any control of the situation, she wouldn't be."

Again, he sounded sincere.

"Right," Dante said.

He still didn't believe it.

But he took a step back, none the less.

Max relaxed, too, giving Dante a long once over. "You look better," he noted. "Haircut's less stupid. And Kathy seemed pretty blase about admitting she's fucking a demon. So you finally figured it out? You seemed pretty dead set on denying what you were when we last...talked."

"Half-demon," Dante corrected, almost absently. "I found out a few things."

"Oh?" Max asked. "Like what?"

Please, Dante, share with the class.

"Like my memories," Dante said, eyes flashing, "And that Mundus screams like a fuckin' pig when you carve him up in two."

Edited 2018-09-27 19:05 (UTC)

"Good," Max said, a slow smile spreading over his face.

He'd only heard of the the Reaver Lord Mundus, mostly because everyone who had dealt with him directly usually died screaming.

"You were always strong, though. Even back before you knew what you were. Quite the contrast, skinny kid in a club unsure whether to beat me or blow me and giant untapped reservoir of demonic power."

"Do you just wanna get your face kicked in?" Dante asked.

He didn't move on Max again. The demonic rock crawling down his arm before fading anew was going to have to do the talking for him.

"What happened to you, anyway? Weren't you walkin' around being a meat puppet for some demon somewhere? You get off on that?"

"Just callin' 'em like I saw 'em," Max said easily, though his eyes were on that rock. He seemed more curious than concerned though. "And you have it the other way around. I was wearing him. My brain, his body. His powers. Just my way of doing a little bit of good where I could. Reverse-possession, you could call it."

Time and better nutrition had taken the skinny off of Dante's form; he was halfway on his way to the broad-shouldered powerhouse he was going to be.

He didn't like Max. He liked even less how much Max reminded him that, once upon a time, he'd been fucked up and fatalistic and desperate enough that if Max'd been even a smidgen less of an asshole--

He pushed the thought down.

"Wasn't what it looked like when I took your head clean off," he said, voice steady in a way that was unnatural for him.

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