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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"You're doing a great job of showing it," Dante said.

Though for once he sounded wary, instead of flat-out combative.

Max shrugged. "I'm an asshole," he admitted. "I was never out to be Mr. Congeniality even before I started dabbling in sorcery. But that's not the same as playing for the other team."

Beat.

"I mean, I do that, too," he smirked. "Play for both teams. Probably shoulda picked a better metaphor."

Dante rolled his eyes. Very visibly.

"You don't get points for bad bi jokes around me," he said. "I still can't figure out why they'd bring you back."

"Everyone's a critic," Max said. "And probably because I just made us invisible and spread that demonic camouflage over both of us and you didn't even notice."

He looked smug. So, no real change.

"It's good to have magic on your side. Or do you only keep the cute blonde around because of the obvious staff puns?"

"I don't 'keep him around', and I sure as fuck don't do it because of anything he can do for me," Dante said crabbily.

How the fuck hadn't he noticed?

So much of magic was misdirection. Like unexpected conversational topics and shitty bi puns. And a good chunk of what was left was trickery and illusions.

"Touchy," Max noted, starting to climb down the other side, moving from car to car. "Ease up now. I don't have any designs on Blondie's honor."

A reference to Anders' hair or was he insinuating he knew stuff about their home life? It was a myyyystery.

Dante squinted at him as he clambered down chunks of metal and other shit. "You're the one who keeps creeping on my people," he said.

"Hey now, I'm only creeping on you," Max corrected. "Nick's got dibs for creeping on Kathy. Someone else will have to claim the boytoy. Cerberus, maybe? It'll be a nice change from having her pining over Nick, I have to admit."

"Ugh," said Dante, which was the only reply you could have to that.

He hopped off a car and onto the ground. "The last Cerberus I met was a puppy," he said.

So he did have another reply after all.

"How creative," Max sneered. "Someone named their dog after the most famous dog in history." He scrambled to follow in Dante's wake, anxious not to be left too far behind. "Well, points for not choosing Pluto, I suppose."

"I mean, he had three heads and breathed ice, but sure, let's go with that," Dante said, not even pausing to wait for Max to catch up.

Honestly, Dante, petty much?

"Wait." Literally. "You met the real Cerberus?"

He was allowed some pettiness around Max, dammit.

Dante shrugged one shoulder. "Yeah," he said.

And, okay: the main reason he was manifesting the icy three-pronged whip-thing in his hands was because he could spot exes not too far away. But the timing, you had to admit, was perfect.

"Huh," Max said, tilting his head and regarding Dante closely. "Interesting."

Beat.

"I once used the power of a dark eclipse to trap a Reaver Lord." He was laughing as he said it, though - genuine laughter.

"And I once got a big badass demon lord to lose his temper so fucking badly he didn't notice my brother sneaking up and ramming a katana up his ass," Dante said cheerfully.

"...You have a brother?" Max asked, immediately zeroing in on that. "And you didn't decide to bring him along? Didn't think he could hack the exes?"

"Twin brother," Dante said lightly. "He's in Hell."

"That's a pretty image," Max murmured. "Doing what? Vacationing?"

They were at least half- demon after all.

"I mean, the Abyss isn't my idea of a fun weekend away, but to each his own, I suppose."

"I dunno, he's a power-hungry dick," Dante said casually, as he took a quick left into a building to avoid a group of exes not far away. "Probably doing some fucked up demon power shit."

"And you're totally fine with this," Max surmised, following after Dante and making surprisingly little noise. He was lighter on his feet than he appeared.

"He likes demons better than humans, I'm the other way around," Dante said.

He realized five seconds later he probably shouldn't be telling Max all this, but he hadn't talked to anyone outside of all that bullshit about it for so long it just-- kinda came out.

"What way is Koreatown again?"

"South," Max said, pointing off to their left. "What's left of it, anyway. There was a huge fire that swept through it, destroyed most of the area. Happened a few hours after Kathy died, actually. You ever try to fight exes and fire at the same time? I don't recommend it."

"The only time I ever fought zombies was down here," Dante said, gripping Cerberus a little tighter.

"It was bad," Max said. "We were grieving one of our own, trying to get survivors out before the fire or the exes could get them, and not doing a great job of fighting either."

He moved into the lead. "Say what you will about your brother's choice of friends, demons are a lot sturdier than we mere humans."

Which was, of course, the time an ex lurched out of the shadows to fling itself at Max.

Dante ,em>heard it first, twisted and dashed forward, his answer dying in his throat - at least for the moment.

It was Arbiter that met the ex, not Cerberus; he didn't want to make collateral damage out of Max. Not right now, anyway.

Edited 2018-09-28 19:34 (UTC)

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