spin_kick_snap | 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]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dante's mouth curved, just a little, in spite of himself.

"Maybe they have hairdressers now."

Ezra rolled his eyes.

It was a little half-hearted, but still. "I'm too worn down to listen to half-assed insults to my hair, so please stop immediately. Thank you."

"It's a joke, not an insult," Dante said, with an easy lightness.

He blew a long strand of his own unnaturally vibrant white hair away from his face to demonstrate his point.

It practically reached his jaw now.

"That you think you can joke about the glory of my hair is an insult, darling."

It was very dry, but at least he'd added the endearment there. Made him sound a little more normal.

But normal wasn't real, right?

"Touchy, touchy," Dante teased gently. Then dropped it. "Looking forward to getting a shower for mine."

Hey now, wasn't the narrative who'd made that claim, now was it?

Ezra sighed. Almost wistful. "Oh, a shower will be nice."

"Right?" Dante said. "I don't wanna smell of zombie gunk all week."

It'd also make him feel - there was that word again - normal.

"And I don't want to keep smelling the gunk on all of you."

Please spare a thought for your friendly neighborhood werefox's supernatural senses.

"Sorry," Dante said wryly. "Didn't think about your nose."

Ezra wrinkled his nose. "Neither did the rest of this world."

This, right here, was relatively okay. But he could feel the smell of rot wafting in past the Big Wall.

"Let's hope we blast our way out of here fast," Dante said, his hand bumping against Ezra's for no reason at all, really.

It was still reason enough for Ezra to wait for a beat, and then try and take Dante's hand into his.

"Yeah, hope so."

Dante let him, squeezing his hand in recognition. "At least we found her."

"At least we found her," Ezra agreed, squeezing his hand back.

He sighed.

"Penny for... whatever that was?" Dante asked, voice ever so light.

An invitation for Ezra to talk, but also an invitation to let it go if that was what Ez needed right now.

Ezra was quiet for a long stretch of time. Just walking. His thumb brushing absently against Dante's hand.

Then he just said, "This is a lot."

"Yeah," Dante said, watching the streets rather than Ezra's face like he really wanted to. "It is."

Edited 2018-09-28 07:59 (UTC)

There wasn't much happening on Ezr's face worth seeing, anyhow. It was al neutral, though perhaps a little more open than it had been for the last while.

But still. Not a whole lot to go on.

"I'm tired, and I don't like this place." It was a little on the inane side as far as things to say went, but he didn't care. "I don't really enjoy these off-world trips."

Well, between this and Limbo City...

Dante wasn't the type to point out it was inane, anyway. Especially not when Ezra was actually talking to him, relatively unprompted, for once.

"You're not really getting to see the best of the multiverse, either," he said instead. "I can't blame you."

"I'd like a lower chance of dying."

He hadn't really feared for his own life on this particular outing. But, all the same.

"Feels like I've had more than my share of that." Just in general.

"Things still the same back home, huh," Dante said. Casual, neutral voice.

"No one's trying to kill me at home."

Anymore.

So that wasn't really what he'd been thinking of, no.

Dante nodded.

"Sorry," he said.

"You should be."

It was a weird blend of empathy and straight-forwardness, his tone.

"I am," Dante said quietly. "So that works out."

Re: Wednesday Evening

smilestopscars - 2018-09-28 09:39 (UTC) - Expand

rebelseekspizza - 2018-09-28 09:41 (UTC) - Expand

smilestopscars - 2018-09-28 09:44 (UTC) - Expand

rebelseekspizza - 2018-09-28 09:50 (UTC) - Expand

smilestopscars - 2018-09-28 09:59 (UTC) - Expand

rebelseekspizza - 2018-09-28 10:01 (UTC) - Expand

smilestopscars - 2018-09-28 10:07 (UTC) - Expand

rebelseekspizza - 2018-09-28 10:16 (UTC) - Expand