The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

[spin_kick_snap]

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]

Comments

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

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.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Maybe Max had been that much of an asshole to keep that from happening, huh? Had Dante ever considered that even's Max's moral compass didn't dip towards taking advantage of an emotionally fucked-up teen?

"Well, sure, kid," Max said. "I was a fuckin' zombie them. Not a whole lot going on upstairs. Ask your girlfriend - is she your girlfriend? I know a guy who'd love to know."

Psst, it was Gorgon, pass it on.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Based on what he knew about Max? No, he sure as fuck hadn't seriously considered that.

Dante rolled his eyes. "She's my girlfriend," he said flatly. "Anders is our boyfriend. Man, you are getting off on this, aren't you? Fucking freak."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Hurtful, Dante. Very hurtful. He'd been a hero, you know. Using the forces of evil to fight for good.

"Awww, nah, I just think young love is adorable," Max said, grinning. "Though I'm gonna go have to console a friend. I think he was really hoping he had a shot after she stayed over at his place one night."

...That was a very liberal interpretation of events there, Max. Starting with the idea that Nick was your friend.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Aw, jesus," and that eyeroll was a lot more heartfelt than the first. "Nick's a fucking creep, too. I guess he's just less honest about it than you."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Hey!" Max protested immediately. "...I'm not sure which one of us should be more offended by that."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"What, are you pretending you aren't a creep?" Dante retorted.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Look, I went around wearing a demon like a suit, I know I'm a creep," Max said, sounded very unfazed by this admission. "It's just rude to point it out in a conversation like this. Didn't your mother ever teach you manners?"

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"She died," Dante said flatly.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"So that's a no on the manners thing?" Max checked. His smile went slightly flat, like he'd just gotten bad news and had to play it off like no big deal.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"What do you think?" Dante asked sarcastically.

The fuck was that expression about?

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Fuck, a guy couldn't be sad about your clearly tragic home life, Dante? You were cold.

"I think that sometimes you wish someone would shut you up and teach you manners," Max said, expression settling back to its normal, smirky lines.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

No. That had just been weird.

Though the 'weirded out' got overruled pretty quickly by a sudden, insistent wave of wanting to kick Max's teeth in again.

Yep. That's what that was.

"Are you trying to drag info out of me or what?" he shot back. "Sad your demon ride left you? I mean, fuck, you sound hard up for it."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Why, you offering to be my new demon ride?"

Because, come on, Dante, you'd left that wide open for him.

...Also, the narrative would like to call phrasing on itself, thank you.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Not in a million fucking years," Dante said, eyes narrowing. "Which is probably how long it's gonna be before you ever get laid again, scumbag."

Ugh, he wished Max hadn't dragged them back into the arena of sex insults.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Hey now. Max was fully prepared to say that Dante had started it. Because there was no other way to take that 'demon ride' comment, come on.

"Resorting to play yard taunts and name calling now, Dante?" Max tsked and shook his head. "You don't have to act out for attention. I'm right here and listening. You can talk to me."

Beat.

"Think about how much easier things might have been if you'd been willing to listen the last time."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"I don't remember you saying anything worth listening to back then," Dante retorted.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"I told you that you were brimming with demonic energy back when you were still protesting you weren't demonic...scum, wasn't it?" Max reminded. "I would have told you more but then you punched me and flounced."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Oh please. You barely knew shit," Dante said, pushing some of his hair out of his face. "And you fucking deserved that."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"I knew you for what you were," Max said quietly. "Knew better than you did."

He stared off into space for a second, brooding. And then he shook himself, kicked his legs out, and grinned up at Dante. "And I stand by Kathy would be good at magic. She's precise, she's exacting, and she's constantly overreaching what she can do. That says sorcerer to me."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante snorted.

"There's a version of her in my world," he said. "A lot more magic to go around back there, and yet - Lady's all about the guns."

There was something seriously off with Max. More than before. He couldn't figure it out.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Well, he'd died and come back a zombie and now was stuck in the Mount surrounded by millions of exes and a demon howling for his blood? He was entitled to be not entirely on his game.

"Did she have anybody to teach her?" he asked. "Anybody she wanted to teach her? I don't know if you noticed, but under that whole obedient porcelain doll thing, your girlfriend's pretty stubborn."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Did you just call Kathy an obedient porcelain doll?" Dante said, staring at him.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"I called it a thing," Max protested. "She looks all sweet and quiet and kinda meek." His mouth twisted. "And then she opens that damn mouth."

God, he'd wanted to throttle her the other night.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Think you got some racist bullshit rattling in that head of yours," Dante said, rolling his eyes. "No, she doesn't let douchebags like you roll all over her."