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

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Something like that, I guess," Nick said, unsure of how to take that or respond to it. "Hard to keep track of the dates here sometimes. I mean, hopefully you won't be stuck here long enough to find out, but I know it was driving Kathy crazy, having to manually count out the date. I think she stopped after the first week."

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

Good, that was the vibe Ezra was going for.

"Well, we don't intend to stick around long enough to find out, no."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

While Nick seemed to be going for generalized dickishness? With a side of 'lowkey possessive.'

"Too bad she didn't mention the demon that would prevent you from leaving before you showed up," Nick drawled. "She told me she was just calling to tell you lot where she was. Guess some lines got crossed during the call."

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

"We're not known for staying put, us Fandom folk," Ezra replied, with just a hint of sugary pleasantness. Utterly sincere, in that weird way that had some sharpness to it. "Not when one of our own is in danger."

Never mind that he didn't really identify himself with the 'Fandom folk' anymore. Or with the group he'd shown up with. But they were more his people than the ones who lived here.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"We were keeping her safe and protected here," Nick said hotly. "We wouldn't let anything happen to her again."

Ignoring all the times she'd had to fight exes since she'd shown up, of course.

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

"And you wouldn't want her to be somewhere where she'd automatically be safer by virtue of there not being exes, because...?"

Ezra was sure whatever answer he gave would be perfectly acceptable. Of course.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Nick hesitated for a second, but he hadn't been a hotshot Hollywood agent before all this bullshit for nothing. "Because I know she'll be devastated and blame herself if something happens to one of you," he said. "I mean, I've seen most of your little group in action and know they can handle themselves against a few exes--" where had you been last time, kid? He didn't think he'd ever quite gotten that answer "--but Cairax is a completely different class of threat."

Of course!

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

"That makes no sense, darling," Ezra replied. Because if Kathy wasn't here, they wouldn't be either, that was his thinking. So he couldn't really follow Nick's logic.

Never mind that, though.

"Sounds as if you're more concerned with her being here than you are with her being safe."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"I'm not your darling, kid," Nick declared. "And of course I want her home and safe and happy. Don't twist this all around. I'm saying why I think she should have waited to call in the rescue is all. Because if you try to take her home now, all you're gonna do is get killed."

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

All Ezra did at his little declaration was give him a look that implied that he was a sad, sad man for rejecting 'darling' and for trying to belittle Ezra.

"Good thing no one's trying to do that right now, then, isn't it?"

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Yeah, you didn't want him giving you a look in return, kid. Not with his sunglasses off. You wouldn't enjoy it much.

"Only cause she talked sense into you."

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

Ezra snorted.

"I see you're really in the loop."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Nick's eyes narrowed behind his mirrored shades, the only outward sign that this kid had scored a direct hit. Kathy had been distant ever since she arrived and with her...friends...here, he could feel himself being shut out more than ever.

"I'm sorry, but who are you again? I don't remember your name ever coming up."

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

"Does it matter?" Ezra asked, smoothing his voice back into an idle tone. "I'm too fabulous to talk about to just anyone, anyway."

And he resisted the urge to say he was here now. Nothing to gain there.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"I mean, whatever you have to tell yourself, kid. Sure," Nick snarked.

Not that Kathy had really mentioned any of her friends to him. He hadn't even known that she'd started calling Eliot 'Dad' at some point until she'd gone racing over to him for a hug.

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

That was about what Ezra was figuring. Which meant Nick couldn't hurt him, not really.

Ezra carried his guilt with him all the time, anyway.

"Was there anything of actual substance you wanted to talk to me about, darling?" he asked, impassively.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Just trying to get to know the new face," Nick said easily. "Kathy must be important to you for you to tag along here."

Certainly had nothing to do with the greeting he'd witnessed between them yesterday, that small moment of quiet intimacy that she hadn't shared with anyone else.

Really!

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

Of course not.

"Well, getting to know me is really neither here nor there, is it?" Ezra replied, keeping his tone mild, hitting something light. "Like I said, we won't stick around too long."

Yes, he was ignoring the second part.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Might be a few weeks," Nick said with a casual shrug. Totally casual. "Can't go anywhere with Big Ugly out there, right?"

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

Ezra mirrored his shrug.

All casual, of course.

"If it takes a few weeks, then it takes a few weeks," he said. "Point is, none of us are going to start building homes here."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"You just gonna be a pack of insular assholes while you're here though?" Nick asked, grimacing. "Kathy's got friends here. Maybe we wanna get to know the other people in her life while we have the chance."

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

"Well, maybe the ones that don't act the way you do will have better luck with it."

Because Ezra did not have the energy to be pretending Nick wasn't being a dick. He said it lightly amd with a faint air of fabricated brightness, though!

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"I just wanna get to know the guy who was all over Kathy with her boyfriend...s...right there," Nick snapped, stumbling over the plural. Giving up all pretense at niceness. "Wondering if I should maybe have a word with someone."

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

It was refreshing, almost, to hear Nick not pretend. As badly as he'd been pretending before.

"I don't think Kathy's business is any of yours," he said. "Though if you've never seen friends hugging before, I feel sorry for you."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"I know hugging," Nick scowled, rolling his eyes. "That wasn't hugging. You were holding onto her like she was the only source of oxygen in the room."

It was a familiar feeling, for Nick.