The Park, Tuesday Morning

[smilestopscars]

No, Ezra had not bailed as soon as the portal had dumped them back on the causeway on Sunday morning. In fact, now it was Tuesday morning and he still hadn't bailed. That didn't mean he'd lingered too long around Kathy's place, either, though. He'd booked himself a room at the Arms. The days in LA packed in a cramped space with everyone else - no matter how much time he'd spent out of the apartment there, too - had left him with a desire to not feel like the walls were going to collapse on top of him and suffocate him.

Walls, or people. Whichever.

Point was, at least he hadn't run. Small steps.

So it was Tuesday morning and he was walking around the park aimlessly, with a takeaway cup of coffee in his hand. He wasn't much for walks, usually, but Los Angeles had left him with a newfound appreciation of how fresh everything smelled here. It was like he couldn't get enough of being able to breathe in deep without feeling the stench of rot creeping up his nose like a particularly unseemly unwelcome guest.

He stopped underneath a tree and looked up at the foliage. It was going to lose its leaves soon, but at least it was just the natural cycle of things. There was something comforting about that.

[ooc: Open park/post! //edit: Content warning for mention of self-harm in the Dante thread.]

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[rebelseekspizza]

Dante had been restless for days, too. No amount of walking managed to get it out of his system, and he hadn't wanted to spook Kathy with other outlets, either. Wasn't even sure his head was in the right place for it either.

So... different plan.

He walked into the park as the morning began to slide towards noon, his acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder. He still wasn't sure he was going to play it, exactly.

But he sat down with it on the grass. It was just nice to have it in his hands. Messing around with the strings.

He hadn't seen Ezra yet.

[smilestopscars]

But Ezra spotted him.

Oh, sure it took a moment or two, possibly because he'd just seen a squirrel and his fox-brain had considered chasing it. But his senses could only ever miss Dante for so long.

He stopped where he was, watching from afar for a moment. Far enough away that he wasn't drawing immediate attention.

[rebelseekspizza]

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) Dante didn't have Ezra's nose. His fingers settled into a pattern along the strings, playing some stray stretch of something from someone else's take on a Tool song - Sober, he thought, but he couldn't remember the band - that he'd picked up while bored during a shift at Groovy Tunes sometime.

That, at least, was calming.

[smilestopscars]

Yeah. It kind of was.

Ezra stood where he was for a moment. Head tilted. Listening.

Then he moved, but he did it slowly, beginning to circle closer. He wasn't within Dante's field of vision - at least, he didn't think he was, and he was trying to keep it that way. Creeping like a fox.

[rebelseekspizza]

The thing about the song was the repetition of this small task: up the string, then back down again, low to high, low to high, over and over again.

Dante got lost in it. Drawn into it, letting his thoughts fly off to somewhere else.

Low to high, low to high.

[smilestopscars]

There was something hypnotic about just the sound of it, the repetition of a pattern. A few of Ezra's quiet steps fell into the rhythm.

And then he was there, sitting down onto the grass right next to Dante.

[rebelseekspizza]

It was the first moment Dante had noticed he was there, and yet all Ezra got a brief look. Surprise, yeah.

Not enough of it not to want to finish the song. Or maybe he just wanted something to fill the space.

There was a lot of that here, after all.

[smilestopscars]

Yeah, there was. Enough of it that Ezra sitting cross-legged where his knee almost bumped against Dante's didn't even begin to put a dent in the distance.

But Ezra was content to listen to the strings for a while longer. Wasn't like he was desperate to start talking. Wasn't like they were all that used to being in each other's presence, either.

[rebelseekspizza]

Was maybe a good thing for them to be, without words, for just a while longer.

After all, they'd done much of their best communicating without saying a word - albeit under vastly different circumstances.

But even Tool songs didn't last forever. Dante played the final riff, let it ring out, and then fell silent.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra let the silence stretch on for a little while after that. Like there was an echo fading away that you had to give some space to.

But he figured it was on him to be the first to open his mouth.

He looked over. "Hey."

Wasn't a very verbose opening, but it'd do.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Hey," Dante echoed. "How're you holding up?"

It was Ezra. He wasn't holding his breath for an honest answer.

[smilestopscars]

"Getting a little better," Ezra replied. Honest, even a little subdued. "Fresh air that doesn't taste like death is yet to lose its charm."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Birdsong's nice too," Dante said, glancing up at the sky. "And no big walls."

[mages_suck]

Fenris had spent the weekend mostly in their room because the island was full of strangers. They had weeded themselves out on Monday. Tuesday dawned and the walls were getting to him so he went for a walk in the park.

An attempt to get used to 'modern' clothing, he put on jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. Still with his sword strapped to his back, and no shoes. The warmth of the day didn't bother him even in the heavier clothing.

[smilestopscars]

The park wasn't exactly stranger-free today, either. What with Ezra being there, too. But there were fewer of them, that much was true.

Ezra had stopped to sit on one of the benches, enjoying his coffee and people-watching - though the latter wasn't very eventful so far.

But, hey, here came someone with -- was that a sword? Looked like it could be, anyway. Ezra gave him an easy nod. A passing kind of greeting.

[mages_suck]

Strangers by their lonesome were not a problem. Strangers in mobs excitedly pointing at all the strange was mostly what he had been avoiding.

Fenris nodded back politely. The face was new, but then, so was he. Since it seemed to be the standard greeting for the unrecognized, he said, "Hello. Are you a new person or not?"

[smilestopscars]

Ezra felt old today. And out of place.

So he smiled. It didn't quite reach his eyes, but you probably had to know him to spot that. "Well, those words are pretty relative, aren't they?" he asked, lightly. "Personally, I'd settle on saying I'm visiting."

[mages_suck]

"They would be and yet they seem to be the first thing anyone asks me so I thought it was local social custom," Fenris said. "Are you having a good visit?"

[smilestopscars]

Ezra gestured at their surroundings with his takeaway cup. "Well, the weather's good, the air is fresh, and the strangers are handsome --" Yes, that meant you, Fenris. In case the light smirk didn't make that clear. "-- so what's not to like?"

No comment on his reasons for being here right now.

[mages_suck]

Fenris smirked faintly at the compliment and took it with an only slightly mocking bow of his head.

"At least there are no people randomly bursting into song," he agreed politely.

[smilestopscars]

"True!" Ezra agreed merrily. "That one's always kind of a pain in the ass. Not everyone has a voice for singing."

And, also there was that whole bit where it tended to reveal a lot more than Ezra, personally, was willing to share.

"Should I assume you're at least acquainted enough with the island that that's already happened to you," he added, "or was the welcome wagon just that thorough in explaining the quirks this time around?"

[mages_suck]

Fenris gave a delicate little shudder at the thought. "It has not happened to me, no. I don't think my voice would be suited to singing at all. My temperament certainly is not. I was warned about it my first day here, then that week there was an entertainment where it happened many times. An effective warning."

Grease. They'd watched Grease. The amount of singing had been a little traumatic. The story seemed terrible. The cars, though. They weren't bad.

"They were very..thorough. The people I met when I arrived."

[smilestopscars]

"Sometimes, they are," Ezra replied with a tilt of his head. He kind of wanted to ask about the 'entertainment', but in the aftermath of the previous week, a lot of his desires still felt... far away, sort of. Intangible and distant. "What else did they talk about? The multiverse thing, the invasions, the weird weather?"

[mages_suck]

"The nexus and invasions," Fenris agreed, "Gremlins. The cold. Moments when things can become strange."

He frowned a little. "Though all of this is strange and unfamiliar to me. Everything is ..quiet.. here."

[smilestopscars]

Ezra quirked one eyebrow, like he was quietly amused. "Quiet? Is the inherent quaintness of the island getting to you already?"