fh_trips | Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine Feet Below Fandom, Wednesday [NFB]

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bde summer 2021: donut holes

Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine Feet Below Fandom, Wednesday [NFB]

Travis would actually be a bit disappointed to miss the shenanigans this week, if he'd had any idea by this point what day it was up on the surface. Down in the cavern, it was as uniformly dark and dank and cool as it had been since he and Probie had fallen in.

Well. At least he didn't have to deal with the heat wave?

He'd given up on the ladder truck. And climbing the walls. And amping up his radio's signal to try to reach anyone up on the surface and let them know where he was. He was sprawled out against the side of the overturned desk, staring moodily at the little emergency lantern he was using for light, and generally being nearly as big a sad useless lump as he'd been after his husband had died four years ago.

He'd get back to being useful in awhile. Sometimes you just had to have a Sad Lump Day.

[Open if/when anyone else falls in a hole!]

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Look, Stark wasn't at his best in situations like this.

"Will that help? Then we should do it. I'll help. Can I help? I don't want to be here."

“I don’t want to be here either and I’ve been here for days did you say you taste like chocolate cake?”

Sometimes words took a minute to process in Travis’s head.

"...Yes. Very chocolate cake. I don't know why. I think everyone tastes like something today? I don't know. One of those things the island does. Are you flavored?"

Well, Stark was momentarily distracted, at least?

“Am I . . . Am I flavored.” Hiw was that even something you found out? “I mean. I’ve been conserving water so I haven’t really showered in awhile. . . .”

"Oh. Well. You still might have a flavor. You should check. Just to see." Because now Stark was curious.

“Why?” Travis shook his head. “I don’t even want to smell me right now.”

"Just to see," Stark said. "Something to do. You could shower first. Or wash your hands. Less water. Is there not enough water? We're trapped and there's no water? Is there food?"

He hadn't even gotten those donuts he ordered!

Travis nodded to the toppled station. “Got food and potable water, and a generator. Enough for awhile at least. But since it doesn’t look like you all came with a building. . . .”

"No building. Just me. And the girl. And...a garbage can?" None of those things were particularly useful to survival in a giant hole, unfortunately.

"I was just walking home. With nothing." Except a ridiculous shirt dusted in powdered sugar, thanks so much for that Anakin.

“Guess I should glad it got me at work,” Travis said. “Could have at least waited until I got my donuts, though.”

"I didn't get my donuts either. And the ones in the park kept exploding." Had he actually eaten anything today? He wasn't sure.

There was something very upsetting about tasting like cake and not actually getting to eat any or anything like it.

“Exploding donuts?” Travis shook his head. “Right. Wednesday. Why am I even surprised?”

"Wednesdays are always odd. Today was odder because of the flavor but it's always odd because of Anakin. At least it was just donuts? And the shirts. There's always shirts. But then there was the hole and now I'm here and...not a good Wednesday."

And things had been going well for a while there! The flavor thing had looked to end well.

“Is it sad that mine’s looking up?” Travis asked. “. . . It probably is.”

Stark thought about that for a moment and shook his head. "You were alone for days. Well. With the dog. Is the dog alright?"

Too bad Probie couldn't talk. She could tell them if Travis had a flavor.

“Yeah, she’s fine.” Travis looked over at Probie, who was sniffing the trash can. “Sulking, but fine.”

"Oh. Good. Good. That's good."

Probie would probably have some company in her sulking soon enough.

"Are you alright?"

Travis sighed.

“Well, I didn’t quite reach the point of trying to talk to inanimate objects.”

"Sometimes that's better than talking to yourself."

Stark had definitely done both.

“Oh, I definitely did a little of that. Mostly I talked to Probie. And, uh. Maybe a little to Michael.”

Well. Stark was momentarily distracted from trying not freak out about being trapped in a hole. That might be a good thing.

"I'm sorry. That works, sometimes. It's... that can help. For a while. I've done that. Talked to people who aren't there anymore. Did it help?"

Travis shrugged. He didn’t really want to talk about talking to Michael, even with someone who understood.

“Anyway. Phones aren’t working. Radio either. I tried climbing the walls, but didn’t get very far.”

Stark wasn't going to push on that subject. Not now, anyway. He looked at the wall, then at Travis, then back to the wall.

"No. You wouldn't, would you?"

Those were some tall walls. With no windows and no doors.

"No way in no way out and no way to contact anyone?" They were never getting out of here, were they?

"Near as I can tell," Travis said, shrugging. "Ceiling's too high to know for sure, though. Don't suppose you can fly?"

"Nothing so useful," Stark said, looking up at the ceiling.

If Stark's abilities started being useful they were in so much trouble down here.

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designateddadfriend - 2021-07-01 16:20 (UTC) - Expand

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