fh_trips | Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine Feet Below Fandom, Wednesday

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bde summer 2021: donut holes

Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine Feet Below Fandom, Wednesday

Whelp, it was Wednesday again. And they were still in the hole. At least this Wednesday people had lots of options for things to occupy themselves with, besides trying to right firefighting vehicles?

There was a bowling alley! A campfire (with a somewhat diminished stash of marshmallows)! A music store! An ice cream shop, though its stock was all melted and gross by now! Even some empty warehouses!

So many things to do to take your mind off how absolutely terrible it was that you were stuck in a hole, and there was no clear way out. . . .

[sorry for the late posting! Open!]

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Travis hadn't been bowling since, like, middle school. He had terrible memories of being absolutely the worst bowler in his class.

He was exactly bored enough to decide that a slightly cockeyed bowling alley in a hole was the perfect place to try to improve his skills.

Or maybe he was just in a mood to throw heavy balls at things.

Dwight had made short work of the few pieces of wood he had to fiddle with, thus ending his whittling. Deciding it was time to actually get up and move for a bit he made his way towards the bowling alley- one of many places he had yet managed to check out prior to the hole escapade. Dwight had seen Travis head that way but hadn't seen him around recently so figured he was still inside.

"Hey Travis," he called out as he entered.

"Dwight," Travis said, looking up at him with a nod. "Want to bowl a few . . . hands? Rounds? I don't know what they're called."

Frames. They were called "frames", Travis.

"Sure, sounds fun" Dwight said with a smirk as he checked the nearby rack for a ball that would work. "Though I think given the state of the place," he said waving his hand around, "we should definitely use the bumpers."

Travis blinked at him, and then the lanes.

"Right. I . . ." He bobbed his head in a continuous nod. ". . . Definitely knew those existed."

"Course you did" Dwight said as he casually flipped the lever to drop the bumpers. "So, bothering to keep score or just seeing how many tries it takes to knock them all down?
he asked as he picked up his ball and gave it a rub.

“I’ve mostly just been rolling balls and wishing they were darts,” Travis admitted. “Sometimes picturing the faces of my exes. . . . You know, normal stuff.”

"Ah yes, the tried and true coping mechanism of hitting/smashing inanimate objects," Dwight said with a nod.

He picked up his ball, glanced down the very cockeyed lane and gave it as good a wind up and roll as he could. His expression fell as the ball made it about two thirds of the way down before the sideways tilt sent it into the bumper, and then the slight incline of the lane had the ball rolling back to where he was standing.

"Oh that is not bloody fair" he muttered as he picked up the ball and nodded towards the lane for Travis to give it another go.

Travis chuckled. "It's a little bit like a very aggressive form of skeeball," he said, winding up and rolling his ball hard down the lane. It made it over the incline, but mostly that just meant it veered really hard into the side wall behind the pins without knocking anything down.

"OK change in strategy then" Dwight said picking up a smaller and lighter ball. "Since all conventional rules are out and I don't have to worry about these oversized hands getting stuck, we're gonna try something."

Dwight took his spot behind the line, bent down slightly and then essentially underhanded-rolled the ball as hard as he could down the lane. His idea was to sort of pin-ball machine it off the bumpers. And it almost worked.... kinda.

Travis cheered, both arms in the air. “That’s the spirit, big guy!

"So what's the record you've set so far? We shooting for half the pins to win? You've managed to knock down half the pins so far rigth?" he asked giving Travis a playful wink.

“Who said anything about winning?” Travis asked. “There is no winning in the Hole. Unless someone somehow figured out how to get out of the Hole.”

"Little friendly competition and all" Dwight said before shaking his head. "Ok so chucking balls purely for the sake of stress relief. Got it," he said as he stepped to the side, letting Travis have a go at it.

Travis went full-on granny bowling on his next try. Vic would mock him into next week for it, but what Vic couldn't see. . . .

"Hey, look at that! I got a pin!"

"Hey good job there!" Dwight said, holding his hand up for a high-five. "That's using them muscles!"

"The patronizing really sells it," Travis said with a snort, high-fiving back. "You know what we need for this? Beer."

"Beer sounds great. I think we have cheap beer, cheap beer, and cheap beer available today" Dwight said with a slightly chuckle.

"Cheap beer and awkward bowling. Match made in heaven." Travis stepped back, waving for Dwight to take his turn, and headed to go find a couple bottles.

Dwight nodded and studied the tilt and angle of the lane. Though he knew good and well it would make no difference on how well this next shot went.

Taking his position he gripped the ball and gave it a mighty underhanded yeet up the ramp and watched it roll closer and closer to the pins, lighting bumping into the closest one without fulling knowing it down.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Dwight exclaimed with a chuckle. He was bad enough at Bowling on a normal day, this was just asking for a comedy of errors.

Travis applauded as he came back -- awkwardly, since he was carrying glass bottles. He held one out for Dwight and took a long swig from his own.

"So, if bowling isn't your sport, what is?"

Dwight took the bottle and nodded in thanks before taking a long drink of his own.

"Let's see in college is was football and wrestling. In boot camp and while we were stationed overseas, our unit held sort of makeshift MMA matches now and then" Dwight chuckled as he took another drink.

(Like obviously Travis, what else would Dwight be good at if not contact sports?)

Travis let his gaze drift up and down Dwight briefly, and he nodded. "Yeah, makes sense." He shook his head, taking another swig before setting the bottle aside and reaching for another ball. "I was a wrestler. High school and college. Went pretty much right from school to the fire academy, where the only sport was 'survive the drills and then stay up all night studying'."

"Much more admirable to save lives. Though I bet that wrestling background paid off in some ways" Dwight said, taking another drink. "Helped you with the firefighting and me with the military training."

"It came in handy," Travis agreed, hefting his bowling ball. He affected a somewhat saucy tone. "And not just for the firefighting."

Then he immediately felt awkward, so he stepped away to bowl, going granny style again.

"Pin number two! Aww, yeah!"

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