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

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bde summer 2021: donut holes

Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine Feet Below Fandom, Thursday

Happy Thursday, hole-y people! Were you going insane yet? Some of you had the good fortune of having a loved one down here with you, so maybe not!

Travis probably was. But, like, in a quiet way now where he was almost used to never seeing the sun again.

This was the perfect time to learn to play guitar, right?

[open!]

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Travis's hand now hurt too much for learning guitar. Also his pride.

And his face. His face hurt a lot.

He dug a couple chemical cold pack out of one of the first aid kits in the station and sat down against the overturned aid truck to press one to his face. Probie came trotting over and pressed up against his side.

She could have told you that was a stupid move back there, Travis. But you seemed determined, so she'd left you to it. . . .

Once Dwight was sure the brawling part of the fight was over he had let Travis and Edward have their final words, keeping a close eye on them both. He followed Travis over to the fire station and stood there silently for a moment before sighing and shaking his head.

Not one of your smarter moves there Travis. Dwight wasn't judging you, and he wasn't going to say anything about it- he was sure you already knew that well enough.

"How's the face and hand?" he asked simply, still standing against the truck.

"Awesome," Travis said with a sigh. He should have known Dwight would come over to check in on him. "Seriously, man, how hard is it to just -- not fire a cannon?"

"Well, you know... Pirates and all that" Dwight said with a slight chuckle as he bent down so Probie could sniff his hand when she trotted over.

"That," Travis said, watching Probie go greet the other man. "Is not an excuse. It's as dangerous for them to do that down here as it is for anyone else. And that's without the whole 'oh yeah, and that guy's a bullet magnet so you won't even hit what you're aiming at' thing!"

"Oh trust me, I would greatly prefer to not have canons going off" Dwight said with a nervous laugh, glancing behind him to make sure no one was messing around with the canons. "Not sure even the suit Miguel gave me can save me from the impact of a 30 pound cannon ball to the chest."

Dwight sat down across from Travis and was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"We'll figure out what to do about Edward and his crew."

"Suppose we could let Detective Williams try to deal with him," Travis said. "Did he fall in here with handcuffs?"

"That's actually not a bad idea...." Dwight mused for a moment. "I haven't spoke to Williams yet. Might be worth considering though- at least temporarily" he added with a smirk.

"Might take some of the wind out of the asshole," Travis grumbled. He worked his jaw a moment and winced. "Fuck, I haven't gone off like that in. . . ." He trailed off with a sigh. "Awhile."

And he didn't even get to go blow off some steam fighting a wildfire this time! Or not fighting with an extremely hot deaf firefighter!

This sucked.

"And hopefully this will be the first and last brawl we have down here before we get out" Dwight said. "Tempers are flaring the longer this goes on. Hopefully we will get out of here soon."

Lord he hoped it was sooner rather than later. He was used to playing peace keeper but he wasn't looking forward to the prospect of so many people getting even more stir crazy.

"Just do me a favor and give me a heads up if you get the urge to punch someone again" he said with a somewhat sympathetic smile.

"Oddly enough, that rarely happens," Travis said. "I'm generally a very easy going guy. All I ask is that you don't crap on anyone else, you know?"

Or be weirdly belligerent about weapons safety when Travis had had a very long and hard week and a half.

"A totally reasonable request" Dwight agreed. "Though if the population down here grows much more, we may have to start looking at setting up designated person spaces. Just to make sur everyone has a place they can go to cool down and get away from everyone else."

Travis looked at him.

"How do you do that? How do you just -- always keep looking ahead and trying to fix everything? Those cannons are more dangerous for you than anyone else here."

"When you live with something like my Trouble, you just kinda learn to adapt... maybe its a morbid or dark way to look at it" Dwight said with a shrug. "But I learned long ago that stress and worries will happen. And the thing isn't that I don't think about then or confront them or try to figure out a plan for how to deal with them. But I try not to spend all my energy on the what ifs. I plan where I can, prepare if there's something I can do, and then otherwise try to watch my bad and deal with whatever might happen." Dwight gave Travis a smirk and laughed somewhat dryly "Trust me, I don't have it as together as I make it look."

"You'd better not," Travis said. "You're making me look bad over here. I'm supposed to be the one who's trained to be rational in any given situation." He looked off towards wherever the pirates had ended up. "Which I have clearly just been excellent at, down here."

Travis, dude.... you're talking to someone who spent several years as part of the Army Rangers. It's kind of in his blood as much as yours.

"Hey we all have our moments of weakness" Dwight said. "And you have managed to keep everyone safe, fed, and alive down here all this time. That is no small feat. Don't be too harsh with yourslef, cuz I think a pirate invasion would send just about anyone off the deep end at some point. Don't be too hard on yourself" Dwight said, reaching out a hand to gently pat Travis' shoulder, pausing so he could move if he wanted to.

Edited 2021-07-08 19:07 (UTC)

Travis let him with little more than a sigh.

"Thanks." He leaned against the aid car a bit harder, looking up at the ceiling. "Is it weird that I really miss rain?"

"Not at all" Dwight said sympathetically. "I'm a bit of an outdoorsman myself. I miss the trees, the wind, the rain. Hell I think I'm almost to the point I'd be at least partly glad to see a fly or a mosquito."

Almost. He said almost Travis, don't you look at him like that!

"They can fly. They're too clever to end up down here." Travis shrugged. "I'm from Seattle, man. I'm used to a regular dose of extreme humidity." He held up his hand, examining his knuckles. "I think my skin's starting to crack."

That as because you'd punched a guy, Trav.

"Well, we can always ask the girls if they have any lotion or anything..." Dwight said, humoring him for a moment before shaking his head. "In the mean time, maybe stop punching people. Will probably go a long way in helping your hands."

"That is -- good advice," Travis said with a little laugh. "Guess I should be glad I'm not going to jail this time."

"Yeah pretty sure Edward isn't going to go run sobbing to Detective Williams or anything. And even if he did, I think you are still good. But yeah might not want to press your luck with a repeat" Dwight said with a slight chuckle.

"So," he continued after a few minutes of silence. "How's the hand doing? How the jaw and face? Bruising doesn't look too bad so far.."

“I’m fine, Mom,” Travis teased. “I’ve definitely had worse.”

And that was even if you left out the open heart trauma surgery!

"Yeah snarky as ever. You'll live!" Dwight teased right back.

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Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine Feet Below Fandom, Thursday

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Re: Life in the hole - at the fire station, after Edward's arrival

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