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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Rey stopped what she was doing, having heard the sounds and kind of assuming that was another building falling. She'd only gotten here yesterday, she didn't know.

"When you say weapons...?"

Because if someone was trying to rob them or whatever, good luck?

Stark had absolutely nothing with him of any value, so robbing him would be pointless.

"The cannons. Guns." Maybe there were blades too? "Several cannons. Nothing that's going to be any frelling help! Nothing that's going to be useful unless they're trying to kill someone! I don't want anyone dying down here! Or up there! But especially down here!"

"No one's dying down here," Rey assured him. "Are they threatening anyone or do they just have them?"

And would hopefully not use them in a cave place like idiots.

"No one is dying right now," Stark agreed in a completely not reassuring manner. "I'd have noticed. They just have them. I don't know. Didn't want to stay out there."

Good thing. He'd just missed the fistfight.

"Not that what we want matters we're all stick stuck."

"Okay, you can stay in here with me," Rey told him. Lightsabers were great for breaking things up but she would be really glad if she didn't have to bust that thing out for that purpose. "You could help me, if you'd like."

"What are you doing? There isn't even ice cream left." Which was a tragedy. Just ice cream soup and that was how you get ants.

"Staying in here isn't going to help either. Nothing is helping! We're still trapped and there's more of us, again. And I am tired of being trapped!"

He'd started pacing now. That wasn't helping either. Neither were the increasingly large gestures while he spoke.

"I know. I'm sorry. The ice cream is gone but there are toppings and ingredients here that could be used for other things," Rey told him. "Besides, keeping my hands busy helps."

She was fine, she'd been stranded for way longer than she'd ever be down here, but she'd encourage having something to focus on.

"I haven't got anything to do." Which may have been why Rey said you could help her, Stark.

"I want to do something useful but I don't even know if there is anything useful." And if they were in a situation where Stark was uniquely qualified to be useful then things would have gone very, very wrong. "We're just here. With no way out."

"We'll get out," Rey told him, and waved him over behind the counter. "Come here."

"We should be out already!" They also shouldn't have been down here at all but here they were anyway. "It shouldn't last this long things like this don't last this long. Not here. But this one does."

Stark was, in fact, feeling a bit betrayed by Fandom not following its own absurd usual guidelines.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he walked over.

Rey got it. She just didn't have much to offer him there besides relentless optimism.

So she said, "I found toppings that I'm going through. I think the berries are done but the bananas are probably still good, and there's plenty of nuts and chocolate and things that should be okay. I was thinking anything that might go bad we should probably move to the bowling alley since it should still have generator power. What do you think?"

Maybe there were waffle cones left somewhere!

"It isn't hot down here, at least. But not that cold, either." Which was good. Stark would be extra miserable if he was cold and trapped. "Keeping things cold should help. There's power at the fire station too. For now." Because generators needed fuel and that wouldn't last forever.

"Exactly. It's best to prioritize right now," she told him. "And this place is probably going to smell terrible and I'd prefer not to come back for things."

Pray for the Chilly Boulder employees when this place got back to the surface.

Maybe the owner could just leave it down here and make an insurance claim.

"Take what's salvageable and go." Stark nodded. "That makes sense. And you're right. The melted ice cream will go bad and then nobody will want to be in here." They'd all some their best to eat it but there was only so much ice cream any one person could eat.

"Can you help me check what's still good? I figure anything that's gone bad can be left here and isn't worth transporting," she told him.

"I can do that," Stark agreed. A task would keep him occupied and calmer for a while.

"There should be plenty of little things. Not sure what ice cream toppings go with besides ice cream but it's edible and sometimes sugar helps. There's probably cookie bits. Chocolate will be fine."

He might keep up a running commentary while he rummaged around. Sorry, Rey.

It was totally fine by her.

"Exactly. And it's something that could probably be melted down if there was something else to do with it. I'll leave that to someone with more experience there than me," she said. "And things like nuts have actual nutrition."

Actual nutrition? Perish the thought! Stark, if left down here too much longer, would probably sit around eating chocolate chips and leaving real food to other people in case they needed it more.

"There were vegetables. Not in here. At the fire station and the house. I don't know what's left, now. Nuts are good. There's plenty of those in here. There's blueberries? They look fine. I think. The strawberries don't."

Chopped berries soaking in their own juice didn't keep well without refrigeration, who knew?

"This isn't the most thrilling work, sorry," Rey said with a little smile.

She had a lot of ideas for jobs. None of them were thrilling. They were rote and killed time, which was the point.

"I don't need thrilling," Stark said. "Just something to do. Otherwise I'm just thinking and I worry and I think too much and..." And nothing good came of that.

"It's better to have something to do."

"I know all about that," Rey told him. "I'll keep you busy, don't worry."

"Thank you. I was doing alright. Mostly." Sort of.

"And... then I wasn't. Tomorrow might be better. Later might be better. I don't know."

"Do you need a hug?" Rey asked him.

Stark blinked a few times then nodded. "I... it might help. Yes?"

"Okay," she said, moving in to give him a hug.

It'd been a long time in the hole.

Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine Feet Below Fandom, Thursday

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