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

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bde summer 2021: donut holes

Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine Feet Below Fandom, Saturday

So it was Saturday again. The end of Travis's second week down here. He was trying not to think about how long it had been.

The fire ladder was now ~~handwavily~~ positioned under Rey's progress on the roof of the hole, giving people easy access to the slowly growing divot if people wanted to work on it. (Was it a divot on the ceiling?)

There was a lovely mural started on one wall, and plenty of instruments if people wanted to start a band. There was a circle of cannons that could apparently be climbed on if you wanted to get shot across the room. (Why would you want that, Beaker? Why?) There was a very well organized stack of men's and women's fashion, only slightly out of date! There was a bowling alley. There were fire trucks. Warehouses and an ice cream store that was rapidly starting to smell. There was a campfire, which was proving to be a rather useful meditation spot, if you had Force powers! And there were even a few spaceships, which might or might not have useful things in them. And a blacksmith shop full of weapons, which people should probably not let Travis near while he was still annoyed at the pirates.

Was anyone else hearing a couple of birds singing?

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Faye had lost some of the good mood brought on by all that relief yesterday, as she crossed into her first twenty-four hours in the hole.

Her neck hurt from sleeping in a weird (albeit, cuddly, and that had helped) position, she was starting to feel weirdly claustrophobic about how much earth was between them and the surface, and the goddamn ice cream had apparently melted before she'd gotten here.

So she'd be spending part of the day, at least, going through an inventory of the Red Tail. The damage it had taken in the fall seemed minimal, but she was running through some tests of all the systems, just to make sure it all booted up still.

There was also a growing pile of junk food near the ship -- Twinkies, cupcakes, chips of all kinds, and a slightly-stale open bag of marshmallows featured prominently, along with a plethora of freeze-dried nonsense.

[Faye's junk food is moddable. The woman basically only eats things you can find at a gas station.]

The cuddly sleeping had helped and Stark was feeling better this morning (at least he was pretty sure it was morning) than he had in days. That was a pretty low bar to clear but it was still an improvement and he would take what he could get right now.

"Can I help? Do you want help?"

Faye was treating it like morning, anyway, though it was hard to really feel like time was passing. (She felt like this in open space sometimes, too. A firm planetary day/night cycle really helped keep track of this stuff.)

"Sure," she replied, swinging down out of the ship and handing Stark a bag of little frosted circus animal cookies. "Can you divvy the food up into stuff we want to share versus stuff I should hide?"

Welcome to an emergency situation with Faye!

"We went through things in the ice cream shop the other day," Stark said, taking the offered bag. "To see what was still good. Plenty of toppings." There might end up being weird ice cream shop trail mix in waffle cones. "Rey's idea."

"What would you not want to share? Do you have a favorite?" He was eyeing those Hostess cupcakes, himself. He would still share if anyone asked.

"I just have a feeling things might get a little desperate," Faye said, lowering her voice with a suspicious look off towards the campfire. "We have limited resources. We can share, but if stuff starts running out -- "

She shrugged.

"And also my favorite's Twinkies," she added, pointing. They were both preserved to hell and back and delicious, which was the perfect combination for a snack if you asked Faye.

"We could keep some things for now," Stark said. "Or just eat your favorites first. Share what you don't like as much. But I don't we'll run out soon. I hope. But more people might fall in and we'll need more. But there might be more buildings too and more supplies." He looked up, as if waiting for another building to crash through any moment.

"I don't know. Maybe we'll get out before it's a problem." He didn't sound convinced of that but maybe if it was said often enough it would start to sound true.

"More people'll fall in," Faye agreed confidently. "But we need to think longterm, Stark. Survival of the fittest. I'll share for awhile."

'Awhile' was totally finite, yes. And she would definitely hide the stuff she really liked.

"I've spent weeks on my own," she added. "We'll need to stave off the boredom, too." Because that was the real killer, in Faye's experience, and she got bored quickly.

"It's better to have something to do," Stark agreed. "I've been...it's better on days when I've had something to do." Otherwise he just started pacing and talking to himself.

"I'm sure we can think of something."

"Hey, we're going to keep you busy," Faye promised, her tone softening a little. "Stick with me. I'll make sure."

And because this was Faye we were talking about, she followed that up with a wink.

Aw yeah, look at that. Flirting in the hole. Totally appropriate.

That comment and the wink, rather predictably, led to Stark ducking his head and fighting back a smile.

"Is that a promise?"

Look, it had been a long week and a half.

"We have to pass the time somehow," Faye replied, her smile widening at his reaction. (Also probably predictably.) "I'm sure we could find somewhere private."

Din's ship, if nothing else, was probably fine. (Checking that with Din was obviously out of the question.)

"We do," Stark agreed. "And...we could. Not your ship." But there were others and abandoned warehouses. There were options.

"I did miss you." And they'd missed out on being flavored, which would be a tragedy if it hadn't been eclipsed by this being trapped in a hole business.

It still was a tragedy! Though, thankfully, one that Faye was creative and determined enough to rectify later on, once everyone was back on the surface and could avail themselves of, say, chocolate syrup and Kahlua.

(...though there was the whole Chilly Boulder situation. A thought to consider if they got real, real bored down here!)

Faye softened a little, dropping a bit of that flirtatious swagger she liked to hide behind. "I missed you too. I mean, once I was done being mad at you."

Probably for the best that he hadn't been around for most of that, actually!

There were options! But Chilly Boulder was probably smelling pretty gross by now with no way to dispose of all the leftover melted ice cream.

"I didn't do anything," Stark reminded her. "Did you really think I did?"

"I didn't know what to think!" Faye told him, throwing an arm up exasperatedly. "So, yeah, I did. I thought you'd left or something. And then the holes started being more of a thing, and more people kept disappearing, and -- you know, I mostly stopped being mad at you."

Which was a shame, because anger was so much easier than worry.

"Why would I leave?" That was a ridiculous idea!
"Where would I go? I like it here. Well. Not here."

He was not enjoying being in the hole.

"I wouldn't want to make you mad."

"I don't know -- all I knew is you stood me up and then didn't come home." Look, they were neighbors. It wasn't that weird that she'd noticed that. "Maybe you didn't leave. Maybe you just...didn't come home. Went somewhere else. With someone else."

Faye was now very purposely fiddling with something on one of her ship's arms, avoiding eye contact. "But you're smart to not want to make me mad."

Like, not a threat, just an observation.

"There isn't... I'm not... who would I be going somewhere with?" Stark asked, looking slightly bewildered.

"Upsetting you isn't something I want to do. Why would I?"

"I don't think most people care if they upset me," Faye replied with a shrug, actually looking up at that. "So. I didn't think you did, either. And I don't know who, like -- I didn't have ideas, I just...."

She blew out a breath. "All I have to go on are the things that have happened to me before," she said, carefully. And she only had about a three year bank of experience to work from. "And no one's ever left me waiting 'cause a hole swallowed them up before."

"I'm just me, not most people. And I care." So there, Faye.

"I didn't want to leave you waiting. At all. I promise."

"I know you didn't," Faye admitted. "I know you...wouldn't."

Whew, that was hard to admit. And honestly, if she hadn't been in a hole, Faye probably would have found an excuse to leave rather than admit that she knew that.

"I was worried about you, when we all started realizing it was the holes, actually," she finally said, instead. "So I'm glad you're okay, even if we're...trapped."

Edited 2021-07-10 23:58 (UTC)

He really wouldn't have. It was a relief to know that she knew that.

"Thank you," Stark said softly. "For worrying."

"I kind of wish I could not worry," Faye replied, giving him a small smile as she turned to reach back up into her ship. "Easier just worrying about myself."

And now she had to worry about some adorable, gentle, sweet alien with half a face, who was too good for her in the first place, and probably was going to get attacked and kidnapped by stuff all the time, and so she'd have no choice but to keep worrying.

This was why Faye was anti-feelings. Look at all that work her life had become, suddenly.

"I'll try and avoid holes in the future." And anything resembling a cave for a very long time. "So you won't have to."

Aside from the hole he hadn't been Banik-napped by anything or anyone in a very long time! Fandom was usually safe. Ish.

"Maybe just be careful in general." Part of her was rebelling at that request, because she shouldn't care if he was careful.

But, you know. She did.

"Though we're probably safe enough down here. Stay out of the way when I go to work on the ceiling with Rey later," she added, because now she had to think about things like that.

Re: Life in the hole - spaceships!

stykera - 2021-07-11 01:42 (UTC) - Expand

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