Mainland Road Trip- Friday- 11/19/2021

[alwaysonguard]

  

Dwight stood, leaning against the side of his SUV, taking a moment to enjoy the cool breeze and the salty spray of the nearby waves. Having lived in Haven, on the coast of Maine for most of his life, there was something oddly comforting about ocean sounds and smells. And all the Fandom craziness had just gotten a bit too crazy at last, so he and Miguel had plotted and planned and decided there was only one solution - road trip!

So it was, he was now standing at the end of the causeway waiting for Miguel. He already had his duffle bag in the back along with a cooler. And as far he was concerned, Dwight was ready to leave the Fandom insanity behind him for a few days at least.

[NFB once they leave the causeway due to distance]

[ETA: Never mind, this is too long to do in a thread. Preplayed with what_the_shock!]

Comments

[alwaysonguard]

"Well, aside from the traditional options of fighting over the radio channel, telling stories, and spamming social media with photos, there's always classic car ride games. Things like "Fortunately/Unfortunately" or our family's favorite back when we still took road trips, "Two Lies and a Truth." Dwight looked over at Miguel as he continued. "The best thing about a road trip is it can be anything you want it to be. "

[what_the_shock]

"Two lies and a truth I know," Miguel said. "Not familiar with the other one. I'm kind of afraid either of our stories would turn nasty pretty fast. I've never fought over radio channels; that could be fun. Or sending the weirdest or most boring pictures back home. Rosa'd kill me," he said cheerfully. Especially since she might not see them until she got back, and she'd have to wade through a ton.

[alwaysonguard]

"Photos are always fun," Dwight offered. "Both here and now to annoy someone by blowing up their phone or social media page with all the photos... and for later on when there's no shortage of photos to look back on months and years later." Dwight looked over at Miguel and smirked. "And she can't kill you if she's not here now, can she?"

[what_the_shock]

"Oh, she'd wait until I got back. She can hold a grudge plenty long," Miguel assured him. "Actually, I should send things to Gabriel, too." He took out his phone, opened up the camera, looked around, and took a picture of the radio. He sent it to Gabriel, captioned Peak early 21st tech!

Then he snapped a picture of Dwight and sent it, too. Late 20th c. giant!

[alwaysonguard]

"Watch it Spider-boy" Dwight said with a mock glare. "You can get photos taken of you as well ya know... soon as I'm like, you know not driving" he added with a chuckle. "Make sure you get my good side though next time... And make sure you only say flattering things about me..." Dwight couldn't keep a straight face any longer and started to laugh.

[what_the_shock]

"Oh yeah, of course," Miguel assured him solemnly. "Which is your good side?"

[alwaysonguard]

"Any side, so long as the photo never sees the light of day" Dwight quipped as he took a playful bat at the phone as it looked like Miguel was trying to snap another picture of him.

[what_the_shock]

"Don't worry, it's not getting sent anywhere for another century," Miguel assured him breezily. "Okay, so tell me two lies and a truth. Or two truths and a lie? Whatever. Or pick a radio channel and I'll fight you over it."

[alwaysonguard]

Dwight considered the options for a moment and smirked. "Okay so here we go, two truths and a lie. I played football and did wrestling before I joined the military. I married the girl I went to the prom with. I have never been to a big city like New York or Chicago."

[what_the_shock]

"Those all sound like something you'd do. Hm. Never being to a big city is the lie?" he guessed.

[alwaysonguard]

"Dang I'm going to have to pick harder ones next round," Dwight said giving Miguel a nod of approval. "Yeah, obviously contact sports were kinda my thing," he said with a chuckle. "Took about four years after we graduated but I did eventually marry my prom date. And I have actually been to a few big cities though they actually were all overseas during my training and deployment."

[what_the_shock]

Miguel nodded. "Kind of what I figured. Sorry, I guess you're just predictable." He smirked. "Okay, hold on, I can do this." He thought for a minute, then said, "I did soccer and swimming in school, my ma smokes illegal cigarettes, and my brother's a superstar hacker."

If anybody noticed most of those weren't actually about him, well...he was trying to keep it light.

[alwaysonguard]

"Let's see..." Dwight glanced over at Miguel with an inquisitive look for a moment. "Okay, the first one is the lie. That's what I'm going to go with!"

[what_the_shock]

Miguel sighed. "Guess I need to come up with harder ones, too. Yeah, I've always been a geek. Never did much physical at all until the spider thing. Plus I nearly drowned once; doesn't endear me to pools."

[alwaysonguard]

"Yeah, ya don't exactly scream sports enthusiast," Dwight said with a wink. "So, let's see.... Gotta try and stump ya this time.... Okay I was a member of a secret organization back home in Haven, I had a collection of baseball cards growing up, I almost went to acting school after I graduated high school."

[what_the_shock]

"Huh. Okay, I'm pegging the baseball cards as a definite truth," Miguel said. He eyed Dwight. "The secret organization thing is shocking weird, but I'm going to guess the acting's a lie, because you are a terrible actor." You wore your everything on your sleeve, Dwight.

[alwaysonguard]

Dwight gave Miguel an absolutely scandalized look. What on earth were you saying, Miguel? He had made it almost three whole weeks down a hole before showing just how freaked out and mentally fragile he was. And he had handled all the insanity the island had thrown at him quite well. I mean really... he could have done a lot worse after having Lizzie come back just to have her snatched away again. His acting skills were quite exceptional... to a point. Until they weren't.

"I have no idea what you are trying to insinuate," he said with a huff and reached out towards the radio. As hour one of the road trip ticked by the radio cracked to life. And it looked like the radio war was off on a good note - seems like fate or whatever you wanted to call it had a bit of a sense of humor there huh Miguel?

[what_the_shock]

Yeah, well, from Miguel's end, it was totally true. He smirked a bit until he heard the radio song. He rolled his eyes (under his, yes, dark sunglasses), but it wasn't like he could blame it on Dwight. Could he? He eyed him suspiciously for a moment.

Then he sighed, decided they had clearly switched games, and reached out to turn a dial. The music blasted loudly, and he winced and turned it back down before trying the next one.

Hm. Not really Miguel's kind of thing, but better than the last one.

[alwaysonguard]

Dwight let the song play for a bit. Miguel looked about as impressed with it as he was, so he reached out to hit one of the buttons under the dial. He paused for a moment, finger over the button, then punched it decidedly.

Dwight smirked as the song played, wondering if Miguel would catch on to what he was doing.

"Ah good one. Classic," he said, glancing over at Miguel to see his reaction to what was surely more than an outdated song in his time.

[what_the_shock]

Miguel...wasn't too sure about this one. Maybe better than the last one? Definitely better than the stupid sunglasses one.

But admitting he didn't mind it seemed against the spirit of the game, so he spun the dial again.

...Ugh. "Okay, never mind." He tried again. "Okay, are there non-depressing songs on this thing?"

[alwaysonguard]

"You're just doing it wrong," Dwight quipped. He reached out and grabbed the dial and gave it a turn. Ok... not too bad.... He knew the song and it wasn't one that made him totally flinch like some of the other songs he heard.

"So, what you think, Miguel? About a 5 or 6 out of 10?"

[what_the_shock]

Miguel listened for a while. "Eight out of ten for the general premise, two out of ten for the mama references, so yeah, call it a five." He leaned back. "This one can stay for a bit." He tapped his foot. "How many stations do you typically get?"

[alwaysonguard]

"Around this area seems to be a decent selection. At least twenty or so stations that come in clear and about as many that can be kind of hit and miss depending how far out you go." Dwight tapped along on the steering wheel as the song played. "Then of course there are the god-awful talk show stations," he said with a shudder.

"Other than the old huntsman's station that used to be on until a few years ago, you still have a few sports stations here and there and things like that. The farther we get from the city and the more 'wild' the area gets we will start losing stations and may end up having barely any if we get far enough out."

Dwight glanced over at Miguel for a moment as he asked curiously. "What's radio and all like in Nueva York? Still got radio or has some new tech replaced it at last?"

[what_the_shock]

"It's all what you call 'streaming' here," Miguel said. "Net-based. A bunch of official stations, all kinds of genres, mostly decent but sometimes a bit bland. Then some small illegal ones that move around. They play more interesting things sometimes, but also a lot of crap. Neither's into many oldies this far back, but my friend Xina's a fan of everything twentieth century, and collected discs and files and played them for me."

He thought. "I remember...Dean Martin, and Yes, and Janis Joplin, and Duran Duran, and Abba, and TLC, and Rage Against the Machine. A few others, but those are the names that stick out." Some because he liked them, some because Xina did, some just because the names were weird.

[alwaysonguard]

"Yeah, I am still playing a bit of catch up myself," Dwight said with a chuckle. "Was never the most tech savvy, I mean these hands are not exactly built for touch pads and small buttons! But even more than just the technology, the music has really changed a lot in the last decade or so. Never realize how much it actually changes till you miss out on a few years of it."

Dwight thought for a moment. "There are some really good ones I've found over the last month or so since arriving in Fandom. Seems the old obsessions with Queen, Guns n Roses, and such has given way to the likes of Linkin Park, Creed, Bon Jovi, and The Offspring..." Dwight made a face and laughed as he shook his head. "One thing hasn't changed in all these years - band names are really weird!"