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

[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!"

[what_the_shock]

"Yeah, pretty sure that's a constant," Miguel noted. "Across times and universes, band names are weird. Also some of the names people pick for themselves - heroes and villains pick some really weird names. I think it boils down to 'people are really shocking weird', and we can leave it at that."

He fiddled with the dial again, and ended up on something harder. "Not bad."

[alwaysonguard]

Starting preplay block post

"Aye, true that," Dwight said with a nod. "And speaking of weird band names," he quipped as Miguel changed the station. "But one of the definite classics, no matter what century you are looking from."

Dwight let the song go almost to the end before giving the dial a twist, landing on another station and another song. "Ah yes, an example of a song that you absolutely love and have no idea why!"

"...Do you?" Miguel asked, a little skeptical. Not that it was bad, but he felt the need to follow that assertion with skepticism. Still, he let it play most of the way before trying again. "Oh, very funny," he told the radio.

"It has a special place," Dwight said with a slight laugh. "It's more the memories associated with the song than the song itself." He glanced at Miguel as his song started to play. Letting it go for a little bit he cracked his fingers with a somewhat dramatic flare and reached over and switched the station again. As the song started to play, Dwight stared at the radio for a moment and balked at it. "Are you serious right now?"

He gave an almost frightened laugh as he slowly turned and looked over at Miguel, the two staring at each other for a moment before Dwight reached out and hit the button turning the radio off.

"And on that note.... I think it's about time we stopped for lunch. What do you think?"

"I think we should do whatever necessary to escape that," Miguel agreed. He looked around at the buildings they were passing. "Empanadas, or stop somewhere here and save them for later?"

Dwight nodded in agreement. "I'd vote keep them for later in case we do end up out in the boonies tonight. Will make dinner plans a bit easier."

They drove for a moment as Dwight tried to get a feel for what might be in the area. "So, any preference? Quick easy fast food or something a little nicer? What are you in the mood for? Five years of military food essentially turned my stomach into rock, so I can handle just about anything."

"I can't really be poisoned, so I'm good for just about anything," Miguel quipped. "Not really in a mood to deal with a waiter or anything, so maybe fast food? Something better than Mooby's, though." Mooby's was awful.

Dwight looked over at Miguel. "That super healing ability of yours sure comes with some really nice perks!" Dwight drove on looking for a good place to stop for a quick bite. "Pizza and wings sound okay? There's a place up ahead that sells it by the slice and has wings ready to go by the bucket if you want."

"What can I say, I'm a marvel." Miguel smirked. "Sounds good. You like them hot?"

"Hotter the better. Though... Atomic Meltdown wings probably aren't a good idea when we still have a good bit of driving to do. That fire lasted for hours afterwards - last time I had wings that spicy my eyes wouldn't stop burning and watering for hours." Pulling off the road and into the parking lot, Dwight looked over at Miguel. "So, a bucket of hot wings and a couple slices of pizza?"

"Hot as you can get them," Miguel agreed, grinning now. "Make it two buckets, though? That 'super healing ability' of mine comes with a few downsides, too." He eyed the place. "You think they have root beer? I'd never had it till I got here, you know, but it's great."

"Pretty sure they do. Pepperoni pizza alright?" he asked as he started towards the small store's front window. "You can grab us a seat out here and I'll be back with the grub in a few minutes."

"Sure; sounds good." Miguel found a table and brushed a few crumbs off, then opened the heavy umbrella above it before sitting down. Just because he'd heal it, didn't mean sunburn was fun, and his glasses only did so much good. He looked around and saw a family with kids being noisy a few tables away, and a few teenagers hanging out by one of the patio rails, smoking. No, wait - vaping. Something his world hadn't ever developed.

It was, as promised, almost ridiculously normal for this time and place, from what Miguel had learned. Just so long as nobody tried to rob the place or a plane didn't crash into the middle of it.

Was it bad he was on edge waiting for something to happen? That was probably bad, right?

A few minutes later Dwight returned, carrying a large flat box with two large buckets and a cup holder expertly balanced on top. He walked over and set everything down on the table, the little jump Miguel gave as he walked up on him noticed, despite how little it actually was.

"Okay, bucket of extra spicy wings, old fashioned root beer, and I went ahead and got a whole pizza. Gives us something else to eat later on since pizza always tastes better a day or two later."

He watched Miguel for a moment as he sat down and started unloading everything and setting it all out.

"At least the weather's good today. Always prefer eating outside if I can. Don't do too good with crowds and enclosed spaces" he said with a slight grimace. "Very much prefer the outdoors. You gonna be okay?" he asked, pointing up to the clear skies overhead.

Hey, it was barely a twitch! Miguel shrugged. "Not much choice, is there? Yeah, I'll be fine. Bring on the greasy food!" He tugged one of the buckets closer and snagged a wing off the top. "Let's see what passes for spicy here."

He munched on it, then nodded. "Not bad. And not hot enough to melt your eyes, I don't think," he added, grinning at Dwight.

Dwight gave Miguel a smirk and grabbed the other bucket and grabbed a drummette and took a bite. He chewed thoughtfully for a minute and then nodded with a smile. "Yeah pretty good. I give it seven stars compared to a lot of the other places you can get wings on demand."

Finishing it off, Dwight grabbed another one out of the bucket and took the plastic cover from his bucket and tossed the bone in it. And for the first time in... what months... more than a few months for sure... Dwight felt himself actually start to relax.

"Don't forget the pizza" he said, not really expecting Miguel to have forgotten. "Their pizza is pretty good too," he added, grabbing one of the paper plates and putting a slice on it.

"You've eaten here before?" Miguel asked, finishing one wing and starting another. "Are these a chain, or you've just come this way?" His napkin started blowing away, and he pinned it to the table with a talon. Eating outside had a few disadvantages, too.

Dwight flashed a quick thumbs up at Miguel for the quick save. "I've been in the area a few times a while back. There's a naval base about an hour or so south of here I went to a few times years ago before I finally enlisted. Went with the Army instead but the Navy had been my other option at the time."

Dwight paused to take a big swig of the root beer before continuing. "Anyways, yeah I used to stop here on my way to and from the base those few times I had been there. Last time was like ten years ago though, so I'm really glad to see the place is still here and still doing so well!"

[what_the_shock]

"Especially since ten years ago for you is like, what, twenty-five or something?" Miguel said. He was a little fuzzy on how far back Dwight was from. "So what's the difference between the army and the navy? I mean, one's land and one's water, I know that," he hurried to add, "but what made you go with one over the other?"

He got a plate and plopped a couple pieces of pizza on it before starting in on one.

"Damn, you're right. I still keep forgetting just how much of a jump there was. I left Haven and it was 2010. Arrive in Fandom and find out it was 2021? Yeah losing eleven years like that is a bit of a shock. Guess my mind is still trying to come to terms with that." Dwight shook his head a bit and snickered a bit. "My brain has a hard enough time with things as it is."

"As far as the enlisting went, it really was more of a selfish reason than anything else that made me go with the Army," Dwight said a somewhat sad smile spreading across his face for a moment. "Tuck, my best friend from college wanted to enlist too and he ended up going with the Army. I mean there were other things I considered of course, but yeah... knowing Tuck was going Army was kind of the deciding factor for me in the end." Dwight looked at Miguel and smirked as he added, "And the fact it turned out I get seasick ridiculously easily also helped with the decision!"

Miguel laughed loud enough to make the other people glance over. "Wait, didn't you grow up on the coast? How did you not know you got seasick?"

He would get to Tuck in a second; right now he was definitely going with this one.

"Grew up in Maine and yeah, a lot of it was on the coast. But evidently there's a bit of difference between a fishing boat in a calm harbor or bay and a huge ship in the middle of the ocean" Dwight said defensively. "One of the guys in Haven, Duke, he lives on his boat. Tried to go out with him and few others once to do some fishing way out off the coast. Did okay till we got out a ways and the waves got really bad. Figured it was just a fluke since I had never had that much trouble before..."

"Oh shut up," he said, giving Miguel a playful punch in the arm. "I'm sure you got your little embarrassing weakness you discovered in an inconvenient way. Afraid of heights? Fear of falling?"

"I jumped out of skyscrapers a lot back home," Miguel said wryly, fending him off. "Wouldn't get far if I was afraid of heights. Like I said, not fond of swimming, but I've been to underseas installations and such, not had much of a problem." He shrugged. "I had a lot of awkward discoveries when all of this," he gestured at his glasses, "happened, if that counts. Shredding all my clothes, learning just how much of an ass I'd been."

He cocked his head at Dwight. "This the same Duke as in Fandom? My boss Duke?"

"Yeah, wannabe pirate Duke," Dwight snorted. "At least... kinda the same Duke? I mean he was still around when I left Haven to come to Fandom, so I'm not really sure how far past that time this Duke is from and..." Dwight rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I always get a headache when I think about these timeline jumps and all. But yeah same Duke - doubt he changed all that much between when I knew him and when he came to Fandom."

Because honestly, what could have happened in a year or so in Haven, right?

Really, how bad could it be? "He seems decent," Miguel said. "You both seem pretty good considering the shocking mess your hometown is. That why you joined the army - to get out?"

"To get away from everything really," Dwight said simply, "I never found out about Haven until my Trouble activated. But even before that yeah life was a bit of a bitch. Marriage was on the rocks, and even though we had Lizzie who was like four at the time, my ex was determined to make life hell. We had sort of unofficially separated, to ya know 'give us time to figure things out' and all that. It was only because she threatened to ask for full custody if I actually left that I agreed to not ask for a divorce right away."

Dwight sighed. "Anyways, yeah joined the Army, figuring a couple years' tour overseas would give her time to figure out what she wanted, give us time away, let me show her I was willing to do whatever it took to make things right...And well that kinda blew up in my face in a spectacular way," he said with a dark chuckle. "But yeah, like many crazy young men, tried to use the military to figure things out."

"Never quite got that," Miguel admitted. "But then, I knew from about nine that I'd be a scientist at Alchemax." Whether he wanted to be or not. "So you and your friend...Tuck?...you decided to join up together?"

Dwight gave a slight smile as he thought about his old friend. "Yeah we enlisted and went through boot camp together. Got shipped out on our first mission together too. He was such a great dude, you would have liked him I think," he said flashing a grin at Miguel. "Tuck had a sarcastic side a mile long and could always be counted on to crack a joke - often at the most inopportune time." Dwight fell silent for a moment as the memories played out for a moment. "Yeah, Tuck was an awesome guy. One of the best friends I ever had."

"Sounds like my kinda guy, yeah," Miguel agreed. "Guessing he was in your squad?" He heard that past tense. He didn't want to press too much, but it felt like not addressing it would be sort of dishonest.

"Yeah," Dwight said simply. "We had several missions together and our unit got deployed to Afghanistan. Tuck... he was one of the many that didn't come back home." Dwight went silent for a moment then shook his head slightly, clearing away the memories and gave a soft smile. "He left his mark on a lot of us though, so he's still around in that regard. But yeah, miss his sarcastic ass at times," he added with a slight chuckle.

"I promise to do my best to make sure you get your daily dose of sarcasm," Miguel said solemnly. "Sorry about your friend, though. I guess that was pretty hard." He'd never really had close friends himself, except for maybe Xina and Gabriel, but he thought about Morph, and...yeah.

He'd been working his way through the chicken wings as they talked, and off to one side, he saw a little kid gaping at his extensive pile of bones. He rolled his eyes. Then he gave them a wide grin and watched them run back to their family, eyes wide. Screw gawkers at any age.

"You're doing a bang up job of it so far," Dwight quipped as he gave Miguel an appreciative smile.

He turned his attention back to the bucket of wings, adding to his own growing pile of bones as he watched Miguel and the kid interact. Dwight about choked on the wing he had been working on as he tried, and epically failed, to hold back a laugh as the kid ran away like he had seen a vampire or something.

"Not too fond of kids huh?" Dwight said, still half laughing half choking as he reached for his drink.

"Not too fond of being stared at like that," Miguel said. "Or of kids, yeah. The ones back on the island are fine - they're nearly adults, you can talk to them at least. Little ones? No," he said firmly. "Didn't like them when I was one, my opinion hasn't improved as I got older."

He finished the wings and switched back to pizza. Then belatedly realized Dwight probably liked at least one of them and missed her. "Sorry."

"It's all right," he said simply as he finished the last wing and dropped the bone into the pile. "Not everyone likes kids, simple fact. Though... I think Lizzie might have been able to change your stance, at least a little," Dwight said with a soft smile. "She was a good kid...."

"Anyways... I'm going to go get a refill for the next leg of the drive. You want one too?" Dwight simply stated as he stood and picked up his cup from the table.

"Yeah, thanks," Miguel said, handing Dwight his cup. "Hey, I'm sure if any kid could, it'd be yours," he added, dubious but hopeful. Even his own AU kid hadn't really won him over, even if she had been kind of cool.

"I've got this," he said, standing himself and gathering up the garbage. He stuck another piece of pizza in his mouth and headed to the cans. He had to pass by that kid's table, and could hear their mother patiently explaining that look, he was out in the sun, so he clearly wasn't a vampire...

Dwight got the refills and started back. Seeing Miguel waiting for him, he headed over to him, passing by the same family's table. He gave Miguel a look as he handed over the drink.

"Earning a reputation already around here," he said jokingly. "Come on, let's head out. You know, before someone calls in a sighting of a vampire and a sasquatch."

Miguel took his drink with a nod of thanks. "Sasquatch? That's you, I take it?" He pretended to look Dwight over. "Yeah, I can see it. Not sure if you're hairy enough, though."

He climbed back in the truck, keeping the last of the pizza with him. "You need me to drive at all? I don't have a modern license, but I won't crash us."