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!]

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From:

alwaysonguard

"Good job there, impressive. Ya know, if you ever get bored back on the island, sure I could find some things to keep ya busy around the shop," Dwight said with a teasing wink. He then grabbed the book and settled back under the newly provided light and started reading from the book.

"Enjoy games including High Strike, Ring Toss, Rocket Launch, Ladder Climb, Bean Bag Toss, Bust a Balloon, SkeeBall, Water Gun Shootout, Baseball Slugger, and...." Dwight laughed and looked at Miguel as he read the last one listed, "Spider Crawl."

He continued reading down the list. "Rides include but are not limited to, Easy Ride Coaster, Two Story Slide, High Swings, Gravitron, Fun House, and more. Food and exhibits include farm animals, craft exhibits, a classic car show, garden contests, and a chilli cookoff on....oh lucky us... tomorrow!"

Miguel rolled his eyes. "Do I even want to know what the Spider Crawl is? Definitely in for the chili, hold the farm animals, antique cars could be interesting, and if you need engineering help, just let me know."

He leaned back on the bed. "How far from here is that?"

"Not familiar with that one, honestly... sounds, ummm special," Dwight said with an eye roll of his own. "Let's see... according to this map thingy....looks like it's only about a fifteen to twenty minute drive to the fairgrounds. So, we could spend the day there then do one more night here or we can check out in the morning, hit the fair for a bit, then head on to wherever we end up next."

Miguel thought about that. "Hit it and move on? Unless there's something else around here you want to do." He was betting not, but you never knew.

"Naw, I'm good to keep pushing on. Spend the afternoon there then head on. Should give us plenty of time to make it someplace else for the night. And worse case, SUV isn't too bad for a one night sleep in a pinch," Dwight said, speaking with the air of someone who had done it a few times before.

"Dibs on the roof," Miguel said. "Unless it's raining." He'd put up with the hard surface for the chance to stretch out. "Or I can just keep driving; I can make do on a little less sleep than normal. Anyway, it sounds like fun. Or at least interesting."

He grabbed the bag of empanadas and started in on one, holding the bag out to Dwight. "Were there restaurants listed in that thing, or do we need to go looking for dinner?"

"Sounds good. We can make a final decision tomorrow once we see how things go." Dwight reached in the bag for an empanada and flipped a few pages farther in the little book. "There's a good selection around the area it seems. Not too many fancy places which is fine. Don't think either of us are in the mood for dealing with waiters and what not. Looks like we got a little of everything... pizza, Italian, Chinese, fast food, sub shops... so I don't think we will be lacking for a place to grab something. Most places still do delivery so we shouldnt have any issues."

"Chinese," Miguel decided. "That's not bad, even here. Not sure if the better stuff's because I'm from the future or it's just Nueva - New - York," or possibly because he was a snob, "but the stuff on the island's good enough. Is there a menu? Or a name, so we can look one up?"

"It's called the China Star. There's this weird looking picture thingy here under their listing. Says scan for menu... whatever that means?" Dwight said, scratching his head. Look, he was bad enough with catching up on a decade of tech advancement. He had no clue what a QR-Code was.

"It means to take a picture of it with your phone," Miguel said. "You know how to use the camera on yours?" He paused. "Does yours have a camera, or is it even more vintage?"

"Yeah... it's got a camera. Taken a few pics with it...think they are still on there somewhere." Dwight pulled out his phone and unlocked it. "So just... take a picture of this then.... Oh ok that is cool..." he said, grinning as he looked at the menu that pulled up on the screen,

"Dragged kicking and screaming into this century," Miguel said, grinning. He took out his own phone and grabbed a picture, too, looking over the menu. "Definitely crab rangoon; I'm wanting fried food now. You bought lunch, I'll buy dinner." Especially since he was likely to buy a lot.

Dwight scoffed and gave Miguel a look before turning back to his phone. "Yeah... yeah laugh it up," he said with a laugh. "Crab rangoon for sure and some egg rolls. Think i will go with szechuan beef and some lo mein."

Miguel made a note of what he wanted, then craned his neck to look at the phone number. He called in the order for two orders of crab rangoon, four egg rolls, szechuan beef, lo mein, Singapore noodles, and Mongolian pork, listened to the total, rattled off his card number and their hotel and room, nodded, and hung up. "About half an hour."

He picked up the remote. "Is TV wars a thing, or is it only radio?"

Dwight nodded and stood up, walking over to the window and pulling the blind closed before pulling off the outer shirt he was wearing and laid it over the chair.

"Might as well get comfortable for the night," he said, as he walked back over and flopped onto the bed. "And TV war is definitely a thing!" he said with a grin.

Miguel grinned. "What we really need is two remotes. Think they'd give us another if we asked?"

"Probably. Just tell them the one we have isn't working," Dwight said with a smirk of his own. "Want me to go ask at the desk or do you?"

"Your turn," Miguel waved at him. "I did the last one."

"Yeah, yeah... ok. I'll be right back. And no scouting the channels ahead of time, you hear?" Dwight said with a tone of mock admonishment as he walked out the door.

"Your own fault if I do!" Miguel called after him. He hadn't actually been planning on it, but it was tempting now.

Instead he got up and opened his bag to pull out a pair of shorts and a loose tee to change into. Like Dwight said, might as well get comfortable. And at least one of them should probably be wearing a shirt to answer the door for food.

Though come to think of it, Dwight asking for the extra remote while shirtless was probably a good idea; Miguel had a feeling he'd have no problem getting just about anything like that.

Dwight returned a little while later, walking in with an extra remote in one hand and several extra pillows tucked under his other arm. "Success! And got us some extra pillows too, cuz these things are always so thin and pathetic."

"Sounds good," Miguel said, getting up to take one from him. He grinned. "Did you get asked on a date, too?"

"No..." Dwight said, giving Miguel a questioning look. Though if he was to be honest, he wasn't even sure he would know what to do if he had been. "Though I have to admit I am pretty useless when it comes to that kind of thing."

Miguel grinned. "Hey, don't worry about it. Pretty sure she liked you, though, and going up there shirtless was a choice. If nothing else, you probably gave her some nice thoughts."

He settled back on his bed and waggled the remote. "Ready for a war?"

Dwight gave a laugh and flopped onto the other bed, remote in hand."Ready to win," he said with a confident smirk as he clicked the channel, pulling up what was unfortunately a news station. Well that wasn't a good start to the battle.

Miguel laughed and hit random buttons on his remote, ending on...true crime. Eh. "Of course, this war depends on there actually being something watchable on."

Dwight made a show of cracking his knuckles then punched the button on the remote again..... Landing on a game show. "Well this is better," he said, wagging his hand back and forth slightly. "Family Feud can be hilarious at times depending on the question and how people answer."

"Yeah?" Miguel was willing to give it a minute. He watched. "Are these people meant to be idiots, or are there references here I'm not getting?"

"Ha, little of both, actually," Dwight said. "But yeah a lot of it is based off current trends and social norms."

"Yeah, no. Not funny if I don't get it." Miguel hit his remote again. A lawyer stood in a courtroom, arguing that the man behind the defendant's table was clearly guilty because...after about three twists, Miguel gave up on trying to understand it. Maybe it helped if you'd seen the rest of the episode.

Dwight flipped the channel and.... "Ok so we go from courtroom drama to medical drama.... This one's gonna be a hard pass for me. General Hospital and the like are just a little too real-life for my liking. I concede this round. Your turn," Dwight said, waving his hand. Probably did not help the episode seemed to be dealing with military vets and such.

Miguel hit buttons to change it as fast as he could. "One for me," he agreed, but he didn't have to be a dick about it. When the next channel came up, it was...snakes. Being rescued from a house. Huh.

"This one has had some interesting episodes I've seen here and there. The best one I think was down in Florida, a huge twelve-foot gator got into their family's pool and they had to bring in this whole team to try and get the thing out and relocated. It was pretty wild."

"Wow. That's a good argument for not living in Florida," Miguel said. "Gators don't belong in anybody's pool."

"Agreed," Dwight said enthusiastically. "Though, a lot of places have wildlife issues now and then. Alaska is known for their wild moose encounters. Up in Maine we had problems with black bears. Just sometimes, humans and animals don't seem to mix well."

"...A good argument for living in a big city," Miguel amended. "I was never attacked by any wildlife in Nueva York."

He pressed some remote buttons and ended up on what looked like a movie involving a lot of dark corridors and screaming.

"Oh classic horror movie...." Dwight said, pointing to the screen. "Watch, they will run into the basement to try and hide from the serial killer. Such a stupid move but it happens in every single horror movie!" They watched for a moment and then sure enough the group ran down the stairs into the basement to try and hide behind the boiler. "See, what I say? I called it!"

Miguel snorted. "That much hasn't changed. I mean, nobody's going down five hundred stories to the basement, but they still hide in stupid places like a power junction room or storage closet." He watched for a second. "Bets on the one in the back tripping?"

"Oh I give them just five minutes and that guys a goner!!! Then they will freak out and make an even worse decision that leads to more of them being killed."

Dwight was about to say something else when there was a knock on the door.

"Food's here!"

From:

what_the_shock

Miguel opened the door and relieved the delivery person of their bags, then set them on the dresser as he signed for it.

He rummaged through the bag and found an egg roll, popping it in his mouth as he unpacked the rest. "Fork or chopsticks? We've got both."

"Chopsticks of course!" He wasn't that much of a heathen! Dwight took one of the bags and started pulling out the containers figuring out who got what. "You'd think we were feeding an army here between the two of us!" he chuckled.

"We are an army of two," Miguel said. "And this army likes to be fed." He handed Dwight one pair of chopsticks and took one of the others and his food to the bed.

On screen, the guy in the back tripped and screamed as the...whatever-it-was caught up with him, and there were messy noises.

"Called it," Dwight said, his voice muffled by the egg roll currently stuffed in his mouth. "And yes a fed army is a happy army. I know that all too well," he said with a smirk and settled down on the other bed with his containers sitting on the table beside the bed.

"Oh and I grabbed these out of the cooler when I went out for the tool kit earlier," he said as he held up a couple brown bottles. He grinned as he handed one to Miguel, his hand moving to reveal the label on the bottle read "Old Fashioned Root Beer."

"Super old fashioned," Miguel said, grinning but taking it. "How does it go with curry and bad horror movies?"

"Like a match made in heaven in my humble, but correct, opinion," Dwight said as he cracked his bottle open and held it out to Miguel. "And perfect for a chill evening with a friend."

Miguel clinked his bottle against Dwight's, but made a doubtful face. He wasn't quite sure Dwight knew him well enough to claim him as a very good friend. There were so many screw-ups in his past. It was kind of nice, though.

"War on hold during food?" he asked. "Or is this another round to me?"

"Both. You win another and we see if anyone survives long enough for us to finish eating," Dwight said, grabbing his crab rangoon and starting in on them. "Though, I think the food is going to last longer than the rest of this group will. Even with the way we seem to be inhaling it," he said with a chuckle.

"Not a hard time to beat," Miguel said, snorting as one of the group somehow got separated from the others in two seconds and ran the wrong way. "At this rate, it'll be a mercy killing."

"Seems to be the trend with these barely B-level horror flicks," Dwight nodded in agreement as he finished the last of the rangoon and stood. Looking around for the trash can he saw the one, always far too small, can sitting by the door. Dropping the empty container in he picked it up and brought it over closer to the beds and sat back down. "Save us a few steps while we eat at least," he said before starting on his szechuan beef.

"I thought we'd compete for that, too," Miguel said, tossing his empty rangoon box in the can. "Not allowed to throw food at the screen, are we?" That was probably only popcorn. Or at any rate, he didn't want to clean up clumps of noodles.

"Haha throwing food of any kind is usually discouraged in a hotel... they tend to get upset with stained sheets and carpets and food stuck to the walls or TVs." Dwight laughed and shook his head. "They like to slap really nice fees onto you for things like that. And yes... I am speaking from experience. Had a bit of a wild side back in the day and did a number on a few hotel rooms when some college trip parties got a little out of hand."

Miguel grinned. "I can imagine. Never was too wild myself, but sometimes...yeah. Not looking to clean the place myself, though, or get us chased out of town, so the food'll stay in the dish."

On screen, one of the monster's hands slipped for a second and he spotted a wristwatch. "Tempting as it might be."

"Oh that's just lazy," Dwight said, catching sight of the slip as well. "Lazy acting, filming, and directing." He shook his head and picked up the remote. "I think that calls for a channel change," he said as he picked up his remote and pushed a few buttons. The TV lagged for a second then the screen popped back up and Dwight about choked on the mouthful of lo mein he was eating. The title of the show that was just starting appeared on the screen in big bold letters, "Ancient Aliens." Dwight glanced at Miguel as he grabbed his soda to try and stop from choking. "Well that's going from one b-rated show to another..."

"Oh?" Miguel took another mouthful of noodles. "I don't know this one. More horror?"

"Oh, Miguel my man... wait till you experience the 'wonder' that is ancient alien theory," Dwight said as he bumped up the volume a few notches and settled back for the entertaining insanity.

Miguel watched for a few minutes. "I'm pretty sure none of these guys has ever met an actual alien. Most of them roll their eyes at us. The ones that have eyes."

"Yeah, they would completely freak out I'm sure... as would most of the population of this time. We are VERY much not ready to find out there are aliens out there." Dwight took a swig of his drink then laughed, shaking his head as they watched the show. "I can accept it... I mean I've seen my share of the weird in Haven. But most people do not react well to things that are different and things that can't be explained. So maybe it's for the best that knowledge is being kept semi-secret for now."

"Not like it's any better in my time," Miguel said. "I've been to a lot of different worlds, though. Some of them were in touch with aliens. Kind of makes me want to throw some at these guys. Or just take them back to one of those places and drop them in to prove the people did things on their own. I'm reasonably certain aliens didn't enter into it."

"Yeah, pretty sure just because guys in suits can't explain how something was done a thousand years ago doesn't mean it was aliens. And if aliens did come and help early man I'm sure they would have been smart enough to do a MUCH better job at explaining things so we would know what happened here in our time. It's an insult to ancient man and to aliens alike."

Dwight sighed and stretched as he stood. "I think I'm done with the food for now at least. Gonna go check out the shower and see how finicky it might be. Enjoy the channel surfing," he said as he headed for the bathroom, stopping to pull a few things out of his duffle bag on the way.

"Thanks," Miguel said. "I'll try not to find anything too horrific." He glanced up as Dwight left, then again. "Huh." That was one huge tattoo.

It was a pleasant surprise for Dwight that despite the ancient look of the bathroom it actually wasn't all that bad. Took a little bit for the water to heat up but there was more than decent water pressure and the knob was thankfully quite easy to use.

Miguel tried a few more channels before he found one about the planet's fauna, and decided that would do for background as he finished eating. He polished off the noodles, then used that tray as a dish for the rice and pork as he watched snow leopards growing up.

Short time later, Dwight walked out in clean sleep pants as he finished towel drying his hair a bit. "Anything interesting on tonight?" he asked as he walked over and sat back down on the bed, glancing at the TV. "Oh and the shower is fine. Shouldn't have any issues with it," he said with a smile.

"Good to know." Miguel nodded. "I'm just watching this; we can change if you want." He finished his food and tossed the container. "That's a heck of a tattoo," he noted. "Can I ask, or is it private?"

Dwight sighed to himself softly. He was almost to the point of being able to forget about the tattoo... Almost...sort of.

"Yeah, no it's fine," he said looking at Miguel. "Remember earlier, the secret organization I said I had been part of? That's their symbol, their mark. Every member has one, though usually much smaller amd less conspicuous."

"You went all out for yours," Miguel noted. "I mean, it's still not conspicuous unless you go around half-dressed, but that must have taken some time and pain."

"Oh it was a bugger, trust me. And obviously I have no trouble with needles and pain," Dwight said gesturing to the other tattoos on his arms. "But that one was a bitch. And the worst thing of all? It's like barely two years old and it's already basically meaningless to me."

"Ouch." Miguel winced. "Not in the organization any more? Why not get it removed?"

"Yeah kinda parted ways on not the best of terms," Dwight said with a sigh. "The Guard, that's what they call themselves, have been in Haven since its founding. They're kind of a self-appointed guardian of the Troubled people. They are the ones who found me after my Trouble activated and helped bring me and Lizzie to Haven. Whether because of my military training or something else they saw in me, I quickly became one of their prime candidates for a head role in the organization. Fast forward a year, tattoo is done as a sign of that position, I'm about to step into that new role, and then all hell breaks loose."

Dwight leaned forward and put his arms on his knees and sat in silence for a moment before continuing. "During the training I learned things about The Guard I didn't know before, and didn't like. How they would force people to come to Haven and had kill orders on some Troubled people who refused to cooperate. As a sign of my loyalty to the group they wanted me to take care of a guy who was refusing to come to Haven and join the Guard, I refused of course. And well, that didn't go over too well. Confrontation started when two of their goons showed up at my house and pulled a gun on me to try and force me to cooperate. Gun went off and... that was the shot that killed Lizzie." Dwight looked over at Miguel with a very forced weak smile. "So yeah, not in the organization any more. And as far as getting it removed? I don't think even in the last ten years I've missed we have the ability to deal with something this involved."

"Shock. Yeah, they're lucky you're nice enough to just leave," Miguel said. "I think they can remove tattoos in this time, but even if not, you know you're not limited to that, right? We've got portals - find a time or place that can do it, go there, get it done. I mean, not if you don't want to, but there are ways."

"Oh trust me, I have dreamt many times of going back and dealing with them in a much different way... got so close I was about to drive out to their headquarters and deal with every last one of them," Dwight sighed softly. "But then I realized that if I did that, and if I survived it at all, I'd have to leave Haven for good and could never go back if I ever wanted to. And I'd rather have that be a decision I made on my own terms. So I did...

"As far as the tattoo, I will have to look into the portal thing. Dimensional travel wasn't a thing we had in Haven so that's still very much a Fandom quirk I'm still honestly trying to wrap my head around," Dwight quipped with a finger to the side of his head. "Old man brain and all that. But you are right, something I will definitely have to look into. Wouldn't mind being rid of the thing to be honest...."

"That or we can just take the skin off your back, but there's probably an easier way," Miguel said, smirking. He waggled his remote control. "One more round, or have you had enough?"

"Yeah... let's try to find an option that doesn't involve half skinning me alive ok? Thanks" Dwight scoffed as he shook his head and returned the smirk with one of his own. "Oh I think you are the decided champ of this round," he said holding his hands up in surrender. "You've earned the right to control the TV for the night."

"That assumes there's anything worth watching," Miguel pointed out. "So far, not really. If you're tired, you can sleep and I'll...I don't even know. Find cat vids on the internet or something." Or engineers making stupid decisions on purpose - those things were hysterical.

"You could always take some pics of the 'amazing' accommodations we have for the night to torment Gabriel with," Dwight said with a chuckle. Because that's what brothers did, right? Torment each other with annoyingly random and ridiculous photo messages - right?

That was absolutely what brothers did. "Right!" Miguel snapped his fingers. "Why do I keep forgetting?" He took a picture of the ancient TV, then of the corded phone, then got up to get one of the bathtub faucet.

You're insane. Gabriel texted back. This is stupid. Stop it.

Miguel sent him a picture of the boring landscape painting over the bed.

"Gotta love hotel beds," Dwight quipped as he stretched out on the bed fully for the first time, arms folded under his head as he watched Miguel take photos like a kid with a brand new camera. "Stupid things are never big enough," he chuckled wiggling his feet which were sticking a good ways out past the end of the bed.

"That's just because you're a sasquatch," Miguel teased. "And a lot bigger than the other Sasquatch I know, at least when she's in human form." He lay down on his own bed, feet comfortably on the mattress.

Dwight gave him a mock glare before grinning. "I had to admit that is one ability I always thought would be pretty neat to have. The whole shapeshifting/transformation thing.... So long as it was voluntary. The werewolf/forced transformation thing sounds like it would suck." Dwight pondered for a moment. "We have a lot of powers and abilities in Haven, most are totally involuntary or really really hard to control. Exhibit A for example," he said waving a hand at himself. "But a voluntary ability like that could be really useful I'd think."

"Yeah, Heather's is voluntary, as far as I know," Miguel said. "Though there's some issue with her going big and hairy; I haven't asked. But when she's not Sasquatch, she's a little shorter than me. Big and hairy for good, that'd be Sabretooth. He's bigger than you; hairier, too. And much worse tempered."

"With a name like Sabertooth, I am not at all surprised," Dwight chuckled. "We've had a few transformation Troubles that I know of. Usually they affect other people though. There was a rumor of one from years ago, before I got to Haven, that caused people to turn into animals, and animals to turn into people. I'm sure that made for some interesting times around town whenever that Trouble decided to activate."

"That does not sound fun," Miguel said. "I've ended up an animal," a spider, "before, courtesy of Fandom, but...ugh."

"Fandom does that?" Dwight asked, raising an eyebrow before laughing. "What am I saying? It's Fandom. Of course it bloody can change people into animals. Is that one of the weird island events that seem to pop up at times or was it caused by something else?"

"Just a weird thing that happens sometimes," Miguel said. "I don't think there's any predicting it."

"Oh joy, more randomness to look forward to," Dwight said sarcastically. "On that note, I think I am going to turn in for the night." Dwight reached over and flipped off the lamp beside his bed, leaving the one by Miguel on as he got settled into the bed as best he could. "We can hit the lobby when we check out in the morning and see what they have for breakfast and then grab something else on our way out to the fairgrounds. How's that sound?"

"Sounds good." Miguel switched off the lamp on his side, took off his glasses, and rifled through his bag for a book (one benefit of old tech - paper didn't glare in his eyes). "Sleep well."

"You too," he replied as he rolled over and settled down for the night. It didn't take long at all before Dwight was sound asleep, a soft snore escaping every now and then as he thankfully enjoyed a relatively dream-free night for once.

Miguel read for a bit, then dropped the book on the nightstand and did the same.