The Preserve, Wednesday Afternoon

[newroutines]

No one could really blame Mike for staying the hell away from the preserve for a while after last week, right? As it was one of the locations of his various near-death experiences (although not one of his actual death experiences, sigh), he thought that was pretty understandable.

But, here he was now.

And yeah, he'd been a little bit freaked out walking through the woods and maybe a little bit paranoid about whether any of those things were still lurking around. But he'd also wanted to conquer that paranoia and pointless fear and tackled it head on, and he'd only yelped once at a random teal deer he hadn't heard moving before he'd seen it. And, he'd made it through the preserve to the chest he'd been out here to look for in the first place, last week. It was a big chest, okay, and it looked like maybe he could put some glass over it and make it into a coffee table for the living room.

Tackling your trauma, and all.

He'd also found the random-ass screamy gun (now thankfully silent) and thrown that in the chest. He didn't think he was taking the gun home, after how the sound had affected Derek, but he also didn't want to leave it just laying about, non-functional or not. So he chucked that in, then closed the chest, and then straightened up and looked down at it.

"... Okay, how am I getting you home?"

He was going to figure out a way.

[ooc: Open if you're hanging in the preserve, sure!]

Comments

[arsenicmauls]

Mike wasn't the only one who'd been a little worried about venturing into the preserve today, but Gert had a hungry dinosaur by her side, which assuaged some of her concerns a bit. After Old Lace's lunch, it was easy to forget that these woods were sometimes mildly terrified when one was unaccompanied.

She spotted Mike on her way back to the main island and crossed her arms, tilting her head to the side. "This is a new level of DIY," she observed.

[newroutines]

Mike was totally not startled to see anyone here. Totally not.

Okay, maybe a little.

"Uh, how so?"

[arsenicmauls]

"Furniture acquisition in the woods?" Gert said. "It's a fresh new take on Do It Yourself, that's all."

For her part, Old Lace thought that the chest looked like it might smell good, and she started padding over toward Mike.

[newroutines]

The chest... really probably just smelled like Pandoran wildlife.

"Not really furniture yet," Mike said, eyeing the dinosaur only a little bit varily. "Though it's gonna be."

[arsenicmauls]

Old Lace approached slowly and curiously, like a friendly dog. Not to worry, Mike, there would be no getting snacked on today. (This explained why Gert had been such a know-it-all about venturing into the dinosaur-infested plains back in the dungeon, right?)

"Was it just here?" Gert wondered, peering at it. "It might not be totally safe, if it was. Given who and what comes through here on a daily basis." Though she did have to add, "It does look like it'll make a cool table, though."

[newroutines]

"Uh, Derek and I got sent out here for it last week," Mike explained. "Had some guns in it. Should be safe now, though."

[justlurkinghere]

So, maybe Derek was keeping an eye on Mike because of reasons. Reasons.

"...seriously."

[newroutines]

"Yes, seriously."

He didn't even care that it hadn't really been a question. He was defending his life decisions just preemptively.

[justlurkinghere]

"There's nothing in it," Derek reminded him. Because that horrible gun was gone. NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN.

Because it was thrown into the ocean.

[newroutines]

Actually that horrible gun was currently in the chest. But only because Mike was going to take it to the junkyard or something.

"And...?"

[justlurkinghere]

DAMN IT. DEREK PICKED THE WRONG GUN TO THROW.

Such was his life.

"Why?"

[newroutines]

"Because I'm gonna make it into a coffee table."

Keep up, Derek! Keep up with his way of dealing with things.

[justlurkinghere]

"...a coffee table." No, he was not going to keep up with this.

[newroutines]

"Yeah, a coffee table."

Look, if Derek wasn't going to follow, then Mike was just going to keep repeating things at him.

"You know what a fucking coffee table is, right?"

[justlurkinghere]

Derek rolled his eyes. "Why are you making a coffee table out of this?"

[newroutines]

You know, he'd rather not get into that. His therapy was his therapy.

He scratched the back of his head. "Because it's sturdy and it's there, you know? You work with what you got."

[justlurkinghere]

Well, he was talking to the guy who lived in the charred remains of his childhood home. So.

Derek sighed again. "You're not going to be able to get it back to the house."

[newroutines]

"Well not on my own, no." He could admit that much. "I was gonna, y'know, call someone to help."

[justlurkinghere]

Derek reached down to haul the thing up with a grunt of annoyance at the strain. Because why not show off while helping out?

[newroutines]

"Showoff."

What else was there to say, really?

'Thanks', probably, but that would come later.

[justlurkinghere]

"You wanted it." Seriously, guys.

[newroutines]

"Well, yeah, but ––"

Okay, he didn't actually have a very good retort ready for that. He scratched the back of his head again.

"Whatever. Thanks, man."

[justlurkinghere]

"Better be a nice table." Of almost getting eaten.

[newroutines]

Mike slanted a look at him.

"Dude, are you doubting my skills?"

[justlurkinghere]

"Why would I do that?" The sarcasm was strong in this one.

[newroutines]

"I don't know, man," Mike replied, shaking his head. "Because it's your way of dealing with things."

[justlurkinghere]

Derek adjusted his grip on the box so he wouldn't punch holes through it with his fingers. "What?"

[newroutines]

Mike shrugged.

"Just sayin'."

That was ever so helpful.

[justlurkinghere]

"There's nothing to deal with," Derek shot back despite being oh so wrong.

[newroutines]

Mike... held up his hands. He didn't much want to get into it either, see.

"Nah, man, of course there's not," he said. "My bad."

[justlurkinghere]

"You're fine." Right? Riiiiight?

[newroutines]

"More or less."

They weren't counting the jumpiness that had happened on the way into the preserve, right?

[justlurkinghere]

He made you I'm sorry I almost got you killed food, Mike!

"And this will help."

[newroutines]

"Well, it gives me something to do." As if he didn't have several projects underway for various people around town. "I'm not doing so much construction right now, and I feel weird when I don't work with my hands."

[justlurkinghere]

Derek sighed. "The basement could use reinforcement."

[newroutines]

"Yeah, I guess it could."

No one wanted werewolves busting out all willy-nilly.

"I can try and think up some stuff that won't make it look like a total dungeon."

[justlurkinghere]

"I can carry things." Because he wasn't so great at the whole fixing things.

Case in point.