The Park, Monday Afternoon

[bookbeltof_love]

The park was… the park was dismal. What had happened to it? Where were the trees? The birds? The pond? The playground was, like, something out of a nightmare. Like, if she squinted a bit she could see where things were supposed to be but then…

"Is that a bomb??????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ?"

Honestly, the trip getting to the park had been fraught enough with danger, but at the sight of the giant had-to-be-an-explosive, Nina just stared, gape-mouthed at it.

"What are we supposed to do about that????????????"

Even Nina knew better than to hit it.

"Do you, like, think that's the cause of everything?????????????"

If so, this was not a problem she and Wayne could likely solve by hitting things. Which was a crying shame; it had worked perfectly for getting them out here.

[For him that is with her! But also open, open park!]

Comments

[howareyanow]

Wayne's attention would be on the rest of the park and the bomb and Nina herself in a moment. He was mostly distracted, knuckles bloody, chin a bit bruised, and a fresh dart hanging from his lips, yet to be lit, because as he reached for the lighter in his front chest pocket, he noticed a little rip on his shirt.

"Ah, fuck," he murmured. Then twisted a little, reaching back over his shoulder to poke his fingers through another, larger tear at his back and said, again, "Ah, fuck..."

There goes another shirt. Still. Worth it. That wasn't any of the fighting he had in mind when he and Nina were talking about coming down here and possibly having a scrap, but it definitely scratched that itch.

Well. Nothing he could do about it now, so he turned his attention to the park, looking around a little before settling on that big bomb in the center of it.

"...fuck a duck," he said. "That's gonna put a damper on our plans, now, isn't it?"

It was one thing to go around blowing up beaver dams with dynamite; it was another thing all together to be blowing up the whole eastern seaboard with big old WMDs...

[bookbeltof_love]

"I mean, like, unless you know how to deal with these things???????????" Nina said, taking a few cautious steps toward it, as if that would help her figure out what they were supposed to do with it.

Like Wayne, she looked like she'd been through some fights. Unlike, Wayne, her dress was still in one piece. A bit splattered, but one piece.

[howareyanow]

A few cautious steps seemed fine, but if Nina took any more, Wayne wouldn't be able to help himself from holding out a hand to try to gently convince her not to get much closer than that. It would be practically a reflex; he had a little sister; big brothers protected little sisters. It would have been automatic.

But he took a second to light his dart and breathe it in (also automatic, after a good donnybrook or two), then squinted at the bomb. "My uncle Eddie," he started, "once had this old warhead he said he got when he was in France, but the thing was dismantled...we think and about one..." He squinted harder with the calculations, "thousandth, I'd say, the size of this fella right here. So your guess is just about as good as mine...."

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina glanced back at him, curious about the story.

"I don't, like, know anything about this sort of bomb," she admitted, frowning a bit. "They're not really used back home, except by Harmonia and the Island Nations......... I don't suppose your Uncle Eddie ever mentioned what disarmed a bomb??????????""

[howareyanow]

"Uncle Eddie said," said Wayne, after a moment of more squinting, "you're more likeleh to disarm yourself than you are to disarm a bomb, so I suppose the next question for you, Nina, is...

"Are you right or left handed? Though I think you'll have more to worry about than not bein' able to write letters if you mess up on this mother, holy fuck."

[bookbeltof_love]

"I'm left-handed," she said, before the rest of that really made sense to her and--

"I wasn't planning to touch it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina protested, though now she was tempted, just because everyone kept acting like she needed to be kept safe.

Nina, no. Nina.

[howareyanow]

If you looked really closely, there might have been the faintest twitch of a smirk on Wayne's face.

Maybe.

"So then I suppooooose," he said, "that kickin' it's just right out of the question."

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina considered him.

Then considered the bomb.

It... it was probably a lot more tempting than it should have been.

"I kick pretty hard," she mused thoughtfully.

She probably did not kick hard enough to set off a bomb this size. But who knew? Wayne.

[howareyanow]

"No doubt about it, big shoots," said Wayne, and he meant it, too, considering how she'd been wielding that...book...belt their whole way down here, really, "and who really needs two legs, anyway?"

Again, if she could kick it hard enough to set it off, they'd probably have a lot more than a few missing limbs to worry about in the end.

[bookbeltof_love]

"I can't tell if you want me to kick it or not," Nina complained, still idly considering it. "I think you're teasing me, Wayne!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Rude of him, that's what it was.

[howareyanow]

"When in doubt," said Wayne, firmly, like a very wise but gruff sage, "don't kick the bomb."

He let that settle a moment before turning his head curiously at Nina for a moment, tilting it just slightly. "And now why would I go and do a thing like teasing you, Nina? That'd just be...," he turned his attention back up to the bomb, oh-so-seriously, "silly."

[bookbeltof_love]

Oh, now she knew he was teasing her!

"Maybe I should kick you instead," Nina said huffing, but amused, and leaving the bomb to bother him. "How would you like that???????????"

She grinned up at him.

[howareyanow]

And Wayne, moving his head only marginally, glanced back down at Nina. Partly for effect, but also partly to see if she happened to doing...Big Eyes. Y'know, that thing, when a gal's sweet on a dude and she's shorter than him, instead of tilting her neck up to look at him, she'll just keep her head straight and look up with her eyes. Like puppy dog eyes.

Big Eyes.

"I don't think you would," said Wayne.

Who totally thought she would.

[bookbeltof_love]

Poor boy. Poor, poor boy, to think that Nina was capable of any sort of subtlety when it came to a guy she crushed on. She liked Wayne, she did. He was good, solid farmer's stock. Gruff but friendly. Cute but not what she'd call easy on the eyes.

And completely not the sort of guy she crushed on at all.

Totally not knightly enough.

Her grinning up at him was just a grin.

"You don't think I'd like kicking you????????????" she teased.

[howareyanow]

See, now, but almost every gal Wayne ever talked to was shorter than he was, so checking for Big Eyes when a gal looked up was about as second nature as checking your boots for cow shit when you entered the house.

Not knightly enough, indeed.

"Nice, sweet girl like you?" he said, turning his attention back up to the bomb and clearly ignoring what this nice, sweet girl could do with a bunch of books on a belt. "Not very likeleh."

[bookbeltof_love]

And he hadn't even seen her just sit down and read them, still wet with blood from her enemies!

"Flatterer," Nina said, since honestly, there were much better targets to hit out here than him. "Do you think, like, we should take pictures of the bomb?????????????? See if anyone else might know how to deal with it???????????"

[howareyanow]

"Hey, now," said Wayne with a note of approval, "there's an idea. Get it from a few angles, maybe someone else'll see something about it we're likeleh to miss. Maybe might help figure out what kind of power we might need if we want to just try and airlift the thing right on outta here..."