fandomtownies | The beach, Saturday night

If you don't want Jon, just a patch of sand and water.

Bum a cigarette or whatever.

Dwight had been keeping a fairly low profile over the weekend. There were a lot of people on the island- like, a LOT. And he didn't have any visitors from Haven, which was probably a good thing considering. So, he headed to the beach, partly to see who all might be out there and also to just have something to do.

"Hey Jon" he called out as walked up to where he was. "Enjoying the evening?"

Jon's eyes flicked over to Dwight as he blew out a breath of smoke. "Yes, um. Something like that." He gave a jerky nod. "It's quiet."

"Yeah the beach is usually good for quiet," Dwight said simply as he sat down and looked out over the gentle waves rolling up onto the shore. He settled down on a patch of sand, not too close to Jon to invade his privacy too much but still close enough to talk if either of them felt like it.

After a few moments of silence, Dwight turned back to Jon. "Got an extra I cam bum off ya?"

Yeah, Dwight could count on one hand the number of cigarettes he had had in the last month. But something about a good smoke just sounded nice right then.

Edited 2021-09-26 01:08 (UTC)

Jon nodded and fished out the package, then passed it and his lighter (cheap plastic that was just fine, thank you) over.

"I'm open to suggestions if you know of better brands," he said. These were Dunhill. "I'd usually go with Mayfair, but they don't seem to have them here."

Because multiversal shops had better things to do than sell cigarettes, Jon.

Dwight nodded in thanks and took one out and lit it up before handing them back.

"Honestly, I just go with the cheapest I can find. Usually that's a basic Pall Mall. It was all we could get usually in the military. If someone managed to get a few cartons shipped over, they were the cheapest ones someone could grab and shove in a care package. We would divvy them up among all the guys. Winston's are pretty good too if you are looking for something a little higher end."

Dwight smirked as he added "course take this with a grain of salt coming from the guy who's smoked like 5 cigarettes now in the past month and a half."

Edited 2021-09-26 01:30 (UTC)

Jon huffed in laughter as he put them away. "I had quit for years. Then, well. My job got more...stressful." And he'd been given a lighter by the Web; he still wasn't sure how much that had played into his cravings.

"Yeah these vices can sneak up on ya" Dwight said simply. He took a slow drag on the cigarette and breathed out slowly, watching the wisps linger before being carried away by the light breeze.

"So, you seem to be adjusting pretty well to life on the island. Things going ok with class and over at the apartments?"

"Oh, yes." Jon nodded. "Class and the apartments. Both going swimmingly."

Other things, not so much, but as Dwight hadn't asked, Jon wasn't going to offer.

"I'm not sure how much the children are reading, but there haven't been problems, and nobody's asked me for any help with the building, so I suppose that's going fine, too. I can't really help but wait for the other shoe to drop."

Dwight studied Jon for a minute before speaking again.

"Seems we have had quite the busy weekend on the island. Didn't see anyone from Haven come in, which is probably for the best." Though Dwight wouldn't have minded seeing McHugh again. It had been a few years. "No visitors for you either I take it?"

"Ha. No." Jon took another deep drag on his cigarette, then fiddled with it. "I doubt there ever will be."

His world was either dead or recovering in his absence, with nobody there who'd be likely to want to see him. And Martin...he still wasn't sure.

He shrugged. He'd made as much peace with it as he was going to.

Dwight considered Jon for a moment. He knew that look and tone. "Well sometimes digging up the past isn't the best idea. Can be a double edge sword, ya know? Lord knows I'm still trying to learn not to keep looking back so much. It's hard isn't it, to not forget the past but not to get tangled up in it..."

He fell silent, focusing on the cigarette for a moment before shaking his head.

"Can't help but find myself wondering if at times it would be easier to just switch everything off. Deep down I know it's not that easy, but it's still tempting... even just for a little while."

"The past leaves its marks," Jon answered, a bitter tinge to the words. "And switching things off makes us less...less human."

He'd learned that much from Martin.

He searched for something to say or ask that wouldn't result in an accidental statement. Eventually he settled on, "The weather here is nice for late September."

Well. Nobody would ever accuse Jon of good social skills.

Dwight noted the tone and the attempted subject change. He considered Jon for a moment and opted to not press.

"Lot better than it likely is up in Maine. Winter always seemed to come early up there. Usually had the first snows start rolling sometime in November so temps are already probably dropping up there. This is admittedly a nice change from that."

Yeah the 'talk about the weather' shift was a bit obvious but Dwight didn't see any reason to call it out or make Jon any more uncomfortable than he already looked. "How about back over in your neck of the woods? Never been across the pond, but I've heard the winters can be brutal at times too."

"Cold and rainy, mostly," Jon answered. "It tends not to snow much, though. Right now it's probably in the upper teens." Wait, America. "Erm. The sixties, that is."

So nice to be a conduit for an eldritch fear entity that could instantly give him the temperature in Fahrenheit. At least it was useful for something.

"It's a temperate oceanic climate, like...Seattle? Or Vancouver. The average low is well above freezing."

"Coastal Maine is like that, we didn't really get a lot of heavy snow in Haven. Buy just a little ways inland... yeah it would pile up in drifts deep enough I could disappear into when bad blizzards would come through. Unless you were into snow sports like skiing or snowboarding or you were crazy and did winter hunting you pretty much stayed put for December through at least February and didn't go many places unless you had to. So Fandom here is a nice change of pace" Dwight added with a smirk.

"I...ha. I've never been skiing or snowboarding. And I can't imagine sitting in the snow waiting for...deer, I'm guessing. Or whatever they'd hunt." Jon grimaced at the thought.

"Give me a nice climate-controlled-" archive "-library."

In case his scrawny physique didn't already scream "academic".

"same. Skiing n snowboards aren't made for someone my size. And winter hunting sucks honestly. Did it once for caribou...never again. Ice fishing is fun but still waaaay too cold."

Dwight shook his head and chuckled slightly.

"Course got the exact opposite experience in the military. Even spending nearly three years over in Afghanistan, was pretty much constant heatwave temperatures."

"Isn't...I thought the desert was cold at night. Unless that's not enough to make up for the heat," Jon noted.

"Winter was a chilly but mostly because that was when what little rain there was usually fell. Also out in the open dessert or on the mountains it could get chilly in the winter. But I think the coldest we ever got in the cities where we were usually stationed was ... ummm something like -5 I think it would be for you."

Dwight use to be able to do the calculations and all easily in his head, but ya know... dont use a skill you start to forget it.

"But that never lasted more than a week or two max and with temps easily averaging pretty damn hot in the summer at 40-46 most of the time, yeah... it was brutally hot most of the time. A drop to 10 degrees at night for 5 hrs was a welcome relief but didn't do much overall."

Jon nodded. "Feel free to use Fahrenheit if it's easier for you," he offered, "I can do the conversions in my head. I've never been to...well, not to a normal desert." Post-apocalyptic hellscapes didn't really count when you were discussing the weather. I imagine that weather must've been an adjustment."

Keep it on the weather. The weather was safe.

"Yeah, the weather was surprisingly hard to adjust to at first. You hear that it's hot as hell there and that it can get cold at nights... but nothing will prepare you for actually dealing with it 24/7."

Dwight took another deep drag on the cigarette before continuing.

"And dealing with the heat would have been easier if we weren't lugging around all the gear and such. Our uniform, boots, Kevlar vest at the very least, combat helmet, whatever weapon we were outfitted with, and then most of us had packs that were 25+ pounds each."

Dwight stared at the wisps of smoke trailing from the cigarette for a moment before taking another deep drag and breathing out slowly.

"Again, not something I'm terribly familiar with," Jon said wryly. And then, because he worried that with talk of military things, Dwight might start to talk about more of them, "I hope sometimes you got to go to less...fraught...places. On holiday, or something."

"Yeah, maybe someday..." Dwight said with a nod. "The island itself has kinda been a long odd vacation of sorts in a way" he chuckled before turning to look at Jon. "But enough of me talking and rambling. Tell me more about yourself and where you're from."

( Because you know, you're not all that forthcoming with things Jon. XD )

Jon looked for a moment like a deer in headlights, before he looked down to focus on his cigarette. "I'm from Bournemouth. It's a coastal town. Grew up with my grandmother, went to Oxford, got a job in London."

He shrugged. There it was - his life story in a nutshell.

"Man of few words" Dwight said with a chuckle. "I like that about ya. Though, it does make holding a conversation a bit more of a challenge" he added with a smirk.

Jon gave Dwight a look, then glowered at his cigarette.

"Became an inhuman monster, got several friends killed, and ended the world, too," he bit out. "It's not something I generally discuss."

Dwight was silent for a moment as those words sank in.

"Shit man" he said "I didn't... Sorry." he said simply, cuz really, what are you supposed to say to something like that that wouldn't come off trite and insincere?

Jon blew out a long breath of smoke, flicked the ash into the sand, and sighed. "You couldn't have known," he admitted. "But yes, it does make conversations about myself...difficult.

"Do you like cats?"

Dwight nodded slowly letting that original topic die off, and couldn't help but smirk slightly at the question. Oh Jon, if you had ever seen him with the clawed fur-ball known as Joni that would be an obvious question.

"I like all animals for the most part, but yeah love cats. Got a kitten in town who seems quite attached (figurative and literally wit those dagger claws) to me whenever I visit!" He looked at Jon for a moment then thought of something. "We do have an animal shelter on the island, Furnados. Not sure if you've made it over there yet."

"I haven't." Jon shook his head. "I don't know I'd be the best person to care for a cat." He snorted. "I've been reliably informed I can't even take care of myself." He sounded scornful when he said it, but more than one person had in fact told him that, even if he almost always refused to believe it.

"Cats are good, though. I follow a few blogs and feeds." One of the first things he'd done after getting his new phone.

"I've considered getting a cat, or a dog, but not sure I'm quite settled in enough just yet."

Dwight looked at Jon for a minute before continuing. "And you are alive so you are doing good enough for that at least. It's hard sometimes," even without all the monster and paranormal crap and all he had going on, "Gotta start somewhere right? And any progress is good progress" he added with what he hopped came across as an encouraging smile.

Jon laughed. It wasn't terribly humorous, and went on for a little longer than it probably should have before he took a deep breath and another drag on his cigarette. "I suppose that depends on your definition."

Of being alive? Of progress? Either. Both.

"I've seen men my size teeter on the edge of shell shock break downs more times than I care to remember" He fell silent for a moment and shook his head slightly. "Being alive has to be whatever it needs to be for you...making your own definition for whatever you need at that particular moment."

Dwight said as took a final drag on the cigarette and snuffed it out in the sand and fiddled with it a bit.

Jon was pretty sure being alive required breathing and a heartbeat, but Dwight seemed to be one of those optimistic types, so why ruin his pep talk?

"Want another?" he offered. He'd be down to filter himself before long, but hadn't yet decided whether to light another or give up.

"Naaw, I'm good, thanks" Dwight said simply as he turned and looked out over the dark waves for a moment, trying to think of what to say to Jon... and how to say it really.

Cuz honestly, how do you ask someone to tell you about themselves when the last time it turned out the conversation went to monsters, death, and the end of the world. Not exactly light conversation material.

See above, re: Jon being good at conversations.

He nodded and belatedly realized he'd successfully asked more than one question and not actually compelled Dwight. Maybe he was getting better at control.

Maybe he shouldn't get complacent. Next time, the answer to "do you like cats" could be "a cat killed my sister", knowing his luck.

"I should probably get going." He put out his cigarette on the rock and pocketed the butt. "It's late."

Said as if he'd actually get any sleep, but he supposed you never knew.

Dwight nodded as he slipped the butt of his cigarette into his shirt pocket.

"Have a good night. And thanks again for the smoke," And for the conversation too but Dwight didn't think calling attention to it would make it any easier next time around. So, he simply smiled and nodded as he watched Jon head off from the beach.

Dwight continued to sit for a little while longer until the waves started to creep up closer as high tide started to roll in. Standing to his feet he brushed himself off and headed back towards town and made his way to his apartment where he hoped to maybe manage to sleep until past sunrise for a change.

No world ending!

This is good Jon. See, this is what we want to have happen... NO world ending :P

Been there, done that.

The beach, Saturday night

The beach

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