The beach, late Monday

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Travis had said it wouldn't work, but he hadn't yet said it was dangerous, either, and Jon knew people sometimes did bonfires on the beach, so...here he was, on the beach. With an ever-growing pile of luggage, matches, and quite a bit of accelerant.

He'd let Summer know about what he was doing, and he'd planned it with Irene, after all, so he had no doubt word would get out.

Self-loathing was absolutely going to be the basis of this fire. The more it came back, the more tinder it could be.


[Baggage fire! All invited!]

Comments

[alwaysonguard]

Effective or not, Dwight was so there as soon as he had gotten word of the bonfire. He had more than enough to offer for kindling, that was for sure.

"Oh I am so ready for this to be over and done," he said finally making it over and dropping the "she will never love you back" duffle bag down with a thud.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"You and me both." Jon wrestled a bit with GUILT, but it was proving too heavy for him. "I, um. Don't suppose you'd be able to give me a hand."

[alwaysonguard]

"Yeah, no problem" Dwight said grabbing hold of the offending baggage and helping Jon give it a heave.

"Should have a good variety of materials at least...." he said glancing at the pile around his feet and the duffle bags, suitcases, trunks, and knapsacks that were reappearing around him at an annoying yet familiar rate.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Plenty of everything," Jon agreed. "And I'm hoping for a lack of harmful fumes, given that none of it is actually real."

Stubborn was neither a surprise nor particularly a problem, so he let it be in favor of viciously chucking arachnophobia on the flames.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven wasn't burning his bag. In fact he was holding the satchel which read Stress Ball quite firmly. But he supposed friends of his might show up and it'd be good to check in with them if they did.

[flamesburned]

Liz had considered using her own powers to destroy her luggage but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Not with the way they were responsible for why she had said baggage to begin with.

She could only drag over a couple of her bags, choosing ‘Pittsburgh’ and ‘killed own family’, the others were still at the store as well since she had to be careful.

She stared at the fire, biting her lip as she looked back down at her bags and couldn’t bring herself to throw them in, aside from the fact they were rather heavy.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven saw her and gave a little wave, not wanting to approach if she preferred privacy. Or as much privacy as one could have at a beach bonfire.

[flamesburned]

Liz hesitated and returned the wave, after everything she decided she would like some company right now and she glanced down at her luggage before looking back up at Steven, “hi,” she said softly.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven came over. "Hello. Wasn't sure if you'd be about today. It's good to see you. You doing all right? Considering?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Would you...um. If you'd like a hand with that, I could...or, well, probably I could get someone to help," Jon offered. Because he was noodle arms.

[flamesburned]

"I would like some help, thank you, they're rather heavy ...I think even more so than they probably normally would be," she was trying to not think about the anniversaries that were coming up.

"I ... I didn't want to destroy them myself," she said quietly.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon nodded. He didn't get it, but she wasn't the only one who was having other thoughts about the things. "Dwight helped me with mine. He's much stronger."

Oh, look: Inadequate was back. He hadn't seen that one in a few hours now.

[alwaysonguard]

Dwight had been meaning to stop by and see how Liz was doing and give her an update on the project he had been working on for her. But things had gotten kinda hectic so he hadn't been able to.

And a day like this, it was understandable so Dwight just gave a knowing nod of recognition, leaving it up Liz whether she felt like talking or interacting with anyone.

[flamesburned]

Liz nodded back, she remembered what Dwight had told her about his own family and she had a feeling that this day would be extremely rough on him as well, "hi," she said, feeling rather tired.

[alwaysonguard]

Eh, just some bags and such labeled things like "lets everyone down", "couldn't protect your own daughter", "Bullet Trouble", and "Haven" plastered on them. Nothing at all.... Dwight was barely noticing them... Or the bag that suddenly appeared labeled "terrible coping mechanisms."

"Would you care to sit?" he asked, motioning towards the large trunk sitting nearby that simple said "Old Man" on it.

[designateddadfriend]

Baggage had a way of being heavier than it looked, didn't it.

Travis waved to her from a little ways around the fire, sitting as he was off to the side with an extinguisher just in case, his extremely heavy "dead husband" backpack just where it had been for the last six years all day.

[flamesburned]

Liz gave a very tired smile back as she returned the wave and made her way over, “I … I didn’t want to use my own powers,” she said softly, glancing up at the bonfire just in time for a new trunk simply labelled ‘fire’ appeared.

[designateddadfriend]

"They'd probably be overkill for this, anyway," Travis noted. "How've you been?"

[designateddadfriend]

"At least it's not in front of a bar," Travis noted.

Then sat down with a nice big fire extinguisher to watch the festivities.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"I thought this would probably be safest," Jon said. "Especially if it keeps getting bigger."

[designateddadfriend]

“Safest would be no fire at all,” Travis pointed out. “But uh. This will do.”

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Even if it's only temporary, it's good to be getting rid of the blasted things," Jon said.

[alwaysonguard]

"Once a firefighter always a firefighter huh?" Dwight said with a soft smile as he walked over nodding to the fire extinguisher.

The worst offenders from his pile currently smoldering quite nicely- for now- but he didn't feel all that much better just yet.

"How have you been holding up?"

[designateddadfriend]

That was . . . not even remotely true. Travis just shrugged, careful of his “dead husband” backpack. “I’ve had better days,” he said. “But I’ve also had worse.”

[alwaysonguard]

"I think a lot of people are saying something similar today."

Right on cue, a trunk with 'unloved' slapped across it appeared. Dwight sighed as he resigned himself to the pile of baggage regrowing for a bit and sat down on the trunk. He took off the knapsack and carefully set it down at his feet.

"Looks like I'm not the only one with a bag or two they don't want to get rid of."