[IC] Guys Like Us Don't Get the Girl

[Mitheral]

Duncan smiled calmly and drawled a little. “Well, it helps a little when you donate to the National Park Service and the local hatchery.”

As they walked down to the edge of the pond formed by the stream Duncan grinned as he spotted a fish leaping out of the water repeatedly. His bobber kept disappearing. He calmly picked up his rod and started to reel in the line. There on the hook was a 13 inch trout. He looked utterly smug as he pulled it off and stuck it on a stringer.

“Welp, I caught MY dinner. What chu gonna eat?” He laughed a little. Don’t worry. I’d share. Not the first time that has happened to me. Back when I was 15 and my stepfamily was still together we went by Bottomless Lakes State Park near Roswell, NM. I caught an entire meal for a family of seven. We set our rods and went back up to the camper. By the time I got back I had a fish hooked just like this. Noone else caught a thing.” He laughed some more. “Please don’t hate me. Besides, I came prepared for this. I talked Kevin into packing me some small containers of those mac and cheese dishes.”

He glanced back up at the tents and tried not to grin. He looked like he was in pain. “You know, my tent has three rooms. I was going to use one for a bathroom, one for my bedroom, and the main room for the kitchen and living room. I have a stove in there. I forgot the big screen TV.” He looked nonchalantly, then laughed. “Kidding. Roughing it. I know. I actually know how to make fire half a dozen ways from scratch. I took a humanities type course where they taught us how - and made us do it. Had to make adobe, ship a flint knife. Great to know if you time travel to Bedrock.

“Anyways, let me check something real quick before I forget.” He pulled out his phone and punched a couple keys. Hot keys. Mmm hmm… “Hello? Gary? What are you ..? What?” He flushed a little, tried to speak again, then responded. “No, I was just checking … What? Hello?” He stared at his phone blankly. “He hung up on me!”

There was a text. Duncan snorted and put his phone away looking stubborn. If he had been a cat his ears would have laid flat. “It’s a conspiracy. They are making me have fun.” He shook his head and laughed. “Okay … maybe it has been a little while. I DO know how to have fun. I think. Any ideas?”

[EasilyAmused]

Jonna smiled as she watched the fish bob-away. However his comment made her hazel eyes roll rather dramatically. “Don’t be like that! Besides I came prepared to not catch anything, at least for tonight. It just seemed safer than assuming everything would be alright.” She said with a laugh before listening to his story. “Sounds like you’ll be doing most of the fishing considering I don’t have the luck you’ve expressed.”

As expected the blonde let out a squeal of excitement at the thought of having more of the mac and cheese. It was hard to believe something like that could be so delicious. Then again Kevin did seem like a professional chief with talents are exceeding her own. A grin moved across her face as they started back towards camp but again, the sight of her tent compared to his just showed how different of worlds they truly lived in. His joke about bedrock made her giggle and she waited for him to finish his call.

However the call seemed rather short lived as he was hung up on rather abruptly. Between that and his flushed face she tilted her head to one side, her eyebrows pressing together in a curious-filled manner as he stared down at the text and instantly put his phone again. So… he prefers a phone call over a text message. Good to note.

“It wouldn’t hurt to start with a fire than there’s always the classic of making dinner followed by roasting marshmallows.” She said with a nod and a bright smile. As they started to build the fire she brought up a question. “You were saying something about your tent before you called Gary. What was that?”

[Mitheral]

“Tent? Oh. I was just going to say, I have plenty of room in my tent. In fact, your tent would fit in one of the rooms with extra space to spare. It would be like camping indoors.” He laughed, then stopped. “Okay, I am being mean. I should not make fun of your tent. But I bet it seems a lot smaller than the last time you used it. I would guess about 11-12 years since you set it up last.”

Duncan winced. He probably shouldn’t have been that specific. But he had figured her current age, then backtracked to mid teen years. She was close to her father. Odds were he had taken her camping a lot. But once she had hit the mid teens, her dad had taken a second place to other things in her life.

He decided to change the subject fast. “I’ll go ahead and get a fire started.” He adjusted his Ray Bans. “Marshmallows are one of the major food groups on camping trips. Though I have never been a Smores fan. I like the marshmallows by themselves - trying to see how browned I can get one without burning it.” Another fish started hopping out of the water and yanking on his pole. Duncan winced. “And you might be right about dinner. That’s pretty much enough for both of us with baked potatoes.”

Once Duncan got distracted with making dinner he became distant, almost distracted, as if his mind was a million miles away…

Duncan viewed the scene below him - or rather his drone suit. Hundreds of acres of land was ablaze. It was a wildfire in southern California. He mapped out the fire, projected its spread based on prevailing winds. Then he mapped out a strategy for extinguishing it. The first thing he needed was a heat sink though - somewhere to transfer the heat to. He located several swimming pools and sent out drones to receive the heat transfers. Finally he ordered his suit to swoop in…