A physicist and an engineer walk into a bar...

[dragonring]

WHO: Dave and Scott
WHAT: Dorking it out at Adventure
WHEN: Sometime in May
WHERE: Waterfalls at Adventure, who knows if they'll get on the move
NOTES: From here

Your-- oh. Oooh, ooookaaay, yeah, not- not going to argue with that-- father pride or whatever.

[He's not that socially awkward. A dad will always think his child is the best - and it's nice, really, to see such feelings. Cassie is a lucky girl, to say the least.]

We met at school, it's a short story.

[But obviously not the whole story, and it shows. Dave isn't the best at lying or hiding stuff. And even if what he said is technically true, he knows he's just playing with words there. A distraction is needed! The mention of snacks has him searching for some in his bag, but he stops to look at the man with a raised eyebrow.]

...something about needing a bathroom? [You know, water falling...]

Comments

[tictacs]

( scott actually has to take a moment to turn his head, look at dave, and have his expression change into the very epitome of 'are you serious right now?'. )

We're not gonna pee in the waterfall, man. ( yet. ) I was thinking more on the lines of swimming.

( eyes darting towards the waterfall itself, scott can't help the grin. ) Can you imagine what it'd be like to slide down that thing?

[dragonring]

[Congratulations, Scott! You've discovered Dave is a bit of a weirdo. Aware of that, he looks down, more awkward than usual, and kicks a stone with his old man shoe.]

...swimming? [Right. Exercise. Dave glances at Scott, who looks like a man that can take off his shirt with pride, then he looks down again. Awkwardness levels raising. Nothing personal, Scott, he's just an idiot.] Ah, sure, I bet it's lots of fun, but-- I was actually looking for a temple? You haven't seen it by any chance, have you?

[tictacs]

A--a huh?

( his gaze is torn momentarily from the waterfall to look at dave instead. ) Temple?

You mean like Indiana Jones? That kind of temple?

[dragonring]

Ah, yeah actually, that's the..."theme" of this- city? Jungle?

[He gestures a lot with his hands as he speaks, finishing that sentence with a shrug. It's hard to find the right word for this place. The multiverse sure likes making things complicated.]

The City of Adventure.... is supposed to have like, ancient tribes and lost temples. Ancient knowledge, man, how cool would that be.

[Nerd alert.]

[tictacs]

( both scott's brows raise. he's certainly no archaeologist (seriously, man, who else is he supposed to think of but good old indy for something like this?), but the concept of 'ancient knowledge'... )

Well, I've always wanted to know if ancient pizza was a thing. ( it's a joke. half a joke. maybe a quarter. ) But I'm pretty sure "lost temples" aren't supposed to be easy to find, buddy. That's why they're lost.

( grinning, he decides to set his waterfall bonanza aside. )

I can help! Two heads are better than one. ( or a couple of hundred... maybe thousand... if scott puts his little ant-communication device into his ear. but he'll have to do that while dave isn't looking. ) What kinda stuff should I be looking out for?

[dragonring]

[Ok, he has to laugh at that.]

There's a box of pizza on top of our fridge that I'm preeeetty sure could be considered ancient by now.

[College student life means a kitchen filled with leftovers from who knows when, that's a fact. At the question, he takes out his CALL device and shows Scott all the info he could find. Which is not much, to be honest.]

The usual signs taken out of a fantasy book: plants not growing in the area, animals behaving weirdly, that kind of deal, ah- [He pauses when he realizes he's missing something. A name, to be exact.] I'm Dave by the way. David Stutler. Thanks for this.

[tictacs]

Dave! Nice. I'm Scott. ( he's still scrolling through dave's device at this point, reading through the little bits of info and tilting his head at the sketches. some look particularly strange; not entirely natural. or maybe not natural given the angles they get standing the way they do? being a tiny man changes the way you look at the world, but also holy shit he's seriously feeling like a less cool, higher blood sugar version of indiana jones. )

You know, if you want animals behaving weirdly, you should go to Vegas. People are the weirdest animals there are.

( he's memorised as much as he can, and then points to one of the sketches--or specifically, a little corner of it. )

Isn't this our waterfall? But, like, tinier. Look at the top of this tree here and compare the height between it and the top of the water, and then look-- ( he's turning, pointing at a tree just by said grand work of nature in real life. ) --at that.

Yes? No?

[dragonring]

Vegas, right. My roommate has tried to take me there. [He doesn't sound exactly excited about the idea.] In case that hasn't been obvious yet, I'm not the party kind of guy.

[He looks down at himself - the clothes, the hair, the awkwardness. He knows what kind of impression he gives, though it doesn't sound like Scott cares. In fact, the man is eagerly joining him in his search, actually finding a clue. How exciting is that?]

Dude, it totally is! You're good at this.

[Dave puts the device back in his pocket to protect it from the water and starts walking along the pool edge, trying to get all his senses focuses on their surroundings. That includes the magical one - not that one could tell by just looking.]

I think... I think we could find some secrete passage behind the falls. What do you say?