A Secluded Clearing in the Woods, Sunday Afternoon (NFB)

[tyler_gone]

Tyler gently set down the computer monitor he had hauled back from the Imperial Junk Yard. His muscles were sore from carrying it so far, but he figured he would have privacy and time to work this far back in the woods

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[willbedone]

It was the last day before moving back to the dorms, and Willow had decided to take a walk to enjoy it. She was mostly lost in her own thoughts when she came upon the clearing with Tyler in it.

"Oh," she said, startled. "Um. Sorry. Am I interrupting something?"

[tyler_gone]

Tyler took the time to turn off the drill and set it aside before he glanced up.

"Hey, Willow," he said easily. "Nah. I'm just trying a little project. Didn't expect anyone to be around."

[willbedone]

"Hi, Tyler," she said. She came forward a little more, curious now. "What kind of project?"

[tyler_gone]

Tyler gestured to his supplies. "We talked about it," he told the girl. "The exploding monitor bit. I'm just trying to keep my hand in, in case I ever need to do it again."

[willbedone]

"Oh, right," Willow nodded, remembering. "Wait - what? Why are you trying to explode a monitor? Aren't explosions bad? That's why we call them explosions and not big, fluffy hugs."

[tyler_gone]

Deciding Willow wasn't a threat, Tyler had resumed his drilling.

"Hugs are good," he said. "Explosions can be good too. It's all about the context for both."

"Some contexts, blowing something up is the best statement you can make."

[willbedone]

"Sure, if you're fighting a demon or something," Willow said. "Which, in the right context, carries a very strong statement about living. Namely that you'd like to continue and hope that they'd stop. But it's a special circumstances kind of thing that takes a long time to prepare. Or just a couple of days if that's all you've got."

[tyler_gone]

"Mmm," Tyler said. "But if you wait until the demon's right there, you have to scramble to figure out qwhat you're going to blow up and how. I like to be prepared."

He gstured to the trees. "Besides, we're in the middle of the forest. Nobody's gonna die."

[willbedone]

"Trees might not like it," Willow pointed out. "Plus there could be gnomes or animals."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler did not exactly seem concerned about trees, gnomes or animals, as he was finishing up his drilling and turning the monitor upside-down to shake out anything inside.

"Gnomes have to be hardy to survive out here," he said. "Teal deer would eat them if they weren't. And if I get a deer, venison is the meat of kings."

[willbedone]

"What if you got some little teal deer who had just wandered away from its mom" Willow asked. "And it's all - wow, look at this nifty thing over here and then boom! You blow up that computer monitor and either somebody looses a kid or somebody looses a mom and, by the way, can we talk about being nicer to computer monitiors?"

[tyler_gone]

Tyler just laughed at Willow's scenario.

"My heart bleeds for the baby deer. Truly. The monitor's from the junkyard," he said. "And I am being nice to it. It has a whole new purpose in life, instead of just sitting and leaking chemicals into the soil while it becomes more and more obsolete."

[willbedone]

"Yeah, but it could be upgraded," Willow said, really more uncomfortable about the whole explosion concept but feeling more confident when she was talking about computers. "I could do that, if you want. Give you a nice, new, non-leaky or explody monitor."

[tyler_gone]

"Thanks, but my laptop's fine. This is an unloved computer someone was just tryng to get rid of," Tyler said, shaking the monitor one last time. He pointed the top at Willow, gesturing at the tiny hole the drill had made. "So you think you'd notice a hole that size, if it was your computer?"

[OOC: Making dinner. Will be slow for a bit.]

[willbedone]

"Now that you've pointed it out to me, I'll be sure to check mine obsessively," Willow said. Her fingers twitched with worry. "You're not actually going to blow it up, are you?"

[tyler_gone]

"Only if the mini-generator works," Tyler said honestly. "I've never done this without a steady supply of power before."

He felt around behind him for the gasoline and found it, but not something else. "Can you hand me the red funnel?"