Spring Born [Open Mingle Log]

[vernal_miss]

Date: April 27th, Saturday
Characters: Open to all for the weekend, family for during the week as desired

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Spring term holiday may have ended Monday, however, waiting to come off of a short week is not so bad either when it comes to finding a time during which all of her friends would be available. Especially when that patience allows for a little time to regain a taste for sweets after Easter!

On the Thursday after the holiday, Ornella turned eleven years old officially. After school, she had hurried home to enjoy a quiet familial celebration of her birthday with a favorite dinner and gifts. Nothing too exciting, but certainly satisfactory for a school night.

The weekend is when the real fun starts.

In the afternoon on Saturday after a morning of preparation, Nel has her birthday party consisting of friends mostly her age from class. She had designed the theme of a water dwellers party - inclusive of merfolk and swamp creatures. All attendants are given a headband with paper fins sticking out on the sides, and paper fins to stick on their feet. The difference of the merfolk and swamp creatures comes from the personal touches. Merfolk are painted with glitter makeup and add paper sea shells to their headbands, while swamp creatures are facepainted and draped with a few green streamers. Blue plastic table covers serve to control mess and designate the 'water' zones for games. Fingerpainting of course is included, but other games occupy plenty of time. Especially karaoke, in honor of sirens. Snacks are kept simple as well with green jello swamp muck and wafer cookie clams with frosting holding them together half open with a sugar pearl. All of it goes over well, and those few hours pass smoothly with the indoor party kept under control.

After her younger guests have all departed, Nel lends a hand in the clean up in order to ready the house for a second gathering. Earlier in the week, her Mum had extended an invitation on the Network for the Numbered to come over for dinner. A chance to spend time together on Nel’s birthday celebration, and even meet her wife, Janice. No gifts necessary, but strongly encouraged. To anyone that wants to bring a present but is at a loss what would be suitable, Mary Ann has a list of ideas at the ready.

As other Numbered arrive in the early evening, Nel is there at the door to greet them with a bright smile, glitter lingering on her skin at her cheeks and eyes despite efforts to wash it off. The tween is dressed in a maxi romper with a teal floral print and has had assistance in wrangling her hair with a complex braid to hold the front back with the rest. Each one is welcomed into the house and offered an open seat in the living room to sit and talk until the dinner is ready. Not that anyone will be left waiting long before they are invited into the kitchen to dish up plates and return to the living room to sit.

Comments

[warped_replica]

The idea of traveling as a group seems preferred all around, which prompts Benjiro to consider it a little further, “It would be convenient since I can translate, and there are a lot of places I haven’t visited.” In fact, tourism in the country had been severely limited by his parents so he could devote himself entirely to his studies.

Back to local potential, Benjiro nods in agreement that a run at the arcade would be welcomed, “Absolutely.” Leaning slightly towards Sadie with her hand at his back, he does consider how the games would be degraded viewing through the adaptive device Walter has to rely on currently. Then, another idea comes to mind, “Arcade or not, we could go camping inside the border but out of wifi range.”

[iamnotgod]

That brings out a smile on Walter's face.

"It would also be a good excuse for practice on my part," he reminds Ben gently.

The camping suggestion he has to pause and think more on.

"As long as it's not in the woods," he allows. Someplace they could see the stars would be pretty nice, actually...

[dragoonrouge]

"We could camp on one of the beaches?" Sadie suggests, "We would have to watch the weather pretty closely but some of the smaller coves remain above hightide all year long and could provide an extra bit of privacy."

[warped_replica]

“As time permitted,” he allows, however, the point of vacation is to enjoy the moment.

Looking to Sadie as she suggests the beach, he releases her hand to wrap that arm instead behind her back. “That sounds better than a field. The wind should keep any insects from bothering us at the beach.” There is the option of swimming as well at that location, but Benjiro would rather abstain.

[iamnotgod]

It would be surprising if any of them wanted to swim, given their last impromptu dunking.

"All that does sound like a good recipe for a quiet night out," Walter says.

"Still, I wouldn't bet on the wind keeping all the bugs away for us," he teases.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie will certainly be going swimming, swimming pools are now a no-go and she still hasn't figured out a good way to hide her ears in the water for the more public beaches, even if the other two decline to.

"We can take some citronella to burn to get rid of the last of the bugs, and I know how to build a good fire to cook on too."

[warped_replica]

Well if Sadie is going to swim, there will be no helping it. It is merely a matter of how long until she convinces him and he resigns to swimming with a t-shirt on for cover to ease his worsening self-consciousness.

The cove might offer some shelter for bugs, but the candles should be adequate. The matter of a menu with an open fire presents numerous possibilities, “Which means more than just s’mores. I haven’t cooked on an open fire before, but I’d like to try.”

[iamnotgod]

Walter might wade at the water's edge, but he won't swim. He knows well that he can if he has to, however, and that's more than enough for him.

"You both certainly know how to package a trip," he says, bemused yet pleased.

"Though, don't expect to be able to keep me from all the work."

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie won't force anyone to swim but she'll be delighted for Ben's company and splashing about the shoreline with Walter would certainly be fun. That is where the best sandcastles are made afterall.

"We won't keep you from all of the work," Sadie grins, "But we can certainly keep you away from most of them. You can hardly relax if you're doing stuff."

[warped_replica]

There shall be such sandcastle building. Between the three of them, it will be worthy of many photos.

“I think we should decide what he can be responsible for ahead of time,” he says with his focus on Sadie while aware Walter is right here. “Expectations can aide in relaxation, in the same way the completion of a task list can. Clear, defined tasks to avoid having him look for more to do.” Then more directly to Walter he muses, “Assisting with setting up would be a good one. Joining in cooking for some of the meals. That should be enough, I think.”

This vacation idea excites me so~

[iamnotgod]

"I've seen it work the other way around," he remarks to Sadie, but he nods once Ben clarifies.

"Making it a team exercise and keeping tasks divided, rather than anyone's sole burden... that should work," he relents.

A compromise for his inner workaholic - and everyone else's, frankly.

Itll be the best mini holiday \o/

[dragoonrouge]

Smiling, Sadie raises an eyebrow and shakes her head at Walter's remark, "You need to relax, let us take care of most of the stuff!" Ben's suggestion does seem like a reasonable balance...

"That does seem like a good compromise."

All of them can really relax

[warped_replica]

That was easier than expected to get Walter to agree, but whether he can maintain that when the time comes remains unknown.

“So then we need to decide on the dates, and what meals we want to cook. Everything else should be fairly straightforward,” he says, mind already busy listing out supplies that might be needed while camping at the beach. Their ideal location means he can make short trips to the store daily for fresh food for the meals rather than relying on only what will keep.

Re: All of them can really relax

[iamnotgod]

Walter affects an offended look, but only for a second, and he relaxes back to normal with a laugh to let them know he doesn't mean it.

"Two weekends after you are both finished with exams, if that doesn't interfere with other plans?"

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie grins as she takes in the easy atmosphere, "I can't think of a better way to mark the end of our A Levels and the start of the summer holidays!"

[warped_replica]

Considering the dates, he thinks to his work schedule at the warehouse, “I don’t think I have a shift on that weekend, so it should work well for me.” Summer certainly allows more flexibility at the warehouse.

[iamnotgod]

Well, he hadn't explicitly been calculating the dates based on all their schedules... but he's not going to mention that.

"It's settled, then. Consider me convinced."

He looks back and forth between the two tall teens.

"We should probably return our focus to what we're doing here this evening, though."

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie pulls out her phone and enters the rough dates into her calendar, "Perfect! Ah, we probably should focus back on Nel's birthday."

End here?

[warped_replica]

Pleased as well to have the planned weekend at the beach, Benjiro searches for Nel visually at the reminder from Walter and spots the girl. He nods in agreement with both Walter and Sadie, “Definitely should. Maybe she’d like to play a game with us?”

Sounds good to me!

[iamnotgod]

"I have a feeling the answer is yes, but we should ask first."