open | come bury your toes in the sand

[redigere]

WHO: Naminé and friends; open to passersby
WHERE: Beach near Heropa
WHEN: October 15th
WHAT: BEACH PARTY! Feel free to create a new prompt if the ones below don't appeal to you.
WARNINGS: None for now!

It'd taken a lot of last minute scrambling, a lot of runs to the grocery store, and a lot of help from her friends. But as Naminé steps back from the set up, she smiles. Allows herself a little bit of pride in what she's accomplished.

The home tent is where all the food is. Fold up tables have been loaded with an array of sandwiches, finger foods, and drinks, and a cooler nearby has fish and other seafood goodies to be grilled at the bonfire once someone gets hungry for it. This is also where she'll direct friends to drop off snacks and homemade goodies. Please do not sneak any of the chocolate and marshmallows meant for s'mores later.

Close by is the rest area, which is really just a big spread of blankets and a couple fold up chairs on the sand. She doesn't expect everyone to want to stay standing up all day, after all. Naminé knows she's going to be there for a bit, chatting with friends who are visiting, and she may have started a tiny sandcastle and collection of sea shells at the edge of the blankets as well.

The volleyball net and accompanying volleyball are borrowed from a co-worker, so it definitely needs to get back to her in one piece. There's plenty of space for other sports and competitions though...perhaps a game of soccer? And how could anyone ignore the ocean? She and a few others will likely be waist deep in it, learning and practicing how to swim.

Not bad for her first party. Now all she has to do is wait for her guests.

Comments

[Home Tent] (of course...)

[renamaer]

Estelle is wearing a straw hat with a ribbon, a cheerful yellow strappy sundress over her very boring and modest swim suit, and white sandals; it was warm in Heropa, but not that warm and Estelle isn't really that bold. She has a huge bag next to her, presumably filled with other supplies for the party, but her focus right now is on unpacking what looks a very fancy jello It's alive mold, filled with fruit and cream inside the multi-colored layers of its delicious jiggly outside.

"Everything looks so amazing, Naminé. You did a really good job." Don't be offended by her attention apparently being divided by the delicate process of transferring the jello onto a plate.

[redigere]

"Thank you--!"

The enthusiasm in the greeting trails off as Naminé gets a good look at what Estelle brought. It's...so jiggly. And even slightly see through, if she leans in close enough? She's never seen anything like it before. When Estelle is finished getting the thing onto a plate, Naminé will speak up again, absolutely flabberghasted.

"What is that?"

[renamaer]

"It's...um..." Honestly, she'd just followed the recipe because it looked pretty and fun. "A jello mold? This part," she'll point to the colorful outer layers, "is the jello, which came from a lot of different powder mixes I found at the store - all the different colors are different flavors! And then I put fruit and pudding inside..." She frowns at it briefly, looking it over again. The container she'd used was a ring, so there's a hole right in the middle. "Maybe I should have filled this part with something too."

[redigere]

"Jello...huh."

The word feels strange on her tongue, and the dessert is even stranger, but if it's Estelle's contribution to the party, Naminé is more than happy to accept it. Even if she wants to reach out and poke it, to watch it jiggle again. It's kind of mesmerizing.

"It still looks delicious either way. I can't wait to try it. And thank you for coming!"

[renamaer]

Estelle is also really sorely tempted to poke it. It was so weird how it moved by itself like that...

"Of course. Thank you so much for inviting me." And Naminé had done such an amazing job setting things up. "Do you need help with anything else? I brought some more supplies and things..." She tilts her head towards the bag near her feet. "More towels, buckets, and utensils, and such."

[redigere]

"No, I think everything is ready. But I'll put those out, thank you for bringing them!" She takes a few minutes to set out everything Estelle brought, and then returns with a big smile on her face. She's so excited.

"What would you like to do now?"

[renamaer]

Well, she kind of wanted to swim, but she really wanted to try out some of those toys she'd brought for sand sculpting... Also Naminé was way too energetic, watching her run around setting everything up just made Estelle smile to herself as well.

"Could we try building something, maybe? It'll be nice to have something for other people to see when they arrive."

[redigere]

"That sounds wonderful. There's enough space by the blankets for that."

Naminé leads the way, gesturing to her tiny sandcastle attempt near the edge of it. It's holding up well despite her lack of castle construction knowledge and use of proper tools.

"I made that one, but I think a bigger one would look better. One that we could put shells and rocks onto."

[renamaer]

"Maybe we can build next to the one you already made?" Okay, what else does she need... buckets, water. Estelle's going to get right to work fetching water back from the ocean. "If we can build a tower, a flag at the top would be nice!" She calls back over her shoulder. She'll be quick.

[redigere]

"A flag..." Naminé considers this for a moment, not even sure what they could use as a flag. "A flower, maybe?" Or maybe a toothpick threaded through a bit of napkin.

But they should build the tower first before that. She starts hauling sand closer to her, huffing with effort to dislodge large, baked chunks of it from the ground and crumbling them for their purposes. Now that Estelle is joining the construction effort, it's time to think bigger and bolder.

"Should I dig out a moat first?"

[renamaer]

That did seem like a good idea. They could even accomplish two things at once - using the sand from excavating the moat to build up the tower. "Hmm, we can mark out the space first and decide how tall we want the tower to be. Then we can use the sand from digging out the moat to start building up the tower?" She's going to look over the space and consider this a little bit more...

And she's grabbing another bucket. "If we're digging a moat, we're definitely going to need more water!"

This project might very well get out of hand.

[redigere]

At least no one will bother them while they build. Naminé nods determinedly as Estelle heads off to fetch more water, returning to her own task of moving sand. By the time her friend returns, a sizable pile of sand has formed just a foot away from the approximate space of the sand castle. The beginnings of the moat has been dug out as well, but it's slow going.

"If only I could ask Shiro to dig this out for us!" But Riku's puppy is flopped out under the home tent, lazily accepting pets from passersby.

[renamaer]

She's probably got enough water at this point, so she's going to drop right down into the sand to help Naminé out. "More help would be good but..." She looks determined as she starts widening the moat with gusto. "We can definitely do this!"

It's fun to do something like this, without having to worry too much about getting things done on a deadline, or the final result. Just playing like this was it's own reward. (Though she really did want to get an impressive tower together...)

"Phew. Let me go get another bucket so we can start stacking up the tower..."

[redigere]

"Yes, definitely!" Estelle's enthusiasm is, as always, completely contagious, and Naminé even takes the time to smooth out the walls of the moat as they dig out the sand. It won't do to have their sandcastle look sort of unpolished if they're going to put all this effort into it.

"Okay, I'll start building it up." The sand they're digging out is being used for the tower, of course, but it still needs to be moved to the right spot. Naminé considers the layout of their castle and marks a little x for where not one, but two potential towers could go, one made by each of them. Two is a nice, even number, after all.

"Hm...or we could do four smaller towers at each corner of the castle...?"

[renamaer]

"So maybe a courtyard in the middle? Or just a wall..." They'd dug out a pretty substantial moat, so it's not as though they're short on space here. It really depends on what kind of shape they want the castle to be in.

"Do you have castles where you come from, Naminé? Should we try to build something similar?"

[redigere]

"Yes! There are a lot of princesses on my world. But they all have such different castles, it'd be hard to build just one." Naminé's brow furrows as she stares at the sand, trying to visualize something they could make.

"All of them have more than two towers, though. Does your world have castles too?"

[renamaer]

"Ah, yes a few! I used to live in one..." Since she was also technically a princess. She looks thoughtful as she eyes the sand, but she wasn't really that interested in rebuilding her own home. "Was your world made up of a lot of different kingdoms, then? There usually aren't that many princesses just running around."

[redigere]

"Me too." Naminé is content to leave it at that, much preferring to talk about her world and what she knows of it, even if she hasn't experienced most of it yet.

"My world is made up of a lot of different worlds! And those individual worlds sometimes had their own kingdoms, yes. There are at least seven princesses."

Alice doesn't...technically count as a princess, even if she's a Princess. But Ariel is an actual princess!

[renamaer]

"That sounds like a lot!" That also seems like a political protocol nightmare, since that's what she's used to dealing with... "At least seven..." She pauses as she considers how much sand they have again.

Maybe we should just try to build a castle that you'd like to live in. Maybe you can pick the parts that you liked best?"

[redigere]

Naminé pauses as she considers this suggestion, eyes growing bright with the possibility. Her own castle...not one that she had to be trapped in, but one she could live in. Even if it was a sandcastle miniature. She nods furiously.

"Then, I'd like a big courtyard, and a garden-- oh, and four small towers all out in a line in front of it all." Where else could she take inspiration from, other than Radiant Garden and the Land of Departure's castle? Then she pauses and blinks.

"What about you, Estelle? What would you like to add?"

[renamaer]

"That sounds so nice," Estelle claps her hand together in delight and determination to help make it a reality. "Well...My favorite part of the castle back home has always been the library, but I think that might be hard to build with sand." She's going to settle for lots of fancy designs.

[redigere]

Naminé tilts her head.

"A library...that sounds nice too!" But yes, definitely more difficult to depict in a sandcastle.

"Maybe we could make a tiny book out of a leaf and add it in somewhere instead?"

[renamaer]

"I know we can find a creative way to figure it out," she says with a laugh. "It's okay if we can't work it in too obviously. With all the castles in your home world..." Well, of sorts anyway, "have their rooms all been different inside too?" She's kind of asking about the libraries specifically, but just wondering if Naminé had also been able to visit inside the places she'd mentioned. So many castles...

[redigere]

Naminé pauses to think. She only knows what Sora knows, and what she saw while she watched over him after he woke up. But the princesses are so different that she can definitively say...

"Yes. One princess is a mermaid and lives under the sea, so her room is...made of coral, I guess? Two princesses lived in grand castles, so there were high ceilings, and a lot of nice furniture. And one princess, well, she's just a normal girl, so she doesn't have a castle, just a little house close to the beach."

[renamaer]

"There are even mermaid princesses in your home?" That was definitely not what she was expecting. Technically there were mermaids and mermen of sorts in her world, but they were monsters, rather than people who built and lived in castles. "I've never heard of anything like that before..." She starts on Naminé's earlier request of a garden, carefully shaping the damp sand into little walls and hedges that they could fill in later.

"It sounds like you had a lot of variety... Did you have a favorite castle then?"