kaisou | ota; beach bonfire

Entry tags:

ota; beach bonfire

WHO: Luca Paguro, Alberto Scorfano, and ???
WHERE: Stardew Beach
WHEN: Evening of Sunday, 20 November
WHAT: Luca's 14th birthday party! Mingle at a bonfire on the beach. They brought... lasagna...
WARNINGS: none! mention of sand fleas?

[ Come Sunday evening, as advertised, Luca's party is all set up on the shores of Stardew Beach. There's a roaring bonfire for folks to gather round, built by Alberto and Luffy under Katsuki’s careful instruction. They've piled some wood into makeshift benches around the fire for people to sit and chat and eat. On a nearby picnic table, the boys have laid out a small spread of food. But being their first "human" birthday party (and Alberto's first real party period), they didn't exactly hit the bullseye with what to serve at a beach bonfire...

They brought pasta. They carefully shlepped a huge pot of trenette al pesto and a large tray of lasagna, plus all their other party supplies, on the bus, on the train, all the way to the beach. Diligence. They don't know about hotdogs. While unorthodox, it's genuinely tasty food, though — and Alberto hasn't accidentally poisoned anyone in at least a month or two...! So also safe to eat, bonus! In addition to the pasta, they have a bowl of leftover Halloween candy, a cooler full of bottled water and an impressive array of energy drinks, and off to the side, a small stack of frying pans, a collection of myriad spices, and a bunch of kitchen knives...? For filleting and frying fish, naturally. Alberto's also brought fishing poles, so now anyone can cook up whatever they catch. Like any normal human child's birthday party.

One normal human thing they managed, though: a birthday cake. That is, if you have a forgiving definition of what a "birthday cake" is... The icing did not fair well being stacked on top of the hot lasagna on the way to the beach. Plus this is Alberto's first attempt at cake decorating or baking anything in general, thankfully once again under Katsuki’s watchful guidance... It— probably tastes fine. Let's assume it does. Just don’t look at it.

They've got two telescopes set up for any fellow star-gazers, one courtesy of Danny, and Luca brought along a couple constellation guidebooks on how to read the stars. For the less bookish types, Alberto's brought along a light-up soccer ball and a light-up Frisbee, accounting for the darkness. They've brought a few cheap swim goggles for anyone trustworthy who'd like to sneak off for a swim with a sea monster. But for those who stay on land, Alberto's also brought three fishing poles, a couple hand nets, along with tackle and bait — but not worms or something normal, of course not. No, he has an old paint can he's filled halfway with live sand fleas... Took a while to catch them all by hand himself, but it's fine; they've found more than enough sand fleas for everyone. Anyone prone to poking their nose into random containers will probably regret this one, sorry. Bleck...

All in all, it promises to be a fun birthday party — but definitely a birthday party like no other... You only turn fourteen in a human city in another country in an alternate dimension in the future once, right? ]

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Climbing onto the staff behind her and holding on tight, Luca says, "I'm ready!"

Luz grinned. Aw, she was totally like this her first time too!

Wait no, actually she was totally scared that one time, wasn't she? Whatever.

Luz ascended up slowly. This was done with deliberate affect, so Luca could appreciate how much higher he could see over everything. Luz had always wondered if she would ever be afraid of heights, and staffs had seen to it that she would never really have that fear again unless she was actually falling.

She went high enough so that everyone seemed like dots and Luz could get a good, clear view of the ocean. For right now she was ascending and moving slowly forward so he could just take everything in.

"Want to REALLY start moving now?"

"Wow..." he says, practically whispering, as he looks at the world beneath them. It's the same sort of wonder he had when he and Alberto rode off the edge of the cliff, seeing all the birds and clouds all around them before they plummeted to the water below.

Luca might be more sensible than Alberto, but he certainly has a taste for adventure himself. When Luz asks him if he'd like to really start moving, Luca nods and grins excitedly.

"Yeah!"

Luz likened this to going all the way up on a Ferris Wheel. You could stay on it and sit down and get to see how big everything was, and there were you, a small part of it, seeing things moving around. It was nice, and certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Then, of course, Luca says the magic word.

"All right then! Hang on!"

Now, this part? This was where you made the decision not to ride the Ferris Wheel, but go on the rollercoaster instead! Luz gave a nosedive, falling pretty rapidly to the ground only to pull up at the last second and zoom past most of the people around, who probably only got a glimpse of purple and white. It was up again, and then zipping quickly by, and now Luz was practically skimming the water, she was just barely touching it now!

Luca grips the staff tight. When he first emerged from the water, he'd be terrified of this, but at this point he's gone off the cliff with Alberto far too many times to be afraid of moving through the air quickly in a way that's controlled and isn't just falling. He lets out a loud cheer and they dive down, racing through the air.

"Woohoo!"

Luz is luckily very good at piloting with Owlbert so Luca has nothing to fear. It actually is a LOT like a rollercoaster, except Luz knows they aren't strapped in so she won't go too crazy. It is still a pretty breathtaking experience though, and Luz gives them a few more breakneck speed minutes before finally taking Luca down.

"What did you think?"

"That was amazing! You should definitely take Alberto for a ride on this sometime, he'd love this!"

Because of course, Luca's first impulse when he has a great experience is to want to include Alberto in it.

"I'm really glad you liked it. Oh, sure, I'll make sure he knows all about it too!"

Luz had actually already given Alberto said ride, but it was really sweet that Luca would think of his friend like that. Frankly, Luz thought he was thinking of Alberto as MORE than that, but she knew that might be something they'd both have to come to terms with.

She'd certainly missed some messages there herself.

"Great! So what do you want to do next? We could play soccer or go swimming or something!"

No, Luca, it's way too cold for swimming for someone not used to being in water year round.

"You wanna go swimming in THIS weather?! Luca, that'll be a dead giveaway if you asked that to anyone else! For me it'll just result in an icicle Luz!"

She chuckled. "But I could totally be convinced to play some soccer!"

[[OOC: I'm not sure, since he only was on land for a short time before coming to Kaisou, so he might not have heard what it was called when he was in Italy, so I'll go with him calling it soccer because that's what he heard it was called here.]]

"Oh...can't humans swim in this weather?"

Good information to file away for later.

"Okay, well, let's do soccer, then!"

[[OOC: Ok, I was just being pedantic then, fair enough]]!

"I mean, it IS pretty cold, for us."

And if Luz was going to do THAT, she knew she'd better find a better excuse.

"Soccer it is!"

[[OOC: Oh, it's okay. I definitely tend to forget differences between Italy and the US so it's helpful to know.]]

"All right!"

He races down to the field to where the ball is, all lit up with LED lights so they can see it. Luca might not totally understand the rules, but he knows generally that they kick the ball around from seeing other kids play.

"So...uh...what are the rules again?"

[[OOC: That's just one I happen to remember, that because of American football we call the game soccer whereas to everyone else it is football]]!

"Basically, you hit the ball into the opposite team's goal. You're not allowed to use your hands, just your feet, but I think you CAN use them if you're the goalkeeper. We don't have that many people playing though, so it's basically get the ball away from the other person with your feet!"

And that would likely give rise to all sorts of situations.

"Got it! What should the goals be?"

Because in order to hit the ball into the goals, they need to decide where the goals are.

"Hmm." Luz looked around. They WERE at a beach.

"We'll need four cups and some rocks to keep them set in the sand. we'll place the cups an equal enough distance, and from there, we try to kick the ball into another person's goal. That sound all right?"

"That sounds great! I'll start gathering rocks, and you can grab some cups!"

There's a table with cups, plates and snacks on it over near the fire, so he definitely gave her the easier task compared to finding rocks in the dark.

Looks like they were doing this! Luz wouldn't ever have said she was athletic, but this could be fun!

She was already looking for the cups, ones that would be noticeable enough to be seen when they started to play.

She'll likely find the red solo cups always found at parties fairly easily. Meanwhile, Luca begins gathering rocks, returning periodically to make a little rock pile in the middle of the area where they'd be playing soccer.

Luz found the red cups pretty easily and was able to set up the parameters in seconds.

"All right. So it'll just be the two of us! You know the rules, only use your feet, make sure you're able to get the ball into the goal of the other person! We'll start the ball here in the middle, then we go to try and get it away from each other. Ready?"

She waited a beat. "Go!"

[OOC: Let's say they both play until they get tired, and I imagine both of them were easily matched].

They play for a while, the point total shifting back and forth between them as they played with no clear winner, until they're both out of breath.

"So uh...at what point does one of us win?" Because the scores could keep going up forever, he now realizes. "Because I think I might need the game to end...but it's really fun!"

He's just out of breath and needs a break.

Luz was also a little winded, but also excited and ready to keel over!

"We can stop here! Uh, let's call it a draw! I had fun too!"

She hadn't just played a game like this since being back in the isles, and honestly? It was nice to expel some of that extra energy.

"Also, I think I'm starting to get hungry."

Edited 2022-12-22 18:11 (UTC)

"Let's go over there and have some pasta!"

Because, of course, Luca and Alberto had brought two giant dishes full of pasta over on the bus for this.

"Ooh, pasta?!" Luz was definitely paying attention now. "What kind did you have?"

"Lasagna and trenette al pesto!" he says, leading the way to the table it's all on.

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Got to remember NOT to reply with the wrong Luz!

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Oh wait, Luca's from Italy so wouldn't he call it football?

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Wanna skip the whole soccer bit to where they're done playing? Writing sports is not my strong point

That works for me

Thanks so much!

Re: Thanks so much!

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