Welcome to Gaia! ::

As in most islands, or just bodies of land in general, a beach is necessary. The outer rim of Nirvani Island is a beautiful, peaceful beach, the sand is white and soft underfoot. In the sun, the area is thriving of pesky hermit crabs making their way across, the occasional ghost crab squirming out from under the sand to scare a relaxing visitor. At night, however, most locals would agree that it beats the sun tenfold. The sand sparkles like crystal under the moon and the ocean, though threatening in it's shimmering waves scaling high above the ocean, the water itself is a beauty one could only hope for. Simply breathtaking. If one were to travel out along it's shore, enjoying the occasional gull watching for their chance to snack upon the passing crab or waiting for a visiting family to leave their food unattended, basking in the warm rays of the sun (given that one chooses to visit during the warmer times of the year), they may find a cave off under an overhanging cliff. That is, however, a different place.

Angela grinned and ducked her head slightly as she sat next to Alfred. "Well, we'd only just arrived so we were a bit busy with getting settled. 'We' being myself and my father." She frowned slightly as she kicked off her strappy shoes and buried her toes in the still-warm sand. "It was supposed to be just me but my father stowed away on the boat and surprised me when we arrived. And, apparently bought the winery where I work so he has an excuse to stay." She couldn't help but roll her eyes slightly. Because, honestly. What an idiot.

At least he'd named it after her cat. Sort of. But that wasn't enough to forgive him, for sure.

She tilted her head slightly, giving Alfred a sidelong look, a little teasing grin playing on her lips. "Wash it off in the ocean? It's just whipped cream, it's better to just lick it off then, yeah? Though that might start up some...'fireworks' anyway," she teased, laughing as she turned her face toward the glowing sunset.

"So tell me about this Beach festival--was it fun?"

Murren relentlessly dragged John across the island toward the beach. She didn't give him much time to actually argue (not that he would have. She couldn't recall a time he'd ever argued with her) until they reached the sand and she released his hand long enough to pull off those strappy heels. She carefully set the chocolate and flowers in the shadow of a large piece of drift wood before turning back to John with a grin.

"Well, come on then!" she told him. "We 'aven' got all day, yer know!" She paused. Well, actually they kind of did. Discounting that they both had to get back to the farm to put the animals in for the night. With that, Murren took off running toward the water, kicking up sand in her wake. Because it was definitely a race! Somehow. For reasons.

And when John got close enough, she was definitely going to tackle him into the ocean as revenge for planning to take her to her own farm for their Valentine's date. Mwa ha ha!

"Yer thin' so?" Murren asked, grasping the edges of her skirt and holding it out slightly. "Well, yer know...clothes dry if'n yer ge' them wet, yer know?" She ran to him and grabbed his hands, pulling him into the surf a bit--not too much. Just so the water would wash over his feet and cool his toes a bit. Men always had hot, sweaty feet, you know. Her uncle Bernhard had the worst time with sweaty feet. It was horrible, too--that trait passed right to all his boys and when Murren had been a girl, they used to chase her around with their great smelly socks.

Terrible! The least she could do was make sure John's feet weren't smelly. Then again, he'd probably just leave with them smelling like low tide and crabs...

"So, John. Ah though' tha' since we're 'ere an' we're on a date, yer should tell me abou' yersel'. When we're at work, we jus' talk abou' work bu' today et's a great time ter talk abou' somethin' else, yer know? Ah don' know much abou' yer. Coz' at work et's jus' all feedin' th' cows, and talkin' ter th' sheep, an' chasin' th' walrus out o' th' pig pen again..."

Chloe had gotten a little delayed while packing up a bag of things for stargazing--she wanted to include a jacket and some blankets just in case--because even though it was summer, it might get a little cool at the beach with the wet air blowing in from the ocean. And she also packed a flashlight and some drinks and snacks and insect repellant, and a few other necessities.

And then she packed up her telescope and headed to the beach. Which took her longer than she expected because walking around with the heavy telescope was a little harder than she expected. She really needed to build up some stamina.

When Chloe finally reached the beach, Peter was already there. He stood out rather starkly in the dark so she made her way to him slowly, picking her way over the sand carefully in the dark. "Peter!" she called, waving--though he might not be able to see it.

"I apologize for being late. It took a bit longer to get my things together than I expected."

"Oh it's fine," Chloe said, handing over the bag to Peter. "It wasn't that heavy. And it was a short walk anyway. I'm fine!" She smiled at him though it was so dark, she didn't think he'd see it. But at least he'd hopefully hear it in her voice. "Thank you for the concern, though. But really, it's fine."

Chloe pulled her jacket closer around her body and glanced across the white sand. "Where do you think we should set up, Peter?" she asked. It might be hard to keep the telescope steady out in the sand, but it was clearly the best place for having the widest view of the sky.

"Oh! I brought a flashlight with me as well," she said, rummaging through her bag until her fingers closed around the plastic cylinder. "It would be awful to end up stepping on a crab or something equally unpleasant, in the dark."

chloe flipped on the flashlight and followed after Peter, keeping it trained on the ground ahead so they could avoid potential crabs--of the crustacean variety. "I think it's perfect," Chloe said, setting down the telescope. "Could you hold this?" She held out the flashlight as she tried to wrestle the tripod into submission to get the heavy thing set up.

She paused to look up at the night sky. "I think it's perfect," she told him. "We have a good view of the moon." She really should have brought some wine or something--it was the perfect setting. Then again, that gesture could have been misunderstood so it was for the best that she didn't.

"It's remarkably clear tonight--though I'm afraid we might not be able to see much with my telescope. It's very old, after all. But it's good for looking at the moon. You can see quite a lot of detail."

"I've always been fond of Saturn," Chloe said, leaning over to check the eyepiece and start focusing the telescope, once the tripod was stable. "It's fascinating how strange it looks in pictures--it's so perfect and beautiful hanging in the black of space that it's always difficult to believe it's really up there. It is truly amazing to think about it."

She laughed a little at his reference to Pluto and its relatively newly decided lack of planetary status. "Pluto is just an object of pity these days, I fear."

Chloe looked up from the telescope and smiled at Peter. Now that her eyes were adjusting to the dark a bit better, she could see him pretty clearly in the moonlight--especially since it was nearly full. "I'm not hungry just yet, but I also brought a few snacks. I guess we're on the same wavelength. Also, let me know if you get cold--there are a few hand warmers in my bag."