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 Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 11:31 pm
One moment it was cold - the weather the sort that had his mum making comments about coats, hats and scarves whenever he wanted to venture outside and then the next...
Next, it seemed as if almost overnight the weather had decided that it had had enough of winter but had decided to fast forward straight into summer instead of moving into spring.
Not to say that it didn't look like spring with the flowers starting to bloom and the trees back in leaf - but it was suddenly really, really hot.
Briar wasn't particularly interested in the flowers and didn't have the misfortune to suffer from pollen-related allergies and so had been taking advantage of the warm weather by spending more and more time in the park - especially since the local swimming pool was closed for some reason that he wasn't able to quite get and was due to stay closed until after the Memorial Day weekend which was a whole 2 months away and the other two close to it were closed as well.
It was disappointing, since the swimming pool would have been perfect and whilst his Dad had offered to put up the inflatable paddling pool it just wasn't the same, however the park made an okay-ish second.
Today was no exception and he had spent part of the day lazing up in his favourite tree near the playground where last year he had found (and ended up fighting) a monster in the sand pit with the aid of a blue-haired senshi (Iduna), however had ended up being lured towards the playground at the familiar sound of music from an ice cream van.
Ice cream acquired, he hadn't felt like heading back to his tree quite yet, instead opting to sit on one of the swings in the mostly quiet playground as he licked at his cone.LokisRose Apologies in the delay for getting this up Loki. Hopes this works and as always let me know if I need to change anything
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:22 am
“But how do you close a pool?” Kirra demanded, skipping along beside her mother in the very welcome sunshine. “Do they put a lid on it?” “I have no idea, hon. But it’s closed.” Kirra pondered this for a long moment. The pool had been her first choice for a warm day, and it was a surprise to find they couldn’t go. While the weather wasn’t hot hot, like summer at home, it was definitely waterfight weather, and way better than the freezing nights she’d been putting up with since they moved here. She’d been assured repeatedly that her favourite Disney character didn’t actually live nearby, and she couldn’t go searching for the ice palace, but she had remained suspicious. Finally free of the layers and layers of cold-weather gear, the eight-year-old felt like herself again, and her desire to run around in the sunshine couldn’t be contained to one backyard. “What about the beach? Do they close the beach? It’s a beach!” Her mother shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know if they have one?” she admitted. “I’ll ask Auntie Tan for you. But hey, look, ice-cream truck!” Kirra accepted the handful of ice-cream money with the full understanding that this was a ‘no-more-questions’ bribe, but it didn’t matter, because the playground was finally within sight, just beyond the truck. She bought the ice-cream all by herself, and gave the right change, but then realised too late getting ice-cream first meant she couldn’t climb everything first. She headed over to the play equipment anyway, making a beeline towards the swings, which she could kind of play on with one hand if she was careful. She spotted the other kid who was already there, an older boy with red hair and a familiar face, though she couldn’t remember the name to go with it. “Hi!” Kirra plunked herself down on the second swing and waved to him. litian I don't think you have to worry about delays with me! Sorry I'm so slow!
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Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:59 am
The ice cream van had brought other kids out, but for the most part they hadn't seemed to want to linger. Maybe it was the heat, maybe something else - whatever it was the playground remained relatively quiet and his spot by the swings empty and so Briar hadn't felt like he needed to find somewhere else to hang out or return to his tree.
Instead he had lazily licked at his ice cream cone and do the one foot thing to push the swing into slight motion every now and then, causing the chains to creak as it swayed.
A voice suddenly calling out 'Hi' to him from the vicinity of his side had therefore been something of surprise and completely interrupted his thoughts on whether to set the swing a swaying again.
He looked over towards the other swing and towards the voice almost automatically and then found himself just plain staring for a few moments in a way that would have had his Mum making comments about manners if she'd been there to see - his half-eaten ice cream momentarily forgotten - fortunately she wasn't. In his defence (at least by his way of thinking) Briar felt he had good reason - after all he hadn't really been expecting to see the kid from the New Year's Eve thing with the stupid masks again.
"Uh hi" he managed at last his voice awkward, kind of glad that she seemed to be okay given that weird stuff had happened at said New Year's Eve thing with the stupid masks - like the weird glowy woman and the creepy holes woman.LokisRose No need to apologise - your tags are always worth waiting for <3
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Posted: Tue May 26, 2015 7:19 am
The boy stared at Kirra for such a long time before saying hi, that she didn’t feel bad about staring right back. She totally knew him, but from where? There had been so many new people to meet since she’d moved to Destiny City, and she still got confused to find her old Australia-best-friends weren’t at Knightside with her. Her mum helped her talk to them a bit on the internet, but it wasn’t the same as having them here. Knightside was full of all new people, and there were so many names to learn, and new things and even new money. Her mum had told her it was okay if she got mixed up. It sucked though, when she was making friends. She was really sure she’d played with this boy before, and not all older kids liked to play with her, so he was awesome. Inspiration struck, and she juggled her icecream carefully to her other hand, holding up her free palm in the air to make a mask over different bits of his face until she was sure. The New Year mask thing! This was the New Year boy! “It is you!” she proclaimed triumphantly. “Did you find your parents okay? My cousin found me, but she wouldn’t let me come and find you again after.” litian You are very kind and I wish I didn't keep doing this to you.
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Posted: Tue May 26, 2015 9:36 pm
Briar hadn't thought much of it when the girl suddenly juggled her ice cream cone, instead taking the opportunity to take a few more licks of his own cone, enjoying the cool but somewhat melty taste of the chocolate syrup laced vanilla.
He was not expecting the girl to suddenly shove her free hand in the direction of his face, his reddish eyes staring at her in somewhat wide-eyed startlement as she did whatever it was that she was doing with her palm.
He opened his mouth to ask her, the somewhat grumpy words on the tip of his tongue... But she chose that moment to proclaim that he was him which was kind of confusing until she followed up by asking if he'd found his parents okay and he realised that it looked like she remember to.
So instead of the grumpy words he instead nodded a little awkwardly, his voice as awkward as the nod had been as he admitted "Yes I did." And then because he really was glad that she'd gotten out okay after they'd gotten separated "And I'm glad you found your cousin. Sorry I didn't help you find her like I said I would."
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 4:49 am
Kirra blew out a deep breath of relief. “Good!” she nodded, toeing at the ground to rock her swing. She was glad too. Being lost was the worst, though maybe less worse for her friend, since he was taller and would be able to find more than legs. He could probably make his swing go really high too. “No, but you helped heaps!” she reminded him. “We got away from the really scary people and the nice lady, and we didn’t even fall asleep like all everyone! So many people went to sleep, we didn’t even get to midnight, huh?” Kirra stuck out her bottom lip in a pout at that disappointment. Now she was all un-jet-lagged, it was back to ‘normal’ bedtime, and she wasn’t going to get another chance to see midnight for a very long time, like probably next year. But she couldn’t keep making the face and eating her ice cream at the same time, so she grinned at the boy and gave her cone another big lick, the kind of lick that left the tip of her nose cold with a pink ice cream dot.
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Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 4:09 am
Briar nodded as he licked at his ice cream cone "I wonder what happened to them" he said quietly, half to himself.
It had been so crazy at the New Year's Eve thing and after he had found his parents they had pretty much bundled him off home. There had been a lot of hug things too from both Mum and Dad - which had been kind of nice, although he was never ever going to admit to it out loud because it was also embarrassing.
He licked at his cone again and then looked over at the girl, in time to catch her grin at him, his lips tugging into a small smile but brief smile of his own in return as she used her toe to rock the swing she was on.
His reddish eyes glancing around for a moment and noting that no one seemed to be paying much attention to them before offering somewhat hesitantly "Want a push?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 6:48 am
Kirra tilted her head, straining to catch the softer words. Huh, she thought, what did happened to them? The sleepyheads, and the strange ladies? She hadn’t really thought about either of them. “They had pretty funny clothes, huh?” she said, mulling it over. “How did she glow?” She kicked her feet in the dust again, thinking back to that night. A lot of things had happened really fast, and it would have been really scary if she’d been on her own. She was super-lucky she’d bumped into her friend. She decided she hoped their nice lady went back to her friends and had some ice cream. Ice cream was always the right answer. And then her friend said the magic words. Kirra shifted around to look at him, to check he meant his offer for real, her large red eyes widening further with delight. With his help, she could go so high! “Yes please?” she said quickly, trying to be polite under her wave of excitement.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 10:58 am
Briar shrugged as he finished the rest of his icecream, waiting until he had crunched up the last bit of cone before slipping off the swing.
Truth be told he didn't know what had happened to the glowy lady or to the other lady - the one who had helped them...
And he didn't know what had happened to the lady with the creepy holes either because he hadn't seen any of them since that night. Not that he wanted to see the creepy holed lady again mind because the holes had been seriously creepy.
He crossed the short distance between them, not wanting to think about the creepy woman with holes where they shouldn't be, instead reaching out to snag the swing.
Acknowledged the other's agreement with a simple "M'kay" Briar walked backwards a bit, pulling the swing a little as he did so before letting go and then waited for the swing to reach backwards to where he was before giving it a small push.
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:03 am
Kirra squeaked happily, the New Year ladies quickly forgotten, and set to work slurping the top off her icecream so it couldn't drip while they played. She pursed her lips over her teeth, but the cold still stabbed through, making it hard to eat quickly. The sweet was more than worth it, though. By the time Briar hopped off his own swing, she was left with a mostly-empty cone, which she hung onto with two fingers so she could cling to the chains tightly. After all, it would be pretty embarrassing if she fell off while getting a push. The first swing wasn't that high, but it had been aaages since anyone had pushed her - her mum said she was too big. It was different when she had to push herself, like riding a bike or something. With a push, it was totally flying. She hoped the boy understood, and didn't think she was a little baby or anything. She just liked to go high. "Thank yooou!" she called over her shoulder, on the downswing.
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 2:37 pm
Briar didn't say anything as the girl held onto the chains, although he did acknowledge her voiced thank you with a small nod and mumbled "S'ok".
His second push of the swing wasn't that much bigger than the first, but the next was bigger and so was the next one after than and by the time that the girl had come down on the fourth or fifth down swing Briar had fallen into a pattern.
He wasn't sure how long he had been pushing, but at some point during it, it occurred to him that he didn't know the girl's name and it also occurred to him that he should probably ask "Hey what's your name anyway?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 5:34 am
Kirra clung to the chains as she got higher and higher, wind flicking her hair in all directions, and it didn't matter because just a little bit higher and she was sure she would be able to reach out and touch the tree branches on the other side of the playground, high above. He was a great pusher! "Huh? Ohhh! I'm Kirra!" She giggled, finally realising why she hadn't been able to dig up the name to go with the boy's familiar face. "I guess we really didn't introduce ourselves at the mask thing, huh? I thought I just forgot. I kind of met a whole bunch of people, so I knew you but I... don't know, you know?" She shrugged, half-hauling herself up on the swing ropes. "So what's yours?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:08 pm
If the girl had commented on his swing pushing abilities aloud then Briar probably would have shrugged and pointed out that pushing a swing wasn’t hard - because it wasn’t. It was pretty easy-peasy in fact.
She didn’t however, so he didn’t, just continued pushing the swing to send the swing pushing upwards as the swing came down on the downswing.
She did however also give him her name - Kirra.
“I’m Briar” he said in answer to her asking him for his in between pushing to send the swing back upwards again.
Although he was probably going to stop pushing in a bit of a while as his arms were starting to get a bit tired.
He didn’t say anything though - at least not for the moment - because he was fine to keep going for a little bit longer.
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Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 7:09 am
"Nice to meet you, Briaaar!" she called back as the next push sent her up up up again. She was having such a great time. She started to hum, and then to sing, her high voice carrying around the largely empty playground, to the rhythm of the swinging. "Briar is the bestest!
Briar's really cool!
Briar's got red hair!
...Do you go to my school?" Her rhyme trailed off into a genuine question as she tried to guess Briar's age. She didn't know any other schools around here except Knightside for kids her age. Or maybe he went to the high school? He was pretty tall. But big kids didn't usually play on swings. "What grade are you in?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:22 pm
Briar couldn't help but cringe as Kirra broke out into her little ditty. Seriously the humming had been bad enough, albeit just about tolerable - because Kirra was just a little. A real little - just a kid.
Her 'song' - if it could really be called that - was just…
Just ugh well embarrassing.
It was enough to make him regret that he’d made the offer to push her.
About the only good thing - at least to his mind - was the fact that there wasn't that many people around. Better yet was the fact that none of those who were around looked like people he knew.
It didn't make Kirra's 'song' any less embarrassing.
Kids were weird.
He was relieved when she stopped with the singing and asked about school, even if she did follow it up with a second question almost immediately after.
He had been slowing down in the pushing, in part because of feeling embarrassed over her song and in part because his arms really were feeling tired and he took the opportunity to stop as he asked "Are you going to start singing again if I tell you?"LokisRose Briar has the biggest long suffering expression on his face at the moment wink
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