There was, in fact, a point where you just sort of got inured to whatever Destiny City was going to do for any given holiday. Not all of them, certainly, it was quiet most of the year: but the winter holidays and Halloween always meant things came out to play that felt like they came from another story. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy -- or however the quote went, Sparrow didn't remember, but that was probably right? Not exactly zyr favorite play.
So things were disappearing -- so the heat wave was passing through and through and had long outstayed their welcomes -- whatever. People whined enough that ze needed to get out of the house more; hanging out in the general vicinity of the Wishing Tree and peoplewatching counted, regardless of what drink ze had for it. Sometimes ze needed that extra little addition of fun to make it less -- whatever-it-was. Less likely to result in zem spiraling into a murderous little internal monologue about the inherent worthless of man, which probably meant ze needed to sleep more and use groupchat vent channels less, and also read better novels.
It wasn't as if Sparrow wasn't taking advantage of the general festival... things. Of the things a festival brought. Ze'd picked up a tacky little purple star charm from one of the street vendors, a woman with a fall of cotton-candy-pink dreads and glitter-golden cuffs, who'd been one of two manning a stand of enamel pins and resin charms. The other one might've been her wife? Sparrow wasn't going to ask, that was their own damn business, and ze also - most relevantly - didn't care.
The pin had been a dripping, glittery eye, and ze'd slid it into zyr itabag and haphazardly jammed the star charm onto the strap connectors like it was a keyring, where it was doing its thing (absolutely nothing). Add a can of cider and a few hours to that, and the desire to misanthrope at anything that came zyr way had been smothered enough that ze felt like a normal human being, who was entirely capable of sitting on a bench in town square, peoplewatching, and not making any out loud comments about it.
Maybe taking a few photos of people would be fine. Even for the heat wave, some of these getups were... obscene might be a cruel world? And inapplicable, besides. But some of these outfits were just ridiculous. Undoubtedly some of them were Senshi, benefiting from that powered temperature endurance; undoubtedly some of them were Knights - ze spotted someone who was definitely a Negaverse Senshi, once, and didn't make eye contact, because that was none of zyr goddamn business. Ze was just here to peoplewatch at the Wishing Tree, stay out of Powered trouble, and drink zyr cider.
Some people wrote their wishes as if they wanted the pen to burn straight through the paper. Some of them wrote so daintily their wishes might just float away. And some of them --
Sparrow wasn't any of them. Ze didn't have any of those so-called non-selfish wishes, not any that ze'd want to reveal to the world at large. ******** 'em all, really.
Ah. The misanthropy was climbing back up zyr spine and twining tendrils through zyr lungs. And that -- that was the cue to call it quits, call an Uber, and go home and sleep it off.
Quote:
The Wishing Tree (1): A Destiny City Star Festival Tradition to be held every year; In Town Square, there is a beautiful tree with spreading branches. It is tall, but the lowest branches are easily reached. The city has decorated the tree with small, starlike ornaments and glistening lights. Thick leaves and beautiful purple flowers dangle from the branches, along with a myriad of different colored papers with handwritten wishes. Next to the tree is a stack of blank paper with twine attached, and a handwritten sign that explains:
Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.
The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”
Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.
The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”
