2025 Star Festival Prompt
When the Fire Works (14) : Innovation is expected in Destiny City, so seasonal commodities are always expected to sell well. This year, the hot new summer item includes some chemically enhanced logs: carefully modified with environmental and health-safe chemicals, these logs are guaranteed to burn bright, burn long, and burn beautifully. It’s not just a pretty flame: each individual log has several rings that will light up like a sparkler when the flame hits. Larger logs will even pop off small, colorful fireworks for several hours while they burn. Though the lightshow is beautiful, it’s also calm. The logs have a pleasant, earthy smell, and unlike the sounds of normal fireworks, these simply sound like a crackling fire. There’s something curiously nostalgic about these fires; they are able to elicit a sort of childlike whimsy, if only you let them. If not, it’s still pretty.
After Kit had found Jackson sitting a little bit away from the area where the Star Festival festivities were taking place, the two had talked and spent some time together before Kit had suggested they walk around some more but this time with each other. There had been a place Kit had found earlier where they had been selling a few things like heated paste floating lanterns and chemically-enhanced logs that made fire burn different colors when they were used as kindling for the flame. Kit was especially curious about this, so he had bought one and kept it with him while he kept an eye out for the perfect place to try burning it. As he looked around while they walked, he noticed someone handing out more star charms and gratefully accepted a Gold Star Charm this time, stepping aside so the person could give Jackson one if he wanted one as well.
"I don't know if you heard about them or saw," he said once they were done and had started walking again, "but there were these cool logs they were selling that were modified with safe chemicals and said to change the color of the fire when you burned them. I got one and I was thinking of trying it out." Kit paused as they neared the edge of a vacant lot; perhaps an empty construction zone of some kind, but it seemed pretty barren just then. Surely no one would have minded if they made a little fire on the outskirts of it, would they have? Especially with a log that was supposed to be enviornmentally safe to burn. "Want to see?"
He set down his bag and brought out a few things - some drawing utencils like mechanical and colored pencils, a sketch book, and the log, of course. "Unlike those fireflies from earlier, if we make a fire with the log, I think it should give us enough light to try to draw it by. Or color." Kit paused. "Oh - you prefer paints, right? Want me to run back home and get mine? Shouldn't take too long; I don't live far. Oh! Actually, I could get Ty to come and bring them since she needs to get out of the house anyway. Even if she's not done with her project, she should take a break by now."
As he spoke, the tattooed artist knelt in the dirt and took out a match he had managed to procure from the people who sold him the log. Grinning, he added, "I know I said so before, but I really think she'd love to see you again. She always used to claim that I would hog you to myself back when we'd spend a lot of time together because we had the same art class. I told her to take the class with us, but I think she was too shy. Which is funny because she didn't act too shy back home." He shrugged. "Maybe it's this city since she'd never lived anywhere besides home beofre. I think she's starting to get used to it, though. And it certainly helps having friendly faces like yours become more and more familiar to her over time. I think spending more time with you would make her more comfortable - not just with being here, but with being who she is."
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