savetheearth | Labor Day Barnyard Party

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Labor Day Barnyard Party

Who: Cinderella, Arthur, and whoever wants to party with a talking horse and a guy that loves sea life.
What: THE PARTY OF THE CENTURY
Where: Cinderella’s farm.
When: The afternoon of Saturday, August 31.
Warnings: Talking horses and Arthur being Arthur. Potentially misbehaving guests. Arthur operating a grill.

Really, Arthur is pretty pleased with the way things had turned out. It took a bit of doing to get the grill and all the other things he needed for the party over to Cinderella’s place without being seen, but he thinks everything’s turned out nicely. The barnyard is rather festively decorated with balloons and streamers, and it looks as though there will be tables of food, games to play, and music to listen to.

So why not swing on by? All the water is bottled water, and it's at least a place in which the people of the Network can relax and be themselves.

((OOC: Subthreads are all up, and the party is open for business, GO GO GO.))

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[Wet people look weird in the sun, Julien decides. It's a similar effect, in a sense, to sweat-soaked people in the sun, but less colorful. Also, people rarely sweat so much that they soak their hair.]

[He comes and flops down on a nearby bale of hay.]

Looks like that was a great battle. [And not one he'd gone near.]

Hey. [ A small, hapless grin tugs around the straw in his mouth. ] I definitely learned my lesson by not having backup.

[ TO BE FAIR HE DIDN'T KNOW ALEX WAS GETTING A PLAYER 2 WHEN HE STARTED IT. ]

It seemed a waste to not use all those balloons though!

'Hey', surrounded by dry grass stuff... man, I should make a joke, but I went blank. [It would have been a stupid joke anyway. Not that that would have stopped him from making it.]

Oh, for sure, for sure. Not like you could take them home or stockpile them for some future engagement... Think it would've gone different if you had a Super Soaker?

[ THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN PRETTY BAD EVEN FOR HIM. ]

Probably not. [ He laughs, pinching the collar of his t-shirt. ] I'd still be just as soaked. Plus, you have to call a truce to reload!

[ And no he would not trust Alex or Vanessa to honor it one bit. ]

Right, right! Or it'd jam... hah, I remember squirt gun fights. They never went as planned. Which I guess is the point.

It's a shame the summer's about over.

Or the water pressure would mess up, right? [ And boy does he remember getting mercilessly attacked when that happened. Super Soakers brought out the ruthless warrior in people, he swears. ] And you'd be a sitting duck.

[ Idly, he places his empty juice packet next to him and pulls one leg up onto the bale. ]

But yeah, I feel the same way. Summer's always been my favorite season.

Helpless! But if you were the one with the hose, man, you were a god. A god on a leash of however long that hose was, constantly sniped and bombed, in danger of being cut off by some clever kid going for the valve, mind, but still, that's power. [He says it quite solemnly.]

I like them all really, they've all got charm. Still, summer's the one where the most people are free.

That's way too much responsibility! But you know, if you could hold out long enough, eventually you'd have to get the upper hand. Or decide if you were benevolent enough to refill the tanks and stuff.

[ Which he pretty much would, ironically. ]

I don't like being cold at all. [ Sniffing, he scrubs through his bangs some in an effort to tame them. It doesn't help. ] But there's something about the longer days, I think.

Heh, I suppose. Otherwise they're stuck at sinks, right? Poor mortals. ...ah, I hope everyone managed not to drink any of this.

[Julien pokes at his own pockets for a moment, and then smooths the material over them as he sees that nope, he didn't bring a comb.] Mmm. Me, I don't like being too hot. But swimming's nice, and yeah longer days.

[ Straightening out, face bunching up into a look, Banagher takes a sweeping glance around the barnyard. ] Nobody's gotten a case of the giggles yet, so... I think we're safe. Besides, if anyone was going to, I'm sure it would've been me.

[ With how many water balloons Vanessa and Alex smashed him in the face with. With his back settling into its natural curve again, he hums. ]

It's nice to get the impression that there's more time with all the daylight, even if it's just an impression. Do you like the ocean or pools better?

Hmm. Right... I know Cinderella's trough was laced earlier in the month. [Julien tilts his head as his pupils dilate large and dark, trying to gauge if the water dripping off Banagher has any of that subtle color. It's hard with small amounts like this. After a moment he blinks his inner eyelids and his pupils snap back to being small.] This... is either okay, or you just didn't swallow enough for it to take effect.

They can both be pretty great, I guess it depends. You can get more horseplay on in a pool, but there's something about the sea... of course, it's always cold here, the ocean. Not like in Florida where you're at the gulf.

[ Banagher regards the scrutiny curiously for a moment. Seeing Julien in person didn't happen too often, so the second pair of eyelids catch him unaware in the seconds before they disappear again. ]

That's right, you can sort of see it, can't you? [ His gaze flickers down to his shirt. ] I wonder if that means it's turning back to normal.

[ He hopes so. ]

And, well — there's something kind of vast about the ocean that I like.

It's clearest in a glass or something sitting in the sun - just a tint really, hard to pick up on. The fluoride's more obvious. [Julien shrugs, half smiling.] Maybe. Could be just that today more of the water's from another source, or something.

Yeah. It's cold, but once you get used to it... It's not really like anything else. I mean, I like... lakes, streams, those things for swimming in, but it's a different thing. [He gestures in a vague, fluttering way.] Even out west a ways - I've been in Lake Michigan, years back. It's huge! But not the same.

[ Banagher nods in response to the bit about the water, seemingly comforted by that. They were pretty far out from the main water lines, weren't they? ]

You're right, it's not. Maybe it's something about the motion? Like the waves. Or do lakes do that too? I've never been to one as big as Lake Michigan, but you can't even see all the way across it, right?

Oh, man, we lived like five minutes from the shore... [As Julien reminisces the extra eyelids show slightly in the inner corners of his eyes, tinting his sclera to a tea color.] I was such a stupid kid, but at least I had enough taste to go to the lake a lot when we were there.

[He shakes off the memory, retracts the eyelids, looks at Banagher.] The far shore's like a hundred miles off, so you can see it, it's just... far. And you do get waves, and surfers even. Just not usually as many of either, and no tides. [Actually there are tides in the Great Lakes, but they're a matter of like two inches, so he doesn't know.]

I think it just seemed... I don't know, milder. Sweeter, compared to the ocean. [He snorts] I mean it is literally, fresh water, but like... You've got your shipwrecks in some of the lakes, you know, they can kill you. But it's definitely not as big or mysterious.

I've lived in the city since before I could remember. But my aunt and uncle have a cabin upstate in the woods. I used to visit it a lot when I was younger, during the summer and stuff. There was um, an oak tree! A really tall one, with these crazy branches.

[ Banagher flattens his palm and extends his arm up in demonstration, rocking back on the hay bale some. ]

Because it was right up next to the lake, you could jump off the branches and land right in it. I fell off once though.

[ He laughs. ]

Sprained my ankle and everything. [ Couldn't play soccer or basketball for a couple of months. ] Still, you're right about it. Even then, it's peaceful, being contained like that. Something like the ocean seems really powerful, when you think about it. All the tides, and gravity.

Hah, ouch! [He shakes his head]

Not to mention sharks.

[Tipping his head back, Julien regards the stars for a moment, showing through the boiling colors of the day sky.]

And how deep it is and so on. They say we know more about the surface of the moon than the bottom of the ocean.

[ Banagher follows his line of sight. Nothing greets him but the dizzying blue color of the afternoon, soaked in sunlight. ]

The pressure's too much, even at our limit. Though space isn't so kind, either.

[Julien's voice is controlled and thoughtful, his expression a little sad.] Yeah. It feels like you can get closer to the bottom of the ocean, but it's not like we're not in space now, technically.

[Abruptly he smiles and fakes a laugh, sudden and very genuine-sounding.] And here I go all philosophical.

Kind of like we're at the edge of something in both senses. We're there, but not really there, you know?

[ Banagher doesn't take the time to try and dissect the layers of sound; he's never been good at things like that anyway. A laugh was a laugh. ]

It's hard not to be, when there's so much to think about.

Right. And when we're here, and can remember all this, and have the leisure to think about it... Which really we can't take for granted anymore.

[Drawing his knee to his chest, Julien undoes and reties his black and white sneakers. It needed to be done, but it's a covering maneuver, too; while here and surrounded by people he's trying to be positive, untouched by the funk he's been in all week.]

[ Something about the motion makes him sense it more than see it. But he says nothing, because it probably wasn't for him to notice, anyway. ]

There's a lot that's like that now, I know.

[He gets both of them done, though only one shoe really needed it, and straightens, flexing his back, making a little sound in his chest, and he's safely on a pretty even keel.]

Really, it was always like that. You never know if you'll have a family emergency or someone's hit by a bus, or something. But we try not to think too much about those things.

Which makes sense. Some things you can't prepare for, and if you worry too much about those things, well... it doesn't help. So, really, balance. Get things in while you can, make the most of the time you have, but don't fret to pieces about it.

[ He listens, and can't help but think there's a sad ring to it. It doesn't fully grasp him, though. ]

Possibility is so double-edged that way.

Yeah. And here I go from complaining that I'm philosophizing to doing more of it! I guess it's just that kind of day.

[He gets both feet flat on the ground, idly whisking off a bit of straw stuck to his knee]

I'm going to go find something to nibble on. Want anything?

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