fluxscape | End of the Long Winter.

Entry tags:

End of the Long Winter.

What: The entirety of Driftcrest and YOU! Even you new faces!
Where: The large park in the center of town.
When: From the 15th to the 18th
Warnings: Will warn as needed.

The people of Driftcrest have so much to celebrate. Their loved ones have been returned to them, and the Unseen are well and truly and genuinely gone. Not only that, but a Winter that had been going on for years is finally ended and it's well and truly Summer. Flowers are blooming, there's color in the town that wasn't there before. People are happy. They have their freedom back, and are taking full advantage of it.

Now that there's no longer a curfew, the party can go well into the night with music, dancing, food of all kinds all over the place both set on tables and in various food trucks.

With the hammocks hung up in the area, along with portable ones available to purchase, and twinkling string lights threaded through the trees, the setting is peaceful. A far cry from the stress of the last few weeks.

There's music, both live and recorded, and an outdoor dance floor has been set up under some beautiful hanging lanterns and twinkling string lights. Once the sun goes down, there'll be fires set up for people to sit by and make s'mores.

All in all, this promises to be a memorable experience.

Grab some food, buy a hammock, find somewhere to celebrate because this party will go on for a while.

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A: Heading to the party.

Thank God for this celebration. Gwen had enjoyed recovering at home, but couldn't really take being in the house another minute. It's not that it was bad there, but Gwen was getting a little tired of the same four walls, over and over. So she'd gotten dressed, made sure her hair was actually behaving and even touched up the pink dye on the ends.

And she left the house. Simple as that. The party was a good walk from home, but Gwen was feeling up to it. The closer she got to the sounds and smells, the more excited she became and of course, her first stop?

B: Time to eat.

The Food Trucks. Specifically to get a chocolate covered strawberry cupcake before she ate anything else. Life is short, eat dessert first. Later on, she's absolutely stopping at the pizza truck for a twice-baked cheese and hitting up Pressed for a mango strawberry juice. It's food. She's sixteen. She's pretty happy with life. Even an attempt to knock her food out of her hands by the school bullies Zach and Derek doesn't get much of a reaction from her. Just a swift sidestep and she disappears into the crowd within seconds.

C: Music

Later on, once she's eaten, she's going to be at the drum kit for the live music. That's her class that's playing, and she has a song or two in her. So after a quick playthrough of a couple songs her class has been working on. She's secretly grateful the last one is slowed down, because it might be tiring her out a bit.

D: Settling down.

Afterward, she can be found carrying a newly-purchased hammock and trying to find a good place to set up. She's been here for hours and is trying to find somewhere to settle. She probably should head back home to sleep, but the energy in this place is far too invigorating. People are happy. Overjoyed. It's practically contagious.

While she's setting up, she spots someone randomly hug another person passing by and while it doesn't look like the hugged knows the person hugging them, that was definitely something.

"You uh...you good?" Gwen asks the hugged when the person that did the hugging walks off. "What was that about?"

E: For Hawk. (Closed)

"I've been looking for you," Gwen says from a few feet away, smiling at Hawk. The party was honestly a lot more crowded than she'd like. It was noisy, there were a lot of scents and she was feeling a bit anxious from the sensory overload. So she sought out Hawk.

She had her hammock on her back, tucked back in it's carrying bag, and a couple cupcakes from the cupcake truck in her hands. "I didn't know which cupcake you wanted, so I grabbed a cinnamon dolce and a key lime."

Read as much as you want into that, Hawk. Or as little. Gwen certainly isn't thinking too much about it. It's just a thing she did for one of her best friends and absolutely nothing more.

Hawk almost didn't come. There were so many people and it was so noisy that it was really overwhelming for him. To be honest he wouldn't have come at all if he and Gwen didn't agree to try and meet up here. Yup, just trying to be a man of his word and not anything abnormal about his desire to hang out more with someone that he literally lived with.

So he'd rented a hammock and wandered around a bit until he bumped into her.

"Hey," he said, giving her a slightly nervous smile. "Definitely cinnamon dolce. You didn't have to do that though."

But did he like that she thought of him and got him one? Oh yeah.

She was glad to see him. The smile on her face when he looked at her was just as nervous as his own, but she was glad to be around him. Noting the hammock he was carrying, Gwen tilts her head to the one slung across her back to point it out before holding out his cupcake.

"So, I was thinking," Gwen states, glancing around for a second, just to see if her idea was still doable.

"There's a space between the dance floor and the campfires that we can set hammocks up in, if you just want to hold still for a bit. It's pretty much undisturbed. What do you think?"

"Yeah that's cool," he said. Or at least he tried to say that only with a bite of cupcake in his mouth it came out as "Mmmpphh, mah, mool."

Swallowing his bite he just gave a nod and gestured with his hair spikes to where she had pointed while he tried to not look like he had zero manners. Hawk just really wanted to express enthusiasm for getting out of the biggest crowd of people.

"Yeah I'm good with just chilling. I don't have any plans other than hanging out with you."

Admission that he was only here for her? Maybe.

Gwens not turning a bit red at that admission. You can’t prove anything. Especially with it getting dark out. It didn’t happen if no one sees it. Right?

Still, that much tugs at something in her and she really isn’t aware of the way her smile softens when he says it. And, balancing her own cupcake in one hand, she holds her hand out for his. The better to get through the crowd and stick together, and nothing at all to do with anything else.

Shut up.

Anyway, if he does take her hand, her fingers are going to lace through his as they head to the spot she pointed out. It’s quieter there. Less crowded. They can still see what’s going on without worrying too much about sound.

But it’s peaceful. Even the lighting is nice. Gwens shoulders relax a bit as she sighs some, glad for the choice in location.

“Okay, where are you putting your hammock so I know where to put mine?”

Hawk sort of stared at her hand for a moment before taking it. He tried to act like it was no big deal but like every time he touched Gwen it felt like there was kind of jolt through him, like an excited shot of electricity that made his stomach do flip-flops. But this way he wouldn't lose her in the crowd. You know, because they were both kinda short.

When they got to where they were going he was a little bummed because that meant they wouldn't hold hands anymore. They stood there for a moment holding hands semi-awkwardly for a moment before holding longer would have made it obvious they were doing it just to keep holding hands.

"So, uh, this is a good place," Hawk said after a moment before he started to set up his hammock. It wasn't too hard and after a moment he had it all set up. Easing carefully into it so he didn't fall out like some sort of idiot in front of Gwen he settled back into.

Then a moment later there was a loud "snap" and he suddenly found himself rapidly dropping a foot onto the thankfully soft ground.

"Well that sucked."

Gwen had only just set up her own hammock when she heard the one Hawk was in tear. It wasn’t loud, but it was certainly something her hearing caught. So, two bites into probably the best Key Lime Cupcake she’d ever had, that gets dropped as she reaches over to help Hawk to his feet.

“Are you okay?” she asks, far more concerned for her friend than a stupid cupcake.

“Hey, what if we share my hammock?” It’s not a bad idea.

“And I can fix your hammock when we get home. We can get the stuff we need at the craft store and figure out how to repair it.” We. She wants him along with her.

"Yeah, that's probably better than trying to shake down the guy I bought it from," Hawk admitted. It was just a cheap hammock and not worth the trouble at all really. Sensei might not agree with that but Hawk was starting to see that maybe Sensei wasn't right about everything. Plus, heck yes he wanted to get in the hammock with Gwen!

"Don't let me flip over though!" Hawk said as he moved to get into Gwen's hammock. There was absolutely no way to share a hammock with someone without being super close to them so he didn't even try to act like he was going to sit a ways away. Instead he got right next to her and slowly lowered himself down into the hammock.

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End of the Long Winter.

Gwen Stacy - OTA

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