The Park; During the Assembly. Wednesday [09/23].

[white_oleander]

Elli and Astrid (and whoever else would like to join them!) had decided that they would take on cleaning up and decorating the park in particular, which may have seemed like a big tasks, but they already had plenty of ideas, and had found the means to put them into action, from ribbons and streamers around the trees and intertwined in the chains on the swingset, to painting the playground equipment and the benches bright and exciting, inviting colors, to lanterns on the base of the trees and paper ones to hang in some of the branches.

There was a lot of potential for decorating the park, but these two had more than enough ideas to really get it done, and Astrid, taking charge for a change as one of the apparent denoted Style Gurus for this particular project, just mostly hoped the ducks and flamingos would appreciate the efforts.

[[ open park is open, of course, for decorating or otherwise! ]]

Comments

[snowdroplace]

"Pink for the next one, do you think?" Elli asked, looking up from where she was painting a bench bright, cheery yellow.

[white_oleander]

"I think pink would be good," Astrid agreed with a sage-like, Style-Guru nod. "I think I'd like to do at least one with some orange stripes, too."

[snowdroplace]

"Maybe combine them both?" Elli suggested. "Pink and orange stripes? Oh—I could add black stripes to this one! It would look like a bumblebee then."

If a bumblebee was shaped like a bench, sure.

[white_oleander]

"If there's going to be a bumblebee bench," Astrid laughed, reconsidering her orange stripes now, "then there's got to be a red and black-spotted ladybug bench, too! We can make all the benches bumblebees and ladybugs."

And maybe some other insects or bugs, although those were easily the only two that struck her as fairly distinctive at the moment.

[snowdroplace]

…

"I think that, now that you've suggested it, that that's the only way we can do the benches," Elli said, beaming over at Astrid. "Bumblebees and ladybugs will look really sweet with all the other decorations."

[white_oleander]

"It's a little more spring than fall," Astrid had to admit, beaming back until it dissolved into a sort of shy, almost embarrassed laugh, turning away so she could focus on just getting the red paint for the next bench, "but I'm not going to complain, the more I think about it, the more I love it."

It would actually be kind of sad when the weekend was over and it went back to normal with those...

[sparkinyou]

"Looks good, Elli," Miles said from where he was working on his mural. "I like the color choices."

[snowdroplace]

"Thank you," she said, a bit abashed. "I can't do anything like what you're doing but at least painting a bench a few colours is easy enough for me to do!"

[sparkinyou]

"Yeah, well, this kind of thing takes a lot of practice," Miles said trying to sound modest. "My uncle taught me a lot when he saw some of my drawings. Kind of pissed off my dad though."

[snowdroplace]

"But why?" Elli asked curiously, working on a black stripe now. "Your art looks so good--it can't be called vandalism when it improves the area!"

[sparkinyou]

"Yeah. Well, my dad is a cop," he said, shrugging a bit. "He doesn't approve of it at all. I've had to toe the line to be the 'good' kid while everyone else got to have more fun than me. I had to set an example."

[sparkinyou]

Meanwhile Miles had found a suitable wall in the park to try out the spray paint that was provided.

Using the school castle-like structure, Miles began to paint a stylized version of it. Without the birthday message on it

[white_oleander]

"You're really good with landscapes and buildings," Astrid noted, when she came over to see what Miles was working on, after sliding down one of the playground slides after hanging a few colorful blue-and-gold banners from the top.

[sparkinyou]

"Thanks!" Miles said putting a bit of a flourish on one of the spires. "I usually go for that. My dad doesn't really approve of me tagging walls with the standard street art."

Actually he didn't approve of any of it.

"So I try and be a little different. Plus it's just a nice backdrop and more school oriented. I don't think most parents would appreciate the standard street art from Bushwick."

[white_oleander]

"You're probably right there," Astrid agreed, just watching Miles and how he worked for a moment, always interested in other artists and their styles, especially when it was a medium that she herself wasn't as familiar with (unless you counted her own bedroom wall, which she didn't, not really, at least not in the spirit of what Miles was working on here and apparently back home). "Good idea to keep it a little more 'family-friendly.'"

She almost asked if his dad was coming for the weekend, but that opened things up to the question turned back on her. So she didn't usually ask questions about parents weekend if she could help it.

"Good to see you finally got to skip an essay in science class this week," she said, instead, and she might have said that during science class, but she was a little caught up then.

[sparkinyou]

"Well, swimming and fish was something that I can get a grasp on," Miles said with a chuckle. "Don't get me wrong, I get why people like to change form and all of that. It's amazing but I'm just a kid from Brooklyn and the strangest thing I've ever seen is a guy crawling up the side of a building."

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Hmm," Sabine said thoughtfully, shaking a can of pink spray paint.

She'd have used her own if she didn't think someone not her wouldn't get in trouble when it didn't disappear.

[sparkinyou]

"Hey Sabine," Miles said from over where he was working. "Kind of nice to put up whatever you want wherever you want, right?"

Or at least that's how Miles felt."

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Oh, I do that anyway," Sabine said easily. "Nice job there."

[sparkinyou]

"Thanks!" Miles said, feeling pleased with himself. He tried to flip the can of paint into the air but almost dropped it. "Back home I had to do this kind of thing when other people weren't looking."

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Well yeah. But that's half the fun," she said.

[white_oleander]

"So," said Astrid, giving Sabine and that thoughtful shake of that spraycan a faint grin and glad that she wound up in the park, too, "what are you thinking?"

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Flamingoes on tree trunks," she said. "At least to start."

[white_oleander]

"Do you think that'll confuse the actual flamingos?" asked Astrid, despite clear approval of this plan in her grin.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Dunno. But it's temporary."

Did that help?