Castletopia: A Castle For You! For You? For You!!! | Saturday - EXTRA-SESSION

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina had, like, no idea how many people would bother to show or whatever, given that she really hadn't planned ahead or anything but it would be on radio and she'd have Dad and her brother at least (and likely Iggy and possibly some Troopers, too, if Dad actually did make them come work) and that was pretty great too.

So, like, bright and early and all the way into about mid-afternoon, there was going to be a lot of bustling (even if a lot of that bustling was magic-fueled, by her, cheating outrageously) to kind of, like, get in an extra session of castle building before Monday, which was technically the due date for their castle and she'd…

Kind of been busy this semester? So it had fallen by the wayside which was, like, tragic and she kind of hated that she'd been so unreliable but real life was rude when she was spying in a different universe it was kind of hard to build a castle in this one. Even for her.

Nina had her tents set up, with snacks and drinks (including Ebony, specially there for Ignis) and she had spent some time even earlier in the morning inspecting what they'd need to do and setting it up. The walls and roof were completed—thank goodness—but they still needed to get the windows in and lay down the floors and install the doors and…

Well, like, there was a lot to do!

Nina sent a text out for people to come build a castle if they so wished to spend a few hours of their Saturday doing something literally constructive and then, after finishing a cup of tea, she bounced to her feet and got to work on one of the windows.

[As per the post this is an informal castle-building session that's open to everyone on the island should they wish to have gotten the text/stumble upon it.]

Comments

[sith_happened]

Anakin had come and had dragged both of his kids along! They needed to get out of the house.

"Nina!" he called out, waving.

[bookbeltof_love]

"Bus Deaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she said, beaming and waving back. "Christopher and Juliet too!!!!!!!!!!! Here to help out?????????????"

[sith_happened]

"Well, they miss living in a castle," Anakin teased.

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina laughed.

"They they can join me in this one!!!!!!!!!!!"

Which, like, even though it was a bit bigger on the inside than it looked out the outside was nowhere near the school's size even if you had an imagination like Nina's.

"I've got drinks and snacks, too, for if anyone needs anything!!!!!!!!!!!"

[sith_happened]

"Snacks!" Christopher cheered.

Anakin grinned. "Just point them in a direction where you don't mind something going not exactly according to plan."

[firstofitskind]

Liam was, as promised, there nice and early, along with Ralph and Hugo.

The rest of the Troopers had made noises about not wanting to leave Diego to do all the work by himself at the Trooper Station, what if it got busy?

[bookbeltof_love]

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And yeah, Liam was getting a hug flung his way, so: incoming daughter, Liam!

"And you two are now my favourite troopers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she added.

[firstofitskind]

Oh no, a Nina hug. It’s not like those were one of his favorite things or anything...

“Morning, kiddo,” he greeted her, squeezing back.

Nina hugs had also been in short supply for a while, so they had to make up for that time!

Ralph and Hugo managed to give Nina identical ‘aw shucks’ looks at the compliment. Yes, you could tell as much even through the helmets.

[bookbeltof_love]

"Good morning, Dad!!!!!!!!!!" she chirped, giving him another squeeze and then letting go. "And, like, also??????? Thank you!!!!!!! Don't think I didn't notice extra work having been done on the castle and I'm pretty sure that was you!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Or Wayne. It might've been Wayne.

In fact, it might've been both of them.

[firstofitskind]

The two of them coming by the site at around the same time only to spot each other and do one of those bro-nods in acknowledgment before getting to work in companionable silence was absolutely a thing that could have happened. Maybe.

“You’re welcome,” he acknowledged. “So... what’s left?” not that he didn’t already kind of know, because see above re working on this while she’d been gone, but Queen Nina was back in action here!

[bookbeltof_love]

"First things first is flooring and windows!!!!!!!!!!" she said, with a determined little nod. "I was thinking of leaving the doors until last because we'll be in and out of the building a lot, you know?????????"

[firstofitskind]

“Makes sense,” Liam agreed, already heading for the pile of flooring materials.

“You coming to Annie’s goodbye party tonight?” he asked. He suspected the party would be mostly, if not all, adults, but Nina and Annie were friends despite the age difference, so he figured she wouldn’t let that stop her. It never had before, after all.

[bookbeltof_love]

"You bet!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she chirped, pausing to give directions to the two troopers, then bouncing after her dad. "I've even got a dress for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Age was just a number anyway!

[firstofitskind]

No one knew that better than the guy who'd be turning all of nine in two months, really.

"I'm thinking I might have to break out something in an actual color," he mused.

[bookbeltof_love]

"Are you going to match the theme???????????" she wondered, giggling.

[firstofitskind]

"I kind of match the theme just by existing," Liam pointed out, amused. "But a nice dark blue, maybe? I guess that's sort of space-ish?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"Dark blue would look good," she agreed, with a little nod. "Though it's too bad you wouldn't have anything just a little sparkly.........."

Nina pondered that.

"Cuff links???????"

[firstofitskind]

Sparkly was really more Verity's territory than his own, to be honest.

"I don't have any that are particularly sparkly," Liam admitted. "But if you manage to find some by tonight, I'll wear 'em." Which was opening himself up to potential ridiculousness if she agreed, but ugly Christmas sweater aside, he trusted Nina to not go too gaudy.

[bookbeltof_love]

And, really, cufflinks were small enough that unless they were just solid diamond they'd be hard to go too gaudy.

She beamed at him.

"I'll bring them to the party!!!!!!!!!!!!" she decided, despite not having anything in mind yet but trusting her own skills at finding things.

[firstofitskind]

There were probably novelty ones with little flashing LEDs out there!

Don't subject your Dad to that, Nina. Please.

"Excellent," he beamed at her.

[bookbeltof_love]

She'd only do that for Halloween or if they matched the ugly Christmas sweater!

Both of which were exceptions to the rule!

She beamed back. "Do you want to help me get this corner section of the floor laid down??????? The measurements are a trickier once we reach the walls!!!!!!!!!!!"

[firstofitskind]

"You bet," he agreed. "You done this sort of thing before, or did you just do your research?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"Mostly, like, just did my research?????????" she said thoughtfully, moving some of the flooring carefully. "I've helped toss up refugee shelters before and can make tents like a champion and can rig up a shelter in the woods with nothing but myself and a knife to work with?????????? But I've never done something so......... complete????????"

[firstofitskind]

Liam nodded. "I've helped set up- and tear down- Resistance bases. But that's usually just moving stuff into existing structures. For a start-to-finish from scratch project, you did real good," he told her proudly.

[ooc: it was very rude of my email to bury this notif yesterday.]

[that_oldsaying]

"Ah!"

Alluka clapped her hands together delightedly.

"It really is a castle we're building!"

[bookbeltof_love]

"It sure is!!!!!!!!!!" Nina laughed, waving to the other girl. "You want to help??????????"

[that_oldsaying]

"Yes!" Alluka said eagerly. "If, if it's okay?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"Of course it's okay!!!!!!!!!!!"

Honestly, why wouldn't it? Many hands made light work!

"How about you help lay the floors down??????????" she suggested. "There's instructions and, like, I bet Ralph or Hugo would be willing to help you if you're not quite sure what to do!!!!!!!!!!! They were working on the kitchen floor last I saw them!!!!!!!!!!!"

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto was not exactly in love with the whole 'bright and early' aspects of this, but it wasn't like didn't deal with that daily back home, and, besides, this was for Nina. So he was there, yawning a little, getting in some.good stretches, and side-eyeing Ignis and his Ebony, because how could that guy even drink that stuff?

[bookbeltof_love]

Hey, at least Nina didn't drink it. Imagine her on it!

"Prooooooooooomptoooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she greeted. "Welcome to the castle!!!!!!!!!!!"

The castle that was much smaller than the other one on the island!

[chef_chocobro]

Ignis was there with the cup of coffee he'd brewed that morning. He'd finish with that before moving on to the Ebony and the task at hand, curiously inspecting the whole thing to start making sense of it.

[bookbeltof_love]

"Iggy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" How about some enthusiasm thrown your way, Ignis? "Bet you've never seen a castle being built before!!!!!!!!!"

[x_discospider_x]

Troy still wasn't quite sure what to make.of this whole castle thing, but Nina said he should be there, and there's be peasants to do most of the hard work, and also magic? So no matter what ended up happening, he was pretty down for it, as he showed up, looked around, and waited until someone told him what to do or something.

[bookbeltof_love]

"I bring you a crown!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she crowed upon seeing him, probably the happiest she'd ever been to see Troy as she bounced on over to present to him a paper crown.

[howareyanow]

If anyone was thinking Wayne would have missed out on this, especially when he had definitely been very active in all the proceeds thus far, really!, well, then, you better think again, there, buddy!

Besides, not only did he jus' like having something to do around here, but it seemed a particularleh nice thing to so now that it was settling in that he'd be graduating un jus' a couple weeks now.

It almost felt like he could help leave a little something of himself here...

[bookbeltof_love]

"Hi Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayneeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!" she called, waving at him. "How are you????????????"

It was TRADITION.