Ingress' 10th Birthday Party Extravaganza!

[smallestopener]

Out by the lake, there is a large construction dedicated to the 10th birthday of Lady Ingress of the House of Arch. Ingress has had birthday parties on this site before - there was a birthday princess ball her 7th year, a playground party for her 6th.

This party is different from either of those. Tom, Door, and Ingress worked on the design for months.

There are three ways to get into the birthday party.

Guests can go through the hedge maze. It's enchanted, of course, but the walls shift places at a docile rate. The path is wide and firm, so this is the easiest way to enter the party.

Guests might also try the obstacle course of tubes to crawl through, walls to climb, ropes to swing over deep ball pits, curly slides to fling themselves down. The only enchantment on this entrance are anti-falling charms.

Or guests can bounce through the giant bouncy castle!

Once they've passed through either of the three entrances,they will enter the clearing for the birthday party proper. Picnic blankets are spread out over the grass, and there are plenty of chairs scattered about. Paper lanterns float above people's heads with purple and green streamers linking them together.

A long table overflows with plenty of cold water, birthday treats, and other refreshments. There is a cake with lots of icing roses, of course, and ice cream. Each guest may help him or herself to a Wizarding cracker in a large basket at one end of the table, and there is space beside it for gifts, should guests wish to bring one. Gifts are not expected, however.

Most importantly, there is Ingress, a little girl in the comfortable gray uniform of a Herald-in-training, who is not so little anymore.

Come and have fun!

Comments

Re: The Birthday Party Clearing

[smallestopener]

"Oh, yeah. Parties are fun. And not just for the cake. For the friends who come, too."

Re: The Birthday Party Clearing

[ellectrical]

That... does make sense. Sort of.

She's only vaguely getting the 'friends' part. But if people... like that.

So she glances down at the ice cream and says, a little uncertainly (if she's supposed to have some kind of judgment on it), "It's nice."

Re: The Birthday Party Clearing

[smallestopener]

"Good. It should be! I think Laura is going to be here. Maybe you and she could race each other through the obstacle course. There's a part where you swing on a rope over a pit of balls. Tom thought it would be funny to have snakes in the pit, but we told him they might get squished."

Re: The Birthday Party Clearing

[ellectrical]

"... yeah. Squished."

Uh-huh. That's totally what Elle would do. Yep.

"Wouldn't they try to ... bite people or something?"

It's more of a curiosity than a concern.

Re: The Birthday Party Clearing

[smallestopener]

"If they were plain old snakes, probably. But our snakes are well-mannered and polite."

Re: The Birthday Party Clearing

[ellectrical]

"Oh."

She'll just accept that. Yep.

"It's probably better like this, then."

You know. If you're not supposed to hurt the snakes.

Re: The Birthday Party Clearing

[smallestopener]

"I like the balls. You can swim in them, the pit's so deep. So yeah, you should try it."

Re: The Birthday Party Clearing

[ellectrical]

Elle smiles, but it's small, one that would be transparently dishonest to someone perhaps a little older. She looks down at her ice cream again.

"Maybe later."

Re: The Birthday Party Clearing

[smallestopener]

"Okay," she says. "Do you mind if I go to the bouncy castle? I really want to play in it as much as I can today."

Re: The Birthday Party Clearing

[ellectrical]

She pauses, with an odd sort of uncertainty.

"It's your party," she replies, as though trying out the answer.

Re: The Birthday Party Clearing

[smallestopener]

"I'll see you later! Have cake whenever you want!"

She waves at Elle as she runs off for the bouncy castle.