seas of blue [ella/nautr/nolan]

[kap]

NAUTR SHEK

Swimming has always been one of my favorite things to do, and being able to do that with a friend made it all that much more fun. That's why, that morning, Ella and I had plans to go to the beach and swim together. After that, we planned on relaxing in the sand on our towels with some sandwiches that her mom had packed for us for the day. I was really looking forward to it when I woke up. When I got out of bed that morning, I sprung right up, got dressed into my swimsuit, put a loose sundress over it as a cover up, grabbed a beach towel to bring with me and immediately headed to the beach to meet Ella there.

When I arrived at the beach, Ella waved to me from the edge of the water. She was standing there, letting the waves run over her feet, and a huge grin crossed my face. I ran through the sand over to where she was and immediately embraced her in a friendly hug when I reached her. We saw each other all the time, but we still greeted each other every single time like we hadn't been around one another for a long time. I stood there for a moment, letting the water rush over my feet, and then spoke to Ella.

"Are you ready?" I asked my good friend. She smiled widely at me and nodded. Then, we both went back into the sand a little bit so that we could get running starts.

"On the count of three," I said to Ella. "One, two, three!"

Then, we both ran as fast as we could towards the water. She managed to splash into the water just moments before I did, as she was a little bit quicker than I was. While in the water, we raced each other even more, testing out our swimming skills. Most of the time, Ella won, as I suppose she had a bit more athletic ability than I did, but that didn't matter to me all that much. She was my friend, so it didn't bother me very much to lose to her.

When we were done swimming, we made our way back onto the shore of the beach and over to where our basket of food was that Ella had brought, along with our towels. There were a few other people on the beach now, since the morning had started to progress a bit more, but that didn't bother me. I was a rather social person, so perhaps it would even be a good thing.

431 words

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ELLA STONE

Shelly may have been Ella's best friend, but she was extremely close with Nautr Shek, too. They'd known each other for years, and had a lot of the same interests, making it easy to find something to do when they wanted to hang out with one another. After their endeavors of swimming that morning, the two girls had decided that they were going to relax on the beach and have something to eat. More specifically, they were going to chow down on some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that Ella's mother had prepared for the two of them. After drying off from her time in the water, Ella laid her towel down on the sand and went over to the basket of food to retrieve two sandwiches; one for herself, and one for Nautr.

She gave one of the sandwiches to Nautr and then proceeded to sit down on her towel and start to munch on her food. There were other people on the beach, now, so a bit of people watching was naturally included with their meals. The one thing in particular that stood out to Ella while they were sitting there and observing the other people who were on the beach, however, was a man who seemed to be in complete and total awe of the ocean. It was as if he had never seen it before.

That was when Ella realized that, maybe, just maybe, this man hadn't seen the ocean before. With the Panem Permit Office having come into place rather recently, it was quite possible that the man was here from another District for business reasons. Although, Ella couldn't imagine quite what sort of business would be conducted on a beach by someone from another District. Her father had traveled to other Districts on business before, which is why she knew about the work permits that were now being offered by the Panem Permit Office. It made her curious as to whether or not this man was here on a permit or was perhaps just a District Four native that still felt a sense of awe when looking at the ocean every day as if it were the first time he'd ever seen it.

Ella finished her sandwich shortly after Nautr did, and then turned to speak to her friend.

"Does that man over there seem a little odd to you?" asked Ella to Nautr. "He seems like he's never seen the ocean before."

Nautr nodded in response.

"I want to go over and talk to him," Ella said. "Maybe he's friendly."

Ella wasn't quite sure why she decided that she wanted to talk to a stranger, but something in her mind told her that she should. Nautr reluctantly agreed with Ella, and the two walked over to the man.

"You seem to really like the ocean," were Ella's words to the man. She gave him a polite smile as she said this, while Nautr stood nearby, remaining quiet.

486 words

Artemis

[Artemis]

[presto]

Nolan O'Rourke district 2 | 52 | male | max martini Semper Fortis When his son had been a Peacekeeper, he would often return home from assignments in other districts with stories and pictures and souvenirs to share of his travels. And of course, Nolan watched the Games like everyone else; the mandatory Reapings and Hunger Games, but also the Olympics in which his boy had participated (even won a few medals). None of the yarns Brody had spun nor footage of District Four on screen could have prepared Nolan to see the sea for himself. District Two was nestled high in the mountains, surrounded on all sides by towering jagged peaks like a cradle of snow and stone; the altitude-thinned air howled in caves and tore across sheer cliff faces, carrying the scent of aspen and mineral dust from the quarries on the breeze. Here, well below his home in the clouds, even the air was different. It smelled of sand and salt, sea birds drifting in its currents and rustling the lush, tropical plants that grew seemingly everywhere. Though it wasn't visible from the train platform that Nolan and the other District Two workers offloaded onto, the ocean was a constant soothing backdrop of white noise as waves crashed on the beach and washed back out to sea again. Today wasn't the first day Nolan had gone to the shoreline to take in the view, but it was the first day off he'd gotten since arriving; which meant he was in no hurry to move from his spot sitting barefoot in the sand, watching the water as sunrise broke warm and golden over the horizon. He wished dearly he had any skill at painting to try and capture this. Apparently, Nolan's enchantment with the scenery gave him away as a non-native, as two girls that barely looked to be Reaping age approached him. "Never seen anything like it," he admitted, "Not in person, at least." [/presto]

[kap]

NAUTR SHEK

After Ella and I had finished eating our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that her mother made for us, something seemed to have caught her eye. Or, more specifically, someone. Ella wanted to go over and talk to a man that she saw, gazing in awe at the ocean, and I reluctantly agreed to go, too, as I didn't want her to do so alone. We approached the man, and Ella spoke to him, saying that he really seemed to like the ocean.

"Never seen anything like it," the man said to us, "Not in person, at least."

That was when I came to the conclusion that he must not have been from District Four. I knew that people could now travel between Districts for work-related reasons, so I assumed that that was what had brought this man to be here in District Four. A smile crossed my face when I heard what the man said. He truly seemed happy to be seeing the ocean, and the way that he spoke made me feel a little bit less reluctant to speak to him, and a little bit more comfortable being around him.

"Did you come here from another District, then?" I asked him. "You had to have come from somewhere other than Four, or you definitely would've seen the ocean before."

When I asked him this, it got me thinking. When I get older and get a job, perhaps I could travel to other Districts with a work permit, too. Travelling and seeing other parts of Panem is a dream of mine, and maybe someday it could come true. This man was really lucky, getting to travel about Panem. I was jealous, but also happy for him.

It made me wonder what kind of job I may have in the future, too. Would I get into the fishing industry like the majority of District Four's working citizens, or would I do something a bit different, like opening up a bakery? I suppose I wouldn't know until years down the road, but it made me curious about what brought this man here, too. What did he do for work, and where was he from?

358 words

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ELLA STONE

Ella wasn't all that surprised by the man's response when he'd said that he'd never seen anything like the ocean before, because, having seen how in awe he looked when he was staring at the water, it was almost completely obvious that it was something new to him. Ella was even more close to certain that this man was from another District aside from District Four, because, of course, anyone who lived in District Four would have seen the ocean before. It would be nearly impossible not to have seen the ocean if you were a District Four citizen.

Nautr had spoken up this time, and had asked exactly what Ella had been thinking. Ella had been wondering if this man was from another District, too. Before giving the man a chance to answer, however, Ella spoke up, too.

"Ooh! Are you from Three? Or Six? Or Eight? Or somewhere else, maybe?" There was an excited tone in Ella's voice as she made her guesses as to where this man was from. She wanted to know, as she was thoroughly interested in learning about where he was from. She'd love to hear about other Districts.

Ella had always been a great student in her Panem history classes, which is likely why she has so much interest in learning about other Districts and how they live their everyday lives. This was a good chance for her to do just that, too. If this man was willing to share some things with she and Nautr about his District (if he truly wasn't from Four), Ella would be extremely happy to hear it. She loved the stories that her father had told her about District Nine from when he traveled there on a work permit, and would love to hear more stories of more Districts from more people.

302 words

[Artemis]

[presto]

Nolan O'Rourke district 2 | 52 | male | max martini Semper Fortis In hindsight, Nolan probably looked terribly out of place on the beach; most people were sporting sun-tanned skin, dressed in bathing suits or breezy, summery clothes and sandals (if they wore shoes at all), armed with towels and sunglasses and umbrellas to make their day on the beach a comfortable one. Having come from the cold altitudes of Two, Nolan was sitting on top of his heavy work jacket in the sand, treaded work boots and wool socks discarded next to him, trousers and sleeves rolled up like he'd been caught off-guard by the beautiful weather. And by a couple of young girls, too. Was all of Four this personable, or was it just these two with their childlike lack of hesitation about approaching a total stranger? Neither, apparently; both of them seemed to be brimming with curiosity about where he was really from. Outside of the Games, how often did people of different districts actually get to talk to each other? ”None of the above,” he replied to the girl who had rattled off a few guesses, ”I hope you’re not disappointed, I’m from Two.” With inter-district work permits now being issued, Nolan couldn’t sign up fast enough; district lines had put a hard limit on how far he could go when he’d struck out on his own from his parents’ home at 18, but now that the borders were open, Nolan was feeling that wanderlust nagging at the back of his mind growing louder and louder. And god was he glad that this was his first taste of life outside his own district. ”We don’t have coastline there, it’s all mountains.” [/presto]