[GP] SNOW DAY

[st_ratagem]

Thor and Loki got an early start, because there was a lot to do. Almost two weeks to the day since their first small-but-successful experiment with snow, Loki was confident that he'd improved enough for a bigger experiment. Still snow, because Thor wanted it and it did seem like a decent way to try something big-ish without causing Loki unnecessary grief with the other residents. (It was an arrival day, so there would perhaps be some grief with any new arrivals, but that was entirely acceptable.)

It was before dawn when they went out into the grounds. Thor called up clouds and loaded them with water so they hung low and heavy, covering the sky so that the sun, when it rose, wouldn't ruin the event. Loki took his frost giant shape and staff (now very familiar to his hand) and concentrated on dropping the temperature. Just around the Inn and grounds, but that was enough to be serious effort.

When the snow first started, the flakes were big and wet, and melted as soon as they hit the ground, which was still on the warm side. As they melted, they cooled the ground. After an hour or so, the flakes were smaller and more powdery - real snow, not glorified slush - and they were starting to stick to the ground.

By mid-morning, the Inn and grounds were covered with a thick layer of snow, and it continued to fall.

***

Meanwhile, indoors and inspired by the snow, Hurley and Xavin decided to try and make cookies. Cooking together was fun, since neither of them exactly knew what they were doing apart from 'follow the recipe', but since the point was 'try to make cookies' they ended up with a lot of cookies. Sugar cookies, gingerbread, all kinds.

There was no way they'd be able to eat all of them.

Instead, they loaded them onto trays and hauled them to the cafe, then brought out various frostings and candies for decorating. This had been completely intentional. Completely.

Comments

Child's Play | OTA

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie ran around delighted at the snow. When someone wanted to start a snowball fight, Annie would gladly oblige. She was in a pink hoodie that had a black Spider-Man logo at the top of the hoodie and on the sleeves. It was made in black permanent marker and it was clear the rhinestoned "M" that was once on the front was carefully taken off.

The hoodie was currently covered in snow as she giggled and threw another snowball. It went wide from its intended target and flew at someone else.

Oops!

Re: Child's Play | OTA

[st_ratagem]

Loki stopped the snowball an inch or two from his head, then sent it back in the direction from which it had come with a flick of one hand. “Try again!”

Re: Child's Play | OTA

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie caught the ball. Some of the snow exploded into her face, but she giggled. This time, she shot the snowball in the right direction and it beamed Quill in the back of the head. Annie giggled again.

Annie & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Granted, Corbie had totally cheated to make that snowball go wide (though she hadn't known she'd actually pull it off when she tried to cast that spell that fast). She was a wizard. She could do that if she liked. She grinned and fired back, though she opted not to cheat as far as the throwing went.

She grinned ever so innocently when an innocent bystander took the snowy impact instead.

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie giggled and ducked. When she stood back up, she bounded toward Corbie.

"You like throwing snowballs too?" She asked excitedly.

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie grinned and very nearly bounced like a kid herself. "Oh yeah. We almost never got snow like this when I was little. Gotta play in it while we got it."

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_ayedhidden]

"It snows like this sometimes back home," She replied. "But the snow doesn't like to stay long, so you always have to have fun when it's around."

Annie missed home suddenly. She paused and looked down at the snow. Then she recovered.

"Have you ever built a snowman?" She asked.

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie actually had to think about that, letting Annie have the dignity of pretending she hadn't seen her falter. "Probably not since I was your age. You wanna do that now?"

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_ayedhidden]

"Yes!" She said, smiling. "I want to build a snowgirl because no one eve builds those."

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie actually paused for a second and thought about that. It was true, she couldn't think of anyone ever saying they had built or were going to build a snowwoman or snowgirl. "Y'know, they don't. We should absolutely fix that."

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_ayedhidden]

Grinning, she moved to an area where an abundance of snow gathered and where no one was walking so to not be in their way.

"Let's make a big, big one!" She said. "The size of Thor!"

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie laughed as she followed the little girl. "We gonna be able to reach that high?" Thor was a foot and some taller than Corbie. But no, if she thought about it for a second, she was sure she could use magic to help move the snow if they needed that. It wasn't impossible. "Yes," she said. "Absolutely."

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie began to build the base of the snowman. She gathered snow enthusiastically.

"Do you have superheroes back home?" She asked as she built.

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie joined her, going down on her knees to pile snow up and pack it down. "Nope. Got wizards, but that's about it. Why?"

Annie & Mildmay

[st_onecoldfox]

Mildmay wasn't sure where the snowball was meant to go, but he was leaning instinctively to one side almost before he read its path. It brushed so close it left a few ice crystals on the sleeve of his ink black jacket, but didn't burst apart until it landed harmlessly in the snow behind him.

He hadn't talked to Annie before, mostly 'cause while he liked kids, he knew the scar running along the side of his face could be scary to some, but that didn't mean he didn't recognize the youngest person living here, or one of the few redheads. One of the few, but there were still more redheads here than in all of Mélusine. They stood out.

He didn't smile at the girl, 'cause the scar twisted it all up into something unnerving when he tried, so he never did, but green eyes crinkled slightly at the corners in a friendly – he hoped – kinda way. "You gotta aim for where they're gonna be, not where they are." He spoke slow, the way he always tried to with people who weren't used to how his speech slurred.

Resting Jashuki, his dog-headed cane, against his leg, he bent over enough to scoop up some snow. "Wanna see?"

Re: Annie & Mildmay

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie knew a little bit about Mildmay because Corbie spoke to her about him. He was good at telling stories, Corbie said. Corbie also mentioned how even though Mildmay might have a big scary scar, he was a nice person.

She walked over to apologize about the snowball when he offered to show her how to better her aim. Annie grinned.

"Okay!" She said.

Re: Annie & Mildmay

[st_onecoldfox]

Deft hands packed the snow into a firm ball, and Mildmay tossed it lightly in the air a couple inches and pleased when it landed back just as easy without falling to pieces. Scanning around for a likely target, he jerked his head toward Coby, the black wings standing out against the snow almost as much as the two redheads did.

"You gotta watch 'em, see? Get a feel on how they're moving." He made it kinda obvious how he was watching Coby, glancing quick like at Annie to see she was paying attention. "I ain't gonna throw where he is right now, unless he ain't moving around much at all." And Coby wasn't he was strolling kind of in the direction of the bar, munching on one of the fried cakes Emma was making. Mildmay pointed where Coby was, and then moved his arm to point to a spot a further ahead.

"Gotta allow time for the snowball to get there." He waited another breath, then let the snowball fly. It hit one of the wings with a splat and an explosion of snow in every direction. "Further away they are, further ahead you gotta aim. Now, you try it."

Re: Annie & Mildmay

[st_ayedhidden]

She listened and watched. When the snowball hit the man with wings, she giggled softly.

"Should I aim for the same person?" She asked, trying to gauge how the man took the snowball.

Annie already reached down to build the snowball in her hands.

Re: Annie & Mildmay

[st_onecoldfox]

Coby had jumped a little when Mildmay's snowball hit, snapped out his wings to shake off some of the snow – as long as he was outside, there wasn't any getting rid of it completely – and the laughed when he turned and saw the two redheads in conference over their snowballs. Nobody in their right mind would entrust Coby with the care or feeding of a kid, but he could totally play along. So he continued on his walk, ignoring any danger of snowy attack from that direction.

Besides, all the more reason to warm up with Jag and fire afterwards, right?

Mildmay nodded. "Yeah. He won't mind." And Mildmay would focus on how he was helping a kid play in the snow, and not teaching ways to throw more dangerous things.

Re: Annie & Mildmay

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie peered at Coby again. If he says it's okay, then it's probably okay

She reshaped the snowball a little as she got used to its size and weight and then aimed for where Coby seemed to be walking.

Re: Annie & Mildmay

[st_onecoldfox]

The wings, big and black against the snow, made a really good target, and an oversized shiver ran down their lengths when Annie's snowball hit.

"See? That was better. And with food in his hand, he can't exactly fight back easy." Not with snowballs. They took two hands to make 'em any good.

"Else, you wanna throw and move, all in one go. To get cover."

Re: Annie & Mildmay

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie took in the advice with a serious nod. Even if this was just snowballs, she decided it could be useful when she was a superhero one day. She looked around.

"Where would the best cover be?" She asked him.

Re: Annie & Mildmay

[st_onecoldfox]

Mildmay shook his head a short side to side. "You tell me. Look around. Think about how far you'll have to go to get to it. How much of you can hide behind it. How easy it'll be to keep an eye on your target. How easily it'll be to move out of."

There was one of those long chairs from the pool that had been dragged out by somebody. A low trench somebody'd dug in the snow. Another place where snow'd drifted into a deeper pile. All scattered around, and none of 'em too close, but none of 'em as far as the poolside bar or any of the buildings neither. All those he'd picked up in a glance even before he'd spoken to Annie in the first place, but he was hoping she never needed to look at the world the same as he did.

Re: Annie & Mildmay

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie looked around as she considered her options.

"I'm pretty fast," She said to him as she continued to scan.

She pointed to the snow trench.

"I would go there," He stated. "Because maybe they wouldn't see me if I ducked low. Because my hair against snow is really bright."

Re: Annie & Mildmay

[st_onecoldfox]

She got a nod of approval for that, although his face remained as stony and expressionless as usual. The trench was a good choice. And unlike Mildmay, she could move quickly through the snow if she was heading for it.

Then he tugged a lock of the fox-red hair hanging around his face. "I know." A beat, then he added, "When I was your age, younger even, Kee- uh, the woman who raised me, she started dying my hair. Black, like hers. Wasn't almost nobody in all of Mélusine had red hair. Folks thought you were cursed or a spy or a blood-witch or something. I had two septads and four, maybe five 'fore I stopped." And he'd had plenty of reason to regret it since, but he hadn't never gone back to doing it.