[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

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

"Uh, yeah." He nodded. "Best friend, actually. I'm Ned." He smiled, though it was a bit awkward, before trying to decide what he was going to do with two hands holding two plates. He shifted his weight from side to side as he deliberated what to do next. Should he dump a cake onto the other? Or put it down in the snow? There wasn't exactly a great place for it.

Finally, Ned decided to awkward lifted the plate with the plain funnel cake up to his mouth and wiggled the plate until a little bit of it came off the side of the plate. Then he took a bite. It was delicious.

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

A better person than Curnen might have helped the kid out with this situation, but Curnen had her hands full with enjoying her funnel cake. And nice as the gesture was, he'd kind of done this to himself and it was harmless. Wouldn't kill him. "Curnen," she offered in turn. "Good to meet you."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

Ned didn't really mind eating the way he did - sometimes he ate that way with popcorn when he had to hold onto a drink too. Usually it was other people who criticized him, so Curnen saying nothing was kind of nice.

"You know Peter?" He took another bite, but realized he wanted to say more so chewed quickly and swallowed, which was hard since he hadn't really chewed it thoroughly... it did the trick though. "I mean, you probably know him because the place is really small, but I mean like, know him, know him?"

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

"The not so itsy-bitsy spider?" Curnen smiled. That was Annie's nickname now, because of course it was. "Yeah, I know him. Not as well a some, better than others." And things had, strangely, improved since Dia de Muertos. They'd seen something of each other's scars and, while she didn't exactly see him as an adult, she knew now he wasn't such an inexperienced kid either. Grieving together, even for different people, was a bonding experience.

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

Ned added the word 'mysterious' to the various adjectives he was collecting to describe Curnen. "It's so weird that like, everyone here knows who he is. Back home, it's a really big secret. Hopefully no supervillians show up here, right?"

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

"Back home, nobody'd know I was a fairy, either." Curnen shrugged. "He ain't never been very secretive about it. It's hard to keep secrets here, about what you are. People do it, yeah, but there's only fifty, sixty folks? It's all anybody's got here. You cut yourself off, you get isolated real fast."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

Ned wasn't sure he heard Curnen correctly. Did she say she was a fairy? He couldn't help but look at Curnen's back, but of course he didn't see any wings. Maybe this was one of those things were fairies were real, but didn't look like anything the books said they did.

"I don't think I need to worry about that. I don't really have any secrets."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

Feeling a bit more settled, Curnen stood up out of her crouch about halfway through her funnel cake. "Good. You don't want any."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

"I know know... I think it'd be pretty cool to like, know the secret of life or something. Or maybe just how like the pyramids were built or something." Though as Ned said it, his mind kept thinking about it and he frowned a little. "Actually, I'm really bad at keeping secrets and I'd just want to tell everyone it so you're probably right."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

Oh, man. If ever she'd thought Peter was young and naive, this kid was so naive. It was simultaneously endearing and irritating. Curnen only smiled. "If you ain't compelled to keep it, wouldn't be much of a secret."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

"That's true." He nodded, taking another bite. The funnel cake was small enough now he could slip it onto the one that was full and he stacked the paper plates - so much easier now. "I can keep Peter's secret back home though, for the record." Ned didn't want Curnen thinking he was completely incapable of such a thing.

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

"Exactly," Curnen said, given he'd made her point for her. "It matters to keep it, you do."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

As he finished the regular one, he held out the plate with the untouched spiced one. "You want to split it? I've never actually had the spiced one before."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

"Sounds good," Curnen nodded, holding out her plate. "How're you settling in?"

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

"This place is really cool." He split the funnel cake as evenly as possible and carefully put Curnen's portion on her plate. "I mean, I miss my parents and my friends back home, but I'm happy that Peter's here. Plus there are a lot of other Avengers? I'd never actually get to meet them normally so this is sort of like a really, really long superhero convention. Of course, I wish the technology was a little more advanced, but, what can you do?"

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

Curnen snorted, accepting the funnel cake onto her plate. "Technology here's all way ahead of what I knew, so I can't really judge on that one."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

"Really?" Ned tried to picture what that would be like and he couldn't quite get passed the idea of no computer - it sounded terrible. "When are you from?"

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

"Time don't work the same for everybody," Curnen drawled as she considered whether to finish her first piece or start her second. "But for all intents and purposes, 1969."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

His eyes widened. "Really?! Wow. That's like, when my mom was born. Well in the 60s. That is so cool."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

Curnen laughed. "You callin' me old there, baby?" She didn't look even slightly offended. She was old. Compared to any human, anyway.

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

"Uh." Ned looked like a deer in headlights - sort of like how he looked when Aunt May had teasingly asked if he had called her fat. "No? I mean.. my mom's not old. She says she is, but I tell her she's not. And, you know, you look younger than my mom?"

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

Curnen tapped a finger on the end of his nose. "You're fine. If I was mad at you, you'd know."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

Ned definitely did not want to know what that meant. It was definitely intimidating.

"You sing at the bar sometimes, right?" When she wasn't crouching and looking feral, not that Ned thought much beyond that. "It's nice." He paused. "Actually, the guy that sings sometimes is nice too. There's a lot of talented people here."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

Grinning around her funnel cake, Curnen nodded. When her mouth was empty, she answered, "I do. Something to pass the time, and it's fun besides. Coby and I duet sometimes, too."

Re: Ned & Curnen

[st_guyinthechair]

"That'a pretty cool. I can't sing at all, but my uncle can. He's also really good with a ukulele." He smiled fondly.