st_ratagem: (frost giant)
st_ratagem ([personal profile] st_ratagem) wrote in [community profile] strangetrip2018-12-15 06:39 am

[GP] SNOW DAY

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.
st_arkcrowblack: (Default)

Re: Brad & Snow

[personal profile] st_arkcrowblack 2018-12-29 07:01 am (UTC)(link)

Learning to shoot was one of Snow's actually unambiguously positive memories of her father. Sure, he'd also put the gems in Rose Red every times she'd pleased him somehow--and she still didn't understand that system--but she'd never actually cared about the pearls or the black opal. At first the opal had even pissed her off, because it had changed the weight of her gun. But when he'd taught her to shoot, when for once she had his attention, not his remembering her mother, or his wishing she'd been a little white girl, or his empty gifts. She couldn't imagine having something taint that.

But she couldn't quite put this scene Brad was describing together. "... Was he using you as target practice?"

st_randedinwinter: (Default)

Re: Brad & Snow

[personal profile] st_randedinwinter 2018-12-29 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)

"No," He answered. "But he pressured my brother into shooting a rabbit."

It was hard to explain how his dad bullied them. His dad had made him shoot the rifle without and preparation and it had recoiled hard into his chest which bruised him.

"But then my dad got drunk and couldn't drive home." He said. "So he let me drive, which I thought was cool. Except Caleb was being annoying and I stopped paying attention and we got stuck in the snow."

His eyes drifted to the hot chocolate again.

"That night we accidentally let it slip we were moving to London, across the ocean," He explained. "And I think that's really what triggered my dad to go crazy, or whatever it is he did. He said we were all he had left."

st_arkcrowblack: (Default)

Re: Brad & Snow

[personal profile] st_arkcrowblack 2018-12-30 01:50 am (UTC)(link)

"And then you had to run," Snow murmured.

st_randedinwinter: (Default)

Re: Brad & Snow

[personal profile] st_randedinwinter 2018-12-30 02:05 am (UTC)(link)

"We should have," He said with a bitter laugh. "But he's our dad, right? We were stuck in the wilderness and he'd look after us?"

He glanced up. He knew what the answer should have been, but he also knew what really happened."

"So we went looking for shelter, which is when the lake happened. And to my dad's credit, he pulled me out." He said. "And we found this cabin. Got a fire started. I almost thought we'd go home, you know? Like, it was a crappy weekend, but it was over and whatever. But then these two hunters showed up who were also stuck and then..."

Brad took a deep breath.

"Well... long story short, my dad killed them and locked us in a room. I ended up setting the cabin on fire and we ran for the pick up truck" He said. "We were driving away when I ended up here, so I just have to keep telling myself everyone's right about what happens when you leave otherwise Caleb's all along and I don't think I could handle that well."

st_arkcrowblack: (Default)

Re: Brad & Snow

[personal profile] st_arkcrowblack 2018-12-30 03:04 am (UTC)(link)

Say what you would about Snow's parents, they had not been mad. Though that perhaps made what they'd done to her all the worse. And they had never tried to kill her. At least not directly. She'd come awful close a few times.

Snow's voice fluttered and failed, until finally she managed, "You didn't choose to leave him behind."

st_randedinwinter: (Default)

Re: Brad & Snow

[personal profile] st_randedinwinter 2018-12-30 03:17 am (UTC)(link)

"Yeah..." He agreed. "And Caleb would probably find all this really cool."

He thought about his brother. The faintest of smiles appeared.

"Sometimes I wonder why he wasn't taken here instead," He said. "Like I'm wasting something he'd be all over."

st_arkcrowblack: (Default)

Re: Brad & Snow

[personal profile] st_arkcrowblack 2018-12-30 03:51 am (UTC)(link)

Snow shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe he'd just be where you are, worrying about you." There was no way to know, really.

st_randedinwinter: (Default)

Re: Brad & Snow

[personal profile] st_randedinwinter 2019-01-01 02:01 am (UTC)(link)

He nodded in agreement, then fell silent. He drank some of the hot chocolate as she stood there in Snow's company. He looked out at the snow and people having fun.

"I think I'll go back inside," He said finally. "But, thank you."

He lifted up the hot chocolate.

st_arkcrowblack: (Default)

Re: Brad & Snow

[personal profile] st_arkcrowblack 2019-01-01 02:59 am (UTC)(link)

Snow nodded. "It'll be gone tomorrow. For better or for worse."

st_randedinwinter: (Default)

Re: Brad & Snow

[personal profile] st_randedinwinter 2019-01-08 03:22 am (UTC)(link)

"Yeah," He said with a faint smile.

Brad turned and went back into the warmth of the building.