| Cole |
| Hoyt |
 |
 |
| Mabel |
| Mike |
| Paul |
| Zaynab |
| Let It Snow | |
|---|---|
| Participants | Cole, Hoyt, Julian, Lorna, Mabel (played by Brooklyn), Mike (played by Hotwire), Paul, Zaynab |
| Synopsis | A snowball fight on the school grounds erupts in shenanigans when a couple of cheaters decide to let loose the havoc. |
| Location | Xavier School |
| Time | January 23, 2016 |
| Posted By | Lorna |
There was a fresh snowfall around the mansion the previous night, leaving everything pure and glistening. Whether this was convenient for the day's planned activities or too convenient… well, no one's talking. But there has been a make-shift poster stuck in the front hall proclaiming "NO POWERS FOR SNOWBALL FIGHT" incase anyone's forgotten the classroom gossip.
Outside are the three boys and one girl whose idea this was, and they look pretty well-prepared. Paul, the tallest, is working on pushing the heavy snow into a sort of lumpy wall to protect him and his buddy from projectiles. Meanwhile, Hoyt, Zaynab, and Cole loiter about to wait for whoever shows up. Cole, blond and pint-sized, eyes the set-up. "I don't know… I still think we could just make snowmen instead."
Zaynab, tucking her dark hair into a ponytail, nudges him with an elbow. "Don't wuss out now."
Lorna's been looking forward to this all day, especially since she invited Julian. Ever since she was made to read that book as punishment and take a makeup exam for it, she's been itching to take her frustrations out on someone and he's usually a willing target to female abuse. Unlike Cole, Zaynab, and Hoyt, she is on one side of the mansion building up her fortress of DOOM against the side wall of the house. She's been working on it for the better part of four hours and it's nearing completion. Soon the only task left will be the arsenal of snowballs.
Julian comes sauntering out of the school oblivious to Lorna's nefarious plans for him, pulling on a pair of leather gloves, dark sunglasses covering his eyes. He might think a snowball fight sounds a bit lame, but that doesn't mean he isn't going to bring it, since he's going to the trouble of showing up and all. Dropping the glasses to the bridge of his nose, he gives their snow barrier a critical look before shrugging his shoulders. After taking the opportunity to suss out their offences and defences, he finally gives his head a nod in greeting. "Hey." With that, he moves out a bit to stake himself some land, pushing the glasses back up to protect his eyes against the glare of the snow - as well as any snow that might be flying about shortly.
Mike was dressed up warmly for the weather. He never really liked the cold and wet. But it sounded like fun. That and this was a kinda of practice that will help him control his power. Forcing him NOT to use it. Easy, right? NOT.
Off to one side of the mansion's courtyard, a little mousey looking girl sits bundled up on a wooden bench. Half of it's been cleared of the fresh snow so she has a place to sit without snow melting and getting her butt wet. Maybe stupidly, she's even brought a schoolbook out to read, before, during, or after the big fight. Even if she wasn't going to participate, it would at least be good fun for Mabel to watch! Well, assuming she doesn't get wrecked in the crossfire that is! She figures she's far enough out of the way that she'll be clear, but then, the 14 year old mind doesn't always think super clearly about all the consequences. Even so, Mabel's bundled up tight…long coat, hat, scarf, gloves, boots, the whole shebang, looking about ready to take a trip to the South Pole.
That dedicated construction Lorna's been building has been eyed a few times already. It's possibly what spurred Paul to make his a little bit bigger. The other kids making their way out doesn't go unnoticed, either. Hoyt and Zaynab square off deliberately in Julian's direction when he comes out. They do their best to look completely intimidating when their fort is examined, but Zaynab sticking her tongue out at the sunglasses-wearing boy probably does nothing to boost that factor.
It's Hoyt who gestures Mike to come closer. "Hey, buddy. Better be ready or not," he challenges, pointing two fingers at the other boy.
Meanwhile, Cole uses the distraction of the others moving in to wander a bit farther away from the more obvious Danger Zone. This puts him rather near Mabel, so he sidesteps closer and closer in a sort of hesitant shuffle that ends up kicking up a lot of snow at both of their feet anyway. "Hey, umm. What'cha reading?" He inquires, wincing at his own lameness.
The Fortress of DOOM looks a lot like a half an igloo with a curved slope of a wall that cuts off about eye level. The reason for the curve? Better to duck under when the barrage of balls bares down. Inside a small hollow in the wall she has begun building pyramids of projectiles ready to be taken up and launched at the first unsuspecting victim. Spying Julian, she ducks down behind the hill of snow, not completely though because the purple pom pom of her toque is still quite visible.
Julian just laughs at the attempts in intimidation. Not meanly, but at the same time, not exactly nicely either. He's not an easy guy to intimidate, even with the most awesome tactics of sticking out tongues. The purple pom is spotted bobbing over top of that more distant hill, but he doesn't think much of it, just taking it in, along with the other kids, as he scans the area. He continues moving back from the other kids until he can use the brick wall surrounding the grounds as a part of his own fortifications, getting right back into the corner. He slides down the wall until he's sitting, and then starts to kick up a mound in front of himself. Once the snow has been cleared in front of him, he starts packing more on with his hands. He makes quick work of it, only bothering to make it just high enough to crouch behind, before moving along the wall a few feet and starting on another. Why limit himself to one base?
Mike takes in what at least two of the others are doing. Well, makes sense to make a pile of snow, or even better, a pile of snowballs. Now, where would be the best place to do it from? Far from the snow wall, obviously. Ahh. Big ole snow pile from shoveling the walk. There! He ducks to the snow pile where he can set up.
When Cole shuffles over, it takes a minute for Mabel to realize that oh…HEY, boy talking to her! The book is a hardcover, and ominously thick. The author's name is Russian, about 100 syllables, and hard even for her to say. And she LIKES this stuff! "Oh…it's uh…it's an old book for class. The Brothers Karamazov. Have you ever read it?" she says, looking up at him with a little smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. It's not really because she's talking to Cole, but more because she's talking about books.
Cole breaks into his own smile, generally inviting himself to sit down next to Mabel. He glances from the book to her face back to the book with wavering confidence. "Oh, yeah. Does… Doy… Doevsky… no. I have no idea who that is." Caught! Awkwardly, he clears his throat and attempts an emergency topic change, "So. How do you think we'll know when this thing sta—" SHLOP! Full impact in the face. Cole goes over the other side of the bench in a tumble of limps and falling snow.
"FIIIIIIGHT!" shouts Zaynab, the culprit. She immediately after dives behind Paul's lumpy wall-fortress and messily aims another, smaller, snowball towards Julian as he digs.
Hoyt plants himself right out in the open, crouching into the snow. He scoops up his first ammunition, rolls it up, and lobs it in a nice arc towards Mike's left shoulder.
And it's on!! When Zaynab makes the first cry of battle, Lorna grabs two snowballs and launches them at the closest body… Which just happens to be one of the teachers at the school. The man turns to find out who threw the snowball, scooping up one of his own just as Lorna ducks down behind the barrier again. One thing she didn't count on was to be alone. Without a spotter, winning these sorts of fights are practically impossible. Peeking up above the barrier again, Lorna launches another snowball in Hoyt's direction. "Think Lorna… come on… think think think…"
Julian hunkers down behind his second barrier as the fight begins, trying to miss being hit by that sloppy snowball by ducking his head. It also puts him in a prime position to gather up some snow of his own, packing it hard between gloved hands, before, in one smooth motion, rising up above his fortification to lob it off, and then continuing right along in an arc until he's ducked back down again. His wall isn't quite as high as he'd hoped, so he has to stay curled up in a ball as he hurriedly puts together a few more snowballs for ammo.
SPLAT goes the snowball that hits Mike in the shoulder. Mike ducks down and forms a snowball, then tosses at Hoyt. This is not a wind-up throw, but a simple over hand throw.
"Well, the author's name is…" Mabel starts, but before she can answer completely (that IS one hell of a last name), the snowball sails in from the main yard and splats poor Cole right in the face. With huge silver-dollar eyes, she watches the poor guy tumble over the back of the bench. "Hey! No fair!" she calls out toward the offender…Zaynab! So what does Mabel do? She gathers up a snowball and joins in the fray…for what it's worth. She balls up the snow, and gives it a good hurl…but she totally throws like a girl, and it's way off the mark when it comes to hitting Zaynab!
Hoyt is watching for retaliation from Mike, so he's able to duck aside to only get glanced by the snowflakes falling off of it as it flies by. This, however, sets him up perfectly to not even notice Lorna's attack. Smack! It hits him near the chest, splattering up and around a neck he didn't protect well enough. The guy yells out when the cold stuff goes right down his shirt. Oh! Now it's war! Pushing off from his hunkered down position, he gets a running start towards Lorna's fortress, hand low to the ground and scooping up snow as he goes. At this rate, it's going to be a snow-tire instead of ball.
Paul and Zaynab have become a streamlined team. While he makes the snowballs, she takes them and lobs them away in any and all directions — Julian, Mike, random bystander. With them behind this shield and able to see most of the playing field, they're pretty well fortified. It'll take a more planned assault to get to either of them. To its credit, Mabel's snowball sort of flops into a patch of snow nearby, though.
Cole picks himself up from the ground, brushing at his face and heaving in big breaths — not sobs, mind you! Not sobs. He stays ducked behind the bench and, with a tug on her shoulder, indicates Mabel should do the same before she calls anymore attention to herself. "Pssst," he leans in and mutters so that only she can hear.
"Haha! Gotcha!!" Lorna cries out in triumph as she hits Hoyt square in the chest. When he begins to move toward her fortress with what looks like the beginnings of a snowman? Well, she just starts lobbing little white grenades harder and faster. One- two- three- four… little snowballs packed just loose enough to explode with a nice wet plop on impact. "Julian! Over here!!" the green haired young co-ed shuts out toward the massing battle only thirty or so feet away. "I'll share my fortress if you team up with me!" Not quite the picture she envisioned, but she needs a partner.
Staying low, Julian peers out from the side of his barrier rather than risking poking his head over the top of it. Trying to time it when the Paul-Zaynab team is aiming elsewhere, he rushes across the distance to land behind his larger original barrier. It's still not exactly massive, however. So when he hears Lorna call out to him, he only considers the offer for a moment before poking a hand above the barrier, thumb up. Quickly peeking out again, he can't help but notice Hoyt making a break for his new team mate. He hastily balls up a new snowball, small and well-packed. Straightening up and jumping out from behind his barrier to run for Lorna's, he gives it a hard pitch, trying to hit the enemy upside the head or at least hard enough to distract him. This requires Julian leave cover and make himself an open target, albeit a moving one. Never let it be said he's not loyal to a team.
Mike ducks down now, able to hide and make some snowballs. He pops up to look for potential targets. Well, there's Hoyt again. he tosses a snowball at Hoyt.
"Aiyyeeeee!" Mabel calls out as Cole reaches up and tugs her back down behind that bench. The book is forgotten but hopefully, the low temps will keep any stray flakes that get in it from melting and getting all the paper wet. When he leans in to whisper, her eyes go a little bigger, but she starts to smile. Ohhhh, that's sneaky of him, she thinks, as she leans in to tell him. Pretty clearly, he's the brains of the operation, and if he's planning what she thinks he's planning, she's totally gonna be the brawn. For her part though, she idly just makes snowballs, getting a little pile as she leans in behind cover to tell him.
Hoyt has, clearly, made a huge red target appear on his back. Or his head. But even Lorna's frontal assault only seems to make him run at her faster and more determined. Oh, he is gonna get her— It isn't until Julian's well-landed snowball to the head that he goes down. Or, rather, goes through. Losing his balance, he slips up on some of the more packed snow on the ground and slides. His massive snow-gathering does some of its own spinning before coming to a stop short of its target. It is Hoyt that hits the fortress. Sliding out of control, he isn't enough to bring the careful construction down, but his booted feet do punch a substantial hole in the base. Just as he is trying to recover his breath, a last snowball drops onto his forehead, leaving a nice red mark from the cold.
The Paul-Zaynab team are, indeed, destroying other targets elsewhere in the quad when it comes to Julian's trek into the open. They are only distracted by Paul tapping Zaynab on the shoulder to point out Hoyt's predicament. The girl bursts into peals of delighted laughter at her friend's misfortune.
At Mabel's whisper, Cole's moisture-wet eyes brighten into something much more pleased. He may not be a woman, but he's apparently a force to be reckoned with when scorned. Giving a boyish giggle at her attempts at stockpiling, he waves that off. "Watch this…" And then, he scrunches up his nose in apt concentration. After a second, her pile is twice as big. Mysteriously, Julian's ammo seems to have been somewhat depleted. Cole grins. "We can take them by storm."
The boot through the bottom of the carefully constructed fort causes Lorna to lose her concentration for only a minute as she begins to pile snow INTO it. That'll learn the boy for trying to wreck her hours of very hard work! She likely only gets a fistful or two into it before having to grabs a few more balls to belt the boy from above again. "Hurry up Jules!" she calls out, squealing with laughter as she attempts to turn Hoyt into a human version of Frosty the Snowman.
Finding his resources depleted, Julian fires off his few remaining snowballs at the giggling duo of Paul and Zaynab, before turning his attention to full-on running for cover. He covers the ground in long strides, trying to keep his back to the others, to deflect any incoming missiles off the leather there. When he's close enough to Lorna's fort, he launches himself over the top of it, landing a bit harder than intended on his shoulder, having the wind knocked from him. But he's safe at least. Rolling out his shoulder to keep it from getting stiff, he sits up. "Miss me?" he asks the green-haired woman, grinning at her impishly after such an entrance.
Mike watches as Hoyt ends up in Lorna's snow wall. He laughs, even more so, as he watched Julian go over top of it. Ok. Those targets are out of it for a bit. That leaves Paul and Zaynab and they're not looking. He does a quick, pick a snowball and toss, then does it again.
Mabel is set to a fit of giggling herself, listening to Cole and watching as he makes their pile of snowballs double. That's her cue! He already broke the rules afterall, so…she probably can't be at fault if she does too, right? From where she crouches behind the bench, there's a few sharp little crack-popping sounds, as four other copies of her split from the original. They all sort of mill about a moment, before they too press up behind the bench for cover. "Ok! Let's get them!" she giggles out. All five of her grab a snowball, and when Cole's set too, they leap up from behind the bench and throw. "It's snooooowing!" they yell out in unison as they pitch those snowballs in every which direction.
"Arrrrgh!" That's Hoyt struggling to get footing while Lorna assails him mercilessly. Flailing about, the big guy finally gets a break as Julian flies by. He jumps to his feet and pushes at the fortress, attempting to just bring the whole thing down on top of both of them. Doomed by their own DOOM, perhaps?
Zaynab's laughter is brought to a stop by a sudden splat on her shoulder. She ducks back behind her wall, fully into the game again. "Over there!" She calls, directing Paul towards where Mike is still aiming at them. Paul shifts himself appropriately to put the snowball near her hand where she can fire expertly back.
"Whoooo!" It's Cole's own battle cry as Mabel's replicated bodies appear. They will find that their hands will always have a snowball nearby. Cole's whole face is now tightened in complete concentration. He'd be a totally open target if… anyone has any attention span left. What happens next is chaos. Snowballs disappear from people's hands to appear somewhere else. Snow someone's scoping up vanishes to be displaced a few feet away. Even Lorna's hat disappears and ends up on Hoyt instead. And it doesn't fit well.
"CHEATERS!" the shout comes from Zaynab, army general, again. "YOU BIG FAT CHEATERS!" Right before the snowball she threw towards one of the Mabels disappears and reappears right behind her own head. She goes forward and whitewashes right into her own snow wall. Revenge is wet. And snowy.
The sudden disappearance of Lorna's beloved purple pom pom hat causes her to become just a little miffed. "HEY!! They're cheating!! It was no powers!!" Then there's the avalanche of DOOM as it collapses over both her and Julian. Practically nose to nose, Lorna grins over at the boy and winks. "Ready for some practice? If they're going to cheat, let's do it too!" And with a quick grab to the boy's coat, she concentrates as hard as she can and sends the both of them shooting through the pile and high up into the air. "Hope you kept a couple of reserves because we're going to town tonight!!"
Julian, still being seated, takes quite a bath in the snow when the bank of it comes down on them. Sputtering, he's already annoyed at that uncool attack, when Lorna's cry of cheating reaches his ears. Well, now that's really not fair. And he was being so good and everything! If anyone's going to cheat here… As he finds himself hoisted into the air, he sputters and wipes a hand at his face, trying to clear the snow from his vision. Still scowling a bit, he glows green then, using his own powers to pull away, keeping himself aloft under his own powers. "You know what? I don't play with cheaters," is stated indignantly, a dirty look cast around at the battlefield below. Not entirely true, but it sounds better than admitting he's a sore loser. With a swooping turn, he takes off; it looks like he's heading for the roof of the school, or perhaps the back grounds.
Mike acks, as several Mabel's appear and throwing snowballs. "Hey!! That aint fair! No powers! No powers!" He tries to duck, but gets hit by a couple of snowballs.
By now, Mabel's giggling with delight. Playing the bad girl cheater isn't something she's done in…well, ever! Looks like for once the mousy little bookworm gets to have some fun with the others on even terms, especially the older older students! Her cheeks are rosey red with the efforts of chucking snowballs, even if they don't hit anyone especially regularly: now there's five of her throwing like a girl! "You started it!" she howls out. "We didn't even want to play this game!"
Hoyt gives a whoop of triumph when his two victims are squashed in their own snow pile. Lorna bursting forth from it, however, puts a quick end to that. Holding up an arm to block from the snow spraying everywhere, he attempts to hide some of his bulk behind the now-destroyed DOOM fortress so Mabel — any Mabel — can't see him. Fat chance she can throw that far anyway, but still. He has to focus. Focus so that he can try and cause the air around Lorna to have a lot more friction, slowing her progress.
Cole doesn't have the concentration to laugh, but he would be if he could, for sure. He just keeps up the onslaught of repositioning anything and everything.
Paul, for his part, is either too knightly for cheating or just… doesn't have a power that applies to this situation. As it is, he bunkers down and does not pick up any snowballs at all in order to not give Cole any ammunition in turn. He turns to his partner to give out instructions but she seems to be distracted, her face covered. Stiffly, Zaynab picks herself up from the wall of snow. Her hands come up to brush the snow away and she huffs out a hot breath. Too hot. Everything in front of her melts. Warily, Paul inches his way towards a different part of their hideout.
As Julian swoops off to sulk and lick his wounds from their loss, Lorna hovers twenty feet above the action. It requires the split concentration, one to keep her from hurtling to the ground and two to find the suitable properties on her five new little targets below. A slow smile forms on the lips of the green haired woman as she flicks up both of her hands and all five of Mabel get picked up by the eyelets of her jeans and are held a few feet off the ground. "No more powers?" She calls down to Cole, the poor girl's partner in crime, fully expecting him to give up to the rest of the party in order to save the poor girl from a facewash.
Mike peers up from where he was hiding. Still multiple Mabel's? Nope! He wasn't going to cheat or anything. Normally, he would be the first when it came to throwing objects. But he's had several stern talks. He isn't going to push it. That and when he used his powers, it could hurt someone, even if it was a snowball.
Once more, Mabel gives out a little squealing yelp. This time, though, it's because all five of her are literally getting turned upside down! Each of the copies sort of wriggles in the air, kicking helplessly as they're suspended, arms dangling, mousy hair spilling out from under the cap and around their faces. "No Cole! Don't give up! They're cheating too! They started it!"
Most of the participants, even the ones standing by, are paying attention to what's happening in the air now. Cole breaks out of his concentration when Mabel gets to yelping, leaving everything to go where people intended. But most people aren't throwing anymore. The lack of shouts of amusements seem to have attracted the attention of some teachers who were loitering on the grounds as well.
"D-d-d-d-on't give up," The little Cole stutters to himself as he's instructed to be the Strong One. Never surrender and all that. "T-they started it!" Eyes darting back and forth for some kind of solution, he alights on something. With his hands curling into fists, he works up the courage— and the strength. He's been using a lot of it up, after all.
But then, pop! There disappears from the bench a certain book. The 796 page wonder appears just high enough above Lorna's head to gain some momentum before possibly finding a target.
WHUMP!!
The books hits Lorna's head and she loses her concentration! Poor little Mabels get dropped head first into the snow and the green haired young woman goes barreling down toward the ground with what can only be described as a shriek of terror. It's only twenty feet, but twenty feet is plenty of time to do damage and poor Lorna has plans later in the evening! "HEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLL—" Her amrs and legs wave as she panics and is unable to find enough concentration to stop her free fall.
Mike peers up from his safe spot, to find Lorn falling. He curses and heads for where she is falling instinctively. His plan, at least he thinks, is to catch Lorna. Dumb move in his case.
There's a whuff! as one Mabel, then two, then all five land in the snow! Luckily, it's deep enough that she just lands safely yet unceremoniously in the snow. "Ohhhh man…" she says, as she lifts herself out of the snow, shaking her head. Only one rises back up, the other four replicants having disappeared when the original hit the ground. She's just in time to see Lorna taking a tumble though, peeking over the top of the bench to watch helplessly.
Everyone was pretty much prepared to watch the tragedy as it unfolded — hey, they're all young kids, this is half parts fascinating as it is terrifying. It's starting to look a lot like Lorna's going to smack to the ground, crushing Mike beneath her.
But then Paul pushes off from his hiding spot and shouts across the front yard, "Hoyt! Drag!" The cry manages to shake the bigger guy out of it and, once again, he raises a hand and focuses on that power inside. There is suddenly exerted against Lorna a new force of fluid friction against her falling, slowing her down and down until she'll hit the snow with about the same *whuff!* as her five Mabel victims. Depending on his movements, Mike might also find himself flattened in the snow.
One person isn't watching the goings-on, actually. That's Cole. As soon as he made the book disappear, he threw his face into his arm and burst into a guilt-ridden sob that he'd killed someone!
Coming upon the group of students now are two stern-faced instructors. One's hand lowers, apparently having had a back-up plan to assure Lorna's safety should Paul and Hoyt's efforts not quite made it. Now, though, his face seems to express that's he's sure this has learned them a lesson even better. The two, with strict instructions, are ready to round up any of those clearly seen using their powers and direct them inside for what is likely to be a not-very-funny talking to.
As Lorna lands face first in the snow, thank you Mike for softening the blow, she lets off a long groan. Lifting her head out of the white stuff, she comes up with white snowy eyebrows, and a big white mustache and beard. Marvelous. A few shakes and it's gone, only to find her face to face with one of the teachers. Yeah, she should have known better, but she did it anyway. Lucky Julian, his sore looserness saved him from what's looking to be another week's worth of double homework and other punishments.
Ow!ow!ow! Heavy body! Is barely what Mike is able to think. Ok. Did he have all of his body parts in place? Head? Check! Arms? Check! Legs? Check! Now, if he can get Lorna OFF him, he might be able to breath some time soon.
Oh…poo. Teachers marching out into the yard. That's never a good sign! Especially not when you're one of the instigators! "Don't worry Cole, it'll be ok, I'm sure. It was all in good fun…" Mabel says to the sobbing boy…hesitantly patting him on the back. Maybe she should hug him or whatever but she's not really that sort of person! "We'll probably just get some detention, that's all."
The kids who were only on the sidelines disperse, the events seem to be over. And no one even got hurt! Well… Mike might be a bit sore for a while. Zaynab, Paul, and Hoyt, as three of the older students, are expected to show some kind of responsibility when it comes to relating events so they march off in the front of line that will include Lorna, Mabel, and Cole if they all act obediently. Cole goes, head bowed and sniffing, and since he's clinging to Mabel, she might get forced along, too.
