Snowball Fight! (Autumn and Garland)

by **Sayana** on November 25th, 2014, 3:13 am

A couple notes :

Fall 84th, 514 AV.

When Sayana stepped out from the twisted corridors of the fortress that morning, complete surprise and amazement flooded her face. It was like nothing she had seen before. And not even the stories told by others could have prepared her for this. As her eyes looked about in wonder she saw a thick layer of white covering the streets, the rooftops, the window sills, the rare tree… everything. Except, however, where people had clearly tread upon the white blanket and left foot prints. There was even snow in the air gently falling to the ground.

After hearing people talk about it and then finally seeing it, it was like… oh never mind. Not quite like that. Her eyes glistened with amusement of the thought. She made sure her coat was snuggly fastened about her and then took an almost ‘dainty’ step out into the snow. She wasn’t sure what she had expected but it sort of crumpled under her foot and it almost felt like walking on sand, like well packed sand. She took a few more excited steps and made footprints about the street. With every step there was a faint ‘crunch’ like sound as her foot packed the light fluffy snow down.

The Eypharian bent down and peered curiously at the snow. It was probably about an inch thick – just a light dusting for the typical Syliran, but enough to gather it together with one’s hands. She poked at it a gloved finger and then traced out lines upon the snow. With her boots she shuffled over the doodles and dashed off towards the Rearing Stallion hoping to share her experiences with someone, anyone, even if it was the old cook Remi. But she had hardly taken three steps before her boot slipped upon the snow and she landed on the ground on her hands and knees – or at least her mid hands since her others were scrunched away in her coat. Her fall was somewhat muffled by the snow and her gloves but she still glanced around before quickly getting back up again. It didn’t seem like anyone of importance had seen her, so she carried on towards the tavern although at a slower pace.

As she neared the tavern she couldn’t help but slow down to gaze at the brilliant white open space between the Traveler’s Row and the taverns. It was almost like looking upon a desert of white sands… but whiter. And flatter for that matter too. Trails of footprints could be seen criss-crossing the open space but it was beautiful nonetheless. She curiously picked up some of the snow and it was fluffy and light in her hands. Although, it seemed like she could squeeze it together and it would compress into something a little harder and firmer.

by **Garland** on November 25th, 2014, 1:15 pm

Garland, the young knight-to-be had finally pleaded a day off from his patron. Though she said he needed to do double patrols the next day. He sighed, he had always loved snow days, the cold was something to complain about though. He should have bought a fur coat instead of a leather jacket, though there were a few warm coats and gloves for squires to use when it's cold. Also some fur armor if it really gets cold and full-plate would just get too hard to use in the weather.

Though since he has the day off today, he only needed a coat and some gloves. He had taken the items and quickly threw them on. Even inside the buildings, the air was still bitty. He had always had trouble coping at the start of things getting too cold or too hot, but he could usually stay out longer if needed. With the warm clothes and the the slowly falling snow, he was ready to to start playing in the snow.

After a while, he found himself heading towards the Rearing Stallion, mostly because he wanted to see Sayana and see how she was doing, and maybe see her reaction to her first snowfall. Since it was only a few weeks since she saw her first frost, so he assumed that this was her first time in the snow.

He waited right outside the entrance to the Rearing Stallion, hoping to run into her before she goes to work. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for his six-armed friend.

by **Autumn Wilde** on November 27th, 2014, 3:09 pm

OOCHappy Thanksgiving!

That morning the apartment in Traveler's Row that Autumn was staying in was cold, colder than usual. She decided not to go out today and spent pretty much the whole day inside, practicing a few of the more advanced songs on her gea'tar and getting impatient when her fingers weren't quick enough. It was almost until the evening when she got fed up with staying inside so she grabbed her gea'tar in it's case, putting the strap over her shoulder, pulled on her coat and boots then left.

When she stepped out her apartment door, she gasped in surprise. Her breath came out as steam and the air bit her cheeks, but she smiled in excitement nonetheless.

Little white flurries fell softly from the sky, landing in the street where it was unconditionally crushed underfoot by the never ending flow of people doing business. It hadn't been snowing for long, only an inch or so covered the ground. The snow that had fallen in the street was turned to slush, and the sound of sloshing could be heard all around.

Autumn laughed out loud and stood out under the snow, a little bit away from the most dense of the crowd, and held her arms out. The small flecks fell on her coat sleeves and her eyelashes and nose. She stuck her tongue out and one landed on it too.

It was such a wonderful sensation. In Zeltiva it rarely snowed, but of course during her adventures in the mountains she had seen plenty of it. Snow was beautiful, softly blanketing everything in a sheen of white. Autumn did a little spin and laughed out loud again, watching her laughs float away as steam.

She put her arms down and set her sights on the tavern just ahead of her. It was always such a challenge to try pushing directly through the middle of the crowd, but it was really the only way there.

After loud protests against her endeavor, she made it out to the other side and saw a familiar face making her way to the tavern. Autumn gave a sly smile and decided to surprise the Eypharian.

Sometimes during the winters in Zeltiva she would bring some of her friends up into the mountains and they would duel in epic snowball fights. The temptation was too much to resist here.

Autumn bent and picked up a fairly clean amount of snow and packed it until it was just big enough to fit in her two hands.

"Hey, Sayana!" Autumn yelled out, just before launching her packed snowball at the dancer. It hit her square in the thigh, even though she had been aiming more for her face, but this was why Autumn was not a squire. The movement upset Autumn's clumsy balance though, with the gea'tar strapped to her back, and she fell forward with the momentum of the throw, landing on her hands and knees.

She felt like a little child again. Laughing and giggling there with the snow making her fingers feel numb and her ears and cheeks turn a rosy red. It made the several metal earrings in her ears hurt too, but she ignored it. She could feel the cold biting at the back of her neck, and almost wished she still had longer hair. Almost. If she got a hat, that would suffice.

Autumn Wilde

by **Sayana** on December 1st, 2014, 12:04 am

OOCEarlier I was so busy trying to get the description just right to match the snow explained in the calendar that I totally forgot about the timestamp. Now it’s up (Fall 84th).

With the snow still in her hands, Sayana experimentally squished it quickly together and watched as the snow disintegrated into chunks and specks and fell to the ground. It was a curious thing. Sort of like sand but not the same feeling of it. Since sand was never fluffy and light. Only when the snow got packed together did it become firm.

The Eypharian glanced towards the taverns and noticed that most people were quickly passing by, not caring much about the open field of snow, nor the taverns for that matter. It was still too early in the day for people to be enjoying those sorts of facilities. She was a good distance away from the Rearing Stallion but she could swear there was someone waiting next to the doorway, neither going in nor out, and not passing by like all the other people.

The man’s build was much like her squire friend so she took a wild guess. “Hey Gar! Is that you?” She called out and she prayed to Syna and whatever other goddess that it was not Ser Kevith on watch duty or something. She waved her mid hands in the air (as they were the only ones not scrunched up in her coat) and with large gestured she tried to make her friend and join her.

It was then when she heard her name from another direction. As she turned to see who it was, she felt the impact and a slight sting on her thigh accompanied by a definite ‘thud’. Sayana jumped in surprise and then glanced quickly around looking for the rock or whatever it was. No rock, no stick, no petching turtle! For a brief moment she wondered if the musician knew some sort of magic but then she saw the white mark on her coat. Finally it dawned on her that the missile might have been made of snow, and sure enough as she scanned the white ground there was half a snowball a pace or two from where she stood.

As the Eypharian was trying to figure all this out, she hadn’t noticed Autumn take a tumble onto the ground. Now, however, she turned to Autumn with her hands on her hips and said, “What did you do that for?” And obviously not talking about the musician falling to the ground.

With a glint of revenge in her eye she bent down and gathered up a pile of snow in her arms. She then rushed over to throw the unpacked snow onto her friend who was still laughing and giggling on the ground. But it was largely in vain. What Sayana had not accounted for was the lightness of the unpacked snow, so when she tried to throw it she was too far away and only a little actually reached the musician.

by **Garland** on December 1st, 2014, 3:42 am

Garland was getting cold, he was tempted to go inside to get something warm to ease the cold, but then he heard his name being called out from the other side of the crowd. Or at least part of his name. He looked over the crowd as best he could, but being somewhat short, he could only see a sliver of brown skin and brown coat. The voice was very familiar though, he assumed that was the girl he was waiting for. "Sayana!" He pushed through the crowd, trying to get to the other side quickly. "Excuse me, Pardon, sorry about that." He made it to the other side, and saw a rather fun sight.

"Well, what do we have here?" He had seen Sayana throwing a small snowball, or more like just regular snow onto some other girl. Garland couldn't really tell under all the warm clothes and coat she was wearing. "Is this a snowball fight? Can I join in?" Before waiting for a reply, he bent down and gathered up a bunch of snow, he packed the snow tightly, making sure it was packed nicely enough not to break mid-flight.

"Think fast!" He threw his snowball at Sayana, aiming for the side, and not the head, not yet anyway. He stood behind a tree, just in case Sayana or the the other girl returned fire.

Little did he know that he was under a branch brimming with snow, Sayana could get a good shot in to make the snow fall on Garland's head.

Some of the kids in the area looked at the three, hoping to join in on their little game, most of them were from the orphanage close by, some even recognized the squire.

Some of the kids were wearing brightly colored hats and warms coats, some were even wearing coats too large for them, it seemed like this could get very messy and fun very quickly.

Garland packed up another snowball, peeking around the tree to see the other girl, and maybe get a shot in if he was lucky. He still couldn't tell her gender though, and at this point he was too scared to ask, hopefully he could guess it later from her voice or her name though.

by **Autumn Wilde** on December 1st, 2014, 9:02 pm

"What did you do that for?" The Eypharian looked at Autumn with her hands on her hips, an accusatory frown aimed at her. Autumn tried swallowing back her giggles but couldn't get the wide smile to leave her face.

"How could I miss such an opportunity?" She tried to explain to Sayana. Autumn had lifted herself up so she was sitting back on her heels when she noticed the dancer walking over with a large armful of unpacked snow. It was funny, that she had not chosen to make a snowball which would have been much more effective. Autumn squealed in surprise nonetheless when Sayana threw the armful at her, which fell short on the ground in front of her, only a few flakes floating down to rest in Autumn's hair.

"Whoops." Autumn playfully mocked the dancer's attempt at revenge to her snowball. Just as Autumn stood from the ground, adjusting the strap of her instrument, another snowball was launched across the field, aimed directly for Sayana.

Her eyes followed the direction the snowball came from and she watched as a man guiltily darted away and behind a tree, the branch above his head brimming with snow.

It was such fun, she felt that she was thirteen again, back in Zeltiva with the other children. Speaking of which, she saw many children in bright hats and coats standing around, watching the game with an obvious desire to join in their eyes.

This made her excited, so she ran over to one of the small children, a girl with wide blue eyes and blonde hair wearing a yellow hat and a coat far too large for her. Autumn bent down so she was on eye-level with the small child.

"You're on my team." She whispered softly, making the girl smile. Then Autumn bent down and packed a small snowball for her and put it in her hand.

"Aim for the man by the tree." The musician advised the girl, gesturing to the man that had hit Sayana with a snowball, whom nodded her understanding. Autumn nodded as well and started packing snowballs for all of the other children too, as they didn't seem sure whether they should join or not.

Autumn had always loved children, and children loved her. Her natural playfulness and kindness made her feel that even though she was many years older than them, she could easily be a part of their group. They were so simple-minded, thoughts of money and responsibility didn't occur to them, didn't make them feel weighed down. Carefree and not yet aware of the evils of the world. Autumn never wanted them to know about those, never wanted them to have to feel heartbreak, loss, or something even worse, love.

When all of the children had snowballs and were running around screaming and laughing and having a good time, Autumn made her own and aimed for the man by the tree. But as soon as she released the packed snow in his direction, she knew it would fall short and far to the right of him. Yeesh she really needed to get more throwing practice.

Autumn Wilde

by **Sayana** on December 6th, 2014, 2:34 am

Sayana let out an exasperated sigh as she saw that her efforts with the snow were in vain.

“Whoops.” Autumn said mockingly.

With a grim determined look the Eypharian bent down to make an actual snowball. But just as she was reaching down, out of the corner of her eye she saw a snowball coming right at her. Instinct told her to duck but after hearing Garland’s “Think fast!” she attempted to stand to jump out of the way. The result was quite the failure. She was in a half bent position and the snowball missed her face but hit her solidly on the side of her head right around her ear, leaving it stinging from the impact and cold from the snow.

“I’m going to get you for that Garland!” Sayana yelled as she charged towards the tree and packed the snowball in her hands. She wasn’t about to take any chances with her aim and tried to get as close as she could to him, probably no more than a couple of meters, before throwing the snowball towards the largest part of his body, his torso. And once that hit or missed, she was already bending down to make a second and third snowball.

She could already feel some of the remaining bits of snow melting from the side of her face around her ear. The wetness made her skin prickle from the cold air. In moments her next two missiles were ready and she got ready to aim them one after another at the squire. However, what she didn’t anticipate were all the children suddenly about and all armed with snowballs of their own. She watched as Autumn aimed a snowball at the squire and couldn’t help but snigger as it fell painfully short.

“You’re going to have to do better than that!” Sayana called to her. And that’s when the Eypharian made another charge towards Garland, this time with her two snowballs planning to launch them one after another at the squire as soon as she got close.

by **Garland** on December 6th, 2014, 6:33 am

Garland was hiding well behind the tree, though that meant he didn't have much visual on the other two, and all the children that followed to join in.

"Haha! Can't hit me!" He taunted at the others, what he failed to see was a little girl with a snowball coming up to his right. It was the same girl that was with the tomboyish girl from earlier. She aimed and gave a small whistle, trying to get Garland's attention. Garland looked at the girl, seeing her aiming for him. He raised his arms to cover his face, waiting for the white projectile to hit him square in the face.

The girl aimed for the branch above Garland's head. She hit the branch and it wobbled a bit, getting ready to fall. Garland opened his eyes, not seeing where the snowball landed, he smiled. "Haha! Missed me!" Just as he said that, the snow from the branch collapsed and covered him in a white blanket of snow.

The little girl, giggled and ran away. Garland dug himself out of the snow pile he found himself in, and bent down to grab a handful of snow. "You're gonna pay for that!" He said playfully, feeling the cold snow bite at him, along with the gentle wind that felt like a strong blizzard to the snow covered squire.

He went out to try and hit the small girl with a snowball, but instead he found Sayana, ready to fire upon the tiny part of him not covered in snow. He didn't have time to dodge, or move. He only hopped that she missed or someone came to his rescue him from his six-armed friend.

The other kids went over to Autumn, ready with snowballs in their hands, a few other kids went over to Sayana, and the rest were waiting until Garland got his face pelted with snow before going to him, they didn't want to get caught in the crossfire.

A small boy went over to Autumn and offered a crudely made snowball, as a gesture of friendship, the other kids were also making snowballs for her small army of snow "warriors". It seems that she was really popular with the kids, even more so than Garland who knew most of these kids when he was in the orphanage a few seasons back.

The kids with Sayana were ready to throw all their snowballs at Garland. They were waiting on her word.

by **Autumn Wilde** on December 6th, 2014, 4:15 pm

The Eypharian gave a slight chuckle at Autumn's embarrassing toss, "You're going to have to do better than that!" Sayana called to the musician at her failed attempt to hit the man by the tree. She frowned but quickly let it brush by her, not letting it bother her much.

She quickly bent down and scooped up more snow to pack into an effective projectile, but looked up quickly when she heard the man by the tree shouting playfully, covered in snow, as the girl in the yellow hat came running back over to her.

"Was that you?" She asked the girl, who gave an exaggerated nod and had a huge smile plastered to her face. Autumn smiled back and laughed.

"Good job!" As a reward she offered the girl the snowball she had been making.

"Now go hit the other lady." She winked and shooed the girl away gently. It seemed the children had started to form teams, a few around Sayana and a few around the man, whom with the more she looked at him seemed younger than that, really just a boy. Overall Autumn's team of children was still fairly larger than the other two.

One of the boys in her group, he looked younger than the other kids, held up a snowball he had made. It wasn't very impressive, it didn't seem that the boy had much experience with snow, but still Autumn appreciated the gesture and thanked the boy, taking the snowball.

Sayana was standing close to the other player in their little game behind the tree now, just a few meters away, she had thrown a snowball and Autumn watched as it sailed straight for him. And just as she had released her snowball, the little warrior Autumn had sent to Sayana threw hers. If she had aimed right, she would hit the dancer, considering she was only three or four steps behind her. The girl squealed and ran back to the safety of Autumn's group. Autumn pat her on the head and gave her another snowball.

The musician looked around her group, ensuring that all of the children had snowballs, and even noting the small pile they had made as backup. They were smart kids, they must be from the orphanage, there are no parents around, the thought went through Autumn's head as she inspected the passersby and others standing around.

Now she knew it was only a matter of time, just one shout and an all-out war would break out. She just hoped the knights wouldn't come by and try to stop their bout of fun. Everybody needs a break every now and then.

Autumn Wilde

by **Sayana** on December 6th, 2014, 7:46 pm

Sayana found herself suddenly surrounded by a team of children. Her team, she realized. It made sense since a bunch of them seemed to flock around Autumn and then another bunch around Garland. She quite honestly didn’t have all that much experience with children, except for seeing them about in the markets and sometimes performing tame little dances for them. But now she had a team, and she better well make use of them.

The kids seemed all ready to pellet Garland with their snowballs, and while it hardly seemed fair to get Garland even more covered in snow, she wasn’t going to stop them. “Go get him! But meet me back by the tree quick as a flash.” She called out to them and she waved them forwards with one arm. She watched with a grin as snowy destruction rained down upon the squire.

While Sayana was preoccupied watching her ‘team’ at work she didn’t noticed a little girl sneak up on her. But she did noticed the solid ‘thud’ as the snowball hit her back and she quickly turned around to see the little girl let out a squeal and then dash away. Sayana couldn’t help but chuckle at the little girl’s antics and in a couple moments the dancer’s team had returned from their assault on the squire.

“Alright, listen up!” She said to her team. “And make snowballs while you’re listening,” she added pointing to a patch of fresh snow. “Our next target is Autumn’s team – the woman. We already beat up Garland pretty bad.” She glanced over at the ‘snowman’ who faintly resembled the squire. “Now half of you are going to come at her team from the front.” The dancer held out her arm as the dividing line and gestured to one of half of the children. “And the other half is going to go around the back and…” Sayana’s face lit mischievously as she saw the steadily growing pile of snowballs that Autumn’s team was making. “And grab as many of those snowballs as you can. All clear?” Her tone almost resembled that of a sergeant and she seemed to treat the children more like ‘mini-adults’ rather than like children. However, for the most part they seemed to respond well to the plan of attack and were excited to start throwing more snowballs with a strategy in mind.

However, one of the girls asked, “Isn’t it stealing if we take their snowballs?” “Yes, it’s stealing,” Sayana replied bluntly and without a moment’s hesitation. “But it’s for a good cause.”

She quickly bent down to make a snowball herself. “Snowballs in hand?” She called out to her team as she stood up. “I’ll be with the throwers. And grabbers? Remember to grab as many as you can.” She reminded them quickly. “Now charge!”

OOC :

Closed Snowball Fight! (Autumn and Garland)