All That Glitters is Cold. [Open]

[Danicca Waylan]

[D]A[N]I[C]C!?

Dani sat on a bench on the sidewalk, staring at the snow falling from the clouded sky. She was bundled up, as per her mother's insistence, but she took her jacket and one of her scarves off, and removed the finger covers from her mittens, waiting for the cold to make her shiver. She didn't have to wait long, seeing as it was afternoon in the middle of December, and somewhere around thirty degrees. The temperature was probably dropping by the second, too. Her family would expect her home soon, but she needed to pick some things up. She had already gotten the first half of her list, and pretty much everyone she knew already had a present from her wrapped and ready to drop on a doorstep for whatever winter holiday they celebrated. She might even actually do a face-to-face present giving and apologize to Dr. Campbell for the prank she'd pulled on him earlier in the year. She had to make sure he knew the present that was for Ginny, so it could get to her on time.

She sighed, watching her breath form into a cloud in front of her face and dissipate into the air. There were a few people out, buying presents, but mostly downtown was empty. It was getting dark rather early lately, and most of the occupants of Pilot Ridge were visiting family or in a club or sitting in their rooms for the holidays. The main reason Dani wasn't doing one of those things herself was because she needed a few seconds to just breathe in silence, without anyone talking down to her about how badly she handled everything.

The thing is, she knew that she had been inconsiderate. She knew she had been selfish. She already knew everything people kept telling her, and all she should have to be able to explain was why she left like she did, and how she didn't say goodbye to anyone because she just didn't do goodbyes. But that didn't even sound right to her. So she couldn't explain anything to anyone yet. She just needed to sort her thoughts out, maybe write it down. Even though that's what she'd been doing since she sat down on the plane on her way to Japan.

Dani dropped her head into her hands and let out a rather sudden "Agh!" that echoed in the nearly-silent street and made some people down the sidewalk jump. Staring at the bags sitting on the sidewalk between her feet, she looked at the contents. The apology bear, the candy, the specialty cakes and bag of M&Ms. All of that just for one person. She'd start dropping them tomorrow--he was apparently gone right now, but when he got back from holiday he'd get the first items. And as soon as he was back, there would be a constant barrage of the apology gifts. Her entire savings was being blown just so she could apologize to a guy. She wondered what the hell was wrong with her that she was even still thinking about this. She took another rubber band off her wrist and did what she'd been doing off and on all day: shooting people with tiny stretchy circles of ninja stinging.

There was someone across the street, and she aimed just so that the rubber band smacked into them. She was glad she hadn't lost her touch there.

[Sevanna Greenwood]

Sevanna was obviously new to town and needed to explore her way around downtown. It was freezing outside with it being December in the mountains. Her body adjusted well to the cold though, so she decided to dress in less layers than most people would consider normal. In fact, the chilly bitterness only felt like a rainy spring afternoon to Sevanna. And she was enjoying every bit of it.

She had already sent homemade gifts back to her family in Colorado. Ms. Greenwood was not just an excellent writer-she was great with crafts and small projects too. Every year her adoptive mother would become ecstatic and over-joyed with each original gift from Sevanna, even as she grew into her late twenties. But as happy as she was with her presents, her mom wished for something Sevanna could not give her- a grandchild. Due to the fact that Sevanna was not married and she refused to adopt, her mom would have to settle for whatever creative item grown-up Sevanna came up with next. She was no where near the point of having her own children and probably never would be; her students were her babies. She treated them as if they were her own.

Ms. Greenwood, the new English teacher at Hammel, was jogging at a slow pace. In the back of her mind she knew this most likely wasn't a safe idea, considering that accidents were attracted to her ability of adapting, but then again, her body would save itself almost involuntarily. Ice and snow couldn't stop this woman. Ice and snow may humiliate her, but it couldn't stop her.

Suddenly her senses perked, and her legs came to a dead halt just as a rubber band came flying past the tip of her nose and smacked into another pedestrian nearby. "What the..?" She turned her head in the direction of the fling and caught sight of a young girl she hadn't seen before, sitting on a bench across the street. Bags of what Sevanna assumed to be holiday presents were placed on the ground near her feet.

Sevanna's face scrunched up in a disapproving manner. So, being the person that she is, marched herself across the street after muttering a quick apology to the irritated victim, to have a short word with the girl. Because there was no way her actions were not intentional.

"You really shouldn't shoot rubber bands at strangers. Your friends, maybe, but not at people you don't know." She said calmly, not exactly angry, but not approving either. Why be mean? Adjusting her scarf, Sevanna raised a brow and stood a few feet away from the bench, waiting for an answer.

[Danicca Waylan]

[D]A[N]I[C]C!?

Dani was pretty sure that the only gift she had actually sent to anyone already was to her cousin, Zaede. She'd gotten him a figurine of one of his favorite anime characters directly from the distributor in Japan. Everyone else had random things that she had chosen on availability and how personally close to them she was. Mostly that meant fandomy scarves for her geek friends and essentially the same presents for her family as she got them every year.

Aaaannnd... Bulls-eye! A tiny celebration complete with confetti and adoring fans cheering went through her mind. She was the freaking rubber-band sniper!

Dani did appreciate the fact that the rubber band barely missed the woman in a cool, hair-away-from-the-nose way, as well. It was really even more of a testament to her aim that she was able to get past another target and still hit someone with it, she thought as she almost grinned. She then placed another band on her finger and stretched it out, playing a rhythm on the brown rubber "strings" as she waited for her first victim to pass on so she could wait for fresh meat to come through her targeting range. There were about five left on her arms, and she would like to get rid of them all before she finished her shopping and headed home.

And then she saw that not only had she been caught, the woman was actually heading in her direction. With a snap that would be painful if her hands weren't already half-numbed with cold, the rubber band came back at her hand and dropped to the ground. No she hadn't lost her touch, but yes she had lost her grip on the rubber band somehow. She blamed the cold, because if she took the blame for one more thing she would snap and go on a destructive rampage. Or, you know, she would dump ice water over someone's head. Whichever one she felt like doing later.

Dani's eyebrows went up at the woman's words. "And you shouldn't be scolding strangers. I'm not five, I know what I'm doing. I didn't hit you, so I don't see why it's your business." Dani had absolutely no way of knowing that the woman standing in front of her would likely be in the position to give her detention of some sort the instant school started again. All she knew was that this was the only thing she was having fun with at all in the last few weeks, and this chick was messing with that. Her already sour mood was far from improving. Sorry, Ms. Greenwood, Dani isn't in any position to take a random adult's advice this afternoon. And even if she were, Dani isn't the type to take any adult's advice, generally ever.

[Sevanna Greenwood]

"I'll give you credit; I probably shouldn't be scolding strangers. But I am anyway. I 'know what I'm doing' too."

Sevanna's tone was casual, with a slight hint of sarcasm. She dealt with "tude" all day long. She folded her arms across her chest, obviously stating to the girl that she wasn't going to budge, not for awhile, at least. Maybe she could try to teach a life lesson out of this. That was always fun. Or so she hoped.

"You know I used to teach five year olds. And they liked to fling rubber bands at people too. You might not be five in age, but you sure act like you are."

She pressed her lips together, not entirely sure how this discussion would end. After all, they were two strangers. Sevanna was almost positive the girl wouldn't care if she insulted or hurt a another persons feelings at all. But Sevanna wasn't like that, she didn't want to accuse and rip Dani to shreds, she wanted to help her to drop the immature games she was playing. The girl on the bench had to be old enough to be in high school. She should show some respect. And wasn't that apart of Sevanna's job? To help students prepare for life and their future as adults? Or is she getting confused with being a mother?

Ms. Greenwood cleared to throat to answer Dani's, most likely rhetorical, question. "It's not my business, but I care because it did, hit someone. I don't understand why someone as grown as you would find it, "entertaining." If in fact, that you do. If it were an accident I would think you would have apologized. But I don't know you, do I? So I don't know how you act or react. Nor do I know if this is how you behave when you're upset. Or if you just love a good pointless prank on random people. Whatever the case, whatever is going through you're head, you need to show respect." She stopped to catch her breath, giving Dani a 'I hope you're listening' look.

((OOC: Um, I don't know if I had Sevanna say too much in this post or not. I wasn't really sure if I was pushing what she knows about Dani. I may just be overthinking it. I dunno. If you feel I need to change something just let me know. ))