Thread Roulette: Sneak Attack

[Event !]

Why are you a target for snowballs? You were closest. Featuring Danielle Cooper and Lani Hunter

[Lani Hunter]

Snow! Lani loved snow. He couldn't get out to the courtyard fast enough. He was fully equipped for the chill in the air. He had a thick pair of jeans and a pair of sturdy warm boots that were fit for walking in snow and on potentially treacherous ice. He looked out his window at the white landscape below. It had really come down overnight and from the looks of the sky it was bound to stick around for a while and perhaps ever be added to. There was a thick layer of clouds giving the wintery world a gray backdrop. The trees stood like skeletons against the sky and the few sturdy pines were resilient and added a splash of color to the world. He had to get out there and get out there fast. He pulled on a long sleeved shirt then a t-shirt over that. Then over that went a hoodie then over that went a heavier black coat. Layers were key.

Lani grabbed an old gray scarf and wrapped it around his neck. He laughed a little bit. If Odion thought he was normally a box then he should see Lani now. He would probably laugh. But hey, Lani was comfortable and that was all that really mattered to him. Pulling on a pair of gloves he made his way outdoors. The chill of winter kissed his cheeks and woke him faster than any kind of coffee would. He smiled as his feet crunched in the snow. Snow was a glorious thing but in his mind it was still dangerous. It made following easy. The snow wasn't terribly deep, manageable. But it was bound to get worse as the winter crept on. Sandy really had brought in a lot of crazy weather and now with the Nor'easter there was likely to be snow on the ground from now until mid spring.

The climate was changing and this was yet another example. They were becoming a planet of extremes. Perhaps that was why some people have adapted to be metas. Oh well, Lani didn't feel like thinking about the climate right now he wanted to have fun. He scooped up a handful of snow and packed it tightly and looked around for a target. Spotting a girl Lani pulled back his arm and threw. He didn't use his power but the ball still hit with precision right in the back of her head. He covered his mouth with his hand but he couldn't hide the fact that he was laughing. Hopefully the girl was a good sport, but if not Lani didn't really care. The trickster was out in full today and he wanted to cause a little mayhem.

[Danielle Cooper]

When Danielle looked outside to see snow, and quite a bit of it, she couldn’t contain her excitement. The first snowfall was always the best! There was only one slight problem with snow though… it was cold, and Dani didn’t like the cold. She loved winter sports like ice-skating and hockey, but she always had to wear what seemed like a million layers just to keep her tiny body from turning into a popsicle. She ran to her closet, pulling on layers as quickly as she could. Dani wanted to get outside before too many people ruined all the pretty snow with their footprints. After struggling with putting on jeans under a pair of pajama pants (hey! It was warm), she pulled on her boots, finishing up with a hat and navy blue scarf.

Now she was ready! She headed out the door, calling out to her dorm mates that she was going out. As she opened the door to step outside the building, a wall of chilly air hit her face. Gahh, no fair. Dani pulled her scarf up to hide her nose. Once she got moving around more, then she’d be fine, she assured herself. Just have to get through the first few minutes. With that in mind, she trudged out into the winter wonderland.

She didn’t have a particular destination in mind, for Dani simply wanted to appreciate the snow (and possibly goof off a bit), but soon she found herself in the courtyard. Once Danielle was finally warming up thanks to trudging through the snow, she felt something cold make contact with the back of her head. “Ah!” It didn’t hurt, but the shock of it made Dani take a few steps forward, frantically reaching into her scarf to pull out the snow that got caught under it. She snapped around to see a boy laughing, and doing a not-so-good job of covering it up. “What was that for?” She called out, although, a grin started to tug at her lips. Snowball fights were fun, after all. She bent down, packing a ball of snow in her gloves before quickly throwing it back at the boy, hitting him square in the chest.

[Lani Hunter]

The ability of snow to get everywhere was something I loved. It was so pure and it covered all of the ugliness with beauty and though Lani appreciated the beauty and loved to look at it he was much more into disturbing the peace and snow was no exception. Snowball fights were the best of all things, really anything that involved snow. Though he had never skied or anything, making snowmen too was just as fun. There were so many tricks to be played in the snow as well. When Lani was young he and some of the kids in his neighborhood used to throw snowballs at cars as they passed by. That was probably the closest he ever got to being taken in by police. Undercover cars and snowballs never worked well, but Lani had always been a slippery catch.

Lani did his best to hide his laughter but it was harder to keep under wraps with her reaction. Her question sent him over the edge and Lani’s laughter became verbal. It was her grin that did it. If she had been genuinely upset Lani would have made like a tree but she wasn’t and so it was game on. He recovered enough to give her his impish grin and an oh so innocent shrug. It was so obviously fake that it got Lani laughing again. “You were closest,” he replied his voice full of humor. Her ball hit his chest and he flinched away as the cold spray hit his face. He brushed the snow off and his expression spelled trouble. “Game on,” he told her and quickly scooped up another handful and throwing it at her. It was always the best when someone was more willing to join in the game than get offended. He was sure that there were other people at this school that would have taken it very badly if he had hit them with snow.

Lani crouched and gathered more snow getting two snowballs in his arsenal. This was going to be all out war. He just hoped he didn’t just hit someone that could control snow or something; he would be sorely outmatched then. But hey it was a snowball fight not a war. Lani was more in this for the fun than for winning. There really could be no loser in snowball fights unless of course it was the one that first called ‘uncle’ to being too cold and wet. The worst part about snow was that it melted and it melted quickly against human skin and already there was a little bit of cold seeping into his gloves and the water seeped into his coat. A small price to pay, he could always warm up later.

[Danielle Cooper]

The boy’s laughter was contagious, and Dani found herself having trouble keeping up a mock angry look. Dani soon burst into laughter herself. She certainly hadn’t been expecting this, but hey? Why not? Snowball fights were fun, especially unexpected ones. “I suppose that’s a reasonable explanation.” It honestly sounded like something that Dani would use as an excuse, so she couldn’t really argue it.

She watched him start to make a few more snowballs, and she kneeled down, pushing a large amount of snow into a pile in front of her. She needed defense! Once her base (yes, base) was built, she could focus on her artillery. Fortunately, she was small, so the wall of snow she was making didn’t have to be very big to protect her. She patted it down, making sure it would make for a sturdy defense field. Game on indeed.

She had completely forgotten about the cold, for now. It was amazing how a distraction could make one unaware of something that was right in your face only moments before. Now that her base was complete, she peaked over the snow mound to look over towards the boy.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani nodded and his smile grew wider as she laughed. So much for being angry, this was indeed going to be a battle to remember. Lani shrugged, it was the best explanation he had. She was closest and she was the first person that he had seen. It was either good luck or bad luck on her part. But either way she was roped into this snow war. Lani watched her with one eye while he watched his hands with the other. A snow mound. That was not a bad idea. Lani smiled, he could think of several ways to get around it though.

As she was distracted with making her wall Lani was working on moving. He had a snowball in each hand and he moved himself to the side his feet making prints and crunching in the snow as he worked on his stealth move. Not the most sneaky he had ever been but hey this wasn’t supposed to be serious. He launched a ball over her mount hoping to hit her on top of her head. Lani needed an arsenal. He glanced over at a snow covered bush. He ducked behind it and started to gather snow into balls. It was wonderful snow perfect for packing. He had a good few of them formed and he peeked out from behind his own natural shelter.

He carefully calculated another throw and lobbed it. For a moment it looked like it was going to sail right over the mound without hitting anything her head popped out from behind it and it caught her in the face. Lani snorted with laughter that was a lucky shot. But that didn't stop him from throwing his arms over his head in triumph. Leaving his ammunition safe behind the bush Lani moved so he could by a moving target. Harder to hit.

[Danielle Cooper]

As the snowball made contact with her face, Danielle fell backwards from the impact. It hadn’t hurt, but it was certainly unexpected. The snow seeped down her scarf and under her jacket, and she was starting to feel the coldness sink in. Ah well, she could last! After all, it was a war. She glanced carefully looked up again, a snowball in hand, before a light bulb went off above her head.

“Aha!” She grinned, taking her snowball and throwing it high up into the sky. Instead of aiming at the boy, she aimed for the tree right above him. The snowball hit it’s target, shaking a snow-covered branch, sending a decent amount of snow right on top of her enemy. She couldn’t help but to burst out in laugher. She was surprised it actually worked!

After she gained her composer, she peaked out from her shelter once again. “You still alive over there?” She called out teasingly. It’s what he got for nailing her right in the face! Not that it was really his fault, it was just bad timing on Dani’s part. Ah well.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani laughed holding onto his sides as he bent over his breath making small clouds in the chilled air. Snowball fights were the best. He was so busy laughing that he hadn’t realized she had recovered and launched her return attack. He watched it sail over his head and he gave her a cocky look sure that she had misfired. The next thing he knew he was on the ground knocked down from the weight of the snow that fell from the trees. It went down the neck of his coat and he yelped a little with the chill it sent through his body. It was cold! Very, very cold!

He wiggled himself out of the snow his head popping up as he scrambled out of the small pile. He was covered in the white stuff. He laughed at her trick. Clever. Very clever. He shook his jacket a little trying to get some of the snow to get out of it and away from his body. It didn’t work too well but Lani was already forming a plan for revenge. Lani found it hard to be anything but joyous at the moment after all it was snowing life couldn’t get much better. It was the small things like snow and a snowball fight that made life interesting and worth living. Lani grinned to himself yes this was definitely his favorite part of winter. He didn’t know what he would do without snow. “That was cold!” Lani called out to her in response.

He dove to his bush and grabbed a few snowballs and looked out over the bush. He smiled slyly and he made a mad dash forward feeling like a soldier out of the trench racing through no man’s land on a suicide mission. His feet raced above the snow as his power caught the soles of his shoes and made his race easier. He threw on ball a smile on his face and it went sailing over her shelter. “Ha!” He cried like a warrior but instead of a raging growl on his face it was an expression full of joy and mischief and he leapt a little to get over her shelter and skidded to a halt turning to throw the other ball he had but his feet didn’t stop as quickly as his body did and with a ‘Woah!’ he slid on his rear.

[Danielle Cooper]

A grin tugged at Dani’s lips as she watched him pop out of the snow, he almost reminded her of a dog playing in the snow – in a cute way, of course. As Dani heard the boy’s response, she almost fell over in a fit of giggles. “I bet!” Dani called out, resting her back against her little snow wall. She didn’t dare look over her fortress again, just in case there was another snowball aimed at her face waiting; instead, Dani decided to build up her artillery.

Quickly, though, Danielle noticed that things were quiet. Too quite. For safe measure, she looked over her snow shelter to see the boy charging right at her, a snowball whizzing past her right ear. It really was like a war zone! Her eyes widened as she watched him jump up and over his shelter and she reached for the closest snowball she had, prepared to fire just as he fell.

As he slid further on the ground, Dani couldn’t stop her laughter, but still made an effort to run over to him. “…Are you… okay?” She managed to spit out between giggles, offering him a hand. It looked like it wasn’t the most pleasant of falls, and Dani wanted to make sure he wasn’t hurt before she threw another snowball at him.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani laughed as he shivered and knocked the snow sticking to his jacket and pants off. He looked over as she vanished but he was on the offensive now. A suicide mission across No Mans Land. Snowball fights were fun but then one had to recognize their similarity to trench warfare. Hiding in trenches or behind barricades throwing snowballs across a dangerous middle ground. Admittedly snowballs were not as lethal as bullets and the worst that could happen crossing the middle ground was a mouthful of snow and a chill that would quickly be remedied by a cup of hot chocolate and a warm fire and some blankets. Lani was getting into this, he really couldn’t wait for the school wide snowball fight.

He didn’t have time to see that his thrown snowball had missed as he had picked up too much speed and was busy falling on his butt. At least snow was soft but when he had slipped that definitely spelled evidence of less forgiving ice underneath. His second snowball had been thrown mid fall so its trajectory was more into the ground than toward a person. As soon as he realized what had happened he too started laughing. He flopped himself back in the snow and wrapped his arms around his torso as he laughed. He was sure he looked like a spectacular idiot at the moment jumping like he was some epic warrior only to slide on his rear and end up laughing his head off about. Well if one couldn’t laugh at themselves then who could they laugh at.

He got himself under control and nodded. “Yeah,” he smiled taking her hand and hauling himself to his feet. He was a little sore but the only thing truly wounded at the moment was his pride. He smiled at her. “Thanks,” he said, noting another flaw in his analogy. Enemy lines don’t help up their opponents and make sure they’re ok. He laughed a little and brushed himself off wondering what the point was most of his clothing was soaked through. “We’re just gonna pretend that didn’t happen,” he said his voice ringing with the remnant of laughter.