[open] it's a snow day, sort of

[buncho]

WHO: OTA
WHERE: streets around Recollé High in Apprassage
WHEN: early morning 12/8
WHAT: It's the end of the school term!!! For the University. High school and all the rest has got another week and a half to go and Mafuyu thinks that's remarkably unfair, but why not get to play around and enjoy winter anyways? Like playing ice hockey. In the high school parking lot.
WARNINGS: none

[ Summer is Mafuyu's absolute favorite season. Despite everything that she'd gotten up to those few months, she still feels slighted and that Retrospec had taken it from her— but no matter. She's going to make it up now, watching as the temperature keeps dipping and snow keeps piling on pretty heavily Thursday night, not holding her breath for the call for a snow day that'll never come. There's a whole foot of it covering the parking lot by midnight, and somebody's got to clear out all this snow or the teachers will have nowhere to park, right? That would be terrible, so she guesses she has no choice but to be the good Samaritan that she is and clear out the snow...!

...

No, she actually does clear out the snow, do not doubt her.

But that's not all she does. The snow gets shoveled, but piled up over the entrance of the parking lot, blocking off any cars that might try to enter or leave (leave, because there were still some cars left in the lot, sorry to whoever decided to park here overnight? hope you didn't have anywhere important you need to go, like work or final exams). It's more a wall than a hill, but one side is sloped enough that it'd make for a good sledding hill, if there were soft snow to land on at the bottom instead of an entire parking lot of solid ice courtesy of the gardener's hose that was "accidentally" left running for a good part of the night, frozen solid by morning to form an ice rink right there in the parking lot. The rink is a little bumpy here and there, with some cracks from the earthquakes and concrete bumpers at regular intervals that you'll have to watch out for, but it's serviceable.

For the most part, the ice is contained within the lot, but water goes where water wants, and that is overflowing out onto the street right next to it, a hazard for any cars on the way to school or work, but that's what chains on tires are for. Drive safely, guys.

It was originally going to be the streets, but there's no other place large enough than the high school parking lot that Mafuyu could think of to run out onto the ice in plain sneakers and immediately slip and faceplant and get right back up because she's here to play ice hockey and have— nah, not snowball fights, she misses summer, remember? It's water balloons that may or may not have frozen solid since the time she finished filling them and set them aside in a bucket by the curb, and also a couple of Super Soakers in case you really want to catch hypothermia.

tl;dr IT'S NOT A SNOW DAY BUT SHE'S MAKING IT ONE.


Make your own toplevel, or tag in assuming Mafuyu is about to blast you in the face with a water gun, frozen ball of ice, hockey puck, snow sled?? idk all of these are plausible options. ]

Comments

[hauhra]

[ Despite his foster parents' pleas, Bakhura has been holing himself up in his room for the last two weeks, having elected to restrict his company to Netflix and video games after he had concluded that any attempt to form a connection with another human being was a huge waste of his time in comparison. He did, however, allow himself to read the latest Retrospec post out of morbid curiosity, wondering what other information Retrospec might dangle in front of them this month. Minimal though they were, the details Retrospec has been offering over the past few months have nevertheless been more useful than when he had originally gotten the application, even if they were mostly confined to their memories as opposed to whatever horrible fuck-up on Retrospec's part he would have to deal with this month, and this month had been no different. Although they had heightened some of his fears, particularly in light of some of his recent memory regains, they had also laid many others to rest as well.

They have also led him to a few conversations that have forced him to reflect on his behavior over the past year during his time alone, from his tendency to assume the worst of people and lose his temper and patience with them to his regression into his old habit of isolating himself, eventually giving him the courage to actually drag himself out of his room on Friday. Granted, he's wandering aimlessly with no real goals in mind other than getting himself out of his foster parents' home, but at least he's attempting to do more than just play games like King's Knight or virtual Duel Monsters and binge horror movies for hours.

Unfortunately, after being doused with freezing cold water by someone on his way past the high school, he might just have to turn himself around and march straight back to where he came from. ]

If you think you're getting away with this without buying me new cloth — [ with his eyes twitching, he wheels around immediately to face his attacker, ready to start a fight until he realizes that, wait, he actually knows this person and he isn't sure if that makes it better or worse — ]

What?! Aren't you the girl I went to karaoke with a while back? What the hell do you think you're doing?

[buncho]

[ Mafuyu would never be able to survive two weeks— or even two days of being cooped up inside her house, even with all the Netflix and video games in the world. As much as she loses her temper with people, she craves them, likes seeing people and forcing herself into their space no matter if they're stranger or friend or even enemy, because at this moment, they're none of those; she's here to play today, so everybody is her playmate. ]

Yeah, that's me! Mafuyu!

[ She shoulders her Super Soaker, water dripping onto her shoulder and it's colder than she thought, but she just shrugs it off. ]

It's just water, so you'll dry by running around and stuff— we can play hockey! Let's play hockey! Can you skate?

[hauhra]

[ He wrings water out of his hair, looking more like a mop than a human being, and shakes his head to dry as much of it out as he can, still glowering. ]

Yes, that's true, it is just water... however, in these temperatures, it'll freeze before long regardless of how much running around I'll do. [ As if on cue, he starts to shiver. ]

But then again, it's going to get to me much more quickly if I keep standing around like an idiot, so... very well. I'll play along this time. However, I'll have to pass on hockey... I can't exactly skate.

[buncho]

You won't freeze! It's like showering in the morning and then running to school in the wintertime.

[ without blowdrying your hair, which is exactly what Mafuyu does and therefore knows with full confidence that Bakhura is just being a big baby and he'll be fine. ]

Skating's easy too, it's just like walking except you're skating, like this!

[ She's standing on the snow and not the ice, but it's trampled down and smooth enough for her to take a running start and skid across the surface like one would with socks on newly waxed floors—- and taking the opportunity to grab Bakhura by the arm to drag him onto the parking lot rink against his will because being able to do that is the best thing about ice. ]

[hauhra]

[ Bakhura actually is a big baby, but he is also proud of his hair and reluctant to risk anything that might severely damage it!! ]

Even when I do go to class, I at least dry my hair fir — hey, hey, hey!! What do you think you're — whoa!

[ His feet slide over the ice, spreading his legs apart and forcing him to grab on to Mafuyu for support, the risk of dragging her down with him be damned — she was the one who brought him into this, after all. Fortunately for her, however, he props himself up in a way that allows him to finally find his balance. He's catching his breath now as he tries to maintain that stance. ]

You can actually play a sport like this?

[buncho]

Yeah, you zoom around the ice and smack a puck around and sometimes you smack people around too!

[ Going fast + hitting things = the ideal sport tbh, but it's so so rare that Mafuyu finds people who likes hockey and not just ice skating and doing jumps and other tricks that don't really have a place in hockey, so she can't do it. What she can do, though, is change her grip to grab both his wrists in her hands and step backwards on the ice to pull Bakhura out of that idle stance, her sliding backwards and pulling him along with her. Painfully slow because she's got to drag the weight of two people, but it's a good slow speed to start. ]

See? It's easy, right? It's like walking and then you stop and you keep going! I'll let go and let you try!

[hauhra]

Smacking people around? Sounds like my kind of sport —

[ Bakhura screws his eyes shut, preparing himself for a fall — but when the fall never comes, he opens his eyes again. ]

Not bad... [ He pushes his foot forward until he's sliding across the ice, nearly falling on his face again but ultimately keeping his balance once he skids to a stop. ]

Not bad at all. Though it's probably a lot tougher when you're swinging a hockey stick, isn't it?

[ He usually enjoys challenging games but this isn't the kind of game he's used to, okay. LOOK AT HIM he's a scrawny nerd. ]

[buncho]

Nah, it's easier when you're—-

[ —not backwards running into the concrete bumpers and slamming down onto your back on the ice. Mafuyu blinks up at the sky for a moment, then picks herself back up and kicks off so that she slides facing forward as if nothing happened. ]

When you're going really fast, it's easier to keep balance, the same as riding a bike! It's a lot easier with real skates too, but street hockey's play right on the ground and you just run around and smack people around, I bet you'd be good at that!

[hauhra]

Heh. I've always wanted to smack people around for fun... I'm surprised no one's asked me to play this game with them sooner.

[ Having spotted it out of the corner of his eye while he was practicing, he scoots over to one of the hockey sticks and bends over to pick it up, the ice pulling his legs backward under the sudden shift of his upper body until he falls on his face. Still, he'll lift the hockey stick in the air triumphantly, mumbling into the ice. ]

I got it.

[buncho]

[ That's exactly how you play hockey: fall on your face a million times and get right back up a million and one. There should definitely be more people who play hockey, but it's unfortunately a team game that requires more people to slam into to really make it fun, not like one-on-one basketball or playing catch with a baseball.

But this is fun too, Mafuyu scrambling forward to grab a stick and haul Bakhura onto his feet. And immediately smack that stick out of his hands with hers. ]

En garde!

[hauhra]

Ouch! What the hell, Mafuyu — you'll pay for that!

[ He's reaching for her stick with his other arm now, and once he's gotten hold of it, he'll pull as hard as he can, trying to take her down with him while he lifts his face from the ice, which is paler than usual from the cold. He's pretty sure this isn't how hockey works, but then again, he had also made it pretty clear that he wasn't interested in hitting a puck around, too.

He set himself up. Him and his big mouth are a recurring problem. ]

[buncho]

[ Mafuyu laughs as she steps away. ]

You'll have to catch me if you want to— [ immediately slip and crash back down onto the ground, did you know that skating with plain sneakers is not something you can really do

so she remains sitting and instead uses her hockey stick to push off of the bumper, sailing across the lot on her behind while she mock salutes Bakhura. Bye~ ]