the kids'll blow dandelion fuzz

[eviscerates]

WHO: The Righteous Snow Teams & anyone who wants to watch (and laugh, and judge.)
WHAT: A GIANT SNOW FIGHT.
WHEN: 13th July or whatever the IC equivalent is.
WHERE: In the valley near Skyhold.
NOTES: ooc post 1 and also ooc post 2. The snow fight itself is closed to those that signed up, but the observation/chilling afterwards stuff is open. No warnings to add here, please put any that come up in the subject lines!

Also we have room for one more last minute sign up!

Wrap up warm! It probably goes without saying that certain medical personnel will be less than sympathetic to those who come to them with colds after this.

The valley near Skyhold has never really completely defrosted, given how high up they are in the Frostbacks, and Adelaide's students have found themselves working with an environment very receptive to the reintroduction of cold, even in the summer months.

The battle field is impressive. Each of the six teams has their own fortress, forming a rough circle on a thick blanket of snow. Each fort has one flag flapping over all others, the only one each has that cannot be stolen (or, at least, would be very challenging.) Their other seven flags are considerably smaller, and where they are depends entirely on how the team opts to defend them. The vast majority of the snow is white, but there are generous patches within and around each fort that matches that Team Fort's colour. Each fort is a little different, but comes with a catapult build inside it, and scattered around the field are large snow drifts, some battering rams, and a trebuchet. (No trebearchet, sadly. We can always dream.)

Every team member is given a sash of their team colour, and a round wooden shield that is so padded that hurting someone with it would actually be quite an accomplishment.

Far enough away to be spared the fighting, but not to entirely escape the chill that has been renewed in the valley, are some benches. There is warm cider and some food being served, and people are welcome to come and watch (and laugh, and judge) and/or hang out with the noble warriors once the fight has wound down.



Recap of OOC & IC Info;

ADELAIDE	BLACKWALL	CASSANDRA	MERRILL	NORRINGTON	OBI-WAN
violet	apricot	seafoam	raspberry	goldenrod	periwinkle
Andra	Zevran	Eirlys	Sabine	Sadira	Vasran
Alistair	Samouel	Church	Ruby	Clarke	Anders
Cosima	Rydia	Korrin	Martel	Mal	Aleron
Daenerys	Cullen	Sherlock	Ciri	Hermione	Ingrid
Bellamy	Kas	Aveline	Bruce	Taashath	Katniss
Pel	Ellana	Velanna	Lexa	Cyril	Merrick
Anakin	Jeannot	Emma	-	Val	Kirk

Plus Teren as a wildcard and liferiner. No other wildcards on the field!

IC-ish RULES AND STUFF.
1. NO WEAPONS, NO MAGIC.
Assume there is unlimited snow - some dyed to match team colours - so there are snowballs galore! Every person also gets an extremely well padded round shield as a chance to defend themselves. Don't use the shield as a weapon, pls and ty.

2. FLAAAAGS.
Each team gets seven flags that match their team colour. The IC goal is to capture as many flags as you can, but OOCly this is flexible and timey wimey and you don't need to worry about keeping track of flags bc who has time for that?

3. NO VIOLENCE.
Or, more accurately, no going out there to hurt people - it is a snow fight and there is siege equipment, let's not kid ourselves. That said; no tackling anyone smoller than you. If you hurt someone, apologise and don't be an ass. Don't make an NPC referee come after you.

4. BASICALLY JUST HAVE FUN.
Characters can't be eliminated unless they're being a big jerk, but no one wants that to happen because friendship is magic, or something. If it's fun and its awesome then odds are it's totally fine, unless it'd put a character in danger.


There will be an IC prize for winning, which will be ICly due to happen after Orlais since that opens up so soon after the snow fight.

A quick recap on how the winners will be determined OOCly - in three weeks time I will do a tally of points based on comment count and tagging around done per team. Three weeks will hopefully allow everyone a chance to dive in even if unexpected RL things happen, as they are wont to do, and not put on too much pressure with the Orlais plots opening up.


How to get points:
1. Open starters! Every team will get 2 points per team member that posts an open starter.

2. Tag around! Every team will get 2 points every time a team member tags a new person. (If character A tags characters B, C & D they will get 6 points total for tagging around - three different threads with character A and character B would still only result in 2 points.)

3. Keep threads going, hop around and have fun! Every comment by a team member will be worth 1 point. (Multi-comment responses ie. one tag split over two or more comments will still only count for 1 point.)

4. Be hilarious, do something awesome, idk persuade me that something is worth an extra point. NO SERIOUSLY, TELL ME I love excuses to reward people for puns and/or being absurd.

5. IC rule breaking may result in points being taken away because how rude.

Comments

[ichaer]

In all honesty, she likely wouldn't have even heard that last word in her current 'druffalo stampede in a lightning storm' state of attack. After all, she certainly hadn't heard the other two words! Her focus is on that shield and she's smirking, ducking her head slightly to following into the impact as she charges forward.

There isn't a lot to consider between impact and hitting the snow besides being grateful there was enough of the stuff to make the landing not suck so much. She does try to keep some form of balance but that's the unfortunate thing about a tackle, the tackler usually goes down too.

She, at least, has enough decency not to land on top of anyone. However, she does not have enough decency not to reach over and drop a raspberry colored snowball on his face.

[ichaer]

"Violet, maybe. Some of them seem too... uptight, you know? They could use a shaking up."

She really hadn't had much trouble with any team and only knew really the Wardens on each but there had been a lot of violet pushing for the offense. Maybe they should push back.

#2 :]]

[levered]

Clarke is not the one who has Lexa pinned down. That's for later. Clarke is running at full speed from the R A S P B E R R Y Fort to Goldenrod's, a single r a s p b e r r y-colored flag in her fist, when she spots a familiar form (look--) hiding beneath a shield and behind a low wall of snow. She skids to a stop first to just. register the fact that Lexa is playing. a game.

A moment later one of the snowballs aimed for Lexa flies past and nearly catches Clarke in the shoulder. She sidesteps it--and the more intentionally aimed projectiles that follow--by ducking back behind the wall of the fort she just emerged from with her stolen flag. (Not R A S P B E R R Y's; she stole it from someone who'd already stolen it once.)

She can still see Lexa. She leans her head away from the wall, sideways, as if to peer beneath the shield, and raises her eyebrows.

pre-battle

[apologist]

[ Jeannot--who arrived with a limp, and will also leave with a limp if defense is spoken for, but, never fear! has a good arm--is not actually scandalized by this speech, but he does look it. Orlesians are very expressive out of their masks. Or perhaps only him. ]

Forget about honor?

[ Those are certainly his friends anymore, monsieur. ]

2

[apologist]

Jehan is likely not a wise use of these finite resources. For starters, he doesn't recognize Anders on sight: a snowball lobbed at him would be only a snowball, no vitriol behind it, and likely not followed by another. For enders, he's leaning against a fort wall because his leg hurts, and running away would be a very easy matter.

But it isn't Anders' fault, because there's no real sign of either. Jeannot pivots around the corner of the fort rather than taking any steps that might betray the limp, snowball already raised, and freezes just in time for the offer. He eyes the bread. He lowers his arm.

"Bribery, monsieur?" he asks. He sounds as if he's reaching for offense and not quite reaching it. He looks as if he's tempted.

[justice_is_blond]

He'd been prepared for a lot of responses. This isn't one of them.

"Everyone calls the Maker male. You think he'd not have to deal with sweat there?" If not for Rage, Anders would be very tempted to take advantage of the moment and shove snow down Bruce's collar.

[justice_is_blond]

He doesn't recognize the guy by sight, but that doesn't mean the guy doesn't already hate him. It's better to be safe, considering.

"Bribery." He's calm, confident. "I'm more than willing to resort to it. Especially when there's free reign for things to be thrown at me otherwise."

[eviscerates]

"You're keeping things warm when maybe you could have avoided being out in the cold at all."

For all that she is feeling-- odd and out of sorts and just not Super Great, she still brightens her smile as best she can, as she peels off her gloves and warms her hands against the cider.

"You're the hero of the day, seriously."

[eviscerates]

"Pleasure doing business, Jayne." The first flag is snatched up, and she pulls her hands away from his collar just as Mal appears, taking the time to lovingly rumple Jayne's ears.

"Nu uh. Jayne is just, you know, a man who knows a good investment." To Jayne: "He's just jealous."

THE BATTLE PLAN

[fleurdesel]

Alistair earns himself a look. Faintly arch, vaguely amused, but wholly certain in the cant of her head and the glint of her eyes. "Not even a little."

[amygdalae]

Bruce, in spite of everything, makes a face at the remark.

"It's not exactly what one tends to think about when it comes to religious figures." Bruce wasn't one for religion himself, so Maker-related curses weren't something he was acquainted with, but it was still--an interesting choice of words. To put it mildly.

[youwonscience]

She offers a cheeky little salute and a "Yes, ma'am" (belatedly hoping that wasn't in bad taste), and heads over to supervise. Or to test it herself, probably, as the more physically fit members of the team head out to find some flags.

Cosima isn't a physicist, so there's a fair amount of trial and error. But when she gets it right, she lets out an unmistakable whoop of triumph. She makes sure she's got it, then briefly pops down to the drawbridge.

"Strategy question, boss - do you want me to bombard one fort a lot, or spread it out? Because that's doable, but it will be recalculating based on eyeballed distance which... like I said. Doable. But takes more time."

[youwonscience]

"At the risk of antagonizing the woman with the crazy good arm, I thought that was the point of the story in the first place." Don't go out when you can't defend yourself?

She's inching away, but only a little. What would Gary Cooper do?

(Ruby's taller - Cosima could try to tackle her. That's a last resort, though, as she's pretty doubtful it will work.)

[youwonscience]

"What the - goddamnit," she says, as she immediately realizes she shouldn't have fallen for that. Like at all. "It's you, you're the asshole!" she shouts, half laughing as she takes off after him.

He'll be able to outpace her in a minute, which just means she needs to hit him with a s much snow as she can before he does.

That, and make a lot of noise to alert her teammates. "Hey, seafoam alert over here! Oh god, who picked the names?" This last is softer and probably semi-rhetorical.

[youwonscience]

"HaHA," Cosima says, semi-dramatically, in satisfaction that she actually caught someone. (It is absolutely unprofessional to say haHA when your trap works, though she's been known to say it at board game night with various levels of sincerity.)

She is absolutely sure she's going to have a very limited window, so she dashes over to try and see whether this person is either evidently carrying a flag or visibly hurt. If neither...

Well, snow down the collar and running away is no one's idea of a sophisticated plan, but it's probably the best she has.

[thecookery]

Uncomfortable with the assessment, Avery turns away and starts fussing over the food and drink unnecessarily. Maybe if she looks busy, people will stop trying to make conversation.

"Sounds more like I'm a sucker than a hero."

[motherfucking_ghost]

Dude. This guy is a beast. He's just standing out there taking it and dishing it out! Well fuck that. Church used a sniper rifle not at all well for a reason. Bigger distance is always better.

Has he ever mentioned he's never worked a trebuchet before? Because this is a new piece of old school technology, but he's pretty sure like most other things it's just aim and let loose. He's just gotta aim at that beastly asshole and take him down for like two seconds to give someone a chance to slip by.

When he does let it loose, it...goes pretty wide. Soaring over Bellamy's head and harmlessly into the wall of the fort behind him. "Shit. Shit!" Reloading is going to take a little time, so will re-aiming.

[eviscerates]

A quiet laugh, and she shakes her head. "As a general rule? The fairy tales kind of messed up a whole punch." And, as Ruby cants her head to the side, eyebrows hitching up just a little, "if you like I can tell you all about it when we're done kicking your ass."

She's generous, right? Super generous.

[circleprodigy]

"Oh, I don't know. This would probably be a lot less enjoyable during the actual winter season." Inessa takes a sip, then glances over curiously. "Have you been here long?"

[motherfucking_ghost]

He's a little unsteady on the makeshift sled, usually used to sitting on them and not standing, but once the ground under her levels, it means he's starting to gain. Of course, the ground is gonna level out under him in a second. Church leaps off and nearly trips on his own momentum. He'll get his shield back later, whatever. "Oh, it's on!"

He looks around to try and figure out where she's going...and if there's a shortcut he can take. While he gets a handful of snow ready. Because that's gonna come in handy.

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Something something physics eat snow!" When he looks up to fling, she's oh god she's so much closer throw it throw it. In the panic, the snow flinging is more erratic, but it still gets everywhere.

Okay so a thing about the rules is that you're not supposed to tackle people smaller than you, and while that sucks for qunari, it sucks for people like him that aren't small. He's gonna be soaked if people keep tackling him today. When he sees she's still coming he panic backs up. Back up back up back up...

[motherfucking_ghost]

"My aim is fine! The sun's glinting!" Hey it's a fair excuse and he's gonna stick by that instead of 'I can't hit anything for shit thanks for noticing'.

He is going to keep pausing though, but this time, it's not for snowballs. He takes a few precious seconds to dig his shield into some snow, a nice pile of it sitting there as he hefts it up after her and then flings it. God, maybe this is how he gets the idea for throwing shovels of snow at people...

[motherfucking_ghost]

"I will roll over. I'll do it! And then you'll be a squashed bug." She brought this on herself. Thankfully for her, he isn't rolling over, just trying to get himself up, even if she clings to him. "A really wet and cold bug."

3

[motherfucking_ghost]

[He's ready to take a short break to make some team-colored balls (heh) and guard a flag meantime, but lo and behold--] HEY! That's illegal! [No it's not it's not actually in the rules. But where did she get hot water from? He's already picking up a handful of snow, not even bothering to pack it tightly, just needs to chase her off.] You'll melt the whole damn snow fortress down!

[motherfucking_ghost]

So obviously when Church finds an opening to get at those Periwinkle walls, he's taking it, so obviously when Church takes it, he's got yet another little elf trying to tackle his ass. Where did she come from?! She literally dropped from the fucking sky! The noise he makes at suddenly having a weight dropped on him is not the most manly noise to ever happen. His arms flail out to try and balance, but her momentum drops him over.

"Okay! Okay, I get it, I'm kind of big! You guys are so lucky I can't tackle you back."

What he might do is try to grab her, though, before she can, idk, dump a mountain of snow on his face.