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

[fledglingenchanter]

A warm laugh spills out of Sadira as she grins, even more, flashing a toothy grin to Merrill, "Pleasure to meet you, Merrill, I am Sadira." Was it silly to be friendly in the midst of an epic snow fight? She didn't care, this was all in fun anyway. "Even though we didn't know each other before, I think it's safe to say that we know each other fairly intimately now."

[fledglingenchanter]

She looks from Mal to the Mabari with a look of mild confusion, wondering if it's a language thing where all animals of a species are assigned a certain gender, such as all dogs being male and all cats female.

"You said his name was Jayne?" Jayne sounded feminine... But she shook her head. This was his dog to name as he saw fit and also a dog that had been formerly owned by Orlesians. She was fairly certain that was the explanation right there. Instead, she turned her attention back to the snow fight, "Ugh, I know, even red would have been better. Anyway, whatever you're interested in doing, I'd be more than happy to help. I think I've sat around the base long enough."

[judgemewhole]

[James arched an eyebrow, before answering serenely.] I believe we can be more than one thing in this life.

[judgemewhole]

They are not, but she does now have an adorable mabari nipping at her fingers for the treat.

[judgemewhole]

Ah! My apologies, you mistake me. I meant they do not have ... genitalia on them. [He cleared his throat.] We have flags, naturally.

[judgemewhole]

"Yes Pel?"

And after Ellana got him, he's not going to be fool enough not to put his shield up.

[the_effect_she_has]

"Merrick! Jayne's coming around! ...if we have any jerky, distract him!" Katniss called out over her shoulder, while she continues to open fire on Mal and his shield.

"Begone, serah!"

[judgemewhole]

Of course not. In fact I want you to load that thing up as often as possible. Tear down their defenses so our people can scale the walls. I'll be guarding the gates myself.

[judgemewhole]

[He sighed softly, before he shrugged.]

I have Valentine. He seems willing to do bodily harm to anyone who manages to get past me. Fair warning, he's Orlesian and insane.

[the_effect_she_has]

She lets out another shriek, because that is snow in her scalp and now running down her neck. Fair's fair, though, so she scoops up more snow and shoves it down Zevran's shirt.

"Oh ho, we both know more than me!"

[fledglingenchanter]

Eagerly, Sadira leaned over watching Ruby etch into the snow their plan of attack. She nodded along in agreement and hefted her shield, rolling her shoulder, "I'm good with tackling. Of the two of us, I think you're faster anyway. You should run with the flag."

[doneisdone]

Oh, so he thinks he'll be smart, doesn't he.
Paying far more attention to the dog than to the man, Teren focuses her efforts on disappearing rather than fighting back, ducking and weaving through the masses of people. Her aim is to cause as much destruction as possible before or if Jayne reaches her, so naturally she leads him through as many clusters of combatants as she can manage. If nothing else, it'll slow him down.

[scalethewall]

Yea, I think I saw a few. I'm not sure if you'd call them traps, but large amounts of snow ready to be toppled on intruders. It seems like a few people must've had some fun thinking these things up. [Fun thinking them up, but he couldn't see anyone enjoying actually building them. So much cold. So much snow.]

Like the catapult, I'm guessing they're made to mostly shower people in snow.

[ichaer]

"Of course we are. We hit them hard and we hit them fast, leave them no time to get a plan in motion."

And Ciri really, really just wants to get shot out of one just once today. "Then we go for the other teams."

[scalethewall]

[He's not far behind her, managing, at least, to keep up though doing so meant he couldn't pause to throw anything else at her.

The look she flashes back in his direction is definitely terrifying, as if she'd gleefully be willing to bury him up to his neck in snow.

He's actually starting to wonder if this was a good idea or not. Mostly, because he's soft and the worst he plans on doing is repaying her by shoving some snow down the back of her shirt.]

[fledglingenchanter]

Graceful, Sadira was not as she flounders after the elf. Not being able to tackle smaller opponents was making this so much harder. Needing help, Sadira pushes down her pride and sucks in a deep breath.

"Hey! She has our flag!"

Even as she calls out, she is already trying to pick up the pace, while trying to mash together enough snow on the run to make a sizable snowball.

[arlathvhen]

Beleth is perfectly happy to have the companionable silence, occasionally stopping to praise a particularly intricate pair of snow antlers, or to point out something funny that happened on the rest of the field. After a long bout of silence, she decides to bring up a point of discussion they'd had a while ago--a lot of things had happened since then, and it'd been pushed out of her mind, but she's had plenty of time now to think on it.

"Have you thought about officially asking the advisors for sending crystals for our Keepers? I was thinking about it--It'd be a good excuse to visit our clans, wouldn't it? Those crystals aren't something we can really just shove in an envelope and send off with a raven." It sounds good, and it also sounds...nerve wracking. Going back home. Seeing her mother again.

[arlathvhen]

"That's true. I like dancing." There's been plenty of opportunities--dancing around bonfires, dancing at a soiree, in the tavern. "Do you dance often? I mean--often, subjectively, since there isn't a lot of opportunities generally..." She frowns for a moment, brushing some snow off her scarf.

"You know what I mean. But yes, we can try making hats. Just don't give them yours, or you'll get cold." With that, she grabs more snow, and starts trying to craft a little snow hat for one of the figures. The brim will be tricky--but it doesn't need to be as big a brim as Cole's hat.

speech;

[apostasia]

Martel is not a member of Cassandra's team - he answers to the small elf he keeps sending hurtling through the air at speed, which sounds about right - but he does manage to catch the latter half of her speech, regardless, and

because he is also terrible

can be heard politely clapping off to one side.

[apostasia]

(If Beleth ever repeats that thought out loud, she can anticipate Martel embracing it as wholeheartedly as he has being referred to as 'shem' by Sabine, repeating it at every opportunity as the only possible explanation.)

"Magnificent," he declares, propping himself up on one elbow so he can drink the hot chocolate rather than just pour it haphazardly on his face, observing the construction of the wall with no small charmed amusement. "I owe you a debt of gratitude of some form. Did you need anyone dropped into a bucket of water head-first?"

He's sort of always wanted to do that.

[bookish_lioness]

[She chuckled softly, though it faded when she mistakingly glanced up and caught sight of that one vandalized flag again.]

Do you think this whole thing is really going to distract the other teams half as much as it's distracting us?

don't even worry about it; I've been terrible lately ;_;

[bookish_lioness]

Hermione rolls her eyes at that teasing, but before she can really say anything in response, she blinks as the much taller woman darts towards her. Even as she's being tackled, Hermione lets out a "Wh-?" that would have turned into What are you doing where do you get off breaking your own rules after we'd just been discussing them 10 points from raspberry! Instead, she gets the wind knocked out of her, and is too scattered to really understand what happens even if someone is calling out an apology.

Trying to get up, Hermione frowns at the spot where she'd just been standing, trying to assess the situation before frowning over at Ruby. "You did that just to tackle me in retaliation, didn't you?"

After all, how else could Ruby have gotten her back and still let it not explicitly count against the rules?

[degenere]

[Better. Val's smile has a devilish tint to it. He turns back to the trebuchet and gives it a loving pat.]

As you say, monsieur. Torn defenses just happen to be a specialty of mine. When I am done, our people will not need to scale the walls. There will be no walls to scale.

[amygdalae]

Seafoam is probably the worst out of the lot, though Bruce doesn't get a chance to voice that out; Anders takes his leave once he has the chance to and its not like Bruce can't understand why.

...but at least they managed to talk without it going sideways, so in that respect Bruce supposes he can take that for what it is.

With Anders no longer lingering around there's no point for Bruce to stand here and be a sitting duck; he heads off quickly in search for a new place to lay low, and this time hopefully isn't going to be ruined by a combination of barreling elf and Grey Warden.

[colecomfort]

He does what he can to help, gathering up little bits to snow to try and build on the brim of the first hat.

"I... don't dance." He hesitates to say it, because he isn't certain whether that ought to be sad or not. "I like listening to music. How all the pieces move and fit together..."