Midterm fun on Labyrinth Gardens

Scurry the Prairie Elf and friends!

January 01, 2009 11:35 AM

Midterm fun by Scurry the Prairie Elf and friends!

Scurry, wrapped up against the cold except for the points of nose and one ear (the longer one stayed under his hat, but the ear that had been cut short - quite literally, and quite some time ago - kept on escaping). Scurry paused to adjust the hat and tuck his ear back in before hurrying along the cleared paths again. The snow was heaped high to either side, and he was rather glad that he had not been among the crew who had been making it thus since the snow had unceremoniously dumped itself all over the school last night, effectively proving that midterm was indeed now official.

Scurry paused again, pondering what had made such a long and convoluted sentence run through his head (and suspecting that it might not be the only one particularly if side dentences kept on popping into initial sentences and elongating them), before realising that the students would be up and about soon and heading deeper into the gardens.

In the main clearing Scurry looked around, sizing up his surrounds. He moved towards a particularly pecarious pile of snow and circled it several times before an idea occurred to him. It took quite a lot of effort, but after a little while there was no longer a pile of snow there. It had been replaced by a snowman. Or... the shape of a snowman. Another elf passed by as Scurry frowned at it, and came up to have a look.

"It is needing a nose," the new elf said knowledgably. "And buttons and eyes and a scarf and hat."

"It is," Scurry agreed.

"Murlap could be going to fetch some, Scurry, sir," Murlap offered.

Scurry, puffing up a little at being called 'sir' by the little elf agreed, and soon afterwards there were quite a few elves - and in ever increasing numbers - in the gardens building snow men which started out being quite usual in looks, but started to get quite outlandish and imaginative by the time the clearing was so full of snowmen (and snow elves and snow women and snow professors - complete with mortar board hats and glasses) that there was barely room to move, let alone make more.

"We could be making them move," one elf pipped up after several moments discussion as to what should be done with the snowmen.

"We could," several others nodded sagely. They looked at Scurry, who puffed up even further.

"We could," he said.

After that, it didn't take too much time to have all the snowmen (and women and professors and elves) somehow shake themselves up some legs and wander off into the labyrinth. The elves looked at Scurry.

"Scurry is thinking," Scurry said, looking at them and feeling quite important indeed, "that we should be going to the Quidditch Pitch next."

A procession of elves weaved out through the gardens - gathering more as they went - and to the pitch.

In the gardens a mixed collection of snowmen peered after them, wondering what they were supposed to do. A snowball hit one on the back of the head, coming from the general direction of one of the garden statues. Luckily, the spells the elves had used had made the snowmen fairly durable, so no damage was done. And this state of being continued when the snowman scratched its head (an awkward thing when one didn't have proper fingers, let alone finger nails) in a perplexed manner before coming to the conclusion that the proper response was to return fire.

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Saul

January 07, 2009 1:43 PM

Here for the duration by Saul

Last year, Saul had stuck around the school for part of break, then had Simon take him home for Christmas itself. This year, he was planning to do the same thing, but only be home for the one day. He was way too busy, between the concert, and his campaign, and planning the debates, and well, mostly that. His schoolwork was a far distant distraction that he didn't plan to even think about until a day or two before midterm ended.

He'd experienced the snow last year - Pecari being located where it was, he hadn't had a lot of choice - so this year he was prepared. The parka, hat, mittens, scarf, snow pants, woolly socks, thermals, rubber boots, smaller gloves to be worn under the mittens, ski mask and goggles, an insulating charm, and extra heavy winter clothes were probably overkill, but he was a Californian. His nomadic, tent-dwelling family followed the warm weather. Last year was the first time he'd ever seen snow and he'd had no idea it was so dang cold.

He would not be caught outside during midterm with just a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, his canvas converse shoes, a school robe, and a light jacket ever again. He'd had to sprint and use a warming charm every time he'd wanted to go to the school proper and eat. It had lead to him leaving Pecari in the morning and not returning until he was ready to go to bed, or holing away in his Commons the whole day with a bunch of snack food scavenged the day before.

This year, he was determined that he would be able to go outside and actually enjoy the snow for the first time in his life.

He was, however, discovering that it was hard move, never mind see, in his current get-up. He was waddling along the path toward the school like a penguin in a bright orange winter jacket, when he was blindsided by a hit to the head and he toppled over with a startled shout and an explosion of snow as he bumped into a snow covered hedge, covering him in even more of the white stuff than what had already assaulted him.

He flailed around, eventually getting himself up off the ground again, and turned his head the whole five degrees of motion his scarf and hood and hat and everything allowed and found himself surrounded by snow creatures heavily embroiled in a war with the statues and topiary.

He had no idea which side had decked him, but he was not going to miss this chance to have his very first snowball fight. Saul knelt down and started crunching ammunition together and hurled it at any target that presented itself. This of course, turned both sides against him and, in a very short while, his bright orange jacket was so covered in snow, he was nearly indistinguishable from the snow people.

He tossed another snowball and only realized he'd hit a real person when they made a noise. "Sorry!" he called out just in time to take a snowball to the chest, making him stumble backwards, flailing for balance once more, and dislodging some of the snow covering him. "Wanna join?!" he asked at a shouting volume, because his own hearing was muffled due to all the layers encasing his head.

Unless they could recognize his voice, he doubted they'd be able to recognize him, so he added, "So far it's a three sided war: statues versus snowmen versus Saul! You can either make - hey!" he hurled a snowball at a statue that had hit him in the side of the head while he talked. After the snow packed ball sailed passed his target and hit a snowman on its other side, Saul resumed his sentence from where he'd left off: "make it four-sided, or you can join me and we can represent students!" He was assuming they were a student. But his goggles were fogged up and he couldn't see them very well.

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