(no subject)

[sunbaked_baker]

She couldn't help it. The sun was shining so invitingly on the thick, white snow.

So currently there are fortifications going up outside, some ways away down the snow-covered slope between the bar and the edge of the forest, tended to by a small, colorful figure in a red coat, sky-blue mittens, and a bright yellow scarf. The snow-fort may be made of dodgy building materials, and may only be three-feet tall, but don't underestimate it! Just overlook the places where structural instability has required that the outer wall be shored up with more snow.

Rae has the general idea of the snow-fort in her head as a mostly circular spiral-shape. Like a slightly flattened number 6, where the inner circle isn't fully closed - to allow a way in - and the upper loop is tight in to protect the entry-way.

It makes sense in her head, anyway. The floor of the interior circle is already packed down tight, and though it is cold, she is making good progress on the walls. Occasionally, she takes a break to make snowballs to add to the growing pile hidden inside the fort, her breath letting out little clouds of mist.


----

All good builders must take breaks, however, especially when your hands get cold. So you may find the girl sometime later, curled up on the couch before the fireplace, with a mug of hot cocoa, avidly reading the first of a set of lavishly-illustrated mythology books.



(ooc: Catch little!Rae either outside or by the fireplace!)

Comments

[herr_bookman]

And now she has someone dressed in a navy blue hoodie and an oversized blue scarf creeping up as silently as he can. He's cradling snowballs in his arm, and one of them strikes the fort once she's behind it.

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae looks up from adding more snowballs to the pile, a quick, bright smile appearing on her face when she sees who it is.

"Careful," she warns with a grin. "If you declare war, I would be forced to destroy you. Mwah ha ha ha."

[herr_bookman]

"Given that I've already opened fire," Autor says, matching her grin, "I would think any hope of an armistice is the only way to proceed--if I wanted to stop fighting."

He raises a snowball. "Defend yourself, m'lady!"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Have at you!" she shouts, because she read it in a book once, and ducks down to fill her arms with snowballs.

The first lob goes wide - clearly an intentional ranging-shot, yes. >_>

[herr_bookman]

Clearly. His shots are little better; they mostly strike the fort or the ground in front of it. Still, he keeps throwing, giggling to himself and taking open-mouthed breaths to see the white puffs in the air.

[sunbaked_baker]

She has her left arm holding a row of snowballs, leaving her right arm free to let them fly in Autor's general direction. Her enthusiasm is of a higher grade than her aim, but sometimes she gets lucky, with a victorious "ha!"

[herr_bookman]

"Pfft," Autor says, as one smacks him in the chest with a whomph. As he's out of snowballs and that hit was a good one, he staggers backwards, clutching the spot. "You've got me!" he calls, dropping to one knee. "I have suffered the bitter taste of defeat. Goodbye, cruel world!"

The boy raises a trembling hand to the sky, and collapses in the snow.

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan wanders by on his way to the greenhouse, temptingly close as he looks curiously at the fortifications.

[sunbaked_baker]

He gets a wave from a sky-blue mittened hand, and a bright smile from the little girl building the spiraling fort.

[athelstanthescribe]

He waves and smiles back. "Hello, Miss Rae. What are you making here?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Fortifications!" she answers, cheerfully holding up the snowball she just happens to have in her mittened hand. "You gotta be ready, in case a snowball fight breaks out."

[athelstanthescribe]

"..." He looks at her, smile twitching in restrained laughter. "And why might one break out?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Dissenters fomenting rebellion among the populace, or people wanting to loot the fort's store of snowball ammo," Rae says, grinning in her fort and using words she'd only seen in one of her books on history. Why no, she hadn't used the time building the fort to imagine an elaborate fantasy in which she had to save her kingdom.

"Or people wanting to have fun. That too," she admits with a smile.

Fun, first and foremost.

[capture_eternity]

Dorian wanders down the slope from the bar towards the strategically placed fortifications, looking at them with intense attention and puzzlement.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Halt! Who goes there?" Asks the diminutive guard of the fort, popping up from behind the snowy wall.

[capture_eternity]

"Friend!" Dorian calls. "Definitely friend, not foe!"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Are you sure?" Calls the guard, wielding am armful of snowballs. Though she is grinning brightly at him at the same time, which may confuse the message. "It could be a clever ruse."

[capture_eternity]

"I might be a traitor seeking ingress, you think?" Dorian says.

[sunbaked_baker]

"How do I know you're not?" asks the fort's guard, grinning suspiciously at him.

[intoaman]

There's a raven in the gardens today, stark black against the white of the snow. He spots her building and swoops, dropping brightly coloured twigs and berries to decorate her fort.

[sunbaked_baker]

The girl in red and yellow beams up at the bird, grinning and waving. Such gifts! It won't do to have such decorations without proper fortifications to show them off! So all along the fort's gently spiraling walltop, Rae begins adding regular little bumps - the snow version of the crenelations at the tops of castle walls. Each one gets topped with the colorful decorations brought to her by the swooping raven.

[intoaman]

Diaval lands lightly on the top of one of crenelations, cawing impressively and strutting importantly from one to the next. You have a guard raven!

[sunbaked_baker]

She giggles, cheerful.

"Thank you for helping keep the castle safe, Sir Raven," Rae says with the smiling solemnity of a child play-acting, giving him an approximation of a curtsey. "And for help finishing its fortifications. Now we are safe from anyone who tries to invade."

Proper fortifications are important. Though so are the piles of fist-sized snowballs piled up inside the fort. >_>

[intoaman]

He dips a very respectable bow for a bird and keeps patrolling with self-importance.

Until he misses his step and falls off the wall and into her pile of snowballs. Oops!

[sunbaked_baker]

"Careful! Careful!" she says, kneeling down and holding out her hands to help steady him as he gets his wings sorted out and his feet under him. Very gently, she brushes some loose bits of snow from his head feathers, not feeling at all odd for talking to a bird. "You okay? That was quite a tumble."