Winter Wonderland PV Elena Clark Reopened

xxxxxxxx

Snow. The end of a carefully honed cycle that started at the bottom of the deepest ocean, drops of water lifted high by the sun's warmth, rising into the atmosphere. Evaporation. The vapor cools down, turning into small ice crystals - gathering thousands of feet above the ground and forming what we call clouds. Condensation. As their weight increase, they grow heavier and heavier, until what's inevitable happens - the fall. Precipitation. Standing beneath that final step of that endless cycle, Elena's nose was risen towards the sky, watching snowflakes twirl down and depose themselves on the frozen canva - each one a brush stroke added to a breathtaking scenery. The end of a cycle, or perhaps the beginning of one. After all, doesn’t spring follow winter’s frost? Why should a season that lays the groundwork for rebirth be seen as lifeless? Winter, often misunderstood, has for most its beauty found in its landscapes, celebrations, and the festive warmth it inspires. Yet the young raven admired it for more : for bearing the weight of disdain, for being labeled a dead season, and still thriving in its icy splendor. Quiet resilience. A silent scream at the face of the world. Then again, perhaps the young girl found a mirror in the pristine appearance of its stilness. Perfect, one might state. Flawless, admirable, yet with a certain desolation at its core. Delicate shroud of white concealing lifeless forms, decaying tree cloaked behind splendor. Perfect ? Extending a ink-stained hand by hours of scribbles, she captured an intricate snowflake, watching it melt in the warmth of her body. Short puffs of air were visible, escaping her mouth as she breathed in sync with the eerily silent place. Hiding the blush that had started to spread over her nose, she burried it beneath the soft and heated wool of her scarf. As the ravenclaw's wardrobe was specifically made of criminally adorable jackets, Elena had a hard time getting dressed this morning. She had settled on a black leather one, paired with a heavy knitted hoodie, some dark blue flare jeans and doc martens. To prevent the cold from freezing her to death, matching scarf and earmuffs covered their designated areas. Her ever-so cold hands were hidden by black mittens - who obviously failed, given the freezing cold fingers that desperately tried to warm up. Besides her hands, the blonde haired girl was actually quite warm. A faint movement at the extremity of her vision startled her, as she vividly turned and squinted to try and see through the thickening snowfall that kept flowing from the sky. A silhouette with golden blonde hair was kneeling down, making strange movement - Elena frowned, taking a step forward. Resting against some dead tree trunk, a hundred feet away from the familiar figure, she observed. Alyss. The name suddenly flashed in the back of her mind, the syllables rolling out of her tongue in a faint whisper. The sweet girl had introduced herself to Elena before getting brutally murdered in a mystery solving game that had occurred a few months ago. A true breath of spring, that's the impression she had left on the raven - sunlight playing with freshly bloomed flowers. Seeing that particular flower struggle against winter's elements was quite a poetic sight, if the young girl had been in any mood for writing. Muffling a chuckle, she simply observed, one shadow amongst so many.

xxxxxxxx

December 20th, 2024	Grounds
“English”	“Gaelic”

The beauty of snow is often marveled at, not for the snow itself, but for the scene it creates. Whether it be the beauty of trees that once held leaves instead carrying the magical white cloud of snow, or the beauty of the sheer happiness that it causes for children, as they gallop into the powder and spend hours building snowmen, snow forts, or having snowball fights. It could be the bonding of siblings, as they laugh at the cocoa mustaches that they find upon their faces.

Snow leads to much beauty, something that no one can deny, even with the effort put into shoveling, or drinks freezing upon being cracked open. The landscape is breathtaking, and many can find comfort in the sight of it, even in the cold months that winter brings.

Alyss was too young to quite understand this, and instead focused on the fun that snow brought her. When it snowed, she was always able to have a boatload of fun, and so always looked forward to the winter, even with the cold that came with it. As she began on the second snowball, she started to remember… or perhaps reflect is a better word. There was much to remember, but she remembered the friendships forged through the sledding, snowman making, and snowball fights. Perhaps more would made, even if she was in a different location.

This sentiment is what caused her to glance up from her work to gaze at the environment around her. This led her eyes directly to Elena Clark. Elena was someone Alyss had certainly met prior. They mostly knew each other through other friends, but they had met. At the ball, the two were in the same group for the murder mystery, and were promptly the first two to get killed. All this to say, it was rather odd to just see her watching Alyss, and Alyss certainly thought so as well. Of course, there was the possibility that Elena had been looking past her, at the lovely scenery that surrounded them. However, Alyss wasn’t one to question her own judgements, and she made an odd face at Elena. What on earth was she doing, just standing there watching her?

Alyss reached for the snow beside her and began packing it together into another snowball, with no hesitation. She had been waiting a long time to do this, Elena just happened to be her target. So she thought, before launching the snowball at Elena.
Alyss acc: [d20 : 15] + 7 = 22
Lena eva: [d20 : 17] + 7 = 24
22 < 24 -> Lena dodges the snowball.
Unfortunately for her, she missed. The snowball got quite close to the girl, but she managed to dodge it last second. Alyss giggled, and then let out a loud laugh. “What’re you doing just standing there? C’mon and join me!” Alyss called, forming another snowball between her palms before reluctantly setting it to the side to await Elena’s response. If she decided not to join her, Alyss had the start to her snowman’s head, but no bonding. But if she decided to join in the fun… Alyss had some ammunition. And possibly a new friend.

xxxxxxxx

The sudden acknowledgement of her presence took Elena slightly off guard, as the snowball crashed on a tree a few centimeters away from her head. Her reflexes caught on, and she dodged it last second. Turning her gaze towards the origin of this sudden attack, she was met with the grinning face of the very girl she had been calmly watching. Scoffing, a smile slowly making it's way onto her face, she narrowed her eyes before taking a few steps back, retreating behind the trees. You want to play ? Let's play. A newly childish adrenaline was coursing through her system, a infantile feeling she hadn't felt in such a long time. Drawing her wand, she focused on the snow right before Alyss. "Wingardium Leviosa," she whispered, inflicting a slow circular motion to the little stick, before drawing it downward swiftly. A sudden white veil masked her silhouette to Alyss's eyes, blinding wall that provided a cover for the raven. A light chuckle escaping her, she rushed to hide under a nearby small wall, mossy stones covered in a slim snowy coat. Heart pounding - how delightful it felt to feel it rush from excitement and not fear - she hoped she hadn't saw her. Kneeling down, she took her mittens off and started packing a snowball. Taking a peek through the wall, she calculated the distance separating her from her target. Then, in one swift motion, she rose to her feet and threw the ball with every ounce of energy she had, before dropping back down to her knees, a huge grin plastered on her face. Heart thundering inside her chest, she stopped breathing for a second, listening. A thud and a surprised cry confirmed she had reached her target, the thought making her laugh. Alyss's base was only a few dozen of steps away, yet Elena raised her voice to make herself heard. "You have no idea who you've provoked, senseless mortal !" She yelled in a deep, gravely voice - a hint of laughter audible beneath it. "Prepare yourself to suffer the consequences of my wrath !" Gathering another snowball, she threw it this time without looking. The ball flew far away from her friend, causing a grunt to escape the golden haired girl. Kneeling back again, she began to create ammunition. A war had begun.

xxxxxxxx

throw 1 : alyss eva [d20:11]+6=17 | lena acc [d20:15]+6=21
throw 2 : alyss eva [d20:12]+6=18 | lena acc [d20:3]+6=9

December 20th, 2024	Grounds
“English”	“Gaelic”

There are many fundamentals when it comes to war. Positioning, ammunition, military power, and so forth. The very best military commanders in history were those who understood the importance of strategy and optimizing all of these conditions to their favor. They were the ones who tricked their opponents, ambushing them or giving them reason to underestimate their troops when in reality they were highly skilled. Very simple yet effective tactics are what led to countless victories throughout history, with the only difference between then and now being differing military technology and the size of the engaging forces.

In this case, it was a one vs one, with snowballs being their superior military equipment. Alyss was delighted upon seeing Elena take up her offer of a snowball fight, and she immediately backed up and threw up a curtain of snow between the two, using a basic spell learned in charms. Perhaps Alyss should have been better prepared, as soon after beginning to look through the veil of snow as it fell to the ground, she was hit squarely with a snowball, letting out a sharp yelp was she was hit. Perhaps this wasn’t a smart battle to have gotten herself into, but unlike the past military geniuses? Alyss had a couple tricks up her own sleeve. Namely? Her wand.

Pulling her wand out from beneath her coat, Alyss pointed it at the giant snowball in front of her, meant for her snowman. Clearly the tables had turned, and she was less concerned about her large snowman, and more about winning this snowball fight. With a swish and flick, along with the muttering of “Wingardium Leviosa!” The snowball lifted into the air. Now, while Alyss had been pulling out her wand, a snowball missed her. But this snowball led Alyss to believe she knew where her target was located, and her eyes focused on the mossy wall, searching for any signs of movement. But what else had happened during Alyss’ pulling out of her wand, Elena had taunted her, hinting that she had no chance. It was both of these factors that led Alyss to point her wand just above the wall before letting go of her magic
Alyss’ acc: [d20: 7] + 7 = 14
Elena’s eva: [d20: 4] + 7 = 11

Alyss let out a whoop as she heard a yelp from the other golden haired girl as the giant snowball collapsed on top of her. The only problem? Alyss no longer had any cover, given that she chose a semi-open field to build her snowman, and had just thrown her giant snowball, which was pretty good cover, at the enemy. She realized all this and quickly chucked her leftover snowball from the very first throw at the wall, hoping to hear another hit before she started on quickly building a snow-wall.
Alyss’ acc [d20: 18] + 7 = 25
Elena’s eva [d20: 11] + 7 = 18

Thankfully it seemed the snowball had hit, and she grinned as she hastily gathered all of the snow around her into a pile large enough to hopefully block any enemy ammunition. “You’re totally going down!” Alyss called, before finally putting her wand back away and beginning to form snowballs from the leftover snowball around her.

Reducio

Mentions: @Elena Clark
Note: I’m loving this thread simply because of the pure joy I get from writing it

xxxxxxxx

If Elena had often ruminated and imagined how her own death might occur, fantasizing intricate scenarios that held many twists and countless different endings, trespassing from being burried alive under a gigantic snowball was definitely not on her list. Sadly, the laws of nature do not bend to a eleven years old raven, and a sharp yelp escaped her as the sheer weight of the snow collapsed on her head. Is that- ? The once-snowman-now-war-weapon had been used agaisnt its will by the devious blonde who was currently out in the open, with little to no protection. If Elena remembered correctly what she had glimpsed before engaging in this fight, Alyss still had a singular snowball left before- crash Well, there it is. Extricating herself with great difficulty from the mountain of white powder under which she had been buried, not once, but twice, she shook the remaining snow of her honey curls, and immediately a serious expression darkened her doll-like features. Trying to recall any military litterature she might have stumbled upon, or tactic books hidden within her father's library, she took a second to ponder on the situation. If Alyss was currently without any tangible conver, then her first instinct would be to try and create some kind of defense with whatever material was laying around her - snow, in their situation. Peaking through some cracks running along the small stone wall behind which she was hidden, she confirmed her hypothesis - though it resembled more a pile than a wall. Mentally creating a list, she added this obstacle on top of it. Her first mission would be to destroy it. Luckily, she was in posession of something Alyss had not : a solid defense, a half-wall that ran all the way up to the nearby road, offering a delicious abundance of hiding choices. For this was her next mission : confuse her enemy and trick her into wasting her munitions. But first, she needed amo. Dropping to her feet, she started forming snowballs quicker than she might have thought herself capable of, building a small pile. Smiling as she heard Alyss's shout, Elena focused on her fingers working digilently to bring herself victory. A minute later, when she was finally satisfied with the amount of munitions that were now in her possession, she drew her wand and pointed it towards the pile. "Wingardium Leviosa," she whispered, only leaving a few balls behind. She guided it toward a new spot, where the wall was slightly higher, and then crawled back to her initial position, the once Alyss knew of. Now was the decisive moment, she had to be quick. Grasping the three snowballs remaining, she quickly got up and shot them one after the other. She didn't even need them to hit (even if she would like it), she solely needed them to distract Alyss and force her to duck. As soon as she saw the blonde girl diving into the snow with a yelp as one, then two balls hit her, Elena ran. In three stride she had reached her new spot, and dove under the wall. Now was the moment of truth. If her plan had worked, then Alyss would keep firing her previous spot, giving Elena enough time to build more munitions. Heart thundering, the raven's face was split in half by a smile so bright it could outlight the sun.

xxxxxxxx

throw 1 : alyss eva [d20:5]+6=11 | lena acc [d20:11]+6=16
throw 2 : alyss eva [d20:5]+6=11 | lena acc [d20:11]+6=16
throw 3 : alyss eva [d20:5]+6=11 | lena acc [d20:11]+6=16

December 20th, 2024	Grounds
“English”	“Gaelic”

Swiftly building cover for an onslaught of ammunition that you know is coming is terrifying. Even more terrifying when the material you’re building with is crystallized water, and needs to be patted into place prior to piling more snow atop the attempt at cover. Alyss was trying her best at this, and while she would like to claim she wasn’t utterly failing, that would be a lie. So while she could have been focusing on forming more snowballs to keep their rivalry evenly matched, Alyss had gone for the big move and was now suffering the consequences, in the form of building a snow wall.

Now, Alyss wished to have sufficient room to crouch behind this position prior to any of her strikes, so her swiftly made snow wall was rather thin in stature, however a decently tall height. She had to venture on the other side of the wall at times to pack it in and ensure maximum stability, and these were the times in which she was on edge and prepared for the white balls of doom to close in on her, but it appeared her opponent was halting as well, as she reloaded her own arsenal.

It wasn’t until she tucked herself behind her wall that the snowballs began flying in, and she ducked, trying to stay out of their line of fire. However, Alyss was either cursed, the worst dodger in the world, or simply unlucky, as they seemed to fly through the air, honed in on her, and managed to collapse with a smack, directly onto her torso. These weren’t particularly appreciated, and Alyss very much wanted to make Elena aware of this. The largest problem with that would have to be that while Elena was forming ammunition to launch at Alyss, Alyss had been building up her cover once more.

This left the girl at a disadvantage, and so she crouched once again, head tucked into chest and legs curled up as she began forming her snowballs from the surrounding pieces of snow. They would be placed beside her, readily available should she decide to use them. The only problem with this course of action would be that Alyss was preparing for an assault from the entirely wrong spot. Where Elena had been previously was now empty, but the Slytherin didn’t know that. No, she still believed Elena to remain in her prior location.

This was why Alyss merely let out a grunt of dissatisfaction as she allowed for one of the snowballs in her stockpile to fly through the air toward the patch of wall that her adversary had been located previously, merely annoyed that she seemed to have been wide of her target upon there being no sound of confirmation of a hit, rather than having discovered the movement of her opponent. Instead, she continued to shape the snowballs with her hands, eyes glancing from her work to the wall where her enemy supposedly awaited, gearing up for the possibility of a frontal assault.

December 20th, 2024	Grounds
“English”	“Gaelic”

Alyss was laughing. The happy reaction had been bubbling up, and finally spilled over, despite the snow being thrown at her face. She collapsed in the snow momentarily, lost in her fit of giggles. Elena, her dear friend, her lovely moon-obsessed classmate, was spectacular. She was someone Alyss wasn’t going to let go of. Who else had let Alyss just let loose and have such a wonderful time without even once considering that she might have gone too far?

As a war cry built up in the Ravenclaw’s throat, Alyss half-heartedly tossed some more snow at the girl, before being bowled over. Elena slammed into Alyss, leaving them to roll over a couple times before Alyss was sprawled out on the snow, stomach cramping from laughter and cheeks beginning to hurt from the gigantic smile that had been evident on her face for some time. The snowflakes landed peacefully, a calming sensation when compared to the adventure Alyss had just had.

She was out of breath, tired, and definitely a little cold. And yet? She was still smiling so, so big. “That was so much fun!” Alyss exclaimed, turning over to grin at Elena. She laughed again, a more controlled one this time, rather than a gasping, overwhelming one. “Thank you. You’re so great.” and those words that she spoke? She meant them from the bottom of her heart.