(no subject)

[whatamigoodfor.livejournal.com]

Date: December 20, 1999
Setting: The grounds
Status: Public
Summary: War starts a snowball fight.


There’s all sorts of speculation on why wars break out, and though not many say it, most of it is due to boredom.

War had been bored. She had been bored in 1812 and re-fought on the sea a conflict that had already been settled on land. She had been bored in 1914, and had succeeded in getting millions of men to sit in miles and miles of pestilential ditches and shoot at each other for no good reason. There was nothing like a good bloody battle for light entertainment.

And she was bored now, and had had no way of relieving the ennui of the tentative, resentful peace in the Manor. An all-out skirmish would not be permitted, at least here, so War had designed the next best thing to ease the passage of a tedious day.

She was propped up on the edge of a tightly-packed fort on an incline on the lawn. She smiled a smile almost as cold and biting as the air around her, and her breath rose in thin tendrils of steam as she packed snow into a hard icy ball. She examined it, tossing it to herself a few times: it was heavy, sculpted into almost a perfect sphere, and about as aerodynamic as snow could be. Her smile sharpened. This baby was going to sting.

War wrapped her mink-trimmed coat tighter around her, kneeled to peek over the top of the snow-fort’s walls, and lay in wait for prey.

Comments

[polldancer.livejournal.com]

Famine exited Tadfield Manor, not noticing the snow fort on the lawn due to the blinding expanse of white in front of him, and not expecting anything unusual. After all, what could happen in Tadfield.

[whatamigoodfor.livejournal.com]

War raised one eyebrow and smirked. Famine. Of course. Anytime war and snow were mixed, he was sure to follow. And old companionship, she reasoned as she kissed the snowball and let loose, aiming, for Famine's cheek, would never stop her from having a bit of fun.

[polldancer.livejournal.com]

The last thing Famine had expected was a snowball - a very hard snowball, no less, almost an ice ball - to strike him in the face the moment he was outside. In hindsight it really shouldn't have been so surprising, what with the heavy snowfall and War being in the immediate vicinity. He looked in the direction the snowball had come from and was surprised when he didn't immediately see her. Of course, after a moment he noticed the fort and grinned.

[whatamigoodfor.livejournal.com]

War stood and leaned over the wall, grinning something ranging on good-naturedly. "Going to beg for mercy, Famine? Won't make me stop, but it'd be cute."

[bipolar-uriel.livejournal.com]

Uriel decided to take a little break from his painting. He'd just finished his portrait of Michael and didn't feel like starting with Gabriel right away. Therefore, he put on a cloak over his robes -- even if some humans saw him, he didn't really care; they appeared to be all quite well informed on supernatural issues -- and headed outside. Maybe a bit of fresh air would do him good. (Of course he wasn't going to really breathe, but the sunlight that he hopefully would get outside would definitely be pleasant.) Then, after stepping out of the Manor, he started a slow walk over the snowy ground, oblivious to the small-scale war going on nearby.

[polldancer.livejournal.com]

Famine, completely unaware of the approaching angel, continues his war with....well, War. "Well, it certainly couldn't hurt!" He tried to dodge the ice balls and actually succeeded with the first...but then the next two hit him in the torso almost simultaniously. Were he human he'd have had the air knocked out of him, but fortunately he was not human and didn't strictly need to breathe. "Nice shot." He recovered quickly and threw a couple more snowballs her way.

[whatamigoodfor.livejournal.com]

Even War couldn't dodge everything that had been aimed at her through the millennia, including Famine's snowballs. She laughed as she took two to the chest, but stopped as the third hit her neck and began to melt down her coat. She dropped to her knees to shake her coat and shirt out and reload. Reaching for a fresh handful of snow, she spotted a newcomer out of the corner of her eye.

Angels always made wonderful targets.

She jerked her head in Uriel's direction and loosed off a barrage of snowballs at him, crossing every few seconds to fend off Famine.

[bipolar-uriel.livejournal.com]

Uriel giggled evilly once again as he saw Destruction sinking into the snow. Then he made the rest of the snow bank collapse on top of the man for good measure, too.

This was most certainly getting rather fun, he decided. Gathering some more snow and forming it into perfectly round balls, he eyed War challengingly. Well, as challengingly as he could, anyway -- he could hardly keep himself from laughing aloud as he saw the giant snow ball getting bigger and nearer to War all the time.

He glanced towards Famine and noticed that his ally had moved out of the way of the giant ball. Excellent.

[http://users.livejournal.com/white_grin_/]

The marquis de Carabas's personal tour of the Manor having covered all the rooms he found interesting, it was no surprise that he eventually found himself outside to explore the grounds.

He raised his eyebrows when he saw the scene in the yard, however. The man face-down in the snow seemed somewhat... familiar, as did the redhead (who was, it seemed, about to be hit by a very large snowball indeed), and the thin man with black hair. The only one he felt no recognition for was the man in the robe, although something about him made the marquis feel a bit uneasy.

Well, far be it for de Carabas to attack the disadvantaged, and besides, in coming around the side of the Manor he had found himself behind the robed figure. He grinned, knelt down, formed up a snowball, and let fly at the back of the man's head.

"Is this a private battle, or may anyone join?" he called out, rather pleased with the belatedness of his question.

[bipolar-uriel.livejournal.com]

Being too concentrated on War, Uriel's angel senses didn't pick up the "threat" from behind. Therefore, he was rather unprepared as a snowball hit the back of his head -- rather hard, even.

Yelping a bit in surprise, he turned around just in time to hear the newcomer's deliberately belated question. Brushing snow off his neck, he glared at the man, then let his snowballs fly, half of his mind occupied with scooping snow from the ground, forming it into balls, and hovering those balls at an appropriate distance to be taken into use as soon as he ran out of ammunition.

"Anybody's free to join," he shouted out, "but in this battle, there's no giving up before the end!"

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the large snowball finally hit War's back, half of it immediately melting into icy cold water. Crying out in triumph, he then jumped aside to avoid the newcomer's attack.

[entropyoptimism.livejournal.com]

Destruction, spluttering, finally crawled out of the snowdrift just as War got snowballed. He couldn't help but snigger a little, then remembered what side he was on. "Right," he muttered. "Now then." The angel was heading for the top of the hill... and he had his wings out. Well, that could be fixed. He backed up till he had a clear path, then grabbed a snowball in each hand and took a run-up.

"Hey, Odin!" Destruction yelled cheerily as he sped past. "Watch this!"

"YAARRR!" The huge redhead cried as he threw himself bodily at the Angel, hooking his arms over the wings and smushing the snowballs into them.

[polldancer.livejournal.com]

Famine was distracted by the attack on Uriel, and didn't see War come barreling toward him. He had already turned to aid his ally when he was suddenly hit by a very fast-moving apocalyptic personification. His footing was already bad due to the thick snow and icy ground and he went down instantly, snow flying into his face and a red blur coming down on top of him. He shoved a handful of snow into her face and tried to flip her off of his chest.

[whatamigoodfor.livejournal.com]

War laughed as she and Famine toppled over, and she quickly scrambled on top of him, hooking her legs around his arms and sitting solidly on his chest. "Just try to get rid of me no--" she began, but was quickly silenced by a faceful of snow.

She spat some of it back out and dumped more on his face, taking particular glee in stuffing more into his coat. And she was still sopping wet.

[allfather-odin.livejournal.com]

Wednesday grinned approvingly as Destruction wrecked havoc on the angels wings. Snow white angels wings, he thought to himself and laughed. Wednesday turned to look at the Marquis. "The Hill. Prime stretegic point. He who sits at the top will be the King! We must make our way there to ensure victory!"
Wednesday paused for a minute. King of the Hill. A child's game. He was slightly disturbed at his thoughts. It wasn't right for him to be enjoying this as much as he was, it was... ungodly. It made him think...
Until a tightly packed snowball hit him squarely in the back of the head, causing his glass eye to soar onto a nearby snow bank. High pitched angelic laughter echoed in his ears.
Needless to say it knocked him out of his reverie, and again his blood boiled. He looked to the Marquis. "Come, friend. To the Hill!"
On top of a snow drift, a grey eye stared unblinking into a white English Vestri Strönd! ... Eða hæð... hvað sem, hver sem er, hver sá..."*

*"To the Western Shore... Or hill... whatever..."

[bipolar-uriel.livejournal.com]

Uriel shrieked rather non-angelically as Destruction attacked him. He tried to kick his attacker away, very unhappy. Angel wings could take a lot, but snow between his feathers wasn't nice, and a man -- or a man-shaped person -- hanging over his wings definitely kept him from flying. He was somehow staying in the air still, but it definitely wasn't easy -- or high.

At last, he decided that Destruction wouldn't let go of his wings. Therefore, he simply folded his wings, hoping to make the man's grasp disappear. As soon as he hit the ground, he rolled to the side, then glanced around only to see his ally's helpless position and the latest team of the snowball fight heading for the hill.

Now, that wouldn't do. The hill would be theirs! He waved his hand, and suddenly the remains of War's snow fortress were coming down at the two men charging up.

Unfortunately, this took up his concentration, leaving him open for an attack from behind.

[archangel-mike.livejournal.com]

Michael, who was not very happy at the moment, glanced out of his window. At first he snorted at the sight that met his eyes. Really, snowball fight? How utterly childish.

Then, however, something startling caught his eye. To be exact, a darkhaired form in a white and green robe and cloak. Uriel.

For a moment Michael debated with himself about whether he should go outside and try to put a stop to the fight. On one hand, it appeared like Uriel was definitely enjoying himself. On the other hand, though, it was obvious that Uriel wasn't working on his "normal mode" at the moment, and when he did come back to normal, he probably wouldn't be too happy to notice what idiocy he had indulged in.

Finally Michael came to a decision. Sighing, he exited his room to stop his fellow archangel before Uriel did something he might regret later. Providing what he'd already done wasn't enough.

"Uriel!" he called out as soon as he stepped out of the Manor. "Uriel, stop that! You're not in your right mind!"

[bipolar-uriel.livejournal.com]

Uriel turned his head at the sound of Michael's voice, mildly annoyed at the disturbance. "Normalcy is overrated!" he yelled, then threw a snowball at Michael. Well. At Michael's mouth. Which was conveniently open, even. How absolutely splendid.

Giggling triumphantly, he then continued his running towards War and Famine.

[archangel-mike.livejournal.com]

Michael coughed and spluttered as he suddenly found a large snowball in his mouth. As he was pretty much at his nerves' end as it was, he now felt the last bits of self-control he still somehow possessed slipping away.

Oh, heck. If that was the way Uriel wanted to play. He knew what he was getting at, pissing off the head of Heaven's army. And he would pay for it.

A quick glance around revealed two men with their feet frozen at one spot on the side of the nearby hill. That was obviously Uriel's doing. Waving his hand, Michael thus melted the ice. Anything that worked against Uriel's intentions was fine with him. "What are the sides?" he yelled, starting to form snowballs between his hands. "And whatever they are, I'm not on the same one with him!" he then added, pointing at Uriel.

[peppered-wargod.livejournal.com]

Pepper did not twirl. If anyone had described what she was doing as she exited the Manor as such, she probably would have punched them. She was, obviously, feeling much more like herself than she had been when she first arrived.

She stood and watched the snowball fight for a while, before moving closer to it. As she did so, she gathered up snow from the ground and began to form it into a ball. When she was approximately a meter from the fight, she glanced between the skirmishers and her snowball and swiftly threw it at War before bending down to grab more snow.

[whatamigoodfor.livejournal.com]

At this point in the battle, War was getting used to being hit, but she did stop administering snow to Famine to glance at where the latest snowballs had come from. She hissed.

"Sorry, but this just got serious," she said, pulling herself off Famine's chest and hurling a large snowball back at Pepper.

[entropyoptimism.livejournal.com]

At this point Destruction came running up. "Hey War," he said, grinning broadly and pulling her away from Famine for a planning session. "You're a trifle damp, aren't you? Seems it's us against the world, eh?!" He surveyed the area. "Now, a fortress on the hill is the most obviously advantageous position, which is why everyone's fighting over it - but as I rightly remember, wheneverr we've teamed up in the past there weren't any walls left after a while. It's kind of like playing the roll side in Snaflhnaflbaflwifl..." he paused at her expression and looked shifty. "Oh, that's right, you're not responsible for that dimension. Er, in that case, nevermind. Lets go undermine some foundations."

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

Adam had been watching the snowball fight for some time from a window in the lobby. He was aching to participate, but telling himself that he had no right to barge into other people's fun. Plus, he felt that he was supposed to be acting mature to keep everyone from worrying about their safety. But once Pepper joined in, he couldn't help himself. He tore outside and ran to Pepper's side.

"Hey, Pep! Can I be on your team?"

[allfather-odin.livejournal.com]

Wednesday looked over his shoulder (his left, if he looked over his right one, he wouldn't have been able to see a thing) and watched as the Captain and the Marquis gained the top of the hill. A few of the other combatants were trying to undermine the foundation of the little fort, (Destruction amoung them), so he threw a few snowballs in their direction. Surveying the rest of the snowball battle, he caught sight of the Woman again, but this time in combat with another red-headed woman. He smiled. Finally, things were truly getting interesting...

[entropyoptimism.livejournal.com]

As War advanced on the front of the fort with her snowballs, Destruction crept around it and surveyed the area. Finding a likely snowdrift, he burrowed under it like a worm, steadily creeping in the direction of the fort on the hill. It helped that he didn't technically have to breathe.

Soon he found himself right next to the wall - in fact, he could hear Michael's voice not too far away. Well, he couldn't access his old powers without reclaiming his Realm, but minor explosions were certainly still allowed. Still, best to do it slowly, just to be on the safe side.

The castle wall shuddered.

[archangel-mike.livejournal.com]

Michael was just about to reach the snow fort as he noticed a shudder running through its walls. From the other direction he suddenly found himself being attacked with a personification of war with several snowballs.

A part of him -- a very large part -- wanted to scream, "Not fair!" In fact, it took a rather considerable effort to keep himself from doing so. Instead, he reached out his angel powers to support the fort's walls. The shuddering stopped for a while.

However, his power was more inclined to destroy than to save -- well, at least more so than most angels'. Most likely he couldn't keep the walls up for long.