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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jun 8, 2011 19:40:31 GMT -5
Nell moved her head up at the boy’s concerned voice, realizing she went off into her own little world then. ”Oh jeez, that was completely rude,” she said, and now they were both distressed, so she calmed her panic over being so airheaded as to leave Ashton just sitting there like that. Just as she was about to wave her hands around to inform him it was nothing he said at all, she rested her chin on one hand as she ruffled Ashton’s dark hair with the other. He was just so adorable, Nell had really been holding back the urge to do it. ”It was something you said, but it was a good thing. Definitely a good thing.” Even though her expression was rather melancholy, that was only because she was thinking of the people she really shouldn’t think of as family. So, she explained, ”I was just thinking…you guys are my family now.” And when Nell made a decision like that, there was no turning back on it. Finality carried in her voice. The Sinclairs and the Fuenteses have never been a family to her, so why should she consider them as such? No one’s on your side. These were the haunting words spoken by both her grandfather and her aunt so that they never left her mind.
But here she had all these people, just like that. But they don’t know. There was always the tickling doubt, the knowledge that it could never be the same again. If she told the Earth students what she had done, would they still be her allies? No, Nell knew better than to tell anyone. As much as it pained her to lie to what she considered to be her new family, she didn’t want to be shunned by them. She already felt as if she’d been welcomed into this place, it was a sanctuary for someone like her who’d been living on the edge of society for so long. There were people just like her, and she didn’t want to tarnish such a thing with her mistakes. Mistake? The little demon with its red horns and trident that she kept locked away peeked its head up into her consciousness. Did she truly regret killing her mother, even though it meant her freedom? No more thoughts like that, she decided even though she knew she was lying to herself now.
The Earth students were just a cluster of wishful-thinkers, weren’t they? Ashton, too, he was so uncomfortable with the thought of war himself. But wishful thinking is what made them who they are. Instead of giving her a half-assed answer, he replied truthfully. And she found that was something she liked about him. His unadulterated honesty. It was a relief from all the subterfuge she’d escaped from. Nell nodded. That’s just how they got by, avoidance. ”It’s not like us Earth students do anything to provoke them,” she said as if from experience, but she could pretty much guess. She’d come to think of her newly-made kin as hippies. Without the drugs, but that was a personal choice. ”The mischievous Water kids, huh.” She spoke with a light tone, because she actually did really like the ones she met (except for the Sinclairs, of course). But it was hard for Nell not to like people. Still… The Water students did not seem so bad, but she was shifty about the Fire students. As for the Thunder elementals… Well, she didn’t want to base them off of the example the Fuentes family gave her, either, so she just assumed they were pretty…isolated. ”Of course there’ll be people who stir up trouble, that’s a guarantee,” she said resignedly. ”But hey, that’s life, right?” Go optimism.
Nell giggled as he went back and forth between the window and the fire place to put it out. This guy was too much, it was probably the most she’d laughed in a long time. It saddened her to think that, but she was living in the moment right now. And at this moment, she was going to build a snowman. She led the way through the building, though this wasn’t the best choice. ”I apologize beforehand if I get us lost,” she said with a laugh in her tone. ”But let’s just say it’s an adventure, mmkay.” Nell amazingly managed to find the exit onto school grounds from whence she came, and went out to find a good place to build a snowman. But what were the prerequisites for such. Nell stared down at the pure white snow under her sandy-brown working boots, and turned to Ashton with a blush, partly from the cold, partly from the embarrassment of what she was about to ask. ”Uh…Ash….how do we start?”
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Post by ASHTON CAMDEN RALEIGH on Jun 8, 2011 20:34:34 GMT -5
Ashton shook his head vehemently, not wanting her to get the wrong idea from what he'd said. "No, no, you weren't being rude!" he insisted, waving his hands a little. He was taken aback when Nell reached forward and ruffled his hair--so much that he ducked his head and flushed bright red with sheepish surprise. He didn't challenge her or allow the situation to get awkward after that, however. Ashton really wasn't easily bothered by many things and he was sure she hadn't meant anything by it. It was usually an affectionate gesture to convey that the subject was adorable or something like that. Did she think he was adorable, then? But then Nell started speaking of family and Ashton smiled in response, his confusions about her gesture totally forgotten a moment later. She sounded like she enjoyed the idea of the Earth students being her family, so Ash was relieved she wasn't too upset with him like he'd thought. "Yup, we are!" he agreed brightly, green eyes shining.
He gave a tired chuckle. "Sometimes we do," he disagreed, "but it's not like it's intentional. A lot of them just have sticks up their--" He stopped and flushed with colour again, fully aware of what he'd been about to say. "Um... have got anger issues, that's all." He wasn't the type that usually stooped so low as to use insults, but when it came to the Fire elementals it really was true. They were easily offended by the most kind-hearted of individuals and Ash had sustained many a burns when a grumpy Fire kid took his words the wrong way. "Such is life," he agreed with a bit of a sigh. He really wished that everyone could get along, but he knew that it was more than just wishful thinking--it was absolutely impossible. Never in a million years would you get a bunch of drastically different people--especially not teenagers--to get along. Didn't happen.
"I don't mind," Ashton said with a soft laugh on the subject of getting lost. It wouldn't be like it was the first time he'd wandered down the wrong corridor of the castle and ended up somewhere completely different. "That's why there are ten minute breaks between classes, you know," he said so as to inform her. He chuckled and added, "A lot of people--freshmen especially, but not just them--accidentally get distracted and go the wrong way. Plus, the place is just so big that even when you know where you're going it takes a while sometimes..." He didn't really mind, though. He'd been telling the truth when he'd said that. The two of them weren't headed for class and so it didn't matter whether it took a minute or an hour to get onto the grounds.
Nell had a better sense of direction than she gave herself credit for, however, and not too long after setting out they had found their way onto the grounds. Ashton grinned as she looked at him helplessly and asked what they were supposed to do with the snow. "Fear not!" he said dramatically with a wide grin, puffing out his chest and laughing softly. "For I am Canadian and I am more than equipped to handle this thing called snow!" He knew that he was being silly and everything but he just couldn't help it--Ashton was in a damn good mood, and good moods meant goofy moods. Getting a little more serious, he asked, "Well first you have to make a snowball..." The Earth boy gathered some snow into his hands which were devoid of mittens and so stung with the cold. "Ah!" He dropped it in surprise and chuckled sheepishly.
"Um, not like that..."
He was a little more successful on his second attempt, packing it into a ball. "Make sure it's tight or it'll just come apart when you're rolling it!" Then he wandered over to a thicker patch of snow and placed the ball down, hitting it gently with his hand so that it rolled a little and collected some extra snow. "You just do this until it's big enough that you can just push it around... should we make it a big snowman, or a smaller one?"
[THAT LAST BIT WAS JUST FOR YOU <3]
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jun 9, 2011 13:29:02 GMT -5
”Yup, we are!”
He said the words so easily, cheerily, that he must not have realized how they would affect her. Nell could have cried from the gut feeling of raw happiness if she weren’t such an expert at holding back that kind of thing. She hadn’t cried since…since Tilly died. Even when her mother beat her, and when she felt so desolate, and when she woke up in the hospital and she’d realized what she’d done—Nell knew she couldn’t cry. Because she had to be strong, and there were worse things out there, and she had to look toward the future. But these were the sad things in her life, and she didn’t know why she felt like crying at this happiness. The body’s natural reaction to the feeling of being accepted somewhere, she supposed, of having someone on your side.
The grin stayed on her face when she said, ”Up their asses?” she finished for him with a laugh. Her eyes were alight with humor. ”Yeah, I see what you mean.” But hey, that’s how they were. And as long as she didn’t see a Fire student hurting one of her friends, she was fine with that stick being there. And there will always be butting heads and enemies and vengeance because everyone had conflicting views. It’s part of what made the world beautiful—the uniqueness of every individual. So the Earth students could have their wishful thinking and the Fire students could have their temper and the Water students could have their mischievous and the Thunder students could have their solitude and the Wind students could have their neutrality—it just meant all was well. Everyone was different.
”If you ask me, there should me more time in-between our classes,” she said inclining her head. Her light tone proved that she didn’t mind it at all. ”Like maybe a day.” Nell winked after she said this. She actually liked school, it’s her first experience in such an environment. The getting to class on time part was a problem, but she was getting better for fear of serious repercussion. All in all, the Academy was very good for her. The schoolwork distracted her from anything else that may be floating around in her always working mind, and she was pretty decent at it. Perhaps it stemmed from years of researching in the library and taking down notes and being absolutely sure that nothing could happen to Tilly.
Nell clapped her hands together as Ashton boasted how adept he was with the snow, and she bowed out of the way, saying, ”Show me, oh wise Canadian!” as she giggled at his exuberant voice and chest puffing. Even as she joked, her eyes were intent on the snow as he handled it. Or….didn’t handle it. Behind his back, Nell gathered snow into her hands and packed it together. As Ashton was distracted by his embarrassment, she tossed her first snowball at his back and it fell apart on impact. Nell chuckled with her hand over her mouth. "Like that?" she asked with wide-eyed innocence, but couldn’t help the grin taking over her face, waiting for the strike back. That was how this game worked, right?
She observed him starting the snowman like she was watching a surgical procedure. Let it be said that she’d never seen it done before, and so she was intrigued by the inner mechanisms used to create the structure of such an amazing sculpture. Apparently it involved a mound. Nell helped smooth out the mound, the snow biting at her bare hands. But she didn’t mind at all. She helped to gather up more snow, patting it down to make sure it didn’t give. Nell spread her arms wide at his question. "Biiigg snowman." So she kept pushing up snow to add onto the steadily growing mount. ”It’ll be the pride of the Academy, yes it will.”
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Post by ASHTON CAMDEN RALEIGH on Jun 9, 2011 18:41:35 GMT -5
Nell tossed a snowball that hit him in the back and broke apart easily, though it still caused a little gasp of surprise from the victim. "Hey! Not fair!" But his voice was light and amused; it was very clear that Ashton took no offence to the cheap shot as he turned around and grinned at her. "Nope, you've got it all wrong," Ashton replied as if he were totally serious, then grinned a little and picked up a large handful of snow, moulding it into a loosely compact ball before he lobbed it in Nell's direction. "It's more like that!" he replied with a laugh. It had been a long time since Ashton had participated willingly in a snowball fight. There were always a few going on at the Academy, but the Water students didn't exactly ask before they started pelting you with their snowy projectiles. What was worse was that even when the snow was light and soft, completely not ideal for making snowballs as they wouldn't stick together, the Water students could change that. They might not have been able to control ice or snow but they could certainly add a bit of water to the light snow and turn it into a wet slushball that got all down your shirt and froze you. They thought it was funny but when you were on the receiving end of one of their pranks... no, that was never nice.
Nell decided that she wanted to make the snowman into a big one, and Ashton grinned in response, dusting the snow off of his sweater from where she'd tossed the snowball at him and generally in light spirits despite the fact that it was freezing outside. "We should try and make it gigantic, then!" he said with enthusiasm. "We'll probably need to get someone taller than I am to put the head on, though... but it'd be worth it, right?" He eyed the growing mound thoughtfully and then shoved hard against it, pushing it further through the snow. It was getting really heavy and hard to push now, but he wanted to make it really big. "A lot of the college kids knock down the normal ones... but if we make it big enough and it looks really cool they might leave it alone just because." And then there were the fire students that didn't just knock it over, they melted it so that there was nothing salvageable about it. The students of the Academy could be rather cruel when they were in spiteful moods--it was hardly fair. But Ash was optimistic enough that he wanted to build this snowman anyway.
It was Nell's first, and it was going to be an epic snowman.
When he finally stopped he was actually able to lean against the massive irregular ball of snow for support, panting a little. "Shit, it's almost as tall as I am!" But he sounded amused more than anything else and he was smiling wide. He hadn't done something this fun in a while. Many of the Earth students just stayed inside during the winter and whined about how their powers were malfunctioning. Admittedly he'd been doing that alongside them until Nell had come along, so he was glad that she did. Ashton was generally a bubbly and fun-loving guy but sometimes he got into lower spirits and that was when his friends--old and new--always seemed to step in and help him look back on the bright side.
Ashton recovered and started to shape it into a more circular shape, taking one side as his responsibility and allowing Nell to handle the other. "It doesn't have to be perfect," he said as he worked on smoothing down a particularly rough spot, bending down to get some snow to repair a small gouge he made accidentally. "Making all of the balls into perfect circles would take way too much patience for me--but we can come close!" He paused and stepped back for a moment to admire their handiwork. "Now we have to decide what to do next," Ashton said importantly. "Some people prefer to make three parts of the snowman and others only use two... but if we want it to be a really big snowman we should go for three, right?" He glanced at her as if asking her opinion.
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jun 10, 2011 11:31:30 GMT -5
She was worried for a moment that Ashton may get pissed off at her surprise attack, but his voice sounded light enough. ”All is fair in love and war!” she chanted while shaking her hips and sticking her tongue out. He seemed to be serious for a moment, but her gloating was cut off as she yelped, ”Eep!” and tried to move out of the way. But she'd been caught off-guard and his snowball hit her in the shoulder. "Man down!" she cried, gripping her arm with a pained expression while trying to resist laughing hysterically. All right, Nell, focus on this snowman. Her and Ashton had a mission, and that was to create the best snowman in the history of ever. She cracked her knuckles in preparation, wondering if she should do some stretches, too. Nell almost giggled at the thought of warming up before making a snowman, but she was all giggles today.
Nell wondered exactly how big they could make this thing when he agreed cheerily that they should make it gigantic. "Definitely worth it." For her first snowman she would go all out. No holds barred. And it would be glorious, for damn sure. "No one will want to screw with this baby! It'll be the Rambo snowman," she said with a wolfish grin. She wasn't concerned about anyone coming over to roundhouse the snowman or something. Who did that really? They were all teenagers at least, not little kids on the playground. Of course, a Fire student might come to ruin their fun, but whatever. Nell was going to live in the moment, carpe diem and all that. If you are to survive, you need to look at things in a positive light, no matter how annoyingly trite it seemed. It was her mantra. And she wasn't about to pause in her fun so the bad thoughts could consume her.
Her tongue stuck out a bit as she patted down the snow, concentrating hard as if she were building something to be put in the Smithsonian. Ashton leaned against the mound they'd so far built, and it supported the weight rather easily. Nell looked at their handiwork, hands on her hips as she assessed it. "Yeah..." She smirked. "But I think we can make it taller." Tapping her chin, she squinted her light brown eyes discerningly before smoothing out some of the rougher parts. It was slightly strange, this activity. She’d never even played in snow before coming here, and now she was building a snowman. All this new things were very surreal, because she knew people must have been doing this since they could toddle. But she was seventeen-years-old, and she’d never ridden a bike, or played soccer, or went swimming in the ocean. There were so many things she needed to do, so many she needed to catch up on. And she would start with this. Nell didn’t think her new friend understood the amount of gratitude for this, that he was helping her claim a part of her she’d never had. It was an amazing feeling.
Nell peered over at Ashton to see what he was doing and followed his example, working the snow underneath her fingers and figuring out what worked and what did it. The feeling that she might screw up because of her incompetence wasn’t even on her mind. She felt like she was doing pretty damn good, in any case. She snorted at his words. ”It’ll be awesome in any case, whether we get it into perfect balls or not. Our snowman can be a little lopsided.” Nell laughed as she said this, falling onto her but as she took a break and listened to Ashton about what they should do. When he mentioned three parts, she pounded her fist into her upturned palm and nodded with a most serious face. "Three parts it is," she declared, shifting back over to the snowman. She smoothed the sides a little before adding, "The difficult part will be stacking them up. How will we be able to do that?" Her words were quick with excitement as she continued to mold the bottom of the snowman. She wondered what they could use for eyes and the such. It made her giddy just to think of the end result.
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Post by ASHTON CAMDEN RALEIGH on Jun 10, 2011 19:58:15 GMT -5
Ashton gave a soft laugh as Nell continued to joke around. He would have started fussing over her at her pained expression if she hadn't laughed, which made him think that she was only kidding and that she was really alright. "Love? Who said anything about love?" He picked up a stick from the ground and held it almost like one would a spear. It could have been a sword if not for the fact that it was so long. "This is war!" He shook the stick with a grin and then observed it more thoughtfully, snapping a couple of sharply protruding twigs off the middle but leaving a couple of the ones on the end so that it loosely resembled a 'hand'. Not a very realistic one, but who said snowmen looked realistic anyway? "We could probably use this for one of his arms--assuming our snowman is in fact a man," he laughed. "I've never tried to build a snow-woman before. Snow lady? I don't know!" His tone was light and full of humour as he set the stick down for later involvement in their project. They didn't even have the midsection of their snowman complete yet, the arms could wait. Still... "Is there another one like it nearby?" he wondered, glancing around himself but seeing nothing except large gouges in the fallen snow from where they'd rolled the snowball through the grounds. "Unless he's an amputee, like a veteran or something."
They did seem to be in definite agreement on the size of the snowman however--this pleased Ashton. He had always wanted to really go all out and create a really big sculpture out of snow but the fact that his brother was usually his building partner made this sort of impossible. He liked to involve Cameron in the process as much as possible so that he didn't feel like a spectator to his older brother's amusement. They'd made a whole family of snowmen in one particularly bad winter when there had been a lot of snowfall on the ground. When Mom had come out and asked where all the women in the family had gone, Cameron had enthusiastically insisted that they were inside because girls didn't like the cold and because the boys had too much cooties. Of course, this had amused Ashton and his mother to no end and the two of them had a lot of fun recounting the tale to Dad once he'd gotten home from work. Man, I miss them! But it wasn't all bad feelings. He always knew they'd be there when he went home.
For now, he was going to focus on the snowman.
"Rambo?" Ash repeated in confusion, furrowing his brow and obviously having no clue as to what she was referencing--if she were making a reference at all. But he didn't mind that she knew something that he didn't because Ashton wasn't the type that was easily bothered by things like that. She spoke of making the snowman taller and Ashton nodded with enthusiasm, though he gave a thoughtful pause. "Will we give it a name once we're done?" he asked with a bit of a grin. Some people named their snow creations and others were just too childish to do things like that. But hell, recapturing childhood seemed to be a common trait in both Ashton and Nell right now. They were doubtlessly getting strange looks from some of the other students out on the grounds but that didn't bother him at all.
She brought up a rather important problem when she mentioned actually stacking their creation: how were they going to handle that. "Well that's usually why people don't make giant snowmen," he admitted sheepishly, going a little pink. Perhaps he should have thought this through a little more? It disappointed him to think that they might have to start over just because he wasn't exactly the most attentive guy when it came to details. Then he brightened and raised his hand, a single finger in the air as if he had an idea. Which he did. "I know!" he said brightly. "Look out, Nell!" He stood back and then brought his hand forward in a sweeping motion--forward and up. From the ground in front of his feet there came a shifting as the dirt expanded into a roughly ramp-like shape. It took a lot of effort and made him pant slightly (stupid cold!) but he still smiled as he looked at her. "Help me out here? We can make a slope and roll the middle onto the bottom! Same goes for the head!" His green eyes twinkled. "Then we can use it as a sort of a platform to get up to the head and decorate when we're done!"
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jun 11, 2011 21:19:39 GMT -5
Ashton brandished a stick, and she immediately assumed a mock-kung-fu position, hands moving around and leg lifted. He changed his mind about using the stick as a weapon, however, and snapped some of the protruding twigs off. She assumed that it was supposed to be an…an arm maybe? That’s what people used for snowmen, right. He asked of the gender of their snow-creature and she said, ”…it could be both.” She waggled her eyebrows, but soon fell into laughter. Deciding it’d be best not to make it a snow-hermaphrodite, she said, ”How about a he? That way he can be the big man on campus.” Nell ducked her head, blushing. ”…I am so sorry.” Something to work on: her terrible sense of humor. She looked around for another stick for his other arm. Nell shook her head somberly. ”He lost it in the war…” she said with false gravity, patting the mound of snow in sympathy.
He didn’t seem to understand her reference, which was surprising, actually. She thought she was the out-of-touch one here, so it gave her something akin to pride that she had this knowledge. ”First Blood? The movie where they sent Sylvester Stallone is a Vietnam vet who goes on a roaring rampage in the woods?” She laughed a bit as she continued to smooth out their snowman. ”You have to watch it sometime. I think I still have it rented, actually.” One of my first ever. But that was weird, wasn’t it? She never could watch movies when she was younger, but she rented movies for long nights spent studying. Mainly action flicks, which she found rather odd, but they entertained her the most. One of her favorites was actually Fight Club (though it wasn’t really an action movie) and she wondered if Ashton had ever seen it.
He wore a goofy grin when he asked if they should name it, and she nodded quickly. ”Yeah, yeah…let’s see…how about Vanilla Ice.” Immediately after, she laughed a bit uncontrollably, feeling like a child again. Or maybe not again, because she didn’t think she ever was a child. Like the child I never was. That sounded great. ”Or maybe not. Any ideas for naming our baby boy?” She laughed at this too, because she really couldn’t help it. Nell didn’t think she felt this good in a long time. Sure, she was always looking on the bright side and trying to embrace her freedom without thinking of the fact that it wasn’t truly freedom, but she hadn’t done anything this fun in…maybe ever. Not since Till died. No, she would not let these thoughts bring her down. She never did.
Ashton seemed flustered by her comment but she just laughed again. ”The challenge is all the more fun, no!” Her eye glimmered with the prospect. She always liked the challenge, and didn’t mind that this snowman had come with one. He put up a finger and she felt like an audience at a lecture then, watching intently. Nell backed out of Ashton’s way for whatever he was going to do. With a flourish of his hand, he brought up a ramp and she clapped at the show. ”Jeez, not even the snow can bring you down, huh?” Even though it seemed to have worn him out a bit, it was still impressive that he could do something like that with all this snow. He was probably better with his powers than her, being as inexperienced as she was. She bent down to help hoist up the snowman’s torso and lift it up to the earthen ramp. Guiding it down on top of the larger bottom, she said, ”Now all we need is his head, and he’ll be anatomically correct!”
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Post by ASHTON CAMDEN RALEIGH on Jun 13, 2011 17:29:20 GMT -5
Ashton collapsed into a fit of giggles, his cheeks going red as the blood rushed through them from laughing too hard. He was practically doubled over as he leaned on the large base of the snowman for support, apparently having found the idea of a snow hermaphrodite a bit funnier than Nell had perhaps intended. It was probably the way she'd waggled her eyebrows that had really done it, that had really amused him. He had only just recovered when Nell made another joke, but he managed not to kill himself laughing this time around. "No, it's alright," he insisted with a goofy smile. "You're really funny!" And he wasn't just saying that--Ashton really did like her and all, he'd never had a friend that could make him laugh quite this much before. Most of the Earth students were so softspoken and mild-mannered. It didn't mean they couldn't have a sense of humour! Ashton found that the Water elementals tended to be an amusing bunch, but they often went too far in their pranks for his liking. He enjoyed a couple harmless ones, but flooding the Fire dormitories had not been harmless. Ash didn't like the Fire students all that much because they were mean, but a lot of them had gotten really sick from that and their powers had malfunctioned like crazy from being trapped in a tirade of elemental water. It had lasted several weeks and had sparked a war that for once Ashton hadn't been surprised by.
Ashton's eyes went wide when Nell filled him in on the plot of the movie, and he shook his head to show that no, he'd never heard of it before. "Sounds... pleasant," he said as his cheeks flushed with colour. He didn't want to sound like a chicken but action movies that had a lot of blood and gore usually weren't his type of films. All the same, the prospect of maybe watching a movie with Nell was welcomed, so he smiled. "Well if you do I'll definitely give it a chance," he said fairly, grinning now. He was willing to try anything once, really. Optimism. Of course this also meant that he often tried things that could get him into trouble and that was never quite as pleasant, but hey--you learned from experience, right? "Then again, I used to watch horror movies with my brother for Halloween, so... I suppose after getting the crap scared out of me by Saw this movie can't be so bad, right?" His tone was almost hopeful. Saw had been terrible for him with all the bloody scenes.
She collapsed into giggling much like he had after the suggestion of a name, this making Ashton smile wide with his green eyes sparkling in amusement. "No, I like that," he insisted, laughing himself as she asked him if he had any further suggestions. It might have been stupid and goofy and strange, but wasn't that the entire premise of their situation? They had come out here to act like children and build their snowmen, what did it matter how silly they were when they went about doing so? "Vanilla Ice it is!" he said cheerily. He liked the name despite it being silly and stupid. Their 'baby' boy was taller than Ashton now, and they hadn't even set about finishing him yet!
Ashton grinned when she seemed impressed by his ramp-building skills. He reminded himself that Nell was new to the school and so might still be learning how to fight off the stress of the elements. The college Earth elementals didn't have quite so much trouble with the snow as Ash and Nell did, but that was okay. He was tired from building the ramp but he really didn't mind that, either. As long as it meant that their snowman could be finished and awesome. "He doesn't seem to have a proper head on his shoulders," Ashton joked, nudging Nell with a grin and then shaking his head as he dissolved into laughter once more. "Now I'm doing it!" Still chortling a little, Ashton pushed the head up the ramp until it sat nicely atop the 'shoulders' of the snowman, then stood back for a moment. He was breathing a little heavy from the exertion, but nevertheless smiling. His cheeks were a bit red from the biting cold and his gloveless hands were frozen, but he was happy. "Shall we decorate?"
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jun 14, 2011 15:03:58 GMT -5
Nell was, needless to say, surprised to see Ashton doubled over in laughter. But his laughter was contagious, and her stomach soon hurt from the stress she put on it. When was the last time she had laughed like this? She didn’t think there was a last time. It may very well have been the first time she’d ever recognized the truth in the saying ‘my sides are splitting’. Never had laughter hurt her so much, and apparently him too—she was pretty sure he was turning colors now. Ashton said she actually was funny, and she looked down at the snow as her chuckling eventually died down. ”I do my best,” she said, looking up through her bangs, smile now impish. No one had ever called her funny, either. ”You’re pretty darn amusing yourself. I haven’t laughed like this in ever!” It was strange saying so aloud, but she figured it wasn’t too weird. It wasn’t weird that she had little communication with people all her life, let alone friends. But she loved people too much not to communicate with them—and now she finally had the chance.
Not wanting to upset her stomach any more than it already was, she resisting chuckling at Ashton’s expression when she stated the synopsis. ”Don’t worry, it’s more 80’s cheese than anything.” If Ashton could be frightened or disturbed by First Blood, than that would be something else. She was sure Stallone’s voice would be enough to turn that move into a comedy. ”You should come over some time. My TV is itty bitty, but it works.” Nell would like the company, but was almost embarrassed to invite people over to her apartment considering the fact that ‘apartment’ was too kind a word for it. But she liked Ashton enough that she was willing to put the insecurities of her crappy apartment aside. At his mention of Halloween—a holiday she’d never gotten to celebrate—she quirked an eyebrow. ”I never saw…Saw.” She blinked a few times, attempting to frown so as to cover her grin. ”Well that’s redundant.” Nell wondered if it was intentional, actually. ”I haven’t really watched any horror films, but come Halloween I guess I will see a few.” I’ve missed so much, what else is there out there?
Nell was glad he played along, because that’s what they were doing. Playing. For the first time in her life she was actually outside, playing and making snow-hermaphrodites named Vanilla Ice. She should have been doing this years ago, but this was no time to be bitter about time lost. She almost lost it again, think oh, he’s punny. She clutched her sides and feigned a moan. ”You have to stop, my stomach hurts!” Nell laughed anyway with the twinges in her side. Righting herself, she looked for things around to decorate with and picked up some pebbles, pressing them in down Vanilla Ice’s—oh god, there was the laughing again—middle, and standing on tip-toe to make a smiley face. ”Jeez, he’s huge,” she said with the strain in her voice as she reached up to his pebble eyes. But she smiled all the same. ”What else do we need…?” She wondered aloud as she tapped a cold finger to her lip. Nell didn’t know exactly what went into a snowman, and she figured that Ashton would be able to do more with his experience.
(shooorrtt... T.T)
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Post by ASHTON CAMDEN RALEIGH on Jun 15, 2011 17:51:04 GMT -5
It felt nice to nearly lose your breath when you laughed so hard there were tears in your eyes. Not because your lungs were screaming for air, because that was a bit bothersome, but because it meant that you were amused and in the company of friends. "Neither have I!" Ashton admitted and smiled wider than he had in ages. He got along with the Earth kids, but not like this. In a way Nell was helping to recapture the childhood that had been marred by jealousy and though Ash didn't really know it he was helping her do the same, though her own experiences had been ruined for vastly different reasons. "I'm so glad we decided to do this," the boy said earnestly. "It's so much better in comparison to trying to get that stupid plant to grow!" He was still going to have to go to his professor and ask for a new pot to work out of and he could only hope that they weren't too mad about his breaking it.
Ashton let out a relieved sigh when she insisted that it wasn't some sort of a bloody horror movie or anything. That might have made him shriek like a girl or something and that was so undignified. She invited him over and he was smiling easily again, excited by the prospect of a movie night with his friend. "Sure, that sounds like a lot of fun!" Ash agreed enthusiastically, nodding. And whilst he had never seen Rambo it seemed his new partner in childish crime had never seen Saw, so now it was Ashton's turn to invite her over. "We hold the best Halloween parties on our block," he boasted with a grin. "Come October you should hang out with us! If you're not doing anything too special then, that is." His green eyes were warm and friendly. "As for Saw... I could probably rent that as early as this weekend and we could watch it! My laptop can play movie discs and stuff, it's really cool." His parents had bought him it for school purposes but even the level-headed Earth boy liked to skive off homework and mess around instead sometimes.
Ashton grabbed a short and fat stick off the ground and stuck it near the snowmans mouth. "I don't own a pipe so that'll have to do," he decided. He also took the scarf from around his neck and wrapped it around the large snowman's. Then Ashton frowned a little. "But what can we do about his nose...?" He stalled like that for a moment before getting another one of his infamous ideas. "I'm exhausted from the ramp... do you think you'd be able to make a carrot or something?" He laughed at the mere idea of it, but hell, they were plants. Vegetables. Whatever. "I know we can't eat the stuff we grow unless we grow it from a seed, it can harm us and everything, but I'm sure Vanillia--" he chuckled, "--Ice won't mind!" Oh god, the very name of their snowman made him want to giggle like an idiot and double over laughing. Damn, this was the most fun he'd had since last Halloween with Cam.
[That was NOT short, don't worry xD]
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jun 16, 2011 17:59:55 GMT -5
Nell felt the giddiness in her chest, such an unfamiliar feeling to her. It’d be nice to have this feeling with her always. So she captured it for now and let it stay with her and didn’t think of how transient it was. ”It’s not fun to stay inside crying over spilt milk,” she said. ”We always see the snow as such a horrible thing for our powers, but…it better than staying inside.” Much better. Because now here she was, with a brand new experience under her belt, building a snowman that looked more awesome than any she’d ever seen melting on the lawns in the city she’d come from. She was glad that Ashton was having fun, too, more glad for it than she was about anything else. Others happiness meant everything to her, and she was glad he was laughing and smiling around her—it made her feel good (and she’d been feeling like shit for a long time). And now was one of the few times that she was wholly distracted from her thoughts to the point where it wasn’t actually a distraction—she just wasn’t thinking in her usually tortuous ways.
That’s another thing that’s never happened: being invited over to someone’s house. ”Halloween party?” She grinned. ”That sounds awesome. I’ve never been to a Halloween party, but I’m sure yours are the greatest.” It was so strange, actually making plans with someone. Sure, lately she’d been going out with friends when she could and hanging out, but it hadn’t ever been like this. ”Yeah, I’d like to see Saw.” She said this with a wink, and then burst out laughing. Oh god, I have to stop. But being with Ashton had put her into too good a mood. Not that she wasn’t always cheerful and carefree, it was simply the weight of the world dragging her down ever since she came to Canada.
Ashton stuck a stick in the snowman’s face for a pipe. And as he mentioned the carrot, she began to dig out a small circle from the snow. She rubbed her hands together and said, ”Let’s see if it’ll work.” Nell pressed her hands against the ground and was rewarded with the bushy leaves that emerged. But as she went to pick it, she pulled out a rather disgusting looking black carrot. All the same, she giggled as she said, ”Poor, poor Vanilla Ice.” Snapping the leaves off, Nell pushed the carrot into the snowman and stepped back with a proud smile on her face. ”We did good, kid.” And she clapped him on his back with a laugh.
(guess we can end this now Vanilla Ice is pretty much finished. ;P)
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