Dancing snowflake [OPEN]

[anastasia gregorovich]

Bacchus' Garden was one of her favorite places to spend her days off. Here it was peaceful and connections, strength, fighting meant nothing. This small yard she had found, hidden behind rose bushes and vine-covered columns was perfect for venting off some energy and just being herself, the dancer and the skater, not some failed legionaire. So, like every other time she had come here, she dropped her messanger bag on the bench, plugged the mini speakers to her Ipod and started the music. Pieces of Lindsey Sterling were her warm-up music and she began to stretch and hop a little.

As soon as she felt ready, she changed the music to Shut Up and Dance by Walk The Moon. The beat made her smile and she just danced. It no longer felt like a choreography, she had made the moves hers. So she smiled and laughed as she jumped in time with the song. It was not hard to find her though. One had only to follow the music to find the Daughter of Chione dancing her heart out and looking so much different than the shy and reserved girl everybody got to see in the Legion.

[Tawny Mitchell]

Tawny had a habit of riding her skateboard petty much everywhere when she got the chance. When your hobby was creating new tricks on your board you were constantly in search of new ramps and rails, even those that others might consider. This also led her to frequently skate in places she shouldn't. Temples, the forum, the baths...maybe not there but Tawny did have an idea that it would make a pretty awesome half pipe if you drained the place. The simple fact was that New Rome was her skate park. Even when if came to a place where skateboards probably shouldn’t go like the Gardens of Bacchus.

So here Tawny was exploring this section of her skate park, cruising along the walkways as if she owned the place. As she went she pulled off a number of spins, kick flips and jumps as smoothly and effortlessly as if she were walking on her own two feet. Hopping up she ground along the edge of a park bench and landed on the other end in a goofy foot style that was opposite of how she began and that was the moment when the dancing girl came into view.

The daughter of Somnia let herself glide to a stop as she watched the girl dancing among the columns. It wasn’t so much of a distraction as it was just interesting and Tawny liked interesting things. Besides, it took a lot of guts to perform in an open place like this. She should know after all as she often was showing off tricks in public places even when she didn’t really intend to.

The dancing girl was good. Tawny wasn’t really the dancing type but she could tell the girl must have had some kind of training by the way she moved. Still, it was kind of cool to watch someone just enjoying themselves and having fun.

As the girl finish Tawny decided it was probably time to announce herself before she got accused of snooping and she did so in her usual light and carefree tone of voice so as not to startle the girl. “Lookin pretty good.” She said as she drifted by slowly on her skateboard. “Hope you don’t mind me watching. I was just passing by and couldn’t help but watch.”

[anastasia gregorovich]

As the song finished, Anya was fixed in a pretty good mood. When someone complimented her, she twirled around to see a girl around her age on a scateboard. "Thanks." She said as she smoothed her hair back into the ponytail she had on everytime she danced. She smiled and shook her head to indicate it was fine if the girl was watching her. She had been in bigger crowds and the audience didn't bother her. She was mostly intimidated by the judges whenever she was in a big competition, but even then it was more of a knot on the stomach and the only way to get rid of it was to just get out there and skate. "No, you're good. I don't mind people watching. I'm used to performing infront of large audiences and I wasn't exactly hiding." She assured the other and went over to slightly lower the music as the track changed to Believer from Imagine Dragons.

True it was a sudden change of style of music but Anya liked to try new things when it came to dancing. Most people used instrunmental music in figure skating, but she wanted to try this particular track in a very demanding choreography. Not that she was going to perform it in an ice ring anytime soon, but she loved skating and that was enough for her.

[Tawny Mitchell]

"Cool, cool." Tawny said as she watched the girl change out her music. She didn’t mind the change in genres in fact, she preferred rock and rap herself. Often times music was the language of the street when there was no other common language to use so Tawny could appreciate having a pretty wide music taste. Personally she thought there was nothing better than landing a sick trick when her favorite song was blasting in her ears. It made the moment even better.

“Still, a pretty nice place to practice if you had to.” She said as she took a look around the area. Her eyes were focused more on the terrain and what she could jump, grind and otherwise skate off of but she could imagine that Anya would find it a pretty chill spot for dancing as well. Nice and open while being kind of sectioned off from the rest of the garden. Tawny made a mental note to come back here someday herself as she rolled slowly around the perimeter checking things out. Almost as an afterthought she added. “Oh I’m Tawny by the way. Don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya watched as the skater seemed to be very interested in her surroundings, more so than to the person she was talking to. Not that she minded much. If you were going to glide on something you always ought to keep an eye out to your surroundings. "I'm Anastasia. Anya for short." She introduced herself.

"I'm relatively new to New Rome and Camp Jupiter. Been in the 5th Cohort for a few months. No wonder you don't know me. But it's nice to meet you." She said, almost scolding herself mentally after she told Tawny in which Cohort she was. To her it didn't matter, but to those people? Being in the 5th Cohort was somewhat of a disgrace for most Romans. Status seemed to be everything in New Rome. But taking a look at Tawny, Anya was fairly certain that it didn't matter to her either, which was a relief.

[Tawny Mitchell]

“Ah so you’re a newbie and a greenie. That’s rough yeah.” Tawny gave the girl a sympathetic look as she finished up her examination of the area and rolled to a stop in front of her. She knew how some of the Romans, especially those who had families here, looked down on a lot of the new demigods. There wasn’t much she could do about it but that didn’t mean she had to like it. Fortunately Tawny wasn’t one of the people that took the cohorts too seriously. “It’s cool though. I kinda grew up around all the god stuff and it’s nothing special.”

That was about as much of a downer attitude that Tawny could manage however. Her smile quickly returned once she finished talking and with it came her usual easy going friendliness. “Nice name though. Anastasia, I can dig it and hey, we know each other now so it’s all copacetic.” Popping up her board up so that she was balancing on the kicktail Tawny held out her hand to Anya for a shake. “So what brings you out here Anya? Just looking for a nice chill place to hang out for a while?”

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya liked Tawny better and better as the time went on. Her easygoing attitude was infectious and Anya couldn't help herself but smile. She briefly wondered what it would be like if she too had grown knowing about the gods of Rome, but she decided not to dwell on it. "Thanks." She said as Tawny complimented her name and took the offered hand for a shake with a smile.

"Yes. I grew a bit tired of the whole, train, fight, serve thing of the legion so I decided to take it easy and just do what I love for a while, you know what I mean?" She said and had a wistful look for a moment as she thought of icerings and skating. "I miss iceskating and dancing is a close second to that. The gardens are the perfect place for that. The air's fresh and there's enough space and a good background to make dance moves look beautiful. I guess you came here looking for good skating places?"

[Tawny Mitchell]

Getting tired of the training and fighting routine was something that Tawny could understand as she had grown up with it. She loved Rome, she really did, but some Romans just got too serious sometimes. “I dig it.” She said with a little chuckle. “Sometimes a girl just needs ta get away and dance…or skate. I’m with you. Besides, it’s not good to be that serious all the time. At least that’s what my mom taught me and she’s usually on the level.”

Tawny didn’t talk about her mom much. Truth was she didn’t get to see her much these days which was a real drag, especially since they used to go to all kinds of cool tournaments and stuff before Tawny got herself enlisted. She kind of missed that carefree fun but things could be worse she supposed. “Yeah I’m always looking for new places to try my tricks. Can’t let my skills get stale you know? As for your ice skating, you know they’ve got a rink in town right? I mean there’s no reason to miss it if we’ve got something so close.”

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya chuckled a bit as Tawny said something about skills getting stale and all that, but her eyes widened in surprise when she spoke about an ice rink in New Rome. How could she have missed it's existence? "Is that....? How could I've missed such a thing?! I mean.... I can sense ice when it's close by, artificial or not." She facepalmed and berated herself for that. What child of Chione missed the presence of ice if it was so nearby and worse yet... how could she not have paid close attention to find this rink when she had first arrived in New Rome and was exploring it?

"Um.... would you mind showing me the way to the rink sometime?" She asked rather embarrassed. "It's quite obvious that I can't be trusted to find it myself."

[Tawny Mitchell]

Well would you look at that. Anya apparently had missed the ice skating rink after all and that meant Tawny had probably made little miss ice princess’s day or maybe her year which was a deed most righteous. Tawny guessed it would be like her going past the same half-pipe every day without knowing it even existed and then someone finally showing her where it was. She would have kicked herself for missing it but would have celebrated by braking it in with the most gnarly tricks she knew. Fortunately she was the giver of knowledge this time and that meant Anya was the one who needed to celebrate.

“Hey, don’t be so harsh on yourself man. It’s cool.” She said as she held up her hands to show Anya she didn’t need to get all embarrassed. “Can’t be expected to know everything and besides, you’re still pretty fresh around camp right? Sometimes you just gotta to talk to the right person you know?” Tawny grinned hoping the girl wouldn’t be too embarrassed by not knowing. If you were embarrassed you couldn’t skate and if she had her way this Anya girl was going to do just that before the day was out. “I can show you right now if you want or we could go get your gear first if you need to. They should have some skating swag to rent if not but I know using what you’re familiar with is important.” With that she flipped her board over and with a hop landed back on top of it in riding position as she gave Anya a little wink.

[anastasia gregorovich]

"Yeah I guess so...." Anya said and a grin appeared on her face. She turned her Ipod off and quickly gathered up her minispeakers, putting them in her sports bag. The same bag she used for practise from back when she was still living with her dad. And that bag had her skates in. She had never took them out, so she had taken them with her. Feeling very excited, she shouldered her bag and got ready to follow Tawny.

"I have my skates with me. There's no need to go back. Lead the way!" She said and she couldn't stop herself from smilling.

[Tawny Mitchell]

Tawny chuckled as she watched Anya gather her things and get ready to leave. She wasn’t for sure but it looked like Anya was about ready to burst with excitement. Oh she was holding it together well enough but Tawny guessed by the big grin that appeared on Anya’s face that the girl was looking forward to their little field trip to the ice rink maybe just a little. That was fine. Tawny could understand. Who knew, Tawny might even stick around and enjoy some snowboarding while she was there in honor of her dear old mom.

“Good girl.” Tawny said as Anya mentioned having her skates with her. “Me? I’d never leave home without my board ya know?” Tawny could already tell the girl was on the level but the fact that Anya was passionate about what she loved told Tawny that she felt the same way about her ice skating as she did about her board. That meant that she should get along with this girl just fine. “Come on Anya and hey, you better be sure to show me some of those sweet moves once we get there.” And with that Tawny hopped on her board and set off in the direction of the ice rink.

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya gave Tawny a bit of a crooked smile as she was praised for having her skates with her. "Oh I bet. But my skates can't be used unless there's ice. So if I wanted to use them everywhere I would have to freeze the streets of New Rome and I'm not so sure the Praetors would like that much." She said and tried to imagine what it would be like to have the streets of New Rome frozen smooth. Bliss for her, hellish for everybody else she supposed. Not to mention she didn't have enough power to do so, but dreaming never hurt anyone. "In sense you're lucky you're in love with wheels instead of blades." She teased and followed Tawny, who coasted leisurely off to the direction of the ice rink.

She smirked and jogged slightly to keep up with Tawny's board. "Oh I'll show you some moves alright. I have a program I never got to perform and it was for a really big shot, before monsters blew it." She said confidently, but not with arrogance. She truly believed that she could pull the Olympics team off, but never got the chance to. Bloody monsters ruined everything.

[Tawny Mitchell]

“Frozen street huh? You could really do that?” The gears were already turning in Tawny’s mind but she decided to shut them down before she got too many ideas. Anya would have probably been excited to get on the ice but Tawny thought it would have been pretty cool too. She was a thrill seeker through and through and having a long stretch of ice road would be pretty fun to go down. “Nah they probably wouldn’t but it would be pretty sick though. As for me I’d try anything at least once. My mom is a snowboarder you see. We used to go everywhere competing. You meet some pretty awesome peeps out there and it teaches you to have an open mind when fun is involved. Besides, a snowboard isn’t that much different than a skateboard.”

Well there is was. She had finally just said it. She didn’t usually let things like that go but Tawny was feeling pretty good and she liked Anya. Besides, it gave them some more to talk about which seemed to be coming easily enough now. “Monsters huh? What a drag. What happened if you don’t mind telling?” Tawny was curious to know the girl’s story if she would tell it. By the sound of things Anya was still pretty mad about it so it might even be good to get it off her chest. At least that was Tawny’s thinking on the matter.

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya shook her head, a dreamy look on her face. "Nah I don't have enough power, or control, to do that. It's a nice dream though." She commented and looked at Tawny. She could understand Tawny's view on sports, she agreed with her a lot, though she had never tried skateboarding or snowboarding. In her life snow, ice and cold had been a constant, but mostly in the form of skating and snowfights. She was unbeatable in snowfights. "I love sports for that very reason." She agreed and continued to walk along, taking note of where Tawny was leading her so she would be able to find the rink again.

She sideglanced at Tawny, but shrugged. She didn't see the harm into letting her know what had happened. Yes the time she spent with Lupa was the toughest in her entire life, and Anya hardly ever complained about anything, but this type of change in her life had not been easy. If she was honest, she still didn't feel entirely adjusted to her new reality. "I was on my way to the rink when a Cynocephalus attacked me. The bloody monster forced me to flee during the final selection for the Olympics team. I could've made it in too, but now it looks like the dream is gone. I can't train properly and be in the Legion at the same time." She said still rather angry and disappointed by the whole thing.