Dancing snowflake [OPEN]

[Tawny Mitchell]

“See, I knew I liked you for some reason.” Tawny said with a chuckle as Anya mentioned liking sports. Oh sure one girl liked boards more than blades and vice versa but that didn’t change the fact that they were two pretty awesome demigods who could enjoy a good time. For Tawny a good time was anything that could get her blood pumping and it looked like Anya was the same. “Just let me know if you ever decide to try that street icing thing. I want to be the first one on it.”

As Anya went on to tell her about her experiences with the Cynocephalus Tawny listened with rapt attention. It was pretty crazy to think about not really knowing what you were and then all of a sudden finding out in a monster attack. She didn’t imagine it would be very fun but then again people did it all the time. “Bogus…” She said as Anya finished her story. “Very bogus.” It was too bad that Anya missed out on an opportunity to go to the Olympics. That kind of stuff didn’t come along every day. Tawny imagined it would be like talking up an epic trick to all your friends and then completely wiping out in front of them when you tried it, only about a hundred times worse.

“Hey, sorry about the Olympics thing. That’s a major drag. Monsters have a way of messing things up like that but hey, I know it’s not like the Olympics are anything but at least we can get you back on the ice again right? Maybe give you a little distraction from all the Legion stuff.” Tawny gave her an encouraging smile and nodded off in the direction of a large building in the distance. “Come on. It’s just up ahead.”

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya nodded. Yes she would definitelly let Tawny be the first to try it if she ever got around on turning New Rome into an ice rink. She recounted her run from the Cynocephalus and how her life changed from one moment to the next. It hadn't been easy and it hadn't been fun. But Tawny seemed to understand her and she liked the girl already. It felt like she had found someone to be really good friends with.

"Yeah, they do." Anya agreed with Tawny's opinion on monsters and looked over to the building, a grin appeared on her face. She could already feel the pleasant chill of the ice on her face and the sound her skates did gliding on the smooth surface. "I like skating more than anything. Not getting into the Olympics was disappointing, but not as dreadful as not being able to skate and having to deal with Legion training all day." She chuckled and picked up her pace with renewed vigor.

[Tawny Mitchell]

Tawny chuckled as she pressed on towards the skating rink doing a few tricks on her skateboard as she went. "Well everyone has to have some kind of escape. I'll tell you a secret but even the squares in the Legion, the ones who are like always duty and honor and all that noise. Even they have to take a break sometime." Tawny grinned conspiratorially at Anya figuring that the girl had probably never thought about it before but when you had been around as long as Tawny had herself then you started to notice things. "You'd be surprised what the centurions and praetors get up to around here."

Tawny had been around long enough to know how the game was played that and her mother had told her plenty of stories. Life could get very difficult for you if you didn’t. When you were off duty though, when the training was over and you got to live your own life for a while, well that was when you could finally relax and have a little fun. “Nah you don’t need to stress out about it too much. You just gotta play their game for a while. Out of the armor we all have our own lives to live.”

Rolling to a stop in front of the skating rink Tawny glanced back at Anya to see her reaction up close. It wasn’t necessarily a grand or imposing building but it was big enough. Tawny knew a few kids who came by, had even been by a few times herself since coming to new Rome, it was fun place and she had no doubt Anya would enjoy it here. The only question was how long would it be before Anya rushed in to get to that ice? “Well here we are. What d’ya think?”

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya had to nod at what Tawny had to say about even the most dutifull of Romans had their own hobbies and escapes. It made sense, but the very context of gods and monsters was still hard to digest. It had never occured to her that even those born within New Rome had means of 'escape'. She was so new to all that, well as new as she could be after spending so much time in the Wolfhouse, so it still surprised her slightly. The idea of a normal life on the side of all the training. "I never had to wear armor up until now." She mumbled, not caring if Tawny would listen. At this point she was just thinking out loud.

Once in front of the doors to the ice rink, Anya didn't even pause as Tawny stopped. She headed inside, sparring a glance behind at Tawny. "Perfect! Are you coming or not?" She asked really upbeat and already opening her bag to pull her skates out. It was hard to explain to someone, but the ice was calling her and she had been away from it for so long that being so close to it now was exciting, refreshing and calming all at the same time. She didn't even care if she had to check in at a counter or something, she just had to get on the ice.

[Tawny Mitchell]

"Yeah you wouldn't be the only one." Tawny said with a chuckle. "Even the folks that have families here don't always grow up training to fight. I mean I knew who my dad was, got lucky there, but I spent more time grabbing sick air off a half pipe than swinging a sword ya know?" Honestly Tawny would have been a little surprised if Anya was even listening to her at this point. She had practically rushed inside at the first opportunity which was fine. Tawny was glad the other girl could enjoy herself for once since arriving in New Rome.

"Yeah I'll get out there with you but you go on and enjoy yourself." She said as she made a shuing gesture in Anya's direction. "I've got to trade my board for some skates and you deserve to enjoy yourself. I'll be out in a minute." Anya had probably been off the ice for a while now and this was a lot bigger deal to her than it was to Tawny. That being the case the skateboarder figured she could give Anya a few minutes to herself. Besides, not everyone carried around a pair of skates in their bag.

[anastasia gregorovich]

Taking a deep breath, Anya stepped into the rink and slowly glided to the center. She exhaled slowly and a confident grin appeared on her face. The pleasant chill from the low temperature was invigorating. She had vaguely heard Tawny say she was going to join her in a bit, but she was so focused on the feeling of the ice under her blades that she didn't respond to it, even as late as she had registered it. She circled the arena with steadily increasing speed until she broke out to a full sprint. Eventually she was content with the rush she had gotten and began to just coast, slowing down just enough to be able to do a triple Lutz, followed by a Triple Toe, to see how out of shape she had become.

A decent land told her that she was not entirely out of it. She needed a practise to return to her Olympic level of perfomance, but that was not too far away. She could do this after the Legion duties were done every day. However she decided to refrain from making long term plans and simply enjoy the moment for now. There was no music, but she didn't really need one, she had memorized the music of her Pirates of the Caribbean routine. She began to spin, jump and mimic a sword fight, now it was much more convincing and vivid than before the attack. Sword training had really helped in that regard, even though she hated it.

[Tawny Mitchell]

Tawny sat near the edge of the rink pulling on her burrowed pair of skates and watching Anya glide and jump across the ice. The girl definitely looked like she was having fun and Tawny hated to ruin her good time but she did kind of want to get out there for a bit. The ice reminded he a little of traveling around with her mom. Snowy mountain peaks, cold air and watching her mom compete. It was always fun but here in sunny California snow and ice was a bit of a rarity and it had been some time since she had traveled on the snowboarding circuit. This was going to be pretty rad she thought.

Skates laced up Tawny stood and gained her balance before walking to the entrance to the ice and easily gliding out on it. Anya looked like she was performing some kind of intricate routine that you might see on the Olympics which considering her background wasn’t too surprising but Tawny watched with interest sort of doing her own thing until she could tell Anya was winding down. “Way to go girl.” Tawny said and as Anya finished she began giving her a few claps of encouragement. “Looks like you’re a natural to me.”

Skating in a little zigzagging pattern Tawny made her way over to the other girl and glided to a stop. “Got hops too. I saw you out here putting on a show with all those spins and jumps. Pretty sweet if you ask me. How long did it take you to learn all that?”

[anastasia gregorovich]

As Anya's routine came to a halt, Tawny decided to make her presence known. Panting, Anya gave her a graceful bow and grinned at her new friend. "Thank you Tawny. It was either skating or failling in classes, so I chose skating." She said with a smile as she rested her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath again. She had forgotten how intense that choreography had been and Legion training was not exactly what she needed in skating.

"That was my preliminary choreography with Pirates of the Caribbean music. I trained for six months nonstop to get it perfect. It had to become muscle memory and dad was adamant about it. It was hard but the results were worth it." She said and suddenly a thought occured to her, what if she used her magic to smooth the ice before the two of them got to skating? It would be a nice opportunity to test her newfound powers. Kneeling down, she placed a gentle hand on the cold surface and closed her eyes, submerging herself in the cool pull of the ice. She could see them, all the cracks she had made on the ice. Every line and every curve. Taking a deep breath she released the cold that had built up on her fingertips and new ice covered the crakcs, making the rink look smooth like glass again.

However the act required more control than what Anya had originally thought and she stumbled as she tried to get up. It had drained her more than she had expected.

[Tawny Mitchell]

“I hear that.” Tawny said with a chuckle as Anya mentioned school. “That was always a major drag for me too. Luckily my mom kinda understood and was able to teach me stuff while I was traveling with her but then she shipped me out here which isn’t much better ya know?” School was at least one thing that Tawny found most demigods agreed with. Unfortunately it sucked for just about all of them no matter who their godly parents were.

At least Anya seemed to have found a way to cope as most of them usually did and all things considered she seemed to be doing pretty well for herself. She even still remembered her old skating show. “Seems like it was pretty worth it to me. Then again most of the coolest things are.” Tawny watched as Anya seemed to get an idea and knelt down to touch the ice. She wasn’t sure what the Chione girl was trying to do but as she watched the ice began to coat over with a fresh layer which was pretty daggum impressive...at least until Anya stumbled back obviously a little drained.

“Damn girl I didn’t know you could do the Zamboni thing. Pretty impressive.” Leaning over she offered her hand to the Anya hoping to help her back to her feet after the stumble. “You okay though? Looks like you about wiped out there for a minute and trust me you don’t want me trying to carry you back off the ice. We’d be lucky if I didn’t break both of us in the process.”

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya smilled a bit dazzed as Tawny compared her to a Zamboni. "I didn't know I could do it up until now." She said and took the offered hand, getting back on her feet with little effort. It was more like one of those blackouts you had if you stood up abruptly than a full out faint. "I'm fine don't worry. It just needed more control than I originally expected. I'm okay." She said and did a quick spin on her axis, hands spread out once she stopped in a 'see?' manner. "So? Now that the ice is all smooth for us what do you want to do?" She asked her new friend curiously.

[Tawny Mitchell]

“Well that was sure a surprise to me. Pretty sweet too.” Tawny said as she helped Anya to her feet. Tawny had tasted enough pavement to know it was never too fun when you fell but fortunately the girl didn’t seem to have done any major damage. In fact she seemed to be just fine now as she spun away. “I’m cool, I’m cool.” Tawny said with a chuckle. “Besides, you seem like you’re doing alright to me.”

Tawny watched as Anya skated away from her and gave a little push off herself to get some forward momentum. “Don’t know ice girl. This is your home turf. I don’t really get out on the ice that much so why don’t you teach me some of those spins and twirls and stuff? Doesn’t have to be anything fancy but let’s see if I can pick up anything you know?”

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya twirled around to face Tawny with a curious smile at the nickname. "Ice girl?" She questioned before shaking her head and skating backwards, making circles around Tawny as if sizing her up. "Well, since you haven't fallen on your butt yet, I would say you already have a good basis here. How about you try and spin once on your axis, like this?" She suggested and did a slow spin on her axis, hands folding in as she turned her back on Tawny and then extending again as she faced her friend once more, all in one fluid motion.

[Tawny Mitchell]

Tawny shrugged. “Seemed like a pretty accurate nickname to me you know?” She watched as Anya circled here. Obviously the girl hadn’t expected her to have a little experience on the ice but when your mom was a snowboarder you got a few opportunities every now and then. Sure, she was no Olympic champion but she could manage on her own. Maybe it was an after effect of her Mercury legacy status but she was just naturally athletic with a lot of these things.

“You’re taking it easy on me huh?” Tawny teased with a chuckle as she watched Anya spin. “I think I got that one.” She said and skated herself out a little and into a slow spin of her own with arms outstretched in a helicopter like motion. “Don’t know how you guys get going so fast though. That doesn’t make any sense.”

[anastasia gregorovich]

Anya laughed in good spirits. "I could go the easy version or the geeky version about it, but it all boils down to keeping to your center and not to flap about." She began as she went into a series of slow spins as she gradually folded her hands towards her chest. "Of course hard work and how much speed you have when you go into the spin is important." Her speed increased as her hands and feet were drawing closer together and she did a simple upright spin before finishing to a halt.

"Once you get the mechanics down, then it's all about practise, practise aand practise." She said, shaking her head in sync with the three repetitions of the word prarctise. "So it goes kinda like this. You get some speed in." She began accelerating, but nothing too serious seeing as this was just a quick demonstration. "Then you go into the spin and keep your hands onto your chest and try not to get dizzy when you come out of the spin." She said a little louder as she had put some distance between her and Tawny. Halting in place after five quick rotations, she faced Tawny with her arms extended in a 'tada!' fashion. "Got it?"

[Tawny Mitchell]

Tawny stopped spinning long enough to watch the other girl. Anya started going on about centers and speed and other physic-y stuff that seemed complicated. Personally the daughter of Somnia was a “learn by experience” kind of girl and she figured she could get it with enough practice, she had just never had too much opportunity to do so especially since her sport of choice relied on wheels instead of blades.

“Well I can’t say I understand why it works but it looks pretty cool.” Tawny said as Anya put on a little show with her spins. The girl was good. Tawny could tell that she loved it too so all in all she thought it was a good thing they had come here today. As for the spin she decided to give it a shot following Anya’s instructions by getting up some speed and then putting herself into another spin. She began bringing her arms in close and sure enough she started picking up speed. The world began spinning by even faster and that was when Tawny realized she didn’t know how to get out of this.

“Woooah…WoooOOOaAAH…WoooaaaACCCK!” Spinning and spinning Tawny finally couldn’t hold it any longer and went down on her butt chuckling and still turning slowly on the ice until she came to a stop. The ice was hard but she had been through worse wrecks in her time. A few bruises weren’t anything to worry about and she was laughing so it was probably a sign that she wasn’t hurting that badly. “Next time you’re going to have to explain how you don’t blow chunks every time you do that.”