MINGLING POST

[birdsbirdsbirds]

[I hope that everyone in Accord has wish-machine'd up some sweaters, because it's getting cold outside! especially around the Tower, what with all those delightful ocean winds around to make things extra-chilly. it's not so bad indoors, though. the Stewards have been doing a good job of keeping the place nice and warm for you.

so what has the crazy tower bunch been up to? jumping in leaf piles? huddling inside for warmth? trying to break the world record for most cookies baked in a week? plotting to murder everyone with horrible death magic? there's plenty to be doing and plenty of people to bother, so go talk to your neighbors! make a friend, or talk to someone you haven't seen in a while! or just, you know, stumble awkwardly into their business. that works too.]


[[ooc: aw yeah, mingling post! make your own comment, tag other people's comments, go crazy!]]

Comments

[birdsbirdsbirds]

There's nothing to get, come on.

[he scrapes out part of its jaw with his fingers. man, this thing looks fierce.]

[mortalcoil]

[he walks closer, but he still obviously really doesn't get what's going on here.

He's looking at it pretty analytically. He probably doesn't even know it's supposed to be for fun. :/ ]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

[Robin, meanwhile, starts shrugging his jacket off. if he's not already close enough, he'll walk up to Coil and drop his jacket on over the kid's shoulders.

because while Robin will be cold, he won't get hypothermia and die. but Coil is human and squishy, so who knows.]

You just build whatever you want. [he immediately goes about scooping up some more snow, maybe for some mutant tentacles in place of arms.] It's fun.

[mortalcoil]

[there are two things that he's trying to figure out. First, he's stuck on the jacket a little. Looking surprised at first, kind of swimming in it, it takes him a few moments to decide that he's okay with the gesture and shrug the thing more properly on his shoulders.

And then there is this whole business with the snow sculpture. After another minute of staring at it, watching the construction, he fixes his gaze on Robin again. Just looking at him from over his piled-up scarf in that way that says he's waiting for further explanation.

He wants to know why.]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

[he meets that gaze with... a somewhat dry look. he likes Coil, but he is always a little amazed by how bad he is at having fun.]

You know, most people take satisfaction in having made something with their own hands. Especially something entirely of their own creation. Mental exercise aside, there's something calming and assuring about the way one can take something and turn it into something else through nothing but their own will and a little kinetic energy.

[he tosses what turned into a snowball between his hands once, twice. ]

It's fun. It's good for you.

[mortalcoil]

[he really does appreciate the detailed explanation, as evidenced by the fact that he's obviously paying attention to every word... but it still doesn't seem to make much sense to him. He even frowns a little bit, looking back to the snow monster.

He can understand the satisfaction that comes from creating something successfully... that was an important value in his family, after all. But creating something out of snow, which has no function and is just going to melt, seems like a waste of time and effort.

Shrugging the coat closer around his shoulders, he's looking at the sculpture with a good amount of skepticism]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

...And I don't know. [he pats down that hunk of snow onto his monster, strengthening part of what's probably its neck.] Maybe I'll try animating it and sending it out into the city later. Could be funny.

[mortalcoil]

[...oh.

Now it has a purpose.

And, just like that, Coil seems far more interested in the whole thing. His eyebrows raise, and he almost immediately rearranges so that he can stuff his arms properly into the sleeves of the coat, streeetching so that his fingers poke out the ends.

Then he shuffles up within working space of the sculpture and scoots his sleeves down until his hands are really free.

Now he's ready to work. Tell him what to do.]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Hah. [he shakes his head. he at least appreciates Coil's semi-predictable thinking. he'll point over to a nice patch of snow next to him.]

Why don't you build another one? Whatever horrible snow monstrosity you'd like to see unleashed onto the town. Double-points for stability, since once these things start moving around... [he pats down a snow joint, for this very purpose.] They'll be a challenge to keep together as it is.

[mortalcoil]

[he (of course) is going to go at this scientifically.

First, there is a definite planning phase, where he methodically kicks snow together into a pile and forms the general outline of what he wants to build. It's got to be smaller than Robin's because he has less time to work in--his hands are going to start freezing pretty quickly.

Then comes starting to actually pack the the thing into shapes... and he's more or less starting with a skeleton. Staring with a sort of skinny spine shape, rising up from the ground like a snake, with a pair of legs propping it up. He's packing the 'bones' tightly, fingers quickly turning red from the cold.

It's not a very efficient way to build, but it'll be damn sturdy... as long as his hands last through the whole construction.]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

[Robin just focuses on his horrible tentacle abomination. going for some gaping eyes, all very flash. he has the advantage of knowing how his magic would hold this thing together, to boot, so he knows where to cheat.

he'll half-watch Coil most of the time, though. he likes watching him work. he gets so into it.]

Hey, if your hands are cold... [he wiggles his own... freezing cold fingers. even more red than Coil's somehow.] Just cover them with the sleeves. The jacket'll survive snow.

[mortalcoil]

[the body still needs fleshing-out, but he's moved up to the face and kind of... stopped. He seems indecisive and frowny about something, though part of the reason he's pausing is the pain in his fingers. He pauses in rubbing feeling back into his hands to listen to Robin's suggestion.

He likes being able to really work with his hands, but... yeah, he can't keep this up. So, he wiggles the sleeves easily back over his hands, and returns to work... but he's still leaving the face alone for now. Gonna go back to building up the body]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

[the only time where Coil isn't being observed from the sidelines is when Robin wanders off towards a nearby tree to go hack off some icicles. he comes back with a big handful, which he will numbly stick in his monster's mouth.

he tosses the remainders into the snow and sticks his hands under his arms to try and warm them up... and he'll take another look at Coil's progress, to boot.]

And you're already overachieving, huh. [he smiles a little. even if it's not technical "fun"... he's pretty good at making snow monsters.] Looks pretty good.

[mortalcoil]

[he's pretty good at making monsters in general... this one just happens to be made of snow.

And he looks over, considers the leftover ice-teeth left in the snow... but after looking back at his creature's lack of a face, he breathes a frustrated little sigh.

Stuffing his own hands under his arms and looking perturbed, he glances over to shoot Robin a somewhat helpless look. He doesn't know what to do now.]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

[Robin shuffles over through the snow to get a good look from the front. to him it's just a monster, snake-type, which means it probably has horrible teeth and little, beady eyes.]

What's this thing supposed to look like, huh?

[he tilts his head a little, reaches forward to carefully scratch the vague outline of some teeth in the front where he thinks a mouth would go.]

Big teeth? Not gonna look cuddly, I figure...

[mortalcoil]

[seeing even the sketch of teeth makes Coil's frown worse. Yeah... that looks too much like a drake for his tastes. He could extend the snout or keep it cropped short and it would still look like that. So, he reaches out and digs his fingers somewhat impulsively into the front of the creature's mostly-blank face, gouging out a big scoop of snow right down the middle, interrupting the tracing of teeth.

It immediately makes it stop looking like a drake, anyway. It makes it stop looking like much of anything.

...But then, after spending a moment or two looking at the mess he'd just made... something dawns on him. And he reaches out again to dig further down the center of its face.

Thanks, Robin. He has an idea now.]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

...Hey, all right. [he supposes, if it works, it works! he's not going to argue with Coil's apparent spark of inspiration.] You go, kid.

[mortalcoil]

[yeah, he's got an idea now, and he's suddenly focused. This is serious business. He doesn't really care about the cold in his fingers anymore; they're a little warmer now anyway from being in his sleeves for a bit. So he shoves them up again, frees his hands so he can work directly, and digs into the snow.

He splits the whole face in half down the middle. The mouth is now something more like a carnivorous plant than anything a natural animal would have. When it's finally big and monstrous enough, and built up to be structurally sound, he jabs a pair of eyeholes into its face on either side... then adds a couple more to make it look even less drakelike.

Finally, he shoots Robin a short glance and points at the ice-teeth still laying in the snow. Bring him those.]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Hah... [well, would you look at that.] You got it.

[he'll go gather up those little shards and hand them over--and then wander off to a nearby tree to get more of them. it's a big mouth, after all.]

[mortalcoil]

[he makes sure those fangs are rooted in deep and they would all fit together when the mouth is closed. He's aiming for functionality. And once Robin brings him more, the mouth is finished quickly and he jabs a couple into the creature's toes so that it has claws too.

Once the monster has been weaponized, seems like it could slitherstomp along well enough if it had the ability to, and his fingers are fingers are intolerably frozen and red, he turns to Robin again.

How's it look?]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Looks like a terror to me.

[he nods, particularly appreciative of the toes. he'll get to play with that. Coil's is probably going to be much easier to animate than his own, given that it has a logical, sturdy structure and all.]

Is that it? Ready to go send these things out into society?

[mortalcoil]

[it's not a smile, but boy is it an eager nod.

He's so ready to see these things in action. This better be worth the possibility of mild frostbite.]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Great. [he flexes his fingers to get a little feeling back into them, seeing as he's the one not even wearing a jacket. but frostbite is nothing next to the chance to wrap his brain around some complex spells. he takes a stick, quickly moving around to the back of Coil's monster. he scratches some kind of a circular design into the back, bites his knuckle open, bleeds a little into the snow... you know, usual stuff.

his own snowman gets the same treatment. a circle etched on the back, bleeding on it just a little--before he starts muttering some things in that old and bizarrely understandable language of his. he's giving them life from his blood, asking the water they're made of to move under his command.

by the time the monsters give a horrible, shifting lurch, he's walking up to Coil and grabbing his hand and leading him back towards the building, his wound healing on its own.]

Come on. Second floor window.

[mortalcoil]

[for the first time in a while, that perpetual bored look is gone from Coil's face. And he's reluctant to walk away from the monsters, however dangerous they may or may not be. A tug on his hand is necessary to get him actually moving, and even then he's looking back over his shoulder to see.

He doesn't want to miss a second.]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

[he'll have to miss a little, but Robin leads him into the house and up the stairs, excited enough to make it a very quick trip. he hits the windowsill, sticks his head out the window, and watches the snow forms continue to shiver and shift, like they're just waking up, or trying to hatch.]

Theeere we go... [sinking back into the window (helping Coil actually get a better look), he holds his hands out in front of him like a puppeteer. there's blood in the spell and blood in his body--so they, by extension, are him.

he curls his fingers up into a fist, and they stop moving. he waits a couple of seconds, just as someone starts to pass by, and then slowly shifts the fingers of his one hand... his own snowman starts to lumber to the side, a little uneven and slow.

he's got a plan.]