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 Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 4:37 pm
Snow Strike (11) : While out, a sudden snowball smacks you squarely--then another, and another--launched with uncanny accuracy from nowhere you can pinpoint. Whether it’s one unseen assailant or an entire invisible team, the barrage is definitely targeted, and attempting to throw snowballs back or defend yourself only seems to escalate the attack. Sometimes the snowy onslaught will follow you if you run; other times, stepping past a certain point makes it abruptly stop, as if whatever’s behind it has lost interest. No matter how intense it gets, the bombardment always dwindles after a few moments, leaving you cold, dusted in snow, and wondering who--or what--decided you were the perfect target for winter mischief. Bundled up in a way that reminded her of her powered self, Mel made her way rather happily down the sidewalk, Elaine's apartment now in sight. The reminder was just a small part of her good mood, though. The lion's share of that was the fact that she had passed (granted still with a need for some minor revisions), which meant that she would be getting her degree before the end of the month, and then she was done with school. Which she felt maybe was cause for more of a celebration than she was willing to organize at the moment—the holidays to name at least one, but there were other things, too—but that wasn't why she brought the food. She was hoping to do some sleuthing to try and figure out what might make for a good present for Elaine. Not that she felt she needed to bribe Elaine to spend time with her, of course, but she was always nervous about showing up to anyone's door completely empty handed. In the basket were several containers of food, enough for two plus likely leftovers—smothered pork chops, sauteed mustard greens, a half batch of cornbread, and a peach cobbler that she opted to cook in a loaf pan because she got concerned halfway through that she might have been bringing too much. It was heavy, but not so heavy that it threatened to out-balance her with each step. Still, she walked carefully, eyes bright and the usual smile settled comfortably on her face. A smile that the sight of one man immediately, and very completely, erased. Mel clenched her hands around the handle of the basket as she continued walking in his direction, the horrible memory of their last conversation replaying in her mind. She scrunched her brows together, clearly looking uncomfortable, maybe even a little nervous, but wanting to trek on anyway so she could see Elaine. With any luck, maybe he wouldn't notice her...
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 5:11 pm
Too late, too late.
He was turning away from the door, and he lifted his eyes and visibly startled when he saw her, going still and silent for just enough of a moment to betray the fact that he was not nonchalantly unmoved by the unexpected and unwelcome surprise before he broke out into a smile that attempted - and failed - to be cheerful.
"She isn't home," he said, which didn't explain why he'd been looking for her too, but might at least save her some effort. A pause, as he eyed her armful of things. "I know where the spare key is, if you need to drop things off." And then, lest she get the wrong idea - although he could not help wretchedly entertaining the notion, for a moment, that it would be quite funny if she did get the wrong idea, at least until it caused a fight between two friends, which would not be funny at all - he added: "Sometimes I walk the dog when she's - busy. She's busy all the time, isn't she?"
It had a sort of desperation in it, as if trying wildly to latch onto a question that would necessitate a friendly answer.
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 7:36 pm
So much for that. Mel froze where she stood when he started, considering him for a moment. She ignored the smile. Elaine wasn't home. Which...well, she wasn't worried about the food going to waste since she knew where the spare was, too. Even if she didn't, she'd have rather tried to call Elaine to ask where it was than agree than take this man's (honestly, kind of sketchy) offer to let her inside someone else's apartment, mutual friend or otherwise. It felt like she'd be insulting Elaine if she thought even for a second that she would sleep with this man, so it hadn't crossed her mind beyond briefly questioning why he explained why he was there. "She has a life, yeah," she said, a brow quirking up in her quickly growing annoyance over the fact that there he stood, trying to make small talk as if he hadn't done anything wrong and had absolutely nothing to apologize for. Not that she was feeling magnanimous enough to even accept an apology from him at the moment. Her grip on the basket tightened all the more, the patterning starting to dig uncomfortably into her skin. "And I know where the spare is too, so," she went on in clipped tones, then gestured behind her. "Weren't you just leaving?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 7:46 pm
It was distressing to experience consequences for his actions. It was not a situation he was often in, being the sort of slippery b*****d who charmed his way into good graces and then escaped before his acquaintances could realize he might have fallen out of them.
"I mean - I was - and then you showed up and I thought, you know. It'd be rude -"
The ridiculousness of having scruples about politeness did not escape him. He, therefore, laughed, but it was a despairing sort of bark of a sound without much amusement in it.
"Ah - I hope you got my texts?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 8:07 pm
He sounded none too thrilled about their exchange. Good. Mel felt a small sense of satisfaction in the very back of her mind. She fought down a snort when he mentioned something about being rude, and she she frowned at the laugh he let out when he seemed to catch himself and cut off. It sounded like anything but a laugh, she thought. There was a part of her that was curious what might have been going through his head. If he was panicking, maybe, or trying to spin another web of lies to get himself out of the mess that he made. "Blocked you," she said, surprise at his question breaking the tension in her face. Apparently she was out of practice at looking, or at least trying to look, angry, because her face sort of hurt now. She reached up to massage between her eyebrows. "So no, I didn't. Why? Have more lies for me?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 8:22 pm
He paused. It was a lengthier pause than he intended, and he made another meaningless, nervous sound at the end of it, shifting his weight from foot to foot, although that was possibly just the cold, despite his being quite tidily bundled up. This was a good outfit. He'd thrifted this coat when it still had a four hundred dollar price tag on it, which he'd been very quick to snip off before any of his coworkers had seen so he could slap a 5.99 tag on the sleeve and do a little pre-shift shopping by hiding it in a broken wardrobe in a dim back corner until he could clock out. He had that s**t on today and he was wasting it on someone who was always going to look at him and see a honking nose and giant red shoes. "I mean," he said at last, sounding vaguely defeated, his eyes turned sightlessly towards the parking lot over her shoulder, "like. No. But what's the point in me saying that?" It's not like she had any reason to believe it. He added, a little listlessly: "Huge huge favor if you don't mention that to Elaine, by the way. She had some really creative threats about if I reached out to you again. I recognize that I have just incentivized you telling her."
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 8:40 pm
She wasn't likely to believe a vast majority of what came out of his mouth anyway, so that was fair enough. Mel gave a little sigh as she looked over at him again, noticed how he looked over his shoulder at the parking lot and realized how badly he might have wanted to get away from her given everything. She was about to say something to effect of neutral agreement when he quickly followed up with that. "A favor?" she repeated, an edge to her voice that felt foreign even to her. As if she owed him anything at all after what he did, before he could even try to apologize now that they happened to run into each other again and she couldn't exactly block out a live human being now matter how badly she wanted to, he had the gall to ask her for a favor? She curled down at that, setting the basket down and turning so he couldn't see her take a giant scoop of snow into her hands and form it into a ball. And then she stood, took a deep breath, and chucked it at ******** you, Kay!" she screamed as she threw it. She then quickly ducked down, made another one, and threw it at him as well. "Maybe at least think about apologizing first before asking me for a favor, you lying b*****d!" She ducked down for a third time, but before she could straighten out again she felt something whiz past, above her head. Followed by another, a little to her left. And another, above her head again.
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 9:04 pm
He stood, looking quite silly and undignified, and did not seem at all shocked by the sudden onslaught. To be fair, one became accustomed to such things in Destiny City, but also, he felt certain that this was some sort of karmic punishment catching up him. It was just that it was doing so via the medium of what Elaine would call Destiny City Bullshit.
He ducked without really making an effort, more out of instinct than anything.
"I deserve this. This is - ow, sonofabitch - anyway I did apologize, but you blocked my number. Totally valid, by the way. I don't - Jesus, that's cold - blame you for it, but I did apologize. I can apologize again. Should I apologize again?"
A particularly well aimed snowball caught him full on the side of the head.
"Yours hurt more," he said, and with the air of a compliment added: "Amazing arm. Do you go rock climbing or something?" Smack. He doubled over a bit, trying to shield his head with his arms. "I hope your school s**t went good, by the way." Smack. He had, at least, actually been listening when encouraging her to talk about her real and actual self.
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 11:39 pm
She sidestepped out of the way of the snowballs, not caring who or what was throwing them but feeling more than satisfied at the sight of him getting hit over and over again. Once she was clear, she went ahead and joined in again, moving with the grace and strength wrought from years of practicing yoga, training regularly at a gym, and toting around an unusually hefty shield on a semi-regular basis. "Well it couldn't hurt!" she went right on screaming, quite obviously not in a forgiving mood. The statement was true all the same. "Before you - ask me - for a favor!" The compliment, on the other hand, did the exact opposite of what he might have been hoping it would do. Rather than help to calm her down, it irritated her all the more. And then he went on to mention something that mattered a great deal to her, and the fact that he remembered at all seemed to make it even worse. The barrage of snowballs from nowhere (and she had spared a glance to check) continued, as if standing with her as an ally against him. With narrowed eyes and a face now red and blotchy from both her anger and the cold, she aimed her next snowball low.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 7:49 am
He had hitherto been submitting to the rain of snowballs with the resignation of a man before a firing squad who still feels the blood on his hands, quite willing to be made a deserving a** of. But there were certain things that a man valued even more than his dignity. "I didn't ask you for a favor!" he pointed out hastily, turning and bending to deflect and catching a snowball to a hip that was at least well-padded with winter clothes and therefore having to yelp back over his shoulder. "I told you it would be a huge favor. I left the - ow - the execution of the favor up to your discretion! And I did apologize!" he repeated. "I'll do it again! I'm sorry! It was a s**t thing to do and I was a s**t person for doing it and I don't actually think it mitigates much if I say that I didn't realize that at the time, I actually think it makes it worse probably, but I'm aware of it now and I'm sorry! Be careful, don't back into your stuff," he added, dancing back a little out of range of a stray, god-sent snowball. "It smells ******** amazing by the way."
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Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2025 2:19 am
"Semantics!" she practically snarled, her voice easily carrying over the sound of snowballs smacking into him. She threw another snowball at him, aiming low, then bent for more. "How could you–" Scoop. "Still split hairs like that–" Pack. "After what you did–" Chuck. "You lying sack!" Mel had scooped up more snow as Kay went on to actually apologize. That got her to stop with the snowballs, though she kept the one she was currently packing down (and turning more into an ice ball, really) in her hands as he spoke. She was still red in the face and breathing hard, but she paused to consider. The god-sent snowballs continued their onslaught so she didn't feel too bad about not hitting him with another one of her own It sounded true enough. So did the rest of whatever else he'd ever told her, though. But he at least sounded sincere. But so did he from the moment they met until he told her the truth. She took her time considering, letting the snowballs from nowhere do their worst until they, too, finally stopped. She scowled at that, threw her final snow- ice ball at him, then groaned angrily and turned to pick up the basket. She ignored his comment about the food, thinking he might have only said it to try and benefit somehow. She didn't bite. Wouldn't bite ever again, if she could help it. "Fine," she huffed. "I won't thank you for apologizing, but it sounds like you at least did some thinking." Her tone suggested she was doubtful of that. "So I'll take what I can get." The anger now slowly subsiding left in its place a sadness she hadn't expected. Even if it had all been a lie, she'd believed all of it to be true until he told her otherwise, so it still felt like she'd lost a friend. She bit her lip to snap out of it, and then went right back to glaring at him. "You've said your piece, so let's leave it at that. And maybe stay away from me as much as you can." His being friends with Elaine likely meant that this wouldn't be the last run-in, and there wasn't much she could do about that. Her frown deepened, an eyebrow twitching. "I'd rather not have anything to do with you unless I really, really have to."
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Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2025 1:51 pm
For a long second it seemed as though he might say something else. He hovered visibly on the edge of doing so, perhaps trying to choose out which of many competing ideas he would chase down and spit out.
The expensive coat and the immaculate outfit were bedraggled and unimpressive. His hair - the object of labor and artistry every morning to be exactly and stylishly disheveled enough - was now simply wet and limp, a dark strand dragged across his pale forehead like half the sharpie badge of shame left on a drunk’s face at a house party.
And he looked, beyond anything, very small and very tired, and simultaneously older and too much like a child for a man of his age, thoroughly humiliated and aware that he had courted it by his own stupidity and callousness. His expression of listlessness was not usual to him, and therefore perhaps somewhat dangerous - but she would not know that, because she did not know him, and now she never would, because of his own stubborn refusal to admit that sometimes the rules of decency did, in fact, apply to himself.
His lips parted around something that went unsaid, closing again with an expression that attempted and failed to be a rueful smile. He could have said I deserved all that, but why tell her what she already knew? He could have said I'll stay out of her way and yours, but Mel knew Elaine and knew that there was no necessity of his having to try to, once she caught wind of this.
Instead he paused, sweeping his foot back and forth to clear some of the shattered snowballs off the path in front of her.
“Please be careful. It's slippery,” was all he said as he did so. And then, done, he was moving past her, not towards the parking lot at all, but on foot, trudging through the snow and lighting a cigarette as he went. He'd told her at the restaurant that he'd quit, which was true; he had, however, artfully implied a greater length of time than a few days in that quitting. It would seem like yet another lie, now. But no sense in trying to sort out what was real and wasn't for someone that he had thoroughly pushed into a box labeled “stranger,” or more likely something worse.
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