Logs:Icecapades

Icecapades
Dramatis Personae Asva, Avi, Lael
In Absentia Jax	2023-03-28 "Do he look responsible right about now?"
Location <XAV> Lake - Xs Grounds
Bright, bright, bright; the lake glitters wide and expansive here, stretching off into the distance. Sunlight, moonlight, starlight, it catches them all. Lapping at the rocky shore, its deep waters are frigid in winter and cool even in summer. A stone pier stretches out a ways into the water, wide and smooth, though often icy in winter. The water teems with life nevertheless, home to myriad species of fish that provide for ample fishing or just lazy watching on a slow summer day, for those who want to take a boat from the boathouse out to the center of the lake, or perhaps lounge on the pier and try their luck. Spring is definitely here -- the gardens in bloom, the weather been mild -- but that hasn't stopped a creeping layer of ice from frosting itself over the lake. It's been slow going, working steadily out from the shore, but by now a good solid swath of the water by the shore is hidden away under a solid upper crust. Somewhere farther out on the surface than perhaps he should be is Avi, in jeans and a bold orange windbreaker, his sneakers sporting an crust of their own where he's added a pair of blades fashioned out of ice to their soles. The ice is thinner here than it is by the shore, though slowly growing thicker as he frowns intently down at it. "So you're the one responsible for filling the ice cube tray-" Asva's lilting voice calls out from the shore with an inflection of humour, his footsteps most likely soundless to the student in the centre who was clearly concentrating on freezing the rest of the lake. He's dressed quite typically for the beginning of spring; a light knitted cardigan draped over a band-tee, and a pair of tan cord trousers with an obvious patch on the knee. In his hand, now lifted up by the shoelaces in front of him, are a well-kept, albeit a little dusty pair of ice-skates. "Reckon it's sturdy enough for two?" "Do he look responsible right about now?" The answering question comes not from the boy out on the ice but one perched at the end of the pier. Lael is wearing a forest green tee with a mockingjay emblem on the chest over a gray waffle thermal, rugged blue jeans, and black sneakers on the verge of falling apart. He's brought a heavy physics textbook and a notebook out here with him, but has set these aside for now. He's whittling idly at a block of wood in his hands, but mostly keeping eye on his roommate's ambitious project. "Avi, you already got people coming down here with skates. Only matter of time before the Canadians get wind a this." "Only one way to find out," Avi chirps encouragingly, brightly waving to beckon Asva to join him. "Skates are what it's for," he calls back Lael patiently, "-- wait, aren't you Canadian?" He's looking back to Asva almost hopefully. "The Canadians probably know from good skating ice." Joining Lael on the pier and throwing his legs over the edge to put his skates on, Asva chuckles, "I am indeed, Norwegian too. Double the cold, twice the experience!" His eyes land on the wood being carved in Lael's hands, impressed by the skill and patience it takes to make such a trinket. He keeps this to himself, however. "The ice looks good to me, although I am desperate for a skate - don't take my word for golden." Despite these muttered words at the end, he finishes lacing up his skates and slips gently off the edge of the pier, metal soon scraping on ice as he tests its strength. "See? No problem!" He smiles, both grateful and impressed that it holds. "You know, I really ought've known that on account of you showing up with your skates all ready to go." For all his apparent skepticism, Lael is smiling as he shakes his head. His locs coil tighter and faster for a moment when Asva goes onto the ice, then return to their usual relaxed serpentine undulation. "You start pulling this year-round, we gonna have a championship hockey team come winter." Lower, though not entirely to himself, he adds, "Lord only knows what kinda mutant fish we gonna have." "Our teams need all the help they can get." There's a cheerful amusement in this, despite Avi's inward frustration at leaving his old school with Actually Good Sports behind for Xavier's inept mess. "-- Woah, Canorway, you got cold etched right into your bones then." He is trying to picture Norway in his mind but all that comes up is a vast snowy wilderland populated entirely by stony-faced trolls. Very briefly entertains asking Asva if he has met any trolls, then dismisses this in favor of peering down at the ice -- unfortunately/fortunately no longer at all translucent here. "If the fishes was gonna get jacked up by weird power shit we already probably got a lake of monsterfish -- woah. Do we got a lake of monsterfish, I did hear there was a sea monster living here but I ain't seen it yet." Asva responds with his eyes, letting them grow wide in a 'Don't Even Get Me Started' expression. "I'd join an ice hockey team, I'm not very good for a- what was it you called me? Ca... Canorway," The laugh that follows is warm, despite the cool temperature from below, "But it sounds fun!" It isn't until he pushes off, gliding across the ice in a somewhat effortless circle that he stops to examine the ice, checking for any movement from underneath. "He was joking, right? That was a joke." He asks Lael, a look of disbelief on his face. "I don't know from skating, but I think 'not very good' by Canorwegian standards looks pretty good by ours. If you join up next season, we might actually have a solid team." Lael sets his whittling aside and studies the ice critically. "He ain't joking. Y'all new here, but I heard all kind of weird stories from upperclassmen 'bout what's living in these woods and this water, and I don't think they're all made up." "I wish I was joking but our teams are awful," Avi cheerfully misinterprets, "Lael's right you'd probably improve things by a mile just by knowing how to skate." If there's a monster in the lake, to it isn't currently visible beneath the layer of ice. The ice remains cool under Lael's scrutinizing gaze -- though he might observe that its thick white surface is not very evenly so, more opaque around where Avi stands and considerably less so the farther it gets from him. Avi is gliding closer to the pier again now -- then farther away -- not quite as effortless as Asva but certainly confident. "This point I'd believe most anything people told me 'bout this place. Like!! Did you know there's a giant dragonfly living on the grounds? One of the teachers rides it into battle, a lake monster's not so weird." In his mind now is just the giant blue dragonfly, only wearing a helmet resembling a bathysphere so that it can dive under the lake. Asva's thoughts veer in the direction of joining the ice-hockey team, and how much it would mean to him to insert himself into the spirit of Xavier's properly. He's been here a month, but in all honesty has been a little overwhelmed. Even after chatting with Lael and Avi for the brief time they have so far, he's pleased that he decided to join these two on the lake today. "Okay, now that is something I need to see!" He chuckles, pushing off once again and managing an entire lap of the lake. "Hey Avi - do you know how to spin?" He glides closer to the pier where his icy friend is skating back and forth. Asva's not usually one to show-off per se, but he seizes the opportunity to punctuate his skate to the pier with a turn, kicking up a little bit of frosty debris as the spin is a little clunky, but successful. "Some monsters are easier to find than others." Lael's hair stretches, each loc clumsily twisting in the direction of the other two boys as though looking at them. "The dragonfly lives out in the stables, but keep in mind, now..." Lael sounds extremely serious, here. "Even regular size dragonflies is fierce predators. One that big has got to be stronger than all them horses combined, and I don't think it eats no hay. Avi, I think you need to spread your freezifying around a bit more, it look a lot icier near you than away." Maybe he would have explained this, but is quickly distracted by Asva's trick. His eyebrows lift slightly. "Well now, maybe I impress too easy, but I sure am impressed." "Whaaat you want some freezifying too?" There's a bright excitement in Avi's mind, hopeful at the thought of his more staid roommate joining them in the skating. "I could freezify you some blades of your own -- wo-o-oah," Avi sounds dutifully impressed at Asva's spinning, "I go forward and I stop and I thought that was skills enough. I got a lot of ice skills to learn." He's zooming off again, kind of awkwardly trying to mimic Asva's spin -- though all that he accomplishes is a sharp stop on the ice. There is an uncertain un-promising creaking from the ice Asva is standing on, right about where his blades dug in to the ice. As Lael’s hair moves of its own accord, Asva can’t help but watch as each lock turns to face him and Avi. Matched with his serious and warning tone, it sends a small shiver down his spine. It’s almost enough to distract him from the creaking beneath his bladed feet. Almost. “You almost had it! But uh, Lael’s not wrong - we might need some thicker ice here, buddy..” He calls out to Avi, reaching his arms out in an attempt to distribute his weight evenly. He can feel the ice beneath him start to crack as another creak echoes through the depths. If it didn’t mean potentially falling through and getting soaked in freezing cold water, the sound could be quite satisfying. "You put me on that ice I'm like to do a lot more than just embarrass myself. It ain't gonna hold three of us." The ice cracks hard just about in time to punctuate Lael's point. His eyes, already unblinking in his distraction, widen along with their slitted pupils. "Y'all need to get up here right quick." He's scrambling to his feet, though once standing it's unclear what exactly he expects to do about the situation other than loom. "Wait what, shit, it's tough I thought I made it tough --" Avi would be whirling around if he were not on ice skates and already stopped; as it is he is kind of clunkily slow-motion clopping in a semicircle. He's turned to face Asva just in time to watch, with a stark look of horror, as the ice finishes cracking and breaking, leaving a growing and unstably crumbling hole where Asva had been. "-- oh my God --" He's immediately starting to skate over -- catching himself here, at least, before falling through himself -- starting to shore up the ice underfoot before he edges closer to peer wide-eyed into the water. It’s not his first time falling through ice, but Asva’s used to skating on much smaller lakes back home. Glorified puddles, even. So even a Canorwegian such as himself isn’t prepared as the ice gives way and water surrounds his body, soaking his clothes almost instantly and sending a sharp chill through him. The surprised yelp that escapes him as he falls, soon becomes a gargle as his head goes under. The ordeal, and the light panic that accompanies it, is enough to trigger his power, and the weightlessness from being suspended in water soon trades out for falling as he plummets to the bottom of the lake with a thud. Luckily he’s clever enough not to skate right in the middle of the lake, and therefore it’s not too far a drop, but the situation is far from ideal. He tries to shout up to the other two that he’s okay, but can’t tell if his voice permeates the large volume of water, and ice that separates them. "Oh Lord--" Lael casts around for a wild moment for something to throw Asva, then fumbles his phone from his pocket instead. When the boy suddenly sinks he gasps and--drops his phone. It bounces off the edge of the pier and skitters across ice to slip slip neatly into the waters that just swallowed Asva. For a moment Lael seems frozen himself, but then his head is tilting, and his locs are waving slow with concentration and not twisting with panic. "Well I'll be--" He looks back over at Avi. "He's...okay? His power, I think, whatever the heck that is." Now his locs are twisting with panic. "You ain't got his power get your crazy ass up here before that crack spreads!" "He's what no I just killed him," Avi is insisting, dismayed, when he can't actually spot Asva in the murk below, flat on his belly by the edge of the hole now to try squinting into the depths. "He ain't even nowhere --" But then he's peering back over his shoulder, an understanding dawning as Lael concentrates. "Oh shit is he invincible?" He's rolling away from the unstable edge of the hole, back on more solid ice before he stands up and heads back to the pier. The ice-blades on his sneakers are crumbling and falling away. "Where he at tell him to come back up and I'm sorry I murdered him!" With Lael's reassurance, though, he sounds more excited than sorry, already mentally planning what kind of adventures could be had with someone who is invincible. Every sound is muffled from this deep, and as Asva remembers what the other two said about lake creatures, he needs no more convincing to try and walk along the bottom of the lake and climb back up the bank. It’s an odd sensation being this soaked but not having any of the water drip off him, but he presses on until he reaches the surface. The other two, if observant enough, can see a hand just appear through the thick layer of ice at the edge of the lake not too far from the pier, soon followed by the rest of Asva’s body as he hauls himself out of the ice. “I would not recommend that…” His words are breathless, the panic finally subsiding as he wills himself solid again. Now the water is dripping from him, and he remembers all too quickly how horrible soggy clothing feels. "Ionno if he invincible but he coming. Just got to walk along the bottom for some reason." Lael pulls Avi up onto the pier and does not let go of him immediately, as if worried he's going to hare off into peril of his own making again. His hair is writhing and coiling in a somewhat disturbing way. "You didn't murder him, and he's right over there--" He points at where Asva is pulling himself out of the lake. "--you can apologize your own self." Avi gratefully accepts the hand up, his own hand clapping to Lael's shoulder once he's done. "Maybe he gets real heavy when he's invincible," he conjectures uncertainly. He doesn't notice Asva pulling himself out of the water until Lael points out the other boy's reappearance. He's off like a shot to race towards Asva's side, looking him up and down and up again as if to reassure himself Asva is in fact Not Dead. "Holy crap I'm sorry I almost killed you but you don't look dead at all how you breathe underwater that's amazing let's go get you dry," is followed immediately by, "-- maybe later we do that again with better diving clothes on." Still breathing heavily, Asva’s attention is somewhat scattered as Avi approaches. He dons a warm smile nonetheless, “It’s okay! Really, though I don’t think I was breathing underwater.” He’s very much still grasping the ways in which his power works, let alone how he can use it to his advantage in creative ways, but he’s never once considered whether he could phase through water and still be able to breathe. Avi’s enthusiasm and blatant excitement is cool though, makes him feel welcome and important for a moment. “We can definitely test it again, maybe I’ll actually be able to see whatever lurks down there…” He reaches his hands out and wiggles his fingers, accompanying the strange gesture with a spooky ‘Ooooh’. “What do you say, Lael? I’m already soaked, wanna see if there really is a lake monster?” Lael follows Avi over. His jaw actually drops open, just a little, at the exchange of excited future lake-bottom exploration plans. "Oh my God, youse both crazy." He looks from Avi to Asva. "You just done said you don't think you was breathin' down there! I can't believe I'm saying this, but Avi's right, you need to get outta them wet clothes." Even as he says so, he's ushering the other two boys up the beach and toward the mansion. "It ain't warm enough out here to be running 'round soaked, you'll catch your death." "What's the point of having superpowers if you don't do some superawesome things," Avi is asking Lael kind of patiently in response to them both Being Crazy. He is allowing himself to be ushered back towards the mansion, conceding, "anyway Lael's right we gotta go prepare better," only to follow this up with, "-- I bet someone round here has a great underwater camera we can get some good shots of you next time."