Ice Skating!

[Star]

DOWNTOWN SACRAMENTO HOLIDAY ICE RINK

St. Rose of Lima park, downtown Sacramento. For over twenty years, eight dollars and a signed waiver will open up the winter wonderland made famous by Hans Brinker. Although temperatures have been in the mid 40s and 50s and there's not White Christmas in sight, it's still a Christmas Winter Holiday favorite.

"I have a confession."

The mop leaned closer to his Intervallutrix, voice dropping softly as they stood in line.

"I've totally got this weird phobia about falling, and, like," long fingers splayed outward to pantomime catching a fall. "Someone running over my hands? I know it's, uh, a little weird. Okay? But I just want you to know that recent studies show that severed body parts should be chilled, but not frozen. Frostbite, I guess? So, if I lose a finger, okay?"

Said fingers retreated to the pockets of the dark peacoat that was old enough to start showing fuzz balls and slick elbows.

"Have you done this? Before. The skating. Not the, uh, recovering severed digits."

Who even knows what the other people in line are turning to look at.

[Avis]

"Skated on ice, before?" Avis returned before giving a brief shake of her head.

"Didn't have any in my town, growing up. Didn't have a chance until I was in Chicago, but it got cold enough there that I never thought spending time around more ice was gonna make for a good time. And now I'm not so sure it will be, if we have to worry about severed fingers," she added, affectionately bumping Star's shoulder.

"I mean, unless you're just saying that as part of an elaborate ploy."

[Xander]

Emrys listened as the couple had their back and forth. His own holiday thoughts of food and family were suppressed by a brief flash of gore. Avis set him back on a more positive line of thought before mentioning a ploy. Like Emrys needed more reasons to be suspicious.

"So," Emrys started before looking to the rest of the cabal in line behind the big wigs. "How did you guys spend the holidays before?"

[Star]

The Angel inhaled, lips parted, silence. A frown, then lips parted again.

"Okay. I got nothing. Like, I totally wanted to be all, like, yeah, it's a ploy to...," The hands appeared, fingers splayed outward. "Insert something funny? But, yeah, total zilch on anything funny about, you know, missing fingers. I am legit, like, seriously. Do you know how ard it is to, uh, shuffle cards? With missing fingers? Or a zombie finger? You don't get it all back, you know. The whole range of motion? Sensitivity?"

Like a musician going deaf. Or a photographer going blind. The fear is real.

"I don't know, what did we do?" The mop bobbed between Emrys and Avis. "I think we raided that junk yard? I remember because, like, when I needed to run over to Home Depot for supplies to fix up the van? There were Christmas decorations everywhere."

Whoah, hunting. It's not a surprise --the hunting isn't-- but...

"Oh, for real? Turkeys and pigs? So you like prepped and cooked them yourself, right? Not like you-you, but whoever you were with. Unless it was you, and then I didn't know you could, like, cook. We should do that. Maybe a cookout? I could use some pointers on grilling, like, raw meat. But, yeah. Sorry. Anyway. Why aren't you, you know, with them. Right now. This year?"

Also, wow, who's hungry now.

[Arthur]

"More likely to fall on your face than get a finger cut off. No one wants to run into someone who fell, then they fall, then the person behind them." Arthur rambles out his thoughts as he watches the people already on the rink. It's been years. Hockey is for people who like pain.

Arthur speaks softly as he continues to watch the skaters."My parents were always busy, always. When I was younger we'd go places for the holidays but as I got older they would make less time." An exaggerated yawn breaks Arthur's glum and he shifts to look at the others. "I'm up for grilling, we could pick up some meat on the way back home." Grilling in winter is a thing when temperature is a Lie. Wait.

An eyebrow raises. "There's ways to fix fingers though." Unless Guardian's don't do that.

[Avis]

"Well, we also did gifts, too. Remember when Asp forgot what I got her?" Avis said, punctuating the question with a small snort.

"But sure, I wouldn't mind just doing food this year. There's a butcher I know that has some excellent heart. We could easily pick some up on the way back from skating. Oh, speaking of which, if you really weren't saying that as a ploy to hold hands, just make two fists. It's pretty damn hard to cut off a finger tucked into a fist."

That was something she knew from experience. Not that most would realize it.

"Or pockets," she added, wriggling her fingers inside the little nests of her leather jacket. "Pockets would work, too."

[InvertedMonkey]

This ice rink is too small. Well, not too small, but smaller than Ramona would like it to be. And too crowded. It'd be nice to have some room, really be able to cut loose, gain some speed, slide however you like. This is more tame, though. Family-friendly. It's nice, at least, to get out on the ice. Something she hasn't experienced in a while. It's kind of a mixed blessing, the memories it brings up from childhood. The ones on the ice are mostly good ones, at least, even if the ones surrounding them aren't.

It's taken her a few minutes to dust off her skills, but by now, the ogress is skating with confidence. Not doing any fancy tricks or anything, like figure skating, just a good, steady glide. Every once in a while she can flip around and skate backwards for a few meters, but not much longer. She'd had a passing interest in hockey, way back when, but knew her father wouldn't approve.

She's skating in reverse, on the edge of the rink and passing the line where people are waiting to come in to skate, when she overhears something about severed fingers. And then grilling comes up in the conversation quickly afterward. It's unusual enough that she turns her head to look. Not eavesdropping, nope, not Ramona.

-1G to Harden Mask