It's Brittany, Bitch | Ερις (eristic) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2017-12-17 19:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | baron la croix, eris, maman brigitte, raven |
and the sky is a hazy shade of winter
Who: BB, Mercy, Marie, & June.
What: GIRL SQUAD.
Where: Pax Letale exterior.
When: Dec. 9.
Impatient as ever, BB danced between her crutches as she waited for June to join her in the lobby. She was dressed better than she had been upon discovering Alice during her panic attack in the elevator; a few orders from Amazon had been delivered quickly, and now she had an actual snow jacket, decent pants, a knit cap, and gloves. Sneakers still shod her feet, but BB didn't see a need to spring for snow shoes. Her eyes kept straying toward the doors, through which she could see snow piling up against the glass. The walkways were shoveled, which was good for her, as it meant less of a chance for her to slip and break her other leg.
"Waiting for someone?" A voice interrupted her thoughts, having entirely missed the elevator coming down again and depositing not the person BB was waiting for but another young woman she had not yet met. Mercy was not as well dressed as the other girl, wearing merely several layers of black sweatshirts and pants, the topmost layer in bold, white font reading FUTURE CORPSE. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, her face free of makeup. Black sneakers shod her feet. BB's brows rose at the other woman's shirt front, but she grinned all the same.
"Yeah, need someone to open the doors for me, make my snowballs. Hands are a little full," she joked, wiggling one crutch. Mercy smiled wide, and BB started her questioning. "You?"
Mercy shrugged, nodding slightly. "Sorta, but I guess we'll see if she's home."
Marie was, in fact, home. This chilly weather (that was surrounding just their building, what the fuck?) was pretty damn good inspiration for hot comfort foods like jambalaya - which she had simmering in a crock pot in her apartment, the smells making the fifth floor pretty much the crème de la crème of the building in terms of good eats.
Yes, there was a difference between jambalaya and gumbo - the former was cooked with the rice, the latter served over rice. Get it right, people.
So, since her masterpiece had some percolating to do, she decided it’d be okay to respond to the text Mercy sent her with a be right down! and put on her winter gear. She too had to do some quick ordering of clothing, so unused to the snow she was (it barely snowed in Louisiana, not since the 1800s in some parts). But she made do with actual gloves, jeans, a comfy cowl sweater and a lace-up hooded coat thrown on over that.
“Heya!” she greeted Mercy in the lobby, and flashing BB a crookedly charming smile. “Who’s your friend?”
At that precise moment June burst through the stairwell door, shrieking merrily at the sight of her friend. "I hope you're ready to get wrecked," she cried, clapping her thickly gloved hands together. In well worn boots, pants, fur-lined parka and gloves, she was properly bundled and ready for the inclement weather. "Those crutches won't save you, little shoofly. Oh!"
She stopped short in front of the gathered crowd, smiling warmly up at Mercy and Marie. "Sorry, I'm June. Did I meet you at the party? I was Pocahontas. With the severed head?"
"Oh, that was you?!" Mercy said, eyes widening with interest toward June even as her body gravitated toward Marie. "I saw you by the pool table, before—" She stopped short, clearly about to denote some obvious detail before uncertainty crossed her face.
"Yeah, I saw you. Very cute costume." Her eyes raked over her clothes, then Marie's. She opened her mouth to say something else, but the incapacitated Asian took the mic.
"I'm BB, by the by," BB interjected, one hand released from her crutch to wave.
"Oh, I'm Mercy. Haven't been here too long in the building, but long enough," she supplied to June. "And this is Marie. The newbies, I guess you could say." She glanced at Marie sidelong, and then back to the group as a whole.
"I guess we all had the same idea, huh? I've lived here my whole life and never seen this happen, it's so fucking weird."
“Very fuckin’ weird, though I’m sorry I missed this party y’all are talking about,” Marie chuckled huskily. Though she supposed it didn’t matter much - apparently, living in Pax, she wouldn’t be let down when it came to shenanigans and odd goings-on. The snow was definitely proof of that, and if it was leading up to something bigger than just a winter wonderland, well, she didn’t know. But she was here for it.
She tugged her gloves up tighter on her wrists, flashing a smile at the group of estrogen gathered - so many hot women, so little time. “Nice to meet you June and BB.” Now that was an interesting moniker, BB - girl probably got a lot of quips about her name. “So, what were you gals thinking? Like, snow forts or whatever? I’m new to this whole ‘actual winter’ thing.” And apparently most in California were too, at least in this area - their building had attracted no shortage of media, that was for damn sure.
June answered without hesitation. "Snowball fights. No rocks allowed." She looked pointedly to BB as she delivered this caveat, though the gleam in her eye made it somewhat unclear if she intended to abide by her own rule. BB made a gratuitous motion in rolling her eyes, and immediately started for the door. June turned on her heel and beckoned to the others to follow. "Build a fort if you want," she said. "That won't save you either."
She paused at the door, holding it open for the group to pass, and doing her best not to make it obvious she was focused mainly on BB's mobility in particular. "It's nice to meet you both, too," she answered, somewhat belatedly. "It's nice to see other new faces in the building. I'd just got here a little before the party, and man. No-one prepared me for all this. It's pretty fun, though, most of the time. Giant snakes aside."
"Or giant skeletons," Mercy returned, remembering watching Nate and Max go at the thing, on her orders. Well, not quite her orders, and the giant tooth she'd demanded be plucked from the thing had disappeared from her hands the moment they'd gotten through the door.
"Gotta say, though, I'll take snow over that any day," she finished, moving ahead of BB's , andgently loping form to open the door for her.
"I so get at least a five minute head start, and a handicap, OK, Jujubean?" BB countered, ignoring their talk about the party. She'd been unconscious for all of it anyway, so what was there to say? She kept glancing as surreptitiously as she could manage in Marie's direction, though whether it was to gauge her reaction to what the others were saying or merely gawking over a pretty girl wasn't clear. At first.
"Marie, you should come with me," she said, grinning, starting to list a little toward the left, her shoes crunching on snow as they left the path. "Mercy, Jujubean, you guys get that side. We can do a capture the flag or something?!"
Mercy looked a tad taken aback by the sudden sides picking, and a little upset that she wasn't getting a say in all of it. "I thought we were hanging out, I didn't know we were picking teams."
Eh, Marie was pretty go with the flow - for the most part. She was just looking to have some fun in the bizarre atmosphere (until she inevitably got too cold, and invited her new galpals up for some jambalaya). So when BB voluntold her about the snowball fight teams, she just chuckled good-naturedly.
“Sure thing,” she winked, then patted Mercy’s shoulder consolingly. “I got something good cooking upstairs for when we’re done, don’t worry. Something to help us de-ice ourselves.” She took a breath when they exited and like cold water meeting a fire she expected to see steam, but no - it was only her own fogged breath, her boots meeting snow when she looked down - it seemed like none of this wintry landscape had melted even a little; how curious.
“Alright, so do we have a few minutes to like...make our provisions or whatever?” she asked.
"Five minutes," June said, "but only because I can't resist BB's ridiculous puppy eyes." She pointed an index finger at BB's face. "But both teams get five minutes' prep." BB merely made a groaning reply in the affirmative, rolling her eyes as she turned about and shepherded Pax's newest tenant off in the opposite direction.
June reached for Mercy's grabbing at her hand with unearned familiarity, and tugged her off toward some as yet undetermined location. Mercy was jerked forward, not at all prepared for the sudden movement. "I'll be an awesome teammate," June said, "and this way you and I can get to know one another while lobbing snowballs at our friends. Best possible scenario."
She moved them toward the right, keeping opposite the territory BB had already apparently claimed. "BB's crutches are the flag," she called out, her left hand cupped around her mouth. "We've got this," she said, in a stage whisper to her companion.
BB clasped her crutches to herself dramatically, having plopped down in the snow to start building a makeshift fort around herself. Mercy followed that lead, picking up small handfuls of snow to mold into balls.
"I'm glad at least one of us knows what they're doing," she replied, her tone edging a little on upset as she tried to focus on the game at hand. How she'd suddenly gotten caught up in a snowball fight she still wasn't entirely sure, nor was she entirely happy. "Uh, just a fair warning, I suck at throwing things."
June only waved her off and set to work building their pyramid of ammunition. Off on the other side, BB had already made a small pile of hand-sized snowballs; their wall was quickly forming as well, already half BB's sitting height.
"Make sure you pack it in at the bottom, good foundation is key," BB instructed Marie. "You ever been in a snowball fight before? God I love your hair. What hair color do you use? Do you do it at home?" Her quick switch from one topic to the next contrasted sharply with her seemingly disabled state. She added another layer to the one-sided fort as she talked. "I've tried this chalk stuff, you know, I can't ever decide on a color. Make sure you pack the snow tight." She squished two handfuls between her gloves, twisting slowly to ensure Marie saw the nuances of the motion.
Okay, so...a fort? Defenses? How the hell was she supposed to do that? Marie was no architect, so this would be an interesting excursion. “I can help make ammo?” she suggested, since BB had made great strides on the Great Snow Wall (the yooooooooge wall, and Mexico didn’t pay for it) already. But right, following instructions - that she could do. So she followed BB’s lead and began packing snow as well, building some decently-sized balls (heh) to work with.
“We’re not supposed to like, pack rocks and twigs into them right?” she whispered coyly. That’d be cheating. And if she was thrown off by the sudden whiplashing of discussion topics (she wasn’t, for the record), she didn’t seem phased outwardly. “To go from dark to light is hard, you need to use bleach first - I do it at home though, yeah,” she nodded. “The chalk stuff is safer but it doesn’t last as long. I basically use a lot of hair masks too, to keep it healthy. But I love your hair too - the whole look you got goin’ on overall, it works for you.” Yeah, she was totally flirting, but BB was cute - there was no harm in it.
"Get a room already," June shouted. Her voice echoed off the apartment building's walls, carrying easily over to the small gathering of passers-by who'd stopped to watch the impossible snow. BB made an unladylike farting noise in June's direction, but then immediately went back to molding perfectly round snowballs. June grinned over at her friend, tossing a tightly-packed snowball up into the air again and again. "You two look distracted. Mercy and I have a whole arsenal over here already."
She was lying, and BB would know it, but it was simply too tempting to poke the small bear that was Brittany Bernard.
"This is your two-minute warning!" she yelled.
"You mean two minutes before you get snow in the face!" BB returned.
Laughing, June looked to Mercy, then, still tossing the dense snowball in one hand. For all her teasing about BB's flirting, she seemed of a similar mind. "So, Mercy, who was that you were with at the party? Is that a serious thing, or…?"
"Huh?" Mercy said, pulled in too many directions. Her snowballs were a little too small, and she immediately started copying June's motions. "Uh, no. Why? He's free if that's what you're asking." Her voice took on a dark tone, complete disapproval threading throughout. After everything with Daniel, Mercy was keeping her cards closer to her chest.
"Should we be making a fort like them?" She said, abruptly changing the conversation. It was all fine and good to walk around in the snow a bit, maybe make a snowman, but her hands were starting to feel frozen. She'd been trying to pull her sleeves over the worst to avoid making contact, but her face read that she was not at all happy about this turn of events.
"Nah, fuck that," June said. She raised her voice as she added, "That's a pussy way of doing things."
On the other side of the battle ground, BB had created a slightly sloped if short wall that she and Marie could duck behind. It was thin, which mean the first solid snowball to hit it would pierce through, but it provided the smallest amount of cover amid the rest of the gently rolling hills the snow made.
"One minute, Jujubean!" BB sang out, having no honest idea if that much time had actually passed. She turned herself around carefully to hunch down on her knees, her cast unwieldy but she managed the motion nonetheless.
"You ready for this, Marie? Best thing to do is aim a little too long, but not too high," she said. "Also, I was thinking about trimming it a little shorter? My hair," she clarified. "The long hair is kind of a lot of work." And then there were the pesky memories of a certain wolfish person grabbing her by her long hair, which soured the idea of luscious locks. "How'd you think I'd look with blue streaks?"
“Amazing!” Marie encouraged, since blue was one of her favorite colors - and with black hair, it’d be a nice pop of color. “You should definitely go for it. I could even streak your hair for you, if you want,” she offered, packing together her last snowball - she had a good supply now, and it seemed like the other side was ready to let ‘er rip.
Though Marie'd love to take June’s advice and get a room, it was fucking freezing out here.
"Ooo, I'd like that," BB replied, her grin a little too wide and a little too lecherous. She patted the lividly green cast half buried in the snow. "This makes it a little difficult to get to the hair salon lately."
Aim long, but not too high. But right, Marie would keep this other pearl of wisdom in mind. Of course, she hadn’t thought to check her phone or something for the time (not like she wore a watch) but it felt like five minutes had passed. “Okay, so - “ She picked up one of the snowballs. “I’m totally ready for this. En guard??”
June's first snowball was already launched. It sailed through the air, low and quick, weighted down only a little by the stones she had packed into its center. It hit the fort with a muffled thunk, and sent a spray of snow flying into her opponent's faces. BB threw up an arm, shielding her face, and then looked up to see more incoming missiles.
The second followed soon after. Then a third. June seemed to have indeed stockpiled a fair amount, though she was burning through that ammunition far more quickly than she should have. Her next snowball went high, arcing quickly toward BB's face. June, meanwhile, had advanced a few paces, plainly eager to close in on their designated "flag." She glanced back only once at Mercy, taking a handful of seconds to observe her wind-flushed cheeks and perfect, high cheekbones; but now was not the time to renew her earlier line of inquiry. She turned back to face the opposition's fort, and launched another snowball directly between the women.
Mercy was visibly trailing, clearly willing to allow June to take the brunt of whatever the other girls had to offer. She had three snowballs—one in her throwing hand, the other two tucked into her right arm and quickly seeping through her layers of sweats—and was trying to decide where to throw. Taking a slightly wider arc, she aimed and let loose toward the top of the fort, her snowball just skirting the rim of the wall. It shattered, exploding into powder that dusted over BB and Marie's heads.
"Ugh," BB replied, shaking snow off of her jacket. She clutched several snowballs to her chest and popped up like a jack-in-the-box, hurtling snowballs as quickly and as hard as she was able. Two sailed through the air in June's direction, BB's dire grin edging on a malicious touch as she tried to take her friend down.
Well, now Marie was just looking like Jack Frost himself - her nose red, cheeks flushed and cold - but she was having fun, even while spitting snow powder. Sure, a couple of those snowballs from the opposition had made impact (but she’d returned the favor when it came to rocks in the balls because, yeah, she was a dirty fighter and the sort to also keep razorblades in her fabulous hair in case of a throwdown). However, she was giving the fight all she had.
“We’ve got this,” she assured, and since BB was going for June that meant Marie meant for Mercy. She weaved left and right to try and find a good vantage point, tossing a packed projectile at her pal (long, but not high!) and hoping it was enough to knock her off kilter for a second. They had to protect ‘the flag’ at all costs!
June had ducked the first of BB's snowballs, but in her haste to gloat she grew distracted, and took the full force of the second snowball in her throat. She sputtered and coughed, perhaps more dramatically than was required, and with her gloves tried to scoop away the snow that had fallen into her parka's hood. Luckily the fur lining kept the bulk of the snow from her skin; but enough had fallen down her front to wake her up and renew her determination. Her ammunition already depleted, she scooped up another palm full as she advanced on the fort. She packed it quickly and launched it straight at BB's breast, grinning like a demon all the while.
She shrieked—somewhat unnecessarily—and dropped the remainder of what she had to attack in favor of sending her hands flying to her face.
"Fucking hell," she muttered, her vision completely erased in one eye as she felt the flesh around it start to swell. She stopped in place, a second snowball that had already been fired before she'd been struck aiming right for her gut striking true. With her left eye still squeezed shut, Mercy stumbled back a little, hair coming undone from her pony to partially shield her face. "I fucking surrender or whatever this fucking game takes," she hissed, her hand going back up to her eye.
Oops! Marie hadn’t been aiming for the face, but hey, that was a direct hit - so yay? Or not yay. She didn’t want to blind Mercy, after all. “Sorry!” she called sheepishly, standing up straight and dusting off her jeans with gloved hands - it didn’t do much good, since she felt utterly soaked to the bone after being pelted with snowballs (packed with rocks, so it hadn’t been just her who was a dirty fighter - yeah, she had a few dings on her person as well).
“I can’t believe June went for the tit though, that’s brutal,” she grinned. “Are you guys okay?” Mercy looked worse for the wear, but that may be because she was too pretty to dive into the thug life.
"Of course we are," June said. But she wheeled toward Mercy all the same, her hands rising up toward—but carefully not touching—her face. She lowered her voice so that BB could not hear. "Are you okay? Aw, that looks like it's going to swell…"
She looked over her shoulder, calling out to BB. "We win, right? We did more damage, so." She shrugged. "Let's go in and get some coffee."
"Mean you took more damage," BB shot back, grabbing her crutches. Without a backward glance, June flipped off her friend. She reached one hand out toward Marie. "Little help? Not saying the view down here isn't bad, but my ass is frozen."
Mercy, on the other hand, was veering away from June. "Just, don't, OK?" A dark, deep furrow creased June's brow. She peeled her hand back, trying to open her eye, but the flesh around it was already darkening into what would soon be a bruise.
Without further notice, Mercy turned around on one heel and stomped off toward the building on her own. BB watched her go, brows raised.
"Wow, somebody's a sore loser."
"Apparently," June mumbled.
Marie had sort of lost track of who would be the rightful winners - figures that one of the first friends she made in the building, she had to accidentally hit in the face with a snowball (she’d never been great at keeping female friends). But she’d try to make it up to Mercy later, maybe stop by with a surefire remedy for a bruised eye. For now, she reached down and helped BB up, dusting snow off the other girl as well.
“Coffee’s good, I could go for coffee - I have jambalaya cooking up in my place if y’all want any of that too,” she offered. “It’s nice and hot.” Literally. Meaning deliciously spicy.
"It's never too early for jambalaya," June decided, in spite of having never tasted the stuff. She tried to focus on Marie and BB, but her eyes kept wandering back to Mercy's retreating form. She chewed on her lip, wondering what it was she had said or done to elicit such a response; it did not occur to her that perhaps it was simple embarrassment, discomfort, cold, or some combination thereof.
"C'mon, then..." She beckoned to both women.