Snowsports (262 views)

[Raichi]

All the daily intensive trainings pay off during the altador cup, but even important athletes need a little break every once in a while, and what better time to relax during Christmas than some good old snow fun in Terror Mountain.

Xana and Mirsha went on a shopping spree and Larcy ran off chasing some skirts, but Antola rather goofed around with a snow yooyu. The thick winter coat with a big fluffy cowl around his face kept him warm, but it was a nuisance to his moveability. He wasn't easy to recognise as Shenkuu's altador cup representative, the wintry outfit concealing every part of him besides his tail and face.

At the edge of the town a large field lay covered in snow, an uncountable amount of pine trees forming a thick forest from the field to the mountain. Antola and the snow yooyu confronted each other, a game of tag and catch that was unique to yooyuball players. It was a lot more fun than yooyuball practice, but it was not regarded as serious training. Nevertheless it did give him a better understanding of the snow yooyu and it's moves in particular.

To any passer-by it would've been a funny sight to see, like a guy having fun with his petpet, but the petpet fooling the owner, especially in the snow and how not used Antola was to the thick winter outfit.

[Jazilyn]

It was /that/ time of the year again, and oh how the kougress loathed it. It wasn't the holiday itself that she hated, or the fact that the colors red and green had completely overwhelmed all of Neopia like a bad plague. It was the crowds that really got to her; it seemed like everywhere she went she was being pushed and mauled by shoppers trying to cram in their last-minute shopping. And Terror Mountain used to be so peaceful, too. But come December it seemed like everyone and their brother came to visit the snow-peeked mountains at least one day out of the month.

Even still, the kougress wasn't in any hurry to leave; the snowfall on Terror Mountain in the winter made suffering the crowds worth it. Plus it was nice to be away from Altador for awhile, and all the craziness the Altador Cup induce. Even when the Cup wasn't going on, there always seemed to be crazy fans prowling around the city, like animals hunting their prey; hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite team members. Alpha didn't really understand the hype. The games were fun to watch, but they weren't something she took too seriously. She only pretended Altador was her favorite team because she lived there and her friends would have flogged her for cheering for any other team.

She still felt the need to be away from the center of the city, though, and it didn't take her long to find herself walking along the edge of town near an open field. She'd left her hotel looking almost like she was dressed for spring, in a pair of black shorts and a sleeveless teal shirt with an open back. She had a blue hoodie tied around her hips, but she didn't look like she intended to wear it any time soon.

She had her snout pointed toward the sky, watching the snowflakes when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She looked just in time to see a snow yooyu zoom passed, leaving a smooth trail of packed snow in its wake. A few seconds later a zafara -though she couldn't tell much more than their species through their heavy winter outfit- rushed after the yooyu. Intrigued, she stopped and watched, laughing quietly when the yooyu managed to fool its pursuer again. She almost wished she had a chair so she could sit on the sidelines and watch.

"I'll put five bucks on the yooyu," she called, grinning with amusement.

[Raichi]

The reason it was more fun to play with Yooyu's than to play YYB was because of the absence of rules. The yooyu didn't have to remain a ball all the time, and were allowed to have more of a will of their own. Antola had the feeling he was chasing a mutant or darigan the way the yooyu kept playing tricks on him, but the petpet was snow all right. It slid through the snow as a ball, leaving a pipe shaped dent in the snow. Antola slid after it, right behind it, but the path ended in a steep snowy hill at which point the yooyu jumped into the air to let Antola slam into it.

The zafara landed front first into the snowy hill, leaving behind an imprint before falling on his back back into the pipe shaped track. The snow yooyu proudly landed on his chest, taking a bow for the lady.

"I'll put five bucks on the yooyu,"

A blush covered Antola's cheeks, for someone to see something so embarrassing, if she had been a reporter he would've made the front page. He grabbed the yooyu and stood up, keeping his cool regardless of his shame "And here I was thinking only darigans played cruel tricks"

The snow yooyu was clearly insulted by the remark and rolled itself into a ball again. Antola approached the girl, keeping the yooyu under one arm. "So, what are you doing away from the crowd? And.." he looked up and down at her with wide blue eyes, very surprised at her selection of clothes "Aren't you cold?"

Force of habit had him spin the yooyu on his finger, he did so effortlessly, but did by no means intend to be a show off. In fact he barely even realized he was doing it.

OOC: Antola's colour: 5ca8ff

[Jazilyn]

She couldn't help but laugh, applauding the yooyu's victory.

It never occurred to her that he could have been a professional yooyu player. She couldn't tell who the man was, and even though it was rare to find someone who owned a yooyu, it wasn't impossible. It actually wasn't uncommon to find yooyus wandering around the streets of Altador after the cup, acting like entitled citizens... which, in a way they were.

She'd managed to stop laughing by the time he'd approached her, but she was still grinning widely. To her, his question, at least his first one, seemed more like a subtle backhanded remark; like he might as well have been saying 'why are you over here watching me?' Which, she couldn't really blame him, especially after his yooyu's excellent performance.

But to his second question, she waved her hand dismissively before her. "Nah," she replied, still grinning. "A little cold's good you. It's refreshing. Besides, my parents were both from Terror Mountain, so I guess I have a genetic advantage. That, and I spend a lot of time in the cold, so I've developed a tolerance." It was a lie she'd told so many time she almost believed it herself. "And I'm sorry if I interrupted; I just felt like going for a stroll... Um... What exactly are you doing out here anyway?"

Her blue eyes stared at the spinning yooyu, more curious than impressed; and she couldn't help but wonder if that made the yooyu dizzy.

[Raichi]

"A tolerance?" Antola questioned, looking a little confused for he couldn't really place what colour she was. Snow and ice pets had a natural born tolerance to cold, but she didn't look like either. She looked more... white, or perhaps silver, but those weren't cold resistant to his knowledge. "You don't look like a snow type to me, what colour are you?"

He stopped the spinning of the yooyu and tossed it up into the air, not bothering with it any more and let it fall to the ground. The snow yooyu wasn't hurt or dizzy at all, and unfolded himself after he landed. The petpet then presumed to create a pile of snowballs. Antola looked at it and back at the Kougra. "Ah, me and him were just goofing around. If you ask me Yooyu's are one of the smartest petpets around. He's not mine though, I just borrowed him for a while"

The yooyu then presumed to assault him with snowballs, the snow falling apart when coming in contact with his clothes. Antola laughed, clearly the yooyu did not want the fun to end! He formed a snowball and stretched out his arm to the kougra, taking many hits while doing so but it didn't matter to him. "Want to join?"

[Jazilyn]

"Umm..." She had no idea how to answer his question, scrubbing her claws through her hair nervously. Her lie had never been questioned before, and now she had no idea how to respond. Frankly, she was a little put off. He probably didn't mean to sound derogatory, but she still couldn't help feel somewhat offended. It was like assuming that just because someone was painted Darigan meant they were snide and vicious and war-driven. Personally knowing two Darigans, she could say one definitely fit that description, but the other was the complete opposite. "Technically Pirate, if you have to pin a label on it. But that doesn't mean I'm ready to sail the open seas and start saying "Arr" all the time."

It was hard not to smile at the yooyu, though, no matter how distasteful she found his question. And she couldn't argue; yooyu's were definitely smart pets. A lot smarter than her Christmas Cirrus, who spent all day covering her room in snow. Just because she liked snow didn't mean she wanted to sleep in it... stupid little cloud.

"Umm..." She took the snowball gingerly from him, noticing how sadly inarticulate she was today. "Yeah, sure, why not", she replied quickly, trying to cover up the 'umm'. She couldn't even remember the last she'd played outside. Most of the time she locked herself in her room and read books. But, she didn't waste any time getting things started; throwing her snowball at the yooyu and bending down to collect more snow.

[Raichi]

Antola laughed from enjoyment when Alpha tossed a snowball at the yooyu, and hurriedly started making a fort. Snow yooyu's were excellent at snowball fights, so at least now the fight was a somewhat fair one. He ducked on the ground and started gathering snow. "Quick, help me build a fort!"

The yooyu didn't require a fort, it was skilled with evading and throwing, and anything else involving the combination of speed and snow. In fact it gave the both of them a rather hard time building their defence, Antola taking many hits in the process. But the fort ended up better than he could hope for, and a lot sooner than he initially thought it would take to make. He made a snowball behind the safety of the fort, aimed, and tossed it at the yooyu, the snowball hitting it's tail making it lose balance and fall in the snow. "ohoho, did you see that?"

The yooyu wasn't too pleased about the small victory, and started flying left and right at various speeds, at each flight throwing a snowball towards them. Now even for Antola he was a difficult target to hit, and he was an excellent thrower. Heck, he threw yooyu's for a living, snowballs were a piece of cake! He protested the yooyu's snowball warfare, standing up straight to address the yooyu "Oh! Come on! Don't be a bad sport!"

He was rewarded with a snowball to the face. When removing the snow from his face he could see the yooyu giggling from a distance and sticking out its tongue to him. Antola frowned and smirked, quickly grabbing another snowball "Laugh on this!"

He flung the snowball at the yooyu, who was still so amused it didn't even bother to dodge.

[Jazilyn]

Alpha plopped a handful of snow down on top of the yooyu's head before running passed it and coming to a sliding fault in front of the snow fort the zafara was building. She took several hits while trying to build up her side of the wall- one to the back of the head, several against her shoulders, and one hit her square in the back between her insect-like wings. She giggled, unaffected by the cold or the wet, as she beat her wings rapidly to spray snow in every direction.

She jumped behind the snow fort once it was finished and hurriedly mashed snow into balls and lobbed them at the nimble yooyu. But, after the Zafara had managed to hit the petpet's tail and it started going berserk on them, she was hopeless to get another hit in. So she stayed ducked behind the snow fort, forming up snowballs and pushing them near her comrade, creating a nice little pile for him to take from.

She stopped when he stood up, though; peeking over the top of the fort and watching with amusement. She couldn't help but crack up when snow hit him in the face, and almost fell over laughing when he managed to successfully nail the little yooyu right in the face.

"That... was... epic!" she managed between gasps for air and stifled laughter, hardly able to function from laughing so hard. "You two... have... way too much fun together."