Children at Heart [open]

[CLARA ANN PICANCO]

ooc- Slight continuation from here though you don't have to read the thread to know what's going on. Just some dialogue at the beginning that might seem random.

"Oh you're just hilarious, Ray. Hilarious. Though, I guess I did fall into that one." Clara, assuming Ray was still behind her, trudged on diligently through the snow, determined to get to the park as quick as possible. She glared hatefully down at the white stuff surrounding her feet, all too ready for spring. The snow was pretty sometimes, sometimes being when indoors with a cup of hot cocoa and away from the cold that came with snow. Glancing around, she noticed only a few other people in the park. "Good thing you don't like crowds. As predicted, not many people in the park on a day like this." She caught his gaze purposefully. "I only see weirdos out and about." Smiling, she went back to her observations. Unfortunately there wasn't much wildlife out and about either. The lack of animal activity was just another reason to hate winter. Being the nature lover she was, Clara could sit still for hours and watch animals. Once, when she was about seven, she laid down on her back porch and watched a trail of ants crawl around for half an hour or so. This ended when she discovered first hand that red ants also happened to be fire ants and were capable of biting and that their bites hurt. A lot.

Bored already at the lack of human or animal activity, she started eying the playground with some hope. She doubted Ray would want to play on a playground though. It just didn't seem to be something the little cat would do. Weren't cats supposed to be playful or something? They were also lazy, though, and she guessed that he took after that side of cats more. Hatching a quick plan, she faked a trip and scooped up a snow in her bare hands and patted it for a moment to make a nice snowball before twirling around and chucking it at Ray. That accomplished, and fully expecting a return snowball, she took off running and jumped on the wooden playground a few dozen feet away. Ducking to squirm through a tube, she popped out the other side, trying to figure out where Ray had gone off too.

ooc: Open to all, though let Raymond get in a post first.

[RAYMOND SEYMORE DUNCAN]

Ray glanced around the park. Sure enough, very few people were there. Good. Less of a chance he'd have to talk to more than one person. He preferred two people conversations. They were just better, somehow.

Lost in his musings, Ray didn't see the snowball coming until it hit him in the face. A small yelp escaped his lips in his surprise. It was so cold it burned. He tried to rub his cheek dry but he only succeeded in melting the snow and turning it into ice cold, heat stealing water. Clara's hasty fleeing told him that she was the source of the snowball and his pain. "So cold. Why, Clara, why?" he cried dramatically. When she started climbing through the playground equipment he almost rolled his eyes. How old was she? Did she expect him to join her on that ridiculous thing? He was less than a year from adulthood, and was too old for playgrounds. There was no way he was going to join her.

That was what he thought anyway. What he did was totally different. After a few seconds of crossing his arms in defiance, a smile crept into his face and he bolted toward the equipment. Clara was allowed little time to escape before he started tossing fistfuls of snow towards her and the tube. Once he was satisfied with the amount of snow he flung in her direction, he shouted triumphantly,"Revenge is mine!" Then he slid down one of those metal pole things they always have on playgrounds and took off running to take cover behind a slide. He scooped up some snow and rolled it into a tightly packed ball of icy terror. He forced himself not to laugh maniacally. Satisfied with his creation, he started quickly making more. Ammunition is key in warfare such as this. "You cannot defeat me, silly bird!" he called out to his opponent. He kept one eye on either side of the slide, in case she followed him to his hide out. In the back of his mind he wondered if he was taking this game a little too seriously. Hm... Nah.

[IVY CLAIRE VINCRETTE]

A word. Only one thing that was needed for this vixen to turn her head.

"Bird?!"

Ears perked, swiveling her head around. She was probably the only shifter out around right now, but as a fox she had a natural curiosity. That included snow. The white stuff covered her pelt from rolling in it numerous times, and the rusty red color kept her warm. So it was like playing in snow with an easily moveable jacket on. Ah, the luxuries of being a furred canine. But, focusing on the sound of someone calling that word out, she darted out from the hidden clearing in the park. Oh, the vixen was called Vye. Or Ivy really, but she liked Vye better.

Looking around with eager eyes, Vye spotted a guy standing behind a slide. Moving on top of the snow, seeing as the fox's body was lighter than the compacted snow. Standing behind him now, she asked with slight excitement in her voice, "If there's a bird, you got to tell me man. I'm STARVED. And the only nearest joint is the margarita bar." A pitiful whine escaped from her maw, and she looked up at the young man with huge adorable eyes.

Thinking he'd be freaked out, she managed to get something in before the guy could say anything. "Don't worry, I'm a shifter. As you can tell, I change into a fox. Vixen really, but that doesn't matter. If there is no bird, you got any food?" Sure, call this "verbal assault" Especially to a stranger, but Vye was starved. Having not eaten anything cept a light breakfast in the morn.

She sat down, her eyes wide. But something sounded in her ears, foot steps. This made her swivel around with amazing speed to face the culprit, it was something in a bush. 'Pray tell it's not a shifter, cause I'd hate to be a cannibal.' Vye thought, her mind straying from the young man behind her. Large silky tail grazed the ground like a paint brush, pointed black tipped ears perked. And a tongue hung over the side of her mouth to reveal puffs of white air from the cold air.

A flick of the tail in the young man's direction, and a semi-serious question escaped her mouth. "Did you come here with any small-shifter today?" It was an easy, obvious question. Cause, to kill the friend of a friend is something NO ONE would want to do. That's why the rules stated you can't hunt on the grounds, seeing as everyone in this place was a shifter.

((*pops in* XD Vye can't resist birds, she loves them yes. But loves the taste of them more. Be careful parakeet girl. XD XD))

[RAYMOND SEYMORE DUNCAN]

"Ah!" Ray yelled when a high pitch voice appeared out of nowhere behind him. There were no sounds to alert him that someone walked up behind him. How had anyone escaped his vigilante detection? He grabbed a snowball and spun around, just in case the ninja was Clara. He dropped his snowball. That wasn't Clara. It wasn't even a person. A fox?! He tipped backwards and ended up sitting in the snow but he was too busy focusing on the canine before him to mind the cold. A talking fox. Foxes don't talk. Foxes... he didn't know what sound foxes made, but it wasn't a talking sound. If they did speak, they probably wouldn't be talking about Margarita Bars either. He imagined they would talk about food or something. Wait, this one was. Birds to be exact. Wait, that could be bad. "Well, there's a bird of sorts, but please don't eat her," he said rather dumbly, gawking at the animal before him.

It wasn't until the fox mentioned shifters that Ray remember he was in Variel Academy. That explained some things. "Oh, you're a shifter! Sorry, I haven't ever seen anyone besides myself in animal form. I didn't even know I could talk shifted. Never really had to. I didn't know anyone else like me before today, so talking would only be to myself and that would be weird and kind of crazy and stuff. " Ray babbled while he was taken off guard.

The snow was starting to melt on his backside, so he picked himself off the ground and brushed himself off. "Uhm, about food, sorry I'm afraid I don't have any, but a small-shifter I do have. Clara's a bird. Again, please don't eat her. I don't think she'd like that." He continued to stare blankly at the fox for a while, and then blurted, "I'm Raymond. Call me Ray. What's your name?"

[CLARA ANN PICANCO]

Clara gasped as cold snow found it's way inside her jacket. Not cool. While she had expected a snowball or two to be fired back, she didn't expect a full barrage of them. Crouching down behind some cover and keeping the high ground, she made a couple more snowballs and grabbed on in each hand. She peeked over the top of the playground equipment to scout out where Ray had gone. He was nowhere to be seen. She then heard a squeak of terror that she guessed was Ray, though it was rather high pitched. She jumped down dramatically from her high perch, intending to come to her helpless friend's aid only to slip on the snow and fall face-first into the snow. She hopped back up shivering, dusting snow off frantically as her mind tried to process the fact that a random voice had entered onto the scene. Once her vision was throughly cleared she could see a fox. Not any fox, either. A talking fox. Another shifter hopefully, or she had hit her head when she fell. Sure enough, Ray's babbling from just behind the post the fox was next too confirmed she wasn't totally crazy. Then again... now that her mind was catching up it sounded like her life was in peril.

"Is someone threatening to eat me? I'm confused." She walked over, a dusting of snow covering her and suggesting her less than spectacular leap off the top of the equipment. She raised an eyebrow at the little vixen. "I'm Clara, the bird being talked about. I recommend human food, though that's just my opinion I suppose." It repulsed her to think that shifters would let their animal sides take over to the point they craved little the 'thrill' of hunting little animals. Maybe it was because she happened to be on the bottom of the food chain in this group. Maybe it was because the only things her shift ever craved were bugs and worms (which left a nasty aftertaste she was quick to learn). She never hunted in her shifted form anymore. Never hunted ever, actually, as human or bird. She could identify more with the prey now, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

ooc- Ah, poor Clara... Welcome Vye. XD

[IVY CLAIRE VINCRETTE]

((Eh... XP Just pretend Vye answered your questions with a shrug and tauntered off. XP I don't want to be the blame for holding the thread up.))

[RAYMOND SEYMORE DUNCAN]

Ray stared after the strange fox shifter when she left just as she came, randomly and saying something crazy. "Well that was... interesting," he said to Clara. He was silent for a minute, in thought. "Does she really eat birds? Why would you do that when there's a great diner just down the street? Seems like a lot of work for a meal that's mostly feathers." He glanced at Clara, making sure his somewhat thoughtless comment on how birds were poor meals didn't offend her. "Plus birds are too awesome to eat. They don't hurt anybody, there's no reason to hurt them." He hoped that that was a good save.

Raymond got quiet after that, lost in thought. The fox's appearance made him want to shift and see if he could talk as well. That would be pretty nifty. Also, after seeing the fox girl shifted in public it reminded him that he didn't have to hide his powers here. He could explore every inch of this town on four paws. He imagined taking a cat nap just outside the diner, going to sleep and waking up to the wonderful smell of old fashioned fried cooking. Perhaps he could climb on top of the school building here, out of sight where he could listen to classroom lectures and students in the halls mill about while he curled up, silently taking in the sounds of people living their lives from above. He would stay away from the dorm rooms in cat form though, he thought. Cat ears would probably just be awkward to have in there. They would be nice to have in the forest though, where he could hear animals moving around their homes and plants rustling in the wind. Ray smiled. This place seemed more and more awesome the longer he was here.

He glanced at Clara. She kind of put a damper on all those plans. If he turned into a cat in front of the nature-lover would probably be... petted! Noooo! Plus, it would be kind of rude to just randomly shift and run off, or to shift and then hang out with her, but not allow her to shift as well. He was pretty sure he wouldn't eat her now, but he wasn't positive. Cautiousness was probably a wise choice when it came to possibly eating your friends. He sighed to himself. He could do all that stuff later, he supposed. Hanging out with Clara was still fun. Lots of fun in fact. He hadn't had a snowball fight in years. Which reminded him. They were in the middle of a snowball fight before the fox came out of nowhere. Oh no! While he was lost in thought he gave her tons of time to ready another attack! He grabbed a snowball and spun around where he stood, trying to locate the bird shifter.