cuddlecity | EVENT: GO FOR THE GOLD.

Entry tags:

EVENT: GO FOR THE GOLD.

With the blizzard come and gone, the city administration makes quick work of transforming the landscape from a post-apocalyptic white dream (or nightmare) to a more picturesque winter wonderland. While the heavy snow drifts are easily plowed away and the sheets of ice quickly cleared from roofs and bridges, the grounds of the city's parks and sidewalks still enjoy their seasonal coating of soft, fresh snow.

By mid-month, new posters begin to pop up on bulletin boards and network advertisements, featuring the cheerful sound of trumpets and the encouraging view of your favorite volunteer coordinators, inviting you to take part in the city's annual winter games. It's not quite olympian, and no previous experience is required — any and all are welcome to sign up for as many events as they'd like, and while medals aren't awarded, winners may very well find themselves bequeathed with something even more fun! (We hear bar tabs and instachecks are all the rage these days!)

Feeling festive? Come join the fun this weekend at the games!

▸ Are you freakishly flexible? Are you beauty? Are you grace? (We recommend not punching the judges in the face.) Ski ballet may be just the game for you! Play your walk up song as you emerge on skis to Cadelle's adoring crowds. You'll have 90 seconds to make your way downhill while twirling, spinning, kicking and leaping your way with style. Don't want to go it alone? This year Cadelle's offering the chance to compete in pairs. Let's hope your chemistry sets the ~~rain~~ slopes on fire.

▸ Does anyone remember that phrase 'Go sit on a block of ice?' Well, the sport of ice blocking takes that little idiom rather literally as participants slide down one of the city's grassier hills with little more than a giant block of ice, graciously provided by the local ice master. First one down is the winner! Though, just as a reminder: the city is not responsible for any stuck tongues, buns, or other body parts that may result from this event.

▸ Are you crazy about water? Are you unafraid of those freezing waves? The sport of polar diving may be perfect for you! Be sure to slather on the providied petroleum jelly all over your exposed skin and climb on top of the recently built high dive board at Lake Bunton — once you're poised and ready, let loose with your best swan dive... or bellyflop. Three judges will score your stylish dive on a scale of 1-10. The best average score wins!

▸ Are you a fixture at Lucky Lanes? Or is that elusive perfect 300 a pipe dream? Either way, what happens when you mix winter weather, pins, and big round balls? Epic fun, of course, in the form of a fantastically frenzied game of ice bowling! Just.... try not to fall over as you do your victory shuffle after you get that 7-10 split.

Of course, if you're not the sporting type, there's still plenty to see and do during the games! Maybe you'll opt to cheer on your friends and neighbors in their exploits — flags, vuvuzelas, and all manner of spectator accessories are available for purchase from nearby vendors, and for those who may not want to spend a fortune, the city offers free decorate-it-yourself kits for banners at the entrance to the viewing stands! More entreprenurial citizens may choose to invest in a willing market; visit the barking traveling bookies to place a wager on your favored winner, or maybe lay down a few cuddlebucks on an implausible yet possible end scenario — Ireland wins but Russia gets the snitch, anyone?

Whether you've opted to practice your best polar bear performance, rolled a turkey on the ice, or maybe just kept warm in your parka on the stands, be sure to keep a space open in the end of your weekend for the city's closing ceremony. There's the traditional pomp and circumstance, of course, in the issuance of awards and winner's trophies; more important and certainly more exciting, though, is the hosted dinner, held outdoors under a gleaming white tent just beyond the shores of Blue Springs Pool. It's a beautiful place to enjoy a delicious meal with friends, so the city certainly hopes you'll make time to attend!

Howdy, cuddlers!

With the excitement of the 2018 Winter Games just around the corner, we thought it might be fun for you to get to enjoy some sportsmanship of your own this time of year. While the Olympic Games are certainly reserved for the best of the best, Cadelle's version is open to all, and focuses less on swiftly navigating down snowy hills on your preferred mode of transportation (because, really, what else differentiates snowboarding from skiing from bobsled racing and luge...?) and more on the way you choose to move! We hope your characters have a blast while they dance on skis, slide on giant blocks of ice, dive into freezing cold water, or just roll an ice ball down a slick plane of frozen grass... or maybe just watch all their friends make fools of themselves instead!

If you have any further questions specific to this event, we encourage you to ask away on our QUESTIONS COMMENT here in this post. If you have general questions, or prefer a more private venue, our GENERAL INBOX (and SCREENED INBOX) is always available for you. In addition, if you've got an idea for a future event, feel free to drop us a line at our EVENTS SUGGESTION POST.

Peace out, girl scouts! We'll see you around!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ The good thing about being able to turn to steel is that, well. You become a bit of an obstacle for most things when you do. Steel - or whatever alloy Ray thinks Nate turns into - is pretty solid, and dense, and thus...

The ice block has no chance against it.

Which is how he stops Caitlin from careening further downhill, a smile on his face as he stops the ice block and gathers her up in his arms, not even moved an inch by her momentum. He turns back to normal right after, though, before she has time to see him all metal, gleaming in the snow.

He should have kept it up. It looked cool, and badass. ]

Now, I wouldn't say anyone who's part of a superteam is a wuss. You fight crime and save the world on a daily basis, give yourself some credit.

[ He grins, still holding her upper arms gently. ]

But, you're welcome.

( Caitlin looks a little sheepish at that, because he has a point if one is to look at it on a grand scale rather than breaking down their duties. She's hardly ever in the field and when she is, it's not really Caitlin; it's Killer Frost.

Still. She can take a compliment. )

All right, I'll give you that, but rocketing down a hill on a block of ice? Not really my thing, as it turns out.

( She gives a nervous laugh at that, looking down and then back up at him again. Then, she clears her throat, because she really probably should...let go, now.

So she does, leaving him in charge of deciding whether to completely break off physical contact. )

If you want to try it again, I promise I'll stay out of the way so you don't have to interrupt your fun to save the damsel in distress.

( She sounds like she's joking, but she does mean it; she'll just watch, this time. )

[ He shakes his head, offering her his arm instead of anything else. ]

What about a hot drink instead, huh? I think I froze my chest entirely, sliding on that thing.

[ Spending some time with a beautiful woman is definitely much more interesting than sliding down a hill on a block of ice. As fun as that is, too. He can always get back to it later. ]

How are you enjoying your time here, so far? Doesn't it feel weird to you to not... be constantly fighting something?

( Taking his arm with a smile, Caitlin nods. )

That sounds kind of perfect. All things considered, you would think the cold doesn't bother me, but it does. It really, really does.

( When she's Caitlin, anyway. )

I don't know if I've been here long enough to really decide how I feel about it, but it does feel weird, yeah, to not be working with the team... Like, I have to keep telling myself it's fine, because Barry's here and he says Cisco is here, so the world back home isn't falling apart; I hadn't noticed they were gone, so the them back home haven't noticed I am, now, either. It's...weird.

( At that, Caitlin laughs a little, because only someone like Nate could understand what she means without her having to try to explain further than she just did, which is to say, hardly at all. )

Well, if there's something I didn't miss in that contract, we'll be able to come back right at the time we left, too. Which makes me wonder about that energem of theirs and whether or not we could use to power the waverider, make time jumps even more precise...

[ Jax would probably kill him for even thinking about it. He's no engineer, after all. ]

Oh, yeah, actually! Barry's my neighbor, in the starter building. I haven't seen him much, though. You got something to do here yet, or are you looking?

I wonder, too, but that stuff really isn't in my wheelhouse. Time travel is still a lot for me to wrap my head around. Like, I know that it's real; Barry can do it, you guys can do it. But it's still...I don't know. I've never done it and I have limited exposure to it, in general, so it's hard for me to really get it, if that makes sense.

( And admittedly, it makes her feel a little stupid sometimes, because she understands a lot of things; this should really be one of them, by now. )

I'm not necessarily looking so much as trying to decide whether I want to just volunteer and live on the smaller stipend or if I want to see about working at the university. Part of me has gotten really used to decent pay, but the other part of me thinks I'd be doing a disservice to myself and the community if I completely blew off the volunteer work. And... ( She shrugs a little bit, chewing her bottom lip thoughtfully. ) I haven't had to balance two separate things in a really long time, so I don't know if I could pull it off without it negatively impacting the end results.

( Caitlin looks up at him then. )

What about you?

[ Looking down at Caitlin, Nate raises an eyebrow, a smile growing on his face. ]

Hey, you wanna come along sometime? I mean, I don't know what Barry would think of us stealing you away for a spell, but. Is there a time period you've always dreamed of visiting?

[ If asked, his would be... well, most of them, really. There's always something to learn about being there, and it's always incredible to be able to experience it first hand.

He listens carefully, trying to pick out whether or not there are unsaid things in the middle of her thoughts. ]

So you're counting on the volunteer work to fill out your wish?

[ Is that covertly asking if she's looking to date? Maybe. Maybe not. No one will ever be able to say, because Nate is the most chill. ]

I've been looking at maybe getting a job at the library. A curator, maybe. I'm also kinda fascinated by researching this place and how all of this came to be, and I feel like the library would be the best place to start.

( Well, there's an invite of a lifetime, that's for sure. One Caitlin certainly never expected to receive, at that. )

I would love that, actually! ( She laughs a little in spite of herself, because it just seems so insane that he can just invite her like that and he could actually follow through with it. ) Gosh, I don't know, there's so many that would be fascinating to see...

( She's looked away from him, out into the wintry landscape absently while mulling over the potential actual answers to give him, since her response was a non-answer at best, but his question draws her attention back and her cheeks flush with warmth and color. )

Oh...not...I don't know. Not necessarily. But I can't not work, I'll go crazy if I try to do nothing at all and just live on the stipend.

( Caitlin tucks her hair behind one ear with her free hand and her face feels impossibly warm. Is he asking to make conversation or because he's interested to know because he'd be interested in helping if the volunteer work wasn't her plan for sole contribution to Cadelle. )

Either the library or maybe the museum. I think you'd probably excel at either.

( A small pause, her eyes averting and voice trying to sound casually interested rather than invested. )

Are you counting on the volunteer work to fill out your wish...?

[ Nate remembers all too well having Cisco and Felicity on the Waverider, and the pure excitement that they brought on board. He'd played it blasé then, but to be fair, he understood completely. Just the idea that they could go anytime... it was insane. In the best way. ]

Well, think about it, let us know when we're back home. But please don't pick something like London, 1665 because you're curious about it. I can promise you, you'll be disappointed.

[ Because it might be scientific curiosity, but it always leads to wanting to save everyone, and change history. Which they can't do.

Anyway. He is very chill. Super casual. No ulterior motives in his questions at all. None whatsoever. ]

I used to have a job in a museum, so a library might be a slight change of pace. Not that I ever thought I'd go back to that kind of job, after joining the Legends...

[ They're both the most chill, apparently. Yep. Cool cool cool. ]

Oh, I don't know. Not exclusively, I don't think.

( Shaking her head, Caitlin laughs a little. )

Too far in the past and I'm putting myself in a pretty terrible position as a female traveler, aren't I?

( The past was not always terribly kind to females. ...or minorities, now that she thinks about it, suddenly curious how well Jax or Amaya do on some of their missions. )

Also, nowhere too historically significant, either. I'd be too tempted to change things. It would take all the fun out of it. Maybe the future is safer...

( Not to mention more interesting, since it would be entirely new.

It makes her feel a little better, admittedly, that they're both planning on trying to potentially balance things as far as their end of the bargain with Cadelle itself. At least she's not telling him that she is relying non-exclusively on volunteer work only for him to say the opposite. That would've been a little embarrassing. )

Good. I mean, that's...you know. Cool.

( ...wow, Caitlin. )

Oh, so you'd want to go somewhere later in the timeline?

[ Sure, so the Great London Plague is not really a great time for anyone, male or female, but the time period in general isn't the best, she's quite right.

He can't help the little frown that appears on his face at the mention of the future. If something makes him uncomfortable, it's how uncertain the future is. ]

See, I like the past. The past is set, or mainly set anyway. The future is... it's terrifying, really. Isn't it?

[ Chill. Super chill. Both of them really are that. It's very obvious, right here. He grins, a little crookedly. ]

Yeah. Yeah, cool.

I don't know...

( If she's noticed that he's uncomfortable, it doesn't show. Instead, she looks thoughtful, as if she's still mulling over time periods. That's mostly because she is mulling over time periods. There are drawbacks, she thinks, to the future, too. Seeing something that settles in one's subconscious could create fissures in what's supposed to happen in the present later, for example, by sparking an idea one might not not have had otherwise. Then again, is it supposed to work that way? Maybe the future is malleable. )

I don't know, I think the future could be terrifying. But it could also be inspiring or incredible. I think the same is probably true for the past. Sometimes what happens in the history books glosses over some of what it must have been like to actually be there, which could be terrifying or incredible. I'd have to really think about it, I guess.

( And now she finally looks back up at him, a little smile on her face. Her cheeks and nose are pink and not all of that is because she's cold. Part of it is for what she's about to ask. )

Um, so...maybe we could go to the library sometime together. Look through some books, you know, see if we can find the perfect time period...?

( It's not asking to sleep with him, although honestly a small part of her is tempted to throw caution to the wind and ignore her inhibitions given the place where they find themselves — maybe if she makes an ass of herself, it won't matter, because maybe he won't remember by the time they get home — but she decides to rein that in. They can contribute by getting to know one another better, right...? )

Depends on the history book.

[ Which, trust him, he would know. She's not wrong, of course, but you could always find detailed accounts of things, if you search hard enough. And that kind of research had been Nate's whole life, until, that is, he found himself actually visiting these time periods and seeing them with his own eyes. ]

And, believe me, the past is definitely terrifying. The idea that you can create ripples through time that would impact everything that we know is... it's definitely a lot. But it's also fascinating, to be able to see how it was, the strides we've made, how much things have changed - or not. Be able to witness some of these history-defining moments is just incredible.

[ He's got that faraway look in his eyes, talking excitedly and passionately about it, because he is. Everything he's got to see with the Legends has been extraordinary, and he's still entirely fascinated by -

Wait. Is she asking him out? Kinda? Nate blinks, the glossy-eyed look leaving his face as he looks back down at Caitlin again, nodding enthusiastically. ]

Yeah, absolutely! You only have to give me a few pointers.

( Caitlin gives a little facial shrug and a lopsided nod. That's a good point, actually; whether they ought to or not, she imagines every non-fiction book has a bias one way or another. Why should history be any different? )

Yeah, no, believe me...I'm aware of the sorts of things that can happen if someone changes the past.

( See: Killer Frost. Thanks, Barry. Really. Caitlin doesn't resent him for it, or anything, but she used to. She knows it took Cisco what felt like ages to get over the changes that happened to his life because of Barry, once Barry owned up to it. Messing with time is dangerous, Caitlin knows that. It's why the idea of going to the past is scarier to her than going to the future. At least with the future, it's not already meant to be set in stone.

She almost thinks that he's about to gently blow her off because he hasn't acknowledged her question, but then he kind of comes back to Earth and does actually address it. Thankfully, it doesn't take him terribly long, because her stomach was starting to knot with nerves and her heart had already been racing. )

Yeah? Oh, good! What kind of pointers would you need?

Oh, yeah, of course -

[ Flashpoint. Yeah, Nate's aware. He has no idea if anything has changed for him, or for any of his team, but it was kind of the elephant in the room, when he was working with Cisco and Felicity, facing the Dominators.

So, he can hazard a guess - no, he can deduce, thank you very much that's his job - that Caitlin didn't go through Flashpoint unscathed.

History is malleable. The past isn't set in stone, either, which is why so much can be changed, so easily. Which is why the Legends exist altogether, after all. ]

Just, you know. What's most interesting to you, what you like, if you have favorite places, that kind of stuff. It'd make it easy to find some places and times to go visit.

[ Back to being his charming self, yes. ]

( Nate seems to realize what she means and he doesn't press any further, which is just as well. She doesn't really want to talk about Killer Frost. The whole reason that she's here is to get control of those abilities so that she can be in the driver's seat when she's using them to help the team. Her goal, essentially, is to kick Killer Frost to the curb and keep her powers, so talking about her feels uncomfortable. Not that it would feel any more comfortable under different circumstances. It never does.

Thankfully, he moves on, though and she smiles, glad to stay on the topic of their...date? Is that what it is? Because she thinks she might actually want it to be. Why not, right? She wouldn't get to at home, not with Nate, so it doesn't hurt to test the waters while they're both readily available, right? )

Gotcha, I can do that. Maybe over some hot chocolate while I try to shake off the cold?

( Is she asking him on another date sooner than the previously planned? Kind of? No? Yes? She doesn't even know, but hot chocolate sounds really good right now, and Nate's company also sounds really good right now, so why not combine them? )

[ Oh, man, he just got outspaced by Caitlin. She's like, running miles ahead of him, here, switching gears on him from mentioning going out at some nebulous point in the future to just furthering their time together now, which, well...

Makes sense, right? Why the hell not? Back home, they would hardly get such an opportunity. They barely see each other, even less get actual time to learn to know each other - this is the longest conversation they've ever had, after all, and it's genuinely so lovely Nate can't imagine why he'd want to walk away right now.

So he nods, a little more serious than he usually looks, but also completely sincere.
]

You know, that sounds like an excellent idea.

[ And so he leads them to the drinks stand, buying two hot cocoas before they make their way out of the park, and towards the library. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT: GO FOR THE GOLD.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject