cuddlecity | EVENT: GO FOR THE GOLD.

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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

[ Reid doesn't take offense to this, just takes the opportunity to explain. ]

Arithmetic? Calculations? [ he suggests. ] Math is short for mathematics. I actually haven't heard of Westeros. [ Which is highly intriguing to him and already his literal favorite thing about being in Cadelle-- meeting people from places extremely different from his Earth. ]

( Arithmetic makes sense and Sansa mentally assigns math as a word that can be used as the same. Math is sums, then, and she hasn’t ever been good at them. She’s sufficient now after having run Winterfell alone but she will never have a true understanding or appreciation for the art. As to Westeros, she knows that most here haven’t heard of it. This, she is used to explaining. )

Oh, sums then. I’m not very good at them but I’ve...I was keeping the ledgers at Winterfell before I came here. It was part of my duties as Lady.

Westeros is backward compared to Cadelle. We do not have devices like this or lights that turn on a the touch of a switch. We use candles and torches and we send messages by raven scrolls.

[ Reid isn't about to shame anyone for their education level, capabilities, or cultural priorities. He nods along, an attentive listener as she speaks. ]

If you're titled as a Lady, does that make you nobility? [ He sounds curious, rather than quite respectful. Reid is academically interested, and personally interested, since he always likes hearing about people and their lives-- but he's not someone who generally respects authority for its own sake. ]

From... what we would term the Middle Ages, it sounds like. Do you have sworn knights?

[ He could ask a million questions. Even standing out in the cold. ]

( No one has ever asked her quite as many questions as he has but none of them are things she doesn’t want to answer. Speaking about being a Lady or about the men sworn to her isn’t anything she feels she must keep private. )

I am nobility. I suppose I could be a princess, technically, as my brother is king but the traditional title is Lady.

I have approximately two hundred men sworn to me at Winterfell and my personal knight is Lady Brienne of Tarth.

( Speaking of Brienne saddens her a bit, though, because she misses her greatly. )

[ He might not be very socially adept, but there's one social skill Reid had never needed teaching, which was what questions are too personal to ask someone. He hates being asked personal things enough to get that lesson right away.

He looks appreciative. Sister to the king and two hundred men sworn to her, presumably personally, is nothing to sneeze at. ] A lady knight, is that as progressive as it seems to me? -- And I should probably ask how you prefer to be addressed, in that case.

( It is progressive, to have a lady knight, but Sansa would have no other than Brienne. She has sworn to protect her and there's no one she would trust more other than Jon. At his next question, though, Sansa holds up a hand. )

Sansa is fine, I promise. My titles don't mean very much here, do they? As to Brienne being my knight, she's the only female knight in the Seven Kingdoms. I would have no other for my personal guard, though, and I wish she was here.

Titles mean different things to different people. It doesn't cost much to call someone what they want to be called. [ Being generally considerate as well as trained in profiling, Reid is pretty alive to that nuance. Also, he's a little sensitive to how he's referred to, himself. Since this is the proper time for introductions, he adds, ] I'm Dr. Spencer Reid. These days not too many people call me Spencer.

[ And as for Brienne, he looks quietly sympathetic. ] I wasn't really counting on the homesickness part of being here, either. There's a Portuguese word, saudade, that roughly means 'the melancholy and longing of missing someone'. [ Spencer's never quite had to deal with it before. He misses his mom, sure, but his relationship with her has always been... complex. Not this undiluted oddness of being away from his team indefinitely. Otherwise, he's always been the one being left, or he's been relieved and happy for the change in environment. ]

( The melancholy and longing of missing someone. Sansa thinks that describes how she feels, how much she misses her family. She cannot have them back in whole, only in pieces, and she's never had a word to describe how that feels. She does now. )

Saudade. That is how I feel, Dr. Reid. I've never had a word that properly describes it before.

[ He smiles faintly. Reid's here alone, although he hasn't been here long, and already he can tell that being away from his team for so long is going to be difficult. He's at least used to missing his mother, a situation he'd put himself in and has always had to own up to. It had been his decision to commit her, to leave her. (But he hadn't abandoned her, he keeps telling himself. He writes letters, he visits--)

In any case, he can empathize. ] It's funny, [ he says quietly, ] how much having the right words can help, even if it doesn't change anything. Reading always helps me. Knowing that someone else went through it, I guess.

( Sansa has never been much for reading. She knows how, yes, but she'd always been more interested in needlework or music than reading. Now, though, she wishes that she'd paid more attention to texts. )

As a lady, I never read very much. I know how, as I would need to, but I never got any joy from it. I always took my joy in needlework and music. I suppose my mother thought I needed those to make a husband happy more than I needed to know how to read.

[ Spencer can't help it, he chuckles briefly, his smile widening. It's completely obvious as he speaks just how much he loves his mother. ]

Sorry, uh, I was trying to picture my mom saying that, even if I were female. She's a professor of literature. Actually-- literature of your time period. [ He brightens. ] I can make some recommendations if you want. She used to read it to me, so I know all of it.

[ He does mean all of it, more or less. And it really says something about Reid's feelings for his mom that he learned these stories and poems by listening rather than reading himself, given that he reads at practically the speed of sound. This way he remembers her voice as well as the words, and he wouldn't give that up for anything. ]

I like things with happy endings. I know that sounds a little strange so far as requests go but so much of Westeros is war, politics and sadness. I would rather something that takes me away rather than something that mires me in it deeper.

( Sansa tips her head, thinking a little. Perhaps she should pick up new hobbies here. )

Do you know of anything like that? Something that might make me laugh instead of shed tears?

It's not strange. We all need a break once in a while, Sansa.

[ Her request makes a hundred different suggestions bubble up at once, and Reid has to swallow them down and say, ] I can think of a few. Do you want to-- go to the library and pick some up? It's not far.

[ Is that an awkward thing to suggest? He has no idea. Reid is always happy to share books, so he easily gets away with himself. ]

( Sansa has never been to a library before. She knows there's a large one at the Citadel, down in the south, but she's never been to it. She's always had other things that occupy her mind aside from reading for pleasure. Here, though, why shouldn't she? Why shouldn't she go to a library? )

I would like that very much, I think. I've never been to a library before. You'll have to teach me how it works.

Of course. I have the whole Dewey Decimal Classification system memorized.

[ Reid waves his free hand in the air as he talks even as they start walking. He has the city map in his head already; that had been priority one. His other hand is occupied with what is suddenly obvious as a non-decorative cane, leaning on it to assist with his limp as he goes. ]

The advent of public libraries like the one we're going to is actually fairly recent, as far as history goes. Institutions like it are less than two centuries old. I know you said reading wasn't your highest priority, but I imagine it wasn't easy to have access to books in the first place, right?

( Sansa nods. There's not a lot of books in Westeros and the ones that exist are very expensive. There had been some at Winterfell, of course, but not terribly many. )

Books are an expensive thing in Westeros. Only the Citadel has enough to be considered a library.

[ He nods in understanding. ]

Has it been difficult to adjust to being here? It was a pretty big leap, wasn't it? [ Reid sounds conversational more than sympathetic, although he is sympathetic. ]

It has been a big shift in how I am used to things, yes. This place is safer than my home and it has things I could only dream about.

( Sansa frowns for a moment, looking for the right words. )

I feel guilty, from time to time, that I get to be somewhere safe and free when there are so many bad things happening at home.

[ Reid makes an understanding noise. ]

It's hard to believe the people we left behind aren't missing us, [ he agrees. ] My team... takes on some pretty rough cases, things I wouldn't want to let them go into without me. I feel like I should be there, too.

[ What they're doing here really isn't something they should feel guilty about. There's no logical or ethical reason to feel that he's abandoned anyone. But Reid understands that no matter how often you tell yourself that, there's some intrinsic part of yourself forever conditioned to react to the immediate environment, and not respond to reason. It would be easier to believe he hasn't left them if they were here with him.

It's early days yet, but Reid is fairly certain it's going to take him a long time to stop feeling like he's abandoned them in some way. ]

There's so much I should be doing at Winterfell and I cannot help but think about it. My wish was to have time for myself and I have it but I still feel...guilty.

( Sansa has given all she has to House Stark and then some, things that no one should have to give. Why is it that she still carries guilt over wanting something for herself? )

I think-- that's normal. But you shouldn't have to. You're not doing anything wrong by being here. Neither of us are. Maybe you can use your time here to... [ he hesitates ] become more confident in that.

[ In herself, really, he means. Spencer sounds earnest and sympathetic, his heart perpetually on his sleeve. ]

( Sansa knows that taking time for herself shouldn't be a bad thing but she cannot help but feel that way when so much of Winterfell needs her right now, especially since Jon is in the South. She shakes her head a bit, awkward. )

I have always been raised to put my house above all else. It is difficult to think of myself.

[ He's silent for a long moment before venturing to say, ] Have you, um... considered that you're part of your house?

It is the role of a woman to give everything to her house, be it the house of her birth or the house of her husband. That is just the way things are where I'm from.

( Sansa thinks he means well, honestly, but she doesn't understand how else to be other than a champion for House Stark. )

I'm not disagreeing with your perspective, I'm sure you know better than I do. I'm just pointing out, putting yourself in the best position to serve your house isn't disloyal.

[ Reid knows better than to argue with someone about their own culture, religion, moral beliefs-- or indoctrinated subservience. Whichever one this is, which he's not really in a position to know. Regardless, he doesn't think it would hurt anything for her to feel encouraged to value herself. ]

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