tapestodiane | 025

Entry tags:

025 - video

[It's probably been a while since the network heard from this guy. It's safe to say he's been preoccupied - between being lightly obsessed with Tetris, the Halloween possession thing happening (which actually affected him more than he cares to admit), the train hijacking and those three days ... he's had a lot to think about. And, in truth, still has.]

[But Christmas perked him up and with the new year just around the proverbial corner he's feeling like things just might get better, and you know what else never fails to lift his spirits?]

[Local wildlife.]

[That's right. So today the network is treated to a video of a group of trees. It's pretty early so the sunlight is warm and yellow and sparkles just so in the snow, and as the video sloooowly zooms in on one tree in particular ... you can see there's a Hoothoot snugly nestled in a hollow of the trunk, looking asleep and kind of ruffled up.]

[It's actually a very beautiful image, because Cooper has a tendency to catch them like that.]

[And then he zooms out. ...no, wait, he's zooming in again - a little closer this time, really focusing on that sleepy little owl. Despite his thing with birds, he can always appreciate them from a distance. And this little fellow is admittedly very cute.]

Look at that.

The spitting image of comfort. Right there.

[He sounds sort of breathless and utterly wistful, then zooms out again just for a pan of the scenery - snowy tree trunks and the little lake behind him. The water isn't all frozen yet so the sunlight gets to show off in the surface there, too, before Coop aims the gear back towards the bird and zooms in on it again.]

Almost makes you jealous, doesn't it?

[Action for anyone in Ecruteak! He's hanging out just on the edge of the forest, stalking the wildlife.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_{[And he'll PUSH BACK, just to keep her where she is.]}

Drop your weapons, Heather!

_{[And that's with a playful, boyish delight, even as he twists one of her arms slightly to make her 'drop' it. Not in a way that'd hurt her, of course, but he's wrestled with too many suspects not to incorporate it in a playfight, even if just a little bit.]}

_{[It's like cops and robbers! Except in the snow.]

[That delight is sort of infectious. Even as she loses some of the snow in that one hand, she's laughing openly.]}

Not 'till you pry 'em from my cold, dead fingers, Officer!

_{[Since clearly she can't reach his neck, she takes to just sort of LUNGING forward repeatedly in an attempt to counteract his pushing, hands just aimed at his FACE now. If she can't mash it down his collar, she'll get it in his hair! ... Or try to. He's still got a pretty good grip on her.]}

You should seriously consider cooperation-

_{[Oh pffsch he leans his head back because no, he's not very keen on having melty snow in his face either. And his height is definitely working in his advantage, so she's not getting there ... well, it might be a matter of time, because she's admittedly sneaky and persistent, but right now, nope.]

[He shifts his grip on her arms, waits a moment aaaand tries to flip her around to get her arms up her back. YEAH HE COP TRAINED. Although not actually an officer. He always thought that seemed like quite a thankless job, at least in comparison to his. (People respect feds more, you know?)]}

It might help your defense.

_{[Sometimes it just sucks being short, man.]

[If he'd been content to just let her keep on hopping around like a monkey, she'd have found a way to get that snow mashed into some sensitive spot eventually. She's resourceful like that. But he actually has FORESIGHT, so instead she just makes a noise of playful outrage as she's flipped around, boots actually leaving the snow for a second or two in the process. She's not very heavy.]

[But not one to be defeated, she clenches her fists harder around the snow even as her arms are twisted behind her back and just tries to slam backwards to see if she can get him to back up and avoid her gangly teenager elbows.]}

I won't need a defense, 'cause you'll never take me alive!

_{[Coop chuckles, not bothering with an answer as he tries to keep those honestly sharp elbows way from him. He does wind up taking a step or two back but makes sure to keep his hands firmy around her forearms, pushing back to keep her roughly in place.]

[BUT IT'S A LITTLE TRICKY TO BALANCE because he doesn't think she's above a kick or a stomp, so he's a tiny bit hesitant in the scuffle as he tries to keep it all in his head.]

[It's been ages since he last wrestled with someone like this, and even longer since he did for fun.]}

_{[She's not above it at ALL. And in fact, once he's actually pushing her arms away from him, her first response is to lean forward and thrust a foot behind her, not trying to kick so much as throw him off-balance-- maybe trip him if she can. Because if he falls down, maybe she can escape! ... And then pelt him with snow while he's down because she's honorable like that.]}

_{[Oh, yeah, all the honor awards for this kid. Totally.]

[He didn't expect that though, the lean, and as it tugs him along with her somewhat she does get him off balance.]

[Well damn.]

[BUT. He can improvise.]

[So while that didn't make him fall, he's going to let himself do that anyway - while yanking her along.]

[See, if he winds up on the grown? So's she. At least that's the plan.]}

_{[SHE'D PUT LEGENDARY WARRIORS TO SHAME.]

[The crow of triumph she lets out when he starts to topple is quickly cut off with a squawk when she's just... yanked down with him.]

[They tumble to the snow in a heap.]

[Surprised but undeterred, Heather immediately throws herself into trying to squirm out of his grasp. Something that, being a small person with a history full of worming her way out of confrontations with people and things much bigger and stronger, she's pretty good at. But good enough to get away from an FBI agent? WE'LL SEE.]}

Rrrghf, let me go and no one gets hurt!

_{[Because she'd totally spare him from merciless snowball-pelting if she was freed. Totally.]}

_{[Yeah, he doesn't buy that. SO MUCH HE DOESN'T EVEN ANSWER other than a breathed "right" as he tries to figure out how to lock her movements.]

[SO absolutely not letting go, even if it's proving rather difficult. Ideally, he'd have a knee in her back and her hands cuffed at this point, but he doesn't (doesn't, in fact, have any cuffs anyway), so ... he'll have to get creative. And fast, or she'll definitely break loose by sheer persistence.]

[Let's try throwing some snow at her face and see what happens!]}

_{[What? Snow? In the FACE? Surely you jest!]

[She flinches and rolls her shoulder up as the powdery coldness hits the side of her face, shaking her head to dislodge it. Not that it makes much difference-- rolling around on the ground has pretty much already filled her hair with snow ANYWAY.]

[But she's not about to lie still and let him do it again-- so with a growl, she promptly tries to roll over in his direction, with the intent of pinning the hand holding her arms captive underneath her, and also of facing him. So that she can plant a boot firmly in his middle and puuuuuuuuuush.]

[LEGGO MY ARMS.]}

_{[WELL so that kind of worked. She gets his hand, no question there, and she also manages to get a rather impressive boot print on his turtleneck, and he allows himself to be pushed off for a second-]

[And in that moment where they're pretty disentangled except for his arm, he's going to see if HE can roll over this time, to trap HER.]

[As in he'll get on top of her if he can, reaching with his free arm to push her down by a shoulder.]}

_{[Well, there's not a whole lot she can do to avoid that-- especially considering she'd deliberately moved TOWARDS him instead of potentially trying to get AWAY. Possibly an ill-advised move there, Heather.]

[She has two options now-- she could either quickly roll away and try to scramble to her feet before he could pin her... or she could just try and shove him off.]

[Because winter clothes sort of make it hard to pull fast maneuvers like the former, she'll go with the latter. ... Which doesn't work too well since he's quite a bit stronger than she is, so with a yelp, her shoulder is successfully pinned.]}

_{[Mwahaha.]

[Okay, next step - get his other arm free to pin her OTHER shoulder, and sit on her legs to keep her from kicking and squirming. She's got her arms free, which could be a problem, but he doesn't quite dare to move his shoulder-pinning-hand in case she'd use it to knock her off balance, since he's kind of bracing himself against that hand as well.]}

_{[Under normal circumstances, Heather's not a fan of being pinned. Makes you too vulnerable, and not to mention she'd faced a few monsters who were entirely too fond of it. But something about all the bright white snow and the simple, stupid joy of pulverizing the hell out of someone with balls of powdery frozen water's flung all that far enough away from her mind that her only reaction to suddenly being prevented from getting up is an half-angry exclamation.]}

HEY!

_{[goddamn cooper u fat, get off my legs.]

[But, yessssss, her arms are still free. That means she can fight back!]

[Swiping her hands deep in the snow on either side of her (it's already packed together from the weight of their bodies when they smacked into the ground), she scoops up two heft handfuls and (with some difficulty on the side with the pinned shoulder) shoves them up at Cooper's face, with the intention of doing what she'd been prevented from doing before. Either cram a bunch of it between his neck and collar, or just in his face because THIS IS WAR.]

[Not that raising her arms and going straight on the offensive like that doesn't leave her undefended from retaliation, but Heather's never been the best at planning for that.]}

Take that!

_{[AND THIS TIME, SHE SUCCEEDS.]

[And holy crap that's COLD. Not that he hadn't expected it at some point, but here he was a little too focused on other stuff and just not fast enough to get away from suddenly her hands all over his face and neck and COLD.]

[So he shudders, splutteres a bit - a muffled 'agh' sound escapes him - and blinks rapidly to get it out of his eyes, but, well? He can play that game too, and so he doesn't actually lean back, instead (somewhat blindly, admittedly) swipes up snow the same way she did and just kind of shovels it into her face.]

[Since, you know, she's still lying down it's not exactly a difficult task.]}

_{[Piling snow on the face of someone when they're down? Ouch, Coop. That's cold. ba DUM TSH]

[Drawing her shoulders up with a small shriek, Heather turns her head to avoid the snow, but to no avail. FWAAWRGARBL.]

[Clearly nailing him in the face with snow will not work. But her arms are still free, so she's got that to work with, right? With an enthusiastic 'oh you're gonna pay for that' growl, she reaches up again, this time going for his sides with scrabbling fingers. Bulky winter clothing reduces the effectiveness of this strategy, but blunt FORCE obviously won't work, so she's just praying that he's ticklish.]}

_{[... oh Heather you cheater. He might have expected a lot of things, but tickling? Seriously?]

[There is absolutely no way he could have foreseen that so he twitches a little in response, because while he's not one of those hilariously super ticklish people that kind of stop breathing and flail everywhere if you just touch them in the right place, he is the normal brand of it.]

[His breath hitched with laughter, he squirms a little and moves his hands from her shoulders to grabs her wrists to get her fingers OFF, because god that's cruel. And definitely not playing fair. And honestly pretty clever.]}

_{[HEY, all's fair in love and war, RIGHT COOP?]

[When he actually squirms away from her touch and starts to laugh, her brows initially fly up in surprise. Wow. She was... NOT expecting that to actually work. But it doesn't take long for a wicked grin to spring onto her face. Is she going to try and exploit this newfound weakness? Hell yes she is.]

[Once his hand is off of her shoulder, she lurches into a sitting position with all the force she can muster, trying to nail his sides as cruelly as possible while she still had him off-guard-- maybe she could knock him off of her and turn the tables back in her favor before he snags her wrists.]}

GOTCHA!

Heather-!

_{[He gasps weakly, making sounds close to giggling when he tries to fend her off. He's in a pretty good position, being on top of her, so knocking him off isn't happening -- but she does manage to shift things around a bit and can probably get herself free if she struggles enough, especially in the way he involuntarily hunches over as a result of being tickled.]

[If someone had told him a few days ago that he'd be tickled into submission by one Heather Mason, he ... would have admittedly seen it as a possibility, but still as something incredibly UNLIKELY.]

[And yet here they are.]

[.. still trying to grab ahold of her arms or wrists or ANYTHING.]}

_{[Just be glad you're bigger and older than her, Cooper. If you were one of her little adopted siblings right now, you'd be so screwed.]

[Letting out a triumphant crow, she does manage to wriggle her legs out from underneath his-- the shifting snow aids in that. If she were any other person, she'd probably have abandoned the attack once she was free, but naaaaah. REVENGEANCE!]

[Although one wrist does get snagged, she just increases the assault on the poor man with the other, drawing her legs underneath her to prevent them from being sat on again. Meanwhile, her reply takes on an innocent singsong tone, as though she totally wasn't trying to tickle him to death.]}

Yeeees?

_{[To death? But Heather das murder.]

[Coop shakes his head in response, not managing anything more coherent than a sort of strangled "Stop it", which sounds kind of pathethic even to his own ears.]

[It's kind of difficult to pull off anything right now though, especially with the way he doesn't want to get up, all instincts still telling him to curl up and protect himself from the non-existant insects that are threatening his well-being.]

[But if he had cuffs, he would so cuff her and let her keep those on for a few hours. Because this? This is just unfair.]

[THAT SAID he draws his own legs up for protection and makes to push her with his feet the same way she did to him earlier, letting her go and hoping to regain a bit of breath.]

[Geez.]}

_{[THE BEST KIND OF MURDER.]

[When he pushes her away, she laughs and finally relents, scooting away to let him catch his breath and gather up his dignity a little, even if that might be hard to do with her sitting a few feet away and openly giggling at his expense.]

[Needless to say, she's insufferably smug.]}

I win.

_{[It's a good thing Coop isn't a sore loser. He's laughing too, shaking his head a little in the eve of his defeat - or something. He's going to have to watch her closely from now on. Protect his torso.]

[After clearing his throat rubbing the rest of the melty snow off his face and neck, he shoots her a look that probably says That was cruel, but the way he's still fighting a smile goes to show how much he minds.]}

Yeah, I guess you did.

_{[Aaaand as an afterthought,]} Please don't do that again.

_{[This would be a good idea. Because it's a pretty sure thing that Heather's not gonna forget about this. You don't emerge from the Otherworld alive without being the sort of person willing to constantly learn ways to get the edge on your opponent.]

[She just grins back at him like a big ol' cat that just got the canary.]}

Mm, I dunno...

Seems to me you could stand to laugh a bit more often.

I'd prefer to do it without shortage of breath.

_{[Which he points out very sensibly.]}

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