[closed] on the 1st day of xmas my true love gave to me

[flamberge]

Who: Chloe Weiss, Richard Locke
When: 01/09/14 Afternoon
Where: Chloe's ranch
What: An angel becomes a tree ornament.

[Practicing flying? Good idea. Practicing flying after not doing so for a month? Better idea. Practicing flying while being overly confident after a month of not having done so? Bad idea, very bad. Overconfidence breeds carelessness! It's one of the things he always tries to keep in mind. Why then had he not remembered it in regards to flying? Had he then maybe he wouldn't be in this fun predicament right now,

The training had started out normally enough. Flying here, flying there. Chloe hadn't minded him suddenly coming to practice, either. Really a good start. Then, in the middle of the flying, it all suddenly went downhill. He hadn't been paying attention as well as he should. Well, he managed to avoid a hawk doing a nosedive to catch a mouse right in front of him. Richard saw the catch and couldn't help be impressed by it. Marveling at this prevented him from looking ahead for a few precious seconds. Then suddenly--

BAM!!! TREE CAME OUT OF NOWHERE!!

Thus one Richard Locke is now hanging upside down in a tree near the farmhouse and looking about as dignified as a sack of potatoes. His clothes got torn on some of the branches, there's twigs in his hair and snow all over him. The man himself is kinda in daze. He blinks a few times, trying to get the stars in his eyes to go away. No concussion or anything. It's more like a bird that flew right into a window.]

Comments

[betroth]

[ Chloe had been busy around the other side of the house, having spent the whole morning shoveling snow to clear paths to and from the back porch of her house. In a little clearing, she's stoked up a cast-iron fire pit, thinking maybe after his training, Richard might like a cup of coffee or somesuch to warm him back up. Old-fashioned style, at that! Smiling to herself once she's got the fire going, she sets up a rack, a kettle...

...and then hears the most horrifying WHUMPFH noise, followed by cracking branches and puffs of snow. Oh, oh no!

Whipping around, Chloe navigates her way into a shallow part of the woods until she's located the creaking sounds of bark and branches. Puffing a big breath, she darts under the tree and looks up, worry bright in her eyes. ]

Oh, my god — are you alright?! Can you get down?

[flamberge]

[Okay, ow, maybe it hurt, too. A bruise the size of Alaska will probably be making itself at home on his head. Best injury to explain, too. 'Oh I just ran into a tree'. Great. Just g--

Ah, that's Chloe. How did she know to come here? Some sort of psychic ability? The possibility that the collision had been loud enough to gain her attention fails to get considered. Rational thinking will come once he stops being a tree ornament.

Wait, she'd just asked something, hadn't she? Uh right, he should reply.]

I'm... I'm fine.

[He sounds about as convincing as one might expect aka not at all. The latter question unfortunately will be going over his head. Any ideas of coming down will come after some of the daze wears off. Blink. Blink. Blink. Nope, stars still there.]

[betroth]

[ Meanwhile, Chloe is antsing around beneath the tree, shifting urgently on her feet. He's up far too high for her to feasibly climb up and help, though she'd be lying if she said the thought hadn't immediately crossed her mind.

Watching him try to blink his confusion away, she cups her hands to her mouth to project upwards. ]

Try to right yourself! So all the blood doesn't rush to your head!

[ Luckily, the tree that'd decided to jump into his path looks pretty sturdy, but what if all that snow fell... ]

Sh-should I get the ladder? Richard?

[flamberge]

[Right himself? What had he been wrong ab-- oh wait, not that right. Ugh, ramming into a tree really does a number on a person's thinking abilities. Although, getting upright had to be a good idea. Too much blood going to his head has to be a bad idea. The actual sciency reason for it, however, escapes him. Being smart when mimicking a dazed chickadee proves oddly difficult.

Okay, up right. He could do that. Richard slowly starts to shift his body grabbing a branch here and a branch there to steady himself. So far so good.

Until one of those branches snaps.]

Ah...!

[What follows happens nearly in the blink of an eye. Richard looses both balance and support, more branches snap and gravity kicks in. Another loud noise rings out as an angel falls like a rock down to the ground with numerous branches, snow and an old bird's nest following close behind.]

[betroth]

[ Were she less concerned for his immediate well-being, she might be one to crack a "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" quip IRONY OF IRONIES, but as it is, oh my god he just actually fell from a tree.

Chloe couldn't exactly catch him, so she's left shielding her face from the spray of pine needles and snow. But the figurative dust hasn't even settled by the time she's crunching forward in the snow again, dropping to her knees and trying to clear the shrapnel off of him. Whoops, sorry birds. She'll help you build a new nest come spring, but right now Richard probably needs his face for more important things. Like breathing. ]

H-Hang in there...!

[flamberge]

[Hanging would have been nice a few seconds ago, just saying. The fall, surprisingly, hadn't hurt that much. Cruxis Crystals: let you fly and keep broken body parts to a minimum. Sadly, the gem didn't give anyone the power to breathe while buried under a bunch of snow nor does it magically stop someone from being dazed.

So keep digging through that snow, Chloe. There's not too much of it, but just enough that suffocating could be a possibility, at least for an angel still wondering how a tree turned into snow.]

[betroth]

[ Shoveling snow off of him in big handfuls, it doesn't take Chloe very long to unearth him. Hollowing out a big enough area to take him by the shoulder, she attempts to tug him upright. She may not be very big, but she's stronger than she looks, with determination to match. ]

Richard? Can you hear me? I-Is anything broken?

[ Sadly, she's not very versed in the ways of pixies. They had bones like everyone else, right? ]

We need to get you out of this cold right away...

[flamberge]

[Some coughing comes when the snow gets removed from his face. First hitting a tree and then near death by snow. Today really is not his day.

Under any other circumstance, Richard would have been impressed by the fact Chloe could haul him up right. Now, however, blinking those stars out of his eyes has his full attention. Being able to breathe again is unarguably nice though, very nice.]

N-no, I'm fine. I think.

[Nothing hurts enough to indicate broken bones. There's no hacking of blood from internal injuries. A lack of vomiting hopefully indicates a lack of a concussion, too. As a bonus, the cold didn't bother him too much (once again, the joys of having a Cruxis Crystal).

Getting up might not be too easy, though. Richard's swaying a good deal despite being seated. Okay, just going to close his eyes for a sec. Between the spinning and five of everything, yeah, closed eyes sound good. Lesson for the day: trees are dangerous.]