Cheyenne Point SNO

Rika was bundled up and waited in her BACKYARD for Grace.

Hopefully Rika hadn't rushed out there immediately, because it took some time to get there from Rice Bluff and the power of a bike and public transport. But jelly sister was likely used to the speed at which ASaP Grace could make her way across town if it wasn't an actual emergency.

The snow hadn't collected a ton, but it was enough to entertain them. She was all red-nosed and sniffly by the time she arrived, that combo of hot and cold. Unaware that Rika was already in the back yard, she thunked on the front door, bike leaning against the gravel outside Rika's front window.

She didn't actually love winter or snow, but she was very easily put under the influence of an enthusiastic friend.

Well it was a good thing the world was pretty quiet otherwise. Rika yowled, hearing thunks out the front of her house and making an educated guess.

"COME TO THE BACKYAAAAARD!"

Why track snowy shoes in just to come back out again. She opened the backyard gate. Please be Grace :'D

She knew that angel voice billowing out over the fence. And Grace also realized she didn't know exactly how to get into the backyard from here. So, very sneaky, she doubled herself.

On the ROOOOOF. Crouching, peering down. Hello, Rika. >:]

Saying nothing, she crunched along the fence, ducked, grabbed a clenched handful of snow and launched it over in Rika's direction.

Except coordinating a throw from two different sets of eyes was not easy, and she proceeded to throw in exactly the opposite angle she needs to. Fucking oops.

Oh, a snowball.

She blinked as it sailed somewhere beyond the fence. That trajectory led to her looking upwardish, and doing that made her notice "GRACE!" on her ROOF. She was caught between a sound of laughing and whining.

She swiped up some snow and threw it in a spray her way, but came up short.

Busted. Her double vanished, cover blown, and Grace put her effort into clomping around the fence toward the rear gate.

"RIKA!" she squawked back. Had half a mind to just tackle her when she got in, but that wasn't exactly Rika's style.

Grace grabbed another handful of snow and flung it over, though it was mostly at nothing. She yanked the rear gate open with drama to stand powerfully in its place.

At least if the gate was unlocked.

GATE DOOR WAS OPEN.

Rika was ready. She launched a snowball, nailing Grace in the belly.

"SHOTS FIRED!" she announced, bringing her arms up to block her own face.

Right in the guts. Grace slapped a hand there, gurgled, because she'd just been shot. But she was either an action hero or a cop or both, so a stomach wound wasn't going to stop her. She threw herself through the gateway and into the yard, running bent forward as she scraped snow into her hands.

"EVASIVE MANEUVERS," she bellowed, then flung snow toward Rika in an arc more than a ball, exactly.

She was not actually a snowball fight expert, but lack of expertise rarely stopped a Grace endeavor.

She laughed in delight, kind of a squeaky squawk laugh, and shouldered her hit.

Rika swooped down, trying to pack a snow-somewhatball in her hands while chasing after Grace. "HOT PURSHUIT!" she misspoke and launched her weapon anyway.

Totally missed D:<

Being chased kicked her brain into overdrive of laughing and screeching. Hello, Rika's neighbors! She tried to do a cool sliding stop but mostly almost tripped, though it was lucky, sending the Rikaball soaring over her head.

"HOT PURSHUIT HOT PURSHUIT!" she babbled back, turning on Rika suddenly to swipe more snow into a fist and yeet it.

But they were close enough now that her aim was more frantic than calculated, jazzed up on the danger of having someone near you in COMBAT.

"DON' MAKE FUN OF MY MOUTH FULLA DROOOL!" she yelled, but mostly clomped to Grace, trying her best to clop her with a snow mash that didn't really leave her hand since they were closing ground.

GOT 'ER >:3

Rika was a mouth fulla drool, and she was coming at Grace fast. She screamed with an uncommon girlishness, because that's what happened when you were getting snow murdered by your best friend.

Snow ground against the shoulder of her hoodie and she made big dramatic pain sounds. Shuffled forward, stretching her arms out, looking to wrap Rika in a hug. It was fine. Trust her, Rika. :3

But it was definitely an attempt to pin her arms at her sides. (Which wouldn't work if Rika made any effort to escape.)

Oh NO! Trapped wrapped! Rika could have broken free, not that she knew, but instead her response was to try to teeter them to the side like they were falling trees.

"Timber!!" she announced, and... definitely didn't bring Grace down with her ;(

Rika was fucking SINKING. Grace screeched, stood strong at first, but eventually flopped deliberately onto the snow-crusted grass. Dead grass. Dead jellies.

"Didn't think we'd die together," she said, then snorted. And swallowed. "Me fulla snot, you fulla drool."

More like slime sisters. Grace kicked a leg up, then flopped it back down. Very, very dead.

Oh they did both die. Together. It was the best. She sniffled and then laughed, throat catching in the cold. Winter wasn't her love, but as a Finn she did know how to have fun in it.

"We get to ghost up together. Vanessa'll have to get a ghost seeing friend. Or like. Herself."

It was always ghosts with Rika. She had big plans for her future dead self. Grace figured it was cute. She stretched, feeling cold sinking into her now that she was sedentary.

"I bet she'd just learn how to do it like that," she said. Snapped her fingers to show how quick it was, though the sound was a little muted. "I think I'd be a cranky ghost. I'm all about touchin' stuff."

The she reached a frigid hand over to harass Rika's face as proof.

Rika snapped too, though her hands were gloved. But had to imitate.

The idea of Vanessa getting ghost talking after she also had such badass abilities was almost enough to cause jealousy. It wasn't even real, Rika. She stared up at the graying sky. It had taken a little bit for Grace to get here, so the day would be over soon.

Her thoughts were interrupted by hand in her face.

"AHHHH!" she yowled, scrunching more snow into one hand.

Then she delivered it right to Grace's forehead. With airplane noise.

She was not ready for it. The snow splattered against her forehead and she screeched,

Except as she inhaled to do so, a plod of snow splattered off her forehead and into her Kirby suction stream. Feeling water slurp into her air pipe, she coughed back out, then began clumsily rolling away from Rika.

Emergency evasive maneuver again, though she couldn't say that because she'd just breathed snow and was now on her way out.

nOOOoo GRACE. WHY. Rika was officially so guilty.

"Graaaaace grace grace grace are you okay???" she whined, turtling up onto her hands and knees and then just her knees, trying to assess the damage. Ahhhh?

She was, in fact, just fine. But when you inhaled water, it was very hard to confirm that because all you could do was cough!

Grace completed another two turns for the drama, then flopped on her side facing away from Rika. Lifted one hand to give a thumbs up, then rasped out:

"D̸̡̢̻̙̠̬̥̯̩̫͍̐Ÿ̵̧̢̪̩͔̦̦̗͈͓̖̣́̐̇̏̑̃͋̈́͜͠͝Ĩ̶̛͍̞͇̗͚̜͓̳̓̈̀̌̂̔͆͒̓̈̍͘̚͜N̵̹̫͎̱̥͈̜͇͍̠̝̗̾̎͑̈́̚Ġ̷̨̥̰̞̭̮̔̒̈́̈́̿͆͑̚."

>:[

Rika stomped up onto her feet, moving to grasp that hand and heave-ho her friend up.

"GRAAAAACE. You're not... allowed... to die!"

She sputtered appreciatively. But she was fine, Rika, just give her a second.

Grace sat up, yanked to her butt, then her feet. Cleared her throat a few times, sniffled. Smeared her sleeve across her eyes.

"M'okay," she said. Hemhemhem. "Even though you snowcapped me."

All of her was now definitely covered in snow. Fingers hurt. They'd go inside eventually!

>:[[[[

"I was being attacked! By your hands! I didn't even aim for your mouth." As if that was an excuse. Anyway, she was smiling actually. "Thanks for coming all the way here so I could kick your butt at snow."

She huffed. An almost sore loser. Grace shook herself off like a dog, hair flapping.

"Snow's your natural turf," she said. "Come fight me in a pool next time."

Except she couldn't hold Rika under the water. Too sweet for that.

"You're on. Where's your pool again?" she taunted without expecting a response. Grace was up, so maybe it was time to go inside-inside. She kicked snow off her boots after making it to the door, then held it open. Stepping just enough in, Rika leaned against the door with her back and removed her gloves and unlaced her boots. And then removed her coat.

"Whatcha wanna have? I got hot cocoaaaa. With marshmallows!"

That might be the only option worth mentioning.

"Also eggnog!"

There was that too.

Pfffft. Grace would get a pool when she became a billionaire from selling her blood to vampires. Y'know, never. (Did pools just freeze solid in winter?!)

"Hot coCOAAAAaa," she said approvingly as she stepped inside, feeling her face thawing. She whipped her hoodie off, underdressed for having been outside fucking around in snow, but knowing she didn't want to roast on the bus or the bike ride over. She flomped her hoodie on the floor on top of the shoes she discarded there as well. Let it all melt and get damp just in time to leave again.

"With marshmallows. You always have such cute shit."

Rika was cute shit. Grace fixed her sleeves, realized she had relatively fresh (though light) bruising on the inner part of her left elbow. Whoops. She could address it if Rika pointed it out.

Rika was not here to see that hoodie get dropped on the floor, gross Grace. She picked it up and hung it next to her jacket because she was lowkey mom here.

"Pff. It's just Swiss Miss," she product-placed, wandering to the kitchen after checking in on the chickens. Okay. Hot cocoa time. Gotta heat up the milk first. "Whatcha been up to?"

The hoodie placement was very sweet, and Grace clasped her hands together and half-bowed in appreciation.

Drinks, though, Rika, you still had Swiss Miss. Did Rika get home from work and pour herself a nice mug of hot cocoa? It was so fucking cute. Grace had never had a friend with that kind of aesthetic before, but she wasn't complaining. It charmed the shit out of her.

"Hmmm, I'm gettin' better at teleporting," she said, approaching the chair nearest the kitchen (but not the dining chairs, duh) and flopping sideways in it, legs beyond the knee dangling off an arm rest. "I can feel the difference, being in a pact. It's craaaazy, dude."

Grace made herself comfortable and Rika warmed up milk because hot water cocoa was just sad.*

"Me too. I don't know how I ever got along without it before. That little bit of time between pacts was... pretty rough."

*this view unshared by the author

Yeah. That was a good way to put it. A pact was something she'd always known she needed, but didn't recognize exactly how much until she lost one.

"For fucking real," she said. Lifted up her shirt to smear her nose on the inside, draining. Good thing Rika was busy.

"I keep thinking about a fourth person, just in case. But the person I know best issssss."

A total kid.

"A dude."

A dude? Rika tilted her head.

"Which one would a dude be? Professor Utonium?" she asked, her brain totally wandering to their powerpuff girls thing instead of more important questions like, "who's the dude?"

Because Grace didn't date so it hardly mattered anyway.

She laughed. That was Rika. Grace hummed thinkfully. How best to describe him.

"He's younger than us, so I don't think he can be the professor," she said. Though Grace actually didn't know the Puff universe very well. She stretched her legs out, spine rising, digging her upper half into the opposite arm rest as a result.

A massage!

"But he's definitely not a villain type."

Wow, a baby.

Hmmmm.

"Jojo," she decided. "Only Jojo. But anyway. I'm okay with it, if you want?" Wait, was that what she'd been asking?

Jojo. Heheheh. She grinned, laughed. Because.

"His name's Joseph, actually," she said. "So Jojo's pretty fucking perfect. I'd have you meet him first. V, too. And practice together and all that shit to make sure we all like him."

Because that was as important as anything. She really liked Joseph, but not so much that her opinion trumped the girls'. He could stay a friend and not a pact buddy easy.

Rika laughed with delight at her own unintended genius. Jojo! Joseph!

"But yeah, let's do it! I'm excited to have a boy to pick on. Nicely!"

That went well. Really well. Grace had to run it by V, next, but it was a good start. Rika had always been chill, but pact shit was important. Blondie had turned out to be a better judge of psychic longevity than Grace.

"Awesome. I'll run it by V next," she said. Yawned, sniffled, feeling her body still thawing. "How you been? Whatchu been up to?"

What did Rika get up to? She seemed like someone who could make friends easily, though Grace knew she didn't have a ton of them.

"Um. Mostly just getting ready for Christmas," she shrugged a little. "I think I wanna do a short trip with my family this year because I wanna do some fun stuff here with you guys."

She would have said "what about you" but the reality was sometimes Grace had answers that made her super nervous so she'd get there but after good feels :(((

Right. Christmas. That was not Grace's holiday of choice. It occurred to her that gifts were kind, but it wasn't her style. She didn't expect gifts from anyone else, anyway.

"More Rika tiiiiime," she uwued, swinging her legs off the end of the chair. "Does your family know you're psychic?"

This is our invisible daughter, Rika! They had to know. She could do so much and she was so good at it. Grace decided they fucking had to be proud of her.

"Ummm..." she hemmed. "I think they... have an idea of it? But. They never really wanna chat about it or anything. When it first showed up they thought I was like. Like. I had something. Like needing therapy-wise. But they don't hate that I am one, just prefer not to... experience it."

Throwback to when she'd accidentally made her mom throw up when she'd started college.

That was so sad. Grace felt herself wilt some in the chair. Why couldn't people just fucking be proud of their kids for doing shit that took hard work and practice and discipline and all that?

It wasn't math, but it was still fucking powerful. Math couldn't give someone their life back after a raccoon attack, but Rika had.

"Wish they were cooler about it," she said. Reached a hand up to fiddle with her nose ring.

"They should be mad proud of you."

She huffed a little, with a smile, a little laugh, trying to mediate some.

"They're not mad about it at least. I think it's hard for them because they just, like. Can't really relate? They've been there for me about everything else in my life. But I could talk forever about it and they still wouldn't really get it."

Unless they became psychics, but anyway.

Grace couldn't relate to, like. Being a gym instructor or a lawyer or a nurse but she was still proud of all of her friends who knocked that shit out.

She cared about Rika a lot. Embraced everything she knew about her, even creepy vampire boyfriend! It was hard not to hold other people who knew Rika to the same standard.

"I guess," she grunted. "Make sure they know if some animal ever scratches 'em, we can fix it."

More than once she'd thought about telling family that, then dropped it. But Rika's family was sweet, if imperfect. They meant a lot to Rika.

"I will."

Then she went and hugged Grace, who for some reason just kind of gave off vibes that she needed a hug.

"Think the milk's ready. Hot cocoa time?"

Rika was the sweetest. A marshmallow but strong. She shifted to sit up properly for the hug, giving her friend a squeeze.

"Yeah baybeeeee," she said, rising from the chair to loiter toward the kitchen. You couldn't dunk marshmallows into hot chocolate safely elsewhere. Grace was a sloppy bitch and even she knew that.

"I wanna dunk my whole face in."

But she wouldn't. Probably.

She laughed. "We'll have to get V over for burn treatment."