2024-12-28 - If You Are Delicious The Wolves Will Eat You

Not wanting to waste the weekend, the gang were picked up sometime before noon and dropped off at the chalet to refresh, get some rest and so forth before they reconvened to hit the slopes at 2pm.

It's 2pm and the triplets have been called away for something or other which leaves their guests and the guest of honor (ENZO) at the designated meeting spot, all decked out in winterwear and gear to either go skiing or snowboarding. Whichever they'd prefer.

Enzo, himself, is here to ski! Well, in truth, he's here to relax and just be away from the park, but skiing came with that package, so here he is! Idly adjusting his goggles with his free hand, he looks over to the invited, "I honestly could go for a nap around now, but don't want to waste the daylight. What little of it we get nowadays."

"I'm sure there'll be time for a nap after," Trace says, having seen the itinerary laid out for the weekend. He's here to ski. They're rented skis, but they seem suited well enough to his height along with a pair of poles and boots that he rented for the occasion. The winter-wear is his own, though. Comfortable. A dark blue with a deep red scarf. He has no goggles, himself. He tugs on his gloves and settles them into place.

"I haven't been in years. Probably going to stick to the easy slopes," he admits. Then he glances over toward the lift and says, "Looks like that one goes up to a couple of the easier ones and a couple of the mid-range."

Fin hasn't bought new snow gear in a very long time. Thankfully (for her pocketbook), her parents kept a lot of her old things. Also, thankfully, she was home for Christmas day and gathered most of what she needed. Also, also thankfully, things still fit. In actuality, they fit better now than they did back then. She was a bit heavier in her University days.

Yes. Her things are that old.

She's on the slopes in a bright red puffer jacket and red pants to go with. The boots, skis, and other equipment is rented. The white beanie with the big fluffy faux fur pom on top is not.

"I'm going to need a nap after too. This is more physical exertion than I've seen in a long time!" Aside from walking all day every day for work. Nodding toward Trace she says, "I'll hop on down the bunny trails with you." Eyeing the lift, she says, "you two go on ahead. I'll be right after you."

"A nap, there's even a spa here if you're body is really in need of one." Enzo says as he lists off the amenities this place provides, "Then dinner, and I'm sure there'll be hot tub and drinks time in the evening." To this he murmurs, "Angelo's lucky, we've been partying for 2 or so days so far and he doesn't have to worry about getting a hangover."

All of Enzo's things are his own. He'd known ahead of time that they were going skiing and just put in a call to the house to have some of his stuff mailed express to the park. His attire is a nice orange, the better for people to see him, you'd figure. With black boots.

"It's been a while for me too..." But when they mention the bunny slopes, that gets a lift of his brow, but he makes no comment on it. It's when Fin offers the lift to him and Trace that has that brow rising once more. "Why don't you both on ahead. I mean, I wouldn't want to keep you standing here all by yourself."

Trace laughs and says, "I mean, we can do the regular slopes. The bunnies are over there anyway," he says pointing off in another direction. "This lift should at least take us to somewhere that's comfortable but a tiny bit of a challenge." Then he says, "My liver is going to throw me off a cliff by the end of these two weeks," at the mention of Angelo's lack of hangovers. "Lucky bastard."

The little dance about the lift gets a lofted eyebrow from him and a chuckle. "Come on, Fin. Enzo can third wheel it on this trip up and I can on the next one." He gives her a little nudge with his elbow and then begins a slow glide in that direction, getting used to moving across level ground on his skis again for the first time in a while.

Fin's eyes sparkle a bit at the idea of going to the spa again, not only more than once in a month, but in a week! But, that idea is followed by thoughts of dinner, and hot tubbing. "It all sounds heavenly if you ask me." Fin's partying doesn't usually reach hangover levels, but still, she is surprised to hear Angelo doesn't get them. "Really? High metabolism?"

She looks to Trace and says, "oh, okay. Yeah. Absolutely. Psh. Bunny slopes. Who needs those?" She scoffs oh-so-(fake)confidently. "Okay, if you insist," she says to Enzo about riding up. Soon, she's pushing off to glide after Trace toward the lift. She looks back at Enzo over her shoulder for a moment before climbing onto the seat.

When Trace points towards the bunny slopes, Enzo looks in yonder direction, just as Fin backtracks because bunny slopes is for losers. "He actually does have a higher metabolism. Or it seems that way." He's out here speaking casually about his friend's uniqueness, but before he says too much, he smartly says, "You might want to ask him about it after this. Maybe even over dinner." Because that seems like appropriate dinner conversation.

With him getting his way, he just waits for Trace and Fin to get onto this next lift, before taking the one soon after. For much of their lift trip, Enzo seems to be lost in his own thoughts, his attention mostly focused on the natural beauty around them, though every so often, he'll look at the pair sitting right in front of him, but he doesn't have much to say.

"I mean," Trace says, "He won't here.. not if it's.." he doesn't outright say magic here around the non-park folk drifting by them. But it's heavily implied. Then he pauses, "Man.. I wonder what my dreams will be like tonight.. hadn't even thought about that," he muses to himself. Then he shrugs and smiles, clearly not concerned about it, just curious.

Trace grins at Fin and says, "Don't worry.. we'll take the gentlest one. I looked up the different trails on my phone on the way up here. The one on the left when we get off the lift looks like a good starter slope."

And then they're settling onto the lift and he leans back comfortably, just taking in the scenery and enjoying the chill in the air, definitely colder than on the islands. He's fairly quiet as well, just enjoying the ride up the hill.

When they reach the top, he slides down the little dip and turns to the side to come to a stop and wait for Enzo to join them off the lift.

What isn't an appropriate dinner conversation amongst friends? "I may ask him about it sometime," Fin says. "Maybe he can offer some tips." Looking to Trace, she asks, "still having weird dreams?"

"I'm trusting you, Trace! If I end up a pretzel, I'll be blaming you!" Nodding, she says, "got it. Left to Live." She has to resist the urge to swing her legs on the lift and she whispers, "it's so beautiful up here." She glances back at Enzo and flashes him a smile before murmuring to Trace, "Any more giant present hiding?"

But soon, they are at the top and she manages to get off the lift without falling on her face. Off to a good start so far! She waits with Trace for Enzo to arrive.

With Trace's bringing up the whole magic thing, or, in this case, non-magic, that also gives Enzo something to think on during their ride. Not that his own abilities were anything special, he has been finding some recreational usage for his empathy. What would it be like to be without /that/ for the weekend? He'd been using it all week, with everyone in good cheer due to the festivities. Or drunk.

Though he does catch a bit of mention of Trace's dream thing, so maybe he was thinking about that as well.

Now that they're at the top though, he eases himself out of the seat to join the others, finally. "Riding the lift is always pretty relaxing." He comments for no real reason, before adding as he looks out over the slopes, "Unless you get trapped up there. Anyway, let's get on with it." That's, at least spoken, with some enthusiasm.

Trace only rarely uses his telepathy so it's unlikely he'll miss that, but he's used to almost every night being in control of his own dreams, now. Having no control over them will be weird. Or maybe he won't dream at all? That'd be novel, too.

"You will not end up a pretzel. Though, if you do, I will pay the spa fee to have someone very soothingly unpretzel you and use those hot stones and fancy scented oils if you want." He smiles at the whisper and nods in agreement. "It is beautiful." He's always liked the mountains, the hills, in this case. But her murmured question has him smiling a little ruefully. "No," he murmurs back quietly. "Though I did enlist Rosemary to help turn it into a hideout. With furniture and everything."

As they slide off the lift he nods in agreement, but then laughs. "Grim." Quickly followed up with, "Let's go." He pushes off but takes it slow, keeping near enough to Fin to make sure that she does not, in fact, pretzel herself, but far enough away to not become entangled. Even so, his attention drifts over toward Enzo often, just watching him as he skis.

"Promise?" Fin asks to Trace. After some thought, she says, "though, if I got all that, it might be worth becoming a pretzel for a bit of time."Laughing, she asks, "did you really? Planning on using it to hide again in the future?" She looks back at Enzo again (who knows what he is thinking with all those glances). "Too bad the presents are only temporary for the holidays."

"Trapped?" FIn bites her lip then looks back toward the lift. "I'm not afraid of heights. I think I'd be fine, unless the weather turned bad or something."

They head to the slope, and it is just a slope in Michigan. It's not too scary. Of course, it is also the promised starter level. Fin does not look graceful as she goes down. "It's okay. I'm okay." But she does manage to stay on her skis. "Like riding a bike!" she calls out with a laugh.

Yes, Enzo is wondering what Fin and Trace are whispering about. He assumes that it's the both of them though it's Fin who keeps looking back at him like she's full of gossip. It does make him feel just a tad self-conscious, despite his healthy ego.

"The weather turned bad. The resort forgot that you were up there. Wolves. Wolves are just waiting for you to try your luck to escape down below." He's probably seen a movie about this.

Then they are off to the races. Enzo's not sure how well the other two are at skiing. He, himself, is not an Olympic skier, but he tries to hit the slopes at least once a year when possible. Of course, he's not trying to outrun them. At least not Fin, because she didn't want to go to the Bunny Slopes. "Looks like you're getting a hang of it." He says to her when he's near enough, before pushing forward to go just a little faster.

"Promise," Trace laughs. "It'll be around for another couple of weeks yet. I do plan on going to hang out in there again just for shits and giggles, because it's funny." He then calls over to Enzo, "Did I tell you that Rosemary is totally in for operation Present Hideout? She moved all the furniture into place and I got another friend to help push it into the box. There's a chair in there and a little end table and a lamp. It's almost homey!" Well, at least some of the whispering mystery is resolved there.

"Griimmmmmm," he chuckles at Enzo's recounting of wolves beneath the stranded chairs. "Key to surviving that," he tells Fin, "Is to be less delicious than the other person on the chair."

And then they are off down the mountain and Trace is hanging back. He's actually not terrible at skiing. What he is terrible at, is not being distracted by Enzo, who he keeps watching. Who he keeps watching for too long. Who he keeps watching until he slides right down into a small ditch, loses his balance, loses a pole, loses a ski, and finally falls into the tiny stream running down the bottom of the ditch and is soaked.

Fin's looks back at him at least seemed friendly, even if it does look like she's gossiping. When Trace calls back to Enzo, all she can do is laugh and shake her head.

"Simple answer. Don't try to escape and the wolves won't get you." It hasn't occurred to her she might freeze to death in this hypothetical lift situation. "Plus, who could possibly forget about me? I'm unforgettable!" Looking aside to Trace at his idea for survival, she says, "you're joking, right?" She points to herself and says, "I'm fucking scrumptious."

"I think I am," she says, until Enzo just takes off ahead of her. "Show off!" She is not one to let his prowess diminish her light though, she keeps on skiing, humming as she goes. Humming, that is, until she sees Trace go ass over teakettle into a ditch. GASP! "Trace!" He's fairly ahead of her. She starts to move toward him, but it's going to take her a minute.

Enzo might not have noticed something was awry if not for Fin calling out Trace's name. That makes him slow down to turn back and take a look at whatever hijinx those two might have gotten themselve--

"Shit..." It wasn't just hijinx after all.

He was slightly ahead of them, but Trace was still heading somewhat down the slope, if just in a terrible angle. Enzo repositions himself and pushes off in an attempt to try and reach Trace before... well, he finds himself soaked in a ditch. Still, he makes it there in quick time, at least, even if he wasn't fast enough for the intercept. Lifting his goggles up, he asks, "You okay?" The skis then come off as he makes his way over to the fallen and wet, crouching down as he attempts to help lift Trace out of the stream. "Nothing broken?" That's meant to be a light-hearted joke, but he does a quick visual inspection anyway.

To Fin, he calls out, "I got him!"

Trace sits there in stunned silence for a moment, and then he starts to laugh, shoulders shaking. By the time that Enzo has come over to him to offer him a hand up, he is shaking his head and saying, "Only my pride." He grips Enzo's arm firmly and lets him help give him some leverage to get back on his feet. There's no visible indication of injury, just one side of him is wet, which is going to be very cold as the wind blows across him. Fortunately, snow gear is water resistant to a degree, so he won't soak to the bone or anything.

He manages to get his second ski off so that he's not lopsided, and glances behind him to find his pole and other missing ski before looking back to Enzo, "Sorry.. thanks." He's still laughing at himself a little.

"Why don't you go ahead down with Fin.. I'll get myself together and catch up."

"As if," Fin says as she catches up and comes to a wobbly stop near to Enzo and Trace. "I am not leaving you behind for the wolves! With me gone, you'd be the next best scrumptious thing on this slope!" Inching closer with her poles to keep her steady, she says, "either you get back on your skis and we all slide down, or, we walk down together." Looking at Enzo, she asks, "right?"

The laughter does put Enzo's mind at ease, though at some point, he's not sure if it's delirium or what. Despite what Trace says, he still gives the other another look over once he's up and standing before he just nods slowly, a look of concern still on his features. "Okay..."

With Fin's arrival, he'll let her speak her mind, but once she looks to him for confirmation, Enzo can't help but to sound mock offended by something said. He dramatically blinks too, when he states, "Right? I... I don't know right now." He then repeats what she'd said, "The next best scrumptious thing on this slope?" Giving her this what about me? look, before shaking his head.

"She's right, Accardi. Not about that part, but that we're all heading down there together."

Trace sees that once-over and he gently squeezes Enzo's shoulder. "Promise. I'm okay. Maybe a little bruised, but probably fine," his voice dropping to something a little more reassuring and a little less bemused at his own idiocy. Then he glances up at Fin, and then between her and Enzo and laughs. "Don't worry, Enzo. You are absolutely scrumptious and would most assuredly be torn apart by wolves." He gives his shoulder one more squeeze and then starts making the awkward climb up the few feet to grab his ski and then a few more to retrieve his pole.

"Okay, let me get my skis back on and we'll finish this run. This time, with more me paying attention to where I'm going."

Fin gives Enzo a look that has her lips pursed and her head cocking from side to side with a bit of sass. "I gave you a ton of compliments the other night. You're scrumptious too. You both know it." Their own personal scrumpt(ch) factor, that is. Though... maybe they realize each other's as well. Who is she to say? "Fine. We're in a three way tie. Better?"

As Trace states he might be a little bruised, she asks, "I guess you are the one that pretzled yourself. now you need to treat yourself to all those spa treatments." The bright side; Fin likes to point it out. "What caught your attention so much you slid right into a crick?"

Sensing that reassuring squeeze at his shoulder, Enzo first looks at Trace's hand at that shoulder before he makes eye contact with the man when told, once more, that Trace is fine. The debate on who is more scrumptious also seems to come to an end and he looks more entertained than anything now. "While it's not technically still my birthday, this is part of my birthday weekend, so... Just saying." Though he just gives Trace this furrowed brow look when he brings up the wolves part, but that fades when he smiles and shakes his head.

As they start wandering around to pick up their discarded gear, his skis are easy enough to reach as he'd just removed and tossed them right near where Trace fell, so he starts putting those on. At Fin's question, that does have Enzo slightly curious anyway, so he will glance over to look.

Trace laughs again at that furrowed brow and says, "The most delicious one is the one that gets eaten by the wolves, when everyone eventually falls off the lift" reminding Enzo of how that whole scrumptiousness discussion came up in the first place as he gathers his thing and has one foot in one ski when Fin asks her question about what caught his attention. There is the faintest pink that touches the edges of his ears and his cheeks that has nothing to do with the winter weather outside. Oh how he longs in this moment for telepathy. He pops his foot into his other ski and says, "Race you to the bottom!" And he's off!

"Yeah yeah..." Fin tsks and rolls her eyes at Enzo. "Fiiine. You can be the most scrumptious and therefore eaten all up first." She gestures to Trace as he reminds Enzo about the talk about wolves.

Expectantly, Fin waits for Trace's answer, her brows arched as a devilish smirk curls her lips when she spots the color rising on his cheeks. She might be lucky that he doesn't have his telepathy in the moment. But he takes off to escape and she doesn't even have her skis back on! "Dammit!" She scrambles to get her boots snapped back in and starts to push with her poles to get her going down again. Her rush, well, she just wasn't up to that level yet, apparently, as her feet move forward a little faster than the rest of her and she falls straight onto her ass, sliding down in this manner for a bit before she gets upright again. "Alright. I'm just gonna glide down."

Enzo just watches as Trace takes off without answering the question asked. He didn't catch the blush probably. Rather than make a rush for it right after, with how competitive he can be, he decides to wait for Fin to at least get a move on. "Careful! He calls out, seeing just impatient she is to catch up with her roommate. And then down she goes...

For a time, he just stands there watching, before he can't help himself, but to crack up and laugh a little. It seems like she gets the hang of it once she's able to right herself up again and that's when he pushes off, deciding to match pace with her, no matter how slowly she might be going. "It's alright. He cheated anyway." That's his words of reassurance to her now.

He totally did cheat, but he also isn't exactly "racing", himself. Once he got far enough ahead of them, maybe by about fifteen to twenty feet, he slowed again to remain nearby. The point was just to get ahead of them so that he didn't have to answer the question, not to leave anyone in the dust. Plus if he's in front, he's not paying more attention to Enzo than where he's going. There's a method to this madness!

When he hears Enzo call out he turns back in time to see Fin's butt hit snow and he winces. This time.. this time.. he does not keep skiing while watching. He slows to a stop until she seems to get back up on her skis once more, and he too begins a more sedate pace to the bottom, still ahead, but definitely nearby.

"It's fine. I'm fine," Fin assures Enzo as she slides down. "I heard you laughing though. I'm not going to forget that!" She lifts a fist, pole and all, and shakes it toward Enzo. "He absolutely did cheat." She sticks her tongue out at Trace's back. Whether she's referencing his taking off without them or him doing so without answering the question isn't stated.

It's a leisurely pace she takes from there, happy to have Enzo's company for it. "Next year, when you take us to Aspen, we'll do one of the harder slopes." Is he taking anyone to Aspen, let alone her included?