snowbound

playing sets at the club had become close to a weekly occurrence, and riley was thankful for oak giving them a shot. asking them to keep coming back meant they were happy with the performance at the very least – and riley would take that any day. at least it brought something new to the routine they had built in taos – and that was a welcome things. life had a tendency to become one sided in the small town – even during the busy winter season.

what maybe was even better though, was the post set drink oak always had ready at the bar. offering them a smile and a polite “thanks”, riley leaned back against the bar, a small sigh leaving them as they took a sip of their drink. not really expecting anyone to approach them, riley almost somewhat jumped at the voice next to them, soon offering a quick smile as they turned to face the other. “oh, ri, hey. um – thanks. i appreciate that.” they nodded, with a gentle tip of their drink. it wasn’t all that rare for people to approach them after a set, but somehow, it felt just as shocking every time. and maybe even more when it was a familiar face. “what are you doing out here?”

                    ri gave the other a small smile and a nod as they moved to set themself down in the seat by riley, taking the opportunity to get a rum and coke from the bartender.  it had been a long time since they had seen riley, probably closing in on 12 or so years.  they hadn’t necessarily been shocked to see the other, knowing that they’d moved to taos after what happened with their parents back in santa fe, an incident that their mother and the other gossipmongers in their family somehow found a way to bring up more often than necessary.  they kind of wished they’d kept in touch better after all that, but what was a 13 year old with a flip phone and no rollover minutes to do, really ?  it was nice to run into them now, though, the sight of a familiar face always serving to calm the raging emotions ri was dealing all too often these days.

OPEN STARTER / @taosstarters​ 

‘ where you headed? ’ guy was getting a lot of extra business lately, he guessed that people didn’t want to be walking around after the attacks which was entirely justifiable and he would admit to a select few people that he was a little nervous too. ‘ it’s a cold one today, you should probably get some extra layers on. ’ he grumbled a little himself as he turned up the heat in the car. ‘ hope that’s warm enough for you. ’

                    “ i am heading home, mr. dude, ”  they slurred, head rolling and landing against the window with a soft thump.  another night, another cab ride home.  at least it seemed like a good night, one where the movement of the cab wouldn’t make them sick and result in an exorbitant cleanup fee and a morning full of profuse apologizing.  at the driver’s comment, ri glanced down at their outfit, short sleeved button up and jeans that were so distressed she might as well have been wearing nothing.  they simply shrugged; they didn’t really notice the chill of the night with the warmth coursing through their body as a welcome effect of the alcohol.  at the feeling of the heat rising in the car, a lazy grin spread across their face.  “ mhm, that’s nice, thanks,” they mumbled, eyes drooping slightly.

x

Piper was coming off the night shift, but she wasn’t quite ready to go to bed just yet. It had been a slow night – as so often was as of latte. The last call they’d responded to had been a smoking toaster. And while the winter was the busy season for the ski resort, most of the calls the brigade got were for small things. Piper was far more interested in working the summer, when they spent much of their time stemming wildfires before they got out of control. However, being the rookie on the team, Piper had been tasked with staying on the crew that tended to the town over the winter. So yes, Piper had spent a lot of their last shift sleeping in their bunk. 

Coffee probably wasn’t the best idea, when the brunette would inevitably have to sleep, but Piper had been craving it none the less, and was cradling the warm beverage in one hand. An oomph left the firefighter when someone bumped into her, though it was them who hit the dirt. “Dang son.” Piper muttered, having managed not to spill any of the coffee. “You good?” Blue eyes flicked to the other, who was already picking themselves up off the ground. 

                    as they picked themself up off the ground, ri nodded in answer.  their cheeks had flushed slightly in embarrassment after causing such a commotion, but they somehow managed to form a sentence anyway.  “ yeah, i’m alright. ”  their eyes landed on the coffee cup the other was holding, raising a brow at the complete lack of spillage they spotted.  “ that’s impressive, ” they remarked, gesturing to the cup.  “ much better reflexes than me. ” they glanced down at their bags, some contents having scattered across the sidewalk.  “ clearly. ”  with a sigh, they bent down to scoop get everything back in their respective bags.  “ sorry again.  i must’ve spaced out or something because i don’t think i saw you coming at all. ”

…

“I think that’s cool.” she admitted.  She was excited about the idea of a career in computer science, or linguistics if that panned out better, but the idea of just going with the flow and chasing your passion was just cool to her.  “Do you have like, a favorite place?  I grew up in New York and didn’t really leave it much until college – so the idea of seeing so many cool places is cool as hell in my mind.  Granted, I do love the city.”

“I do,” she confirmed, smiling fondly as she remembered all of her days rolling through the back allies of her city and exploring her new one.  “and that’s a good point – similar sort of movement anyway.  My body is getting pretty used to attempts at human snowballing, but I’d appreciate the help if you can find it within yourself,” she laughed.

                    “ eh, it’s alright. ”  q shrugged, though the grin on her face made it pretty clear she was kidding around.  “ uh, well, most boarders would say whistler in canada’s the best place to go, and i wouldn’t completely disagree, really, but… i don’t know.  there’s avoriaz in france, about 8 hours from where i lived as a kid.  spent quite a bit of time there and in the swiss alps as a teenager.  and when it’s summer here, i usually end up in new zealand or somewhere in the andes in south america.  i try to mix it up a bit, see all the cool places and stuff, like you said, ”  she said.  “ but i actually really like it here in taos, a fact that is baffling to my family.  a small town in the middle of new mexico doesn’t exactly scream premier snowboarding to them but… it’s nice here.  quiet. ”  clearing her throat, she changed the subject,  “ that’s cool you’re from new york, though.  haven’t been there in a while but it was always fun, at least for a little bit.  but taos is kind of far from there, yeah ?  how’d you end up all the way over here ? if you don’t mind me asking. ”

with a laugh of her own, q nodded.  “ i promise i’ll try my best, scout’s honor, ” she said, holding up her hand as if taking an oath.  they arrived at the equipment rental area and q carefully took the skis from cami, handing them over to the person at the counter.  “ goofy or regular ? ”  she asked, turning back to face cami as she clarified.  “ your stance.  right foot or left foot forward ? ”

OPEN STARTER / @taosstarters​  

‘ so that’s two sodas and a cappuccino for you, who’s next please? ’ mabel smiled as she looked up to the next customer, she loved her job because it meant that she could get to know everyone in town. she’d been here a while now and she was used to all the familiar faces who came into the bar, they were easy to pick out of the crowds of tourists. bar work was never something that she had imagined for herself but she genuinely felt like it was her calling and although to some that would seem silly, she was happy and she didn’t care what anyone else thought of her life choices.

                    currently in the process of texting back their friends back in the city, ri almost didn’t hear the bartender address them.  they looked up, furrowing their brows in concentration.  it was still relatively early in the evening, so they decided to go with their usual for now.  “ uh, can i just get a whiskey on the rocks ? ”  they asked, gaze returning to their phone.  after a few moments, they added, “ actually, could i also get a shot of tequila ? ”  honestly, ri hated tequila.  but reading the updates their friends had sent them – particularly the one about their ex-fiancée – had their chest tightening again and prompted the need to consume extra alcohol before the sun had even set.

Leave it to Owen to pick a ‘middle of no where’ spot to live that still had a familiar face. Though he had nothing against Q— it was more the potential of her telling others were he was that had him so tense. All it took was one comment to the wrong person and he’d have to pack up and leave who-knows-where again. He set to making the mocktail, quiet at first before giving her a sympathetic glance and responding with, “Oh, right. I barely even noticed the cast, if that helps.” It was his slight attempt at a joke. “What happened? Did Peak 3 hit you with a surprise you didn’t intend?” Owen knew he still had yet to answer her question, but he may as well. He paused in his work to look around and then back to her. “I live here now, I guess. I mean, I have a friend who… I just felt better being on my own out here instead of wrapped up in… all that,” he gestured vaguely as if that would magically explain the whole situation. “All the fancy bullshit.”

                    it was difficult to miss his avoidance of her question, but she couldn’t exactly blame him for that.  despite the fact that she was actually quite fond of owen’s company, the thought of running into someone who knew her family wasn’t exactly very pleasing to her either.  she’d probably be just as avoidant if she were in his shoes.  so she decided to ignore it, letting a grin spread across her face as she threw back a joke of her own.  “ that’s good to know, actually.  your attention isn’t really the kind i’m trying to get with this thing, ” she said.  as much as she hated the cast (and all of the guys who would ask her about it), q certainly didn’t mind the women who would approach her and give her sympathetic looks once she regaled them with the story of the dangerous attack and the tragic loss of one of her favorite snowboards.

“ uh, yeah.  i guess it did, ” she said in response to his question, a nervous chuckle escaping her.  “ though i’m pretty sure i wasn’t the only one surprised by it. “  she took a deep breath before explaining.  “ a group of wolves attacked us.  big ones.  don’t know where they came from or why they showed up – maybe something to do with climate change and stuff – but they came out of nowhere. ”  i live here now… all the fancy bullshit…  she grimaced.  “ i get what you mean, ” she mumbled before giving him a taut smile.  “ welcome to taos, i guess.  hell of a time to show up. ”  and she’d leave it at that.  no reason to pry deeper into something that she  personally wouldn’t want someone digging into.

…

“Don’t get me wrong,” she laughed, tearing apart the side of bread as she talked.  “I spent my entire childhood running from Taos – but there are bits and pieces of it that I’m glad to have back.  My parents are – they’re great.  But they still see me as the teenager who liked to sneak out and look at the stars, and not a fully grown human.”  She was well aware that was the lamest reason to sneak out ever, but in her defense, the night sky in Taos was one of it’s best features and high school Saiya was convinced if she looked hard enough she’d see a UFO.  

“It’ll be good for you,” she smiled sympathetically.  Getting reacquainted with Ri had been one of her favorite parts of the past few years.  There was something comforting about having someone who knew you at different points of your life.  “Get out, breath the fresh air a bit.  I have – thoroughly complained about this place, but there are some really nice parts.  Once I can I’ll show you the hot tubs.  And maybe we can get you on a snowboard.  I’ll be horrible, I haven’t done it myself in years.  But it’ll be fun, and we can just hit 1 for now.”

                    “ yeah, i get what you mean.  i’m sure if i was home right now, my mom would be fussing over me, telling me i haven’t been eating enough, asking me how i’m feeling every six minutes, telling me i can’t just go out and drink all my problems away, ”  they griped.  though perhaps that last part was actually a solid piece of advice they should consider listening to.  right now, though, they were perfectly fine with justifying their ( perhaps mildly excessive ) participation in taos nightlife as a part of the full healing process they needed to go through.

“ i hope so, ” they sighed.  despite how much they knew they needed this sabbatical, this extended time away from everything that was there for them in new york, it was still difficult to actually appreciate being there.  though it sure helped they had a friend like saiya to keep them occupied.  “ the air’s definitely a lot more crisp around here than in the city. ”  at the mention of a snowboard, ri couldn’t help but laugh.  “ oh man.  i can’t even remember the last time i was on a board.  i thought i might be able to hit the catskills once i moved up to new york, but turns out lawyers really are more fond of networking over golf and tennis. ”

“Don’t worry I’m the same, Oak says I’m the worst patient they’ve ever encountered. You should’ve seen me after Aspen was born.” Carrie teased gently although she did give a small sigh at the reminder. “I know, at least it won’t happen again.”

                    she laughed lightly at carrie’s statement, picturing that precise image.  “ yeah, i believe it. ”  at least it won’t happen again.  in all honesty, q wasn’t sure about that.  as much as she hadn’t wanted to think about it, to even entertain the idea of those... wolves returning to taos, and as much as she wanted to believe the officials in the incident being a one-off, she just couldn’t be sure.  “ i hope not.  i’ve practically lived on the mountains since i was 10 but even that’s not enough to prepare me for those things coming back.  and i certainly don’t think i could handle it if i lose another one of my favorite boards. ”

Carrie was in a rush to get to work, unaware of her surroundings and keeping her head down. As soon as she realised she’d walked right into someone though she was immediately on edge and apologetic getting down to help them get up.

“Oh no that was completely my fault. I’m fine are you okay?”

                    with a smile, ri mumbled a thanks to the woman for helping them up.  they reached over to grab the fallen bags, shifting slightly to carry them more comfortably.  “ i’m alright, so no worries.  though i’m glad i thought ahead and decided to get everything that was easily breakable delivered instead of carrying them out, ”  they joked, adjusting their cap.

…

“At least you’d have a lot of fun doing it.  If you break your other arm I’ll drive you to Colorado Springs.  No one has to know a thing, and we can stop for tacos on the way back.”  She almost didn’t hate the idea.  There was a really good taco place between here and Colorado Springs – but she supposed Q didn’t need to maim herself for her to go get a really good taco.  

Freya raised her brows with a small smile.  “I guess you’ll never know, huh?”  She wished she had some sort of wolf whispering power.  It’d be great as a party trick, or to intimidate people with.  Whichever was more important at the time.  “Perfect though, let’s get food and you can tell me what you’ve been up to beyond tussling with wild animals.”

                    “ alright, that sounds like a pretty good deal to me.  as long as you let me pay for gas and i get to choose the music, ”  she bartered.  honestly, q’s music taste was more of a messy mix of early 2000s throwbacks, sad indie music, and hype songs she previously used for her competitions than anything cohesive.  but it’s not like that really mattered since she would probably just end up playing whatever freya liked anyway.

with a shrug, q suggested,  “ maybe not.  or maybe i’ll just have to stick with you in case they come back and see what happens. ”  a light chuckle emerged from her.  “ well, i can’t guarantee i’ll have a story more exciting than the wolf thing, but i’ll do my best to keep you entertained, i guess, ”  she said before gesturing in front of her.  “ lead the way, miss walton. ”

━━ TASK 01 :  FAMILY  .

OVERALL, quinn currently has a pretty strained relationship with her parents and brother.  ever since she got injured and decided to take a sort of indefinite break/permanent departure from her professional snowboarding career, her family has been on her case to return home and take her place in the family business.  her parents have taken issue with her hiding out in taos and sort of messing up the family image, and her brother basically resents her for being gone so long and letting him get dragged into the family business knowing he never wanted it.  however, despite all of this, quinn is still very protective of her family and very loyal to them because of how supportive they were to her while she was growing up.  she’ll always care about them, always love them, even if they haven’t had a real conversation that didn’t end in raised voices in almost two years.

It was hard to say the voice was familiar with all the other noise in the club, but he didn’t have much chance to think it over anyway when he was recognized.  “That’s…” He hesitated to confirm it with the other’s tone of voice before he finally realized who she was. “Q? What’re you doing here?” She could ask the same thing. He was in the middle of no where bartending instead of being on the opposite side of the counter with some fancy, stupidly expensive drink in hand. Owen tried not to panic and keep his cool. “You… said no alcohol, right?” Normally he would’ve asked why, or just made the connection with her cast, but his head was spinning a bit and it was hard to stick to a single train of thought with his mind racing like this. Was she alone? Was there a publicity train behind her? “I’d recommend a mock mojito, if you’re sure.”

                    to say she normally didn’t run into people in the same circles as her – well, as her family – would be a bit of an understatement.  sure, she’d had her fair share of wealthy clients, but it wasn’t exactly easy to break into the old money crowd.  and yeah, there were even clients who knew exactly who she was, but that was more about her notoriety as a pro boarder than it was about her family.  “ uh... i live here.  sort of.  sometimes.  what are you, um... you’re in taos.  why ? ” q stuttered out, straightening up in her seat.  clearing her throat, she nodded.  “ y-yeah, um. no alcohol, ”  q answered.  she threw out a joke to hopefully lighten the mood that had quickly turned tense between them.  “ turns out painkillers, antibiotics, and rum aren’t an appropriate cocktail. ”  with another nod, q responded,  “ mock mojito sounds great then.  thanks. ”

…

Q was a hell of a lot of fun.  She was also reckless in a way Freya had never allowed herself to be.  It wasn’t an easy thing to make her jealous – what did she have to be jealous about?  Her life was great.  But damn if it wouldn’t be freeing to just allow yourself to constantly be led by your whims and to do the stupid thing at least eighty percent of the time.

She thought a lot about playing the hero, about watching and then reacting.  God wouldn’t it be fucking satisfying to make Bronte take her picture and report on her extraordinary sister.  She was hardly going to throw herself in the line of fire, but if she just so happened to be there for the aftermath, to clean up the pieces, she wouldn’t be complaining about it.  But this time she reached out to steady Q the same time they helped steady her – this wasn’t going to end up being a let’s go down to the infirmary together scenario.  “Listen, if anyone can pull off the impossible and get on a board before they’re supposed to it would be you.”  She grinned at the girl.  “I think you did great, especially for being a bit off balance.”  Playing at hesitance she tugged at the end of her sweater, as though she needed to straighten it.  “I was just heading to the diner for some dinner.”  She was not, the diner was gross.  But probably if Q was skateboarding stone cold sober she didn’t need any alcohol in her system.  The club could wait for later, and for a companion that was marginally less reckless.  “Let me treat you.  It’s the least I can do, all things considered.  I’m glad I wasn’t there, but I do feel so badly for those of you who were.  I’m sorry about your arm.”

                    q instinctively returned freya’s grin with a shining one of her own, letting herself relax a bit since the other didn’t seem to be all that upset about almost being rammed down on a sidewalk.  “ maybe, ”  q conceded.  “ but if anyone could manage to make my injuries ten times worse after five minutes on a board i’m not supposed to be on, that would probably be me, too. ”  her interest piqued at the mention of dinner, suddenly remembering she hadn’t actually had a meal since that morning, opting to lay around and fall in and out of a nap throughout the afternoon.  wow, she really needed to find better ways to fill her time.  “ dinner sounds great.  but you really don’t have to pay or anything.  it’s not like you’re the one who sicced those wolves onto us... ” q trailed off, narrowing her eyes jokingly at freya.  “ unless you’re some type of wolf whisperer i don’t know about... ”

…

It was weird how easily she fell into a sort of friendship with Q.  But when you really got down to it, it made perfect sense.  Both were familiar with the town and the resort but were away often enough that other connections may have faltered some.  They had mutual friends and were of a similar age – and now they shared this latest thing.  Friendships were formed in weirder ways.  

“I go from not wanting to think about it at all to overthinking and falling into a googling spiral,” she sighed, reclined back in the armchair in her living room with her leg propped up.  “We can find a way to entertain ourselves,” she offered, tilting her head in Q’s direction with a smile.  “What is a ton of fun that doesn’t involve alcohol or snowboards?  Scrabble?  We could go for a walk?  I don’t think I need the crutches anymore, but you might have to go slow for me.  I think we have everything for brownies?  Or we could just sit here and make up outlandish theories about what happened – like maybe it was the government trying to distract from something?  Or someone crossbred a wolf with a grizzly bear and it got loose.”  

                    having grown up the way she did, q tended to latch onto people with whom she had similarities.  she just never expected that similarity to fall under the ‘injury due to massive rabig animal’ category, but here they were.  it was kind of nice, though, being around saiya and others who could relate to what she went through.  “ yeah, that tracks, ” q said, chuckling lightly.  we can find a way to entertain ourselves.  q allowed her head to roll onto its side, gaze landing on saiya in the armchair.  she listened to the other’s suggestions, each one becoming less and less... sensible, for the lack of a better term.  at saiya’s theorizing, q couldn’t help but released a full on laugh.  “ you a big sci-fi fan or something ?  area 51, roswell, all that ? ”  q couldn’t help but tease the other, shifting slightly on the couch.  “ i mean, who’s to say it wasn’t just a bunch of larger than normal wolves ?  the environment’s kinda wack now so maybe some wolves are getting bigger.  like how sharks are swimming closer to shore now. ”

                    while there was an obvious perk to being in taos instead of santa fe ( i.e. not having to deal with their well-meaning but overbearing parents ), the problem was that ri didn’t really have anything there.  in santa fe, they would’ve come home to a fully furnished room and a kitchen full of the appropriate appliances and necessary items for... well, everyday life.  but here in taos ?  they’d been eating take out for the past week, too lazy and in a mood to distract themself to actually go out and buy things.  ri had even almost considered just living on take out for their entire stay, but then they remembered they weren’t actually sure about how long they’d be in town.  so that’s how they end up on main street, in search of some furniture and kitchen items to fill the emptiness of their apartment.  they’d just stepped out of the store, entirely too many bags in their hands when they collided with another.

“ shit, i’m sorry ! ”  they exclaimed, despite the fact that they had actually been the one to end up on the ground, likely due to the weight of the bags in her arms just tipping them over.  “ my bad.  i think i’ve sort of had tunnel vision all day, should probably pay more attention to where i’m going, ”  they rambled, helping themself up.  “ are you okay ? ”

…

This girl didn’t sugarcoat things, and she liked that a lot.  People from this town were nice – which was nice, but being around her felt more like being at home.  Coming to the resort over her holiday break wasn’t something she necessarily regretted.  But she did miss her dad and New York.  She’d be there all summer, so she didn’t let herself dwell on the nostalgia for long.  But this was nice.  “They’re just so awkward to carry.”  You’d have thought they’d have invented retractable skis or something at this point.  Make them not feel like an extra pair of legs that weren’t working.  “Are you from here?  I’m not trying to be nosy, you just seem different than a lot of the people I’ve come across that work at the resort.  Not that that’s a bad thing at all.”

“Ollie,” she echoed, grinning at her.  “That sounds perfect.”  She didn’t know why the name fit a chunk of wood so well, but it did.  “No that makes sense.  Here’s to hoping I’m slightly better on a board than a pair of twigs, but I don’t have high hopes.”  She laughed at that.  “Thank you.”  

                    “ yeah, they’re not the easiest thing to walk around with when you’re not used to it, i guess.  yet another thing to dislike about skiing, ” q quipped, a playful smirk on her face.  with a light laugh, q shook her head.  “ thanks ?  but yeah, no, i’m not from here.  i usually just roll into town when the winter months hit then head out once the weather gets warmer.  i sort of... follow the snow, if that makes sense. ”

a wide grin appeared on her face at the other’s compliment, but she provided nothing but a nod in response.  the backstory to her snowboard wasn’t exactly something she felt like handing out all the time, especially not to someone she barely knew.  “ you said you skateboard, so you’ll probably figure it out pretty easily.  sort of similar maneuvers, in my opinion, ” q began explaining.  “ besides, if you fall, at least it’s relatively soft snow rather than cement.  and well, i’m here so... i might even help catch you. ”

…

“They’re fine,” she confirmed with a smile, tapping a game on the screen of the iPad she had brought to study with in the slow moments before handing it over to them.  “Sometimes adrenaline can mask an injury, so we’ll just have them rest for a minute to be absolutely positive and then you all can be on your way.”

It was strange coming home for moments like this.  So many of her friends had stayed in or near Taos, but the resort had a whole host people in and out for the peak season.  There were new faces and old faces and faces she had only interacted with a handful of times all blending together.  But she knew that she knew Q.  “I’ve been back about two weeks too,” she said thoughtfully.  “maybe pushing three now, they all kind of run together.”  She grinned at the recognition, always happy to solve a puzzle.  “Same,” she laughed.  “and I spent half of New Years Day in bed swearing up and down I’d never drink again.“  She glanced at the board in Q’s hands, assuming that she was one who came in during the winter for the sports.  “I haven’t been on a board in years.  God, time flies, doesn’t it?  It’s probably been at least 6.  I used to live out there when I’d come to work with my parents, entertaining myself.”

                    releasing a hum of understanding, q nodded.  “ yeah, i know a little bit about that, ”  she mumbled.  she’d had enough experience with adrenaline masking pain, from things like a gash on her forehead to her acl tear.  she’d even been unfortunate enough to see other boarders not even realizing they’d broken their wrists or sprained their ankles after an unfortunate mistake during their run.

they all kind of run together.  q chuckled.  “ living in taos kind of does that, huh ? ” she probably hadn’t spent more than a year collectively in the town, only ever really sticking around for the winter months.  noticing how the other’s eyes glanced at her board, q grinned, setting the board down to lean against the table.  she hadn’t even noticed she’d been walking around with it, the board feeling more like a natural extension of her than anything else.  “ yeah, it really does.  when i teach the kids, i feel like it was only yesterday that my parents put me on a board, ” she responded.  “ feels like i pretty much haven’t left the slopes since then. ” with a pause, q added, “ except for... when i get mandated to stay off the board by physio, obviously. ”  well, she tried to keep herself from boarding at those times.  for the most part.  “ if you’re ever looking to get back into it, i’m pretty much around every day.  can’t promise i’ll go easy on you, though. ”