THE RITUAL HAS BEGUN

[magicalworld]

WHO: Calvin, OPEN
WHERE: Battery Park
WHEN: Sunday afternoon
WARNINGS: Irresponsible use of flammable materials
SUMMARY: It is Fall, which means it is time for Calvin's unique take on theology
FORMAT: Prose

Through the creative use of his stupendous powers and the thorough wasting of an afternoon, Calvin had successfully gathered up almost every fallen leaf in Battery Park into a gargantuan pile of multicoloured foliage. It was surrounded by five smaller piles joined to the central mass, in keeping with the ancient rites Calvin had made up over breakfast that morning.

If he was to be completely honest, Calvin was still a little shaken by the attack on the school that had happened so recently. It seemed almost surreal to be doing something like this so soon after something so... intense. But Dr. McCoy was back, right? Everybody was looking for the bad guys, right? So everything was going to be fine and there was no point dwelling on things! Especially not while there was an important tradition to be observed, a tradition that could very well affect everyone's joy and happiness for the rest of the year.

Calvin dropped to his knees in front of the pile. There was a can of lighter fluid next to him, acquired from a barbecue through completely honest and legitimate means. Raising his hands, Calvin cried aloud to the sky:

"Oh great and mighty snow demons! Your humble and unworthy servant hereby offers you this pile of leaves as a burnt sacrifice! Let their flames appease your terrible natures! May you grant mercy to us in coming months in the form of a cold and snowy winter! Let the drifts rise high! Let the winds blow! Let the snow be packable! Let Christmas be white and cheery! Let school be closed! I beg of you, grant me this boon!"

Someone should probably stop him before he gets into the chanting.

Comments

[yelloweyesdarksomething]

The Monster was getting lost.

In one hand, he carried his homework that had hastily scribbled directions to a certain Pie Hole. The Monster had been trying to figure out how street signs worked before he ended up just wandering the city. In the other hand, he carried his bright pink umbrella.

He had been walking for a while before he decided to take a break at a nice little park. He was hungry and tired and more than a little bit lonely, but he wasn't terribly upset, so while the shade cast by the umbrella was darker than normal shadows, the Monster's new kid form was perfectly visible.

He spotted Calvin among a pile of leaves, shouting some sort of spell. He knew that kid! That kid was on the Network thingy.

He approached cheerfully.

[magicalworld]

"BLIZZARDS! WINDSTORMS! WHITEOUTS! SLEEEEEEEEET!" Calvin broke off mid-chant as he spotted the weird-looking kid with the pink umbrella who most definitely was not the monster he'd been talking to on the Network.

"Hey, kid!" He said. "What are you doing here? I'm in the middle of something important!"

[yelloweyesdarksomething]

"Oh, sorry!"

The Monster backed up a little. The last thing he wanted to do was interrupt some sort of important spell. People had yelled at him more than once for that and one time - well, the important thing was not accidentally exploding something.

"It's Calvin, right? You can do magic?"

[magicalworld]

Wait now he recognizes the voice! Calvin peers at him, confused. "Monster? That's you? Wow, I didn't know the Porter gave you a human form too!"

He looks at his glorious leaf pile. "I don't have magic powers or anything, but there are higher powers out there that I can appeal to. At least, with the correct sacrifice." He makes this part sound sinister for dramatic effect.

[yelloweyesdarksomething]

The Monster grins and looks down at himself. The whole human thing was still pretty weird. He shakes a leg experimentally.

"Yeah, I guess it's neat, but I kinda wish I knew what sort of monster I was before."

He looks up again, at all the leaves. "Isn't that just clerical magic though?"

[flouncypouncy.livejournal.com]

Tigger was frolicking in the park, when he spotted Calvin. He looked over at Calvin for a moment, wondering what he was doing. Burning leaves? Well, that was pretty strange. He should go over and say hello!

Of course, there was only one way that Tiggers said hello. Crouching close to the ground, Tigger pounced over towards Calvin, with the intent to pounce, hit him smack on the chest and push him to the ground. Gently, of course. Or at least, as gently as a Tigger to the chest could be.

[magicalworld]

Calvin had gone so long without a good tiger-y (or Tigger-y) pounce that some subconscious part of him was actually happy to be bowled head over heels into a leaf pile without warning by a sudden orange stripey blur. Part of him. The rest was just mad.

"What the heck are you doing?!" He yelled up from the ground. Calvin struggled back to his feet, spitting out leaves, brushing more of them out of his hair. "You've interrupted the ritual! You'll doom us all!"

[flouncypouncy.livejournal.com]

Tigger looked up at Calvin, smiling all the while. "I bounced ya! And bouncing is what Tiggers do best!" As if to prove this, he bounced a few times in place on his tail. However, he stopped bouncing when Calvin started talking about rituals and doom.

"Uh, what ritual?"

[magicalworld]

"The ritual!" Calvin said as though this was an actual answer. "All the stuff I was shouting! By interrupting it and assaulting their petitioner, you have roused the wrath of the great and terrible Snow Demons!" He cringed and looked up at the sky, expecting to be smote any second.

[flouncypouncy.livejournal.com]

Tigger's eyes widened, as he gasped in shock. "Snow Demons? Well, we've gotta start the ritual back up then!" Because whatever Snow Demons were, Tigger knew that he didn't like them and they sounded scary.

[gevurah]

So much for a laid back Sunday afternoon.

From the moment she had spotted the boy in her peripheral vision and her eyes laid on the can, it instantly registered what he was attempting to do and she strolled over quickly. There was no need to start another charity for a burned down park, after all.

"Hey!" she called out. The closer she got, the more she towered above Calvin.

[magicalworld]

Calvin was suddenly aware that he was being loomed over. He looked up at the lady with the red hair and held up a finger to his mouth. "Shhh! I'm in the middle of something really important! You'll just make them mad if you get in the way!"

[gevurah]

Dealing with children was not her forte but Kate knew the success of having a firm hand with them, so she immediately stooped over to pick up the can and out of the boy's reach before any real harm could be done.

"You can't start fires in the park. You'll be destroying public property and the City will have to pay for it."

[magicalworld]

"Hey! Gimme that!" Calvin jumped up at the can, but was thwarted by his tininess and the aforementioned looming. "I'm not going to be destroying anybody's property! I'm just going to be burning the leaves! The City doesn't down those, do they?" He jumped at it again, grunting with effort.

[gevurah]

She sighed but didn't budge.

"And the fire can spread to the trees and other things in the park." She gestured to the benches, trash cans and then the people walking around. "And those people could get hurt."

[girlverine]

Hey look Calvin, it's the girl who killed the T-rex. She was currently standing a few feet behind him, one dark eyebrow raised as she watched him beginning his chant and holding what smelled like lighter fluid.

This seemed like it was going to end badly.

"What are you doing?" She finally asked, when there was a brief break in his chanting so she was certain he would hear her. She was pretty sure she already knew he was going to light the leaves on fire...she didn't particularly get why, and what he was proclaiming made less than no sense to her, but...lighting a giant life pile in a park seemed like it would be a very bad idea.

Laura liked this park, and she didn't want it to burn down.

[magicalworld]

Calvin actually smiled at this interloper. "Hey, it's T-Rex girl! You know the head of that thing is still hanging in the lobby? I think it's called 'Xavier Rex.' He's like the mascot!"

Then he remembered that he was involved in dark and forbidden rites. "Uh, but this isn't really a good time to catch up. I'm kinda in the middle of something." He paused because he didn't really want the cool person to go away. "But you can help, if you've got any flame accelerants on you!"

[girlverine]

"Laura," she corrected at his rather unsettling nickname for her. She didn't think she wanted to be named for a creature she had killed, that had unpleasant implications even she could see. "Yes, I know. I arranged for it to be placed there." Although she'd have to check and make sure something had not been done since she had paid to have the entire carcass stuffed.

Her attention turned to his...leaf pile...and she walked around him to stand off to the side, considering it carefully. And then green eyes settled on him.

"If you burn leaves here you will light the trees on fire."

[magicalworld]

"Really? That's great!" Calvin was grinning now. "We have the coolest mascot in our district thanks to you!"

He looked at the leaves, away from those eyes. "Hey, there's nothing to worry about. I raked up all the leaves, so there's nothing left in the park but some dry grass and old oily newspapers littered around. Oh, and the trees. So nothing's going to burn besides the leaves! Nothing can go wrong!"

Calvin spent most of his school fire drills fantasizing about the school being on fire and closed permanently.

"And it's really important to appease the Snow Demons before Christmas," he added.

[girlverine]

Laura considered his point carefully, looking at his leaf pile, and his apparent intent to light it on fire. As far as she could tell, it was easily going to light the canopy above them on fire.

"Snow demons?" That was probably the most important part of what he had said, at least in the short term. Understanding why the boy wanted to light the park on fire would probably give her some idea how to get him to not do that.

TOO MANY IDEAS SORRY

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

Maggie had been reading in the park, when the pigeon that had been sitting on her head suddenly decided it REALLY needed to be somewhere else.

Maggie looked up from her book, seeing the danger the pigeon sensed: an imaginative little boy. With flammables.

You know those blank pages in the front and the back of a book that don't really have a point? Those removed themselves neatly from the book and turned into a little bat, which quietly flapped up behind Calvin with the intent of taking his lighter/matches before he could use them. Maggie stood, getting ready to confront him.

[magicalworld]

Calvin was too busy ranting to notice that one of his pockets was suddenly lighter by a couple firestarters. All he heard was a faint flutter and the sound of his own voice. "A new Ice Age all over Brooklyn! Sled-worthy hills from November to March! Skies impassable to all air traffic except me and Santa! This, I beseech of thee!"

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

Maggie collected her thoughts. "Excuse me, Calvin?"

[magicalworld]

[ooc: Not yet!]

Calvin turned around, panting from all the religious exertions. "Ms. Mui?" He gasped. "What are you doing here?"

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

Maggie looked down at Calvin very solemnly. She spoke in her best wise big sister voice, not chiding but informing: "I'm very sorry, Calvin, but I don't think that's the way to please the spirits of winter."