xp_logs | Ice-climbing - Crystal and Mondo

Mondo and Crystal take the first climb up together. To celebrate reaching the top, Crystal decides that clothes are evil.

"Y-y-y-y-y-you know, t-t-t-t-t-this looks like it could be a lot of fun." Mondo chattered as he stared up the frozen waterfall. "I just w-w-w-w-wish I could m-m-m-m-move in all of this." he said, motioning towards his heavy jacket, his layers, and the rope harness to keep him tied to everyone else. He bit off his glove and touched his bare fingers to the metal half of the axe then concentrated.

Crystal nodded, feeling trapped under the confining cold-weather gear Nathan had insisted she wear. Utter silliness. Easier to look at a website her foot. Sure it was cold, and sure keeping from freezing without such gear would have involved the use of her abilities, but this? Pure torture. So unnecessary. "Yes, it is a lot of clothing. It is extremely cold here," she said, the second statement echoing Nathan's words to her earlier in the week.

Mondo just nodded as he tried to put his glove back _on_. He had kept his Forge-designed powers-analysis device strapped to his arm, and he fumbled it to the ON position. "Titanium ice-climbing axe." he told the device ponderously, then waggled his now glove-clad fingers at Crystal. "Much better." he said, relieved. Titanium didn't get cold like water-soaked flesh did. He was just going to have to be careful -the titanium was sharp and pointy and right now, so was he. "You ready to do this?" he asked Crystal with as big a smile as he could manage.

Crystal nodded again, looking at the device curiously. "Yes, I am ready." Everything was going to be all right. It had to. There couldn't really be a field trip curse. There had to be a good field trip that didn't involve riots, explosions, demons, or unscrupulous telepaths.

Mondo waited patiently to get all hooked into the rope harnesses, just like they'd practiced it yesterday. "I am so looking forward to this!" he said, looking upwards with a truly sick grin on his face. "This is going to be so much fun!"

Yes, being trapped under 100 lbs of clothes while being tied to other people while climbing up a frozen waterfall was going to be fun. Interesting, yes. A new experience, yes. Fun, not quite sure yet. Mondo was clearly excited. Crystal just wanted to be part of a field trip without any mishaps. "I am certain that this will prove to be quite an interesting experience," Crystal said, looking up at the waterfall.

"Don't be such a sourpuss!" Mondo cautioned. "You are allowed to just enjoy yourself, you know." he told her, then set axe and boot to the ice-wall to start his climb. His knee was behaving itself save for a bit of ache due to the cold, and he'd almost forgotten how much he enjoyed just being physical.

Crystal rolled her eyes, then checked to make sure her camera was set properly before beginning to climb. She'd wait to see if anyone attempted to plummet to his or her death before deciding how fun this whole new and interesting experience was. Hopefully, no one would decide to try the "levitated by the teacher" option.

Mondo just sighed - no matter how much he tried he couldn't get through Crystal's reserve. She was always so determined to be so cold, so unfeeling. He didn't understand it and it made him sad. But it didn't mean that he was going to stop trying. Far from it! He grinned over at Crystal and made it a few steps more up the ice-wall.

Long sleeves were one thing. This outfit was insane. Crystal smiled back at Mondo and continued climbing. So far, so good. Concentrate on the climb.

The climb was going wonderfully and Mondo was having a blast. Right up until his right-hand axe didn't bite clean and came away in a shower of ice chips. Mondo was in no danger of falling, though -his other axe was secure, he was harnessed in, Mister Dayspring was keeping a brain-eye on him, and he drove the hand that was carrying that axe into the ice like a piton to stop himself from falling.

Crystal looked over at Mondo, alarmed. She knew that although she could always fly if she slipped, the others did not have that option. "Mondo, are you all right?"

Mondo looked at the axe looped around his forearm, and then at his hand buried deeply in the ice of the frozen waterfall. "Yeah, I think so." he said, gingerly taking his hand out of the ice and using the axe to get a more solid bite. The adrenaline sang through his body and had never felt more _alive_ as he did right then. "I'm OK!" he repeated with a silly grin, then he resumed his climb up the waterfall.

Crystal shook her head but smiled. The boy didn't seem to let anything bother him. "Be careful!" She glanced at the hole in the waterfall left by Mondo's hand, hoping she wouldn't have the need to punch holes into the ice. Crystal took a a quick look around to see how the other climbers were doing, then continued with the climb.

The rest of his first climb up was fairly uneventful - a couple of tense moments but no further slips or attempts at dropping his hand-axe. When he got to the top of the waterfall he flexed his knee a couple of times and looked down over the landscape from the top. "Pretty." he said quietly.

Crystal nodded and removed herself from the harness as fast as she could. Gloves came off next, followed by the confining jacket, still leaving her in the long-sleeved shirt she had chosen to wear under it. Much better. The cold she felt did not bother her and was actually a welcome relief after being stuck in the heavy jacket. "Yes, it is a very beautiful sight," she agreed, gazing down at the view below. Mondo's knee-flexing had not gone unnoticed, and Crystal decided to inquire about it. "How is your knee? Is it causing you great pain or just a bit of discomfort?"

"It's not too bad." he said, flexing the knee a few more times. "I mean, it really doesn't like the cold here but it's not too bad." he said with a grin. It felt _good_ to know that all his pain and hard work had paid off.

The shoes were fine, but the extra heavy pants had to go. Crystal had seen to it that hers could be easily removed, and off they went, leaving her in the lighter pants underneath. "Still, you chose to come on this particular trip even with advance knowledge of the extremely low temperature, plus you made the climb without your knee causing any problems that affected your climb. You pushed on in spite of it, and that is quite admirable."

Mondo grinned. "I know. I'm totally stoked, babe!" he said, lapsing back to Val-speak in his excitement. "Doctor Moira's gonna be _thrilled_." he added a moment later. Then he looked at Crystal's new, stripped-down look. "Overheating?" he asked politely.

At Mondo's "Val-speak," Crystal raised an eyebrow. She was slightly amused, but "babe" was pushing it. "I am fine now, thank you." She felt freer now, and rose several feet in the air before looking around at the view again. "The view up here is very, very nice."

Oop, it looks like he'd put his foot in it somehow. With Crystal, one could never be sure how that happened. "I think it's great." he said positively. "And I'm really looking forward to climbing this waterfall a few more times before I go back inside for hot drinks." he said firmly. There had been Much Discussion about the hot drinks, and Mondo was dying to have one.

Climb it again? They were going to climb it again? Crystal shot a glance at her winter-weather gear. She'd done the climb once with the heavy outfit, she could give it a try without. For the moment, though, she was perfectly happy just hovering right here.