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Due to the snow all of Quinn's classes were canceled but his architect teacher offered all his students a challenge.... build a snow object out of the fluffy snow. Any who chose to take his challenge would get extra credit but Quinn didn't care about the credit he wanted to see if he could pull it off. It didn't take him long to gather his gear, both clothing and stuff for the snow sculpture.

Soon he was out in the biting cold in a local park playing in the snow. Quinn had amassed a great big pile of snow... and cleared a walkway while he was at it. and began to rough out his idea. First he had to build a snow man. It was cliche but one snowman was only the beginning. With time he was hoping to make more of a scene then just a sculpture.

Quinn was getting frustrated as he packed snow and watched it crumble as fast as he packed it. He glared down at the mound of shapeless snow and was about to kick it when a rather cheerful greeting came from the cleared sidewalk. He looked up to see a teen standing there in a sweater freezing his a** off.

“If I did it by hand my fingers would be almost as blue as your nose.” Quinn smiled and pointed to the partially buried shovel a few feet away. “I think you forgot its winter man and if you can figure a way to get this fluffy s**t to stick I’m all ears.” He eyed the other guy and headed over to his bag that was sitting on a cleared bench. “I’m Quinn by the way.” He called out as he dug in his bag producing another pair of gloves and a hat. The hat Quinn had abandoned as he started to get hot as he worked and the gloves were extras incase his own got wet. “If you’re going to help you can’t be losing your fingers.” He tossed the extra clothing at the teen and trudged back to his work site. “It was meant to be a bear sitting up, kind of like a giant polar bear but I can’t get this stuff to stick to together.” He mentally ran through the supplies he brought with him, trying to think of a way around his problem and came up empty. The bucket, which was currently buried under snow, wouldn’t help any nor would the squirt bottle of water that he hoped to use as a hardening agent… it was too cold and the water was already freezing in the plastic container. “No wonder my teacher added… ‘if you dare’ to his email.” He glared at the pile of uncooperative snow.

Quinn shoved his gloved fingers into his pockets as he surveyed the slumped pile of snow. He had waved off the thanks of the gloves and hat; it was really no big deal although he did briefly wish he had shoved a extra sweater in his bag as well since the kid still looked cold. “Nah I figured I would try making the head and just let it float in the air till I got the body made.” He smirked and added, “’Tho if you think about it most of the world is made by starting with a foundation. Making a snow bear is no different… ‘cept this s**t is so damn fluffy.”

Quinn’s laugh was short and full of frustration, “Yeah it looks like a snowman blew up…” He trailed off as an idea came to him. “He never said it had to be pretty.” He murmured to himself as he paced a few feet back, stopping a short distance to his new companion. “Yeah that might work… a bit like Calvin and Hobbs but it would be amusing.” He looked over at the shivering teen and asked, “What do you think of a flattened snow man? Or like a snow bear rug? Something flat or flatish… If it works we could build something like a snake on the ground, or a turtle, or something. Nothing with any real height since this stuff just doesn’t hold the shape.” He trailed off again as he pondered his powdery menace.

Quinn was pretty deep in his thoughts and didn’t hear the comment about the framework but he did glance up when the kid laughed. He noticed that he was still shivering and wondered if it was worth telling the teen to go grab a jacket or something but Quinn really did want the help. “Do you think by shoveling more snow into this area you will warm up some?” The movement and action is what made Quinn abandon his own hat and opened his jacket up to the cold air but now that he was standing still his ears started to go cold and he quickly zipped back up the jacket. Since the teen had his hat his ears would just have to deal with it.

“I think trying to do a snake would work best but what I have will only go so far so shoveling more of the walk would help.” He grabbed the shovel and the bucket. “Got to try to toss it in a general line. The mass I got already can be the head and what we grab now can be the body. What do you think?” Quinn also figured that once they got a bit more of the pathways in the park cleared it might be worth taking a break but that would have to wait till later, after all it might be better to actually start the compacting and sculpting of the snake until they both were frozen and then take a break. Hopefully by then the teen will no longer be shivering or at least be willing to go back and grab a jacket.

Quinn made his way through the snow to the ‘head’ and after a moment of thought answered the teen’s question… “Not too far, the sooner we can get this done the faster we can grab some coffee or hot chocolate.” He glanced up at the ‘kid’, did he ever introduce himself Quinn wondered silently, and noticed that he really wasn’t wearing much. The twenty one year old felt a twinge of guilt. He should turn down the help, or at least send him for more clothes, but Quinn hated not getting something done. Quitting was just not an option. Besides the sun was out and while it was still cold Quinn knew the snow would start to melt.

He started to shape the head when he got an idea and quickly broke the head into three sections. “If I make a snake eating a snowman it would mean that you don’t have to shovel as much since the sculpture would be much smaller.” He roughed out the shapes. A small head for the snowman, a middle, and a large end that was already being eaten by the snake. Quinn shook out his gloves; they had a nice crust of melting snow on them. He pulled them off and quickly warmed his fingers with friction and then gently cupped his ears to get some feeling back in them. Quinn glanced up and around for the kid and spotting him, called out, “Hey try warming your ears with your hands. Rub your palms together to generate heat and warm them that way.”

The warmth of his hands helped his ears a bit but Quinn didn't know how much longer he could take the cold... let alone the kid who was helping him. He was arguing with himself when the younger man tossed him his name. He looked up and smiled, "I tossed it to you but your ears must have been too cold to catch it. Its Quinn and its nice to meet you Dominic." It actually tipped the scales in favor of warmth. Quinn was cold and if he was with the coat and gloves he knew Dominic was as well. And since the sculpture was ruffed out it would only take him a little bit to get the details done and then it was just a matter of a picture.

"If you think warm ears are brilliant then I worry what you would think of going to the coffee shop around the corner." Quinn glanced down at the snowman. With out arms or eyes or even anything for the mouth it just looked like an blob of snow or like a snowman was built then pushed over scattering his features to the wind. He cocked his head as he wondered if he could twist that idea to play off the incompleteness of the sculpture as it stood now. It could be done but he really wanted to try to get the snake eating the snowman sculpture done instead.

They were so close to being done Quinn just didn't want to give up but his fingers were starting to get numb through the gloves. "Gravity, hum? Skipped right past sliced bread and jumped right to apple on the head. I wonder what you would think of a warm blanket or jacket. Winning every lottery ever conceived?" He took a few more swipes at the snow before pausing as he remembered a few things from school where lotteries didn't always end up being good, like the one where the lottery winner was stoned to death. "Yeah never mind on that one." He glanced back at Domonic and realized that he had done more then enough shoveling and waved him back over.

"If you can find two sticks that look like arms trying to drag their body across the ground that would be fantastic." He held his arms up, one bent closer to his body then the other in a image that seemed like he was trying to crawl across the snow. "You know something like this" If he was quick about it by the time the younger guy found the sticks he could have most of his sculpture done and they could get some hot food and drink.... anything to warm them up. He was lucky that the snow Domonic was shoveling into his line made the snake look like he was coming up out of the snow, disturbing it as it forced its way out of the white frozen ground. It wouldn't take much more to get the general outline done and then he could return after the break to add the finer details.

"Yeah well the lotto's over rated anyhow." All that money really didn't do anyone any good anyway. While most saw money as a way to solve so many problems, Quinn knew that it just made bigger and messier problems. That's why he was trying to stay away from his folk's money. He can't leave them behind but Quinn would be damned if he lived like a prince without having earned it in the first place.

Quinn glanced up in time to see Dominic look like a icicle. He had been such a good sport about helping Quinn out and as the older boy studied the sculpture he decided that regardless the kind of arms the teen brought back it was time to call it done. Neither of them could take much more cold, Dominic less so then Quinn. It gulls him that it wasn't what his vision of the project was but the new idea was a bit more inventive if not hard, but he really did want to make it perfect. He was thinking about sticking around a bit longer to continue working on the snake when Dominic called out. "Anything you can find I can make it work." It didn't matter what Quinn wanted to do, he wasn't going to let the kid freeze.... no mater how much the unfinished sculpture bugged him.