Snowball Catapult
"I can't believe I'm doing this." Eugene muttered as he tromped through the woods near Old Corona.
"Varian asked us to come, and with Rapunzel so pregnant, it made sense for you to go instead." Lance replied. His daughters were running ahead, occasionally stopping to pick up snow and through it at each other, laughing all the while.
They spied Varian walking towards them, rolling something big and heavy and covered with a tarp. "Ladies and gentlemen, behold! My newest invention: the snowball catapult!" Varian announced dramatically. He had assembled the frame using wooden planks, copper pipes, and wood screws. There was a catapult arm and stabilizers screwed to the cross member and the base. At the end of the catapult was a large cup where the snow could be placed. For improved control and accuracy, Varian had nailed small dowels to stop the catapult arm at different positions, thereby adjusting the throw. It was an incredible piece of engineering and the others stared in awe.
"So you can see why I couldn't just bring this to the castle, heh." Varian grinned.
"Wow." marveled Catalina.
Kiera was impressed too. "Sometimes V you are really cool! ...Don't let that go to your head." she added.
"Too late!" Varian replied breezily. "You guys wanna test it out?"
"Yeah!" Catalina cheered.
"You know it's too bad we have to use it in the forest. Imagine taking it to ballet class, and aiming right at Oscar's stupid fat head." Kiera mused. Catalina and Varian laughed, they were familiar with Oscar's snide remarks about Catalina being too hairy to dance.
"It's not really designed to aim at people." Varian admitted. "But you can pull the catapult arm down in increments, and see how it affects the distance the snow travels. I've already marked off on a tree where it hits at various spots." Varian pointed to a tree marked with white circles.
"Cool. I call first dibs!" Kiera yelled. With Varian's assistance they piled in snow and she pulled the catapult arm down 30° and fired.
"Here's an interesting fact. A 30° angle and a 60° angle will have the same range. Same with any two angle pairs that add up to 90°. For maximum distance you want a 45° angle." Varian explained.
"My turn!" Catalina piped up. She and Varian added snow then set the catapult arm to 45° as he'd recommended. True to what he'd said, the snowball flew further and higher than before.
"I gotta try this!" Lance was nearly as excited as the kids. After adding more snow he pulled the catapult arm down 70° and then they all marched to the tree to compare the 3 spots where the snowball had landed.
"This is all very fun, I'm sure. But couldn't you design something to be used indoors?" Eugene complained.
"I made that heater for you earlier." Varian pointed out.
"And I love it and use it every day. But it's cold out here, and you've all had a shot with the catapult, so let's go back inside." Eugene argued.
Varian turned to the girls and Lance, who all shrugged. "I guess this is enough testing for now. We've seen that it works at least. So now we can go to my house and have some hot cocoa." Varian said. Ruddiger chittered and rubbed up against his legs. He enjoyed making cocoa with Varian.
"Yeah okay, we'll do that." Lance agreed. The girls nodded along.
"Yes!" Eugene was adamant. And really it wasn't a bad idea, on a snowy winter day nothing beat a cup of hot cocoa shared with your friends.
The End
Snowball catapults really exist! Researching this, I realized there's a lot more to snowball fights that just rolling a ball of snow and hoping your aim is good.