middleofsomewhere | Winter Faire

Entry tags:

Winter Faire

”Shortly arriving in World#5562102022. The dressing carriage is open for your convenience.” The announcement might be unexpected so late in the month, but soon enough further information arrives on their SCA’s.

World#5562102022: Home of the famous Winter Faire. Voidtreckers may spend the evening here. Please remember your Snowcoins. Enjoy.

The dressing carriage is open for characters to choose from an array of winter coats, hats, gloves and scarves. There are also ice skates in a variety of sizes and shapes, suitable for all passengers.

THE PLAZA

The Express comes to rest in a station roofed by sheets of ice. Streamers of light run up and along the arches overhead, sending flashes of colour through the structure at intervals. A wooden path leads through stands of sparkling trees to the faire proper.

The faire is a large one, mostly made up of a large market of wooden huts. The market is held outside; while it's dark when they arrive, there are floating lights twinkling in the darkness that illuminate the area. There is snow on the ground and a light flurry in the air, the perfect amount of snow to be atmospheric without anyone being too damp or cold.

There are both ice paths and ordinary wooden paths through the market. In the centre of the market there is a large ferris wheel, where guests can sit in glass bubbles filled with soft cushions and blankets as they view the snowy market from above.

THE ICE RINK

There are two large ice rinks, and ice paths weave through the market, with many of the eateries having 'ice gardens' where skaters can rest and drink before continuing their skating. Wooden railings run through the middle of the ice paths, both to form two one-way lanes, and to give new or wobbly skaters something to hold onto.

There are benches at the entrance to the large ice rinks for people to change into their ice skates and cubbies for them to store their shoes; the ice paths connect to both rinks. There are also skate aids for those that need them, carved wooden animals to hold onto and push along the ice for balance. An animal that looks like a furred penguin dominates.

THE SLEDDING SLOPE

To the north of the market, there is a snowy field with a hill perfect for sledging, and sleds to borrow for any who want them.

The whole field is deep with snow, with a well trodden path leading up the hill and sledding tracks leading down. To the side of the slope are snowpeople and snow animals, some better built than others, and plenty of snow to add to this collection.

THE WOODLAND ENCLOSURES

To the south there is a small woodland where a member of staff will allow guests through with warnings to be peaceful and not disturb the creatures.

The trees are bare of leaves and white with snow, some with frost forming crystal snowflakes on the branches. There are indeed woodland creatures within the woodlands: deer, rabbits, strange white pompom-looking creatures. They are comfortable with people, and won't flee.

THE FERRIS WHEEL

In the centre of the market there is a large ferris wheel allowing guests to sit in glass bubbles filled with soft cushions and blankets as they view the snowy market from above. The ferris wheel moves slowly, allowing plenty of time to take in the view and enjoy the company, the soft seating, or both.

Bubbles can fit up to 6 people, though the attendants will allow groups from single guests up to six. The glass can be made one-way, so that guests cannot be viewed from outside.

THE MARKET

All the activities in the faire are free. Everything in the market, from a mug of beer to a blown glass ornament costs one snowcoin, the snowflake tokens that passengers received on station day. Each passenger has ten to spend.

FOOD STALLS

The actual market sells drinks: hot chocolate, mulled wine, beer, spiced apple juice and cider amongst some more alien picks like a bright pink concoction that is delicious but very alcoholic; food: sausages, bread, cakes, roasted chestnuts, candied nuts, stroopwafel and a whole collection of unrecognisable but delicious things.

All are available to take out, though many of them also have a bar area where shoppers can sit, drink and people watch.

SHOPPING
The stalls don't sell much that would be considered useful, but are filled with trinkets, decorations, cute hats and other clothing, sweets, glassware, jewellery, toys… and much much more.
After a good few hours in the market, things are beginning to wind down and stalls start to close. The Voidtreckers will receive a message on their SCA telling them it is time to return to the Express. Once all passengers are on board the train will leave the ice-covered station and return back to the Void.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For the most part, Shinichi had managed to stay out of sight. If he could just last a few more hours.... Surely the antidote would be wearing off soon.

He'd spent most of the days lingering around the marketplace, taking advantage of the crowd of people there for cover. He'd even purchased a few small items for Ran, despite having no idea how he could ever give them to her.

As the day draws to a close, he lingers at the plaza near the Ferris Wheel. For a brief, brief moment he allows himself to enjoy the sight and wonder what it would have been like if he'd been able to bring Ran here and see this together.

Of all the places at the Faire, Ran's kept returning to the ferris wheel, watching the bubbles arc upward into the night sky. She'd tried going on once, and it was beautiful, rising above the fair lights, but just not the same; there's company she wants for it and just isn't going to get.

Even Conan hasn't been around, and for that she's worried; they're getting close to the end of their time, and she hasn't seen him once. Maybe he is avoiding her. It doesn't seem like his style, but she's not coming up with many explanations. It would have been nice to have him as well -- both for the wheel and the fair in general.

Leaning against a metal fence that frames the perimeter of the wheel, watching the wheel climb upwards again, she's doing her best not to feel sorry for herself, not to be nostalgic, when it happens again -- that glimpse of brown hair in an all-too-familiar style, that set of shoulders and lean frame.

And what's more, this time . . . a face as he turns his head, glances at the source of a noise from a nearby stall. Blue eyes. Lines of nose, brow, and jaw that squeeze her chest.

Shinichi.

She doesn't risk calling to him this time. Doesn't dare say anything and take the chance that he vanishes again like a ghost. Barely daring to breathe, she backs into the crowd, skirts the perimeter to get close, until she can come up behind him, her eyes never leaving him.

Then as soon as she's close enough, as soon as she's able to come up behind him . . . grabs for his hand.

He jumps at the feeling of a hand slipping in to his. And worse, he knew this hand. Knew the shape and the pattern of calluses from karate that could only belong to one person. And he can't stop himself from squeezing her hand back.

But as much as all he wanted to be this close to her, he knew that he could not allow this to happen. In only a short time he would be gone again,leaving only Conan behind.

Again and again, all he could do was cause Ran pain.

But what he could do? It was too late, far too late, to convince Ran of a mistaken identity. She knew him far too well for that.

"Yo, Ran," he says at last as he turns his head enough to face her.

Maybe, maybe he still might have managed with a mistaken identity. It's a longshot, but between that and being an apparition, it was probably his best chance -- after all, she'd established his tangibility as soon as her hand had slipped into his.

But he'd squeezed back.

He'd squeezed back.

And there's all the sparkling tingles that touching him normally generates -- more so, given London, given that she's spent months here in this place, wanting him here too--

Yo, Ran. Completely casual, as though he'd expected her all along, and she knows he hadn't. That jump had already given him away. He's playing it off, saving face. He hadn't expected her. Not at all.

Her fingers tighten around his -- both to reassure herself of his solidity and to keep him (somehow) from slipping away from her fingers like smoke.

(She's still not sure he won't.)

"Shinichi." She's pink; she can feel it. "Don't just-- you can't just yo --How?"

He is silent for a long moment, as he creates and discards what he should say.

"I don't know what is going on for sure," he says at last. "But I think... that I am only here for tonight. I don't have a ticket, after all."

Or rather, he had a ticket, and they both knew where it was.

Was this even possible? Were others experiencing the same thing -- people from home just appearing here in the middle of this fair? She'd asked someone else after seeing him the first time, but surely there would be buzzing about it in the crowd, excitement of another sort in the voices that occasionally rise above the mingled hum.

She's aware of this, somewhere in the back of her mind. But she also wants it to be real, wants what's in front of her so badly that it makes that voice very hard to hear.

Except on one point: ". . . How did you know about the tickets?"

After all, if he's never been on the train before, he should be as unaware of the mechanics as any new person standing on the platform -- maybe less so. She remembers being bewildered, confused, lost . . . why isn't he?

"I investigated, of course."

A moment of hesitation.

"I ran into Conan earlier. He was able to fill me in on some of the details."

It makes sense that he would, though the back of her mind prickles warning -- something's wrong here, something's off . . .

Still she doesn't quite hear it.

"You've seen him?" Somehow they always seem to manage to find each other, though whether or not she gets to see Shinichi himself is always up in the air. "I've been looking for him all day . . ."

Deep inside, he allows himself to feel a moment of relief. It seemed like she was buying it. And that meant she might have an easier time when he vanished again.

"Last I saw he was over in the wilderness area. But that was a while ago."

Technically the truth. He'd spent a part of the day taking advantage of the solitude there.

Her own mind is still spinning, instinct breeding conflict in the back of it if only she would just listen. But on the face of it, it all makes sense. Seems logical -- as much logic as the world of the train can ever make.

"I'll have to find him later," she says. "I've needed to talk to him."

But she finds herself looking at him again -- just looking, absorbing every familiar line, the way his hair falls across his forehead, the very deep blue of his eyes -- a small smile blooming. Her hand squeezes his abruptly, firmly, and suddenly she's thrown her arms around him.

He stiffens abruptly when he feels her arms wrapping around him in a hug. A second, two, and he tentatively wraps his arms around her and hugs her back.

This, right here, was all he wanted. To be able to do this with his own arms.

And yet even now it was tinged with regret. How much longer would he be like this. Was it wrong to give her hope that he could be here even for a day?

Edited 2020-12-29 00:59 (UTC)

"I've missed you." Her voice is muffled against his collarbone. "This place--"

But she doesn't finish the sentence, trailing off.

Even away as he has been while she's been home, he's still one of her anchor points. Having him not even a phone call away, at times she's felt like she's floating, bobbing in currents she doesn't know how to navigate -- and yes, she's navigated them, even done well for the most part, but that doesn't mean she's felt well doing it.

She doesn't want to think for now about having to give him up -- it's some nebulous point in the future, not to be considered. She squeezes him again, trying to convey what she's not putting into words.

"Are Mom and Dad okay? Do you know?" Another worry, not yet voiced: Do people know that they're gone? Or are they worrying too?

"I hate that you're alone here," he says with a roughness in his voice. "If I could stay here, I would."

He hated that he wasn't even able to give her the small comfort of sending her messages as his true self here.

And at that he pulls back, starting to remove himself from the hug.

"Sorry," he says slowly. He didn't want to give false comfort. "You know I've been away on that case at home. I haven't talked to anyone in a while."

Her eyes sting at that acknowledgment -- because sometimes she does feel alone. All too alone. Maybe that's not fair -- after all, she has Conan, Ai, and Sera, and that means a great deal. But she has to worry over two of them, and the people who have always anchored her the most, whose ties are the deepest, remain at home and out of reach.

A short nod at his confirmation that he doesn't know. She suspected that he might not; he's always on the road, always moving. While it hurts, it's nothing she didn't have before. "I . . . don't even know what to do with you leaving yet," she confesses, rubbing lightly at the wetness under one eye. "But . . . stay with me until then?"

He could already predict how much Haibara was going to yell at him for this later. It was risky....

But he desperately wanted to spend every moment he had with her. Maybe it was selfish of him... but he wanted this. To be able to pretend for just a few minutes that everything could be better.

"As long as I can," he settles on finally. "I don't know what will happen. But as long as I can, I'll stay."

She smiles, swiping under the other eye. Self-deprecating, "I'll try not to do this when you have to go. But it means a lot, having Shinichi -- at least for a little while."

Eyes lifting upward towards the ferris wheel. "Maybe . . . we could do that? It's so beautiful . . . but it wasn't the same alone."

Maybe up there, even, she could give him a reply to what she hasn't answered yet.

. . . Though she's turning pink just thinking about it.

The idea of going on the Ferris Wheel with Ran flusters him a little. It was such a staple of dates, of all the things he'd never had a chance to do with her.

"I guess, if you want to?" he says at last.

"Yes?" Unless he doesn't want to? She's watching him closely.

(But . . . he's already admitted how he feels about her, right?)

"It's pretty," she repeats, still cautious, because she doesn't want to get her hopes too high. But she goes far enough to admit: "I . . wanted to do it with Shinichi. Before I knew you were here."

That's going to cost some more pink in her cheeks. She shifts her eyes sideways as though that somehow could hide it -- like if she's not looking at him, he can't see it.

He turns his face away, trying to hide the flush on his own face.

"Well, in that case we should go. While we have the chance."

She dares a glance back to him -- and catches the pink in his own face. She does her best not to giggle; what's between them is still delicate, and he all too easily gets caught up in his own pride. Just knowing that he's pink too makes her happy and feel less exposed.

Slipping her fingers through his again, she tugs. "Then let's go. The line isn't too long."

Edited 2020-12-29 16:20 (UTC)

There is still something tentative about the way he holds her hand, as if he was a little afraid that something about this was going to vanish. But he still holds onto her hand as she pulls him forward to the end of the line.

But even standing here, there is something in him that can't relax. He casts a wary glance around the area, a little nervous at standing in plain sight like this.

For her turn Ran is happy, internally bubbling -- enough so that she doesn't notice his anxiety until they're standing in line. Looking back at him, she's about to spout off a happy comment when she catches him eyeing the space and the people around them.

"Shinichi?" She squeezes his hand again just lightly, attempting to draw his attention back.

He shakes it off and puts on a smile for her.

"It's nothing. There are a lot of people around here, aren't there."

He'd gotten better at acting. But Ran knew him so well.... He could only hope that she wouldn't look too deeply tonight.

"Yes . . ." It's a little bit of a strange comment from him -- not so strange that it evokes too much suspicion, but enough to make her curious. "Not so many more than Tropical Land, though, I think. Does it bother you?"

Maybe it's just innocuous, like commenting on the weather, but still a little unusual from him.

It did, far more than he was willing to admit. Using a crowd as cover to blend into was one thing. Being out here in public without trying to hide... He felt raw and exposed, as he if he was wearing a target.

But admitting that to Ran would only make her worry more. So he brushes it off with a smile.

"No, just something I thought was a but curious. But I'm sure its nothing."

THE PLAZA

THE ICE RINK

THE SLEDDING SLOPE

THE WOODLAND ENCLOSURES

THE FERRIS WHEEL

THE MARKET

FOOD STALLS

SHOPPING

Plaza by the Ferris Wheel, Evening [Locked to Shinichi and Ran]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject