Winter Faire

[voidtreckermods]

”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.

Comments

[singlefaith]

The words release the heat building in her stomach. She sinks back into place, slowly releasing a breath, staring into the snow.

What does she want?

"I don't . . . want you to go," she says after a moment. "I want . . . to understand. How this happened. Why it happened. Why it was so important to you that you felt like you needed to lie to me. I want to know if . . . what's between us . . . can be okay."

Another breath. "So I need you to talk to me. But I need you to understand that this is a lot. That I'm scared. I need you to be patient. And open. And . . . kind. I need you to understand that I'm still angry with you . . . but I'm sitting here because--because you mean more to me than anyone else. And for that I want to try."

[deductiongeek]

"Then I'll stay," he says immediately. "I want to explain." He dips his head again, enough to shadow his face. But not enough to hide the quick twist of grief and guilt, nor the exhaustion in his eyes. "And I want to make this work."

[singlefaith]

She would understand the exhaustion. She's tired too; this has wrung everything out of her. But to leave now, to let things go unfinished, doesn't feel right either, as much as anger, grief, fear, and weariness would like to send her back to her cot on the train, curling up against the world.

"Then . . . let's keep going." She swallows, presses her lips together. "You said there's a criminal organization that did this to you . . . that you ran into them at Tropical Land. That . . . the police can't help. What are you going to do? There's a cure that they have . . . isn't there?"

Never mind that he said it was supposed to be a poison. Surely there's a cure.

There has to be . . . right?

[deductiongeek]

"I'm going to bring them down," he says firmly. "Even apart from what they did to me, I can't walk away from this now that I know everything that they have done."

He winces slightly as he looks away. "Ran," he says softly. "As far as they know, all they have is a drug that kills. That's why they're not looking for me. They never meant for there to be a cure." He adds this next part quickly. "I'm working on it. But right now, all I have is something temporary. It can give me a few hours at most."

[singlefaith]

The answer about the Organization is nothing she didn't expect from him -- though it means he's pitting himself against something he says that not even the police can handle. However talented and intelligent he is, no matter how much she believes in his abilities . . . how can he possibly manage that?

Likely he can see those feelings flick through her face, but once again, it's a lot to absorb, and she'll have to return to it. Her fingers ball, wrap around handfuls of her coat, focusing on the second thing he's revealed. "Is that what happened this time? . . . All those other times?"

All those times that she'd seen him, where he'd withdrawn in apparent illness and anxiety, eager to squirm away . . .

[deductiongeek]

He rubs his hands again, and pulls them inside the long sleeves for the warmth.

"Yeah... Like I said, it never lasts very long. And it seems like it always wears off at the worst possible time."

He doesn't say that it always began and ended with the same painful transportation, but after what she had seen earlier she could probably guess.

[singlefaith]

Yes, she can guess -- both extrapolating from this instance and all the times he'd shown up as himself and she'd thought she'd heard him scream. She shivers a little herself, though not from the cold.

"If it's so painful . . . why do you do it?"

Because while it isn't frequent, he obviously has multiple times.

[deductiongeek]

"Because some things are worth the pain."

He leaves to her to guess what that was. But considering all the times he'd come back that he'd tried to spend with her, he suspected she could guess.

[singlefaith]

Blue eyes stare back into his, unguarded, and there's that squeeze again of her heart -- that same feeling as when he'd grabbed her arm in London, told her in no uncertain measures that she was wrong; he had feelings for her.

She wants to believe it and doesn't want to in the same moment. Wants because it's that reassertion of his feelings, however sideways he's come at it. Doesn't want to because how could she ever feel good about him going through that for her?

And of course part of her wonders if that's what he really means at all. Maybe she just hears it because she wants it. After all, hadn't he worked on cases during that time?

"Always?" Her head ducks a little, a small bloom of pink in her face. She wants it. But she's also not sure it was just for her. Maybe something he took advantage of. But not just for her.

[deductiongeek]

"Always," he says firmly. "I don't regret any of the times I've been able to come back. I want to come back to you as myself for good."

[singlefaith]

There's a definite flush at that, and for a moment she doesn't know quite what to do with her eyes. Or her hands. Or anything else for that matter.

And oh, god, but she wants to be happy. Unfettered by all that currently lies between them -- after all, what he's suggesting, what he's implicitly offering is all that she's wanted. She wants to take those words and hug them to her, hold onto them.

But there's still a lot between them that she can't -- shouldn't -- ignore. As much as she wants to follow out of blind faith, there's still a lot that they need to sort through.

(She can't hide it, though -- he'll be able to see that little lift in her face. The flicker of joy that wants to exist.)

"It . . . wasn't always just for me, though, was it?" A breath. "And what is it going to take for you to go back to being yourself?"

Especially if he's all alone and there's no one working on this.

[deductiongeek]

He sighs and glances down.

"No. I wanted.... But it doesn't always work out that way. Sometimes it was an accident. Others... Someone was in danger and I needed to be myself to help." A slight flush of embarrassment. "London was because of my passport. I actually used up my return dose to talk to you."

A grimace. "A permanent cure. And it won't be safe to use that and return to being myself until I can bring down the organization."

[singlefaith]

"You're so reckless, Shinichi," she says softly at his admission. After all, he's just confessed that he went through this to come to London, that he'd used a return dose to talk to her. As much as she wanted London, as much as what happened there means so much to her, knowing what she knows now, it was brash. Risky. Even potentially foolish.

Even softer, "But you still manage to be the bravest person I know."

Pressing her lips together briefly, "Where does a permanent cure come from? And why does it matter if you take it later, even if it did exist now? It would be a lot easier if you did it as yourself, wouldn't it?"

[deductiongeek]

He flushes a little at that, a mix of embarrassment and pride.

"Sometimes recklessness works out."

A shake of his head. "I told you. The Organization thinks I'm dead. If Shinichi Kudo was known to have returned, that could get their attention. When I do return, I have to be ready to move against them. Or they could come after me. And that would lead them to everyone else." He is silent for a moment. "There is someone helping me with that. But that is one of the things I can't tell you, because that isn't only my secret to share."

[singlefaith]

Having him refuse an answer with all that lies between them is challenging, and she looks away, pressing her lips together, trying to sort through the emotions that seep through as a result. Tries to answer with logic and not just raw emotion.

"I don't . . . want there to be walls of secrets in between us, Shinichi. That makes me worry about how many there are when I'm trying to trust you."

[deductiongeek]

He sighs.

"I know, and I wish I could tell you everything. But you know how investigations are, and even more so for ones this dangerous. Everything about myself, I will tell you. But there are some things that I can't tell anyone. I told you before, I won't lie to you about them, but I will tell you when there is something I can't tell you."

[singlefaith]

A nod, small. It's something she knows, not an answer that she didn't expect. But she's still trying to navigate this strange new world that she's suddenly been plunged into. She needs him to be the steady spot in it in order to have any sense of security.

"Why did you use a temporary cure this time? And why not before?

[deductiongeek]

"This time was definitely an accident. When I started changing this morning it was a complete surprise."

[singlefaith]

"This morning" could have been at any time, and Ran assumes it means after he woke up -- hours after she'd given him the pill and sent him to bed. She still believes it was a sleeping pill, no more.

"What caused it?"

[deductiongeek]

Shinichi sighs. He'd hoped to spare her this revelation. But he fixes his gaze on her.

"I only took one drug last night, Ran."

[singlefaith]

In all fairness, "antidote" could have been something other than a drug. And one tiny pill, meant to induce sleep, something that Ran had been so certain was safe, was not something that she'd jumped to.

She stares at him across the short distance between them, utterly still. Her voice emerges only as a whisper. ". . . I did it."

Two bright spots of color seep into each cheek. "I did this to you . . ."

[deductiongeek]

"It wasn't your fault," he immediately insists. "You didn't know. If anything it was my fault for taking it."

[singlefaith]

"I still gave it to you!" The spots of color are definitely deepening, and she shakes her head, hard, as the realization stabs into her. "I took it from Ai-chan's pillbox, and I thought I knew what it was because it looked like Dad's, but it's not like it was labelled, and it was dark, and--"

"It was stupid -- what if I'd hurt you?"

Remembering the transformation, going still again: ". . . I did hurt you."

[deductiongeek]

He struggles up halfway to his feet and crawls closer to her.

"Ran, no! It wasn't your fault. And it wasn't as bad as you think. I've had to go through that lots of times, so I'm used to going through that by now."

[singlefaith]

She doesn't pull away from this time as he comes. "Mou, Shinichi, that doesn't make it better, you know!"

The only real positive here is that at least she knows he has gone through the transformation before; she's seen the aftereffects without realizing it. However, that doesn't mean she wants to have caused it.

Those bright spots have turned into a full flush. "I'm sorry. Shinichi has every right to be angry at me for that. I was trying to help--"

She shakes her head quickly, cutting herself off. "No, that's an excuse. I was frustrated, and it was stupid, and I'm sorry."