Winter Wonderland [Event]

[voidtreckermods]

”Good Morning passengers. Today is day Twenty Four of the month of Catfish. You may wish to look out of the window.”

As passengers wake in their beds they will indeed notice something different about the light. If they look out of the window, instead of the ever changing void they will see white slopes of mountains, flakes of snow alling down around them and frost covered trees zipping past the windows. If they glance at the ICP on the table they will see a message.

Investigating the dressing cart they will find the drawers and cupboards unlocked once again. However, instead of the fantasy-esque clothing of world #25768 they will find thick winter coats, hats, gloves and scarves. There are heavy fur lined boots and even some ice skates.

Entering the garden carriage they will see that the glass dome of the roof has opened, leaving the carriage exposed to a bright blue sky. Any nonsense of the past few weeks has vanished, leaving the carriage pristine. Not that that is easy to notice as it is covered in a thick layer of snow. The paths are clearer, a light dusting of snow but easy to talk through. Around the paths the drifts are high, perfect for snowman building or a snowball fight.

The streams and the pond in the centre are solid ice. Anyone brave enough to try to find the ice holds their weight for ice skating.

And the ICP message was correct. There is hot chocolate in the stores.

Comments

[myblueskies]

"Wow! That's amazing!" Romeo had spotted the ice skates as well and picked up a pair that fit him, planning to find Joss or Elfnein to ask what they were for. But then he had spotted Conan and it was pretty obvious what the strange shoes with a blade on were.

He sat down to pull them onto his own feet. "Is it really tricky?"

[deductiongeek]

Conan digs the edges of the blades into the ice to come to a halt.

"It can be. It takes a while to learn how to move, so if this is your first time you should start slow."

[myblueskies]

"It is my first time!" Romeo nodded, tying the laces on the ice skates. "So I'll be really careful!"

He stood up, wobbling a bit as he walked towards the pond. Carefully he stepped out, sticking his arms out automatically to balance!

[deductiongeek]

Conan skates over to him, ready to help balance him if he started to slip.

[myblueskies]

Romeo was glad for the help, at first it was like his legs wanted to go in all the directions at once but he soon got the hang of it! Once he was not wobbling anymore he tried to move, slowly and carefully.

"You must of done this before!"

[deductiongeek]

Conan skates backwards just ahead of him.

"A few times," he says cheerfully. "I learned how to do it a while ago, and after that its just practice."

And Conan had made an effort to achieve competence in all the usual sports. He never knew what he would need to know how to do.

[myblueskies]

Wow he could skate backwards! That must have taken so much practice! Because Romeo was sure Conan was right, with practice he was sure he would get the gang of it too! He wobbled as he pushed his feet in front of each other trying to copy how Conan was gliding over the ice.

"Practice is important to learn anything!" He wobbled again, windmilling his arms in an attempt to stay upright.

[deductiongeek]

Conan was quietly impressed at how well Romeo was doing.

"That's right," he says. "But sometimes that's the fun part."

[myblueskies]

"It is very fun!" He laughed as he almost tumbled again but got his balance and managed to go forwards a little bit.

"Because it means you do a fun thing lots of times until you are really good at it! You must have practised a lot!"

Which was impressive, because Conan is much littler than Romeo!

[deductiongeek]

"It was a while ago, but I put some time into it." He shrugs as he skates around the other boy. "But I like snowboarding better."

[myblueskies]

"What's snowboarding?" Romeo asked, whilst concentrating on not falling over. One foot pushed forwards, then another, then more windmilling of arms.

[deductiongeek]

"Have you ever gone skiing?"

Conan stays one step ahead of him.

[myblueskies]

"No! What's skiing?" He'd never heard of that word either!

He was getting the hang of this though, one foot, next foot, next foot! He grinned brightly at Conan.

[deductiongeek]

"It's another way of traveling through snow. You move over the snow while standing on two pieces of wood. Snowboarding is a little like that, but you move over the snow while standing on one piece of wood."

[myblueskies]

"Standing on two pieces of wood? Like two huge shoes?" He tries to imagine it in his head. One piece of wood was harder to imagine.

[deductiongeek]

"When you stand on a board it spreads out your weight, right? So when you stand on a board on snow you don't sink down into it. You can ride on top of it."

[myblueskies]

It did? He hadn't known that but he nodded. You stood on a board on the snow and could ride on the snow? That sounded amazing!

"Wow that sounds really fun!"