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

[rieper]

THAT got his attention. His whole body tensed as the cold seeped through his warm bundle of clothing. He took a deep breath and shook his head to clear away some of the snow from his bald head. The snow began to invade through his neckline and he moved to swipe away as much of it as he could without getting more inside his coat in the process. The real problem came when he realized his hood was full of snow and pulling it up to cover his unprotected head would only make things worse. He barely stopped in time to prevent this awful fate from occurring.

To counter this he ended up taking off his jacket entirely and shaking it out to rid it of the excess snow. His eyes scanned the carriage as he did so, looking for signs of a perpetrator. He was curious how someone pulled it off as there was nothing above the bench to hold the snow until it was provoked into falling, naturally or unnaturally. He replaced his coat and this time pulled the hoodie over his head so he could regenerate some of his lost body heat. That was when he spotted the spider on the other side of the fountain.

With a glance back down at his former seat to confirm his hot chocolate was no longer all that warm much less hot, 47 abandoned it. He walked slowly around the fountain and then approached the giant spider with his hands visibly at his sides and quite empty. He made the effort to keep his eyes on the hot chocolate tray and not on the spider as he reached out towards one of the cups sitting there.

[kumoko]

The only reason she didn't immediately scarper was the knowledge that he had absolutely not noticed the spatial distortion above him, and therefore could prove exactly zero guilt on her part.

Also, witnesses. So many witnesses. Here were her plans, thought up and discarded in rapid-fire time. Point to another person - generally good, but might end up in a conversation. Nope. Throw her remaining eight mugs of hot chocolate at him and run - assumes he knows it was her and she's pretty sure it goes against her ceasefire agreement to throw scalding liquid in someone's face. Just drop them. Throw the mugs in a different direction and make him chase th-- he's not a dog!

Throw more snow at him. She was a fan of this one, doubling down was a surefire thing. She readied another snow delivery, and held off on actually casting it for when he wasn't walking directly towards her.

Okay. Okay, he was almost there... and going for some hot chocolate. Well! Code red down to code orange? Everything was fine! Bolstered by absolutely getting away with it, no doubt, she reached out to brush the tiny remaining amount of snow off his shoulder with perhaps a little smugness.

[rieper]

47 froze with his hand mid-reach towards the mug of hot chocolate. His eyes were no longer on the tray but flicked quickly to the long, sharp claw going for his shoulder. The movement was obvious enough that it didn't seem an attack but he was the expert at deceptive motion when it came to attacking others. Tension left as all the limb did was brush the remaining snow from his coat.

He nodded thankfully and finished his reach for the cup of hot cocoa. He cupped it in both hands as he held it up to his face and blew lightly on its still steaming surface.

He eyed the spider as he did so. The thought occurred to him that a spider was capable of creating a snow-catcher above him with its silk. But he hadn't really sat there long enough for it to accumulate, had he? Besides, the spider was being friendly now and--

His eyes narrowed. This is exactly the type of behavior he would assume when a guard was on the prowl looking for him after he had done something suspicious without being truly seen.

Well played, spider. Well played.