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(no subject)

Who: Everyone!
What: November open log
When: November
Where: The Merchant Dome/The Pools
Warnings: NA
Notes: NA

Holiday mingle log

It’s the most wonderful (welcome) time of the year

Christmas is coming earlier and earlier every year, which isn't a surprise but hey they're starting the Christmas/Winter stuff the week before thanksgiving. Because why not. this month’s party takes place in the Merchant dome. But it’s not the everyday appearance of the merchant dome. No, for the next five days the Merchant dome’s appearance has been altered to look like a sort of Bavarian Christmas Market. There are small clusters of tables every so often, so people can just sit and chat and eat and drink.

Some enterprising person has even managed to make it snow through some unknown means. It’s not cold, but the snow is soft and steady and slowly building up.

The entire dome, all of the streets and all of the merchant stalls are practically glowing with white fairy lights that are strung everywhere. Vendors in their stalls gleefully cry out to paterons passing by, offering them free food or drinks. The food consists of the sort of things that one might expect to find in a place like this: sausages on buns and on sticks, pretzels, pizza, loads of cookies of every variety that one could think of, including elaborately decorated gingerbread, chocolates, fruits, french fries. Think winter fair food, and be as absurd and as complicated and extra as you want. It is a fair, after all. Go nuts. Drinks are also along the same line: hot cider, mulled wine, hot buttered rum, hot chocolate both with booze and without, as well as all the normal things: water, coffee, tea, milk, soda, and a variety of fruit juices that you’ve both heard of and not.

But food isn’t the only free thing that people are giving away! They’re also offering characters hats and gloves and scarves, small toys, books, delicate ornaments, perfumes, wine… it’s a giant welcome party after all, and these people are cheerful and happy. Even offering to pay just gets met with laughter and being told not to worry about it.

Fun and frivolity.

There are even carnival rides set up! A medium sized ferris wheel, a carousel, a giant slide and ice skating ring are all along the outside of the stalls.

At the far end of the dome, the snow has fallen deeper and held to several inches. Wouldn’t you know it just happens to be perfect snowball snow! So, there of course needs to be a snowball fight! What did you think those free mittens and gloves and scarves are for after all? The snowball fight can be organized into teams, or one on one depending on the player’s choice. This is a friendly fight, of course, so no rocks or slush balls or anything. Well, probably not. No one in the Sphere is your mother.

So you want some summer?.

While the welcome party rages on in the merchant dome, people have made a smaller party in one of the recreation domes. Around the pools, as a matter of fact. There’s almost like a small barbecue clustered around the largest of the three pools, and the light is constant and sunny here. The large pool is olympic sized, and is a sparkling blue. It’s fresh water, and probably clean enough to drink. I still wouldn’t drink it. The second pool is slightly smaller and more kidney shaped with a gradual sand mound at one end of it. This pool is salt water and looks a bit more like a beach than a pool. The third pool is a kiddie pool, complete with a splash pad, that’s running. Buckets drop, it’s got one of those mushroom things, and sprinkler jets. There aren’t any kids though, so people are welcome to go nuts.

Bathing suits and towels are provided in the changing rooms. There’s frozen and fruity drinks flowing freely, along with finger food and snacks. Loud music is playing from a local band that’s just generally of a pop sort. There’s people dancing rather in a rather haphazard fashion, but the dance floor is there and present!

Oh yeah, and there's definitely the baths and everything too!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

“No, I can’t imagine the snow and cold is good for something like him.” As it was, he’d had to take Pretzel to his office to warm up. Poor little thing’s paw-pads were too cold after a while. He was pretty sure he had to get Pretzel a coat too, if this was going to last.

Still, it might be neat to see a real sloth in person at some point.

He raised an eyebrow, “So you’re fast and strong?” Even if he wasn’t imagining the same kind of motorcycle Tommy was, it was still a large clunky metal thing. So it’s still an impressive statement!

Finally laced up, he stands. Or sort of stands, sort of wobbles. He’s not even on the ice yet.

Smart man if he can put that much together.

"What I am means my muscles are super specialized, which lets me go faster. But the same time to be faster, they have to be stronger. It translates to my arms. Though my legs are a lot stronger than my arms."

Still, he considers the man, and he's at the guy's side in a blink, offering him a hand.

"Let me help."

Llewellyn appreciates the explanation, it gets to the point. He can understand that without his attention span sliding. A certain detective in his own world could stand to learn a lesson from Tommy. “That makes sense? About your legs being stronger, you probably work those muscles more. I noticed that when I was in a running club in my world. Er— not like you, of course.” The detective doubted there were many as fast as Tommy, if there even were others.

He paused, wobbling a little before Tommy was suddenly next to him. Which admittedly he’d have to get used to. He startled easily to begin with. “Oh! Thank you, just need to get to the ice and then I can fall down properly.” He responded with an awkward grin at his joke, before taking Tommy’s hand in an attempt to steady himself.

Dude, attention spans are lies created by neurotypicals. But he'd be wrong about just how many people were like Tommy, at least back home. Here? No one could touch him.

"I'm not going to let you fall. Sure, the falling can help you learn, but success can be better."

Definitely something Llewellyn would be willing to believe if he was ever told. He managed a small grin at the comment though, “I suppose that’s a good point, and I already have ample evidence to prove that falling has not helped me learn over the years.”

So yes, he’d be happy to see how success works out if Tommy is true to his word and doesn’t let him fall.

Tommy will help him to the ice, his hand on Watt's elbow. His grip is as strong as steel, so it's fine. This is fine.

"I've got you, wobbles."

There was one thing about wobbling over solid ground, it was another when his skated feet were moved onto slippery ice; the wobbles got worse from there. Slipping and panicking a little, though it seemed Tommy was on it. The guy was strong, but hopefully he could account for the anxious panicking as Watts tried to keep his feet under him.

“A-actually it’s Watts.” He blinked, a nervous laugh escaping. “Although I suppose wobbles is... accurate right now?”

"Nah, it's Wobbles," Tommy insists as he waits for the guy to find his balance, setting the pick of one skate into the ice to anchor himself.

"You're going ot be fine."

“I’ll have to get my office cards reprinted, then.” Listen, if Tommy has any success with this? Llewellyn will let the guy call him Wobbles or whatever he wants.

“I could point out that fine is a loose term that doesn’t necessarily mean ‘good’ but I haven’t fallen down yet. Which is already a vast improvement on um... prior attempts.” It does take him some time to get himself steady, wobbling and slipping a bit as he tried to get his feet to stay under him solidly. He does manage it! It’s a good sign! It’s just unfortunate that once he felt he was balanced, Tommy might have a little trouble convincing him to try moving.

Oh, Tommy's going to get him moving. He skates very carefully around in front of Watts, taking his other arm into Tommy's strong grip.

"We're going to start with very slow, very careful. I'll help you stay vertical, even if your legs slip up. Promise."

Llewellyn is probably staring at his own feet more than anything else, but he does acknowledge Tommy’s explanation with a short nod. “Slow is good— I um... I can do slow.”

He’s trusting Tommy to keep his promise, as he tried to move a food lightly. Llewellyn did understand the basic idea of skating, and Murdoch had once gone on at length about the various facts and methods one winter because the man just... tended to do that. Then again, Murdoch could also skate quite well, he just never had picked up on whatever secrets that explanation had held.

"For right now, think of it as extended walking. The leg further back pushes, then lifts, and sets before you. YOu'll find the balance."

His balance on solid ground can be questionable on an average day, but he focused on the instructions as best he could and tried to move a leg. “You do make it sound simple in theory...”

At first Llewellyn thinks that he might actually have it, when his foot slides in a way he hadn’t expected and the wobbling and slipping returns.

The second he starts to slip Tommy's dropped an arm and put a stabilizing hand on Watt's hip. Yeah, he's got the man.

"Stop, take a breath. Focus on me, not the wobbles."

Honestly, Llewellyn was pretty sure he could focus on both Tommy and the wobbles, but he does get the idea. Focus on something or someone instead of the thing that was hindering his progress. “I’ll try, but the wobbles are rather insistent that they get attention... Like my dog at mealtime.”

Deep breath, Detective. And focus on anything but the wobbling. “Some people make this look very easy.” He mumbled a little, before focusing more on his helper than on his feet.

"You're better than the wobbles. Do not concede to them."

Of course they make it look easy. They practice.

He grinned nervously, trying once more to move a foot and see about making progress. “I suppose that to do so would go against my apparently too stubborn nature.” He responded with a little glance at his feet before back at Tommy and the surrounding rink. “Can’t uh— can’t allow that.”

Yes, talking instead of focusing on slipping was definitely an improvement. Not much of an improvement, but one just the same.

"Good. Be better than the slips and slides," Tommy chuckles, still moving carefully, pulling Watts along with him now.

"Just try and move with me, okay?"

He can probably manage that much, or at least to manage letting them best him a little less than before if he could just get a better handle on his balance. Being towed along was at least slightly more productive than standing still, gave him an idea of what ‘not falling down’ felt like.

“Right, er... Like this, right?” He asked while trying to move again, this time trying to mimic how he’d observed Tommy move. Less steady, of course, but hey! He was doing something.

"Yeah, it's not perfect, but it's better. Come on, each step gets better. It's like learning to walk."

‘Not perfect but better’ was encouraging at least, and he kept it up another few steps. “I suppose I did manage to learn that much over the years.” He responded with a wry grin, before he continued to practice the motion.

Llewellyn even thinks he might be starting to feel a little more confident with this until his ankle wobbles the wrong way and he almost goes down again. “O-oh no—!”

Tommy grabs him quickly, holding him up. Don't fall.

"If you fall, it's an insult to me. Don't insult me, man."

Llewellyn let out an awkward sound, clearing his throat as he tried to stabilize himself again and straighten a bit. “I often do without meaning to, so uh— it would not surprise me.”

He took a deep breath once he steadied out a bit, “But you did keep me from falling, so... thank you. I think I got too confident there, I’ll do better this time.”

"Nah, start confident, stay confident. Don't stop believing in yourself, man."

Because if you can be that confident, you need to embrace it if you're going to live up to what you want to be.

Llewellyn can’t deny that it’s good advice, even if he has seen over-confidence lead to some nasty falls of varying kinds over the years. “That’s quite encouraging, I’ll try to keep it in mind.”

If all else failed, the detective was reasonably good at fooling others about himself. Surely he could fool himself into thinking he was a semi-decent skater... Right? He does continue to work at it; another unsteady movement, followed by another. “I might... I might have a better sense of how this works? At least, it makes more sense having done it without toppling over for a little while.”