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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

"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.”

"Your center of balance, it's higher than you think it is, that's a big of why you're off balance. Bend your knees a bit more, bend forward just a tiny bit."

“Oh, really?” He responded, definitely a little curious.

Also, perhaps just a tad amused... “You know, where I’m from, everyone tells me to stand up straight. To think, my poor posture might actually aid in something for once.” He added with a little awkward movement as he tried to bend his knees in addition to his usual light slouch.

"It might," Tommy laughs as he keeps moving, pulling the man with him. "You're going to enjoy this. I insist."

“It’s uh— the only option? That does make my decision easier, I suppose.” He responded with another small grin, yeah he was starting to at least get a little more confident again as they moved along.

Maybe skating would have been more fun before now if he’d had someone to teach him, but better late than never.

Better late than never is right.

"Come on, we're going to get you a full lap.

“That would be a vast improvement on the small space I usually cover.” Llewellyn chuckled a little, sounding a little nervous but definitely eager to see if he could manage it. Yeah, he had help; Tommy was a big reason for why he hadn’t toppled over yet, but it was still progress.

Progress is made in baby steps, man. And Tommy was good at rushing those along.

"We're already at vast improvements I expect."

“Oh, definitely a vast improvement.” He grinned a little, slightly embarrassed. “I would have fallen down a hand full of times already and retreated to the side of the rink long before now.”

"But are you having fun?"

And Tommy knows the guy is. And isn't that better?

“Am I?” Yeah, Llewellyn was definitely the sort to think about the question before he answered it. Not long, of course, and he smiled a moment later. “Yup, definitely having fun.” Or at least it had definitely been a more enjoyable experience than it could have been.

And hey, he hasn’t even been focusing on if he was doing badly or not.

"Wow man, sound more enthusiastic," Tommy laughs but he's at least having fun with the teaching.

“In my defence, I am still concentrating. My tone does not reflect how much fun I’m having, I assure you.” He responded with a small chuckle. It was fun, it was too bad this wasn’t a permanent fixture. He might keep practicing if it were.

"Either your sarcasm is amazing, or you really are," he grins as he moves to get them going a touch faster. "Things like this are pretty awesome, right?"

Considering he’d been informed once or twice that his sarcasm and humour was clumsy at best, Llewellyn smiled a little. Yeah, he really was having fun.

The increase in speed gets a slightly alarmed look, and he slipped a little before remembering what he was supposed to do to not slip. “It is, I can uh— see why so many people enjoy it now. It’s quite exciting!”

"It's more exciting when you don't need someone else to help. But we'll get you somewhere close to that."

Or not. But he intends to try.

All they can do is try, even if he managed to make it a short distance before falling it would be an improvement. Llewellyn would certainly be happy with that, even if he hoped to still do better. “I can imagine it is, though I can honestly say you’ve been a good teacher and made the experience more enjoyable than it would have been.”

"Thanks, man. You really to try and get an inch without me?"

Because he can let go for a second. Not long, but just long enough for this.

Llewellyn thinks about it for a moment with a nervous little hum, checking his own stance and thinking about the advice and things Tommy had taught him while pulling him around the rink. “Um... Yes, I think I’d like to give it a try. Just to see if I’ve retained any of the lesson.”

"Okay. Just remember. I'm faster than you can think. If you're going to fall, I've got you," Tommy says, and his lets go, even as he adds a tiny bit of space between them.

“Mm... Right, I can remember that.” Said in a tone that was just a little distracted as Tommy let him go. His attention on repeating the lesson over in his head as he tried to see if he could stay upright without support. The detective was definitely a little shakier this way, but he didn’t fall over right away! Tommy got a vaguely anxious, but ‘hey look I’m not falling over yet!’ Look from him.

Because he wasn’t going to say the words that would inevitably lead to him falling over.

Good man, don't ever actually say the words aloud.

"Let's try and getting you just a touch further."

The idea of trying to move was just slightly more worrying, he was just happy he was standing on the ice rather than sitting on it. “That... is probably the right idea.”

Now... Moving, surely he could manage a little bit, right? “I’m supposed to move like this, right?” Llewellyn added a moment later, carefully shifting his weight slightly to push himself forward a bit. It wasn’t an impressive movement by any means, a short unsteady motion, but he did move forward a little!

It was forward a little and Tommy cheers for him.

"Good job man."