(no subject)
Up on the wall of his study, Nick has a lovely landscape painting depicting a quaint little cottage and stable alone in the midst of a winter wonderland. It's meant to be a picture of the North Pole, but it's obviously nothing more than a fantasy. Still, Nick thinks the picture is charming and likes to look at it sometimes and imagine a life in which the North Pole is not, in actual factl, a thriving town and manufacturing center for the benefit of all the good children of the world.
It's quite the trip between Nick's home and the doll-building facility on the other end of the village, and though his wife would probably encourage him to take the journey on foot, Nick instead hops aboard the local transport. For efficiency, he tells himself; the cookies he had after lunch can work themselves off later when he joins the elves in the repair shop to ensure that everything is running smoothly.
He waves as he passes the bakery, the local cobbler, a children's choir carolling, cheerfully greeting everyone along his journey. He reaches down into his pocket for just a moment to hand out a few candy canes, but when he looks up again the landscape has changed. Instead of snow-covered buildings there are snow-covered trees, and a snow-dusted boardwalk running alongside him. And slowly, as he watches, the little train that's meant to carry the residents of the North Pole about their town enters a tiny village and pulls up in what appears to be the central square in front of a festive castle.
There seems to be no choice but to deboard and take a look around.
[ From this point forward there will be a miniature railway running in a loop between all major occupied points on the island (think something in between this and this). The train will stop and start for anyone wishing to board at any point along its route, and will stop for anyone on the tracks. It will not hit anyone. You may have to wait for its arrival, of course; just use your discretion and common sense and have fun with it. ]
It's quite the trip between Nick's home and the doll-building facility on the other end of the village, and though his wife would probably encourage him to take the journey on foot, Nick instead hops aboard the local transport. For efficiency, he tells himself; the cookies he had after lunch can work themselves off later when he joins the elves in the repair shop to ensure that everything is running smoothly.
He waves as he passes the bakery, the local cobbler, a children's choir carolling, cheerfully greeting everyone along his journey. He reaches down into his pocket for just a moment to hand out a few candy canes, but when he looks up again the landscape has changed. Instead of snow-covered buildings there are snow-covered trees, and a snow-dusted boardwalk running alongside him. And slowly, as he watches, the little train that's meant to carry the residents of the North Pole about their town enters a tiny village and pulls up in what appears to be the central square in front of a festive castle.
There seems to be no choice but to deboard and take a look around.
[ From this point forward there will be a miniature railway running in a loop between all major occupied points on the island (think something in between this and this). The train will stop and start for anyone wishing to board at any point along its route, and will stop for anyone on the tracks. It will not hit anyone. You may have to wait for its arrival, of course; just use your discretion and common sense and have fun with it. ]
