Renfaire Fantasy 3: Morning After pt 2 (Patreon)

    “It was nice,” Brian agreed. “But, I definitely still owe you big.”

    “Welll—” Rebecca bit her lip in a cute way. “How do you feel about ren faires?”

    “Hmm,” Brian thought about it. “Emily wants to go, she was selling us on it earlier. I think I’d be down?”

    “Cool. Cool!” Rebecca’s enthusiasm lit up her face again. “Awesome! Have you been to one, before?”

    “Not in ages and ages,” Brian shook his head. “Not since I was little. I think it was the state renaissance faire. Way, way back.”

    “Same state here? I would’ve been there, with my parents,” Rebecca chuckled. “Maybe we saw each other?”

    “Maybe, yeah.”

    “Well. The one coming up is the Bear Valley Faire—it’s technically Bear Creek River that runs through, like the same one that runs through Tionetta, just the river doesn’t pass through the faire grounds part of the valley there, and. It’s right between Tionetta and Seneca, but closer to the Tionetta side.”

    “That’s doable,” Brian nodded. “I heard Mike and Tanya and them go. I take it your LARP people all go?”

    “Most of them!” Rebecca said. “Alliance Realm. I’m one of the organizers for that side of things, yeah.”

    “So—like I said, I haven’t been to one in ages,” Brian said. “What can I expect? Do we uh, do we bring tents and stay overnight, there? Or, should I book lodging somewhere nearby if we’re going as like, a group?”

    “Oh, tents—definitely!” Rebecca sat up straight. “My one there, you guys are welcome to use it. Stay over in the King’s camp side, where we’re all historically accurate. I almost always loan it out to someone else anyways and just stay in the big pavilion tent my parents have, since they keep a room for me there every year. Here, let me show you!”

    Retrieving a partially burnt stick from the fire pit, Rebecca smoothed out an area of the tamped dirt in front of them with her boot and then began to draw.

    “Most of the faire ground is just huge empty fields—it was farmland until like, the sixties? Sixties-ish? So, big, huge tracts of land where all the trees got cleared and things were leveled out. Like… this size. Almost all of it winds up being parking during the faire. Everything from the interstate—that’ll be this line here—down through here, they set up super long parking rows in the grass with twine and driveway markers.”

    “You say ‘they,’ do you mean your LARP group?” Brian asked.

    “Oh! No, the Keith family own the grounds, but then the actual leaseholds in Bear Valley Village are managed by a company that oversees the actual renaissance faire,” Rebecca explained. “Or well, the Keiths used to be real involved, but they retired. Now, I think their kids or grandkids basically just do the grounds maintenance—sorta—and let the company handle everything else, because there’s some drama there—well, long story. Our LARP group is Alliance of Realms, and our executive officers there just meet with the renfaire company—Greyton Holdings.”

    “Okay,” Brian tried to follow along. “Wait. Bear Valley Village? Like, is this one of those with the uh, the actual fake buildings and everything set up to look like a medieval town?”

    “It is!” Rebecca made a peculiar face. “Hah, sorry. I forgot your experience was from one of the state faire ones—all of those are temporary encampments basically, while the Bear Valley one and a few of the ones a bit west of here have a lot of permanent structures. They go like this…”

    The blackened end of the stick drew a wide horseshoe shape and then tapped the dirt in the center.

    “All the stuff hidden from view gets jammed into this one single-lane access road in here, it’s parking for some of the vendors and staff head honchos, the horse trailers park along here, and then a couple campers for the cast, service trucks for the food peoples, an ambulance, et cetera et cetera. All of that’s in the middle but out of sight, because the central area is all built up with facades and decorative buildings. Surrounding that is a cobblestone street and a half of permanent structures built up to appear like they’re sixteenth-century. But, those ones have electricity, and the food ones there have running water and freezers and are, you know, modern food-safety compliant, and all that jazz. Almost all of those big buildings in there get leased out to sell touristy crap at honestly stupid prices. Souvenir stuff—leather pouches, pirate hats and top hats, wooden swords for kids, amethyst geodes, corsets and wench wear mass-produced from China and et cetera. Those all make a killing, lot of those little businesses sign for long-term lease agreements.”

    “You don’t sound too thrilled about them,” Brian observed with a chuckle.

    “It is what it is,” Rebecca sighed. “It’s business, and the moneymaker tourist stuff keeps the faire coffers flush. Also, and this alone justifies it—the inner row of the semi-circle here has two sets of real restrooms, as in, actual plumbing with fixtures and sinks and what have you! Take note! Because, the outer edges of the faire, it’ll just be banks of port-a-potties like you’d have at big Daegonhir events, and… well, they’re portable toilets. They aren’t great. The less said about them, the better.”

    “Good to know,” Brian laughed. “Yeah.”

    “Now, the inner ring of fake buildings is all shops pretty much, but just outside that is most of another cobble street with more buildings, there it opens up a bit for stages and seating. Little stage umm… right here is live music—semi authentic historical singing and ballads, which obviously gets surrounded in by all the food vendors to take advantage of the uh, the ambiance.”

    Rebecca was poking areas into the ground for emphasis with her stick, but past the initial horseshoe shape which had been clear, the picture quickly devolved into an incomprehensible mess of scribble dirt to Brian. Instead, he turned most of his attention upwards towards Rebecca who he had just kissed.

    It was easy for him to slip into thinking of her as a quiet, taciturn girl, but she grew incredibly animated when talking on subjects she was passionate about. Brian wasn’t even sure he was quite following along with her depiction of the renaissance faire, but she was just so gorgeous while she was doing so. She loved those kind of events, and her enthusiasm made her eyes dance and her smile really shine.

    Brian was interested in the medieval stuff but not really invested—his side of the friend circle was more into the anime and video games side of things, so in turn they were more into the big trips to AnimeCon. The similarities and parallels throughout were plain to see, however. Rebecca donned her homemade historical garb the same way Brian worked on cosplay, and the actual faire venue appeared to be its own microcosm of competing and conflicting interests in the same way that anime conventions at expo centers tended to be.

    “Then, you have the museum bell tower, it’s the tallest structure… but, it’s just for looks,” Rebecca confided with a half-smile. “There’s actually only the one bottom floor, and the upper stuff is fake and empty. They put suits of armor and historical stuff in display cases there for people to check out. Past it, a few more little ones for shops, then a little tiny covered arena pavilion. Some years they let us with the LARP group use that for mock battles and duels, but if the guy with the camel signs again this year, it’ll be the llama petting zoo, and the camel rides. Nick? I think his name was Nick. One year, we had an elephant! That guy was nice, but I don’t think he’ll be there this year. He gets a lot of other bookings. We’ll see!”

    “Then, along here there’s a lot of empty space areas they lease out for stalls. Fur traders, small businesses that usually just sell niche stuff online like novelty sculptures, or journals and leather bound books, lots of necklaces and jewelry and knick-knacks. So, also overpriced, but in that area it’s actual handicrafts at least and you can find a lot of great authentic stuff there. Then, this bit used to be a cute little hedge maze… but most of the hedges died, and the current Keith family husband-and-wife who own the area had it all pulled out with a backhoe and leveled it all. I was so sad! What’s left might now be the new uh, thespian stage set up, where families can sit in the grass there and watch whatever renaissance faire’s ‘story drama’ is for that day. The actors are all very nice! Their troop is on the Greyton company side of things though, so it’s a separate narrative from what goes on at the LARP side of things. Sometimes there’s some friction or rivalry there, and Realm people like to exaggerate it all into a big fuss, but they’ve always been very nice and respectful with me.”

    “The outer edge is all ‘ride’ attractions or I guess little event experiences? Big giant wooden… trojan horse swing thing, that this guy Hank and his son Rich pushes. Rich is actually SCE, and he does Daegonhir and LARP, too. Then next to there, there’s usually one where you can throw bean-bags, and it’s like a dunk tank where if it hits the target it drops the Fool into a big barrel of water. The Fool is just a fat guy whose whole job is to insult and heckle folks, he’s been different every year—I kept trying to get Emily to apply! That would be funny. But, apparently they actually prefer the Fool to be an old fat guy, so. Darn. We’ll see, we’ll see. I think at the time she was still working at Lucca Italiano? Um, hmmm, what else? There’s usually an archery setup or two, little things like ring tosses with stuffed animal prizes. Sometimes, there’s the thing where you can throw axes at targets. Ummm—”

    “Okay, now where are you guys with the LARP set up?” Brian asked. “What’s that all about? The roleplay stuff you do.”

    “We do have one of the big structures in town… but mostly we’re way out in the woods,” Rebecca admitted. “They just finally paved a path out through our ‘scenic’ area year before last, so now moms with strollers and wheelchairs and much much more foot traffic heads out our way to… well, to gawk at us. My parents set up there in the ‘King’s camp.’ The layout is very different every year, but basically there will be a central area that’s just for ‘historically accurate’ tents and pavilions where roleplay and sight-seeing is encouraged… and then way way out past that, there’s another big field for modern tents and port-a-johns for the the filthy rabble of LARP casuals.”

    “Hah,” Brian laughed. “Yeah, I can imagine.”

    “Weapons—well, they’re foam and latex but you get it, ‘weapons’—have to be strictly sheathed in the proper town areas and the paved paths, the tavern where our Alliance Realm adventurer guild is at is… here, in the inner ring with the big shops. Which makes sure us LARP peoples in our fancy getups aren’t just holed up in the woods the whole weekend where not everyone can see them—it’s a constant back and forth between the encampments in the woods and back through to town for all of the quest objectives.”

    “Right, right,” Brian said. “Makes sense. “And, you said horse trailers—so, there’s horses, too?”

    “There is, but mostly just for the big jousting event thing in the evening,” Rebecca shrugged. “They don’t let the crowds interact much with the horses otherwise anymore, too many issues. The big arena for the joust has a separate stage and wooden bleachers and everything, it’s on the far side of the faire from the parking lot fields. That’s the climax of the show, for most visitors. They stay most of the day walking around seeing everything, spend some money on souvenir junk, watch the big joust, and then head home.

    “There was a lot of push from Alliance Realm to use the joust arena for our stuff every year, since that whole big arena is really cool, and it’s just sitting there vacant for most of the day… but the Greyton Holdings people started using pyrotechnics for their ending show, so. No dice! Off limits. Little fireworks for ‘magic spells,’ a couple of theatrical fire ‘explosions’ that throw stacked barrels around for their big finale battle—the actual fire itself doesn’t launch them, it’s a compressed air rig thing hidden beneath—and then the tubes for big fireworks after nightfall. All of that makes that whole area strictly prohibited for us LARP randoms to play around in, since yeah, even those kind of explosives have to be secured and off limits and no one can be messing around in that area. Safety.”

    “Damn, pyrotechnics, too?” Brian let out a low whistle. “All of this is shaping up to be… I guess a lot bigger than I pictured it was.”

    “Oh, I think all the state renaissance faires have firework shows after nightfall too, now,” Rebecca gave him a small shrug. “Big crowds, sun’s down. Why not, I guess? Helps make it more of an event.”

    “You’re not a fan of the fireworks?” Brian asked.

    “Oh, no, they’re great—” Rebecca laughed. “I love watching them. But, the horses hate it, and, yeah, if I had the choice between stage pyrotechnics or being able to use the big arena stage for Realm throughout the day?! No contest, hah ha. We’ve talked about constructing something similar just for our own scenic area, but… whew, budget’s not there, yet. Might not be, for years. A little lodge out that way for putting in real restrooms instead of port-a-potty rows is the current priority, on our Alliance of Realms side of things. Even getting the pipe out that way planned out dug and paid for is just so unbelievably expensive! Since there at that faire we’re just a sideshow, so our side of the financials are always looking a little uh, thin. But, once we—”

    “Rebecca, say no more,” Brian interrupted with a laugh, holding up his hand. “I’m in.”

    “I—” Rebecca blushed. “Sorry, I was totally rambling! I just can go on and on and on—”

    “You already had me at—well, whatever your first few words were,” Brian assured her. “However I can help or be a part of things, count me in. Can’t speak for the girls, but I think they’d all love it, too. Something big and fun to do, to uh, prepare for, look forward to. Like AnimeCon. I’m already gonna be back to work at the packing plant basically fighting to get my job back, so I expect it’ll just be tedious months for me. A big renaissance faire to look forward to with everyone seems like it’d be perfect.”

    “Yeah?” Rebecca asked, tapping out a little dance with her feet. “Really? Because—I was really hoping to get you guys into it. I um, I kept thinking about it! A lot.”

    “About what?” Emily called, peeking her head out from the zipper of the nearby modern tent. “Get us into—Rebecca, we’re trying to get you into the harem. Talk about—”

    “I kissed!” Rebecca blurted out. “We kissed. It—”

    “You what?!” Emily squealed in excitement, yanking the zipper wide so she could clamber out. “What happened—did you get some color? What happened?!”

    “Oh, no, we didn’t—” Rebecca tried to explain. “Not yet! It was just a um, a non-magical kiss.”

    “For now,” Brian added.

    “For now,” Rebecca agreed with a grin, sharing a quick glance with him before turning an exasperated look back towards Emily. “Emily Madison Rivera—where are your pants, young lady?”

    “I’m wearing underwear, geez,” Emily scoffed, shoving her bare feet into her sneakers and almost losing her balance. “And, my middle name isn’t Madison. Madison is my sister’s middle name.”

    “It’s Emily Balls Rivera,” Brian delivered with a straight face. “Trust me.”

    “It is not!” Rebecca stuck out her tongue. “I think I remember it was Madison.”

    “Emily Big ol’ Balls Rivera,” Emily nodded, stumbling their way and then clapping her hands on her hips and looking around. “Emily Balls to the Wall Rivera. Hell yeah, sucka. So, uh. Oi, where’s the loo? Can I go piss on Chloe’s grave? I swear I promised to do that, someday.”

    “We’re in the woods, just pick a direction,” Rebecca advised. “Here, wait. I have wipes.”

    “What were you two talkin’ about getting us into?” Emily asked. “And—you guys made out already?! Like, wow. Whoa. Whew. Why the heck didn’t—”

    “We’ve decided that I’m goin’ to that big renfaire, for sure,” Brian explained. “The uh…”

    “Bear Valley Renaissance Faire,” Rebecca supplied the title. “You went to that one last year, Emily.”

    “Yeah, that one,” Brian said. “Better than just waiting all year for the next AnimeCon to roll around, I figure.”

    “Right, right, awesome!” Emily gave them her signature huge thumbs-up, jerking her elbow out to the side. “Hoped we’d all go. We might havta like, strongarm Kelly into it, though. I couldn’t even get her to wake up the frick up, geez. She’s stubborn sometimes. But, yeah I guess if we trick her into believing it’s a concert or something—”

    “I am awake,” Kelly reported in a gruff tone from the tent. “Emily. If you really love me, you’d go grab my thing of coffee from the car. Please?”

    “Sure thing, babe,” Emily slapped her hands across her thighs. “Uhh. Cold, day-old convenience store coffee, comin’ up. Anything for my big-tiddy bitch.”

    “Emily, language. Oh, and—!” Rebecca stood up. “If Kelly has a thermos or something already—well, we can switch it into mine, I have a thing that’s safe to heat over the fire. I’ll get the fire going again, if everyone’s up. Campfire toast time!”

    “Good morning, everyone!” Stephanie appeared, crawling out from the other tent’s mostly-buttoned opening and giving everyone a sunny smile. “Is… everyone already up?!”

    “Morning!” Emily cheered with a wave as she began to head down the hill towards the vehicles. “Hey. Diggin’ the sex-hair, nice.”

    “I-is it, is it bad?!” Stephanie began to feel towards her tufts of pink which were sticking in every direction. “Oh noooo—!”

    “Morning, Steph,” Kelly grunted. “Morning, Emily.”

    “I’m… also awake already,” Christine called in a small voice from within the cabin. “Whenever someone can, um. Whenever it’s convenient to unlock me from the thing.”

    “Oh, shoot! Right,” Rebecca hurried over. “Sorry, sorry!”

    “Morning, Brian,” Kelly continued. “Morning, Rebecca. Morning, Christine.”

    “Did I, um, did anyone even bring a brush?” Stephanie giggled. “I forgot.”

    “I did,” Kelly groaned. “Emily. Hey, Emily! Someone yell for Emily. Tell her to get my brush, too. And the coffee. And the snacks. Actually. Bring my whole purse? Emily. Emily!”

    “Kelly, are you still in your tent?!” Stephanie laughed.

    “Good morning Christine!” Rebecca lifted the door and then shouldered it open. “Sorry, I was uh, I got to talking, and—”

    “G’morning,” Brian said. “Everyone. Hah…”

( Previous: Morning After pt 1 | Renfaire Fantasy | Next: To be Continued... )

/// Massive info dump! Intentional though, aside from setting up initial expectations for what the Faire will be like (they're VERY very different from area to area) I wanted Rebecca to go on and on talking about something she's super excited about. There's just something really captivating about girls going on and on about something they're really interested in! To me, anyways. YMMV.

So, it will be a proper upscale renfaire, but the story focus will lean more towards a big roleplay encampment happening on the periphery of it... and possibly also delve into magic and sex and experiences outside of our world entirely. Don't give me that look, I started setting them up with magic powers, I wanna do fun things with it.