"Hope so."

The ice-fair does eventually roll around. Held inside a refurbished shopping mall, mostly chosen for the presence of an indoor ice skating rink, Zeke has done a fairly admirable job. Sure, it's probably roughly equivalent to a decent county fair pre-Bug, but standards have changed since the Bug. He even managed to drag over and assemble that carousel. 

With a lot of help from Nick.

Who is selling ice skates.

Meanwhile, Danny is holding a robot display. While dressed as a carnival barker. 

"Come one, come all, step right up! Behold, Daniel Lennox's marvelous machine creatures!"

A lot of the smaller children, 7 and under, are interested in the show. But a few of the older ones appear to be there only to learn what he's cooked up now and if it's dangerous.

Mostly automated farming equipment, although there are some show models designed to resemble the sci fi ideal of robot servants.

Farm robots are a little bit boring. But they're still robots.

There's a decent mix of older geeks here. Including Dennis, bassist and the guy who showed him Portal. He keeps asking technical questions.

And Danny is rattling off terribly sophisticated answers. 

"....and if Terence thinks they're alive, he smashes them with a hammer."

"Then stop doing machine learning. Static algorithms are probably just as good half the time."

"True. Also, if the machines go all scary robot skeleton on us, paint your hideout with lots of lines and complex patterns. It'll be harder to find you."

He's just repeating it in case Dennis didn't see the billboards he's put up.

"Wouldn't a place painted with lines and patterns be more obvious that something's hiding there, even if it's hard to see?"

"Shoot. Better repaint that one later."

"Just don't give any of them GLaDOS voices..."

"Or cover them with fur. That makes them angry."

He then does a pitch perfect imitation of a certain kill-screech from a certain game.

People are mostly confused, less unnerved.

Dennis throws a popcorn kernel at him.

He giggles.

Meanwhile, Tabby's horde is providing security. Mostly involves telling people the time. And sniffing people for contraband as they come off the buses. 

The average quality of bus-goers is pretty good. They all seem to behave, and while some are reluctant to go without their weapons almost none of them make a fuss.

The average quality of those who arrive by walking or driving in from the surrounding area is a lot more varied. At least one group is going from stall to stall, looking for things to steal.

And Tabby is following them, smiling beautifically. 

If it's any comfort to the children who relinquished their weapons, they were all given a number for reclaiming them when they leave. 

After buying a few slices of apple pie from one food stall, one of them walks off with apple pie and a bag of flour in his backpack...

"Could I see your backpack, sir?"

"Uh... How about no? It's my backpack."

"Really? You're trying to fool the superpowered vampire? I hear your heart beat faster."

"I'm not gonna let you look at my stuff, you're not a cop."

"No, cops have rules."

"You're just trying to bully us. They call you madchild you know."