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Hᴇx - ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏᴅ ᴍᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ ([personal profile] modmachine) wrote in [community profile] cityofhex2016-11-16 10:32 pm

WEEK 02

With Halloween past, the weekend of November 5-6 brings the beginnings of holiday trappings, as businesses begin to put up lights and other decorations for Monday. Residential areas, too, begin to pick up on the trend; throughout the whole month there will be a slow but steady increase in front lawn decorations.

Interestingly, though some are close parallels to the Christmas decorations that those from Earth will be familiar with, many aren't quite right. Locals, if asked, talk about something called the Day of Lights as much as they do Christmas or any other holiday; it's easy to find out that the amber-yellow and blue lights common in shops are for this holiday, and that it takes place on the last night of autumn, before the solstice. Snowflakes and candles are the most common motifs.

Changelings seem especially into the Day of Lights, and it is a near-assurance that they will be picking up blue candles for it as the month goes on.

Weather forecast: In a word: dreary. Small showers through Monday and Tuesday grow into full rain throughout Wednesday, continuing on Thursday and as a light misting on Friday. The weekend looks clear of rain, but is still chilly and cloudy. There is still no frost, though it's expected by the end of the month; gardeners are moving potted plants inside and putting cover over the more fragile ones for winter.

Moon phase: The moon reaches a first quarter on Monday the seventh, and continues to grow throughout the week.

Employment Opportunity: Those who are of adult age in the city can get work collecting holiday donations for charity, or, for those more inclined to physical labor, a park in the residential district is putting up lights for a holiday attraction. Additionally, plenty of shops are hiring for the upcoming retail season.

Free lunch?: Though there doesn't seem to be an equivalent to Thanksgiving in Hex, food banks are brimming with holiday spirit right now, and in addition to their usual offerings, many are handing out warm lunches to those in need, usually soup or hot sandwiches, sometimes pizza. While those at any given food bank will side-eye someone who tries to come in more than once, it's easily possible to make a circuit of them and get quite a bit of food, especially if you're familiar with the bus system.

Photo finish: Hajime gets a mild of small publicity for his candid photos of celebrations throughout the city, and on Friday will get a call about a potential contract for photos of decorations throughout December. He also gets sent an email about a campus-sponsored holiday fashion show at the end of the month - something Ryoji will hear about mostly via various rumours among the students.

Fueling the Art: At a coffee shop on the fringes of the campus, an Art Student can be found most every morning, sipping a latte and working on sketches. The Coffeeshop Manager, a man in his late thirties with a pair of small sunglasses perched on his cheeks in spite of the grey weather, occasionally offers her tips. Those with a keen eye will notice that walls made of gears are a common motif in the art that hangs around the shop.

The Ides of Fall: Out on the Island The Summer Queen is called before her Autumn peer and taken to task for her unauthorized gathering. She leaves his court fuming quietly to herself, and later in the week Makoto will receive a message - "Watch the falling leaves, but don't go chasing them." Several others of the Summer Court get the same message.

Sweet Loot: On the morning of the tenth, Kitty will find a locket and a note in with her stashed clothes. The locket is full of orange glitter that seems to stick to the inside, and the outside is worked with leaves. The note simply says TREAT in letters that are all distinctly different. When Kitty uses a finger to apply the glitter to something, it leaves glowing orange marks that only she can see, unless someone else sees her apply them or she intentionally shows them to someone.

Richter and Corwin, meanwhile, will each find a piece of candy hanging from their doorknobs the same morning, tied on with a ribbon that trails glitter on any surface it touches. The candy is wrapped in clear plastic, and has a strange flavor neither will be able to place.

Right on Schedule: The trains in Hex are going nowhere fast, but they do seem to have changed routes, frequently passing alongside an area of the wall that they used to avoid. New Arrivals, as well as Hajime and anyone else who can see Infrastructure, will note strangely runed plates of metal under this section of track - plates which seem to be directly attached to the Wall via cables. Every time a train passes over them, the plates spark with bright green, though nothing about the train itself seems to change.

Through the Grapevine: Though Network Zero is usually considered a Hunter organization, plenty of supernaturals also make use of it to keep their eyes out for threats - and their eyes on each other. One or two of Hajime's photos of the changeling gathering is making the rounds, with the odd horned skulls in the bonfire circled in Photoshop, but perhaps more relevantly, there's a couple photos of Malin from a distance that have fallen into the grasp of a current meme ("Is this bat ok?") and three photos of men doing construction work on a building in the Sixth that seems innocuous until it's pointed out that most of the men are completely identical.
notachickenhawk: (boy: in the crowd...)

B

[personal profile] notachickenhawk 2016-11-20 05:16 am (UTC)(link)
There's someone watching from the rooftops. Normally he wouldn't care about a photographer or whatever, but he's bored, he's got what he needs for the day, and the guy hasn't seemed to look up in a while. Maybe he's a good candidate to feed from.

Well, he'll only learn more about him by watching him, so he sticks near the shadow of an air conditioning unit to give him a bit of cover.
runs: (forward and ahead)

[personal profile] runs 2016-11-20 08:03 am (UTC)(link)
"Because I'm cuter than you."

You gotta know your strengths and weaknesses, and stuff. She doesn't actually use her child bonus consciously, but she knows that she has it and that it works like a charm in this place. It's plenty enough of a disadvantage in other situations.
runs: (considering all that)

[personal profile] runs 2016-11-20 08:06 am (UTC)(link)
...Whoops.

She doesn't let go of the dove, but stops her efforts for a moment.

"I'm making it pretty."
movingon: (owl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 08:12 am (UTC)(link)
Well, he ...should not have recognized her.

And if she flies away now, it will be quite natural.

And then she can follow him in a distance to see where his house lives, so to speak, because information can be crucial.

She grabs the mouse between her claws and takes off, vanishing between the crowns of the nearby trees.
movingon: (fox)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 08:19 am (UTC)(link)
She doesn't trust people's words as far as she can throw said people, not unless she has some kind of leverage against them not standing by it. But this might be something, in hopes that keeping this a secret is even half as important to him as to her, and she'll take the chance.

"Only if you swear the same to me." And, just to close loopholes - this one takes her a moment to gather: "And also that you won't rely any information that you learned in it to someone else."
runs: (considering all that)

[personal profile] runs 2016-11-20 01:58 pm (UTC)(link)
She squints at the drawings.

"What is that?"
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Smile])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 02:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh good. He'll move over to her, then. "It was good! How about yours?"
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Siiiigh])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 02:17 pm (UTC)(link)
But Ryoji wants to ask questions. He'll pull out his cell to call the ambulance, but his eyes never leave her- which, if she asks, he can easily cover by watching the body. Once the emergency line picks up, he'll give them a brief description of the situation and the address before hanging up. That's done, at least. Now... what is she going to do?
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Happiness])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 02:30 pm (UTC)(link)
He thanks her and puts his drink down, careful to keep it from anything it might spill on. "That's nice. There were a lot out, I noticed. How've you been?"
runs: (I got this)

[personal profile] runs 2016-11-20 04:02 pm (UTC)(link)
She nods earnestly. That makes sense. You also gotta lie low after to not further piss off the people that you beat and make them want to come in for some revenge.

"And those?" She points aimlessly at a different group of thumbnails.
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 04:12 pm (UTC)(link)
...Well, that was that about an easy dinner. She needs two tries, but manages to roll the guy in a recovery position and then gets up.

"I'll find a blanket so he won't cool out, if you'll watch him while I'm gone." And then she'll turn to leave and never come back. Maybe she'll get lucky one more time. If not, there's always rats and stray cats, even though they taste gross. She doesn't really have the privilege of getting to be picky.
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Creeping a little])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 04:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"Alright." Ryoji won't follow her immediately, but he also can't let her get away. The logical response? Take the knife he always carries and cutting into his hand when she's not looking, bidding the blood that comes from it to follow her. He can look through it, if he needs to, and it can move as fast as he can so it should be able to keep up with her for the most part. Of course, that's probably something she can smell following her...
movingon: (blood)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 04:48 pm (UTC)(link)
She walks around a corner and ...weird. The scent of blood seems to be following her.

...A scent of blood. With it being only in the corner of what she can smell, it's not clear, but she gets the feeling that it is a bit different.

She'll keep walking, but look around. The smell is definitely not on her.
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Creeping a little])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Definitely not on her. Ryoji waits long enough for her to hopefully not notice him before he starts after her, the blood still following to try and keep an eye on her as he goes. Maybe she'll get distracted and stop so he can catch up.
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Smile])

II

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 04:53 pm (UTC)(link)
What a coincidence, because Ryoji is watching the construction workers too. He doesn't think they have anything to do with what he does, but it's still something to keep an eye on. It's certainly creepy, if nothing else.

Ryoji's just chilling with a textbook on a bench near the construction, pretending to be studying but keeping an eye on them. And as such, he notices the other person lingering around and wonders what they're there for. If Corwin wanders by him, he'll give the... being (something is not quite right about him) a smile. "Hello! How are you?"
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Happiness])

II

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 04:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Ryoji comes to the park fairly often, mostly to be annoyed that so many people are around and he can't figure out what's wrong with the place. But then he can talk to the people, so it works out fine. He's not really surprised when people are out putting up lights for the upcoming festivities, and tries to strike up a conversation with one of the people hanging them. Namely, Makoto.

"Hello! Are you doing alright?"
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 04:58 pm (UTC)(link)
She'll speed up instead, heading out of the area and towards the central district where she knows there will be enough open ground to easily lose any pursuer.

And sniffing the air occasionally, because that is sure the same kind of blood still in the air around her. And it's starting to get to her.
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Not sure about this])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 05:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Damnit. Well, the blood is still following her, even if it's not quite able to keep up. Ryoji at least has enough of a trail on her to know where she's going, if not where she currently is, but holding onto the Caul while trying to still move and do other things is a bit tricky. He might lose her soon...
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 05:06 pm (UTC)(link)
She reaches the park and keeps walking, relaxing faintly when the scent of blood gets a bit less.

And then she's gone.

It's a bit risky, using a discipline when she's already low on blood, but she also really needed to lose whoever was following her. Was following her and bleeding profusely all the time, apparently. Sure, she could have turned around for a confrontation, but she also very much did not want to cause a scene in the middle of the city.

Again.

Last time she got into a ruffle with some unassuming guy he turned into a dangerous half-bug. She'd rather not do that again.

So she melds into the earth and waits.
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Siiiigh])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, Ryoji's lost her, which is highly annoying. He eventually emerges from the path she just came from, his hand now wrapped up in a bandage that he applied when he'd realized there was no point in keeping the caul up. But he's also not going back to the body in case the emergency services want to know why he went away. ...Especially since he has a knife on him and all.

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