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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.
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 05:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Malin waits. It's tedious, but she wants to be absolutely sure that he is gone first.

And then she waits some longer, before finally deciding that she needs to go back up and find some nourishment. She's starting to really get hungry, and that's dangerous in more ways than one. ...She should probably just go ahead and call some stray cats to her side instead of trying to find a human.

Either way, she needs to go back up. Which is always a bit disorienting, more so when she is wearing the heavy goat and the scarf, and she just stands there on the path for a moment, reorienting herself and trying to find her footing.
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Huh?])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 07:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Ryoji had found himself somewhere private to slip into the Phantasmal Oracle and trigger a hallucination- which of course turned out to be wrong. He doubles back to the spot where he lost her, hoping he'd find her. ...And arriving just as she popped out of the ground.

...That's kind of creepy to be totally honest.

This time, however, he doesn't say anything. He doesn't hide either, but he's curious how long it will take her to notice him.
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
She doesn't until she turns around - her get-up hinders almost all of her senses a bit, limiting how far she can see to the sides, how much she can hear and even some of her heat detection.

When she does turn around, she freezes.

Well, that was a waste of good blood, it seems.

"Helvete."
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Huh?])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 07:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"...I assume that's a bad word." Given that she literally popped up out of the ground in front of him, he would guess so. "How did you do that?"

...Yes, that's his question.
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
...Like she'll tell him that. It's bad enough that he's seen her emerge.

"It's a pretty mild curse. Means 'hell'."

Her thoughts race. She needs to ...get out of here. Something is wrong with him, and she won't attack him if she can until she knows what it is.
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Happiness])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)
It was worth a shot, at least. "Ah. What language is it?" Not one from around here. And who knows, maybe if she's torn off by casual conversation she'll stick around a bit. He has a guess of what she is now, at least. There aren't a lot of creatures who would want much to do with a dying body.
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 07:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"...Swedish."

It's not like it will tell him anything about her. Hopefully. But it shouldn't.

"What do you want?"

Better to get it over with.
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Huh?])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 07:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh. Cool." Look, he could keep this up forever.

But it looks like she wants some answers too. "I kind of want to know what you are." Just for confirmation, really.
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 08:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"Why?"

She's fairly sure that she never harmed him, and from what little she has noticed this city must be filled to the brim with supernaturals - the dog guy, a number of other Kindred, at least one or two lupines going by scents, and who knows what else. So she shouldn't stand out. ...unduly.
Edited 2016-11-20 20:02 (UTC)
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Huh?])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Ryoji shrugs. "Mostly just curious." ...That is really the almost-full answer. He wants to make sure she's not something new, something that will screw area with his particular area too much, but mostly he just wants to know.
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 08:11 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm not an attraction."

There lies a distinct sharpness in that assertion, defence and reproach coiled up in a tight ball of threat. She is not, and if he so much as admits that that was the implication...
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Huh?])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 08:21 pm (UTC)(link)
"I didn't say you were." Ryoji is nowhere near that stupid. "But knowing what's out there is kind of important around here. Are you new to town?" He almost doesn't expect her to answer that, but before recently, that wouldn't have even been a question he'd ask.
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 08:39 pm (UTC)(link)
That's a strange question.

"If that's the issue - no. There's nothing new out there to worry about." She can't confirm that there are Gangrel here, but there should be one or two. There's almost one or two, it feels like. And Kindred there are a number of.

She shrugs, a gesture that only somewhat transfers with how unshapely she is under her coat. "Not that I know of, at least."
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Happiness])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"You're kind of assuming I know about what you are. I might not, I know there are things around here that I haven't come across. I might be able to guess, though." Maybe that will encourage her to confirm, if she's not already losing anything. And she's not answering his other question... is that a yes?
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
"Well, what is your guess?"

Nope, it's not going to be that easy.
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Smile])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Well fine, then Ryoji won't make it that easy either. "Will you tell me if I'm right?"
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
If he's assuming anyway - she watches his features closely to try and gauge what his reaction to her denial or confirmation will be.

"Yes."
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Happiness])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, now that she's agreed... he'll go ahead and activate Phantasmal Oracle again, so he's got a better idea of whether or not she's actually telling the truth. "Vampire?"
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 09:09 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yes."

If he's in on their existence anyway, that's not a problem to admit - unless he now wants to destroy her. Which hopefully she will be able to glance from his reaction, so that is where her attention will be focused now.
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Happiness])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Looks like she's telling the truth. Which is nice, things are always easier when people don't lie. (Not that he's really one to talk.) He's still smiling when she agrees, which really has nothing to do with anything. He has no plans to destroy her, at least? Not until she does something that interferes with the dead... which some vampires do tend to do, what with violent deaths and all. "Alright. Then yeah, nothing new to me. Thanks!"
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
She's trying really hard to not murder people here. It's not as easy as it looks sometimes.

"You're welcome. ...Was that all?"
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Smile])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"Pretty much." Ryoji's just a bit nosy. "I'll probably see you around." It's a small town, sometimes.
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"Probably."

She's not even denying it.

"So what are you? After all you now know what I am."

Not that she expects an answer, but it's worth the try.
dangerouslyinlove: (Ryoji [Smile])

[personal profile] dangerouslyinlove 2016-11-20 09:32 pm (UTC)(link)
"You can guess, and I'll tell you if you're right!" Sorry, but while he'll give the option, he won't make it quite that easy.
movingon: (The truth is rarely pure and never simpl)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-11-20 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Uh. What kind of supernaturals does she know. She's... 99,9% sure that he's not a lupine, and she can see enough to know that he has body heat so he's Kindred. From what little she can smell he doesn't smell like dog, and she has no idea what that guy was, anyway.

What was the thing Giovanni are dealing with? ...no, not a ghost, either, those are probably not that physical and wouldn't have a mobile phone on them.

"You had an advantage. We are the worst kept secret." It's hard when not everyone is on the same boat about secret keeping.

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