WEEK 02

[modmachine]

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.

Comments

[runs]

"He does. He went to school and all."

He's also a quite experienced mage, and her teacher or at least the person who helps her figure things out.

[chalicejoker]

"...do they teach about things like this in human schools?" Hell, he doesn't know. He didn't think so, but you never know...

[runs]

"No, but it means that he learned about all kind of things and reads books about even more things."

Reading books is what you do at school, right?

[chalicejoker]

"I wasn't aware humans had books of such things." Interesting. Very interesting...

[runs]

It's so strange to her still that it's humans, not metahumans, just by virtue of the other races no existing, but she is slowly getting used to it. "Humans have books on almost everything. Even soyburgers."

[chalicejoker]

"Soyburgers are strange and unnatural--but still an entirely human creation. These other things...they're not always human creations. Not something humans usually discuss in their books." Makes sense to him.

[runs]

"I don't think there is anything that they don't discuss in their books." Or their electronic counterparts, anyway.

"Though sometimes others will go through and delete what was written because they don't want to be it out in the public, or in the hands of specific people." In a way, she's been part of such efforts before.

[chalicejoker]

"They discuss everything, true--it's just that they're wrong about a great many things." Hajime nods. "Misinformation can serve a purpose, true, but with others? They're only endangering themselves through ignorance."

[runs]

"They think it'll get them more profits or power." Which is essentially the same. And, hey. It creates a lot of jobs. "And if someone who wants to blow up everything gets information on bombs, that's dangerous too."

[chalicejoker]

"I think they have watchlists for that," Hajime muses, completely failing to notice the fact that the kid's talking about humans like others the way he is.

[runs]

...That makes sense.

"But you can't know of everyone who wants to blow up things before they do it. Some people surprise you."

Surprise is the nastiest factor of a runner's life. Well, people that are shooting at you aside, but that's just a occupational hazard.

[chalicejoker]

"Many are full of surprises, true." Hajime nods. "That's why you have to watch people."

[runs]

"You can't watch everyone."

Though, she guesses, if you have enough resources you can watch most people who would have the resources to build bombs. Maybe. Even AAA corporations can only have their hands in so many pots, or want to have their hands in so many pots.

[chalicejoker]

"There's watching...and then there's keeping dangerous things out of their reach." Hajime shrugs. "But if you're strong enough to handle whatever they might try, it doesn't matter in the end, anyway."

[runs]

"Everyone has weak spots, or weak moments, though."

The conversation is starting to bore her. "Why do you look so boring?"

[chalicejoker]

That's an odd question. "Everyone overlooks the boring." He's blending in, it's a thing.

[runs]

"But then they remember your face because there's nothing else about you to remember."

Put on a dress that will make people judge your taste forever, and you can come back an hour later and nobody will recognize you.

[chalicejoker]

"they can remember the blandness." Nice save.

He would like to think it is, anyway.

[runs]

"Maybe, but they'll also remember your face because there was nothing else to look at."

There are really unassuming people that are easily forgotten, but Hajime's face is ...it has too many specifics. Unless, perhaps, someone thinks that all people of ethnicity X look the same. But trusting in that is stupid.

[chalicejoker]

There's also coming at this from an "all humans in general look alike" position, which is how Hajime has been approaching his sudden new humanity. "That's assuming I'm there long enough for them to get a good look."

[runs]

"...If you always run around just so people can't look at you for very long that stands out, too."

He's not getting out of this.

[chalicejoker]

"...there's always just slipping back into a crowd full of more interesting people." That makes sense, right? Right?

[runs]

"Not if you've already caught someone's eye."

For someone on the run, Hajime really is bad at that hiding thing :|

"Does everything you own look like that?"

[chalicejoker]

He looks down at his clothes. "Mostly."

[runs]

"...There's a store with eye-catching shirts down this road!"

Hajime, you'll be taken clothes shopping now.