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

[notachickenhawk]

Yeah, okay. Time to stop hiding, then. He stands up and walks over to the side of the roof, sitting down again and letting his legs dangle over the edge.

"Hey."

[chalicejoker]

"Hello." Hajime is totally unsurprised by this. "What are you doing up there?"

Sometimes, you've just got to be blunt.

[notachickenhawk]

"People-watching." Is it wrong to do that? It's not like other people haven't done that.

... Never mind that pretty much anyone who climbs that building would be risking several broken bones and probably a cracked skull, not to mention the fact that it'd be hard to jump up to the fire escape.

[chalicejoker]

"Most people just go to the park or a mall for that," Hajime points out. He knows. He people-watches often.

[notachickenhawk]

"True, but those aren't my kind of people. I prefer watching people doing solo things." ... That sounds kind of creepy, now that he says that out loud.

[chalicejoker]

Fortunately, Hajime has a terrible track record of realizing when statements sound creepy or awkward. He doesn't react as a normal human might. When he asks for clarification, it's with full seriousness. "Solo things?"

[notachickenhawk]

Oh good, they can fail at social things together. "Like taking pictures. Or reading. Or walking. People are interesting when they don't think they're being watched." And definitely more ripe for teaching a lesson.

[chalicejoker]

"Their interactions with one another are more telling." Look, he does the creeper thing to figure out how to human, thank you very much.

[notachickenhawk]

"That depends what you're trying to find out."

[chalicejoker]

"It does indeed." Standoff. He's not about to volunteer anything. Not until he knows what he's dealing with.

[notachickenhawk]

Awkward. Huh. He stares down intently, and Hajime will know, deep down, that the moment Tobias looks in his eyes that he's been seen.

But that's not all. There's a flash of something, the name of a pawn shop nearby, and the feeling of money changing hands. Tobias slumps, barely catching himself, and looks suddenly exhausted.

... He might have an idea what this guy is, but right now he's too tired to move. He can feel his Horror growling, even if as a birdlike creature it really shouldn't be able to.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime stands his ground. He does not appear afraid--demons have excellent poker faces--and appears quite ready to stand there and stare back at Tobias for a long, long time.

Staring contest is a go.

[notachickenhawk]

He takes a few deep breaths, trying to figure out what to do. "... Why were you taking pictures of the trains? There's not usually anyone out here."

[chalicejoker]

"Train hobbyists pay money for shots of trains." It's a legit excuse. He thinks, anyway.

[notachickenhawk]

"I guess so. I don't see the appeal, myself." Maybe he should get down... but he's not sure if he can manage to get down without using something that would look distinctly Weird.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime shrugs. "I don't care if I can find the appeal so long as I can find a paycheck." Sure, kid, let's see how you get down from there.

[notachickenhawk]

He might as well try. He grabs onto the edgs, backpack slung over one shoulder, and drops to one fire escape landing, then another. He reaches out to try to grab the ladder, but misjudges the timing. Tobias' arm is pulled badly as he hooks it into the ladder, legs cycling wildly in the air before he drops, landing on his butt on the ground.

"Ow..." He winces, and it's not entirely faked. Maybe he really should have used something... "A-anyway... I can understand just doing something for a paycheck..."

[chalicejoker]

Hajime looks completely unimpressed by that terribly elegant discount. At least he has not yet discovered that thing humans refer to as a sense of humor and doesn't outright laugh at Tobias.

There's a shrug. "It pays the rent, provides food...it's important." He has learned that about humans. Exchanging money for goods and services is supremely important. That his job allows him to be nosy without stirring up as much suspicion as he might otherwise is a plus.

[notachickenhawk]

"Yeah." On that note... mm. He's gonna have to hit up the food banks again today. "A lot of people don't want to hire me for much. They don't want to cut into my study time."

The study time that does not exist, but whatever.

[chalicejoker]

"Study time?" What is this study time you speak of, human child? "If you want to work, they should let you work."

[notachickenhawk]

"That's what I said, but they want me in school." Some of them do, at least. The ones that don't are usually the dangerous ones... but he's not afraid of them.

[chalicejoker]

"...you are the right age for it." Hold up, let Hajime process this. "But you do not get a say in the matter?"

[notachickenhawk]

He tilts his head and laughs a little bit. Definitely not human. "Of course not. I'm technically a minor. Underage. I'm not supposed to be able to dictate things like that yet."

Should he say this? Eh, why not. They're not Family, but Ax is still family in his own weird way. "You remind me of a friend. He didn't know that kind of stuff, either."

[chalicejoker]

Curse these human standards of when they can and can't do things. Hajime's got a little bit of that down, but the older they get, the more uncertain he is of where they're supposed to be. "...he didn't, did he?"

[notachickenhawk]

"No. There were a lot of normal human things he didn't understand." And it would definitely explain the weird reaction he got off of him. Maybe he's wrong, but maybe he's not.