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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.
runs: (fuck this and this and that too)

[personal profile] runs 2016-12-02 09:30 am (UTC)(link)
Her posture intensifies a bit, her head being lowered a bit more, but she still glares back at him.

It's not information that she really wants to give him, if that means that he'll try to talk her into getting rid of the locket. And she can't answer part of it anyway. So her answer is incomplete. "It was in my things, I already told you that. I just don't know how it got there, it just was there one morning."
transient_specter: (super suspicious of you now)

[personal profile] transient_specter 2016-12-03 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
It just appeared? That's... not good news. "It's probably some kind of trap. Nothing is without a price. It never has been, and never will be."
runs: (duh)

[personal profile] runs 2016-12-03 08:22 pm (UTC)(link)
He really talks a lot about prices.

"Well, I already used it."

So if it is a trap, she already walked into it, and nothing has happened yet.
transient_specter: (okay that hurts)

[personal profile] transient_specter 2016-12-04 10:07 pm (UTC)(link)
It's important, okay?

"... Then you're -" He was about to say 'an idiot', but yelling at a kid isn't going to get him anywhere. "... Not informed about those kinds of things. Don't keep using it. It might draw unwanted attention."
runs: (fuck this and this and that too)

[personal profile] runs 2016-12-04 10:10 pm (UTC)(link)
"What kind of unwanted attention?"

If she's not informed about those things, then he clearly needs to fix that.
transient_specter: (hey woah no don't kick me)

[personal profile] transient_specter 2016-12-07 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
"From people you really don't want to mess with. Powerful people." He's not about to go and say it, not when there's a chance just saying something specific about them could draw their attention... but still.
runs: (fuck this and this and that too)

[personal profile] runs 2016-12-07 10:59 am (UTC)(link)
She has recovered a bit - she'll still be cautious around him, but she's totally here to be sullenly contrary now.

"Powerful how? You are not being very convincing if your information is vague and useless, you know."
transient_specter: (okay that hurts)

[personal profile] transient_specter 2016-12-07 02:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"... Even knowing specifics can put you in danger. You don't want to draw Their attention. I don't want to, despite what some might think." Maybe he misses his Master horribly - but he wouldn't do that to the others.
runs: (considering all that)

[personal profile] runs 2016-12-07 02:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Now her curiosity is picked.

"Why do people think that you would want to draw the attention of something that would be only dangerous?"
transient_specter: (kanon what the fuck)

[personal profile] transient_specter 2016-12-07 03:11 pm (UTC)(link)
"Because of what I am, even among the sort of people I'm around. I used to be somewhere else, and that place was nicer for me than it was for most people." Though 'nicer' is relative... still, he avoided some of the horror he heard about.
runs: (duh)

[personal profile] runs 2016-12-07 03:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"But then drawing their attention so they take you back by force would be stupid. If you really wanted to go, you'd just go and put it being voluntary forward as a show of goodwill to be accepted back."

Not that she's ever seen that happen, but she has the strong guess that the only reason why Hiro didn't do it was that he didn't know that he actually still had something to offer to Shiawase, enough to be worth being reintegrated into the corporation.

"Unless you think that they wouldn't care, but then the former would be even stupider."
transient_specter: (look at how glowy i am)

[personal profile] transient_specter 2016-12-07 04:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah. They're still paranoid, but it's... fine. It's just my problem to deal with." Not anyone else's. Not like he asked for his Durance to be how it was, but whatever.
runs: (I got this)

[personal profile] runs 2016-12-07 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)
"You can't really do much about people being paranoid."

She shrugs and then starts to turn away.

"Give your sister the candy bar, right?"
transient_specter: (this is my serious face)

[personal profile] transient_specter 2016-12-07 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
"... Right." He delivered his warning. That's all he can do at this point.

He sighs and zips up his coat, even if he doesn't need it at all. He has to look like he does...