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]

Hajime, your opinions on looks are boring so they don't count.

She will drag him into the store and immediately flag down a clerk to ask where Hajime's size would be. The clerk's eyes rest on both man and child for a moment before she indicates the correct area. She'll keep watching them after with the eyes of a person wondering how exactly they are connected.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime will keep an eye on the clerk just in case the clerk tries something funny, but most of his attention is on Kitty and the clothing. "...so which one did you have in mind?"

[runs]

"Do you want blue or red or orange?"

She pulls a blue one with big flowers on it out and holds it up to match it against his face.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime looks equally unenthused about each of these color choices. "Whichever one is fine."

[runs]

"Try this one!"

She shoves a red one with blue and yellow flowers on it at him.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime stares blankly at the shirt for a moment, takes it, and starts putting it on over the shirt he is wearing.

[runs]

"Sir," the shopkeeper pipes up, giving them glances of unsure, "we have a changing room, if you want to try it on properly..."

Kitty immediately nods and starts herding him in the indicated direction, snatching up two other shirts as they go. "Thanks!"

[chalicejoker]

"Changing room?" he asks Kitty (quietly, at least) as she ushers him in that direction. It's obvious he hasn't done this before.

At least he hadn't started undressing in the middle of the store, there's that.

[runs]

"You can take off the shirt you're wearing in there and put the other one on."

Relaly, Nogee, you might not be gear-shaped but your knowledge about humans isn't much higher than that, is it? "Because m- humans are awkward about seeing each other naked."

[chalicejoker]

Hajime looks down at himself. "I was under the impression that as long as the lower parts of my body were covered, no one would have a problem." Dammit, humans, you and your taboos.

[runs]

"Only if you're at a pool, or alone at home. Or in a sauna, where you should be naked. Or if you're a prostitute or a stripper or something, but even then you should be inside."

And, no offence, but the people that have been identified as prostitutes or strippers to her were always were better at emoting.

[chalicejoker]

"...that's strange and inconsistent." But at least he does not argue. Nor does he ask what a prostitute or stripper is, small mercies.

[runs]

That's not how she would have phrased it, but pretty much, yep. "I think they should never have started with clothes for anything but staying warm, then it wouldn't have become complicated." Annnd she'll pull the curtain of the changing room shut once he stands inside and plant her ass on the cheap folding chair that stands there for shopping companions.

[chalicejoker]

He wastes no time in getting the new shirt on, then looking at himself in the mirror. "...this shirt is ridiculous." It is very bright, after all.

[runs]

"So people will know that there was a guy in a ridiculous shirt, but not what the guy looked like.

And it suits you." Is that an insult? No, it's not. But then her taste in clothes ranges from pragmatic to ridiculous.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime still appears a bit mystified by all of this, but he will at least humor her. "Is just the one shirt enough?" He's moving to try another one anyway.

[runs]

"Two different ones may be good.

If you got into a really bad situation, you can throw the one that you wore then out and wear the other instead." Seems logical to her.

[chalicejoker]

"...fair enough." Hajime is now looking himself up and down in the other shirt he's trying on. "Does this one work as well?"

[runs]

"A bit less, but it would make no sense to get the same one twice." It's not a bad shirt. It's just a bit ...red.

[chalicejoker]

"Some people buy all the same clothes. Uniforms." See, he knows that much about human clothing.

[runs]

"...You could run around in a well-known uniform too instead of this and nobody would remember your face and only the uniform, but people from the same company would get pissed if they found out." Not that she's ever gone undercover in uniform, but that's more an age thing.

[chalicejoker]

"I should pick up a uniform sometime as well, then..." Not now, but later on, it could be useful.

[runs]

"Pick one that makes sense for you and that you can back up, though." Don't steal a girl scout's uniform, Hajime.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime nods. "Something you'd see a male human of my general age and build wearing." See, he's not totally hopeless.

[runs]

"And a uniform that is for something that you could answer very basic questions about."

So if someone asks you what you are doing here, you can give a simple answer. The street samurai troll may be your strongest team member, but maybe don't let him pose as a computer maintenance guy.