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

[chalicejoker]

"That seems simple enough..." Hajime nods. "Though it is not a uniform other humans tend to respect." Probably safer than pretending to be a cop though.

[runs]

"Unless you want to impress them, that is better because it means that they won't look twice at you." Except maybe to yell at you.

[chalicejoker]

"...I do have better ways to impress humans." Or terrify them out of their minds. Either or. At any rate, they don't expect weird insectoid beings to know much about human culture, which is a plus.

[runs]

"Like what?"

The salescleark is just.... eyeing them from where she stands behind the counter, out of earshot enough to not exactly hear what they're talking about. Thanks be to the radio program gods for playing a particularly loud song right now.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime actually thinks to glance back towards the clerk. "Nothing I'd discuss in public. Or care to show off for no reason."

[runs]

...Oh, right.

"Well, you can buy the shirts now and tell me after."

[chalicejoker]

"Fair enough." But will he tell her, or will he try to weasel out of it again?

At any rate, he's going to go check out. Their leaving will probably be the brightest point in the salesman's day.

[runs]

She'll wait for him outside, watching him expectantly.

"So?"

[chalicejoker]

"So," he says as he starts walking to get more distance on that store, "I didn't always look like this. If I cast off this form, humans don't react well."

[runs]

"...How do you 'cast it off'?"

That's really weird phrasing for someone using a mask.

[chalicejoker]

"I just do." Hajime shrugs. "It's a...relatively quick change."

[runs]

"And what do you look like then?" It'd be good if she knows that, just in case she runs into him like that at some point. So she doesn't get confused about him.

[chalicejoker]

"...the closest frame of reference I have would be like a giant insect." It's not his favorite thing to admit, but he likes the kid, despite himself.

[runs]

"...An insect?" Well, good thing that she's absolutely sure that he's got nothing to do with spirits - he seems about as un-spirit as they get - or she'd be worried now.

"Can you draw for me what it looks like? So if I run into your while you're in that form I'll know that it'll be you."

[chalicejoker]

"...I suppose I could try. But we'd need to destroy the picture." He doesn't need that floating around out in the world.

[runs]

"Sure." She sees no problem with that, she has a good memory. "We could burn it if it's on paper."

[chalicejoker]

"Fair enough." He'll walk towards a park or somewhere they can do this in relative privacy. "But I'll warn you--I don't have anything to do it with."

[runs]

"...You could also just draw on my commlink. It's pretty safe."

As safe as such a thing can be, anyway, and from what she's seen around here it seems to be more advanced than the tech that they have so it should be even safer.

If not, she'll have to sneak into a store and get something to draw on.

[chalicejoker]

As a demon, technology is something Hajime understands. "Would the record of it be completely erased?" He wouldn't put it past you to have some sort of secret backup, kid.

...not that he could become too angry with that.

[runs]

She nods. "A ...friend put a better scrambler in it."

Truly erasing something that's been on record in an electronic device is neigh impossible, but the program that Eärendil put into all their commlinks, to get rid of information stored there in emergencies, comes as close as anything can.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime considers this, then nods. He's a demon, he should be able to see to it that data's securely erased, he's got this. "Alright, then." By this point, they've made it to somewhere he feels they're safe enough for the picture.

[runs]

Kitty will pull up a drawing note for Hajime and then hand her commlink over.

[chalicejoker]

After a moment, Hajime will make use of his amazing skills as an artist after failing the roll for that and produce a picture. It's a very rough sketch of some kind of bipedal bug.

[runs]

Kitty squints at the drawing for a very long moment and then just dead-eyes Hajime.

Your drawing abilities SUCK, dude.

[chalicejoker]

He tried.

Maybe if he points out distinguishing features? "See, there's the antennae...and the spikes..."