modmachine: (Default)
Hᴇx - ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏᴅ ᴍᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ ([personal profile] modmachine) wrote in [community profile] cityofhex2016-12-05 08:43 pm

WEEK 03

Preparation for the holidays continues at a steady - if slow - pace. Almost all traces of Halloween are gone by now, except for a few rotting pumpkins shoved into compost heaps, but with over a month until Christmas and the Day of Lights, nobody is yet in a hurry. Still, a few early holiday shoppers are out and about, usually in pairs if they aren't families with children, happily chattering about gift plans.

Weather forecast: The rain has passed, and days grow clear again for this week. Hex’s weather has been getting colder, and people are bundling up a bit more - even those who don’t need to, just in an effort to fit in. Hats and gloves are being prominently displayed in stores, even if they’re not strictly needed yet.

Moon phase: The moon is full on Monday the fourteenth, reaching peak fullness over the city at about 2AM. Afterwards, it begins to wane.

More employment: More decorations for the Day of Lights are going up, with some stronger-backed labor being recruited for the stockrooms in preparation for the incoming holiday rush. No one seems concerned about work history, a boon for people without a human paper trail. The park lights aren't finished yet, either, though things are on schedule to open next week.

Hitting the books: To prepare for the holidays, and raise funds for their community party, the library near the university is selling some of its used books. Most of them are fine, if an odd selection - you might find a cookbook, or you might find a book of poetry. There’s something weird about the books, though - a few of them smell faintly of mint. Watching over all of this is a sharp-eyed librarian. Don’t take a book without paying, or she’ll get up from her desk and try to block the door. She keeps having to chase away teenagers with dirty hands, too.

Bake sale: Some of the local schools are starting to take up donations for their holiday parties. One in particular in the residential district is holding a bake sale in front of the elementary school for an hour each day after classes let out. If you can fight through the sea of small children hoping someone will buy them something, you’ll find a variety of brownies, cookies, and tiny cakes. Many of them are lopsided, but a few look put together by expert hands. They cost more, of course, but it’s all for a good cause. A grouchy mother can be found near the cash box at all times, making sure no one steals the money.

Whoo are you?: Malin will notice that owls seem to be happening at her; they're hard to see, just shapes against the lesser-dark of the night sky, but they definitely seem to be watching her. They particularly seem to gather when she feeds. If she doesn't confront them, this will increase slowly but measurably throughout the week.

Time waits for no one: An old clock tower in the part of downtown leading into the Sixth has been restored to functionality... Mostly. The belltower stands empty, though there's a visible place where a bell should be hung, several stories above the floor. Ryoji might find the scene familiar. On Wednesday evening, there is some kind of reopening gathering at the church below it; the brief service and meet-and-greet is not particularly unusual, save that the young Acolyte handing out papers in the entry won't step into the congregation hall itself.

Like a dog with a bad...: In the Sixth, the construction is ongoing, still with the same handful of men, who rotate through almost like randomly generated NPCs. Lurking around outside is a thickly built man, who watches the whole goings-on with suspicion; strangely, he seems to be watching it mostly through the camera on his phone. On Friday morning, though it shouldn't be cold enough for frost, three of the strangely similar men slip on patches of ice and fall behind a half-finished wall... Where they vanish completely. They reappear after lunch, if it's even the same men, with no signs of injury. That afternoon, the man with his phone looks smug.

A touch of the season: And speaking of ice, passage into many of the city's Avernian Gates is blocked this week by a thick frost that seals the entries shut. An Unsettling Youth and his girlfriend can occasionally be seen investigating them; though they're constantly together, they don't seem much inclined to talk to each other. Occasionally, she'll drape her arm over his shoulders and giggle, while he looks confused; other times, she seems almost to shy away from him.
movingon: (coat)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-12-08 02:42 pm (UTC)(link)
"But I don't say that in the end I'll have to answer to ...God or Caine or Ennoia or whomever for whatever cut I made or didn't make."

When you're dead, you're dead, in her opinion. Unless you are undead of some kind -vampire, ghost, whatever-, but that's still kind of alive, in the larger picture. Final death is final, that's kind of the point. It just comes more easily to some than to others.
notachickenhawk: (boy: in the crowd...)

[personal profile] notachickenhawk 2016-12-08 05:27 pm (UTC)(link)
"She's our Mother. She's the one who gives us our Horrors... I think. That's what some people say. Maybe we don't have to answer to Her, but I'd rather try to do the right thing than just say 'fuck it' and consider that none of it exists or there's no penalty for acting badly."

He's seen her. The great bird inside of him knows that she exists, that she still works in the world. Why does he have to explain that it's true?
movingon: (coat)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-12-08 05:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Because he's talking to someone who has been indoctrinated into believing a lot of lore to be dangerous bullshit.

"...Do a lot of your kind believe in 'doing the right thing'?"
notachickenhawk: (boy: glare)

[personal profile] notachickenhawk 2016-12-08 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
"... Some of them do. Not all of them." It's not as if he's never met a Beast who terrifies just for fun. ... One in particular stands out, from earlier on. That... hadn't ended well. "I try to. But it's not like all vampires believe in only taking blood from people who won't miss it, right? Everyone has their... people who go too far."
movingon: (coat)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-12-09 11:10 pm (UTC)(link)
"...I can't speak for everyone else, but how often do you think about what you believe about your eating a sandwich? Assuming your kind still eats regular food."

You drink blood to survive. You try to not take more than the vessel's system can take so that you'll be able to drink from them again at some later point. It's not quite as simple as that now that she's been talking to people again for over two weeks, but that's still the gist of it.
notachickenhawk: (boy: darkly amused)

[personal profile] notachickenhawk 2016-12-09 11:49 pm (UTC)(link)
"... Well, some people do. But yes, people like me still eats regular food, too." But the morals of it... he knows they're murky. But he tries to muddle through as best he can.

"But going too far can get you killed. That holds true on your end too, doesn't it?"
movingon: (coat)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-12-10 12:18 am (UTC)(link)
"Well, a lot of ways of going too far with feeding will get you destroyed, yes."

Because they'll typically constitute as Masquerade breaches, not because vampires are people with justice and compassion in their hearts.

And because they may have killed someone's valuable retainer.

And some ways of feeding will do ...other things to you. She knows a few first hand, now.
notachickenhawk: (bird: free)

[personal profile] notachickenhawk 2016-12-10 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah. It's just... the smarter thing to do. ... At least I think so." Maybe he's wrong. But just gorging his Horror doesn't feel right. It's not that he disapproves, but the things he has to do to feed it sometimes...
movingon: (coat)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-12-10 11:10 am (UTC)(link)
"...I'm really probably not the right person to talk to about this."

At least words come easily again for the most part, now, thanks to Corwin.

"I had very little choice about feeding for years." And only marginally more since she managed to run, because the options were so limited. There's a bit more since she came here, but even then it's been mostly determined by factors that have nothing to do with ethics and all to do with staying unnoticed.
notachickenhawk: (bird: what?)

[personal profile] notachickenhawk 2016-12-10 03:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"... It's okay." It kind of isn't, but he doesn't want to push her. He definitely doesn't want to push a vampire who might be hungry. And the other parts of the Family don't serve as directly under the Dark Mother.

He only tangentially does, due to fighting the Strix for so long, but even then... "I know we all have to feed one way or another."
movingon: (coat)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-12-10 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"It doesn't really matter what we think about it.

...I wonder why it attracts them, though." She stares up to where she assumes the shadows that follow her to be.
notachickenhawk: (bird: free)

[personal profile] notachickenhawk 2016-12-10 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"... I don't know. I know they have some relations to vampires, but... I've never known a very talkative one."
movingon: (coat)

[personal profile] movingon 2016-12-11 09:28 pm (UTC)(link)
"I've never heard of them."

Or seen one, but that is maybe less surprising. There are many more things that she's never experienced first hand that she's heard of, after all. But both are fairly bound to the place.
notachickenhawk: (Default)

[personal profile] notachickenhawk 2016-12-11 09:56 pm (UTC)(link)
"... A lot of people haven't. But they're here. And we haven't managed to destroy all of them." If they did... well, he'd still probably be busy, but he'd feel a lot better.