WEEK 03

[modmachine]

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.

Comments

[runs]

...Sniffing at the strange fruit. Then she'll bat at it, just for good measure, but with this in-depth scientific analysis having revealed nothing, she'll move on to the actual goodies. The burger part of the burger she'll go for right here, and then she'll ...hm. Either the potato chips or the candy. She'll have a moment to decide this.

Looks like the guy's snoozing soundly, so yeah. She's gonna snack this patty first.

[infinitemayonnaise]

The fruit's got an odd sort of odor to it, likely one she won't be able to place unless she's come across Goblin Fruit before, and it feels normal upon being batted. The patty doesn't seem as though it's been in the bag long, and there is a great deal of mayonnaise all over the burger.

Nitou rolls over and snores a bit more. He remains oblivious to the fact that there is a kitten stealing his food.

[runs]

She'll eat as much of the patty as she can without ingesting too much mayo and then starts to abscond with the bag of potato chips.

It's a bit loud, pulling it out of the guy's bag and towards the entrance of the tent, but that's the downside to stealing crisps.

[infinitemayonnaise]

Kitty is fortunate--Nitou lets loose a very loud snore that completely causes him not to hear the noise the bag of chips is making when she takes it.

[runs]

She'll drag the crisps to safety - which is deep inside a bush somewhere close by the clearing - and then return for the candy.

Dude seems to sleep firmly, so why shouldn't she get that too... Okay. Poking her head back in, and then she's back in his bag, starting to drag the candy off.

[infinitemayonnaise]

Kitty is less than fortunate here. Nitou has started to rouse a bit, and Nitou is going to grab his bag of food as soon as she's in there. "Huh? What's this?"

[runs]

...whoops.

She'll drop the bag of candy and meow, hoping that it will placate the weird not-a-big-cat guy.

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Well hey there!" Nitou grins. What are you doing there? You need to warm up? He speaks cat, and he's just going to launch right into that as he sets the bag down so she can get out.

[runs]

...Why can you talk like that?

Not only is that honestly surprising, it's also a nice way to dodge the question of what she was doing there. Totally not nicking his food, no sir.

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nitou laughs. 'Cause I'm pretty much just a big cat myself, sorta.

[runs]

...Huh.

You do smell like one. So her nose was right about that one. Just her eyes aren't... So you're wearing some kind of mask? No matter what squinting she does, she can't see through it, but he might just have used a particularly strong spell.

[infinitemayonnaise]

Yeah, it's magic. Not the sort of thing Nitou might admit to a random person, but he's dealing with what he thinks is just a tiny kitten. Who's going to listen to a kitten besides other people who can talk to cats? Lets me go about my business like a normal human, you know?

[runs]

Sound reasoning.

What kind of big cat are you?

Her experience with the smell of other cats is really limited to ...well, other house cats. Trideos don't bring that into your living room.

[infinitemayonnaise]

A lion! Nitou beams proudly at that. Well, technically, I'm a chimera, 'cause I got bits of different sorts of animals, but most of me is lion!

[runs]

Why couldn't you just decide on what to be?

That sounds way excessive, old man. IS CAT NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU.

[infinitemayonnaise]

Wasn't my call, Nitou says with a careless shrug. I just am what I am.

[runs]

So you were born that way?

Okay, fair enough. Still weird as hell. Why?

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nah, Nitou says, more like made that way. Makes sense to him. On account of I wasn't always like this.

[runs]

So someone else couldn't just let you be a perfectly reasonable cat but had to add additional things.

There are enough fucked up people with a science lab at their hands that she wouldn't even be surprised if there is no weird special Hex magic behind this.

[infinitemayonnaise]

Well, he wasn't just a perfectly reasonable cat either, but yeah, pretty much. Nitou shrugs. You get used to it, and I can fly like a bird and swim like a dolphin, so there's that.

[runs]

...so who made him like that and why? Assuming whatever it was created another thing like itself in this guy.

She'll pad over and sit there for a bit before very quickly reaching out and batting at him.

No, feels like a normal human. Just like Hajime. Weird.

[infinitemayonnaise]

He made himself like that, and guys like that, you just don't ask questions. Nitou grimaces at the memory. Not if you wanna live.

He laughs a little at the bat, and there's a playful, gentle bat right back at her.

[runs]

There's a quickly moving thing.

She abruptly goes for it, jumping up, trying to catch his hand.

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nitou laughs and allows the kitten to catch his hand. She's so cute! "Ah! You got me!"

[runs]

For a moment, she just dangles there, before deciding to scramble up until she stands on his arm and can stare at him from up close.

Her ears twitch and she suddenly looks very concentrates as she assesses him, trying to get a better idea of what he could be. AND JUMPS RIGHT OFF HIS HAND BECAUSE HOLY FUCK DUDE.

YOU WEREN'T LYING ABOUT THAT WEIRD MISH MASH THING.

There is much more information buried here, and she'll sort through it in a moment, but - as she whirls around to try and get in a position where she can pretend that her jump never happened, her eyes graze the fruit and ...that's magical too? So they do have awakened plants here. She'd started to think that there were none.