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]

"If you don't team up you'll all go alone, or in smaller groups, and then it will be even more likely to happen again."

Don't get yourself killed or she'll kick you. She'll find a way.

[notachickenhawk]

"It's not like our group was all that big. But... if I go it alone, if I get hurt... there's not many people who would care." Would she? He's not sure. He hasn't known her that long. Maybe he's helped her out, but it's not really long enough that she should really be caring about him.

Right?

[runs]

"Well, I would. And if you get killed because you're careless and heroic, I'll find you in the afterlife and kick you."

It's pretty much an empty threat, because she doesn't believe in a life after death, but she will be angry at him. And sad, and probably have a significantly harder time dealing with this place.

[notachickenhawk]

He stares at her for a moment, before laughing briefly. "S... sorry, I'm not laughing at you..."

He sort of is, but it's not a bad laughter.

"I just didn't expect that you'd get so attached..."

[runs]

"You're nice, you got me stuff, and you know how this place works." All very pragmatic reasons, if he doesn't buy emotional ones.

Which... she has no idea. She just knows that his survival and staying around free and well is important to her.

[notachickenhawk]

"Yeah. That's true." He scoots a little bit closer to her. "You only keep me around for your food, huh?" He smiles slightly and sticks out his tongue.

[runs]

"Well, you haven't given me any lately." Not that she needed it, she found out about the soup kitchens, but... "Have you been eating enough?"

[notachickenhawk]

"I..." He hesitates. He's grabbed a few things from there himself, but... still. "Enough."

He knows that's not true, but he's alive. "... I'm going to have to let my Horror feed soon, though."

[runs]

Enough often means that it isn't technically enough, only enough to not die. Which is nowhere close to enough.

"You'll have to eat properly to fight. Both ways."

She doesn't think that she can help with his Horror, but she can with other things. It'll just require some ...resourcefulness.

[notachickenhawk]

"... I know." He shouldn't have let himself get this hungry. Now he's going to put people in danger if he doesn't eat soon.

What to do... "I'll go out hunting tonight. You'll be okay tonight, right?"

[runs]

"I'll be in my tent."

She nods. There have been no issues so far with that, even though she often gets up at night to snoop around for a bit before going back to sleep.

[notachickenhawk]

"Okay." It's not exactly the prettiest of activities - he'll have to find a good target to hit. And it's going to have to be big...

He'll find something. If he doesn't, he's in trouble, but that's not Kitty's problem. Or it won't be, because he won't let it be. "I've been looking for places to bed down for the winter... a lot of the warehouses have leaks, so they're no good."

[runs]

"What does everyone else in the camp do?"

She's noticed a few of them having disappeared already, who even knows where - probably relatives that they can crash with during the nights in the winter, or something akin to that.

[notachickenhawk]

"... This is the first year I've been out here. But I think some of them build shelters, or take over a building. Those that have issues with the cold, at least." There's probably some people who can turn into other things to deal with the cold... though he's not sure.

[runs]

"How do they get the shelters and buildings warm?"

Issues that she's never had to deal with, but there have been a few damn cold nights since she got here, and there is a difference between working in icy weather and trying to go to sleep in one.

[notachickenhawk]

"Stuff up the windows and cracks, run generators to power some heaters, and use a lot of blankets." He's... had to find some blankets, himself, lately. The cold is always awful for him.

[runs]

"We could set that up in one of the buildings in the 6th."

There are a lot of abandoned buildings there, after all.

[notachickenhawk]

"Sounds good to me." He sighs and tugs his legs in a bit. He won't fall. He almost never does, anymore. "I can look into how much a generator will cost."

[runs]

She pulls her knees up against her chest, mirroring his shifting, and butts his shoulder with her head, but doesn't verbally comment on the sighing.

"...How big are they?"

Things are so weirdly high-tech and low-tech at once here, she can't really make guesses on anything.

[notachickenhawk]

"I'm not sure... depends how efficient it is. Fuel will cost us, so I'll try to get the most efficient one I can, but I think it's a few feet big at least." And if fuel's too expensive...

Shit. This is more complicated than he thought.

[runs]

"So we'll need a lot more money while it is cold."

That is a problem. She's been scraping by with ...essentially no money at all - free food, some donations from Tobias or food pantries, a few shopliftings. And it has been made rather clear to her that there will be no legal (or at least working a job) way for her to earn money. And Tobias might be a bit better at earning money than her, but not enough for that amount of it.

[notachickenhawk]

"Yes." He glances at her, before nodding. "I'll make sure you have enough. Don't worry." He can always sleep somewhere colder... but he won't let a kid go cold and hungry. She might have abilities, but he's not going to be like them. He won't just abandon someone her age.

[runs]

"No." She frowns at him. "We'll make sure we have enough." He's become someone she cares about, so cares about his well-being too. She might be less useful in this than him, but she'll still make sure that he doesn't neglect himself.

[notachickenhawk]

"... I can get by on less, though. You're still growing." Not that he has a lot of fat or energy stores to deal with... but then again he can also just go into his Lair if he has to.

[runs]

"And you're bigger so it evens out." Bigger people need more food because they go through more in a day, Simon explained to her at one point when she asked him in fascination at how much he could eat. "...I should be able to get you food. But I can't get money." Not without reverting to pickpocketing, which sounds too risky to her as long as there's another way, or searching bodies, which... no. She's still shaken by the sheer amount of vampires running around this place, and would rather stay far away from them.