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]

"So it either was in the process of failing, or it wanted you to see it.

Or both, I guess."

If she had a tail in this form, it would twitch in annoyance. Why are you so inconvenient here, Ryoji.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"How can we tell if it's failing? What does that mean?" The Angel was very.... Lost.

[runs]

"They're part of this big corporate machine, but sometimes they ...stop being a part of it. I don't know why, but that's falling, or failing."

She's not even sure if both words would be accurate or if not which one is correct.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"Huh..." Ryoji thinks about this, tapping his chin. "Did your friend tell you about this? ...How did they know?" Tobias only knew a little bit, and that's because one of his friends had passed it on.

[runs]

"I know two people who know about this."

She's clearly evading answering, but it's also not a lie.

[dangerouslyinlove]

That's fair- Ryoji can take a hint, and it was a long shot she'd answer anyway. Though he wonders if one of her sources is the same as his... "Well, at least we've got something to go off of, I guess," he says with a shrug, "It did want to talk to me, I think, but it also said it was Lost. Which could be like falling, maybe?"

[runs]

"Maybe."

Just another word for the same thing?

"Did it say more about how it was lost?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji shakes his head. "Not really. Like... it had lost its purpose, maybe? Or maybe already fulfilled it. It said what it was trying to do with me was what used to be its job."

[runs]

"...Maybe it used to guard doors. Or to rely messages. Or..."

She wishes she'd been there. Maybe there would have been a way to get more out of that thing. (As much as Nogee would probably say that it was very good that she wasn't there.)

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji thinks, trying to run through every part of his interaction with the Angel. "I think it might have had to do with... whatever made me 'more-real' to it. That was what it kept coming back to. I just don't know what that means."

[runs]

"...do you think you could find it again?"

The things that Ryoji encounters sound really ominous, and since the second uttered a warning for her, the first might have had something to do with that, too... Not necessarily, of course, but maybe it tried to keep Ryoji from finding the second?

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji isn't sure that's a good idea, but... "I told it I'd look for ways to become 'more-real'. It said it kind of... wanders around between the different Gates, so... maybe?"

[runs]

"Maybe we could find it and ask how you could become more-real. It's no use if you don't know what to look for."

...Okay, she should bring this up out loud: "Do you think it could have been trying to keep you from the guy that had the warning for me?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

"I tried. It didn't know if there was a way. And it was trying to keep me out of the Underworld because that would make me... less-real? But it didn't mean dead. So... I have no idea what it was talking about it."

[runs]

"Maybe it meant that you would be less the real you."

The things that Ryoji said about the guy in the underworld reminded her of someone, a contact that she had made last year and lost last month. "Like how when you take drugs they can change your personality and abilities and even your appearance. Maybe it thought the underworld would do that to you." Which would speak against the idea that the two people Ryoji met had anything to do with one another.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"I.... guess so..." But that doesn't make any sense. The Underworld doesn't do that... does it?

Ryoji thinks, tipping his head down with a slight frown. ...The Stygian key might, though. The entire point is that it aligns you closer with the dead. But it couldn't have known that he was going after that. Could it?

[runs]

"...Or maybe it just thought that it would. If it was failing, it might not have been thinking straight any more and only tried to follow through with something that it always did." Protecting people from themselves, maybe.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"I guess so." Ryoji sighs. "It was really hard to understand. I might not have understood some of it right, too..." He's not sure how much he took from the conversation is what it meant.

[runs]

"...Do you know anyone else who met that angel?"

Maybe two people's takes on what they heard could be come by without her finding that thing, too.

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji shakes his head sadly. "No. Sorry."

[runs]

Then she'll have to meet it.

Or at least find and watch it.

...But if it only showed itself to Ryoji because it wanted to be seen - wait. It shouldn't matter for her, should it? Because she can see the gears.

"I should be able to see it even if it doesn't want to be seen, so if we go around places where it might be found, I'll see it even if it doesn't try to talk to you."

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji is not at all sure this is a good idea, considering Tobias's warnings, but... "Alright. I... we can try, I guess." He at least knows where two Gates are.

[runs]

"If we can't find it you can still go back and ask the person you met in the underworld about more details."

Because she would like to have a bit more clarity if she is being given warnings. Try not to die is ...something that she generally tries not to do.

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji nods. "We'll try this first." So... off they walk towards the Gate he first found it at, in the sixth district.

[runs]

Kitty will skip along, trying to stay oriented. She's slowly learning to navigate Hex, doing her level best to get as much of it laid out in her head as possible - a good knowledge of the area can be the difference between getting away and being caught and shot, or any number of other things.