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

[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.

[dangerouslyinlove]

It doesn't take them too long to get there, Ryoji knowing the city well enough to find shortcuts, but even if there is an angel there he doesn't notice it, since... well, the iced over Gate catches his eye. "...Ah." Maybe he should not be trying to find the Angel, then, since... that seems kind of familiar.

[runs]

Kitty looks around but then exhales in disappointment and shakes her head before eyeing the iced over Gate.

"...Was it like that before?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

"No..." Ryoji bends down by it, looking over it. "This isn't a thing that's supposed to happen, either. But... the Angel was very, very cold."

[runs]

Kitty will pull on her gloves - the regular ones, and crouch down to prod the ice with a fingertip, check if it does anything, ready to jump back in case it spreads. It's clearly unnatural, so that wouldn't even surprise her.

"So it used frost to seal those entrances?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

It doesn't seem too, Ryoji crouching down next to her just in case. "I guess so. I don't know why..." Not for any good reason, more than likely.

[runs]

"Have you tried thawing it? Like, with a lighter or something?"

What else could be done... well, she could try shooting it. Hit it.

Maybe something more large scale would work best, hitting the whole area at once. Like with an acidic wave. But that would leave marks that may be hard to explain away if someone finds the place later. Not that she'd have to do the explaining because she wouldn't be there, but if someone follows it... Everyone here seems to have rules about staying hidden. And with everyone obeying them, there's probably mechanisms enforcing them, too. She'd rather not get that kind of problem.

Shooting it or punching it, then.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"No, this is the first time I've seen it." You discovered this together, Kitty. He looks over it, humming. "Maybe... I think I've got a lighter on me. Maybe it'll melt?"

It takes him a minute to fish it out (why does he have one? because they're useful), but he flips it open and holds it next to the ice. It does actually melt, but the second he pulls the lighter away it freezes over again. "....Well that's kind of creepy."

[runs]

She stares down at it, frowning. That is creepy.

"Maybe the hole needs to be bigger."

Acid... but still. Acid might leave too much of a remainder.

"How do those doors to the other side work?" Would she risk breaking it if she punches the ice really hard?

[dangerouslyinlove]

"That's a good question." Aka, he doesn't actually know and it's very hard to explain what he does. "I mean, the door still needs to be there for it to work, but otherwise you have to know the specific ritual to open it."

[runs]

"What happens if the door gets damaged?"

The way she sizes up the ice-covered door in front of them should probably ring some alarm bells when paired with her question.

[dangerouslyinlove]

Thanatos flairs in Ryoji's mind, and he knows why. "Uh... if you break the gate, that's not good." Which is a slight lie- it could be fine, but Geists tend to really, really not like it. "Breaking the door could do that, but... denting it shouldn't?"

[runs]

Hm.

"I'll try to not break it."

But she will try to see if she can break the ice by punching it. Maybe she can direct it so that most of the impact goes sideways...

She pulls a hand back and then punches the ice, hitting it as centrally as she can at her height. The actual damage that it should do is of course not from the physical punch - she isn't particularly strong to begin with, punching a wall would just break her hand. It's the Immaterial Punch that she releases as soon as her hand touches the ice, altered so that it will only go as deep as the ice is and spread into all directions instead, meant to break up the structure of the ice so it will fall to the ground like very fine snow.

[modmachine]

And as very fine snow it falls! There's a bit of white sprinkling on the ground in front of her, though there's still a few chunks of ice on the edges of the gate. It certainly seems to be opened wide enough to make the gate usable, and doesn't seem to have harmed the magical entrance any.