WEEK 04

[modmachine]

Weather: If you ask the residents, it's freezing, though it technically hasn't dropped that low yet. A rather nasty rainstorm does pick up steam late Tuesday and last well into Thursday night, however, so it might be a little justified on the part of the unfortunate souls stuck out in it.

Moon phase: Monday the 21st is the last-quarter moon, and the crescent is hidden behind clouds until Friday night.

Carried on from last week: After Ryoji and Kitty open an Underworld gate, the ice from the week before melts away over the next day or so, unsealing the rest of them. The thickly-built man can still be found watching the construction site, though no further strange accidents occur.

It's Black Friday Somewhere - the Goblin Market:

On Wednesday night, flyers start getting tacked up in weird places; the ink used in them is an ancient sort that runs in the rain, but if you can manage to find one that's intact, it speaks of an open exchange of goods... But the location is left mysterious. Those with any kind of supernatural sight, however, will find that the running ink leaves behind a quite useful map when the flyer is taken down.

The Goblin Market sets itself up in the early hours of Friday morning that can technically be called Thursday night, booths full of oddities going up in the central park while the last of the raindrops still sprinkle through the trees. The market is separated from the rest of the park by three strange gates set around the perimeter, all of them formed of two poles strung with flowers. Passing through them causes a strange sensation like stepping through the surface of a pool; inside the market, Changeling masks are disabled, and other illusions have difficulty working properly. Only the Covers created by the God-Machine, whether they belong to angel or demon, remain unaffected.

Almost anything can be found here for the right price, if you know who to talk to or just wander around long enough, and there are changelings on the ground practically from the moment the stalls are set up. The market is open for roughly 24 hours.

A few highlights;

• The Boss: Whoever this guy is, he's Big News. Dressed in what seems to be a suit made entirely of burlap sacks, he has a glittering woman on each arm wherever he goes in the market. The expressions on the women are dazed and dreamy; they sigh periodically. Three glittering children follow after him, occasionally being sent on errands for this or that in the market, and they'll stop long enough to wave if they come across Kitty before going back to work. Occasionally, their boss pulls a glittering beetle or some other insect out from the folds of his suit... and eats it.


• A pair of horned shopkeepers share a stall; one sells a variety of engraved weapons, and the other, star charts. Occasionally, the astronomer glances up at the sky and scribbles something down in a notebook in his lap. Strangely, though their booth has no cover, nothing within seems at any risk of getting wet, and the blade-seller can occasionally be seen flicking water away with his fingers. A banner across the front of their stall proclaims 'PROPHECIES CHEAP.'


• A large enclosure is home to a number of strange animals, ranging from small birds whose voices induce synesthesia, to glittering insects (not unlike the ones someone else at the market is snacking on), to chimeras, to a single, inexplicably normal giraffe. Every couple of hours, the animal seller has to leave to chase down one of several pink puppies that attempt to escape his notice and run freely through the market.


• At dawn and sunset, a golden-haired Fairest ascends the small stage in the back corner to sing. When she does, almost all the market goes still to listen to her voice. The only person who seems capable of moving is her black-wrapped companion; only his eyes are visible, and he rolls them regularly, but no one seems willing to test him by approaching the woman he accompanies.


• A young woman sells gears that are clearly ripped off pieces of Infrastructure, for those who know what to look for. She doesn't seem concerned by the fact that a number of them are covered in blood or other fluids, or by the single angel who is doing a very poor job of finding excuses to walk past her booth repeatedly. Closer inspection will reveal that her dark 'skin' is in fact entirely made of wood, and gears like those she sells have been carefully embedded in it.


• There is an informational booth from the local university, which seems to be accepting payment for winter tuition in whatever barter people have brought. It is by fair the most mundane-looking set of tables in the place, except for the slowly-growing collection of odd payments behind the registrar. Her assistant, a tired-looking adjunct professor, appears to be human, and occasionally rubs his eyes and mutters to himself over some of the stranger applicants.


• A certain Art Student from said university, who is distinctly staying as far away from that booth as possible, and instead looking at a half-a-table full of magically bright pigments. It might be a bit difficult to recognize her, though, with the hood high around her head blocking most of her face from view and the streaks of temporary pink dye in her bangs.


• A girl of about twelve, running about the market unsupervised, occasionally produces a strand of her gleaming silver hair to trade for seemingly worthless items. By day's end, these strands are one of the most in-demand pieces of merchandise in the market.


• A creature that looks like nothing so much as it does a metal statue of an antelope harshly appraises goblin fruit at the various stalls offering such. In the late afternoon, one seller takes issue with this assessment, and attempts to start a fight, but passes through the creature as though it were air. In fact, the goblin fruit seem to be the only thing that it can touch.

EVERYTHING ELSE:

The Hunt is On: The day after the goblin market brings an unusual number of gun-wielding farmers into town - as well as their richer, fancier counterparts. There seems to be some tension between the two groups of hunters; those who spot an encounter between the two near the central parks can almost feel it in the air.At nightfall, the two groups assemble at opposite ends of the park, and chase... something through the grounds that previously hosted the Goblin Market. Though it seems to be a competition, neither group is successful in taking their quarry.

Spooky Scary: Network Zero goes through bursts of activity, and it’s started bursting again with rumors of one particular warehouse in the Sixth being haunted. Indeed, anyone who wanders over towards it can find a scruffy-looking Cameraman with a handheld camcorder poking behind boxes and trying to catch… something on camera.

Long Nights at Church:The greeter normally stationed outside St. Madeleine's church belltower seems uneasy, glancing up at the empty tower repeatedly throughout the weeknight services. Finally, on Sunday night, after all the human worshippers have gone home, she takes one of the largest of the handbells from holiday practice and takes it up the tower, ringing it twelve times at midnight. Over the course of the next few hours, several other dwellers of the night climb the steps and make their confessionals into the empty space, each ringing the bell when they have finished.

Comments

[dangerouslyinlove]

But what about puppies

Ryoji is mostly just wandering around the Goblin Market for the heck of it- while he's sure he could find some of the waters of the Underworld, he's pretty sure buying them is defeating the purpose for his current venture. But it's fun to look around, and who knows? Maybe he'll find something interesting! (Hopefully it won't be too expensive- it's always dangerous to get attached to something without knowing how much it costs here.)

And sometimes, those things he's interested in are puppies. "Awww, look at you!" he coos at one of the escape dogs, bending down to let it sniff at his hand, "Where did you come from?" Usually you wouldn't expect a dog to answer, but he's not sure it won't.

Some new friends (NPC encounters needed)

The Fairest and her singing does get his attention... but of course, he completely avoids her to talk to the mysterious cloaked figure. "Hi! What's your name?" ...He has to be a little more careful about just giving out his own name, here.

Though, there is someone he knows here as well. He's kind of surprised and also kind of not, once he finally gets a good look at the girl's face when she's focusing in on paints, but Thanatos can help with that a bit. He slides up next to her, looking over the paints. "Wow, these are really pretty! Are you gonna get any?" Said as if this is a totally normal place to run into someone.

Haunted House (maybe an NPC??? idk)

The warehouse has been on Ryoji's radar as well, and he goes and checks up on it (and the no longer frozen Gates) every so often. He's less interested in what the camerman's up to (though Thanatos is kind of fussy about him) and more interested in seeing if it's actually haunted. It's pretty easy to find him wandering around it, periodically sitting on the floor quietly in the middle of and debating whether or not he should try and trigger a vision.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime has a camera on him just in case there really is something going on here, but he doesn't expect to use it. There's already a cameraman here, though Hajime's got a film camera and not a camcorder. He hadn't been expecting to find the kid sitting on the floor all quiet like this.

...maybe he should leave before he's noticed...

[dangerouslyinlove]

Nope, too late. Ryoji spots him and waves with a bright smile. "Hi! How are you? Are you taking pictures?" He seems to usually be taking pictures.

[chalicejoker]

"No, I think he is." Hajime jerks a thumb at the cameraman with the video camera. "I'm just...curious." There's a pause. "What are you doing here?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

"Oh. Yeah, him." Ryoji hopes his presence is annoying the other cameraman. "You still brought your camera, though. I'm just kind of hanging out here. It's nice and quiet!" And he's looking for ghosts, since he actually see those.

[chalicejoker]

"Libraries are quiet, too," Hajime points out. With anyone else, it might have been an attempt at humor. With Hajime, it is a genuine observation.

[runs]

He's not the only one who found a puppy, Kitty got one too.

And has absolutely no idea what to do with it. She's a cat, dogs are... y'know. (Very obviously a cat right now that her mask has failed and looking at her surroundings she figured that contacts wouldn't be necessary, so that in the dim lightning most of her eyes are reflective yellow, and the slightly odd form of her eyes stands out much more.)

"Hey!" She wanders over to where Ryoji is, holding the puppy that she just caught in both hands, and stops next to where he is. "You got one, too." She's still undecided what to do with hers. Technically, she knows where they go, but since they aren't there any more...

[dangerouslyinlove]

Kitty having a puppy is kind of hilarious, honestly. "I did!" he says with a smiling, patting the dog on the head, "I guess they must have escaped from somewhere, huh?" That's a shame. He kind of wants to keep it but it would probably look weird. And is likely too expensive.

[runs]

"But now they're free and don't belong to anyone." And they're pretty dumb - it would be much more sensible to run away if the other option is being sold to you-know-not-whom. And they're obviously already able to run around. They should make a run for it, in her opinion.

But what should you expect from dogs.

She holds the puppy that she's holding up. "Do you want this one, too?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

They might be dumb, but they are very cute. "Sure!" he says, beaming at her, "I can at least keep an eye on them." And pet them. That will keep them occupied. And Kitty prooobably doesn't want to be stuck with it.

[runs]

"They'll have to be fed and taken out for a walk, too." Dogs are pretty dependent creatures, after all.

That is, if he's going to keep them in the long run and not just... sit around and pet them until the stall keeper finds him or the market ends. Which, admittedly, is more likely, but a girl can tease.

PUPPIES

[crazycatvampire]

Corwin may in fact be slowly and carefully chasing that dog, trying not to spook it, or to spook it back in the direction of the animal enclosure. He spots Ryoji and waves, but doesn't speak, not wanting to disturb the poor animal. Cats are his favorite, of course, but he still likes other animals as well, and he hates to upset any of them unless they're causing trouble.

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji waves back, smiling brightly. It doesn't surprise him at all to see Corwin here. "Hi!" he says cheerfully, still petting the dog, "How are you doing?"

[crazycatvampire]

The Promethean hangs back, but he leans forward a little hopefully, smiling. He isn't wearing his hood today, and there's a tiny rent in his cheek that's leaking little black glowing bits, like stars made out of darkness. Here, amidst the changlings and fae and other supernaturals, that doesn't stand out as much.

"I'm all right. How are you doing?" Small talk! He knows how to small talk!

[dangerouslyinlove]

Small talk is a very important human skill. Ryoji is basically a master of it. "That's good! I'm doing ok. Did you see the puppies?" It would be hard to miss the one right in front of him, rolling around as Ryoji rubbed its belly. It's a very good puppy.

[crazycatvampire]

"I did! That's how I found you, I was following that one." He points at the one Ryoji is petting. "I can't get too close, though, or I'll scare him. I can show you where they came from, if you want to take him back."

one is silver

[modmachine]

The figure seems at first surprised that this human is addressing him - up close, Ryoji will see that the man's eyes, the only part of him not hidden under black fabric, are almost violently uneven, one small and dark and the other large and a light blue-grey - but that quickly turns to annoyance. "What do you want?" His voice is kind of raspy and carries more than a little suspicion.

[dangerouslyinlove]

Suspicion bounces off Ryoji, and he smiles. "I wanted to say hi!" he says cheerfully, "There are a lot of people here that I've never met before!" And Ryoji believes in meeting as many people as he can. One of the ways to get the most out of life.

[modmachine]

The man is giving him a suspicious look still. "And so you intend to assault everyone in range with incessant friendliness?"

The woman, coming down from the stage, is hiding a laugh behind her hand as she approaches. "Oh, enough. One friendly human isn't going to hurt you any." Ryoji will notice that the air around her is significantly warmer than the rest of the area.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"Pretty much." Yeah. He does that.

Ryoji smiles at the woman too, noting the warmth. Magic is weird. "Your singing was really nice!" he says cheerfully to her as she joins the conversation. He knows that is also magic but it's still true.

[modmachine]

The man glares, not responding verbally, but Ryoji will probably feel the harsh chill of a late-autumn wind even without the air actually moving. Then he turns away, letting the woman - clearly the actually social one - do the conversing.

"Thank you," she says, smiling. It's the kind of smile that would make people's knees go weak even seen through a grainy television screen, almost certainly another magic. No doubt she gets the compliment constantly, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. "And please forgive my brother. He'd hole himself up in a mountain cave if he could."

and the other gold

[modmachine]

She startles pretty obviously, then fixes Ryoji with an 'are you serious' look from under her bangs. There's not much point in disguising herself now that she's been recognized, though. "I kind of like the pink. It's got terms and conditions, though." She reaches out with one hand - she's wearing fake nails - and flicks a finger against the little paper tucked under the pot of pigment.

[dangerouslyinlove]

Look, at least he didn't call out her name. He's not that stupid. "Yeah, I guess it would..." Ryoji looks down at it, frowning. If he's allowed to pick it up and look at the terms, he will.

[modmachine]

He's totally allowed! They're pretty simple terms, really.

"There's some magical ones, too, but I haven't looked at those too closely. They don't always turn out right outside places like this."

[dangerouslyinlove]

...Ryoji feels like there's a joke here, but he doesn't know what it is. He's pretty sure Ci's not... whoever that is.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense." Magic is weird. "Have you tried them before?"