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

[runs]

That's a good point. "Try, at least. If it doesn't work, we can just say that you owe me one."

[helborn]

"Okay! Sounds good to me. Oh, I'm Casper, by the way. This is Bob." Bob just nudges Casper with his head. Stop this, you're being an idiot.

[runs]

She looks forth and back between Bob and Casper to gain a moment to decide on which name she should use, and then settles on a fake one. She'll give him quite a lot of other real information, so she'll at least try to stay a bit harder to track down if he's not as gullible and transparent as he pretends to be.

"I'm Ebru. It's good to meet you.

There's a burger chain around the corner that they say is pretty good." Look, she's not asking much, at least.

[helborn]

He stares at her, and sighs, before smiling. Is that a lie? It's ringing both true and not true. Maybe he should doublecheck that things are working right. "Sure. Sounds good to me."

[runs]

Well, it is her best fake ID and the one that she always uses when she needs to do legal stuff back home, Ebru Özdemir. She's been Ebru a lot, so there probably is a spark of truth in it being her name.

"So did you only arrive today or have you been here longer than that?"

She'll lead him down the road and to the aforementioned burger chain.

[helborn]

"Just got here today! It's been a while since I was in a big city with so many people. We tend to avoid big populations. Less chance of people getting hurt." Scion fights tend to be big and explosive, and then there's the souls he was dragging around...

[runs]

"We?"

That description about avoiding big populations so less people get hurt is pretty ominous.

[helborn]

"People like me. The people I'm traveling with - I at least try to get them away from bigger populations. They don't always listen to me, but -"

Bob lashes out, grabbing one of Casper's fingers and biting down hard enough to leave a mark. He frowns and looks over at the raven, even as he follows Ebru. "What? What's the -"

He's interrupted by a loud burst of squawking, which makes him flinch as he listens. "But I - I mean you - look, it's not like - but we're not -"

Casper lets out a deep breath and hangs his head. "... Yeah. Okay."

[runs]

She watches the exchange with both frustration and the mounting urge to laugh. It's really not hard to guess what message Bob is trying to impart on his hapless human partner.

Okay, by the end of it she is laughing.

And when she finally stops, she addresses Bob directly.

"He can tell me, because we're similar when compared to this place. But I'll try to explain to him why he shouldn't tell anyone else, so you don't have to bite him more."

[helborn]

The raven stares at her for a moment, before settling down. Fine, as long as he doesn't have to run around disciplining this idiot...

"Sorry about that... he's... uh. Really opinionated."

[runs]

"He reminds me of a guy I met a little while ago."

Makoto. She's talking about Makoto.

"We can get take-out and find a more secluded place, but that'll be colder." And a burger joint, she figures, should be loud enough to have important conversations in it without being overheard. Her preference is quite clear in the way she makes the offer.

[helborn]

"Whichever you think is best..." Really, as long as it's clear of titanspawn and not going to erupt into zombies like the last fast food place he was at, it's fine with him.

[runs]

"Inside."

She bobs her head and marches him along into the burger joint.

"What money do you have?"

[helborn]

"Uh... American money? I think I've got like twenty bucks..." The bills aren't in the best shape, but they should be acceptable.

[runs]

"They call it dollars." All she knows is that what money she had on her when arriving was perfectly useless. They don't accept Nuyen, Euro or even any Scrip here.

She digs into her pocket and pulls out a crumpled, ambiguously dirty dollar note. "Like this."

[helborn]

"Dollars, bucks, cash... it's all slang for the same thing." He opens his wallet and pulls out a rather crumpled ten, and then a five, and - oh. He stares for a moment. "Eighteen, sorry."

[runs]

"That should be enough for two meals."

It looks like the right kind of money, at least. And it is, and is sufficient for two meals. The cashier is surprisingly chipper for the busy time of the day and her job maybe she's related to Ryoji and tells Caspar how nice it is that he's taking his little sister out and if that is a real pet raven? She'd love to pet it if there weren't rules against touching animals during working times - right boss, she'll get on the next costumer - have a nice evening! and she waves at them before getting to the next order.

Kitty will steer them to a corner that is fairly secluded, making sure that there is a family with an especially set of kids sitting nearby. "You're old enough to find a job here, so you'll be able to get more money."

[helborn]

Casper is grateful that Bob is intelligent enough to shut up during the whole exchange, and sits down with Kitty. It's... almost unsettling to sit down to a normal meal without ghosts yelling at him, or sitting around the campfire, or watching strange creatures roam past.

"I don't know - I mean, maybe? I'm not an American citizen, and this place reminds me of America a lot... maybe, though. I kind of... have to get back. I have stuff to do at home."

[runs]

"I don't think there's a way back."

What happened to the people that arrived with her? She never saw them again, but there were very few of them to begin with and the city is big. And there's the farmlands and other places that she doesn't go to, too.

"Do you remember how you got here?

And they don't know what America is here, they don't know anything outside of the Wall. ...There's nothing on the other side of it, or at least nothing that you can see, so that's not that surprising." It reminds her of the stories that she's heard of Tír na nÓg. The island surrounded by magical fog.

[helborn]

"... outside of - that explains a few things." The fact that no one seemed to know the places he'd said... but even inquiries about Yggdrasill had gone unanswered, once he'd asked, just earning him stares. "And... I stepped through a doorway I found in an abandoned house, and ended up walking out onto a street. I have no idea, because when I looked, there was no door."

He chomps down on a few fries, taking another look at her. Gold eyes, like a cat's? ... Not the weirdest he's seen. "But I really have to get there, though. I've got deliveries to make, and I have people to help, and... ugh. There's got to be some way..."

[runs]

"Me too. There are doors that go to other places from here, but I don't think they go back anywhere. And nobody has ever even heard of someone who's not from around here." It reeks of magic, but at the same time a magic powerful enough to do this, and the weird gear stuff...

"I think it has something to do with the gears and weird bridges and nets Downtown. But you shouldn't try to damage them because then an angel will come and kill you." Or so she has been told, and she's not terribly much in the mood to try it out. Hajime and the coffeeshop guy combined are sufficiently convincing to stave off even a little cat's curiosity. At least temporarily.

"Can't the people you work with replace you?" She hates the thought of having been replaced, but it's also relieving, in a way. They've lost team members before and it didn't break the team, only made it ...stronger, or at least different.

[helborn]

"Other places? I can get to some places through other places... maybe I should check them out." But he listens more, frowning. Angels? But that mythology is the only one he knows that no one's seen proof of. No one he knows of, at least.

But then she says that, and he sucks in a breath, gripping the side of the table tightly. Replace him? They'd probably be better off, and maybe happier, but... "... Probably. I just... don't want to be replaced." His voice is slightly strained, and he does his best to keep his expression steady.

[runs]

"The only one that I've seen goes to the place where the dead are." Or at least that was her understanding of it. As weird as it sounds. But this whole place is weird, so she's a lot more ready to accept it than she would be back home. "I don't think just everyone can open it."

...She really has no idea what to do with that reaction. He's obviously not doing well with the thought. "Why not? You fill a specific role in your team, don't you? So even if they're really sad that you're gone because you were friends, too, they won't work well any more if they don't find someone new."

[helborn]

"Oh. That shouldn't be too much of a problem." He's not totally sure how to open one, but it shouldn't be a huge issue. Not for someone like him, right? Right.

"But... um. I don't... know that I'm... I mean, they're my... friends. Just thinking that I don't mean a lot to them... kind of hurts."

[runs]

"We should go looking together." Two is better than one, after all.

"That's different. If the team that you work with replaces you after you left it just meant that you were really necessary. It doesn't mean that they replace you as a friend. Like, if my team got someone instead of me because I'm gone, that won't be a new Ebru, just a new infiltration person." Don't suggest to her that Chantalle could get a new cat, though. Ever. Because that's totally different and not allowed.