cityofhex | WEEK 04

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WEEK 04

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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.

"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.

"Inside."

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

"What money do you have?"

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

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."

"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.

"... 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..."

"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.

"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.

"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."

"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."

"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.

"Sounds good to me."

He thinks over her words, thinks about those in their group. ... And sighs. There's people who can take over his role... as awful as it sounds. Aiden can scout, Red can fight, and the others can fill in for basically anything else he could do. "I... I guess. I still want to get back, though. Any sort of help fighting the Titans is probably needed..."

"Titans?"

She hasn't heard of that, neither back home nor here. That is, not as real entities. Sports teams, stories, and so on, sure.

"Yeah. Like..." He glances around, and drops his volume a bit. "Like giant... creatures from before the gods. They hate the gods and hate everything connected to them, which is... pretty much everything."

Your world is weird, dude. ~~Because dragons owning worldwide megacorporations, people melting their mind with machines and AIs taking over people's bodies is totally not weird at all.~~

"I don't think they have them here. Only vampires and werewolves and such." You know, the normal things.

"Oh they - wait, there's vampires here, too?" He brightens a bit, smiling. "I know there were some in the city where I grew up, but my dad told me never to tell anyone."

"They are different from the ones back home, though. And," since Casper breached the topic, "you shouldn't tell anyone here, either. Because everyone here tries to not let mundane people know that magic and magic creatures and such exist. And they're really good at keeping it a secret and probably will kill you if you don't protect it, too." The last one is a deduction on her part, but the various groups have to have solid mechanisms in place to make sure that the secret doesn't get spilled, if all that secrecy worked for so long.

He almost smiles at the mention of killing him. He's... done that before, he's not afraid of it so much. Not if it's for a good reason. "I'm not going to tell anyone. But uh... that might be kind of... a problem... since Bob follows me pretty much everywhere."

Of course he's not going to say just why he has to. Not yet, at least. That's not a good subject to broach so easily.

"If you keep him close, people will just think that he's a normal raven. Humans are really good at only seeing what they expect."

And if they don't realize that magic exists, then they probably won't realize when essence is in the wrong place, considering how tightly the two are interwoven.

"True. Hopefully people won't ask me too many questions about him. Maybe we can get you a tiny leash."

That earns him a peck on the side of the head and a suddenly disappearing fry from his hand down Bob's gullet.

"...If you need a place to stay, there's a tent city in the park where nobody asks questions, but in the middle of the winter it might be better for you to find a job and make rent as quickly as possible." The solution that her and Tobias found is good, but it is far from perfect and there's always the worry that they will be kicked out or some gang will claim the place. "There are always abandoned houses in the 6th that you can stay in for a night or two, too, but sometimes people wander in so that isn't necessarily safe."

Hm, what else. "If there's magic where you're from it might work differently from how it works here, so if you see someone or something that resembles someone or something that you know from home, they might not be the same thing. And there are a lot of vampires in downtown at night."

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