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

Hajime | Open

[chalicejoker]

[Infrastructure Saleswoman - NPC Requested]
Hajime knows good and well what the Infrastructure is. He's also pretty sure he knows what the guy who keeps making repeated excuses to pass by the booth is. Got to be careful.

He'll remember everything he sees; he only needs to visit once, casually, as though he's just a normal human. He keeps a curious expression on his face as he approaches. "...so what is all this stuff, anyway?"

[Goblin Market General]
Hajime knows better than to bring his camera to something like this. The reactions to the bonfire on the beach photography had been bad enough, but this was even more overtly strange. He supposes he should feel more at home, but he does not. He's distracted enough observing things that he has for the moment forgotten to try to give himself a proper curious human expression, which just might give him the impression of one who has done things like this so many times before that it's lost some of the novelty. Not what he's going for, but he should have thought of that before going in.

[movingon]

People that she didn't expect to run into here: Hajime (though she probably should have).

People who she doesn't want to run into in this city ...okay, that list is far longer, but in the end the only named item on it is the aggressive bug guy.

Either way, Hajime gets a glare whenever they cross paths, but she'll try to stay away from him. This seems like the worst place to start a fight, and going by earlier interactions that's probably what will happen.

[chalicejoker]

This is indeed a terrible place to start a fight, not that this has stopped Hajime in the past. But he has even less reason to want to start anything today; that one booth selling the gears is a little worrisome. Using demonic power in front of that likely wouldn't end well. Malin's not the only one dishing out glares today.

[movingon]

They'll get around to more than glares again eventually.

For now, she actually stops next to Hajime and looks into the direction into which he looked before spotting her, curious what interested him so. Gears, huh?

"I see you are in a calmer mood today."

[chalicejoker]

"I could say the same for you." Hajime's scowl deepens. It is a mark of his irritation that he makes the effort to make the proper expressions.

[movingon]

"I am always calm, except for when I get ...unduly startled."

She'll pull her scarf down and flash him a toothy grin for effect.

It might not be sensible, but this place... for the first time in years she doesn't feel incredibly out of place in her body, and it makes her fall into patterns that she mostly abandoned during and after her time in Lise's hands.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime doesn't really react to the fangs. No shock, no thin smile of his own. Just indifference. "It's possible to be calm and still be trouble."

[movingon]

"Certainly. Though it will more be the more trouble for others and not for oneself the calmer one is."

That's disappointing, but there's no reason to return the scarf to where it was. Not that there was a reason to have it up with him in the first place, considering that he's rather acquainted with her fangs and claws, anyway.

[chalicejoker]

That's the beauty of having absolute control over your facial expressions; they don't get the satisfaction of seeing a reaction at something they're trying to surprise you with. "Easier to keep one's head in a fight that way."

[movingon]

"You should look into it, then." She ponders him for a bit, pretending to study his features and come to a decision. "Especially since those who care about such things wouldn't leave it on your shoulders simply because it is too beautiful to remove it." Yes, she just called his human cover ugly without saying it.

Goblin market

[crazycatvampire]

That's a face Corwin knows, and didn't expect to see here! The lack of curiosity goes right over his head, and he just makes his awkward way over, waving cheerfully. "Hello! Hello, Hajime! You made it here!"

[chalicejoker]

"...hello." He is so good at this socializing thing. There's a shrug. "I suppose I did." There's a pause. "You seem to have found it as well."

Such a good conversationalist.

[crazycatvampire]

"I looked for it," Corwin admits cheerfully. He doesn't even have his hood up, though his sunglasses are on so at least Hajime can't see his terribly fathomless (and white-less) eyes. "Who wouldn't want to visit a market like this? You can find so many extraordinary things here!"

[chalicejoker]

"I probably should have brought my camera," Hajime agrees, though his flawless demon memory means that there's really no need unless he wanted to sell the images, "but something tells me that the ones running the thing would not appreciate that."

[crazycatvampire]

"Oh, probably not. And a lot of things probably wouldn't even show up on camera," Corwin points out, without finding that an odd thing to say. "And even if they did, probably most people would say you made it up, photoshopped the image." Yes, the inhuman, soulless creature masquerading as a person knows the word "photoshopped".

[chalicejoker]

"Oh, probably. It's not worth the trouble." Hajime shakes his head. "I'm not enough of an artist to photoshop much of anything other than color balance. Suddenly showing up with that sort of thing would raise too many questions."

[crazycatvampire]

"I wouldn't want to have to explain questions like that," Corwin agrees. He's lucky he has a job, at all, to be honest, and he's probably only because no one really wants to look at the people collecting their trash. "Are you looking for anything in particular here, or just browsing?"

[modmachine]

"Bits and bobs I get from pests in my gardens," she says sweetly. "I sell whatever's not useful for me."

[chalicejoker]

...the hell kind of pests are you getting out there, lady? Hajime's wariness never hits his facial expression. "What are they for?" He's still trying to paint a picture of earnest curiosity, and he reaches out to touch one...and then hesitates. Sure, it might help sell that human curiosity act, but mostly, he's not sure he wants to touch these bits of infrastructure.

[modmachine]

Nasty ones, if the blood's any indication. she shrugs. "All kinds of weird stuff. Some of them might not be useful for anything. I've turned a couple into computer drives, that sort of thing."

[chalicejoker]

All of this strikes Hajime as an absolutely terrible idea, though it doesn't show on his face. He's just going to try to play up the "clueless human wandered in here" angle as best he can. "...what's...what's that stuff on them?" He still appears very hesitant to touch one, and he puts a bit of concern into his voice. No intention of touching them, especially if this is some kind of strange trap.

[modmachine]

"Some blood, some sap, some oils..." She lifts one of the bloody ones delicately between her fingers. "At least, I assume it's blood. Smells like it. Could be something else."

[chalicejoker]

Hajime makes sure to keep up that very uneasy expression he's got on his human face. "What...kind of blood?" He knows what kind. He wants to see if she'd even pretend to know. Granted, if she's not sure if it's blood at all...but it seems a human enough question to ask. He very much needs to sell the "just a hapless human wandered into the market" act here, if nothing else.

[modmachine]

She shrugs. "If you know how to tell the blood of different red-blooded animals apart, you're welcome to try. Not my division, really."

[chalicejoker]

"That's...uh...no." Hajime shakes his head. "So they were already like that when you found them?"