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]

"Is it normal for people to do the same work as their parents did where you're from?"

At least she assumes that that is what he's referring to.

It's the easiest part of what he said, the one that she can relate to the most, Bodies... the only people who were important enough to her that she might have had an interest in them past their passing didn't have bodies that could have been retrieved, at least not safely, and so she never spent much of a thought on what you do with them if you can get your hands on them. Dead animals got usually thrown in the bin in the area where she lived, so she'd kind of assumed that the same happened with people. Sure, she's seen burials on TV and heard people talk about it, but she just assumed that it was an eccentric thing rich people did, like pools.

"What's cremation?"

[helborn]

"Sometimes? Not always. But it's something I enjoy, and it's something not a lot of people really are comfortable doing, so I feel like someone who isn't bothered by death should take up that kind of role."

As for her other question... "Cremation is... burning. Putting a body into a big oven and cooking it until it's ash, and breaking down the bones. Sometimes people keep the ashes in a special container, and sometimes they scatter the ashes in a place that the person liked - the ocean, the forest, in the garden... we didn't do that at our location, but we had business partnerships with some places that did."

[runs]

That is all ...really creepy and weird and fascinating at once.

"Do a lot of people get rid of bodies like that?"

[helborn]

"Some people do. Buying burial space can be really expensive, so it's cheaper and easier to cremate someone." The ghost shows up either way if they've got attachments. It doesn't matter what happens to the body, really.

[runs]

"So that's what people who don't have much money but still don't want to put their dead in the bin do?"

She can't quite see how it's different right now, political and social occasion aside (but if you have no money...) but perhaps if she attended such a thing she would know. As far as she is concerned, as soon as someone is dead and you are certain that they're dead, they're gone from it. The body is just... not important anymore. At the slim chance that they're still around somewhere, it won't be in there (specifically, they might still be in the matrix, though she's only met one such case).

[helborn]

"... Yeah. There's laws about how you can dispose of bodies. Some of them are just because people are squeamish, but others are because of health concerns. You wouldn't want someone who died of a disease to be hanging around where someone could get infected or something like that."

He'd gotten sick more than once by being around corpses when he was younger. Calling school to let them know Casper was really sick was always an adventure for his dad.

[runs]

"So the government cares about everyone, at least nominally, like here, or are they just worried that an epidemic might spread past the slums? Or are those laws only good if the person legally existed?"

She has no idea how any of this works back home, really. But some of the areas north of where she is from... where the poor areas turn into some of the worst slums that the Ruhrsprawl has? She kind of doubts that dead bodies are necessarily disposed of in expensive ways there, or that authorities would care unless there is a very good reason for them to care.

[helborn]

"Possibly all of the above. Some people are selfish, but I'd like to think that most people are basically good. And if the person never legally existed... I guess you might get in trouble anyway? I'm not sure."

He's only studied so much of the legal stuff... he's not looking forward to it. But people sometimes need laws to tell them to do the right thing, as much as he hates to admit it.

[runs]

She makes a face when he says that all people are basically good.

That's something that she absolutely can't believe that way. Not with some of the things that she's seen in her line of work. Ever extracted someone from a bio research facility run by a nominally independent facility secretly run by the great Az? Or been around when police went into a slum for anything? No, really, metahumanity being essentially good is not something that she can believe. It's just a thing that you have to live around.

"Enough people aren’t basically good to make all the difference needed, and humans can be some of the worst because they're the majority."

[helborn]

"... I know they can be awful. But I still prefer they have the world rather than the Titans. I think that... with some nudging, they can make a better world. I mean... I thought I was totally human for a long time. I know what they can be like. But... I still believe in them."

He has to. Just letting the Titans destroy everything would be worse. He's not sure why anyone would think that the other option is acceptable... even though he's started to see a few people that believe that. The idea makes him... really sad.

[runs]

It doesn't really matter who runs the world. The boss of a gang, of a syndicate and a triple-A corporation might have different amounts of power at their hands, but from what she's seen they aren't that different in how they act. Yes, there are good people, but they tend to not be the ones in charge.

"What would the titans do with the world?"

[helborn]

"They'd... basically kill everything. Run stuff into the ground. Kill people, throw humans into brutal games, make weather go crazy... blight the land, tear through animals... all of that sort of stuff."

[runs]

Yeah, definitely better to not let them win. She has to wonder though...

"Why?"

[helborn]

He's quiet for a few long moments. It's a good question, but...

"... I don't know. I only know what I've been told."

[runs]

"Who told you?"

In other word, can his source be trusted?

...What does it even mean to her? He seems to be from her world, but ...not. Some of what he has said decidedly doesn't match.

[helborn]

"Some of the people in the base. My mother told me a little bit... and she wouldn't lie to me."

Would she? He's pretty sure she wouldn't. She can be cruel, but she wouldn't lie. ... Right?

[runs]

"...what year are you from?"

Some certainty about just how similar their worlds are might be good, and starting with the year is probably best.

[helborn]

"Uh. 2005?" Unless... no, he didn't miss New Year's. Just barely, actually, he's pretty sure.

[runs]

Oh, no. That's history.

Okay, okay, the one year that she should know, that Ivokat and Eärendil had insisted she knew... uh. 2011. Yes.

So there shouldn't be magic all over the place yet in his time. Or at least not much, and it sounded like there was quite a lot. Like vampires required quite a lot, didn't they?

"But you have magic and such. Do you have elves?"

[helborn]

"... I'm sure they do. I haven't seen any, but I think they live in Alfheim? And probably also places, too." The other pantheons have them too, right?

[runs]

"And dragons? Trolls? And what exactly are titans?"

[helborn]

"Dragons probably exist, though I haven't met any. I've... met a lot of trolls. They're... uh. Well, they're definitely... I haven't met any really nice ones, but I'm sure some exist? And Titans are... well. They're kind of primordial concepts. They made the world, but then the gods took over in a war. They imprisoned the Titans, and now the Titans want revenge."

He hesitates for a moment. "I can understand why, but it's not like we can afford to let them win."

[runs]

"We have nice trolls where I'm from." Well, for a definition of nice, but that's true for every being on the planet. Simon's pretty cool, even if he's not the brightest crayon in the box but then well.

Troll.

...It really sounds like they're from different worlds, though. So the person that Ryoji had met in the Underworld probably was from somewhere else, too...

"And there really was nobody with you when you came here?" She vaguely remembers there having been other when she arrived, after all. Not that she paid attention to them at that time.

[helborn]

"No. Was there supposed to be? I didn't see anyone, at least, and none of the others came with me." He's... a little glad, though. If they've all got to keep fighting... the others all at least have a role.

[runs]

"There were some when I arrived. But I didn't talk to any of them and when I turned around they were gone."

She vaguely remembers a figure in a coat and two ...women? Maybe?