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]

She kind of gambles on him not recognizing her when she hangs around a bit, and then decides that, hey, she's a kid. And this isn't the tent camp. And she's talked to him before - wearing a mask of a boy, so he shouldn't know about it, but she knows about it, and he was nice enough towards a curious child then.

She can just go over.

"You're broken." She points at his face. "There."

He's still unpleasant to be around, but she'll pay that price to get to see his reaction. Cats can be assholes, okay.

[crazycatvampire]

"What?" He blinks at her behind his sunglasses, then twitches back from her and claps a hand to his cheek, looking torn between horrified and embarrassed. "Oh dear. I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to see that. Let me just, er, patch that up. I'm very sorry."

Because of course it's his fault she's seeing his not-properly-human self, and it deserves to be apologized for.

[runs]

Well that sure is a reaction she wouldn't have been able to make up herself. It kind of fits with what he told her about being clumsy.

"...You can look like you are here, you know? Everybody does."

[crazycatvampire]

"Maybe for some people, but I don't want to frighten anyone. Not any more than I usually do, anyway." He sounds sad about that, but resigned, as if he knows it's his fault and doesn't blame anyone else for it. His fingers work quickly over the rent, pinching the skin back together as if it were clay, and when he drops his hand again, there is no more leakage. Another one will open up somewhere else eventually, but hopefully that will be under several layers of clothes.

[runs]

"It makes no difference what you look like. You always feel creepy."

But he starts fixing it up anyway, which, she has to admit, is pretty impressive. Healing is one thing, but just pinching the skin back together like that is a whole other level.

[crazycatvampire]

"It makes it worse when people see things that don't make sense," Corwin explains, running his fingers over the spot one more time, self-consciously, to make sure he's satisfied it's actually closed. "I am sorry about the creepy thing. I can't help it, it's just the way I'm made, so I just try to be as nonthreatening and nonscary as possible. It helps a little, sometimes."

[runs]

"But when people see why they feel creeped out they'll feel more at ease because it makes sense now."

Someone tell Kitty about Cthulu.

[crazycatvampire]

Yeah, it doesn't always work like that, Kitty... sorry, kid. "You've seen me and now you know part of why I'm creepy," Corwin points out. "Do you feel better about me now?"

[runs]

"Well, you don't look like it's because you're possessed."

That actually is something that makes her feel better. He's still creepy and unsettling, but it's a bit less worse. "Unless you are and that's another part of why you're creepy.

[crazycatvampire]

"No, I'm not possessed. I don't think, anyway. I can usually tell if there are spirits around, if they're not trying to hide," Corwin muses. Then he shakes his head, and explains: "No, I'm just not a real person yet. I'm hoping someday I will be, but it will take time and work and study. Until I am, everyone who is a real person is going to be unhappy around me."

[runs]

"...and you don't hate living people?"

AIs aren't quite what he described, but... too close for comfort with how he just put that.

[crazycatvampire]

"Oh, no, not at all! I like you all quite a lot, actually," Corwin says hastily. "Why else would I want to be like you? I don't want to see any of you hurt, and it does make me sad that being around me is so upsetting. There just isn't anything I can do about it, if I want to make it any better. I have to study you in order to be more like you."

[runs]

"...And that's all? Just watching and you'll gain essence?"

Since, as far as she can see, that is the primary problem here.

[crazycatvampire]

"Oh, no, there's a lot more than just watching," Corwin says, with a bit more energy. "Nothing can ever be done with just observation. You have to study, and then you have to test. I have numerous experiments running to examine the stuff of life and spirit and even inert matter. It's all connected, you know, and understanding one part takes you closer to understanding the whole."

[runs]

"...What kind of experiments?"

That sounds hella creepy, dude. Are you taking apart dual natured beings or what.

[crazycatvampire]

"Alchemy!" Corwin answers with a smile. "Testing the essence of things, trying to change one material into another so that I can understand both materials and the process of change itself. It can be a bit smelly sometimes, and occasionally something will explode, but I haven't damaged anything in the house permanently yet. Well, nothing I couldn't replace." He looks like he finds those times when things explode to be a bit fascinating, actually.

[runs]

"Are you cutting up any people for that?"

She's heard things about the stuff that some scientists do to get answer, okay...

[crazycatvampire]

"Why would I do that?" he asks, looking baffled by the question. "I want to protect humankind, not hurt them. I did try to experiment on a dead mouse, for a little while, though. I thought, since it was already dead, I couldn't hurt it again." Remember that mouse you left him, Kitty? He put it to good use!

[runs]

"Because people who experiment with life often do."

Dead mice are fine. ...Even though it is a weird feeling to wonder if he used the mouse that she brought him to that end. Surely there are other sources for dead mice to come by?

[crazycatvampire]

Honestly, it had never occurred to him to look for dead anything until something wound up on his doorstep, or he might have tried in the past. He shakes his head firmly, though. "Not me. I want to join you in being a person. But I also want to be a good kind of person, not an awful one. What would be the point of all this work if I was just an awful person, in the end?"

[runs]

"I don't know. Why do you want to be a person?"

There are good and terrible people, and most are somewhere in the middle. Sure, some people are less of a person than others, but she doesn't feel that that has much to do with how good or terrible they are as people. She's seen street samurai that were much better people than some completely unmodified Johnsons or security mages (she might also be biased here).

[crazycatvampire]

Corwin considers that. He's never actually thought about why he wants to be good and moral. "Because I hate seeing people sad," he settles on. "And awful people make others sad, or angry, or hurt. I've seen enough of that just because of what I am that I know I want it to stop, so that people will be able to be happy around me."

[runs]

She nods. That makes sense enough. But.

"Why do you want to be a person?"

If a person, then good, she can get behind his reasoning, but... why a person in the first place?

[crazycatvampire]

He pauses, cocks his head at her, and asks, "What else would I want to be? I don't have any shape-changing abilities, and person is the general shape that I'm in, so I'm not sure I could be anything else if I wanted to."

[runs]

That's a good point. There aren't really that many alternatives. Or any at all.

Just that being a person isn't all that great by itself, either.

"Good luck with becoming less creepy, then."