WEEK 05

[modmachine]

Weather: The temperature has dropped another notch, enough to start being seriously uncomfortable for those who sleep outside with no cover. Tuesday and Wednesday will have freezing rain at night, though it’s not snowing as of yet. Some of the kids wish it would, though, the closer it gets to the Festival of Lights.

Moon Phase: Monday brings the new moon, not that most people will be able to see it through the gathering clouds. If you look, though, it's possible to see the waxing crescent in the early morning late in the week.

School's Out: This week is finals at the college, and as a result, Friday through Sunday see a large number of the students moving out for the winter holidays. Most of those who opt to remain are shuffled around in order to leave two buildings - the senior hall used by students in the sciences and one of the freshmen halls - completely empty. The official explanation is building maintenence. On Wednesday, Ryoji will get a text from Ci asking if he's staying over for the holiday.

Winter bluster, winter blow: Things are starting to get a little messy in the Winter Court as their season approaches. For most of the last year, the Court has been run by committee, after the last Winter King inexplicably vanished. No successor was named, and with the seasonal coronation less than a month away, the court's usual plots and intrigues are starting to spill into the open. As of now, things seem to be divided between three factions - a group of diehard supporters of the previous King, certain he'll return; a group supporting the former brother-at-arms of said King, who may have been involved in the disappearance; and a third group supporting the King's protege, clearly hoping that the youth's relative inexperience will make him an easy puppet. Business as usual in the Winter Court, but it has the potential to spill into the others and turn nasty.

Day Zero: Network Zero’s been alight with chatter for those who follow it. There’s been clear footage of something that appears to be a man with a knife on fire in one of the warehouses - and yet none of the fire seems to catch anything around him. There’s also a report that the person who took this footage is in the hospital for a broken bone, though there haven’t been any updates yet. The local Sin-Eaters aren’t thrilled about this either, and on Friday night two teenagers are spotted around the area, along with a trio of younger boys armed with a camera.

A Strange Guest: Casper's new... ahem, roommate, is causing a few side effects. Most prominent will be the small patches of black and dark blue scales - they start tiny, like freckles, but grow in over the course of a few days to something better called patches before they stop. And the entire time they're growing in, they itch like the bejeebus. On the bright side, after some adjustment, the new addition is alert and willing to communicate... as long as Casper doesn't mind that he's going to have a near-encyclopedic knowledge of astronomy before the week is out.

Words for the Wicked: In the park where the hunt took place last weekend, something is writing on the trees. It starts out with just scratch marks, but before long it's scraps of the sorts of conversation you might overhear in the park, people talking to their children or dogs, that sort of thing. On Friday night, however, the words start to take a darker turn - KILL IT is repeated in numerous places, sometimes accompanied by the words TROPHY and MONSTER. And on Sunday, all the words are gone, except for a single phrase written under the hole made by a stray bullet during the hunt - i'll hunt you back.

Frostgrowth: The entrance to the Hedge used by the recent Goblin Market is continually frosty this week, as is the Underworld entrance used by Ryoji and Casper. The changelings in particular are wary about the change, though none of them seem to have put it together with the other strange patch of frost. Lingering at either location too long will draw the attention of the Frostiron Guardian more quickly than usual.

Trains keep on rolling: Construction on the building in the Sixth has progressed far enough that watching the building is pointless even for the thickly built man, who has instead resumed his trainspotting ways.

Weekly service: The nighttime bell-ringing at St. Madeline's church occurs again on Sunday night, this time drawing a bit more of a crowd. In hushed voices, a few people approach the Acolyte responsible for the bells about organizing a regular service of the church of the dead. She seems uncertain, and no formal plans are made that night.

Put Yourself Back Where You Came From Or So Help Me: On Thursday night, Tobias will have a brief visit to his lair through the Primordial Dream - another, weaker Horror, still wary and apparently checking things out. It's hard to tell exactly what the creature is, but the impression is of something shadowed and low-to-the-ground that leaves behind a smell of soured wine.

Comments

[notachickenhawk]

It's magic, clearly. "Maybe there'll be some stuff around at the end of the semester I can get. People will be selling the stuff they're not going to need for the next one, right?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji nods. "A lot of them will probably be just giving stuff away." If it's too much effort to sell.

[notachickenhawk]

"Sounds good to me. It's not too long now..." And maybe there'll be interesting books to get for cheap. ... He could always use more books.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"Yeah. I'll definitely keep an eye out for you!" It wasn't a long way to his dorm, so they were almost there. And the buildings are heated, the cold beginning to retreat as soon as the door opens. "I'm up on the second floor."

[notachickenhawk]

He breathes an audible sigh of relief as the chill retreats and he heads inside. This is so much better than a little heater. "How many floors are in here? It didn't look that big from the outside..."

[dangerouslyinlove]

"Just the three. And there's an elevator, which is kind of weird but helpful when you're moving in or out." He's only done it once but it was nice to not have to drag all his boxes up and down the stairs. They will take the stairs for this, though.

[notachickenhawk]

"Sounds like it." Stairs are fine! He's used to stairs. "I used to have to carry my boxes downstairs from my aunt's when it was time to move to my uncle's." She said it was 'better' for him, but maybe she just didn't care.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"It's not fun," Ryoji says with a little chuckle. Tobias hasn't told him about what his family situation might have been like, but Ryoji feels like 'not good' is a decent guess. "Anywhere, here we are!" He'll open the room to his dorm, which is pretty standard- small, with two beds, desks, and dressers. There's a beanbag chair in the corner as well as a mini-fridge near the door that leads to the joint bathroom with the dorm next door.

[notachickenhawk]

He peers inside, and... oh. It... actually looks really nice. He steps inside and takes off his shoes, just... marveling at it for a moment. It's nothing big, but it's personal. Even if it's just the beanbag and mini-fridge, it feels like a home. "I... huh." He realizes he's staring and shakes himself out of it, before moving aside.

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji is busy searching for the books, but he does peer around and notice Tobias's reaction. "What?" he asks, pulling out a small stash of books.

[notachickenhawk]

"I... nothing. It's just nice." Cozy. Warm, even if it's cold outside. He hunches his shoulders a bit. Don't mind him...

[dangerouslyinlove]

It is warm! And you can visit whenever you want. "Thanks," he says with a smile, pulling over his chair so Tobias can sit while he plops down on his bed. "Um, I think this is all of them..." Frankenstein is at the top, along with Jane Eyre and a few other not as well known British Literature books.

[notachickenhawk]

He doesn't sit so much as perch, half on and half off the thing. It's just more comfortable for him. "Those look pretty good. ... Frankenstein, huh? I looked through that one once..." That was a while ago, though.

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji nods. "I hope it's good, I've heard it is... I haven't actually read any of them yet, though." Since it's break and all.

[notachickenhawk]

"It's about people who don't fit in. And the people who want to throw them away..." He remembers it being really sad, and not liking the bits of the ending he saw... maybe he should reread it, though. The last time was before... everything happened. "Don't put it off for too long, though. If you're not a fast reader, it'll take you a really long time to get through them."

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji nods, looking over them. "I don't know which we're starting off with, but I guess I should pick one and go with it..." If he starts more than one at the same time he's going to get confused.

[notachickenhawk]

"Probably. Do you get a syllabus or something ahead of time, or not until class starts?" He can make a guess at which one they'd go for first, but he has no real idea how college classes run.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"A week before the class starts," Ryoji says with a nod, "So that's probably enough time...?" But he's not very good at reading for a long period of time.

[notachickenhawk]

"... Is it? It would be fine for me, but I don't know how fast you read." Given his tendency to almost always have a book in his bag...

[dangerouslyinlove]

Not fast. Not fast at all. "It'll be fine. We won't be expected to have read the whole thing by the beginning of class anyway..." He's going to get behind quickly, he can feel it.

[notachickenhawk]

"Yeah, I guess. I was always done with the books we had to read for class by the second class on it." And then he'd get in trouble for doodling. Because of course that's what the teachers cared about.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"Wow, really?" Your life is very different from his, Tobias. "I usually just struggle to keep up..." He's impressed!

[notachickenhawk]

To be fair, it was middle school level reading. "It's not like it was as thick as this... but I still read a lot."

[dangerouslyinlove]

"That's good. I wish I liked reading more, then this wouldn't be so hard..." He's not always super good at it, is the problem. "What kind of things do you like to read?"

[notachickenhawk]

"Uh..." He shrugs and digs into his bag, pulling out a science fiction novel. "Stuff like this. Not fantasy. I've... had enough of vampires, honestly."