WEEK 01

[modmachine]

Somewhere, a gear slips.

It's sunset on Halloween night; a night of celebration for the dead and the once-dead, a night of wariness for those bound closely to the spirits. Everything seems to move more freely on this night; the sensation of boundaries crossed is almost palpable.

A handful of those native to the city will certainly feel such. Between one step and the next, there's a feeling of pushing against something, something you didn't know was there before - and it gives. Physically, nothing changes, but you now know something is wrong, as though waking from a dream. Something has slipped, and you remember. Hajime will feel the sensation most keenly, as the things he recalls lack the sharp details of a demon's memory.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Sixth, the New Arrivals all also find themselves taking steps - the first thing the group will become aware of in the city is being shoved out the door of what seems to be some kind of broken down factory. The alley they step into is wide enough to get a truck through, but shows little sign of human habitation; only a cardboard box, half-dissolved by rain, and a few bits of stray glass from broken bottles can be seen. Their phones and any other communication devices they possess all beep loudly, once, after the door slams shut.

Except... What door? When they next blink, while there's still a vaguely door-like outline, the concrete wall has changed; where the door was, there's a metal sheet, machined with faint circular patterns, seamlessly integrated with the concrete. Banging a fist on it produces a solid sound, as though the metal was at least an inch thick. Though there is a feeling of being watched in the alleyway, no one will approach until they leave it, not even a passerby walking the not-quite-yet-dark street at either end. Until they step out of the alley, it's as though they don't exist.

And there's a good amount of foot traffic passing the alleyway by. Though it tends towards people in a college student age bracket and people in a vaguely street punk sort of fashion with odd accessories, neither is an absolute rule by any rule. Following the flow of traffic leads to a run-down park that's mostly skatepark with a few picnic tables and a small greenspace that's been taken over for a dancefloor. The tables are covered in odd junk and there seems to be some trading going on.

Haseo and Ryoji will both have better knowledge of what the place is, and have standing invitations to the party that's starting up as the Sin-Eater trading post winds down.

Elsewhere: On a beach bordering the bay, a group of changelings holds a bonfire. Periodically, someone throws a papercraft skull into it with extreme prejudice; almost all the skulls are inhuman in some way, though the craftmanship of the paper-mache makes it difficult to tell at times. Those in the know have to be aware that such an overt display won't pass unnoticed by the Autumn King... But the tall and built woman who seems to be the center of the festivities shows no fear in the season of fear.

In the Residential District and even a few places in the Sixth, trick-or-treaters are as much a feature as they are every year. Children in costume run about with little concern for who they approach, while their parents maintain appropriate wariness from sidewalks or cars. A small group of children, however, galivants with no supervision - and there is something uncanny about the trio. It's best to give them a treat if they approach you, else you might find yourself the recipient of a cruel trick in return. Unlike the other trick-or-treaters, they're out and about well past midnight; nearly to dawn, in fact. When the sky begins to lighten, however, all three stop immediately in the middle of what they're doing and - with the sound of mad, fey giggling - bolt off in the direction of the farming district.

The prompts from the Test Drive also remain available for interaction.

The rest of the week:

Weather forecast: Though Halloween is a clear night, clouds steadily roll in for most of the rest of the week, hanging overcast in the sky with occasional breaks and sprinkles of rain slotted in. Mornings are foggy and chill, warming slightly in the afternoons but not varying all too much in temperature. Frost has yet to set in, though, making it possible to sleep outside if you have adequate cover, but it won't be very fun.

Moon Phase: The 30th was a New Moon, so Halloween's sky is decorated by a fingernail crescent that grows to almost a half moon throughout the week.

The Clean-Up: After Halloween, of course, everything must slowly go back to normal. Most folks clean up their own messes throughout the first morning of November, but shards of gutted and thrown pumpkins can be found most everywhere, and at the park where the Sin-Eaters partied, a lone Security Officer inspects the aftermath for signs of unusual activity. Aside from the remains of pumpkins, which are mostly left to rot, decorations vanish over the course of the week and all but a few are gone by Thursday morning.

The College: Though enrollment for the fall semester is over, the deadlines for winter are fast approaching, and there are a number of tables set up in a large area to entice prospective students. Most of them are manned by undergraduates, but the English program's table is staffed most of the time by a single Tired Professor with mousy brown hair. Occasionally, the Tech Student at the next table over takes pity on the man, bringing him a hot-chocolate to help warm his fingers.

[Feel free to use this post as a jumping-off point for logs and interactions! You are also welcome to post your own logs to the community as needed. Mods will be available on plurk and discord to answer questions, and can be hailed for exploration logs off this post.]

Comments

Ryoji Mochizuki (Native, OTA)

[dangerouslyinlove]

A

There's a shiver that runs through Ryoji's body as the sensation hits him, breaking through on the other side of... whatever just happened. He would really, really like to pretend it's nothing, just the effect it of it being Halloween and all. He knows better.

Worse, Thanatos doesn't seem to know what that was either, but it also apparently doesn't relate to what they do so the geist cares not at all. That means Ryoji's pretty much alone for this one, and he's not very happy about it. But he'll figure it out eventually! He's sure of it! He just... needs to be more aware of what's going on around him. Which includes anyone stepping out of the alleyway he passes en route to the Sin-Eater party looking rather lost. "Um... are you ok?"

B

Ryoji arrives to the trading post/party pretty much as things are winding down- he doesn't need much of anything at the moment, and for many Sin-Eaters this is a big night. As a rule, they're kind of an eclectic bunch with widely different beliefs about how the afterlife actually works, but Halloween is a pretty obvious day for them to center around and come together. Ryoji, for one, is going to celebrate- life, death, and everything in between. Which is not to say he won't get in theoretical conversations about how the afterlife works and what anchors even are and everything- he totally will, if you're a fellow Sin-Eater, since Thanatos won't fuss about that. Anyone else might get some conversation about speculating on the nature of death, however, if they're interested.

C

Ryoji decisively does not go to class the day after Halloween, sleeping off everything that happened the night previously before getting up and running a few 'errands.' Namely, stopping by the college setup to see if it'll help him settle on a major, and when that gives him too much of a headache, going to the park he found last week with the large tree.

It's not just to escape the noise that he's there, but the day after Halloween could potentially make it easier to figure out what's going on with this plaque, so he's going to try again. ...And maybe Ci will show up. Or someone else, if they wander upon him.

C

[movingon]

While he's studying the plaque, he will suddenly heart a sound behind him, near the tree - someone stepping on a patch of fallen leaves, the shuffling of a person finding their footing.

He definitely didn't hear anyone approach, nor did he see anyone anywhere when he arrived in this place.

[dangerouslyinlove]

Well. That is certainly suspicious.

Ryoji turns, looking towards the sound. He can think of a few beings that might be able to sneak up on him like that, and he doesn't really want to run into any of them right. Thanatos rears up, ready to fight if need be, while Ryoji tries his approach first. "Um... hello?"

[movingon]

Under the tree stands - someone.

Not much is visible - a large military coat that reaches almost down to the ankles, with sleeves that hang down on the sides long past the fingertips, a huge hood covering most of the head. What the coat doesn't cover is covered by equally oversized boots and a scarf that seems to be wrapped about the person's neck and the lower half of their face, the rest of the face hiding in the shadow that the hood casts. The only thing that is visible is that the person is of average height and seems to have a hunchback.

And is about as startled and alarmed as Ryoji, frozen stiff for a moment as hidden eyes stare at him. She really should have picked a spot that was more hidden to sleep, but in the end she had been so exhausted that she'd more or less literally slept where she stood, just two feet under. And in the early morning hours, this area had looked as deserted as any place in this city...

[dangerouslyinlove]

Yeah, that's not exactly encouraging. But Ryoji will try again, waving. "Um... hello! I didn't see you there. Did you just come to the park?" When it doubt, Ryoji likes to pretend that he doesn't know about anything weird or magical or otherworldly that happens around the city. Most types of people will either leave him alone, which is preferred, or try to use them... in which case Thanatos's more violent methods of dealing with problems tends to be the one they go with.

[movingon]

Is... this person really that dense? She narrows her eyes at him. It's impossible to tell between the guy standing some distance away, her never having met him before and ...well. Her not having interacted with people in a while, at least not under normal-people-conditions.

For the moment, she decides, it won't make a difference. Either he's playing dense, then she will try to play along and hope that he can't gather information about her and isn't planning anything while buying time, or he's really that dense and she can just put this whole thing behind her.

Now, how to string together a reasonably enough lie that will hopefully let her leave quickly...

"Yes.

I must have gotten a bit lost, I'm not from the area." Her voice is hoarse, the words a bit stilted, unsure - trying to remember how to speak is one thing, and trying to remember how to speak a foreign language is even harder. The accent isn't quite clear, but clearly Scandinavian.

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji, meanwhile, will be trying to drag out the conversation juuuust long enough to try and figure out what she is. He certainly doesn't want to let her know that he's not as dense as he's acting, but he also would like to get a better idea of what's going on.

"Oh, ok. Where are you from? And... where are you trying to get? I know my way around pretty well." He just hopes he'll figure out everything he needs to before he has to offer to walk her anywhere.

[movingon]

"I," she is stumped for what to answer for a moment and murmurs in Swedish to cover it, hoping that he won't understand that she is literally reciting a hymn while her thoughts race, trying to fake her moment to think as a search for the right words in English, "visit." She says the word as if she finally found it. "I visited my sister, but got lost on the way back to the bus station."

Old lies sometimes work the best. She had used that one before, just with variable relatives, when she was still human and lived out on the street.

"Could you tell me where the next bus station is?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

"There are a couple," Ryoji says, tapping his chin to think as he quietly watches her. What he would like is to get a good look at her, but her hood and clothing is making that kind of hard. "They run on different routes though. Where are you trying to get? I might know which one would be best!"

[movingon]

Trying to ride the waves of what used to work, way back when - the memories of those days are a bit lost to other memories burning too brightly in her mind to allow looking at the other side, but this is almost muscle memory. She doesn't really need to think for it once she's found the path.

"I have my bicycle at the central station, so it doesn't matter." And then, after a moment, she adds quickly: "But thank you." That belongs there, doesn't it?

C

[notachickenhawk]

Someone else is in the park, but he's not staring at the plaque. He is, however, sitting at the table with what looks like the remains of an alarm clock scattered in front of him. He's staring at the wires, but looks up as soon as he hears Ryoji's footsteps.

... There's the taste of ashes in his mouth again, so he just gathers his things up and offers a slight grin. "Sorry. I can get out of your way if you want."

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ah... that will make it hard to look at the plaque properly. Seeing as Ryoji thinks it might possibly be a Gate or something and that would sort of mean he would want to, you know. Go through it. But he also does not want to look suspicious.

"No, it's ok," he says with a bright smile, "I was just going to sit here for a bit. Are you working on something?"

[notachickenhawk]

"Um. Sort of? I found this clock. It doesn't work, so I thought I might be able to sell it for scrap." He's a little young for college by the looks of it, even if he's carrying a backpack. "I thought someone might be able to use the wires..."

Or strip them for components. He's well aware that people buy random things to use for whatever powers they've got. The group had run into a mage or two, but never really stopped to chat. They didn't seem like the type, anyway. "Are you..." It's so hard to talk to normal people now, even if this guy probably isn't normal. He's still putting up the act, which means Tobias has to do the same.

He's never been good at that, and it's been even harder lately. "... Never mind. Sorry, I was just..." He starts putting the pieces back in his bag, not really having a better way to store them. "Last night was a little weird. But I guess Halloween is just that way, huh?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

Unfortunately, Ryoji has a much harder time telling in this case. For a start, there's nothing clearly wrong with his lifespan, which is usually his biggest hint. And secondly... Ryoji knows pretty much nothing about Changlings. They're not a thing he crosses paths with as much. (They don't mess with the dead most of the time, so he has no reason to.)

But there's something going on here, and he's not sure what it is. "I'm sure someone would be able to do something with it. There are people who are really good at that kind of thing!" Not him. Not him at all, but. "Yeah, Halloween can get pretty crazy around here. Were you out at all last night?" He doesn't look old enough to be out, but that doesn't mean he wasn't.

[notachickenhawk]

And Beasts are even weirder than Changelings in some ways - Tobias has only run into a few Changelings himself. Beasts don't generally concern themselves with the dead, unless they have a Prey Hunger, but fortunately Tobias has been spared that one.

"Yeah, probably. I know a shop near the Sixth that should be taking this kind of thing. But I was out last night... mostly exploring. Halloween's a good night to do it, since no one really questions the bumps in the night from the old creepy house you're taking a look into."

[dangerouslyinlove]

(Ryoji's likely to confuse Changelings and Beasts for a while- he is at least kind of aware that Changelings are a thing, he just knows absolutely no details. Add that to the fact that the mun forgot that there are Beast Changelings and also Beast the Primordials and that's how we got here.)

"Yeah, I guess that's true. What were you exploring for?" He suspects he will not get the real answer, but there's no harm in trying. He kind of wishes Thanatos could fill him on in more than strictly death-related things, sometimes.

[notachickenhawk]

(It's okay, it's confusing.)

"Uh... mostly just to see old buildings. They're pretty neat. ... And sometimes you can find stuff that was left behind that people don't want anymore and sell it." It's enough to make a living, at least... when he's not outright stealing something. It's not like he shouldn't be able to profit off of his Hunger when he's in need.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"Mm, yeah. You'll never know what you'll find!" Mostly ghosts. Ghosts and anchors and gates is what he tends to look for in places like that. "That's pretty cool. Did you see anything spooky? It was Halloween and all." He maybe should have been out looking for things, but... nope. Parties are also very important.

[notachickenhawk]

"Yeah. It's part of why I like it." He considers, doing his best to think like he's thinking deeply. "I did see some windows cracked that weren't cracked before... like in that old warehouse on Pine Street. I mean, it could be anyone, but I know a lot of people don't go there since the floors are falling through. And this was on the third floor, so I don't know how anyone would have gotten there... I've tried, and you'd have to have like... rock climbing equipment or something..."

He shivers. It's a show, but it's one he needs to put on. Spread the rumors that places aren't safe. That things are not permanent. He can feel his Horror rousing a bit, the great bird spreading its wings in his soul. He needs to feed well tonight, or he might not be able to contain its wanderings.

"I don't know if that's spooky, really... I didn't see a ghost or anything, but it's pretty creepy."

A

[withoutaworld]

Rikki looks noticeably out of place — on top of the confused expression, both she and everything within a five foot radius of her seem as brightly colored as if she stepped out of the pages of a comic book. Still, she thought she'd been covering her disorientation a little better.

"Uh..." She hesitates for a second, reaching up to adjust the goggles she had pushed up onto her forehead. "Do I not look okay?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

It's a little hard to cover that you're an outside when you are literally in a spotlight of color. Sorry Rikki.

"Um..." How does he answer this question without sounding rude... "You just... stick out a bit." Nailed it.

[withoutaworld]

Rikki had kind of been hoping that the fact that half of everyone on the street right now is in costume would help her blend in. She... kind of hasn't noticed the way she's altering colors around her - it's a little harder to see when you're in the center of it.

"I kind of... lost track of my friends?" she offers by way of explanation. "And my phone isn't working. And I'm not... in this part of town very often..."

Too many excuses, Rikki. Take a breath and reel it in.

[dangerouslyinlove]

He didn't even noticed the costume. That's just kind of par for the course, tonight. He's almost certain something is up with her, but nothing about what's happening makes sense. Maybe if he talks to her, he'll be able to figure out... well, something. Anything, really.

"Where are you trying to go?" he offers with a smile. The many excuses are actually somewhat convincing to him at the moment, since he's way too distracted by all the color.

[withoutaworld]

Crap. She can't name any specific location because she doesn't know any, but there's only a brief beat before she answers, doing her best to sound sheepish.

"We were headed to a party, but I didn't exactly get the address... It's fine, I'm sure I'll find them sooner or later."

[dangerouslyinlove]

"...Well, there are definitely a lot of parties tonight." She's never going to find her friends. "Do you remember their number? You can borrow my phone, if you need to."