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cityofhex2016-10-29 08:29 pm
modmachine) wrote in cityofhex2016-10-29 08:29 pm
WEEK 01
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.]
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.]
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Sometimes people do. The ones that don't are the ones you've gotta watch out for.
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Her forehead knits as she tries to put a description to his words.
"...A bird under a bed would not be scary but helpless and very easy to catch." Or she can at least not think of any other being that would have a beak.
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Really, he should leave, but he doesn't want a kid to get hurt. "Do you have anyone else to stay with? It's getting kind of cold for a kid to stay somewhere with no heat."
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She flashes him a grin, the first positive expression since they started talking. With how he failed to describe what he is, she is curious now what he tried to describe.
Is it safe to admit that she has nobody to stay with here? It comes dangerously close to admitting that she has nobody who would go looking for her if she vanishes. But at the same time a place with heat at this time of the year would be really good. The question is if that might even fall out of this conversation, and if she can trust him. Probably not on both counts. But she should at least feel that out. The grin stays on her lips, but her eyes narrow slightly, her brows knitting again. "Are you offering?"
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He eyes the boxes. What can he show off? ... Right. He hops up onto the crate, and eyes the rafters. That'll work. He makes sure his bag is secure, and takes a huge jump, grabbing the wooden beam. Kitty will be able to see the form of a large hawk around the boy, huge wings outstretched and beating as he leaps. Its eyes are wild, and the red of its tailfeathers is reminiscent of the color of blood.
Tobias pulls himself up and judges the distance, before kicking off and gliding down. The bird's form around him stretches out its wings as he swoops down, landing neatly on the ground in front of her.
"Tada."
1/2
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"How do you do that?"
She could probably reproduce it if she learned the right spells, but even then it would have to be a mix of some kind of illusion and levitation, and ...something else. It seemed much more real than an illusionist's show.
She'll return to his offer in a moment. Right now she's too fascinated by the thing that he just did.
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"You turned into a big, predatory hawk that felt a lot scarier than an illusion should have been. But you didn't really because you were still there. ...It was more around you than you. But you were still a part of it."
She finds that it is a bit hard to describe for her, too, now that she's trying.
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"I can do a lot of things because it helps me, and I help it. And I bet you can do a lot of things, too - not just throw things around."
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The strength of a magic user is being Schrodinger’s attack. Nobody knows what you can or cannot do until it has happened. But it's also important to impress that there are many things, Ivokat told her.
She's never met another shapeshifter, but-
Wait. She could try to assess him, it's not like he would be any wiser for it. It just needs a moment of looking at him with the right senses... And, she realizes belatedly as she receives the information that she was looking for, she has no idea how to interpret it. He is awakened in some way, and there's something distinctively feral about his aura, but she has no idea what it might indicate. At least she now knows that he is about as wary about the whole situation as she feels.
She'll have to ask. "...Are you a hawk?"
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Hopefully.
"It's something that... kind of feeds on nightmares. It comes from somewhere beyond just one person dreaming... I guess that might not make much sense."
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"...You are possessed?"
It doesn't really sound like it. After all all she seems to be talking to him.
"What exactly does it feed on?" It makes her think of a vampire or corpselight, drawing essence, but it's oddly specific that he calls it feeding on nightmares. Corpselights specifically are said to cause an euphoric, ecstatic feeling while the victim is drained of its vital energy.
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But what it feeds on... "It depends. They're supposed to teach people lessons. Mine... it feeds on making sure people look up. The moment where they realize that they need to stop looking at the ground and look around... and they realize that they're not safe. They need to look up to make sure they even have a chance."
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And about the lessons... That's deep.
Unironically, it really is to her. "You can can only protect yourself if you know what will be dangerous and you can only do that if you pay attention." She doesn't quite understand how you can feed on teaching, but spirits are weird.
"You said you could show me a better place to stay?"
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"Yeah. That's right. I can show you a few places... given how people avoid the Sixth... there's other stuff around, but there's ways of protecting yourself. ... Even if a gun won't help a lot with most of them. Can you climb okay?"
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And as long as she has her commlink on her, ever since she got here. This whole city is an oddly forgiving Matrix hole, and she has found that she can simulate WiFi by keeping them in her commlink's direct network.
"And even then I can get up and down in a pinch, I'll just have to levitate."
Which she would rather not. Unnecessary magic raises all the wrong attention.
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"There's a few places I know that are close to some heating vents. They smell a little funny, but they're warm. And the smell keeps other things away." It's not awful, but some of the restaurants have smells that aren't great.
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"I grew up next to a waste facility."
If Tobias pays close attention to the smell in the room, he might notice a faint scent of... well, waste. hanging in the air. It's been there ever since he landed in front of her, but it's really faint enough to not be immediately noticeable.
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He turns, letting her see his back. If she's going to attack him... that would be the time. But hopefully she won't. He kind of likes her.
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She will move quickly once he has turned around, but not to attack him; no, she just will take off her trousers and shoes and coat to get dressed properly this time, with shirt and undies underneath, and once that is done she'll zip around the room to pick up little boxes and bundles from various places where they were hidden. Most of them, including the gun, end up in hidden places under or inside her coat. Only a necklace made of pretty pebbles around her neck remains visible.
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"All ready to go? Do you need help carrying anything?" Not that he expects her to hand anything over... but it doesn't hurt to ask.
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She's only been in Hex for a few days, and never had that many more belongings than what she could carry easily on her person at any time even before Hex. There simply is nothing that he could help her with.
"...What's your name? I'm Kitty."
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She makes a face at him and follows him, her feet light and quiet on the floor. At times, she circles around areas that are structurally weak or that would creak, he otherwise straight line bulging to one side or the other - she might not have been in this building for more than a few day, but she had developed some routines about how to walk the path downstairs already.
"How long have you been living on the street?"
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So this is happening on the 6th of November, if that's okay with you?
That works!
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