cityofhex | WEEK 06

Moon phase: The first quarter moon is on Wednesday the 7th, and the moon will be nearly full on the weekend.

Weather forecast: After so many days of clouds and threatening, the freeze has arrived for the year beneath an open sky.

Ghost Bust(ers): On Tuesday, Ryoji will get a message from Autumn on the Twilight Network, letting him know that the situation involving the old man’s ghost has been resolved.

E(dda) T(ravis), Phone Home: On Wednesday evening, Corwin gets a phone call from Edda, asking if she can come over sometime on Saturday.

To Invitations: Speaking of Corwin's house, both he and Malin will be able to notice signs of something in the trees nearest the place occasionally. Whatever it is is the size of a large racoon and seems most comfortable staying in the trees, especially during daylight hours. Large claw scratches can be found in the trunks frequently.

Sparkle and Flicker: The park light displays put up throughout the end of November are now open to the public, from now until New Year's. They're drive-through-only on weekends, but on weeknights, when the goal isn't getting as many people through as possible for the park to have budget until summer boating season, it's just as likely that people will park at the nearby ice rink and walk through the well-lit sidewalks. (It helps that there's a discount for families on Tuesday and college students on Thursday, too.) Of course, off the paths, you can never be quite sure what you'll encounter…

Red like... Cherries?: While Tobias seems to have scared the 'younger' Beast off from his own Lair, it seems to have decided to hang around picking out easy targets. Those who are closer to Tobias will find themselves plagued with dreams of a blooming cherry tree throughout the week. Approaching the tree within the dream will reveal that the bark is coated with dripping blood - looking up for the source will show someone close to the viewer impaled on sharp branches, the blossoms on the other side of the body in perfect condition.

Tell me True: Various hunter channels, including Network Zero, start to get posts from someone talking about 'the truth of the city' and 'the real power here.' This isn't completely abnormal for them, given how many conspiracy theorists (right and wrong) are in such places... But what's odd is the amateur photography and exacting records of trains going around the city, and how food seems to appear from nowhere on them. Anyone wanting further information is encouraged to contact the poster by leaving a note at a certain abandoned house in the Residential District.

Cutting Loose: The local high schools are also empty for winter break, which means there's a lot more teenagers on the streets of the Residential and Sixth districts than usual. In particular, a senior in a red aquarium hoodie can be spotted skateboarding around by himself, in places you're specifically not supposed to skateboard, almost out of spite. Some of those places skirt dangerously close to Infrastructure, and even straight through it if it's outside buildings. The only place he seems unwilling to disrespect is a graveyard on the border between the two Districts, where he goes and sits in front of a headstone most afternoons to eat his small packed lunch.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Even if they could, I'm easy to repair," Corwin says, largely unconcerned. "We have to be, when we upset people so often that they get violent at us. What do you think it could be, if it's something not normal and simply animal-ish?" Because she knows more about this sort of thing than he does.

"If you can be harmed, you can be harmed badly enough to not be able to get up and repair yourself in the end. Even lupines can be harmed that badly, they say." It's not a feat that she could perform, but dogcatchers exist for a reason, right? And if lupines can be killed, every living creature can.

She has to shrug at that, though. "Something undead or something created, maybe?"

"Would you be able to tell if there was someone else undead around?" Corwin asks, blinking over at her curiously. "I don't know if anyone can create something like me in an animal shape, though... it might be possible, but I don't know if it's a good idea."

"...Perhaps to a degree." Dead things smell differently from living ones and have no body heat and such, but that won't help without her actually seeing the thing and be in a close enough proximity for both to work.

"But I couldn't sense it without seeing it, I don't think."

"And I can't even reliably recognize someone like me, unless they tell me," Corwin admits. "I suppose we'll have to wait until we catch sight of it, or at least maybe get some tracks to compare to. I have a book in here somewhere with animal tracks."

And now he's leaving his mixture behind to try and hunt it down through the stacks of books and papers all over the room.

She watches him go off on his book hunt.

"Is there no telling sign that betrays people like you?"

"There's the unease everyone feels around us, but I can't feel that," Corwin explains. "I suppose if they're stitched up and I saw a seam, or they're like me and the leak blackness if they get upset or distracted and I saw that. But that would mean they weren't being careful. I could look for people who were sunglasses even indoors or at night, but that could be anything, really. So it's mostly a lot of small things that might, if I'm lucky, add up to someone being like me. Aha, found it!"

He pulls the book out from under a stack of other books, and papers, and a corked flask of something that looks like sludgy mud.

She nods at his explanation and steps out behind him to look over his shoulder (or around his shoulder, rather) and see what he's found there.

It's a book on wildlife for North America, in particular. This city might not actually be in North America, but it's what Corwin would have had in his old, pre-Hex life. He flips it open to the back, where the section on mammals is, showing her the pictures, brief blurbs on behaviors, and most importantly, drawn images of their tracks. "See? You compare signs left behind by whatever the animal is to these, and you can make a guess as to what they are."

She nods slowly, thinking - that would have been useful back where she came from. Better than learning about which footprint belongs to whom through trial and error, which left a wide margin for unnecessary dangers.

Not that this specific book would have helped, most likely - she'll reach over to lift the cover a bit and consider the title and the specification of the area that it applies to.

"Where did you get this from?"

"This?" He holds it up to eye the cover, too, vaguely puzzled by the question. "I don't remember. Probably the used book store. I pick up anything about animals I find. Which is probably silly, since I upset them so much normally that I can't get close to them, but I still do it. I like learning about them."

"Like straight girls always falling for gay guys, or gay girls for straight girls, and so on. Something about the unattainable being especially desirable." But that's not the important part here. She lays a finger against the name "North America" in the title. "Do you know where that is?"

"Of course I do. It's where we are." He looks at her, baffled even further, but his expression turns into a kind of vague confusion as he second-guesses himself and the unease he suddenly feels with the question. "Isn't it?"

"I don't know. Most people here tell me that there is nothing outside of Hex at all. No North America, no Europe, no Africa, no nothing." She watches him closely now. "Can you tell me more about North America?"

"There has to be somewhere outside Hex, that's where I came from," Corwin answers, somewhere between confused and a little alarmed. "I don't know the name of the city, I never asked, but I wasn't made here." He pauses, then answers her question more or less automatically, without thinking about it. "North America. There are three countries, one of them split into states, another split into territories. I... can't remember their names, now. That is the strangest thing. I feel like I used to know them." He tugs at a lock of his hair, frowning as he tries to remember.

She stares at him very, very closely.

"Do you normally forget things like that?"

She was under the impression that he had a near eidetic memory, but she could of course be wrong.

"I forget some things, like what day I bought something or maybe the name of a shop, but that doesn't seem like something I'd forget." His memory isn't perfect, but it's pretty damn good. He looks even more disturbed. "Why would I forget that?"

"...I don't know." She looks away. "But something is obviously wrong with this place. Or... odd. Off. Not necessarily wrong." She'd rather be in a place she understands, but if it is between this and back home... no. She'd rather be here, much rather be here. Better for her continued survival, better for her humanity, better for all things that are important.

"Maybe you remembering this, or ...having forgotten about why you know it, is part of that."

"Can you tell me more about what's odd?" Corwin asks, putting the book down and looking serious. "What you think is wrong about it?" Because that sounds disturbing, and if it's related to any of the strange things he's seen, he wants to know about it. Besides, he might have an explanation for her.

Probably not, but it's possible.

WEEK 06

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