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[open & closed] We walk these streets, but not alone
1. Open (Nov 4th)
There is a very basic problem that occurs to Kitty towards the end of her first day in Hex, around the time when the candy from the night before runs out: She has no currency on her that would be accepted here, no place to return to in the evening where she will find food, and no way of finding work that she could earn some money with. Even if there is something that she could do to earn money, she wouldn't know what it would be and how to get to do it.
She resorts to shoplifting that evening, but that really only helps for one meal and smuggling food out of a shop is not that easy when you're young and thus turn people's head just by being in the store alone and not in the candy section.
No. She needs to find something better to do. So that night, she can be found out in the streets where there are bars, or even just shady looking backalleys, hoping to find someone who passed out from alcohol and still has their wallet on them. Or who can't resist her searching hands for other reasons, she isn't picky (and doesn't even think to call an ambulance or police because that just wouldn't even be an option back home). It takes all night, and doesn't turn up with much, but she has a few bucks in the morning, enough to last her for a few days. But she's tired, and it was a pretty tedious search with more than one disappointment and one or two unpleasant almost-encounters.
Still, the money doesn't last her long and thus she's out on the nightly streets again a few days later. She almost squeals in excitement when the first limp body that she finds still has its wallet, creepy as the corpse is. Because that is what it is, she notices. It isn't even the lack of breathing that tips her off, it is the unnatural lack of essence. As if someone forcibly removed it... Her head shoots up and she jumps to her feet and dive under some garbage bags that are piled up behind her, just in time as a woman turns the corner. She can hear the woman curse about children (?) and then some shuffling and rustling, and when everything is finally quiet again and she crawls out from under the garbage bags, only enough to peer down the street, stinking and shaken, the corpse is gone.
If nobody finds her there, she will quickly retreat then - not to any specific location, just to somewhere else, further away from the bars, and once a quiet corner is found, sit down there and try to catch her breath. "Drek," she whispers and closes her eyes for a moment. "Drek."
2. closed to Ryoji (Nov 5th)
Kitty is a busy bee during her first week in Hex. Aside from trying to figure out how to eat, she also tries to learn more about two people: Corwin and Ryoji. The former because something is just seriously wrong with that guy, and the latter because ...well, he gave her her phone number and is local. He might be a very useful contact, but she wants to know more about him before she uses this.
It doesn't take her long to find him - knowing that he is a college student helps a lot. She follows him for two days - mostly in her cat shape - before she finally decides that he might be eccentric, but safe enough and calls him. She'll just let the phone ring until he answers, no matter how long that takes.
3. closed to NPCs (Okt 31)
She's been around for a few hours, joining other children while trick-and-treating, and thinks that she has a decent enough grasp on the concept. It's for children that still have early bedtimes and need to be attended by an adult.
So seeing a group of children who are still out and about and who don't have an adult with them, a good while after she has parted with her second group and watched the trick-and-treaters vanish from the street gives her pause and makes her halt her steps just after stepping around the corner to watch them.
Sure, she's still out and about without an adult herself, but that's different. What are they doing here?
There is a very basic problem that occurs to Kitty towards the end of her first day in Hex, around the time when the candy from the night before runs out: She has no currency on her that would be accepted here, no place to return to in the evening where she will find food, and no way of finding work that she could earn some money with. Even if there is something that she could do to earn money, she wouldn't know what it would be and how to get to do it.
She resorts to shoplifting that evening, but that really only helps for one meal and smuggling food out of a shop is not that easy when you're young and thus turn people's head just by being in the store alone and not in the candy section.
No. She needs to find something better to do. So that night, she can be found out in the streets where there are bars, or even just shady looking backalleys, hoping to find someone who passed out from alcohol and still has their wallet on them. Or who can't resist her searching hands for other reasons, she isn't picky (and doesn't even think to call an ambulance or police because that just wouldn't even be an option back home). It takes all night, and doesn't turn up with much, but she has a few bucks in the morning, enough to last her for a few days. But she's tired, and it was a pretty tedious search with more than one disappointment and one or two unpleasant almost-encounters.
Still, the money doesn't last her long and thus she's out on the nightly streets again a few days later. She almost squeals in excitement when the first limp body that she finds still has its wallet, creepy as the corpse is. Because that is what it is, she notices. It isn't even the lack of breathing that tips her off, it is the unnatural lack of essence. As if someone forcibly removed it... Her head shoots up and she jumps to her feet and dive under some garbage bags that are piled up behind her, just in time as a woman turns the corner. She can hear the woman curse about children (?) and then some shuffling and rustling, and when everything is finally quiet again and she crawls out from under the garbage bags, only enough to peer down the street, stinking and shaken, the corpse is gone.
If nobody finds her there, she will quickly retreat then - not to any specific location, just to somewhere else, further away from the bars, and once a quiet corner is found, sit down there and try to catch her breath. "Drek," she whispers and closes her eyes for a moment. "Drek."
2. closed to Ryoji (Nov 5th)
Kitty is a busy bee during her first week in Hex. Aside from trying to figure out how to eat, she also tries to learn more about two people: Corwin and Ryoji. The former because something is just seriously wrong with that guy, and the latter because ...well, he gave her her phone number and is local. He might be a very useful contact, but she wants to know more about him before she uses this.
It doesn't take her long to find him - knowing that he is a college student helps a lot. She follows him for two days - mostly in her cat shape - before she finally decides that he might be eccentric, but safe enough and calls him. She'll just let the phone ring until he answers, no matter how long that takes.
3. closed to NPCs (Okt 31)
She's been around for a few hours, joining other children while trick-and-treating, and thinks that she has a decent enough grasp on the concept. It's for children that still have early bedtimes and need to be attended by an adult.
So seeing a group of children who are still out and about and who don't have an adult with them, a good while after she has parted with her second group and watched the trick-and-treaters vanish from the street gives her pause and makes her halt her steps just after stepping around the corner to watch them.
Sure, she's still out and about without an adult herself, but that's different. What are they doing here?
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Whatever those children are, they have a sense of humour that she can approve of. Even though it seems dangerously dumb to her to use your magic just to glitterbomb someone, funny as it is.
Thinking about it, she realizes as she jumps out of the tree and lands on the ground with grace before speeding around the corner of the building to see if she can catch up with them, she hasn't actually seen any group of children follow up with the threat in the sentence trick or treat.
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Which means that she should be cautious, because spirits are no nicer than metahumans, and often a lot harder to anticipate, but danger aside, there seem to be only upsides to approaching them.
She'll circle around some trees and bushes to not too obviously appear from behind the same house that they just glitterbombed and approaches them, looking for all the world like a perfectly normal child in a dark coat, sunglasses and slicked back hair, carrying a bucket with Halloween spoils. The only unusual thing would be the strong spiritual presence about her, for those who can sense it.
"Hi."
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With the masks on, it's hard to tell which of them said which greeting - though the voices are distinctive enough that Kitty will be able to tell before long. It's the smallest one that's closest to her, and they look into her bucket before nodding with something like approval.
"Get lots of treats?"
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She lets the kid look into the bucket but then moves it a bit, away from them. Those are hers and she's not sharing. She ...not worked on, but spent time getting those.
"You must've gotten a lot, too."
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She gets the feeling like it didn't look like they had that much in their pockets, either, but she didn't exactly pay attention to that.
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There's plenty of non-chocolate candy to satisfy them in the meantime, though they don't indulge before stuffing their handfuls back in.
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...Point in question. "Can I go with you for a bit? All the other children already went home, and I can open iron gates for you."
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Well, you can't take back words. "Do you get to do the trick thing a lot?"
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"But enough to make it interesting," says the tall one.
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Not that she'll turn her nose on candy, even if half of this stuff seems really weird. There even was real fruit among the things handed out, though weirdly enough none of the other children went for it.
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"I thought everyone here did."
Which was probably not a very realistic expectation, but... she hasn't seen a single child run around without so far.
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"Less rules!" agrees the middle-height one.
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"Don't bosses give you a lot of orders and rules too, though?"
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"And we get to do fun jobs," says the tall one.
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"What kind of jobs?"
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"Helping him find people who break the rules," says the middle one.
"Making stuff!" says the tall one, who pulls another glitter bomb out of one pocket and tosses it once in their hands before shoving it into the other. "He really likes it when we make stuff for him."
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But helping someone find people who break rules? Seriously? It's not that she wasn't of the opinion that she should be careful before, because strangers with powers, but this is a whole different level.
So she nods thoughtfully. "That's a lot more interesting than having to read a lot of books."
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"Let's go, though?" They have lingered for way too long, and talking wasn't why she approached them.