[open & closed] We walk these streets, but not alone

[runs]

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?

Comments

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji opens his mouth, visibly puzzled by her description. "That's... half right, I think. What's bodyware?" Vampires are definitely not fans of sunlight, but he doesn't think wood actually does anything. And they do move faster and hit harder than humans, he's pretty sure.

"Not other than the fact they're usually well armed, no. And mages... well, they're humans with magic, as far as I can tell. It's hard to tell until they start doing magic."

[runs]

"No, it's all right. We hunted a vampire last year, so I had to learn. ...They can also be magically active, and turn into mist."

She giggles at the description of hunters, having to think of ...half her team, really. Especially the troll. Being able to lug around firearms that are normally installed on small tanks helps with the impression of being well armed.

"...But you make it sound like humans are the only ones who can do magic here."

[dangerouslyinlove]

"N-no, I mean... it's a rumor that staking them does actually work, but I don't think they'll start dissolving when they touch wood or anything. And there are different clans, or something, I think?" Look this is already stretching his vampire knowledge. "You still haven't told me what bodyware is."

"No. Well. I guess it depends on what you count as magic. Mages so... ssssomething fancy to get special powers. But vampires have their own powers, and the Bound, and werewolves, and... whatever else."

[runs]

This is the second person now that is confused by 'ware. "When you put mechanical parts in your body to make it better. Or you can use biological parts, too, it's just more expensive. Do you really not have any 'ware?"

The magic part she can take at face value, but the more he says about vampires, the more she can't agree. "That's not how allergies work. You don't dissolve when you touch something that you're allergic to, you get a rash, or an anapgla- you collapse, or you can't breathe properly anymore, and wounds get kind of infected and won't heal properly.

And I don't know about clans. There are very few where I'm from, the people that get infected are usually found and exterminated quickly."

[dangerouslyinlove]

"No, we don't have anything like that." He can't even think up an approximation for this one.

"What... um, then vampires are way more than allergic to sunlight," Ryoji says, scratching his head, "They will die if they're out in it and can't get somewhere dark. I'm pretty sure that's the only straightforward way they die." He's kind of getting the impression they might be talking about something different, but that doesn't make any sense. ...Then again, her home apparently has elves. And... orc things.

[runs]

"But you have WiFi."

She might not know much history, but she knows her Urban Brawl history, and she knows for a fact that 'ware were around before the second matrix crash, even though she couldn't name specifics.

"'ware is less advanced than that."

And what Ryoji says about vampires makes her think that they're talking about something different, too. "Vampires are humans who got infected with HMHVV, right?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

"Still don't have it." Sorry kiddo. Wifi is a thing, bodyware is not. Get used to it.

Ryoji can't even remember all those letters, like, two seconds after she says them. "No? They are people who are killed by vampires and then given a vampire's blood to turn them into one." He's pretty sure that's how vampires do that. (It involves death, he's at least more aware of that part.)

[runs]

That is so weird and backwards. But the whole place is strange.

Which makes her a bit more inclined to believe that seriously out there idea about how vampirism is transmitted. Ridiculous as it is. "So they aren't related to ghouls and wendigos and nosferatu and goblins and banshees and stuff? Or do you not have those at all?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

Ryoji screws up his face, thinking, "Nosferatu and ghouls sound kind of familiar?" he says, "I can't tell you why, though. None of the rest of those ring a bell, though. Sorry." Looks like they're dealing with completely different things. "...I don't understand how everything is so different where you're from. How did you even get here?"

[runs]

"I don't know. I was walking with my friends, and then someone shoved me and I was here."

It just makes no sense. She can't think of a single way in which it should have been accomplished. Unless this is a hallucination and she started hallucinating a while before showing up in Hex. It feels very real, though.

[dangerouslyinlove]

That explains pretty much nothing, but it's not really her fault. It's pretty hard to picture, but... it would be a really weird thing to lie about. "This is so weird..." Ryoji sighs, "Um. Well, do you have more questions about everything here?" Since apparently you might really need it.

[runs]

The next... she isn't even sure how to start asking about it. So she'll try to take an indirect inroad.

"Does everyone here have a citizenship?" There is a distinctive difference between a slum where the majority has one and a slum where the majority doesn't, she's found. Like the relative amount of interest that the government takes in the safety and well-being of those who live there - close to negative amounts or or decidedly negative amounts. And all that follows from that. And Hex seems to be missing the second kind of slums.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"Yeah, they should... unless that means something different where you're from." He's not taking any chance. "I mean, you might since you're not from here, and I'm sure the vampires and people who live for longer than normal humans do something tricky to make them not look suspicious on records and such, but..." This is kind of nitty-gritty thing he knows almost nothing about.

[runs]

"But they still have them, or the government acts like they do. There aren't many people who don't have one and the government knows about it."

Or, to rephrase and come a bit closer to what she actually wants to know: "Almost everyone is official and legal and has rights, at least on the surface." That's not quite the same, but it comes close enough to meaning the same. "Right?"

[dangerouslyinlove]

Under that specification, Ryoji nods. "Yeah. All 'humans' are legal and official, unless they came here without the right stuff I guess, and that's what most people pretend to be even if they're not. I guess it's different for you, then." This time he's not outright asking her to explain it if she doesn't want. He has a feeling there's a lot about her home that's different and he's not sure he'd be able to keep track of it all.

[runs]

"So they only have legal and official jobs, too?"

And here we've almost arrived at the core of her question. Does the kind of work that she does back home exist here?

[dangerouslyinlove]

"Not all of them are legal and official jobs." He can think of a great many that aren't, actually.

[runs]

"What kind are there that aren't legal and official?"

That is a super broad question, but she just doesn't know how else to ask about it.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"Stealing things. Selling stuff that isn't legal. Things like that." He's getting a feeling he might know why she's asking...

[runs]

"...That's all?"

She looks rather disappointed, really. Because she is, and she's ...not that good at hiding her emotions, really.

[dangerouslyinlove]

He doesn't know what do with you, small child. "I mean, there are probably other things... what kind of things are you thinking of?"

[runs]

The way he responds and asked, she gets the feeling that what she's looking for doesn't exist here. After all runners are, many other things aside, also a part of the pop culture, much in the same way as pirates and gangers. Groups of people that are cool until you're at the other end of their guns and blades. He would have mentioned them earlier with how she was asking if she asked...

...correctly. Maybe she needs to go the other way around. "If someone wants a thing stolen, an information gathered or altered, a person extracted, killed or shielded, a place protected or damaged or anything like that, is there a ...well-established, fairly easily accessible market of people or groups of people offering such services out there?" She assumes that the answer will be no, at this point, but one last try.

[dangerouslyinlove]

Now Ryoji is incredibly worried about her. "Uh... no, not really. Unless the mafia count, but I'm pretty sure they only do most of those things in the movies." Or maybe secret agents, but that's not really an 'easily accessible' market by pretty much any definition. Still, Ryoji isn't stupid so he thinks he sees what she's getting at. "...Is that what you used to do, back home?"

[runs]

"No, not the mafia. Crime syndicates are clients, sometimes, but that's it. Runners are free." That's the ideology, and from what she has observed it is also a necessity - if you stop being free, you stop being a runner very quickly, one way or the other.

"...Yeah." It's obvious anyway, isn't it? "If it isn't a thing here, I'll have to find something else, though." Especially since she has no plan to fall back on, here. At home, she could always just return to being a kitten if things went terribly wrong, until Chantalle dies one day, anyway. Not that she would want to by any means, being human gives you so many more things to do, but the option would be there. Here, she has to figure out food and shelter and all that all by herself.

[dangerouslyinlove]

"...How old are you?" He... supposes she could look younger than he is, but that sounds like a kind of dangerous job for someone her age. Which doesn't mean he doesn't believe her, he does and it would kind of explain a lot, but it raises some other questions too.

"But... no, nothing like that really exists here, that I know about. And a lot of places aren't likely to actual hire someone that looks your age, if nothing else." ...She might have to just steal, which is not really a thing he wants to encourage but...