multiversallogs | never put your hat on the bed, son, never put your hat on the bed

Who: Njoki, Bob Barker & YOU.
What: Fixin' horses, seein' clients, chattin' on the phone, etc.
Where: Mafaton, various other places throughout Baedal.
When: All throughout the week
Notes: The remade horse scenario is for Martha, but the rest of the options are open to everyone. If you want to chat and set anything up, give me a shout.
Warnings: Some gore and bodyhorror. These are Remade horses.

Even with the reduced population of cruorvores in the city, Njoki is still busy enough to have regular wait periods between making an appointment and seeing her. It seems those that are left have a vested interest in warding their property and making sure their appearance is as human as possible. For this reason, she's often out and about anywhere in town: tracking down new suppliers, riding the trains, taking a well-earned break in a coffee shop after a particularly difficult bit of work, and so on.

Today, she's on time and waiting for Martha outside a Mafaton stable with a rucksack over one shoulder and a toolbox in hand. It's worth noting that she's wearing clothing to suit a dirty, messy, hands-on sort of job.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There's a moment in which this mystery man seems to contemplate the pros and cons of the fun of fucking with people versus the pain in the ass of dealing with what might turn into a street-wide conflict, during which Jae keeps quiet and just gives him a wary, but plainly annoyed, look. Finally - "Yeah, we're fine." He shrugs, leaving Jae and Njoki alone.

A beat, and Jae looks over at her, his guard right where it was. "Thanks," he says, but it's pitched a little bit like a question - what the hell did he walk into, by accident? Did he just swap one potential mugger for another?

"No worries. You new?" Njoki keeps an eye on the welcome wagon until he's gone off on whatever business he'd originally been out on. "And, you know where you're at?"

He nods to confirm that he's new - the questions itch at something uncomfortable in the back of his head; he hates being in this position. But it's true. Then: "Uh - besides north of the green line junction?" And that horrible nausea-inducing district. "No."

"S'Mafaton. Mostly cruorvores here and after the riots some of them are a little less than welcoming." Njoki doesn't approve of it. She'll be among the first to make a snap judgment, but she's no interest in picking on strangers.

It takes him a second to figure out what cruorvores means and when he does, genuine nervousness flickers through his expression. Vampires and people-eaters do genuinely scare the shit out of Jae - a vampire might not, but in general 'someone who wants to fucking eat me' is an unpleasant thought. (Especially since so many of them seem to be in some kind of instant sociopath club.)

Still, he sounds calm when he talks. "Oh." Welp. "I wasn't here for any riots, I didn't mean to trespass. I'm just trying to get a couple blocks that way." He nods in the general direction of the coast.

"S'all good by me," she says with a huff of a laugh and puts up her hands. "Just to be safe though, you want company to the edge of the canton?"

Njoki doesn't expect that Ol' Yellow Eyes will return to hassle Jae, but it's not a long walk out of her way and it's good press to keep the lost locals from being harrassed.

"Uhm, sure."

It can't hurt, right? Jae adjusts how he's holding the turntable in his arms, and as he does, frowns a little at the ground - unknitting something inside of him as he does, so that anyone with the right vision or senses will be able to see Magic-user, Leave Me Alone versus just a sitting duck of beguiling humanity.

(He smells human.... ish.)

"I'm Jae." He sticks out his hand.

"Njoki, but Ki works if you can't manage it." She accepts and shakes his hand noticing that there's something about him that seems not entirely human. "You need a hand carrying anything?"

"Njoki," he echoes, and it actually comes out pretty accurate - he's a cheater, though, having an agglutinative language for his mother tongue. In Jae's opinion, it's important to pronounce peoples names right; not that he actually expects anyone to be able to get Jaehyun perfect, and so never introduces himself that way. "It's nice to meet you."

"I'm okay. I expected to carry it back." This is not his first rodeo hauling equipment across a city, even if he'd rather not. But fuck Bonetown, man.

"Ditto, even with the jerkoff." Behold Njoki, always a master of the polite introduction. "Him aside, Mafaton's not a bad place to live. Cheap rent, noisy at night, but I'd rather be here than most other places."

It's not the most scenic neighborhood, but it's close to clients and supplies in a way that few other places in the city are.

The immediate kneejerk response is to say something like If I'm not supposed to be here, then it's not his fault, because Jae understands the sentiment of disliking outsiders, but saying - hell, even feeling it - unsettles him, so he stays quiet.

"I think I'm too new to have opinions about neighborhoods," he admits. "Which probably means I'm being a dumbass looking for work before I figure the whole city out yet, but rent and groceries aren't so patient."

never put your hat on the bed, son, never put your hat on the bed

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One day, I will remember to press 'post'.

lies