VISIT: THE NIGHT MARKET

[inthenightmods]

VISIT:
THE NIGHT MARKET

characters: everyone.
location: the floating night market, docked at the harbor.
date/time: april 10-12.
content: the night market arrives.
warnings: n/a.

and i came down from the stars.

In the wee hours of April 10, strange blue lights appear just under the waves in the harbor, approaching the dock, until they finally surface entirely. They're submarines, glowing a dim blue now that they're up out of the water, and the fleet is four vessels strong. They've brought with them a floating bridge system to attach to the harbor's main dock to allow access to all four submarines, and they start to unpack...

By "morning", under the light of the full moon, the Night Market is open for business!

This time, it's four vendors that arrive:

• Pluto, the Night Market's leader, who rolls out of her submarine in a custom-built wheelchair.


• Catherine, a coy-eyed blonde with a bombshell choice of wardrobe, who appears to be somehow teeming with secrets.


• Variks, the Loyal, a prison warden who deals in all variety of secrets.


• John Silver, an opportunistic cook who spent his life aboard a space pirate ship.

They've brought a handful of helpers with them to set up the market and run the various booths and games. Though they have no torches among them, the docks are lit with the blue glow of the submarines, their lights rippling slowly in intricate patterns and shapes, reminiscent of carnival lights.

•••
Accepted currencies at the Night Market include: Building and scrap materials, old tablets, old lanterns, captured forest spirits, torches, information, and most importantly... Plutonium. Of course, attempting to barter is always an option... but these currencies are your best bet for dealing with the various vendors offered by the Night Market.

All purchases must be logged on the Night Market purchase page while the market is open! Backdated purchases won't be accepted. However, as long as transactions are started ICly while the market is open, you're welcome to belatedly submit those transactions to the purchase page. Please do your best to log the purchases as close to the window as possible, though!

Congratulations to Sydney and King who won our last AC lottery for a chance to play Night Market shopkeepers! Sydney is playing Variks and King's playing Silver! Be sure to hit up these awesome shopkeepers up under the NPC header below! And as a reminder, please direct all plot questions/topics to one of the mod NPCs, as our players and discord mods aren't given any plot info beyond what's already available in the game. This visit, Danielle is playing Catherine, so she can answer plot questions, along with Pluto. P is for plot!

Here are the vendors and their inventories for the current Night Market visit:

PLUTO

• Special orders - Pluto can procure items just like Rastus, but she can get you specific goods from homeworlds. The more specific the request, the more it will cost. Items ordered through Pluto will arrive on the next ferry.


• Heals - A borrowed gun-looking device allows Pluto to heal even the most grievous of injuries. This item doesn't belong to her, though, so... results may vary

CATHERINE

• Confession - In the place of a standard vendor's stall is a small, modest confessional. Catherine keeps the door open on the priest's side, sitting inside it while she waits for her customers. Feel interested in airing out your grievances? Well, it might not be an official sort of purge, but hop into the curtained compartment and she'll give you a non-judgmental ear to listen. Just don't ask for advice; she's not here to give it. But if you want to pray to her, well, she won't object to being treated like a Goddess.


• A brief reunion - Just want to see someone's face again? A friend, a family member, someone you miss more than anyone else you've ever known? It seems that this mysterious lady has a knack for sensing who it is you desire to see again the most. Exactly how this works, she's not inclined to share, and unfortunately there's no real way to provide you with who it is she's able to show you... but a few meaningful moments could mean some peace of mind for some people.


• Adult toys - A padlocked trunk full of specialty toys and supplies (and apparent torture devices?) to tide over any individual who would consider themselves properly kinky (or perhaps just a tad adventurous in their intimate exploits). Anyone over the age of eighteen is free to browse the wares, but the stall's keeper will keep it locked for anyone who died before reaching a legal age of adulthood. Sorry, kids. Maybe when you've been dead for a few more years.

VARIKS, THE LOYAL

• Restraints & prison supplies - Cages, shackles, handcuffs, chains, rope. Want to keep a forest spirit (or fellow resident) contained and restrained? He's got you covered. Maybe it's for their own good, he may be the Kell of the House of Judgement but he won't question your motives too hard. What he has on display is mostly person-sized restraints and smaller cages for trapping forest spirits to use as currency elsewhere in the Night Market. But if you need something specific he may be able to accommodate.


• Lantern shells - Tired of carrying the same lantern around day after day? Change how it looks with a lantern shell. The "shell" looks like a shimmery 12-sided die in various colors but touch it to your lantern and it'll be absorbed and change your lantern into a specific color / shape / size, etc. They can be removed at will and return your lantern to it's default look. Get multiple shells and have a different lantern every day of the week! You're only as fashionable as your Ghost. Er. Lantern.


• ACCEPTED CURRENCIES - He'll take all the basics, with a preference for lanterns or lantern pieces, and also secrets. Secrets can be about yourself, others, places, the Wild Hunt... The juicier the secret the more valuable it is to him. He probably won't tell Pluto. Probably.

JOHN SILVER

• Ready-made meals - This extremely personable vendor will greet you jovially and invite you up in a very thick, very pirate-y accent— though it's probably not him that draws you up so much as the mouth-watering smell of cooking food. He has a number of ready-made meals, but he can also whip up something special if you have a specific request. And when he says specific, he MEANS specific... looking at those of you with Certain Dietary Requirements.
  
  Bonza Beast Stew: What's a Bonza Beast? Who knows! Where did he find one on this planet? You'll never find out, because it's a secret recipe. Have a bowl of this hearty stew, though, and you'll find that you'll be pleasantly warm and happy for a good long while.
  
  Wild Rosemary Quiche: Vegetarian and beautifully fragrant. Consuming this will make you particularly nimble for a while.
  
  Fish & Chips: What is says on the tin and possibly the best you've ever had. Wonder what that fish is...? The only side effect is that you have an almost insatiable desire to go swimming. Might want to be careful with that one...
  
  Steamed Buns: A meaty option and the veggie option. Both buns will increase good fortune for a limited period of time.
  
  Apple Rose Puffs: Sweet and delicate, they will also leave you smelling sweetly of flowers for hours afterward.
  
  Baklava: Nutty and sweet, after eating this you feel compelled to say whatever kind things you've been feeling or have been on your mind.
  
  Moonshine: No side effects, unless you count getting completely blasted very quickly.
  
  You can also purchase ready-made packages of ingredients with a written recipe included to take home and cook for later! Except the Moonshine. That you'll have to buy directly.


• Poisons - Ask the right questions, and you can get access to Silver's under-the-counter stash of goods. "Poisons" here is used loosely, as it includes concentrated doses of all sorts of concoctions. This includes: deadly poisons of varying intensities, poisons that induce sleep, poisons that will warm you from the inside or that will give you a bone-deep chill, poisons that are actually venom you can put on a blade, etc. All poisons are good for 2 doses, so use them wisely.


• Repairs - Nothing too complicated, mind! Silver is good with mechanical fixes, but not with anything too delicate.


• ACCEPTED CURRENCIES - Silver accepts all the regular kinds of currencies, but he does have a preference for gossip (which he loves), information, and building/scrap materials. He will also gleefully take recipes your character might know and ingredients that have been foraged or brought from the ferry as a form of payment. Keep in mind that the more you ask for, the more you will have to pay— and those poisons don't come cheap.

DR. SCHICKSAL'S HINT-O-MATIC

• AMA - Does your character have any burning questions they just need to have answered? Dr. Schicksal's Hint-O-Matic is a phonebooth-looking device with a screen prompting the user to input a question. When a question is asked, Dr. Schicksal's Hint-O-Matic will spout out an answer! Questions can be typed in via keypad or spoken aloud, and answers will be automatically read aloud for characters that can't read the screen. These answers are always true, no matter what the question, but this information comes at a cost—your character will be blessed with a random status effect for the remainder of the month. We will check permissions posts before issuing a status effect, and please keep in mind that these effects stack! 😃 Each question you ask it (or say at it, rhetorically or otherwise) will "cost" one status effect. And, yes, you can literally ask anything.

Finally, please use the Night Market Purchases page for all transactions! We're changing this up from how we did it last time so that we can better keep track of what's going where. You're still welcome to thread out purchases on this log, though! Just be sure to note it on the purchase page, as well.

•••
Other than the vendors, the Night Market has brought with them the following attractions:

• COFFEE CART - The coffee cart offers every variety of hot drink a person could fathom, and it's complimentary! A few small tables have been set up in front of the cart around an outdoor heater, glowing happily as it warms this little section of dock.


• CANDY SHOP - Sweet treats offered at the candy shop are also free for the taking, but be careful—some treats carry with them a random status effect that will last for the next hour. The treats and resulting status effects are left entirely up to you players, so feel free to create your own hijinx! This is us trusting you not to break the game, so don't abuse this privilege, and feel free to ask us if you're unsure about limitations! Not all treats will produce an effect, but those that do will have no tells, meaning characters will not be able to strategize when eating the candy. (In meta terms: if you want your character to engage in wacky bullshit, but they're a party pooper and hate fun and wouldn't willingly indulge, this is your opportunity to trick them into shenanigans.)


• CARNIVAL GAMES - The small section of carnival games includes ring toss, skeeball, balloon darts, a shooting gallery, a fishing game, a plinko game, and an RC racing game with toy vehicles. The rules are all somewhat nebulous, but feel free to play out your characters interacting with these games on your own! They're all free to play, and prizes include knitted forest spirit plushies, wind-up goldfish that float through the air, and buckets of those plastic spider rings and finger topper guys that cost like one ticket apiece at Swings-N-Things.


• WHACKY WAVING INFLATABLE ARM FLAILING TUBE MEN - They are also here, and they have a jukebox with them with an unfathomably large selection of songs. This area of the dock is probably meant for dancing.

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Comments

[pearlstrings]

[There's a small piece of paper inside his pocket, what looks like it could be a folded note. In reality it's a page from a book- one that Bruce slides quietly across the counter. It doesn't read as sheepishness or even fear so much as it does discretion- after all, how much of that can be afforded here, in a place as crowded and open as the night market.]

[spacecook]

[ When Bruce doesn't say anything, Silver arches a curious eyebrow. The energy of the exchange shifts when he spies that paper, but he picks it up and unfolds it, scanning it's contents. There's the slightest frown on his face, but it looks like concentration instead of disapproval.

His eyes flick up, his cyberoptic narrow, before he smirks. ]

I like the cut a' yer jib, lad. But t'is? [ He waggles the note without turning the page around. Nobody else can see what's written on it. ] T'ain't gonna come cheap.

[pearlstrings]

[This is perhaps the most comfortable he's ever felt in the market. Payments are usually exacting in their discomfort- they require a certain amount of disclosure and Bruce has always been aware of how many eyes could spot him. Who could see, who could hear. But there aren't any deeply personal memories he needs to fish out, no emotion heavy sentiments to put to words. Here, there is no mask.]

Quality goods, quality prices.

I'm certain we'll come to some kind of agreement.

[spacecook]

[ The smirk on his face becomes even more sly and playful. ]

If ye're lookin' for this sort a' specialty I've no doubt about that.

[ He folds the paper and tucks it in his apron, then pulls up a stool and takes a seat across from Bruce at the counter. He's tall enough that sitting, he's just about eye-to-eye with the young man. ]

For this, I'll be needin' payment up front. Let's talk shop. What'll ye offer?

[pearlstrings]

[Never one to rush into things, Bruce doesn't reply until after the man has settled into his seat. He doesn't come any closer to the counter, but he doesn't draw away either.]

I'm sure you heard the Wild Hunt has made their appearance.

It's lead to some interesting conversations around town.

[spacecook]

[ Now this is information Silver is keen on. He knows well the climate of the Night Market, and what's keeping Pluto so busy at her stall these days. ]

I reckon i'twould.

[ He isn't offering anything on purpose. ]

[pearlstrings]

[To the outside observer it would look as if Bruce is having a casual conversation. There's no tension corded in his body and no furrows in the lines of his face. It's only the pitch of his voice that's different, because it's so low that a listener would need to be very close to hear at all.]

The sudden appearance and insistence on leading a rescue, the day of training they organized and their method for liberating the hostages hasn't done much to endear the residents to them. Even before they announced a desire to curry favor.

Should the dividing lines occur, they're likely to be very uneven.

[spacecook]

[ He fixes Bruce with a shrewd look. ]

The lines are already drawn in t'sand, lad. Think that much is plenty clear.

[pearlstrings]

For you and yours perhaps.

For the residents here, there are more than two options.

[spacecook]

The elusive middle ground?

[ He raises both eyebrows, amused. ]

[pearlstrings]

[A small shrug.]

That's a little generous.

It suggests people here are willing to compromise with the Wild Hunt, and that they trust Pluto and her crew. Independence, I think, would outweigh political cooperation.

[spacecook]

[ Silver sucks a tooth, a tsk that's neither approving nor a condemnation. ]

In my experience, most people aren't cut out for that sorta work. An' here? Could be quick as a short drop an' a sudden stop.

[ His eyes go toward the lighthouse in the distance. ]

Loyalty's the sort of thing what holds a crew together.

[pearlstrings]

[He tracks the gaze- the way the vendor's eyes go to the lighthouse.]

Residents here largely consider one another to be their crew, but there's a growing sense of loyalty to a cause. Not to either faction.

[spacecook]

We've each a cause, lad.

[ His eyes are back on Bruce, keen. ]

Pluto told ye all that o'er the network, didn't she? And I've no doubt that Kimiko let ye know, too.

[pearlstrings]

Yes. But our priorities don't seem to align with either one.

[When he turns back their eyes meet.]

That said, one party would be an obstacle to achieving our goals.

[spacecook]

[ Silver is a man that had spent his whole life sacrificing most things for his own goal. He understands this sentiment, the one Bruce isn't saying, better than most. Pluto had something worth offering, back when he'd been on their side of things. Silver smiles. ]

And ye think ye've got what it takes, eh?

Ye know t'only takes one man t' start a mutiny, and that there's a slippery slope when ye've not got the brawn to back it up.

[pearlstrings]

[He's seen plenty of smiles in his life thus far. It's become a very easy thing, to separate the true from the facsimiles.]

I've always preferred subtlety to brawn.