2019-08-07 - Dysfunctional Scooby Gang: Google Maps Edition

After receiving word from Julia about a breakthrough (And an unexpected day off from work...whoops) Ignacio calls the Dysfunctional Scooby Gang over to the shop because... hey it's got good seating, most of the group closed the shop there or nearby, and frankly it's just not haunted which goes for a lot these days.

What the gang has been filled in on over the last week is the high level overview: Bag things Over There(tm) are using agents here (knowing or unknowing) and people are getting hurt. Julia was one of those people and we all have an opportunity to change that for people who can't do that for themselves... only we don't know where the hell this place is.

This too may have gotten fixed, but it'll take the skill talents of several to help push past this.

Also Ignacio has brought apology bagels for the 'meeting'. He looks more tired than usual, but for all purposes seems like he's up and running alright. "We have a squeaky mallet? I feel like we should start the debriefings with a squeaky mallet."

"You're a dork." Julia says unapologetically, though she grins when she says it. "I have a lot to tell you all. It wasn't first meeting sort of stuff necessarily, but since I've made some headway, I wanted to keep you all updated." There's a pause. "Ignacio says that I get a membership card, but I'm guessing you all are a democracy, so if I'm more gang-adjacent, I can work with that. But I really hope you all are willing to let me be part of what you do.

She takes a deep breath. "So, at the risk of you thinking I'm actually crazy, you should know that I was diagnosed as schizophrenic when I was eight years old, and institutionalized when I was eleven. I'm not schizophrenic. You can guess what was actually causing it. And the place I was sent to...it was more than just an asylum. " She looks at everyone's expressions tentatively.

August is dressed in his 'not working' clothes: dark gray commuter pants, dark purple t-shirt, black knit hoodie, deck shoes. It's the kind of thing almost no one around the shop ever sees him in.

"No squeaky mallets," he says, slathering some cream cheese on a cinnamon bagel. He's got a coffee from Espresso Yourself to go with it.

He cuts a look at Ignacio. "Membership card?" he murmurs, then resumes listening. He folds his arms, grimaces at the diagnosis and result. "I'm guessing that means it was a front to grab kids like," he glances among the rest of them, back to Julia, "us?"

Finch arrives with Ignacio, dressed in shorts over leggings tucked into boots and a hoodie. Her hair is green right now. She settles into a chair silently and arches a brow at the membership card business, looking at Iggy, then back to the others. She doesn't comment on it though, just listening to the situation.

Ignacio notes to the group, "She paid me well..." He glances over amused. "Something about payroll." Looking to the glance he says defensively and unconvincingly, "I Miiiight have looked into getting Vista Print cards made and made more than one comment about band practice." He pauses counting them off on fingers, "And a Spy Kids reference... but really there's like no... team. We just mostly work here and sometimes hang out BUT!" He hods up a finger and points Finch bagel-ward, "Yeah, Bo-...Roen. Pretty much finding kids like us."

"The reason no one can find it and no one can seem to remember anything about it is because it's on the other side." Julia makes a vague gesture, they know what she means. "And it moves around. I think it might not just be a place that moves, I think it's aware. And we were inside it, like slowly digesting food."

August surveys Julia, turning that over in his mind. "Like...Jonah and the whale, kind of?" He toys with his coffee, has a drink. "Or that part in Empire Strikes Back with the thing in the asteroid?"

Finch reaches for a bagel but she doesn't eat it just yet. She stares at it for a long moment. "Did the institution have a name?" she asks quietly. Both her mother and her great aunt are in one. The whole topic seems to be painful for her.

"More like the pit outside Jabba's palace in Star Wars?" Julia suggests, and looks rueful at Finch. "No. No one can remember the name, or where it's located, who the doctors are. It's just 'we sent her upstate' and that's all most people can remember."

Ignacio listens quietly and offsets his jaw glancing to them. Quietly he tries to phrase this and goes with, "I think you know I'm kinda over hospitals. THey... helped me. They're tryin, but like, I've donemy time being not believed and, um, I'm in agreement this sounds fishy as hell." He pauses and looks to August, Exogorths, man. People keep sayin Sarlacc but that's a plant and lives only in desert climates. You're thinking of exogorths."

August pulls a face. "The pit didn't move," he points out with a lift of his eyebrows. He glances at Finch, reaches out to grip her shoulder a second. He nods at Ignacio. "That one." Does he know that name too? Who can say.

He settles back, has some coffee. "I can't really go near a hospital but," he looks up at Julia, "not sure one over there would clock the same to the PTSD. So." He tilts his head. "So if it moves...how do we find it?"

Finch seems only mildly relieved that it isn't the place her relatives are currently having their permanent stays at. She takes a bite of bagel and reaches a hand to touch Ignacio's arm. She swallows her morsel. "Yeah, this sounds like they need to be stopped, for sure."

"It's on the other side." Julia explains. "And Itzhak and I can both open doors to the other side. I've talked to a psychiatrist , she's willing to hypnotize me and try to pull up my memories of the place. Maybe I can remember something from my time there to help us." She adds to Ignacio, "I have a favor to ask you about that, actually."

Ignacio arches an eyebrow and he levels with August, "You need a couple Xanax I can hook ya up." He shrug offering, "For you? I'll share." He looks to Finch giving her knee a squish as a thanks before standing to limp over to get himself coffee. When Julia addresses getting hypnotized his attention pulls up. "Back up, still? Can do. What's the name of this Shrinky Dink?"

August waves a hand at Ignacio. "The neurosurgeon can get be a scrip on the level. Keep yours, it's fine."

He nods at Julia, scratches his beard. "Can you do the finding thing?" He has a distant, thoughtful look on his face. "I've only ever used it to find a thing, not a place, but maybe...with a little something we experimented with the other night, you could amplify it. Finch and I could boost you and Itzhak, then you two work on tandem." He raises his eyebrows to see what she thinks of that. "Maybe if you remember something in it, that might work."

Finch chomps her bagel and grunts something at Iggy that might be a request to bring her some coffee too. When her mouth is no longer full she asks, "Hypnotism? Man that stuff creeps me out. But if it'll help you find this place, probably worth it."

Julia nods to Finch. "I'm scared shitless. But it may give us something that will help us. " She looks back to August. "I don't know what the finding things, or if I can do it. But maybe we can figure out if I can. Thing is, if the asylum is an entity rather than a place or a thing, would it still work? I'd be willing to try and work with Itzhak, and see what we can do." There's a grateful smile for Ignacio, and she adds, "Remind me to bring over some Cuban coffee to make cafecitos."

Ignacio is fluent in Spanish, English, Pop Culture, Txt speech, Internetese, post millennial, and grunt. It's a a full time lifestyle commitment to keep up on it all starting with getting himself a bagel and two coffees with stuff in them. The bagel is crammed into his yap. Three mumbled syllables might be anything but suffices to indicate Here, take this", para ti, here you go, don't burn me. So versatile mumbling is. He grins around the bagel taking it from his mouth and retaking his seat, "Oh for that I'll absolutely remind you. So as an inventory: Eeeh maybe? I've found people I never intended to before. Lost more of them than that. I say you won't know until you try and failing that? See if this entity has a facebook page. See where it last checked in at or nearest equivalent technology."

August makes a low sound abnout hypnotism. One of the offered remedies he avoided like the plague. "Not sure if you can really find an entity. But that's why I'm thinking of something in it. Maybe a chair, or an item you had--something like that." He shrugs. "Worst case scenario, it doesn't work and we try something else. But maybe, with one or both of you powerful enough, you can." He pulls out his keys, holds them up. "It's great for finding these. We can try it out a bit at some point if you want. Not hard."

Finch takes her coffee from Ignacio with a murmured, "Thanks," and ponders a long moment. "Even if the building is a conscious thing instead of a place, the stuff inside it is likely just stuff. Maybe if you could remember a specific item that you know was always there? Then you could find it that way."

Julia nods in agreement with August and Finch. "Which means the hypnosis will hopefully provide me with a means to anchor to. Can one of you give me Itzhak's number? We'll see if we can figure out if I can learn the finding thing. "

Ignacio nods and pulls his phone out which is somehow not nearly as ostentatious as he is. After a moment the contact is forwarded. He murmurs offhandedly, because coming at a problem head on has never been his style, "Whiiiile most of you are here out of idle curiosity, anyone get really fucked up dreams lately or is this just a return to normal? Since moving here I can't tell."

August gives Ignacio a sympathetic look. "Mine aren't ever really...not, bad, so." He shrugs. "When I remember them at all." He has some coffee, gives Finch a sideways glance.

"Nothing since," Finch makes a 'you know' sign at him. The Murray House one that complicated their friendship soooo much. "Anything else we need to talk about tonight? I promised Gran I'd be home for dinner and to watch Jeopardy with her tonight."

Julia looks around the room. "Thank you." she says sincerely. "I mean, I've got friends, but since the asylum I haven't had anything like this. I don't know how to explain it, but I'm grateful."