2019-09-18 - Welcome To The Club

After the Fried Fish shack is closed for the night, Julia loiters behind it, just past the garbage bins in a spot that has been set up for the employees to take breaks, maybe have a smoke. Just a couple of deck chairs and a few butts on the ground. That's where she's waiting for Greg, illuminated by the streetlights with shadows flickering across her face from the moths that swirl around the buzzing lightbulbs.

A low, irregular rumbling punctuated by rythmic thuds presages the next arrival. Is it a boy? Is it a man? Well... it is a Greg, an adult by the numbers, languidly riding his skateboard down the uneven planking of the boardwalk. As he rounds the corner to appear in the island of light cast by the streetlights, one hand jammed in a pocket and the other one smoking a cigarette, one might notice his foot never really quite bothered to drop down and push the board as he approached. He similarly draws to a stop with no intervention from his feet, and waves at Julia with his cigarette-laden hand. "All closed up?" he asks in a perky, friendly tone.

"Yeah, everybody's gone." If Julia is ill at ease being alone in the night with a guy she's met all of twice, she gives no indication. She's smiling with the relief of an end of workday, but she does smell of the fryer. It can't be helped. "So. You do some magic shit, huh?"

"I can do some pretty amazing shit with this skateboard, mamacita," Greg replies with a playful grin. It doesn't last long, eventually wavering, to be replaced with concern. "I ended up in a weird place," he says in a sudden rush. "This weird city... Viviarosa? The Living City? There were these boar-faced dudes, and this little Quix homie with wings... I saved him from the boar dudes, and we, uh..." He pauses with a slightly guilty glance towards Julia. "I helped him find something, and he helped me find something too. I... I brought it back. It came back with me, so it was real." He takes on an increasingly frantic and disturbed tone as he says the last part, but his body language shrinks from Julia, never threatening. "That shit was real, and I just like... fell into a different place."

Julia's expression is mild, with no apparent air of disbelief. "There's lots of names for it . The Veil. The Other Side. Dreamland. Fairy Land. The Upside Down. You get the idea. Seems like you can make doorways into it, maybe even sense where any natural openings are. Different people have different abilities. Sometimes they overlap. I know a few people who can do what you can do. Some people hear them whispering. Some people can heal, like laying on hands type stuff. This town's full of people like that. Problem is, it's also full of creatures who think people like that are super yummy."

Greg nods thoughtfully, tilting his head to the side. "So that's... I've had this sense that if I really needed to get away, I can go.... somewhere." He shrugs. "The Veil, I guess. It really is real." He looks a little mindblown as he takes this in, but his eyes and focus suddenly narrow. "Woah, wait -- fucking creatures?" An anxious, defensive set racks his shoulders, and those deep brown eyes cast around quickly, taking stock of the possible exits. "You mean like the dudes I saw in the Veil? They weren't so bad. Weird, but like... I punked two of those dudes." He gives a cautious little shrug. "So like, big deal, right? They come, you smash their face with a skateboard or a dumpster and drive the fuck on." He gives a little smile full of optimism that it should be so easy.

"Yeeeeaaaah, no." Julia replies. Oh, you sweet summer child. "There people, the creatures who live on that side, they've got as many differences on that side as they do on this side. These things, they feed on emotions. The bad ones; hate and anger and fear and sadness. They don't really have a tangible form. I usually hear them called Dark Men, but they're not men at all. I haven't found anything that can actually kill them. But there are people who try to work for them, like the way some people think if they ally with Satan, they'll get dragged to hell last? But eventually they're still gonna go to hell." She shudders. "Be careful on the other side. You can get trapped there. I - know people. Who have, for years."

"Dark Men," Greg feels the word out, and finds it creeps him out; he shudders, casting the mostly-unsmoked cigarette aside before it can burn his fingers. "Why the fuck would anyone do that?" he asks. Then he really thinks, and he slowly nods. "No... you don't have to answer that. I know some people who probably wouldn't bat an eye at it if they thought it would get them something." He shakes his head. "I don't think I can come back as easy as I can go. I'm not sure why I think that, but it feels like it's a one-way trip, somehow. But there has to be some way out, right?" He steps down from his board, stomping on the back to make it jump up into his hand. "There has to be a way to fight these things, if they come at you."

"Why would anyone do what? Side with them?" Julia's head cocks to the side inquisitively. "I told you. They think as long as they're on the side they believe will inevitably win, they'll survive the longest. Or do you mean living on the other side? I don't know anyone who did it voluntarily." She folds her arms across her chest. "There are ways to detect them, but so far no one has figured out a way to directly hurt them. But people are trying."

Greg considers this for a moment. "Well... they're Dark Men, right? Maybe they don't like light." He gives a twist of his hand in the air, and a bright indigo-hued light blooms into luminescence in the air between the two. Greg squints into it, his expression appraising. "Has anyone tried like... attacking them somehow, with a light like mine?"

Julia can't help herself. "Oh my god. You think that people haven't tried something that obvious? Natural light might bother them, there have been creatures that seem to be a lot like them who love light from what we can do, but don't care for normal lights. But the fact that they feed on bad emotions means that either a lack of emotion or positive emotions might starve them. Like I said, we're trying. And there might be people trapped on the other side as well."

Greg tilts his head again, with a grin that slowly slides into a smirk. "So you're saying... feeling really fucking good just might keep them away." He puffs himself up as he snuffs out his light and shrugs. "No wonder this town loves to get high. All that... is that why people seem to get stuck here?" His tone's a bit vulnerable on that last question. "It just seems like once you're here, you never really get away..."

Julia rolls her eyes and laughs. "I'm saying we don't know. But I imagine losing control of your emotions isn't helpful. But you could always try it and see what happens." At the question, she looks uncomfortable. "I think the town sort of unconsciously draws us in. I mean, you can get away for a while...years, even. But a lot of people do come back, for one reason or another. Mine was my mom, but strokes happen every day."

Greg nods thoughtfully. "I just like... I never knew about the stuff I could do, and almost right after I figured out what I could do Felix had me dragged here." He gives a little helpless shrug. "And now there's about fuck all I can do but stay here like a good boy and sell my shit like I'm told." He gives a bitter scoff, shaking his head. "Yo, I never asked to be mixed up in his shit. I never asked to be mixed up in all this fucking Veil and Dark Men head games either... but if I can't run from either one, I'm going to have to figure out how to fight." His brown eyes fill with steely determination as he looks at Julia. "So, mamacita. It sounds like you know people." He gives a casual shrug. "Sign me up for the fight. I want to be part of turning back whatever the fuck is going on around here."

"A lot of us have to deal with the shit we didn't ask for." Julia acknowledges this as a point of camraderie, not inclined for a 'who suffered more' comparison. Some things she's not ready to share about herself. But she does have to ask... "What does Felix have on you, anyway?"

Greg winces, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Oh. Yeah. So, uh... my boy Cliff ended up getting nabbed up in Seattle, but I knew where he had like... a fuckin' ungodly amount of cocaine stashed, so I sort of helped myself. Turned out that shit belonged to Felix. I've like.... mostly paid him back on that. But then he put up the money for my business, and he's all through it." He sighs. "He's not going to let me get away. I'm probably already fucked.... he's just taking his time to figure out how he wants to murder me."

"Is the store making money?" Julia asks. "Because if you're turning a profit, he won't murder you. If you're not ratting him out and he's getting a cash flow, he's got no reason to." She offers him a look of sympathy. "It sucks, but as long as you don't do anything stupid, you can put that worry out of your mind."

Greg grins. "Yeah. I mean, it does alright. It's the start of legitimate money." He shrugs. "As long as I keep playing ball, sure. I just wonder what happens if I don't want to sell the hard shit anymore. About the same as what happens if I try to leave, probably." He shrugs, hefting his board. "I don't know how long I can fly around on this thing at once, but I doubt it's far enough, or fast enough. I wonder if it could ever even be far enough, or if I'd just have to keep flying from town to town forever like a bargain-bin Silver Surfer exiled to Earth."

She gives him a small smile. "One problem at a time, amigo." she counsels. "At some point, you'll figure out when it's enough, and when you do, whatever friends you have, your real friends, will put their heads together with you and figure out a way to get out. But there's a lot you've got to deal with right now. I'll talk to a few people, see who else I can hook you up with in terms of your," she wiggles her fingers. "Bippety boppity boo."

"There must be some meaning behind it all, some pattern," Greg says with exasperation. "I find out I can do this crazy thing, and next you know I'm in a town full of people who do wild shit. There's got to be a reason for it all." He pauses, eyeing Julia for moment. "It's drugs," he offers. "What I brought back... something called 'horcha seeds'. I don't know what it does; I've been too scared to try it. I thought about trying to grow one of the seeds, to see what happens. My boy Quix in Viviarosa seemed to think it was valuable somehow."

Julia looks a bit uncertain about the entire notion. "Horcha seeds. I...are you sure? I mean, if you're determined to try it, make sure you have someone who can keep an eye on you. I could, if you like."

Greg's brow furrows, and he nods. "That's a really damn good idea. Who knows what they might do. My dude Quix seemed pretty pleased with himself for hooking me up with them, so they must be good." He shrugs. "I had made a deal with the little vato, and I figured some crazy Dream drugs would be worth a lot of money to the right buyer."

Julia still looks a bit sidelong about the whole thing, but hopefully he can't blame her. "You don't seem like the kind of person who would put a drug out on the street without at least knowing how dangerous it is." She really, really doesn't want him to be that person.

Greg shakes his head. "I'm not. That's why I really want to see what it does." He slowly grins. "You don't happen to have special keep-the-idiota-alive powers, by any chance?" He lets his brilliant quip land before continuing. "I would probably just try one, the first time. Just to see what happens. If it's anything good I'm going to want to plant my own." He looks thoughtful. "Do you think it could grow out here, even? Outside the Veil?"

Julia lets out a soft laugh. "Not to my knowledge. A cut on your finger, sure. Something like this? Not so much, I think. But as for the...horcha? You won't know until you try. If you want to try and harvest some on the other side, I can help with that. "

Greg considers Julia with a smile. "I guess I'll just have to smoke the shit and hope for the best, then. You never get much from being timid." He gives her a weighing look. "So you're pretty familiar with the Veil, Julia? That place was crazy. There were people on flying skateboards! That's what gave me the idea to try with mine."

"Parts of it." Julia says. "The landscape can differ and it isn't always in the same place. It's...hard to explain. Parts of it are beautiful, and parts of it are piss your pants terrifying, and I wouldn't wish my worst enemy there." Her lips press together tightly. "I was trapped on the other side for years." Whoa, bomb drop.

Greg blinks, appropriately stunned and poleaxed. "No fucking way," Greg almost moans. "I don't mean like 'no way', but like... that's fucking crazy." His expression is one of concern as his eyes search hers. "That must have been fuck-ing-terrifying," he says. "How the hell did you get away?"

"I was released." Julia admits. "I don't know why. Maybe the thing, the being that was holding me felt it had gotten all it could for me. " She looks away from him. "You may hear stories about an asylum that no one could ever remember the name of, or where it is. Or they might mention that they sent a relative 'upstate'. The reason no one remembers it is because it's on the other side. " She chews on her lip for a second, and promptly lifts her chin. "It's not really a place. It's more an entity that moves around, but when you're inside it, it's not like being Jonah in the whale. It's like a place, but also a living thing. I know I'm not making any sense. Someone I know called it a 'sentient realm'."

"That's pretty fucked up," Greg offers, his tone affronted. His brows draw together into a ram-like V over his nose. "There must be some way to stop it," he insists. "All of it. There's got to be."

"I'm going to spend my life trying." Julia tells hm bluntly.

Greg nods, very slowly. "I want to help you," he tells her, and there's nothing insincere about his delivery. "I can't stand the thought of anybody being trapped over there like that. I may not know anything about how to go about it, but I have my will and my power. Power enough to help, maybe."

Julia gives him a smile, arguably dazzling. "At this rate," she says, "I think we're gonna have an army. Eventually."

Greg grins, stricken by that contagious smile. "If everybody has crazy things they can do, I don't see what could stop us, if we come together. You know, maybe that's the thing for the Dark Men too... come together, help each other, lift each other up. Starve the Dark Men."

"That would be something, wouldn't it?" Samantha muses with a grin. "Just...try to keep in mind, people have been hammering at this already. The solutions aren't simple. Welcome to the club, though."