2020-03-21 - 2 Federal, 14 state, and possibly 6 more laws...

What better place to do research than the Library? Kip had claimed one of the computers to try and look through old/ancient-by-now newspapers. Her patience was being tested by the equally ancient computer but so far she hasn't tried to bash the machine in. So that's good yeah? She has a yellow legal pad hat is slowly being filled with dates and references to different things she finds in the paper. Today's choice of attire is a pair of denim jeans and a thin, long sleeved purple shirt. No jacket in sight, It's not jacket-worthy weather today apparently.

Jewella stepped into the library and looked around. today she was dressed in dark jeans and a dark blue hoodie that was only slightly too big for her. her massively curly hair was taken ( for the most part) back into a braid though curls seemed to be working their way free to frame her cheerful face. Taking the computer next to Kip, she gave the other woman a smile as a greeting before typing her library card number and password. "These things are so slooooow, I don't know why I don't just try this from my own laptop."

Kip looked over a bit as Jewels sat down, giving a soft chuckle. "They really are." Her Russian accent on the thicker side. "Unfortunately for me, it is either this or trying to track down actual newspaper." A shake of her head as she made a note on ther paper. "What are you attempting?"

Russian was not a language Jewellia spoke but she recognized a genuine accent when she heard it and smiled. " Town history mostly. I only moved here a few months ago, and well honestly the place has a lot of strange rumors floating around about it. I want to do some research on some of the abandoned buildings that I have seen and taken pictures of." She smiled "What about you, what are you looking for?"

Kip looks very much interested in this reasoning. "The same!" She nods. "Not specifically the abandoned buildings but anything strange...there are a lot of strange things here." She taps lightly at the monitor, gesturing to the newspaper article she was looking at. "Lots of murders and mysterious deaths for such a small town. " The article was from 1915 - surrounding a large number of union worker deaths after protests and violence got out of hand. "Lots of anger as well."

Jewelia moved her chair a bit so that she could look over the other woman's shoulder at the article scanning it quickly. "wow thats bad." She turned a bit and looked at Kip, holding out her hand "Jewellia." Has it been like that since the town was founded?"

"Very much so." Kip agrees with Jewellia's That's bad assessment. The handshake is easily accepted and a smile given to go with it. "Kapitsa. Kip if you rather." She offers. "I am not sure honestly. I haven't gotten back that far but, I am more curious to find out if there was strangeness here even before it was settled." But if there's no humans to report the strangeness did it really even happen?

"Kapitsa."She pronounced the name carefully and then smiled " it is a really pretty name. I think I will call you Kip that was I don't mangle it trying to say it." she chuckled softly. "ugh that sounds like that old philosophy question if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it does it still make a sound. " She paused " There might have been people here before the area was settled though. Wasn't this land populated by Native Americans? of course, they didn't keep written histories.."

Kip chuckles at this, "Thank you, and of course Kip is fine. Jewellia is a pretty name as well." An emphatic nod at the younger woman's parallel. "Exactly. It is going to be difficult to pin point or figure out." A soft sigh. "Oh that is an idea...perhaps there is a. What do you call them?...Reservations? Such a weird term for that. Anyway...perhaps there is one somewhere close that has passed down stories?" She makes a little note of that. "Of course...then the trouble is how exaggerated is the story?"

"I am not sure f there is a reservation close or not. I think there is one, but I wouldn't know where. Google could probably tell us though."She smiled. When Kip mantion the stories embelishment she nodded "That is a good question too, espcially if the story has been told over and over, it probably got worse with each person telling it. I know those time periods were pretty bad for that sort of thing though."

Dressed absolutely more sensibly for the weather than some people (not specifically singling out savages from a frozen tundra, but you know who you are), Abitha pushes her way into the library wearing a long, fuzzy sweater over a t-shirt and jeans. A laptop bag is slung over her shoulder and she seems to be texting someone, having used her weight on prying the door open while both hands were occupied. Finishing, she takes a broef loom around. Newspapers... She remembers some tricks from her college days, but was so used to crawling the internet, going analog was a little... Daunting. At least judging by the apprehensive loom om her face, the pinch of a cheek being chewed.

The two people on the archaic, government-funded relics are given a brief look, halfway between judgement and pity. But then again, she came here because technology had failed her. Sigh, frustration again, resolution. Her feet carry her toward the hub there.

"The wonders of the internet." Kip mused with a soft laugh. "Let me see maybe if I can find one." She starts working on bringing up a browser. Maybe she should try to convince Stefhan and the Library to work together to provide better computers for the place. Yay fundraising!

Hearing another person drawing closer, Kip tilted her head and spotted Abitha. Vaguely recognizing her from the bookstore a while back. "Good morning." She offered in a low-ish library safe voice and a friendly enough smile. "Technology beating everyone down today, no?"

" it couldn't hurt to look that's for sure." Jewellia looked up to se who was coming in and when she saw Abitha she gave the one woman a smile and a friendly wave. "Abitha! Hi! nice to see you again." She managed to keep her greeting to library acceptable levels. giving the other woman a cheerful smile.

"Don't dare besmirch my native plane of existence." Abitha intones to Kip's seeming sarcasm of the internet. "Mac." Abitha reminds Jewellia in a flat tone, her default setting. "Sup, J-train." Because nicknames were how cool people did things. To Kip, she gets a "Yo." This is all done while Abitha is breaking out her powerhouse of a laptop, leaning to unplug an Ethernet cable from one of the dinosaurs and hooking in. She hacks her way into the LAN unabashedly. "Eh, technology can't really fail. It's a thing. Just gotta know where to use it."

"Right, Mac, sorry" she smiled in amusement when the other woman referred to her as J Train ."I just came to see if I could find any information on some of the old abandoned buildings around here before I go poking around to take pictures f them. What about you?"

Kip blinked a bit at the comment. "Oh. My apologies. I didn't realize the internet had residents, Mac." She muses. "I am Kip." She offers in return. There's mild interest as she watches Mac's unabashed DIY set up. Though for the moment she returns to her searching and note taking.

"We are many and none. We never forgive and never forget." Abitha is all about deadpan delivery today apparently. Though she snorts at her own bad humor. "Nice to meet you, Kip." That almost sounded like politeness, probably a trained response. Someone had to raise this <s>gremlin</s> woman. Her fingers tap away at the keys, "Some people I know have been trying to dig up stuff on a company called FCN and ive turned up squat on the internet. Had an idea to try analog stuff. Newspapers, town records. Seeing what they have here for digital records before having to slog through stuff myself."

"FCN? I have never heard of it. What sort of company is it supposed to be? and it is weird that if it is a company it wouldn't have a listing with the better business bureau. I mean thats how that works, right?"

Kip stifled a laugh at Mac's counter response. "Nice to meet you too." She nodded, looking up and over a bit when the talk of FCN began. "What does FCN stand for?" She asked curiously. She nodded a bit with Jewels suggestions, that all made sense to her! As far as her understanding of american business went. "I am researching the weird in general. Seeing how far I can trace it back."

More towards Jewels she adds, "There are lots of reservations...a few near the city. Perhaps it might be worth exploring at least."

"That's a good fuckin' question, kisa?" The last syllables are drawn out as Mac side eyes at Kip. Had she looked up common Russian pet names on the fly just to give Kip one? Maybe. "I mean, I say company, but organization, group. It's some bad juju, far as I can tell. And probably related to the Veil, so with how weird records and memories get with that shit..." Right out in the open, no filter at all. Her eyes flick up from her laptop, craning her neck slightly to look at Kip a moment. Yup, shine. Probably fine. She continues to tap away, scrolling through some records.

They were both talking about the veil and it got a bit of a puzzled look from Jewellia. She glimmered to anyone that was looking but if either of the two had met her a week ago there would have been nothing shiny about her. She was as new to this as a barely hatch chick. She looked from one to the other and let them talk, maybe they would answer her questions without her having to ask them if she was just quiet and listened.

Kip stared at Abitha for a moment. She didn't know what was worse - a stranger calling her kitten or her FWB calling her mom. Mental note made to see what the latter was all about anyway. "I am not your kitten." She said rather pointedly, shifting a bit in her seat. "What things has this FCN done? I am trying to find a way to better document the strange things. It will be difficult though.

Abitha raises a hand and snaps her fingers, a visible 'Aw nuts' sort of expression. Still, she carries on, more attempts forthcoming, "S'far as Iggy said, they were passing out stuff from the other side. Also asking people to email them about what weirdness they knew about. Whole thing stunk of phishing and weirdness." She was leaning back in her seat now, crossing one leg over the other, reading something, but she was able to multitask, "But most of us know stuff just sort of shifts to protect this kind of stuff and people forget. I'm just hoping to find stuff that kinda sticks out, like... Maybe some shady companies that came in and out, maybe related times to some bugs floating around."

It sounds like we are all looking into similar things just different parts of it. me I am wondering why some of the old buildings around her are abandoned, and why even more of them have a creepy feeling. Kip is doing research on unsolved murders and things, and Mac, you are looking into a shady maybe bt business. and all of this s tied together because it is all just weird ?"

"Very strange." Kip agreed with a thoughtful noise and then smiled to Jewellia. "Yes, it does sound as if it is the same thing from all different angles." She finishes writing down some information about the locations of these reservations near by and then started going back to the newspaper archives. "It is not just this place. I had some strange instances in Russia...but this is the most...prevalent with weird that i have encountered."

"The way I've been told about things, weird can be connected, can also not be. It's all tied into whatever is different with this town, probs..." She sighs, shrugs, "Maaaan, I dunno. A year ago I didn't know about any of this, but past couple months I feel like I'm in some Silent Hill shit all the time." A hand is fished onto her bag, pulling out a can of something, probably an energu drink, with a hiss-pop of an opening sound.

"At least you have had a year to adjust. I have lived here a couple of months but until last week, nope, no clue, now I notice all this strange shit and have weird dreams, and."She stopped and shook her head. "That's, why we are all looking for answers, isn't it, because one way or another we all got dragged into this weird place>maybe if we all keep looking and share what we find we can piece it together."

"I have been dealing with it for...maybe a little under a year but only rarely. Part of the reason I decided to come was because the feeling is similar. A. Calm before the storm? Hairs standing on end occasionally? That kind of feel." Kip explains. "I hoped to learn more....so far...I have only encountered dance battle robots." And she is completely serious about this. Nodding to Jewellia. "From what I have gathered from others? There are lots here. People who have the shine on them. I think yes. We are all trying to figure out how it fits."

Abitha was mostly quiet as she read for a few moments, thinking, putting pieces together. A year adjustment gets a quiet push of air through her nose. Three quarters of that year she had been convinced she was a dangerous monster that should hide from the world. But something Kip had said bothered her. Green eyes flick over, "Wait, there's places like here in Russia?"

Jewellia looked from one to the other as they spoke, they were obviously more experienced than she was so, she listened to what they were saying.

Kip bit her lip briefly and then nodded. "Well...not exactly like here...but of the same nature? Pripyat...where Chernobyl happened? All bad. Overrun by the teni? The, uhm, shadowy things." She explained. "There are some other places in Russia but it is...impossible to see through? You only have the barest sense. So I have not been able to do much research."

She exhaled softly and looked to Jewels once more. "What kind of dream things have you been experiencing?"

Abitha's eyebrows shot up at Pripyat, eyes widening further as Chernobyl is mentioned, a confirmation of sorts. Well shit, that meant this probably wasn't just a local issue then. Her fingers return to her keyboard, her search now widening vastly. She only listens, mind absorbed in a taskthat now seemed impossibly large.

She took a breath and let it out slowly. " It was just the one dream really, more of a nightmare."She paused and squirmed uncomfortably at the question. She hadn't even had a chance to talk to her brother about it yet. "I was in a House that seemed familiar but wasn't, and there was a voice that kept telling me to listen, and it was like I could feel what the house was feeling."She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself, shaking her head. There was more of course but she was going to talk about that with Adam before she mentioned it to anyone else, even if Kip and Mac said they knew this place was weird too, and both seemed to shine.

Kip laid a hand on Jewellia's upper arm lightly. "That sounds sound scary." She said sincerely, even though she could tell there was more to the story. She counted herself lucky that she hasn't quite run in to anything actually scary...yet. She removed her hand from Jewels and made a couple more notes on her paper. "If we can understand one place...it will help understanding others. All I have gathered for certain is that negative feelings, events, they are a constant."

Negative feelings, events... Yup, Kip couldn't have said it any better. Anyone with an inkling of empathy could probably have felt Abitha shut down emotionally, a drawing into her shell. Hell, she even pulled the front of her sweater a little more closed as if she were cold. She wasn't the best at dealing with those things herself, so helping others through it sounded like the worst idea. She continues to flip through research, letting the person who seemed at least capable of emotional comfort do the thing.

When Kip touched her arm she looked at the other woman and gave her a half-smile "Thanks, Kip."She stood and picked up her own bag ."I need to meet my brother for lunch. leaning over she grabbed a piece of scratch paper and ne of the mall pencils they kept on the desks and wrote down her number twice tearing the paper in half and offering each of them one. "Here is my number lets try and keep in touch if we find anything. okay?"

"It was good to meet you Jewellia." Kip offered, accepting the phone number. She input the information into her phone and then tucked the paper away. "That is a good idea, I will keep you informed." Is agreed upon. When the younger woman exits, Kip looks towards Abitha again. "Are you okay?" A very slight bit of concern as the more withdrawn posture the woman has taken on. "Have you spotted anything yet in your searching?" Not expecting a yes really because it hadn't been that long.

In the middle of a drink sip, makes a little 'mrrr' sound and takes the slip of paper, offering a thumbs up in answer. Mouth full, though, she as well adds the... Stretch? Pressure? Knock-knock joke? ...of a mental communique.

<<Copy that.>>

Flippant use of power? Absolutely. But they'd met and had eye contact. They basically had walkie-talkies now.

Abitha looks over at Kip as she's adressed, letting out a short sigh, shrugging again, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just kinda the worst at..." She lifts her chin and trails her eyes where Jewellia had gone, "...that. And nah, nothing straight away. I'm trying to aggregate data. Like I know most of the Library's stuff probably isn't digitized, and it's gonna be a slog... Maggi probably does that better than me... I dunno, if there can be other places like Gray Harbor, it might mean there are other leads to chase."

Kip listened with interest, nodding. "True. There are newspaper archives - that is primarily what I've been browsing today. Looking to see how far back I can trace the weird happenings in this area. Because there has always been pain and suffering, yes?" It was just a matter of if it was specific to human pain and suffering. "...What does aggregate mean?" It's an afterthought. She could maybe assume but why not just get the clarification now right?

Spring might be upon us, but it's still cold enough that Gina keeps on her winter coat - that long, nigh-seamless woolen coat that resembles a hooded robe at a distance. At least the hood is currently down and it's light out, so she's less weird. All there is to contend with is the rich purple hair currently styled circa mid-1940s curls, her lips dark blue and her smoky eye an on-point silver-and-grey that spikes and curls from the outer corner in a little design.

She also, for those who glimmer and shine, is her usual chock-full-o'-power self, for all she's just falling into a seat near the other computer, starting it up and pulling out a small juice box from her pocket and stabbing a straw in. There might be rules about no food or drink in the library. Gina doesn't seem to particularly care.

"Uh, to bring it all into once place for sorting, I guess is my best use of it." Abitha puffs out a breath, "I really don't even know." she seems to repeat, "I always feel so lost in this stuff, like there are others that know more, but we're still all fumbling in the dark." Enter Gina, probably case-in point, even though, as to her beacon-like power, she was only a single measure more powerful that Abitha, if in different ways.

Gina seemed to be in good company of rule-flouting, as Abitha had an open can of some weird energy drink on the desk in front of her, and was currently working on her own laptop, just using the line-in that should be hooked up to the dinosaur computer she was sitting in front of. Abitha glances over at the motion, noting Gina, a smirk growing on her lips, "I haven't seen you in months. Is your makeup always that fierce? Shit looks killer." Abitha? She counted herself lucky to have used foundation and some eye-liner today.

"Oh! sovokupnyy!" Kip said as Mac clarified. "Like, collecting. I see." Her gaze slid over towards Gina as she walked in. Studying the stranger for a beat and then offering a smile. "I like your hair. A pretty color and style." Obvious Russian accent is obvious. "My name is Kip." She offers to the woman, unprompted. What can she sway? She likes meeting new people! Kip's glimmer is not as bright as Gina and Mac's, but she does still possess a fair amount of power.

"Zdravstvuj." Gina responds, her attention more on the phone she's pulled from a pocket and her sippy cup. It's a casual hello, her accent... rather spot on. But Abitha's talk about her makeup has Gina's eyes flicking towards her, taking in the woman's own face before one shoulder lifts half-heartedly. "When I feel like it. It's not like I've got to get anywhere fast." Joys of business ownership. But her attention slides towards Kip again. "Haven't gotten bored of it yet. Gina." Which is apparently enough of an introduction?

That almost gutteral language she's got to guess is Russian falls on ears that can't decipher it. Abitha glances back and forth from both women in slight indecision before grumbling, "Ikaga..." Abitha only had to walk downstairs to get to her business, but it still seemed to chafe, "I guess that's fair. Like, I'll do it for streams, but..." dramatic sigh. Effort.

Kip looked over at Gina in a bit of surprise. Really. Another person with this at least vague understanding of Russian? Not that she disliked it, it was a nice surprise and a bit comforting even. Just always unexpected. "Nice to meet you Gina." She offers, looking between the women and chuckled a bit at Abitha's own foreign word that Kip didn't understand. "What kind of things do you stream?" She asked of Mac. Then to Gina, " What brings you to the library today?"

"Violating two federal laws, fourteen state laws and possibly six laws of another country." Gina responds to Kip, her tone breezy and...difficult to decipher. Her intonation is such she could be being teasing, serious but flippant, sarcastic or wildly exaggerative for humor-- it's the vague text message of tones, and Gina has it down pat. But she types in a username and password and waits for the very slow computer to finish loading. "Or just fucking around before I go home." Her almost-smirk doesn't quite form, but she does look to Abitha and replies, "Playing with my looks beats checking my email and replying to needy little shits. Who's she?" Yeah, she's asking Abitha about Kip, while Kip is /right there/.

"Vidja gaeemes," Abitha says in the dorkiest way possible, though there's a brief side-eye sent in curiosity, like she wasn't sure if the deliberate mispronunciation would come across to someone who... may not be a native speaker? She already didn't know aggregate... Gina's shenanigans trump any followup correction though, a snort and a flat look sent the purple-haired woman's way. Abitha's eyes flit to her own pirated connection. Wait, was that a dig? Was Gina gonna narc on her?! Brief fear, then disgust at her own weird ideas. "Uhh, Kip? I dunno, I met her like just now. Seems to like researching on archaic dinosaurs, and is strangely supportive of others' struggles. Is not my kitten." She draws her lips together and glances Kip's way, holding in a snicker.

Kip looked at Mac dubiously. "I am not sure that is how you say that..." Liste, English may not be her first language but she knew what a video game was! Anyways. She continued on combing through a news article and making notes whilst the two women talked about her. Lips pursed briefly tland she looked to.Mac again at the kitten comment. "And don't you forget it." A wry smile twitched her lips. "This dinosaur...it is better than looking through the physical copies." She shrugs.

Looking back towards Gina a moment, "Neither of you are people persons." Stated more matter of factly than questioning. "What do you do for work?" Curiously questioning the not people persons was apparently her gig

Gina takes in the information Abitha helpfully replies with that audible sipping of her juice box - she's raised the straw so that even though it's mostly full, that noise just-- sounds throughout. That nearly-finished juice-sputter sound we're all familiar with. Just too many seconds of that while she carefully controls the straw-to-liquid ratio so the noise continues in the library, eyes focused on her work. She only stops when she's asked a direct question, and her eyes flick towards Kip again, juice box being left on the table again. "Hospitality. Restaurant management." She answers. "I hate people, but I hate being bored more. Never boring in the hospitality business." When she actually decides to work.

Yes, Gina, absolutely exacerbate someone's social anxiety by calling attention to your disinterest in a question you asked them. A look like annoyance mixed with personality death is sent the diner-owner's way in response to her antics.

After this, as if belatedly reacting to her on-stage cue, Abitha splays a hand on her chest, sucking in a breath and looking quite theatrically offended at Kip's remark. She levels a finger at the ghost hunter, "Look. First of all, how dare you. Second of all, you're absolutely right. Cee-ly, I stream video games and I own the Control Pad." Abitha actually was tangentially similar to Gina in one way. Her successful money-making wasn't at all based on a sparkling personality. Abitha leans back in her seat again, crossing her arms and lifting her chin, as if expecting an apology... For all of like three seconds before she snorts and reaches back to her computer.

Kip may or may not look a little exasperated. American's were so confusing. However, she composes herself as she finishes up a final few notes. "Both interesting fields." She looks to the two women. "I am a paranormal investigator." A brief smile flashed as she starts closing out things on the computer. It had been a fruitful initial search at least! She rose to her feet as she gathered her things.

"Perhaps I will have to drop in on your places of business some time." Kip mused. Of course, she had already been to the Grizzly a few times now but she hadn't connected that Gina owned it as of yet. "It was nice meeting you both, I will see you around." Flashing an easy smile.

When Kip mentions her career field, Gina... fully turns in her seat, and looks Kip up and down. Assessing. And then rolls her eyes, turning back to her own computer. "Figures. Welcome to Gray Harbor, Enjoy the quiet places." That last leaning rather more towards sarcasm than usual. A few things are typed, an inbox opened as she skims through several messages. "Never figured out how people made a viable career out of it. Maybe books?" The last just sort of thinking aloud. Or maybe asking Abitha? It's so hard to tell.

"You too, K-pop." Which of course made absolutely no sense to call Kip save for the similarity to her name. She offers a look and a raised energy drink, a toast to her health. Gina gets an intense side-eye at the severity of the reaction to Kip's trade. Abitha actually wasn't quite sure how to react to that. So she responds to what she can afted Kip's exit.... Which really wasn't much of a response at all.

"Fuck if I know. YouTube AdRev?" There's probably a long silence, because social anxiety is still absolutely a thing. Even though she was still sorting data she was digging out of the library's database, she occasionally glances sideways at Gina...

Like there was a question she was meaning to ask...