2020-03-22 - Settling In

For some reason, the Uber driver wasn't too excited about dealing with Ariana's luggage being shoved into their car. There seemed to be an unusual amount of hard edges and sharp points to damages the upholstery. Ariana, of course, gave zero sexual intercourses.

Sitting in the back seat with Kip, a large backpack lying over both their laps, Ariana watches the town go past through the window. "It's very bright" she notes offhandedly, in Russian - a comment on how there seems to be a thousand lights on in every building they pass. Turning back to Kip, her expression becomes less of a grimace though no one would dare call it a smile. "You live in a fancy house? Let me guess, you have more than one bathroom." A wry smirk at such luxuries. "Who is the landlord?" A beat. "And, no, I haven't forgotten that you said it was not only work you have been partaking of here."

"Very. Still not as bright as Seattle but, despite the weirdness I like it here better." Kip nodded, speaking in Russian as well as she relaxed back in to her seat. She didn't pay any particular mind to the driver - he was getting a decent tip and his only job was to drive anyways. "It is very much not fancy. But is two stories." Kip laughed. "And yes - two and a half bathrooms! Though one of the full ones is in the owner's room. The owner is an older lady - quiet, nice. Travels some for working so there are times where the house would be all ours."

When Ariana circles back to the previous conversation, Kip laughs again. Ariana would know that Kip has never been one to be tied down because she was married to her work. So it was all flings - including maybe a one or two night stand with Dimitri. Years ago. ANYWAY. The point is, this is likely also nothing extremely serious. "There is a DJ." She says finally. "He is Puerto Rican, and fun and...well, very fun." A faint blush on her cheeks. "And he has been very helpful. His name is Rekani. I think you might like him and his sister Nova. You will have to meet them soon. After we get you settled."

A curious arching of an Ariana eyebrow about the bathrooms. "What do you put in half a bathroom? Half a toilet? I am NOT cleaning that one. Two stories is not fancy?" A snort of amusement at that. "You have become soft in your old age" she teases. "Quiet lady" Ariana nods. "House would be all ours for parties. Got it."

There is the return of the smirk as Kip blushes her way through explaining Rekani. "A DJ? Famous? And I can see how much fun he is by the blush in your cheeks. Hmm...a blush...is this one serious?" A pout and furrowed brow before protesting, "I like everyone." The very thought that she isn't a warm-hearted lover of all humanity insults her to her core. No matter the truth of the matter. "Helpful? In making you scream the night away?" She holds out her hand, fingers waggling. "Phone. I want to see pictures."

Kip couldn't help laughing at the half bathroom. "I learned it is only a toilet and sink. There is no bathtub or shower. So I guess...it is missing the bath part of bathroom." Snickering at her awful pun/joke thing. "I mean, it is not fancy compared to...well other places here. Compared to living out of hotel rooms and second rate apartments? It might as well be a mansion." The house was on Spruce. Not as bad as Elm, not as fancy as Bayside. Decidedly very middle class and this house maybe on the slightly lower end. The outside looked a bit beat up but the interior was well kept. "As long as she can't tell a party was had." Another laugh at the thought.

More blushing when she was teased about the DJ in question. "Oh yes, you're just a warm fuzzy teddy bear. Like I told that Ainslie." She does comply with digging out her phone, showing a selfie of her and Rekani at some kind of bar. "I do not think he is famous? But he and his sister Nova, travel a lot." At the questioning of it being serious, Kip is quick to shake her head. "No no. It has only happened one time anyway. We are just good friends. With the extra benefits." No strings, no problems! Perfect set up. "But I will say I hope the walls of their apartment are not thin." Because otherwise there might have been a slightly disgruntled neighbor or two.

"He also drag races! Like in the fast and furious movies! His car is cool, though his sister's looks cooler." Kip admits with a laugh. "He has been helping me with this awful car I bought. I am going to ask his opinion on if maybe I should just resell it and he can help find me something else."

"They normally put more in a bathroom than a toilet and a sink? Luxury" Ariana deadpans. "Don't worry, we will clean up after the party. Probably. Possibly." A beat. "Okay, I will not put any holes in the wall at our next party. But that guy deserved to have his head used to hammer in a nail."

"We travel a lot too" Ariana points out as she checks out the photo. A silent appraisal. "Knowing you, that 'one' time probably lasted three days." A snort about the thin walls. "I know all about that noise" she nods sagely, having shared apartments and hotels with Kip that did have thin walls. "I think you were unheard. People usually call the police if they hear you." Handing the phone back over she nonchalantly asks, "Have a picture of the sister? Asking for a friend."

"So, this not-a-boyfriend of yours is a cross between a DJ and Vin Diesel? He has more hair though. You didn't buy a Lada did you?" The thought that Kip could have descended that low makes Ariana shiver in horror. "They give you money to buy a Lada. I suppose I should see if I can find a bike. Not that I have a lot of money. Dimitri is not handing over royalties from the YouTube channel again. Claims we shouldn't be paid for 'fake' footage. Have you seen the crap he is putting up there in your name? No, Dimitri, a cat playing a piano, when you can see the person's hands moving the cat's arms, is not a paranormal activity."

"But not not all the places I wish we would have." Kip countered. "But once things get back off the ground then maybe more travelling. If they ever get off the ground." A brief pause before quickly adding, "I am not giving up. This place just has a way of...sapping good luck." She muses and give Ariana a mischievous little look. "I may or may not have a sister picture for a friend." But then ultimately would swipe a few over to show a picture of Nova." Kip laughed again. "Not this time," About one time being three days. "It was just overnight...maybe also something in the morning."

Kip swipes a bit more to show Ariana a picture of a car that that doesn't even look like it should be running. "It is an Acura Legend from the 90s. And that is about all I know. Aside Rekani telling me it's going to expensive as hell to maintain. Which is why I'm debating the reselling." She shrugs. "I got a bit of a stipend for agreeing to come consult for this team but mostly it is money I have saved. Also I did take a job selling movie tickets. But they mostly exclusively show horror movies which is fun."

Her expression soured a bit. "Even a cat playing the piano at all is not supernatural. I should sue him for slander." Except that lawyers cost money. "Or fly back home and kick his ass personally." Kip scoffed. "I have been avoiding looking at any of it. I am glad you're here though. There is plenty in this town that needs explored.I am sure we will find something. If all else fails? We will write a book and make a movie." She mused.

"This place has not met me yet. I will bring back the good luck" Ariana winks before casually checking out the picture of Nova. "Hmm...not bad" she deadpans. "We should make sure you have my number. Why don't you send me that picture." A smirk about the one time. "Maybe something in the morning? You don't remember? That is not a good sign" she teases.

Ariana peers at the picture of the car. "It is from the 1890s? Maybe you could sell it to a museum? Are you sure it is not haunted? I cannot believe it ever had an owner that lived with the shame of owning it. What team are you consulting for?" Her eyes go wide. "You sell tickets at the movies? Like an usher? Do you have to wear a uniform? I think I have arrived just in time."

"Kick his ass and then I will kill him for you" Ariana suggests. "And you are right not to look at it. We should start another website." A nod of agreement to the plan. "I look forward to seeing what you have to show me. Not sure I could write a book but I can make a movie." A pause. "You mean a proper movie, right? Not like that one that Yuri tried to get me to shoot for him. What was it again? Ah, yes, 'Men in Black Women'. I punched him too."

"Maybe you take your own picture when you meet her." Kip countered with a laugh. Though she didn't comment anymore on her sex life, more than happy to focus on other things.

"Positive it is not haunted!" Kip nods. "No emf or trace of the usual signs. Just very old. It is magic it's still kind of running though. " the Uber pulls up to the house and the process begins of helping get Ari's bags out.

"It is no one special. Some people who were on the Pripyat overnight. Trying to gerri on their own. " she explains. "But it is not what I want to do. I just wanted top be able to get fresh start"

Kip gives a grin. "I know a person who could make a website for us even. But first we get more familiar with the goings on here." She snorted with laughter. "Yes a real movie. Not Yuri's trash."

"Are you sure all your equipment is working? I will have a look at it when we get inside" Ariana is not offering, it is a definite thing that will happen. She drags her backpack out of the back seat and then the duffel bag out of the boot. "If it is magic it is working, maybe I should modify some of the gear to check for mana" she deadpans.

Once she has all her gear, Ariana will generously allow Kip to pay for the Uber and then politely await entrance into the house. "The old lady is home tonight?" A solemn nod to finding out what is happening in town before they broadcast it to the world. Though she does allow a smirk about Yuri. "Trust me, he got worse. You do not want to know what 'Mary Poopins' was about. Now, why don't you show me this half bathroom." A beat. "I should not have said those two sentences so close together."

"Yes I am sure, but you are welcome to look." Kip mused, working to unlock the door. "Not yet. She will be home later in the evening." As far as if the owner of the home is about. She knows that Ari is joking about the mana but still counters with, "You maybe should do that, yeah. The stuff going on here is....certainly not typical." Then they're inside the house!

It's a simple layout. Open living/dining area. Kitchen off the dining room and a small hallway that has closet storage and a door to the half bathroom. Kip laughs at Ariana's string of words. "You should not have. But I will show you anyway." She does indeed show her. A tiny room with a toliet, sink, and medicine cabinet - though the cabinet was empty.

She leads Ariana upstairs where the guest bathroom and the bedrooms are. "We can put your things in my room first. Until we know for sure you can stay in the other room." Kip offers. Her room is average sized. A bed, dresser, and a desk that is already cluttered with research notes along with her laptop. There is a duffel bag near the desk that presumably has her equipment in it.

"Looks like a full bathroom to me...even without the bath" Ariana sniffs about the half-bathroom before following Kip upstairs. She checks out the house while wandering through it - it's a lot better than she is used to. Even compared to her brief days as a media starlet in Siberia.

Gratefully dropping her bags in Kip's room she nonchalantly makes her way to the desk to flick through the papers. "You have been working" she admits. "So, tell me about this place." A finger is held up. "Over food? And drink. You have vodka? If not..." She returns to her backpack to rummage through it before producing a half-drunk bottle of Smirnoff. "I was keeping it to celebrate our reunion but I got thirsty on the bus. Sorry."

"Trying. This place is very active but...in different ways that Pripyat was active. I am not even sure if you'll believe my main experience here so far." Kip laughs as she sits on her bed, letting Ariana rummage. "We can finish yours since it is already half gone, then we can open up mine." Kip grinned, pulling her phone out. "I will order the food." The food was ordered for delivery - a pizza but also burgers from the Grizzly. The wonders of companies like DoorDash. She retrieved two glasses for them so they could settle in.

"Do you remember the haunted castle after Pripyat? Where I did that weird, uhm, force push thing?" In which she flung Dimitri halfway across the room on accident because she was on all kinds of high alert in the castle and the nerves got the better of her. And it just...happened! "There is an inordinate amount of people here who can do things like that. Who have a...a shine to them." Kip explained. "It is like they are drawn here almost from what I have heard told. And such strange things happen. Like. Okay. I went with Rekani and Nova to a club here called Firefly for drinks and dancing. And...people started turning into robots....dancing robots. There was a dance off. With the robots." Kip was being completely serious as she gave this dance off run down and would even though Ariana the ruined leggings as some kind of proof.

"A shine? Like in 'The Shining'?" Ariana nods about the incident in the castle. "Yes, I remember." The blonde can do quite a few things herself though the most obvious things, like shooting electricity from her fingertips, she has kept to herself. She worries the government might swoop her up again if she gives too much away.

Back downstairs to eat and drink at the kitchen table. Ariana eyes off the glasses with suspicion. "Too fancy to share a bottle now?" she teases before there is a robot dancing story. "Weren't people just doing 'The Robot'? That is a dance." She looks at the torn tights. "Okay, they were very enthusiastic? But if you say that is what happened, then I believe you." They are in the paranormal research game after all. "What happened to the robots?"

"Something like that. At least that is how it looks to me. Like..." Kip paused a moment. "You. You have it." She hadn't really realized what it was of course. And also thought maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her. But once Thewlis and some others had dropped information about it, all things were clearer. So now even though she had known Ariana's powers were legitimate and...sort of maybe like her own, she knew for sure they were of the same vein. "It is easier with glasses when you decide to hog the bottle." Kip teased as she settled in at the table. Grabbing a slice of pizza, "They were people...and then turned in to robots...and then the robots that didn't explode because they lost merged into a giant robot. " Kip sighed and then gave a wry grin. "...And then Rekani jumped the DJ booth to switch up the music and his sister had the rest of us doing a choreographed dance...and some other stuff went on and we definitely won. But then? it was like nothing at all had happened."

A bite of pizza is taken and swallowed. "No robots. No neon colored shots...no damage except for what might have been done to our clothing. Almost like a weird dream." She frowned. "Rekani has a story or two he could probably share as well...everyone in this town has at least one. I am certain of it."

"I have what?" Ariana replies with a nervous laugh - since she rarely laughs sober, she is obviously uncomfortable with this conversation. Not that she will admit that. She pours them both a full glass of vodka. "I am simply a very bad medium...and this town is full of them? Way to make a girl not feel special" she snorts again before her demeanor turns serious. If she can't be honest with Kip, then who can she be honest with?

"You think this is where we can find answers? That this place, if people are drawn here, could be where it all started?" She downs a whole glass of vodka in one shot, an eyelid flickering a little as she tops up glasses. "I definitely look forward to investigating with you...but why is this place not under military control? If things like this dancing happen in plain sight of multiple people, why is it not on the news?"

Ariana summons up the courage to ask about the strangest element of Kip's story. "You did a choreographed dance? Maybe it was a dream" the former ballet student winks before helping herself to some pizza too. "A whole town of the unusual sounds like we will be very busy. And we can show Dimitri what a stupid fucker he truly is."

Ariana raises her glass for a toast. "To discovering the secrets of the universe."

Kip had never pushed or pressed the subject, and wouldn't now, but her expression remained steady and Ariana played coy. She takes another bite of pizza. "I hope so." That they could find answers here in the harbor. "I don't know if this is where it started but...it's definitely a hot spot of activity." It's her turn to down a shot now.

"Honestly? What if this thing has always been here? What if...it's just been hiding?" Kip leaned on the table, eyes widened slightly. "The dancing robots thing...only myself and others who shined were affected. I think it protects itself. That is the only reasonable explaination...I mean...you saw those videos." Kip knocks back another shot after Ari topped them off. "They looked fake as fuck." This part is said in Russian though with a humorless laugh. The videos being a few selected scenes of areas where Kip had utilized her powers to 'spice things up a little' and it did not translate well at all on camera.

"So the first step? Is experimenting with trying to document it." Kip is back to English now and laughs at the choreographed dance comment. "It was definitely something." She tops off her glass and lifts it with Ariana in the toast.

"I'll drink to that. And to making sure Dimitri gets what's coming to him."

The glasses clink together and Ariana downs her drink before time to pour another. "Dimitri will get what he deserves as soon as I figure out how to get away with murder" she deadpans.

"Hiding here? I guess it is a good place to hide. No one would come here voluntarily." Ariana drops back to English too so her words slow a little...especially 'voluntarily'. That's a big word to get her tongue around. "You think that only people who have gifts are able to see these things that...well...what did they want to do? What would have happened if they had won? And who judged the competition?"

A nod about the videos. "Yes, I saw them. Watching those is when I realized how much you truly needed me" smirks the camerawoman. "Yes, they looked very fake. And that was unintentional? Hmmm...do you think it protects itself? Whatever it is. Though, who is to say what the supernatural looks like? Maybe it looks fake because it is unnatural. Why should it look like reality?" Only a sip of her drink this time. "Though I do not think that will help prove its existence."

Ariana ponders somberly for a few moments before a lighter shrug. "I am here now. We will figure it out. Have you talked with the locals about what is happening?"

Kip snickered and then thought a moment. "Well the robots that 'lost' self exploded. I'm pretty sure we would have been beaten up by the robots if we had been on the losing end. I do not know if there is much rhyme or reason to the weirdness." She shrugged and sighed.

"It must protect itself somehow. Otherwise I don't think those videos would have looked fake. Because I did things subtle but it still looks..."Kip wrinkled her nose and then chuckled again. "Yes...It is hard to say for sure what it looks like with media and such clouding judgments." She decided and then nodded again. "That is the primary problem. Making it believable. But, on the other hand..." Kip frowned a bit, then shook her head. "Nevermind. Devising a way to properly document first is the important part."

Kip finished off her slice of pizza before answering. "I have talked to some of them yes. I have heard of an Alexander Clayton that might know a lot but have not talked to him. All of them I talked to so far have the shine to some degree. And also confirm this place is weird."

"Interesting to be in a place where everyone feels free to talk about it. Aren't they worried that they're attracting attention to themselves? From the government I mean." Ariana considers for a moment. "It seems they are putting themselves out there for bad guys to eat." She downs some more vodka before nibbling at some pizza; liquid food is far more important.

"Maybe we should not think of it as an entity. It could be completely natural supernatural activity. Which means it behaves randomly, chaotically, with no thought behind it." The blonde shrugs. "You are the smart one. I'm just here to fix the equipment and get whatever it is on camera. And I will do that."

"I should get to bed. It was a long trip here and it sounds like I have a lot of work in the morning. Which I look forward to."