2020-05-18 - Veil Instruction

It had taken a few days to get in touch with August and arrange some time to get together to talk about Veil related things, but today was the day that Kip and Ariana were going to have a chat with 'Lumberjack Jesus'. Kip walked into Branch and Bole, looking around curiously, Ariana likely following behind her. "We are here!" Kip calls out as she examined some of the plants. She has a small notepad with her which already has some writing on it - questions that she wants to make sure she asks. She's dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt.

"I love the smell of fertiliser in the morning" Ariana states flatly as she follows Kip into the store. "This guy is a hippy then?" She answers her own question with a shrug. "Makes sense I guess. Getting in touch with the spiritual world and things like that." Since it is Spring, the blonde Russian is dressed in short denim shorts and a mock Nike t-shirt that proclaims 'Just Did It' - they're so common in thrift shops these days. No notepad for Ariana though she does wear a backpack. "What is a 'bole'? Is that like a type of mole?"

"You certainly are here," Thomasina says, popping up from behind the counter where she'd been crouched down. She's got a head of curly, rust-brown hair on her head, a bandana holding it back, a round, dusky face, and a pair of overalls on over a white shirt. She arches an eyebrow at Arianna's question. "Looking for Gus, then?" She nods at a side door that leads to the outdoor collection and alottment gardens. "He's in the alottments. Just out that door, go through the back arch and follow the main path to the center barrel pond."

She starts to crouch back down so she can resume reorganizing, pauses to add, "The bole of a tree is its trunk," then vanishes.

"I know very little about him, except that he has saved Rekani's life multiple times, helped heal me after the spider thing, and also is one of the people who knows a lot about this crazy stuff. I have no idea what a bole is. " Kip muses, shrugging a bit at Ari's question and chuckles. "I have no green thumbs, you know this." Kip jumps just a bit when Thomasina pops up. "Oh, hello." She gives a bit of a smile and then nods. "If the Gus is August, then yes." She assumes this is the case at least. "Thank you!" She takes the lead, following Thomasina's directions out to where August would be found. "It is pretty here though, no?" She asks her companion. "Especially now with the sprung Spring."

Ariana is not too perturbed by the sudden appearance of Thomasina - she doesn't look like a ghost. A nod at the explanation of bole before she is following Kip towards the allotments. "I think they missed an opportunity with the name. No one knows what a bole is. They should have called it Branch, Leaf and Trunk. Then everyone who asks for a B.L.T. will be advertising the store. And everyone knows what they are."

A look around at Kip's praise of the surroundings before she offers a shrug in reply - which is enthusiastic for Ariana. "It is nice enough. I wonder if the darkness of the woods is here as well? If this August knows so much about this Veil, is it strange that he is recreating where it is strongest? Or is it all part of his studies? I hope he won't mind being on camera while we talk."

Outdoors it's a lovely mid-Spring day, which in these parts means it's finally over sixty. The outdoor collection sprawls to their left, and as Thoma indicated, in the back of the wood fence which cordones it off (and so protects it from deer) is a gate with an arch bearing a wisteria, dripping purple-white flowers like bunches of grapes. Through that gate lie the allotments, a series of community garden plots purchased for a nominal fee. The sheds for equipment sit beyond those, and beyond them, a plain, glass greenhouse stands apart from the rest. It looks to be mostly new construction, the glass clear and free of yearly wear.

Some of the allotments are very tidy and simple; others are ornate; still others are barren or under-used. August makes no judgments, apparently, save a rule about invasives and anything with runners. NO BAMBOO! declares a small sign in the corner of one.

The plots are arranged in four sections, with a circular spot in the center. Here sits a huge barrel-pond and a pair of stone benches on either side. August is seated at one, a book in his hand. He's dressed for work, in a plaid flannel, heavy hiking boots, worn denim jeans, and a black tee. Kip will notice right away that something is wrong; the last time she saw him, his Glimmer was bright, among the brightest in town.

Not today. It's eclipsed, somehow, or burned down, like a banked fire. No physical injuries evident, and truth be told he's better rested today than he has been in nearly a week.

Kip couldn't help but laugh at Ariana's suggestions. "Perhaps, though it doesn't have quite the same ring." She shrugged a bit. "Admittedly, I thought it was B-O-W-L before I looked it up...I thought it might be one of those dispensary places." But this was just as interesting! "It might be? And, if he does not want to be on camera - at least we have the tape recorders." Kip nodded.

Walking along the path her gaze wandered among the different plots before her eyes finally found August. Kip lifted a hand to Ariana so they could pause a moment. Her voice is low and she murmurs in Russian. "Something is not quite right. He had a very bright flare before. But it's...vastly diminished. I will lead with that." Though perhaps not so bluntly as she wanted to.

"Good morning August." Kip offered up with a bright smile. She has fairly out of it when she had seen him before, but he had to have been strong in order to help with the healing like he had, right? Probably. "Are you feeling okay?"

"If it was B-O-W-L, that would suggest that this place sells marijuana" Ariana replies before her brow furrows a little. "Does it sell marijuana?" It's no match for the deadening effect of a decent bottle of vodka but it could do in a pinch. And it keeps her from getting too violent.

With no idea how August glowed before, he looks fine to Ariana; enjoying a book in the garden. But she will nod to Kip's concerns, swinging her backpack off to discretely fish out the camera. A quick check of it before it is on and ready to go.

August lowers the book (Strange Bird), greets the two with a faint smile. There's a sense of 'recovery' about him, like things have been rough but are finally improving to some extent. He notes the page and sets the paperback down, gets up the offer his hand.

"I've been better," he admits to Kip. "Had to, ah, have someone do something, and it's left me..." He makes a face. "Faded, I guess we're calling it. Sort of like having a serious injury, but to the Art. Gotta let it heal, ease it back into use." He offers a hand to Ariana. "August Roen." The camera gets a curious look, though he doesn't seem put off by it.

Kip looks curious at the way he explains what's going on but, maybe they'd circle back around to it later. "It's good to see you again. I am glad you are...recovering then." She shook his hand, brief but confident. "And thank you for taking some time to talk to us. We figured it would be important to have more information before we make our next trek inside." She settled in to one of the free seats.

"Ariana Volkov" the blonde states as she takes August's hand to shake it. "Do you mind if we tape this? We don't want to get anything inaccurately. The Art?" That sounds very occult so it's a good start. "Kip called it the Veil. Or are they two different things?" It seems that she's quite happy to skip formalities. She will find a seat where she can use the camera to catch both August and Kip as they converse. At least she hasn't tried to put a microphone on each of them. Yet.

"You're welcome, it's good to see you too. Glad you're doing better." August nods, gives Kip a rueful look. "More information is always the best way to go."

His handshake is firm and friendly, hands calloused and even scarred from a good deal of physical labor. He tilts his head at the camera, shrugs. "I don't mind, but," one eyebrow goes up, "recordings that have too much information normal people can't explain away tend to go bad. So you might want to get things written down and...encoded, somehow." He stops himself, sighs. "I should stop before I go off on a tangent. It'll be easier if you ask me things, that way I'll get an idea of what you want to know."

So he starts with that first one: the Veil. "Two different things," he says, taking a seat. "The actual power we all have has a lot of names. Glimmer, Shine, Art, Song...because we all tend to interact with it differently, experience it differently. The Veil is more the 'why'. We have Glimmer because we're sensitive to the Veil. Or, that's what it seems like."

Kip lifted up her notepad when August spoke about how the recording could go wrong. "Yes, it does not like cameras but hopefully it cannot mess with my notes just in case." She nodded a bit and then let him explain the answers to Ariana's questions. "Ariana brought up an interesting theory the other day. That maybe we somehow created the Veil. Well not us, specifically. Obviously. But those of us with the powers. Like a...syi-sye-symbiotic relationship. The Veil exists because we are sensitive to it and we are sensitive to it because it exists. Does that sound right Ari?" She looked up towards the blonde and then back towards August.

"I guess, to start with. Could you tell us more about the things that can be found inside the Veil? The beings there? Some kind of overview based off your own experiences."

Ariana nods to Kip's explanation of her theory. "The accumulation of sensitive people reached a critical mass to strengthen, if not create, the Veil. It is made of all of our subconscious which is why dreams affect us so much. Does it now have enough power to become self-sustaining? Possibly. Has it become a sentient being? That I am not so sure. These 'Dark Men' I hear about. I think they are not tools of the Veil, merely players like we are, using it to draw our power." She looks from Kip to August and back before shrugging. "I am not the thinker." A nod to Kip to indicate she is the smart one.

"I will be trying different filters on the video cameras to see if we can get rid of the interference. Electronic interference is common. The other side working on a different wavelength but I am also interested in whether it distorts chemical reactions. I will take a Super 8 camera with me too. If it also affects what film 'sees', then it is something even more interesting than I thought." Ariana has said far more than she usually does so she will go back behind the camera now.

"Wait. You are saying that even your words, here in 'reality', will be distorted? Sorry, talk with Kip."

"Notes might work, especially if you keep them sort of cryptic," August says. "Give people's minds an easy out. We've got a theory going that if you use something with a lot of artistic license--a painting, a fictional story, a 'conspiracy theory' codebook--it's less likely to lose the information." He raises his eyebrows at Kip's distillation of Ariana's broader theory, frowns as he listens to her explain it. It's not a frown of disagreement, but of concentration.

Once Kip has outlined the theory, August leans forward, elbows on his knees. "Huh." He smiles, a keen edge to it. "I like that idea. Sort of like how stars form--enough mass and matter gets into a place, and you get stellar ignition. Similar idea; enough of us, able to do something, so it happened." He sits back up. "The Unshaped--the Dark Men--They're not tools of the Veil, far as I know. They're beings, after a sort. The Veil's just where They're from. So," he looks askance at Kip, "They're among the things from the Veil. The reason some of us call Them 'Unshaped' is, They don't have an actual form." His attention shifts back to Ariana. "Definitely They feed on our power. Our use of it, specifically to hurt things. Cause pain and suffering. And when we suffer--people with the Art?--that's when They feed the best." He makes a face, lets that speak for itself. They already seem to understand Dreams well enough to grok the implication there.

He nods at Ariana. "Right. The film will just, decay, or be corrupted." He shrugs, somewhat helpless. "I think what you're trying is worth trying, though. We're not going to get information if we don't experiment. We need to test all the boundaries of how we can record things."

He folds his arms. "I've run into a few things Over There. Gnomes, ents...entities with titles. 'The Excorcist' and 'the Vivisectionist'." Mention of the second name has him shifting, a little uncomfortable. "And a company, though they're gone now. 'FCN'."

As August and Ari talk, Kip starts taking notes. She takes his advice, writing them in a weird amalgamation of Cyrillic and English short hand. Yeah, let some normie try and make sense of this one! She underlines a few things here and there, emphasis about the Dark Men feeding and a few things about what he says he's seen. "So...that fantasy creatures that are read about? They come from there? Or at least a form of them are there?" She looks up to August, making a thoughtful noise.

"That might be evidence of the case that it's...a symbiotic relationship of sorts. The Veil creates things based off our thoughts and they take on their own form of sentience..." Kip makes another note of something. "I know from some askings that after a certain point the stableness of the Forest will give way to...crazy and chaos. Do you know if there's anyway to actually traverse that? Or what might be on the other side of it?...If anything?"

"When Kip and I were in there, we saw giant spiders. And if you say there are gnomes and ents and exorcists, it sounds like it is just creating things from our own subconscious. If it was something that we had never seen before and did not know the name of, then it could point to it being more a creation of the Veil. But what you describe and what we have seen are things that people are afraid of even without the Veil. Things they see in horror movies. Things that they would consciously expect to be in a place like the Veil so...they are. Does that make sense?" She really should stick to the filming...but she doesn't.

"This is the thing, Kip. Are we seeing things that inspired the stories...which would mean this Veil was always part of the world somewhere...or are we inspiring what we see. That is way above my paygrade." Ariana offers a smile to August. "I do not have a paygrade. But if these Dark Men are separate and using the Veil as a way to fatten us up, then they must come from somewhere. Somewhere else."

August gestures at Ariana, says to Kip, "I suspect it's a bit of both, not really an either or. Sort of like..." He bites his lip, trying to come up with an analogy that's not too rooted in biology.

He fails. "So, in our bodies, cells are always trying to pump out ions. But sometimes, they use ions to bring other things in." He makes a face as soon as he's said that, waves it away. "I think it's a resonance, of a sort. Alexander, not sure if you've met him, he referred to the Veil as psychomorphic. Our pysches, our intentions, shape it in ways that go way beyond what happens here. That causes things to happen, and we react, so it changes more, and we react more."

He shrugs about where They come from. "Maybe they come from us too. God knows we're entirely capable of the things They do, and willingly hurt one another. Not a stretch to imagine that might give ride to something awful." As much so he'd like to think otherwise, it makes too much sense for Them to have come from humanity.

"The place where the Veil gets...really nuts, I've only heard of one person trying to navigate it, or map it, and he's disappeared now." August grimaces a moment, then the expiration eases. "A friend of mine, though, Itzhak? He's wanting to do that. Who knows, maybe he'll sort out how to."

"I have seen him around but have not spoken to him." Kip offered idly on the subject of Alexander as she continued writing her cryptic notes. "I would not be surprised." She agreed of the Dark Men being a part of humanities worst self. "I have heard the Sawmill is a very active area of them? Do you know if it is still like this?" Looking back up towards August.

Her brow rose when he talked about someone disappearing. "Who was this person?" It might be worth it to try and check in to them a little at least? "Do you know if he left any sort of information behind?" Though, even if he had, perhaps it was already destroyed. She makes a note of this Itzhak's name. "Has this Itzhak started any kind of research into it? Or has it just been stormbraining?...brainstorming I mean." She chuckled a bit.

Kip flipped back to another page to consult her list of questions and then went back to her note page. "The...Dreams. I have been privy to a couple of them - extremely strange...do you know if there is any rhyme or reason to them? What causes one to be brought in to it at all?"

"I think mapping something that is the product of numerous ever-changing minds is futile" Ariana decides in her deadpan way. "Do you know how far it extends, August? It seems to be transposed over reality..." The reality she is in is THE reality and she will brook no argument. "...so how far does it go? Is it expanding? Go into the Veil in the forest here and you are in a forest there, da? But I hear that the Dreams are different. You can be anything there. Anywhere. Any time. So where do the Dreams exist?"

The blonde holds up her hand in apology. "Sorry, answer Kip's questions. She is the smart one. I am the muscle." A quick check of her framing as she resumes her silence.

August shifts, smiles a little at Ariana's insistence he answer Kip instead. "I can answer you both. They're all relevant, really."

He grimaces about the missing person. "Oh they have. We always do--but that was months ago, and..." He sighs, shakes his head. One gets the feeling he does a lot of both. "It's a thing that happens a lot. People disappearing, especially Over There. And we've got limited resources as far as searching goes, especially since people who aren't like us won't believe it anyways. They might even forget they knew the person, even that they existed." A helpless shrug, and he moves on to a less bleak topic: Itzhak.

"Still brainstorming. But, by mapping, I don't mean a hyperspecific map. I just mean a general one. Like," he nods at Ariana, "you were saying, things might change too much for a specific one to be useful. But generally, around here, they're more stable the closer you are to the town proper. So you can roughly navigate." Of the mill, he says, "According to Alexander, it's crawling with Them. Don't cross over there. Just don't."

Dreams he's quite familiar with. Somewhat unfortunately. "So, I've been in a lot of those things. And I've been yanked into one crossing Over. I know using your power gets their attention, and if they're particularly interested in you they'll haul to into one. But," his expression turns apologetic, "I don't know much more than that. I assume the Dreams are related to the Veil, spatially, but I don't know how. Maybe it's some special dungeon of Theirs Over There. The rhyme or reason is us, and how we react. They want us to suffer, or at least to examine us to determine what else we can do for Them."

"I suppose it makes sense. In a sad, twisted kind of way. That people can get lost. I mean...when Ariana and I went there. We didn't have a solid way out. If Rekani had not shown up we may still be lost. Or worse." Kip agreed with a frown but then it faded, switcheing gears to listen about this Itzhak.

"A general kind of map would be a good idea. Based of what you've said so far, even if a hyper specific map were possible? It would probably find a way to catch on fire." Kip gave a touch of a wry smile. "No going to the Saw Mill." She agreed, making some notes. "But...if we entered from somewhere else...would it be possible to navigate to the general saw mill area to observe? Or would the Dark Men sense us?"

"I have only been in weird dance-involved ones so far. So I consider myself lucky in that respect I suppose." Kip underlined a couple extra things and then seemed to start on a new section of notes for the Dream talk. "A dungeon. Interesting. A good theory. Something they have control over. Or, hm. Perhaps it is even a thing with it's own sort of sentience and the Dark Men have some sort of...what is the word..." Kip's brow furrowed a bit. "Uhm. Symbiotic! Yes. A symbiotic relationship where it catches us, and they eat. Or...something." She mused

"If I am getting caught in a dream, I will make sure it is one where I rule the Universe" Ariana sniffs. "Though I might not want to wake up."

"You say that lots of people go missing, August. What do the police do about it? They go missing in the real world too, dah? Or is it only their minds...souls...that go missing and what is left are dozens of mindless shells sent off to the nearest asylum." Her brow rises. "Maybe we should talk to people in an asylum, Kip? They might not be mad, only loose with their tongues."

To Ariana, the sawmill sounds like a place to go rather than stay away; she's new to the horrors of the Veil and quite confident in her abilities. A little snort at Kip explaining she was in a dancing dream - she's seen her dance. "What about the government, August? Have they not sent people to investigate? They always know when things like this are happening." Certainly true in Russia and she has the tattoo to prove it.

August mmmms, flicks Kip a sympathetic look. "Yeah. That's what happens a lot of the time, we think. People cross Over, don't know how to get back." He considers the prospect of starting away from the saw mill and walking that direction. "You could, I think, but directionalization in the Veil's tricky." His eyes narrow a moment. "I've been trying to think of a way movers--the people who can move things, and open doors?--I've been trying to think of a way they could make a compass. Or sense where they're going."

He grunts, even laughs a little. "I wish we knew how to direct the Dreams like that. But unfortunately They call the shots there, so you're whatever role they try to shoehorn you into." A nod at Kip. "That's a good way to describe them, I think. I've thought of it like They're farmers. When we're ripe, They yank us into one of those and have a harvest. Then They kick us back out so we can get our strength back."

And such a nice, grim outlook to head into the next answer. "You know how a lot of people go missing and no one seems to care, because they're not important or rich, or don't have a family to look for them? It's like that. People without Glimmer just forget them." He sighs, studies the ground a second. "It's said the Veil tries to hide itself, and that's why. That in some sense, reality is aware these things shouldn't be happening, so it hides them. Redacts them."

"A compass...that could be interesting. And useful." Kip nodded. "I am happy to assist with that. I am not the strongest but...I am decently strong in that form of thepowers." She offered, making a couple notes about the mill and directional. "Perhaps we will attempt it. And try to view it from afar. If anything, it could give us some more information. Do you know of anyone who has tried to enter in that area? Anything that has happened to them when they do?"

She looked over towards Ariana a moment. "It may not hurt to try and talk to some people who perhaps are in a facility. Sometimes people like that can be attune to other things. Even if they are not the ones missing, maybe they will know of other strange happenings." Kip pondered before focusing back on August.

"The Veil is a strange thing..." She sighed. "That is...unfortunate. That these people go missing and are erased." A light frown flitting over her features. "It makes sense though. That it would try to hide itself. Or, reality redacts it. Just like it messes with the videos, and notes that are too well taken."

"Is there anything else particularly noteworthy you can think of? That we should know before going back in?"

Ariana shrugs at the compass idea in her usual unenthusiastic manner. "If the Veil is always changing depending on who is contributing to it, then a compass wouldn't help. And if it is a duplication of this world, complete with sawmills and woods and town, then why would you need help travelling it? And is there even a magnetic north over there anyway?"

A faint smirk for August's benefit. "They only call the shots because we let them. Why can't we use the Veil like they use it? We could terrify them." Her expression returns to her usual grumpiness. "People really go missing like that? Completely missing? What if they are from outside town, don't their families come looking for them? I get people here being wiped of memories but does it work everywhere in the world?"

A nod about talking to lunatics. Ariana is the kind of empathetic soul who is good at that. "I'll check the asylums."

August tilts his head. "Alexander said he and soem others tried, and an entity in the Veil, the Exorcist, warned them away. Another person, she was yanked into a Dream." He makes a face. "Which is pretty much always dangerous, and reason enough to be careful." He nods, though, at her offer to help with the compass idea, explains to Ariana, "That's just it--some things are reasonably stable. If you cross in Downtown? That's pretty consistent. Others aren't. The forest? That comes and goes. Some spots are solid, others not. So, if you could orienteer off the things which seem to stay put, it'd help when dealing with the stuff that's not." He gives her a crooked smile. "In theory. It doesn't need to work like a terrestrial compass, except in concept. It has something to home in on, basically. Maybe, the one of the Downtown buildings."

He coughs a laugh at the idea anyone lets Them call the shots, shakes his head. "Dreams and the Veil aren't...exactly the same thing. Sure, in the Veil, we have more control. But the Dreams are Theirs. So far as we know. It's not letting them call the shots, any more than a prison 'lets' the wardens call the shots." He arches an eyebrow to suggest that analogy isn't casually used, either.

The question of disappearances and people outside Gray Harbor has him thoughtful. "Honestly? Not sure. You'd maybe want to look into it." He shifts in his seat. "Before you go in...right. First and foremost? That whole place is...Alexander called it psychomorphic. I think he's partially right, but I think it goes beyond that. It's...intent-based. Like, here," he gestures at one of the allotments, "if I dig up an allotment and replant it? That doesn't effect the others. But other there, some things aren't separate entities. I made a change to a few trees and I came back to find the whole forest had changed." His expression grows distant. "It was like I had redefined what a tree was. Like I'd changed the Veil itself, not just those couple of trees."

"So...certainly approach with caution and do not enter from there at all." Kip agreed. Her note taking paused when he spoke about the Veil trees though, eyes widening just a touch. "...The entire forest? Not just the surrounding ones? Well even if it was just the surrounding ones that's still...wild." She resumes taking a few more notes. "Our intent...at least at the moment is simple observation and attempts at documenting. I will have to pay extra attention to the trees." She agreed

Looking up to Ari, "Sounds like a plan. You check the asylums, I will see if maybe I can dig up some more information that might be squirreled away somewhere. Do you have any more questions? I think I have all mine covered." A smile is given to August. "You have been very information Mr. Roen. "

Ariana would never admit she had questions in the first place, that's Kip's job, so she shakes her head about having any more. "I shall try not to avoid dreaming then." Though it sounds like she doesn't have much choice in the matter. "They are like Freddy Kreuger then?" It seems she did have a question after all though it is more rhetorical/smart ass than actually expecting an answer. The next one is a bit more serious. "You changed the Veil trees, did everyone see that? Or were the trees the same when they went? If it is psychomorphic, it could be in a never ending state of change the more people thought about it" A wave of her hand indicates the August doesn't have to answer since they are packing up.

Ariana pats the camera. "Hopefully we have something of the interview here. Thank you, Mister Roen. Let us know what happens the next time you go inside."

"It was all of the trees we saw in one area; not sure how far it spread." August looks thoughtful, wondering if it would be worth mapping the extent of the chalk marks. None the less, he nods at Ariana, says, "Not what I was expecting. At all. I don't know that anyone's been to check since we went. It's a good idea, seeing if it's changed again. Because," he gestures, answering anyways, "it just might be. Changing all the time."

Blinking, he adds, "Kreuger's not a half bad comparison. At the least, a useful way to think of it until you get some experience." He gets up as they pack. "Hopefully some of this'll stick. And if I wind up with any useful information, I'll be in touch. You might want to chat with Alexander, Eleanor, Isabella...all knowledgeable folks."