March 10th, 2018

Our conversation tonight was dominated by today's news. The town of Smithwick, South Dakota has disappeared. And I don't mean the town's population, oddly the population didn't disappear. But the town itself, the physical location, is gone. And noone seems to be able to explain how this could have happened.

Our maps haven't changed, even the GPS type maps that track where your going, they still show the town being where it should be. But people have been testing that all day. They'll use GPS navigators to guide them to Smithwick, or directions that would take them through the town of Smithwick. For about three miles around the town the GPS will jump location. Two people holding GPS systems can be standing right next to each other, and the GPS locators will say they're standing three miles apart. They've circled a particular location in South Dakota where this is happening, corresponding with about a three mile diameter around the town.

But as I said, the population didn't disappear with the town and the people can't explain how that is. They just know that they took a step at some point and found themselves at this central point. As often as not that step being getting out of bed. One lady was embarrassed to find herself having just stepped out of her shower. And this didn't all happen at the same time, it seemed to happen as each person took a step whenever it was they did. It sounds like this started about three am as that was when the first person reported finding themselves at this central point in the middle of working their morning shift.

There's a lot of speculation from all sorts of people. Everything from UFO's bending space/time, to one or another deity's magical or miraculous intervention. The only people who seem to be willing to admit they don't know are the scientists, and this is only encouraging everyone else to announce they know what the scientists don't.

At least no one has gone missing this time, but how does an entire physical location disappear? A three mile radius of land, and buildings, an entire small town? Yet the people don't? Even animals, family pets are showing up in the same way the people did. It's fascinating, and chilling, and makes everyone question their sanity.

So we spent most of our conspiracy dinner talking about that. I was hoping it'd distract Hal from telling everyone about what's happening at the museum, I didn't want him telling them he wanted to sneak in after hours. But I couldn't stop him when he did.

Max was all on board with the idea of sneaking into the museum after hours to try and spy Nephmesu. Sam seemed to be the only one talking sense and warning us that it was a very bad idea. And I know he's the one to be cautious about everything, but in this case caution is what we need.

Hal's wishful thinking sounds more like he's wishing we'd be supportive of his plan, rather than wishing his plan was something we could do. And Max isn't helping with her "I know, but what if?"

If there were any other topics to discuss, they were forgotten after those two particular issues. By the time I thought to look at a clock to figure out the time, I should have already been home and getting ready for bed. With as late as it is, I'm wondering if I even want to go to the gym in the morning. I could make it up and hit the gym on the way home. Hal'll be off training with Brigida anyway.

I could make it, but I'm kinda thinking I want to get some rest tonight. This morning I woke up to a couple of doves cooing outside my window this morning. When I opened my window, I could have sworn that one of the doves was actually a little hispanic boy who'd wrapped himself up in a leaf. But I startled them by opening the window and they were flying away before I could look a second time.

I'll mark it down as a hallucination, but that could have just been my eye's playing tricks on me.

I should mention that work was very stressful today. They doubled up security and it felt like they were watching us like hawks. Every time I was reaching into my drawer I was making doubly sure I didn't accidentally grab the wrong bill or anything. And I know, things going missing is a really big deal, but they're watching us during the day. Whatever's been taken was taken over night.

And I get to do it all over again tomorrow.

March 3rd, 2018

Just got back from the conspiracy dinner with the others. I had forgotten to text everyone for confirmation yesterday, but it's become the pattern now. Hal picked me up from work, and on the way to his place we grabbed some frozen enchiladas for dinner. Max wanted quesadillas, so she grabbed cheese and flour tortillas. They were fun to make, though we were melting the cheese in the microwave rather than grilling it on the stove. Still, it was fun and easy, and pretty tasty.

We spent a good deal of time talking about The Stag and his new rival. There hasn't been anything on the news since he was dragged away, and we're all worried what that might mean. In general I think we are in agreement that he wasn't the hero he probably thought he was, but we certainly don't wish him to come to harm. But we also speculated on who this opponent was and what he might have wanted with The Stag.

Max has been finding a lot of interesting things posted with #fairysign. Given her enjoyment of debunking videos, she's turned that talent toward debunking the #fairysign stuff. Lots of pictures of natural phenomena, interesting phenomena, but natural. Also lots doctored photos, some of which look really good, others that look really bad. Even with all that however, there's still plenty of images that aren't so easily debunked or explained. And while we keep a skeptical mind on those things we can't explain, we're also all excited to think there are fairies behind the images.

On the other hand, Max has also been keeping track of reported disappearances. Of course we can't confirm that any or all are people managing to cross the ohveo. If we knew where the people were, they wouldn't be missing. But, Max tries to look for those commonalities that we've already identified. Mostly lone or paired individuals, out in nature, and especially if one disappears away from a group. There have been exceptions, the big one being Albany, Wyoming. And we suspect that disappearances have been starting to happen in more urban areas as well. But as with everything, we can't confirm for sure.

All that said, given those filters, Max has now collected reports from all forty eight contiguous states and Alaska. And missing persons statistics are currently far above average.

Hal's been keeping up with the stories of people showing up who have no legal identity. Such stories are not as common, but they're becoming more common as the months wear on. There've even been some news stories about it. We don't have such stories in all the states like we do the disappearances, but they seem to be following a similar expanding area. Texas, California, Kansas, Mississippi, Ohio, Montana, all have reports of such people being found.

Sam apologized again, referencing his commission, but he did say he was trying to keep up with the statistics involving the wildlife. Those reports are much slower to show up and don't catch the media's attention as readily.

I on the other hand tried to look up more on Melia Floros only to find that her site hasn't been updated in the last week or so. The last interviews she had were with college students, and even those were at campus's we believe she visited before even getting to Hal's campus. So I didn't have anything to report there.

What I didn't report was that this morning at the gym, I saw another couple of fairies. They were flying around in the weight room, almost like they were trying to find a way out. These two were both girls, one was even properly dressed. She looked more like she belonged in a renaissance festival though. The other seemed to have wrapped one of the locker room towels around her. I just didn't feel that I needed to report a hallucination at the conspiracy dinner.

Being aware of all this stuff is interesting. I just don't like the idea that we can't prove any of it. We're running largely on speculation, even if we have good reason to think these things are true. Being unable to prove it though mostly just means we can't tell anyone else about it.

There is one other thing that I want to mention though. After the missing tool yesterday, I thought that was a one off. But I got to talking to some of the girls today, and it seems it's not the only item that's gone missing recently. It's just the most expensive. I'm not sure that this has anything to do with the fairies. Not my hallucinations, but the ones we talk about at dinner. So I wouldn't have brought it up, though I didn't think about it during our dinner. I don't know, just weird.

February 17th, 2018

They got the power back on last night, around two am. We noticed because suddenly a lot of our lights turned on and the TV came on. We had turned off all the light switches, but like my lamp is a twisty switch and I didn't know if it was on or off. Either way, it meant we could have a hot breakfast.

While Hal was taking me to the gym this morning, I noticed some activity in a park that we pass by. When I looked, I saw a group of fairies playing keep away from something else. It looked like a small child, but definitely wasn't. I was tempted to ask Hal if he saw it too, but I didn't want to distract him from driving, and I realized I was probably hallucinating it. Then I noticed there were runners passing through the park as well, and no one else seemed to see the fairies. So I'll mark this down as a hallucination, just to start keeping a record of them like I do my dizzy spells.

Work went well, if unremarkable. It was afterward that Hal picked me up again and brought me to his place. There we got the soup started while we waited for Max and Sam to show up. They brought the stuff for grilled cheese, and it turned out well. It's funny, I've had grilled cheese before at Max's when we were growing up. And I've had tomato soup countless times, usually used as a base for something else. But I've never had them together. I can see now why Max refers to them as a comfort food.

As for our conspiracy talk, Hal started since he's been keeping an eye on Melia Floros. He mentioned that the interviews she'd been conducting were all showing up on her site. Interesting as far as finding out people's opinions on the tree, but not very informative.

Max mentioned #fairysign and brought to our attention the more interesting finds. And while there were a lot of neat things, again nothing substantial. Instead, she brought to our attention that on Thursday about half the people who'd disappeared in Albany earlier this month showed back up. Investigators in the town were surprised to find a young man walking up the road from the little laramie river. He was one of the missing persons, and he lead those in town back down to the river where they found a group of people who'd made a makeshift camp. Those who are still missing were reported to have been out either searching for food, or anything else they could find. A group had gone looking for help a week ago and hadn't come back yet. Those who were out looking for food and stuff had only left moments before, but now they can't be found. To the distress of those who were found. Mostly kids and young adults, a few adults. So we're still missing about half the town.

The thing is, reading over their accounts, it's very similar to Hal's. They didn't wake to find themselves in their own beds, or even in their town. They'd looked around hoping to find out where they were and had started maping the area. Their maps don't correspond to anything in that area. So they started making their own camp near the river for fresh water, and being this time of year they struggled. Almost everyone was underfed, there were more than a few cases of frostbite, but they were all alive. And then that morning, the young man who was found wandering up the road had literally stumbled upon it and followed it into town. They were missing longer than Hal was, but how they got where they were, where they were, and how they managed to be found not far from where they'd gone missing... Even Hal mentioned how eerily it matches his own experiences.

After mulling that over for a while Sam apologized that he didn't have anything to bring to the table, he's just been so busy on his commission. But he's been making progress and finally had some pictures to share. I'm still not sure what it is he's making, but it's impressive. It did remind me though that I wanted to get pictures of everyone for Efe. So we spent some time taking some fun photos, and now I have a bunch I can send his way.

We did talk about The Stag and how much he's been in the news recently. His feat of strength in pushing the car was by far what we found most interesting. And of course Hal spent a lot of time speculating on what that might mean. He thinks The Stag is probably in contact with the fae somehow and they've granted him magical strength. Hal did say it's also possible that The Stag isn't human, that the mask may not be a mask. But if he wasn't human, Hal's pretty sure he wouldn't have helped the bus passengers the other night.

When it came around to me, I just let everyone know about the operation I'll be having and my leave of absence to take things easy. They were sympathetic and supportive. Max even suggested that we take advantage of my leave next weekend and do something. Hal mentioned that Black Panther was out and suggested we go see it, maybe make a whole day of it or something. Sam said he wouldn't be able to do a whole day, but we could grab Candace for the day and he could join us for the movie that evening. If she wanted to go of course.

Having made plans for next week though, there wasn't a whole lot more to talk about. Max and Sam headed out early. Though as they were heading out the door, Max asked Hal if he liked my present. Which lead to a hurried explanation that he'd surprised me and I forgot to grab it. Of course, there was no mention of what "it" was, so Hal's still in the dark. But now he's all sorts of curious, and Max isn't helping, she flat out stated I wouldn't be getting out of it.

After they left, Hal spent some time grilling me on his present. I said nothing, I resisted. He's earned it. I'll just have to find a good time.

February 16th, 2018

The power is still out on my block after last night. Dad's letting me use one of the electric lamps in my room, which might be more fun if I wasn't reliant upon it. Personally I think people are too quick to blame The Stag. I know he's been in the middle of some pretty iffy stuff, and his brand of "heroing" is less than stellar. Even I've commented on that. But I still think it's unfair to claim he's responsible for the power being out. Besides, last night he actually did something pretty heroic by rescuing the people in that bus. If it had been a city bus, I might have been one of them.

I guess I should explain. There was an accident involving the bus and a fuel truck. There's been a lot of blame for the driver of the fuel truck, but some claim he was responding to another vehicle hitting him, others claim there was black ice involved. The driver himself sadly didn't survive, so we can't know what he has to say on the subject. And there was no other car involved at the scene, so unless it was a hit and run we only have eyewitnesses to confirm it. Either way, somehow the truck veered into the bus and knocked it over. The fuel tank it was carrying split open spilling gas all over the place, and a city power transformer or something was struck and crushed in the wreckage. The gas on fire, and made everything that much worse.

Emergency crews were on the scene as fast as they could be, but I guess the bus was some sort of tour bus type thing. It was full of elderly people who couldn't climb out of the escape exists that remained to them. At the same time, because of the fire, rescuers were having a hard time getting to them.

In steps The Stag. He rushed through the fire, and somehow ripped open the emergency roof hatch. Using his cloak to protect himself, he then moved the still live electrical wires away so that the passengers had a clear path away from the wreckage. And he had to stand there holding them so they wouldn't swing back and put people in danger. The emergency crews were paying attention, and they quickly adapted to what he was doing. Fire crews worked on the burning fuel to further provide a path to safety. Then others rushed in to help the elderly out of the bus, and to safety.

It was slow going, and a heroic effort by all involved. The problem was someone must have spread the word to the police that The Stag was there. Before the passengers could all be rescued, a fleet of police cars arrive and out spilled a small army of cops all there to apprehend the vigilante.

Some of the firemen at the scene took issue with the police force's priorities. Next thing anyone knows, the police are starting to arrest firemen who are trying to do their job. And they're still demanding The Stag put his hands up and submit to arrest, all while he's still trying to hold back the live wires. Even some of the EMT's were arrested. It was a full blown shit show from all reports.

Some of the officers must've had their heads on straight, because they were able to calm the rest down in order to help the remaining passengers to safety. And if anyone's name needs to be mentioned, those officers should be commended! Whatever peace that bought though, it didn't last. Once the last passenger was safely away from the wreck and fire, the police again were ordering The Stag to submit.

So he released the power lines that he was holding back, which swung back toward the bus and the safe path that had been established. The same path that police had made their way down to get to him. None of the officers were injured, but they did open fire on The Stag as he took off back through another section of the fire. Reports are that he was hit, officers are certain at least once. But he made it away from the area without being spotted or captured.

So now city officials are on a man hunt for anyone admitting themselves to any hospital with a gun shot wound. Something that, as I understand, has to be reported anyway. But nothing has been reported, and officials are starting to accuse hospital staff of protecting The Stag.

I get that what he's doing is illegal, and I don't think it's far off to say he's escalating situations. But in this case, he was definitely a hero. And the police who wanted to arrest him at any cost were in the wrong. I don't have any answers as to how it should be handled, but this was definitely not how it should have been handled.

Either way, this all happened about two blocks from us. And in order to repair that transformer or whatever it is, they've had to shut the power off to a section of the city that includes us. They hope to have power back to us tomorrow, and I sincerely hope early tomorrow.

It's a good thing I shower after my workouts at the gym. Dad had to take a cold shower before going to work, and he wasn't happy about it.

Anyway, as for my day. I did get my Dr.'s note turned in and my leave of absence approved. When Hal came by for lunch we confirmed with everyone for dinner tomorrow. Max suggested we do grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, which sounds really good.

After work Hal picked me up. On the way back to his place I thought back to how uncomfortable I had been there the other day. But I remembered it didn't strike me at all on Valentines evening. I think mostly I was just caught up in remembering my encounter with Simon. Valentines night, I didn't give him a second thought. So I tried to not think about Simon. Which of course, made me think of him. And there was an initial discomfort when we got there. But the memories are in that living room, so I headed back to Hal's bedroom to get away from them. It seemed to work. Once I calmed down and got comfortable just helping Hal with his homework and stuff, I forgot about Simon. Eventually we came out and grabbed something to eat, and then sat down and watched another episode of Supernatural. I didn't think about Simon again till Hal was bringing me home and I realized how well I'd handled it.

Anyway, hopefully after last week and everything, tomorrow we can get back on to a regular schedule. Which starts with work. so I need to get to bed.

February 10th, 2018

Let's start at the beginning so I can keep my thoughts in order.

Hal still hasn't gotten back into his apartment, Simon's moving out starting today since it's the weekend. While he didn't have class, he still wasn't able to get here early enough to take me to the gym this morning. But he did catch up to me at the gym and was able to give me a ride to work. He had to come in anyway for a follow up with housing since his arrangements were changing. Current roommate to no roommate at least. Mostly they wanted to make sure he understood that they would be trying to fill the other room and that he shouldn't spread out and take advantage of having the place to himself. But there was also some paperwork to be signed concerning our report. And then while he's been out, leaving Simon alone, they wanted him to be able to check on his stuff while Simon was away just to make sure.

So Hal watched from a distance while Simon packed up his truck, and while he was away Hal went into the apartment to check on things. He got me my coat back, including all my things. Nothing missing, nor was any of Hal's things missing. That's one good thing at least. Though Hal did say there was a new hole in one of the walls that he reported to housing. They'll fix it, and Simon will be charged.

When Hal brought me my stuff at lunch, he also reported very excitedly that he'd bumped into Melia Floros on campus. She had a booth set up in the quad where she was handing out more information packets and had a camera man recording her interviewing students on their views. Hal said he could feel Tim breathing down his neck, and he had to force himself to put Tim out of his mind before he could finally approach Melia's booth. Once he did though, he said he did get a chance to talk to her for a bit. He asked that his conversation not be recorded, which Melia was okay with. I guess it's not uncommon for people to request that.

Anyway, Hal must've made an impression. He said he was interviewing her as much as she him and she ended up giving him her email address and said she'd like to be able to continue their conversation. So Hal was thrilled that he could report that back to Tim, and after I went back to work he must've called Tim right up.

And Tim was so impressed that he kept Hal for the rest of the day. I got a text from Hal while I was counting down my till. He apologized many times, saying he wouldn't be able to pick me up from work and that he probably wouldn't be able to make dinner. That was the last I heard from him until until I got home when he started apologizing again and asked how the night went. So I've been catching him up on our side of things, which wasn't much. He said since Tim had him all day today he'll be free tomorrow and he wants to make it up to me then.

But since I was finished with work and now without Hal, I texted Sam and Max to let them know what was going on. I figured I'd just take the bus home, but Max said she was heading my direction anyway and would pick me up. She suggested we meet up anyway, just not to have a conspiracy dinner. We could just have a night out with friends. Sam liked that idea and asked if he could invite Candace if we weren't going to talk conspiracy.

So with plans changing slightly, we had a little time. Max got that look in her eyes and said, "Let's go to the mall." She didn't wait for an answer, we were already headed that way. It was a quick shopping trip. Not as quick as I would have liked, but long enough to notice the decorations and be reminded that Valentine's was right around the corner.

Valentine's was never a holiday I particularly cared for. But that's 'cause I was always single. Max on the other hand loves Valentine's. What she really enjoys is dressing up, and since I have a boyfriend now she figured I should dress up too. So she dragged me into Victoria's Secret.

Sitting in a little bag bundled up into my spare coat, is a very little outfit. Were anyone to find said outfit, I think I might die of embarrassment. And yet, I can't deny the anticipation of Hal's face when he sees me wearing it. That was also probably the biggest expense I've made in two years, not including medical bills. Max said she'd buy me dinner to make up for it.

Moving along, we did meet up at the Mexican place since that was what we were planning on anyway. Sam and Candace beat us there, and were waiting patiently for us. And we had a great night. Max lamented being able to have only one margarita since she'd have to drive home. I got one too... Non-alcoholic of course. They're sweet and limey, and I like em as far as they go. But since I've never had alcohol, I don't know how that changes things. Can't say I feel like I'm missing anything, I've also never understood what was so fun about having everyone else laugh at your expense.

It was while we were waiting for dessert that someone turned the TV's to the news station. A knock down drag out fight, down Colfax. Again, no one knows exactly what started it, but the vigilante was involved. Whatever was going on, it almost seemed like a fight between two rival gangs with the vigilante in the middle. They were all attacking him, but they were attacking each other too. By the time we were seeing the live feed from the traffic 'copter, the police were arriving in force. They parked cruisers on opposite sides of the block and tried to surround the area as best they could. Fortunately the people in the area had cleared out, but there were just so many involved in the fighting.

The vigilante was overwhelmed, he gave as good as he got, but he couldn't focus on anyone without someone else taking advantage. They had bats, knives, crowbars, I'm honestly surprised I didn't see or hear about any guns. They didn't seem to respond to the police at first, as if they couldn't hear the orders over their own shouts. But one officer started using his cruisers megaphone or loudspeaker, whatever they're called and that got people's attention. Some dropped and complied immediately, others fled and most were caught one way or another. The vigilante climbed up one of the buildings and huffed it out of there jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

The police and new 'copters both tried to follow him, and they did for a ways. Once he got outside the block the police had surrounded, he jumped back down to the street and ran. He sprinted really, and kept it up impressively. Police units started catching up to him just as he was reaching the intersection with I-25. He jumped over the railings where it passes over the interstate and climbed down underneath the bridge. The helicopters couldn't follow him, the police couldn't follow him, and they couldn't get units to pass down I-25 fast enough. Noone knows where he went from there.

Max teased Sam saying, well now we know you're definitely not the vigilante. At first he seemed shocked, almost like she'd figured something out, but before he could respond Candace was already laughing. It was such an infectious laugh too, it wasn't long before we were all laughing.

We didn't stay much longer after that, it was getting late anyway. For all of us.

And like I said, after I'd gotten home Hal started texting to apologize and ask about our night. I guess once the news came on, that pretty well cancelled what he and Tim were doing and so Hal headed home and texted me as soon as he could.

Alright, I've got it down. Now I need to get to bed.

February 9th, 2018

Lots of news today, mostly good I think. When Hal caught up with me for lunch he mentioned that he'd have a meeting with housing about Simon. After work Hal was there to pick me up and he took me out to eat letting me know that Simon was being moved. Which is great news, and will open Hal's apartment up for the time being. He won't have any say over his next roommate, or even when he gets one, so he may have the place to himself for a day, or for the rest of the year. Housing wasn't able to give him any answers.

The news media finally had a new development with the vigilante. Not anything that stopped their speculations, just that he'd been spotted last night chasing down a mugger. So we know he's still in Denver, and police are maintaining their warnings about him being dangerous and to be avoided. Especially considering the mugger is in the hospital for cracked ribs and a concussion.

The other big news item is that it seems people have finally gotten used to the tree in LODO. Protester crowds have been thinning over the last month since the last incident at the tree with the vigilante. So much so that walking traffic is common. Even the crows that were there have thinned, and they're not bothering people as they walk through. Today police started allowing traffic through, cautiously, in order to help relieve traffic on nearby streets. I haven't heard any reports of the crows attacking vehicles, or drivers trying to hit the tree.

I don't know, it's like these things have become accepted, normal.

Hal and I also confirmed with everyone for dinner tomorrow. Since Simon will probably still be moving out, we won't gather at Hal's place. Instead Max suggested we do Mexican for a change noting that there was one close to the museum where we could get fantastic margaritas. Personally I think she just wants the margaritas, but I could be picked up easily enough after work and head straight there.

So, that's the plan tomorrow evening. Sounds like fun.

February 3rd, 2018

Hal just dropped me off after our conspiracy dinner, and the shit has hit the fan. This morning we all woke to the news stations finally starting to report on the disappearances as being more than isolated incidents. Of course, this was triggered by the most recent disappearances. Sometime in the last two days the towns population of Albany, Wyoming disappeared. The entire population, all gone. And the reason we're not sure when this happened is because it wasn't discovered until out of town relatives were having a hard time contacting those that lived there. They called, left messages. When they weren't getting any response, they called known work numbers and left more messages. Still didn't hear any response. So they finally started calling local officials, then county and state officials. Those officials also started calling locals without response. They finally sent someone to physically check out the town this morning and that's when they discovered the town was empty.

Given what evidence they can find, they suspect the people disappeared by the morning of the 31st. Vehicles were parked at home rather than at work with bedside alarms still going off. Local businesses hadn't updated dates for the new month, and there were no time card punch in or outs for the 31st or later. There's also no evidence of the people walking away. One official is quoted as saying they may as well have disappeared in their own beds.

As if that wasn't stunning enough, Sam finally brought something to the table as well. He said a buddy of his had mentioned that hunting this year wasn't going so well. So he started looking into wildlife reports. What he found was that agencies all around the four corners were reporting significantly lower game populations than expected. But there's also been a reduced number of wildlife encounters, and almost no reports of wildlife in settled areas. It's as if people aren't the only ones disappearing, and the wildlife seem to have been disappearing in greater numbers. Considering how the estimates are based, officials have been looking for corpses and at first suspected poachers. But the numbers are too high to be so explained, and there have been no corpses or any other evidence that would confirm those suspicions.

Which, considering the earliest disappearances were individuals or small parties out in the wilderness, that makes sense. But for an entire town to disappear? And granted, it's an out of the way town with a listed population of maybe 60 people. But compared to two people out hiking in the woods, that's huge. And it more than doubles the number of missing individuals altogether.

But the news media is also reporting a shocking number of people being found. Most have no legal identity, don't speak any recognizable language, and all wearing basic fiber clothing. As opposed to modern cotton weaves. And considering those traits, that is a hell of a coincidence. A lot of these found persons weren't listed in news media as much as they were listed in police and hospital reports. Which is how we missed them. It does make me wonder about Jane though, she's similar to the others in that there's no record of her existence and she had similar clothing on when found. But she does speak English, with an accent that I don't recognize. Are all the rest of these people amnesic? Would that have anything to do with crossing the ohvau? That'd make Hal all the more lucky that he didn't get amnesia. I just wish I could've brought these points to their attention. I wouldn't have, I did promise Sam and Candace, even if Sam wasn't there.

That said, some of these people who are being found are like the girl who was found in Dinosaur National Monument, Amy Shaun. Former missing persons, most who had been missing for years, are showing up all around the country. Now granted, I'm talking about maybe ten people, so they aren't showing up in anywhere near the same numbers as those who're disappearing. Even the numbers of unknown persons who are showing up doesn't compete. So on the whole we're losing population. As if a balance would make things better.

So while all this has been going on, Max brought to our attention an incident involving our deer headed vigilante. This time it was an altercation with a bike gang, and video was captured showing him lifting one of the bikes (a Harley) and throwing it across the street. A couple of the bikers were beaten pretty severely, but they managed to chase him off with gun fire. Reports can't seem to confirm whether he was hit, but again there's been no reports of anyone checking into a hospital with a gun wound. This happened just last night. There's also no clear cause for the incident.

Those were all talked about after Sam got there. Before he had arrived, Max and Hal were asking how I was doing and wanting to know more about what I'd seen. For some reason I still haven't admitted to them that the lady was there all the way up till when Sam found me back outside. I don't know why Sam hadn't mentioned that, and I haven't had the chance to ask him. But it's also made it easy to fail to mention that I'd talked with her.

Though Max did coax out of me that she was practically naked. Hal was good enough to keep his mouth shut.

Trying to divert attention away from me, I asked Max if she'd heard about Melia interviewing college students. She said she had, so they started making plans on trying to get Hal and her together so Hal could finally report success to Tim. It was while they were talking about that when Sam showed up with barbecue. I've tried barbecue chicken before, but I've never had the pleasure of actual barbecue from an actual barbecue joint. I couldn't believe how good it was, and here Sam and Hal were both saying it was "alright." If this was "alright" I'm curious what they would call good.

Though I was amused when both of them warned about the spicy sauce. They've never tried my Dad's jungle curry.

I'll leave off on the food so it seems like I had a good night. In all reality though, I'm scared. If a small town is going missing, what's next?

January 27th, 2018

We had our conspiracy dinner tonight. And there was a lot to go over. Firstly everyone wanted to know how I was doing, which all I could report was that tests are still being read. But initial results were that everything looked fine. That lead into an explanation of why I had gone to the doctor in the first place. Considering this is the group, and subject, about which I'm worried, their excitement is to be expected. I had to make sure to stress that there's a good chance that I was hallucinating. Max had my back on that point as she often does, though she did exclaim "What if it wasn't a hallucination though?"

Hal took the chance to mention what he'd learned about fairies being able to hide themselves from view. That they can even be selective about who sees them. He accepted that I could be hallucinating, but he was not willing to let go of the possibility that I wasn't.

Sam was the only one to not jump for joy at what I was seeing. I think he's still skeptical about it all, and in a way I need that. He was very curious about the details, and fascinated that what I'd seen was so detailed. I had intended to avoid mentioned their state of undress, but I was answering his questions so automatically. Once I realized what I'd said, I was blushing furiously while Max was interrogating me on whole new details.

I think even Hal got a little embarrassed by it because he used the opportunity to change the subject. So he brought up another fairy creature, the Cú Sídhe. I had spelled it phonetically yesterday because we didn't know how it was spelled. Hal gave us quite the lesson today. While I was at work today, he met with Tim in order to find out exactly why Tim was warning him and to ask a lot of the questions we had.

So here's what I've learned, as best I can remember. As a whole, they are called the Fae. Fairies is another general term, and not wrong, but typically used to indicate specifically the small winged humanoids. In addition to fairies, Fae include everything from goblins to boggarts, elves, gnomes, ogres, dryads, you name it. Much of the language and terms come out of Celtic lore, but human cultures have encountered these beings all around the world. Each culture has their own language and terms, djinn, loa, oni, spirits, the list goes on and on. Each culture has it's own beliefs and understandings concerning those it encountered, and had it's own relationships with them. For instance, while the Celts treated them as a nation unto themselves, African tribes tended to treat each loa individually as something to barter with.

With that understanding, the Illuminati tends to turn mostly to Celtic lore when it comes to describing and understanding these Fae.

With that explained, Hal finally turned to what he'd learned about the Cú Sídhe, Cú meaning dog, and Sídhe being another word indicating fairy or Fae. So fairy dog. These creatures appear very much like the canines we are familiar with, and in many respects share traits and qualities. However, they are extremely loyal to whom they are bonded. And the important thing is that they are bonded, they are not pets, or even trained companions. Once bonded, they can be trained, and can even function as pets. But instinctively they will protect the one to whom they are bonded with their very lives. Once trained though, they can be sent out on missions to achieve some goal. Or they can be ordered to guard an item or location while their bond leaves.

They are rather rare, and this gets into why they are referred to as Cú Sídhe rather than as Cú Fae or otherwise. The Sídhe are something of the noble class among the Fae. And this is something of a confusing word, while it is spelled Sídhe, it is pronounced "she." Which is why I had spelled it like that yesterday. But the word isn't natively English, nor even human for that matter. As such there's actually a number of different ways to spell it. Si and Sith being the other more common ways. Hal suspects that Lucas had come across the spelling of Sith when he decided to make use of it, without ever knowing how it was properly pronounced.

As the noble class, it is these fae who most typically seek to bond with a Cú. Which is where they are called Cú Sídhe. The Sídhe themselves are fae that if we were to see, we would most immediately recognize them as Elves thanks to The Lord of the Rings. Actual elves are more like Santa's helper elves, they are short, though not squat. The main difference between elves and fairies are the fairy's prominent wings. All fae have wings, but different fae have different wings. For elves, the wings are barely there, completely useless. While for fairies, well Disney has spread the fairy wings far and wide.

All that said, the Sídhe and Cú Sídhe are suspected to have wings as they are fae, but the lore indicates that they go to great lengths to hide their wings. That should one see the wings, it means their life is in danger.

Now, as for the Cú Sídhe themselves, and why Tim was so unnerved by its rumored sighting. As mentioned, they are to be considered extremely dangerous. If this one is bonded, then it's sighting indicates most likely that it is hunting someone or some thing. It will allow nothing to interfere with its mission. So don't get in its way. If something was taken that it was guarding, then "woe be to that person." Tim's words. The other possibility is that it is unbonded. And what Tim suggested is that an unbonded Cú Sídhe is considered in similar light to the Ronin in Japanese history. Without someone guiding it's actions, it is unpredictable and an equal danger to anyone it comes across.

On a lighter note, Max brought up the Fairy sign hashtag. There were a lot of neat things to see, but nothing overly informative. She apologized that she didn't have anything more saying she's had a lot of school work.

So I brought up the news article I had found about Bunny Rinne and everything it lead me to find commented about at DIA. As I had mentioned this to Hal before, he again raised the desire to just go visit DIA and see what we could find. Max thought it was a great idea, "school trip," she cheered. They were already making plans to go next Saturday when I realized that Sam hadn't raised any objections.

He was deep in thought when I looked over at him, so I asked if everything was okay. He said he was good, was just thinking about what he needed to do for the project he'd been commissioned for. So I asked him how that was going, he said it was challenging and he was stuck on how to do something. He said he could weld the pieces together like he needed, but that he really wanted to be able to work them together properly with his tools. He just wasn't sure how to go about doing it and was worried he might have to start over from scratch. Of course, he still wasn't telling us what he'd been working on, so I couldn't do anything but listen.

Though realizing we were all now listening to him grip about work, he apologized. He felt bad that he wasn't bringing anything to the table, but he wanted us to know he really enjoyed being here. He said he's always been interested in mythology and stuff. Because of how religious his parents were though, he wasn't allowed to go anywhere near that devil worshiping malarkey.

Our evening pretty much wound down from there. Though Hal remembered to ask me how my day went yesterday, which gave me the chance to tell everyone what had happened. Max was interested in the coin the guy had offered me, and even tried doing some image searches to match. She didn't come up with anything though.

Max's Mac and cheese was actually pretty good. She added little sausages to it, which was fun. It's not something I normally had growing up, but Hal was thrilled saying that was just how his mom used to make it. Even Sam liked it, though like me he hadn't grown up with it. My parents had a whole separate culture going on which was my excuse, Sam's parents just didn't think it was healthy for him.

But that was our night. Work again tomorrow, and Hal will be out training with Tim, so I get to have an evening with the parental units.

January 25th, 2018

Hal had Candace with him when he picked me up for the gym. And then we all made plans for Mom to pick Candace and I up from there. I had already talked with Hal about being there for the Dr's appointment, so I felt like I had to turn Candace down when she offered while he was there. I did talk with her after Hal had left us at the gym, and she said she was actually going to use the time to work on things. Mom was happy to drop her off as we were headed to the appointment, so it worked out.

The appointment went about as I expected. Dr. Laurie took some blood and asked a lot of questions, what I've been eating, if I've been drinking, sexual activity, stress levels, all that stuff. I think this was the first time I've asked Mom if I could talk with Dr. Laurie alone. After the interview, Dr. Laurie asked me about what had happened and why I had called for an appointment.

That was a long conversation, and included a lot of explanation that I hadn't talked to anyone about outside of our little conspiracy group. To be honest, I don't have a lot of people to talk to outside of that group. Dr. Laurie though is really good about listening and not being judgmental. He recognized that I was trying to make sure I wasn't imagining things that we were talking about. Also that I was making the effort to confirm the things I could confirm. He agreed that I'd done right by asking Hal if he'd seen the fairies that I had. Though he did suggest that maybe I should ask someone who isn't also part of the conspiracy group. But he also recognized that I had looked around and paid attention to what the others were seeing and hearing. So I didn't do wrong, it was just a suggestion.

Dr. Laurie wasn't willing to rule on our conspiracy theories, which is fine. His concern is my health. But he did say he'd been hearing a lot of interesting things and even if my friends and I were wrong about what was going on, there certainly seemed to be something going on. But whether I was seeing fairies or something else, what we were concerned with here was whether what I was seeing was actually there.

So with my interview done, we made our way down to the CT-scanner. I got to spend another eternity in the damn thing. They do try to make it as comfortable as they can, but it's just not. This time they had installed a television and over the headphones they were asking me questions about what I was seeing on the screen and what I thought about it. A lot of simple images, pictures of cats mostly. But they also threw in some visual illusions just to see how what effect it'd have on me. Some were neat, one made me sick. Dr. Laurie insisted it wasn't actually moving, but the illusion was that it appeared to. Hell of an illusion. They also seemed to have a lot of pictures that were meant to trigger pareidolia, which I think I've explained before. It's our ability to see patterns in things, particularly the ability to pick out faces where they don't exist. The dimples in someone's knees, the headlights and grill of a vehicle, or the formation of a cloud. They were trying to see what parts of my brain would light up in response to the things I was seeing so they could compare it with others. But they also wanted to know how my visual cortex was lighting up with the tumor sitting right there.

It took a good long time, and I was all too happy to get out. Dr. Laurie said my initial results appeared normal, but they'd have to send the results away to see what other experts had to say about it. And that could take up to a month or more. For now, he reminded me to keep practicing being able to get around without relying on my vision. I could lose my sight, I could be starting to see things, I could hallucinate and still lose my sight. Whatever happens, I won't be able to rely on my vision, so I should practice going without.

Which was about what I reported to Candace after Mom dropped me off, after a stop to Bonnie Brae. I did ask Candace what she'd like, she said she didn't know. So we surprised her with a cookie dough cone. She loved it! And has now requested to stop by there after every time we visit the gym.

And true to her word, Candace did offer me a shoulder to cry on. I took her up on that, though with a few days past and a visit to Dr. Laurie, I didn't feel like crying so much. We cleaned up and organized while we talked. Her in-laws had come by to pick up most of the stuff we had set aside already. The gun cabinet though was still there, they didn't have any way of getting it when they'd stopped by. Candace did say they seemed to accept Sam getting the car at least, so that was good. A lot of stuff had been sorted out that they didn't want, which was more than I thought there'd be. And along with the gun cabinet there were a few other things they still wanted to pick up. Mostly what we were doing today was cleaning out the bedrooms and vacuuming up. Candace wanted to make sure they were good to go for next week.

Hal did stop by between classes. It was later than usual, since his lunch was taken up by my appointment. So he wasn't able to stay as long. But he did ask how things were going, and held me for a while. That was nice, and comforting. Even Candace got in on it.

Sam was oblivious, but I guess he picked up a big commission recently and it's been taking up a lot of his time. He seemed really happy about it, though he couldn't say what it was yet. But he did share some pictures. I was worried that if he couldn't tell us what he was making, this might be a breach of contract. But neither of us could tell what he was making based on what he'd shown us, so I guess there's nothing to worry about.

Max made the time to come join us for dinner after hearing about my appointment. She asked how it went over dinner, which was the first Sam was hearing about it. We talked, I got more hugs, and a big one from Sam. He made sure to ask if there was anything they could do to help, which was kind of him. I told him that just knowing he was there for me was perfect.

So I'm home now, and I am oddly feeling at peace. It's been such a big fear for so long, and I have been pretty tore up about it. It was nice receiving so much support today. A lot of hugging, and some crying. I don't know what I'm hoping for as far as results. I think either way will be a comfort, and a worry. Either I am seeing things, which will finally confirm what we've been planning on for so long. Or I'm not, in which case the fairies were there to be seen. But then, why was I the only one seeing them?

I don't know, one step at a time I guess. Hal I think would say that even if I was seeing things, the fairies might still have been there. In fact, I think he'll insist on that.

January 24th, 2018

Candace joined me for chores again today. She didn't have any of her own chores to take care of this time, she was just looking for the company. Which I'm glad to offer and give, but I wonder how much of a third wheel she feels at the gym with Hal and I? As often as I was that third wheel with Max and her boyfriends, I sympathize. She doesn't seem to mind though, at least she says she doesn't mind. I got to talking to Hal about the things I'd found online last night. He mentioned again visiting DIA, just to see what we could find. I had tried to time the conversation while Candace was away from us, but she came back at some point. I didn't realize she was there until we'd finished up talking about the deer headed vigilante.

She didn't say anything at the time, so I didn't think much about it. It wasn't until after Hal had left and we were waiting at the bus stop that she asked about the vigilante. I wasn't sure how much Sam would approve of me telling her, so I warned her before proceeding. Then I told her a generalized version of what we knew. She didn't understand my references to superheroes, so I stopped using them as examples. But after I'd explained how what he was doing wasn't exactly on the up and up, she had some choice judgments of her own. She said he was being a troll and suggested that he didn't have a lot of self control. Candace seemed to think he just wanted attention, but she didn't understand how hard that would be without any social media presence.

She asked how I was doing. We talked about what I was dealing with and how I've worked with the doctor for years to try and find any common element to my dizzy spells. How Hal was being less than helpful with his own theories and how much more helpful it'd be if he were just supportive. Which is why we both agreed tonight's date night was a good thing. She was surprised to learn that I'd been keeping track of my attacks for years. She seemed to think that was odd, but I explained how it helped to establish patterns and find common elements. Not that anything had been found yet, but that was also why I kept my journals. Candace seemed to find all of that fascinating and has insisted that I bring my journal when we visit to see the lunar eclipse. I don't think she realizes how private these are. I mean, I do keep these so my doctor can read them, and there is recognition that Mom might read them if anything were to happen to me. But in general, this isn't exactly something I just share with anyone. Even though I'd brought it with me to our tubing trip, I still didn't let Hal read it.

Still, her curiosity was innocent and infectious, so I've agreed. I'd probably bring it anyway just because.

Anyway, since I did have plans, Candace and I split ways. I offered to ride with her to her stop, but she sounded sure about doing it herself for a change. I still asked her to text me that she'd gotten home safe, which she dutifully did.

Our date went well. We ordered subs through a delivery service, and as planned sat down to enjoy the next few episodes of Supernatural. Hal's roommate stopped in, saw us, and quickly stepped back out. Hal mentioned something about him being overly religious, I guess he'd tried to convince Hal the other day that it was improper for him and I to be spending time alone together. Whatever, if that's how he wants his dates to go, supervised, then more power to him. But I have to admit, it'd make me uncomfortable to think he couldn't be trusted to be alone with me.

Still, it gave Hal and I the night to ourselves. Which we enjoyed, until I had an attack. It did ruin the mood, more for Hal than for me. He got up offering to get me something to drink and pulled his shirt back on. When he got back we curled up together and just watched the next episode.

I'm nervous for tomorrow. We'll take some blood tests, and probably get me in the CT scanner. I won't know anything for at least a week. But I am going to note a very definite seeing things, and dizzy spell three days later. Seems far apart, but if there is a connection we'll only know by having such notes.

January 20th, 2018

So I wasn't the only one bringing a lot of news to the table. We did go over the things I'd learned the other day, most of which was relatively mundane. DIA's repairs being operably completed, and Melia interviewing people are almost not worth mentioning. If it weren't for our suspicions surrounding those things. Finding the missing hikers in Arizona though, that's big news, but still mundane. I did try to see if there was anything more reported on their being missing, but nothing turned up. But it was all good to hear and go over.

Hal didn't have a lot to bring to the table, just the pressure Tim's been putting on him to find out anything he can about Melia. Although, the training he now seems to be receiving is concerning and worthy of note. For me at least this wasn't news, and sounded mostly like another complaint session.

Max though, she did have something to report. She came across a trend on the internet that was eerily accurate to what we've been talking about. It's like the videos and pictures she'd already been finding, but people started posting them under the hashtag #fairysign. On Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and other social medias from all over the US and a little into Canada. Circle's of ice on a river, actually it was the Colorado river near Rifle. Circle's of leaves in someone else's back yard. Tiny footprints in the snow, just a lot of strange things. Some of those things could have been prepared for the pictures, and other's might be photo-shopped or otherwise digitally created. The strange thing is how much Max is finding, and she'd been finding a lot before. It's like there's been an explosion of these images just in the last week or so. Thanks to this hashtag, the conversation seems to have moved out from just a handful of people talking about it here and there to being a nationwide conversation. Max said she's expecting the news media to pick up on it any day now.

We did do some talking about this deer head, vigilante type person. And between Max and me, we'd found a lot of the same bits, Max more than me of course. We're pretty sure the store robbery was framed on him, or blamed on him really. With no security video, there's nothing to back up the claim. It's that most of the rest of the stories are about him trying to be helpful. It's just that he seems to be, I don't know, he's all too willing to commit violence. He doesn't try to deescalate the situations, as soon as they become threatening he beats the crap out of whoever threatened him. When someone runs, he chases them down and puts them down hard. He's credited with breaking multiple legs, arms, noses, even a few jaws. And reports make it sound almost like he's impossibly strong. I'm not sure how big he is, but he doesn't stand out as being overly tall. And even with the baggy clothes, he might be muscular, but he's nowhere near as big as Sam, and he's being credited with lifting things I wouldn't expect Sam to be able to pick up. We all had to wonder if the stories are being overblown.

I think what Max is mostly surprised by is that the guy has made no attempt to create an online persona. It's like in the movie Kick-Ass. The kid had created a social media site for his own hero persona and used it so that people could ask for his help or thank him, or otherwise simply interact with him as Kick-Ass. This isn't happening with our deer headed local. So beyond the stories and what pictures and video people have been able to capture, we don't have a name or any other form of identity.

That said, others seem to be making online personas for him. Most don't claim to be him, but they do collect images and stories about him. But a few do claim to be him, and Max said she was pretty sure she'd debunked those claims. Given these sites, there are now a number of names floating around for him. Just none that we can confirm as self claimed.

Sam reminded me of Candace's invite, so we brought that up. As Hal had mentioned to me when we talked about it, Max was also concerned about having classes. This gave them a chance to find out exactly what Sam and Candace had planned. Sam said that by then they were hoping to have the two rooms cleared out. They could put down some pads and have blankets available if anyone wanted to sleep over, though with as cold as it's been bringing your own sleeping bag would probably be a good idea. That way, anyone could sleep early, and then when it was time they'd wake everyone up for the eclipse and do the celebrating then. Hal was still concerned because he had the late lab, but for something so rare he was willing to be there. Max didn't even hesitate, all she needed was the word celebration. Sounds like I'll be staying at Candace's on the thirtieth.

So a lot to go over, and it was neat to see the fairy sign stuff. But it made for a late night, I've only just got home and I need to hit the sack.

January 19th, 2018

After everything going on this last week, it's nice to just get back to work and have a relatively normal day. I even had a dizzy spell as I was getting around, before I stepped into the shower thank goodness. Hal picked me up and we hit the gym, he brought me to work. Work was nice, just busy enough to make the day pass, not so busy as to be stressful. Hal joined me for lunch and we talked about what to do for dinner tomorrow night. After work I started texting Max and Sam to confirm for tomorrow and passed along Hal's suggestions of soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

I read that back over and realize I'm making it sound like a check list. It all happened, there just wasn't a lot more to say about any of it.

Max and Sam both confirmed for tomorrow and said grilled cheese sounds great. Sam though asked if I had any plans for the night of the 30th. It falls on a Thursday night, so I responded that I had nothing planned after work. He said Candace was wanting to invite everyone over for the lunar eclipse that would be visible before sunrise on the 31st. I hadn't known there was going to be one so I checked. Not only will it be a total lunar eclipse, it'll be the second full moon in January making it a blue moon. And it'll be a supermoon. How cool is that?!? So I said we'll have to remember to raise that with the others tomorrow, but I'd be in to see it.

I did talk to Hal about it, and he said he'd be interested too. But he was concerned about his ability to get a full nights sleep between classes. We'll talk about that with Sam and Max tomorrow, and see what Candace has planned. But I figure maybe he could try to go to bed early and be able to wake up in time to see the eclipse.

I did my best to help Hal with his homework, but to be honest he's got a few years worth of prerequisite classes on me and I think I was slowing him down by making him explain everything. So I eventually got up and worked on making us some dinner. His roommate came home long enough to see I was there, dropped his books off and left. Hal said he probably thinks we're going to have sex and his roommate wants nothing to do with that.

I hadn't thought about that, but once the opportunity was made available... Well, it was good day.

January 14th, 2018

Hal did text me this morning apologizing that he wasn't able to respond last night. He did say he'd talk to me about it later, but he'd have to miss lunch today.

After work he picked me up and offered me a flower in apology. I didn't feel he needed to apologize for anything, but the flower was pretty. He said it was a hyacinth, and it was a beautiful blue color that matched his eyes.

Anyway, we made our way to the store and grabbed some things to make a stir fry. Hal insisted on making that, so I let him be. He did a good job to. Kinda left my hands empty though, so I tidied up his place just to keep busy.

We talked, sounds like Tim has really latched on to Melia Floros as being someone they need to know more about. He's putting even more pressure on Hal to find out about her, which is frustrating for Hal because all it's not like they're showing him how to do any of this stuff. I asked if Hal had said anything along those lines, and he said he'd asked Tim what to do. Tim must have finally realized that he was neglecting Hal's training. They spent the rest of the night going over a lot of things that make Hal sound like some sort of secret agent.

Which, I guess if this is the Illuminati, that's to be expected. What's worrisome is that it sounds like Hal enjoyed it. That was part of the reason Hal felt he needed to apologize though. Not just because he screwed everything up last night, but because starting this next Sunday, every Sunday Tim's going to be showing Hal the ropes. Hal said Tim wanted to do it on Saturdays, but he convinced Tim to do it on Sundays so we could still have our conspiracy dinners. But this also means that if he's got homework to do, he might have to miss lunch once in a while.

I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it. I am worried, I've already mentioned, but in a way Hal's excitement is rubbing off too I think. I just thought that they'd wanted him to be a scholar, that he wouldn't be doing the cloak and dagger bit. So I'm a little confused, and I don't think Hal's realized that change in priority. He's too excited at the thought of being a spy. Not in those same words, but what else am I supposed to call it?

So I brought up the missing girl that I'd found about yesterday. I was hoping that might remind him of the nature of what's going on. He was appropriately saddened, and it did slow down his momentum a bit. But then he reminded me that the worlds are merging, and that she'd be found again soon. He got home again. "It'll all work out, she'll be fine, you'll see."

I do hope he's right, I hope she's found soon. But what if she's not? What if it's someone else, and they're not? We've had a lot of people go missing these last many months, and I don't remember many articles about them being found. I'm not sure Hal realizes how fortunate he was.