video; @unknown

[redshiftnpc]

[ The communicator bobs, turns, points at the floor. There’s muttering from a voice some of Anchor’s residents will recognize. When the camera rights itself, it’s a close-up of Creepy Joe’s face, the eye that was formerly sealed shut now open and writhing with tiny flower-like tentacles. His other is steady, crazed blue.

His mouth is still twisted, his lips still curving upward on the ruined side of his face, not quite hiding teeth too long and sharp for a human mouth. There’s movement behind and between his teeth, though it’s hard to see what it is until he opens his mouth--more tentacles, tiny flailing things growing from the insides of his cheeks, the roof of his mouth, his tongue. They make him lisp hoarsely as he talks.]

Don’t go down. Don’t do it. You’ll open the way to worse things, worse things, worse.

[ He glances behind him, and in spite of the close angle, some at Anchor might also recognize where he is. In his little hole in the wall, where he was recording the actions of Anchor’s new residents. ]

Trust me. I came back, didn’t I? I came back to help.

Comments

[itsnotaonesie]

Can I ask what exactly it was you were watching for? I wasn't too happy to find a hidden camera in my room, man.

[And that's putting it super lightly.]

Below what, below Anchor? What's down there?

[redshiftnpc]

For the bad. For the searchers, the ones who want a way out. [ He looks away. ] You're young. Thought you could be one of the ones looking, and that's how it all started with us. Someone looked too hard for a way out.

[ Joe looks back at the screen, leaning in a little more. ]

The bad. [ He gestures toward his face with his ruined hand. ] It started there. The storms woke it up, but it started there.

[itsnotaonesie]

I-- I don't really think I follow? I think most of us want to find a way to go home, we just don't know where to start.

[Peter also leans in, as if that's going to help him understand better. But nope, it doesn't really.]

...Yeah, but I mean is there a basement or something?

[redshiftnpc]

That's what divided us. That's what destroyed us. Wanting to find a way.

[ He licks his lips, which is a new and exciting kind of eldritch action. ]

No-- No, there's nothing, nothing to find.

[ He may or may not just have realized that telling people not to do the thing... might result in them looking for the thing. ]

[itsnotaonesie]

What's so bad about people wanting to leave, though? Like, I can understand people wanting to stay, but it doesn't sound to me like the kind of thing that people should fight over.

[Dude. Dude no, that's terrible keep your tongue tentacles in your mouth]

You kind of already said that there was, though. But, if whatever's down there is what did that to you, then that's something I'm sure nobody wants to go mess with. [Unless it's Qubit. Qubit would totally mess with it.] Is it like, sealed up or something? This isn't something that can escape on it's own, right?

[redshiftnpc]

They knew what it would cost, what they wanted, and they didn't care about the rest of us. They didn't care about the ones they'd destroy to escape.

[ The tentacles in his eye wrap around each other, untangle, unfurl into little horrifying flowers and fold up again. He's agitated now, clearly enough. ]

It was sealed. It was hidden. It's not hidden any more. There were precautions, precautions taken, but if you go in there's no telling, none.

[itsnotaonesie]

That-- that's terrible. I'm sorry.

[Well shit, if there was ever something that would discourage Peter from trying to find a way home, it's this right here. The last thing he would ever want to do is put someone else in danger, so at least for now, any budding escape plans he may have been formulating are bumped off his priority list.]

Is there any way we can keep people away from it? I don't think anyone knows what to look for, but we also don't know what to stay away from.

[redshiftnpc]

Keep them... away from the doors. Leave them shut. Don't go down.

[ He looks hopeful, almost. Relieved, definitely. ]

I didn't think... anyone would listen.

[itsnotaonesie]

Don't go down. Okay, I'll figure something out.

[he's assuming that whatever this is is below the lowest level sooo he's just gonna have to see what he can track down later.]

You know this place better than any of us, I think it would be pretty stupid if we didn't listen.

[redshiftnpc]

[ A long silence while he watches Peter. ]

Used to work with animals. Farm animals. [ He speaks haltingly. ] Think. I could do that. Do that again?

[itsnotaonesie]

[Oh my Godddd Creepy Joe you're breaking Peter's tiny spider heart.]

We can probably work something out for you. I-- actually, do you mind if I come to see you? I have something that I think belongs to you.

[redshiftnpc]

See me? [ He puts his good hand up to cover the twisted half of his face. Long enough to show he knows exactly how hideous he is.

He slowly lowers his hand again. ] All right. Okay.

[ He looks around him. ] Here?

[itsnotaonesie]

[Joe buddy you aren't even the creepiest thing Peter's ever seen. ...Well no, you are, but shhh.]

I can come to you, yeah. I know exactly where you are, so that would probably be easiest.

[redshiftnpc]

[ Aw Peter. It's the thought that counts.

He shivers uneasily. ]

Should move. Shouldn't stay here, if people know.

[ Some of the tentacles protruding from his eye swirl around each other and untangle themselves again. ]

I'll wait. No one else?

[itsnotaonesie]

Some of us know, yeah. You were diverting a lot of power to your cave, it was kind of hard to miss. It should be fine, though, I'm coming by myself. Be there in a few minutes.

[And since he has his webs and is too cool to take the stairs, Peter ends up at the opening of the tunnel in just a few minutes and calls into it.]

Joe? It's Peter, can I come in?

[redshiftnpc]

YES. [ The shouted reply mostly hides the scuffling sounds in the cave. Peter will find him stuffing cables into corners one-handed and picking bits of garbage off the floor to pile next to the cave's mouth.

He stops when Peter walks in. ]

H... Hello.

[itsnotaonesie]

[There's something weirdly charming about this Eldritch horror of a man cleaning up his spooky spy cave for guests. He really can't help but smile.]

Hey, man, good to see you. Sorry if I got here a little too fast.

[redshiftnpc]

Good...?

[ For a moment he looks like he’s waiting to hear a punchline. ]

Good... to see you. Too. [ He sounds like he’s experimenting with the words. ] Last time— I wasn’t right last time. The storm, the storm was in my head.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Finally, someone more awkward than Peter. It's a new year's miracle!]

That's something I wanted to ask you about, actually. How long have you been hanging around Anchor, and has being shielded from the storm helped your whole... situation at all? You seem uh... A little more clear headed, I guess is a good way to phrase it.

[redshiftnpc]

How long... [ He rocks back and forth for a moment, trying to puzzle it out. ] Since the big storm, the one that covered the dome.

[ Because what are months, weeks, or days??

He crouches with his back to the far wall, not coming near Peter, even if he doesn't seem quite as wary as before. ]

I was alone for so long, so long. [ He scrubs his hand through his hair. ] Didn't... want to come back. It was all dead. All empty. Ruined. They ruined everything.

[ Right, no, focus, he has to focus. Peter said he was more clear headed, so that's what he's going to be. ] Remembered. How to... talk, how to think. Watching you all.

[itsnotaonesie]

Right, right. I remember that.

[That's a good enough time frame for Peter, he can work it out from there.]

For what it's worth, I'm glad you came back. I will say, though, it really scared me when I found out we were being spied on. How did you manage to bug our rooms without any of us noticing? Or had the cameras and stuff just been there the whole time?

[redshiftnpc]

Bugged them all, when things started... Before things got really bad. Had to know. Had to know what the others were doing, had to know so I could protect... pro.... [ He rocks back and forth again for a moment. ] Turned them on again as people came.

[itsnotaonesie]

Okay, so this was before we all showed up. That-- that's... okay. I feel a little better about that.

[Knowing that this stuff wasn't installed to spy on them specifically wasn't really comforting, but it feels less threatening in a way.]

Can... can I ask who you were trying to protect? Not just yourself, I'm assuming.

[redshiftnpc]

[ He huddles in on himself, rocking back and forth in silence for nearly a minute. ]

Little girl. My little girl. I don't remember her name.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Creepy Joe backstory: UNLOCKED.

Well, a little. Aaand this brings Peter to the reason he'd wanted to meet with Joe in the first place. He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out the photo that he'd found in this spooky spy cave the last time he'd been down here, glances at it for a moment before crossing the room, crouching in front of Joe, and offering the photo to him.]

Is this her?