redshiftrp | @lazarus

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@lazarus | video

[ The video opens on Ben's face. He is looking particularly grim, filming in one of the rooms in the residential section. No greetings or build-up, he just cuts right to the chase, holding up a tiny device between forefinger and thumb. Visible is a tiny lens, and what looks like a small antennae to transmit. ]

PSA. There are surveillance cameras hidden in the lighting fixtures of the bedrooms. I found a creepy tunnel leading to a creepy lair where some fucking creep has been spying on us. Still trying to figure out who is behind it and what they want, but the feeds only show occupied rooms and no empty ones so it's not a coincidence, unfortunately.

[ Ben turns the frame to face the spot where the small camera had obviously been ripped out of an overhead light. From offscreen he says, voice clipped and angry: ]

Anyway. Wanted you guys to know. Hit me up if you need help ripping the suckers out. I'll post again when I know more.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

oh my god
i found it
ew ew ew ew ewwww
who the heck would do that???
are you sure its not somebody who lives here?

[ God, Ami's just a kid and it's all so fucked up and bad. Ben is glad this conversation is over text, because he's not coping well to be honest. ]

Can you dispose of it or do you need me to get rid of it?

I don't know who did it yet, or whether it is someone who lives here or someone separate.
I promise I will let you know more when I have some answers.
For now what matters is we're aware of the problem and we're all working to fix it.

yes please
i cant reach it

[ she is small ..... ]

ugh i hate this
constant surveillance is one thing but
this means somebodys been in my room
even though i always lock the door
how did they get in

[ Well, shit. He doesn't really want to be around anyone but obviously he's not going to refuse. He'll just... be brief. ]

Okay, I'll stop by.
I can't stay long, though. I'm meeting Peter to strategize.

[ He grabs something to use to pry the lighting fixture open if he needs, and heads torwards Ami's room. He keeps the device on hand though and answers as he goes. ]

It's possible. They seem really prepared. Maybe they could get past locks.
But the camera also might've already been there and they just turned on the ones in rooms with people.
That seems just as likely to me - otherwise every time someone new shows up they'd have to sneak in to add new cameras.
There's a lot of people in these hallways, that's a huge risk of getting caught every time.
If it were me I would just put them in every room once and then switch on the feed for new arrivals once they pick a spot.
So the camera might've been there before you even showed up on this planet.

ok good
and thank you

[ Having Peter on the case puts her mind a lot more at ease. Surely they'll get to the bottom of it in no time!

Ben raises a good point, and she decides she'd rather believe the thing was already there. The alternative is just... too frightening. ]

at least theres a physical camera we can get rid of
as opposed to them scrying on us clairvoyantly or something

[ That was how Retrospec did it, near as she could ever tell. And... they never did stop, did they? There was a big stink about it when the users first found out, but then people just sort of stopped talking about it, without anything changing. She'd initially felt so unsafe that she asked for a police escort home from school, but a few months later she was just joking about it like the Personal FBI Agent meme.

It's funny how much people will put up with once they get used to it. ]

[ If he weren't in the state he's in Ben might joke about investing in a stepladder but for now he just texts: ]

Of course.

[ He doesn't think it's much of a silver lining, honestly, but responds: ]

I guess. Hadn't thought about it that way. Is that a thing?

yeah
or it was back home anyway

[ ... Ah, she never did get back to him about what she's remembered, did she? Whoops. Well, they can discuss that more when he gets here, which he probably has by now. ]

[ Ami's room isn't far, but Ben gives himself a few seconds once he gets to her door to compose himself, before he knocks. He's here to help her and reassure her and that isn't going to work if he seems too upset, himself. He can do this. He just needs to take everything that is awful and just shove it neatly away into a corner for a little while. He can do that. He has considerable practice.

When he knocks, and Ami opens, he says: ]

You're gonna have to remind me what scrying is because I can't remember and it's possible it means something different in my world, anyway. [ A moment later, he adds: ] Hi.

[ No sooner has she opened the door than he starts rambling, and she responds at the end with a little puff of laughter. Extenuating circumstances aside, that was funny. ]

Hi to you too! Come on in.

[ She steps aside to let him into the room. It's just a standard double, nothing too special. Her bookbag is on the desk next to an assortment of index cards and a box of Sharpies, her bed is neatly made, and oh yeah there's a bunch of shit written on the walls.

Like. All over the walls. Every square inch of them, somehow, is covered in black writing, lines and lines of neatly printed letters, with no spaces, no clear beginning or endpoint. The letters are jumbled, but occasionally they happen to form the most viable syllable you could make from them:

t0ck.

Ami makes no reference to them, instead moving to stand under the light fixture. ]

Oh, and when I say scrying, I mean any kind of remote viewing that doesn't -

[ Well, he had gotten Ami to laugh in spite of the fact she's just found a creepy hidden camera in her bedroom. That is one crystallized good thing that has happened, today. Ben is going to hang on to that.

He steps inside, glancing at the room with polite and perfunctory curiosity, ready to make his way back to the lighting fixture with the camera, say his goodbyes (maybe with a few words of encouragement to talk to him if she is feeling creeped out and needs a friend), and head off to Peter's lab.

But then he sees all that writing, and it stops him in his tracks. He's used to writing on walls - Klaus did it all the time. But that was just poems and ramblings, here and there. Even when Five would write on the walls, it was equations, working out temporal equations and impacts, and anyway, Five isn't exactly... entirely sane.

So to see the same word (kinda?) repeated over and over again, all over the walls... that's not just a teenager being creative with her decorating, and it doesn't seem like it could possibly be a meme, even if he's still a little fuzzy on what memes are. He tries not to comment, really, but that only lasts a few seconds before he's interrupting her, asking: ]

Ami, what... the hell is all this?

Huh?

[ Ami blinks, and tentatively looks from side to side. Her room's clean, she even put all her clothes away... ]

... What's all what?

[ Started weird, just getting weirder. How can she not know exactly what he's talking about, right now? Ben takes a moment to just get back the surprise and find the right words. He gestures at the closest wall, the close dark script all over it. ]

The - all the writing on the walls. No offense if this is the hot new fashion in your world, but it looks sort of... alarming.

[ Ami follows his gesture, confused. All she sees is the wall, clean as the day she moved in. What's he talking about? He could just be messing with her, but is that really the kind of thing he'd do? Or maybe he's the one seeing things? ]

Ben, there's... nothing there.

[ A trickle of fear makes its way down Ben's spine. This isn't a joke, right? Ami has a sense of humor, but if she's pranking him right now, she's a remarkable actress. She seems completely bland and confused. Ben chews at his lower lip, looking from the walls, to Ami, and back. He pulls the device from his pocket and takes a photo, holding it out so Ami can look at the screen. Maybe there's... some kind of illusion spell this will get around or who knows. He doesn't speak magic. ]

You don't see words, written all over the walls? Like.... all over?

[ By now, Ami's visibly worried. She squints at the wall, looks at his photo, then back at the wall, but... ]

No, I... you're freaking me out a little, Ben.

[ All over the walls? Is there really something there that she's not seeing? One of them's going crazy here, but which one? ]

... What does it say?

[ Ben has a similar thought - one of them is seeing things and there's no way to figure out which one without bringing in a tie-breaker. Running a hand through his hair, mussing it up, he looks back to his device again and quickly sends the photo he'd just taken to Klaus with the caption: ]

Preface: I'm freaking out and now's not a good time to fuck around or make jokes, can you see writing on the walls in the pic I sent or not?

[ He's keeping a tight hold on the rising fear in his chest, but it's a tenuous control. Looking back up to Ami, he says: ]

It's, like... tick tock. No, um. Just... tock. But spelled different ways in some places. The same letters just, jumbled up. And. Everywhere.

[ But he can see Ami getting worried, and even if he's freaking out, too, he at least tries to reassure: ]

I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation...

[ "Tock"? What the heck does that mean? She doesn't doubt that Ben's telling the truth, that he really is seeing what he says he is. But if it is really there, why can't she see anything? More importantly - her stomach turns to consider it - how did it get there? ]

Y-yeah... there's gotta be.

[ She walks right up to the wall and touches it. It feels like wall. She's not sure what she expected. ]

... Please tell me it's not written in blood or something. Even if that would be pretty hardcore.

It doesn't look like blood to me.

[ And Ben... knows what blood looks like on walls, okay. He really really knows.

The device gives a brief buzz and Ben glances at it, sees a reply from Klaus under the photo that reads: ]

uh yes?
its right there

[ Wordlessly, he turns the screen to Ami, so she can see for herself that someone else is seeing the same thing Ben is. It's a tiny relief, to know he's not the one whose eyes are deceiving him. But it doesn't solve the mystery and now he's just really worried for Ami. She'd acted weird the last time they talked, with the tarot cards, and then he'd spoken to Cole who is so afraid of her and that she might be maybe possessed by a demon or something, and now he's in her room and there's writing all over the walls. It's just getting a little bit horror movie for Ben's taste.

Tucking away the device - after sending Klaus a quick but explanation-less thanks - he goes over to her desk, asks: ]

Can I...?

[ He's already taking a blank index card and a Sharpie, and he does his best to copy exactly the way the script looks, for one single t0ck. Maybe it's the word itself, somehow? He holds the card up, asks: ]

You can read that, though, right?

[ Okay, so at least her room is not under a horrible ghost curse probably. Maybe. She comes back to peer at the message... Who the heck is @GOSUCKADICK? Wait, that's not important. What's important is that they can see it too, and that means it has to be something wrong on her end.

When he crosses to her desk, she's not sure what he's asking to do, but silently nods anyway. His copy job takes longer than you'd normally expect for four letters, though, and it takes her a minute to realize he's not just copying the letters, he's trying to copy the font.

And she can see what he put on that index card. Not only that, but it looks familiar.

Too familiar. ]

Yeah. Is... is that exactly what it looks like?

[ There are a few tense moments when he is holding up the card and Ami is staring at it and he doesn't know if he's staring because she can see it and it means something to her or because it's blank even though she just saw him writing on it. Either option is kind of alarming in its own way.

The answer to that question becomes clear in a moment; she sounds... off. Like she's understanding. Ben's heart beats a little faster, and he gives an emphatic nod. ]

As close as I could get it. Why? What's going on, Ami - how can you not see it?

I don't know, okay?!

[ She blurts it out before she can stop herself, and once that's in the air, she can't stop the rest of it, either. ]

I don't know why I can't see it! I don't know how it got there! I don't know what it means, and I don't know why it's in my handwriting!

[ It's too much. She can't deal right now. She buries her face in her hands, walks the couple of steps to her bed, and lets herself fall onto it face-first. ]

[ OH GEEZE okay. Ben puts down that index card, coming over to where Ami has just sort of collapsed onto her bed in perfect Dramatic Teen™ style. ]

Hey, hey hey hey, it's okay.

[ Ben crouches down so he's not hovering over her, close but not in her space, his voice reassuring and low: ]

Listen, I was gonna wait and bring it up later once I've got all this... camera bullshit sorted out, but I talked to Cole. He says he wants to help you, if he can. Help you figure out... stuff that might be confusing you, with your memories, and where you come from, and what's going on inside you. He wanted me to arrange a meeting, so he could try to help. Maybe... he can help solve this? Help you figure out why - you wrote all this, and why you can't see it.

[ Which is really really creepy, but if anyone can figure out what's going on here, it's Cole. Ben believes that. He had sensed there was more going on inside Ami before Ami or Ben or anyone else knew. He's a spirit and he can do spirit shit and this seems like a situation where that is needed urgently. ]

Will you meet with him? Don't worry - I'll be there the whole time.

[ He strategically neglects to mention that he'd promised Cole to be there the whole time, too, because Cole is maybe still sort of terrified of Ami and possibly thinks she is possessed by a spirit or demon that might try to kill everyone in this place. Ami doesn't need to know that. ]

[ While Ben's talking, Ami turns her head so she can see him (and also not suffocate). The mention of Cole sparks a flicker of fear, but that flicker's just a drop in the bucket, barely noticeable. Ben really went and talked to him for her? He didn't have to do that.

She has to think about the offer for a moment. She doesn't like the idea of meeting him again. She's still pretty frightened of him. But... it's not really him she's scared of, is it? It's what he sees inside her. Even after her memories came back, there's still so much she doesn't know about herself. About Aradia.

She nods, tentatively at first, then with a little more resolve. ]

Yeah. If you're there.

[ She pauses, then adds- ]

I'm really sorry, Ben. [ For making him go to all this trouble. For making him worry about her. And... ] I... I did remember some stuff on my own. A lot of stuff. I meant to tell you, I just...

[ Ben's pretty good at hiding his reactions to things. The whole hidden camera situation has reminded him just why that is; more often than not, growing up, he was being observed, assessed for weakness, for any cracks in confidence and composure that could be exploited. So it doesn't show on his face, the way his stomach drops when Ami says she's remembered some things. It's not like he hadn't suspected, a little bit, after the strange end to their tarot session. But hearing it confirmed is another thing.

Then again, if the situation were as Cole feared, she would already be so different that she would be unrecognizable, right? So perhaps something else is going on, after all. Ben masters that sudden alarm and manages a smile, soft and encouraging: ]

Hey, why're you sorry? That's great.

[ Ben waves away her apology. He knows what it's like, to have trouble telling people things, and this situation must be ten times as scary for Ami as it is for him. Ben has recently had some of his own ideas about himself and his friends on the other side of the portal questioned, and he knows how disorienting it can be. ]

I'll set up that meeting. In the meantime - in the meantime, do you wanna talk about the stuff you remembered?

[ She may very well not, and he knows that, but it's possible she's needed to this whole time and not known how to approach him or anyone about it. Ben hopes that isn't the case at least. ]

[ Ami manages a soft smile and nods. Bless your heart, Ben Hargreeves, we don't deserve you. She sits up on the bed, hanging her bare feet off the edge; it's high enough that she can rest her toes on the ground, but not her whole feet. ]

Yeah. Um... standard disclaimer, though, it is pretty bizarre. I guess I'll start at the beginning...

[ Like when she told Peter. Start at one end of the weirdness and work your way down. She takes a deep breath, exhales, and begins: ]

So, I was an alien in a past life.

... I - I know that sounds really cringey and otherkin-y, but I swear it's not. I am actually, literally reincarnated from the soul of a dead alien.

text; @aa

text | @lazarus

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