@lazarus | video

[benhargreeves]

[ 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.

Comments

[benhargreeves]

Hey, I remember not so long ago you saying how much you wanted to know, whether it was good or bad, so...

[ It's a gentle sort of chiding, trying to help her see a silver lining by reminding her of how much she'd seemed to hate the not knowing.

As for actually sorting out what she's talking about, between the past life apparently and Recollé and here, it's something that takes a moment for Ben to parse. ]

So... he got reincarnated, too? And past-you knew him as... a ghost? Is seeing ghosts normal or was that just her?

[ He definitely seems to remember telling Ami about dying and being a ghost for a decade and a half, so she might understand his curiosity on this matter. Then, because he doesn't want all his questions to be hard ones, he asks, with a crooked little half-smile: ]

And why'd you say he was stupid?

[livingdeadgirl]

[ She lets out a little puff of laughter - I mean, he's got her there, she pleads no contest. She really did want to know, before she realized what that would mean for her. Careful what you wish for, I guess!

Lotta questions there though, so, uh... going in order? She ticks them off on her fingers. ]

Yes, yes, no, and yes. [ The invisibility of ghosts was actually important in that memory she just remembered, but ain't nobody got time for that I guess - because actually his last question is the hardest one! Her relationship with Dave is Complicated. ]

Because he is stupid! Ugh. He's one of those people who can talk and talk and talk and talk, but if you try and engage him about anything important, he clams up like - like a clammy clam at a clam bake. [ She brushes a stray hair out of her face, irritated. ] There was this whole group of us whose past selves knew each other, and Dave remembered the most out of any of us, but he'd never talk about it, he'd just... drop these cryptic tidbits occasionally so we'd know he knew. It was so frustrating.

[benhargreeves]

[ Well, those are at least a few details he can hold onto. This past version of Ami could see ghosts, even though that wasn't usual. Other people had been reincarnated, the same way she was. She's not a unique case, entirely.

And when she describes her friend (?) Dave - someone who makes a lot of noise but doesn't say anything or want to talk about the important stuff, Ben can't help a little smile. ]

Oh, yeah. I know a chatty clam like that, myself.

[ Klaus, he's calling you out. Although that particular not-sharing-important-information disease applies to quite a few of his siblings, come to think of it.

But now isn't the time for dragging his siblings. He's too curious about this group she's describing. ]

So a whole bunch of you, your past selves knew each other, and then you all met again? That can't be a coincidence, right?

[livingdeadgirl]

[ I mean she did say there were hundreds of people like her, so not quite unique, but shh it's fine. At any rate, she's glad Ben knows the kind of bullshit she's talking about. ]

What else would it be? You mean like, fate?

[benhargreeves]

I - guess?!

[ He sounds unconvinced, but like he's really grasping at straws here. Ben smiles, shaking his head and shrugging. ]

I don't know, Ami. I didn't even know reincarnation was actually a thing until like 2 minutes ago, okay? I'm just saying... statistically, that's got to be super unlikely. Out of all the people in the world, and you ran into each other a second time?

[ Ben might not know the answer to that mystery, but he can recognize that it is a mystery. ]

[livingdeadgirl]

[ Lol Ben, as if everything about your life isn't the most statistically unlikely bullshit of all time. ]

Heh, I guess that's true. Although that's not even the most unlikely part, because four of them are all siblings.

[benhargreeves]

[ Curiouser and curiouser.

Now that Ami seems to have calmed down some, and that they at least have a plan in place for finding out what's up with all the writing on the walls, Ben's thoughts turn to what had brought him here in the first place - that fucking hidden camera. He gestures up at the light fixture, asks: ]

Do you mind if I...?

[ Once Ami indicates she doesn't mind, he drags a chair over and climbs up onto it, so that he can fish out the hidden camera that's been used to spy on her. As he is prying the fixture free enough to get his hand inside he asks: ]

Siblings like, biologically?

[ He might not know how that information would factor into the whole puzzle but it seems worth asking - Ben, for understandable reasons, doesn't just assume that siblings necessarily all have the same genetics. ]

You should be writing all this down probably, and the stuff you remember. I feel like it'd be easier to put it all together if it's down on paper, right?

[livingdeadgirl]

Huh? Oh! Yeah, go for it.

[ In all the confusion, she maaaay have completely forgotten about the camera a little bit! Whoops. Anyway, back to the story- ]

Yeah. Dirk and Roxy are twins, and then Dave and Rose are also twins. The whole Strider family. I don't know if they were related before, though.

And actually, I have started writing it down. That's what the index cards are for. [ She points to them on her desk, and the markers next to them... then pauses. ] ... Huh. You know, I guess now I know why that whole box of Sharpies was dead.

[benhargreeves]

[ Ben, fortunately - or unfortunately - has remained hyper-aware of that camera's presence, even with everything going on and the confusion and worry for Ami. He plucks it loose, holding it between thumb and forefinger as he settles the lighting fixture back into place and steps down onto the floor again. He holds out a hand, palm-up, for Ami to see the device for herself.

As he does, he's puzzling over what she told him. ]

I guess... some people are genetically more likely to have twins. That one might just be a coincidence. Though you'd think their ... parents? Guardians... would have wanted to give them more distinctive names.

[ He tucks away the camera now that she's gotten a good look at it and shrugs, burying his hands in his pockets: ]

Then again my actual name's not Ben, it's Number Six. So it could be worse.

[ Aaaaaand he's just going to skate past the whole dehumanizing implications of that thanks very much. ]

That's probably the reason, yeah. I... wonder if starting to write it down has anything to do with the stuff on the walls.

[ But he remembers how much that situation distresses her and so he quickly adds: ]

We'll figure it out. Whenever you're ready. I've gotten to the bottom of weirder shit than this, trust me.

[livingdeadgirl]

[ Ami looks over the camera with mild interest. It's so little. "Is it not a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt for so small a thing?" - Sean Combs

(You are almost certain Sean Combs said that.)

Anyway - ] Wait, what? [ "Number Six"? Ami gives him a baffled look. She remembers he has like six siblings, too - are they all named after numbers? Who does that? Wait, Ben, go back to tha-

He moves on too quickly for her to ask anything else, though. And maybe that's for the best? He came here to help her, after all, not to get interrogated about himself... even if that arrangement feels incredibly ass-backwards somehow. ]

... Yeah. Well, that's good. Whatever comes of it, I am glad to know Ben Hargreeves, Paranormal Investigator, is on the case!

[ She laughs sheepishly. He's right, though - the truth will out, for better or worse. She'll meet with Cole, and then... Her stomach knots with dread again. Then what? She doesn't know what they'll find out, and that's still frightening.

"Whenever you're ready." ]

Hey, Ben, um... is it okay if we, like... hold off on meeting with Cole for a little bit? Maybe it's kind of stupid, but I - I was planning to throw a party in a couple days, and ...

[benhargreeves]

[ When Ami asks about his name, Ben waves a hand, the universal gesture of it's a long story and I'll tell you later. He forgets sometimes just how startling it can be, to other people, but with all the stuff with the cameras he is absolutely not letting himself get nudged into talking about his family or past. Not today, Satan!

He makes a little face at 'Paranormal Investigator' and then asks: ]

Is that implying I investigate the paranormal, or that I'm paranormal and just investigate whatever the hell?

[ He thinks he likes the former option better, thanks very much. He's not even a ghost anymore!

But he stops teasing long enough to give a reassuring smile when Ami says she isn't ready yet. ]

Of course. We got all the time in the world, in this place. Like I said - whenever you're ready, you let me know. Whether that's next week or next month.

[livingdeadgirl]

Yes. [ Both. Face it, Ben, you're kind of a weirdo! ]

[ She appreciates his patience, though - even though she knows they don't have all the time in the world, not really. Her "condition," if you want to call it that, is progressive, so the sooner she can learn her prognosis, the better.

In her head, she knows that. It's just her heart that needs a little more time. ]

Okay. I will.

And... thanks for all your help. I really do appreciate it.