@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

[redwinekindofgirl]

Yeah, it really was.

[She moves her foot and looks down at the shattered remains of the camera with a look of definite satisfaction. Not intending to leave it there to be stood on with a bare foot later, she crouches down and brushes most of it up into the palm of her hand.

Really, she doesn't see that there's anything else she would have done in that scenario. Handing the thing over hadn't even crossed her mind.]

To help? [Julie gives him an odd look, a little unsure, as she brushes the broken camera into a trashcan near the door.]

I mean, you're getting rid of the cameras. What else is there?

[Not that she doesn't appreciate the offer. It's... touching, actually.]

[benhargreeves]

I don't know.

[ Ben gives a rolling sort of shrug. He knows just what he would offer to do if it was Klaus in distress, but he's somewhat at a loss for other people. ]

I meant... if you needed to talk, or- I could delete the footage for your room permanently, or make you tea, or a drink, or find you some more stuff to smash or- whatever, really.

[ He looks at Julie, a little paler than usual and seeming pretty wrecked, himself, but earnest. Wanting to be there for her. In whatever way she needs. ]

[redwinekindofgirl]

[It's a big change to how things were between them the first time they met, and it's not that she doesn't appreciate it... but more that she isn't sure of what to do with the earnest want to do something for her.]

Uh... I mean, have you found anything weird on the rest of the footage? If it's just gonna be hours of slice of life bullshit, no point in hoarding it.

[She edges around the other offers for now, mulling over what all of this could mean and how she feels about it. Cameras only in occupied rooms?

It doesn't bode well.]

[benhargreeves]

[ Ben, on the other hand, sees no inconsistency in his own offer, and the shift it indicates. They're just two sides of the same coin, to him. Before he came to the Anchor, he only really had relationships with his family, and mostly Klaus. Distrust and even some antagonism coexisted side-by-side with earnestly wanting to help him and support him... it's not an either/or thing. Besides... he gets it now, how important Julie is to Klaus. So he's really, really trying. ]

We... did see something. A figure, coming into someone's room when he wasn't there. I can't tell you more, because I don't know any more, yet. We're working on it. But we also want to see if we can establish something about their motives based on what they keep and what has been deleted. The files are edited down.

[ It might be weird, keeping all of it, but it's really the only clue they have at this point. ]

[redwinekindofgirl]

[Her reaction isn't something overdone, but more a faint widening of her eyes and a small curl of her lip that clearly displays her displeasure with what she's being told.]

So we've got some weirdo creeping around the place, getting into people's rooms? What the fuck?

[So much for ever sleeping again, not that she thinks she could sleep through someone skulking around in her room.]

... You okay to stay here a bit? I want to know what you've found out. I can get coffee or something.

[benhargreeves]

Yeah. I can do that.

[ There is more work to be done, more cameras to be taken down, more tasks that need to be completed. But Ben can stay with Julie a while if that is what she wants, and give her the (admittedly very limited) information that he has figured out so far. Maybe that will help her to feel a little less unsafe.

It's the best he can do, anyway. ]