|01| to catch a monster, we make a movie

[seesyou]

[The hallway monitor at first picks up nothing but the window behind it. And then a low buzzing begins, and the image on the screen seems to split for a moment, the bottom segment blurring

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[video]

[timisnotme]

*Masky sees the video on the screen in the hallway, his head snapping up, eyes widening in terror. He immediately turns to run but his body freezes and refuses to obey him. He grits his teeth and tries again, to no avail. His feet are moving him ever closer to the screen. He lets out a soft whimper. He at least can avert his eyes from the screen, staring carefully at the floor.*

Where?

[video]

[seesyou]

[The Masked Man is speaking now? Interesting.

The static from the screen on the wall rises to a dull roar, and the electronic snow is interspersed with quick flickers of a grainy image of bare trees.]

[video]

[timisnotme]

*He nods.*

Coming. Now.

*He turns purposefully and heads down the stairs. Soon he's in the forest, having almost no memory of how he got there. He shakes his head trying to clear it.*

[action]

[seesyou]

[And the Masked Man is alone.

And then he is not alone. The Operator glides from behind a tree much too narrow to have hidden him, propelled smoothly by the black tendrils extending from his body. His blank head is tilted as if in skepticism, perhaps amusement.

Satisfied with his inspection of his servant, he spreads his many arms wide in welcome.]

[video]

[hurricanebomber]

[Oh holy fucking shit that looked like a ghost. 8|;;;]

...What the hell...?

[video]

[seesyou]

[Static, and then the blurred, warped reflection of Gokudera's own face looking back at him, the eyes stretched beyond recognition.]

[video]

[hurricanebomber]

[He makes a rather undignified noise and drops the device. It's a minute before he picks it up again, though he's averted his gaze from whatever creepy thing will appear on the screen next.]

...Are you "the operator"? [His voice is low. It's a wild guess, based on what Masky said to him before, but...he's never heard of Wonderland having ghosts.]

[text]

[seesyou]

see

you

[That's as much confirmation as you'll get.]

[audio]

[41810]

[He stays absolutely, without even the tiniest hint that he's there, silent, praying that, this time, the Mansion doesn't screw him over and show video.]

[can text be smug?]

[seesyou]

hear you

[audio] oh it so is.

[41810]

[Oh, God. If Slendy could see him, he'd see the most terrified being pretty much in the history of existence. He can't move, he's so scared.

The tiniest whimper, completely involuntary, slips out of him, and he reaches for the "off" button.]

[text]

[seesyou]

hear you
here now

[And then, mercifully, the feet shuts off.]

[~BRIGHT AND CHEERFUL~ VIDEO]

[echo_of_utopia]

[Lamb watches the feed, her expression deadpan. A quiet voice in the back of her mind, a helpful suggestion from her fight or flight response with heavy emphasis on the flight part, informs her that talking to this "person" should not be very high on the list of her priorities, in fact it should preferably not even be on there as a footnote.

But that's just genes talking and when were those silly genes every right about anything, huh? And really, who is ex-Rapture and current Wonderland inhabitant Lamb to judge and ignore somebody so easily, based on the mere absence of a few physical features?]

Hello. Are you new?

[seesyou]

[It's interesting that Lamb would be so brazen as to suppress her own perfectly natural and justified fear response.

The figure is gone from the window, but the video feed keeps playing, an upside-down capital S superimposing itself in a corner of the screen, wavering.

Then the image changes to a shot of the red tower from Alex's hometown, growing dark against the dying light of sunset, its stones and bolts long-gone, its paint peeling with age.]

[echo_of_utopia]

[They are probably gone. They probably didn't even hear you. You should turn the feed off now. Wait, is that red tower even from this place? Did I mention that you should-]

Hello?

[...turn the feed off?!]

[video]

[azureflamegod]

[ow this video makes his brain hurt]

...'Here'?

[video? action? I don't even]

[seesyou]

[Kite might get a little static in his own eyes--being made of internet may have a few disadvantages.]

[action because why not :>]

[azureflamegod]

[Ow okay what. Kite squints a little, pulling back to try and figure out if he's just staring at the feed too closely or if there's some kind of weird interference. It seems to be the latter. This requires investigation.

The AI's fireball form floats in through the ceiling, exploding into his full-form in a burst of blue flames. Kite floats down to the ground. Time to run a quick scan of this situation...

because nothing could possibly go wrong, no.]