[network] @gravedigger; video; Morning 120 [open] [ warnings: Joker, possibly also character death]

[harlequinofhate]

[The Joker looks down at the camera, which is either on a table or in his lap. His features are haggard and he's wearing a makeshift purple scarf. Outside of this, there are few details to take in. With the lighting it's impossible to tell where he is.]

Hallo, Norfin-fury, on a scale from one to ten, one being "abysmal" and ten being "I've had better" how's YOUR week been?

[He coughs into his fist.]

Well, it's about to get even better.

While the rest of you mouth-breathers have been loafing around in the snow I've been a busy little bee. Ace chemist, remember?

[He taps the side of his head.]

Sooo who's to say I haven't been concocting all kinds of wonderful toys since I got here? Maybe I even hid them around town. Along walls. In the tunnels. I'd say you have aboouuut...

[He licks his lips and rolls his sleeve back, showing a childish drawing of a watch on his wrist.]

....Oh, 24 hours, give or take a skosh.

[He drops his chin into his palm.]

After that I'm getting this party started and we'll put the "boom" in "boomtown". Thank me for the warning, by the way. Let nobody say the Joker isn't a sporting man.

...I'm sure that the hive will wake the heck up two minutes from me posting this. Don't bother looking for me. If ya do there will be another death on your hands. This time it really is a hostage situation.

Just keep your mind on the prize: Finding my bombs. All of them. Look high, look low.

Keep moving....keep moving....

[His eyes turn slightly crazed, as if haunted by a recent memory as he reaches down and turns off the tablet. The last thing he says sounds like "Follow the Spiral".]

Comments

@gravedigger; voice

[harlequinofhate]

Comedy is in the timing, old son.

permatext (his ears are ringing... he ain't talking, bruh.)

[rubikscomplex]

you couldn't wait two days?

[harlequinofhate]

Nope, nope, nope.

I really couldn't.

[rubikscomplex]

did you miss out on cthulu touching half of us?
not really funny when you've got another guy edging in on the comedy, dude

[harlequinofhate]

I'm an opportunist, what can I say?

How'd that go for ya, doc?

[rubikscomplex]

peachy
i love giant eyeball admin monsters
don't you?

[harlequinofhate]

Yeah!

[Pause]

Admin is a monster?

[rubikscomplex]

it was a dream, powder
guessing it was a metaphor for our mere mortal minds interacting with a computer server
one located at the center of the spiral, apparently

[harlequinofhate]

Maybe not as symbolic as you think. Maybe the creeping nasty I thought was Andromeda is our hostess! Either way she's still a machine methinks. She is the thing that owns or maybe largely consists of this town, the snow, the spiders and the monsters.

The beast is real.

The physical body? Maybe not.

[rubikscomplex]

well, the whalesong thinks it's trapped
and wails like a banshee when you ask it why you should help
some people!

[harlequinofhate]

Wow, your dream sounds much more fun than mine. I was stuck talking to a bird of all things.

So the beastie is trapped, and wants out, but gets upset if anyone asks why we should let it out?

Doesn't wanna tell us what's in it for us, eh?

[rubikscomplex]

fun
sure
let's go with fun for you

and like i said
some people!
some people like you, too
dude
i can barely walk
let alone look for you pet bombs
if there even are any

[harlequinofhate]

Sure, sure, bombs. Folks should get on that.

But back to our mistress.

Did she say anything? Think, man!

'Cause I know a thing or two about caged monsters.

[rubikscomplex]

[Someone is distracting himself. Searching for a distraction when he's bored. House is intimately familiar with that. It does make him wonder what's changed, though. The Joker had been lying relatively low until now.]

well, let's see
real excitement here
long ago something went wrong
they don't know what
but they keep checking
even though they can't see or know far enough
they're trapped in the center of the spiral
and need someone to come and put the pieces back together
that's all i got, jokester

[harlequinofhate]

Long ago might be when the first batch of off-worlders started hobnobbing amongst 'em.

I still don't think we were part of the original plan.

[rubikscomplex]

i'd guess before we turned up
or someone wants us to think it was something before that if the vids on the sd cards are anything but actors

oh and by the way
the blood coming out of those pianos?
not really blood
not really anything
got some on a slide and looked at it through the scope and there was nothing
just like i'd tinted the slide red
it's got a little static to it, though
saw it crackling every once in a while

[harlequinofhate]

Ah, super. If pianos bled blood, that would be the thing to really worry about.

[rubikscomplex]

heard a fake vampire can get sick on this crap, though
you should come have a taste sometime

[harlequinofhate]

I'm good.

What did Fangs think of the taste?

[rubikscomplex]

dunno
you'd have to ask him
he was supposed to be up at the school
but golly
i just didn't see him there
guess i'll have to ask him some other time

[harlequinofhate]

FINE, I WILL.

If it tastes like blood, looks like blood and promptly stops being blood when under a microscope....

Well, that's this burg in a nutshell.

Screwy things happening until you try to catch 'em in the act. We need to get more clever about that....

[rubikscomplex]

[That should is one of the only things he's able to hear over the ringing. The rest of it, like everything else prior to this is getting translated from voice-to-text for House.]

open to suggestions if i'm not permanently dead by tomorrow

[harlequinofhate]

No. Not here.

Not where they can see.

[Pause]

Why would you be dead?

[rubikscomplex]

dude
you're threatening to blow up the tunnels
that i'm in
keep up now, snookums
i know it's been a rough few days

[harlequinofhate]

[Snarling.]

I mean permanently.

What makes ya think this will be the big adios?