[TEXT] [LOCKED TO NEW HIRES ONLY]

[bringinghopewithme]

[After doing everything he can to verify he's locked this correctly, i.e. asking Stacia to check if he did it right, Bunny presses forth with testing Lonestar's claims.]

Well I haven't been interrogated or tortured any more than usual. Do we trust this thing or not?

[EDITED The next day comes an additional video message -]

I realized two things. Some of you rightly guessed I lied about stealing keys from Jorgmund. Some of you pointed out Jorgmund might somehow be smart enough not to take obvious bait. Well -

[He holds up one paw, and twirls a keyring around one digit.]

It's not a lie anymore.

It got me into a closet and now we have - [He re-angles the camera to show: a metal hammer, multi-bit screwdrivers with a wide range of interchangeable bits, an adjustable wrench, a tiny screwdriver set for delicate work, and a small soldering iron.]

Anyone thinks they can do something useful with any of this, come see me. I'm keeping them hidden and I'm not telling any of you where until I know for sure who talks too much and who doesn't.

Comments

[stickypete]

Why do I find that vaguely ominous?

[bringinghopewithme]

[Wherever Peter Sticky Ben is, unfortunately for him he has a distinct scent that's easy to follow. Maybe shower more bud.

In the shadowiest, most deserted hallway he comes to, Bunny slides out of the shadows, blocking his way.]

G'day mate.

Let's you and me have a talk.

[He anticipated vaguely ominous, he got vaguely ominous.]

--> action

[stickypete]

[Wow, his spider sense definitely has been off lately, because he's actually caught by surprise. The low-grade, constant background noise of "BOMB IN CHEST BOMB IN CHEST, THERE'S A BOMB IN YOUR CHEST" has thrown it off. A constant little shrill of light anxiety that makes him want to crawl out of his skin because that's where the bomb is.]

[So his spider sense didn't keen on that something was about to surprise him, probably because Bunny doesn't intend to immediately beat him up.]

[Maybe just eventually beat him up.]

Am I being bullied by the Easter Bunny?

[He digs around in the pocket of his coveralls and pulls out some spare change.]

[He'd fixed a microwave in the kitchen and one of the late night kitchen staffers had given him some change for the rig crew commissary reasoning that nobody said it was a rule he couldn't have it, they're supposedly not slaves, right? He'd used it for a granola bar that he planned to give to "Ace of Hearts" for their little secret food cache to give to someone that didn't have some belly fat to work through. And kept the change in case he could eventually scrounge together enough change for another.]

[He jingles it in his hand.]

Here's my lunch money but I'm not doing your homework.

Re: --> action

[bringinghopewithme]

What? Course I'm not bullying you.

[His 'what' is extremely incredulous because of course he knows what he's doing. Just because it isn't schoolyard bullying doesn't mean he's being ominous on accident.]

I'm just here to correct some gaps in your understanding. Myth to . . . whatever you are. You probably know I bring joy to kids, right? Everybody knows that side of the job, but I don't just make 'em happy.

[His demeanor shifts very suddenly from cheerfully ominous to directly ominous.]

I protect them. All of them. From anything that would do 'em harm. Whether it goes bump in the night, or in broad daylight, whether it is a human or just looks like one.

Now you look an awful lot like a human, but you smell an awful lot like 20,000 spiders in a human suit. We've got the same enemy and you're being awfully helpful right now. Maybe you're being helpful because you genuinely want to see yourself and the rest of the slaves freed and Jorgmund taken down, or maybe you're being helpful because being helpful lets you stick real close to your prey, so you better understand some things very well.

I'm not going to tell Jorgmund what you are. They don't deserve the advantage of knowing. I'm not going to tell the other mortals what you are, because you want your privacy and you might be as good as you're acting. But if you so much as take a nip out of any one of them, I'll be the last thing you see. No matter how many eyes you got.

[It's not bullying if it's a direct threat! Different things!]

Re: --> action

[stickypete]

...Did I just get threatened with murder by the Easter Bunny?

[He doesn't look scared, largely because according to Bunny's parameters he has nothing to fear. He's not 20,000 spiders in a human suit, he's not going to eat anyone, and he's saved his world and city many times over. He's not a bad guy so there's no reason for Bunny to kill him.]

[So he's mostly just stuck on the surrealness of the situation, and like he sometimes is when it comes to the surreal, he's goggling with fascination at the sudden turn his reality has taken, rather than being scared or upset.]

Re: --> action

[bringinghopewithme]

I thought I was pretty clear.

[he knows full well that this side of his work does not, would not, should not get celebrated and spread through the work he's better known for among humans. But the things that hurt children don't care much for PR. There's only one thing besides the hard line of force that can sway many of them.]

If you were a myth, and I'm not convinced you're not, I'd give you the option of taking the Enkidu Oath, but I can't guarantee it'll hold up here. Now are you gonna kill any of the mortals here or not?

[stickypete]

Am I going to kill any of the other mortals, like me? Which they all are? Because I'm human?

No, I'm not.

[He crosses his arms.]

I'm not 20,000 spiders in a human suit, I'm not a Man-Spider - although I was the one time but that was science gone wrong, and I got better - I'm not a spider-thing pretending to be human.

I am human.

Your nose isn't wrong. Your conclusion is what could use some work.

[bringinghopewithme]

If you think that's the wildest conclusion I could've reached, you don't know what I've seen.

[If he were being fair he'd admit that he doesn't even know most of what he's seen right now, but he's not being all that fair. He crosses his arms right back.]

If you're so mostly human, why're you so cagey about what you are? Other humans got a thing against spider-folks where you're from?

[stickypete]

I have a lot of enemies, like, a lot. Because I get in their way when they try to do bad things. And since they're bad people, I have to wear a mask when I do it.

[The joking, the wry amusement, the fascination with "this might as well happen" fades. What's left behind is a little more tired.]

The way I always kept my loved ones safe was hiding who I was behind the mask from everyone but them.

[He scratches the back of his neck.]

I know I can't do that here, I know I'll have to use my powers in front of people, I know if my enemies show up they'll probably put two and two together the second I stick to a wall.

But secrecy is a tough habit to break, okay? I hate letting people in when they pry. Goes against two decades of instinct. It's not logical, it's practically reflex at this point.

[He finally decides to sit down, against a wall, drawing his feet up on it, because it's the only thing to sit down on.]

You know Ben isn't even my real name? It's my middle name, and Reilly isn't my last name. I figured...if any of my enemies showed up here, put it all together, and somehow went back home, they'd just have the image of a generic-looking middle-aged guy and the wrong name. So it'd be harder for them to track down my...

["Ex-wife" is still so hard to force past his lips.]

Someone I really care about.

[There's nothing evil to it, nothing sinister. Deep down past the glibness, he's hiding things because of fear...]

[And love.]