Work Text:
[Recorder clicks on.]
ARCHIVIST:
Statement of Margo Tanner concerning the-
[Door creaks open. Footsteps from GUEST.]
ARCHIVIST:
Hey, excuse me- Hey!
[Chairs groan as ARCHIVIST stands from his seat as GUEST sits down.]
ARCHIVIST:
(COMPELLING. STATIC LINES HIS WORDS, BUZZING.) Tell me who you are and what you want.
GUEST:
You didn’t need to force me, Archivist. (LAUGHING SOFTLY. ) Though it- does feel weird. Like I’m a puppet and you’re pulling my strings. Usually I'm the one handling the strings, so it's odd.
ARCHIVIST:
(COMPELLING CONTINUED.) Answer. Now.
LJ:
I’m Lazarus Jean, but you can call me LJ. I’m an Avatar of the Web and I want to make a statement.
ARCHIVIST:
Tell me why I should even let you record a statement. The Archive and myself have had enough run-ins with you- (WITH DISGUST.) spiders.
LJ:
Because I know something about the Web that you don’t understand, Archivist. I know you little eyes are so curious about what you don’t know… (PAUSE.) I also have something else for you… A warning.
ARCHIVIST:
(SKEPTICAL.) A warning.
LJ:
If you don’t want to hear what I have to say, I can leave.
[Seat creaks as LJ moves.]
It’s not like I’d be the one missing out on anything.
[Quiet.]
ARCHIVIST:
I don’t see what you’d have to gain from giving a statement.
LJ:
There doesn’t always have to be an end to a means.
[Sound of tape recorder being pushed across the table by LJ.]
Sometimes… It’s just fun to feed others information.
ARCHIVIST:
(MUMBLED.) Some of you spiders act more like cats with how you like to play with your food.
LJ:
I quite like cats, thank you. Now, do I get to make my statement?
ARCHIVIST:
(SIGHING.) Statement of Lazarus (LJ) Jean of the Web regarding….
LJ:
My serving of the Web. And a warning for the Archivist, as promised.
ARCHIVIST:
Statement recorded direct from subject.
LJ:
Thank you. I want to start by saying that many people are born into the Web rather than entrapped by it. I was born into it. Not to say my parents were followers of it, but the home I grew up in was the perfect place for the Web to sew its seed. Mutual hatred, addiction, nastiness. The Web is drawn to weakness like that in tight knit places such as homes.
Not gonna get too deep into it, but abusive homes like that are festering grounds for the Web. You’re trapped by so many means. Let it be by money, fear, resources, or… (PAUSE.) Love. Love is one of the Webs undermined ways of tangling people, but it is also effective.
ARCHIVIST:
How can a fear use love to control people? That sounds counterproductive.
LJ:
(LAUGHS.) Haven’t you been in love before? It’s the most terrifying feeling a person can experience.
[Quiet.]
I see it on you, spider threads of love. They’re all over you. So, you must know how scary it is.
ARCHIVIST:
(STAMMERING.) You… You can see love?
LJ:
I see the fear brought on by love. The fear of love, or of who or what you love. If there is anything that truly traps people, it’s love. It’s something that you can’t escape.
I was born into a family that primed me for the Web. I was trapped in it from the moment I came to be, and if you know anything about the Web, it’s no use to struggle. You’ll just make things worse for yourself. I didn’t struggle, didn’t fight it. Why would I want to leave if the Web was all I had known my entire life? If I was trapped, at least it was because I decided to be.
I don’t serve the Web in the ways the others do. The ways that you are probably used to seeing. If you can guess it, I use love. It’s the least humane, but at least while you’re shackled by it you do feel some sense of happiness… At least for a while.
ARCHIVIST:
How? How do you trap them in love?
LJ:
The same way I’m sure you Know things. Our patrons give us these abilities… Sometimes all it takes is a look and I’ve cast a piece of the Web over someone. A feuding couple in a shop, a child who wishes to be seen… None of them are pretty, and all of them hurt.
ARCHIVIST:
That’s… Disgusting.
LJ:
Love brings out the worst in us all, and if we’re lucky it kills us in the process. It’s not like we can pick our loves, it is a matter of fear, fate, and primal attraction. Wouldn’t you say?
ARCHIVIST:
No. I wouldn’t say. There’s nothing… I don’t agree with you. I don’t think that’s what love is at all.
[The sound of static crackles, buzzing and heavy.]
LJ:
And how would you know what love is, Archivist? You’ve only been hurt by it. I see the threads around your heart. You’re scared of it. You’re feeding into the Web without even realizing it because of your love.
[Static ceases.]
ARCHIVIST:
(BREATHING HEAVILY.) I may fear it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to experience it. I know there will be a point where I… Where I don’t fear it.
LJ:
For right now, you do. I didn’t spin this web of love over you, Archivist, but I wish I had. Your heart is especially tragic.
ARCHIVIST:
(COMPELLING.) Enough.
LJ:
Fine. But I do have one more thing to show you.
[The sounds of clothing rustling as LJ pushes up their shirt sleeve.]
These tattoos... So you don’t think I’m a total monster. Do you see these names? Each and every one is a name of one who has been trapped in love with me, and I with them.
ARCHIVIST:
(WITH AWED DISGUST.) You’re terrible. You did that to all those people?
LJ:
No. I didn’t spin a web over any of them.
ARCHIVIST:
I find that hard to believe.
LJ:
Spiders don’t get stuck in their own webs, Archivist. The Web did this to me, and to them . And until the threads broke with each and every one of those people, I loved them, I still love them. The threads are tangled around my heart and choking me, one day they’ll kill me. I’m trapped by that love just as much as I was trapped in my terrible home as a child. Each hurts and each has parts that I hope to never forget. But there will never be a day when I am free from either of them.
[Quiet.]
[Chair creaks as LJ stands.]
LJ:
And now my warning…. Archivist, as much as you hate to admit it, you have been taken in by the Web for your love. And you’ve pulled someone in with you, too, haven’t you? I can see it on your face just as much as I see the threads around your heart and… your neck, too.
ARCHIVIST:
What…. What are you telling me?
LJ:
You love someone right now and you hate it, you fear it. You are pulling them down with you and you will make them suffer with your love.
You don’t like spiders, do you?
ARCHIVIST:
Do you mean servants of the web or actual spiders? Because I’m not fond of either of you.
LJ:
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
[Wet, cracking sounds leave LJ’s gaping mouth.]
ARCHIVIST:
What- what are you-? (SCREAMING.) Oh, GOD!
LJ:
[A fat, fuzzy spider falls from LJ’s mouth and thumps on the table.]
A parting gift, Archivist.
[ARCHIVIST yelling as LJ's footsteps leave the room.]
ARCHIVIST:
(SCREAMING.) FUCK!
[Sounds of spider scuttling across desk.]
[Sound of recorder being picked up and banged on the table repeatedly. ARCHIVIST yelling.]
ARCHIVIST:
Just- DIE! DIE! DIE!
[Recorder thuds heavily over and over again.]
[There is a loud, squishing noise as recorder is slammed on the table, killing the spider and leaving large amounts of black ooze.]
ARCHIVIST:
(BREATHING HEAVILY. ) Oh- Oh, God. (RETCHING, GASPING FOR BREATH.)
[Wet, gross sounds of ARCHIVIST being sick on the floor.]
[Recorder clicks off.]