Familiar/Synopsis

## Familiar

Evening is settling over the city of Walker's Point. In a high-rise building a hand reaches out and knocks on a closed apartment door with bare knuckles. The door opens on a surly middle-aged man wearing glasses and a sleeveless wife beater shirt. With a hopeful expression on her face, Phoebe asks for Sean, saying it's about Joe… With an angry look, the man slams the door in Phoebe's face, causing her to flinch. Angered by his rudeness, she raises a fist to pound on the door, when it suddenly opens again and a surprised Sean looks out. Bemused by the sudden change, Phoebe checks to be sure it's Sean she's talking to. Signaling for her to keep it down, he steps out and asks her what about Joe. Phoebe asks if Sean's dad knows they're friends, and Sean says he does, he just doesn't like it. When she asks him why, he wants to know in what world she knows him well enough to ask him that. She apologizes, saying she knows she can be nosy. He asks if that's how she knows where he lives, telling her that's pretty creepy. She tells him she didn't want to make him mad.

Now unfriendly, Sean asks what she wants, so she tells him there's some weirdn-- some weird stuff going down at school. Sean becomes concerned and asks if Joe was there and is he okay. She tries to assure him Joe's fine, then qualifies that saying she thinks he's fine. He didn't go home, and she doesn't have his number. She tells Sean she wants to know if he's alright and… When Sean asks her to go on, she lets him know that's all, asking if he's heard from Joe. When he tells her he hasn't, she tries asking if he could… But he cuts her off, telling her that until he hears it from Joe, he's not telling her Joe's business, especially when she's doing this weird stalker thing. Rightly offended by Sean's overprotective suspicion, Phoebe tells Sean to never mind, that she'll find him herself. She tells him he'd been a huge help, and she leaves him standing dumbfounded in the corridor, finally starting to worry about Joe.

Sean pulls out his phone and starts texting the others, asking if they'd seen him. Charlotte says nope, but he'd better get her board back soon. Fletcher sends back "N." Paulo doesn't respond, Sean accuses him of Simpsons napping. Again.

Charlotte checks back, asking what's up, and Sean tells her he had a strange encounter with Phoebe, then he has to explain who Phoebe is, and then how it was strange. He continues saying now he can't reach Joe. Fletcher texts simply "That's Joe." After a short pause, Sean sends that Joe always replies. Charlotte tells him he's fancy, and Fletcher sends "ikr". Sean tells them this is serious, that there's something going on with Joe. Taking it to heart, Charlotte answers he has been acting not Joe-like, or maybe super Joe-like. Fletcher tells Sean to go to Joe's house. Another pause, then Sean says that Phoebe said he wasn't there; Charlotte demands to know why she knows. Sean starts to answer, pauses, then says he doesn't know. One weird thing at a time. He explains if he goes over to Joe's and he's not there, he'd have to explain to Joe's parents why he was looking. Fletcher finishes it saying it'll be a thing. Sean agrees, saying it'll be a definite thing. When Fletcher asks then what, Sean tells him he doesn't know; he just wants to know: Where is Joe?─────────────────────

Corkindale asks the glassy-eyed Joe where he is. Joe and Corkindale are walking through a back alley in the city, and Joe asks what. Corkindale asks if he's listening. When Joe says he is, Corkindale makes doubting noises. When Joe asks where they're going, Corkindale sasses back that's the sort of question someone who was listening wouldn't ask, then he mumbles something about missing talking to other rats. He tells Joe they're going safe from interruptions. Every time they try train or talk, someone comes along. Corkindale starts lecturing again, and Joe tunes him out, drifting off in a sequence of memories. The first is a vision of himself as a tiger facing distorted monsters; Corkindale is leading them into the ironwork of new construction. The next is a memory of Joe sitting on concrete stairs somewhere in the city playing an acoustic guitar to an audience of crows or ravens. Here and now, Joe stands surrounded by partially constructed buildings. His next memory is of a younger self at the seashore, sitting in the sand drawing on a sketch pad as his parents wave to him from the water. He is surrounded by sand crabs, hermit crabs, and there's even a sea turtle. His last memory is of himself as a toddler at the zoo, standing wide-eyed and fascinated in front of a blue-eyed white wolf with only some bars between them, a Michelangelo plushie hanging from his hand. Back in the here and now, Joe stands on a ledge looking out over the rooftops of city buildings.─────────────────────

Phoebe sits at her desk, a bigscreen laptop in front of her, the silhouette of a fancy microphone on a swing-arm in the background. A new iPhone is plugged into the laptop with a USB cable, and Phoebe is telling herself she needs proof that she's not crazy, or not that crazy, anyway. She calls out "Yes!" at the polite little doot the phone makes when establishing a connection, and she thanks Steve Jobs. She dives into the phone to see what she got, and with a look of quiet triumph, she exclaims, "Vandals, my sweet ass."

On her phone is the video she had been making when she stumbled across Yaslatol with Joe.

## References

1. ↑ The Armour You Own **Justin\_Jordan** Jan 17, 2020 *in a reply to* **Ricky Zimmerman** Jan 17, 2020