- Way in
- The seam in the Stalls' Great Screen, opened with the Last Ticket
- Way out
- The tear you came out of, onto the stage in the Stalls
- Sleep
- No: "Not here. Not with them standing out there in the stacks."
- Who's here
- Sixteen Tuned in the stacks and two in each keep
- Music
- Behind the Picture; the Projectionist's fight has its own
- Arriving
- "Behind the picture. Shelves going up into the dark, cans of film and boxes of tape on every one, and old sets among them - some still on."
Behind the picture
You come out through the seam into his archive, on the back of the picture: a wall of grey canvas with the picture's light coming through it backwards. Going in earns Behind the Picture.
Ahead, the nave runs north: a long walk of dark Vault Terrazzo, cable over the floor, bulbs in cages hanging on chains out of the black, and walls of the Watcher's own concrete. On either side are the stacks, row after row of steel Archive Shelves nine blocks high with a cross-aisle through them. There are cans of film on their edges and boxes of tape on every shelf, labels in his hand, and Old Sets among them, some still on, static crawling on their screens.
The Tuned
Standing in the aisles are the Tuned: people from the neck down (a cardigan, a shirt done up to the collar, slippers) with an old television set where the head should be. They only move while you're looking at them. Look at one and it comes for you in jerks, like a picture with frames missing, with your face on its screen. Look away and it stops dead. Close, and watched, it takes your head in its hands and tunes you.
In the dark, or in the Projectionist's light, they move whether you look or not. Flash an Usher's Lamp at one and it can't move for four seconds. Some drop a Vacuum Tube. More on the Projectionist's page.
The keeps
Three keeps open off the nave behind round steel Keep Doors: two facing each other near the seam, and one further in on the west side. Use a door or its wheel and "The wheel turns. Somewhere in the door, bolts draw back, one after another." The door swings in. Two Tuned wait in each keep. On a plinth in each is what he kept:
| What he kept | Taking it |
|---|---|
| The Omni's Heart | "The Omni's heart: every colour at once, turning. It's lighter than it looks, and warm." |
| What's Left of the Carrier | "What's left of the Carrier comes off its plinth beating - and the static pours out of it." Every Tuned near you is loose for a few seconds. |
| His First Reel | "His first reel. On the lid, in his hand: THE OTHER SIDE. FIRST. DO NOT RUN." It's kept in a glass case. |
All three together: "That's all three of them. Back to the Watch." That earns What He Kept.
The Watch
At the north end of the nave is the Watch: his desk, his chair, and in front of them the Watch Wall, old sets stacked thirty-seven across and sixteen high, all showing one picture. The first time you come, he's there (the cutscene The Watch):
this is where i watch from.
they watch the picture. i watch them.
your world's a show to them.
the worse it gets, the more of them come.
they left you a ticket. it admits one.
not you.
something came in behind you.
it's come for what i kept. the omni. the carrier. my first reel.
get to them before it does. bring them here.
Bring all three things back to the Watch and every set on the wall goes to one picture, and the Projectionist steps down out of them. In the last third of the fight comes the intermission: every set and every bulb goes out, there's only its lens, and "Please remain seated." Burning it through earns The Final Reel.
Afterwards he runs his first reel on the projector on his desk (the cutscene The First Reel), and the Wall shows the first thing anyone ever saw on the other side. When it's over: "Every set on the Watch Wall shows the Door at the End of the World. The static in it has gone black." That earns What He Kept Out and leads on to the Other Side.
Its blocks
- Vault Terrazzo and The Watcher's Concrete
- Archive Shelf, Old Set (two Vacuum Tubes with glass, iron and redstone make two of your own, which switch on and off) and Cable
- Keep Door, Keep Wheel and What He Kept (the plinths)
- The Watch Wall
Advancements here
- Behind the Picture: Go through the seam, into the Watcher's Vault
- What He Kept: Take all three things out of his keeps
- The Final Reel: Burn the Projectionist through
- What He Kept Out: See his first reel