UNDERWANDERERField archive
Case file O-019ObjectsLevel 0

Graffiti

Spray paint and marker on wall and carpet: crossed-out arrows, an eye, a tally that never ends, an empty chalk circle.

Testimony

“Somebody brought a marker and gave up on notes. Wrote it right on the wall, so nobody can move it.”

Graffiti is what gets written on the building itself, not on paper. It is made with spray paint, marker or chalk, it can be read from far off and it outlasts a note. Whoever paints it doesn't trust paper to hold, or doesn't want the message to be something you can carry away.

A crossed-out eye on the wall
A crossed-out eye on the wall
WE SLEPT HERE, struck through with four lines
WE SLEPT HERE, struck through with four lines
An empty chalk circle on the carpet
An empty chalk circle on the carpet

What people report

Survivors talk about seven pieces of graffiti that keep turning up across Level 0. The archive has confirmed none of them, and no two accounts agree on where they're seen.

What you seeContentsWhere it's said to have been seen
An arrow and the word “exit” crossed outmixedend of a corridor that leads nowhere
A crossed-out eyemarkedge of a null zone
A tally, ///// ///// //, the last stroke left half-drawnmarkwall of a repeated room
IT'S NOT THE SAME CORRIDORtextwall beside a chunk seam
An empty chalk circlemarkmiddle of a room
Here we slept, three tally marks, crossed outmixedcorner of an abandoned shelter
UP, with an arrow pointing downtextbeside a service staircase

What they say to each other

  • The arrow with “exit” crossed out and the UP that points down contradict each other on purpose. Whoever painted them wanted you to distrust arrows.
  • The tally never finishes, and it goes with the repeated rooms. Whoever left it came back to the same desk more times than they wanted to.
  • The empty circle recalls the note about carpet soaked in a perfect circle. The note gives the fact. The graffiti is the memory.
  • IT'S NOT THE SAME CORRIDOR marks the seam of Displacement, and behind that wall the corridor is a different one.
  • The shelter with the struck-through tally marks resembles the ones described in Beds and Shelters.

How to survive them

If you see graffiti in the distance, take it as a sign that something happened there, and check the floor before you get closer. Read just enough and move on. Don't stop to copy it.

See also

Found Texts, Floor Notes, Null Zones, Arrows and “hide”.

Mentioned in

O-017 · ObjectsFloor NotesPapers on the carpet, sometimes pinned. A sentence from someone who had time to write before disappearing.P-008 · PhenomenaFootstep EchoFootsteps that follow you a few meters back and stop two steps late. In Level 0.1 you never see anything.S-004 · SublevelsArrows and “hide”A floor note with a single word, hide, in the degraded zone. An order left by someone with no time.S-026 · SublevelsNull ZonesIn certain dark rooms of Level 0.1, nothing leaves a trace, neither your footsteps nor those of whatever is following you. A sign warns you.