the morning light shines a lifeline [closed]

[postictal]

Who: Clem, Jay, and Tim
Where: Movie theater
When: 8/12
Rating: PG probably?
Summary: Clem saved their butts and Tim promised her a bad movie night and oh my god Clem i am so sorry
The Story:

[He doesn't actually know what movie Jay picked out, which is probably not the best way to start things out. He's never been one to really trust Jay's intuition on anything, but given that Jay's choosing a horrible movie to watch instead of making a potentially life-threatening choice to enter the woods armed with little more than a camera and some scaldingly good intentions, that's probably the least harmful decision Tim could leave him to make.]

[The movie theater's empty for the next handful of hours, near as he can tell, which is for the best, 'cause he's pretty sure no one else save for a few freaks like them would be technically eager to watch what is bound to be a painfully despicable work of cinema.]

[He hangs back after shooting Clem a text to let her know the time and place, hoping that Jay's technical knowledge of how movies work means he's the most cut out to be the guy to physically set it up.]

Comments

[burntvideocassette]

[He rolls his eyes at the "caffeine-sugar high" comment. Like that'll feel any different from normal.]

Looks like it.

[With some effort, Jay manages to pry his coffee out of the cup holder. They may be bad at candy, but they're certainly good at variety. Jay snags a box of Junior Mints, and after some deliberation, a box of Sno-Caps.]

[Which drink was Tim's? He grabbed a Payday, so looks like he's a peanut guy. And what candy does someone pick if they're an eleven-year-old apocalypse survivor?]

[Mystery still unsolved for now, he sets his camera on the armrest, stuffs the boxes of candy into the cupholder of a seat, puts the coffee in the other, pulls the remote from where it had been awkwardly hanging out of his pocket, and settles in as best he can.]

[He holds the remote up to the other two.]

Just say when.

[shorthair]

( Clementine reaches for the package of sour gummy worms as she takes her seat, sinking back and grabbing a handful of popcorn too. She's ready for some terrible movie magic since this is her first time discovering people actually watch bad movies on purpose.

It actually does sound pretty fun to her, and she's kind of excited. She's also pretty sure these two would have struggled to figure out how to have a movie night without her here.

She takes a bite into the sour stuff. It's sufficiently sour so she's making a face before speaking up. )

When!

[postictal]

[Tim snorts.]

[It's not a laugh, but it's definitely amusement, because the combination of Clem's face puckering up and that characteristically facetious answer was a little too much for even Tim to resist. He quickly converts it into a cough - made difficult by the fact that a payday turns out to contain caramel and peanuts, and have sort of partially glued his teeth together.]

[Just watching the opening titles has his eyebrows crawling up his forehead.]

Jesus, this is gonna be terrible.

[burntvideocassette]

Jay's attention darts over to Tim on that "cough", but it's not long before his eyes are fastened firmly on the screen.

The narrator begins--or, more accurately, 'Criswell Predicts':

"We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future."

Jay mouths silently along with the words, because this monologue is a work of accidental, terrible genius and he couldn't not memorize it.

From his seat on the far right, he turns to Tim and Clem for the last few sentences, furrowing his brow in mock-solemnity as he continues to lip-sync.

"Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward the innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts about grave robbers from outer space?"

[shorthair]

( Clementine smirks a little at Tim's 'cough'. She doesn't know how rare laughter is for him, but it definitely didn't sound at all like a cough. Clem just sinks in, lifting her eyebrows, glancing over at Jay to see he like knows all the words.

Wow, that's impressive.

She laughs when he turns toward them. Her smirk widens. )

My heart can't stand it. I didn't prepare to be shocked!

( She raises up a gummy worm as if in denial. )

[postictal]

[Jay is actually mouthing the words in time to the credits. He gets several seconds of flat astonishment before Tim flicks a piece of popcorn at the back of his head.]

I've gotta new theory.

[That theory is not, actually, "Jay is a huge fucking nerd," because that was already a given, though at this point he doubts it bears mentioning. It has grown rapidly apparent to all parties that Jay is a nerd of the first order, unavoidably.]

Whoever wrote this got paid ten bucks extra for every instance of the word "future."

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay's eyes light up at Clementine's comment. She's actually into it. She's actually having a good time.]

[And then a piece of popcorn hits him in the head.]

[He reaches into the nearest bucket and throws a small handful--maybe four or five--back at Tim in retaliation.]

The guy actually had a speech...thing. A speech impediment. Guess 'future' was one of the only words he could say without having it show.

Still no excuse for using it that many--oh, hey, it's real Bela.

[And Real Bela it is, for a few very brief scenes. An old man mourning his wife at her funeral. The same old man standing aimlessly in a suburban front yard.]

[These couple scenes have some promise, in Jay's opinion. Not much, but some. Even if they don't really mesh with the rest of the movie, he's glad that getting stuck onto the rest of this disaster means they're still around.]

[shorthair]

( Clementine laughs at the popcorn fight, clearing her throat and shoving more worms into her mouth like she doesn't notice. It feels like pointing out the popcorn fight might ruin it so she opts to not mention it at all.

She reaches for more worms, sliding them into her mouth. _

Real Bela?

( She turns toward the screen.

Her mouth parts. She leans forward. She watches. Hrm. )

[postictal]

[He gets peppered with an answering fistful of kernels in reparation. He picks a few stray speckles of white from his hair with as much dignity as he can muster - not very much at all - and flicks them casually in Jay's direction, squinting at the figure on the screen.]

Is this gonna be "real Bela" for the rest of this take, or...?

[He's halfway expecting the poor man to drop dead mid-take, with the kind of quality movie-making they're bearing witness to here. Christ, this guy makes Alex Kralie look like Stanley Kubrick.]

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay winces as one of the kernels hits his cheek.]

Yeah, barely.

[Jay perks up as the scene changes. Two people look out the window of a plane to see...a comically fake flying saucer, wobbling precariously outside the window.]

["What in the world?" asks the stewardess. The pilot's stern reply: "That's nothing from this world."]

[shorthair]

( Clem laughs at the kernel that hits his cheek. That was some good aiming, okay?

She tilts her head to the side with an amused smile. This is truly terrible. How even. )

That thing looks like one of those tops you can spin on a table.

Do you think that's what it actually is? Like totally from this world, pilot.

[postictal]

[She sounds like she's...actually enjoying this, wonder of all wonders. Like maybe this isn't just some stupid waste of her time, and Jay dispensing trivia is even funny, in its own way. Like all this counts as something like a good day.]

[Maybe they did something right for once.]

I bet that's exactly what it is. I bet they covered a little top with aluminum foil and hung it on a string and called it a day.

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay looks over at them, brushing a popcorn kernel off his sleeve.]

Sometimes you can even see the string. It's amazing.

[The scene cuts to a graveyard, deep in the woods, with bare trees reaching up to the sky like the spindly fingers of the undead. It is definitely not in a soundstage badly planted with dead branches. Of course not]

[The slightly stilted voice of the narrator continues on: "At the funeral of the old man, unknown to his mourners, his dead wife was watching!" And there she is, looking about forty years the old man's junior, with dark black hair and a plunging neckline.]

That's, uh... [Jay strains to remember the name. Not Elvira, so it's--] ...Vampira. Think she used to host some show on local TV.

[shorthair]

Oh, wow. I think I see the string. Geeze.

( Clementine laughs softly. That's pretty bad if they can't even hide the string though like wow. She tosses more popcorn into her mouth and then lifts her eyebrows in surprise. Woah. Things are getting intense.

His dead wife is watching his funeral? Why is she so young? Did the husband kill her? The suspense! Mostly she's just having fun making fun of a bad movie with them. )

What kind of name is Vampira?

Is she trying to be a vampire?

[postictal]

[Vampira. That really is something. He'd ask how it is that Jay knows all this trivia, but chances are that might come across as more of an insult than he wants it to. So he'll keep his mouth shut, as far as even gentle teasing goes.]

Is that the actor's name, or the character's? Does it, uh... [He frowns at the screen, one corner of his mouth twitching.] Actually, does it matter?

[burntvideocassette]

'S a stage name. [Jay pops another mint in his mouth.] Don't know too much about her, except I think she dressed like that when she was on TV, too. Guess it was her "gimmick." [He waves his hands half-heartedly at the last word.]

[The movie continues on. Police investigate a mysterious death, and one of them gets picked off by some unseen force. More wobbly flying saucers swoop down near the graveyard. A comically earnest pilot tries to explain a UFO cover-up to his wife, when a saucer buzzes their front porch, sending the two sprawling in a display of choreography that makes ship turbulence in the original Star Trek look realistic.]

[Not that Jay's watched that much Star Trek. Not that much.]

[shorthair]

( Clementine takes more bites of her popcorn and sour worms as she watches what happens up on the screen. It's pretty hilariously amazing honestly.

She sort of laughs at the choreography involved. )

This is amazing!

( Why doesn't everyone watch horrible movies? )

I want to try some planned falling at some point. Bet the three of us could do better than those professional actors. ( She's just saying ! )

[postictal]

[Tim - ]
[winces.]

[There's no way she could've known - that it was Tim trying his hand at acting in an amateur student film, that it was Brian's quiet urging that got everyone he knew killed, hurt, worse, their minds eviscerated in a deluge and scrape of static.]

[There's no way she could've known.]

[Pick up your own slack, Tim, before you trip over it and make everything - awkward. Or worse.]

Well, we've sure got the, uh. The cameras for it.

[He'd laugh, but it's not very funny.]

[burntvideocassette]

["Bet the three of us could do better than those professional actors."]

[Oh. That's...that's too familiar. He can hear it played back in Alex's voice, even if he's never said it. It's just too much like something he would say.]

Yeah. Guess we do.

[He's not thinking about Alex Kralie. He's thinking about the movie.]

[The alien invasion just started. This was always his favorite part. Great.]

[shorthair]

( Clementine knows enough to realize something happened when she said what she did. Jay mentioned the whole student film thing after all (and how many people died, and how much time and memories were lost), but she just didn't think before speaking out loud until the clear, awkwardness and shift that follows.

Nothing affects her. Nothing reaches her unless it's huge, and even then, most of the time, she can stare it down barely flinching. Isn't that what Luke said to her?

It's more human to feel it.

It's more human when it matters, being reminded of the things that hurt you and those you love and killed them and left you broken. She's smart enough to know calling attention to any of that means making them feel bad, and she doesn't want to do that when they were having fun, but she also wants a break from sitting in here and feeling the differences between how people react and how she does. )

I'm out of soda.

( She says after a moment, pushing herself up, waving the near empty cup as if to signal it. She smirks. )

And I have to use the bathroom. Definitely a coincidence. ( And neither of these things are untrue so she goes to fill up her drink and use the restroom. )

[postictal]

[Great. He could've just fucking glossed over the whole thing, because Clem couldn't have known, and the last thing they need is to dwell on anything that's lingering like a ghost in their heads. Especially any and all things relating to one Alex Kralie.]

[Don't let it press in. Don't let it be anything but a thought. And let it glide past.]

[It isn't working.]

[She pushes herself out of the conversation, smiling like none of it matters. Tim lifts his eyebrows, but says nothing aside from the desultory:]

You want us to pause?

[burntvideocassette]

[Now look what they've done. She picked up on their discomfort, and now she's leaving the room.]

[Fine host Jay turned out to be.]

I got it.

[He lifts the remote, fumbling with it for a second, and pauses the movie. If she asks him to start it up again before she leaves, he guesses he can, but he doesn't really want to. They're supposed to be showing her Plan 9. That's what tonight's supposed to be. Nobody should miss the alien invasion, even if two thirds of the group just brought the whole mood down.]

[shorthair]

( Clementine hesitates then, because she didn't expect them to pause, and she can tell that they can tell that- This has been a lot of fun, and one moment doesn't change that. She huffs out a breath, folding her arms across her chest, as she tries her best to navigate. )

Thanks. I'd hate to miss this part.

( She presses her lips together before she just goes with her usual approach: bluntness. ) Look I know- You've both been through a lot of shit, and it's okay to feel how ever you do when you're reminded of it.

I'm having fun, and I really do have to go, but I'll be fast. ( That was a lot of soda, and now she'll really just go use the restroom.)

[postictal]

[Yeah. She's just gonna...duck out. That's fine.]

[He watches her go, waits for the door to shut, before glancing at Jay, both furtive and concerned.]

...you okay?

[You okay. Like either of them are. Jay wasn't the one who froze up. Clem had no idea, and Tim spoiled the crappy movie night that was meant to be a - it was supposed to be something nice for her. Can't even manage that much, can he?]

['Course not. That's a little too normal to fit into Tim's wheelhouse.]

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay's still sort of reeling at what Clementine just said: "You've both been through a lot of shit, and it's okay to feel how ever you do when you're reminded of it."]

[People don't just...talk like that, do they?]

[It's not okay. It feels awful. He guesses that's just the price of knowing what he and Tim know now, but it's not 'okay'.]

[Wait, Tim just asked him something. He lets it sit for a moment, waiting for his head to catch up with his ears. Oh. Huh. That's a coincidence.]

Yeah.

[He's just fine, thanks. He's 'okay'. And he's definitely not thinking about Alex Kralie.]