entrancelogs | the morning light shines a lifeline [closed]

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the morning light shines a lifeline [closed]

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.]

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[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.

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?

[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?

'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.]

( 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 ! )

[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.]

["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.]

( 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. )

[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?

[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.]

( 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.)

[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.]

[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.]

[Tim's not the only liar in the bunch. They've both always known that. Or maybe most of them have. It's hard to tell which parts of Jay are in denial about himself and which parts have elected to accept that he's not the objective narrator he thought he was.]

[Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.]

She...probably didn't know. [He shoots a swift glance in the direction of the door. Still shut. Good.] Right?

[Oh god oh god oh god]

[He could just say no, but he just knows that's the kind of thing that'll blow up in his face later. She's said a lot already, and she can say more because he told her more because he's a goddamn moron. "No" isn't gonna cut it.]

[And he's not a liar. Not when it counts.]

She...knows there was a movie.

But she didn't know it was...what kind of part that played in it.

[She couldn't have known. She couldn't have - she's a good kid. The way they'd fucking met had defined that, well and truly. Maybe she just hadn't thought. Maybe she doesn't know what it's - ]

[No. She can't not know how it's like. To have reminders leaping out at you from the shadows. To watch ghosts swirl in your head and imprint associations into the backs of your lids.]

Couldn't've. Right?

Right.

[Not a lie. Not really.]

( Clementine comes back with a full drink, hoping the two of them have kind of sorted out whatever- whatever they might be feeling at the moment. He doesn't know that they have, but she lifts her drink up in their direction. She's trying to read the mood, but she's not really certain what it is. )

Hey.

I'm all ready if you two are. Time for the invasion!

[They've sorted things out as much as they're liable to - which is to say, not very much at all. Tim suppresses a sigh as Clem re-enters the conversation - more at Jay's unwillingness to admit to anything than Clem's arrival onto the scene. He glances briefly at Jay, one last time.]

[Can't go pushing something like that right now.]

Sure thing.

[Jay catches Tim's eye for a brief moment, and he hopes that his barely-suppressed panic isn't too obvious. Chances are he's not that lucky, though.]

[Time for the invasion, though, and that's enough to brighten him up at least a bit.]

[Silver ships wobble precariously across the screen, while obviously-stock-footage soldiers unload rockets into the sky in an attempt to bring them down. Eventually, they turn tail and wobble back to the mothership, and two of the soldiers launch into a truly inane monologue about how the government will force them to cover it up. Or...something.]

S--so I heard somewhere that the spaceships were just pie tins glued together. But some other places're saying it was an actual spaceship model kit, so I'm not sure which one's right.

[The aliens report to their leader. They announce that they've just put Plan 9 into action: the revival of the dead. Sounds like Plans 1 through 8 didn't go so well, but the leader's being lenient with them because Earthlings apparently don't take too kindly to being threatened with the living dead. Who'd'a thunk.]

( Clementine raises her eyebrows with a tiny smile as she settles back into her seat, taking a drink from her straw. She can sense things haven't completely worked themselves out since she came back, but it's been a fun movie night, and she just wants to watch the rest of the movie with them and go back to having that good time again. )

If they were pie tins glued together, I really hope they got some pie out of it all, because it's like the very least they deserved, right?

( She smiles when the aliens report to the leader. It's funny to think of zombies coming about because of aliens in the sky. No one really knew how they actually happened. Hell, no one could try to figure it out, bu tit'd be nice if it was just one big foe that could be defeated- maybe. Aliens probably have cool technology that makes that hard. )

I wonder what all the other plans were.

[He's not really okay, but maybe he's approaching it. That's about all anyone can ask for. Especially in the short-term. The spaceships sure as hell look like pie-tins glued together, which is what raises Tim's eyebrows even further. Settles him back in his seat a hair.]

[He will never call Alex Kralie's Marble Hornets the worst piece of cinema ever again. Not now that he's witnessed thisfestering pile of hot garbage. And what's more, Clem raises a good point.]

Wait - were there eight more of these things before this one?

[Or is it just inexplicably called Plan 9 for no reason?]

[Jay looks over at Tim, wide-eyed. The sheer horror of the concept of eight other Plan 9 movies isn't something the human mind was built to contemplate.]

No. God, no. This is the only one.

[He cranes his neck to face Clementine.]

I don't think they ever say what the others were, but I might be forgetting.

[Chances are he's not, though, given the number of times he's seen this one. It's a classic, okay?]

[The pilot and his wife are back. He tells her to keep safe and lock all the doors, but in true horror movie impending victim fashion, she teases him for being overly concerned. Inevitably, it comes back to bite her (almost literally) when Real Bela rises from the grave Inside the house, though, it's Fake Bela who menaces the young woman. She lets out a real, proper 50s monster movie scream and runs for her life...into the graveyard...which is right next to her house. After a short chase scene that's everything they might expect out of a movie like this, she collapses by the side of the street and is rescued by a passing motorist. She's safe...but for how long? Dun-dun-duuuun.]

I don't think you'd forget that.

( Clementine says that with amusement, because it's pretty clear he's watched this movie a whole bunch of times. He was quoting the start of it, but okay, she sinks in to watch the rest, eating her popcorn and drinking her soda. )

...holy shit.

( She leans in to watch. ) That scream was pretty good. ( at least pretty classic for screams. )

Who lives next to a graveyard?

[He's making an effort now, and he crunches a handful of popcorn for good measure. Shuffle it all under the rug and let Jay and Clem have something nice for once. Don't put your foot in it this time.]

Seriously, what the hell were they expecting? Is this a sci-fi film or a horror film or...what?

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burntvideocassette - 2017-09-04 19:32 (UTC) - Expand

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the morning light shines a lifeline [closed]

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goes again real quick don't mind me

nyoom; also behold jay merrick master of denial

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