Sunday, December 18th, The Midnight Channel

[thepull_mods]

Who: The Port's Latest Shadow Televisions Stars! And Thousands of Home Viewers!
When: Midnight, Sunday, December 18th
Where: In front of your Television Sets or Streaming NV TV. (Digital Cable? You'll still get the analog effect.)
Summary: Full Plot Details Here
Warnings: Please Put 'em In the Subject Lines As Necessary, Kids?

Comments

[thecrowingtobe]

[Claudio Kilgannon]

[The television snow clears at first, showing a young boy with black wild hair in a red hoodie and jeans standing on a hillside, hands in his pockets, staring up into the night sky. There are tons and tons of planets in the sky, so many it’s hard to count. They seem like moons to an earthling, but this is how his sky normally looks to him. Or used to. It’s stunning. Beautiful!]

[He doesn’t look at the screen at first, just stands there, looking up into the night sky. The image holds for a moment, a flicker of a ghost of a man flashes over the screen (his father) followed by others (his mother and siblings).]

[Claudio jerked suddenly, looking down into bloody hands. His hoodie is actually very blue, not red, and now is dripping in blood...]

He killed them. He killed them all. She let it happen too. You were off doing nothing and they were killed. You were off pretending some girl loved you and they were all killed! My sisters and little brother. My parents killed them all. They killed them all then went off to try and kill everyone. The entire Fence. Heavens Fence. All of the Keywork. And you ran away and let them do it. You are still running! You haven’t bothered finding a way home to stop it!

Weak. Weak minded and useless. You haven’t anything there for you? really? Is that what you think? Is that what the voice in your head keeps telling you? NO! You have billions of lives resting on your shoulders, in your hands. You think Newo will be there for you? After all that she had to have heard? After all this time here? Will she care? No. You have billions looking for you to return and save them and what do you do?

[He sobbed, dropping to his knees and holding bloody hands over his face, his eyes, rubbing hard into them]

You do nothing! You hide here in hell and do nothing.

Do you really think anyone CARES? No one here cares for you. There is NO point in staying here. You’ve already fucked up so many times! You almost got killed, twice as a slave. You. Are. A. Fucking. Runaway. Slave!

You are a RUNAWAY and a COWARD!

The people here don’t care for you! Trauma thinks you’re nothing but a god damn bother. Trouble! Jinx was disgusted with you! You slept with her once and she ran as fast as she could! Gabriel could care less! Jubilee? Michael? They wont miss you the moment you went home!

Go HOME already? What are you scared of? Can’t you do it? Claudio, you idiot! You have so much POWER. You could SAVE EVERYONE. You could kill everyone as well. What’s to stop you?

[His face lifts from his hands, looking to the screen, eyes glowing a bright green, demented and dark, his face looking in the screen darkly. A spark from over his shoulder crackles...]

I could destroy it all. Be done with it. It’s all in my head anyhow!

[In the background each of the beautiful colorful planets slowly start to explode. Popping in on itself, or exploding out into specks of dust. Star busts of rock running into the other planets and breaking them. They start from the back and work closer, and closer...]

Everyone who cared is dead and no one here gives a damn. I’m tired of being lonely! I’m tired of being a no body. Of being on the low and in hiding. Why can’t I pull the trigger! Make this nightmare stop?! Why can’t I be my father, a man who killed three of his four children to stop it all. Why Can’t I Be Something Feared. Something. Important!

I’ll be someone important. This city will learn to love and respect me, or it will learn to fear me.

I won’t be alone anymore in my suffering! I’ll take you all with me!

Come on. Come out! Try to stop me!

2/2

[thecrowingtobe]

[in the end, the planet he’s standing on is slowly covered with falling rocks showing into the ground, fire in the skies and a blaze of orange building up behind him. The sky above starts looking darker as the ‘suns’ start to go out, and the earth he stands on shakes and rumbles.]

[He’s crying now, upset, burning and in pain, though nothing has struck him yet. His hands are clenched, dripping blood, a burning chunk of rock comes flying towards him from behind... ]

I don’t want to be alone... why wont anyone love me? Why doesn’t anyone want me?!

[The burning rock comes smashing in behind him, but instead of rushing him his shield goes up, smashing the rock, protecting him in a eery green bubble, before the planet he’s on explodes... and the screen goes black for a moment.]

[Then it returns to television snow]

reaction;

[regeneratesalot]

[ Holy hell. She feels like she should give him a call, or send him a text, but ... damn if she had no idea what to say. 'How are you' seemed stupid, and nothing else came to her mind. ]

no reaction;

[thecrowingtobe]

[She'd get a simple panicked 'that's not me, I don't know what's going on!' response, cus he's very sure that.... isn't who he is at all. Instead he's just going to look for it to dispose of it, before it makes him look like more of an insane ass.]

[action//open to any]

[thecrowingtobe]

Claudio stares at the image in shock, fear, anger even. “What the hell was that?!” He gasped, hauling his shoes on now. He hoped no one else saw it. He hoped to hell no one he KNEW saw it!

Shoes on, he took a moment to look around the room before dropping out of existence, grabbing a coat and making it go invisible with him, he started out of the house and into the night. He’d been hearing about these things. About others having trouble with them. Some woman he was talking to that morning was crying about it, about it being out there for her.

Was his out there too? Did he have one of these things running around too? What the hell was it talking about anyhow!? He... he wasn’t like that. He didn’t think like that! People... people liked him, right? He didn’t WANT to be like his father! He didn’t WANT to go home.

Sure, he missed home. Someone who loved him, some one who cared. People who needed him--no! No one needed him there either. At least here people cared, right?

In a moment of frustration he reached back, pulling from his invisible self a space age looking gun, holding it’s heavy form in his hands. He and the gun were invisible, but it felt better to hold it. He had only shot it once, ever, and even now he wasn’t sure why he kept it around. He didn’t like it, but it was like a safety blanket. Something he clearly needed to keep him calm.

He wasn’t sure what he was doing. Where he was going. Did he need to go look for something? Will it come to him? Was he going to the theatre or to the house of awesome? He didn’t want to go see anyone but that didn’t mean they would see him anyhow, right? Go hide somewhere and be alone. Get his head on right.

Or go find what ever that was. See if it was out here too. People said they were out here. Were they? Would it... he... hurt someone?

I don’t actually want to hurt anyone. I don’t want that choice! I can’t SAVE anyone back home! he thought, only to hear his fathers voice speak to him. ’You can save them. You will. You have to come back.’

“No! Fuck. Get away from me!” He growled back harshly at his fathers image. An actual ghostly image. He could see through it, right there. The man walking along with him. He hated it. He was going fucking insane and he knew it. He could SEE the man now and it bothered him more then ever.

“I can’t do anything! What did I do to deserve this? You’re the fucking monster, not me!” He hissed and ran faster to... lords knows where. He just needed to get out. Invisible, most of the darkness didn’t see him anyhow. He’d deal with the rest...

[phone call]

[paterelohim]

[Because like hell He's letting that slide without a reaction. That was fucking brutal to watch and he can only imagine what Claudio's feeling.]

[phone call]

[thecrowingtobe]

[He's out, invisible, and trying not to let himself freak out over this not working though. When his phone beeps he jumps, freezing in place and looking around. He ducked into a hardware store, closed for the night and pulled the small portable NV out of his pocket, staring at it]

[Chuck? Maybe it had something to do with work and not... that... TV thing. Maybe it had something to do with ice cream for all he cared. He let it beep a few more times before hitting the accept button and holding it up to an ear]

Y-yeah?

[phone call]

[paterelohim]

Uh, hey, Claudio.

[Beat. Oh, fuck it.]

You didn't do anything stupid like go outside, did you?

[phone call]

[thecrowingtobe]

[DOH. God damn it. Seriously!]

[He stood, frozen for a moment, staring down at nothing and glaring.]

I'm in doors...

[which was... partly the truth. At the moment he was standing inside someone's shop in the middle of the damn night.]

[phone call]

[paterelohim]

[Guess how much he believes you.]

Really.

[phone call]

[thecrowingtobe]

[well now he just takes mild offence to that...]

I am!

[To which he paused to stare at a barrel full of snow shovels and a row of side walk salt... yeah, so? he was inside at the moment, wasn't he?]

That wasn't me, okay? I ain't like that, I don't want that, and I didn't go do something stupid! Why's everyone got to assume I'm going to go do something stupid anyhow?! [a little snapped sounding...]

[phone call]

[paterelohim]

[Deep breath.]

Because- it's not you. That's kind of been the theme this week. I wanted to make sure you're not trying to go and be a hero or, you know, hunt the fucker down.

[phone call]

[thecrowingtobe]

A hero? Me? I'm no hero. I know that much. I cant save any of them--one. I can't save anyone. [corrected himself swiftly, shaking his head and trying to not notice the fact that he an see the ghost of his father standing near by, arms crossed and disapproving.]

I ain't hunting anything down. I just... I'm... out. I didn't... want to stay in the house. I'm not hunting though. Just, thought I'd head to work, or the theater, or... or to the complex. [The Houses of awesome, he means] I'm fine. I'm safe. Not being stupid.

[it was all spoken fast, still trying to calm down]

[phone call]

[paterelohim]

[Damn it, he's doing that thing that hero types like to do when they realize they're only human.]

But you're out, you went out in the Darkness? Are you sure that's a good idea?

[phone call]

[thecrowingtobe]

[Only he's not 'only human' and he doesn't feel like a hero type. He should be he hero, back home but he's sure he'd mess that up. Too many people depending on him. He hated it]

I just needed out for a bit! I'm not doing anything more stupid then I do any night of the fuckin' week. [it was said weakly, a hand rubbing his face]

I'm invisible. Darkness can't... can't really see me. I'm going through buildings too. See? I'm thinking clearly.

[phone call]

[paterelohim]

Good! That's good, I mean... good, cause those things can be pretty disturbing. They really get inside your head.