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

[action for sirius!]

[dancing_pierrot]

[Franziska kneels down, peering at the plastic with trepidation -- she thinks she sees something and jumps backwards. This reflexive action turns out to be the correct one because there is actually something coming out of the TV. The panic returns again, but it's rather more subdued, because no-one's with her right now and no-one has to see her like this.

To be honest with herself, however, she knows that she can't deal with this alone, if her suspicions are correct. She almost wants to run outside, but such an idea is almost suicidal; she has no way of dealing with the monsters, last time had taught her that well enough. But if the Darkness comes to her, what can she do?

She can call someone to help, she supposes, and still have the situation under her control, to some extent. She considers her options. Nelliel? Her friend had been a great help every other time Franziska had found herself in such a situation, but there was no monster here right now; Franziska would feel foolish for calling her out if it turned out to be nothing at all. 'Wade Wilson'? Franziska would have to pay him, which was, again, not something she wanted to do if the circumstances didn't necessitate it.

Sirius? The way she feels when she considers that option is, well, foolish is the best way to describe it; surely she's just making excuses because she wants to see him again even though she really shouldn't. He was probably with Jack Kelly now anyway, the best friend who had recently been recovered from dire circumstances. It wasn't her place to call him away from that, but the weird thing is that she wants to. Because he might laugh at her if she were really just imagining things, but he wouldn't mean it. Not really.

Lost in thought, she's not paying enough attention to the television, how the Darkness is creeping out from it. Although she swears she's not actually taken her eyes off it, just taking her mind off the matter for a few moments is enough that the creep of Darkness corrosion is now taking up about half her living room, not that the place is very large.

It's enough, however. It's enough to make the fear curl up her throat, to make her heart batter against her ribcage. She throws her gloves off to send a message to Sirius:

THE DARKNESS IS COMING INSIDE!

and then she copies it so she may be able to send it to Nelliel should Sirius not respond. But it takes her only ten more seconds of watching the creeping, all the while backing as far away from it as she can, into the doorway of her bedroom, that she decides she really, really, doesn't have time to wait on this, and rings him instead. Despite the fact that she wants him to pick up, her fingers are poised to resend the message to Nelliel because she's almost certain that he won't.

Her thoughts themselves are almost hysterical; while she had thought the previous nights of monotony and sleeplessness irritating, this was of course Siren's Port, so everything had just gotten worse.]

[atrumcanis]

[Jack has been safe, at the hospital, for over twenty-four hours, which means that everything is right again. Which of course isn't true. There is so much wrong that it's difficult at times to pretend the opposite. Black Mask has been caught, but not by him; Jack was rescued, but not by him. And in all this time, Sirius hasn't left the hospital room--he's pretended to leave, but he's always slipped back in, so he can sit with Jack and watch Jack--half for Jack's comfort, and half for his own. He won't be caught unawares, not this time, not ever again, although being indoors for this long is starting to fray his nerves. But Jack needs him here.

There hasn't been much time for NVs. There hasn't been any time, truth be told--Sirius has ignored everything on the network, focused solely on Jack. So when his NV alerts him to a message, he nearly ignores it--until, of course, he realises that it's a private message, directed to him and him alone. A scowl darkness his face when he sees who has sent it--he hasn't left things on the best of terms with Franziska--but he reads the message anyway--

His fingers clench around his NV. The Darkness. He looks to the window--it's black as pitch--which means she's alone, which means she's somewhere, trapped--and she will die, she will definitely die, because she's full of bravado, and she's strong, but not strong enough for the Darkness.

The dim grey of the room is just enough to make out the bed--Jack is asleep, and Alice is there, and Sirius is the only one awake, standing at the window, and Franziska--somewhere, out there in the city--she sent the message to him, and to him alone.

And he will not suffer someone else to be hurt simply because he wasn't paying attention, because he couldn't be fussed. Jack will understand, if he wakes.

She didn't say where she was, but he doesn't think to ask, he doesn't have time. He Apparates instead to her flat, just outside the front door--it's a weird formality, and he thinks better of it a second later (is he going to knock? is she going to answer the door?), just before he blasts the lock open, his hand tight around his wand. If she isn't inside, he'll find her, wherever she is--]

Franziska!

[The interior of the flat is dark, surprisingly dark, the sudden changes of light playing tricks on his eyes (the hospital to the Darkness to this new Darkness), and Sirius raises his wand.]

Lumos!

[dancing_pierrot]

[The Seeping Darkness has covered most of the living room and kitchen by now; as a result, Franziska's backed herself into the corner of the bedroom. She should step out into the corruption, she knows, to prevent it from covering herself, but she's also cautious of what she might find once she walks back out there. She'd talked to several people who had been on the network before the nights prior, and still she'd gone and destroyed her television. She's angry, angry with whatever is causing the shows and the monsters, but more importantly, she's angry with herself for causing this sequence of events that could not be explained as anything else than moronic mistakes.

It was some small consolation, but at least this was better than being like that person who had worn her face on the television tonight, a crying, pathetic, snivelling thing. That wasn't her; it would never be her, all because she was stronger than that and she had proved herself time and time again. Hadn't she decided long ago that what others thought of her didn't matter? Even in this past month, she'd realized that her father had never cared for her at all. And she was all right with that, because she had herself, and that was all she needed.

Apart from times like this, apparently, huddled in the corner of her bedroom because she was afraid of monsters. But that was different. This was just being reasonable.

Clutching her NV in her hands, she begins her countdown until she'll call Nelliel, counting quicker than she really should, several words a second.

Then she hears her name and her heart leaps for several conflicting reasons she doesn't have the time to name right now, because there's a situation going on out there and it needs to be dealt with. Now. Besides, she'd called Sirius rather urgently and she certainly didn't wish him to worry about her. She was fine. She just needed a little assistance.

She walks forward as far as she dares, towards the doorway which the Darkness is now changing. While she'd been in her bedroom, she'd taken the time to retrieve her whip, although there was no real time to fuss with redressing properly, still dressed in her sleep clothes, a tank top and sweatpants. She halts several steps away from the door with her whip in hand and her other clenched in a tight fist. She shouts out her location so that he'll be able to find her, because she can't see him properly from this location, although -- is that a light?]

In here! [Upon realizing that's probably not the clearest of directions, she hastily adds:] Bedroom!

[atrumcanis]

[Bedroom. Sirius immediately works out a path as best as he can--there's a little sliver of space where the Darkness isn't--not that he's afraid of any of it, it's just the Darkness, he's dealt with this before and won--but he has to find Franziska first. There's time for all else later.

So--his glowing wand held in front of him like a ward--he goes off in that direction, shoving his way into the bedroom. There's a second where he thinks that perhaps he ought to have showed a bit more caution, perhaps this is some sort of ruse--if the Darkness is really here, it's completely capable of using Franziska's face, it's done it before (and for a moment, too, he thinks of Edgeworth, before shoving that thought away, that's not what this is). It's too late for that. He's here--

And there's Franziska, her expression-- well, irritable, really, which is a little jarring. It's an expression that he knows very well, though it's usually not used in so serious a situation as this. He wants for a second to laugh, but fights that urge down, and says something a bit sharper instead:]

What the hell happened?

[dancing_pierrot]

[He's here, he's really here. She slides her NV into her pocket, wanting to keep it on her just in case, but realizing that she doesn't need it immediately for the moment. When had the lights gone out, anyway? She can't quite remember -- had the destruction of the television short-circuited the wiring or something, or was in the Darkness degradation? She'd not been outside enough at night to know for certain, and not knowing was irritating. She frowns, eyeing both Sirius and the room behind him dubiously, staring in the direction of her broken TV.]

The television broke. [Yes, that was the best way of putting it.]

Have ... you seen the midnight broadcasts lately? [Her gaze temporarily focuses on Sirius, to adequately gauge his reaction. If he hadn't seen it, she certainly didn't want to talk about it. Even if he had seen it, she didn't, but the topic would be harder to avoid.]

[atrumcanis]

[The television broke. That seems like an understatement or a lie or something, and he scowls, ready to tell her off for that. There's no use in messing about, for once, not in a situation like this, not when she could have been-- well, injured, if not killed.

Her question distracts him, though, and the scowl all but fades. Quickly, he crosses the room to her, giving her as surreptitious a once-over as he can.]

Yeah.

[He wraps his fingers more tightly around his wand, glancing back at the door.]

Have you seen it? [It, that's easier to say than allowing the--thing, whatever the thing is--allowing the thing to have some sort of identity.] Has it--done anything, I mean.

[dancing_pierrot]

[As he makes his way over, Franziska redirects her gaze to the TV, feeling as ready as she'll ever be for whatever may become of it. In what way she's not entirely sure, an unsettling thought, but she wishes she can make that thing, that program sorry for even existing. Because even though she could acknowledge that her impulsive reaction had been foolish, it ought to have never been necessary at all. Yes, she was still angry, and that was okay. In fact, it was better than okay. It was empowering.

She's still staring hard in the direction of the television set, refusing to take her eyes off it even as she begins to speak.]

Tonight. It was on tonight.

[And maybe it's just phantom shapes constructed by tricks of the light, but she can almost see something, an outline of a body, appearing amongst the broken shards of her TV.

Then she hears the sniffling, and she's still staring, staring hard in the direction of the noise almost as though nothing else exists until she eventually adds in a low, quiet voice, another sentence primarily for Sirius's benefit:]

I think it's coming.

[acemedium]

[By now Maya knows what's going on.]

[Franziska....]

[And so, she's repaying the favor and calling. And calling. And calling until she picks up]

[dancing_pierrot]

[Yeah, Maya, she's going to finally answer a call in the middle of the night. She sounds rather irritable but, you know, at least she picked up!]

I'm fine, I'm fine, Maya Fey. There's nothing to worry about.

[acemedium]

[As long as she answers...]

[Anyway, despite Franziska's claims that she's fine, she's still greeted with a:]

Franziska! [And nothing else for the moment.]

[dancing_pierrot]

[A pause.]

Although... I do need to ask you a favor.

[acemedium]

[Pause. Full stop.]

... A favor?

[dancing_pierrot]

I'm in need of somewhere to stay for the next few days.

[acemedium]

Of course you can crash with me!

But what happened?

[dancing_pierrot]

My Darkness proofing was compromised.

[acemedium]

I--

Geez, Franziska, are you still there now? [Don't think she's forgotten about the shadow, though. She'll just press later]