Monday, December 19th, The Midnight Channel

[thepull_mods]

Who: The Port's Latest Shadow Televisions Stars! And Thousands of Home Viewers!
When: Midnight, Monday, December 19th
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

Prisilla Devera

[thepull_npc]

[The titlecard reads Real (Future!) Housewives of Siren's Port. There's a heaping plate of spaghetti & meatballs on the table, and a clump of spaghetti also stuck to the wall behind her, sauced noodles slowly slipping off. A gaudy chandelier glitters overhead, and the sounds of raised Italian voices clatter on behind her, silenced by a gunshot or two. She cringes.]

"Marry DeDrago, and it's like being handed the keys to this city."

[A girl at the table pronounces with a huge roll of her eyes and dramatic gesticulation. She has her curly dark hair pulled back into a high ponytail, wearing large golden hooped earrings and a red blouse that's cut daringly low, for a teenage girl.]

That's what my mama always says, when she's shoving me at my cousins.

[She glances behind her at the source of the off-screen noise, folding her arms and crosses her legs.]

But I don't want that. So I just sit here and pretend like I can't rub two brain cells together around the family, because maybe then they'll just hold off a couple years and put a ring on my little sister, instead.

[She keeps eying the spaghetti, as if waiting for it, daring it to drip, drip, fall.]

The problem is, I don't know what else I want. Last year I was into cheerleading. This semester, I decided I was really gonna give it my all to get an 'A' in English...that fell through.

Last week, I decided to be a performance artist.

Jamie Pierce? He goes to my school. We would up in the same remedial math class, and he reeks. Then one day he torched everything in my locker. Said it was because I never looked at him.

I met Maria there too. I know what you're thinking- What a freak, right? But she let me smoke with her, in the girl's room.

Alison? Honestly, I still think she's a spoiled bitch. But we didn't ever tell on her, when we caught her puking up lunch between periods. Maybe because some days, I get this weird feeling that deep down, she's just like me.

[And then she ducks her head, smiling painfully.]

I kissed Andrew behind the bleachers, just after Halloween. Okay, he's sort of a nerd, but he says he loves me. I only wish he'd talk more about me, instead of his great big future plans. This is why saints don't have girlfriends, I think. They'd be too jealous! (And...it's not like we really have any big future plans now, right?)

Mama was so pissed, when she found out about all of them. That we snuck out to see The Answer, together, on a school night.

And now I'm sitting back and thinking- [Her hands raise, and so does the volume of her voice] did I seriously just give up my whole life for these losers? All because I had zero interest in popping out Tully the Fourth?

I still I want a family. It doesn't have to be particularly functional, just better than the one I've had.

"Greedy bastards who sleep with their own-"

I can't even make myself say all the things they say about us, behind our backs. And I hate most of all when it's true!

[A pause, then her expression turns somber]

I have a family now, I guess. But I they all look at me and judge me, like I judge them.

[A soft sound, like a choking sob- and as she buries her head in her hands, the image begins to rupture into static once more]

...I've fucked up so bad, this time.

reaction;

[quackery]

[She hadn't meant to watch, the same way she hadn't watched any others - this time, though, when her NV flickered to life, she had been curious enough that she couldn't look away. The further along the broadcast went, the more pity she felt. When the picture dissolved into static, she quickly shuts the NV away, not wanting to see anything else.]