Tuesday, December 20th, The Midnight Channel
Who: The Port's Latest Shadow Televisions Stars! And Thousands of Home Viewers!
When: Midnight, Tuesday, December 20th
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?
( I swim in the sea of the unconscious. I search for your heart, pursuing my true self )
When: Midnight, Tuesday, December 20th
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?
( I swim in the sea of the unconscious. I search for your heart, pursuing my true self )
Attention! Please Stay Tuned for An Important Public Health Bulletin ...
[Dr. Yumeno is sitting in his womb chair, in a sterile office. There is a pull-down projector screen behind him, and a six-foot tall cabinet behind him, double stainless steel doors.]
Good evening, fellow immigrants and citizens! This is an educational video, for your consumption. I'll be feeding you the important information, tonight. [His tone is airily haughty and filled with patronizing hubris, awash with a blatant sense of self-importance.] It's much better TV for you, than all of that other excess, mind-numbing junk you stuff yourselves with.
Our first topic in this lecture series is: The Virus.
[He points a remote and screen behind him flickers from a fishtank screensaver to several diagrams in a powerpoint slideshow. which appear to be taken from a advanced-level biology textbook.]
While a biological entity in its own right, it's debatable whether a virus can be considered a living organism at all. They cannot replicate, assemble their own genes, without inserting and attaching themselves to a host cell. Where they take root, they become the controlling agent. Only then can their identity flourish.
They are small, their activity not only invisible to the naked eye, but nearly a hundred times smaller than bacterial infection. They conquer not by strength nor size, but by the emptying of information, by their internalized influence.
The role of similar genetic structures is critically important beyond our measure, in nature, in evolution. It's practically taken for granted that horizontal gene transfer ensures diversity, and the continuance of species.
But because they can lead to the termination of a weak organism, they are considered dangerous, something to be wiped off the face of the earth! Even though mankind has tried to stamp them out, they are too small and too deeply embedded in nature to ever eliminate completely. In that way... you could say they have an immortal, if not unrecognized legacy and significance.
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He blinks expectantly at the camera, gold eyes bright, as if the lack of canned applause or an audience 'Ahhh' or 'Oooh' response is a little startling. His face falls, a hand goes to his hip, he looks vaguely disappointing. He inclines himself forward toward the camera, clasping hands behind his back, brow furrowing with concern.]
Is all of this a little too cryptic for you?
[With an admonishing tsk, he shakes his head, rolling his eyes. Scoffs a laugh.]
But I've just handed you all the answers! Here. Please, allow me to simplify in layman's terms-
[Daedalus stands, moving towards the closed cabinet.]
I'm going to show you my greatest treasure.
You, dear viewer, should feel very lucky and privileged that you're even permitted to see this. You are on your way to transformation! [A wink, a smile, tapping his finger to his lips.] After all, I don't go airing all of my secrets to just anyone.
[He flings open the double doors, and behind them is... a full-length mirror. Turning his back on the camera entirely, Dr. Yumeno glows and gloats in unabashed earnest at his own reflection.]
There you are, dearest! Come! Embrace me, my beloved prodigy prince! You may not be not exceptionally handsome, or worldly-wise, or even masculine! [a convulsive, breathless laugh] But surface appearances are so meaningless! In fact, I think you're perfect. [He's spiraling quickly into a fanatical, madman's narcissism, hands clutching at the sides of the cabinet doors. The camera moves in closer, over his shoulder.]
When I look into your eyes, all I need to see is myself ! There is no other truth, beyond me, and the rest of the world doesn't matter! There are no obstacles, between you and I, there's no pain because there's beauty in our suffering! There are only containers-
[And his reflected image transforms, briefly, into a flash of several other figures, each smiling back at him with swelling adoration. You might recognize a few prominent figures as Re-l Mayer, Franz d'Epinay, Diego Armando, Raul Creed, Gilbert Nightray, Nana, and a quick flutter through so many other faces of people he's indulged with attention, affection, a caring hand, helpful guidance or an intelligent discussion. The mirror's reflection finally lingers on showing Shiroe Rei Seki, their features strikingly similar, before melding back into the visage of Daedalus himself. He caresses his own cheek, and murmurs in hushed wonder]
...and they will carry us out into the world.
[He reaches for the edge of the mirror, revealing it to have hinges, a second hidden door, and steps outside into the darkness beyond it. Static interference abruptly cuts the broadcast off.]
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Wow. ]
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She's known for so long that Daedalus has needed help, has needed someone to help him through his insecurities and his issues. But this, manifested, is eerie and startling. It reminds her of Romdeau's final day and the talk they had. She can't shake how strange it is.
Instead of brushing it off, she calls him. This has to be addressed.]
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He's spent most of the time in the silent moments after the broadcast desperately hoping that his supervisors at work wouldn't be 'eagerly tuning in' on this embarrassing exposure, because the strange 'Midnight programing' had been the gossip talk of the hospital, this week.
...and then the name shows up on his caller id, and his heart drops. It's worse. Re-l's seen. She's seen. After he'd sworn to himself not to bother her with the unstable mess of his feelings, clinging to work and sanity, folding himself into a 'healthier relationship'-]
Hello.
[He states, with a careful, cautious tone devoid of casual pleasantry. The tv is still sputtering numbers and nonsense.] Re-l. Are you all right?
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His tone immediately says he knows it's her long before he says her name. She frowns.]
I'm fine. And that's not what I called about you.
[No deflecting here, Daedalus.]
Are you okay?
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...I knew that, when I saw yours, the other night.
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It's not a parody. That's... That's a part of you, Daedalus. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't lie to me so easily.
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That's nothing I've filmed. I don't believe all this nonsense. I don't know how it's piecing all of this together- if it's the core, or something sinister, but until there's solid proof and a rational explanation for what's going on here, I urge you to take anything you see on that television with little more than a grain of salt!
[He's rambling a little bit nerve-wracked and panic-stricken, but it's only really showing in the quickening pace of his speech.]
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[Those things are obvious. They're exaggerated, but still... She frowns as she sits down for a moment, watching the TV for whatever's coming next.]
To see your reflection in someone else's eyes. That's something you once said to me.
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But instead he's listening to her in frustration, with an ashamed anxiety that's building in his chest- like Franz felt, the other night. A little sick.]
I don't know how it got there! No one filmed me! No one else knows me that well!
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[Her voice hardens just for that statement before it softens again.]
They're monsters, Daedalus. It's just a show. But they're mirroring your thoughts and desires.
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Those aren't my desires. I've never thought half of those things...
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[The narcissism. The cruelty. She doesn't want to believe it's him, but this lesson is about acceptance...and if he runs into his Shadow, she doesn't want him to get killed.]
None of those things? None of them?
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I'm trying to fix everything, from the way I was before! I-
...I don't want to be mocked by my own-
I've changed since Romdeau! I'm much more stable now. I have to believe I have reasons to press forward.
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