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

[refrigeratormom]

[It opens a lot like the beginning of a movie about blue-collar life dissatisfaction. A montage of a pretty young woman in a small but adorably homey kitchen, making a sandwich for a very small child. It's nice and sort of provincial at first, but something's wrong. The cheerful smile on her face now frozen and gradually curdling into a grotesque grimace, how she smears the peanut butter angrily, like it's offended her in some way. The unnecessary slam in dropping the plate abruptly in front of the kid or even how, in this shot or that pan, the kitchen's charming 1970's features look drab and cloistering

[makes_asteroids]

Want to talk about it?

[refrigeratormom]

[She lets a few seconds elapse before nodding a little too hard, biting back... something. Something more emotional than she wants right now.]

If... if I saw anyone else in the world hit Dean like that, I'd make them eat it. I...

[makes_asteroids]

I have utterly no doubt of that. I had a difficult time when Charles got ill, running the school for him. It was a boarding school, you see. And suddenly, I've gone from world traveller to den father. It was hard.

[refrigeratormom]

But- but I wanted to be a mom! I always did! I wanted to get out of hunting so badly...

[makes_asteroids]

And I've never wanted anything more than to be a husband and a father. That doesn't mean there aren't moments when we feel fettered. There is nothing wrong in feeling that way.

[He sipped his coffee, mildly.]

[refrigeratormom]

Yes there-

[Stop. Breath. She takes a sip of her coffee and swallows mildly before continuing.]

You don't quite understand. I grew up in that life, that hunting life- it was horrible. I hated it so much, I just. [Biting her lip to contain herself.] I wanted to get so badly. I did things to get out that... weren't good.

[Like making a deal with a demon to opportunistically use her parents' horrible death as an out to escape her life and make a new one with John. Like burning every bridge she had with her family to keep them from dragging that darkness into her home with her family. She made so many sacrifices, and that Darkness creature was throwing it all back in her face.]

After all of that- I love my children! I love my husband! I know I do. I tried to be a good mom. I tried.

[makes_asteroids]

I don't believe anyone who is in a position to know you or to know what it is to be a parent would ever believe any differently Mary. Those which aren't...don't matter.

[He picked up on of the biscotti, dipping it in his coffee, thinking.]

No, I don't understand. But I do know what it's like, to grow up in something horrible, frightening, and to do everything it's humanly possible to do to prevent your children from seeing what you did, and to have it fail so spectacularly, in ways which aren't your fault.

reaction/part 3 that i thought i posted earlier hurr ;_;

[refrigeratormom]

[Mary is staring at the TV, stunned. This can't possibly be real. This isn't- this isn't her. It's some stupid trick of the Core, messing with her.

Still, she watches. Mesmerized.

The other Mary breaks off from happily humming her run-away song and takes a huge drag of her cigarette, tossing her head and making a noise that can't possibly be decent on public television. Watching this, her disgust turns to burning embarrassment that people are actually seeing this. The Other Mary looks at her cigarette like it can show her the way, and speaks.]

Man, there's nothing like a good smoke. It's funny, right? [Right into the camera, now.] It's always the impeccable fucking saints who do things like this. It shouldn't surprise you. [She grits her teeth and obviously presses the gas, as the car's engine roars off-screen and out the window the car is obviously speeding up.] Don't let it fool you. Anyone who fakes being an altruist or selfless little martyr probably has to drink to numb the urge to kill things. Most of them only defend the

[getswhinedat]

[ And somewhere, in the building, Bobby Singer finishes a drink, picks up what weaponry he has, and heads out himself.

There's really no off-season from Winchester duty. Just one of those things he's learned to accept. ]

[refrigeratormom]

[And Mary has tried so hard to rise above it, to be better than this- the exact opposite of the monster burned into her memory.

Bobby will probably find her near the Underground Mall.]

[getswhinedat]

[ Oh, good, no trail of blood. This is already off to a really good start. Bobby is flagging you down, girlie. ] Hey!

[refrigeratormom]

[Whipping around, gun aimed, trigger-

-wait wait. Wait.]

...Bobby?

[Okay, finger off trigger. A little. She isn't entirely trusting that this is Bobby. What if it's one of those Darkness things?]

[getswhinedat]

Yeah, Bobby. The guy who just had to tear off after your ass when you decided this was your new favorite plan.

Disregard that

[failedparenting]

[John's been watching the Midnight Channel for a few days now, partially watching out for people he knows and partially for entertainment. Yeah, it got violent and depressing sometimes, but this? He never expected this.

He recognizes the kitchen immediately, and it just gets worse from there. Mary's rage, his own voice on the answering machine (and the message, he's sure he left it for her at least once), her screams, all of it's a punch in the gut (the quip about particularly). When she rears back and hits Dean, though, John's nearly sick.

The rest of the broadcast goes by in a blur, and John's left staring blankly at the bedroom tv. Eventually, the slam of the front door knocks him out of his daze. Shit, Mary's gone after the thing.

He practically leaps out of bed, dressing in record time. He charges after his wife only a few minutes later, fully intending on helping her tear the shadow bitch a new one.]

i disregard your face

[refrigeratormom]

[She's already off like a shot, tearing off into the night towards- she doesn't even know anymore, really. She only makes it a few blocks before a chill crawls all the way up her spine and she turns around to find- it.

By the time John gets there, Mary will be standing her ground against the thing, dressed exactly as it was in the broadcast. It's laughing at her cruelly.]

Look at you, you're even dressed like a hunter. Fuck, I miss that life. At least it meant something better than those soul-sucking-

Shut up. Okay? [For a living moment she sounds almost like Sam in her vehemence, or Dean or especially Samuel.] Just shut up and don't ever talk about my children again.

[It laughs and steps closer.] They're mine too.

No, they aren't. [Reaching for her weapon, stopping dead when the Shadow does the same damn thing, every inch as stealthy and capable as Mary herself.] Back off.

[Something changes in the Shadow's face: it twists a little darker, angrier, on the brittle edge of losing patience. This is clearly the end of a long