SEVENTEENTH SHOT

[dog_eat_dog]

[It’s no coincidence that Tess has been quiet for a new weeks, what with what’s happened in her household, but well, she’s never been one to hide. She might drop off the radar, or change her identity, but she’d never hide.

Only cowards hide.

Despite the weather turning warmer, Tess is in a thick sweater with the collar drawn around her tightly, sitting on the front steps of the castle. Those first few weeks of spring are nice after a cold winter, and she’s looking forward to a summer –– hopefully one more easygoing than the spring they’ve had, or the winter before it.

Tess balances her journal on her knees and flips through it idly. After a moment she gives a huff of exasperation.]

Missing rooms, super strength, magic, weddings…

Just once I’d like to open the journal and talk about old episodes of some TV show or something normal. There are so many TV shows I wish I’d gotten to see the ending to. I never got to see that Carrie movie, or see if Miley Cyrus ended up in rehab.

Such a piss-off.

Comments

[ensorceler]

[ Anne understood maybe half of that. ]

And these are things worth missing fondly?

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess gives a snort.]

Maybe less fondly and more out of morbid curiosity.

[ensorceler]

It near sounds like a public execution.

[dog_eat_dog]

The long and prolonged kind. Death by public humiliation, maybe.

[ensorceler]

[ Poor Anne doesn't know if she should take her seriously or not. Woe is ignorance to modern day entertainment. She's been told of movies but never seen one, and hasn't a clue what a 'tv' show is. ]

Can you not wish for any of these things? I am now curious.

[dictated]

[fearbringer]

Would you like a copy of Carrie?

[dictated]

[dog_eat_dog]

The one that was supposed to come out in October 2013? Yeah, I'd take it.

[dictated]

[fearbringer]

Do you need something to watch it on, too?

[Pitch is going to be super accommodating here-- he's all for getting horror movies into the hands of the Castle residents.]

[dictated]

[dog_eat_dog]

I own a TV, so I'm covered there.

Are you the castle's equivalent of Netflix, running around delivering movies?

written;

[themuse]

[Kate can't help but actually feel bad reading all of that. Although she doesn't particularly like Tess, the woman is obviously troubled and comes from the type of background Kate can try to sympathize with, but doesn't really understand.

I can definitely spoil Carrie for you, if you want. [She can't help but smirk to herself.] But from my timeline, Miley Cyrus is still up in the air.

dictated

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess pauses, mostly to wonder the things she wished she'd considered back then, when it was all happening: when did most rehab programs close their doors, anyway? A month after the outbreak, Hollywood might as well have been on the moon for how far away it was. Who could care about Hollywood with society crumbling?]

Last I heard, she was supposed to perform at the AMAs but it was cancelled... for obvious reasons.

[A scoff.]

So what happens in Carrie? I never saw the original.

dictated

[themuse]

I left about two months before they were scheduled to air, so your guess is as good as mine.

[It was strange to Kate that they were from around the same time period, though. Completely different timelines and outcomes (at least, she liked to think that wasn't the fate that was waiting to befall her own world), but a similar place just the same.]

It's about a girl - Carrie - and she's shy and has no friends and she lives with her abusive mother. The kids at school basically torture her and her mother's a religious zealot, and while all this is going on she starts to discover she's telekinetic. She ends being taken to the prom by the boyfriend of one of the girls who feels sorry for her, and the bullies rig the prom queen vote so that she will win. Once she goes on stage to be crowned, the bullies pour a bucket of pig's blood on her and all hell breaks loose. She uses her telekinetic powers to start the the gym on fire which kills almost everyone. Her mom tries to kill her once she gets home and Carrie kills her with her telekinesis instead, collapses the house on them and they both allegedly die.

[There's a pause before Tess receives another text.]

On second thought, Castle would have probably told it better.

dictated

[dog_eat_dog]

You're right. He would have included the suspense and horror, hm?

[But she's notably distracted at that.]

Two months out from the AMAs, then you've got no reason to go back home. Good timing, Kate.

[forsometimenow]

Maybe next time we go on an expedition, it'll be to a place where we can get some DVDs.

[dog_eat_dog]

How will you know they're the real thing, though?

[forsometimenow]

Well, true. Kinda wish we had cable here- I could catch up on everything I missed. I was never much of a movie person.

[dog_eat_dog]

Yeah? What shows did you watch?

[molotov]

I was taken in the middle of a season of Top Chef. That is the kind of pain you do not get over.

[dog_eat_dog]

I'm not sure which is more brutal, that, or the fact that we even care about that shit instead of, say, curing cancer.

[molotov]

[Snort] I am no scientist. Let someone else deal with terminal illnesses, I just want to occasionally watch some reality trash shows when I am not slitting throats in the Congo.

[dog_eat_dog]

What made you choose the Congo, of all places?

ten days later with starbucks

[rightchoices]

People gotta hold onto normalcy where they can.

[ But there's something in his tone that suggests he's not quite comfortable with the complacency, either. Not anger, but so much of his usual resignation is gone. ]

cheers B)

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess pauses, mostly to assess his tone. It is different.]

Yeah, but pointing out the obnoxious stuff the castle does isn't really thinking critically about what passes for normal here.

[rightchoices]

[ He grunts a little sound of borderline irritation. ]

Well, maybe that's the real curse of the castle. Longer you're here, dimmer you get.

[ Wow, Lee, that is patently unfair to say, and he'll feel a little bad about it later. ]

[dog_eat_dog]

Some curse. Stupid people are probably happier than smart people, anyway.