postictal | ic inbox; entranceway

yeah
when something's recorded it's like
you can always go back and look at it again and it'll always be exactly the same
but that's not

i guess it all degrades somehow eventually
and all we can really do is keep transferring it and make a load of backups and hope we caught everything

kinda funny.
that's sorta what we ended up doing.
transferring stuff from place to place and hoping we didn't lose anything important.

[...]

[Not funny. "Funny" is the wrong word to use.]

maybe not funny.
weird.

[That's...unsettling.]

when he started losing his memory alex used tapes
and then the tapes were easy to lose so i put it online

weird is definitely a word for it

[Great. Nothing is real and their lives are just a metaphor for archiving film.]

i mean
anyone would though
right?

that's why people film home movies and stuff.

[It's just that they were archiving faceless men in suits and bars of distortion instead of soccer games and Stacy's first few baby steps.]

[...right?]

[Alone in his room, Jay snorts.]

makes some sense

regardless of what's actually going on i guess the whole point of a mass market camcorder's so you don't forget things
home movies like you said

we just
needed it more i guess

yeah.

[What else is he meant to say? Waxing poetic about the state of their minds and their digital souls, or whatever the hell, can only last them so long.]

[They've dwelled. They've dwelled for entirely too long, and now it's time to change the subject.]

how's the 12th sound

[Jay's thankful for the change in direction. The camcorder blinking away on the nightstand will still be there, even if they're not talking about it. ~~That faceless thing will still be there, even if they're not talking about it.~~ Talking about what happened is always uncomfortable, simultaneously weakening it by limiting it to words and strengthening it by making it more real.

Yeah, bad movies are easier.]

sounds fine
is there someplace with a good tv

[Jay might still scrounge a movie or two back to his room tonight. He needs a distraction, now.]

there's actually a whole movie theater
might be able to play something on that fancy old film and everything.

[Probably best if they don't. But, hey. The option sure is there.]

[The option sure is, isn't it?]

i'd rather this place not burn down too if it's all the same to you

but if the library really does have books on everything maybe i can get myself certified to handle that stuff

for later

[He'd rather this place not burn down.]

[So would Tim. Jay's seen his place go up in flames - but only through the medium of a television screen, the digitized, burned blue. Maybe he never...did it never occur to him, who must have done it?]

[He never saw the hot roar of a fireball calcify on the front porch, the reek of gasoline singeing his nostrils beneath the weight and heat of Alabama's summer.]

[He, too, would rather this place not burn down.]

why not right?
movie theater might need people to work it.
never know.

[Never know. He might be able to make himself useful here.]

[Jay Merrick: projectionist and part-time "Irwin", if he's got the name right.]

sure
it'd be something to do

maybe this place has some weird old movies we don't have back home

probably
bet there's a bunch in alien languages or something

oh my god
i bet there are

y'know what
no more events
i'm done
let's just watch alien movies for the rest of our lives

i'll file that in the wonderland suggestion box
i'm pretty sure alien movies will be about as confusing as most of the events here
it's a win win

exactly.

[Jay tries to think of something equally clever, but he comes up dry. Nothing more to say. Dammit.]

so, movie theater on the 12th?

yeah ok.
i'll let clem know

unless you want to

nah i'm good
it's kind of your plan anyway

[Tim didn't strike Jay as the type to organize any kind of social event, but yet, here they are. Two loners and an eleven year old child. About to watch some bad movies.]

alright.

[His plan. He made a plan to socialize. Jesus christ what is the world coming to.]

see you then

see you then

[And with that, Jay scurries down to the library to find a couple DVDs his clunky, out-of-date, closet-provided laptop can play.]

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