Cast: date: 'November 18th, 2012'
place: ''
participants: 'Hilary, Teresa'
synopsis: 'In the aftermath of Moira, Hilary runs into Teresa, who accompanies him to Midnight Mass and sheds a little light. Literally.'
log: "It's late. Everyone's gone home from the theatre and it seems entirely dark, when at last Hilary appears at a side door, looking paler than usual, a cigarette in his mouth. He looks from side to side as he steps down to the street. Paranoid?\n\nOr maybe it's just plain common sense. Given what he's been through in the past and the state of the world. Everyones going to hell in a handbasket yes? It's when Hilary looks left that there's someone, dumping her bag into the under seat storage of her street bike, helmet resting on the seat. At the sound of someone leave, up goes her head like the proverbial ground hog, looking over to see who's up and around. That ti's Hilary get a nod of greeting from her. \"Working late\" She calls over.\n\nHilary jumps when that voice comes out of nowhere. Or not 'nowhere,' exactly, but Teresa. He almost drops his cigarette but manages to catch it without burning himself. \"Christ,\" he breathes. Then he nods once, composing himself. \"Yes.\"\n\n\"You'll kill yourself with the long hours\" Slight concern, watching the catch of the cigarette and even softly applauding. \"See, now I'd have dropped that. You okay? Have you even eaten?\" The bag is plucked back out of the storage and slung back around her shoulder and closed, locked tight.\n\"Um. Ages ago,\" Hilary answers. \"Look, I'm on my way to Mass. I don't suppose you'd want to come with me?\" He looks guardedly hopeful, for whatever reason.\n\nShe looks like she might say no, but then she's plucking up her helmet and attaching it to her bag with a nod. \"Sure. Not often one goes to church at this late an hour but, god doesn't take a night off\" Content that her bike is safe, she's easing around it and walking swiftly to catch up with Hilary. \"Anglican?\"\n\n\"No, I'm Catholic,\" Hilary says. \"It's midnight Mass. Come with me,\" he urges, and then turns to take off toward the church.\n\nAnd she does, falling into step beside him, occasional glances to the man at her side. \"Often do midnight mass? Or did it just strike?\" She's trying to make small talk. \"You never struck me as someone who'd attend mass, pardon my presumption\" Hands dug into the pockets of her jacket and chin into the folds of scarf at her neck.\n\n\"I work mainly at night, so it's usually best,\" Hilary answers, though he's obviously distracted. \"But what makes you think I wouldn't go to Mass?\" He flicks ash into the street.\n\n\"I just… never really felt that off you. Mind, I've not known you for that long. Sorry. I'm being rude. I wasn't ever particularly religious till something happened. Opened my eyes. I go roughly once a week. Never to a catholic church though. Have you always gone or was it a tipping point for you too?\" Quiet question, trying to probe, just a little but still remain respectful. \"Are you okay? You look like you have about thirteen hamsters all battling for space on the exercise wheel in your brain\"\n\n\"Always gone, I suppose. Sometimes I fall off a bit in attendance, but…\" He trails off, exhaling a long stream of smoke and breath that trails behind him in the cold air. \"Well, you see, I was just…thinking of my mother…\"\n\"That a good thing or bad thing, the thinking about your mother?\" There's a glance to his cigarette and she's pulling a pack out of her own purse, offering up one while taking one out for herself.\n\n\"Well, she's dead,\" Hilary mentions, as if that ought to clear things up. He doesn't slow his pace.\n\n\"Well, I figured as much. Else you'd be whipping out a phone, instead of going to church\" Teresa points out, digging up a lighter from the pack and soon, she too if puffing away on her own lit stick. \"But, you still haven't answered. Good thing or bad thing that made you think about her?\"\n\n\"Oh, that /made/ me…\" Hilary sighs and shakes his head. \"No, there was a girl who…claimed to see her ghost. Dreadful.\" He flicks ash again.\n\"Don't believe in ghosts do you?\" Teresa's now looking at him, head tilted to the side.\n\n\"Not particularly, but it's hard to know what is or isn't possible,\" Hilary says, frowning around his cigarette a moment later.\n\n\"Personally, I think there's a lot more to this world than just ghosts\" Teresa nods slowly. \"Much more than the average person can see.\" She takes another drag, blowing the smoke away from the man she's with. \"Why on earth did that woman come to you, about your mother. Like are we talking Demi moore and patrick swayze, type deal, where Whoopi Goldberg is being hounded to talk to her. Or was it more….\" Trying to think of movie comparisons as they keep on keeping on.\n\n\"I don't know, she's insane,\" Hilary says. \"She doesn't like me, so I don't know whether it's even real or not. But yes, she said she was bothered by her. But…I don't see why my mother should have to be a ghost.\"\n\n\"Maybe she left a millions dollars stashed in a wall,and can't rest until you rip open a wall and find it?\" A shrug of her shoulders, she reaches over, laying a hand on Hilary's shoulder to stop him. \n\n\"The question probably isn't so much why does your mother have to be a ghost, but more along the lines of why does it bother you that she might be a ghost?\"\n\n\"Why does it bother me?\" Hilary repeats incredulously. \"Why /should/ it bother me that my poor mother, instead of being at rest in eternal peace, is wandering the earth she no longer belongs to, worrying herself over my affairs?\"\n\n\"So. What can you do to put her to rest and in turn, your mind to rest? Also, if it didn't bother you, I'd have to question your sanity\" Smoke held away from her, tapped to release ashes, she looks back over to Hilary. \"It says you believe she's a ghost as well, to a degree. And that maybe this other woman, isn't crazy. What if I told you that I could, with a look, tell you whether she was crazy or not? Just like looking at you, I can tell you that you're not crazy, you've just gone through something that… maybe only a handful of other people ever go through and come out the other end with barely intact sanity and a very changed perspective on life\"\n\n\"Well, first of all I'm going to light a candle,\" Hilary says. \"And you can't necessarily tell by loking at somebody that he isn't crazy.\" Now that he's smoked his cigarette down, he flicks the end of it into the street. \"For all you know, I could be an axe murderer.\"\n\n\"Lighting a candle is good. It helps. I could stand to light a few and say a prayer or two\" There's a pause. \"What if I told you-\" Teresa frowns, shakes her head, then shuffles that sentence to some place else in her head. \"You're not an axe murder. But you've been through something that makes axe murderer's\"\n\nAs they get closer to the church, Hilary pauses, folding his arms over his chest. \"I don't know what makes you so certain.\"\n\nHe pauses, she pauses, an internal wrestling going on before she shifts, shield the front part of her body from as much of the street and anyone else who might be out and about. \"Don't scream\" Not that she's expecting him to scream. But she places her hand palm up between the both of them. A deep breath and concentration, it's a few seconds before there's a flicker of flame, guttering out then coming back, enough to light a cigarette or a twig. She doesn't watch Hilary, just the fire on her palm, trying hard to keep it from doing more than spread across the center of it, giving off some warmth, but never seeming to burn her. \"Because I went through something, and it left it's mark on me. Like it did on you\"\n\nHilary is already on edge, so seeing sudden magic fire sends him stumbling back a few steps. \"Fucking hell!\" he hisses.\n\nPalm closes, and fire is snuffed out, or attempted to. Takes a few attempts but eventually. \"Shitty thing to be left with. Shittier still if one actually talks to ghosts.\" Palm snuffed out, she's tossing her own smoke and stamping it out with her heel, making no move to advance on the freaked out director. \"That's where I thought I was. In hell. You never noticed that I stick close to the fire extinguishers on the set?\"\n\n\"Christ,\" Hilary growls. Now he just seems annoyed at having been startled. He shakes his head, heaving a sight, then moves to enter the church.\n\nAnd Teresa watches, keeping her distance and deciding that she's not going to follow him into the church. He is getting her credit for schooling, and it's one of the things keeping her still within passing in her class. \"I'll be out here\" An option for him to bolt out a side door if he wants, once Hilary's done doing what he wants to do inside. For Teresa, she just moves off to the side, insulated against the cold by her jacket and scarf, opting to exercise patience.\n\nHilary does whatever he came to do, not rushing about it on Teresa's account, it seems. Finally, he comes out again, arms crossed over his chest. He comes and stands near Teresa.\n\nWho's parked on a step, looking up to her de facto employer. Searching his face to see if she's just screwed herself out of credits and scared off the man. \"I can always start a campfire in a survival situation\"\n\n\"And is that so horrible?\" Hilary wants to know, but he doesn't even wait for an answer. \"I'm bringing someone new in to help work on the sets and props on the new show,\" he mentions, apropos of nothing.\n\n\"No, but you should see my bill for linens when I have a nightmare. I go through so many comforters and fire extinguishers\" Hand on the rail, she's hefting herself up, nodding her head to the change of conversation. \"That's good. Make things easier. Extra help means that stuff will likely actually probably be done in time. Maybe. Without a much chicken with head cut off'ness\" She's fishing in her bag again, producing the smokes and offering one to Hilary.\n\nHilary takes a cigarette, fishing out his own lighter. \"It seems as if it's happened to everyone I meet,\" he mentions.\n\n\"I know right? I mean, it wasn't so bad when I was in Maine. You'd think, there's be a lot more folks who have gone through this there. I mean, Stephen King right? I swear sometimes, he's gone through this all. But we had to move, we came here because of my Dah, and I think I just… I just really started noticing.\" There's a gesture to Hilary up and down with her hand. \"I can see, it's like it clings to someone, when they've been to that place and managed to come back out. I think, the reason there's more is because there's some sort of group here. I don't know where. But they're here. They try to help out people like us. Or well, these ones seem to help. Back in Maine, wasn't so much the story\"\n\n\"You mean that awful cult?\" Hilary asks, making a face. \"Piss on them.\" He drags on his cigarette.\n\n\"Some of them. Others, aren't half bad. Some, little more mentally unstable than even I am\" She's not smoking, just hands sunk deep in pockets. \"Two of them babysit me at school. Apparently, they do this if you're deemed potentially dangerous. Like randomly erupting into fire, and burning down a room in a mental hospital, or in a laundromat. I know you've come on their radar, for something. My 'minder'\" Her hands come up to make the air marks. \"perked a little when she found out I was interning on your stage for credit. What on earth have you done, that's got them all interested?\"\n\n\"Nothing!\" Hilary insists. \"I haven't /done/ anything. And I would never submit to being followed like that. You can tell them I won't have it.\"\n\"I'll let her know, next time I see her. But I know from experience, that telling them to bugger off, doesn't work. You just have to hope that the ones who stop in and keep an eye on you, are the good ones. It's like..\" Okay, she has nothing to compare to. \"And it's okay, if you don't know. Sometimes, what we've been left with after we manage to get out, isn't always as apparent as fire\"\n\nHilary juts his jaw to one side. \"I do know,\" he snaps bad-temperedly. \"But /they/ don't know what they're talking about. And I'm not going to be treated like a zoo animal.\"\n\nThe snap is enough to cause silence from Teresa, at least for about ten steps. Reprieve until. \"That'd be a shitty zoo we'd be in. Who the hell'd come see us in cages\"\n\n\"Well, people are constantly in and out of my office, or disturbing me in my time off,\" Hilary says. \"What's the difference?\"\n\n\"Ooh, you got me there. You're actually caged. I'm more, free range. With eggs\" Which produces a bit of a half laugh from Teresa. \"Come on. I want a drink. And people tend to not want to drink with me, given the whole uncomfortable bullshit that apparently give off. So lets follow up church with a pint or two. Till we forget what it is that we can do. For a whole two minutes. Find out if you're a mean drunk, or a nice drunk\"\n\n\"No you aren't,\" Hilary argues, \"Not if they're watching you.\" He's already in a poor mood, but he doesn't seem inclined to turn down liquor. He nods. \"Your choice of venue.\"\n\n\"Something tall, dark, lots of head\" She's trying to elicit something other than a frown from Hilary. He's right though. She's no less free range than he is. \"Just… Ignore them. Eventually, they'll leave you alone Hilary\" Using his first name. \"They swear they're helpful but…\" There's only a few she knows of, who are. \"Come on, drinks on me. You can tell me about this new person and tell me more. Like the craziest things you've ever done in front of the camera.\"\n\n\"You can't trust people just because they swear,\" Hilary answers gloomily, but he follows along wherever Teresa leads, as long as there will be liquor there."
Date:
Just Because They Swear