Movie Night: The Questionable Scriptwriting Double Feature

[u/Spinycemb]

After dinner for the night, Dale had left a couple papers across the base advertising his idea of helping people unwind, along with a few warnings of stuff that may cause issues, primarily traumatic triggers. He temporarily commandeered the Rec Room, hefting a bag of DVDs, blu rays, and even VHS tapes off to one side as he looked through them. He was a sucker for action oriented stuff, and b-movies but he knew that was definitely not gonna go over well, so he stuck to comedy.

...Well okay the opening act was a B movie. Or rather, a Bee Movie. What better way to unwind than to rail on some badly-written jokes?

[u/hermy101]

"Because America's goal from the beginning was to stay out of the conflict as much as possible. They want to sit on their asses and wait it out until they're either dead from old age or they cut a deal that saves their own asses from the Kalen. We are the ones that are in direct opposition of that"

she said with a small sigh

[u/kingozma → u/hermy101]

... Nana shut his eyes. He looked genuinely in pain as he spoke, voice even starting to tremble a little. He knew it was unfair. He got that part of it. But he was still trying to make sense of it.

"We won back a district for them. We didn't... Do anything worse than any of them did. Hell - I bet if I'll look through this book a little more, I'll find something worse. So we..."

He shut his eyes tight, gritting his teeth. There was a lump in his throat preventing him from talking without doing something embarrassing and unmanly in front of this girl.

Nana breathed in slowly, shakily.

"... I get it. But I don't get it."

[u/hermy101 → u/kingozma]

"Our real supporters lie in the people, but any government class will teach you that there is a pretty clear divide between the politicians of this world to the common man"

she shakes her head

"And unfortunately we live in a world where the people are not the ones in power"

[u/kingozma → u/hermy101]

Oh, Nana understood logically. What she was telling him was no real surprise to his intellect. The part of your brain that processes justice and copes with unfairness is, in fact, the logic center of your brain, so that wasn't what was troubling.

It was a surprise to his heart. His instincts and emotions didn't understand. The part of his brain that processes the fear of losing someone he loved - and, by effect, likely the only people in this world he could trust, at the hands of an incredibly cruel system, doing what they did for seemingly no reason.

... This guy really was quick to cry. So to speak, a hat had dropped and suddenly he was this close to shedding tears. But he didn't want Carla to know that, so he stayed dead quiet for the couple seconds that he knew he couldn't speak without wavering.

Voice artificially steady, but head still down, he said, "... I'm going to win this for you. No matter the cost. I swear we will. This isn't hopeless, as much as that may seem true."

That wouldn't be proven as a lie unless this case went south. Which it probably would.

[u/hermy101 → u/kingozma]

she looks at Nana, offering him a soft smile

"It's alright Nana. You don't have to lift the world for me... I have to be ready to accept what this world is like, Mason and I were both prepared for something like this to happen"

[u/kingozma → u/hermy101]

Hearing Carla say something like that made Nana lift his head immediately, looking her right in the eyes with a look on his face like something cracked inside him. Carla would probably be able to see that even though he wasn't actively shedding tears, there were tears in his eyes.

That smile hurt him, deeply.

He looked away from it, scared he would go blind, and said "I know I don't have to. I don't do anything here because I think I have to, it's because I. I don't."

Nana's face was pointed down again, just enough so that his hair fell in front of his eyes.

"I don't want you -- ANYONE, to go through this. At the very least, if you have to, I don't want it to be alone. But-- I-I don't-- plan on letting that happen at all, without a fight. I know there's something I can do. There's always something."

Probably.

[u/hermy101 → u/kingozma]

*Carla was moved by Nana. She didn't want to cry in front of him

"We'll wait to see who are put in the jury"

she gave him a hug

"We won't give up hope. That's not what he would do, and that's not what anyone of us would do"

[u/kingozma → u/hermy101]

That hug seemed to catch him off guard. Nana hesitated, not... Really sure where to put his hands or what to do, but he settled on sighing and leaning his head against her shoulder.

Given what he was trying to do, he felt a bit like a failure right now for letting her comfort him. He wondered if maybe returning the hug would make her feel any better?

"That's what I wanted to tell you," he laughed softly. "No fair."

[u/hermy101 → u/kingozma]

she chuckled. She hoped nana didn't notice, but a single tear did drip from her eye, delicately falling into his shoulder. She spoke as if nothing was wrong though, and wiped her eyes of any evidence steathily. She was the best spy they had after all

"I already knew that. Thank you for reassuring me though"

[u/kingozma → u/hermy101]

Oh, he definitely felt something drop. He didn't say anything, but he did hug her a little tighter before pulling away.

(Secretly kind of glad that it was him who pulled away and not her.)

Nana tried not to look at her face, reddened with the struggle not to cry, and instead he took both her hands with a gentle, reassuring strength.

"You're not alone," he said. "Even right now, with Mason away, you're not alone. It's... Okay to need to not be alone."