Shane is (![]() ![]() @ 2016-07-31 21:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | lily, shane |
movie time
who: Lily and Shane
setting: the movies
When Lily had received the message that her request to run the movie theatre, she’d run right down there while messaging her brother on her trippy wrist communicator thing. The movie theatre itself was beautiful, a perfect specimen of vintage charm, and inside housed two separate rooms with maroon velvet cushions and a screen on an actual stage covered by an actual velvet curtain. It was like someone had gone into her brain and picked out her ideal movie theatre and brought it to life. There was even a vintage concession stand with a glass display case for candies and two working, old-school popcorn machines.
It was perfect. Beaming, Lily made the rounds to check out the rooms and was now pacing back and forth in the lobby, giddy with excitement about the prospect of what movies to show at this theatre. But she wanted to share the unveiling with Shane; it was the only reason she hadn’t run up to the projector room immediately.
Shane felt like he was a little bit out of touch lately. He’d been spending a lot of time with Rayanne, and had been lost in footage he’d taken of the area itself. All B-roll for his idea. He wanted to do a documentary about this place. What he was going to do with it he didn’t know, and for all he was aware, it may never be seen. Nope, it would be found in a thousand years when archeologists found the island and wondered what the hell happened to the people there.
That was probably dramatic of him but this place was feeling less and less real the longer that he stayed. It was affecting his mindset, that was for certain.
Either way, however, he pried himself away to go see his sister. He wanted to be part of whatever it was she was doing, and he loved that it had to do with the movies - only hopefully she didn’t show any ones he happened to be in. He walked in the doors and smiled when he saw her. “Hey,” he greeted with a big smile. “This place looks really great,” he told her truthfully.
“Dude, right?!” Lily exclaimed with a beaming grin, tossing her tattooed arms out to her sides in an open gesture. “I mean, I did all the work to make it this way, you know. It totally didn’t come to me this awesome,” She said with thick, joking sarcasm in her tone. “Wanna check out the projection room? I’ve been waiting for your slow ass to show up so even I haven’t seen it yet.”
He laughed. “Everything has that vibe here, but either way, it’s great that you’re taking over this place. I think it’ll be really fun for people. Give them a reason to leave the pod, to get together. Are you going to do movie nights?” he asked. He thought she definitely should, just invite the whole town to watch something together.
“Please, show me the projection room. I’m dying to see it,” he told her, grinning. He had to wonder if it was the old style. Probably, he wasn’t sure he could see a digital camera here.
“That’s what I thought,” She said with a grin, nudging her head for him to follow her behind the concession stand and up a small flight of stairs to the catwalk of the movie theatre, leading way to two projection rooms, one for each theatre. She opened the door to the left one and stepped in, showing a small room with an array of film canisters on a shelf, and a gorgeous, vintage projector. “Look at it. It’s beautiful.”
Shane was looking everywhere as they got to the projection room. The place really did just have a great feel to it, one that he thought felt nostalgic, even if it was for an era he'd never experienced. He did gasp a little at the projector. He walked up, and wholeheartedly agreed with Lily. “It is,” he said, nodding as he circled the thing. It really was a marvel. It was something that he would have wanted for his house back home. No one made anything like this anymore.
Lily stood near the film canisters like a proud parent, watching Shane circle what was now one of her two babies. It was a gorgeous representation of everything she loved; a golden area beauty that was, best of all, fully functioning. Or at least, she assumed it was. Everything else in this place had been. “Wanna watch the inaugural showing of…” Scanning the canisters, she beamed and pulled out a steel case. “...Plan 9 from Outer Space with me?”
Shane kind of wanted to come here every day now. He might, actually. And now he also had to wonder if what he was putting together could be printed. He had no idea how to get that done, but still. When she mentioned the movie, he stood straight and laughed out loud, smiling at her. “Oh my god, I so do.” That sounded like the best idea ever.
“Awesome. So we’ll set this up, I already started some popcorn before you got here so it should be ready any minute, and we’ll Mystery Science Theatre this shit.” Popping off the top of the canister, she began to load the film into the projector, every so often glancing over at Shane. “Did I ever tell you I used to work in an old theatre like this? But it wasn’t nearly this well maintained. But I had the button down and the bow tie and best and everything.”
Shane watched her as she set everything up, thinking that he even liked the smell in here. There was something about the smell of the film as she was getting it out of the canister. “We're going to need to do this all the time,” he announced. He could already tell it was going to be fun, and bonding with his sister was something he wanted anyway. But bonding over this was going to be even better than he'd thought in the first place. “You didn't,” he said, thinking he would have remembered that. “That's pretty great, sounds like it would have been fun.”
“I mean, it had its ups and downs, like any job does. Pro: getting your friends into movies for free. Con: losing your job when the theatre doesn’t earn enough money because you let you friends in for free...Whoops. Did you work in high school or were you too busy lording it up in your trailer?” She teased, glancing back at him once more then stepping back and dusting her hands on her pants. “All set. We’ve got maybe a minute and a half before the opening credits start.”
“I'm sure you didn't single handedly bankrupt the place,” Shane told her. Old timey theaters he knew couldn't quite compete with the big places. People wanted bigger and better. He laughed when she asked about his trailer. “I did the trailer thing. I spent a lot of time on and off set, so I'd go to school for stretches, then have to have a tutor to finish things up when I was back to filming,” he explained. Then he grinned. “Let's get our popcorn quick then,” he said, going to open the door for her.
Yup, she wasn’t jealous of that. She wasn’t jealous of his super-star celebrity upbringing. Nope, not at all. Instead, she chose to focus on the popcorn and the chance to make fun of this ridiculous, fantastic movie with her brother. “C’mon,” She said, grinning as she hurried down the stairs to the smell of freshly popped popcorn. Hurrying to grab the old-school red and white stand up boxes, she filled two to the brim and headed to the left theatre. “Now if only we could get one of those robots out there to have a personality and come sit in here with us, we’d be set.”
He grabbed his popcorn, and headed off with her. “So long as they aren't being creepy peeping toms, I'd love for one to come be our Tom Servo.” He missed MSTK3. He'd watched a lot of it. It was nice to have in his trailers, actually. He could put it on in the background, and it was nicely distracting when he needed it. But it was also a good way to keep perspective on the entire movie making process. He never really got sucked into the whole thing, but he knew others who did, so he never wanted to get dragged down into that kind of superstar mentality.
“Wait, why’re they being creepy?” She’d missed his net post, too busy gushing over her new beautiful theatre to spend much time thinking about anything else. She led them down to the very center of the seats, plopping down onto the velvet-covered seat there as the intro credits started rolling.
“Me and Rayanne, we were out walking around during the blackouts, and we found one that was stopped outside of someone's pod, just staring in. It was creepy. But I was asking around on the net, and I don't think that anyone else has seen anything like it. So, that's good?” Shane suggested. It was still in his head though, the image of that creepy silent robot.
“Ok, that’s definitely creepy,” She said around a mouthful of popcorn. “I’ll keep my eyes out for it.” And it had her thinking about some additions to her newest screenplay. Maybe the robots here would be featured in her writing. They were creepy enough as it was without this malfunction, or what she hoped was a malfunction. “So you and Rayanne, huh?” She asked, looking over at him in the dim light of the theatre. “Just a walk, not a ‘Got Laid Parade’?”
“If you see anything, let me know,” Shane said. He then smiled and nodded. “Yeah, Rayanne. But it wasn't a 'get laid parade',” he said. “I did kiss her, though. I like her. She's... lively.” That was the best way he could describe her. She was full of life, and he really appreciated that.
“Lively,” She said with a dripping quality to her tone, like the word itself was covered in innuendo. “What’re you waiting on? If you like her, why not go all in?” She asked, taking another handful of popcorn and shoving it into her mouth.
“I'm still getting to know her. I'm not saving myself or anything, I just am a little careful when it comes to girlfriends. I've had a few people try to stalk me before, or send me creepy as shit letters. Being famous brings out crazies, and not everyone wears it on their sleeve,” he told her. His mixed feelings on fame in general showed in his tone, something he normally would edit out, but it was his sister, so he didn't.
“Ok, Fabio,” She said with a jovial tone in her voice. “But just so we’re clear, stalking’s not cool.” Shifting a little with the seriousness of his tone, she looked at him as she pulled one leg up under her in her chair. “So you’re concerned that Rayanne might stalk you here? Because it would be pretty damn easy to have a stalker here. It’s not like we can go anywhere…”
“I’m not, I just know that people can play normal for a while,” Shane said. “I think she’s awesome, but yeah, I just know better than to jump straight in. Some people are like that, they hook up with whoever gives them eyes that they find remotely attractive, I guess I’m just not. But I do like her, and she makes me want to jump in without looking.” He smiled.
Lily listened, pretty easily ignoring the cheesy movie flashing at them from the screen. “So wait, how many times have you been stalked? Because this sounds like more than once.” And it actually concerned her. It wasn’t something she’d considered pretty much ever. Logically she knew that with celebrity came lack of privacy, but lack of security was stuff that only happened to people like Beyonce or Lady Gaga. Megastars. Right? It didn’t happen to people she knew, it didn’t happen to people who also happen to be her brother.
Shrugging one shoulder, Shane didn't have an answer. “I don't know. My agent screened a lot of the mail I got and stuff, so I probably got creepy letters more often than I know about,” he said. “I was just warned when they got a little too creepy, or specific. Or when the postmark was from the town I lived in at the time,” he said. “It's okay, nothing terrible ever happened, I'm just saying that when you're recognizable or are in something with a pretty vocal fanbase, sometimes things get weird, and it makes you cautious.”
That was fucking terrifying. And Shane didn’t seem to really be outwardly projecting that. Maybe he’d come to terms with that when he was younger, which just made her even more sad. Child stars… Shifting in her seat again, she tried to lock eyes with her brother through the dim light in the cinema. “Hey...I’m sorry. I’m sorry you had to go through that, that I wasn’t there to try and protect you or help you or whatever.” God, she fucking hated their father.
It was when she said she was sorry that he looked back at her, a little surprised. He looked a touch confused for a second, then shook his head. “It's okay,” he told her. “It wasn't your fault, and honestly, I'd...” he paused, trying to work out how to say this.
“I wouldn't really want to sign anyone else on for what happened with me. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate my life or anything and what I've got I'm grateful for, but it all started happening when I was a baby, and never actually stopped, and no one really asks you if you're up for things when you're already woven into the fabric of it all.”
“But Shane, that’s not the point, y’know? Or, it sort of is and it sort of isn’t.” Sighing, she watched him, thinking through her words clearly before she said them, similar to the way he’d just done. “No one asked you if you wanted this, not even Him. And he’s the very first person who should have asked you. You’re not a puppet, Shane. You’re an actual human person and it was his job to make sure you were taken care of. And he didn’t do that. Someone should have done that.”
“I didn't grow up to be a serial killer or anything,” Shane said, trying to soften everything down a little. Some days, he did feel exactly like she was saying. But he also knew if he dwelt on it, he'd go crazy. “And it's not like my life's been awful. I'm really proud of some of the things I've done, and I met amazing people along the way. I guess I'm just saying that not everything is perfect, having a public persona to keep up with is exhausting sometimes, and it makes you cautious in life. And sometimes, you want to do something else and never quite know when to come out with it.”
He paused, then went on. “I want to do documentaries. And actually I plan on doing one while I'm here, just, about this place and the people in it.”
The irony of having such a serious conversation while such a ridiculous movie played behind them was not lost of Lily. Actually, it was stuck right in her head, an idea for a scene in her next screenplay, but she tried to push that aside and really hone in on Shane. He wanted to do documentaries? Smiling a big grin at him, she reached out and squeezed his arm. “Dude, that’s awesome! When do we start?”
He smiled. “You want to help?” he asked. “I'd love it if you did,” he added right away, because he definitely would. “I already have some footage, and if we got you a camera...” he trailed off, excited already. It was clear in his eyes and tone, too. “I want interviews with people, asking why they came here, how they're doing, all that.”
“Of course I want to help, you idiot. If all we need is a camera, we get a camera. There’s an electronics store. I bet we can make something happen and then your directorial debut can happen right here in this theatre. That needs a name, by the way. You need to help me pick a name for this place,” She said, smiling. “And maybe, in our downtime, you can help me with my screenplay? Because that’s why I came here, you know. To write screenplays.”
He laughed. “Then we'll need to. And right now, I'm holding off on a working title, but if you come up with something, then I'm all for it,” he told her. “So.. yeah, let's do this! We can help each other,” he said, his mind ticking over everything. “We can one day open up our own production company,” he added. It wasn't like he didn't have some start up capital.
Lily couldn’t help the smile on her face. She’d been determined to try and make it as an author without her father’s help, and initially had sort of lumped Shane’s help into that same basket too. She could do this without them. But now, as she started to get to know him, Lily was realizing that Shane was nothing like their father. “Brother and sister production company, I like that,” She said genuinely. “We’ll make a list of all the things we need for your documentary. But after Plan 9, cool? The best-worst part is about to come up.”
“Yes!” Shane said, grinning. “After this, we’ll plan it all,” he promised. Then he focused on the film, which he truly did enjoy for all it’s badness. But he was feeling good on a number of levels, and he was going to ride it.