video; spooky halloween psa

[restingstitchface]

[Crane's staring into the camera with an intensity that doesn't dwell well under his skin. Though the clean suit he wears does a good job of hiding it well, nothing can conceal the irritation he feels under it. He clasps his hands together under the table then rests them imperiously on his desk.]

Why do you celebrate Halloween?

I'm just curious.

[He kicks back against his chair and plonks his feet on the wood. Whatever he was irritated by - rather, what he was disregarding - seems to have taken on better shape. He feels it draped over his face, coarse but warm and intimately familiar. It takes most of his energy to play a weak smile for the gallery.]

Don't worry about tainted candy, by the way. Razer bladed taffy apples? Lye-coated bubblegum? Cyanide-laced Pixy Stixs? They're just legends. Informal whisperings of unsubstantiated reports of contaminated sweets picked up in the course of trick-or-treating. Now, for clarification; I don't intend to claim poisonings never happen. A father laced his own son's candy with cyanide in order to reap the benefits of his life insurance, yes, but it certainly isn't a problem. As a matter of fact, the absence of personal stories highlights that clearly.

[He scratches under his chin.]

Here, of course, the bogeyman isn't even cyanide or toxic chocolate - though Hershey's deserves labelling as poison, honestly - but collective fear of a different sort.

[That's a topic he isn't acknowledging right now. He has every intention of discussing it with the class, but carries on.]

Has anyone here been poisoned by Halloween candy? I doubt it. And if you're scared of the possibility? Well, take it from an expert, October 31st is the most extraordinary day of the year you can be terrified of. You'll never experience another one like it till the next cycles round. So dare yourselves and do something special - be bold, knock on some doors when the day arrives. Eat some candy and-

[He tips his chin.]

Enjoy yourselves.

Comments

[restingstitchface]

[He mutters quietly after her first sentence; rolls back his shoulders and gestures theatrically.]

You'd rather be something people have heard of.

[People are dumb being his implication. But he tilts his head the other way and focuses on her second set of questions.]

Well, no, not after what happened the last time I wore one. Dear God, people began scapegoating me for everything.

[am_i_a_monster]

That could be hard, considering we're all from different worlds. And some people have read Dante.

[At least, Hannibal had.]

People are going to do that anyway. You're an import.

[restingstitchface]

Oh, that's true, but that's where our similarities end. Imports are individuals, you know. People always exclude a specific type of person before they blame them for every accident under the sun, don't you agree?

[am_i_a_monster]

I don't know. People seemed eager to blame us all and have us all apologize for the acts of a few imports.

[restingstitchface]

Well, people have a tendency to attribute a mind to a group where it would be better to attribute such an ability to think to the individual. How many of us have been assigned individual responsibility instead of imPorts as a whole? Not that many. Not that many at all.

[am_i_a_monster]

It felt like I was being blamed individually when they vandalized my work and made comments about my ear and other things.

oops the wrong icon there. nm

[restingstitchface]

Well, people are still capable of treating members of the group as unique individuals. The diffusion of responsibility - of hate, of blame - tends to occur in groups over a certain size. There's... not a lot of us here, really.

[am_i_a_monster]

Does it really? People blamed me for what my dad did back home. We were a group of two, three if you include my mom. There are more imports than that here.

[restingstitchface]

Yes, yes. But you're from Baltimore, are you not? I'm shocked anybody's left there, honestly speaking. It's no wonder your groups are on the small size...

[am_i_a_monster]

I'm from Minnesota originally. I went to Baltimore after my parents died.

[restingstitchface]

[Well, he knows better than to offer fake apologies.]

Ah. The midwest. How thrilling.

[am_i_a_monster]

16 years of dull and then one of sheer terror.

[restingstitchface]

[He tilts his head and offers a look of contemplation.]

A whole year?

What can I say? Life's murder.

[am_i_a_monster]

[It felt like a year. She supposed it was technically only a school year, and even then her father had cut her throat before that school year was over.]

Murder's the end of life too.

[She doesn't mean that as literally as it sounds. Her old life, the life she thought she was supposed to have had, ended when her father started to kill.]

Is your life murder?

[restingstitchface]

Yes.

[Though for entirely different reasons. His life, the life people thought he should have had when they came to knew about his past, had never existed. What is the point of mourning something buried in the past? His current life, which Bruce is trying to make work, is a throwback - a charade that's starting to lose it's flavor.]

Though I hardly worry about it. Dear as life is to some people, I just don't see the point in crying about it.

[am_i_a_monster]

Only to some people? You don't see life as precious?

[restingstitchface]

I just can't picture myself getting sentimental about it, that's all.

[am_i_a_monster]

Then there can't be anything you do get sentimental about.

[restingstitchface]

Well of course, that would be a given... Still, people dont seem very amused when they realize anything I seem sentimental about is just an act.

[am_i_a_monster]

They shouldn't be surprised either. Everyone puts on acts.

[restingstitchface]

Obviously. Well, at least I'm honest enough to admit it.

[am_i_a_monster]

That makes me curious about what you don't admit.

[restingstitchface]

Secrets lie in everyone's hearts, Ms. Hobbs. I am hardly unique in that respect.

[am_i_a_monster]

Your secrets could be unique, different from everyone else's.

[restingstitchface]

Well, I have all kinds of secrets. I have met the right mind to share them with, but he seems busy these days.