…In other news, the combo of the siVictim Incident that led into what Extant has christened “the Long Night”, be mindful that mild reality hiccups will be passing through for the next few days. Extant is on standby if and when a Shift will occur due to this sudden influx of not only siVis use but more merging siVictims as well.

Professor Diana Blake and her new and close team of Shift and siVis researchers have posited that, well, siVis use causes mild reality distortions—so this scenario was only bound to happen. But it has opened further discussions—and of course concerns, about siVis’ role to play in this messy time of our lives, as it’s not at all clear what it does—despite this near 30-year history we have with it…

Jackie couldn’t get all of this out of her mind, even if she tried. In fact, she was instructed to keep trying that. But due to everything else that haunted her a week ago, Jackie literally couldn’t get the broadcast out of her head.

Due to her “breakthrough”, being able to sense things on a low level as she slept, it had the standard adverse effect not turning off.

The rumbling of the car, the chalk outline shaking to make the drawing of the scene authentic. The backseat a lot more detailed than the front of the car.

What was interesting, was the pattering of the light rain that’s been pelting everyone for the better part of the latter week. Maybe the method wasn’t advanced enough, but it was really hard to illustrate the constant droplets gliding down the windows before being washed away by bigger drops, and the acuminating chill that manifested at the edges.

It all just ended up being violent scratches along the surface.

Maybe this was the kind of person she was turning into.

...So, why? Why siVictims are creating these supernatural battle scenes trying to dethrone N'atural Savage and Mayhem, when there isn't a throne to begin with...? See, it's just as weird as the Noumena we have to deal with. It could just be a sense of trying to become a Trend so they can use that socio-sociopathy to get whatever they want. Maybe they're succumbing to their mental illnesses as an act of... Trying to achieve some personal clarifty during this time. What I'm getting at is that maybe they don't have any idea. And as scary as that is, that does mean it will peter out. Lose it's weight over us...

All of this for possibly nothing.

The level of pain Jackie reached was the point where it was just pressure. Nothing but pressure. Pressure that fans the ache at the fringes.

“Jackie… Jaaackieee~ …”

Jackie stirred, her eyes slowly opened as she groaned…

Her blurred vision focused on the back of her father’s head, leaned back on the head cushion of the black car seat.

“Hey, here comes my favorite part!”

Jackie groggily moved her head, glancing down at the A.R. projection that emitted from his car tunnel console.

Tabby Morrow was there. The youthful, perky voice of reason everyone has turned to. She had a fancy new desk, her black and navy accented hair was down to her shoulders, and she had a genuine, reassuring expression.

“Remember, we all still have our minds. At the end of the day, we all can do only so much in a day—so it’s fine that we can’t tackle everything here today. You’re still here. Let’s meet back here tomorrow.”

She pointed, leaned forward and winked. Before fading away, the construct ending.

Jackie’s father flipped a switch, causing the ORACON extension on his tunnel console to fold back into it’s spot.

“Just wanted to make it known~”

Jackie smiled. “I’m starting to understand Mom’s side now. There’s optimism and then there’s happy goofy.”

“You and your mother, finally ganging up on me…” he had a mock-horror tone. “Maybe siVis is changing you after all…”

Jackie laughed, but it trailed off. Even as a joke, it was too accurate. Too direct. But he couldn’t have known.

She found herself looking out, the blue-green shade still lingering from that night as well. Everything was shining, the surfaces completely reflective to capture the mood. Seeing the city skyline from this highway. She was only here for a year and a quarter, and yet it was becoming unrecognizable by the moment.

“…And I can’t look away from it…” Jackie voiced her inner thoughts, unknowingly.

Jack Snr. paused, before he verbally sweated. “Hey—I didn’t mean to bring anything up—”

Jackie shook her head to snap herself out of it, and then continued while perking up at her father’s statement.

“No—Dad, I was only thinking out loud. There’s no need to soften your words around me because… Well, I can tell that you are now and b) your humor should remain bad.”

Jack started to laugh from his chest, a joyous sound that made Jackie smiled.

“I mean—” Jackie continued. “It’s the last bit of the world order. If that stops, then there’s no Shift recorded that can match the damage—”

“I love it when my own flesh and blood…” Jack sighed, but from the sudden laughter. “Just point and laugh at me—”

“It’s with love,” Jackie smiled the first time she could remember. She brushed her curls before her ears, before remembering the bandages that covered her hands. She couldn’t help but glance down.

Jackie felt the pit in her stomach still there.

“Was going to ask this in a more, uh…” Jack rubbed the back of his bare head, before putting his hands back on the wheel. “Controlled place? But we really should have a movie night or something. Star Wars, maybe the whole thing so far. Just to take the mind off the A.R.”

Jackie perked her eyebrow. “By showing me a fantasy movie about mind powers--?”

Jack made a pained, conflicted whine. “Hey, it’s more of a Space Opera—we haven’t had space stuff yet—”

“I don’t know…” Jackie just stared. Not at anything in peculiar. “I’d probably hate it.”

“Well, it’s just make believe…” Jack responded. “Laser swords, heroes, basic good and evil and good always wins out…”

“Yeah. It’s nothing like how it would go.”

Jack Snr. was rendered silent again.

“We don’t have laser swords, but we have rifles, and they don’t really do much. There’s no heroes or villains, just people wanting their last piece of reality to themselves before everything’s torn into shreds—even if they have to speed along that process to do it. Or, the mentally ill or disturbed don’t get the aid or attention they need and cause something a long time coming, but it’s still damage in the end. It’s not good or evil. It’s just survival. And we all are just losing every single time something happens, seemingly…”

Jackie said her piece and squirmed in the silence.

“Plus, I’m not fun—y’know—in general—” Jackie tried to remedy the situation.

“Hey. I’m an easy target because I’m a massive fool—I won’t stand for my baby girl ragging on herself.”

Jackie sighed. It was always so hard, arguing against him. Because no matter how much you could, it didn’t matter. He was on your side anyways.

“… Maybe I need to get ragged on time to time,” Jackie pressed the issue. “It keeps me humble. Keeps me from doing terrible things over and over.”

Jack rubbed his forehead. “Jackie, honey… You were overwhelmed, you were panicked, you weren’t thinking straight at all…”

“The problem is—I was. I knew what I wanted. And I didn’t realize… Until it was too…”

“Sure, but it was the thoughts that weigh on you—forcing you to think in a box. And there’s only four corners in a box. Where would you go…?”

Jackie snirked a bit. “Uh… Try to get out of the box…?”

“Um—” Jack sounded confused at his own analogy. “Y-yeah! Yeah! Get out of the box, that’s what I meant--!”

“But what I wanted to be in the box--?”

“Okay, maybe this isn—this is getting confusing…” Jack pinched his nose’s bridge. “Leslie said that—he said that you need better coping mechanisms away from siVis. Anything related to it is a mess for you right now, not you.”

Jackie crossed her arms, the odd placements of the wrappings scrapping her arms. “I wish that my own nurse/counselor could say this to my face, but I’m sure it’d be nothing but a tongue lashing anyways…”

“Well, he told us that Extant is questioning him about his parent’s crimes, so—”

Jackie instantly held her face in her wrapped hands.

“See, I don’t—I don’t think! Why do I not think! I don’t think and I proceed to do things! I’m the worse, Dad--!”

“Jackie,” Jack said, somewhat stern. “You’re only doing your best. Calm yourself, please.”

She did what he said, straightening herself out in her seat.

“siVis tells you everything you do and shows you how you work. To have that sort of thing on the mind alone is like—way too daunting to a person… But you see your mistakes as well. You start to hate yourself and everything about you looks and seems like a series of mistakes. You dive into this thing as a guiding light and it’s the wrong call. Stacey Liston, one of my oooooold squat mates told me when we were stationed out in the Gulf… ‘Isolation only breeds and ensures more mistakes’. The more you dive into your head, the more you’ll see those mistakes. You’re letting it rule you. And we both know, from your Honor Roll awards and the fat on my gut due to the pizza in those after parties—that you are a wicked smart young woman.”

Jackie chuckled, holding her bandaged hands.

“And, back to the whole movie thing… You’re right, yeah. Hard to watch things… You know how I am with action movies. It feels like… Mockery. Even when it’s not really directed at you… But the good kind of movies, the ones that seem to go against the test of time? It’s the ones that take those real issues and hurt and making a story about it.”

Jackie seemed unresponsive, causing Jack to continue on with his yarn.

“The reason why I wanted to be—anything, a officer, a solider, a hero… Was because that I read 2000 A.D., man. Judge Dredd. Got my hands on them due to your Grandpop—he only let me read them until I was a teen…”

Jackie looked up, saw in the rear-view mirror that her father’s eyes were squinted up in a mix of laughter and second-hand embarrassment.

“Granted—” Jack began. “I didn’t want to be his exact model of justice because he’s Dredd for a reason… But to dedicate my body, my soul, in trying to make the world a better place—even as I age and wither… That got me going. That made me… Hopeful about this future. ‘I get to be one of the heroes of the future’!”

“Didn’t quite get that far, though…” Jackie pointed out.

“As long as I do what I can and make you ready for it… And I messed up on that, not you. You’re suffering because I wasn’t a greater dad. Let me make it up to you, by telling you this. Find that drive, honey. Be it comic book, movie, anything. Try to find some sense in this crazy world.”

Too bad Jackie didn’t have time to consider it.

“OH NO--!” her father’s screams were visceral, as he slammed onto the brakes.

Jackie could only look forward, seeing a bright flash that was a person using their siVis ability on the highway.