~ chapter one ~ part one ~
A gas nozzle throws back on the pump.
A lit joint hits a gasoline puddle.
...
It just goes out sizzling.
Heels and a polka-dotted hem walk to pay. The bell at the door. Snacks hit the counter plus two 'Jolt' sodas, two cup-a-noodles. A raised brow of concern from the clerk.
Cash and coin from around the world follows.
Red nails finger out the right ones and crumple the rest back.
The bell.
Car-door slams, Saffron's big sunglasses and a joint, lit in the mirror and passed to the unseen passenger. Smoke. A '47 Fleetline dragging heavy in the back peels off, hot boxed from the cracked windows.
It swerves onto the dirt road and gears high into the dust.
________
Night time, behind a wrought iron gate, vines overgrown, unkempt for years. Fall season, a chilled wind and dead leaves.
Mishil - "Supposedly it's haunted. Definitely there's gold. And a lot of very expensive old cars, I'm told. Nothings registered. Fill a trunk."
Nocturne - "I heard it has secret passages to the underworld. Like Versailles."
Mishil - "Never been there."
Nocturne - "Me either."
...
Mishil - "Neither."
...
Nocturne - "That's the worst habit in the world."
Mishil - "What ?"
Nocturne - "Correcting me. So ... what now ?"
...
Mishil - "How many languages do you speak ?"
Nocturne - "Why I know many lang ... uaaa ...gge ... just one."
Mishil - "... you really can't lie ? Venus warned me about that."
... mumbling ...
Nocturne - " ... i really can't lie ... "
...
Mishil - Bursts out laughing, "Then Why are you a Criminal !?"
__
Nocturne stands at the Chandle-a-Burger register in a dumb hat and uniform, head cocked to the side and staring off like a zombie, the long line ignored and angry.
She drools.
__
Nocturne - "Still an opportunist."
Mishil - "Heard that. Want point ?"
Nocturne - "Nah. Feeling kind of side-kicky today. Sometimes Doe's kinda lazy ..."
__
Doe drives the streets at night ... brooooooding ...
__
Nocturne - "Getting jealous. I'll just like ... follow you around and kill things behind you, kay ?"
Mishil - Looks into her eyes and smiles, "O. Kay."
~ Persephone's Manor ~
Nocturne - (Voiced over) "O. Kay."
('We Can Funk' by Prince)
The view goes over the manor and to the sky over, dots connect in the
stars with a vine and start the tale in their dots. The Orson from 'Blacklist Tales' flies
over in the distance, a parachute (real world signifier).
(i have no idea why that square is there)
A Gemini constellation is drawn in the stars, weaving into Mishil and Nocturne, Mishil watching Nocturne shoot a zombie through on the Gaslight battlefield. Rotate to the manor courtyard, the same zombie, shot by Nocturne (slow) then real time to Mishil shooting it again as it bobs between them.
Through the dead thicket, the vines from the apple core in 'The Rough Storybook' the gaslight port to Nibiru at the manor's entrance.
The Amazon charge from Rough Storybook on the left of the Nibiru gate road, the Gargarean charge from Gaslight on the right. Above, the Ishi battle over Nibiru, the sky swimming dragon ships descending among the crimson parachutes.
On the ground, Mishil fights with her crew. Nocturne watches them, flashing between her different forms as vision modes, the last appearing digitized. At the Nibiru gate entry, Apollo walks behind the digitized version, putting his hands on her shoulders, smiling down at her.
The thicket grows through and she smiles looking up at him as his left hand grows over, crawling up his arm. He notices, eyes go wide, the thicket passes the gate behind.
Timepiece's crew (many the same now as Mishil's), skulls painted on. Field filling with growth, they turn to running the down the middle of the split battle with the time-ship core.
Doe and Pragmatism pull their cords from the core and watch them. They light each other's cigarette, the flash explosion at the gate.
Through the gate and up the beam to beneath the Magistrate's isle from where it emanates (not really). There Akari and Mariko sit on the beach before the stars, Michael and Lucifer's fight behind them (from TSR).
Akari raises her arms to gesture '! Boom !' as Michael takes him down with the elbow drop. The feedback wave passes back down the beam to the explosion, a sweetbread tumbling down after.
~ Musashi pounds. Shumi and the huntress ignite, the 'no-birds' flock away.
Outside the ship, the Sabine Battle at sea among the birds, the Orson over Aries, he throws Mars to the sea. Eleanore Dare's knees hit the puddle before Shakespeare (A Keeper's Tale), holding up the manuscript, a vine passes through.
Mars dives under as the explosion fills the surface. Underwater the nazi clowns from 'Not a Valentine' drift floating among Mishil's victims in Ishi Tales.
He surfaces, her ship blows smoke from the dragon's mouth. The splash of across the screen as two pirate ships rise from the water in attack around him.
~ Musashi pounds, Shakespeare's eyes over the manuscript.
~ Pounds, Nameless' eyes over his cane from TRS end credits.
~ Pounds, Munchhausen's eyes from The Sabine Tale.
He puts on the antique divers helm, 'Baron of Lies' spray painted on the side, it fills with blunt-smoke in the round face glass. A mouse crawls across inside.
(over the aged picture of 'The Bullethead Club' (from Sabine)
~ chapter one ~
'The Motorcycle'
'The Motorcycle'
Music fades to the sound of an idling motorcycle engine. Back at the manor's gate Mishil and Nocturne prepare.
Nocturne - "What about ... (whispers) ... 'the gargoyles' ?"
Mishil - "They're made of stone. Only come alive at night."
... crickets ...
Nocturne - Goggles on, "It's night !"
Mishil - Goggles on, "But it was on, in the afternoon." Gloves on.
... crickets ...
Nocturne - Goggles on, "It's night !"
Mishil - Goggles on, "But it was on, in the afternoon." Gloves on.
____
In the afternoon.
In the afternoon.
Birds flock away at the sound of high caliber rounds (the same as from the opening). Views of the woods surrounding, nothing but trees and echoes.
One by one the gargoyles shatter along the corners of the manor.
Nocturne - Giggles. "Fucking cartoons." Gloves on.
Mishil - "Totally." She lights a short-torch, cuts a link in the gate's heavy chain near the lock, among the piled loops.
Torches the link again, dropping the piece from the long middle. She kicks the dirt over it and unhooks the lock. Clicks her goggles.
Mishil - "We're likely zero light in there. Those goggles have night vision ?"
Nocturne - "Already had it on."
...
Mishil - "So you're blind now."
Nocturne - "Yes. I did not know you were going to use a torch."
...
Mishil - "Let's go."
Mishil enters through and passes the link to Nocturne. She follows and restrings the chain, re-hooking the link.
Nocturne - Bounding after, "I call sidekick !" Falls over a skeleton.
________
The wooden chest in nameless hut (still blocking the door).
Asherah's face screams into the view from the side and with her hair pulled back, out and into view, again, again, the chest lid jumps. Asherah's head slumps forward, eyes up on the box.
Silence and heavy breathing.
Nameless - (heard) "That's bad."
Heavy breathing in the silent night she stares at the box ...
Asherah - "don't stop"
Hair pulled back, she roars.
____
Echoes ...
Mishil bends a heavy wire with a multi-tool set, jiggles it in the antique lock set in the front door, pulls and bends.
Nocturne - "What did Venus send you for ?"
Mishil - Leaves the pick hanging from the lock and checks through tension rods, "A book."
...
Nocturne - "Seriously."
Mishil - Chooses one and works it, gets annoyed, keeps looking, "What."
Nocturne - "It's the book of names isn't it."
Mishil - "No." Tries another. "fuck"
Nocturne - "Okay then it's 'A' book of names."
Mishil - "No !" Annoyed with tools ... "It's not."
...
Nocturne - " 'Cause I have a phone book. That's like a book of names."
Mishil - "No you don't."
...
Nocturne - "... i could get one ..."
Mishil - "I thought you were ..." throws down a shitty tension rod, "supposed to kill the things behind me."
Nocturne - "Fine." She pulls her pistol and starts shooting the crawling zombies through their heads. Finishes.
Mishil stares up at her, curious.
The wooden chest in nameless hut (still blocking the door).
Asherah's face screams into the view from the side and with her hair pulled back, out and into view, again, again, the chest lid jumps. Asherah's head slumps forward, eyes up on the box.
Silence and heavy breathing.
Nameless - (heard) "That's bad."
Heavy breathing in the silent night she stares at the box ...
Asherah - "don't stop"
Hair pulled back, she roars.
____
Echoes ...
Mishil bends a heavy wire with a multi-tool set, jiggles it in the antique lock set in the front door, pulls and bends.
Nocturne - "What did Venus send you for ?"
Mishil - Leaves the pick hanging from the lock and checks through tension rods, "A book."
...
Nocturne - "Seriously."
Mishil - Chooses one and works it, gets annoyed, keeps looking, "What."
Nocturne - "It's the book of names isn't it."
Mishil - "No." Tries another. "fuck"
Nocturne - "Okay then it's 'A' book of names."
Mishil - "No !" Annoyed with tools ... "It's not."
...
Nocturne - " 'Cause I have a phone book. That's like a book of names."
Mishil - "No you don't."
...
Nocturne - "... i could get one ..."
Mishil - "I thought you were ..." throws down a shitty tension rod, "supposed to kill the things behind me."
Nocturne - "Fine." She pulls her pistol and starts shooting the crawling zombies through their heads. Finishes.
Mishil stares up at her, curious.
Nocturne - "They were already kneecapped, I was laughing on the inside."
...
Mishil - Smiles and whispers, "I've got a secret."
Nocturne - Kneels close, smiling and holsters, "Whatchu got ?"
The door swings open, they smile.
Mishil - "I found you."
She reaches and pulls Nocturne's pistol from the leg-holster.
Mishil - Still close, "We think it's already been stolen." Her other hand reaches around to the extra clip on the back of Nocturne's belt, "But the client wants to know for sure."
She swaps the clips and loads the pistol. "Venus is just the intermediary." She looks at Nocturne, smiles, flicks on the safety.
Mishil - "So after we check the library, anything else is fair game, for you and me."
Re-holsters it to Nocturnes leg, snaps it in and returns the empty clip to her belt. "You forgot." Rises and walks through the door.
Nocturne watches until she's out of sight ... falls over backward, splayed.
...
Distracted, she draws her pistol and points to the courtyard, nothing.
Annoyed, she bangs the side of the gun on the porch floor a few times then shoots three crawling zombies through their heads.
Holsters, crosses her feet and lights a cigarette.
Nocturne - Exhales, looking up at the stars, "I did forget."