Persephone's Manor ~ chapter one

~ 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' 

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.

____

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.

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."

The Motorcycle ~ two

~ chapter one ~ part two ~

The entry, Nocturne enters, Mishil in the middle of the room staring at the ceiling.  Dead float in the water from the ages' tales, seen through the windows, all encrusted with sea life, dried over.  Nocturnes slows ...

Nocturne - "That's fucked up."

Mishil - "Yeah ... it really is.  Recognize it ?"

Nocturne - "From my file.  They were transporting my tube."

...

Nocturne - "You ?"

...

Mishil - "I ... was transporting with your tube."

...

Nocturne - "That's fucked up.  So should I kill you now or wait until you're thinking about something else."

Mishil - "Fun ..."
____

Mishil bobs out of the water, Titanic sinking behind, undercurrent drags at her.  Underwater the people swirl into the sinking undercurrent, she works back out.

Breathing hard at the surface she looks for floating wreckage.

...

Nocturnes tube pops out of the water.

____

Nocturne - "Wow.  You're welcome."

Mishil - "Best sidekick ever."

Nocturne - Giggles, "I totally am.  Ask this head !"

She pulls a zombie head from her side-bag, snapping it's jaws at her with wide eyes.

Nocturne - (zombie voice) "... nnn ... best sidekick ever ... arrrr ..."

('Nearer My God, to Thee' by Sam Cooke)

Mishil floats in the open sea on the tube, rescue ships in the distance.  On her stomach, staring through the glass at Nocturne sleeping.

Mishil - (voiced over) "I almost ate you, you know.  I was floating a for a really long time."

Nocturne - "Why didn't you just flag down the rescue."

Mishil - A sigh ... "Name was getting old again ... thought maybe it was time to let it die."

Floating on the sea, staring at Nocturne sleeping, she taps on the glass.
____

Mishil - "Couldn't get the tube open.  No hard tools, no leverage."

She turns to Nocturne, the zombie head stares back from her hand.

Nocturne - (zombie voice while it snaps it's jaws at Mishil) "Meeeeeh ... My name is Yorick ... and I wanted to eat her tooooo ... meeeehhhh ..."

...

Nocturne - "Wait.  So then what happened."

...

Mishil - "Forty days.  Forty nights."  She lights a joint and passes it.  "No shit.  And then we arrived in New York."

Nocturne - Gigglesnort through the smoke, inhales again, "And then what happened."  Passes.

Mishil - Inhales ... "I was arrested for transporting human cargo."

Nocturne - Coughs laughing, "Holy shit !  And then what happened."

Mishil - "They wheeled you away, I broke out, been looking for you ever since.  I was curious if the incident made you very lucky, or very unlucky.  ...  For me."

...

Zombie head - (Nocturne) "Yorrrrrick.  My name is Yorrrrick."

Mishil - "The library."

Zombie - "O ... Kayyyy ..."
________

A spiral staircase, a door creaks open unseen from the top, silence, a shadow toes down the stairs.  Crouched at the bottom, a slow load of a pistol's pull, to quiet.
________

They find the library torn apart, books strewn, an empty book-stand in the middle of the room.  From atop a shelf ~

Mariposa Liddell - "Are you the reason it's the fucking Titanic in here ?"

Mishil - "You the reason it's fucking zombies ?"

...

Mariposa - "No ... I'm the reason it's a fucking mess.  The book's gone."

Nocturne - "... i might be why it's zombies ..."

Mariposa - "I don't think you alone can be.  There must be someone else here.  It takes two."  To Mishil, "I found you in the library.  Right here."  She slides a book from atop the shelf next to her, it hits the ground open at Mishil's feet, documents and photographs taped within."

Mishil - Picking it up ... "And you ?"

Nocturne - "Frock-blocking my future cunnilingus ..."

Mishil - Paging, "No she's not."

Nocturne - "Oh !"
________

A flashlight clicks on, Timepiece pokes in the halls.

A zombie jumps out, she beans him with a baseball bat from the left and shoulders it.  A suppressed shot from the pistol in her right, light from underneath, drops another.

The light shines examining down the long corridor.  Ending with a left and a right, broad doors in the middle.  A pause ...

The light goes out, NV activation sound (it doesn't actually make a sound) to a green view.  View steps to the zombie, half crushed skull from the bat, the other eye looking back at her.

She switches to infra-red ... nothing.  Changes back, shoots.

Down the dark hallway, another flash.
________

Mariposa - Interrupting quickly, "Mariposa Liddell !  She looks at Nocturne, "But you I saw on the TV."

Nocturne - "It was that alien invasion, wasn't it."

Mariposa - "That's the one !  But they never did say your name ..."

Nocturne - Smiles mysteriously, "They never do ..."

Mishil - Paging through the scrapbook.  "It's Nocturne."

Nocturne - (background) "Aw man !"

Mishil - She closes it.  "We already killed everything on this floor.  You can come down now."

Mariposa - "Oh my god thank you.  That was up here already.  I was paging through it ..."

She hops down to fours.

Mariposa - "... when I heard the shots."

She stands, zombie face in hers.

Zombie - "... one of usssss ..."
________

Timepiece stands in the armory, face and rest half mechanical.  Walls of weapons, every kind.

"God damn it."

____

________

~ Cranium ~

After separation from the others like her, she's been adapting our grade equipment.  These are her eyes, set into her head, probably in black.  Peripheral night vision goggles (L-3 GPNVG-18), with a VR headset, set over

All a bit too big, fused to the cranium.  Vision modes and clicks are as an '80s 'View-Master' toy.  VR mapping is public military grade, which is nothing like any movie.

________

____

Eyes zoom and focus, clicking to a pair of flintlock looking pistols.

Timepiece - View zooms and reads over them, back out.  "Huh."
________

Nocturne and Mishil share a blanket on a sofa in the lounge, Nocturne laying with her head on Mishil's chest.  Mishil stares into the fire, watching the scrapbook burn, cradling Nocturne's head with one arm, the other stretched across her.

Mariposa - From a chair, stoking the fire, "It was the only book like it in the library.  No one else.  It seems like Persephone's had her eye on you for a long time."

Mishil - "Yeah ..."  She stares, her arm under the blanket moving ...

Nocturne - Gasps for air with a quiver and pushes into Mishil, legs braced against the arm of the sofa.  She looks up at her, "oh my god ..."

Mariposa turns around.

Mishil stares coldly into the fire, her thumb lines Nocturne's mouth.
________

Timepiece pulls tubes from her lower back and plugs them into the pommels of the pistols, a hiss.
________

Asherah gasps, head forward between suspended arms.  Tears stream, "I love you."  His hand reaches under her chin, she jerks with a roar.

The wooden chest lid jumps again, unnoticed.

The Motorcycle ~ three

~ chapter one ~ part three ~

In the lounge, watching the fire, Mishil strokes Nocturne's face with a hand, Nocturne near frozen in a shiver.

Mishil - "You know what's bothering me ?"  A finger dips into Nocturne's mouth, a pull and a gasp ... "I know how we're connected."

Nocturne - Mouth full, with a lick, "... we're connected ..."

Mishil - Leans down and kisses her, eyes on the fire.  "And I can see how someone else would connect her with the undead, and to me ... somehow."

Mariposa closes her eyes.

Mishil - "But you ?"

...

Mariposa - "I'm sorry."

...

Mariposa - "I needed to get away."

Nocturne pulls herself up to Mishil's ear and bites it, gasping.  She whispers, "She's the fucking book."
________

Screams in the hut, view along the floor ... clothes ... a powder-horn ... blunderbuss ... Goremouse shrinks against the wall, in the corner near the chest with wide eyes.

Goremouse - "... nooo ... nononono ... oh noooo ..."

Asherah screams while nameless roars, Goremouse hides her eyes.  The chest lid jumps again.
________

Timepiece enters the garage, pitch black in NV.

...

Looks around ... pulls an empty clip and tosses it into the middle of the floor.  A hoard leaps out onto it, tearing into each other to get at it.  She looks around examining the vehicles ...

Timepiece - "Fuck."  She pulls a tube from her satchel, smooth with holes along, and a pressurized helium canister, plugs it into the end.

She checks a wrist comp for room temperature.  A holo-map appears on the floor of the room, dimensions and presumed alcoves.   She adjusts the tube's valves, pulls a pin.  "! Phosphorous Out !"

They all look up, the door slams, '! Whoosh !'
________

Mishil - Kisses Nocturne in her lap, "There goes our payday, honey."

Mariposa - Standing before two large doors creaking open, "Um.  Hello ?"

They look up at her from the kiss.

Mariposa - "I did consider that ... for me too."  Behind her, the treasury filled, piles of gold and jewel.  "That's why we're in this room.  It's where she bribed her public figures."

Mishil - Kisses Nocturne, staring at the gold, "Guess you are lucky.  For me."

Nocturne - "... yeah ... that's true too ..."
________

In NV, the garage again, appearing pretty much the same as it did before the phosphorus, with a bit of charcoal and bio-scrap here and there.

She zooms to the side door, far side of the room.

Old, windowed, thicket past the window, simple.

Goggles off, she flips on the gun light, a motorcycle tarp through the door's window, grown over.  Flips back.

Timepiece - "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

Holding for room response ... then advancing.

Timepiece - "It's just ... 'parked out back !' ... fuck sake."
________

Nocturne runs and tries diving into the pile of gold, hitting it hard.  "Fuck !"

Mishil - Watching behind Mariposa, she leans in and whispers, "I thought you might like to know how things ... work.  In our world."

...

Mariposa smiles.
________

Just outside the side door, Timepiece pulls the tarp from the motorcycle.

Timepiece - "Found you !"

The front wheel turns toward her with the lamp.  Appearing as a char-melted thing on two wheels, balanced on two front blade-like extrusions like the arms of a mantis.

Alerted zombie sounds ...

Timepiece - "Oh fuck."
________

The double doors push open a bit, zombies behind, it slams shut.

~ Nocturne pulls up her pants and loads, Yorick watching.

The doors push and slam again.

~ Mishil pulls her shirt over her shoulder and drops the blade-flails.

The doors ...

~ Mariposa snaps a broom over her knee and brandishes pointy ends.

The door pushes, a pair of frilly Victorian(esque) underwear strung across the two nobs, stretching ...

('Shadows of the Night' by Pat Benatar)

The motorcycle opens up.

____

________

Unfolded, it's much like a police Harley, high windscreen, high seat back, boxed back, all a bit oversized.  Longer and sleek, scorched black on the shell pieces, gloss underneath on the main frame and fuselage.

It still has only two central wheels, though wide.  The front stabilizers tend outward, and are fairly long with a high elbow.  Under-curved blades skid or gouge road on the turns.  The rest really is more like a large touring bike, box back.

Enclosed, the high windshield and high-back seat enclose the rider.  Not really as transformation so much as closing the lids.  To say not the 'tiny moving plates' of current sci-fi, but a very few large ones.

Nearly three meters long (8-10 feet), it's much as a motorcycle mech-suit, twisting with the rider.  With a twist in the midsection and turn of the wheel it stops next to her, spotlight lights on the field of approaching zombies.

________

____

...

Timepiece fires rounds through the heads at the forefront before mounting.  She pulls the two pistols found and shoves them into the elbow joints of the mantis arms, igniting them through pores with dripping plasma.

She leans forward as it closes around her, becoming more as a mech-suit bike.  It arcs and the mid and twists with a stretch before the wheel grinds.

The autumn grass around starts to burn as the wheel starts it's skid.

____

__________

~ Gunwicks ~

Hard-coiled plasma blades being constantly burned though while expanding.  Spewing, chaotic and dripping plasma.  You'd have to shake out the last of the fire.  Very much like an over-soaked fire-dancer torch, rumbling in sound, like a deep furnace with a pressurized hiss.

As a solid, remember those stupid little 'snakes' they have on 4th of July in places they can't have good fireworks ?  Same principle.  Light it, it expands, drawing the plasma through the pores.  Fueled, hardened by the consistency of the flow.

Gunwick's a good name.  It's fire.  Also make me think of Bushwick.

It shoots just by pressure ejecting the blade.  A solid plasma, constantly reforging through the expansion ... likely via a carbon.  Mid cooling when ejected, it would both shatter and splash, which is horrible.

________

____

~ inside the manor ~

Nocturne - Gun clicks, then punches through a zombie face.  "I'm out !"

Mishil - "Me too !"

Mariposa - Holding two blunted sticks bloody, "I'm all nubs !"

Zombies gathering a pause in examination of not re-dying, a few unearthly grins of slow realization ...

...

Nocturne - Pulls her swords, "Ladies ... Kunai me."

__

Scorched Earth and zombies more to test the bike's abilities than need.__

Mariposa and Mishil each holding a foot, Nocturnes spins through the zombies, heads lopping, upside down smiling face up and hacking, until they're each holding an empty boot.

__

The bike leap from the forelimbs, throwing the heavy back end to over the gate.  It skids to a stop while Timepiece sits upright, mechanisms adapting and back to the Harley base, forelimbs curling under like foot-rails. 
__

  

Nocturne flies through the crowd joyously, shish-kebabing through and over the stairwell, sticking into the front door.  Fire growing all around, Mariposa and Mishil roar down the stairs with a couch, laden with treasure bags, covering the width of the stairwell.

__

Timepiece watches the manor burn a moment, eyes clicking through modes, then off.  Fading out on the burn as it begins exhausting itself.

____________

The bell from Venus' shop door, an exit.

Venus looks down and opens a letter, reading ~

(Mishil's voice)

"My dear Venu.  

"You've actually changed my opinion of you, after all this time.  

"Thank you.

❤

"Arsinoe."

Venus smiles and tucks it away, takes her parasol and closes early.

____

The chain hits ground, the gate swings open and they drive into the dawn from the manor.  A burned through classic, ashen, shredded and melted at the plastics and interior, not sounding good.  Tires functional ... manor burning behind.

A 1958 Edsel station wagon (a tank).  Trunk sagging, tailpipe dragging.  A hand thrusts the zombie head out the backseat window, holding it as it's stringy hair blows in the wind through the credits.

Yorick's wide eyes take it all in ...

('Streets Shed Tears' by Ice Cube)

 

Venus walks through and from the afternoon marketplace, into the woods surrounding.  Timepiece rides, Yorick takes in the view from out the window.  Asherah and nameless face each other making love, gasping into grasping kisses.

! The ! End !

~ after credits ~

Nocturne - In a robe, crumples a letter, eyes go to the side.  "Doe !  I've got girl-gang duties tonight."

Doe - Robed, he kisses her, she smiles.  "Got some damage of my own to do at the pier.  We'll hook up after."  Hands her coffee.

Nocturne - Looking up with a sip ... "You do know ... right ?"

Doe - Sips his coffee.  "No dudes ?"

Nocturne - "Boys drool."

Doe - Puts down a plate of eggs. "Then I guess it keeps on tickin'."

He strokes his hand through his hair on the way out and into the bathroom, the shower sounds, door left open.

...

Nocturne - Giggles suddenly into her coffee.  "I just got that."

Does sings deeply and beautifully from the shower.  It's door slides open.  Her eyes dart between the food and the shower, back and forth, back and forth ... undecided.

She looks at Yorick on the mantle, he looks back.

Sunset, the music fades back in (at 1:48, boom at 2:28).

The partially fixed car drives, head out the back window, passing the Fleetline on it's way to the docks.  Fleetline rolls through the automated gates and onto a docked ship, parking at the fore.

Crew to work, attacking the safety clamps and calling to orders, they sail.

The pier in the distance in the last of the light explodes behind the sailing ship.  A long series, one after the next, tears through the buildings and quiet ships behind the sail out, Fleetline at the fore and into the night.