Persephone's Manor ~ chapter three

~ chapter three ~ part one ~

~ The Edsel flips through the air, gold, jewels, bones and sex-toys flying.

Nocturne - (voiced over) "You know ... sometimes things happen really fast."

~ The army approaches over the horizon.

~ Mishil's sword-flails drop to the ground in preparation.

Nocturne - (VO) "So you just improvise one moment to the next !"

~ The Edsel hits the ground, tumbling.

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

~ Soldiers file between as the tanks form a line.

Nocturne - (VO) "... and that's all I've got to say."

~ Her face and hard stuttered breathing ...

Persephone's Manor 

~ chapter three ~


Nocturne - "Get 'em Yorick."  She throws him high over field.

('Around the World in a Day' (demo)

Fade his flight to view over Pangaea, Kashikoi era.

Life among the people.  The peaceful caravan walking the Earth tribe along side.  Then on to casual evacuations.  The walkers lift legs into flight, city ships land to load beasts and wanderers.

Another asteroid strikes.

Time and evolution while the continent splits floating, crashing waves to exaggerate as sailing ships against the sea in many directions, coastal remnants eroding away.

To the cold eras, sabre toothed cars stalking, one looks over his prey herd in the valley below.  Turns with a scent carried.

Pre-human children are born, age, and make more through evolution, in simple cuts of life through the times, following a bloodline.

Fled craft and new returning here and there, watching.  Observers at windows of homes.  A knifing sound, the observer falls.  Arsinoe (Mishil) reaches in smiling to play with a baby a moment before gone.

Until the near present day, a baby born, Robert Carson (Farmer Bob) in tears watching, his wife smiles back as he takes the child in his arms looking down at her before her eyes close, darkness.

...

Stage-lights bang on, showing models of the solar system suspended by an intricate mechanism.  The writer pulls the hard stage lever and it starts to spin, Timepiece (current version) watching in wonderment.

Into her mechanical eyes, swapping modes, taking it in.

Lightning.  To her face as she rides, present time, through the rain. 

~ Cost and Diversions ~

(song over)

Morning dawn, she disembarks at the gas station (the same as Saffron previous) grabs an armload of snacks, stops near the check out and looks at him.  Ignites a blade and whips it toward the poly-glass door, splashing it with fluid plasma.

He looks up and raises a brow from his magazine watching it melt away slowly, shakes his head and looks back to it.

Checkout - "Whatever man."

She looks at the magazine ... the police computer drops on the counter.

Timepiece - "Are you a nerd ?"

Checkout - "Holy shit !"  Laughing, "You really just yanked that right the fuck out of there didn't you.  No.  More like that food is three years old, this place is a front, and I've got some friends who like you a lot I think.  Heard about you on the news."

Timepiece - "I didn't do that."

...

Checkout - "Uh-huh.

...

Timepiece - Annoyed, "I did not !"

...

Checkout - "Still owe me a door though."

...

Timepiece - "Just take me to your criminal nerds."
________

Walking near the river, stone water-wall walkways, a bridge ahead, carnival on the other side.  Casual movement, the crowds batched around, her eyes are quick and observant, head not turning.

She notices and ignores two lovers in the passing alley, a tap on her shoulder.  She turns fast, hand ready.  A woman with a top hat and magician's tuxedo, covered in aged dust.  "Token please."

Juliet - "I ..."

Woman - "Have ..."

...

Juliet - "I don't ..."

Woman - "Have ..."

...

Juliet - Annoyed ... "Anything excepting this knife."

Woman - Sad face.  "Oh no !  Let's see what we have for you in here then ..."

Woman - Bows removing her hat, and reaches too deep in, punching through pointing a .44 powder revolver in a puff of dust.  "You're in luck.  Broom girl little miss what's-her-name just up and disappeared now.  So right this way."

Juliet - "I ... don't want to sweep your floors for you."

Woman - (still bowed) "And I ... didn't want to take over (mocking) 'Lord Charon's' duties.  But apparently he's on an extended re-honeymoon with his Lady Styx, the dead overflow back to the Earth, and the broom girl's just up and quit too.  So that's you."  She gestures with the gun (still through the hat).  "So welcome to the underworld.  March, hare.  Wait."

... she looks her over suspiciously ...

Woman - "Aren't you rich ?  You look rich.  Why didn't they bury you with tokens ?  Are you like a rich thief ?  Did your daddy steal from the poor like a taxation priest ?  They executed you didn't they.  Filthy tithing bastard."

Juliet - "No !  I ... don't know !  I should have been buried with the fullest of offering !"

Woman - "Oops."

Juliet - Looks at her, "Who ..."

Woman - "Turnstile.  The replacement.  Apparently.  No title here except maybe the field promoted queen of your particular limbo ... if that counts."

Juliet - "... and have you s..."

Turnstile - "Seen Romeo ?  Yes.  He had tokens."

...

Turnstile - Stands abruptly from her bow, "Fuck !"  She closes her eyes remembering.  "You're Juliet.  He gave me two.  One for him and one for you.  That is exactly what he said."

She turns walking away pulling back the revolver through her hat repaired and puts it back on.

Turnstile - To herself, "God we need a fucking broom girl."

She throws out her arm, a broom from her sleeve, she sweeps a spot poorly then annoyed and storms off, throwing it into the river.

Cost and Diversions ~ two

~ chapter three ~ part two ~

A boarded up door and a closed sign, the sound of roaring engines.

Driving alongside the motorcycle ~

Clerk - Yelling out the window, "How fast is that thing ?"

Timepiece - "Faster !"

Clerk - "Faster than ... ?"

Timepiece - "Yes !"

The motorcycle flash jumps.  He stops the car and gets out, checks the wrecked pavement beneath the jump-point.  Crouches, flipping road chunk, pulls a stone to keep and drops it, pulls a joint and lights it.

A flash and torn concrete behind him, then screeches to stop, he stands and turns to her, she dismounts.  He passes to her, she analyzes and shakes her head 'no'.

Clerk - "So you just ..."

Timepiece - "There are efficiency trajectories.  Technically all you need do to travel the world in a day is stand still on the turning sphere.  And that sphere is itself moving, at great speed.  Faster than."

...

Clerk - "What about the oceans."

Timepiece - "All things are topological in two dimensions.  Even you."

('Bonzo's Montreaux' by Led Zeppelin)

Pragmatism (the character) bursts through the gate in Gaslight, to the other side, launching a mechanical hand on a cable with a leg compressed leap, surviving the first explosion.  Ground troops turn to fire before getting swept.

His hand grabs rail, the cable pulls hard flinging him, while the feedback wave travels up to the docking ring.  He springs rooftop to rooftop, the light in the sky from the feedback wave's return.

Leaping through their collapse, falling beneath him, desperately trying to keep ahead of it.  The return wave hits comes down and hits hard.

(0:50)

The wave comes in a horizontal plane, sweeping out the buildings from ground up in the it's path.  Continuous reverberation echoes destruction outward, less and less on plane, to everything.

He tears off his over-coat and pack stashes it before a leap into the destruction below, the debris and smoke cloud engulfing him.

(1:59)

He emerges from the smoke on wing-suit, more chaos behind and gaining.  The feedback explosion knocks him with a hard gust in glide through in a cloud of debris as they collapse around the sub-main loading street found.

He hits a wall hard at the edge with a metallic clang, slumping.

Turning over he pulls out his coat painfully.  Pulls out a carton of cigarettes, then a pack, the cellophane, lights a Bic ... cigarette in mouth, staring at the fire ...

He pulls down comm.

Pragmatism - "Doe actual.  Doe model three sixty one.  I'm in."

Doe - (on comm) "Anyone else ?"

Pragmatism - "None."

...

Doe - "Can you do this ?"

Pragmatism - "I can."

...

Doe - "See you soon."

________

Nameless - Kissing her close in a misting brick alleyway, "I'll love you forever.  It's not going to change."

Asherah - Ear chewing, "I'll slit your fucking throat if ever it does."

He throws her gripped wrist against the wall and takes the knife, she grins watching and grips his throat, pulling in for a kiss.  He puts up her other wrist and grips them, kissing her against the wall.
________

The warehouse door slams open.

Timepiece - "That's a lot of marijuana."

Clerk - Looking at the many bales smiling, "It really really is.  And now we're not even criminals anymore.  Just drug dealers.  A lot can change in three years."

He motions to offer the joint again, she tips her head to the side.

Timepiece - "No."

Clerk - Pretending offense, "Well ... straight to the boss then ..."

Cost and Diversions ~ three

~ chapter three ~ part three ~

Dealer Mike - Looks up from the Game-Brick 2000, seeing Timepiece.  "Holy shit.  What do you need."

Timepiece - ... "This computer.  I need it's access.  This era makes no technological sense to me."

Mike - Puts the game down.  "I hear ya.  Starting with that computer.  There's nothing special about it.  Economy laptop.  Torn from it's mounts.  Runs Windows." 

Clerk - "Home edition."

Mike - "Yeah don't tell anyone but we became a Technocracy when no one was looking so what you need is this."  He pulls out a flash drive.  "It will tell their satellites your computer is one of theirs, via their signal."

Timepiece - "Range."

...

Mike - ... "Range ?"  They look at each other.  " 'The internet'."

Clerk - "Did you hear they put wi-fi on the moon the other day ?"

Mike  - "I did hear that.  So that's my, flashdrive.  By the way.  It has everything. ... It has everything."

Timepiece - "Cost."

The clerk looks at him.

Mike - Picks back up the Game-Brick, "Nothing at all."  Starts playing.

The clerk stares.

...

Timepiece - "I give you this.  She drops the computer and grabs the drive, plugs it into her wrist comm checking ... looks at him, turns and leaves.  Gone, doors slamming in series.

...

Clerk - "What.  The.  Fuck."

Mike - Still playing, "My good man I have traveled from one land in this world to the next.  And I have seen a lot of strange things ... and I can tell you that that girl.  Is going to outer space."

... game sounds ...

Clerk - "Yeah I could see that happening."

Mike - "Always buy stock in the next religion, my friend."

... game sounds ...

The clerk tosses the road-stone onto the desk, Mike raises a brow.

____

Turnstile - Echoing from the alleyway, "Jesus Fuck !  Who the hell leaves a blunderbuss in the alleyway.  ! Broooom Giiiirrrrllllll !"
____

A stack of three coins on the table while Lawrence examines the fourth under stacked magnifiers.  Juliet crosses the bridge, the broom floats crossing the path beneath.

Yorick's head soars through the air as the music fades in ...

('Three Lions' by Lightning Seed)

 (! what the hell is that and why is he kissing it !)

The world spins behind him, view locked on his face in tumble.

...

He lands jaw clamped onto a soldier's forehead.  It begins.

__

Mariposa, Nocturne, and Mishil lean on the opposite side of the crashed Edsel as the screams and shooting starts, music in the distance with the battle.

~ as the occasional stray shot pings ~

Nocturne - "It'll take like ten minutes.  Trust me, I know."

Mishil - "I read intel on that one, there were a lot of civis in the way.  I've got five on five."

...

Mariposa - "Fifteen on fifteen ... ?"

...

Nocturne - "Meh.  Ten on ten."

All - "Done."

__

In the mass of soldiers, zombies tearing among their number, the song at volume.  Most vehicles have been exited to assist, confusion, various smoke pops and comm calls gone silent, callbacks ordering answer.

__

Mariposa - Watching through a spyglass, a bullet pings off the hood next to her.  "I don't think they brought inconspicuous vehicles."

Mishil - Lights a joint and passes to Nocturne, "That's a problem."

Nocturne - Inhales ... "Yep."

Mariposa - Shoots it a look, suspiciously, 'What's that !?"

__

Zombie battles ...

Yorick getting kicked around in the scuffle, the view his.

__

All three lie in a pile ... the sounds of battle and screaming fades with the music ... then moans ...

Mishil - "Hm.  I guess that's better."

Nocturne - "Definitely easier anyway."

...

Mariposa - Exhales smoke ... "Yep." 

the end. 

~ credit roll ~

Timepiece works the wrist computer, her work triggering code on the side (the credits).  She activates a sub-protocol to run the flash software, poking at systems, opening and closing, learning.

Networks it to police web, hitting the military firewall.

She pings a signal off and records the echo, then reconfigures it to an SOS in cross-layered Morse as a static pulse.  Copies the flash contents to her wrist comp, then the reconfigured protocols to the flash.

She lifts a protective cover on the motorcycle's side, a wire hangs with a flash plug.  Connects it, tapes in and closes the panel.  Spin off riding.

Off roads, pitch dark (the view fades to black, leaving the credits in her goggle view, still processing flash contents).

~ mid credit ~

A flash of a light and heavy gust as a craft begins it's landing in front of her, she skids to stop.  The wide ramp drops hard in the engine steam.

Elizabeth (Gaslight) walks down to her.

She runs her fingers over the mechanisms of her head examining, her eyes widen, excitement.  Then down along her natural cheek to her lips and across them.

Smiles, her other hand slides up, then an abrupt pull at the set to tilt her head before a kiss.  Behind in the clearing smoke, 'The Decibel', battered hard, Pragmatism at the top of the ramp waiting.

Elizabeth - Whispered between kisses, "I found you."

(song continues (at 2:42)

The view to the night sky, passing the swinging planets of the machine, through along the turning moons, suspended in the twirling mechanisms.  Along every planet tale visited, one by one, suspended in the works.

First the writer's hand carries a little origami model of the Decibel, then Timepiece's hand and his again, his over hers guiding, then just hers.

Through to the populated Nibiru streets (realistic), view passing ahead of her hand.  Dark with obelisk structures and temples, as Kashikoi but fallen and re-built over and over.

Basic industrial and transit vehicles, street lights mostly out, darkness.  Chaotic sky traffic amid the thin rows.  No appearance of rule or law, a civilization after collapse, yet maintained minimally as an active hub for a forgotten system.

The Decibel jumps over the main, heavy sentry cannons in long rows.

They turn and shoot.

(the end)


('Twelve times Twelve' part one is leaked onto the web here)