The Pivotal Western ~ chapter two

Setting sun, the man looks over to the Maiden, curled under his coat in the passenger seat.  Smiles ... eyes back on the road, city on the horizon.

Man - "Hey !  Wake up you.  You gotta see this.  They passed that Tesla project, LA has become amazing at night, and we are just in time."

Maiden - "Mrf."  Pulls the coat tight over her head.

Man - "Lazy ass."  Lights a fat newspaper joint (headline ?).

A hand pops up from the coat.
________

An arm reaches from asylum bars screaming.

Elizabeth (historical, from 'The Sisterhood') walks the asylum halls, knife in hand.  Arms reach past the bars, she's not particularly bothered, blood already dripping from the blade.

Behind her a sound, then the same blade but clean and at her throat.

Elizabeth - (current) Holding the clean blade, she whispers into her ear, "This is a statement concerning the nature of time."  She licks her ear.  Cuts taking the other blade as she falls.  Looking at it curiously, a smile.  "Hm."

~ The Pivotal Western ~

She flip whisks them away under her corset's waist on either side, then a laugh down the corridor filled with moans and reaching arms.

('The Beginning' by Kosmik Force with Sub One and Wheely)

As they drive, into overview as minute details all around begin flipping like coins.  Details pop into the air, landing differently in a wave across the land.

Out across countryside, and far down the road to LA.  Different crops turning behind them in a shaking of leaves, the woods edging in.  The riverboat pub rides a distant parallel in the fields before crashing back through the trees.

Surrounding areas turn to native patrol, presence overtaking the designs, national forest and reserve becoming the same.  Rangers turn white to native, growing in number, cars to horses while settlements in the core regions grow with the tribes making trade in the changing season (harvest time).

~ 1923 ~

(Eliot Ness is assassinated, face in salad)

...

(body riddled with bullets)

...

(the restaurant blows up)

Clemmons - Now considerably younger, pours the Mother (as well) another, "Have I ever told you the tale of beer's Nubian creation ?"

Mother - "Of course you have.  I'm no Bastet.  And you ... "  She laughs into the drink.  Puts it down, "Are no priest.  But do tell it again Sam."

Clemmons - "They say she raged destruction across the lands, your ... Bastet.  Suffering to the plains and jungle alike.  Insatiably devouring.  Everything.  Relentless passion, you sure you're not related ?"

Mother - "And what did the priests do ?"

Clemmons - "They fermented the first beer."  He pours his, "Colored it as blood to tempt her, and filled a pool in her path."

Mother - "And what did she do ?"

Clemmons - "She drank.  Voraciously."

Mother - "And what did she become ?"

Clemmons - "A goddess ..."

Mother - "... of love."

________

Man - Driving, "We're going home now.

Maiden - "Home ?"

Man - "Home.  Mine and yours.  That money's for my people.  Mostly.  We fight.  The exchange is good from here to there.  We're about to ten time."

Maiden - "Well what about my people ?"

Man - "Greek gods need my money now ?"

Maiden - "They're not my people.  They're going to try to kill us.  I mean my people as in me.  What about my me people who's dresses are constantly getting torn ?"

Man - "Yeah ... sorry about that red one."

~ chapter two ~
 

Maiden - "Don't be.  But I want more."

~ More ~



Steam of the train's departure, the air horn sounds.

Naamah - To the engineer, "Does this train pass ... 'Hollywoodland' ?"

Engineer - "Passes if we need to.  Through the tunnel and into the mountainside, third fork and to the left.  Haha ... the 'historical experiment'.  Not a bit out of the way and curious myself.  Six hour, top speed.  No express yet."

Naamah - Watching out the window a moment.  Smiles.  "Thank you.  It's meaningful to me."  She places a bill on the room's tool-shelf under a well rounded stone before leaving.

Engineer - Glances back at the shelf and grins, "Well ... it's important to me too."

__

Naamah walks the settling cabins on the way back, the engineers calls out, "Did I say six ?  I meant to say three ..."  The loudspeakers chime on.

Engineer - "Alright all you layabout ... 'tourists'.  Were going to see this new ... 'Hollywoodland' for ourselves now.  Settle in children, we're going full.  ! Whooo ..."

Speaker out, the train hits a jump in speed with a loud bang and the sound of something other than a steam engine.  Naamah grabs the door on the way into her cabin, knocking against the inside wall over the bench, annoyed.

She looks up, smiles.  "Oh, One."

More ~ part two

Mambathu - "... so at this point a trip to the library seemed wise."

Lilith - "Cliff notes."

Mambathu - "Among the most conspicuous differences was the hardest to research.  Cortes, having been ambushed by (smiles) ... 'unknown pirates' just off shore, is unheard of here.  Only a footnote warning others from the region, in the nautical archives.  One of many, apparently ..."

Lilith - "Not missed as a man in any world."

Mambathu - "True enough.  And so the Aztecs conquered northward, making the Rio Grande."

Lilith - "Makes sense.  Then what happened."

Mambathu - "Washington made treaty with the Natives of America, in exchange for toeing that line with them."

Lilith - "Better book than I thought.  Then what happened."

Mambathu - "The British were vanquished almost instantly, the Aztec territories were bordered and established while the Natives here keep the national forests as their patrol and home.  And so all these events and many more, all left the final borders exactly as they are, to us."

Lilith - "That ... is impossible ... tell me more.  My credit card's already out."

________

An apparent pawnshop and gold exchange called 'Dunstan and Clare's'.

Shopkeep - "Malverde ..."

Man - "What.  I said I was going to rob some banks up north and then I'd pay you with interest.  I did that and I paid you with interest."

Dunstan - "So why am I still suspicious.  I feel suspicious."

Man - "No idea."

Maiden - "Maybe you're a suspicious person."

Man - "She didn't mean that."

Maiden - "I did mean that.  I think he is."

Shopkeep - "I am a suspicious person.  Money's good.  Debt's cleared.  Not used to that.  Now what do the happy newlyweds need today ?  Better rings perhaps ?"

Man/Maiden - "No/Yes."

Man - "God damn you Dunstan."

Dunstan - Smiles ... "Clare !  Bring out the wedding rings."

Clare - From the back, "Go to hell !"
________

Mambathu - "I saved it for last.  The Bible was named in James' honor, but by Queen Sophia.  After he was blown to pieces along with British Parliament."

Lilith - "Fawkes really got through ?"

Mambathu - "Yes ... and the plague was cured more quickly this time." 

Lilith - "Elizabeth."

Mambathu - "So it would seem.  Shakespeare still edited the Bible and again, it is exactly the same.  Except for the Appendix to the royal edition."

Lilith - "That's ... really very impossible as well."

Mambathu - "Queen Sophia is rumored to have named it after James to comfortably secure her transition, and she was not pleased about it.  

Lilith - "The Sophia Bible.  Love it."

Mambathu - "No one else did.  But at least this time Marlowe was involved as well."

Lilith - "... good ... for him ?"

Mambathu - "Well yes.  He wrote the preferable Faust."  

Lilith - "... sure !"

________

The train passes into the mountain tunnel, extreme velocity.  Inside gaslights flicker on and turn up, the ride goes smooth and people begin mulling.  A knock at the cabin door.  "Tokens please."

Naamah - Opens a door and stifles a laugh.  "They were looking for your body, for a very long time."

Mars - "I was on the search team.  Tokens.  One each."

Naamah - "Gold ?"

Mars - Smiles and takes the sack.  "Old friend."  Turns out the door.  "We slow after the mountainside in a couple of hours.  Back to physics for recalibration.  That's when the bandits like to hit.  Be ready."

Naamah - "But why are you here."

Mars - "I built this train."
________

Mambathu - "... and the blasphemy to sneak his name into a holy book as he did.  In this world as well he did this."

Lilith - "You're not even Christian."

Mambathu - "Of course not but it's still extremely inappropriate.  To his own beliefs I mean."

...

Lilith - "... sure !"

... silence looking other ways ...

Lilith - "Didn't you help Morgan sneak characters into his stories ?"

Mambathu - "No.  She did that without telling me."

...

Lilith - "Unknown pirates ..."

________

Naamah - " 'On the search team' ..."

Mars - "Vulcan left a lot of journals in his frame that I'd never guessed I'd understand.  It took me around 20 years to read through his babble and madness ..."

Naamah - "All about Venus, I'm sure."

Mars - "Yeah I know way too much about her.  After transcribing away from all that, another 10 to understand the physics.  Lots of explosive micro-compression involved.  He ran it all on clay battery ignition.  Which is insane.  The level of micro networking of the signal as an actual field ... madness.  Or at least it seemed like it."

Naamah - "So a couple of aeons later ... and who's the engineer ?"

Mars - "Some dead train-hopper I found stupid enough not to know who he works for and dumb enough to do it for free."

Naamah - "Lucky find."

Mars - "An engineering genius, when his life depends on it."

Naamah - "Other lives ?"

Mars - "Toss a coin.  But his own ass sits on the engine, so we know we can at least trust that.  Where's your One."

Naamah - "Still trying on my clothes I think.  We're on vacation.  He loves digging through my luggage."

Mars - "Kinda do too.  Not yours."

Naamah - "None taken.  He's found the book you know."

...

Mars - "About damn time.  Be ready.  Tunnel out in just under an hour."  Door closes.

One - (heard) "Who the hell was that ?"

Naamah - Turns ... "That ... fits you better than it does me."

One - "I know it does."

Naamah - "You're an ass.  Gun up."
________

Mambathu - "... and Shakespeare's histories were far more propaganda than tale.  As soon as he tasted the queen's gold it was all over for him."

Lilith - "Mm hm."

Mambathu - "Still died poor in this world and he ..."

More ~ part three

The riverboat rolls, inside a sleeping cabin, both young.

Mother - "A hundred years old, Sam.  And all ... crusty inside ..."  A grey streak grows in her hair, she smiles.

Clemmons - "Not quite.  And you're nearly a crone !  I saw you over edge running alongside, striding like goddess among ancient gazelles."

She starts unbuttoning his shirt.

Clemmons - "In fact I'm pretty sure I remember you admitting we're the same age ... back when you still loved ... things ...  But we're all better now, 'Great Lady'."

Mother - "You talk a lot.  I wondered if that was your angle, but fear of death, Sam ?  I've outgrown it."

Clemmons - "Happy you ..."

She slams him to the wall, vines growing up his arms, raising them with the clearly special revolver in his hand and taking root in the wood of the wall, cracking it.

She kisses him as they both begin to grow young again.  His head slams against the wall, followed by vine up his neck, wrapping around his head, padding between.  His eyes go wide.

The revolver is torn from his hand and the vines.

________

Note ~

'Tourists' understand that nothing is real here, at least for them.  They take nothing seriously except the tokens required for the rides and market, oblivious good-timers.

As it is in the marketplace, they are the ones without cloaks who bow to those with.  Those with are there for business, those without, pleasure.  Many are the same from every other marketplace scene.

('Whole Lotta Hott' remix by Kitty Kitty Boom Boom)

Hands pump tokens into carnival vending machines, pulling out rifles and pistols, random assortments.  Other pay on ammo at the nearby machine.

__

The train exits the mountainside tunnel (side view of it's name 'The Shooting Gallery') into a dust storm of horse and carriages, early cars and a few old racers.  Harpoons strike the side, a few making windows and setting grapple with chains.

A couple of crop duster looking WWI refits fly over.

Each of the train's passenger car looks vaguely buffalo-like from the side (never seen fully before, only angled down the side on entry or departure).

Armored at the fore in a thick plate, buffed at the top for storage with piping and gear-works running from it beneath the windows.  Out of context the cars would have been considered more 'steam-deco', with a swooshed overhang from the full-armored fore to back over the window rows as a sun-shield.

Side-clamps drop from the undercarriage, grabbing the rail tracks on sparking rollers as the engine gains steam to counter their drag and the whaling carriages pulled across the field, some flipping behind while the crew pull themselves toward skidding.

A few pop 'davinci gliders' on rope, some from the heavy drag chains and others from their direct grapples launched.  Overhead the planes line up for a bombing run along the length.

__

More tokens pump as the travelers prepare, apparently excited as the cabin shakes hard.

Engineer - Loudspeakers squeak on, "Alright you lazy bastards.  Time to get what you paid for."

The crowd cheers ...

__

Windows open along the sides while the bandit teams approach, field filled with everyone with a 'new plan' ( ... ) and everyone they know, tourists of their own market.

Inside the train Mars pries out a harpoon, dropping those climbing it's chains to the stampede, lost in the dust.  He bows smiling 'excuse me' to a flustered passenger, moves her aside to hack a rope with a heavy knife.

Glider sent spinning overhead, then lost to the dust storm.

A line at the front of the cabins forms, tokens are pushed as the gunnery chair (costs ten) pops at the fore top storage.  The gatling seated tourists start pedaling (he got the idea from Andromeda's gunnery).  

Guns fire randomly into the bandit swarm with mixed success while similar pours through the windows.  More tokens pump, next up.

(insert fun time for the battle choreographer, for now that's you)

...

('Folsom Prison Ganstaz' remix by DJ Topcat)

Rocketeers make their way parallel to the engine in swaying makeshift rocket-cars (the ones in the twenties were pretty cool, and also hilarious), pounding the tracks ahead.  The engineer pops the side window and shoots out the starboard rocketeer, while the port blows the track ahead.

Engineer - To himself, "Bastards."  Takes a drink and gets on comm while working the levers, "Alright 'tourists', rough ride ahead."  Cheers returned through the comm, he flips it off.  "I really do think I hate them all."

He shoots the other rocketeer.

The under-clamps withdraw while thin nearly pin-like legs pull out from the pipes under the armored fore and beneath the windows.  The engine leaps ahead, steam-stack leaning in a bit more like a rhino.

The rest take foot as the cars skid off the blown track, separating and crashing into each other sparking signals between and keeping track on the engine.  They fan to stampede, view to the high above as the pursuers pour from the surrounding woods.

The ropes and hooks slide from the thin legs, while they pierce any vehicle in their path not knocked aside.  Eventually a rocket takes out a rear hip and one car's down.

The engine veers off and back, guiding the rest into a circle around it (like a wagon train).  Mars jumps off one with a kit and runs to the wreck.  The tourists fire at the regrouping bandits as he pulls the spare hip and parts from the underside and starts fitting.

...

Up and back he gets in it as they return to charge, knocking all aside.  One by one they leap for track and connect, steaming away from the failed bandit survivors, what's left too slow.

They steams into the 'Hollywoodland' platform, banged and sooted, dragging the heavy chains.  The passengers babble out excited as the gates open.

One - "Okay now where the hell's Eve ?"

Eve - Back turned on the near platform, "It's 'Hey-wa'." 

She paints a kneeling tourist's face, his hands locker in prayer.  The tourist opens his eyes wide and smiles, paint complete, she strokes his cheek and smiles back down at him.

Eve - Sweetly looking into the painted one's eyes, "And how ..."  She clocks the tourist across the jaw to his apparent ecstasy before he dissipates to smoke on the cement.

Eve - "... the hell do you not know that by now ?"  She picks up the token from her collection plate (some candles and a 'Face-paint 1Tkn' sign).  "Where's my fucking book, Ah-Damach.  Gimme."  She sees Naamah exit the train behind One, "... hey Naamah ..."

Naamah - "Eve."

...

________

Lilith - "So ... what's in the Appendix ?"

Mambathu - "Hm ?  Oh !  I thought you'd stop listening."

Lilith - "I was planning on tuning back in when you got to it.  You never got to it."

Mambathu - "Are you sure I didn't mention it ?  Hm.  Well it included books by John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene.  And Yaldabaoth is mentioned, by name."

...

Lilith - "He's still here now.  In this version.  I can smell him."

('Bad Man' by Esterly with Austin Jenckes)

(blackscreen through the credits and I am glad I grabbed this because I can't find it on the tube anymore, 'Riverdale' got the 'nice cut')


~ after credits ~

Nocturne rides chained in the back of an armored truck, marked for money transit.  She stares past the guards with their guns on her twitchy, out the back window, burred light through a thin slice of scarred bulletproof glass.

Agent - "We have a storm brewing.  A fight between gods.  We need you to settle them."  He lights a cigarette and passes it to her, holding it.  "All of them." 

Nocturne - Exhales ... "Enumeration."

Agent - "At least five.  Ones being scouted.  Hunter in the field."

Nocturne - "That means more."  Inhales his pass.  Extended in exhalation, "Why ..."  She watches the smoke over the dusk light ray from the slot window.

...

Agent - "Why ?"

Nocturne - Looks at him.  "Do they die ?"

...

Smokes watching her, younger guards tighten their grips.  Eyes go to each other's, a safety goes off.

...

Agent - Begins singing, "Why ... oh why ... oh why must they die ..."

...

Nocturne - "Why always they die ..."

Both - From outside the truck as it passes in the night, a puddle splash. "... I'll never know why ..."

~ From 'The Underdogs', by Mariano Azuela ~

(traditional version sung over final black-screen)

Someone plunged a knife

Deep in my side.

Did he know why ?

I don't know why.

Maybe he knew.

I never knew.

The blood flowed out

Of that mortal wound.

Did he know why ?

I don't know why.

Maybe he knew.

I never knew.