[Apathy's_Child]

MC: [slapping his cheek cheerily] Welp, you better sober your shit up, ‘cause there’s more where that came from. Okay - so the prophecy we told you over the phone talks about “the last living Prophet of the Lord”. But if you look at the original Greek, the closest literal translation to the original document is ‘godly messenger’. So the prophecy would seem to refer to a human - since unlike demons, there’s never once been a proven sighting of an angel.

VERSUS: - Because they don’t exist. [gets up for the bottle – when he almost stumbles, he shambles over to add water to the whiskey in his glass, muttering sullenly] Only the SHITTY things are real.

MISS C: [rounding on him as he sits back down] Would you man up, boy?!

VERSUS: [wounded] Hey. That’s heteronormative to the point of tyranny. I think you should find yourself an usher and check that privilege, ‘cause it’s weighing you DAFUQ DOWN.

MISS C: [contrite] Aw, come on, don’t be upset.

VERSUS: [upset] I’m not upset.

MISS C: Dude - this is, like, demon ARMIES, man. They’re... like... AMASSING. [moves her hands outwards as though holding a ball, now squinting drunkenly] All I mean is, we don’t have time be giant leaking pussies about it. Yaknowhum’ sayin’?

SOL: [as V opens his mouth indignantly] HEY. [snaps her fingers until they look back like dogs] The prophecy says that God’s last prophet will speak when the Gates open. Meanwhile, the demons have been hunting down Council members... and their corpses show signs of torture, way above and beyond even “normal” [makes quote marks with her fingers] demon attacks. It’s like they’re looking for something...

VERSUS: [catching on] Or someONE. [sits back, taking this in] So you think the demons are looking for the Prophet. To try and fuck with the Apocalypse they BELIEVE is coming.

SOL: [rolling eyes skyward] Oh, thank fuck for that. Good to have you back in the room, Versus. [Miss C rubs V’s arm with a congratulatory smile] Yes. That’s exactly what we think.

VERSUS: But there IS no Prophet. Because there is no GOD. No angels, no heaven – just –

SOL: [interrupting] – Us and them. You know the Council thinks so, too. But as long as the demons keep believing it – we’re gonna have a problem. They’re looking for all of us, right now. If they find us, they’ll torture us to death for information on a person who probably doesn’t exist. You know how superstitious demons are – the whole species-specific hysteria thing they’ve got going on over God and Heaven and all that never-a-verifiable-witness-statement crap. But it doesn’t matter that it’s not real – it’s still a problem. [shrugs] Fuck’s sake, V, we’re in a goddamn APOCALYPSE movie. Would you just freakin’ suspend your disbelief a LITTLE so we can move the storyline forward already? This shit’s already meandering all over the room like so much walking roadkill.

VERSUS: Okay, okay – long as we’re on the same page over God. So what do you wanna do about this?

SOL: We need to squash this shit. They’ve already depleted our numbers – twelve Council members killed in NYC in the last month. Seven of them hunters. We need to hit back while we still have something resembling a fucking fist left.

VERSUS: We hit the streets and all-out mad dog their asses? [breaking into a grin] AWESOME! The fuck didn’t you tell me that in the first place?!

MISS C: ‘Cause we needed it as ammo to soften the NEXT part of the plan.

VERSUS: Huh?

MISS C: [stroking his hair] ... Nothing, doll.

SOL: [glaring at Miss C as the latter leans back to get comfy] Look, we knew you’d like the tanks and rocket launchers shit.

VERSUS: [animating even more] There are TANKS AND ROCKET LAUNCHERS?

SOL: In your FUTURE, yeah. But first, we have to do the research part. So in the morning, we’re headed over to see an acquaintance of ours. She’s a Council academic who was working as a theology professor at Columbia. Her Council partner was killed three weeks ago. But just before HE got his spine ripped out, the two of them were studying the patterns in the attacks that had occurred in the weeks before. Attacks’d already started by then, you see. We all relocated after Man in Room 5 – that was her partner – kicked it. Miss C and I moved in here a couple of weeks ago. The academic went deep underground, but she’s come back to talk to us about what she and Man in Room 5 found before he was murdered. We need to check out the attacks for patterns. If demons get into our world by possessing humans who fall into darkness and despair, we need to know how so MANY of them are getting in all of a sudden. We might be able to stem their numbers before they overwhelm us.

VERSUS: [hopefully] Meanwhile... tank, right? You did say.

SOL: [sighing] AFTER, tank. Two days, dude. Tomorrow – recon meeting with our contact.

VERSUS: Who IS this contact?

SOL: Name’s Acharis.

VERSUS: Never heard of her. [pauses, then accepts this] Okay, then. I guess we’ll go talk to your academic. [rolls eyes with last words] And then... [stands drunkenly & practices throwing a rocket launcher in unsteady mime] POWWWWWWWWWW!! [fade out as Sol & MC exchange a satisfied drunken victory-five]



Almost done with the set-up. Ashley, you've given me an idea.