Gnet in the End of Days

[Apathy's_Child]

CAMERA PANS THE DIM MOON OVER THE NEW YORK SKYLINE ON A PURPLE NIGHT. CUT TO THE STREETS BELOW: A SHAVEN-HEADED MAN WALKS DOWN A DARK INDUSTRIAL STREET, WHERE THE ONLY LIGHT COMES FROM THE DIM POOLS OF THE LANTERNS DOTTED AROUND. HIS ARMY BOOTS CAN BE HEARD THUMPING OVER THE SIDEWALK AS THE SHOT CUTS TO HIS PERSPECTIVE - AS HE APPROACHES AN ALLEYWAY, SMALL GASPING SOUNDS ARE HEARD COMING FROM IT, THOUGH IT IS UNCLEAR WHETHER THE ONE MAKING THEM IS LAUGHING, CRYING, OR WHISPERING.

AS HE PASSES THE OPENING HE LOOKS AROUND THE CORNER. A TEENAGE GIRL IS CROUCHED ON HER HEELS, HUGGING HER KNEES. SHE SNAPS HER HEAD UP QUICKLY AS HE APPROACHES.

MAN: Um... are you okay?

GIRL: [eyes reflecting the street-light’s light like a cat’s] Nobody is okay.

MAN: [smiles wryly, keeping his distance so as not to spook her] Yeah ... you’re prob’ly not wrong about that. [watches her warily, crouched on the floor across the alleyway] Look, is everything cool here? Do you need help?

GIRL: [rises to her feet slowly, watching him] No. [finally smiles] I’m out of there – everything is going to be fine now.

MAN: Did something happen to you? [concerned] I have a cell, if you need me to call the cops or anything –

GIRL: [laughing] The cops can’t do anything about the one who put me in that... place.

MAN: Uh-huh. Well look, I don’t like to push, but... we should probably get you off the streets. How about I take you home? [as she looks at him doubtfully] Look, I’m not dangerous. I promise. I can call someone else to come get you if you’d rather that, but I can’t just leave you here.

GIRL: [biting her lip, thinking, then finally nodding & pushing off the wall unsteadily – pulls out syringe protruding from her arm out & drops it the ground without the Man seeming to notice] ... Yeah. Okay. Thanks. [gathers herself together & smiles at him] Promise not to... y’know... kill me.

MAN: Scout’s honour.

GIRL: [as she approaches him] In fact, you should really let me kill you.

MAN: Sure thi- wait, what?

GIRL: It’s only fair. Drinking your blood would help restore my strength. Since it was God who took it from me when he threw me downstairs, it seems just that His most favoured creation should give it back. [laughs, shaking her hair over he shoulders] It’s not like I’ll ever get the big man himself to heal the damage he caused. All HE ever does is smite and judge and smite some more. [pauses, then adds afterthought] Asshole.

MAN: [staring at her] Oh-KAY... so, lady, I’m guessing you either took a knock to the head, or you’re just generally... [circles a hand around his head making a crazy sign] Look, I should prob’ly take you to a hospital. Looks like you’ve been through a shit-ton, and I get it – I really do. But, that said, I am SO not the person to deal with you right now.

GIRL: Oh, you’ll do fine. [sniffs] Your blood smells great. You shouldn’t beat yourself up.

MAN: No, no, you don’t understand. [sighs] Thing is, I’m the jaded old-timer figure of this movie, ya dig? I mean, I’m still like one of the moral centres and all – at least until the REAL hippies start showing up - but really, my own head’s already pretty fucking crowded here. Look, it’s not that I’m UNWILLING handle your PTSD on top of mine – I haven’t lost ALL my compassion, else I’d probably have shown up as a demon instead – it’s more that I’d probably just make you worse if I tried to fix your damage myself, since I’m also haunted by my dark past. [looks around] Ideally, of course, this is the point where a fast-talking no-nonsense matriarch would come and take you off my hands, leaving me free to hunt down whoever made you all loopy and blow up their shit without the encumbrance of a trauma victim. But I have a feeling this movie is gonna be unnecessarily long anyway, so what say we just find you a hospital instead, huh?

GIRL: Oh, that’s okay. You can still help me. [snaps head on one side with a sinister smile- her eyes scorch black] We don’t have to form a connection based on full character history or anything...

MAN: [under his breath as he sees her black eyes]... Aaand there you are.

REACHES INTO A POCKET AS SHE LUNGES AT HIM, THEN STOPS WITH A JOLT – SHOT MOVES OUT REVEAL HE HAS STABBED HER IN THE HEART.

MAN: Girl was only fifteen or sixteen years old. [yanks dagger out of her breastbone, making said girl’s body jolt again as the demon glares from behind black eyes] You fucking dick.

MAN STEPS BACK AS THE WOUND IN ITS CHEST BEGINS TO SMOKE, HARDER AND HARDER, UNTIL FLAMES ARE LICKING AT ITS EDGES. HE WATCHES WITH GRIM SATISFACTION AS IT GOES UP LIKE A BONFIRE - WHEN IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN A FLAMING STRUCTURE OF MELTING FLESH, BEGINNING TO LIST TO ONE SIDE, HE TURNS AND WALKS OFF INTO THE NIGHT. PULLS OUT HIS CELL AND DIALS – FEMALE VOICE ANSWERS.

MAN: Demons are dicks.

SOLUMINA: You hit town yet?

MAN: Yeah, yeah, I’m here. I had to park like sixteen blocks down. Just got attacked by some asshat in an alley. I saw a syringe – I think the girl OD’d, and the demon crawled inside when she gave up. You know how they love a good ol’ soul in despair.

SOL: [silence] You take care of it?

MAN: They’re both dead. [pause] I couldn’t save the kid - didn’t have any Holy water on me.

SOL: Hey man, you did what you had to do. Okay? Look, we have to stay alive. If this End of Days prophecy I keep hearing about is really a thing, we demon-hunters are gonna be the survivors’ only chance.

MAN: Whoa, hold up – don’t tell me YOU believe that End of Days shit. I thought everyone who ever went near Council business knows there ain’t no God or Paradise. There’s just us, and them.

SOL: Doesn’t matter. What matters is, the DEMONS believe it. Hell believes the time is nigh, and it’s gathering its strength to engulf the Earth - God or no God, that shit sounds like getting messy to me. [pause] And we both know you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t think the same.

MAN: [shrugging] Hey, maybe I just came to catch up with my oldest friends. You ever think of that?

SOL: Uhhh, nope.

[MissC is heard yelling in background: “That him? Where IS the old fucking tart?”]

SOL: [to MC] Yeah, he’s like, sixteen blocks away. [pause as MC’s voice is heard yelling again] Miss C says hurry the fuck up, we haven’t seen your elusive ass in forever.

MAN: I’ll be there in five.

SOL: Awesome. We have a TON of catching up to do. And Versus?

VERSUS: Yeah?

SOL: Just... try and walk sixteen blocks without getting into trouble, huh?

VERSUS: [smirks] You know me. [hangs up and continues down the street - the burning form behind him explodes into embers like a small firework display. Green River strikes up and as he walks off into the night, embers floating to the ground behind him like fireflies lulling down to sleep.

[Versus]

I am amused. What's funny is that I used to volunteer at a community resource center when I was in high school and felt really awkward trying to help people with trauma.

[Apathy's_Child]

Yeah, but you knew she was a demon all along.

[Saya]

Its like you knew possession movies scare me the most D:

[Apathy's_Child]

Green River continues to play as the action switches to the Deep South, where a group of twenty-somethings are partying on the swampy riverbank, the music now blasting from portable speakers. A barbeque is flaming in the background and people are milling around, drinking, dancing, some kissing or sitting on the riverbank. Screen caption reads ‘BRAKE, LOUISIANA’.

Panning over the dancers, the shot hones in on a girl, barefoot and with the front curtains of her straight hair braided like a hippie. She is dancing by herself, really getting into the music, arms above her head in rapture as she wheels among the other dancers with her eyes closed. A twenty-something man approaches, his pupils the size of saucers & appearing in much the same state as her. They start dancing together, coming together in mutual drug-fuelled rapture.

Song continues to play into second verse as action switches back to a small apartment in NY. Solumina leaps up at the bang on the door – Versus enters and drops his backpack as they hug. Miss C jumps down from her perch on the counter and bounces over, slamming into them to make it a group-hug. They let go, usher him to the table and pour him a drink from the open bottle of whiskey as he sits.

Cut back to Brake, where the hippie-haired girl is still dancing with the man, wheeling around and twirling one another more slowly now, eyes big and rapturous as they flow to the ground. Song fades down gradually over following as he rolls lightly on top of her and speaks to her [both have heavy down-home accents going on].

MAN: Damn, girl. What’s your name?

GIRL: It don’t matter. You know my SOUL. [moves hand in front of his face wonderingly] We share vibrations.

MAN: Well shit, I should just take you right here and now. [gestures to the other partyers] They wouldn’t know WHAT to do. Goddamn small towners – betcha they’d flee in horror.

GIRL: [laughs in delight] Do it! Take me down here in the river-mud. [writhes beneath him as if the idea turns her on] Like the gods of old.

MAN: [with a suddenly lucid & sinister smile] Blood running on the riverbanks... now that does sound like the God of old. [his eyes scorch black] Well, since you’re offerin’... [moves in to bite her in the neck; suddenly stops, and spasms on top of her]

She shoves him off, pulling the knife from his gut; he lands on his back, twitching.

CUCKOO: [getting to her feet, now talking in a south London accent] “Take” me? Fuckin’ patriarch. I bet you hate Jews and blacks. [spits on the ground]

MAN: [glaring up at her with black eyes] What ARE you?

CUCKOO: Er – demon hunter? Mate, seriously, I know it walks and quacks like a dumb-arse little hippie chick – but “We share vibrations?” You actually FELL for that? I thought I’d overdone it there. [shrugs] You’re not the only ones who can assemble like a MOTHERFUCKER when required. And my side’ve been hearing some shit about the End of Days that's got them all antsy. Truth is, I’m just passing through. This is WAY bigger than your shitty little Podunk town.

MAN: [gasping as the gut-wound smokes] You don’t know what you’re getting into... you stupid child...

CUCKOO: [now REALLY indignant] CHILD? Bitch, I’m twenty-seven years old, and something tells me there is no WAY you would be using that kind of minimizing language if it were a bloke standing in front of you right now. Fuckin’ child ME. [kicks him hard in the side – he yelps and tries to grab at her ankle, but he is wounded & slow, and she dodges back easily]

CUCKOO: Even with that straight white male privilege working for you, that’s STILL the best you can do? Good to know. That prophecy I keep hearing about just got about 73 per cent less intimidating.

Man strains as flames begin to consume him from wound outwards. Onlookers scream and run as burning man’s eyes scorch black and the demon beneath reveals itself - the flames climb high, burning with unnatural brightness as the partiers flee, their screaming fading into the distance.

The demon explodes into embers, its final howl shrieking through the night. Cuckoo stays where she is, barefoot on the riverfront, watching the embers settle in the moonlight. Something howls back across the swamp, and she pulls her knife reflexively.

Realising it’s just an animal, she sheathes the knife and picks up her satchel from where it fell, scrubbing idly at her soot-smudged face. Turns and walks away from the riverfront towards the road, muttering about denizens of evil and overprivileged dickholes. Seems to cheer up before she has gone too far – starts humming and then singing “Take It From the Man” as she pootles along in the hot, heavy Louisiana night.

[BourbonBoy]

This is great, keep it going.

[CuckooTuli]

Originally Posted by Apathy's_Child

Turns and walks away from the riverfront towards the road, muttering about denizens of evil and overprivileged dickholes. Seems to cheer up before she has gone too far – starts humming and then singing “Take It From the Man” as she pootles along in the hot, heavy Louisiana night.

Damn, you got me... that's pretty much how I pootle through life.

[Apathy's_Child]

This is harder than last time. I don't know if it's because I'm using the (heavily bastardized) template of a non-Gnet thing I've been trying to write, and it doesn't work as well as parts being literally written FOR the posters. Or if it's just because it's been a long time since anything send-up-able happened round here. But either way... this is harder than last time.

[MissCheyenne]

Fuck yes. I hope I'm utterly kick ass and cool.

[Apathy's_Child]

Kind of scraping it for conflict here. Who hates who around here these days?

[MissCheyenne]

Erm........Versus clashes with Sternn.........that's about all I've seen.

[Versus]

Not really.

I got super mad at Despanan in that 10 page occupy thread, but everyone else that's pissed me off has been some random jackass.

[Versus]

Oh. CuckooTuli and I are destined to fight, someday.

[MissCheyenne]

Maybe I'm thinking of someone else then, wouldn't be a surprise, I've been pretty out of it on meds lately.

[CuckooTuli]

Originally Posted by Versus

Oh. CuckooTuli and I are destined to fight, someday.

Non-violently.

[Versus]

Non-violently. To the death.

[CuckooTuli]

Nooo, I just heard the death rattles of Clint Eastwood and John McClane! Every time someone says they don't believe in violence, an action hero dies. You have to pound your fist into someone's face like a side of beef to show them you believe. The sound brings them back to life.

[CuckooTuli]

Originally Posted by Apathy's_Child

This is harder than last time. I don't know if it's because I'm using the (heavily bastardized) template of a non-Gnet thing I've been trying to write, and it doesn't work as well as parts being literally written FOR the posters. Or if it's just because it's been a long time since anything send-up-able happened round here. But either way... this is harder than last time.

Bitch, this better be some fishing for compliments shit rather than a threat to jack in the one fic I'm FINALLY IN.

[MissCheyenne]

Originally Posted by CuckooTuli

Bitch, this better be some fishing for compliments shit rather than a threat to jack in the one fic I'm FINALLY IN.

This. You got this shit DOWN boy.

[Versus]

I'm hoping to add more to my fanfic soon since I have a long weekend. I could drop you two into guest appearances if it makes you feel better.

[MissCheyenne]

I'd love a guest appearance. Can I be tough and strong instead of the more realistic weepy and weak? Or you know, whatever your creative juices flow towards.

[Versus]

Wait. You're not tough and strong?

[MissCheyenne]

It's all a front, I'm really a five foot ball of fear and anxiety.

[Versus]

Originally Posted by MissCheyenne

It's all a front, I'm really a five foot ball of UNRELENTING UPPERCUTS.

Fixed that for you.

[CuckooTuli]

I also would love this. Although if my function is purely "recipient of Versus-inflicted smackdown", appropriate vengeance will be extracted when I get my finger out on Gnet in the X-Men 'Verse.