《The End》Scenes 26-29
Advertisement
26 INT. FIFTH TOWER - STUDY - EVENING
The study is a spacious room: the large bookshelf along its south-facing wall is all there is in the way of decoration. A desk faces away from a large glass wall that overlooks the city from high up. On the desk is a pile of papers, pencils, a photograph of a woman, and a jar with what appears to be a foetus inside. Standing behind it and watching the sunset is SAUL (59), a man clad in a modest habit with an aura like a withering tree - his posture remains tall and proud, but there is a melancholy hollowness to him where something important has been lost.
SAUL
Sorry to call you both here so late.
Sophia, helmet under her arm, is standing in the middle of the room. Besides her is PHOTINE, another woman in heavy white robes evocative of a Howie coat, but her glasses are lopsided and she holds herself with the anxious disposition of a person who has barely escaped NEEThood at 30.
SOPHIA
Think nothing of it, Lord Saul. The Hierophant calls. It is our duty to answer, no matter the time, if there is something to add to the record.
SAUL
I appreciate that, Lord Sophia. Though truthfully, dragging Lord Photine away from her family at this time of day is what I'm most concerned about.
Photine stands up straighter, startled.
PHOTINE
No, Lord Saul, that's fine! My family don't... really talk to me these days anyway.
SAUL
That's surprising. I would've thought they'd be proud of our one and only Magister.
SOPHIA
I expect they're intimidated in the presence of the authority on all mysteries.
PHOTINE
(reticently)
Perhaps, Lord Sophia.
SAUL
I won't waste more of your time than I must. Lord Sophia. The Greater Fifth has escaped?
Advertisement
SOPHIA
Through the heat exhaust. She was accompanied by a presumed nihilist. They struck me with my own blessing.
PHOTINE
Oh, it's the reflection, isn't it? You shouldn't go down there.
SOPHIA
Your Pontiffs have done excellent work on the architecture, Lord Magister. It is a shame that you selected the Fifth to be something so disobedient. Fire burns. Water flows. Only mankind may rebel against nature. Is the concept of suicide not such a thing?
PHOTINE
I... don't really understand your sermons...
SOPHIA
I implore you to learn. Lord Saul interprets the past within the records, whereas you understand the laws and mysteries of the present. It is my duty to produce a dictate for the future, upon which you of all people ought to rely. The sciences must be restrained by moral law.
SAUL
There's no need to worry about that. Lord Photine, The End begins tomorrow. We may be the last Shrine to activate, but is the spare still adequate?
PHOTINE
Less than ideal. He's technically incomplete. Unless his personality has improved, then...
SAUL
Sadly not.
SOPHIA
Then why continue to ponder? We ought set him free at once. I will gather my forces.
Without waiting for a response, Sophia turns and exits the room.
SAUL
Do you think she ever sits down?
PHOTINE
I doubt it. She takes her job as seriously as I probably should.
SAUL
Can you imagine her reaction if I told her he's already gone?
Photine looks to him in shock.
27 EXT. FIFTH CITY - STREETS - NIGHT
If the streets were barren during the day, they are desolate at night. It almost feels like a ghost town, missing everything but the people. Only a few figures walk here and there. A stocky man walks down the street, and is passed by a figure more than head and shoulders taller than even he is.
Advertisement
PHOTINE (V.O.)
He's what?
This monster of a man, SOLOMON (20), dwarfs everyone around him. His lantern jaw and broad shoulders give him the stature of a titan, and he has the same distinctive silver hair/eyes that Aether has.
28 INT. GANG HIDEOUT - NIGHT
The thieves are spaced out in hammocks hung from the ceiling, asleep. Aether is not - she lies in a hammock closest to the couch that Maria lies on. The two stare at the blank ceiling, murmuring to each other.
MARIA
So... The Tower.
AETHER
I can't answer any of your questions.
MARIA
You only know secrets?
AETHER
I barely know anything. Studying was hardly my strong suit. I don't understand the science.
MARIA
You're not calling it "mysteries"?
AETHER
The Faith's special dialect is deeply irritating, so no.
MARIA
Can't argue with that. What made you leave?
BEAT.
AETHER
I don't know anything about this world.
MARIA
Maybe study next time.
(beat)
I'm joking.
AETHER
I know.
(beat)
I don't want to participate in The End without knowing why. I want to see the world that we've decided to erase. I want to decide if it's worth ending. I know why The Faith was created. I know how gravity is too strong for us to leave this planet. How we're doomed to stay stagnant, suffering and dying forever until we go extinct. There's no way forward. This dead end was here from the very beginning. But...
MARIA
But?
AETHER
We've studied the mysteries for ten thousand years. Can living this way be so unbearable if we've waited for so many generations? Or did those generations only survive because they knew that their descendants would one day be here for The End?
Silence. Maria doesn't offer her opinion, but her expression makes it clear that she has one.
AETHER
I have to know. What makes a world worth ending?
MARIA
Maybe a better question is "what makes an end worth having"? Why live at all, knowing you'll die?
AETHER
Well, that's the point of The End, isn't it?
MARIA
The End is one answer. To change everything. Is that different to death?
AETHER
I don't know. Is it?
BEAT.
MARIA
Would you rather change the world or yourself?
AETHER
I don't know. The Faith says "ourselves", and the world will change because of that.
MARIA
Don't like saltwater, so the plan is to change into freshwater fish and swim to a cleaner pond?
AETHER
I don't think we don't have a choice this time either way.
MARIA
Don't we?
AETHER
As far as I can tell, everything they say is true. They're correct.
Maria chuckles.
MARIA
Well, just because you're correct, doesn't mean you're right.
Joseph is still awake, overhearing the conversation. He is facing away from the two, staring at the wall as they talk. The subject is making him uncomfortable, so he does his best to ignore it and force himself to sleep.
29 EXT. GANG HIDEOUT - DAY
It's a new day, and the sky is clear this morning. It's quiet once again, and the sound of cicadas is in the air. Solomon's hand reaches for the door handle, warping it out of shape as he pulls it open from the sheer force of his grip.
Advertisement
- In Serial1064 Chapters
Master, This Poor Disciple Died Again Today
A silly cultivation novel about an airheaded master putting his foot in his mouth and his poor, clever disciple ducking the fall. In the midst of faking his death, Xiao Hui finds himself trucked and summarily reincarnated into a cultivation world. With great hopes for what is to come, he gets himself taken in by a sect and chosen by a powerful master, but his master seems to have a hole in his brain! What's a poor disciple to do? What Hui does best, of course! -Cultivation/progression fantasy -Neither grimdark nor fluffy, but interwoven with both silly and intense moments -Not your typical cultivation protagonist [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]
8 997 - In Serial35 Chapters
Prism - Seekers of Solace (A LitRPG Saga)
The Virtual Revolution is in full swing and empty streets dot the landscape, vestiges of a foregone era. Seeking to escape the harshness of the outside world, humanity has turned to VR. And the unlucky few unable to enter this virtual realm must make do however they can.But Prism, the most advanced VRMMORPG, promises to change all that: countless possibilities, no restrictions, and cutting edge tech that allows even those afflicted by VR Sickness to full-dive into its world.Join Ryan and those around him as they try to find a place to call their own within a game that turns out to be so much more. A game that seems to recoil at the players' mere arrival.Author's Note: The story starts out slower, but the pace does pick up eventually. This is a rewrite of my first and only story & I hope to do it justice. The story follows the journey of a group of young men and women as they begin playing Prism. Fair warning, once we move past the initial arc, there will be POV changes as I move from one party member to another or, occasionally, to the viewpoint of some minor characters.Any feedback or suggestions that you might have are more than welcome!Release Schedule: New chapter every Sunday.Cover Art by: Tsuu ([email protected])Prism's Discord Server.
8 215 - In Serial14 Chapters
In Pursuit Of Accolades
The catalyst of change comes to the Gods' Chosen The system favors it's Strongest initiates When the system invades it will show no mercy to the dregs of the new world You have to survive, grow, and all that Jazz
8 92 - In Serial12 Chapters
An Average American in A High-school Academy Anime
An American versed in narrative tropes and more than mildly acquainted with anime wakes up in a completely different bed than the one he went to bed in. Now he has to scramble to understand where he is, what's going on, and hope to God he isn't in a relationship drama. I don't expect this to be good or well-received, but I have plenty of time this quarantine, so I'll try to get a chapter of 4000-10000 words out every one or two weeks. (haha) Please let me know how it can be improved. I'm an avid reader of fiction, but I've never really fallen down a rabbit hole so hard that I can name all tropes and settings and such by heart. I'm not sure if this will be effective satire, so I preemptively apologize. Inspired by: "My Life is Not a Manga, or maybe..." by EO Tenkey and "The Simulacrum" by Eganthale. Check them out if you want probably better stories than this one.
8 146 - In Serial12 Chapters
Anon: Goddess of Anonymity
a light-hearted story of a somewhat relaxed Goddess named Anon. She'd honestly prefer to stay back home and read a book, but reality doesn't always go her way. Anon finds herself mixed in unnecessary events in ways more than one that don't suit her shut-in lifestyle.
8 152 - In Serial28 Chapters
the unwanted claim
"WHAT I WOULD DO TO BANG THAT" a voice said, I turned around to see a guy who I assume is from the athletes by the jersey he's wearing." what do you say in giving me your virginity? I will be gentle." He said making me scoff.I tilted my head and said "I am not, but what will your tiny dick do? It won't even get through".The statement he said next made my blood boil, who the fuck does he think he is? He doesn't even know me!"a whore..I see." With a glare. " you called me a whore even tho you asked me.. a girl you know nothing about to sleep with you, but that's cool right? well listen closely asshole, Just because you have a lame excuse of a dick and I a vagina doesn't mean sleeping with someone makes me a whore and you cool." I gritted out.Some boys ooed while he glared at me. I don't take shit from anyone..not him not anyone else.My blood is boiling and The next thing I know is my fist colliding with his jaw making him fall to the floor earning gasps from the studentsI glared at him and said " disrespect me one more time and I will make sure you spend the rest of your life mute and in a wheelchair.". --------Amber steel is the daughter of a well known drug lord, she doesn't take shit from anyone and always knows how to treat those who cross her line. now that she's in a new school and a new city, what happens when she gets in a fight not knowing that a pair of hazel eyes are watching her and taking interest in her?--------Carlos Rodriguez is the son of a powerful mafia king, he and his father have control over the entire city. he's well known but to those new, his aura is enough to set an alarm within them. what happens when he sets his eyes on a fiesty girl with deep grey eyes and takes interest in her? what happens when his obsession gets out of hand?This story contains:• mental abuse•rape• suicide •trauma•miscarriage the end is twisted and unlike my other books.
8 351