Edit: Thumbnails Below, before script.
Double Edit: Newer, better scan-quality thumbnails below, includes new playground scene. I'll update the script to match shortly.
Triple Edit: Script with new scene added included. The page numbers are wrong on the thumbnails after that scene...just add two to everything. I need to some of the "voice of the culture" things to match this new thing but i'm not entirely sure in what way.
Eik
Note: Eik’s pronouns in this script - Eik is referred to by name, or when pronouns are convenient they are: E(he/she/they), Em (him/her/them), Emself (himself/herself/themself), Eir (his/her/their), etc. Hopefully this will be easier than “they” in a written context.ONE
Open on a school building from the front. Doors closed, students must be either away or in class. Focus on the doors larger, they're still closed. Eik then bursts through the double doors, running and jumping down the front stairs. E sprints away from the school, we see several closer and closer images of Eik running, not yet looking back.
TWO
Eik is running through frantically through streets, seen from above. Eik is then on a side street, and looks over Eir shoulder to see the mob of enforcers and agents on Eir tail – too close. Eik only looks back this one time. E sees a corner coming up and careens left into...
THREE
...a dead end –SHIT! Eiks head swivels looking for an exit. A door in the brick building at the end of the alley! Eik runs down the narrow alley towards it. But it’s locked, Eik discovers, after tugging on the handle. The voices are getting louder and flashing lights approach. Eik looks down and sees a loose grate covering what must be a sewer. There are signs/pictograms indicating that it is hazardous material. E drags it open and dives into an unknown space, pulling the grid into place securely after Em as the pursuers round the corner and begin to come into view.
FOUR
Eik crouches, panting, inside some sort of vent or tube. The floor is covered in sludge. Eik watches the pursuers enter the alley. The mob stalls, confused, then pounds down the door (the one Eik found locked) and charges into the building, thinking Eik took that route and locked the door after passing through.
FIVE
Eik is kneeling in the slats of light coming into the sewer through the grate. Eik closes Eir eyes and covers Eir face with Eir hands, shaking Eir head. How could it have come to this? Eik’s eyes squeeze shut so tight, tight. The kind of tight where stars and galaxies of colour appear on your eyelids.
SIX, SEVEN
There is an abstracted interlude page or two where we are rewinding in time, not explicitly through words but in a visual way – perhaps with snippets of image that suggest that we are going backwards…A sort of dream/nightmare sequence. There is a central rhombic double pyramid / crystal shape which ties the two pages together – the first page has Eik's head and the second ends with a bawling infant.
EIGHT
The interlude ends and now we fade into a darkened classroom with the silhouettes of the backs of students’ heads. The presumed teacher, perhaps also in silhouette, at the front of the room starts a film. It is a propaganda piece, the kind that plays in health classes/career planning classes in high schools. A voice like Cave Johnson in Portal 2 (http://youtu.be/OmH7tAJ0SfA) narrates – the voice is patriotic, stereotypically male, authoritative but slightly humorous unintentionally (note: I will develop a specific font for his speech). He begins a spiel about how the society functions for the benefit of the students, who are on the cusp of choosing their forms. This Voice-of-the-Culture begins (italics). Note that this voice is the only real speech/narration in the comic (save the underground world, perhaps). Everything else is communicated in pantomime or through speech bubbles filled with images or some sort of made up glyphs.
Welcome, young ones! And Congratulations! You’ve reached the final stage of your education as freeform beings! As you know, today is a very big day – the day of decision.
NINE
But before the main event, let’s review all the amazing details of how our Great Society of Fangsen functions so smoothly for you happy people.
A view of a thriving city from a distance. Closer view to Industrial/Futuristic environment of people like ants, lines of people of different shapes in the streets. A factory type building with workers streaming out and in, but they are only of two or three types. Gestation tanks in this vast birthing factory.
TEN
Each and every Fangenser is born alike, into the base form. Everyone starts equal and from the same birthing place. We are all made as moldable as clay, with infinite opportunities in the future!
A nurturing agent is assigned to each child and will raise them through adulthood.
We see the gestation tanks closer, then the ejaculatory birth of blobby, spherical babies. They are like tapioca balls, with one eye and a blubbery wet mouth. They are transported one or two at a time down an assembly-line type apparatus into the loving arms of a pillow-y soft parent-figure, like a Pillsbury dough-boy mother (or father…). These nurturers all trot off with their new babies, but we follow one specific pair. There is nothing distinguishing about this child except that it has an unobtrusive, perhaps even partially hidden, diamond marking.
ELEVEN
The love and care bestowed upon children of Fangsen is without match! Children are endowed with spunky creativity – their forms change with every mood!
The nurturer brings Eik home in the first panel, and then time passes: Eik changes in every row as they grow older. We know it is the same character because the location or surrounding characters are the same. Eik goes from age 0 to age 12 or so. Each change happens when Eik tenses, curls in upon Emself, and POOF transforms with a sparkle or some sort of recognizable/consistent visual effect. A thought bubble may help to communicate the idea that Eik is choosing a new form based on Eir current state of mind and context.
TWELVE
You may remember what strange and silly shapes you assumed in your younger years. What fun!
Eik is in a schoolyard with other children of similar age. They’re all either playing a game based on several shape-teams (like capture the flag) or standing on the sidelines in shape-similar groups engaged in social interactions. Eik stands and watches the scene for a moment, then turns and wanders away to lay in the grass on a small hill next to the game field. Eik lays alone, staring up at the sky. There is physical distance in the panel between Eik and the rest of the children in a wide shot.
THIRTEEN
This type of self expression is very rewarding and fun for children and promotes healthy socialization!
Eik daydreams. A bird flies overhead. Eik closes eir eyes for an instant, tenses, then transforms into an elaborate bird-inspired creature. Eik smiles, relaxes, and stares up at the clouds. They all have forms vaguely suggestive of creatures/shapes. One looks a bit like an octopus or spider.
FOURTEEN
However as children begin to build their own identities, a desire for stability and safety in the comfort of a standardized form emerges.
Eik grins, thinks of a squirmy cloud creature, and changes into a many-legged, smooth-edged creature. Eik wiggles eir legs in amusement and pleasure. In the background, an instructor calls out to the other students as they line up in front of the door of the school. Eik continues dreaming/staring up even as the teacher yells at them, approaching across the game field.
FIFTEEN
The teacher now towers over Eik, who is in eir own world. The instructor grabs Eik by a leg and yells something at him, about a shape, dragging eik to eir feet. Eik is displeased and dejectedly turns back into a more acceptable student form. Eik is led back into line with the others, blending in. the children file back inside while the instructor stands by, stern.
SIXTEEN
Eik returns home and is greeted by Eir nurturer, who is not pleased. The nurturer has clearly been informed about the days events and begins to lecture Eik on the importance of obedience to rules and standards. Eik is upset, irrational, and argues, shouting, in protest. The nurturer sends Eik to Eir room, sternly pointing to the door. By this point Eik has shifted to the volatile diamond shape in anger (we don’t know the meaning of this shape yet), and stomps inside.
SEVENTEEN
While shape-shifting is fun, all sound long-term identities are built upon the security of roles provided by Fangren’s standard shape hierarchy!
Eik escapes out Eir window and runs through the streets and under a hole in a fence. The fence is clearly marked no entry, hazardous, but it’s clear that it’s been accessed before, probably by Eik. Past the fence is a toxic sewage disposal pool, something like this sewage plant (http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/235183/235183,1264000281,3/stock-photo-cleaning-construction-pool-for-sewage-treatment-44903152.jpg) but with walls more like a dam…steep but not vertical (http://measuringchanges.lnec.pt/img/pedrogao.jpg). Eik would be in deep shit if anyone knew E was in there.
EIGHTEEN
It’s all about making you, the Fangenser, happy and productive for life.
Eik screams and thrashes in anger (It’s all very juvenile and emotional), kicking at the crumbling concrete of the walls of the pool-more like a lake. Crumbling concrete which seems to be crumbling more with every kick. And –shit!- Eik loses Eir footing as the concrete crumbles away further, tumbling into the sewage pond, screaming.
NINETEEN, TWENTY
A page or two of submerged desperation. It’s important that this really seems like a life-changing event and not just another event. Eik is drowning in waste. Eik is at first sucked under, bubbles from the mouth, thrashing limbs, full-bodied pain. Waste fills Eik's mouth and burns Eir skin. Eik is fading, perhaps hallucinating, but seems to get a spurt of energy from the attack of a sort of toxic-waste sea predator. With a last-ditch effort, Eik kicks it away and swims blindly, breaching. Eik manages to drag Emself out by a rusty maintenance ladder and collapses, panting, back on the lip of the concrete wall.
TWENTY-ONE
Adolescents of Fangren inevitably find satisfaction in staying in one shape over another as time goes on. This is the shape that matches most closely their internal identity.
After crying dejectedly in a pool of slime, Eik attempts to change form to something more passive, but opens Eir eyes and realizes that E can’t. Eik is stuck in diamond-form. This is conveyed by Eik tensing in the previously established way, and imagining a sad and deflated form, but with more of -FWRRPT- if it were a sound effect or a sort of gross looking visual effect to convey the failure to change.
TWENTY-TWO
This is normal and expected behavior for a healthy growing Fangenser!
A quiet panic ensues, Eik tries and tries again to change but nothing happens. Eik returns home, crawls back in via the window and flops into bed, still frightened. Eik stares at the ceiling for a beat or two and then curls up into a ball, wretched. As in the sewer, Eik screws Eir eyes shut and there are some visual effects, perhaps.
TWENTY-THREE
In fact, all mature social interactions require a level of formal consistency. If everyone changed their shapes on a whim, it would be very confusing and chaotic.
In school, Eik is avoided by the others. It is not explicitly stated yet, but it is clear that the diamond form is associated negative things, dangerous things. Possibly Eik tries to explain that they don’t feel this way, don’t feel it’s right, but are trapped. The others can only understand what they see and don’t believe that Eik is incapable of change. Exterior = Interior, Eik must just be the manipulative psychopath nut that their shape implies. Eik stands in the crowded hall, observing that the students have grouped themselves into shapes. Some cast furtive glances at Eik, curious, while others turn their backs.
TWENTY-FOUR
How would you know how to appropriately treat your fellow citizen?
Eik is resigned. Eik walks the halls alone, through these cliques of shapes. The seas part, but not from respect, but from social judgment and perhaps discomfort. Eik enters a door and takes a seat at the back of a classroom and puts Eir head on Eir desk.
TWENTY-FIVE
Which brings us to your big decision today. As you have likely discovered on your own, there are a certain number of finessed shape types used by Fangen adults. We have calculated for you the perfect balance of individuality and order for a harmonious society! Every Fangernser has their shape, and there is a shape designed for every Fangernser. Simply choose the shape which represents you the best, and you’re all set to begin on your life path and career.
Eik sits at the back of the classroom, disconnected, morose. The lights flick off. Eik looks up and forward, and it becomes clear that it is the same classroom as before. The film wraps up and an enforcer representing each type enters the room.
TWENTY-SIX, TWENTY-SEVEN
Please refer to the guide your instructor distributes, carefully consider your choice, and report to the corresponding form agent…and take your spot in the beautiful machine that is Fangen! Your form-freezer injection is waiting. Remember – this shape’s for life, so choose carefully! Welcome to society and thank you, you are the future cogs of Fangen!
The lights are flicked on and Eik stares down at a pamphlet. We get a close up view of it in Eik’s hands - a double page spread - and it shows the available types/roles along with short descriptions for each. The last role listed is the diamond type – and its meaning. This type is for those unfit for other positions that are seen as a danger to society and are sent on “exciting” military missions.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Eik reacts, eyes widening. Meanwhile, the other students are filing towards their chosen agents. Eik protests, standing up at Eir desk and yelling out in fear and protest. This obviously doesn’t help the situation. The diamond enforcer advances after making hostile eye contact with Eik. Eik moves towards an exit at the back of the room, already at a lope.
TWENTY-NINE
Eik flees the school building, in a different view from that of the first page, as angry citizens and police follow. The chase begins in the building and proceeds out onto the street. We follow the chase, this time abbreviated, until we’re caught up to the starting scene, where Eik is crouching under the grate.
THIRTY
Eik follows the pipe in a twisting maze, down, down into the darkness. Eik enters a larger tube like a waterslide and are shot into the air amid a waterfall of filth. Freefall begins...
THIRTY-ONE
Eik falls. Single page spread, most likely.
THIRTY-TWO
The fall ends with Eik landing with a splat in an underground city built amidst the filth of toxic waste – perhaps the same type as from Eik’s childhood. Doesn’t matter. The underworld is filled with the rejects of society – like the mutants in futurama (http://theinfosphere.org/images/b/b4/Sewer_Mutants.jpg ). They all sport forms that are either unchosen and grotesque/frightening or unrecognized by society’s few categories of possible being. Perhaps just too creative. Eik wanders through the crowd, at first just observing, nervous.
THIRTY-THREE
Eik decides to approach the locals. E asks first about the surface, how to get out. The local(s) laugh and shrug, expressing satisfaction with their current circumstances with a sweeping gesture at the undercity and a smile. They may also have some sort of corrupted speech, barely intelligible to the reader but not understood by Eik. Eik asks again, adding something about form-shifting. This time just shaking heads. They have a welcoming attitude towards Eik. But Eik has no interest in staying, and just wants to find a way out. Eik is getting frustrated, and runs up to grab the shoulder of a third stranger.
THIRTY-FOUR
Eik turns the stranger around and is greeted with a less friendly face than the previous ones. Undaunted, Eik asks about changing shapes. It is a general question, it could apply to Eik or the undercity people, communicated in pantomime and picture-speech bubbles. Eik gets a guarded reaction, and something about pills, with a gesture in a darker area. Eik continues to wander, wander, always choosing the seedier looking route. There is a door at the end of an aisle of rubble. A dark corner with a rotting door, too small to walk through.
THIRTY-FIVE
Eik enters on hands and knees and inside it is tight, a closet-like space. Eik calls out into the dark. There is one occupant, a shady figure (literally and figuratively) with large, froglike eyes, think Jabba the Hutt (http://www.vizzed.com/Uploads/jabbarotj.jpg). Eik explains what's wrong with Em and that E wants to be able to change again and go back home. Shady dude gives Eik a long, considered look.
THIRTY-SIX
The shady dude pulls from inside his throat a pill and hands it to Eik. It looks like the a virus, spikes and all ( specifically the HIV, not for symbolic reasons but just because it’s shaped the right way http://www.onlinecancerguide.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/HIV-virus.jpg). He promises will incur great change, but with great risk. He suggests that it can have unintended consequences, perhaps death. Eik doesn’t care, E gives the dealer everything E has. Money is of high value in this place with few arrivals. Not much to circulate, dontcha know. The shady dude smiles smugly and caresses the cash in a somewhat sexual way, or perhaps how you would pet a cat if you were an evil shady dude (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD-j4eIjQ5c&feature=related forgive the austin powers)
THIRTY-SEVEN
Eik finds an isolated place where E can take the drug away from prying eyes. It is a dark, empty room. Eik hesitates for a moment, staring at the capsule, then gulps it down.
THIRTY-EIGHT
At first it seems nothing is happening. Eik is disheartened, sighs dejectedly. But as Eik is about to give up, a series of changes begin to occur in succession. First Eik becomes the formless mass, square one (success?), but then begins growing, putting out tendrils.
THIRTY-NINE
Eik’s body transforms uncontrollably into an enormous writhing, organic form. It fills the room first, bulging at the panel borders and consuming all available space.
FORTY
It/Eik then bursts forth from the room into the body of the underground city. Eik continues moving up as E grows, like an alien beanstalk of strangeness, drilling up into the dripping ceiling and beyond.
FORTY-ONE
Eik explodes from underground up into the city of Fangren. The Eik-thing is as large as a building. By the way, kind of like this scene in Akira with the Tetsuo-thing. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQT4qB-RFjk&feature=player_detailpage#t=287s)
FORTY-TWO
The citizens freeze in the streets, heads turned up at Eik. The Eik-thing screams and emits some sort of spores/magic stuff that snows down upon the citizens and they claw at their skin, run for cover, but to no avail – the spores are sticky and find their targets.
FORTY-THREE
The effect begins. The spores cause all the citizens to revert to their neutral states, melting into gooey tapioca balls, but with limbs attached. Wicked witch of the west melting.
FORTY-FOUR
Everyone is the same, the streets are filled with identical beings. They look around and panic initially, for they cannot judge each other based on the established visual categories constructed over time. A collective wail. They begin to touch themselves (not sexually), sensing their bodies as if for the first time, still afraid.
FORTY-FIVE
Panic turns to exhaustion. Their uncontrolled fear spends itself and the running stops. A circle has formed around a single person who has sprouted into a new shape. They stare.
FORTY-SIX
But one-by-one, they find something incredible has occurred - they are again free, like children, to take any form! There is an explosion of beauty and diversity in their now unrestricted exterior expressions. A sort of psychedelic outburst of shapes and bodies floods through the city, the bonds are broken. A writhing, chaotic creative mass of people in celebration.
FORTY-SEVEN
The beings continue to evolve, whirling in the air (not literally, symbolically) around the Eik-stalk-thing, which is now stationary, perhaps wilting a little, wrinkling. There’s an obvious visual sexual metaphor in here, but its more by coincidence than anything else.
FORTY-EIGHT
Filled with shapes, beings. A writhing mass of creativity.
FORTY-NINE
Eik, though, was drained completely by Eir transformation/growth/etc. and has withdrawn and shrunk back into a formless puddle, clearly dying and too weak to change shape. From Eik’s position squashed on the pavement, E sees the revelry above and smiles faintly.
FIFTY
Eik is about to say something but is crushed accidentally and unknowingly by the foot of a passing celebrator. The party goes on. The hero's sacrifice has freed society but at the cost of the individual once most oppressed.
Fin.
No comments:
Post a Comment