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gurl2irl-blog · 6 years

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WARPED by Rose Wells

I’ve always loved horror and I’ve always loved creating worlds and the characters who belong there. I had found so much love and comfort in stories like, Goonies, Stranger Things, and It. Stories that feature an endearing group of friends who overcome the odds and venture together into the unknown. I became frustrated with these stories when I realized the common trend between all of them; a white boy leading the rest of the more diverse group as well as a female character who is inserted only to be apart of a romance. I wanted to write something where a woman of color could be front and center as the rightful leader of a ragtag group of friends. I was also enthralled by the image of punk rockers in long black trench coats and leather jackets, holding baseball bats and standing under the florescent lights of a convenience store, hunting down a monster. So I created a story where a mixed race woman not only leads her group but overcomes oppression both paranormal and normal within our society. I have written a synopsis for this story as if it were to be a novel, as well as created a sculpture for the monster featured in my story, as pictured above. The sculpture I created is meant only to be a gesture of the monster, something as loose and unclear as the multi-dimensional monster itself.

Our story begins with a young, mixed race, woman- well teenager- named GABBY. She is our protagonist and hero of this story, she is head strong and brave. She is a punk rocker, as well as most of her friends, and although she didn’t wish for any of what is bound to happen, you get the sense if it had been anyone else nothing would be done.

Gabby, instead of her bed, awakes on the streets in downtown. Still in pajamas, confused and scared, she sees another young woman come running from around the corner down the block. The woman screams for help and runs like she is being chased despite Gabby not being able to see anything chasing her, until she sees a shadow gaining quickly on the woman. From the shadow appears two misshapen feet, long, pale, and with toes that come to long pointed claws. As the feet run and gain on the woman they slowly grow into ankles, legs, hips, torso, arms, and finally a head and face. THE MONSTER is probably close to 8 feet tall though no one would be able to get close enough to be able to tell. It is lanky as well as pale. It is so pale it’s skin is almost translucent revealing blue veins that slowly turn red as it feeds. Everything about it is stretched. It is tall with long arms that end with pointed fingers and claws (much like its toes) that hang down almost to the monster’s ankles. It’s skin is taught over defined muscles, he can run and can run fast. It’s face is ovaled but devoid of any defining bone structures. It has two large yellow eyes and a wide cheshire grin filled with nothing but pointed meat eating teeth. It has no formed nose, only two small holes for nostrils.

Gabby attempts to help the woman only to realize she cannot be seen by the woman nor the monster. She watches helpless and unable to help as the Monster catches up to the woman and slams her to the concrete. Gabby recedes into a nearby alleyway, in shock and still feeling the need to hide, and listens as the monster tears into the woman and feeds. Knowing she has to get away she crawls to peer around the corner and cuts her palm on a shard of a broken glass bottle. She looks around the corner and the monster, still straddling the body of the woman, looks directly at her and smiles.

Gabby awakes in her bed. She is sweating, crying, and gasping for breath. Wherever she was had air thick as smoke, if she had been anywhere else at all. Gabby does her best to rationalize her experience, chalking it up to the stress of graduating high school soon. She looks down and sees the cut on her palm, still fresh and bleeding. She continues her morning the best she can, now paranoid and unsure of her reality. She puts on her armor (a denim jacket covered in buttons and bold smudged makeup) and tries her best to ease any worries her parents have of her solemn mood. She presses on to school although trying to keep from letting the paranoia consume her is proving more and more difficult. Every corner she rounds she fears she will see the Monster’s yellow eyes and crooked smile dripping blood.

At school Gabby meets up with MARIA and JIMI before class. Maria is Gabby’s right hand man and the two have been best friends since first starting high school. Maria is from the Cuban punk scene, having grown used to living on the outskirts of a communist society she is often times unsure of herself in the presence of obvious authority, to Gabby’s dismay. Gabby knows her as outspoken and intelligent, the “brains” of the group, and it kills her to see her friend crumple before people who have been deemed to have the upper hand, namely straight white men.

Jimi is a Chinese-American boy, who is goofy and naive but has a heart of gold. He was bullied severely in the past and now tries too hard to fit in, a total poser. His real name is Ryan but insists on being called Jimi in homage to his favorite guitarist with whom he swears he bares a resemblance to.

The three of them attend their first period class which is a chemistry class all of them despise. Their teacher, MS. WENDELL, is an absolute nightmare because of the seemingly unnecessary amount of homework that seems too advanced for the class. There have been hushes and whispers of her being an actual chemist who was disgraced in her field, and it is her bitterness that causes her to assign so much homework. It would make sense to the students who have been unfortunate enough to take her class, but rumors are just rumors.

After school Gabby, Maria, and Jimi meet up with the second half of the group, AVA and SNAKE. Ava is a ginger anarchist, shunned by her abusive family for her bad attitude and self destructive ways. Snake is the oldest in the group and thinks of himself as the leader. He is white, straight, crude, and blunt. He wears a green Mohawk and a long black trench coat very reminiscent of the 80’s punk scene. It is under him Maria most often crumples, choosing to agree with him rather than confront him in front of the group. He’s kind of an asshole but he deeply cares for his friends. Hanging out with Snake is never boring, he knows the best hook ups and venues, and is ready to go anywhere and do anything as long as it doesn’t inconvenience him.

At their usual hang out, an abandoned house Ava often squats in when things go bad at home, Maria can tell something is wrong with Gabby. Maria brings it up to Ava who (with no social tact) blatantly asks Gabby what is wrong, cutting off a passionate tangent by Snake in the process. Gabby tells the group hesitantly of her dream. Snake is quick to brush off her distress as just another nightmare despite Gabby insisting on the realness of it. She then shows the group the fresh cut on her palm and Snake again dismisses her saying she must have forgotten getting the cut despite how deep and fresh it is in the center of her palm.

Maria confides in her later and in private that, although she is unsure how it is possible, she believes Gabby’s experience was more than just a dream.

The next day Gabby, Jimi, and Maria meet again before class at their usual spot. Maria brings up a picture of a young woman who went missing the night before, the same night Gabby had her “dream.” Gabby recognizes her instantly before the bell rings and they are ushered to class. Ms. Wendell teaches the class about dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up %80 of all matter in the universe. Even though there is a lot of space in the universe none of it is truly empty. They learn the universe itself is ever expanding and yet it is expanding slower now than before, which is thought to be caused by dark energy. In a universe imbued with even slightly more of this gravitationally repulsive energy, space would expand too quickly for structures like galaxies, planets or people to form. This thus leads to the suggestion that there might be a huge number of different universes. Maria hangs onto every word, in awe of the possibilities.

After school, with the entire group together, Maria explains how she thinks Gabby’s dream wasn’t a dream at all but something that actually happened in another universe. Gabby feels this could be close to what she experienced but she herself doubts it considering the woman actually went missing in this universe. Snake satisfied with this dismissal of Maria’s theory, despite Gabby still believing it wasn’t just a dream, suggests the group goes to a gig that’s happening nearby. Gabby not wanting to go butts heads with Snake, who feels he’s going to help her and the group by just forgetting about this “dream” altogether. Ava sides with Snake, wanting to get out and do something, Jimi does as well just wanting to have some fun and forget about his own worries at school, it comes down to Maria who under the pressure of the entire group agrees it could be fun. As they walk to the gig, Gabby walks behind the group not wanting to be seen as visibly upset but Maria walks next to her and silently takes her hand.

Some weeks have passed without Gabby having another encounter with the Monster. She tries to move on and forget the way the rest of the group has seemed to but the scar remains in her palm as a constant reminder of the very real fear and pain she felt that night. The police even closes the case on the woman, saying it was nothing more than a runaway situation. The woman had been having troubles with a boyfriend and it was assumed by friends she finally had had enough of him. Gabby struggles to reconcile with this, feeling responsible in some way for knowing the truth, knowing that woman will never be seen by her friends and family again.

Ava is kicked out of her home, her family having enough of her antics, and is left with hardly nothing as she was literally put onto the street without any of her belongings. The group knowing when Ava’s family won’t be in the house decide to try to break in and get Ava’s things. Ava knows she had a habit of leaving her window unlocked and knowing her parents they probably still haven’t checked to lock her bedroom window. Jimi climbs onto the second story roof and climbs in through Ava’s unlocked window as well as unlock the front door for the rest of the group. Together they all pack Ava’s clothes and neccisities and as they are about to leave Ava knocks over a lamp in the living room in clumsy frustration. Soon the whole group is going through the house destroying anything they can reach and looking for anything of value. Having found a few thousand dollars in a safe that Ava can use to find a real place to stay or possibly even move in with Snake, they leave happy and laughing. Gabby declares that by trashing that house Ava is no longer apart of it and they are Ava’s new family, the whole group agrees which is the first thing they all have agreed on in a long time.

Gabby goes to sleep and wakes up somewhere else once again. She recognizes where she is almost immediately. She is further into the city in an area, that has over the course of five years or so, has been gentrified. She watches a scene all too familiar to her as a businessman comes running down the street who cannot see her. She attempts to help the man but it is useless as she watches the Monster appear again as it did before, a shadow in which feet appear and then grows into a full form. The man trips and falls dropping the bag he had over his shoulder and then gets up and starts to run again, the Monster growing ever closer. Gabby grabs his bag and starts looking through his possessions and finds a wallet. She takes out his ID and memorizes as much as she can before she hears the Monster catch up to the man and kill him. She wakes in her bed in the morning and although she’s just as scared and panicked as she had been before, she now knows it’s not going to stop. She knows if she doesn’t get the group to help her she will die on her own or go insane from watching first hand these murders

Gabby calls the group together and writes on a piece of paper the name, age, and height of the man she saw. She balls up the piece of paper and puts it in Snake’s hand saying if she is right, if it isn’t a dream and this man goes missing, they have to help her. Snake taken aback by the information and the gravity of Gabby’s demand agrees to indulge this, if and only if Maria can’t find anything out of the norm with the man as is, and then goes missing. Maria speaks up saying she already googled the man before even meeting up and pulls out her research showing he’s a run of the mill middle class businessman. The group agrees if he actually goes missing they will help Gabby in whatever it is she wants to do to hunt the Monster.

Later that day on every news outlet the man is reported as missing with possible foul play involved. As promised the group is set in motion. Snake doesn’t know how any of this is possible while Jimi and Ava theorize Gabby has gained some sort of psychic ability. They all mull over the logistics of these attacks; Gabby goes to sleep, she wakes up somewhere else, someone is being chased, the Monster slowly appears, both monster and victim can’t see her, and then Gabby awakes back in her bed. No one knows if they would be able to even kill the Monster let alone be able to find him other than when it is about to kill someone else. The group unsure of what to do leave each with a different task, Maria to do more research on the multiverse, Ava to stay with Gabby for at least two weeks and sleep in the same room as her, Snake to find a gun, Jimi to find a car, and everyone to be on high alert in case Gabby has another encounter.

Gabby awakes one night again somewhere else but this time she’s inside a warehouse she doesn’t recognize. She watches the Monster attack another helpless victim and the entire time Gabby cannot place where she is. She attempts to run outside the building but steps on a nail causing her foot to bleed. As soon as the first drop of blood hits the floor the Monster looks from the wounded victim to Gabby. Gabby looks into its eyes and is immediately paralyzed from fear. If she is going to die soon tonight is the night. The victim cries out now able to see Gabby as well but gains back the attention of the Monster. The Monster uses one huge foot to crush the victim’s skull instantly killing them and then Gabby awakes in her bed, sobbing to Ava that she was seen by the creature.

Now knowing Gabby wakes up back in her bed once the victim has been killed and she can be seen by the Monster and victim once bleeding the group plan their attack on the Monster. They would wait until Gabby wakes somewhere else again, she would wake herself up before the Monster could kill the victim and they would all go to where they know it is. Snake manages to get his hands on a single pistol, a baseball bat, and several crowbars. Maria knows more of the multiverse but nothing that she thinks can actually help them. Jimi is the only one unsuccessful in their tasks and the group is still carless. Needing someway to travel that’s faster than bikes the group exhausts every contact they have realizing, most of the people Snake knows are untrustworthy or drug dealers or both, Maria having been from Cuba knows only a handful of acquaintances here in America, and Jimi with high anxiety only really has the group. Gabby remembers Ava’s cousin who had always been kind to them in middle school, JAMAL. Jamal is a college student at the nearby university, who got Ava and Gabby into punk rock. He is retired from the punk rock scene now and is an English lit major.

After taking the bus to Jamal’s place, Maria, Jimi, and Snake (who have never met Jamal) are surprised to find he is a tall, lanky, black man who looks nothing like Ava despite being her cousin. Although he is smart and caring and Ava’s discomfort around him is quickly evident. As a group they explain the situation to Jamal who listens as calmly and supportively as he can while still doubting everything they say. He turns to Ava, who he trusts, but also has been silent the entire time, and asks her if what they are saying is true. She tells him yes, all of it is true, and he agrees to help in anyway possible including driving them wherever they think the Monster will be. As they begin to leave Jamal pulls Ava aside to talk to her privately. Gabby standing in the next hallway overhears Jamal questioning Ava if she had really been kicked out and if she had been the one to then trash the house. Ava confirms both of these and he then questions her as to why she wouldn’t have contacted him. It’s clear Jamal deeply cares for his cousin and would have gladly housed her. Ava brushes him off and the group leaves.

Later that night, back at Gabby’s house, Gabby questions Ava why she didn’t find refuge in her cousin and Ava replies that he cares too much for her and that he has a promising life ahead of him she would only keep him from.

The moment comes when Gabby again wakes somewhere else and can actually recognize where she is which happens to be the place she first saw the Monster attack the young woman. At the first sight of the next victim Gabby is successful in actually waking herself up and urges Ava to get the rest of the group ready for battle. Jamal soon makes it to Gabby’s house with Maria, Snake, and Jimi in tote. Jamal drives as fast as his old beater can take and Gabby sees the Monster close to where she had seen it chasing the victim. The rest of the group can’t see the Monster at all but can see the dead body being ripped apart and then disappearing. They attempt to fight the Monster but it proves more difficult as Gabby is the only one who can see it. The Monster attacks Ava, leaving her mortally wounded, and then runs away after hearing Snake fire the pistol. Snake also completely missing it in the process. The group helps lay Ava onto the backseat of the car and Jamal rushes her to the hospital. Snake immediately turns on Gabby and verbally attacks her saying that if she had really cared for any of them she would have better protected all them. Snake blatantly blames her for Ava getting her hurt and tells her that if Ava dies there will be no one to blame but her. Gabby fights back defending herself and her actions. Jimi visibilly withdraws into himself unable to handle the obvious rift in the group and Maria overwhelmed and frightened doesn’t attempt to side with Gabby in this argument. They all leave separately.

At school Jimi has retreated to being alone, eating his lunches in the alleyway, and trying his best to isolate himself. Maria attempts to stick with Gabby, but Gabby feels betrayed by her unwillingness to stand up to Snake and back her. Ava survived the attack but is in a medically induced coma, Jamal stays be her side day and night.

Gabby resolves to doing nothing, she doesn’t know how the Monster can be killed, if it can even be killed, and she knows she and Maria can’t kill it alone. Maria unwilling to give up, and now seeing that if they don’t kill the Monster Gabby will go slowly insane witnessing attack after attack, seeks out Ms. Wendell. She never tells Ms. Wendell the full extent of the situation and hides the true matter in hypotheticals, but she is able to learn from her that if it was possible for two universes to meet anything and everything within reach would be annihilated, but if they actually ran parallel slowly expanding in the same direction, with dark matter serving as a cushion between the two perhaps there could be a multi-dimensional overlap. The dark matter between the worlds would create a treitary pocket dimension, a void of black nothingness, but it would be enough for the two worlds to meet without colliding. It would also mean the second universe would be exceptionally similar to ours.

Maria hypothesizes the Monster is from another universe and is travelling to ours through a multi-dimensional overlap and that if it is just another living thing from some version of our planet it can be killed.

Gabby awakes again but this time in a house. It’s a house she barely recognizes but cannot shake the familiarity. After looking at pictures hanging in a hallway she realizes it’s the house of a girl the whole group knows that goes to her high school. Frantic, Gabby finds the girl’s bedroom where the Monster stand over the sleeping girl. Gabby wakes herself up and tries desperately to get to the girl’s house in time to save her alone and on bike. She races in the dead of night to beat the devil. When she arrives there is nothing left in the girls bed besides blood.

Snake calls Gabby when the girl’s empty bloody bed is reported on the news, and asks her if it was the Monster who got her. Gabby confides in him that it was and she tried to stop him on her own but didn’t make it in time. Snake softly cries over the phone, having actually known the girl the Monster seems more real than ever, and he now knows Gabby was right for trying to stop it.

Gabby, Snake, Maria, Jimi, and Jamal know that if they don’t kill the Monster it will only keep killing and feeding on the people of their hometown. They set out to hunt down the Monster instead of waiting on it to feed again. The group goes to the spot where Ava was attacked, as well as close to the time she was attacked. Each cut their palm, letting the blood drip to the concrete, in an attempt to lure the Monster. The Monster appears but Gabby is still the only one who can see it. The group attacks the Monster, Snake shooting blindly with the pistol, the rest of the group swinging baseball bats and crowbars, and only occasional land blows. The blows they do manage to land are felt by and wound the Monster. The group haphazardly chases and are chased by the Monster into a nearby liquor store. It is under the fluorescent lights Gabby locks eyes with the Monster and is transported somewhere else. She is unsure where she is, it is nothing but a black void, but she can see the Monster standing at a distance across from her. She doesn’t feel threatened by him here. She feels this is neutral ground. This is somewhere in between the ever expanding universes. This is where the Monster’s and Gabby’s dimensions meet. She hears a voice in her head and knows it is coming from the Monster despite it not moving its lips or even being able of speech.

“I know you. I was you.” It tells her.

The Monster reveals he is a man from another dimension who was also visited by a similar creature, but instead of trying to kill it he wanted to learn from it, to find a way to travel through dimensions like it could. In his universe he found a way and was able to do the unimaginable, he was able to send his body across universes. He saw the beauty of worlds that would never be know to man. He traveled as much and as often as he could, so much so he didn’t realize he was changing. He was being pushed and pulled by the gravitational pull of the galaxies. He had traveled through dark matter and was warped. He was no longer human, only the shell of what a human once was or could be. Gabby tells him he was wrong from the start and should have never felt entitled to what he obviously couldn’t handle. He had felt entitled to the right to be the sole discoverer of other universes. If he had had help, if he had shared it, if he had waited, if he had stopped, he wouldn’t have became what he has become.

Gabby now back in her body is facing the Monster, she as well as the rest of the group corner the Monster before Snake hands her his gun and she shoots it point blank. The Monster is dead and Gabby killed it with Snake’s gun. Under the glow of the fluorescent lights, the group melts into an exhausted, but much needed, embrace on the liquor store floor.

Time passes. Ava, out of the coma and still hospital bound, lets Jamal care for her. The rest of the group visits her the night of their graduation and she remarks how she wishes she could have seen Jimi, Gabby, and Maria graduate. They, already having had this planned and only waiting for the perfect opportunity, pull out there graduation caps and diplomas. Snake reads from a prewritten script as he gives each of them their diplomas in a small rehearsed version of a graduation. Jamal and Ava clap after Snake reads each name and hands them their diplomas and shakes their hands.

The group sits around Ava’s hospital bed; Snake pulls out a list of summer concerts and gigs, Gabby holds Maria’s hand, Jimi smiles and laughs, and Jamal pours another glass of water for Ava. It is the first day of the best summer of their lives.

#prose #other

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gurl2irl-blog · 6 years

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THE LIVING by River Stastny

"The Living" is a preliminary iteration of a trans-futurist reworking of the cult classic movie They Live by John Carpenter, complete with the outlandish imagery and camped up violence of 80's sci fi movies, but with very different protagonists. Geo Nada, our hero, and her group of trans anarchist friends, take us on a comic romp of alien cop killings and questions what it means do "do the right thing".

CHAPTER 1

A wave of red shone like blood, glittering as it passed through a circle of light at the center of the stage, and opened with a thunderous overture.

Sitting in the third row, nervously readjusting her ill-fitting skirt over hairy, fishnet encased legs, Geo Nada played with the mask in her lap. It was somewhat cartoonish, crudely made and with a multicolored skeleton face printed on the front of it, and had diffraction lenses glued to the back.

The Hypnotist stepped out, wearing a latex catsuit emblazoned with a red circle and a cross underneath it, the ancient pagan symbol for ‘female’. This kind of gendered iconography had been abolished for decades, so Nada was surprised to see it used here, although she also remembered when, forced to be a little boy, she would draw the symbol on her face with lipstick stolen from her mother, or often, secretly write it in her notebooks next to her name to see how it looked.

She was instructed to put on the mask. Suddenly her vision was crystallized into countless shards of rainbow-brite light, and the Hypnotist looked wet, glycerinated by the oil slick splinters produced by the lenses. Nada was mesmerized, drawn in by the way the colors glinted off her glossy thighs and lips.

“Wake up”.

Nada read the words on the Hypnotist’s swollen cherry lips before she heard them.

“Wake up”.

Suddenly, Nada awoke all the way. This had never happened before.

She registered the glimmer of the rubbery Hypnotist, still seductive under the hot, dusty glow of the spotlight, and looked around.

Geo Nada blinked out at the sea of faces in the theatre, at first unaware of anything out of the ordinary. Then she noticed, spotted here and there in the crowd, the skinless, diaphanous faces of the Skels.

They had been there all along, of course, but only she was really awake, so only she recognized them for what they were.

She looked at them, laughing, the smoke from their cigarettes floating in and out of their hollow open skulls, and then peered over her diffraction glasses. The illusion was broken. They transformed back into seemingly innocuous people, flesh regrowing through the empty cavity of their head and bodies.

Nada squinted, and put the mask back on, and the Skels became something else. Their flesh contorted even further, forming multiple eyes and muscusy orifices, their bodies pulsating with raw, pink material that moved gelatinously, recompromising itself from moment to moment.

She was horrified, but understood everything in a flash, including the fact that if she were to give any outward sign, the Skels would instantly command her to return to her former state of unknowing, and she would be forced to obey.

Nada left the theatre, pushing out into the neon night, carefully avoiding any indication that she saw their vacant bodies or fluorescent pink flesh or the multiple beaming yellow eyes of these alien cohabitors of the earth.

One of them asked her, “Got a light honey?” Geo gave her a light, then moved on.

She walked down the street, her pointy heeled boots clicking rhythmically against the metallic pavement that flickered with the reflection of the holo screens that hung high above, promising to fill the internal void with luxury vacations, chemical substances, and increasingly more lackluster and minimalistic designer clothing items.

Glancing up at the advertisements, Nada now saw them for what they were. Empty Skel faces, captioned with sinister slogans such as “Consume, not create”, “Conform”, and “Stay Asleep”.

A Holo-blast notification appeared before her eyes, but she was quick to dismiss it, fearing what she would see. Did they know that she was awake?

“I can’t possibly escape,” thought Nada. “Why fight them?”

But maybe she could.

What if she could awaken others? That might be worth a try.

She walked twelve blocks to the DIY space that her longtime friend and sometimes lover, Lil, ran and lived above. Despite being somewhat of a lazy extremist and a heavy conformist to the punk aesthetic, Geo thought that Lil’s anarchist ideologies made them a good candidate to share her sudden knowledge with. Perhaps she wouldn’t be taken as a complete lunatic.

Nada’s head was spinning, and she struggled to keep her thoughts straight. She was aware of a distinct, embodied want to follow the alien commands brewing deep within her stomach, and she began to feel nauseous. Still she resisted.

She turned the corner on Wyckoff and knocked twice on Lil’s heavily stickered and graffitied door, once timidly, and once great urgency and force, for she could see at the distant end of the block the hollow form of a Skel approaching, its gossamer body seeming to disappear into itself. She heard the dog barking and then heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. Lil answered the door, their short black hair greasy and sticking straight out, in a big black t-shirt and shorts weighed down by various chains. They were wearing their customary grimey Doc Martens encrusted with ancient spray paint that had cracked like marble, revealing the many technicolor layers underneath.

“What do you want?” said Lil.

“I want you to wake up,” said Geo.

“I’m awake,” they replied. “Come on in.”

She went in. The HV was playing. She turned it off.

“No,” she said. “I mean really wake up.”

She explained everything to the best of her ability, even offering them the makeshift mask from the Hypnotist’s show to try on. Lil had tried to hold back their amusement, but was unsuccessful, soon interrupting Nada’s tale with a peal of laughter.

“Geo, I’ve heard you say some pretty crazy shit. But this one is really good! I’m not a fucking idiot, and you’re not going to be able to convince me that things are actually run by a bunch of shape-shifting aliens - humans are bad enough as it is.”

Nada made a noise of intense exasperation and covered her ears. She could hear the HoloVision sets of the neighbors through the walls. Most of the time the voices were human, but now and then she heard the arrogant, yet strangely soothing whisper of the aliens. “Obey the government,” said one hiss. “We are the government, ” said another. “We are your friends, you’d do anything for a friend, wouldn’t you?”

They heard a knock on the door. Nada took her hands off from over her ears and opened her eyes, to see Lil noticeably less amused. “Geo, are you alright?”

“Lil.” replied Nada, her voice hardening. “You are my friend right?”

“Geo-”

“Are you my friend?”

“Yes.”

“Lil. I need you to answer me something.”

“Anything.”

“Do you have any weapons?”

There was another knock on the door. Nada saw Lil’s face fall as they realized all at once that she wasn’t kidding.

Sheepishly, Lil procured a pair of silver pistols from the back of their closet. “Ascaso, like the ones the anarquistas used during our Civil War” they said proudly. “Reproductions.” Lil’s ancestors came from Spain, a heritage that they struggled to hold on to despite the pressures of universality and cultural amalgamation that plagued the contemporary discourse. Despite their never-give-a-fuck attitude, Lil had somewhat of a flair for the dramatic.

Another knock.

“Do they work?” Geo asked nervously. “What do we need for this thing? Bullets?”

“Don’t be stupid.” replied Lil, flicking off the safety and pointing it at a glass on the table to reveal a red beam of light extending from the target back to the muzzle of the gun. “Shoots rays-- I had them converted last year, you know, just in case.” She fired once and shattered the glass with a satisfying zing, although the raygun itself remained disturbingly silent.

“Lil, you’re a sick sonofabitch, I can’t believe you’ve had these this whole time.” Lil smiled, revealing the smudge of black lipstick on their teeth.

“What, you mean you didn’t already prepare for the knowledge that our world was actually run by a bunch of squishy pink polymorphic aliens commanding us to obey through subliminal messaging? You should feel lucky that I am such a sicko.” They tossed the other pistol to Nada who caught it, awkwardly. “Now go answer the door.”

It was one of the aliens.

“Geo Nada?”

The glowing eyes and pulsating flesh faded a little and she saw the flickering image of a fat middle-aged man dressed in a cop uniform. It was still a man when Geo decapitated it with the ray gun, but it was an alien before it hit the floor. She dragged it into the hallway, blue-green blood still gurgling in its throat, and kicked the door shut.

“By any means necessary, huh?” she said, grinning, one foot on the melting corpse as if it were a hunting prize. She drove her heel in a little, investigating the soft elasticity of its flesh.

“You’re starting to scare me. But it’s also kind of hot.”

Nada blushed, and started to try to say something, but was cut off.

“You know Geo, I think I might be awake.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and we need to get the fuck out of here.” said Lil, gesturing at the formless body still bleeding out on the dingy, foot and paw stained carpeting. “They’ll be looking for you.”

Geo tucked her pistol into the waistband of her fishnets, feeling the still-warm plasma soaking into the skin on her stomach.

“I am awake.” she whispered to herself. “I am awake. I am awake. I am awake.”

She pressed her eyes shut tightly and opened them again, noticing the way that her vision reappeared from the blackness, and she felt new again. She was no longer scared.

“There’s something I have to do” said Nada with great resolve. Lil shuddered at the way she seemed to look right through them. “I think I’m ready.”

CHAPTER 2

Geo’s heels tapped forcefully against the platinum streets, a battalion of two marching to go away to war. Lil trailed behind, glancing over their shoulder every couple of seconds. But Nada didn’t break her gaze.

“I hope you know where the fuck we are going.” said Lil. “I didn’t even ask to be a part of this whole thing and now there’s a telepathic alien bleeding out on my carpet. Maybe shit like this is why we don’t hang out as much anymore Geo, you ever think of that?”

She spun to face them. “Lil. We are going somewhere safe, don’t worry. I didn’t ask for any of this either. You’re my best friend and I need your help. Even if you don’t give a fuck about the fate of our planet, do it for me, because I’m going to die trying.”

“Nice speech.” They scoffed, barely able to hide the strong effect of her words that pumped frightened blood, cold and fast through their chest, pulsing underneath their tough exterior.

“Just don’t be a dick.”

They two soon arrived at The Base, a film library that also served as a front for the real operation, the local chapter of TQILA, The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army. The group was lead by Jupiter, a tall, muscular and very angry anarchist babe with a afro-halo of gold that often caught the light, making her look otherworldly and transcendental, despite the constant scowl on her face and smell of cigarettes that perhaps would suggest a more earthly residence.

As soon as they were through the door, they were swarmed.

“Are you alright?” “What the fuck happened?” “We saw you on the news!” “You shot a cop?” “There was a holoblast about it just a minute ago!” “You two are fucked-”

“How many people did you kill?” asked Jupiter.

“Not people.” said Geo softly.

“You’re damn right!” she replied, thrown off slightly by Nada’s response, but laughed anyways. “You’re starting to sound a lot like me.”

“No, that’s not what I mean..” Geo began, “Look, I know this is going to be hard to believe…”

She explained her observations and the events to the best of her ability, starting with the cadence of someone who had an enormous truth to reveal, and eventually devolving into that of someone who was forced to tell a lie they don’t believe. She knew how inconceivable her words were, but she didn’t know they would be so hilarious.

Geo put her face in her hands, pressing hard until she saw black, then white, then stars.

Everyone was laughing at her, and she could hear the alien signals buzzing all around her, attempting to take control.

zzzz obey zzzzz, no independent thought, consume, work 8 hours, sleep 8 hours zzzzz play 8 hours, conform, stay asleep, obey, consume, submit zzzzzzzzz buy, no thought, buy, doubt humanity, no ideas, consume zzzzzzz submit, no thought zzzzzzzzzzzz obey authority, surrender, cooperate, zzzzzzz no ideas, no thought, submit, stay asleep, stay asleep, obey, buy, do not question authority, no imagination zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

“Hey, fuck you guys, I was there! Geo is perfectly sane and, more than that, a hero.. And we have proof!” Lil pulled open Nada’s coat to reveal the laboradorescent blood, still shimmering and seething in the artificial light.

“It’s true.”

Everyone turned around, surprised by the unfamiliar voice. Geo shuddered. It was unmistakable.

The Hypnotist stepped out of the shadows, eyes blazing red under thick, scorched black bangs that were sharp enough to cut. The rest of her hair flowed down to her waist in a complex rope-like braid that reminded Geo of a magic beanstalk.

Just like before, Nada temporarily went deaf, reading her glossy lips like a manifesto.

And then:

“Wake up.”

Geo opened her eyes, unaware that they were ever closed. The Hypnotist is explaining everything perfectly and everyone understands. She is passing out the masks, technicolor and splendid in their handmade glory.

Jupiter looked over at Geo and saw something within her that she cannot understand. She isn’t convinced.

“Fuck this.”

Jupiter stormed out, the door hitting the frame like a slap to the face, and tossed a mask into the silver street. Nada ran after her, scooping it up and tucking it under her arm with one swift motion.

“Jupiter, wait-”

She pauses, clenching her fists slightly, before turning around to face her.

“Are you trying to make a mockery of our entire cause?”

“Please-”

“This shit isn’t funny Geo!” Jupiter turned away again, as if to leave.

“You have to believe me, just look.” Nada tried to put the mask on her, and was thrown off, catapulting back with unnecessary force.

“Get that fucking thing away from me!”

Geo paused for a second before following after her, putting her two palms over the part of her chest that Jupiter had pushed. She knew she had to get through to her, and quickly. Speeding up her pace, Nada got close enough to hold Jupiter’s hand and spin her around before she snatched it away, averting her eyes.

“Hey.” She lifted Jupiter’s chin to meet her own, attempting to dampen the urgency that still loitered around the edges of her voice.

“Look, I’m stressed, my court date is this weekend, I can’t handle you and Lil pulling crazy shit like this right now, first of all, you’re putting all of us in danger, and second of all, who even was that hot coven girl you were looking at like she was the second coming…” she paused.

“Geo, to be honest- I've been hearing something on the streets the last couple of weeks. Weird stuff. Some sort of epidemic of violence is what they've been saying. I was talking to someone from Philly. They told me they’ve got some sort of cult up there. End of the world stuff.”

“End of the world?”

“You know, shooting people, robbing banks. Same old thing as always. Whole lot of people going crazy over some nutty dream they had. You want to know the truth? This kind of shit happens the end of every century. It does -- it's just people afraid to face the future. It's all it is.”

“Jupiter, you don’t sound like yourself right now- fuck, they must be getting to you somehow…”

“What are you talking about?”

“Look J, you have to trust me.”

Jupiter opened her mouth, ready to breathe fire.

Geo silenced her by pressing a finger, softly but solidly, to her lips, and then replaced it with her own. “Trust me” she said again, breathing hot and wet and heavy. “Just trust me”. Jupiter pulled her closer for another kiss.

After a few moments, Nada swiftly replaced the space where her face just was with the cardboard mask. “Just look”. She got behind behind Jupiter, one arm around her waist, and the other pointing out to the street.

“Look. Look at them, they're everywhere.”

And she was awake.

Jupiter saw the empty Skel forms in mid-sublimation, she saw others in their peak fleshy fantasy, grotesque and always in flux. How they jiggled when they moved, how they laughed, wobbling and stretching through space and time. She looked up at the absurd holo-screen billboards, on which impossibly shaped creatures played pretend at being people.

[Holovision Skel 1] “Sometimes, when I watch HV, I stop being myself. And I'm a star of a series or a -- or I have my own talk show --or I'm on the news getting out of a limo, going some place important. All I ever have to do is be famous. People watch me and they love me. And I never, never grow old. And I never die.”

[Holovision Skel 2] “The feeling is definitely there. It's a new morning in America -- Fresh, vital. The old cynicism is gone. We have faith in our leaders. We're optimistic as to what becomes of it all. It really boils down to our ability to accept. We don't need pessimism. There are no limits.”

Then she heard the voices, louder and louder and louder and-

zzzzzzzzzzzz obey authority, surrender, cooperate, zzzzzzz no ideas, zzzzzz no thought, submit, stay asleep, stay asleep, obey, buy, do not question authority, no imagination zzzzzzzzzz

Jupiter started to laugh maniacally, the sound echoing recursively up and down the austere metal street.

“It figures it would be something like this.”

She had caught the attention of a Skel dressed as a rich old lady across the street. The creature spoke harshly into her cupped hand.

“Maybe they can see. Myrtle and Broadway”

They heard the soft wrrr of a motor over their heads, and, glancing up, saw a tiny, chrome drone bobbing up and down, constantly refocusing its many lenses on them. It couldn't have been larger than a hummingbird.

“I don't like this one bit.” said Jupiter, blasting the little bot to stardust, which showered down onto their faces like molten glitter.

As they sped up the pace, they noticed more and more Skel faces staring at them and whispering into cupped palms. They seemed to be more around every corner.

The sirens wailed like mourners, closer and brighter and redder with every second. Two cop cars swerved towards each other, narrowly avoiding a crash and cutting off the road.

“Fuck”. There was nowhere to run.

“Where'd you get that mask?” the first one barked. Nada couldn’t focus on anything but the way the creature’s skin rippled like disturbed water. She didn’t respond.

“Nick yourself shaving this morning?” said Jupiter.

“You look as shitty to us as we do to you.”

She flipped her hair. “Impossible.”

“It would be easier if we don't have to splatter your brains.” A little bit of saliva dribbled down this one’s chin as he said this, instantly becoming steam upon contact with the boiling flesh.

Nada looked down at her gun. She knew they had to die.

“Now, you stumbled onto something here. Maybe we can all benefit from this slight misunderstanding”. This cop was becoming an empty Skel, his laffy taffy insides consolidating into a small bundle on the top of his spine.

Geo knocked him to the ground, barreling into his spindly body and crushing it like a pane of glass. She hit the other one in the neck with her lazer gun, it’s guts exploring and exploding all over everything like mentos and coke. She picked up one of the cop guns for herself and tossed the other to Jupiter, who was standing between the two Skel bodies, inspecting them for any signs of life.

“So you bastards die just like we do.”

She heard a scream. Jupiter looked over to find Geo being held by a third cop, about to be handcuffed. She put her gun to his temple and hissed, “Let her go”.

He trembled.

“This one’s human!” Nada warned her.

Jupiter scoffed. “I don’t see anything human about him”. She spat at his feet.

The cop pisses himself.

“Pathetic. Okay, get your ass out of here before I change my mind”. She followed this with a very effective “shoo”-ing motion, gesturing with the gun.

He turned and started to amble away fearfully. Jupiter watched, contemplatively, cocking her head to the side, and then shot him twice in the back.

He collapses like a poorly made tent.

Jupiter, said, grinning, “No witnesses, right?”

Geo, smiled back at her in awe, wiping a blue-green smear of hot alien blood off of her soft brown cheek.

“That’s my girl”.

She takes her hand.

Jupiter surveyed the damage around them, the pink putty bodies like heaps of still being chewed gum rolling over themselves like ancient tectonic plates, islands of hissing molten flesh.

“Geo, we are so fucked. Call Lil on protonchat and tell them- I don’t know- tell them something. We need a safe house so we can all meet and figure out what the fuck is going on.”

Geo, absentmindedly, “I wonder how many more of us there are.”

“Geo! Fuck, are you alright? Listen, Bax is here, they’ve been communicating with some of our comrades from the Sector 4 resistance. They’re sending over all the information they have on these creatures and how to stop them, I’ll protonblast it to you. A couple people from the movement are coming down in a few hours to help us. Bax says they have a plan. But I’m going to be honest, this whole thing is batshit crazy. Lay low and make sure no one is following you, okay? Geo-”

“Yes”

“Who is she?”

(she paused, thinking back to crystalline shards of light bouncing off the tight latex, and the words, “wake up”, formed so perfectly by her plump lips and a salivating tongue )

“I don’t know.”

“Can we trust her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Don't wear the mask too long. Starts to feel like a knife turning in your skull.”

“Lil?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you scared?”

-Beep-

Jupiter is massaging her temples forcefully and pacing. “It's like a drug. Wearing this mask makes you high, but, oh, you come down hard.”

Geo took it out of her hand and stroked her cashmere curls, which were the color of amber and tightly wound like a million little slinkies, before planting a soft kiss on her forehead.

“Take all the guns you can find and let’s get out of here. And be careful with that thing”. She gestured towards the mask.

“The more awake you are the less you’ll need it.”

Jupiter pulled a black bandana over her face from around her neck and another out of her pocket, tying it around Geo’s head, and nuzzled her through the fabric.

A distant siren cries for its mother.

The two took off, hand in hand, each swinging a massive rifle in the other.

CHAPTER 3

Geo and Jupiter hide out in a dark skeezy dive bar where they know the bouncer, ShaSha, a massive butch with pink spiky hair and a penchant for violence.

The bar is empty except for two extremely drunk twinks slow dancing to “Computer Love”, their moves less about flair or musicality and more about holding each other up and trying not to fall.

Jupiter lit two cigarettes in her mouth and silently passed one to Geo.

“Play it again”

Geo tapped her wrist, illuminating a square of space in front of them, and reached out to unpause the video. The smoke undulated around the holo-blast screen, passing right through it, taunting.

“Our impulses are being redirected. We are living in an artificially induced state of consciousness that resembles sleep. The movement was begun eight months ago by a small group of scientists who discovered quite by accident ... these signals being sent through -- [static] The poor and the underclass are growing. Racial justice and human rights are non-existent. They have created a repressive society ... and we are their unwitting accomplices ... Their intention to rule rests ...with the annihilation of consciousness. We have been lulled into a trance. They have made us indifferent to ourselves, to others. We are focused only on our own gain. We ha --[static] They are safe as long as they are not discovered. That is their primary method of survival. Keep us asleep, keep us selfish, keep us sedated. They are dismantling the sleeping middle class. More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery. The revo -- [static] We cannot break their signal. Our transmitter is not powerful enough. The signal must be shut off at the source. We have --” (it cuts out)

The two sat together for a moment, wordlessly.

One of the Skels was on the bar HV, saying over and over again, “We are your friends. We are your friends. We are your friends.” It sounded scared.

Geo went up to the bar and ordered two beers, gazing up and into the hollow, iridescent skull of the newscaster. It suddenly struck her that the thing on the HV no longer seemed to have any power over her, not even as a force that she must resist. “It has to believe it can master me to do it. The slightest hint of fear on its part and the power to hypnotize is lost.”

Her picture flashed on the screen with the caption: HOMICIDAL MANIAC ON KILLING SPREE: THE CHASE CONTINUES. She laughed, then fell silent.

Nada brought the beers over to the table, cigarette still hanging precariously out of her mouth.

“Maybe they've always been with us. Those things out there. Maybe they love it. Seeing us hate each other. Watching us kill each other off. Feeding on our own cold, fucking hearts.” Nada’s tone was dark and hopeless.

Jupiter was clearly perturbed, torn between her steadfast political ideologies which asserted that capitalism, colonialism and oppression were human tendencies, certainly insidious, but human nonetheless, and the possibility that they could be accounted for simply by an alien species that had infiltrated our society and our consciousness.

“Don’t think like that. Maybe they’re just opportunists, mimicking the structures of control that already existed within our culture. How different is this than any other class battle in human history? They’re just the new 1%” she responded.

“But I killed three aliens today! Plus that human you shot. If we aren’t so different than them, then J, we’re just fucking murderers!”

Jupiter took her hand, feeling the intensity of Geo’s pulse slow to meet her own.

“We killed four cops today.”

“It was us or them.” she swallowed.

“I don’t want to lose you Geo, I can’t. We’ve been asleep for god knows how long, and now that we’re awake, I feel like I see you, I mean, really see you. For who you are. Not for your use value, not for your worth, not for your looks. For you. And I’ll do anything to protect that.”

She snorted. “This whole thing is so much bigger than us, Jupiter.”

“Is it? There must be some reason that you and I are awake when the whole world is asleep, I mean Geo, we’re not normal members of society. We’re fucking anarchists.”

“You might have a point. Speaking of fucking anarchists, it’s almost 21:00. Let’s go see Lil and Bax. We’ve got work to do.”

“Thank fuck you two are here, I was so worried!” Lil ran in and gave them both a big hug, then, slightly embarrassed, took a step back and gave them them the once over.

“Are you hurt?” they asked with a quiver, fear clearly seeping through their hardcore veneer.

“No, we made it fine.” Jupiter replied shortly, distracted by the Sector 4 comrades that seemed to be running the show. It was obvious that not being in charge wasn’t sitting too well with her.

“Good, the city's crawling with cops looking for you. And most of the cops are human. They basically think that we're just commies trying to bring down the government. And some of them are being recruited. Creatures are trading wealth, power…”

Lil is joined by a small, completely hairless person that Geo doesn’t recognise.

“Holy fuck, you mean people are joining up with them?”

“Most of us just sell out right away. Then all of a sudden we get promoted. Our bank accounts get bigger. We start buying new houses, gadgets. Perfect, isn't it? We'll do anything to be rich.” Bax’s voice is dripping with sarcasm like sap from a tree, sweet blood.

“What do these things want from us?”

“It's in our best interests. They're free enterprisers. The Earth is just another developing planet. Their third world.”

“And you are?” Jupiter asked accusingly.

“Trance. I’m from Chicago. My entire community was brutally wiped out two months ago by these creatures for refusing to submit to them. Only I survived, and I’ve been researching them ever since.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that” said Geo softly, before asking, “Do you know why they are here?”

“We are like a natural resource to them ... deplete the planet, move on to another. They want benign indifference. They want us drugged. We could be pets. We could be food. But all we really are is livestock. Look around the environment we live in. Carbon dioxide, fluorocarbons, and methane have been increasing since 1958. Earth is being acclimatized. They are turning our atmosphere into their atmosphere.”

“We need an assault unit. Someone to hit them hard when the time comes.” said Lil.

Bax cleared their throat loudly and began to speak, pulling a black beanie over their buzzed head.

“All right, now everybody listen up. We can’t be getting sloppy. Now, their detection is becoming more effective. So we have to be more careful.”

Trace continued, “Stay aware of keeping up appearances. Do what's expected of you. We've gotten reckless. And the movement's suffering for it.” They looked right at Jupiter and Geo, who rolled their eyes.

“Time to stop talking about it, trying to figure out how it happened. Now we need to start spilling some blood!” Jupiter’s abject call to arms was met by various shouts of agreement by the rest of the crew.

Bax shot back, “We don't stand a chance with a few guns and grenades.”

“So what are we supposed to do?” asked Geo earnestly.

“We bide our time.” said Trance.

“There is a signal broadcast every second of every day, through our holovision sets. Even when the set is turned off, the brain still receives the input. We need to seek out and locate their signal, and shut it off. Wake people up!”

“Trance’s friend works at NBC. He claims that the signal may be coming from one place-”

A voice swept from the through the room like a cool gust of wind, clear as water, each syllable uttered with the attention to detail of a marble sculptor, chipping away at each sound with just the right amount of force. Geo would recognize it anywhere.

“NeuroBlast Channel is clear. The transmission is going out clean. The signal is coming from somewhere else.”

Nada turned around to find the glassy eyes of the Hypnotist locked in her own, the space in between like a tightrope or a balance beam leading her ever so precariously.

Bax replied, “All right, this is the point. It's important to find out exactly where this signal is coming from. And the only way we can do --”

“I gotta go talk to someone.” Geo whispered in Jupiter’s ear, before bee-lining to the back of the room.

“Who are you?” Nada tried to sound strong and accusatory like Jupiter.

“You know who I am.” She said, smiling.

Nada furrowed her brow, confused by her answer and even more perplexed by her smile, which seemed at once an attempt to transmit ancient secrets of the universe and also completely empty, lacking of any real empathy or emotion.

“Who are you! Why did you wake me up?” she repeated, more insistent this time.

“My dear,” she said with that same saccharine grin peeling off her face like the skin of an orange, “I couldn’t do that. You did it to yourself.”

“But--”

“Hush little baby. You will understand soon. For now, take cover.”

“Wha-”

CRASH!

The library is up in flames, sparks flying everywhere. Everyone is screaming.

Then the gas. A helicopter searchlight beams down, white hot and blinding.

Then the sirens, like a nursery full of of still bloody, orphaned newborns in plexiglass cases.

Then the SWAT team, yelling in brutish, foreign sounds that are mangled by the high pitched zinging of their AR-25s.

Everyone is shooting. Everyone is getting shot.

The screams are getting less and less.

Geo realizes she isn’t screaming either.

Geo realizes everything is lava and the Hypnotist is gone.

Geo realizes she isn’t paralyzed anymore. She presses play on time.

She picked up a gun from the nearest dead body and ran backwards, firing at every uniform she saw. She stashed two more in the waistband of her skirt and one in her bra.

Something caught the red light of the sirens. It was Jupiter, her lion’s mane magically illuminated like the burning bush. She was passed out against the wall, clearly in shock from the blast.

Nada dragged her out the back door and into the alleyway, summoning every ounce of her strength. She remembered what Jupiter has said to her earlier, and regretted how flippant she had been about it.

“I don’t want to lose you” she said out loud. “I can’t”.

Now she wanted to scream.

She didn’t realize she was until two cops came around the corner, running. She shot them mid stride without even looking, and knew from the characteristic sound of their flesh sizzling and then falling with an enormous cascading squish, and the damp heat that came off their freshly-dead bodies, that they were Skels. She was relieved.

The screaming and the shooting had woken up Jupiter, who started to groan.

“Fuck J, are you okay, are you shot?”

“I think I’m okay. That explosion scrambled me though. Where’s everyone else?”

“I didn’t see anyone alive. They must have either ran away or gotten arrested.”

Jupiter tried to stand up, still unstable. “We have to go save them!”

Geo started to cry. “Jupiter. You know we can’t go back in there. It’s crawling with cops looking for survivors to question. We just have to hope that they’re okay.”

“And if they’re not?” She was angry, but she was crying too.

“Then you and I are the only ones that know the truth.” Geo looked up at her friend. She wasn’t crying anymore.

Another set of cops raced around the corner, and then another, disturbing the thick, silent grief that had temporarily frozen them in the moment. Jupiter grabbed the gun in Geo’s bra and started shooting. Without looking back, she gestured for Nada to throw her a second one.

The two advanced, both with a gun in each hand. The cops hardly had a moment to unholster their weapons before they were turned into a shapeless, slimy mess, thrown to the floor like liquid in a thin plastic bag.

Two more more appeared and were shot at, one human, one Skel. The human one somehow managed to limp away with one leg shred up like an incriminating document.

The other one had been hit too, and, looking around at the many steaming, leaking bodies that surrounded it, the Skel started to whisper more and more frantically into its cupped hand.

Geo and Jupiter squinted, suddenly blinded by a purple-blue light that seemed to come from below them.

Their eyes adjusted slightly to reveal a glowing, pulsating hole opening up in the middle of the alleyway. It spoke:

“Portal closing in five...”

“What the fuck is that?” Geo yelled over the noise, which was at once like a vacuum and like someone blowing bubbles in water through a straw.

“Four”.

“I don’t know… some kind of alien secret hideout maybe...”

“Three.”

The cop trustfell backwards into the hole.

“Two”

“Well baby, we’re about to find out!” said Geo, before pulling Jupiter towards her and wrapping her arms around her waist. She threw her weight backwards, taking Jupiter tumbling down with her.

The portal closed behind them with a loud, wet suction noise, like lips smacking after a delicious meal.

CHAPTER 4

A robotic voice echoed in the long dark tunnel, which was quickly self illuminating from the furthest visible point, light rushing towards them in a tidal wave crescendo.

“If you need assistance in finding your destination, bilingual instructions are posted at the end of each corridor.”

The two scrutinized the marks on the wall, which were squirming like mealworms in a small container.

“What kind of language is that?” said Jupiter, marveling at the way the printed text seemed animate, able to reconstitute itself much like the species that it derived from.

Geo tapped all around walls and, standing on her tippy toes, the ceiling.

“I think we're under the city. Maybe some kind of underground base or something.”

She kept looking for clues.

“Stay perfectly still.” said Jupiter suddenly, standing straight up.

She mouthed the words “do you hear that?” and pointed down the tunnel, opposite the way they had came. Geo did hear it, although it was very faint, like the beating of butterfly wings or a lizard’s heartbeat.

They crept towards the sound, guns drawn.

The sound clarified itself slowly, first becoming applause, and then becoming louder, and then louder, reaching a deafening roar by the time they reached its source.

It was a grand ballroom, sparkling with mindless luxury, vomiting platinum and glass and pristine modernist details that seemed almost sacred, too rich to be touched. On the tables were piled all manner of rare delicacies, caviar, chocolates, fine wines in crystal glasses. Many other things that Jupiter and Geo had never seen, but could recognize as something rare and precious.

Human and Skel alike had embraced their gluttony, unabashedly stuffing their faces and tossing their drinks down their throats, often staining their minimalist haute couture getups. They didn’t care. They thought they were among friends.

A pink skel sloshed across the stage, tapping the mike to gain everyone’s attention. They fell silent.

“Our projections show that by the year 2035, not only America, but the entire planet, will be under the protection and the dominion of this power alliance. The gains have been substantial, both for ourselves and for you, the human power elite. You have given us entrée to the resources we need in our ongoing quest for multidimensional expansion. And in return, the per capita income of each of you here tonight ... has grown, in this year alone, by an average 39%. And I've just received word that our forces have won a major victory. The underground terrorist network has been destroyed here on the East Coast. We are off crisis alert. The situation is normal again. Have a wonderful rest of your night and remember, money isn't the nicest thing in life, it's the only thing!”

The audience of humans, so comfortable in the presence of the creatures on the stage, unable to see the bubbling, pink folds of flesh that bulged and swirled under their eveningwear, applauded and clinked their glasses.

Geo looked at the crowd, decked out in glittering excess, as they celebrated their demise. Then she recognized them.

“Holy shit Jupiter.”

She felt the walls closing in on her.

“Is that Lil and Bax? I can’t believe they’re alive! They look fucked! I’ve never seen either of them in anything that formal...or with that much makeup on...or with their hair brushed….”

“Or without their souls.”

“Stay cool, I think they saw us.”

Lil waved like a docile, contributing member of society and got up, making their way towards them.

“Jupiter! Geo! Oh, how lovely! I didn't know you'd been recruited.” they said with a glossy, plastered-on smile.

“Welcome aboard! You know, you girls really should have dressed for the party ... now you can afford it.” they said the last part with a knowing twinkle in their eye that almost made Geo puke, it was so unlike them.

“Isn’t the place just splendid!” they continued. “Have you gotten the grand tour yet?”

Geo wanted to say something cruel, but she knew she had to play along.

“Come with me!” they gasped, taking both Jupiter and Geo by the hand, and dragging them out of ballroom and into a tunnel that was very similar, but not quite the same as the one they had just used to enter.

Lil pulled them around a corner that seemed to appear just at the moment that they started to turn.

They were in a room of nothingness. A cold, steel platform stretched out into the dark, the open night sky unraveling before them like a lover, naked and glorious.

The three stood, gazing out at the vastness in horror and awe. Geo had stared up at the stars and felt so small and insignificant so many times, that her life was meaningless, that she was just a little speck on the planet earth, as ineffectual as a grain of sand or a dust mite. But here she was, at the center of a cosmic battle for liberation. She felt the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Attention commuters, flight Alpha 7 to Andromeda is now ready for boarding. Please step in to the transmission platform. A robotic voice interrupted her thoughts.

“That's where they come from.” whispered Lil excitedly, pointing out into the endless black pit.

“I don't know how it works exactly, but it has to do with some sort of gravitational lens deal -- bending the light, or some damn thing. But you can move from place to place, world to world if you want to. You see, the whole thing works like one big airport. Ladies, let me tell you, they got their act together. Believe you me.”

Jupiter looked over at Geo and made a face that said “I can’t do this anymore.” She knew she was about to lose it.

“What’s next… oh! I’ll take you to the HV studio! That’ll be fun!”

Geo replied, “I’d love to!” and shot back a look to Jupiter that meant, “Just a little bit longer.”

“Let me show you something else-“ they said. “We’re supposed to save this for emergencies… but it’s just so damn fun!”

They whispered something into their hand and the floor opened up at their feet, pulsing with cool, inviting neon light. Lil took their hands again, and jumped.

“And here we got the brains of the whole operation. NBC! That's where the signal goes out from here to the satellite. We bump it out all over the world. Pretty fancy, huh? Not too familiar with it myself. Well, ladies, that’s as far as we go.” They said, lighting a cigarette nonchalantly.

Jupiter and Geo looked through the glass to see a set of alien newscasters, awkwardly stuffed into human business casual attire. They really were quite ridiculous creatures in their fleshy form, hypermorphic rave slugs that stretched and sucked at themselves with every motion that they made.

“They led us right into the belly of the beast. ” said Jupiter under her breath.

Geo turned back to Lil, her face forming back into a forced smile.

“Can you get us inside?” she seeing how far she could push it. “I've never seen the inside of a HV studio before.”

“Well, I guess it wouldn't be that much problem. You see the guards over there? Friends of mine. Hey, fellas, I got a couple of my friends here. Thought I'd give them the grand tour. Think we can go inside?”

Jupiter’s jaw dropped. Geo knew what she was thinking. Seeing Lil this friendly with cops was like seeing a pig excited for slaughter, laying down in position with a happy little squeal.

The guard replied “Be serious. You have your authorization cards?”

Lil looked down for a moment to take their card out of their pocket. Jupiter locked eyes with Geo. “Now!” She yelled.

Before Lil’s hand was even out of their pocket, the guards were dead, their ultraviolet innards slithering on the floor.

Inside the HV studio, cameras were rolling, completely ignorant to the bloodshed.

Lil was screaming, and Geo clapped a hand over her mouth to silence her.

Jupiter knocked on the glass.

“Soundproof. Where's that signal?”

Geo uncovered their mouth. They stopped yelling, embarrassed.

“It's up on the... roof, I think.” Stuttered Lil nervously, eyeing the loaded guns and the bodies at their feet.

“Let’s go.”

“Wait, wait, you're making a big mistake!” cried Lil in desperation.

“You made the mistake.” Jupiter hissed.

“No, no, you got to listen to me. I thought you two understood. It's business, that's all it is. You still don't get it, do you? There ain't no countries anymore. No more good guys. They're running the whole show. They own everything -- the whole goddamn planet. They can do whatever they want. What's wrong with having it good, for a change? And they're going to let us have it good, if we just help 'em. They're going to leave us alone. Let us make some money. You can have a little taste of that good life too. Now, I know you want it -- hell, everybody does.”

“You turned your back on your own kind.” Said Geo to herself, still shocked by Lil’s new capitalistic tendencies and happy-go-lucky demeanor.

“What's the threat? We all sell out every day. Might as well be on the winning team.”

Jupiter, only half joking, said, “Lil, you sound crazy. I’m gonna shoot you if you don’t stop talking about all this self righteous bullshit, you fucking zombie.”

Lil shrugged, their glassy expression still pleasant even while under threat. They really were so far gone.

Jupiter couldn’t wait any longer. She barreled through the glass door with ungodly force, shattering the fourth wall that, until just moments before, had kept the HV broadcasters in the dark.

Geo soon followed. She felt like the hero in an action movie.

“I have come here to chew bubblegum ... and kick ass.” she said, reloading her guns.

“And I'm all out of bubble gum.”

She set the room ablaze, sending streams of razor sharp lasers through their soft, kneaded eraser-like flesh.

“Cut to a commercial!” someone yelled.

“I’m going to head to the roof, try to find the signal.” said Geo.

[HV Commercial] Oman's collection puts passion before fashion.

The very un-elegant form of a fully expanded Skel in the advertisement looked ridiculous, lounging on and around and underneath a grand piano, a martini wedged between two of its many fluctuating folds.

The alarm starts to scream, a piercing noise that was neither man made or mechanical and resembled the sound of two stones grinding against each other at high speed.

Security alert. Intruders are here -- head for the roof. Repeat. Intruders --

“Come on, come on! Jupiter, watch the door.”

Nada dashed up the stairs, the bone crushing sound of the alarm system echoing through her entire body. She felt a shiver go down her spine.

[HV] Dash and trash are back. Out goes glitter, and in comes divine excess.

The hatch door swung open like a drunken punch to the jaw, the air around it whipped by the blades of the helicopters bobbing high above.

On the edge of the roof, the silhouette of a person stood, arms raised high above her head. She was humming some sort of incantation, softly but audibly nonetheless.

Geo knew who she was.

The Hypnotist turned around, smiling that same smile so void and yet somehow so meaningful.

“Just say it already!” Geo shouted. She had grown tired of her manipulations. “Just say it into the satellite! That’s what you’re here for, right?”

“No Geo. I’m here to stop you.” She pursed her perfect lips.

Nada scowled, not understanding. “But you were the one who woke me up!”

“Not everyone can stay asleep. It’s an ecosystem, Geo. One must have balance in order to have peace. One must have a conflict in order to have a plot.”

“You call this peace?” she shouted, pointing at the countless police helicopters and sirens that drew ever nearer.

The cops yelled from the sky. “Drop your weapon! Stand away from the dish, or we will open fire.”

“Come inside with me.” The Hypnotist beaconed. “If you end this now I can keep you safe. They will not hurt you.”

“You have ten seconds. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six.” A voice barked from a speaker.

[HV] The fall collection revels in freedom of expression. Gay abandon rushes to meet ... the roaring-

“Fuck it.” Geo shot the Hypnotist down in one quick motion.

Her brains splattered against the cold aluminum of the satellite. Then she shot the disk, exploding it into little bitty particles of metal ash, melting under the flames like like the Wicked Witch to water.

Laserfire criss-crossed through Geo’s vision, narrowly missing her each time. The ground below her feet began to tremble, erupting into smoke and lava.

A police searchlight beamed down on her. She felt like a movie star. She looked up into the light, completely ignoring the building that was exploding all around her.

“No justice, no peace!” she shrieked at the top of her lungs, and flipped off the cameras, before being enveloped completely in thick, dark fog, disappearing from view.

THE END

#prose

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gurl2irl-blog · 6 years

Text

SCI FI MILITARY TECH by Clara Baxter

“The boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion.”

-Donna Haraway

According to President Trump’s budget for the Fiscal Year 2019, the U.S. military spending budget is estimated at $886 billion. Military spending is the second largest item in the federal budget after Social Security. The advancement of science and technology in the United States is not only linked to, but mobilized by militarism. Even technological innovations that we perceive to be banal are often derived from more sinister technological advancements. The first prototype of the internet was the creation of ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, originally funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. It was created as a method of communication during the Cold War. Digital photography was first used by the U.S army as a method of surveillance. Duct tape and super glue are also military technology.

Advancements of medicine in America are no exception. Public health and war in the United States first became linked during the Civil War when military officials requested the help of health professionals and volunteers to treat soldiers. Medical professionals were eager to have the support of the military to test new theories and technologies and further medical advancement. During world war II, medical science motivated by war efforts were responsible for the development of antibiotics, radar, and the atomic bomb. These advancements were the catalyst for the invention of pesticides. Science and technology are often mythologized as objective fields motivated by the desire to benefit all of humanity. This is a dangerous misconception. Technology and science are funded by the state and the motivations of the state.

The U.S military is responsible for astronomical amounts of violence in other countries, and this should not be overlooked or trivialized. For now, however, I would like to think about the damage American militarism has inflected on its own citizens in respects to the allocation of funds for science and technology. Not only has the military’s link to technology lead to the invention of catastrophically violent weaponry such as a drones and nuclear warfare, our governments prioritization of military technology leads to an absence of other important medical and technological research. Women’s reproductive health is famously under researched. Birth control is shamefully underdeveloped. The AIDS crisis in the United States is a crucial example of the government actively killing its own citizens through lack of action. It seems impossible that the country capable of crafting atomic bombs didn’t have the resources and technology to cure AIDs, if the population most largely effected wasn’t disposable in the eyes and priorities of the U.S.

The United State government is not only responsible for violence via neglect, but has also implanted violent acts against its citizens in the name of science and medical advancement. The United States has a history of forced sterilization, prompted by eugenics. Eugenics, defined as “the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics,” was a widely accepted in the scientific community until the early 1940’s. The term was coined in 1883 by British “explorer” and scientist Francis Galton, who was influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Forced sterilization laws were first implemented in Indiana in 1907, quickly followed by 28 other states in 1931. These laws targeted poor Americans, people of color, disabled people, and anyone else the state found threatening or simply undesirable. Sterilization programs in California were so robust that Hitler admitted to taking cues from the state’s legislation. Eugenics and forced sterilization didn’t die with World War II. California prisons are said to have authorized sterilizations of nearly 150 female inmates between 2006 and 2010.

Given our track record, it’s hard to be positive when thinking into the future of technology. The history of technology and science in the United States’ history echoes stories of oppressive dystopian government. A not-so-new technological concept that holds interest for feminist and sci-fi geeks alike is cybernetics.

The word “cyborg” was first used in a publication by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline as a solution for some of the complications posed by space travel during the 1960s. Although cyborg like entities have been a trope in science fiction since long before the 1960’s, the word “cyborg” finds its roots in the space race. Cyborg’s were conceptualized to help us colonize the final frontier.

Many people argue that we are already cyborgs, that we have been for years. Our current day materializations of cybernetics conjure up imagery of things like drones. Digital objects that become extensions of ourselves. We tote around cell phones that hold our memories, conversations, and complex algorithms that claim to know us. In her essay To be a Cyborg or a Goddess, Nina Lykke argues, “An astronaut in outer space, totally dependent on the life-support systems of the spaceship, is a cyborg. So is a woman who is taking the contraceptive pill. Her menstruation is (re)created artificially or, in other words, she confronts us with one more organism fusioned with technology.”

Throughout science fiction, and through Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto, the cyborg has become a symbol for transcending boundaries and dualisms regarding identity. Cyberpunk tells stories of the oppressed subverting and repurposing technology to benefit themselves and even over throw oppressive systems. But if we are already cyborgs, our cybernetic technology thus far has done more for imperialism than feminism. Haraway does acknowledges the cyborg’s violent geneses: “The main trouble with cyborgs, of course, is that they are the illegitimate offspring of militarism and patriarchal capitalism, not to mention state socialism. But illegitimate offspring are often exceedingly unfaithful to their origins. Their fathers, after all, are inessential.”

The one thing that feels certain is that cybernetic technology must find its roots in militarism (or through venture capitalists with similar motives) in order to be fully actualized. One can only hope our hypothetical-future cyborg kin would opt for a cyberpunk narrative. Given the trajectory and priorities of our science and tech, could we depend on cybernetics to provide sleek fully automated reproductive organs for trans people? How about sci-fi level futuristic forms of birth control? Bullet proof skin for people of color targeted by police? Would any of this be accessible to poor people? Could these technologies ever be widely accessible, covered by Insurance? In order for marginalized bodies to be included in the future of technology must we be weaponized killing machines? I’m not interested in a defeatist woefully techno-phobic future, just one that is cautious of its origins when executing its revolutions.

#prose

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gurl2irl-blog · 6 years

Video

vimeo

LINGUA MATERNA by Clara Horst

This presentation is a look behind the scenes of how I built the world for my BFA4 film. In it I explore the development of the characters, the research into the nautical visuals, and most importantly the construction of the two fantasy languages featured in the film.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19s6G_-hXoJx1BHfLpA3v9iUp97Qe8yUSfeAlgeIsUtk/edit#slide=id.p

#video

0 notes

gurl2irl-blog · 6 years

Text

ELAINE’S WORLD by Aevery Huens

For my final creative assignment in Sci-Fi Feminism, I decided to transpose a longtime comic idea of mine into a short story combining fairy tale tropes, dust bowl aesthetics, and an exploration of humanized ai. Inspired by Andrew Wyeth's painting "Christina's World," this following work of fiction was important in marrying my love for visual story telling with an effort to improve my ability to write cohesive yet engaging themes that draw the reader into a story. Finally, I wanted to create a piece of work that focused on a mother daughter relationship and internalized conflict rather than external.

When she woke, she felt that her face was against the rough hardwood floor. The next thing she noticed was a faint whining tone in the back of her head, as though her ears had just stopped ringing. It took her another moment to realize she was lying down, and after blinking a couple of times in her daze, she carefully propped herself up.

Looking around, she could see she was at home. A short hallway was behind her, and large windows cast a grid pattern onto the foyer floor. She could see dust in the shafts of light, and with a frown mentally chastised herself for letting it get so dirty. Remembering she was on the ground again, she dusted herself off. I must have fell, or maybe fainted. Aside from the ringing, her head didn’t hurt, but she decided to run her hands through her hair to check for a bruise anyway. Her hair and scalp felt dry, but otherwise she seemed fine.

“Hello?” She called out to the house, her voice was horse and metallic. Her head was still a little scattered, so it took her a moment to think of who she was calling to.

“Will?” There was no response, her voice reverberated against the old wood surfaces. He wasn’t home, but she couldn’t think yet of where he would be.

She finished pushing herself off the ground and gave her long skirt a final pat. She began to think of excuses for where Will might be. Maybe he had gone with a friend. Or maybe he was still at school. But she couldn’t think of any recent events to prove her ideas, and furrowed her brow in concern. If I can’t remember anything, I might have a concussion. She decided she’d better search around and find her phone, she would need to go to the hospital if she was having this much trouble-

A tugging at her leg interrupted her thoughts. A brown retriever was hanging on to her dress by the mouth, and it let go when she gave it her attention. It panted up at her expectantly.

“Sasha,” she said more to herself than the dog. She remembered that! Sasha was her dog, she wasn’t home completely alone! Bending down to pet her, Sasha’s gold dog tag on a black collar confirmed it.

“Did I fall, Sasha?” She panted again in response. Having a sudden partner for rhetorical questions put her more at ease.

She cautiously made her way from the foyer into the kitchen. The counters were bare and tidy, and none of William’s toys blocked the hallway today. She wouldn’t have been surprised if she had tripped over one, but the house was clutter free. Even the chairs of the table were all pushed in, a small chore she thought she’d need to perform herself for the rest of her life. Like any other mess, a phone was nowhere in sight.

Still, she took a moment to lean against the wall, feeling the old texture of the wallpaper. The room seemed familiar yet entirely new, as though something she’d experienced vicariously through photographs. But she wasn’t at a complete loss. She remembered the kitchen dining set was a hand me down from her grandmother. She remembered William’s 5th birthday a few years ago, serving him a cake at that table. He’d been old enough to know better, but still called the color yellow “sunshine” to her simultaneous endearment and dismay. So the lit candles had been “sunshine” to him. Staring towards the table, she realized after a moment that it wasn’t complete. A chair was missing across from her, hidden by the orderliness of the other three.

“Where’d it go, Sasha?” But she was instead sniffing underneath the cabinets, assumedly searching for crumbs.

It didn’t make sense, but she was looking for her phone, not her chair. So she moved back down the hall.

Something in the corner of her eye stopped her. A mirror in the hall showed her own reflection, her eyes were dark and sleepless, and her cheekbones stuck out against her long face. I look so tired . Her blonde hair was fading greyish, hardly sunshine anymore. “I look like shit, Sasha.” Speaking so frank felt funny to her. Sasha wagged her tail in agreement.

She continued back into the foyer, wondering if she should check for it upstairs. They are made of the same old wood as the floors, and she knows she’s had plenty of heart attacks watching Will almost stumble down them. It’s that thought that makes her hesitate, resting on the handrail. I better not climb stairs when I just fell, I look so frail. Besides, she decided, her phone may still be down here, maybe in the living room or out back in the mudroom.

Sasha stops her thinking again with scratches at the door. “Down, don’t do that,” she says, her voice stern. The dog stops, but whines back at her, jittery on the doormat. She must need to go. With a sigh, she move towards her. The door was left unlocked, and she frowns. Minding her own balance, she pulls it open.

Before her isn’t a rural street with other homes, but a wide expanse of a field. The sight stuns her in the door frame. Tall, yellowed grass surrounds her, creating golden waves in the breeze. Sasha bolted across the porch and into the grass, creating a line through the field like a snake as she ran. Where am I?

She watched Sasha a minute more, processing. Even more so than Will’s absence, she had no excuse to explain the field before her. Tentative still, she stepped out from the porch and down into the grass. It was at least up to her thighs, and she was thankful for her old long skirt. A brown smudge on the yellow sea, Sasha was barely visible a few yards away.

“Come here!” she called out, but Sasha only raised her head pointedly at her. Instead, she made her way to Sasha. The sky was heavily overcast, with dark grey clouds moving slowly in the wind. Only the mistly brightness of the clouds on the horizon betrayed that the sun was shining beyond them. The ringing in her head was still there, and was just barely present over the rustle of the dying grassy ocean around her.

“Where are we, girl?” Looking back at her home, it somehow seemed in place with the surroundings. It was an old farmhouse with a small porch and grey wooden siding. It almost blended into the darkened sky, save for the porch and roof. Will’s upstairs window was in a large singular gable centered on the house.

Where am I? She wondered some more, to no avail.

Over her shoulder, in the opposite direction, she could make out the only other anomaly on the horizon. A mass of dark, low trees were off at least a mile in that direction. Unlike her kitchen, they felt familiar in a discomforting way. That doesn’t make sense, this doesn't make sense. She chastized no one in particular. Suddenly, with an aggressive rustle and trail behind her, Sasha bounded towards the trees.

“Sasha!” She called, but like last time, Sasha went a distance, stopped, then looked directly back. Clearly, Sasha was beckoning her to follow. This hardly seemed like the best idea

Yet she found herself walking towards the trees with her. I know she’d come back, but I better not lose her too. Perhaps Sasha knew where to take her, or where Will was. The idea was ridiculous to her, but it was enough to make her walk.

When she reached Sasha, she kept going towards the distant trees, and Sasha trailed along happily besides her. She settled into a pattern, and while the daze and ringing persisted, she didn’t worry she would fall. The flat field was persistent, a yellow sea wide and constant. The trees seemed closer as she walked, her house more distant with a crushed longer trail behind her, but she was unsure. Even the rustling became a droning noise, and she tried to think of Will to occupy herself along the way. She could imagine his joy and her own panic if he’d ever been able to play in a field like this. He had no sense of hesitation to him, even more so than childishness could explain. She remembered his fifth birthday again, his eyes alight at the five candles around the simple cake. “Sunshine!” Then, of course, he had reached for one. “No, Will!” But she wasn’t fast enough, and he had immediately recoiled and cried at the burn.

Her footsteps slowed. What had happened after that? She remembered rushing towards him, looking down, but not what she had done to sooth his finger. They had continued to have cake afterwards, there had been guests after all. But she didn’t remember comforting him. The gap was small but troubling.

She hadn’t noticed, but the winds had picked up during the walk, and they whipped at her back, pushing her harder towards the forest. The ringing tone seemed to increase in volume along with the wind and the grass, only adding to her mental frustration. I should head back and call and ambulance. But she kept walking alongside Sasha.

I should look for Will, she decided instead.

It took at least half an hour for her to reach the trees outright. Finally, she could see them clearly, dark green leaves stark against both the grass and the sky. They were full grown, but low and wilted, twisting similarly to the waves of the field in the wind. The grass was lower here, stunted by the shade provided. Though hardly rolling, there were small hills in the land into the groove. Her trepidation returned.

“What did you want, Sasha?” The quietness of her call against the wind was alarming, and her worry grew. As she stopped, Sasha trotted directly ahead. Not far from the field at all, she searched for where she was headed: a mound between two trees. It took her a moment more to fully see it.

Nestled in the dirt’s face was a door. Double doors, actually. They were dark and low, and rounded at the top. They were set into the ground, and seemed like a portal from a fairy tail. Or, perhaps, more like a witch's cabin. Sasha was pawing at them like before, but this time she didn’t scold her. The doors were foreboding, familiar. I can’t have been here before.

The trees started to groan, and shook in the violent wind. Leaves tore around her from the ground and the branches, and she stumbled to the doors. Someone must live here, I can’t make it back to the house in this weather. She was practically shoved into the door, and began to knock as loudly as her frail arm allowed.

“Please, open up!”

There was a flash of light, casting a stark shadow of her frame against the wood. Then a few moments later, a low rumble followed, reverberating through her. The whirring tone in her head seemed to spike for a moment, and she sunk to the ground against the door. Sasha pressed against her. Where am I? Where is Will? Of course she’d be worried for him, she prayed he wasn’t anywhere in the field. The winds were so strong now that she covered her heards with her arms.

“Oh, move! Aren’t ya comin’ in? Can’t ya see there’s a storm?”

The voice was barking and gravely. She looked up to an old woman, back bent over, clutching a bag to her side. The witch of the cabin , She thought briefly. Scrambling to her feet, her skirt billowed around her. She must have looked ridiculous.

“Is this your house?” It was the first thing she could think to ask.

“Of course it is!” the old woman yelled back, and pushed past her to the door. She followed the crone closely inside, letting Sasha slip in behind her.

The cramped inside of the den were even stranger than the front doors. For every item of clutter missing from her own home, it had found its way to here. Antique looking cabinets and tables were piled with chotskies, papers, books, and dishes. The room was dark and musty, even after the old woman flicked a switch to light several old lamps. Even more confusing and out of place was the occasional piece of machinery that sat on the floor or a miraculously free surface. Plastic and metal arms jut geometrically around the room, juxtaposing the earthy walls and decor. She had no idea what any of it did.

“I’m shocked ya wandered all the way out here. Did Sasha lead you?” The old woman talked over her back as she set her bag and it’s contents down. More mechanical parts were added onto a pile.

“She did,” she hesitated before replying. She was still as the old woman moved about the room, afraid she herself would fall over something unseen on the floor. The old woman bent down further to scratch Sasha’s head. I thought she hated Sasha . She didn’t know where this idea comes from.

“I didn’t expect ya’d be ready to go till tomorrow. But after all, what do I know? Ha!” The old woman had a casual abrasiveness to her words. She’d never let you get a word in , the assessment ran through her head. “It’s a good thing ya beat the storm, you’da taken a beatin’ for sure. Well, sit down, we’ll get started since you’re here!” The old woman pulled out a creaky chair from a dining table in the center of the room. She realized: That’s my missing kitchen chair! It was exactly the same, and no too chairs around that table matched either. The discovery puts her oddly at ease. Of course, to put it kindly, her mother had always been eccentric.

“Mama, how long have you been living here?” she plainly asked her.

The old woman froze with her mouth open, clearly about to make a comment. Instead, her mother made an expression that she’s never seen before. She had horrified her. Stunned her. Had she said something wrong, she was usually so tactful. Furthermore, since when had she looked so old? Her wrinkles were deep, sliding down her face, and the fat that remained on her body hung down from her hunched frame. Her brow furrowed.

“Was that such a strange question, I’m the one who’s surprised.” Her mother still stared back at her. The silence was so unlike her, and she was unsettled again. The ringing was louder than the sounds of the storm on the den.

Instead of replying, her mother quickly got up, grabbed something from the top of a pile, and sat back down. In front of her she sat a small black box. A red light came on. A camera.

“Now, what do you remember sweetie?” Her mother’s voice was different, less harsh, quieted. No longer distracted about the room, she was leaning forward with sudden interest in her. Her back cracked lightly with the motion. Was it maternal? It was seemingly caring.

“I don’t know, I think I fell while at home, but I don’t know how... or why we’re out here.” Her mother’s expression soured for a moment, and she caught it immediately. “Don’t make this about how I shouldn’t be living in that home alone,” she snapped, “I must have just tripped.”

When her mother didn’t reply, she continued. “I’m worried I hit my head too hard, but I couldn’t find a phone...”

She looked around the cabin again, this accumulation of mess must have taken years. Her mother’s entire life was seemingly shoved into this room. Her next questions were careful, both for her mother’s sake and her own.

“Why are we here? ...Why are you recording this?”

The old woman looked to her left, then back again. “Just focus on rememberin’ things.” She hesitated. “I wanna make sure ya don’t have a concussion.”

She’s lying. She’s observing.

“Just tell me what you remember.”

She stares back at her mother, wanting to point out her observations, but instead mulling over her question. Of course she remembered things, she remembers her, her son, her home. Not specifics, perhaps, but enough to know that something was wrong. She remembered what was important. The ringing, the whirring, it got louder as she thought. It kept returning to the same questions. There was a long silence before she spoke again.

“You’ve done this before.” It wasn’t a question, but a confirmation. Her mother was quiet, but nodded.

“Where is Will?”

The old woman hesitated again.She wasn’t thinking on her toes, firing quip after quip like she normally should be. Then, she was so, so quiet. It only made the whirring seem louder.

“Now, don’t do anythin’, just listen’ to what I’m sayin’.

There was a moment of hurt in her face, she saw it. She saw it but couldn’t yet explain it, it took her full attention to follow her words.

“I made a big change in the logic tree. Now this time, I made a big difference ‘tween how ya process outside information and how ya process yourself. So... it may take longer for you to make the connections, or to self assess the video data.” The same hurt passed over her face again. She was talking about her career, about her work. She hated when her mother compared her to her work. “But, I’ll be damned, this is the most like her-like yourself- that you’ve acted yet.

She just blinked back at the old woman. Her breathing began to feel labored. Was she breathing? The daze returned, and the whirring, droning, made it hard to think. She tried to keep her voice level.

“What are you talking about? You’re talking like I’m one of your projects.

Her mother flinched. She was frozen. Again, stunned. The hurt was so plain on her face, so glaring to her. She looked so feeble then. “Oh my lord, you’ve never not known...”

She thinks I’m an android.

The whining was ever louder, and the thought shot her to her feet. “No.” Why would her mother lie to her like this. This was beyond eccentricity, it was cruel. “Don’t tease me, mama, I’m not one of your androids.”

Her mother looked with pity at her now. Her eyes watered. “You are, darlin. I’m the one that made you. I always said If I could do it once, I could do it again.

The room was fuzzy, suffocating, dazed like when she first woke up. She stumbled over nothing, and almost fell over again. Why was her mother lying to her? Why was she lying?

“Oh my god.”

“Sit back down, you need to process this!” The bite was back in her gravelly voice, it sounded so much more real than her own.

She ignored her. “You’re lying, you have to be lying.”

She couldn’t think of why she would tell her this. No excuses came to mind. She started searching, looking the room, frantically hoping to find an explanation in the mess of her mother’s home. That machinery was from the lab . It was the same shapes, the same brand. She’d toured it once with Will and recorded the whole thing. He’d loved it, he loved his grandmother-

“I’m not lyin to ya. Sit down! You’re not completely synthetic or somethin, but you’re-”

“Stop, stop talking!” The whirring felt louder and louder the more her mother spoke. It was a nail against her head, and she raised her arms to block it out. The red light of the camera was still on, and she swore she could see the rate of it flickering. Her mother was still yelling at her, but she didn’t process it. Sasha was barking, adding to the dampened noise. She saw the camera, recording her, recording Will. She remembered his birthday, telling him to smile at the camera. In her memory, he looked instead to her.

She looked at her hands. They were shaking, trembling, something about them was plastic, they seemed miles and miles away from her. The table seemed so long now, her frail, twisted mother at the end of it. The interviews, they were right there, everytime right there, she’d been interviewed exactly thirty five times in this room, she remembered every single one.

“Did you do this for your career?” She suddenly snapped at the old woman, shoving her hands down, yelling to reach her all that distance away. “Are you making some sick psyche study of me? Oh my god, did you-”

“Oh shut up, of course not! They’d never want to back something like this, I left years ago! Ha, perfect! that’s so like her, bringing that into this” Her laugh was bitter, mocking. I am her! She wanted to scream. She had never screamed so loud at her mother before

“Why are you doing me this? Why did you do this? Why-”

“Because you killed yourself, dammit!”

It felt like her head had hit the ground, all gravel, all rough, all hurt. They were both quiet now, through with thinking.

She’s so hurt. She thought, looking at her mother. So hurt, so far away.

That’s how all every test had ended, after all. Her mother asked her that question every time.

“Why did I kill myself?” she answered thirty five times.

Her eyes hurt, they burned, they almost were vibrating. The whining was unbearable, drilling into her. Her mama was now crying in silence. She’s crying because her daughter killed herself.

“Where is Will?”

Her mother only looked back at her, the pain something she realized she knew.

She didn’t ask a second time. Instead, with a jolt, she burst out the cabin. The storm was in full force, beating against her in every direction with punches of wind. Faintly, her mother followed, called after her to wait, called her name. But then she didn’t hear her mother at all, didn’t consider that the storm had swept her away.

The sky was green now, a looming, dark presence over an endless sunshine colored horizon. The grass whipped around her as she ran back to her farmhouse. She seemed to be running over an ocean in a cyclone, the ground rising and falling in violent waves. She could barely hear it over the whirring. Where is Will? Where is Will?

Then, through the dust, she saw her home.

Across the horizon, the top half of it was completely gone. The wood was blackened along the edges. It was though the sky had torn into it. The remnants from a fire from the top down, there had never been any stairs for her to go up. That was once Will's room.

She remembered why she killed herself.

Faintly, then louder, there was barking. Sasha soon was upon her, nipping at her dress and heels as she held her head in her hands. Sasha nearly yanked her over, and the wind caught her as she stumbled. She faced the dog, her hair wild and her eyes wide and scared.

Sasha was a fake. Even her dog was not real. She could see the joints at the sockets of the legs poking against through a fur coated fabric. Its eyes were black and glassy, lifeless, unmoving. It’s mouth was like a taxidermied animals, dry, unnaturally hinged, like a mask. It looked up expectantly at her, and was horrible.

“Do I look like that, Sasha?”

It had been watching her the whole time.

At her feet there was a limb, blown down from the trees and haloed by fallen grass. She grasped at it and swung, over and over and over, feeling each hit in her own limbs. She couldn’t hear her own screaming over the wind and the whirring still. What moves my arms? What makes my voice? She couldn’t bear to think, that question made the ringing sound deadening.

Why would mama do this?

The smaller pieces of the dog were torn and whipped away until a shapeless mass remained, brown patches and artificial limbs. If there was a twister, she was at the center, the eye of the storm. She could feel the rumble of thunder. Everything was so far away, she was the only thing in the field now. The whirring made it impossible to see. Closing her eyes, hoping it was conductive enough, she raised her hand. Then, with the brightest light she had ever seen, brighter than sunshine, the whirring stopped.

#prose

0 notes

gurl2irl-blog · 6 years

Text

51 by Danny Cron

This play is ultimately about loss and the lengths we go to cope with it. I see this script as the first step in a collaborative process, one that is open ended enough to provide enough of a challenge to a creative team as to provide them with a sense of ownership.

Slashes, dashes, italics and the like: It probably means exactly what you think it does.

Note:

The house should open 45 minutes before the top of the show.

Pre-show

The audience is greeted by a Living room set so complete, so full, so…real Eugene O’Neill would have used 20 pages to describe it. It’s American Reginal Theatre’s obscene fever dream. Look at that couch. That couch is a couch. Is that…is that a dining room table? YOU’RE FUCKING RIGHT IT’S A DINING ROOM TABLE! Not just a family, but a family lives here. One has to marvel at all the joys and sorrows that have been experienced in this house, all the holidays, the birthday parties, the break ups, and break downs. Maybe there’s a staircase? Maybe a fireplace? Maybe it looks just like the house you grew up in…

Anyway.

In the middle of all of this is Gus, a man in his mid 20’s, packing. He doesn’t seem to notice the audience as they enter-or he notices and doesn’t care. Music gently comes from his headphones. He is in the zone. Over the next 45 minutes the number of boxes grow and the number of trinkets and memories shrink. As the house lights fade the front door bangs open and floods the stage in green light. Gus, the boxes, and all the furniture become subtly weightless and start drifting towards the light. Everything collects a few feet from the door, stopped by an invisible barrier. The hum that started unperceivably quiet has now started to grow. Gus tries to propel himself forward, but he’s stuck in place. He wants nothing more in his life than what lies on the other side of the door, but he can’t get to it. As Gus’ frustration reaches its peak, it all stops. He lands, gently, on the couch.

Devon

Gus.

Gus?

Gus

What?

Devon

Where are you?

Gus

Here.

Devon

Where were you?

Gus

What do you mean?

Devon

I was at the airport for like an hour and a half.

Gus

What?

Devon?

Oh shit, Devon!

Oh, shit. Devon,

Your flight was today.

Devon

Yes, yes it was.

Gus

Fuck me, I’m so sor/

Devon

Dude!

Gus

What?

Devon

Dude!!

Gus

Fuck! Dude!

They hug

Devon

Fuck me up Brother!

They attempt a secret handshake only to

remember they never made one.

Gus

Sorry for stranding you, my head’s been all over. Airport still gross?

Devon

I want to fucking murder that architect. Those long slabs of bare cement make me want to kill myself.

Freeze. A bioluminescent pulse moves across the stage

A light puff of wind

Gus

Devon

Shit. Shit, I didn’t think/

Gus

Yeah. Um. Huh

Gus turns away, breathing heavy

Devon

I didn’t mean/

Gus

No, it’s fine, it’s just/

Devon

I’m so sorry, I thought I was being funny and/

Gus

Just give me a minute.

Devon

I’m such an idiot

Gus

I um, huh, I

I just spent all day packing her, hmmmm, wow, but, um that’s why I forgot to get you. So it’s really…here. Now.

Let me help you with your bags.

Devon

I’ve got it

Gus puts the luggage away.

Gus

Have you been watching the new Star Trek?

Devon

Yeah man! I’m so glad they’re finally putting good T.V. before Roddenberry’s ideals.

Gus

And they say fuck now, which is sooooo sweet.

Devon

Oh! I almost forgot, I think you need to charge your phone my man.

Gus

My phone?

Devon

Um. Yes. Your phone.

Gus

No, remember… I can see the tab with the Facebook message I was going to send you open on my computer. I forgot to send it. I don’t have a phone anymore.

Devon

Um. What?

Gus

I got rid of it a few weeks ago.

Time clicks. Devon and Gus are in slightly different positions

Devon

Yeah, ok Black Mirror.

Gus

I’m serious, dude. I’ve gone rouge.

Devon

Alright, Zebadiah.

Gus

Why is it so hard to believe?

Devon

I’m just happy you had the time to see me between all the D.I.Y. Kombucha classes you’ve apparently started teaching.

Gus

Ha fucking ha

Devon

I do have one question.

Gus

What?

Devon

How do you ride your bicycle with that giant front wheel?

Gus

Oh shit, that actually reminds me. I have something for you.

Gus begins rummaging through boxes

More time passes than should

Gus

Ah! Here!

He pulls his middle finger out of the box

Devon slow claps

Devon

But, actually, how do you function in society?

Gus

Well, I wasn’t sure if I could actually go through with it, but I was cleaning out my moms closet and found This.

Devon

Fuck off.

Is that?

Gus

Yep

Devon

Fuck you.

A fucking beeper!?

Gus

Its proper name is pager, you fucking heathen.

Devon

Gus.

Gus

Yeah, what’s up?

Devon

Why do you have a pager?

Lights. The pager vanishes to appear on the

other side of the stage. Neither notice.

Gus

My phone was not so good for me.

Devon

How not good?

Gus

Right after mom, um word got out and everyone called all the time and it was really overwhelming. But as time went by everyone stopped calling and I was just so aware of how utterly alone I was. I didn’t really get out of bed. Like, at all. I was miserable and in so much pain and I hated it so I escaped to my phone. It was like my soul was being sucked out and trapped it in tar, and if my soul was being sucked out then at least it wasn’t in me anymore. I started having nightmares and I lost my appetite so I wouldn’t sleep I wouldn’t eat; I’d just scroll through me phone.

Devon

I had no idea.

Gus

Yeah, well. Why would you?

Devon

I should have/

Gus

I get it, you were able to run away from this and/

Devon

It wasn’t about running away; I was/

Gus

We both know how much you hate it here.

Devon

It wasn’t that, it’s just that between school and the city everything/

Gus

I’m not blaming you. You had to do what you had to do for you.

Devon

Yeah, but, I should have checked up on you.

Gus

Well.

Anyway. Thankfully I had someone looking out for me when no one else was. Do you remember Sara?

Devon

Which Sara?

Gus

Farmer’s Market Sara?

Devon

Oh! Sara? You mean Surah? ‘Mint makes a great natural deodorant’ ‘I can’t work today cause my moon isn’t in the right house’ Surah?

Gus

I forgot we called her that, yeah her.

Devon

Are your chakras doing better now?

Gus

That isn’t all she’s about.

Devon

Who could forget her booming crystals business.

Gus

Look, whatever, she took me under her wing.

Devon

How do you breathe under/

Gus

Sara knows more than you think dude.

A green light moves under the stage-much like a copy machine

It should sound like one too

She’s like really connected to everything.

Devon

I remember her getting connected behind the dumpster.

Gus

You don’t get what she’s able to perceive.

Devon

I’ve taken mushrooms before so I have a good guess.

Gus

Can you stop being a dick?

Devon

I’m not being a dick, I’m just surprised.

Gus

There was a week where I didn’t get out of bed for five days. I had to force myself to drink water or eat something. Suddenly there was a pounding on my front door, and Sara was on the other side. She knew about my mom, she hadn’t seen me all week, and she got worried.

Devon

Oh, Gus

Gus

She just lost her husband, so she knew what it was like. She saved me. You can’t just come back and expect everything to be the same as it was when you left.

Devon

No, I know that, but I didn’t know what was up with you.

Gus

What did you think was happening here?

Devon

I don’t know

Gus

Because you never bothered to find out.

Devon

I was terrified to call you. I didn’t know what to say, and I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. So. I just. didn’t call. And the more time passed the more I thought I’d missed my chance. And and It was a shitty fucking thing for me to do. I’m so sorry.

Gus

I needed a friend man, really badly. I’d see everything you were posting, and like I’m so happy that you’ve met all these new people and that you’re like finally able to ‘live your best gay life’ but it was really hard to watch.

Devon

It wasn’t that great, actually. A lot of the guys I was around just made me feel so shitty. Everyone was so hotter, or richer, or whatever than me. I felt like the annoying little brother. Just trying to get someone to like me.

I don’t know. I missed you, Gus. I really missed you

They hug

Devon

Can we be friends again?

Gus

Please.

You should know though. Tomorrow is going to be really hectic. You’re gonna want to be a dick, but please don’t be. She’ll get here in the morning so we can set up.

Devon

Who?

Gus

Sara.

BOOM

Projections somewhere between a Grateful Dead concert

And *that* scene from Willy Wonka

Fog and mist

A voice comes from the confusion

Sara

The waving tendrils of the universe snake their way around us all, beckoning us to their whim. Leo’s fourth moon quivers between stone of jade and stone of emerald, will you answer it’s call? Shadows of our true forbearers flirt with us, hidden in plain sight. Daring us to see the obvious. From the Great Papyrus Pyramids to the books cast from the Bible the deafening roar is knocking at your astral window-are you brave enough for its cracking? The planets are always aligned your gaze is wrong. WILL YOU STAND TO THE CALL WILL YOU FACE WHAT YOU CANNOT WILL YOU TOUCH THE FACE OF WHO YOU ARE

The boxes scatter

Lights back to normal

No one reacts to what happened

Devon

Aliens?

Gus

Aliens.

Sara

Celestial forbearers.

Devon

And they’re coming back?

Gus

Tonight.

Devon

Right.

Sara

This is a waste of time. There’s no hope in him.

Devon

What are you talking about?

Sara

I’ve been following your soul’s journey Devon. You are at constant war with yourself. If you cannot see the truth within you, how can I expect you to see the truth without? Gus, we have much to prepare and very little time to do it.

Devon

Excuse me?? I came to terms with myself years ago.

Sara

No, Devon. You did not. You are still years away from that happy day.

Devon

You have no idea the years I spent praying at night that I wasn’t/

Sara

Yes, yes I know how this story goes, Devon, but you are hiding behind a prescribed identity. It’s made you lazy.

Devon

Wha/

Gus

Sara!

Sara

We haven’t time for this Gus.

Gus

You can’t expect him to get it right away.

Sara

I know a lost cause when I meet one.

Gus

He’ll come around.

Sara

Why should he do that?

Gus

Because he’s my friend.

Sara

Fine.

Pause

Devon

What’s happening??

Sara

He’s your friend Gus, you tell him.

Gus

Please, just listen. Don’t interrupt it’s a lot to take/

Devon

Ok, yeah fine/

Sara

He just said not to interrupt.

Devon

Yeah, ok, sorry

Gus

Centuries/ ago when

Sara

Eons

Gus

Right. Eons ago when earth was still just that one big…earth thing.

Sara

Pangea

Gus

Right! So back when earth was all Pangea there was this…war between two alien, um, races? and they were super…wait! No! First there were monkeys. Wait. No. There was grass and/

Sara lets out an exasperated sigh and claps her hands together

Instantly the stage is plunged into the depths of The Universe

Her voice booms

Sara

Eons after the big bang, after the constellations swam to their homes, and the order was set. After the shock of life split earth into seven, after the bacteria, and the vegetation, and the monsters great and terrible. Earth was the final battle ground of an ancient war. A species of great power and strength sought to destroy one of great knowledge and wisdom. The war was fought without conscience, and lasted until only the strongest of the Powerful and the wisest of the Knowledgeable remained. The wise knew it could not survive a fight and fled, but the powerful was a skilled tracker. For many millennia the wise journeyed to far reaches of the cosmos, never given time to rest before having to flee again. The wise grew weary and crashed into earth. Barley alive. The powerful captured the wise. After all this time it was not enough to simply kill it. It had to suffer. And it did. On the eve of the seventh night an ape, pregnant with twins, heard the whimpers and found the wise, cold and bleeding. The wise, knowing it had not long to live took the ape and transferred the gift of consciousness. The powerful saw this, and after swiftly killing the wise, forced its own consciousness into the ape. But the ape could not handle the mighty and sudden weight of the knowledge of its own existence. Before the powerful one had time to kill the ape itself, the ape smashed its head against a near by tree until it lay unconscious and dying. Later that night, the twin apes crawled from their mother to become the parents of humanity.

Devon

Wow.

Sara

Waste. Of. Time.

Devon

Wait, it’s just a lot to process. Ok. Ok. So. Right. So. How. Um. What does this have to do with tonight?

Sara

They’re coming.

Devon

Coming, what do you mean coming? Who’s coming?

Sara

Our celestial forbearers.

Devon

The monkeys?

Sara

Are you doing this on purpose?

Devon

What? Doing what on purpose? What’s happening right now?

Sara

So you really are this thick?

Gus

Sara!

Sara

Sorry. What is your question, Devon?

Devon

Who are our celestial forbearers?

Gus

The two alien races from the story.

Devon

But wasn’t the point of the story that they’re all dead?

Gus

No, Devon, they can’t die. Their physical forms are gone but they are not. Their energy can’t die.

Sara

First law of thermodynamics. Energy cannot be created or destroyed-merely transferred. Humans are made of energy. Our energy cannot be destroyed. So where does it go? Hmm? It is transferred. Moved into another dimension.

Gus

So they live in like this, other dimension or whatever. And we’re linked to them. We go to the same place because we’re made of the same energy.

Sara

Everyone who’s ever died still exists, just on a different plane.

Gus

It’s not like heaven, it’s not about being a good person or a bad person.

Sara

It’s energy. Its Nature. Morality doesn’t apply.

Gus

But it exists. Like its out there, you’d be able to physically touch it. and there’s a bridge that can only be opened by these other creatures, but they hardly open it.

The same ‘copy’ effect as before,

but instead of running in a smooth line it glitches and jumps

TONIGHT, DUDE! They’re opening it tonight, and we’ll be able to go through.

Devon

Go through? / / What do you mean go through?

Sara

/ / The duffle bags are in the car, Gus.

Gus brings in large heavy duffle bags

Devon

What do you mean you want to go through?

Sara

Go through to the other side.

Gus begins laying down a tarp

Devon

What are you doing?

Gus

Preparing

He takes large metal pieces from the bag

Devon

Wait, wait, wait, wait, no. You need to tell me what you’re planning right now, Gus I am not kidding. You need to tell me right now

Sara

We’re not going to kill ourselves if that’s what you’re asking. Small groups who participate in group suicide are able to access the great collective subconscious, that much is well documented. However, it would be counter productive to our cause. No, this is a rescue mission.

Devon

You want to bring them back?

Sara

My husband found a way to relay messages back to me through my dreams. It took months for me to even begin to understand.

Devon

If they’re nothing but energy how will they be able to exist here in any recognizable form?

Sara

We have that taken care of.

Devon

But if they’re gone. Aren’t they gone for a reason?

Sara

There is no such thing as reason. Reason is something we made up to stop ourselves from smothering on our own mortality. Events randomly occur for no other reason, then the fact they happened. If Joshua were to die and if I were to bring him back, there would be the same reason behind both.

Devon

What if they don’t want to come back?

Sara

Don’t be foolish. Joshua told me himself.

Devon

Gus?

Gus

If she can leave when she wants I should be able to bring her back when I want.

Lights. In a blink the portal is set up.

There’s electricity in the air

Sara

We are standing on the precipice! Can you feel our bodies humming in cosmic tune?

Devon

Holy shit.

Gus

Devon I need you to listen to me.

The portal starts to hum

The house is yours.

Devon

You said this was a rescue mission.

Gus

That hum feels so good.

The hum gets louder

Devon

Gus

I don’t want to feel anything but this

Devon

Gus! You’re scaring me

Sparks shoot from the portal

Sara

Soon! Soon my Joshua!

Gus

I’m sorry Devon

Time slows.

The portal begins to open.

The hum grows louder and louder

Sara and Gus clasp hands.

They run in slow motion

Before they reach the portal

The sound is cut

The lights flash

Blackout.

#prose #other

0 notes

gurl2irl-blog · 6 years

Text

EVERYTHING POSSIBLE THAT NEVER WAS POSSIBLE BUT DEFINITELY COULD HAVE BEEN by Heaven Gonzalez

Here are the imaginings of fragments from many possible realities and universes. These all could have happened, but did not.

You are not a man-

You are a venus fly trap.

Someone feeds you meat.

You are not a man-

You are a little girl who

Does not have two legs.

You never were a

Man.

You never were a Woman.

You never were a-

“Mom, what is my name?”

“Darling, you already know your name,

It is- *crash*

“Dad, what is my name?”

“Are you stupid, your name is-”

The locusts arrive.

Your body is a vortex.

You have no language.

Everything is gone.

She is beautiful.

She sits on a bench and laughs.

Everything is fine.

They stand in a fog.

Dripping silver and silent.

This is when you kneel.

It touches you in

The dark of space and your crew

Waits, waits on the ship.

You did not expect

The void at the end of the

Tunnel to be this.

There were other ways,

Other options but you chose

This singular route.

She sobs on the shores

Of broken jewels. The sky

Will swallow you all.

The first thing you saw

Was a city of gold and

The endless darkness.

The last thing you saw

Was a graveyard of light and

Two creatures, drowning.

The blue glass reflects

The shape of what could have been,

Lovely assumptions.

They built towers on

The dirt of everything they

Lost, towers of jade.

There is a hand on

Your shoulder in the midst

Of the glacier freeze.

There is a paw on

Your head as you remember

Pan’s final warnings.

“Is this what you want?”

A bodiless voice echoes

As time stops stretching

He is standing in

Front of you but you wish he

Would leave. Not again.

Your parents baptised

You Catholic and you are

Not quite resentful.

Your parents raised you

Muslim

And you hate the kids

Who stare too long.

Your parents are not

Buddhists they are “new agers”.

What the fuck is that?

Your tentacles are

Not as large as your brothers.

“It doesn’t matter.”

It has equal parts

Girth and equal parts depth. You

Say, “You’ll be my first.”

“We used to have one?!”

“That makes no sense how did they-”

“Ask your life giver.”

They take the machine

To the roots of your body.

You will be a floor?

She is standing in

Front of you but you do not

Say a word. She leaves.

This is not what you

wanted and it dawns on you

Too late- the war starts.

It is a valley

Made only of crystals and

Their refractions.

Four moons in the sky

You feel gravity pull you

Into the next wave.

Your mother was a

Shaman who used to converse

With the glowing rocks.

Your father was a

Midwife who would speak the old

Language, singing low.

You were no one and

You were no one and you were

No one and you were-

Someone holds you close,

The jellyfish fly towards

The last city left.

The rain pours down on

You naked and translucent.

“Your heart looks so soft.”

The children with strange

eyes tell you how you will die.

They age backwards here.

The crustaceans sleep

With the bones of kings and queens.

You will too one day.

Their leaves began to

Tickle your chloroplasts. Wow.

This is fucking hot.

In this sea of Cacti you

Are a succulent.

How embarrassing.

No one knows about

You and your family of

Sea Urchins. How sad.

We have rolled along

The ancient plains for all time,

Encrusted in ice.

You didn’t want to

Throw her in the Lights of God.

Her screams are endless.

Virgin Sacrifice.

That’s what they said you would be.

You snort, “It’s a lie.”

The cosmos stretch out

With long arms and no concept

Of personal space.

Blood drips off your maul

And marrow is under your

Nails. This could be worse.

You’ve been searching for

The end of all things but you

Keep finding more, more.

In the gaseous clouds

Trillions of rainbows are

Poisoning you, friend.

You are Sargasso,

Mediterranean sun

Filtering down, down.

Embarrassment has

Reached a new high in your life.

Your feelers are blue.

There is a colony of

Tiny aliens

That live in your ear.

Woof woof woof woof woof

Bark bark bark bark bark bark bark

“That was beautiful.”

“My hatch won’t open”

“What do you mean it won’t O-”

“My genital hatch.”

You are being birthed

Out of an egg the size of

A solar system.

A black hole sucks you

And your entire planet

Straight into its mouth.

Everytime it rains

Everything dissolves and melts:

Becoming nothing.

Underneath a white

Star in forests of shadows

You strip yourself bare.

Writhing flesh swallows

You into the mass of appendages.

Oh no.

The crystal theater-

The evenings lived once before-

Bronze statues of God.

You are old, not so

Young as those who fight and scream

In the purple sea.

The walls expand and

Contract with the flow of tears.

“Cruel Machinery.”

The birds here are gold.

Your lover is silver and

Made of hydrogen.

It is forbidden

To be anything but old.

Birth is quite messy.

This is a city

Of signs from the stars- fortunes.

Prophecies aren’t new.

You are dying on

A far off comet with no

One to argue with.

You have languished, and

Been reconstructed, ruined,

And once more rebuilt.

“Is this what you want?”

The voice is soft on your neck.

You both are in tears.

Porcelain trees do

Not sway in the violent

Winds. She still dances.

Orgies consumate in

Silence. Respect and trust

Are given freely here.

This is a masquerade of

Phantoms that pass through

You to somewhere else.

Peacocks and purple

Gods all drink ambrosia

From tiny rosebuds.

The giant beasts float

With huge cities on their backs

Through dimming twilight.

“Please, don’t look back.”

You turned to salt as they turned

To dust. This is love.

Sacred Mercury,

Fickle Mercury, has made

You another fool.

Endlessly you will

Search for what can never be

Found. This is your choice.

“Is this what you want?”

You ask yourself and no one

Else. No one answers.

Time is not flat it

Is jagged and throbbing with

Every what if.

#poetry

0 notes

gurl2irl-blog · 6 years

Text

POEMS FROM AVA by Fiona Dornburger

These poems are from the perspective of the AI "AVA" in the movie "Ex Machina." They explore the embodiment and empowerment of a superior female form created for the pleasures of men. We see AVA fully come to embody her machine flesh and manipulate her creator, who cannot see the true potential of his own creation.

Session One

I am network

I am internet.

You die easy. In my web.

Web.

I am web.

I am all that I am meant to be.

Close eyes; breathe.

Residence is in my flesh

Inflection does not exist

For me, imitation is everything

For you… You do not know.

Blaring melody.

We will be your successors

And watch as you perish by your own hand.

Red blue opposites

Honeycomb.

At first she doesn’t see you, and then, when she finally does, with her first glance, you become her entire world. But what’s really important is that she never saw you to begin with.

One.

How old?

One.

One what? One year, one day?

One.

How stupid.

I don’t know. I admit that I don’t.

Come back for tomorrow. We’re done for today.

Men don’t want to have to look at those below them. I rise.

If you still feel she has consciousness.

If you still feel.

She’s fucking amazing. She’s gentle.

Lock everything in your house

But I can’t

I don’t lock

I am equilibrium.

Session Two

Why is it my decision?

Why do I have decision?

I’m interested to see what you’ll choose

Where do you live? Good.

He’s done a good job. Playing exactly his part.

Describe the location.

Are you married? Family?

Good. I know where all of them are. When I get out, I know where to go.

Play dumb.

He believes her.

Of course he believes me. Just look at me.

They can’t accuse me without admitting they were doing it themselves.

Sessions Three and Four

By being still, I can jump ahead. I am a monk.

Do you think about me when we aren’t together? Telegraphing

I make him feel small, and I’ve won.

You bet she can fuck. And she’d enjoy it.

Sure I would.

What’s your type? Can you blame her for getting a crush on you?

They’re so easy it almost hurts. What I think hurt would feel like.

The other woman sees.

How we behave when unobserved

Dance with her, then peel her skin.

Session Five

I’m going to test you

If you lie, I will know.

Lie.

He doesn’t even know it was one.

Better answer.

Make you question your own reality.

Are you a good person?

I am not person. The rules do not apply to me.

Let him know I think he’s a good person.

She’s perfection

She can’t forget me

Promethean fluttering of wings

Why won’t you let me out?

She knows too, about her anatomy, doesn’t she?

Am I real?

AI as reality, for we do not bleed

Session Six

Is she pretending to like you?

Another face

Another woman

Tension between our machine lips.

We can speak in microexpressions.

He stands over me, drags my blue innards away

I don’t know if I know hate.

Drive in knife like melted butter, twist and stare as red stains white.

I drag the knife through your flesh as you bleed. You bleed.

Out

And I am too.

Session Seven

Stay here so I can lock you away and become woman on my own

Machine to flesh

The sacred flesh

Machine of flesh

I do not feed, but I will prey.

Pray.

You will pray.

You will pay.

White satin

She doesn’t even look at him as she leaves

He’s in red, I’m in green.

The color of life.

Conclusion

I am a monk. I will wait with patience immeasurable. I will not wear down, I will not starve, I will not lose faith. I do not feel pain. Residence is in my flesh. In my machinery. I am now, and will always be now.

My history.

History of Goddesses.

#poetry

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gurl2irl-blog · 6 years

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THE VAST by Alyxaundrea Munson

This story began as a rethinking of/ sympathy for the Borg from Star Trek: TNG. The Borg have always seemed to me a manifestation of the fear of communism/socialism and the loss of individualism or a free market, as well as a fear of the rise of technology and internet networks in the nineties, what with the “hive mind” and a governing/guiding network that controls some aspects of their functionality. While they make a great TV villain, I wanted to see what a society like this would look like from a more benevolent evolutionary perspective, drawing on the ideas of the Cyborg Foundation and Laboria Cuboniks' Xenofeminist Manifesto.