Undertow - 8.0 - Lost at Sea
Fate intertwined
EPISODE CREDITS:
Luke Alphonso as Waylon Grant
Abigail Turner as Jonny
Jordan Cobb as Alex Webb, The Siren
Alexander Doddy as Nick Ballard
Bianca Skinner as Derby Bell
John Patneaude as The Gentleman, Andrew Indri
---
Dan Boud as the Narrator
Written by Damian Szydlo
Direction by Amanda Hufford
Sound Design by Chris Henry
Script Editing by Jupiter Sanders
Show theme by Doug Maxwell
TRANSCRIPT
FADE IN
[Cold Open - The sounds of drops hitting the water as Indri slowly retracts his monofilament whips]
THE EXECUTOR
“I trust you’ve had your moment, then, Mr. Indri.”
INDRI
“It’s done. Never been my favourite part of the job… Killing a mother protecting her child, I mean. Even less thrilled to hear your voice in my head again.”
THE EXECUTOR
“Such disobedience would usually guarantee termination. A forfeit of our contract. I am pleased, however, to inform you that we have collectively decided to extend a pardon for your momentary lapse in cooperation. Be warned: You will not defy us again without consequence. Do you understand?”
INDRI
“Let’s say I do… and decide to tell you, be it politely, to shove it where the sun don’t shine?”
THE EXECUTOR
“Purgatory. Your consciousness; Floating in an endless darkness with only your thoughts and the guilt you claim not to have as company. Until the end of all things.”
INDRI
“That’s a mighty steep punishment. About as creative as I’d expect, though.”
THE EXECUTOR
“We will not accept failure in this. Finish the job, Mr. Indri. Deliver us the key. [with extra venom] They’re not out yet.”
INDRI
[grunts dismissively in defiant determination before starting his chase]
[Fade to Cybernautica Theme]
[The sounds of running through yet another hallway, echoes of boots on metal.]
NARRATOR
“One hallway was the same as the one before: Glass, metal reinforcement, and the ocean beyond. Each successive turn a tease to being the last. It was as if the facility was refusing to yield to them, to allow this escape to come to its end for better or worse. That was the way of it. Of karma and what was owed to the city above. This place wouldn’t give them up. Not yet. Not without its due.”
SCRIPT NOTE 1 - END OF LAST EPISODE ‘RECAP’
**ECHOES OF EPISODE 7**
DO NOT RE-RECORD
THE GENTLEMAN
“I’ll see you soon, Derby Bell.”
DERBY BELL
“I’m counting on it, Mr. Indri.”
[Dramatic replay of the sound of a monofilament whip severing Derby’s head, striking her down.]
**
SCRIPT NOTE 2 - SEE EFFECTS BELOW
[Waylon stops running, slowly stopping the group in its tracks as they catch their breath and witness the disturbance]
WAYLON
[All following lines will be Derby/Waylon superimposed upon each other as Derby is possessing him.]
“I’m sorry. This isn’t what I wanted for you.”
ALEX
[shocked, emotional]
“Mom?”
WAYLON/DERBY
“What’s left of me. Oh come on. Dry your eyes, baby girl. Honestly, I thought I’d last a little longer with him than that… They put polish on that killer. Rigged him up with some new tech, without a doubt. Pity I wasn’t much of a delay.”
ALEX
[acknowledging and compartmentalising the pain of losing her mother in the face of the coming danger.]
“We’ll… I don’t know what to say… What to do. What do we even do, now?”
WAYLON/DERBY
“You keep running. You’re almost there.”
JONNY
“Better be. Feels like these tunnels are only moments away from bursting apart… then we’ll be right back in the shit.”
WAYLON/DERBY
“Fair. If Indri catches up, I’m going to go ahead and borrow your fishman.”
JONNY
“Like fuck you are. Just how the hell are you doing this anyway?”
WAYLON/DERBY
“A compromise. More secrets and contingencies. A dead man’s switch. Waylon and I agreed to a shared neural-link prior to our meeting at the Albatross. For Alex’s sake. Probably why he felt comfortable enough to try to kill me back there at the heart. He of course overestimated the strength of my will or that I’d become the dominant personality once the link was engaged. Whatever. Doesn’t matter either way, seeing as it’ll only last a few more minutes. Then… I’ll be gone. [takes a moment] Come on, it’s just a little farther, now.”
SCRIPT NOTE 3 - SEE IDEA BELOW
[sound effects, maybe the uneven tick of a clock getting slower and slower]
NARRATOR
There are places in time. Between the seconds. Gaps that seem to defy the standard measure of time’s inevitable caress. They’d pass, these slips in time. Looking back we’d always explain it away without fail. That ‘everything had happened so fast’. It would be the same here; that the instant Jonny found her way around yet another unmarked bend; conditioned and expecting to see yet another stretch of desperate, near buckling hallway… she would instead lay her eyes upon Nick Ballard. He was dug in. His drone was mounted behind the cover of dozens of tactical drop cases protecting the boarding cell to their escape pod… without a doubt the last one available in this most desperate of hours.
JONNY
“Nick! What a sight for sore eyes yo-”
NICK
“Jonny! Behind you!”
SCRIPT NOTE 4 - SEE ACTION SCENE BELOW
[Jonny swings around, her adrenal pump cyberware injecting its payload into her and triggering a slow motion bullet time style effect where the world slows down for Jonny - letting fire with her dual Caprican Morey heavy pistols, Waylon soon following up with Alex as Indri rounds the corridor behind them.]
[Silenced pistol shots go off to strike next to Jonny as she rolls into cover and time resumes it’s usual flow]
JONNY
[calling out]
“I think I tagged him.
Nick! That thing of yours got any life left in it?”
NICK
“She’s all but spent, I’m afraid. Had to lay down a boat-load of suppressive fire just to secure this little spot for us. Seems escape pods are in high demand. Can’t imagine why, really.”
JONNY
[more suppressive pistol fire from Indri]
“Very funny. Just keep your head down, alright?”
NICK
“Affirmative. Is that the ghost of Andrew Indri back there?”
JONNY
“Sure seems to be. He got Bell. Mostly.”
NICK
“Won’t any of these bastard assassins stay dead?”
JONNY
[returning fire]
“Took the words right out of my mouth. Still glad you left retirement?”
NICK
[starts a bit sarcastic]
“I’m not without my second thoughts about it, now that you mention it. Speaking of re-retirement, would you mind putting a bullet in this guy already? I’m anxious to get back to the pub. Game’s on in just shy of an hour. Tritons vs. Gulls.”
JONNY
“Alright! Tritons vs. Gulls my black n’ blue arse!
Oi! Waylon and friends!? You got an angle on Indri? If you’ve got a plan, nows about the time!”
WAYLON/DERBY
“We’ll have to make one. Low odds that I will last any longer than I did in the atrium with him. Keep your fingers on those triggers and get Alex out of here.”
JONNY
“Fine. Fuck. Try not to die, alright? Alex. Stay ready!
ALEX
[not very steady]
“I… I can do something. I can help.”
JONNY
[gestures around at the destruction, the buckling, the panic]
“Think you’ve helped about enough already, ya think?”
NARRATOR
SCRIPT NOTE 5: SOME VERY IMPORTANT ACTION OVER THE NEXT TWO BIG NARRATION BLOCKS
Before Alex could reply, before she could step out from the unwanted protection that was being pushed down upon her, Waylon broke into a run. vaulting the tactical case he’d been using as cover and charged towards the gentleman assassin. A fearless, headlong rush of a man consigned to his fate. Her eyes could only widen in return, barely hearing Jonny’s orders to run as she recognized, with horror, that fear was not the only thing her old friend was missing in his movements.
He was missing the grace she’d assumed would accompany her mother’s possessing will. The finesse… her seamless and unparalleled integration of psionic power and physical prowess. Waylon’s body was untrained and not used to combat, nor had he ever honed such skills as a psychic. This was a sacrifice. Another life on the altar in the Siren’s name.
The melee to come was somehow so obvious in its progression. Predictable to Alex as she watched on, frozen in denial for her coming loss, Jonny’s strong hands pulling her towards the escape pod. Waylon would cross the divide to make it close enough to hear the laboured breath of Mr. Indri. Closer to the Gentleman than most could have hoped for. Her dear friend, ever defiant, his body a horse for the spirit of her mother’s wrath. She’d never wanted him to find her. She asked, plotted and prayed for this one thing from the world. Payment for all her sacrifices. She both hated and with great reluctance, loved him for what he’d become. For all he’d done and all he’d thrown away for her. His only family.
It should have been an easy victory for a seasoned killer like Indri. But it wouldn’t be. It was too important to end like that and so, unbelievably, Waylon would duck at the last moment. Be it a lucky stumble or a timely push from the possessing spirit of Derby Bell. The means mattered little as the Mer fell just shy of the point blank pistol shot that might have been his execution. He’d in turn level his own revolver only to get his weapon bearing arm battered out of the way before the riposte of a pistol whip struck his temple. The next moment would have ended in Waylon’s death had events played out any other way. Had Neo-Atlantis not owed the Siren a substantial sum.
JONNY
“Oh for fuck’s sake, Alex. If we don’t get ourselves into that pod we’re…”
ALEX
SCRIPT NOTE 6: Pointing out the weight here, I put multiple take choices in the edit to choose from.
[Calmly, but with the weight and power of a God’s decree.]
“No.”
NARRATOR
“No”, she said. Not this time. Not like this. A moment of power unrestrained. It was almost too simple, the realisation. The decision. A fact that frightened her deeply. Struck the soul that was bursting at its temporal seams. Pounding the gates behind the eerily calm demeanour that her mortal flesh might have outwardly displayed. The sights of the Gentleman’s gun were now levelled upon Waylon. Pressure upon trigger, an explosion of sound.
ALEX [INTERNALLY, OUT OF BODY]
“Why?”
NARRATOR
Why indeed, Alex Webb. Why to any of this? Why let any of it occur at all? Are you not the one? Handpicked… chosen by Kraken, the great will atop The Core? Was the fear of this moment not why they had sedated you? Are you not an extraordinary moth, cocooned and waiting, dreaming awake before the grandeur of its rebirth? A Transhumanist dream. A gift to be born upon the steps of Neo-Atlantis, conceived by the impatient hands of genetic tampering and the same sort of ‘chance’ that charged the Big Bang itself. A new God for an old throne. All of this had been foretold. A heralding, written within the archives of Revik.
Jonny knew it too, subconsciously perhaps… but she knew what was happening as she let her hand slip off of Alex’s arm. She’d heard it many times before, both as a child and as the woman she’d become. Sheltered from the rain, curled up within the bowels of Arcadia’s great library and its spinning cycle of endless information. A home kept by machines, the murmuring of prophecy a constant and consistent companion to sleep as Revik searched for the soul within the numbers. He had spoken of it. Everyday, though she never believed in it nor understood why… it would all come to fruition at this moment. As it was meant to.
Extending her hand, Alex ripped the pistol from the Gentleman, along with the arm that held it. With a flick of the same hand, Waylon was flung through the air to slam hard, but safely, into the wall beside the escape port.
NICK BALLARD
“Fuck me… I suppose that’s one way to do it, isn’t it? Did you know she could do that?”
JONNY
“No… no I didn’t. Better late than never I suppose. Are we-”
ALEX
“Yes. We’re leaving. This is finished.”
JONNY
“Right. All aboard that's comin’ ashore, then! You weren’t joking, Nick. This is going to be a tight ride, innuit?”
INDRI
“Wait… Wait. He… Wants to speak with you. A parlay, for what it’s worth.”
ALEX
“Tell him I accept… and that it better be damn good. I’m honestly all out of patience for both you and your masters…”
NARRATOR
SCRIPT NOTE 7: See Below
[time slows to a crawl, the last of the aquacology is destroyed as the leviathan shelters the team]
What was left of Posiden’s Reach began to shift and groan, its death throes. It had held on long enough. Raising her arms high above her, Alex’s curious eyes flicked up to note a steady trickle of water that had spouted forth, as if excited to meet her touch. She didn’t share the sudden panic of the others who were rushing to the escape pod they’d never have been able to reach if not for her intervention. Standing her ground, honouring the Executor’s request, it seemed like such a simple prospect now. Time and the will to outrun the disintegrating integrity of this place was a distant concern of a past life.
The thing in the deep reacted to the slightest urge of her tremendous will. As if it had lain ever-waiting for this chance to please her. Cybernetic tentacles, a powerful enhancement grafted upon the Leviathan’s biomechanical flesh, slithered around the now compromised launch corridor at the instant that it broke apart, cupping the scrambling occupants as well as their escape pod within it’s grasp. Airtight. The Leviathan’s embrace came along with an all encompassing darkness. One that would give way to a glow given sudden life from the Gentleman's holocom. A projection of the Executor held out of sheer exertion in the assassin's remaining hand while his life's blood steadily seeped from the gaping socket of his missing arm.
JONNY
“That’s one of them, is it? Fuckin’ creepy. Like a doll or something… artificial. Fake.”
WAYLON [NO DERBY, SHE IS NOW GONE]
[pretty beat up now]
“I’m thinking… maybe we stay out of this one.”
JONNY
“Lot of fun you are. Bell leave you on your own now?”
WAYLON
“So it would appear.”
THE EXECUTOR
“Impressive. You have… surpassed all expectations. Truly. We admit, the awakening we have witnessed here was unforeseen. A problematic miscalculation. You are, and continue to be, a wonderfully unpredictable anomaly. A great evolution among our species. The unintentional culmination of all that Kraken Technologies has worked towards.”
ALEX
“Unintentional? Wasn’t all this… everything you did to me… Wasn’t this the point?”
THE EXECUTOR
“No. Not at all. To put it bluntly, the Siren Project was created in hopes that you might harness the Leviathan Experiment. To be our weapon. A safeguard for Neo-Atlantis against the outside world and its inevitable ambition. We did not expect that you would grow beyond this purpose. Beyond even our own ability, it would seem. So… the board has unanimously voted to approach you with choices and terms. A recalibration of expectation. This breakthrough has accelerated our plans, possibly by generations.”
ALEX
“Wait… choices and terms? What do you mean? Why would I want to cooperate with any of you? After what you’ve done?”
THE EXECUTOR
“Because this is only business, Ms. Webb, and our business is ultimately that of evolution.”
NICK BALLARD
“Maybe… it’d be prudent to continue this conversation after we get-”
ALEX
[not used to taking control of things]
“I can sustain us like this indefinitely. We finish this now. What are you… what are you offering?”
THE EXECUTOR
“From our calculations there are three possible outcomes to this situation. One - You join us atop The Core. We learn more about you, help guide you, and test your limits. You join our collective. We integrate and elevate the board with your power. We change… everything. This is the prerogative of advancement. For Kraken and our species as a whole. The most ideal solution.”
JONNY
“No big surprise there. What makes you cunts think we need all this? Need you? Hell, if you’d spent half the bloody time and effort you do trying to be little demigods and actually used it to make life better up there, we wouldn’t be living in Arcadian slums, yeah? Pickin’ at bones, digging for scraps, landing in situations like this?”
THE EXECUTOR
“There can be no light without darkness. No bliss without strife. You struggle because no society can exist without it. Utopia comes at a cost, as do all things. Ultimately, you present a small minded but expected opinion… one in line with the second choice, I suppose. In that you return to Neo-Atlantis. You deny yourself the exaltation you have begun and risk not only never knowing your true potential…but… you court disaster. Everyday. For all of us. You do keep your independence though, with the agreement that you will use your connection with the Leviathan to protect Neo-Atlantis. We will continue to observe you from a distance and will remain undetectable as you… ‘live’ your life. This is suboptimal but it is clear that we cannot force you to comply with the first option. You may choose to join us at any time, and if you do not… Upon your death we will reclaim Kraken Technologies property, which extends to your body and all augmentations within. This is the option of peace.”
NICK BALLARD
“That’s really something, isn’t it? They’ll let you keep on being you. Scavenge your remains afterwards. Minor set back at the end of the day! Bastards still get what they want, no harm no foul.”
THE EXECUTOR
“Understated. The loss in comparison with option one is incalculable. An immense, incomprehensible setback, but one that may yet yield considerable results. The study of Ms. Webb’s biological remains will be the center of Kraken’s research and development for many years after.
The third option is that you continue to resist us. You bend and flex this newfound power of yours like a mortal God upon the streets of Arcadia, causing chaos and unrest. Your presence inevitably galvanises the disenfranchised. You will either become twisted or motivated to elevate those who would overthrow our way of life. This choice will force our hand and accelerate a guaranteed mutual destruction, culminating in the eventual world-wide extinction of the human race. Like Icarus with his wax wings thinking he could fly high and escape his betters, soon found out the limits of his own hubris and mortality. This is the choice of war. This can be avoided.”
WAYLON
“Alex. You don’t need to play by their rules. We can go some place… away from here-”
THE EXECUTOR
“This is not an option the board is willing to indulge. Leaving Neo-Atlantis will result in a variation of option three.”
ALEX
“They’re right.”
WAYLON
“They aren’t. Alex… you hold all the cards here. All the power. You’re… look at you. What you’ve done. How could they stop us? You can be free.”
ALEX
“No… Waylon… You don’t understand. I… can see it. I can see it all. Like it’s a different version on its own channel… we’re watching it at the same time, but it’s the same story. The same show. Sure there are variations… divergences of choice but they all come back to these three… and the third one leads us all to nothing but more death…
You’ve got to understand this time. That all of this is bigger than you and I. You have to let me choose.”
WAYLON
“But… what kind of choice is this? It’s an ultimatum.”
ALEX
“As are all choices, right? Or at least all of the choices we don’t like. I made mine before and you’ve given me the chance to make it again.
[deep breath]
Thank you. For believing in me, for… never stopping. Never giving up. But you have your answers now and you have my… final answer. You can stop searching, wondering… You found me. You saved me, Way.
[straightens herself up and swallows the lump in her throat]
I’m ready to give the board my decision.
I choose option two, with a promise. I need to decompress. To understand… more. To come to peace with the power that’s running through me. Without the static. Without tests, expectations and… benchmarks. You underestimated me once and you continue to do so. My freedom doesn’t tempt or tease disaster. It elevates my worth. You don’t understand what you can’t quantify and you can’t quantify… me. I will accompany Nick Ballard, as he will soon realize that his only way forward is to retire from his position.”
NICK BALLARD
“Sorry? I’m going to what, now?”
ALEX
[now distant, though much more sad as she peers into the future]
“He’ll soon become dissatisfied, having achieved and set right his final regret. He’ll track down the woman he’s spent a lifetime pretending not to love. One who’s been waiting for him to realise the same truth she has, waiting for him to join her. She’ll open the door and ask him what took so long. We’ll live together, off the grid. They’ll… take care of me. We grow older together… like a family, and I will watch them die. I bury them at sea… and finally I come home. To The Core. On my own terms. Things are cloudy past this point… I don’t know if I change you or you change me, or if it matters at all in the end. But we try. We become one. You win, in the end. Like you always do… but I’m okay with that. I’m happy… I’m ready.”
THE EXECUTOR
“Give us a moment to confer. [pause] We… the board accepts this variable. A compromise.”
INDRI
“Pointless. [falls to one knee] Everything… we did here. The killing. All of it. Pointless.”
THE EXECUTOR
“Perhaps. Perhaps not. A means to an end. That said, I’m afraid your services will no longer be required in this matter. Mercenaries, would you kindly execute Mr. Indri?”
JONNY
“I don’t usually work for free, or take orders from assholes, but… this once? It’ll be my pleasure.”
[Jonny shoots Mr. Indri dead]
That nasty business done… can we… you know… Get to getting out of here?”
ALEX
“Please do… I’ll… I’m going to stay down here for a while. I don’t think I need to breathe anymore… and I’ve got a lot to think about.
[sounds of Jonny getting into the pod]
NICK
“Suit yourself, kid. My guess is that you know where to find me… to find us if all that… what you said, has any shred of truth to it. Suppose you’ve gone ahead and spoiled my retirement speech for me, then.”
ALEX
[half smiling]
“Sorry about that…”
NICK
“Could be worse. Didn’t sound half bad, the way you put it all. Maybe a better end than I’m deserved.”
[Nick boards the escape pod, tapping on the outside wall as he enters]
WAYLON
“You didn’t mention me. In how your life played out.”
ALEX
“Yeah…”
WAYLON
“This is goodbye, isn’t it?”
ALEX
[makes an uncomfortable sound to the affirmative]
WAYLON
“It’s… alright. Everything’s going to be… okay. You’re safe. I’m alive… something I’ve never had the forethought or… hope… to even dare imagine. What my life would look like ‘after’ this was over. After I found you. I don’t think I expected to survive it. Intuition I’m pleased to admit being wrong about. It’s time I found out who I am. Lived for me. Unfortunately, there is never any shortage of missing persons for a detective to find in Neo-Atlantis.”
ALEX
“Goodbye, Waylon. You’re going to do… great things.”
WAYLON
[suddenly a little more upbeat]
“Oh? Do tell.”
ALEX
[smiles]
“No spoilers.”
WAYLON
“She says directly following a speech where she told a man how his entire life was going to play out. Fair enough, Ms. Webb. You keep your secrets. Before I go… You should know… when the link was active between Derby and I… I could feel what she felt. She was… proud of you. Loved you, in her way. I cannot agree with her methods but… it was present.
Goodbye, Alex.”
SCRIPT NOTE 8 SEE BELOW
[the sound of the escape pod closing behind Waylon and the Leviathan letting the water in]
[The Leviathan releases the escape pod and it shoots through the ocean for a transition to the canals, the sounds of the waves beating against the Breakwall are present as Jonny and Nick sit up on top of it, looking out at the Sea] [IMPORTANT SONG REQUEST: audioblocks-dark-decay-a-dark-and-pensive-piano-composition-that-grows-in-beautiful-ambiance_S9ReTHou8]
JONNY
[Speaking into her recorder]
“It’s my guess that you’re wondering how everything turned out. I’ve said something like this before, I think. Poseidon's Reach is gone, busted up far below the waves. Dark Fathom is… scattered. Jillian Hart’s still out there and no doubt she’s right pissed off about this. That’s a chip that’ll live on her shoulder ever after, I bet? Lest we forget the little godling we just watched crack through it’s shell. All the assassins are dead, floating down there in Davy Jones’ locker.
Would you believe me if I said that nothing came of it? That the next morning arrived as mornings will. That the sun rose to the same heights it did the day before, and Neo-Atlantis grew one day older without much more than a hint that anything had occurred at all? Because that’s what happened. The only thing different, the only thing that made this time any different at all was a wee glimpse to the future. What we saw down there… is that what’s in store for all of us? Are we walking towards a future where we’re little Alex Webbs? Demigods, the lot of us? Or does the world right itself again? Balance it all out. Check us for our ambition. How many times have we stood on that step, the one just before greatness?
It isn’t for us, you know. We weren’t meant to be what Revik wanted us to be. We’re not good enough. Not wise enough or… shite. We’re just so damn stupid. Flawed. Unready and unworthy of it.”
[click of the recorder turning off]
NICK BALLARD
“Why do you do that?”
JONNY
“What’s that?”
NICK BALLARD
“Carry that recorder around. Talk to it like that. Like you would a friend?”
JONNY
“I don’t know. I suppose it’s comforting. The way I cope, now. Learned it from my mother. She used to do it just the same. Record her feelings. Get it all out so it doesn't find you later. When you don’t see it coming.”
NICK BALLARD
“You don’t really talk about your folks. I mean, the ones you had before Revik.”
JONNY
“It was a different life, Nick. She was a tough lady, I’ll tell ya that. Larger than life to a problem wean like I was. She was a leader, big government type. Prime Minister, as the title was. Ran what there was of Scotland before it went tits up. Came over on one of the last ships to Neo-Atlantis with my father. He got sick on the journey and she tried her best, just like we do out here. Hard to ever know if we get a thing right until long after the job is done. At the end of the day, I remember one of the last things she told me. “Look to the sea”, she said. Look to the fuckin’ sea.”
NICK BALLARD
“I see you, Jonny.”
JONNY
“Yeah… yeah you do, don’t you? I think I’m okay with that.
[readies herself for the conversation to come]
Was there any truth to all that? What Alex said back there?”
NICK BALLARD
“About me? Retiring? [releases a big breath] I’d be lying to say I hadn't thought of it. Truth be told, it hasn’t been the same for me since Lucy got out of the biz, anyway. Not sure there’s any reason to stick around seeing as you’re hanging up those pistols of yours. Might as well go find out where she got off to.”
JONNY
“What? What makes you say a thing like that? About me hanging up my shooters?”
NICK BALLARD
“Come on! You don’t have to be the omniscient Ms. Webb to see you’ve had your fill of this. You’re as finished as I’ve ever seen a person be, and I’m pretty done with it all myself.”
JONNY
[disgruntled]
“Maybe. Maybe not. Don’t rightly like being told what I’m going to do before I do it, Nick.”
NICK BALLARD
“You and me both, but here we are. What can I say, fortune telling’s in the air lately. Besides, who’s going to run The Albatross while I’m off being a family man?”
JONNY
“... Say that again?”
NICK BALLARD
“The hub. It’s yours, if you want it. You’d make a fine bartender, Jonny. Best in the biz with enough time, to be certain. Could even be lucky enough to guide the next dumb kid that walks through your doors sportin’ a piss poor attitude and a gun in her hand. Drunk and swinging fists at the world around her, roarin’ for a fight. My bet is that you’d help mould her into a force of nature. She’d shake the pillars of the world, she would. Could turn out that girl’d become the best god damned friend you’d ever hope to have in this life, too. Could be she’d be family.”
JONNY
“Nick… thank you but I’m a fuck up, yeah? I wouldn’t even know where to start…”
NICK BALLARD
“Neither did I. Got to where we’re standing well enough, didn’t I?”
JONNY
“Suppose you did. [sighs a bit, a silent agreeance] I’m going to really fucking miss you, you know that? Miss this. What we have…”
NICK BALLARD
“Well. What’s retirement without a little undercover trip to the pub every now and then? Come on, now. Dry those eyes. Bring it in.
[opens his arms and reacts to a tight hug from Jonny]
Jesus. Not so hard! Anymore and you’ll crush me half to death, you.”
JONNY
[give the scene a moment to breathe]
“I’m not ready to say goodbye, Nick. Just… can we stay up here awhile?”
NICK BALLARD
“Till they turn the lights off, if need be.”
NARRATOR
Neo-Atlantis was supposed to be different. White walls and flying cars… buildings designed with a new deco architecture that reimagined the strength and splendour of a past age into a new world with all its exquisite elegance. Neon light bouncing off of gilded gold sculptures reflected in sleek, tinted glass. If you weren’t here then you were nowhere.
Look to the sea.”
[FADE OUT]