Friday, October 13, 2017

InkTober - Burn After Reading - Page 1

We're thirteen days into InkTober, which of course means we're onto a brand new four-page script. As discussed previously, we're working from Simon Fletcher's InkTober prompts, specifically the fourth group of four from the Steampunk list - The Good Copper, The Bad Copper, The Doc, and The Illusionist.

Page 1

1 - A kind of young and dopey looking guy is standing at a table with a number of magic trinkets on top - handcuffs, scarves, and a deck of cards, to name a few. He's currently reaching deep into a top hat that's overturned on the table top, scrunching up his face in concentration. The room he stands in is otherwise empty / devoid of detail. His name is Fawkes.

CYNTHIA (off-panel) (1): This is insane.

CYNTHIA (off-panel) (2): There's no way there's anything of value in that moron's head.

2 - Repeat panel, but pulled further away from Fawkes' activity to reveal two cops, Cynthia and Ferand, sitting at a table playing cards (using one of Fawkes' decks). Ferand is looking over at something on the floor. Cynthia and Ferand are clearly well into the transhumanism thing, with all manner of augmentations, including cybernetic eyes, full Cyclops-style eye visors, robotic limbs, antenna coming from their heads, digital tattoos, sockets with various doodads plugged into them, and so forth (not unlike this kind of thing). The two do not have identical kits and are rather individualistic in their look. Let's say Cynthia has an antenna emerging from her head a few inches. It's glowing blue. While this is different from our "normal", it's clearly their status quo and they don't make a big thing of it. If anything, they're both pretty bored. In the background, Fawkes has picked up the top hat and looks through the hole in its top towards the cops in annoyance at their mean words.

CYNTHIA (1): He doesn't even have any augmentations!

CYNTHIA (quieter) (2): Not that there's much to augment.

FAWKES: Hey!

FERAND: Cynth, the data we're talking about is like AI cheat codes.

3 - On a white rabbit at Ferand's feet. Ferand has grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and is picking it up.

FERAND (off-panel): It would allow any artificial brain to ignore the safeguards and limitations they're programmed with.

4 - On Ferand. The rabbit is now on the table and he is sticking out a finger for the rabbit to sniff / chew on. Ferand is far more engaged in this activity than he is in playing cards.

FERAND (1): The lack of augmentations is by design. They chopped up the codes into pieces and stored them in the brains of different luddites to better protect the whole.

FERAND (2): It's why we had to log off before bringing him to the safehouse.

5 - Close on Cynthia, she looks up at her blue glowing antenna in confusion / embarrassment.

CYNTHIA: Log off...?

FERAND (off-panel): What?

6 - On Ferand. He's getting up to his feet as quickly as possible, possibly knocking the table, if not turning it over. The rabbit hops away in surprise. Ferand is too busy being worried to focus on how frustrated he is at Cynthia's carelessness.

FERAND: You have got to be kidding me!

Next page.

No comments:

Post a Comment