A shot of gin slammed beneath the heavy hood of a grey market cloak, the glass down hard on the stump.
('Moan You Moaners' by Bessie Smith)
Renaissance dancers spin and twirl in masquerade, while Baron Samedi
carves a walking stick watching, view pulling straight from his chair
out slowly past the dancers and out the open front door, an aged and
grown over porch.
____Legba - "As long as there are chains for sale in your world, then you will find them here. The Marketplace is older. Older than you. And older than me."
____
A blues club, deco underground, red carpets and dark lighting, games are played to the music on stage, Erzulie leans in for a shot.
____
Legba - "So you can take your tales to your own world, where you pretend there are no chains for sale. But here. We sell realities."
____
Erzulie - A sunken ball, "You owe."
Doe - "Bloody Mary ?"
Erzulie - "I like you Doe ... but where's your lover ?"
____
Nocturne walks the path to the old house on the edge of the swamp, the drive lined with confederate soldiers hanging, turning, their dead eyes following her steps.
(as specifically according to Samedi's wishes)
An old southern manor, music inside, dancers spin past the door from another time, fires burn through the woods to the left where drums pound.
____
Legba - "Yes ... you go now. Go make your ... 'better world' ... but while you see your own mirrors so well, you do not hear them. You cannot help my world. You heal you. You are the problem here."
____
The dancers twirl from era to era, each room filled with another time and party, the same swamps out the window. A ring of rusted keys hits the floor before the Barons chair, the dancers fade, musicians age to dust, house burned with cobwebs over.
Nocturne watches him rise, drinking rum from the bottle. He steps on the keys leaving red dust, blown with a breeze left in his wake while he steps to a phonograph in the corner.
He turns it on, puts down the needle while Nocturne hands him the bottle. He takes and drinks, watching her, throws it down.
Baron - "Dance with Saturday, three hours til Sunday."
____
Doe dances with Erzulie ...
____
Legba - "Your world." He drinks and stares, "But I did not say I would not help you."
He slides the glass back over and stares in calculation.
Legba - "Now you understand." He smiles, "So bring me next time the honey for my gin, child, and then we can do business."
~ The Clockwork Song ~
('Good Cop Bad Cop' by Ice Cube)
('Good Cop Bad Cop' by Ice Cube)
Nocturne
and Doe drive their car through the marketplace alleys, steel sheets
sliding over the windows. Inside the monitors click on displays
projected across around them.
A shadow passes over.
Smoke fills the alley as an airship's flat deck lines with the rooftops.
~ At the urban docks a ship docks by sea. Aggressively designed, proto-military, deck guns and private soldiers.
Planks extend from the barely visible hull over the rooftops as it passes, smoke mixing with mist. Grey cloaks the color of city deploy from the planks in teams of three, two snipers and a command spotter.
~ Live cargo crates are unloaded on motorized lifts, down the docking ramp in a row, soldiers lining, above the deck prepare and scans the rooftops. An armored shipping convoy awaits at the base of the ramp, trailers empty.
They drive through the thinning populace, following the heavy pipes from the docks. Peddlers and sleepers in corners, the last shuffling out of the way.
~ Tiny fingers reach through the air holes while a nearby guard watches, then looks away uncomfortably. The child's fingers fall back in when another guard slams the side of the crate with the butt of a gun.
As the airship passes continuing to deploy, those deployed scramble across planks connecting the rooftops. They spread out to line against the harbor.
Snipers take position while the commanders signal to each other, then scan with their scopes. The car stops at the end of the alley before the harbor, facing it's length, lights off, watching the trailers load with the crates.
Silence while Doe passes Nocturne a cigarette, they watch the monitor as the last trailer exits the ship.
~ The guard at the dock shudders at the sound of a child crying, then another and more, then silence.
A spotter watches the last trailer down the plank, raising a hand to execute the order.
~ The commander of the cargo ship scans the rooftops, the deck guns turn to defensive positions, covering a circumference.
A grey cloak watches from the airship's deck in it's slow approach to the harbor while the trucks begin to leave.
~ The last truck pulls away. A guard notices a mist in the rooftops. The deck commander peers at rooftop motion.
The car's engine roars, all turn, bright lights blinding them.
~ The deck commander's dropped.
('California Love' by 2Pac and Dr Dre)
Red dots appear across the guard while car accelerates toward their row
The nose of the airship passes from the mist between buildings, heavy plates held a distance from hull for armor, cannons turning across their length to the warship with immediate launch.
As the hulls passes, the name 'Nautilus'.
~ Without decks command the warship's cannons stutter between targets, the bombardment from the Nautilus continuing.
Doe knocks through while they fall to the snipers, Nocturne launches from the sunroof firing as they pass.
~ Nocturne works through the crowd those shielded from sniper the falling all around to them while Doe chases after the convoy as it turns from the harbor, the guards preparing.
(Her style a distinctive blend of snake and ballet. Intertwining an arm as she dances between, firing with the guard's gun before the blade in an overall fluid motion. I can teach it if required)
The Nautilus emerges fully from the building cover, descending for the water parallel to the warship, hulls guns exchanging with the deck cannons.
~ Nocturne takes the last of them, watching Doe turn down the way while the Nautilus submerges next to the scuttled warship sinking.
The nose of the airship passes from the mist between buildings, heavy plates held a distance from hull for armor, cannons turning across their length to the warship with immediate launch.
As the hulls passes, the name 'Nautilus'.
~ Without decks command the warship's cannons stutter between targets, the bombardment from the Nautilus continuing.
Doe knocks through while they fall to the snipers, Nocturne launches from the sunroof firing as they pass.
~ Nocturne works through the crowd those shielded from sniper the falling all around to them while Doe chases after the convoy as it turns from the harbor, the guards preparing.
(Her style a distinctive blend of snake and ballet. Intertwining an arm as she dances between, firing with the guard's gun before the blade in an overall fluid motion. I can teach it if required)
The Nautilus emerges fully from the building cover, descending for the water parallel to the warship, hulls guns exchanging with the deck cannons.
~ Nocturne takes the last of them, watching Doe turn down the way while the Nautilus submerges next to the scuttled warship sinking.
('Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos' (live version) by PE)
~
The snipers shoulder arms and charge across the rooftop planks toward
where the convoy turns.
The armed guards scan rooftops with their lights.
Doe pursues a distance behind, sought in the ground mist. He flashes his lights, they turn.
~ The snipers leap from the edges pulling chutes.
Doe hits the nitrous and fletchets the undercarriage of the tailing support vehicle, sending it rolling over his hood. Ahead, cloaked chutes land on the trailers.
~ A child peers through an air hole in the side at the support vehicle as it's sent exploding into the side.
The diver checks the mirror and sees Doe's acceleration, turns eyes forward and sees a crouched cloak on the hood looking back through a war-mask. She punches through with a clawed gauntlet and yanks him out screaming.
(It's a secured (ha !) dock with one entrance, the warehouses all private. The single entrance forks left and right, 12 block lengths, turn then 3 blocks to the docks. As such a direct path along the rooftops from the docks can meet a slow convoy at the gate)
The armed guards scan rooftops with their lights.
Doe pursues a distance behind, sought in the ground mist. He flashes his lights, they turn.
~ The snipers leap from the edges pulling chutes.
Doe hits the nitrous and fletchets the undercarriage of the tailing support vehicle, sending it rolling over his hood. Ahead, cloaked chutes land on the trailers.
~ A child peers through an air hole in the side at the support vehicle as it's sent exploding into the side.
The diver checks the mirror and sees Doe's acceleration, turns eyes forward and sees a crouched cloak on the hood looking back through a war-mask. She punches through with a clawed gauntlet and yanks him out screaming.
(It's a secured (ha !) dock with one entrance, the warehouses all private. The single entrance forks left and right, 12 block lengths, turn then 3 blocks to the docks. As such a direct path along the rooftops from the docks can meet a slow convoy at the gate)