For Washuu

Note: almost none of this is revised, and none of this is spell-checked.

It is incomplete, shallow, shoddy work that I know truly stinks in at least one place and truly doesn’t exist at all in another.

That aside, it’s the same introduction of sorts that you get in Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou… just not done.

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EPISODE 1: ACADEMY

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1

In the background can be heard Undercover’s “Glorified” (as ‘elevator muzak’)

PROTN: I can see the Academa cliffs in the distance. Thanks to the total lack of Amna here in the low basin, there’s also a total lack of weather. [beat] Making this trip all the more boring.

PROTN is visible in the foreground sitting on a chair in a row of chairs. [there is no row on the other side(?)]

PROTN: And, of course, making the prospect of arriving all the more pleasant.

Camera cut to a view past PROTN toward the pilot.

PROTN: The pilot on this shuttle said that it should only be another couple hours until we reach the cliffs and get lifted to the cliff-top.

Camera cuts to a side-view of Protn’s eyes. They half-close, looking annoyed.

PROTN: Whoopie.

Another pause as the camera cuts back to looking out the port side.

PROTN: (exasperated) Mother, give me strength.

Camera holds for a second before backing through the rear of the shuttle. It rises as the shuttle continues to get further away, angling up to bring the cliffs into view in the distance (~200miles).

+

2

In a drop-off point a story below Academy-ground level. Camera is looking along the shuttle and PROTN is bent over, reaching into it (lh) to grab his bag. He rights himself and turns away from the craft.

PROTN: (over his shoulder, to the pilot) Thanks for the ride!

PROTN breathes, squares his shoulders… and gets a concerned look on his face. Camera cuts to in front of him (at him), and he glances left and right. He looks ahead and down.

PROTN: (thinks to self) Okay… where’s a map?

Still holding his bag(s), he leans to the right, trying to look over into the hallway. He glances back over to the stairs to the surface (on his right) before turning and tripping on the step. He falls onto his hands and knees. The camera follows his fall.

PROTN: What the!…

His bag hits the ground to his right. It rolls over onto the foot of DENA.

DENA: [sighs] Not the best way I’ve seen somebody begin their time at Academy.

PROTN: Huh?

PROTN looks up at DENA. Camera pans up her (character shot). She cocks her head to the side (l).

DENA: But not the worst, either, I must say.

Camera returns to PROTN, with DENA in in the background (PROTN facing her, head turned away from the camera) He gets back on his feet.

PROTN: Um, sorry.

He grabs his bag and hoists it with some effort.

DENA: Hang on, first things first.

Camera cut to behind DENA.

DENA: Just put it here, student. No need throw out your back.

PROTN lifts his bag over the hovering platform, but looks at it disapprovingly before lowering his bag onto it.

DENA: [chuckles quietly, then smirks] My, you’re a skeptic if I’ve ever seen one.

A pause, and then DENA smiles and offers a hand to shake. PROTN pauses and then shakes the proffered hand.

DENA: My name is Diandra Dena Amná, but you can call me Dena.

Camera cuts to a shot between the two, with the side of each head in view.

PROTN: Protn. Protn Earth.

DENA nods and turns. Placing a finger on the Amna air-platform (so it follows her), she begins to walk toward the hallway that PROTN had originally aimed for. The camera slides right, following her. PROTN follows.

DENA: It’s good to have you, Protn, especially this year. There were fewer new students than usual, and we just lost a worker in Bay 2 over the break, so it’s pretty providential that you would offer to work there. Not to mention generous. [she glances back as she walks] I mean, you do know what kind of job you signed up for, don’t you?

PROTN: [looks left and down, at his bag on the platform] Um, no, not really. I just signed up for a high-paying job that fit my class schedule.

DENA glances at PROTN, blinks, and then returns her gaze forward.

DENA: Well. I guess that works.

Camera cuts to black. Like a door, the stone wall in front of the camera “opens”, revealing DENA behind it with a finger outstreched having opened the “wall”.

DENA: Odd grounds for chosing a job, wouldn’t you say?

They enter the passage.

PROTN: Naah. [shrugs] I figure that I’ll just have to meet the job’s expectations, so it’s more of just a challenge than something troublesome.

Camera cuts to the entrance of the passage, facing in.

DENA: Well, if that works for you, then good. [beat] Hang on, okay?

In the background, the stone wall/door can be seen closing.

PROTN: [Looks at DENA] What?

The chairs both lurch forward down the passageway. Protn starts, grabing his bag just in time with one hand, and the back of DENA’s chair with the other. He quickly sits back down, clutching his bag

PROTN: Oy…

He breathes a couple deep breaths as the seats accelerate before returning to his previous posture, but this time with one hand [r] on his bag.

PROTN: So where does this… these… chairs… go to?

Camera pans left toward DENA.

DENA: The lower main Academy. Near to where you can get all the Academy and schedule info you’ll need to get acclimated.

Camera cuts to front of seats. They’re moving at 15-20 mph by now.

DENA: [glances back toward PROTN, smiles] But first you get to see the town.

Camera cuts to the other side of the passageway, facing the chairs. As they exit the passageway into a street, the camera slows and pans forward, tracking the chairs and giving a view of the building and shops.

PROTN: [stands] Dang. That’s a lot different from where I come from.

DENA laughs as she ‘walks’ off of her chair.

DENA: I’d imagine so. Things are pretty different in Kouchi, aren’t they?

Camera cuts to PROTN.

PROTN: [hoisting bag] How’d you know I’m from Kouchi?

Camera cuts to DENA.

DENA: That’s my job as Overseer/Dean here: to KNOW things. (Pulls a copy of Protn’s enrollment papers out of the top of her sleeve and hands them to him.)

PROTN: Oh.

DENA heads for a flight of descendign stairs in front of the chairs.

PROTN: [thinks to self] They sent the dean just to pick me up?

DENA: Just an overseer really, but yes, I *am* called dean.

PROTN: [disbelieving expression] Wait. Did you-

DENA: [cuts him off] Come on, student! You WANT to get lost?

PROTN: Right! [hurredly follws her]

+

3

Loading Bay 2. A panoramic view of the activity there is shown before the camera stops at the opposite end of the bay from the main doors, facing toward the entrance. (not the double-doors that lead to the outside docks.) Dena and Protn are standing, facing the bay. Cut to a side-shot of them (check-in entrance/worker’s entrance in the background)

PROTN: Okay. Why are we here?

DENA: It’s your job, student.

PROTN: [slightly annoyed] Well, yes, but why are we here right now?

DENA: “Those who have committed to a job ought to be ready, willing, and able to fufill that committment at any time that they may be called upon”

PROTN raises an eyebrow.

DENA: Words of the Architect. You’ll be reading it in one of your begining classes.

Camera cuts to side-view, right of PROTN. He nods.

PROTN: Very well. I’ll have to remember that.

Camera cuts to PROTN’S head. He gets a sort of smirking frown.

DENA: [Sweeps hand out over the bay] This is Loading Bay 2. (Camera cuts to 2/3-angle shot of PROTN and DENA. Camera pans away form them toward the rest of the bay throughout line.) It handles the loading and unloading of crafts of high officials and those chartered by the Academy for speciual deliveries, as well as private crafts that pay a premium for speedy loading and/or handling of fragile cargo and luggage.

PAIGE: Warden?

Camera cuts to DENA and the PAIGE that has approached to the right of PROTN. DENA nods, and the PAIGE passes PROTN and hands DENA a folder. She waits as DENA flips through the contents of the folder. DENA closes the folder, hands the PAIGE a slip of paper, and nods. The PAIGE quickly nods and gives an Academy salute. She then turns, grabs PROTN’S bag, and quickly exits the Bay via the worker’s entrance)

Dena “these are the people of Bay 2”: not many. Two people and Wan, who begins to do crazy stuff on the slidey loader.

Dena mentions another group that comes in to help [undercover], and Protn “I take it this means that I’m getting straight to work?”

yep

‘what kind of place IS this?’

Academy, that’s what! You have a problem with that?

No. If that’s what’s up, then I am totally ready for work. But what do I do?

Wan can teach you that.

Who’s wan?

[wan speed-crashes into mats/pads, causing Protn to recoil/cover.

bla, bla. etc, etc.

He meets the Bay Ward, who tells him a bit about the job. She begins to tell him of the people working there: the amna box diffuser, that other dude, and “then there’s Wanda” and, Wan crashes a loader unit into the rubber impact spot she had set up. Prot is startled by this as wan comments that she loves how much that particular unit has loosened up over the summer. The Ward notes “and that’s the girl who’s in charge of this floor.” More surprise, and mention that there is an owner, yadda yadda yadda.

A paige tells the ward that she is needed above, and she leaves Wan to finish filling in Prot of the details and intros. She leaves, and Wan stands there mute.

“…and, yeah. That’s about it.”

“Well, what’s my JOB?”

“don’t worry about it so much. I’ll teach you, and it’s not hard.”

Wan begins to outline the basic procedures and routines. She ends by mentioning that, due to the MASSIVE influx of people (coming back from break), the “odd-shift team” would be joining them for the day and night. Prot begins to ask, but Wan instead begins to tell about the overnight[?] haul (not explaining, per se). She is cut off, however, by the beginning of “Daddy-O”.

P: “What the- what’s that?”

W: “Ahh, here they come…”

The music fades in over the clapping on the track, and first you see the hand of the drummer, and then the keyboardist’s hands, and then the rest of them.

P: “That’s a loading team?!?”

W: [laughs] “One of the best! At least if you like their music. But they’re good.”

Various shots of work beginning run as the song plays, and at the end of the song [“never gonna LAST”], the scene ends on the last beat.

+

[eyecatch]

+

4

Bay 2. View of the whole bay, and then a close-up of DENA (near workers’ entrance) as she claps her fists together.

DENA: So!

Cut to her back, facing the rest of the Bay crew, who are relatively near. They face her.

DENA: Any last words before we continue? (no response) Very well! (camera begins to move to the left of her) Dale hasn’t arrived yet, as he has been having trouble on the Clifton Road, so you’re on your own. [glances at Wan] Okay… Wan?

Camera cut to wan. She looks sidelong and laughs nervously.

WAN: (gives an Academy salute) Right!

Camera cuts to facing them all, DENA on the right (by the entrance) and the rest more toward the left.

DENA: (nods) Then I declare this year’s “Bay 2 Long Haul”… commenced!

Track: “Spill“

Camera cuts to DENA’S view of the B2 workers as they procede to move to wheir respctive stations.

SYM: Well alrighty, then!

m3: Camera cuts to right of GYM, facing far wall and DENA. GYM pushes off wall and heads toward the camera.

WAN: Protn! (Camera cuts to PROTN, and back to WAN) (waves a paper) C’mere, I’ve got our day’s orders!

Camera cuts to PROTN, who heads over and they examine the instructions.

SYM: Brittle bones / Try to find their way / Fight the cloth / Between the fingers

Camera rotates around him, behind him, as he approaches WAN and PROTN. WAN salutes him and hands him some papers and a clipboard.

SYM: On the canvas / Watch the painter call his painting / Call the trouble

On the word “Call” of “Call the trouble” {m27b2}, the misc. Bay worker hits the button to the left of the main doors. (the “open” trigger)

SYM: Under feet that can’t stand-

m29: The doors actually start opening, and the light from outside fades the camera to white.

SYM -Still

@@@@@

(Bay 2 is given a break to see the sunset)

All over, Wan asks Protn how he likes it.

Protn: “Well… I don’t mind the music.”

Wan: [teasing] Whaaat, that’s it?

[getting dim]

Wan: “Alright! Back to work.”

Protn grumbles, but follows. Fade to black with the sunset and song fading out.

-end