SPARCs:Kibbitzing009

Scene 009: Sarah and the Swami face down

SWAMI: If all things received what they deserved, this would surely be a perfect world. Since it is not, we must sometimes act for the greater good.

SARAH: That's just an excuse.

SWAMI: It is the way of things. Sometimes the branch must be pruned that the tree may live.

The two of them gaze into the pool for a long moment.

SWAMI: I remember a similar discussion with your predecessor. He was an idealist like yourself. He could not accept the suffering of the good, nor the evil going unpunished. It is of great regret to me that his killers remain at large.

SARAH: Are you threatening me? My family?

Koi swim in lazy circles beneath the surface of a pool dappled with fallen cherry blossoms.

SWAMI: I remind you that all things exist in a larger context. Just as you understand the reasons for letting certain people escape strict justice, you will learn to understand the reasons that some others are punished more than they deserve.

SARAH: Well ... you've just got an answer for everything, don't you?

A song-bird wings its way over to alight on the Swami's outstretched hand. He caresses it gently with one fingertip, then helps it onto the branch of a nearby tree. He listens to its grateful song for a long moment before answering.

SWAMI: These are the answers you already know in your heart, Sarah.

Sarah heaves herself to her feet and stands facing the Swami.

SARAH: I don't know. I still think you're the one with the fancy answers. I don't have those. I'll tell you what I do have, though. I've got fists that can punch straight through hardened tungsten steel.

I could really use some help here. I have the feeling that the Swami should earn his own comeuppance, by pushing things a hair too far, and probably directly "calling Sarah's bluff" ... saying that she wouldn't really hit him, she's just posturing ... so that she can hit him.

But, also, I want there to be a combat worth describing between the two of them, and I don't have much of a sense of what kind of powers the Swami is supposed to have. If it's classic mind-control then we need to posit something (presumably of Sarah's background or tech she picked up around the house) to give her a way of not falling immediately prey to that, but it doesn't leave a lot of room for back and forth in the combat ... he tries mind-control, it fails, she mops the floor with him. I'd almost be tempted to have him doing telekinesis except that it seems ... I dunno ... he doesn't seem like the kind to be very willing to get his hands dirty.

Anyway ... stuff to fill in, and then ....

Hmmmm, OK. How about the Swami starts talking the usual line about how she needs to master her anger or her anger will master her. He's talking in soothing tones, making eye contact, has peaceful body movements, and Sarah says something to the effect of "I know what you're doing; I've been manipulated before. This is how you talk to a minion. I'm not your minion. " Maybe Swami decides he has to restrain her for her own good? In terms of a fight, remember that the Swami's a zen warrior; he should be able to put up a pretty good resistance. Sarah smashes and crushes things, and he's always just not quite where she was aiming, until finally he slips -- maybe she does something or says something to make him lose his concentration? -- and she can land the grave-digger on him?

Maybe "henchman" is better than "minion." -- James Holloway 01:13, 22 June 2006 (PDT)

I definitely like the idea of the meditation garden getting progressively trashed as the fight goes on. Swami dodging Sarah's blows could work, although for visuals I like the idea of the Swami 'displacing' the blows. Sarah swings at him with a punch that can go through walls, and he stops it dead with one palm - then the bonsai trees explode into matchsticks.

Regardless of the SFX, the best route might indeed be for him to talk her down, zen-master style. Sarah's opening could come by making him angry enough to make an attack, or by faking submission long enough for him to drop his guard.BlackSheep

Thanks guys! Good suggestions. Here's a try at writing up some text.

SWAMI: And yet, you know that you cannot fight the whole world.

He opens his hand, taking in the four corners of the room ... the metal door to the west, the ceremonial trees to the east, the water of the Koi pond to the north and the fiery computer displays to the south. All things seem to lean and shiver ever so slightly toward him in defensive care.

Sarah takes a menacing step closer to him and the room edges slightly toward her.

SARAH: I'm not pissed off at the whole world.

Swami smiles. Sarah swings. A heavy branch of one of the cherry trees standing nearby interposes itself between the meditating man and Sarah's strike ... and explodes into a rapidly expanding cloud of splinters.

SWAMI: Your anger is not truly directed at me.

A dark figure, the image of Sarah as in a mirror drenched in hate, rises between the two. Dark-Sarah smirks and stands to match Sarah's movements.

SWAMI: You are merely acting out your anger toward ... hey!

Sarah doesn't break stride, just backhands the doppelganger to one side. A lovingly crafted Ming vase, and the wall behind it, crumble to rubble under the impact. Sarah's hand darts out toward the seated Swami, but he shifts his weight just so, and she misses him entirely, slamming her hand into a support beam. The Swami stands comfortably to one side of her, shaking his head ever so slightly.

SWAMI: Anger will not avail you here.

SARAH: We'll see.

With a wrenching motion, Sarah pulls loose the support beam and a sizable chunk of the ceiling. There is a terrible rushing crash as the room falls onto the two superhumans, and into the Koi pond. When the dust clears, there is just a huge sloping pile of broken concrete and wood, with fish flopping in the midst of it. Sarah stands up out of the wreckage, easily shouldering aside man-sized chunks of rebar. She brushes the dust out of her hair.

One side of the wreckage rolls and arranges itself to uncover the Swami. He stands, in the midst of a sudden and impromptu zen rock garden. He is covered in dust and bleeding.

SWAMI: Sarah, this isn't what you really want.

SARAH: How the fuck would you know?

She stomps one foot, almost peevishly. Rubble jumps, the floor cracks a little and the damaged ceiling groans alarmingly.

SARAH: I don't even know what I want, and I've been trying to figure it out! All you've been doing is trying to jam your own agenda down my throat from day one!

SWAMI: You came to me for help.

Sarah leaps over the rubble and swings a haymaker at Swami. He puts up a peaceful open palm, and her fist stops against it ... but the man himself is driven back, skidding in his defensive stance. The walls on either side of him star and crumble from the shock-force diverted around him.

SARAH: I came to you for help being me. All you've given me is advice on how to be you.

She brings a quick knee up, and Swami has to break from his gentle, tai-chi movements. He blocks down, quick as a cat, and stops the leg before it can slam into his mid-riff.

SWAMI: You needed the guidance of a clear head, a more experienced mind.

The Swami sees an opportunity, and spins around, planting a solid elbow upside of Sarah's head. She staggers back under the impact. The song-bird swoops around the room in alarm.

SARAH: You think that if it were you, in my place, you'd do a better job.

SWAMI: Of course I'd do a better job! Look at you! You wouldn't know how to live your life if it came with an instruction manual!

Dust settles. Somewhere off-screen something delicate and broken falls to the ground with a little 'plink'.

SWAMI: Sarah, I didn't mean ...

He doesn't get to finish his sentence. Sarah slings a chunk of concrete the size of a dining-room table at the Swami. It shatters around his blocking hand, but as the two halfs fall aside, Sarah herself comes right up the center and lands an uppercut that bounces Swami head-first off of the tumbled ruins of the ceiling. He falls back down only in time to catch her follow-up left cross which sends him rolling toward the center of the Yin-Yang symbol crafted in tile mosaic at the center of the sanctuary.

Sarah leaps up and (literally) falls upon him with a descending hammer-blow. He catches both of her hands, though the tiles around his feet crackle into dust at the force conveyed through his body. He takes a deep, cleansing breath as he forces her hands apart, looking at her between their struggling muscles.

SWAMI: Sarah, I don't want to...

Sarah pulls him in and head-butts him savagely across the bridge of the nose. Blood sprays everywhere. The Swami slams, limply, into the light side of the Yin Yang symbol, which explodes into disarray under the force. Sarah stands squarely in the dark side of the symbol, but with one foot planted in the little island of white set within the dark.

SARAH: I don't really give a damn what you want or don't want. I am done letting you try to relive your youth through me.

SARAH: I don't know whether I'm going to be a hero or a villain, but I know for damn sure that I'm not going to be your puppet any more.

SWAMI (weakly): We never tried to ...

Sarah grabs the Swami by the jaw and lifts him up to face her.

SARAH: You don't talk. You listen. You've created something here at SPARCs ... and now its growing into something bigger than your little program. You do not want to stand in the way of that, or of me. Don't stand against us, or you'll get really hurt. Make up some excuse and wimp out ... you're good at that.

She drops him onto the tile. On her way to the door she rips a hanging off the wall and uses it to mop the Swami's blood off her face.

There's an opportunity for some interesting visual irony here if you want it. We're in the Swami's meditation chamber, so either during the verbal sparring or the physical, you could use some shots where we foreground the Koi pond or something peaceful while background image or dialogue shows us that things AREN'T peaceful. And after the final blow, Swami should definitely land somewhere that highlights how "unbalanced" everything has become. (Azrianni)

207.69.139.146 04:08, 22 June 2006 (PDT)

Ooh, I know. A pool or mosaic floor in the shape of yin-yang symbol. Closing shot from above, with the Swami lying in the cracked remnants of the 'light' side.BlackSheep