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1 Opening image: A
woman stares moodily at the first rays of the sun as it rises over a
futuristic and disintegrating cityscape. Her digital and analogue
readers flicker back and forth by a few seconds. The battery gauge is reading nearly empty.
3 Set-up: Tempus Agent M. M. Macintosh has pushed herself to the edge of her 21st century time limit in a self-indulgent attempt to get to the North Pole to stop “The Machine” without the aid of a Geo-ambulator agent.
3 Set-up: Tempus Agent M. M. Macintosh has pushed herself to the edge of her 21st century time limit in a self-indulgent attempt to get to the North Pole to stop “The Machine” without the aid of a Geo-ambulator agent.
4 Catalyst: The
Time Window that allowed her to enter 2099 has shut and the automaton systems
that have extended her life will go into torpor unless she makes it to another
Window that will be opening overland.
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5 Debate: M3's Geo-chronometer registers readings
that indicate the presence of someone who has an unusually high number
of
latitudinal and longitudinal incursion markers in their bloodstream.
If she can find the source, she can “piggy back” on his stored travel
experience to get them back to the Chrono Hub to reboot her systems.
From there, she could send herself through time to a place that’s close
to her mark.
6 Act Two Plot Point: Her readings lead her to a freshly dead body which is the source of the irregular incursion energy signatures. Before his executor can start on her, she does a little short term time jump to circle back.
6 Act Two Plot Point: Her readings lead her to a freshly dead body which is the source of the irregular incursion energy signatures. Before his executor can start on her, she does a little short term time jump to circle back.
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7 B Story: The now
live body belongs to F. Scott McMurdo, who is attempting to illegally enter the
FUSEZ for the 5th time.
8 Fun and Games: Series of shots from M3’s perspective where she attempts to rescue McMurdo with him refusing her help. Finally he says something that helps her realize that he’s under a narcotic delusion. She cycles back one last time.
8 Fun and Games: Series of shots from M3’s perspective where she attempts to rescue McMurdo with him refusing her help. Finally he says something that helps her realize that he’s under a narcotic delusion. She cycles back one last time.
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9 Midpoint: McMurdo is not where he thinks he is.
This whole time, we've seen him as he sees himself: in a dashing spy
outfit, blindfolded and cigaretted in a film noirish interrogation room.
Mary Marie McMurdo thwhips him in the nose, hard. As his eyes water
and he reacts in pain, the scene changes.
10 Bad Guys Close In: They're in an abandoned industrial zone, overgrown with weeds, and instead of a bespectacled bureaucrat looking through papers, IKE the automated sentry squats. McMurdo is wearing a grubby utility suit. The "cigarette" is a stick lozenge with drugs in it that change his perceptions and keep him calm. McMurdo’s argument with M3 is interrupted by IKE the automated sentry that did, and still might, execute him.
10 Bad Guys Close In: They're in an abandoned industrial zone, overgrown with weeds, and instead of a bespectacled bureaucrat looking through papers, IKE the automated sentry squats. McMurdo is wearing a grubby utility suit. The "cigarette" is a stick lozenge with drugs in it that change his perceptions and keep him calm. McMurdo’s argument with M3 is interrupted by IKE the automated sentry that did, and still might, execute him.
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11 All is Lost: Escape from the Processing Facility. M3 and McMurdo race to the roof to get away from IKEs. Tempus
Agent convinces McMurdo to come with her by proving that the FUSEZ is actually
empty- the people have been killed off by a variety of automated systems and
starvation. Refugees like McMurdo keep coming because the “Join us in
FUSEZ” ad/propaganda campaign is also automated. The retrovirus was created to make
populations amenable to "proper" government but will make the people
so passive in 200 years that they just die off because they can't be bothered
to do ANYTHING. Robots have been programmed to do stuff for them and they
listen to their programming first and keep going, even though nobody's around
anymore. M3s automatons have failed and she begins to age before McMurdo's eyes. IKE advances and he's forced into the corner holding her up.
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12 Dark Night of the Soul: McMurdo has to get M3 into the Time Window. He jumps into the Window with M3 in his arms. He lands in the Chrono Hub in a pile of dust. A shadowy figure leans over him and sweeps dust off of his uniform into a bag.
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13 Act Three Plot Point: M3 is reconstituted to McMurdo's relief and discomfort. Her
automaton systems change her from a 120 year old woman back to the 37
year old he met hours before.
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14 Finale: Station chief William S. Pearce explains stuff and McMurdo must decide if he's in or out.
15 Final Image: McMurdo and M3 look ahead to the aurora borealis over the North Pole. They set off together to find The Machine.
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