Guilded Age

Another draft of this scene:

PAGE TWENTY-ONE

1. The steam from the cookpot reaches the bowl of stew in Best’s hands (Best, who is now almost completely back to his normal shade of color under a couple of blankets), which is still giving off its own wisp of steam, which brings the panel together: the bowl is on the left, and the wisp travels across the panel to obscure an already partial view of Weo on the right.

Between them, a new image is conjured up: It is HR Dedalus, looking upon them with quiet evil intent. His face is half his sepia self, and half his Arkerra self, diagonally split, but still intersecting between the eyes.

WEO
You guys don’t have a word for what HR Dedalus is.

WEO
I could call him a gamesmaster, but to the whole of Arkerra… he is an outsider.

WEO
And even so… he had a hand in creating this world. And others.

2. Penk faces this new challenge with courage, but he recognizes that this is dangerous information– that, taken the wrong way, it could destroy the sense of purpose of his team and perhaps even the whole World’s Rebellion. Goblaurence thinks it’s all bullshit but says nothing. And Magda continues to have a crisis of faith.

PENK
You say he is… a God?

WEO
As much a God as Tectonicus or Graiya.

3. Same panel, but now fully in sepia tone. Caption near Penk, Goblaurence, Magda, and the lower right-hand corner respectively deliver commentary on this moment.

SecretProtagonist
This got deep.

Tinkerwell
what is this wachowzski bullshit.

LiberalChuckNorris
WHAT IS EVEN REALITY RIGHT NOW I CAN SEE THRU MY HAND

We0
Pwned.

4. The original five react with varying degrees of shock as Weo shakes up their whole concept of who they are. Even Best is at least paying attention.

WEO
One day, HR invited five such people into a deeper dream than ever before.

WEO
What made these dreamers special is… they never woke up.

WEO
And all that’s left of them… lives in you five.

WEO
The original Peacemakers.

PAGE TWENTY-TWO

1. Gravedust speaks with the authority of someone who’s seen the phenomenon he describes many times, but there’s a hint of doubt even in him: Weo’s already proven his knowledge too much to have it discarded entirely.

GRAVEDUST
The dead and comatose do not dream.

GRAVEDUST
Their spirits leave their bodies, to linger or pass on.

2. Weo turns to Best, surprising him a little by addressing him as if he were an equal.

WEO
That’s how it works in Arkerra.

WEO
But different worlds have different rules… don’t they, Payet?

3. Best is still down, but can at least contribute to the conversation by sharing some of his traumas.

BEST
…Things in Cyberia were… bizarre.

BEST
Gravity was arbitrary. Emotion was almost nonexistent.

BEST
All he had, all I had, was music, and even the music there was more math than, than…

4. Byron looks at us anxiously. No one wants to learn their existence is a sham, except maybe the nihilistic or suicidal, and while Byron’s flirted with the latter he’s been pretty close to getting his groove back.

BYRON
Is all this HR’s game, then?

BYRON
WAV died when Best tore his way out of him.

BYRON
Are we… shells, for these sleepers to tear their way out of, too?

5. Ironically enough, Syr’Nj is the one whose denial flares up here. She loves the world and all its knowledge too much to easily accept that everything she’s devoted to learning and studying is in any way unreal.

SYR’NJ
No!

SYR’NJ
This world is real, its people matter!

SYR’NJ
Dreams shift and change shape moment by moment, but in the real world, there are rules, there is science!

6. Borderless panel. The doubt ultimately wells up in Syr’Nj too… she can’t ignore the paradox she describes here, and it threatens to make her come unmoored.

SYR’NJ
But… if Best is right and those rules can shift too, there’s no proof of reality… and… without proof…

PAGE TWENTY-THREE

1. Frigg lays a hand on Syr’Nj’s shoulder, steadying her. Without thinking it in so many words, Frigg understands that it’s fallen to her to be the inspirational leader of the group at the moment.

FRIGG
Without proof… it don’t fuckin’ matter.

2. Frigg raises her hammer over her head, and the panel centers on it instead of her, as an icon of defiance.

FRIG
So fuckin’ what if gods or ghosts or game-players are up in the stars jackin’ off over what we do?

FRIGG
We’re as real as we fuckin’ decide we are, and so’s our world, and I ain’t lettin’ anybody burn it all just ‘cause they wanna.

FRIGG
That’s Cultist shit.

3. The remaining Champions are still largely overwhelmed, but they like Frigg’s speech, particularly Goblaurence, who’s the only one smiling. Penk continues to do his best to figure this out.

GOBLAURENCE
Hell, I’m sold.

GOBLAURENCE
Figures the only sensible Peacemaker’d be the one who knows how to wear real armor.

PENK
It seems inconceivable that one human, even a wizard, could be so great a threat.

PENK
But many inconceivable things have happened today. There must be a cause.

4. Weo looks up at Penk in particular, standing close to him, still smiling lightly.

WEO
Don’t get too caught up in cause and effect.

WEO
I could say “HR an’ his playerscreated Arkerra’s whole timeline, past an’ present,” and I could say “Arkerra tricks them all into thinking that, when they’ve really just been along for the ride.”

WEO
Those would sort of both be true.

5. Weo’s smile fades. The easy, casual manner he’s had almost throughout this bull session is now dissipating.

WEO
But what’s worth caring about is the future.

WEO
Some things, even we can’t predict.

FB: If Magda’s having trouble with this “HR made the world” concept, she’s going to need to go outside and lob a few fireballs into the snow when Weo tells her that she’s the creation of a few humans who have never walked inside even one volcano. I mean, we played that “the floor is lava” game when we were kids, but that’s as close as we got.