Return of the Mac - 09/08/2022 - Sparks-In-Shade
Aug 16, 2022 8:46:27 GMT
Velania Kalugina, Derthaad, and 3 more like this
Post by Gaz on Aug 16, 2022 8:46:27 GMT
THE AFTERMATH OF THE RETURN OF THE MAC
FADE IN
INT. A MESSY BEDSIT IN CASTLESIDE, DARING HEIGHTS. EARLY MORNING.
SPARKS-IN-SHADE sits at his cluttered desk, his face buried in a BOOK. He is wearing a fine jacket that still manages to look scruffy on him. He has a few grey feathers around his eyes and beak, that were not there the last time we saw him.
The sunlight streams through a small, circular window.
We hear a CLATTERING NOISE from the kitchen. SPARKS sighs and looks up from his book.
SPARKS
I know you’re there. What’re you doing? Making another bloody mess again I bet.
The camera pans to show MAC, a large raven with shiny black feathers and a smooth, attractive beak. MAC is walking on the floor, carefully using his head to push a WOODEN BOX across the dusty floorboards. The box has a CUP OF TEA and saucer balanced precariously on top, its contents almost spilling as Mac continues his efforts.
SPARKS frowns, then his expression becomes cruel.
SPARKS
(derisive)
Ha! Is that cup for me? What have you done to it? Shat in it? Poison?
I’m not touching that, not after last time.
MAC looks crestfallen, clearly hurt by SPARKS’S words, but undeterred. He resumes pushing the box and cup as carefully as possible. SPARKS watches him struggle, but does nothing.
MAC reaches the floor within SPARKS’S reach and stops. He looks up.
MAC speaks directly into SPARKS’s mind through telepathy.
MAC (V.O.)
I did make it for you. Birdseed, like Tayz drinks. You have been awake
all night reading. You should try to sleep.
SPARKS
Hold on. You don’t just get to start being nice to me after all
this time. You’ve been tormenting me for two years.
You crapped in my shoes. You squawked every 15 minutes for four
tendays. I was so tired I hallucinated that Veridian was a panda
chasing me with a giant paint brush.
MAC shifts nervously.
SPARKS
Why the change? You’ve been acting strange ever since that thing at the casino
with Kavel, Derthaad and Zola. So what is it? Now you’re twice as big and have
all your feathers, you don’t feel the need to abuse me anymore?
MAC (V.O.)
I am sorry. Finding the other Macs in that place. Facing the Corvinus. We felt
fear. They need us.
SPARKS
More tricks, I bet. You’ll piss on my clothes when I’m not looking or something.
MAC (V.O.)
No more tricks. While I was dying, I saw the truth. Our patron. The Queen.
She put us together. Not to help each other. But to torment each other.
SPARKS
You what?
MAC (V.O.)
I abused you for my own amusement. You killed me dozens of times. She
knew you would do this, and that’s why she chose us. Because we are both
worthless in her mind. We deserve each other.
Silence fills the room as SPARKS fixes MAC with a cold stare. After a moment, he reaches for the cup.
SPARKS
(shocked, angry)
The nerve! Alright then, what was that celestial about?
MAC (V.O.)
An assassin, I think. Striking at the Queen where she does not expect.
SPARKS smells the cup, and mutters an incantation that cleans the cup. He smells it again, and drinks, leaning back.
SPARKS
Well if we’re the worst of her subjects, Corvinus didn’t choose his
targets very well, eh? Sounds like she won’t miss us.
MAC (V.O.)
Corvinus attacked me. And found the place we go to when Macs die. You
and the others were not the intended target. Perhaps the Queen’s enemies
know something we do not. Something she does not?
SPARKS
(defiant)
Well they maybe weren’t the intended targets, but he bloody knows he got spoken to.
Zola was like death incarnate with those swords, and Kavel put him in a headlock
like it was nothing. And Derthaad was merciless. I was so glad to have them there.
MAC (V.O.)
I was glad to have you there. Which is why I’m trying to thank you. I faced final
death and instead of watching, you helped. I was at my weakest and you helped.
The others helped.
SPARKS
They’ll do that, you know. I hadn’t spoken to Kavel since the battle at Fort Ettin. Since Silvia…
MAC (V.O.)
You are still upset that you let her down. You’ve learned counterspell now, it won’t happen again.
SPARKS
(distant, uncomfortable)
I learned it too late. I was right there, I could’ve saved her. But still, I was distant
with Kavel and Derthaad because of my failures.
MAC (V.O.)
We both failed her. And they probably feel the same way. Perhaps we’ll
get the chance to atone for that failure.
SPARKS drains his TEA CUP and carefully places it back on the WOODEN BOX on the floor.
SPARKS
(relaxed, resolved)
Thank you for the tea, Mac. You’re right. I’m going to bed.
SPARKS stands up and walks across the room to his messy bed, pushes a pile of clothes onto the floor, and lies down.
MAC hops up to the desk and inspects the BOOK that his owner had spent the night reading. We see the title header in the top margin, written in jagged letters:
OF DEVILS AND DIVINES. A TREATISE ON THE POLITICAL MACHINATIONS OF ELDRITCH BEINGS.
FADE OUT
