Post by vespertine on Dec 12, 2021 23:10:31 GMT -5
Place: Union Square, San Francisco, Ca
Time: 10PM
Date: Dec 10th, 2021
“Thoughts on the Christmas Season”
(We come upon Union Square in San Francisco. It’s Christmas in the heart of the City by the Bay. In the park that is Union Square, the tree is lit up and there are carolers are at the base of the tree currently singing “Deck the Halls.” A crowd has gathered around them to hear them sing. It’s cold in the City this eve. About 38 degrees. The hot dog vendors are just closing up shop. And what children are left are running ahead of their parents or walking with them hand in hand looking at the moving decorations in the windows of stores like Macys, Nordstrom’s, Saks 5th Avenue, Neiman Marcus and more. What street performers are left, are still going strong, singing or playing their songs. In the midst of everyone who is walking or running around with packages, a lone figure walks slowly down the street. Vespertine. She is lost in her own thoughts, lost in her own world on this night. Her hair falls in streams down her back and has streaks of white in them. Her voice comes up as like a voiceover.)
VO: Alone, again, on this day. Being Buddhist isn’t all that bad though. We have great holidays for ourselves. But the majority of people in San Francisco, the majority of retailers believe in what they like to call the Christmas Spirit. I HATE Christmas.
(She is like a dark serpent rending and winding her way between families and street performers, the only person in the crowd that is wearing dark this time of year.)
VO: No. No. I can’t say that. I do love Christmas. I wish I were Christian to celebrate it. I love giving gifts to my friends and receiving them. But I am Buddhist and that’s a huge part of me.
(Someone bumps into her and she staggers back. She gets a mad look and turns around to see where he went, but the perpetrator has disappeared into the crowd. She shrugs and turns back around.)
VO: I’ve always believed that Jesus was just an obscure preacher man lost in the fray in the Middle east about 2,000 years ago. A cultist leader of some sort.
(she stops in front of a Macy’s store window and looks out towards the Square. In the window next to her a scene from the Sugar Plum Fairy Dance from the Nutcracker is displayed and the figures are moving as if they were on stage. She turns to start down the street and stops as several children run by. A cable car goes by outlined in Christmas lights.)
VO: This is a great time of year though. If I lived anywhere else, it would be snowing and I would be shoveling. I like snow but I like snow on my terms. I love to go to the snow. I don’t ever want the snow to come to me. People are happiest this time of year. People get to see loved ones they haven’t seen all year long or in months mostly because of COVID related reasons or just time and distance. Hanukkah is the same. I told my family I would see them between Christmas and New Years. James said he would be going home to Mexico to visit his family too. He’s Catholic. He is a family oriented man. Not like me where Dad and I aren’t close, we very rarely talk, and the only parental figure I ever had in my life was Mom.
(She goes through the crowd to step down onto the street, turns her head to look both ways, but realizes that the cars on Market are just sitting and waiting for the light to turn. She goes across the sidewalk and starts going up the steps towards where the Carolers and the Tree are in Union Square Park. The Carolers are now singing “Jingle Bells” and the lights look cozy and warm as they blink on and off. A breeze stirs the branches. She sits at the top of the steps and leans back against the wall. She sighs and watches as a couple of children run down the stairs playing tag, she smiles a lazy smile.)
VO: Christmas, a child’s holiday. Like Halloween is for adults.
(Her smile fades as she realizes this. She leans her head back against the wall. The crowd, going up and down the stairs, are ignoring the black velveted figure that is her.)
VO: A new year comes up, a new federation for starts. A new era in my life.
(She looks around and watches the people going up and down the stairs, oblivious to the dark figure sitting there watching their every move.)
VO: It’s Christmas. That time of year. It’s not about me wanting. It is about wanting to give, right? I should be wanting and giving peace on earth, good will toward men. Instead all I think about is my debut match against some goth chick named Chelsea Sky.
(The Carolers stop singing and a lone singer starts singing “When Christmas comes to town”. A song from the Polar Express.)
VO: Christmas is such a wonderful season. For me, it’s just another day. Just another reason to celebrate for no reason at all. Just another celebration celebrating the birth of a god, a man from a different religion. The birth of an obscure carpenter/preacher in the middle east who was actually Jewish. Go fig! I never really understood it. Buddhism is different. There was only one great man, who believed in many traditions, belief’s and practices. But beside all that: a debut comes soon. A new era starts for me.
(She gets up and starts walking towards the stairs but when she gets to the top of them she stops, looks around at the view of the street and how the activity is winding down and her eyes, heavy with black eyeliner, come to rest on the Transamerica building.)
VO: This is my time. This is my rise. This is how my story starts. And I WILL have all the glory.
(she sighs, and then starts down the steps towards it.)
VO: Alone, again, on this day. Being Buddhist isn’t all that bad. Christmas is just another day.
(She reaches the bottom of the stairs and starts to go towards the street. Everywhere else, the activity that is going on around Union Square seems to be lessening as more people are realizing that midnight is fast approaching. She walks until she reaches the bottom of the Transamerica building a block away, gets out a set of keys, opens the doors, and goes in.)
Place: Vespertine’s CEO room at the top of the Transamerica building
Date/Time: Same/10:30PM
Outfit: Same
(We are in the room filled with TVs and one huge desk with a lot of buttons and knobs. It is a security station of sorts and currently there are two security guards. She tells them to get out, she has a promo to do and they leave. She stands behind the desk and pushes some buttons on the keyboard in front of her. All the screens go dark except for 1 in the middle whereupon we see her Sin opponent Chelsea Skye)
(She blows a kiss, turns the TV off, gets up, walks over to the door, turns off the light leaving all in blackness just like her outfit.)
Time: 10PM
Date: Dec 10th, 2021
Background music: Songs that we probably know all the words to by now
“Thoughts on the Christmas Season”
(We come upon Union Square in San Francisco. It’s Christmas in the heart of the City by the Bay. In the park that is Union Square, the tree is lit up and there are carolers are at the base of the tree currently singing “Deck the Halls.” A crowd has gathered around them to hear them sing. It’s cold in the City this eve. About 38 degrees. The hot dog vendors are just closing up shop. And what children are left are running ahead of their parents or walking with them hand in hand looking at the moving decorations in the windows of stores like Macys, Nordstrom’s, Saks 5th Avenue, Neiman Marcus and more. What street performers are left, are still going strong, singing or playing their songs. In the midst of everyone who is walking or running around with packages, a lone figure walks slowly down the street. Vespertine. She is lost in her own thoughts, lost in her own world on this night. Her hair falls in streams down her back and has streaks of white in them. Her voice comes up as like a voiceover.)
VO: Alone, again, on this day. Being Buddhist isn’t all that bad though. We have great holidays for ourselves. But the majority of people in San Francisco, the majority of retailers believe in what they like to call the Christmas Spirit. I HATE Christmas.
(She is like a dark serpent rending and winding her way between families and street performers, the only person in the crowd that is wearing dark this time of year.)
VO: No. No. I can’t say that. I do love Christmas. I wish I were Christian to celebrate it. I love giving gifts to my friends and receiving them. But I am Buddhist and that’s a huge part of me.
(Someone bumps into her and she staggers back. She gets a mad look and turns around to see where he went, but the perpetrator has disappeared into the crowd. She shrugs and turns back around.)
VO: I’ve always believed that Jesus was just an obscure preacher man lost in the fray in the Middle east about 2,000 years ago. A cultist leader of some sort.
(she stops in front of a Macy’s store window and looks out towards the Square. In the window next to her a scene from the Sugar Plum Fairy Dance from the Nutcracker is displayed and the figures are moving as if they were on stage. She turns to start down the street and stops as several children run by. A cable car goes by outlined in Christmas lights.)
VO: This is a great time of year though. If I lived anywhere else, it would be snowing and I would be shoveling. I like snow but I like snow on my terms. I love to go to the snow. I don’t ever want the snow to come to me. People are happiest this time of year. People get to see loved ones they haven’t seen all year long or in months mostly because of COVID related reasons or just time and distance. Hanukkah is the same. I told my family I would see them between Christmas and New Years. James said he would be going home to Mexico to visit his family too. He’s Catholic. He is a family oriented man. Not like me where Dad and I aren’t close, we very rarely talk, and the only parental figure I ever had in my life was Mom.
(She goes through the crowd to step down onto the street, turns her head to look both ways, but realizes that the cars on Market are just sitting and waiting for the light to turn. She goes across the sidewalk and starts going up the steps towards where the Carolers and the Tree are in Union Square Park. The Carolers are now singing “Jingle Bells” and the lights look cozy and warm as they blink on and off. A breeze stirs the branches. She sits at the top of the steps and leans back against the wall. She sighs and watches as a couple of children run down the stairs playing tag, she smiles a lazy smile.)
VO: Christmas, a child’s holiday. Like Halloween is for adults.
(Her smile fades as she realizes this. She leans her head back against the wall. The crowd, going up and down the stairs, are ignoring the black velveted figure that is her.)
VO: A new year comes up, a new federation for starts. A new era in my life.
(She looks around and watches the people going up and down the stairs, oblivious to the dark figure sitting there watching their every move.)
VO: It’s Christmas. That time of year. It’s not about me wanting. It is about wanting to give, right? I should be wanting and giving peace on earth, good will toward men. Instead all I think about is my debut match against some goth chick named Chelsea Sky.
(The Carolers stop singing and a lone singer starts singing “When Christmas comes to town”. A song from the Polar Express.)
VO: Christmas is such a wonderful season. For me, it’s just another day. Just another reason to celebrate for no reason at all. Just another celebration celebrating the birth of a god, a man from a different religion. The birth of an obscure carpenter/preacher in the middle east who was actually Jewish. Go fig! I never really understood it. Buddhism is different. There was only one great man, who believed in many traditions, belief’s and practices. But beside all that: a debut comes soon. A new era starts for me.
(She gets up and starts walking towards the stairs but when she gets to the top of them she stops, looks around at the view of the street and how the activity is winding down and her eyes, heavy with black eyeliner, come to rest on the Transamerica building.)
VO: This is my time. This is my rise. This is how my story starts. And I WILL have all the glory.
(she sighs, and then starts down the steps towards it.)
VO: Alone, again, on this day. Being Buddhist isn’t all that bad. Christmas is just another day.
(She reaches the bottom of the stairs and starts to go towards the street. Everywhere else, the activity that is going on around Union Square seems to be lessening as more people are realizing that midnight is fast approaching. She walks until she reaches the bottom of the Transamerica building a block away, gets out a set of keys, opens the doors, and goes in.)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Place: Vespertine’s CEO room at the top of the Transamerica building
Date/Time: Same/10:30PM
Outfit: Same
"Thoughts on a debut match."
(We are in the room filled with TVs and one huge desk with a lot of buttons and knobs. It is a security station of sorts and currently there are two security guards. She tells them to get out, she has a promo to do and they leave. She stands behind the desk and pushes some buttons on the keyboard in front of her. All the screens go dark except for 1 in the middle whereupon we see her Sin opponent Chelsea Skye)
V: So Skye, by now you realize that even though I’m Asian, Korean, I’m more American than anything else. That’s beside the point. The point is: this is my debut match and there is nothing you can say or do to stop me. I’m here, my sweet. I’m here to stay. I’m here to win. I’m here to use you… as…a… stepping stone. No hard feelings. It’s just good business. Me bring in the ring is good business. Me beating your ass and raising my hand in victory in my debut match: that’s even better business. You can say what you want, you can call me what you will but when all is said and all is done, when the smoke clears, only one of us will be the winner. And that will be me. And for you, my sweet, this is where your story ends. And my rise to glory, my rise to the top, to be the best this federation has to offer, to be the best this federation has ever seen will start. It starts with you... Skye. No hard feelings. That's just good business. Where your story ends...
my story begins. You will feel... death.... by... diva!
(She blows a kiss, turns the TV off, gets up, walks over to the door, turns off the light leaving all in blackness just like her outfit.)
