Movie: Hope and Honour

by GR "Maya" Cogman

[Maya may yet change this title -- but I needed something for the filename. --arcangel]

Narrator: She was a teacher...

<SCENE>

Tarot stands by the blackboard in a student lecture theatre. She has dark red hair, coiled back by combs, yellowish eyes, a tanned skin, and is tall and thin. Camera swivels to the students, who are taking desultory notes.

</SCENE>

Narrator: ... with a past.

<SCENE>

Tarot, in black singlet and leather trousers, paused in the door of somewhere that is _obviously_ a demonic hideout of Lust, silhouetted by flames, a Uzi in her hands. Winged forms scream in the background.

</SCENE>

Narrator: And _she_ was a writer...

<SCENE>

Deborah, an attractive Lilim, in a book-cluttered room in Shal-Mari, with her word processor humming in front of her. She's rattling away at it.

</SCENE>

Narrator: ... with a future.

<SCENE>

Deborah still seated at the word processor, seductively curled in the chair, with a Balseraph poised behind her, making expansive gestures at a row of novels (angelporn) clearly all by the same author - her. Outside the window, the busy streets of Shal-Mari, with much expensive SFX.

</SCENE>

Narrator: It wasn't the usual sort of meeting.

<SCENE>

Tarot is sitting in a large locked iron birdcage, in a corner of Deborah's book-filled room. Her hands are steepled in her lap.

Deborah, pouting, "Look, I told them I wanted a Malakite. I need to see how the wings work for my latest novel. I didn't want a ... whoever the hell you are. Who are you, anyhow?"

Tarot, blandly, "Nobody of importance."

</SCENE>

Narrator: It wasn't one of those lasting relationships.

<SCENE>

Tarot, hands curled around the bars of the cage, "A place at the university, then, and I'll see if I can get you a chance to study some Malakim close up and peacefully. Deal?"

Deborah, blissfully ignorant, "Deal. Okay. I'll get you to a Tether out."

She reaches for the lock of the cage.

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

Deborah leads Tarot, wrapped in a white robe (though we see her profile in the shadows) past several lounging Lilim to a Tether, and gives her a high-sign.

Tarot extends one hand in a wave, a Geas-bracelet around her wrist, as she disappears in a transporter-like rainbow effect.

</SCENE>

Narrator: But secrets have a way of getting out, in Hell...

<SCENE>

Two Djinn shoulder through a crowd of Lilim. One barks, "Where's the angelporn writer Deborah?"

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

Deborah is sprinting down a dark stone corridor, a bundle of papers and computer disks under one arm.

Another Lilim, scarred and with Geasa round wrists, ankles and neck, steps out of the shadows, extending an leg that she ploughs into, sprawling.

Papers go flying.

Scarred Lilim smirks. "Going somewhere, were we?"

</SCENE>

Narrator: And now it's a matter of honour.

<SCENE>

Tarot sits facing a woman in white leather jacket and skirt (the ArchDean, yes), in an academic office.

The woman frowns. "All right, I can manage a disguise as a Punisher, and I can manage a couple of names to help you. But you're on your own down there."

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

A Seraph (played by Adrian Paul) looms over the corner table in a cafe where Tarot is drinking black coffee.

Tarot, shrugging, "I know they're watching."

The Seraph frowns. There's an axe strapped across his back. "You didn't geas to this. Am I going to have to beat some sense into you?"

Tarot puts down the mug. "No. But it's a matter of honour."

Seraph, darkly, "There is no honour in Hell." Light catches the edge of the axe.

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

Deborah, sitting in the birdcage in the corner of some large wood-panelled hall, very small and lonely in the dim light. The scarred Lilim is crouched before the door of the cage.

Two unidentified figures stand in the door, silhouetted in the light, casting long shadows across the floor.

"And when she's served as bait?"

"A public example. The Arenas."

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

Tarot, and the Seraph, on the roof of a college building, under a clear night sky. They're both in camouflage gear.

Tarot, balanced on the edge of the building, "I need a diversion."

The Seraph unlimbers his axe. He grins. Nastily.

</SCENE>

Narrator: A long way from Earth...

<SCENE>

Tarot, with her hair razor-cut, in a pair of mirrored sunglasses and ivory bikini, and a new serpent-tattoo that coils round her neck and body, in the streets of Shal-Mari, jostled by passing demons and souls. The Geas-bracelet gleams round her wrist.

An Impudite stands beside her, pointing at a particular ornamented building. "That's not Prince Andre's Bordello. And they're not holding her in there. And you never heard this from me, right?"

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

Camera pans lovingly across a carefully staged orgy that doesn't quite show any X-rated organs, to a throne where Andrealphus (in female form) lounges. The Impudite from the previous scene is murmuring in his ear. Morphing technology allows us to see the change from Andrea to Andre as he rises to his feet.

Andrealphus: "Carry on, my dears. I have to collect a .. guest."

</SCENE>

Narrator: ... and even further from Heaven.

<SCENE>

Scarred Lilim to Deborah, in the birdcage, "You'd do better to give up hope now, rather than having it torn away. It hurts less. Believe me."

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

Andrealphus steps out of a cloak of shadows, in a dark passage, one hand reaching out to encircle Tarot's unGeas-braceleted wrist. "Do you know where you are?"

Tarot, paused, "Hell."

Andrealphus, correcting her, "_My_ Hell."

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

Deborah, crouched over a collapsed and probably unconscious Tarot in the shadows, "Stupid. So stupid. There isn't any honour, there isn't any love, why didn't you _understand_!"

*A loud explosion and flickering lights.*

Tarot, opening her eyes, "Wake-up call."

</SCENE>

Narrator: But even in Hell, there can be hope...

<SCENE>

Deborah, supporting Tarot, drags her through an alley in Shal-Mari. A sleek and silvery car-like machine glitters ahead of them.

Deborah, "It's Vaputech."

Tarot, weakly, "It's that or nothing."

Deborah, "I think I'd prefer nothing. Where's the on switch?"

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

Deborah revs the car-thing, heading directly at a Gate that two frantic Balseraphs are pushing shut. Lightning flickers around it as Tarot brings an arm up to shield her face.

</SCENE>

Narrator: ... and honour ...

<SCENE>

Tarot drags a wounded Deborah up a grey sand-dune.

Deborah: "I'll take the damned Geas off. Get out of here."

Tarot: "It wasn't the Geas. It never was."

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

The Marches, stormswept and grey, winds sweeping glowing streams of jewel-like dreamscapes across the sky. The Seraph with the Big Axe, surrounded by several Malakim, is holding off a pack of Djinn and Calabim.

Much blood and gore and violence.

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

Deborah, to the Seraph, tossing a grenade in one hand, "I owe you. Get out of here."

Seraph, squinting, "What do you mean, Daughter of Freedom?"

Deborah: "You're going to buy me a cup of coffee afterwards. Milk, five sugars."

</SCENE>

Narrator: ... and sometimes, even Light.

<SCENE>

Tarot, in business suit, reaching into her desk and bringing out a handgun. She works the slide professionally.

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

The scarred Lilim, crouching houndlike at the side of a dark-robed figure.

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

A flight of Malakim descending like eagles.

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

Andrealphus, bending to embrace Tarot.

</SCENE>

<SCENE>

Deborah, bringing a handgun up to point at the Seraph's face.

</SCENE>

Narrator: At the end of the world.

<SCENE>

Tarot tilts an eyebrow at the Seraph, who is still hefting his axe, in the cafe where they were seen before. "Moccacino?"

</SCENE>

[End trailer with title of movie...]

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