temporary bondage of bodies

Princess/Prince: Nerys Jepson
Imani ruth
Clemency reba: Heroine. Free prisoners of the temple. Sister of Noam.
Tordis Ladislav.
Noam brunhilde
Senka alina
Callias Monroe: dark skinned, hopeful noble. He hopes he was abused as a child. He makes lipstick. He makes poisonous lipstick.
King: Odovacar ambrosia
Queen:
Bertha wulfric
Ekkehard phoibe
Heron clovis: Cousin of the princess Nerys.
Clodovicus
Zotikos: Life-bringer. Discovers talent when he brings life to Noam.
Eunike gunnvor
Timothy (son of eunike)
Godafird or godafrid
Conigunde henricus
Erminlinda hartmut
Theophilis
The guards: All different minorities, sizes, genders.
The nobles: all different minorities, shapes, sizes, genders.
Camera in a dark room with canopy bed. Focuses on man with long dark hair sitting cross legged in bed. He bites his fingers. Song playing: Blue Orchid by the White Stripes. When he lays down the music changes abruptly. He closes his eyes.
Focuses on bright blue eyes opening terribly wide. Move to lips with smeared red lipstick. He says: You are far too LOUD.
Camera focuses on a crowd of drooling nobles. They are all holding novels. They chant: We are just going through a phase. We are happy in our own world.
The man with bright eyes and lipstick is called Callias Monroe. He sits in a folding chair and his emotions intensify when his tape malfunctions.
There are servants, meanwhile, who are naked and painted gold and doing backflips. They stop to stare at each other over teacups every few seconds, like making small talk with the eyes. They have trained long and hard for this. (Perhaps a flashback of their training sessions on hot metal.)
Callias chucks his tape at a woman holding a toddler. It hits her in the head, and she swears: Mother of motherless cookies.
Callias: I can’t see you. (He looks straight through her.) I can not hear you. Nor can the king and queen, I daresay.
Callias: What a small world we live in.
Callias takes some tape out of his pocket that has teeth marks on it. He sniffs and tapes the woman’s mouth, who screams.
Toddler: screams.
Callias takes a cookie from his pocket and offers it to the toddler, who sniffles.
Callias: Good boy. Run along now. Play with your little toys.
Callias: Rise up, Inventors.
The troupe of servants: Give us the keys, Callias. (He does not hear them. He is licking his fingers.)
Callias: We have lost so much of our culture, friends. (He brings plate of cookies.)
The nobles pass the tape, taping their mouths, spilling wines. Mascara runs deep down the face, and they are all freaks. It is a freakshow.
Focus back on the pale Prince/Princess. He sits straight up, and his back cracks. Music stops. Camera zooms on eyes, brown. Then on mouth, pink. Not chapped.
It is daylight. His cousin Heron Clovis enters. She is dressed in white. She crawls dramatically onto his bed, purring.
Heron: It is sometimes based on assumptions. (she pouts, then laughs.) That’s what they tell me. I shoudn’t assume the potatoes are poisoned, because that’s only half full of poison. I’d rather the bottle was half empty. (She leans on her elbow, twirling his hair.)
Nerys: (Catches her hand and smells it. Wrinkles his nose.) I’ve been dreaming of you, Heron. But now you’re here, and you smell like life. Not of potatoes at all. Not even empty.
Heron: You only say that to please me.
Nerys: raises brows.
Heron: Do you want me to leave?
Nerys: (strokes her arm. Leans back into bed, closes eyes.) No.
Heron: Hmmph. (She rises out of his bed, hops to his wardrobe. She proceeds to undress.) You know what they call me?
Nerys: (looks at ceiling, touching his hair.) No.
Heron: (Opens the white curtains.) User-friendly. But I don’t need them.
Nerys: No.
(The door opens.)
Noam enters: (head lowered. Short hair pulled out of her face. Wears pants and lipstick and short cut shirt. Carries tray of cookies and lipstick. New music plays.)
Nerys: (turns head, but does not move body. Zoom in on eyes, mouth.) Mouths: poison.
Noam: (Sets tray of cookies on the large table, looks at him.) I made these, Sire.
Nerys: Join the circus with me. (He sits up and touches her arm.)
Heron: (meanwhile, calling out the window to nymphs.) You aren’t knowledgeable, are you? In a world of my own, darling, I’d give up Nerys for your bodice and smell……….
Heron: (giggles. Stumbles back, face flushed, bare breasted.) Nerys, they’ve made me drunk. I am the drunken bastard of the family.
Noam: (turns.)
Heron:(Puts arm around bedpost, stares at Noam.) She’s delectable. Has she poisoned your cookies?
Nerys: Stay….
Heron: Ooh, push and shove. Leave him alone, slave. (laughs.) He’s already gorged in his own lust.
Noam: That’s a lot of pressure.
Nerys: Tell me your name.
Noam: You would be disappointed.
Heron: (flops on bed.) Your life is dull, Nerys.
Nerys: You aren’t very clever.
Heron: Her, or me?
Nerys: (Sits up. Turns to Heron, finger on her lips.)
Noam: My name is Noam Rut.
Nerys: Here. (he pats bed. Bed is covered in roses with thorns.)
Noam: This is sensual.
Nerys: It’s a joke. My parents make love in this bed.
Heron: (rolls eyes.) This is disgusting. Nymphs want you, Nerys. She smells like wine. (She takes off her skirt, fiddles with jewels, sings loudly.)
Noam: I—(she shifts).
Nerys: (pulls her down.) Lay down.
Noam: I watch you often. Too much. All night. I have an obsession.
Nerys: I look in the mirror too often.
Noam: I think I love you, in an ironic way.
Nerys: Did you poison the cookies?
Noam: No.
Nerys: (Touches her hair.)
Noam: I have a sister. I have to go back to her.
Nerys: (Laughs.) Shy?
Noam: No. Sly. Well dressed.
Nerys: Go with me.
Noam: You aren’t going anywhere.
Nerys: Then you can go.
Noam: (stands, leaves, does not look back.)
Heron: She’s begging for you. She is on her knees, and you are her archaic princess. (She bends and kisses him, and he closes his eyes.)
New Scene
Voice: No one is welcome here…..
Voice: In that case, we are all united here! All invited here! No one means to an end—
Voice: If there is no interpreter
Voice: If there is no madness
Voice: This is no jest.
Voice: You are in your bed, at best. (Camera jolts to princess, sitting in bed. Skips beat; then laying down.)
Voice of Clemency: There is no revenge on the avenger. (Half her face is in the candlelight, the other half in shadow. Half her eyelid is painted in the light; her eyes open, and close.)
Clemency: (mutters) Excuse me. (In the crowd of nobles in the palace. Ballroom is lit up with floating candles and bubbles. Fairies smirk at one another.)
Clemency: moves through crowd.
Voice of Callias Monroe: I smell fish. (He peers through a circular lens at a man with the word newcomer tattoed across his forehead.) Cookies?
Man: I have to leave. I have to take care of my children.
Callias: Do I know them?
Man: Of course.
Callias: Have a cookie.
Man: (hesitates).
Nobles: tssk tssk.
Callias: This is incredibly rude. Not the fashionable, we’re best buds rude. The kind that induces compulsive stabbing. (He grins.) You think I’m kidding.
Man: Thankyou.
Nobles: tssk tssk.
Man: chokes.
Nobles: laugh.
Callias: Where the hell is the circus? Where are the freaks?
Clemency: (swears.) Figmont.
Clemency: (to teenage girls whom are grouped in a spiderweb: hisses) Hide. Hide. You’d be surprised what kills.
Voice: Still searching for the truth?
Clemency: (out through a small door that is hidden within the large one. She emerges into tall grass hiding a black stone path. There are bunnies eating flies. No music playing. Lake within sight. Many trees. Nighttime.)
Tree: You missing something?
Clemency: Where is she? Oh, she’s over there. Did she () the princess?
Tree: The princess is too smooth.
Clemency: Yes, well, so is Callias, and she took his birthright.
Noam: You’ve tried explaining me, I see. You laughing? (she squints.)
Clemency: Yes.
Noam: He wants me.
Clemency: That’s disgusting.
Noam: How do you know?
Clemency: It’s obvious. But still, you shouldn’t disappear anymore. (She pulls Noam to her.) I might be sympathetic. I might be scared for you.
Noam: Clemency! Stop crying. I’m fine. He won’t do anything to me. He’ll just adore me.
Clemency: I’m not crying, see? I never cry. (She looks across the lake.) There’s newcomers locked in the dungeon again.
Noam: It’s Mullings! (Snorts.) I woudn’t expect any less from Callius, especially with the Queen expecting.
Clemency: (Takes off shirt.) Okay.
Clemency and Noam: (Run to lake. Jump in.)
Noam: I’m not drowning tonight.
Clemency: Nope.
Noam: You are?
Clemency: No need. No need to say good-bye.
Noam: Save the poetry for our lovers.
Clemency: Or we could stare out the window, sister.
Noam: (laughs.) I hate to break the window.
(They swim underwater, past trees. It is dark. They sneak into a crevice, into a temple, and emerge. Sounds of grunted laughter not far off.)
Clemency: (grins.)
Noam: (grunts.) Hurry, before I forget myself.
Clemency: (zoom on her feet, slip into glass slippers.) Time is gone….
Noam: Cold.
Clemency: (Walks into dimly lit stone passage, leading to a foyer. Her walking style is noticeably changed. ) I smell fish.
Guard: I smell seamen.
Clemency: Seamen lay their sorry deaths on her shoulder. (She nods at Noam, who opens her mouth and closes it, in a stupor.)
Guard: And they quiver in fear, at the sight of her, in spite of themselves.
Clemency: Fear of the absurd. Here I come, closer.
Guard: Step right up here.
Noam: (sidesteps Clemency, takes her place in the line of fire. She walks toward the corner, where a guard sits lonely. She has a keen sense for loneliness.)
Clemency: (disappears toward the prisoners, who are crying, and silenced at her arrival.)
Zotikos: This is hopeless. Do you have any poetry?
Clemency: Why do I never….hold the guest….the same way…..every time.
Clemency: I’m sorry. This won’t take long. (She listens for a cue from her sister, places finger on lips.) I have been in this line of work for a while. I haven’t seen you.
Clemency: Wait—
Clemency: I AM DROWNING.
Guards: (Stumble over. Rush to her rescue, fumble for keys.) This is sad!
Guard: No more dead girls!
Clemency: (Is stifled by guards.) Oh. Fawn over me.
Guards: (unlock prisoners.)
Clemency: (to girl) They are more sober than usual. Easier to ply.
Girl: Thankyou.
Clemency: (wiping off guards, wrinkling her nose.) My pleasure, lady. (She bows.) (She looks over at Noam.) Oh. Oops.
Noam: (cornered by a guard wearing striped tights) Time for change..,, something that is outside of us……
Clemency: (Takes hand of guard, lays it on her breast.) This is mine.
Guard: I must leave. (Leaves.)
Godafird: (half smiles.) Need a smile?
Clemency: No! Never! (She hugs him.) Why’d you eat the cookie?
Godafird: Wanted to see you.
Clemency: What if I stopped coming?
Godafird: I’d meet someone here who behaved just like you. Bite your fingers, rub you poetry around my dead body like mildew on those figmonted cookies.
Clemency: Everyone left. (camera zooms out, and they are the only two in the chamber.)
Godafird: And suddenly I find myself…..
Clemency: Whatever. Shutup. (She kisses him.)
(Camera follows Noam, who watches the people go free, some vomiting into the lake. Change of music: Vermillion Lies: Louder.)
Noam: I don’t need him.
Tree: Nor do I. I need you.
Noam: I need me too.
Tree: Well, this is quite the dilemma.
Noam: I can be there for both of us.
Tree: I suppose that’s good enough for me.
Noam: This house looks evil. (She approaches the hut, made of cookies.)
Tree: The cookies aren’t poison.
Noam: Huh. That’s stupid. Cookies.
Voice of Nerys: Hey!
Noam: Princess? Sir? (She bends to meet him at ground level, where is he crouched, dirty.)
Nerys: Were you invited as well?
Noam: I don’t think so.
Nerys: You are beautiful.
Noam: What are you invited to? You smell good.
Nerys: I—I smell what? I mean, I was wanting of the palace. And I was given this by a fairy. (He shows her a piece of straight, shiny, and stiff paper) I mean, when I wan’t looking—
Noam: You are sweating profusely.
Nerys: Yes.
(They stand, eyes locked.)
Nerys: I don’t want to go.
Noam: Don’t, then. It’s probably a murder plot.
Nerys: (steps closer. ) Noam?
Noam: What?
Nerys: I had quite a lot of wine. Do you want some?
Noam: The wine……
Nerys: Come to the circus with me.
Noam: No, you come with me.
Nerys: (touches his own hair.) I can’t.
Noam: Please.
Nerys: What about your sister?
Noam: She doesn’t know you.
Nerys: Neither do you.
Noam: She knows me. She’ll be okay. We won’t be gone long, my princess.
Nerys: (leans in to kiss her.)
(They kiss, and grasp.)
(Clemency runs out from the temple.) GET OFF HER!
(They break apart, Noam coughing. She coughs blood, and the bunnies run to lick it up.)
Clemency: You! What? What are you? (she kneels by Noam, who is collapsed. Nerys kneels too.)
Clemency: Noam! Hey. What’s wrong? (She touches the blood.) What did you do? (to Nerys.)
Nerys: i—nothing. I don’t know why she is bleeding—
Clemency: Noam! (she is crying. Noam is bleeding from her stomach. She is unbelievably ill. She says, I love you, but it is not clear who she directs it at. Probably her sister and Nerys. Noam dies. Clemency breathes into her. She is blue.)
Nerys: (Stares at corpse. Touches his own lips.) Maybe the lipstick was poisoned.
Clemency: (looks up.) I have to leave. (she looks at Nerys.) I am going to kill you.
Nerys: I am sorry.
Clemency: (turns, runs. Someone is conveniently shouting her name.)
(She arrives at a gathering of bunnies. )
Bunnies: There is a ransom! (Point at spider, who grasps an ant.)
Clemency: (sits. Looks. Cries.) I have to go.
Tree: Your sister isn’t dead.
Clemency: She is. She is my sister, and she is dead.
Tree: We are talking of the same woman. She lives. I saw her following Nerys.
Clemency: The princess?
Tree: That one.
Clemency: (Runs, back to spot near lake where her sister’s blood soaks the ground.) She didn’t blow away.