Writing Meme: Second Piece/Shadowplay: Nine to Five
From: Heavenscalyx
Prop: Any of the props belonging to the Endless
Theme: Gaiman's Sandman series
Line: "Dark, dark, dark, all this darkness. I just can't stop... What am I saying?"
Word Count: 573

Shadowplay.

I apologize.



[Scene: A back corridor, metal, with pipes, random crates, and metal grilles. Looks suspiciously like a set from Babylon 5. B-ko is walking along it, and trips over something.]

B-ko: What's this? [Picks up a long drape of fabric which could be a tablecloth or a curtain or a blanket. Tilts her head in a puzzled manner.] Why would someone leave perfectly good cloth just lying around like this?

[She shakes it out. There is a sinister hiss, although it is not clear whether it originates from the shadows or from the fabric.]

B-ko: Hm, a clasp. Looks expensive. [She swings the cloak around her shoulders and fastens the clasp.]

[The Cloak immediately billows out in a Most Dramatic Fashion, expanding in a way that defies all laws of known physics, and covers the entire stage, swirling to mummify B-ko's startled form.]

B-ko: Hey! Wait! Stop! Augh!

[Scene: A bleak gray plain, with black jagged rocks carved in gravity-defying curves not unlike a castle at a peculiar angle to the terrain. B-ko stands in the center in a brooding pose usually accomplished only by Edward Gorey drawings, wrapped completely in The Cloak.]

[A-ko enters, dressed in a short skirt, pigtails, little shoes-- in fact, dressed very like she's usually dressed (how can you tell with a silhouette?) except that she's wearing a great big ankh on her chest.]

A-ko: Hello!

B-ko: ...

A-ko: [Bounces up to B-ko.] What's the matter?

B-ko: Dark, dark, dark, all this darkness. I just can't stop... What am I saying?

A-ko: I think you're having a mid-unlife crisis. Go eat some ice cream. Better yet, get laid.

B-ko: I think I need to change jobs.

A-ko: Change... jobs?

B-ko: Yes, my job is depressing. Don't you ever find your job depressing?

A-ko: Well, um...

[Enter C-ko, hauling a large steamer trunk. The other two turn to stare at her.]

C-ko: Don't mind me, I'm just getting ready.

A-ko: You're not allowed to change jobs. You ARE your job!

B-ko: [gestures with one hand as though about to say something vehement, then breaks into song; mysteriously, there is musical accompaniment:]
Every single night
The same old story--
I create the world of dreams.
I'm thinking that my shtick is growing hoary--
Nothing here is real;
It's showing at the seams.
I've been making prose and shadow shows,
Just hoping no one knows
That I've been going through the motions,
Walking through the part.
My stories just don't seem to have a heart.
I was always romantic and rather broody,
Now I find I'm just a wuss.
I don't how I can call
my one mood "moody" --I'm not mysterious--

A-ko: You kick up too much fuss--

B-ko: At least I'm serious.

A-ko and C-ko: [C-ko dressed in a truly random assortment of clothing out of the trunk and topped with a large hat with horns]
The ratings were swell, as long as hell
Was in the plot, but we can tell
We're just going through the motions (going through the motions)
Borrowing our plots--

C-ko: Although we're hardly ones to take cheap shots...

B-ko: Will I stay this way forever?
Pretending to be gothly clever?

A-ko: Take it from me, it ends--

B-ko: Oh, never!
I don't want to be
Going through the motions
Like a puppet on a page.
I can't even see
If I have originality
And I just want to flee
This cage!

[Curtain drops.]