{"id":2039,"date":"2016-01-23T11:54:03","date_gmt":"2016-01-23T16:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/?page_id=2039"},"modified":"2016-01-30T14:10:04","modified_gmt":"2016-01-30T19:10:04","slug":"scene-8","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/?page_id=2039","title":{"rendered":"Scene 8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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\"08tower02\"<\/p>\n

Jake and Amanda continue their conversation.<\/em><\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

Sitting here just waiting to die! Crack wise about that, oh fastest of unrattled snakes, oh Jake the destroyer, god of fire, acceptor of sacrifices, master of death and annihilation, you sub-literate demon. The gods roar with delight while you lurk in the shadows and a woman with gun barrel tits comes to blow your brains out. Then you dare mock me like some mad scientist with his fiendish plan for world conquest \u2026<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

(rising)<\/em> Then look upon me in awe, puny earthling!<\/p>\n

Jakes waves his right hand and the building shakes, wind howls, mysterious scratching and growling noises come from below. Amanda shrinks back into her chair, her eyes wide.<\/em><\/p>\n

I do have my moments, my special effects as it were \u2026<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

You \u2026 you \u2026<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

\u2026 the hungry wolf waiting for Goldilocks, or was that Little Red Riding Hood?<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

(stands up, angry)<\/em> Gee, grandma, what a great big ego you have! (lightning flashes, loud thunderclap) (she screams)<\/em> Stop already!<\/p>\n

Jake appears stunned. Very long pause. Amanda is surprised to find herself standing, is embarrassed, slowly sits down.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

Twarn\u2019t me, ma\u2019am.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

I didn\u2019t mean \u2026 oh no, I didn\u2019t \u2026<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

You see anyone else around? (sings, his arms out, looking around)<\/em> Blue skies, nothing but blue skies, comin\u2019 my way. (stops singing)<\/em> Hmmm. I\u2019ve always felt that mutually assured destruction was the foundation of any good relationship, but this \u2026<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

I\u2019m sorry, I didn\u2019t mean \u2026<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

Unh-uh, don\u2019t spoil it. I\u2019ll not mock you if you don\u2019t mock my plan for world conquest.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

(a slight brief smile)<\/em> Fiendish plan.<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

Merci. For all those talents of mine that you have so generously enumerated, and by the way, you missed my charming modesty. Yes, much to think on.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

I \u2026 I \u2026 I guess that if you were hankering to hurt me you would have \u2026<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

Bad logic, yet true. Meanwhile, I recollect you asking why I was sitting in the shadows waiting for a woman with gun barrel tits to blow my brains out. Let\u2019s try this. Do you ever get tired? Tired in your spirit?<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

Come again?<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

You ever do much hitchhiking?<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

No. Never.<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

Hmmm. I did, back when. Out West. The thing is that hitchhikers and their drivers have the damnedest conversations. The freedom of talking to somebody you know you\u2019ll never see again. Deepest thoughts. Pour-out-your-soul meanderings. Crazy conversations, dangerous conversations sometimes. I\u2019ve had a couple where guys talked about having murdered people. And of course, the hitchhiker has to politely listen.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

So you\u2019re the driver here?<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

Something like that. Pardon my incoherence, but something about you I don\u2019t get, and I don\u2019t just mean the unusual circumstances of our meeting. Hey, I\u2019d bet that the biggest moment in your life is your now standing here in my presence. Any other day, you\u2019d still be out in the street, staring at the Ministry\u2019s awesome steel-studded oak doors, my hidden sharpshooters sighted in on your tender bosom awaiting a false move.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

Any other day I\u2019d be busy prophesying people\u2019s magic lottery numbers.<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

I stand corrected. But right now, I\u2019m so very, very tired. I\u2019m even kind of disappointed that you\u2019re not here to kill me. Or at least try.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

Mr. Jake, you may not be disappointed.<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

It may all be hopeless.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

Mr. Jake, your assassin really is heading this way. We\u2019ve got trouble a\u2019plenty.<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

Do you have dreams?<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

Of course I have dreams. All sorts. And then I wake up screaming. Are your doors still open? Guards all gone?<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

I have dreams \u2026<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

She just moseyed in the front door \u2026<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

Never a dull moment. (hits a button)<\/em> There. It\u2019s a long walk up with the elevators turned off. And only one lung. Dreams, I was saying. You being nobody, of course, yours don\u2019t count.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

You arrogant \u2026<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

Your flattery is most touching, my dear, but power matters. I make dreams actually happen. The entire world is my canvas, and my canvas is what you think is home. I\u2019m really quite the artiste. My deputies define reality. We sit around a big table, shooting the shit like wouldn\u2019t it be funny if \u2026 and the next day, it is, as we sit around and cackle and laugh like drunken frat rats watching old Hercules movies.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

You\u2019re dumb enough to think anyone believes your deputies?<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

You\u2019re dumb enough to think it matters if they do? If anyone interrupted the delicate flow of my brush, my brush would turn into a chainsaw and \u2026<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

And if I was to interrupt the flow of your brush?<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

I think I like you. I pray you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

So what\u2019s your problem, oh great wizard?<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

To tell you the truth, hitchhiker, it\u2019s all dying. I dream of a free world, but none dare mar my canvas. I want to free the prisoners trapped inside the walls. I want to free the prisoners outside the walls. I want to free myself. But I command the gunners who keep all of us prisoners.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

You command the gunners?<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

I command all sorts of things. Any building can look like the Taj Mahal. Phantom divisions can march the streets in rush hour traffic. Real divisions do march the streets and people can\u2019t tell the difference between the phantom tanks and the steel ones until they open fire and the blood runs. Unless I decide to use phantom blood. I build beautiful phantom factories, I run factories of concrete and steel. The phantom factories are more productive. Yes, I command the gunners. To kill those I would set free.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

Set free?<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

And I can only watch it all crumble. You called me Jake the destroyer. You have no idea how true that is. And how sad. Money, sex, power, got \u2019em. Fame, as much or as little as I want. Hopes, dreams, those are the commodities in short supply. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtains. His dreams are dying.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

So now you wait in the shadows for your assassin?<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

Well \u2026 hey, how\u2019d you like to come up and see my etchings?<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

You\u2019re crazier than a shithouse rat. How\u2019d you like one good kick in the balls?<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

(laughs hysterically)<\/em> And I will be dipped in shit, you got a point there. You know, some days, I actually believe my schemes are worth something. Other days, I can only groove on their artistry. See my latest. The essence of life. Or death. (points to a screen)<\/em> Today\u2019s action at the wall.<\/p>\n

Jake hits a button and gets up. Music begins, something like \u201cOne of These Days\u201d by Pink Floyd. We see Henry and Malcolm at their guns on one side of the stage, pantomiming firing silently in slow motion. Jake dances, from minuet to disco to obscene gestures.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thus it begins, spreading out of its dark core, the gunners snap to the alert \u2026 it oozes around the rubble, pours through what\u2019s left of the streets \u2026 Ooh! Ooh! Here\u2019s a really cool part. I turn off the guns here and here (he points)<\/em> for five seconds. See how it flows! Now the guns kick back in, but the pattern is broken, slowly reforming \u2026 now the action is winding down \u2026 I just love those last throbs as the final kamikazes die.<\/p>\n

Music winds down, Jake is exhausted in orgasmic exhaustion, sits back down.<\/em><\/p>\n

Beautiful and sad. Then there are better days when what keeps me alive is my Shining Tower. And more and more even that isn\u2019t enough. The artistry isn\u2019t enough. I don\u2019t know what is. If this Bloody Lane were only going to kill me, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d care at all. Maybe the kick of an old-fashioned high noon gunfight inspires me more than either the art or the Shining Tower or anything else. Keeps me amused. Maybe I\u2019m becoming completely incoherent.<\/p>\n

Amanda<\/h4>\n

Your Shining Tower?<\/p>\n

Jake<\/h4>\n

I guess that\u2019s what counts. If I can\u2019t kill Lane to save myself, I\u2019ll still kill her to save my tower. And at least it\u2019s something interesting \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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previous scene next scene Jake and Amanda continue their conversation. Amanda Sitting here just waiting to die! Crack wise about that, oh fastest of unrattled snakes, oh Jake the destroyer, god of fire, acceptor of sacrifices, master of death and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2039","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P77v4L-wT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2039"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2366,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2039\/revisions\/2366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}