Yesterday I wrote up one of the “sneak pre-view” scripts for the Modern Fantasy campaign setting. I had the idea all set for what has now become the second pre-view, but then the idea for the first one popped into my head and made so much sense that I had to do it. I’m planning on releasing them as free products. Each is done in the form of a small comic book; and that’s how I wrote the script. I’ll get them drawn (hopefully be Anthony!) up and release them as a free pre-view along with some coupons. I’m pretty excited about the idea, but it is in the very early stages of development. Still trying to come up with an appropriate name for the setting. For now I’m calling it the “Pandora Project”.
Here is the written script for pre-view #1:
A family is eating dinner at a small table. A man, a pretty young woman and a cute, little girl. He is clearly in the army; crew cut, maybe an Army T-shirt, but not in uniform. The remains of a child’s birthday party litter the small living room. A banner, opened presents etc.
Little Girl: When will you be back Daddy?
Soldier: I’ll be back before your next birthday.
The woman is uncomfortable. He is obviously headed off to war and is putting on a strong front for their daughter’s sake. She smiles weakly.
Soldier: [To his wife] It’ll be fine honey. My Mom is coming in next week to help you with Megan, and she can stay a few weeks to help you handle things while I’m off. Don’t worry.
Little Girl: Daddy, will you read me one of my new books for bed-time!?
She doesn’t want him to go, and knows enough to help change the conversation before mommy starts crying again.
Soldier: Of course. Pick one out and I’ll read it when I tuck you in.
The Soldier and his daughter are in the bedroom. A typical little girl’s room of four or five years old. She’s tucked into her bed and he is sitting next to her while he reads a book to her. His wife watches from the hallway, enjoying the moment and committing it to memory.
Soldier: [Reading from the book in his hand.]
The lion cubs were busy pouncing on each other when they discovered a dusty book called ‘Greek Myths.’ It was full of magical stories, written a long time ago in Ancient Greece.
Theo began to read one of the stories.
It was called Pandora’s Box, and was all about a woman called Pandora.
A long, long, long time ago in Greece, a woman named Pandora lived with her husband in a great big house.
One day, Pandora was in a little-used part of the house when she discovered a beautiful box.
It was the most interesting box Pandora had ever seen. The box had lots and lots of designs on top. Pandora saw a sign on the box that said “Do not open!”
The “!” at the end was an exclamation point. It turned “Do not open” into “DO NOT OPEN!” But Pandora said to herself, “That is the most interesting box I have ever seen. I wonder what could be inside.”
“The End,” said Theo.
[The Little girl looks confused, waiting for an explanation.]
The End? But what happened next? Cried the lion cubs!
Well, I don’t know. said Theo.
The rest of the story was missing. The pages must have fallen out.
“Oh no!” said Leona. “Now we’ll never find out if there was a pony in the box!”
Cleo and Theo hunted for the missing pages, leaving the cubs in the library with the book, waiting.
The cubs wondered what was in the box. Leona had an idea.
“Let’s get Click to take the box out of the book. Then we can open it up and look inside!”
Click dragged and dropped the box out of the book and into the library. This might have seemed like a good idea, but . . .
The box sat on the counter. Leona was just about to open it when Lionel said, “No!!! Wait! There are signs all over the box that say ‘Do not open!’ With exclamation points! An exclamation point means the signs don’t just say ‘Do not open.’ They say ‘DO NOT OPEN!’”
“But they don’t say ‘DO NOT PEEK!’”said Leona.
And she opened the lid just a little, to peek.
Do you know what came out of the box?
Little Girl: Was it a pony?
Soldier: Nope. It was the hiccups! [Little girl looks surprised & puzzled at this.]
“Hic,” said Lionel. He had hiccups.
“Hic,” said Leona. She had hiccups.
“Hic,” said the silver knight. He had hiccups.
“Hic,” said the green duck. He had hiccups.
“Hic,” said the phone, the lamp, the chairs, and tables. They all had hiccups.
“Hic,” said everyone in the library. “Hic, hic, hic.”
Some kind of floating, green, ghosty thingy had floated out of the box when Leona peeked into it. Now this hiccup monster was hiccuping everyone in sight. Hic!
What were they going to do?
Theo and Cleo came back with the missing pages, and before you can say “hic,” they were saying “hic,” too.
Lionel confessed - kind of. “Taking the box out of the book - hic - peeking - hic . . . The whole thing - hic- was Leona’s idea!!!”
“But I’m a little cub! - hic. You’re not - hic- supposed to listen to me! Hic!”
Theo said, “Okay, okay. Next time - hic - when you see a sign - hic- that says ‘Do not open’ - hic- exclamation point, do not - hic- open it!”
With some effort they got Click to drag the box back into the book. But the hiccup monster was still in the library.
Meanwhile, back in the book, all kinds of bad things were coming out of the box. Pandora had opened it!
Hurricanes flew out of the box! Floods flew out of the box! The flu flew out of the box! Chicken pox flew out of the box! Sadness flew out of the box!
Indeed, all the evils and troubles of the world had been inside the box. And now they were out in the world.
Pandora was very sad at what she had done. She looked at her husband and said, “Well, at least we don’t have hiccups.”
Back in the library, the lions let the hiccup monster know that hiccups were not in the book. Being a mean, hiccuppy thing, it jumped into the book to give hiccups to everyone in the book.
The lions stopped hiccupping. The library was hiccupless at last.
All was not lost for Pandora and her husband, even though they also now had hiccups.
Luckily, one good thing had been let out of the box when Pandora opened it, and that thing was hope.
Hope is a beautiful thing.
Whatever there is in your life that isn’t going the way you would like it to, as long as you have hope, you can get through anything. Remember hope next time things are not going the way you’d like.
The End.
[They pause, taking in the message of the fable. The wide-eyed little girl is concentrating on the story. She asks…]
Little Girl: “Daddy, how did all those nasty things get put inside the box in the first place?”
The Soldier and his Wife share a perplexed look. The clearly don’t have the answer to the little girl’s question.
That sets up pre-view #2 where we learn the real story behind the Pandora fable.
Picked up some gloves also. I had a discount coupon for both that they gave me when I took the class to get a motorcycle drivers license; so I saved 10% on the helmet and 15% on the gloves. I’m still hunting for a jacket. It gets pretty hot here in No. VA during the summer, so I am thinking a lightweight one with good air-flow and a zip-out liner for colder days. I can spring for a cold weather jacket later in the year if need be.
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