California Trilogy: City of Angels - On Camera (Game Over)

[Mr. Grey]

Scene 6.5

Back in the Bingo Hall, the group is nearing the end of their hour's reprieve from being chased by men with guns, and is forced to make a decision. Putting together what vague memories they have of the board before it went off, and their gut feelings about the balls, they reach a consensus...

Dweezil Zappa:

N-41!

ALICE:

What time is it there?

The group looks at Alice, not sure what to make of this response. Meanwhile, the bingo playing crowd look uncertainly at their cards. There are a few murmurs throughout, as players hold up their cards and inspect them closely. The camera catches one or two of these cards, showing that 41 is already marked off.

With the extras unsure how to act out such a scenario, there is a moment of confusion, before one brave young actor stands up and shouts:

Young Man with Baseball Cap:

Bingo!

Those players who are holding cards marked with 41 aren't sure how this is possible, but eventually the actors settle on two rationalizations, not wanting to argue and ruin the film: One, the young man missed the previous call of 41 and should have already had a bingo. Two, they marked the wrong number by mistake. Neither of these explanations make any sense from a film perspective, as this whole bingo scenario was clearly set up as a part of the script, but the extras are trying extra hard to become one with their characters. The brave young actor, of course, is going off-script and trying to get more screen time.

The group in the front of the hall applauds nervously and looks around for the assassins. In doing so, Carrie Fisher spots the briefcase holding today's bingo grand prize of $10,000. She picks it up and smiles at the apparent winner, and walks over to present it to him, stalling again for time.

[Mr. Grey]

Scene 6.6

Later...

The young man from the bingo scene is the star of a short montage showing his life after winning. It is revealed that he is a college student on a cruise with his parents, and the bingo jackpot represents the largest amount of money he has ever had at any one time. It is then revealed that the man has a bit of a gambling habit, and it has been his lifelong dream to enter the World Series of Poker. He takes that $10,000 and uses it for an entry fee into the tournament.

Several hands from the tournament are shown, as the young man gets the luckiest run of cards ever, and knocks out player after player. There are cameos by several well-known professional poker players, who all owe favors to Mr. Grey and are appearing in the film to pay off their debts to him. Phil Hellmuth has a heart attack after calling the young man an idiot.

Predictably, our young "hero" wins the tournament, limping in against Mike Matusow on the final hand with 72o and flopping a full boat. Mike Matusow nearly strangles him before being pulled off by security, and the young man swims in a pile of cash, a record $15million.

He then takes his gambling to a new arena, studying the stock market and investing wisely. Soon his millions are turned into billions, and he starts appearing on the cover of investment magazines, and even more mainstream publications. He uses some of his massive wealth to invest in startup companies, one of which is a technology firm called SkyTrix.

Within ten years, the world is overrun by evil, cereal eating, super-intelligent, robot bunnies.

[Mr. Grey]

Scene 6.7

The group are running as fast as they can through the inside of the ship, and glass is shattering around them as bullets narrowly miss (or as the special effects team sets off tiny charges to simulate the bullets hitting nearby). The characters duck automatically every time this happens, but otherwise run in pretty much a straight line from one end of the central area of the ship to the other end, where an open elevator awaits.

Before they make it to the elevator, however, there is a ding and the neighboring elevator opens, revealing another assassin who has cut them off at the pass. The six human characters skid to a halt, while Death stops instantaneously and Alice continues to charge forward, having not been told to stop. The she-bot takes multiple bullets to the face, and circuitry flies everywhere. The others put their hands up, as the assassins point their guns and prepare to finish the job.

Outside, the helicopter containing Mr. Grey's Assistant and her associates closes on the cruise ship. Mr. Grey's Assistant presses a button in front of you, and there is a loud hiss as a rocket ignites and shoots off toward the ship. The blinking lights indicate the progress of the rocket, and just as the dots representing rocket and ship merge, the camera cuts away to the inside of the ship, where a loud explosion rocks the boat, sending the assassins stumbling in every direction. One falls over a railing in the open area of the central part of the ship, breaking his neck in the fall. Another is cut down by the inadvertent bullet spray fired by a third. Death darts around faster than the eye can track, making quick work of them with his scythe. He cheats a bit and trips another assassin who is regaining his balance and preparing to fire.

The group don't have time to deal with the living assassins, however, and they rush to make their way toward a life boat...

The scene skips forward in time. The helicopter is nowhere to be seen, nor is the ship apart from a few flaming pieces of wreckage. There are a handful of lifeboats scattered in the water. Two of these are far away from the others, and the camera zooms toward them as they are taken by the currents toward a nearby island and the view fades to black.

[Mr. Grey]

Scene 7.1

Quite close to the island's sandy beach, only one of the lifeboats can be seen, the other having been taken by the currents to another part of the island.

The lifeboat has seven occupants, and the camera focuses on each of them in turn:

Carrie Fisher is cradling the head of Alice, the robot who apparently did not come out of the cruise ship explosion in one piece. Carrie is rather stoic about the whole situation, except in her body language toward the disembodied head of her android companion - she holds it like a mother holding a child. Wires and the jagged ends of mechanical connectors are sticking out of Alice's neck, and occasionally twitching as the computer brain exhausts the last of its battery power to try to find a way to survive.

Count de Morcerf has the look of a man who has seen it all. He has betrayed a friend and rival, married a beautiful woman, become rich and powerful, lost it all, been pulled out of his world and into a strange new one, where he has been subjected to game after game under the ever watchful eye of the mysterious Mr. Grey. Nothing surprises him any longer. He doesn't know what will come next, but he is determined to survive it.

DEATH is.

Dweezil Zappa, Huey Lewis, and Randy Jones have occupied themselves by humming various rock standards. They are currently on "Time Is On My Side", by the Rolling Stones. The song itself is somewhat comforting, but mostly has value in that it is keeping their minds off of everything else.

Valentine Wiggin is scared, but still ever so logical. Much like her brothers, she is mature beyond her years; she wonders briefly how Peter would handle such a situation, then tries to shove that thought aside as the image of a dissected squirrel comes instantly into her mind.

The waves bring the boat close to the shore, close enough that the less downtrodden feel safe to jump out of the boat and wade the rest of the way to the beach, guiding the boat along as soon as the water is shallow enough to stand in. Before long, the last of the group, Carrie, is climbing over the inflated side of the boat. She looks down at the head in her arms, which has stopped twitching and closes its eyes. She blinks back a tear, then tosses the head into the shallow water.

Before anyone's thoughts can turn to the other boat, or to survival on the island, they spy something down the beach a hundred feet or so away, and the group trudges over to investigate. As they approach, they, and the camera, can see clearly that the object is a coffin, and when they open it they are a little (but not very) shocked to reveal...

[Mr. Grey]

Scene 7.2

The seven trek through the jungle, single file, Death making use of his scythe to clear the path in front of them. Apart from the anthropomorphic personification, everyone is creeped out after finding John Locke's body and want to put as much distance between themselves and the beach as possible.

As they walk, they fail to notice several objects which are out of place in a remote, Pacific island. Fans of the Mr. Grey franchise will recognize them as coming from Mr. Grey's early work, predating the current trilogy, which some consider something of a prequel (and no doubt more will join them after the surprise appearance of Mr. Grey's Assistant and her merry band of masked men). Just off the path, half buried in the dirt, lies a charred mask. The group steps over a skeleton wearing a bleached-blonde wig. A football helmet is hanging from a tree...

After ignoring all of these things, however, the group is forced to halt when they come to something they cannot ignore: a large metal box shaped much like the coffin they found on the beach. It rests in the middle of a clearing in the jungle, and, defying all explanation, the ground of the clearing is covered with a layer of snow.

Two of the men grab branches to use as levers to pry the lid of the box open, revealing...

[Mr. Grey]

Scene 7.3

Death continues to lead the plucky band of adventurers through the jungle, marching roughly in a straight line across the island. At the back of the line, Valentine Wiggin suddenly stops.

Valentine Wiggin:

Did you hear that?

Dweezil Zappa:

Hear what?

Valentine Wiggin:

I thought I heard... voices. Did no one else hear anything?

Carrie Fisher:

You're just jumpy, dear.

Valentine shrugs and the group continues until they hear a loud mechanical sound, deep in the jungle to the left. Or was it to the right?

Valentine Wiggin:

Ok, I

know

you heard that.

DEATH:

I DON'T LIKE THAT ONE BIT. IT SOUNDS LIKE THE SOUNDS I USED TO MAKE ON THE JOB WHEN I WAS INTO HEAVY METAL.

Count de Morcerf:

Heavy metal?

Huey Lewis:

What should we do?

Before anyone can answer, a tree nearby disappears with a pop, splinters flying everywhere.

Randy Jones:

Run!

The group flees, the sounds in the jungle around them growing louder until they are suddenly in another clearing and the world goes eerily silent. Everyone slows and looks around to make sure they are all still together. Randy Jones points ahead of them.

Randy Jones:

Look!

Before them is a valley between two large hills in the island, clear of trees for almost as far as they can see. One of the hills ends abruptly in a cliff, and at the top of the cliff they can see a large house. And standing on the edge of the cliff, in front of the house, is...

Count de Morcerf:

Is that... Mr. Grey?

It seems obvious now, the ultimate destination, but their are two paths before the group... on takes a steep climb up the hill and cliff, while the other looks unused but takes a much gentler path around the hill and up. They stop to argue once again, this time over whether they should take the high road or the road less traveled.

---

Meanwhile, in the same valley, just around the second hill and out of sight of the group, the helicopter responsible for the sinking of the cruise ship glides to a landing, the powerful forces created by its rotary blades flattening the grass in a circle all around it. As the helicopter touches down, the two men in masks hop out and begin the process of lifting out a large... coffin.

Mr. Grey's Assistant supervises them, and when they have moved the box away from the helicopter, she bends down to open it; it is an unnecessary precaution, but she knows that the island does strange things, and she wants to be sure that the contents are still there. Ominous music plays as the box opens to reveal...

Production note: Replace with shot of Mr. Green's rotting corpse.

---

It is Scene 7. With 7 Roles On Camera, it will take 4 votes to reach a majority before deadline, which is two weeks from this post. Remember to stay in character as much as possible when acting out your decision making process.

[Mighty Orbots]

Dweezil trudges up the beach, then collapses on the sand.

Could this day get any worse?

[Mr. Grey]

Mod Note:

There will be no participation strikes or replacements from this point.

[Talilan]

Hmmm, Hewitt is the advocate.

The list was:
StarKiss
zu_Faul
Thesp
VP Baltar
Hewitt
G&B

The reasoning (that I posted in our QT) was:
Both info broadcasting roles (Thesp & MO) are onstage, but SL can stunt and G&B can fire as a signal. Risk is that one of them is advocate and we lose that method of communication.
Is Thok, SL and Goofballs a good group to leave offstage? Thok & Goofballs are big question marks in the game. If they don't want to lynch one of them, SL can stunt a suspicious person offstage. If SL is made advocate, Hewitt will be offstage. At least one of those 3 was lying onstage yesterday.

~Tal

[StarKiss]

Ugh, I got sand in my mouth, this is just grand.

Well, before we get too involved in replacements, lets see what Mr... Hewitt, has to say.

[hewitt]

Clearly now's the time to set apart the idiot scum from the rest of us. Dumbasses can take the road less traveled, the rest of us are rightfully taking the high road.

[Mr. Grey]

Scene 7.4

The scene is barely underway when the actors briefly break character, one by one noticing that two of the actors not in the current scene have walked up behind Mr. Grey. The camera follows, a mistake since Mr. Grey's part in the scene is supposed to be over and the other two characters aren't meant to appear at all, but what's done is done and will have to be fixed in post-production. The actors have little time to wonder where the remaining actor, the man giving an unexpectedly excellent performance as Kelly Garrett, is hiding, as Mr. Grey taps something on his phone and the entire island shakes with a massive earthquake.

The land between the group of actors and the mansion on the hill is split by a deep, jagged chasm, both paths cut by a gap too large to jump. All of them, even Death, stumble and tumble over on their backsides from the force of the earthquake. They look frantically to each other for some reassurance that this is supposed to happen, but none of them know what is going on.

The helicopter appears, coming around the hill, flying low above the valley. The actors try to regain their balance while looking at the incoming helicopter. This, at least, is expected. The actors begin to convince themselves that the earthquake was just a part of the film, some special effects trick that Mr. Grey cooked up to surprise them and get genuine reactions. Some of them begin to mentally rehearse the lines they need to deliver when the helicopter arrives.

It lands, and Mr. Grey's Assistant steps out. Shouting over the helicopter, one of the actors starts to act out the scene for this scenario...

Carrie Fisher:

Who are you?

DEATH:

SHE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATHS OF OUR...

Mr. Grey's Assistant:

Stop acting! This isn't a part of the script! Hurry, we have to get you...

She motions toward the helicopter while she speaks, but as she turns back toward it, there is a whine that grows louder as the eyes behind the masks of Mussolini and Nero grow wider. The two men are frozen in panic, however, and are unable to move, much less escape the cockpit of the helicopter, before they disappear in a blinding explosion which throws Mr. Grey's Assistant backward and knocks the cameraman off his feet.

[Mr. Grey]

Scene 8.1

The seven characters - or rather, actors - are running along with a dedicated cameraman through the jungle. Mr. Grey's assistant is nowhere to be seen, but after the explosion and the earthquake, who can blame the poor actors for fleeing without checking on her?

The keep running until they again hear voices in the trees, but this time everyone hears them and recognizes that they are not the backward-playing voices meant to add creepy mystery to the film, but rather the voices of two of the other actors, calling out to them.

There is a break in the trees, and the two actors are visible across the way, but before the group can reunite the "monster" sound returns. That sound was definitely on the special effects list, but after the off-script events that have already happened, the prospect of an actual monster appearing causes everyone to slow and look around.

Out of the trees appears an unidentified flying... orange? No, it's too big to be an orange. A pumpkin, then. It has been carved to show a frightening face, but of course the most startling thing is the flying. It hovers between the group of seven and the other two. Then it turns and, for all appearance, moons the group of two.

"GoofballsAndBaloons" and "Thok" can't help but laugh at this, and so their smiles are the last expressions on their faces, seared into the minds of the other actors as a bright beam shoots out of the pumpkin's backside and disintegrates the both of them.

It almost seems that the pumpkin's carved expression shifts into a bit more of a grin, but that is clearly absurd. Suddenly, simultaneously, the other actors collapse, along with the cameraman; the camera catches this as it drops to the ground and shuts off on impact.

[Mr. Grey]

Scene 8.2

The actors wake in a large hall, sitting in fancy chairs around a large, round table. The camera looks at each of them in turn, and then is pointed back at the person now holding it...

Mr. Grey gives a wave, and then sets the camera down on a tripod near the wall to take in the whole table.

Mr. Grey:

You're awake. Good. I am sure you must all be confused. I wasn't entirely prepared for this, myself. I thought I had a little more time...

He looks away from his captive audience and begins to pace.

Mr. Grey:

You are wondering if this is all a part of the film. You see the camera, you see the red light that shows it is recording. In a way, yes, this is still the film. But in another... surely you have noticed how things keep going wrong. Actors have been murdered, and not just those who you as a group have decided to "evict" from the film. Bad choices have been made in the scenes, where I left you freedom to display your acting prowess. My enemies must have had a hand in that as well.

This film was about more than money... films have power. The power to shape reality. My enemies have evidently gotten wind of my plans, and have infiltrated us in order to bend the film - and reality itself - to their will. You can decide for yourselves later whether

anyone

should play moderator to the universe, but I assure you that it is better off in my hands than in those of the enemy.

I know, now, who they are. I know two of you remain, opposed to the successful completion of this film. But alas... even I am bound by rules...

It remains in your hands, those of you who are innocent in these things. You have the power to eliminate my enemies... or you can fail, and take your last breath knowing that you have caused the end of the world as we know it. Choose wisely...

---

It is Scene 8. With 7 Actors remaining, it will take 4 votes to reach a majority before deadline, which is two weeks from this post.

The Endgame Setup is... 2:5 Vanilla. Between Scenes, the remaining [Something Else] will have the ability to kill. There are no special abilities among the Innocents.

[Mr. Grey]

Mod Note:

Tags which were previously available only Off Stage are now available for use On Camera. The Rules will be updated accordingly.

[Talilan]

OK, 2:5 vanilla is still winnable, especially with all the info we are starting with.

But I am sorry that my actions directly lead us into worst possible endgame.

To be fair there is a damn lot of scum in this game and any picks I made were likely to be wrong, but I still could have played it much safer. Mea culpa.

Thesp, what did Mr Grey tell you would happen if we lynched wrongly and got down to 5 innocents in the last scene?

~Tal

[Thesp]

OK, 2:5 vanilla is still winnable, especially with all the info we are starting with.

But I am sorry that my actions directly lead us into worst possible endgame.

To be fair there is a damn lot of scum in this game and any picks I made were likely to be wrong, but I still could have played it much safer. Mea culpa.

Thesp, what did Mr Grey tell you would happen if we lynched wrongly and got down to 5 innocents in the last scene?

~Tal

I wanted to ask you first. I did ask and got a response, I want to hear yours first. I'm quite leary of you.

At the same time, I'm glad Thok is dead and a confirmed baddie, as I was quite wrong about him.

I also find it irksome in retrospect that the Pooky modkill may have actually hurt us more than it helped us.

[Talilan]

Not meaning to be rude, but I asked you first and think you should answer first. IMO you are more of an unknown quantity in this game than we are.

How did the Pooky modkill hurt us?

~Tal

[Talilan]

answer the question please Thespy

- ortolan

[Thesp]

Not meaning to be rude, but I asked you first and think you should answer first. IMO you are more of an unknown quantity in this game than we are.

How did the Pooky modkill hurt us?

~Tal

My apologies, I had intended on asking it when Scene 8 came up, but I didn't et a chance to post before it ended. I'll go first if others insist, I expect you'll go first if others insist?

I was thinking the Pooky modkill hurt us because of the numbers, but in retrospect, it didn't affect the town numbers, I'm not sure it did. (Of course, if we ended up lynching him instead of him being modkilled, we might have lynched one fewer townie, but who knows.)

[Talilan]

Ok, fine. He told us he couldn't answer the question. That's right, isn't it Thespy?

- ortolan

[Talilan]

Thesp? Thesp? Where art thou Thesp?

- ortolan

[Thesp]

Same here. (Sorry my responses may not be immediate, I'm amidst Christmas decorating with family.)

[Talilan]

Obviously the scum knew for sure what would happen if they got us down to 5 innocents in the last scene. Otherwise they would not have lynched SL so blatantly.

So either that information was made explicit to them in their role information, or Mr Grey did not decline to answer their questions on the subject like he did for us.

Either way I wish Thesp would've answered. He is, as I said, more of an unknown quantity than us.

~Tal

[Thesp]

This is akin to how I was thinking about

you

, incidentally, particularly since you said nothing about it to open Day 8. (This makes me feel a bit better about you.) There are some people and things I want to re-visit, but I'm still away in Gouston right now, and I will be until tomorrow. I'm reserving Monday night to myself at home for the Saints game and a review of things in the game.