193 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
193 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
# ============================================================
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# Chapter 1 — Scene 4: The Click (Christy's First Encounter)
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# ============================================================
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# Characters: Protagonist, Christy
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# Location: Behind the equipment truck, dusk
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# Affinity gates: Choice 5, Choice 6
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# ---- BACKSTAGE GLOOM ----
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[background arg="res://orzo/locations/location_05_behind_equipment_track.png" fade="0.5"]
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[pause=0.5]
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The world behind the stage is a different country.
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[pause=0.3]
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Back here, the festival noise is muffled — distant taiko drums like a heartbeat through a wall. Equipment trucks hulk in the gathering dark, their shadows stretching long and distorted.
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Cables snake across the ground. Somewhere, a generator hums.
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[pause=0.5]
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I'm looking for a different angle. Something candid. Something the tourism board didn't ask for but will get anyway. That's what cameras do — they find the things people don't mean to show.
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[pause=0.3]
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I round the corner of the largest truck.
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[background arg="res://orzo/locations/location_05_christy.png" fade="0.5"]
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[pause=0.3]
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...
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[pause=0.3]
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And stop.
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[pause=0.5]
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She's alone.
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[pause=0.3]
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Stretching. The kind of stretching that isn't warm-up — it's ritual. Every movement is controlled, deliberate, a body in conversation with itself. One arm extended, then the other. A slow arch of the back. Muscles shift under skin. She's breathing in rhythm with something I can't hear.
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[pause=0.3]
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Christy. The fire dancer Takeda mentioned.
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[pause=0.3]
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She hasn't seen me. In this light — the last amber of sunset and the first shadows of evening — she looks like a painting that hasn't been finished yet. Unguarded. Real.
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[pause=0.3]
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I raise the camera on instinct.
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[pause=0.2]
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Click.
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[pause=0.3]
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The shutter is louder than the taiko drums.
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[pause=0.5]
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She stops mid-stretch. Turns.
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[background arg="res://orzo/locations/location_05_behind_equipment_track.png" fade="0.5"]
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[pause=0.3]
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join christy (Casual/Idle) left pos=x+256px [animation="Fade In" length="0.4" wait="true"]
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[pause=0.2]
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christy: [portrait=Casual/Idle] Delete it.
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[pause=0.2]
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No anger. That's what makes it worse. Her voice is flat, cold, a door closing before you've even finished knocking.
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# ---- CHOICE 5: Delete It ----
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Her eyes don't leave mine. The silence is heavier than any sound I've heard all day.
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- Delete it immediately. Show her the empty screen. Say nothing.
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set {ORZO_01.christy_affinity} += 1
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[pause=0.2]
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I press delete. The image vanishes. I turn the screen toward her, empty. Black. Nothing to keep.
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[pause=0.5]
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She looks at the screen. Then at me. Something flickers in her expression — not warmth, exactly, but a slight recalibration. She expected me to argue. I didn't.
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[pause=0.3]
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The silence stretches, but it's different now. Less hostile. Just... empty.
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- Delete it. "I'm sorry. I should have asked."
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set {ORZO_01.christy_affinity} += 2
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[pause=0.2]
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I delete the photo and lower the camera.
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[pause=0.3]
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I'm sorry. I should have asked.
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[pause=0.5]
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Christy's expression doesn't change — but her shoulders drop, just slightly. A tension released she might not have known she was holding.
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[pause=0.3]
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She doesn't say "it's okay." She doesn't say anything. But she doesn't leave, either. For her, that's something.
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- Delete it, but hesitate. "I wasn't trying to—"
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set {ORZO_01.christy_affinity} -= 1
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[pause=0.2]
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I delete the photo. But my thumb hesitates, and the words come out before I can stop them.
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[pause=0.3]
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I wasn't trying to...
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[pause=0.3]
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christy: [portrait=Casual/Angry] Don't.
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[pause=0.3]
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One word. Absolute. She doesn't want explanations. She doesn't want justifications. She wants the photo gone and me gone with it.
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- "Why? It was just a stretch."
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set {ORZO_01.christy_affinity} -= 3
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[pause=0.2]
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Why? It was just a stretch.
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[pause=0.5]
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Christy's eyes narrow — not in anger, but in something colder. Disappointment, maybe. Or the confirmation of something she already knew about people with cameras.
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[pause=0.3]
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christy: [portrait=Casual/Angry] Delete it. Now.
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[pause=0.3]
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The temperature between us drops ten degrees. I delete the photo. She doesn't look at the screen. She doesn't need to.
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# ---- CONTINUE ----
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[pause=0.5]
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I delete the photo. She watches the screen go black, then turns away.
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# ---- CHOICE 6: The Exit ----
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I'm still standing here. She's still not looking at me. The moment has shape, a door almost closed, but not quite.
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- Leave quietly.
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set {ORZO_01.christy_affinity} += 1
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[pause=0.3]
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I walk away. No words. No backward glance.
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[pause=0.5]
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Somewhere behind me, the silence shifts. Not a thank-you. Not forgiveness. Just... the absence of further intrusion. For Christy, that might be the same thing.
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- "Good luck tonight."
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[pause=0.2]
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Good luck tonight.
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[pause=0.5]
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She doesn't turn. Doesn't nod. Doesn't acknowledge the words.
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[pause=0.3]
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But she doesn't tell me to leave, either. I take that as permission and walk away, the words hanging in the air between us.
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- Raise the camera again — just in case.
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set {ORZO_01.christy_affinity} -= 3
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[pause=0.2]
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My hand twitches. The camera rises half an inch.
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[pause=0.3]
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She catches the movement in her peripheral vision. Her whole body goes still — the kind of still that comes before something breaks.
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[pause=0.3]
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christy: [portrait=Casual/Angry] Don't.
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[pause=0.3]
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Not a request this time. A warning. I lower the camera and leave before I find out what happens if I don't.
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# ---- CONTINUE ----
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[pause=0.5]
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leave christy [animation="Fade Out" length="0.4"]
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[pause=0.5]
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I walk back toward the festival lights. My heart is thumping harder than it should be. It was just a photograph. Just a click.
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[pause=0.3]
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But her face stays with me — that cold, absolute wall. The way she said "delete it" like she'd said it a hundred times before.
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[pause=0.3]
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What is she protecting?
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[pause=0.5]
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The taiko drums grow louder. Ahead, the stage lights flicker on. The show is about to start.
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[pause=0.5]
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[signal arg="scene_complete"]
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[end_timeline] |