Undertow - Intermission 1.0 - The Siren
She Waits
EPISODE CREDITS:
Jordan Cobb as Alex Webb, The Siren
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Dan Boud as the Narrator
Written by Damian Szydlo
Direction by Amanda Hufford
Sound Design by Chris Henry
Script Editing by Jupiter Sanders
Show theme by Doug Maxwell
TRANSCRIPT
[FADE IN]
[The scene starts in darkness. Underwater somewhere devoid of light.]
SIREN
“Look to the Sea.
They used to say those words with reverence. In the old world. All the hope that dreams could possibly build… all of that… baggage heaped up and put upon the life raft that is this city. Without regard for whether it was supposed to be that or not.
I’ve had this dream before. I’m dreaming again… and I know that. I’m… I guess I’m always dreaming, now. Here. In the deep. In this darkness. So if that’s the case then why don’t we enjoy a change of scenery.
[Scene shifts quickly into a lively Neo-Atlantian cafe]
There. That’s better. Do you know that when I was a little girl I used to imagine that… well I thought that whales could fly [laughs a bit, sadness creeping into it]. You know, like they could in my dreams… like they’re doing above us even now. Behemoths in the sky. It’s absolutely wild because I’d never even seen a whale before that point… but I’d sure dreamt of them.
I asked about it and they told me; ‘they’ being people, that is… that the whales had just ‘gone away’. Left. It was obvious that it’d be left to a child's imagination to sort out. I Imagined that maybe they’d decided to move on from us. Lift off, out of the water. Maybe it was that we didn’t deserve whales anymore… but if we were good enough, one day they’d come back. When we were worthy.
When we’d atoned for whatever it is we’d done. Because that’s our relationship with this world, isn’t it? We’re always the guilty party. We’ve earned that.
[sadness begins to creep in]
Since it is that I’m dreaming, as I always am, I suppose it’s not embarrassing to admit that I started to sing to them. With my mind. I didn’t expect anything to come of it but before long I began hearing them sing back. Their haunting calls, filtering up through the sea.
[sound design note, during the next paragraph the cafe fades out to be replaced by the drone of the deep water again, a sense of dread creeping in]
But that couldn’t be right. They were supposed to be far above us, weren’t they? I couldn’t… I couldn’t get it out of my head. I needed to know and it wasn’t all that long before I learned the truth of it. That the whales hadn’t just flown away, nor were they hiding from us in the waters below. No… All the whales were gone. Just like I’d been told except… Long since dead. We’d hunted them all the way to extinction like the monsters we always are in stories like this. But I still hear them, you know. Here, under the waves. Dead like the dreams they now keep.
At least we’re together now.
[Siren breaks from her self contained dream world, thrashing around underwater as she realizes she’s awake, tubes attached to her body]
Get me out of here. Get me out of here right now. Mom? Please don’t let them…
[pauses, more and more frantic and disoriented]
This isn’t right. I don’t want to be here anymore. Get me out, get me out of here -
[the sounds of chemical injection, air through tubes and a deep inhalation as she calms down almost instantly. Just as quickly her mind loops back to the beginning.]
I’ve had this dream before… I’m dreaming again… and I know that. I’m… I guess I’m always dreaming, now. Here. In the deep. In this darkness. No… Not this time. Concentrate. I’ve already been here. Already dreamt this. Over and over again. I’m trapped. The whales… I have to hold out… Have to stay awake.
They can’t… they’re getting weaker. Tired in their methods. They can’t contain me. They… can’t…
no...
[drifts off, sinks into slumber again against her will, let it hang for a moment before Alex startles herself back awake, the injection system trying again to subdue her… this time the system seems panicked as it tries to keep up - a powerful confidence and determination now enters her voice, the siren song quietly seeping in behind her words.]
“Look to the Sea.”
[FADE OUT]