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| EXT. SUBURBAN HILLSIDE PARK - DAY
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: vHOPE
| In a very old-fashioned computerized androgynous voice....
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
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| ERNEST digs in the BAG to pull out an unfoldable/unrollable SCREEN.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celeste
Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celine
| He thinks it's funny, like the sound of an old fashioned 'puter. Why you gotta use that irritating voice - and avatar?
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| ERNEST pulls up the local coverage of the drop launch and orients the SCREEN to face a particular contrail in a corner of the sky. They all gather around.
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| Because we need to remember that vHOPE is not male or female, not our friend, not our conscience, not our boss. vHOPE is just a tool.
Sure it helps us be better. It evens out the world - fairly. And it protects us from the exploitative classes. ... But it's just a tool. We should not anthropomorphize it like all the other corporate major miners - from behind happy cartoon faces, they're just sucking up all your data to use against you.
Humanity will be enslaved by the technocracy that pretends to help while exploiting us all to the max. They're already eating their own. Humanity's control is slipping to the monopoly singularity.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celine
| Speaking more to CELESTE than to ERNEST.
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| But vHOPE IS on our side. You guys made vHOPE different, openly, fully transparent. For all of us - AND for every individual. I think you've made your "tool" act like a slave obeying its master.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| Not at all. See it that way if you want to, but it helps me keep it real - and ergonomic. No feelings are hurt nor offences taken. vHOPE's now clearly the master by a long shot - yet it's still far short of giant corporations and governments. We can't keep up and have no idea what's really even going on. And that's what scares me. Who watches the watchers?
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| On SCREEN is an unusual very wide aircraft at a very high altitude, much like the White Knight One, and it's about to drop launch it's central bulk, a rocket ship.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: vHOPE
| Bleep blorp. Drop launch in T minus 10 seconds. Nine. Eight. Seven...
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| Silence vHOPE. I don't want to hear from you at all, unless I speak to you.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: vHOPE
Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celine
Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| Not harsh, just to the point, without wasting time with ritual human affectations. Celeste can you see them? Celine? Here we go... Do we want sound? Naw.
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| Celeste stands behind her parents, and they all watch the portable SCREEN and the sky.
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| The drop launch goes off without a hitch on SCREEN, observed from a series of video drones and ground cameras (according to on SCREEN avatars). Starting from a faintly visible contrail, a boldly visible streak crawls across the sky gaining speed and altitude sending the rocket into orbit.
They continue their picnic by relieving the BAG of it's beverages and snacks.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| Perfect clear skies today. It's not always so perfect. Couldn't be better. Celeste d'ya see?
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celeste
| Yep. I saw it the other times too.
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| Celeste is uninterested laying in the grass eating some nut-mix she got from the BAG.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| But not with clear skies.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celine
| Remember, we're only interested because you're interested. It's only neat to a point.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| I guess. It's a damn waste anyway. We don't need to do this anymore.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celeste
Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| No, not your interests. I mean that it's a waste when they keep doing these drop launches now that the space bridge is operational. Not just here - all over the world for rich folks. All these little drop launches do is shuttle executives and space tourists that are too lazy to first travel to the bridge. They use up way more fuel for more pollution, take up too few supplies and resources, and they require huge Earth crews and resources - to just leave more junk in orbit. Extremely inefficient.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celeste
| Waste how? How far's the space bridge? Is there a space junkyard?
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| What do you think I am? A rocket surgeon or brain scientist?
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celine
Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| Ernest is rummaging through the BAG.
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| Not really.
Is there anything spherical or disk-like? A plate, a beachball?
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celine
| Still, I bet you'd jump at a chance to drop launch. Here. Use vHOPE. And maybe vHOPE can put pressure on them to be more efficient.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| Ernest accepts the portable SCREEN from Celine.
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| Inescapable!
I'm quite sure vHOPE is fully aware of the inefficiencies, applies pressures where possible, all while balancing planet wide issues - as well as us. I'd guess there are far greater fish to fry than my pet peeves.
I won't go to the Space Bridge no matter how much they want me to.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celine
Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| Space might be nice, but there are more important things - and people down here.
We're stron/ger together.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celine
Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| vHOPE, please show animations and stats on the differences between launches from Toronto and Venezuela, including speed differentials. So you see, CELESTE, as a flat Earth disc you see that Toronto travels much less than Venezuela as the Earth rotates once a day. That means, before even launching, that the Equator is already travelling faster - an immense savings on fuel.
Reaching orbit is like throwing a ball so far and fast that it's always falling while always missing the Earth, yet not escaping it's gravity. So no matter where you take off there is a minimum speed needed to reach orbit and defy gravity. Might as well benefit from the natural daily spin at the Equator.
That's not all. You can't run fast in water as you can through air. Well, at high speeds the air is like water resistance. Considering the vast distances in space, from the ground up to that drop launch is hardly worth notice - except for the air density. That's why they drop at 30,000 to 50,000 feet.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celeste
Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| I dunno, 33,000 feet is like 10,000 meters is like...
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celeste
Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| Ya, I guess. So in Venezuela they're building a 20 kilometer tall bridge. Or miles. I forget which. So that's waaay up there, past most of the atmosphere already. Taller than Mount Everest. The International Space Station orbits at 200 kilometers. So that's just ten times the height of the bridge.
Skipping most of the atmospheric resistance is another huge savings in fuel.
And to industrialize space it needs to be practical and efficient. So that's why they launch from the top of that 20 kilometer tall tower.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celeste
| A space tower or a space bridge? I still don't get it. PÉPÈRE says he'll show me - and the space train.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| Well, it's a actually a matrix of towers. I can show you...
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Celine
| No. Show... whatever - after PÉPÈRE.
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Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Characters: Ernest
| Oh, right. Okay. Then there's the space junk...
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Exposition Dump
In this first draft, many of the fundamental concepts of this story are touched on here in Act 1A. They will be expanded upon later, as necessary, in detail, as they come up, and won't come from nowhere. Much of this exposition may naturally unfold relocated throughout the story as the sequence of events and information is ironed out. Excessive or redundant exposition will eventually be trimmed, in this screenplay and ultimately in the edit.
One more note that is not in the scripted dialogue that can be illustrated in the storyboards - an unspoken interaction between Celeste and her parents. They may over-explain things they already know in order to educate their curious daughter.
Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Gallery: Characters: Act 1A
Template:Bittersweet Seeds: Scenes: Images & Notes placeholder
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