THE ATTIC WARS (adv, fantasy, sci-fi)
CHARACTER BIOSDORIAN KATCHÉ – He wields a katana, but I don’t want him to be associated with the Highlander. No flowing trenchcoat (at least not as his signature outfit), instead, he dresses in plain black suits. He almost looks like an F.B.I. agent. A cross between Fox Mulder and James Bond. He never quite fits in to the era. Physically strong, 6-3, 200 lbs. but not muscle-bound. Black hair (not long, average length) and black eyes. Keeps the katana strapped to his back. Style of fighting with sword is a cross between kung-fu broadsword and traditional samurai. When he fights barehanded, he employs more of a Chinese boxing/aikido style, rather than Bruce/Jet Lee flashy martial arts. He’s not stupidly brave, preferring to run from overwhelming odds. He is fairly neutral, believing that most people are expendable in the Attic Wars. He is of a special race of humans called, Darlings. They are semi-immortal. They can be killed (they are tougher to kill than an average human) but they are regenerated, keeping all of their past knowledge. When a Darling dies, he/she is simply reborn to random parents. Their form and memories do not change, even though they have different parents each time. The parents are unaware of who the Darling is. What I think is interesting, is here you have a Darling at age 3, already self-aware with the intelligence of his previous incarnation. But since he’s so small and weak, he has to bide his time before he is old enough to continue the fight. It must be frustrating. What I imagine are stories from when Dorian is a man, a teenager and a little boy. How he deals with his inability as a youth to combat evil, etc. Other Darlings will appear throughout the storyline.
RENMAT – Genetically engineered, ape-like beings with malformed bat wings. “Its head is misshapen... a dark mass of teeth, a mouthful of spikes... just red pinpoints for eyes. At the end of each, long, ape arm is a single claw. A razor-sharp scythe used to cut down people like wheat. They are mindless and programmed to hunt down prey, destroying anything in the way.”
TOMINAGA, JOH (JOH) – A Japanese Darling-hunter, working for the bad guys. When the Renmats fail, he is called in. He and Dorian have a long history. I will write an episode where Dorian is born to Japanese parents and he grows up with Mori as rivals. He wears a white suit. I like the irony, the good guy wears black, bad guy wears white. His main weapons are two Mauser pistols.
TOMINAGA, MIKO (MIKO) – Joh’s sister and fellow Darling. It is not clear whose side she’s on. She is the love interest of Dorian, but she also uses him for her own gains, as she does Joh. Her main weapon might be poison needles. Beautiful yet deadly.
OTTO von UBERMENSCHE – Evil genius. Crippled as a boy and must use a special wheelchair (it can transform into a submersible). His main base of operations is from a mechanical island. He also uses a massive Hindenburg-like airship to get around. (one scene in particular has his airship docking at the tip of the Eiffel Tower.) Out for world domination.
WHO ARE THE DARLINGS?
Damon and other characters are a special race of humans called, Darlings. They are semi-immortal. They can be killed (but tougher to kill than an average human) and regenerate, keeping all of their past knowledge. When a Darling dies, he/she is simply reborn to random parents. Their form and memories do not change, even though they have different parents each time. The parents are unaware of who the Darling is. What I think is interesting, is here you have a Darling at age 3, already self-aware with the intelligence of his previous incarnation. But since he’s so small and weak, he has to bide his time before he is old enough to continue the fight. It must be frustrating. What I imagine are stories from when Dorian is a man, a teenager and a little boy. How he deals with his inability as a youth to combat evil, etc. Other Darlings will appear throughout the storyline.
SYNOPSIS: Dorian is on a train heading through Austria to eventually return to his most recent birthplace of Chiba, Japan. He is racing to get to his mother’s bedside before she dies. While on the train, Renmats have tracked him and cause him to abandon it, leaving him to travel by foot to Vienna. While there he encounters the Darling hunter Joh Tominaga, a boyhood rival. He escapes this ambush to continue on his way to Japan. He arrives to find his mother on the verge of death only to be faced with questions that she never wanted to ask before (why did he never age past 35? What was he doing all over the world? How did her husband, Dorian’s father, really die?). This confrontation will lead to a flashback of Dorian growing up in Chiba, and his rivalry with Joh Tominaga, as well as the death of his Japanese father. We also find out about Otto von Ubermensche and his plan to take over Europe. He has built robot slaves called Mandroids which assist him in flying his airship. He has learned that a UFO is crashed at the bottom of the Maryanas Trench. While searching in his submersible, Otto is sucked into a vortex that throws him back in time. In this world, Dorian is a boy growing up in Texas. The two go through almost a Dennis the Menace/Mr. Wilson battle that seems humorous at first, until the shocking conclusion when Otto murders the boy Dorian. That is when Dorian is reborn in Chiba. Now there are two Otto’s roaming the world. Only Dorian and the 2nd Otto know the truth.
VOL. 1 – The Rise of Ubermensche
NOTE: “PANEL” entries are suggestions. The artist is free to re-interpret these.
COVER: Ubermensche’s Super-dirigible has docked at the top of the Eiffel Tower. POV is from the frightened onlookers on the ground, looking up at the massive airship overshadowing their most beloved monument.
SPLASH PANEL: Dorian is sitting on a seat in a train compartment, staring straight ahead while his hands are leaning on his sheathed sword. He looks quite grim with a shadow partially obscuring his face. Very King Conan-like pose.
CAP
The Orient Express speeds through the Austrian countryside. The forest is only a blur as Night spreads its shadow over the hills. One man stares out into the liquid darkness, ignoring the celebrating passengers. It is, after all, New Year's Eve. He should be at the party, drinking and laughing. But he already knows the fate of every man, woman and child riding this doomed train...when the clock strikes midnight...he knows...
PANEL: Side shot of Dorian staring at a little boy on the opposite seat (Texas Dorian at age 10). The boy’s legs don’t quite touch the ground.
BOY
“Do they all have to die?”
DORIAN
“Yes. Tonight they will get in the way.”
PANEL: Close-up on boy.
BOY
“But why? Can’t we save them?”
CAP
The mysterious man's thoughts are interrupted by a knock at his cabin door.
PANEL: Dorian stares at the door as the boy dissolves over a few panels.
DORIAN KATCHE
“Why can't those fools leave me alone? They should be dancing and getting drunk instead of bothering me. If they only knew their lives were very short, they might forget about me and live these last few moments to the fullest.”
PANEL: Outside Dorian’s compartment, two pretty, shapely women stand in front of his door, knocking. One is dressed as a nurse while the other is costumed like a Jungle Girl (leopard skin mini-skirt with plastic knife).
SFX: Knock! Knock!
NURSE
“Come on! Open up in there!”
JUNGLE GIRL
“We know you're in there. We need some company. All the men in the dining car are old and naughty. We know you are YOUNG and possibly VERY naughty!”
PANEL: Inside Dorian’s compartment. Close-up on his face, the top of which is obscured by a shadow.
DORIAN
“Please leave me alone!”
PANEL: Train hallway outside Dorian’s compartment.
JUNGLE GIRL
“We could help you. My friend’s a nurse, or at least dressed as such.”
SFK: Giggling!
PANEL: Dorian’s compartment. He looks agitated and notices a familiar sound.
SFX: Strange flapping noises.
PANEL: Dark figures in the night sky wing their way toward the train in the distance.
DORIAN
“Do you hear that? It is your doom! Celebrate while you can! Don't waste another moment lingering outside my door!”
PANEL: Train hallway.
NURSE
“Never mind then.”
JUNGLE GIRL
“You party pooper!”
PANEL: Close-up on Nurse’s mouth.
NURSE
“Stay by yourself!”
LARGE PANEL: Dorian’s compartment. Dorian stands and moves to the large window. In the distance, against the moonlight, we see a small swarm of winged things, like bats only much larger.
CAP
Dorian can hear it. The sound of Death approaching. It always follows him... yet never overcomes the strange man. Always taking those around him. How many lives have been sacrificed for his survival? He has lost count over the years... over the centuries.
PANEL: Shot from outside the streaking train. Dorian is staring out the window.
DORIAN
“Damn the gods. Why do they play games like this?”
PANEL SEQUENCE, ALTERNATING: Shadowy, bat-like figures called Renmats swoop down on the end of the train. They scramble toward Dorian’s car.
Dorian is preparing for the attack. He dons his black jacket and strings the sleeves like a samurai.
The Renmats tear open the roof of the train car and slip in.
PANEL: Dorian’s compartment. The boy is back.
BOY
“They’re here.”
PANEL: Mayhem in the train car. People are surging through the narrow hallway.
MAN
"Out of my way!"
PANEL: Dorian stands ready to open his door.
DORIAN
“They're coming fools. Run while you can!”
PANEL: People are running over one another.
MAN
“Run mister. There's monsters! Killing everyone...everything!”
DORIAN
“I know.”
PANEL SEQUENCE: Dorian watches as the last person retreats down the hallway. He stares into the darkness as lights flicker on and off. The train’s electrical system is obviously affected by the Renmats.
PANEL SEQUENCE: Dorian stands ready, his sword still in its sheath, but he moves it from his back to his left side.
DORIAN
“Come on. I'll send you back to your masters.”
SFX: Beast noises...slobbering...growls...nasty shit!
SFX: Howl of rage....
PANEL SEQUENCE: As the first Renmat appears from the shadows, Dorian uses his right had to draw his sword (palm facing up), slicing a Renmat in half with a left to right arc, then slices through the neck of the next beast with a return swipe. The black, viscous blood of the Renmats coats the hallway as Dorian slowly moves back, slicing and dicing. Dorian leaps into the air and swings his sword upward, lopping off the arm of the Renmat. He lands with both feet on the head of another, crushing its deformed skull beneath his boots. Dorian backs up until he reaches the door to the next compartment.
PANEL
More Renmats stalk out of the darkness.
DORIAN
“I can't keep this up. Soon they will overwhelm me with sheer numbers. I need to get off this train!”
PANEL: Dorian grabs a chair from a compartment and hurls it at the approaching Renmats before exiting into the ajoining room between train cars. It has a door on either side that leads to the outside, while a 3rd door leads to the next car.
PANEL SEQUENCE: A woman and her child lay dead, obviously trampled by the fleeing passengers. In another corner of the room, a man is sitting, his hands over his face.
DORIAN
“Get out of here. They're coming!”
MAN
“I can't move. Please help me. That woman and her stupid child were in my way! I need to get away from here.”
DORIAN
“I can't help you now.”
MAN
“Please! I'll pay you!”
PANEL SEQUENCE: The man reaches out for Dorian just as the door to the car is torn apart. A claw swings through the midnight air and separates the man from his hand. Cash goes flying into the air.
Dorian drives his katana through the dead man into the beast and then rips upwards, tearing the man and Renmat in two. In one swift motion, he slides the dripping blade into the sheath and moves it to his back. He then leaps out a side door.
Instead on landing on the hard earth, Dorian continues to fall. What little moonlight there is reveals that the train was on a bridge over a river. Dorian can see the rushing waters swiftly approaching and curls into a ball. In seconds he hits the water.
CAP
The freezing waters pull him under...crushing the breath from his lungs. His eyes start to close...for some reason, he wants to sleep. It would be so nice to just rest in the water...floating down below.
posted by jon @ 1:38 AM
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