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[predalpha-blog]

! TEST !

The Clockwork Song part one notes ~ ________________

A shot of gin slammed down beneath the heavy hood of a grey market cloak, the glass down hard on the stump.

('Moan You Moaners' by Bessie Smith) ____

Renaissance dancers spin and twirl in masquerade, while Baron Samedi carves a walking stick watching. ____

Legba - "As long as there are chains for sale in _your_ world, then you will find them _here._  The Marketplace is _older._  Older than _you._  And older than _me._ ____

A blues club, deco underground, red carpets and dark lighting, games are played to the music on stage, Erzulie leans in for a shot. ____

Legba - "So you can take you tales to your _own_ world, where you pretend there _are_ no chains for sale.  But _here_ ... we sell _realities."_ ____

Erzulie - A sunken ball, "You owe."

Doe - "Bloody Mary ?"

Erzulie - "I like you Doe ... but where's your lover ?" ____

Nocturne walks the path to the old house on the edge of the swamp, the drive lined with confederate soldiers hanging, turning, their dead eyes following her steps.  

An old southern manor, music inside, dancers spin past the door from another time, fires burn to the left where the drums pound. ____

Legba - "Yes ... you go now.  Go make your 'better world', but while you see your own mirrors so well, you do not _hear_ them.  You cannot help my world.  _You_ heal _you._  You are the problem _here."_ ____

The dancers twirl from era to era, each room filled with another time and party, the same swamps out the window.  A ring of rusted keys hits the floor before the Barons chair, the dancers fade, musicians age to dust, house burned with cobwebs over.

Nocturne watches him rise, drinking rum from the bottle.  He steps on the keys leaving red dust, blown with a breeze left in his wake while he steps to a phonograph in the corner.

He turns it on, puts down the needle while Nocturne hands him the bottle.  He takes and drinks, watching her, throws it down.

Baron - "Dance with Saturday, three hours til Sunday." ____

Doe dances with Erzulie ... ____

Legba - _"Your_ world."  He drinks and stares, "I did not say I would not help you."  Slides the glass back over, _"Now_ you understand."  He stares in calculation, the smiles,  "So bring me next time the honey for my gin, child, and we can do _business."_ ________

*The Clockwork Song*

('Good Cop Bad Cop' by Ice Cube)

Nocturne and Doe drive their car through the marketplace alleys, steel sheets sliding over the windows.  Inside the monitors click on displays projected across around them.

A shadow passes over.

Smoke fills the rooftops as an airship's flat deck lines with the rooftops.

~ At the urban docks a ship docks by sea.  Aggressively designed, proto-military, deck guns and private soldiers.

Planks extend from the barely visible hull over the rooftops as it passes, smoke mixing with mist.  Grey cloaks deploy from the planks in teams of four, three snipers and a command spotter.

~ Live cargo crates are unload on motorized lifts, down the docking ramp in a row, soldiers lining, above the deck prepare and scans the rooftops.  An armored shipping convoy awaits at the base of the ramp, trailers empty.

They drive through the thinning populace, following the heavy pipes from the docks.  Peddlers and sleepers in corners, the last shuffling out of the way.

~ Tiny fingers reach through the air holes while a nearby guard watches, then looks away uncomfortably.  The child's fingers fall back in when another guard slams the side of the crate with the but of a gun.

As the airship passes continuing to deploy, those already off scramble across plans connecting the rooftops, in parallel and spreading out to line along the harbor.

Snipers take position while the commanders signal to each other, then scan with their scopes.  The car stops at the end of the alley before the harbor, facing it's length, lights off, watching the trailers load with crates.

Silence while Doe passes Nocturne a cigarette, they watch the monitor as the last trailer exits.

~ The guard at the dock shudders at the sound of a child crying, then another and more, then silence.

A spotter watches the trailer down the plank, raising a hand to execute the order.

~ The commander of the cargo ship scans the rooftops, the deck guns turn to defensive positions, covering a circumference.

A grey cloak watches from the airship's deck in it's slow approach to the harbor while the trucks begin to leave.

~ The last truck pulls away.  A guard notices a mist in the rooftops.

The car's engine roars, all turn, bright lights blinding them.

('Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos' by PE)