Friday, February 19, 2016
8. The Wabbit and the Modified Agent
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
7. Skratch and the Arrested Gaze
Skratch was framed and frozen. His mind wandered through apertures. He could see the Wabbit and Lapinette but his view was fragmented. They were talking in mirrored snatches. "Is he out?" said Lapinette. "Out and in" said the Wabbit. He noticed Lapinette had a gun. The Wabbit carried a hammer and it looked edgy. "Inside out," said the Wabbit. "Outside in," said Lapinette. Skratch thought hard and searched for an opening. "He can hear us," said the Wabbit. Skratch tried to shout but his miaow got lost in the fragments. The Wabbit was speaking. "He's stuck." Lapinette pointed her gun. "Sticky situation," she yelled. "It's a breakdown," shouted the Wabbit. "Breakdown, breakthrough," screamed Lapinette. Skratch watched the Wabbit's hammer. It twitched. Skratch looked hard at his paw and willed it to move. It was impossible. Layers bound him fast. Three cracks of an automatic rent the air and then everything shook. His paws flexed and his chest expanded and he yelled. "Give it all you got!" Strength flooded through his limbs and he bunched his paws and swung them just like the Wabbit's hammer. Glass crashed as he smashed his way free. He saw himself lying on the floor of a kitchen. The Wabbit was peering down at him and smiling and asking, "Did I get your good side?" They both seemed to fade. "Iris in," purred Skratch as he passed out.
[An iris shot is used in silent
films. Iris in - a black circle closes to end a scene. Iris out opens a scene
from black.]
Monday, February 15, 2016
6. Skratch in the Camera Bar
Skratch found himself inside the Wabon Converto. It had a bar and he seemed to have a beer. But the company was far from congenial. "You are the arch-enemy Skratch," snickered the Agent of Rabit, "we have lectures on you." Skratch gulped his beer, belched loudly and ignored the Agent. "I know you're something of an expert," said the Agent, "so am I the sign, the signifier or the signified?" Skratch swivelled his ears. He could hear a mechanical whine - a bit like a winder. "You're only a cypher," he muttered, "no more, no less." The Agent smiled. "We seem to be stuck here, so I have time to eliminate you." Skratch looked the other way. He could see reflections in a glass screen but there was something else. Something was spinning in tune with the winder and it was coming fast. "You're so strong, Agent of Rabit," miaowed Skratch. It was a seductive miaow and he knew how to use it. "The Agent puffed out his chest. " I is the strongiest." Skratch stood and dangled a shapely leg. "I'll bet I couldn't push you over," he miaowed. "Try me," said the Agent of Rabit. Skratch put a foot against the Agent's stomach. and shoved gently. The winder shrieked. An object crashed through the screen and rocketed towards them. "What's that?" asked the Agent. Skratch suddenly punted against the Agent with all his might and shot towards the glass. The object grazed his nose but he arched and batted it at the Agent. He heard a sickening thud. Now Skratch could only see glass. Hundreds, maybe thousands of wafer thin elements. Skratch butted through them ...
Friday, February 12, 2016
5. The Wabbit and the Bench Job
Lapinette and the Wabbit hauled the camera to one of the kitchens. It was the closest they could get to a bench and they set the camera down. Lapinette was hopping mad and she pulled an automatic. "You modified the camera, Wabbit," she yelled. "This is all your fault!" The Wabbit shrugged in an apologetic kind of way. Then he delved in his fur and took out a hammer. "I'm afraid the project is still in its infancy." "So are you!" shouted Lapinette. She swung her automatic towards the camera. The Wabbit moved slightly out of the way. "Now look, Camera," hissed Lapinette. "We want Skratch the Cat back this instant." But the camera was still. The Wabbit lifted his hammer and the camera whirred a little. "You talkin' to me? snarled the Wabbit. "'Cos I'm talkin' to you. And I got all day, I got all year, I got to the end of time." The Wabbit heard the automatic make a snicky-snacky sound and he tapped the camera none too lightly with his hammer. A sultry electronic voice issued from a tiny speaker. "Rewinding. Please wait." The sound of a winder stung the air for a considerable period. Then it stopped with a click. The voice spoke again. "Reconstruction underway. Composing subjects, compensating, recomposing. Please wait a few seconds." "Just give us the cat!" yelled Lapinette. She waved her gun. Then she heard three beeps. "Battery failure immanent," said the camera ...
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
4. The Wabbit and the Cat Conversion
"We've got to sort out this
Brownie," said Lapinette. The Wabbit grabbed the camera and made for
the escalator. "It's a bench job!" He shook his head in anxious
anticipation and kept out of the way of the camera lens. "I don't want to
end up in a box." Lapinette saw what looked like a red
reflection. "There's Skratch!" she said with relief in her voice.
"He can help!" Skratch the Cat smiled as he rumbled up the
elevator. "New camera, Wabbit? Come on, do me a portrait."
"No!" yelled the Wabbit in horror. "It's not working." But
just at that moment the camera wriggled from his grasp. The shutter snapped and
the flash blazed. For a moment nothing happened. "Aha," laughed Skratch.
"It's an old fashioned camera. When do I see my picture?" The Wabbit
grabbed at the camera. "You'll have to wait." Skratch laughed
again. "Someday, my prints will come." But Lapinette was
yelling and pointing - and the Wabbit followed her gaze. Behind the glass
screen, a lurid comic strip version of Skratch faded into view. He
was waving just like Skratch and his mouth was saying something
inaudible. Then he dissolved into nothing. Lapinette looked at the Skratch on
the escalator. He too was fading fast and before long the escalator was empty. "Skratch will come back," hoped the Wabbit,
crossing his paws. Lapinette looked at the Wabbit with big eyes. "Can you fix
it?" The Wabbit looked back. "We'll wait and see what develops
..."
Monday, February 08, 2016
3. The Wabbit and the Lost Enemy
The Wabbit dived to the ground floor and tried to grab the camera in case there was danger. But Lapinette had already positioned it for a selfie and her paw was on the shutter release. "No!" yelled the Wabbit. Now they both had the camera. They wrestled it back and forth but to no avail. It panned around as if it was hunting for an image. Then it stopped and sounded a warning like a factory siren. The shutter fired and the flash blazed. "Ooooh," said the Wabbit, blinking. "Aaagh," said Lapinette rubbing her eyes. Just as before, the camera whirred, gurgled and sloshed. Then as it clicked, a print floated down and the Wabbit grabbed the bottom corner. "What the Binky?" he murmured. Lapinette blinked and strained to see. An arch enemy, a hated Agent of Rabit, glared directly from the image. The Wabbit turned to check where he really was - and caught sight of an Agent who speedily faded into thin air. "Oh look," said Lapinette. "Now the Agent is disappearing from the photo too." The Wabbit shrugged. "He should come back in a second." He glanced behind once more, then back to the photo. But both Agent and image had gone. They waited some time and had several coffees, but nothing reappeared. The Wabbit suddenly seized the camera, took a picture of himself and passed the print to Lapinette. His image disappeared then reappeared. Lapinette did the same. "OK," said the Wabbit and pinched himself to make sure he was still around. "So where's the bad guy gone?" They stared at the camera ...
Friday, February 05, 2016
2. The Wabbit and the Unstable Image
The Wabbit took the camera to a nearby restaurant to examine it in the light. In the cosy company of his fellow diners, he looked it up and down. He pressed every switch and turned every knob. He took the battery out, scraped the terminals and put it back. Finally he whacked the camera on his table. But no matter what he tried, nothing happened. "Oh." said the Wabbit. He made a sound between his 28 teeth that was partly annoyance but mostly disappointment. Just as he'd given up, he heard familiar footsteps and knew it was Lapinette. So he looked over the rail and called down. "I'm up here in the carrot section!" Lapinette looked up and waved. It was a formidable restaurant, world famous for its slow-cooked carrots - and they both met there with monotonous regularity. At that moment the camera whirred, jumped and span out over the rail. Its lens cover popped open and the flash went off, just like the first time. The Wabbit blinked. Now all he could see was a glaring white rectangle. The camera made the same sloshing sound as before, then it gurgled, clicked and ejected a snapshot. The Wabbit made a swipe and grabbed it. There was Lapinette staring out of the photo. Suddenly her image vanished as if it had never been there. The Wabbit rubbed the print with a paw. It was a little damp and smelled of bleach. The Wabbit puzzled as he watched Lapinette's image gradually fade back into the picture but he could hear Lapinette yelling. "Wabbit! Wabbit!" She was waving something she'd caught in her paw. "Wabbit, you dropped your camera ..!"
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
1. The Wabbit and the Photo Converto
Monday, February 01, 2016
The Wabbit and his Adventure Caffè
The Wabbit was late. It was a new caffè and he just couldn't find it. Wabsworth ushered him in. "We're in the back room, everything's laid out." Skratch the Cat waved his cat letters. "They fell off in the night!" Lapinette beckoned for a waiter to bring glue and pinned a flower behind her ear. "What was that for a sort of adventure, I really can't recall." Wabsworth was ready. "It was an oneiric adventure." The Wabbit nodded his head, swayed his ears and looked directly at Skratch. "Oneirics is your territory, feline one." Lapinette butted in. "One of us had a nightmare, because they felt they could not accomplish a task." She stared at the Wabbit but spoke to Wabsworth. "You don't dream of course, being an android." Wabsworth shuffled his feet. "I ... am able to create a trance-like episode that is dream proximal." He threw a meaningful glance at the Wabbit and got one back. Now Skratch became impatient. "A dream in a film moves the protagonists across suppressed or hidden boundaries." Lapinette said, "Ah." She tucked her legs under the bar stool and looked slowly around. At last her gaze fell on the Wabbit, "Sleeping well, Wabbit?" The Wabbit wore a deadpan expression. "Like a dog." His attempt at a diversion went nowhere. Lapinette's gaze kept travelling and settled on Wabsworth. "It's you. You tried to help the Wabbit sleep, by successful-ising his dreams." "If only I could," sighed Wabsworth. He laughed quietly to himself. "That would be a dream come true ..."
[Oneiric: pertaining to dreams]
[Oneiric: pertaining to dreams]
Friday, January 29, 2016
9. The Wabbit's Door of Perception
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
8. The Wabbit and his Point of View
The hat span towards the Wabbit and the Wabbit watched it spin. But everything moved slowly. Skratch's three heads were shouting. "Catch the hat." Energy from the blue blast coursed through his body and the Wabbit's fur felt electric. Somewhere to his right, Jenny covered groans with curses. He slowly held up a paw and looked at it. It pulsed with a cold blue light. Time stopped. The Wabbit wondered whether he could start it again and flexed his paw to see what would happen. The hat started to spin slowly and Jenny's curses sounded like they needed new batteries. The Wabbit flexed his paw twice. The hat froze. All was silent. Ghosts eddied around him but they couldn't touch him. Again the Wabbit flexed his paw and now the hat was coming at him fast. Skratch's voice was a high pitched wail. "Your piece of the code! Put it in the hat." But the hat flashed past the Wabbit's head. Jenny caught it and flung it at the Wabbit. The Wabbit grabbed. Suddenly he had the hat, but it was as slippery as a wet bar of soap and it wriggled away. The Wabbit held up his paw and its glow bathed the hat in blue light. The hat flopped lifelessly to the deck. Jenny was calling. "Put on the hat, Wabbit." The Wabbit stooped and picked it up. He tucked his piece of the code into the lining with the others. Then he carefully placed the hat on his head ...
Monday, January 25, 2016
7. Skratch and the Three Head Leap
Skratch the Cat was used to heights, but he didn't appreciate any help. He went with the blast anyway and wrapped a sinewy limb around a rope. Then he swayed to and fro and took in the view. Jenny had vanished down a ladder and he'd lost sight of the Wabbit. Eddies of air snaked towards him and tore at his fur like piranhas. One by one his cat lettering plunged deckwards and even though he kicked and clawed, he could do nothing to stop his piece of the code escaping his grip. "Pesky ghosts!" hissed Skratch. It was a bit of luck that it fluttered past one of his two extra heads. A single cat snap rescued the code. Skratch purred gently but it was a moment's luxury. He let go of the rope and in free fall, dodged the ghostly eddies and took back the code. His other head was gazing at something and through its eyes, Skratch saw the Wabbit in the midst of a blue blast. They looked one and the same. Skratch caught a rope and paused for a moment and thought, "Who's dream is in charge?" A voice seemed to speak. "Only the Wabbit has nightmares like this." Now he could see Jenny in a corner of the half deck. The strange air was around her like a swarm of bees and he heard Jenny curse as they ripped her hat from her grasp. Skratch's heads spat as one. He let go of the rope and with a single leap, pounced onto the lower deck. Ninety feline teeth snicked as they fastened on Jenny's hat ...
Friday, January 22, 2016
6. Jenny and the Ghostly Blast
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
5. The Wabbit and the Dream Ship
Monday, January 18, 2016
4. The Wabbit and the Missing Page
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