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scene 48: punishing is fun
🕑 Added 2023-12-29 00:27:08 +0000 UTC[The scene opens up to a glowing white orb — Jessie's favorite snow globe, turned upside down, being used as a scrying orb. Her paws surround it on either side.]
Jessie: Stabbings.
[The orb remains white. Jessie frowns with disappointment and concern.]
Jessie: bar fights?
[The orb still remains white. Jessie huffs. She pokes the bottom of the globe with one paw and begins to spin it around on her finger, pushing it with her other paw to speed up the spin. It stops glowing, making it more obvious it's a snow globe.]
Jessie: Fine. Begone. To some dusty corner I'll run into later. Y'know. When it's convenient.
[She throws the snow globe into the air and snaps with the hand that had been balancing the globe on its finger. Black flames devour the snow globe, burning it out of her plane of existence, to be regurgitated in a convenient dusty corner.]
Jessie: I guess I've finally gotten rid of all of the bad stuff. And all of the predators. All that's left... [leans back] ...is small potatoes.
[The camera zooms out to show that she is sitting on her water tower; it looks out at civilization sprawled before it with Jessie. She tilts her head with some confusion at her sense of dissatisfaction (expression ref: syconium, page 16, panel 5). It all looks exactly as it did before she snapped away a single ne'er-do-well.]
Jessie: ...so why does it all still feel like worthless trash? [moment of consideration, looking back up] ...I guess I haven't really spent a lot of time out there lately. Not since me and Shiloh. Well. // ...For a while now.
[Jessie spends a long beat looking down at the city with dull hatred in her eyes. She moves to descend upon the city and judge for herself whether she has improved the world. She takes flight, eyes closed, and randomly swings a loop in the air before diving directly downward. She lands perfectly and opens her eyes.
She has landed in a beautiful, lush national park. The establishing shot is full of detail, it can be idyllic to an absurd, humorous degree. The camera zooms in on a minuscule piece of litter hiding under the brush, just barely visible — a candy bar wrapper.
Jessie zooms in on it specifically, as if she didn't even notice the rest of the scenery.]
Jessie: ugh. Of course. [as she walks up to the litter] of course there'd still be guys who just HAVE to throw their trash wherever they're standing.
[She telekinetically elevates the litter and crumples it in her paw.]
Jessie (turning, walking back to the path): I wonder how I could get rid of litter. Litterers, even. Probably not a capital offense, per se, but...
Cyclist (off-screen): out of the way!!
[Jessie squints to the side, but doesn't look behind her.]
Jessie (to herself): ...don't tell me what to do. // is it really as easy as a snap to make it impossible? Or would they find another-
Cyclist: IDIOT!!!
[The cyclist who yelled at her to move swishes by her at an inappropriately high speed. The bike they are riding seems to be more expensive than an average leisure bike, and it can be assumed they most likely ride as a hobby.]
Cyclist: you heard me! dipshit! Go fuck—
[Jessie glares and telekinetically jams the spokes of their wheels. They go flying off of their bike as it crashes sideways.
After a moment of shock, they try to get up. Jessie shoves them back onto the ground with her foot.]
Cyclist: ugh! What the fuck is your problem!?
[Jessie pushes them again when they make a second attempt to get to their feet. In anger, they grab the leg kicking them to try to drag her down to their level. She pulls her foot back, and pins them to the ground by jamming her heel into their mouth. She leers for a moment, but her speech is casual.]
Jessie: people like you are my problem. Running around being assholes, making the world a worse place. Just to watch it all burn.
[The cyclist bites at her foot and claws at her leg in a futile effort to retaliate.]
Jessie: what would it take to get you to change your ways? A tongue lashing? A foot down your throat? [closer camera] Or maybe just crushing your skull to shut you up for good.
[Jessie enjoys watching the cyclist panic, plead with their eyes for mercy. She shows it to them. Her expression softens to one of condescending pity.]
Jessie: naaaahhh, a sin as tiny as being rude isn’t worth the DEATH penalty…
[She relishes watching the desperation mix with gratitude on their face. She grins and grinds the heel of her foot into the back of their throat. There should be at least two beats to show that she is doing so at length for her own entertainment. Abruptly, she yanks her foot out of their mouth and kicks them in the face.]
Jessie: if you’re ever so much as a little CHEEKY again, I’ll make sure your brains meet the floor.
[The cyclist scrambles to their bike and flees. Jessie’s pleased with herself — a first when punishing sinners. Usually, she feels only anger.]
Jessie (satisfied): that guy’ll probably never ruin somebody’s day again…
[She turns her attention back to the litter. She opens her mouth to say something, face twisting, but hesitates.]
Jessie: …eh. It’ll work. The litterer teleports directly in front of Jessie.
[Jessie snaps. The litterer appears in front of her — he had been in the middle of toweling off after a shower or bath. She quickly clothes him, not even showing the disgust one may have come to expect from her.]
Jessie: Fully clothed.
[She snaps again. Some basic clothing manifests on his body. He is bewildered. He drops the towel. Jessie holds up her fist to his face and uncurls it to display the wrapper.]
Jessie: Why did you throw this TRASH onto my beautiful earth?
Litterer: uh..???
[The litterer squints in confusion. It takes him a long minute to recognize the wrapper. When he does, he pulls his head back slightly in recognition and mild surprise.]
Litterer (embarrassed): oh,,, there ah,,, there was no trash can to throw it away…..
Jessie: so why didn’t you put it in your pocket.
Litterer: My outfit didn’t have any pockets…
Jessie: you could’ve carried it in your hand, then. It’s not like it’s heavy.
Litterer: I dunno… I really didn’t have the mental energy to carry something with me all the way through the reserve….. I was trying to walk for my mental health, so i—
Jessie: but you carried it all the way IN here.
Litterer: yeah, but I was going to eat that.
[Jessie frowns with odium.]
Jessie: eat it, then.
[She forces his mouth open psychically, using her free hand to mime this by moving her fingers away from her thumb, as if it were a mouth. She inserts the wrapper into his muzzle and forces it shut again by wrapping her fist around it.
He immediately tries to spit it out, but his jaws are no match for a god’s infinite grip. He attempts to pull his muzzle out of her paw by moving backwards, again unsuccessful. She releases his mouth physically, but continues to apply the same force telekinetically.]
Jessie (more threatening): eat it.
[He struggles more, afraid and confused about why he can’t move away from her even when she isn’t touching him. Jessie raises her hand up and backhands him. He staggers to the side from the force; the telekinesis now only keeps his mouth shut, but doesn’t restrain it to a specific space. He paws at his mouth trying to open it, and then looks at her again, fearful.
She makes a “get on with it” motion with her hand. Still, the litterer hesitates. She raises her hand to bitch slap him again. He visibly flinches and makes an “okay, okay” motion with his hands.
His chewing is slow and pained; the sensation of chewing on thin plastic is foreign to him. He eventually swallows it — it is obviously unpleasant going down.]
Jessie: now get out of my SIGHT. And take your towel with you. Unless you wanna eat that, too.
[the litterer retrieves his towel. He creeps around her, needing to go in the opposite direction, and cautiously starts to move away. She slaps his ass as if he’s a horse to compel him to go faster. He gallops away.
Jessie grins triumphantly. Her tail wags with unrefined joy.]
Jessie: people REALLY respond to pain! I could get used to this. [stretching her neck] I bet I could knock some sense into a karen or something… // …Jessie teleports to the nearest customer harassing an employee.
[Jessie relocates to the front of a coffee shop with a snap. She eagerly enters, ready to deliver some divine punishment. Inside, a customer is in the middle of complaining to the barista manning the register.][[ Lenovo, 12/26/2023 11:05 PM
In the outline, Jessie fast forwards in the coffee shop, which has a few funny ideas: “A couple of panels show various things happening over time, such as a group of clowns ordering coffee, an employee sobbing while there are no customers, a coffee machine on fire while people desperately try to put it out.” Consider rewriting the commandment here to include this.]]
Customer: —THIRD TIME you people have gotten my drink wrong!!! My lunch is only 30 minutes, and this has been ALL OF IT!
Barista: I made your drink personally this time… it was definitely exactly what you ordered.
Customer: it’s NOT! I get this drink EVERY DAY! [shoving the drink into the barista’s arms] TASTE IT for yourself!
Jessie (muttering to herself): eheheh… perfect. This barista has had enough.
[Jessie smirks and bites her lip as she snaps. The barista frowns. The frown becomes stronger, angrier. They throw the drink into the customer’s face. The customer is shocked, but almost immediately gets over the shock and attacks the barista over the counter. Her smirk breaks out into a full-faced grin as they start to brawl.]
Jessie (self-congratulatory): justice. Has been served.
[Jessie exits the coffee shop and looks around for another sinner to punish. A car honks at another car and her head whips around toward the noise. She isn’t sure which car honked, or who was even in the wrong, but she now watches the road.]
Jessie: everybody who drives a car is an asshole. You all think you’re so invincible in your big metal boxes…
[Looking thoughtful and attentive, Jessie fast forwards as one would in a youtube video, expecting, hoping for some sort of transgression. Behind her, as she skips forward, you can see an ambulance in front of the coffee shop and the barista being carried out on a stretcher, in a comedic family guy death pose. It's gone the next time she skips. She sees a pickup truck tailgating a car and lets time flow normally to observe. She takes flight to look at how close the truck is to the other vehicle; there are mere inches between them.
Jessie recalls that tailgaters stressed out her father in particular when he drove her places. Both vehicles come to a stop at a red light. She gives the truck an unimpressed look. Glancing behind the truck, she sees another larger truck starting to stop as it comes up behind them. She decides to help it along, miming as she shoves it forward, hard. The back of the pickup is crushed, and the front crunches against the back of the tailgatee's car.
She looks on with amusement as the driver from the car being tailgated asks the driver of the truck is okay, to which the truck driver says they cannot move their legs because the front of the truck has bent inward and pinned them there.]
Jessie: wouldn’t be the case if you weren’t tailgating…
[An ear-piercing scream in the distance catches Jessie’s attention. She launches in its direction behind her without even looking, plowing through several buildings in the process.
The source of the scream is a child in a schoolyard, playing a game with friends at recess. Jessie looks surprised for a moment, then sighs with relief.]
Jessie: just playing… [more annoyed] why do kids always gotta scream like they’re being murdered when they’re not?
[Flicking the rubble off of her outfit, she spends another couple of beats observing the state of the schoolyard below her. She spots, with her god eyes, a child shoving another child repeatedly until he hits a wall behind him. She has a particular (and, at this point, ironic) distaste for bullies, which is obvious by her face. She redirects a basketball thrown against a hoop to hit the bully in the back of the head, which causes them to smash their face into the wall that the other child is back against.
The bully holds their face and staggers backwards. They seem to be bleeding from either their nose or somewhere in their mouth — the scene is far away, from Jessie's perspective. She isn't satisfied leaving it at that. The child who was backed against the wall tries to immediately move away, cowering.]
Jessie: these kinds of people never learn from just a slap on the wrist. [sampling the idea of retribution in her head] …it’s better to nip it in the bud anyway.
[Jessie considers writing the victim child to attack his bully. She sees his cowering as pathetic, bringing on his plight. She recalls how lonesome it felt to have to stand up for herself. She turns her attention back to the bully and points.]
Jessie: …the rest of the schoolyard teaches that little shit a lesson.
[She snaps, and the rest of the schoolyard mob the bully — including the staff members. Jessie laughs to herself as the grade schooler is pummeled by dozens of fists at once. Her entertainment wanes a bit as she reconsiders.]
Jessie: I wonder if this punishment is… eeehh. Proportional. [after a moment’s thought] … it’s necessary. That BULLY’ll keep BULLYING if they aren’t taught a lesson. It’s not JUST for revenge. It’s to reform! [rationalizing, threatening] and they’re lucky I didn’t decide the world’s better off without them right off the bat.
[Jessie glances at the victimized child, huddling behind playground equipment, terrified even more of the mass violence.]
Jessie: ……it’s not really fair to HIM to traumatize him with all this just to teach some bully a lesson. // I cooouuullld write it so they never bully anybody in the first place… but then they’d be getting off scot-free. Just because it would never happen if I undid it doesn’t mean they didn’t still DO it. And they DESERVE punishment for doing it!
[She looks back at the bully receiving her punishment. One of the staff members holds up their limp body like a large fish they’ve caught while the rest of the crowd cheers. She smiles sadistically. She is not a 31-year-old battering a child, but a god creating a better world.]
Jessie: the whole world will be better for this. Even the sinners benefit from their punishments! [allowing her attention to drift from the scene] and I’ve got no problem tracking down every last bully on earth and taking care of them personally… [closer camera shot] by the time I’m done, NONE will be left.
this scene felt... complicated to write, and i wouldn't be surprised if it was heavily rewritten in the second draft, but i also wouldn't be surprised if it stayed the same. it had to blend the concept of an omnipotent God enacting karmic retribution on even the pettiest of transgressions with Jessie's character arc -- this scene takes place after Shiloh has introduced Jessie to the concept of sadism, but before the idea of domination and submission really permeates their relationship (or Jessie's concept of social dynamics).
they are not exactly intimately related concepts, but they are close enough that i felt it possible. the hardest part was getting her in a place where she could enact petty revenge -- usually, in a way that also harms the person being avenged. there are many other more enmeshed forms of petty karma that i don't believe she can believably be placed in by chance, such as someone arguing and then tripping when they storm off. i was considering having her literally make up a guy to get mad at to achieve this, but decided against it.
