Work Text:
[The Snack Episode - v2]
Written by Luke
12/11/2020
INT. RUSTIC COTTAGE - LATE MORNING
We enter from the deck, passing over well-loved wicker furniture and through a set of accordion-style doors. As the camera moves smoothly in, revealing an unmade queen sized bed to the right and a large office space to the upper left upon a loft-area (messy, with furniture and moving boxes pushed together to make room for a bare twin mattress), we hear furious clicking of buttons. The camera turns sharply to the left, revealing a small couch pushed into the corner next to a small kitchen table - an amateur’s attempt to create a cozy breakfast nook, which has managed to attain the cozy status but not the nook status - upon which sits a young teenage girl with red hair and pale skin, MARA. She is playing on her Nintendo Switch (with grey joy-cons, much to her chagrin).
MARA
Heck.
(A long pause, with more furious clicking. Her eyes grow wide.)
NO! NO NO NO, I WAS IN FIRST. THIS GAME I- FRICK!
(MARA throws her Nintendo Switch onto the couch, the screen displaying a 4th place finish in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.)
(A deep voice calls from the loft above.)
ARTIS
Please stop throwing it around like it’s a toy Mara, we spoke about this already.
MARA
(Rolling her eyes while laying across the table, feeling its cool surface against her face)
Yeah Dad, I’ll be more careful with it so-
ARTIS
(More naggy, with some frustration.)
And PLEASE stop cursing so much, it’s going to become a bad habit if you keep it up.
MARA
Do you mean frick? Be-
ARTIS
Mara please…
MARA
(Increasing in volume)
-CAUSE MOM LETS ME SAY FRICK ALL THE TIME, IT’S NOT A CURSE WORD DAD! IT’S NOT ON THE LIST!?
(MARA gestures wildly to no one in particular at the short list of banned words posted on the fridge. We get a punch in on the list and see that written in clean handwriting are light curses such as “ass” or “shit”, with scratchier words below such as “snake” and “orb” as if they were added as an afterthought.)
ARTIS
(A heavy sigh and a chair creaking is heard above as ARTIS walks to the edge of the loft and looks down at his daughter. We see a tall elf in his mid-300s. He has long black hair pulled back with a red ribbon and is wearing a pair of blue-light filter glasses that his daughter bought for him a few weeks ago when she saw an ad for them on YouTube.)
I know that she lets you. And it’s fine to say. Just be careful about the other words that they teach you okay?
(ARTIS gives a gentle and loving smile to his teenage daughter.)
MARA
Alright…
(Mara smiles in the way a teenager being told off by their parent is so often seen doing - that is to say without any real passion and quite a bit of sass.)
Are you going to be working all night too? Even when everyone comes over?
ARTIS
Well. I’m trying to get it all written up now, but SOMEONE keeps bothering me.
(We can hear the smile in his voice as he walks back to his desk to continue writing.)
But I promise you that no, I won’t keep writing when everyone shows up Mara - your mother would hang me if I ignored them tonight. How about...
(ARTIS checks the clock hanging on the wall downstairs, leaning over the railing slightly to see properly.)
How about in 45 minutes we’ll start getting all the food prepared, alright?
MARA
Okay!
(She giggles at her dad’s quick change in mood, then takes a pause looking at all the moving boxes filling the house. She frowns before reaching out and grabbing her Nintendo Switch again to go play on the deck for 45 minutes.)
CUT TO:
EXT. RUSTIC COTTAGE - EARLY EVENING
From the woods, the camera wobbles in the hands of the operator - our way of feeling like we are watching something natural from afar - as we see the people at the Artisian Cottage eat, talk, and laugh with one another. ARTIS stands before a small grill cooking. He is wearing an apron which reads “The Grillfather”. In the backyard - nearly trampling the plants - SERINEPTH, WINSLER, MIRA, AND FIDAN play cornhole. Pulling attention away from the would-be-trampling, INTEGRITY and MARA roughhouse with one another, as is tradition. DELNYS sits on a wicker chair taking timid sips from a tall glass, slick with condensation. From a small speaker the song “Highwayman” plays. It fits the tone of the party perfectly.
ARTIS
(Watching his daughter carefully as he sips from a can of Belgian Moon.)
Hey! Watch the eggplants, they’re still fragile this time of year!
INTEGRITY
Oh, so-
MARA
(Knocking the older girl into the dirt and through one of the aforementioned eggplants.)
HA! You can’t ever let your guard down, Idleberry!
(They laugh and continue to wrestle)
INTEGRITY
If I really tried, I could kick your butt!
(INTEGRITY sweeps her legs out, knocking Mara to the ground easily. This girl, she always gets over-excited when she thinks she’s winning.)
MARA
(A muffled squeak comes out of her mouth as she hits the ground. She quickly gets back to trying to grapple)
ARTIS
(Sighs deeply, but with a smile on his face before taking another sip of his beer. He turns his gaze away from the 2 girls and towards Delnys.)
I hope that blanket will do, I can’t really get at any of the other ones, what with how messy everything is right now - I’m sorry about that too. We were supposed to be all packed by now, but I haven’t had a chance to finish things up between the writing and the…
(He gestures with his spatula towards MARA, who is being thrown like a ragdoll across the grass.)
Delnys
(Wearing a blanket around her shoulders to keep her warm on the cool summer evening, she turns to look at ARTIS and smiles. She is wearing a black dress, the kind with ornamental buttons up the front and little squared off straps going over her shoulder, with a wide brimmed sage-green hat on.)
Oh, it’s absolutely fine Mr. Artisian! Thank you for having us all over, especially since you’re so busy!
A silence falls on the conversation as DELNYS turns her attention to the cornhole game and ARTIS focuses on his Chuck Eye steaks for a second. His thoughts run wild for a few moments until he makes note to ask DELNYS to read his manuscript.)
(Loud and braggy laugh cuts sharply through the “Cool Music” playlist MARA helped her dad make, followed quickly by quieter laughter and groans from the cornhole game.)
WINSLER
(Looking at his teammate disappointedly.)
Serinepth, I thought you said you had a plan? Wh-
Fidan
(From across the yard, with exaggerated smugness)
Was it to lose again?
Mira
(Loudly laughs, ending with a quick snort)
SERINEPTH
No, I swear it was supposed to work! I went to a whole seminar on how to play cornhole and read all the guides I could find at the library!
(The tall young woman frantically pulls out a ring of cue cards from her pocket and begins to look for some of the tricks she was up all night memorizing - it should be there somewhere.)
WINSLER
(Pointing, not-quite menacingly,at FIDAN and MIRA.)
I swear this is the last win! Next time we play…
(WINSLER looks down, his hat covering most of his face in shadow, and whispers under his breath.)
Next time we play, I’ll have those special cornhole gloves Seltie promised to get me…
MIRA
Next time we play, Winsler, you’re going to lose 7-0 like you always do because you don’t have -
(MIRA places her two intact and non tattooed arms upon her mentor’s shoulders, as if she is showing off a trophy.)
- Wildcliff’s greatest cornhole player of all time.
(MIRA and FIDAN share more laughter while SERINEPTH pouts slightly and WINSLER begins to plot.)
SERINEPTH
What are you even bragging about Mira? All she does is win for both of you! I bet you any of us could beat you one-on-one, even Delnys.
(SERINEPTH takes a seat on the wicker furniture and grabs a tall glass off of the deck. Its filled with the same sweet-smelling mixture as DELNYS’, but seems to be much more full. DELNYS laughs at the comment too.)
FIDAN
Listen, I wouldn’t have chosen her to replace my old partner if she was no good! We can play another game after we eat - singles this time, so you can see that she’s as good as I say.
(FIDAN smirks at her students as she walks further away from the yard before yelling.)
Mara! Integrity! Come back here and get some food! And watch out for pests in the grass out there too, I don’t want anyone getting bit tonight!
The 2 girls had wrestled and rolled their way to the edge of the woods by this point. At her mother’s call, MARA picks herself up out of the dirt laughing and racing INTEGRITY back to the cottage. We see INTEGRITY win, just barely, as the camera begins to pull back into the woods. Everyone begins to eat and talk while we watch from afar. FIDAN and ARTIS sit next to each other and hold hands now and again, the way old couples so often do at barbecues and family dinners. MARA is just barely getting over thinking it's kind of weird to see her parents be affectionate in public, so makes an awkward expression no one else would notice. DELNYS giggles loudly at all of the stories MIRA tells - she always tells the best stories, as even FIDAN admits. INTEGRITY eats almost her weight in cornbread and steak, with a little bit of room left over for desert - little lemon cakes, made by ARTIS and MARA this afternoon when he finished writing for the day. MR. WIGGLES sits purring in MARA’s lap as WINSLER tells everyone about a weird interaction between 3 obscure spells that no one else knew existed. SERINEPTH stays quiet for a lot of the dinner, cramming her notes on cornhole again before giving up and just enjoying the time with her friends and mentor - family may be a fitting word for such a group of people, joined together by years of experience such as these 8. They enjoy the time together, all hoping somewhere in the back of their head that this won’t be the last time they get to all be here like this. And all knowing that it will be last time they’ll be here like this. They relish the once in a lifetime night for as long as it lasts.
CUT TO:
INT. CROWDED LOFT - MIDNIGHT
MARA lies on her bed alone. The camera is pointing down, showing her parents laying together on their bed downstairs not quite asleep yet in the background. MARA looks a little teary eyed as she stares up at the ceiling. She opens her mouth a few times, obviously working up courage to say something.
MARA
Do we really have to move still?
(Silence.)
Can’t Dad just write here and they can set up a new magic door for both of you to go to work?
(Silence.)
What if we move and then they can’t find our new address and then they won’t visit?
(With this, MARA twists upon her bed and looks down at her parents below. They both look disheartened.)
FIDAN
Mara… people move sometimes. It’s not as big of a deal as you think it is - Serinepth’s moved 5 times since we’ve known her!
(She sits up in bed, and begins to make her way to the ladder.)
Besides, if we stayed here they’d have a harder time coming to visit anyways! No one except Winsler will have access through campus in a few days, and we’re not exactly easy to find up here if you can’t come that way.
(FIDAN climbs the ladder as she speaks, arriving at the top and giving MARA a comforting smile before lying down and cradling her. The 2 look so similar it’s scary.
MARA
(Begins to cry softly as her mother rubs her hair.)
They’re going to visit right… they’re going to come and see me and Dad even?
(She asks the question, feeling childish for having these worries. She’s a dang teenager after all. Teenagers shouldn’t be crying about stupid stuff like this - or so she seems convinced.)
FIDAN
(Sighs quietly, before whispering in MARA’s ear.)
If those good-for-nothing kids don’t visit me after putting up with them for 8 years, then the 3 of us will just have to…
(FIDAN makes a face as if she was going to say something more violent than she’s comfortable with whispering into her 14 year old daughter’s ear, before continuing.)
... go find them and figure out what all of their excuses are!
(Silence, as MARA continues to cry slightly.)
FIDAN hugs her tightly until she feels her daughter fall asleep. What a joy it is to see your child grow. To her, MARA was only born what feels like a few years ago but here she was, kept up by fears of being left behind already. FIDAN rubbed her daughter’s hair, the way her own parents did when she had trouble sleeping. The move was for the best - there were a lot of memories tied up in this house for one, and they needed the space for two. It would only be a few more short years until MARA went off to school. The thought stung sweet as it came into FIDAN’s mind - the idea that she would leave and be so far away. She would speak to the students in the morning, before they packed up and left campus for good, and triple check their addresses and set MARA up to send letters. FIDAN fell asleep a few hours after her daughter did that night, cuddled together on that bare twin mattress.
FIN