This is an early attempt at a modern-day, mad-science-driven vore story (with a tentative working title of Food for Thought, written in the form of a pseudo-documentary. It’s early-version material, and although I’m pretty sure I want to keep the actual Cassandra scene for something, I don’t know if I want to continue with this pseudo-documentary format or adapt it to something else.
int. the
pool room — night
We are watching footage taken through a video camera.
The first thing we see is CASSANDRA’s arm reaching past the lens of the camera,
having just turned the camera on. Cassandra then stands in the view of
the camera. There is a folding chair next to her.
cassandra
Okay. It’s two-twenty a.m. on October Third. I’m
all alone here.
Cassandra places an envelope on the chair.
CASSANDRA
This letter will explain what I’m doing any why in greater
detail, but I wanted to make this video record so there would be no doubt that
what I’m doing, I’m doing of m own free will.
int. kemp’s
study – day
PROFESSOR RUSSELL KEMP sits behind his desk and addresses the
camera, being interviewed.
kemp
Well, when I first saw the video Cassandra made, my thought
was that this was some sort of cruel prank,.
INT. THE
POOL ROOM — NIGHT
Cassandra begins methodically undressing. She speaks
into the camera as she does so.
cassandra
I know this will all seem very strange. But I’m not
sick. I’m not crazy. I’m not suicidal.
Cassandra finishes undressing, placing her clothes on the
chair,. She faces the camera naked.
CASSANDRA
Given the way you hit on me, Phil, I could tell you had this
thing for Asian girls.
Cassandra strikes a “sexy” pose while still looking into the
camera.
cassandra
Well, if you see this, get an eyeful. Because that’s
all you’re going to get. I’m going for a far more erotic experience than
I could ever get from you.
INT. KEMP’S STUDY – DAY
Kemp being interviewed.
kemp
Phil was another of our research assistants. And yes,
I’m afraid he did have some sort of Asian woman thing. At this point in
the video, I just thought that what was going on was a sort of taunt or tease,
maybe.
INT. THE
POOL ROOM — NIGHT
Cassandra relaxes out of her pose and takes a deep breath,
steadying herself.
CASSANDRA
Okay. No point putting this off anymore. You can
do this, Cassie.
Cassandra turns and walks to the pool. She sits on its edge,
dangling her legs in the water, making waves with them.
cassandra
(in a a manner as if speaking to a pet or a baby)
Come on…come on Shoggy. You know it’s me…Cassie.
The water bubbles a bit.
cassandra
Reach out…come on…take just a little taste…yes!
Taste that. That’s what you want, isn’t it?
The water bubbles more vigorously.
cassandra
I have what you want. I am what you want. I know
you’re hungry. You’ve been so hungry for so long. But now I am here
for.
There is a watery, sucking sound. Cassandra slips over
the side of the pool and descends a bit into it.
cassandra
Oh yes. Yes!
The slurping, sucking sounds continue as Cassandra appears to
sink deeper and deeper into the pool. As Cassandra goes deeper she moans
and cries out in a mounting, apparently sexual, frenzy.
cassandra
Yes! Ah…
Cassandra’s last cry is cut off has her head abruptly
disappears below the surface.
fade to:
int. office
of russel kemp – day
Professor RUSSELL KEMP behind
his desk, giving an interview. (Subtitle: PROFESSOR RUSSELL KEMP,
DIRECTOR: INNSMOUTH MARINE INSTITUTE)
kemp
As far back as
the sixteenth century, when Portuguese traders operating out of Malacca first
reached the island of Sogota in what is now Indonesia, we have strange reports.
montage – old woodcuts
Camera scans
some sort of old woodcut, showing fantastic tropical flora and fauna,
near-naked natives, Europeans in armor, sailing ships etc.
kemp (voice
over montage)
These traders
report that the inhabitants of the island have pagan religious practice, a kind
of human sacrifice, in which young women would agree to become, as they put it,
the repasts of the gods beneath. The curious thing about this practice is
that unlike other known forms of human sacrifice — which would involve the
sacrifice of slaves, or prisoners, helpless victims, this practice was regarded
as voluntary, a high honor, something that young women would actually compete
for, and that only the most beautiful and bright would actually get to
do. Supposedly there was no coercion involved — these young women would
just swim out of out their own accord to a spot in the sea believed to be
sacred, dive down, and disappear. And people believed that this would
extend the benevolence and protection of the gods. Now initially no one
believed these traders’ tales: they were put down to too much rum and too much
time at sea without enough female company.
shot – painting of a nineteen-century sea captain
kemp (voice over shot)
But then in early nineteenth century we get independent reports from an American sea captain named Joseph Corwin.
shot – front page of corwin’s book
kemp (Voice over shot)
Corwin was widely respected in his day as an acute observer
of both natural and social phenomena, and he made claims that are very similar
to the ones earlier Portuguese explorers had made.
SHOT: PHOTOGRAPH OF A DOUR-LOOKING DUTCHMAN
kemp (voice over shot)
By the mid-nineteenth century, we continued getting similar
reports from a Dutch colonial administrator and missionary, Gert van den Stront.
shot: photograph of a group of sullen-looking indonesian people
watching dutch troops mustering on a padang
Stront-Voice actor (voice over shot)
I have been forced to take the sternest measures to suppress
the barbaric practice known as feeding the gods. I was obliged to call
out troops, and several maidens who were forcibly restrained from self-murder
were in such distress that I had no choice but to dispatch them under guard to
the hospital for lunatics in Batavia. It is a grim measure of how far gone in
sin and darkness these people are, and how heavy the burden borne by those who
would bring the light of Christian civilization to them.
INT. OFFICE
OF russell kemp – DAY
kemp
The Dutch were apparently not entirely successful in carrying
the White Man’s Burden, because as late as the 1930s, and American
anthropologist named George Jensen was able to track down people who he claimed
were engaged in this feeding the gods practice.
ext. a
shoutheast asian beach – b&W – day
A young woman of Malay/Polynesian appearance wearing only a
loincloth faces the camera and smiles.
kemp (V.o.)
And Jensen didn’t just bring back stories. He also
brought back film footage.
ext. ocean
surf B&W- day
The same young woman seen from behind. She is now
naked, and wading out into the surf.
kemp (v.o.)
Jensen claimed that what he was filming was the actual
practice in process.
ext. ocean
water – day
The same young woman’s head bobs above the surface of the water for a while, then disappears beneath it.
int.
kemp’s office – day
Kemp being interviewed.
kemp
Unfortunately for Jensen’s reputation, not many people
believed him. Many thought the footage was staged — that’s a young woman
swimming out to sea, not a human sacrifice ritual — and the fact that Jensen
mysteriously disappeared in 1937 didn’t help his case much. So for the
most part, he was just forgotten.
ext. deck
of marine research ship – day
(Note: this is archival footage.) Scientists and
crew members are lifting something in a net.
kemp (V.o.)
And then, five years ago one of our research ships found a
remarkable specimen in waters not far off Sogota.
shot: still photograph of scientists and crew standing on
the deck of the ship, next to something that resembles a clam the size of a
small car, with a five-meter long siphon hanging from it
kemp (v.o.)
The closest thing that any of us had seen to it was the
Northern Pacific Giant Clam, or geoduck, except that this specimen was much
larger.
int. the
pool room – day
Workmen laboriously rolling a huge vat toward the side of the
pool, then tipping the vat up and decanting the creature into the pool.
kemp (v.o.)
Because it was obviously still alive, we brought it back here
to conduct a behavioral study of this hitherto unknown species.
int. the
pool room – day
A SCIENTIST dumps a bucked of something into the pool.
kemp (v.o.)
We found that we were able to keep it alive through a diet of
algae and krill. In terms of motile behavior, it was unremarkable.
Mostly it just sat there and fed.
int
observation room — day
SCIENTIST #2 and SCIENTIST #3 observe Shoggy through the
glass of his tank.
kemp (o.S.)
The name “Shoggy” came as a joke among the graduate
students. It stuck. We tentatively classified him as male on the
basis of detecting small motile gametes.
int.
computer room – day
SCIENTIST #1 and SCIENTIST #2 watching a computer
screen. There is some sort of oscilating line on the monitor.
kemp (v.o.)
What we did notice is that when Shoggy first arrived he was
generating a lot of electrical energy, fields that oscillated in what were
apparently incredibly complex patters, but which we could not decipher or
interpret.
int. the
tank
View of Shoggy, his siphon hanging limply.
kemp (v.o.)
It was as if he was depressed.
INT.
KEMP’S STUDY – DAY
Kemp being interviewed.
KEMP
We also noticed over time a diminution in the amount of
electrical activity associated with the specimen. We thought that some
form of disease was to blame. Cassandra had a different theory.
Montage: still
photographs of cassandra
Various photographs of Cassandra — some candids of her in
life, some portraits, some showing her working in the lab, etc.
kemp (voice over rmontage)
Cassandra was the one who went back into the historical
records. She had a theory that there was a form of biological mutualism
between Shoggy’s species and humans, and that the so-called human sacrifices
that allegedly took place were a part of it. At the time we thought it
was an eccentric theory, but Cassandra persisted with it.
cassandra voice actress (voice over montage)
I am convinced that this mutual interdependence between our
species would be one of the great scientific discoveries of our time, and if I
must lay down my life for it, then so be it. Science is not about
personal glory, or living to see yourself get a medal. It transcends the
individual and is for the good of humanity.
INT.
KEMP’S STUDY – DAY
Kemp being interviewed.
KEMP
But no one — I really mean no one — thought that Cassandra
would actually make herself a test subject!
INT. THE
POOL ROOM — NIGHT
Reprise of video showing Cassandra’s head being sucked under
the water in mid-cry.
INT.
KEMP’S STUDY – DAY
Kemp being interviewed.
kemp
Well, as I said, we all saw the video, and we had the letter
in which Cassandra declared that she would be her own test subject. But
still we all thought “C’mon, no one does soemthing like that. This
is a prank, a hoax. They happen all the time in science.”
Kemp pauses and takes a drink of coffee from a cup on his
desk.
KEMP
Well, Cassandra didn’t show up for work that day or the
next. She didn’t call in. She didn’t answer phone or text messages
or e-mails.
ext.
security camera outside building – night
Cassandra is seen on camera, entering the institute building.
kemp (v.o.)
Somebody thought to check our external security camera
footage. And sure enough we saw Cassandra entering out building at around
two a.m. the morning her video was made. But nowhere on the footage did
anyone see Cassandra leave, nor did any of the custodial staff recall seeing
her anywhere in the building that morning.
INT.
KEMP’S STUDY – DAY
Kemp being interviewed.
KEMP
At this point, we stopped thinking it was a prank. We
called the police, we filed a missing person’s report, and we also did a close
cleaning of Shoggy’s tank.
shot: still photograph
We see two stainless stell dishes containing what look like little
white pebbles.
kemp (voice over shot)
We found what were clearly partly dissolved vertebrate bone
fragments. From these we were able to extract enough D-N-A to run tests…
INT.
KEMP’S STUDY – DAY
KEMP
…Cassandra.