Cassandra’s Sacrifice (V. 1)

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.

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