 Part 2 |
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The scene opens with Cleggy exiting Camden Town tube station. He starts looking around for the lost young goth. He sees her on Regent's Park Road and runs to catch up.
| Cleggy: | Hey, whoa, just where do you think you're going? |
| Kara: | (innocently) Ummmmm. Nowhere..... |
| Cleggy: | (gives in) Well, come on. It's getting late. I only hope we can get back before closing time. |
Suddenly Kara gets a scared look on her face. | |
| Cleggy: | What's wrong now? |
| Kara: | Oh my... there are several people approaching from down that street. |
Cleggy turns and looks around | |
| Cleggy: | Casuals! Or worse! Come on, let's have a look. Come on. |
Cleggy peeks around the side of the building, with Kara standing behind him | |
| Cleggy: | There are two Essex girls down there but I don't see any...wait a second, they're casuals all right. I can hear someone singing Arsenal songs. |
Cleggy watches the distant Arsenal supporter from down the street. Suddenly something huge moves in front of his field of view. Before Cleggy or Kara can react, a large, gruesome Arsenal supporter looms over them. Kara is startled and backs away. | |
| Arsenal supporter: | HEY! GOFFICKS!!! |
The towering casual brings down his Arsenal flag to hit Cleggy, but he manages to block the blow with his filofax, which is knocked away. The sinister hooligan stands over him with his flag raised and lets out a horrible shrieking laugh. | |
| Guy: | OI!! YOU STARTIN' SOMETHING?! |
At that the football fan turns and suddenly runs off. The sound of running footsteps fade off in the distance and a well built man in a Code Warrior shirt appears from around the corner. | |
| Guy: | Hello there! Come here friend. Don't be afraid. |
Kara stumbles over to where Cleggy lies crumpled in a heap. Guy puts his hand on Cleggy's forehead and he begins to come around. | |
| Guy: | (to Kara) Don't worry, he'll be all right. |
| Cleggy: | What happened? |
| Guy: | Rest easy, son, you've had a busy day. You're fortunate you're still in one piece. |
| Cleggy: | Guy? Guy Hammond! Boy, am I glad to see you! |
| Guy: | Regent's Park is not to be travelled lightly. Tell me young Cleggy, what brings you out this far? |
| Cleggy: | Oh, this net.goth! I think she's searching for her laptop's former owner...I've never seen such devotion in a net.goth before...there seems to be no stopping her. She claims it to be the property of an Java-G Hammond. Is he a relative of yours? Do you know who she's talking about? |
Guy ponders this for a moment, scratching his scruffy beard. | |
| Guy: | Java-G Hammond... Java-G? Now thats a name I haven't heard in a long time...a long time. |
| Cleggy: | I think I heard he graduated and got a real job. |
| Guy: | Oh, no. He's not regularly employed... not yet. |
| Cleggy: | You know him! |
| Guy: | Well of course, of course I know him. He's me! I haven't gone by the name Java-G since... oh, before you moved here. |
| Cleggy: | Then the laptop does belong to you. |
| Guy: | Don't seem to remember ever owning an windows machine. Very interesting... |
He suddenly looks around | |
| Guy: | I think we better get indoors. The casuals are easily startled but they will soon be back and in greater numbers. |
Fade out
The scene fades in to Guy's place. The small, spartan flat is cluttered with books and computer equipment, but it still manages to have a nice warm homey feeling. Cleggy and Guy are talking...
| Cleggy: | No, Bob was never a goth. He was a PhD student at UCL. |
| Guy: | That's what your parents told you. They never liked Bob. Thought he should have stayed in the States and gotten a job. |
| Cleggy: | You fought in the Punk Wars? |
| Guy: | Yes, I was once a goth the same as Bob. |
| Cleggy: | I wish I'd known him. |
| Guy: | He was one of the friendliest net.goths in the area, and a snappy dresser. I understand you've become quite good at computers yourself. And he was a good friend. Which reminds me... |
Guy gets up and goes to a chest where he rummages around. Kara sits in the kitchen, watching them and drinking tea. Guy shuffles up and presents Cleggy with a large 32oz mug. Faint traces of the words "Dunkin' Donuts" and "GIANT coffee" appear on the side. | |
| Guy: | I have something here for you. Bob wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your parents wouldn't allow it. They feared you might follow old Java-G to some sad-old goth club like Bob did. |
Guy hands Cleggy the mug | |
| Cleggy: | What is it? |
| Guy: | It's Bob's coffee mug. This is the cup of a goth. Not as clumsy or as random as a pint glass.... |
Cleggy opens the lid and sees the thick sides, used to keep hot beverages hot and cold beverages cold | |
| Guy: | A practical mug for a more alternative time. For over twenty years the goths were the innovators of music and style in the UK. Before the trendies, before the backlash. |
Cleggy hasn't really been listening | |
| Cleggy: | How did goth die? |
| Guy: | A young goth named Simon Price, who was gothic DJ until he turned to journalism, helped Melody Maker write bad reviews to destroy Gothic Music. He betrayed and murdered the scene. Now goths are all but extinct. Price was seduced by the techno side of Gothic Music. |
| Cleggy: | Gothic Music? |
| Guy: | Well, Gothic Music is what gives a goth his power. It's a strong and dark sound created mostly by guitars and synthesisers. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the scene together. |
The laptop starts beeping | |
| Guy: | (to laptop) Now, let's see if we can't figure out what you are, my little friend. And where you come from. |
Guy starts opening windows on the computer | |
| Cleggy: | I saw part of the message it was... |
Cleggy is cut short as the recorded voice of the goth DJ emanates from the laptop's speakers | |
| Guy: | I seem to have found it. |
| Shawnee's voice: | Guy Hammond, years ago you served my friends in the Punk Wars. Now I beg you to help us in our struggle against Britpop. I regret that I am unable to present my request to you in person, but my radio station has been subpoenaed by Melody Maker for playing music they have have obtained the rights to under questionable circumstances, and I'm afraid my plan to publicly release the latest Rosetta Stone singles has failed. I have placed these singles, vital to the revival of the goth scene, into the CD-ROM drive of this laptop. There is also an FTP address to upload the singles to a journalist at NME who has said that when he receives them he will give them a fair, unbiased review. You must see these songs safely delivered to them in London. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Java-G Hammond, you're my only hope. |
There is a little static and the WAV is cut off. Guy leans back and scratches his head. He silently sips at a can of jolt. Cleggy has stars in his eyes. | |
| Guy: | You must learn the ways of the goths if you're to come with me to NME. |
| Cleggy: | (laughing) NME? I'm not going to NME. I've got to go home. It's late, I'm in for it as it is. |
| Guy: | I need your help, Cleggy. She needs your help. I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. |
| Cleggy: | I can't get involved! I've got work to do! It's not that I like Britpop. I hate it! But there's nothing I can do about it right now. It's such a long way from here. |
| Guy: | That's your parents talking. |
| Cleggy: | (sighing) Oh, God, my parents. How am I ever going to explain this? |
| Guy: | Learn about Gothdom, Cleggy. |
| Cleggy: | Look, I can take you as far as Camden Town. You can get a tube there to wherever you're going. |
| Guy: | You must do what you feel is right, of course. |
The scene dissolves to Cleggy using Guy's computer. He seems quite frustrated with having to use a 2400 baud modem. His frustration increases when he loads up alt.gothic and finds absolutely no messages at all, not even the one he'd posted earlier. He loads up alt.control to see if anything strange is going on. He finds a series of forged cancel messages. He points this out to Guy.
| Cleggy: | It looks like trolls did this, all right. Look, here's the same NNTP-Posting-Host, similar return paths. It's just...I never heard of them doing anything this big before. |
| Guy: | They didn't. But we are meant to think they did. These paths are all forged from the same site. Trolls always forge different paths to hide their numbers. |
| Cleggy: | This is the site I posted to tell you about the laptop and Kara. |
| Guy: | And these message id's, too accurate for trolls. Only professional hackers are so precise. |
| Cleggy: | Why would professional hackers want to cancel posts on alt.gothic? |
Cleggy looks back at the kitchen where Kara is playing solitaire on the laptop, and puts two and two together. | |
| Cleggy: | If they traced the post here, they would have learned where I posted it from. And that would lead them back... Cyberia! |
Cleggy reaches a sudden horrible realisation, then races out the door to catch the tube to Goodge Street | |
| Guy: | Wait, Cleggy! It's too dangerous. |
Cleggy races off leaving Guy and Kara alone in Guy's flat. | |
The scene cuts to Cyberia where there is coffee spilled everywhere. The staff are all upset and all the computers are down, with their entire hard drives wiped. He sees the remains of the terminal he was using earlier. He is stunned, and cannot speak. Hate replaces fear and a new resolve comes over him. He turns and leaves.
The scene cuts back to Guy's flat as Cleggy walks dejectedly through the door
| Guy: | There's nothing you could have done, Cleggy, had you been there. You're account would have been killed, too, and the laptop would now be in the hands of Melody Maker. |
| Cleggy: | I want to join you at UCL. I've no net access now. I want to learn the ways of Gothic Music and become a net.goth. |
Fade out