A Geek Love Story/Geek Love

Outline Draft 1

By Emlyn Freeman

     We open on Bradley Digges, a young reporter for the local paper in the small Washington town of Three Forks. He is a normal guy, but dissatisfied though he can’t figure out why. He is covering a Renaissance Fair with his friend and cameraman Derek, a “human interest” piece that bores Bradley to tears, and he and Derek intersperse their interviews with mocking how lame the fair is, and how geeky the attendees are.

     Derek leaves, his job done, but Bradley is stuck at the fair until he can find one more person to interview, a merchant or employee. He wanders the fair, wondering aloud what the attraction is, until he encounters Xenia. Xenia is a Geek Power girl, intensely good-natured and never hiding herself; she is currently dressed as a medieval princess, not filling out the bodice and without Snow White’s complexion, but something about her strikes Bradley. She is entertaining some children, juggling and telling fortunes, and Bradley stays around until the end of her show to interview her.

     During the interview, Xenia tells Bradley that though she enjoys the Ren-Fair, her actual job is much grander and much geekier: she plays the trading-card game “Magic: The Gathering” professionally. After a bit, the interview turns into just a friendly, slightly flirtatious conversation, and Xenia invites Bradley to a “Dungeons & Dragons” role-playing session that evening. Bradley is intrigued, partly by her and partly by this unfamiliar world, and he agrees.

     That night, Bradley comes over to Xenia’s place, a haven for every kind of nerdy knick-knack in existence, and meets her friends, the couple Franklin and Ophelia, who make Xenia look positively normal. They introduce him to Dungeons & Dragons, which he is initially uncomfortable with, but soon gets into playing a Dwarven Barbarian. There is an element of sexual tension as Xenia’s character hits on Bradley’s, and by the end of the night, Bradley and Xenia share a stolen kiss and agree to meet for a date the next day.

     The next day at work, Bradley’s boss Ms. Hewlett congratulates him on his work on the Ren-Fair piece, saying he really sold the human-interest angle with his interview with the “nerdy girl,” and she tells him a space is opening up on the courthouse beat. She says if he keeps up the good work, it could be his.

     For the date, Bradley takes Xenia to the sports bar he usually goes to, but she derides it as boring and takes him to a pizza place frequented by the local geek crowd. They compete at Dance Dance Revolution, and Bradley has more fun than he’s had on any date before. The evening ends with Xenia taking Bradley home and showing him that geek girls know their way around the bedroom.

     Over the next few weeks, we see Bradley falling further into the geek lifestyle: he continues playing D&D, Xenia shows him how to play Magic, and they watch classic geek films and TV shows like Star Trek: The Motion Picture, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and they compete in an endurance test as to who can watch more of Batman & Robin without groaning or wincing.

     Back at work, Derek asks Bradley where he’s been recently, and Bradley hems and haws, refusing to tell Derek about Xenia. Derek says he misses Bradley, and they agree to go bowling that night. At the bowling alley, it turns out to be “sci-fi night,” with the lanes decked out in lights and the employees in costume—and Xenia is there, with Franklin and Ophelia. Bradley spots her, and engages in hi-jinks to hide her from Derek. Xenia figures out what’s going on, and says they’re going to have to talk about this.

     After Bradley escapes from bowling with Derek, he goes over to Xenia’s to apologize. She’s hurt, and they argue over the fact that he’s so ashamed of her that he will go to such extreme lengths to hide their relationship. Bradley says that she doesn’t fit into his normal life, but she says that he just has to adjust what he thinks of as his “normal” life. He relents, and agrees to meet with her for lunch at the paper to meet his friends and boss.

     Bradley is working on a new fluff piece, bored silly, when Xenia arrives at the newspaper offices in full costume as a Serra Angel from “Magic: The Gathering.” Bradley is embarrassed, but introduces her to Derek and Ms. Hewlett. Derek, appalled at this girl but willing to give her a chance, proposes a double-date. Bradley agrees, and Xenia suggests they turn it into a triple-date by inviting Franklin and Ophelia.

     The date starts out okay, though vaguely uncomfortable, as Derek and the blonde bimbo he brought with him make small talk that isn’t picked up by the geeks, and vice versa. Eventually, Xenia, Franklin, and Ophelia start a lively discussion on the differences between The Lord of the Rings books vs. movies, and Bradley gets sucked into it as Derek looks on, confused and irritated at the change in his friend.

     Not long afterward, Bradley realizes he’s being ostracized at work when the whole reporting staff goes to lunch together and doesn’t invite him. He asks Derek what’s going on, and Derek explains that everybody is uncomfortable with the changes Derek’s been going through, and especially his new girlfriend. Bradley protests that he isn’t changing, but Derek shrugs it off.

     That night in bed, Bradley tells Xenia about being ostracized, and how it hurts him that all his friends have abandoned him. Xenia says “Welcome to the club. The doorman will provide you with your complimentary Vulcan ears,” and assures him that for every friend he loses because of his changes, he will gain another, better and truer friend. Bradley isn’t convinced that he is willing to make the sacrifice.

     Bradley is called in to see Ms. Hewlett, and she says that his work has been suffering lately, and he’s got to get his head back in the game or he can forget about the possibility of the courthouse beat. Bradley commiserates with Derek, who tells Bradley that he’s been worried about him for a while, that this “geek chick” has been changing him for the worse, and now she’s endangering his career. Derek recommends that Bradley dump Xenia, and Bradley reluctantly agrees.

     Bradley breaks up with Xenia at the pizza place where they had their first date, telling her that he’s not willing to sacrifice his whole life to be with her, and that he’s resentful of how she’s changed him. She responds that he changed on his own, because he wasn’t happy in his own life. She tells him that the Magic Pro Tour is starting soon, so she’ll be out of his life for good in a few weeks.

     We see Bradley get back into the swing of things at work, writing articles at lightning speed, each one impressing Ms. Hewlett. He is quickly put on the courthouse beat, and Derek congratulates him on ditching that crazy chick.

     On his first day covering the courthouse, Bradley is bored silly. He tries to stay focused, but keeps thinking about Xenia. Finally, when getting a statement from one of the attorneys in a wrongful termination lawsuit, he accidentally plays back the interview with Xenia on his digital recorder. Upon listening to her voice, he knows what he has to do, and immediately leaves the courthouse. Derek shouts after him, but Bradley ignores him.

     Bradley drives across the state to Seattle, the first stop on the Magic Pro Tour, and on the way he listens to language tapes of a strange, unfamiliar language. Arriving at the convention center where the Pro Tour is happening, Bradley talks his way past security and makes his way across the floor. He finds Xenia in the middle of a match, and drops to one knee. Speaking in Elvish, he proposes to her and gives her an engagement ring modeled after the One Ring from The Lord of the Rings. Overjoyed, Xenia agrees, also in Elvish.

     The final scene is Bradley and Xenia on the plane to the next stop on the Magic Pro Tour. Bradley is reading up on his new job, reporting the events of the Magic matches like a sport reporter, and Xenia is starting to plan a Lord of the Rings theme wedding. They couldn’t be happier.

Northern Gods [working title]

Outline Draft 1

By Emlyn Freeman

     We open on Nathaniel Stroud, an intense and serious office executive in his early forties, as he paces a hospital waiting room. He walks with a slight limp, compensated for with a cane ornately carved with Nordic runes. A doctor comes to talk with him, and tells Stroud that his daughter Penelope’s leukemia isn’t responding to any of the ordinary treatments, and it’s basically only a matter of time until she dies. At the same time, we see Varseth, a strangely-attired man in his late twenties, listening in to the conversation. Stroud and the doctor can neither see nor hear Varseth, and when Stroud mutters a prayer for his daughter’s health under his breath, Varseth catches the energy of the prayer in a thermos and drinks it down.

     Varseth goes off to find someone else praying, and Stroud goes in to see his daughter. Penelope is twelve years old, and fully aware of what’s happening to her. Stroud apologizes for not being there for her, but she stops him and says it’s okay. Visiting hours end, and Stroud is escorted out.

     Stroud retreats to the hospital chapel, where his pleading with God is interrupted by Loki, a smirking, cocky young man. Loki promises Stroud that he can heal Penelope’s cancer if Stroud will do him a favor, and Stroud agrees without even asking what the favor is. Loki tells Stroud that he needs to “go to the world of the Thralls and retrieve the artifacts of Odin.” The room shifts slightly, and Loki tells Stroud that he is now invisible to ordinary people, but the new people he will meet can direct him to the legendary artifacts of Odin, which Stroud must collect in exchange for his daughter’s life.

     Varseth enters the chapel, looking for more people in prayer, and sees Loki. He reacts violently, and he and Loki engage in a brief magical duel, Varseth taking control of the technology and electricity in the room as Loki transforms the flames of the chapel’s candles into a fiery wolf. Stroud watches for a moment, awestruck, then interrupts, allowing Varseth to get in a lucky strike. Loki vanishes.

     Stroud is extremely upset, but Varseth explains that Loki is the nefarious Trickster God of the Norse, and any deal Stroud made with Loki is going to bite him in the ass. Varseth tells Stroud that he is a Thrall, a former slave of the Gods—the Thralls rose up during the Renaissance and overthrew their masters, exiling them, and the fact that Loki is back must mean that they’ve found a way to return. Stroud tells Varseth that Loki wanted the artifacts of Odin, and Varseth says that if Loki wanted them, then he and Stroud have to get to them first. Stroud reluctantly agrees, but only after Varseth explains that these items are the former possessions of Odin, King of the Gods, and they would grant the owner the power to do pretty much anything—whether resurrecting the Gods or healing leukemia.

     The two of them go to find the oldest living Thrall, a former servant of the Thunder God Thor named Thialfi and the only one who might know the location of Odin’s artifacts. Thialfi, an irritable old man by this time, nevertheless understands the threat posed by Loki, and informs Stroud that the artifacts—Odin’s ring Draupnir, his horse Sleipnir, and, most powerful, his spear Gungnir—were scattered long ago, and the only one he knows the location of is the ring. He sends them off to retrieve the ring with the help of his caretaker the Greensman, a dim-witted gardener who lives his life according to parables from “the Seeding Manual.”

     The Greensman leads Stroud and Varseth to a bizarre jungle made of living gold that stands in the middle of the financial district, invisible to the humans that walk through it every day. After trailblazing to the center of the golden jungle, fighting off the carnivorous plants and animals, they retrieve Draupnir, the golden ring that once had the ability to multiply itself every nine days.

     When Stroud places the ring on his finger, he is struck by strange images, seemingly scenes of Viking war and glory. Varseth speculates that they could be Odin’s memories, somehow linked to the ring.

     Unsure as to where to go next, Varseth hesitantly suggests that they consult the White Rooks, a mysterious and dangerous organization who sell information, but at a terrible price. Stroud agrees to see them, and the White Rooks agree to reveal the location of Odin’s horse. One of them, a stark-white raven, plucks out Stroud’s left eye in payment and tells him to seek Odin’s horse in the tunnels of the Tram-Riders.

     Varseth informs Stroud that the Tram-Riders are a group of Thralls who live in abandoned subway and elevated train cars, pulled by bio-mechanical horses, and are extremely mistrustful of outsiders. They infiltrate the Tram-Riders’ tunnels, and Varseth creates havoc with his magical control over their technology as a distraction while Stroud and the Greensman escape on Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged steed.

     Stroud starts having more vision, but this problem is eclipsed when they emerge from the tunnels to find themselves facing the Thunder God Thor. Thor, a giant of a man with a temper to match his fiery red hair and beard, tells Stroud he’s been sent by Loki to fetch Odin’s ring and steed, and proceeds to trounce the three companions, easily countering all of Varseth and the Greensman’s tricks. He leaves Stroud for dead, hanging upside-down from a phone pole.

     When Stroud awakens, he looks at his cane lying below him and covered in runes, and comes to a sudden realization. When Varseth and the Greensman get him down from the pole, Stroud leads them off with newfound determination, refusing to explain what he realized or how he knows where they’re going.

     Stroud, Varseth, and the Greensman sneak inside Loki’s stronghold, a long-abandoned water treatment plant. They see Loki’s guards, eight-foot-tall Frost Giants, and a bizarre mass of piping in the middle of the facility that the Greensman identifies as a manifestation of the World Tree and center of the universe. Stroud sends Varseth and the Greensman to distract the guards, and goes to confront Loki, who is performing a magical ritual with Odin’s ring and horse by the World Tree.

     Loki is unsurprised at Stroud’s arrival, and thanks him for providing him with Odin’s artifacts. He tells Stroud that he will use them to bring the rest of the Gods back from their exile, and he will take control as their new King as they put the world, both of the Thralls and of humanity, under their complete control. Stroud responds that he knows the plan, because he has remembered who he is. Stroud is actually Odin, sent to the mortal world to prepare for the return of the Gods. When he was left for dead by Thor, Stroud remembered his true identity, and that his cane is actually Gungnir, Odin’s spear, the last piece Loki needs to complete his scheme.

     Loki says, unconvincingly, that he is happy Stroud has regained his memory, and that he welcomes Odin’s return as his King. Stroud responds that he has no intention of bringing back the Gods, that his life as a human has taught him that humanity is ready to be left alone, to be free from interference—and that as a human, all he cares about is his daughter. Before Loki can stop him, Stroud smashes his cane against the pipes that make up the World Tree. The cane briefly transforms into a magnificent spear as it snaps in half, and Loki is consumed in fire.

Swirling energy streams from the broken cane, melting the Frost Giants as they are about to kill Varseth and the Greensman. Stroud quickly collects some of the water spouting from the broken pipes of the World Tree in Varseth’s thermos, and tells Varseth that the Gods have been exiled once and for all, and that he is returning to the human world.

Back in normal reality, Stroud returns to the hospital, where he gives Penelope the water from the World Tree to drink. He tells the doctors to run the tests for leukemia again, and they are awestruck to find that the cancer is in complete remission. Stroud simply smiles and hugs his daughter.