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breakinglight11Today's piece is drawn from my ideas for Mrs. Hawking part 6, the one where I plan on dealing with the Ripper murders. One of the questions I'm going to have to answer about that piece is how to personify the client in that case. An obvious opportunity is to have London prosititutes bring the case to Mrs. Hawking out of fear of the monster that's been hunting them. I like the idea of how they are literally the most tossed-aside and abused women in this society, and should theoretically be the most in need of someone like Mrs. Hawking, but they force our heroes to confront their prejudices and notions of what's considered "decent" in order to stand up for these people.
One option I might take is to use canonical victims as the clients. The result of that is that even if our heroes are successful in catching the killer, they are unable to save the people they set out to save, which gives a sense of tragedy that would be useful to the story I want to tell. Another option is to make the client an original character, so I can be freer about that character's fate without history to nail it down. A third option, and the one I'm currently leaning towards, is to have a pair of women come to ask Mrs. Hawking and company for help, and have one be a historical victim and one be an original character, to give me the possibility of their fates diverging-- one is lost and one is saved, perhaps.
This is scene incorporates some events of the historical murders in order to involve our heroes in the events. Spoilers to follow, I guess, but since the Ripper murders are a matter of historical fact, you probably shouldn't be surprised by some of this.
Day #16 - “From a Bloody Nightmare”
From Mrs. Hawking part 6
By Phoebe Roberts
ARTHUR SWANN, policeman of Scotland Yard
MARY STONE, up-and-coming lady’s society avenger
NATHANIEL HAWKING, fellow emerging society avenger
London, England, 1888
~~~
(Mary and Nathaniel are in Mrs. Hawking’s parlor. There is a banging at the door. MARY goes to answer it, and ARTHUR stumbles in, shivering and wrecked.)
MARY: Arthur! What are you doing here? This isn’t the plan!
(She takes in his upset.)
MARY: My God, are you all right? What’s happened?
ARTHUR: Mary. We’ve got it wrong, we’ve got it all wrong.
(He clings to her.)
MARY: What do you mean?
ARTHUR: He isn’t in hiding. We haven’t frighted him off. He knows!
NATHANIEL: Knows what?
ARTHUR: That we’re set on his trail! Not the coppers, the four of us!
NATHANIEL: How do you know that?
ARTHUR: Because he got Miss Kelley!
NATHANIEL: Miss Kelley? You don’t mean—
ARTHUR: He found her! She’s dead, Nathaniel. He did her like the others.
NATHANIEL: Oh, God. Oh, God, no.
ARTHUR: No, it weren’t. It were… worse than the others. Madness. From a bloody nightmare. Her landlord found her in her room at Miller’s Court. When we got to the scene, I saw her, Mary. I went into that room. It was… I weren’t ready. Not for that. Not even after the others.
MARY: Oh, Arthur!
ARTHUR: Never saw even an animal butchered like that. Opened up like a deer, but not dressed out neat. She was… in pieces. Pieces, Mary, all over that room. On the mantelpiece! In the hearth! Everywhere! It were… it were…
(He collapses in on himself, unable to go on.)
MARY: What are we to do?
NATHANIEL: I’ll… I’ll fetch madam. She’ll know what to do.
(He runs out of the room.)
ARTHUR: What can we do?
MARY: We’ll find him. We can— We can still stop him. This isn’t over yet!
ARTHUR: It is for Miss Kelley. We let her down. She came to us for help, and we let the monster find her.
One option I might take is to use canonical victims as the clients. The result of that is that even if our heroes are successful in catching the killer, they are unable to save the people they set out to save, which gives a sense of tragedy that would be useful to the story I want to tell. Another option is to make the client an original character, so I can be freer about that character's fate without history to nail it down. A third option, and the one I'm currently leaning towards, is to have a pair of women come to ask Mrs. Hawking and company for help, and have one be a historical victim and one be an original character, to give me the possibility of their fates diverging-- one is lost and one is saved, perhaps.
This is scene incorporates some events of the historical murders in order to involve our heroes in the events. Spoilers to follow, I guess, but since the Ripper murders are a matter of historical fact, you probably shouldn't be surprised by some of this.
Day #16 - “From a Bloody Nightmare”
From Mrs. Hawking part 6
By Phoebe Roberts
ARTHUR SWANN, policeman of Scotland Yard
MARY STONE, up-and-coming lady’s society avenger
NATHANIEL HAWKING, fellow emerging society avenger
London, England, 1888
~~~
(Mary and Nathaniel are in Mrs. Hawking’s parlor. There is a banging at the door. MARY goes to answer it, and ARTHUR stumbles in, shivering and wrecked.)
MARY: Arthur! What are you doing here? This isn’t the plan!
(She takes in his upset.)
MARY: My God, are you all right? What’s happened?
ARTHUR: Mary. We’ve got it wrong, we’ve got it all wrong.
(He clings to her.)
MARY: What do you mean?
ARTHUR: He isn’t in hiding. We haven’t frighted him off. He knows!
NATHANIEL: Knows what?
ARTHUR: That we’re set on his trail! Not the coppers, the four of us!
NATHANIEL: How do you know that?
ARTHUR: Because he got Miss Kelley!
NATHANIEL: Miss Kelley? You don’t mean—
ARTHUR: He found her! She’s dead, Nathaniel. He did her like the others.
NATHANIEL: Oh, God. Oh, God, no.
ARTHUR: No, it weren’t. It were… worse than the others. Madness. From a bloody nightmare. Her landlord found her in her room at Miller’s Court. When we got to the scene, I saw her, Mary. I went into that room. It was… I weren’t ready. Not for that. Not even after the others.
MARY: Oh, Arthur!
ARTHUR: Never saw even an animal butchered like that. Opened up like a deer, but not dressed out neat. She was… in pieces. Pieces, Mary, all over that room. On the mantelpiece! In the hearth! Everywhere! It were… it were…
(He collapses in on himself, unable to go on.)
MARY: What are we to do?
NATHANIEL: I’ll… I’ll fetch madam. She’ll know what to do.
(He runs out of the room.)
ARTHUR: What can we do?
MARY: We’ll find him. We can— We can still stop him. This isn’t over yet!
ARTHUR: It is for Miss Kelley. We let her down. She came to us for help, and we let the monster find her.
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