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breakinglight11) wrote2019-08-14 10:49 am
breakinglight11) wrote2019-08-14 10:49 am
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31 Plays in 31 Days, #14 - "Friendless"
I'm planning on being useless for the next couple days, now that I've finished the first draft of Hawking 6. I can use the break before I dive into editing the thing. But still got to do my posting, because I am committed to this by-now-mostly-just-burdensome August challenge.
This scene immediately follows Day #5 - "Dangerous" and is the first part of the gang interviewing the "clients" for this episode. As I've mentioned, that will be the historical figure Mary Jane Kelly (whose middle name I'm including to distinguish her name from our lead Mary's) and an original character, a Whitechapel workhouse nurse I've named Violet Strallan. It's a goal of mine to humanize and give significance to figures who are kind of just thought of as butchered victims of a serial killer, including challenging the biases and prejudices of our heroes. I think I've done it too clumsily in this scene and it will need lots of massaging to make this flow properly, but the ideas are there. At least I know what to edit for.
Somehow Nathaniel being TERRIFIED of prostitutes and having NO IDEA HOW TO TALK TO ONE, but still not wanting to be rude about it, feels really right to me.
Day #14 - "Friendless"
From Mrs. Hawking VI
By Phoebe Roberts
London, England, 1888
VICTORIA HAWKING, lady's society avenger, late forties
MARY STONE, her housemaid and assistant, late twenties
NATHANIEL HAWKING, her gentleman nephew and assistant, mid thirties
MARY JANE KELLY, a Whitechapel prostitute, late twenties
VIOLET STRALLAN, a Whitechapel nurse, late twenties
~~~
(The bell rings. MARY lets in MARY JANE KELLY with VIOLET STRALLAN.)
MRS. HAWKING:
Good afternoon, Miss Kelly. Thank you for coming. These are my assistants, my maid, Miss Stone, and my nephew, Mr. Hawking.
MARY JANE:
(To NATHANIEL) You all right then, sir?
NATHANIEL:
Ah— I’m sorry. It’s only— I’ve never met one before. One of you before. Not that it isn’t a pleasure to make your acquaintance— the way it would any lady— if I may call you lady— I’ve only never had occasion, to— meet one. One of you. I’m married— I’m not the sort— not that it— oh, good heavens.
MARY JANE:
…Pleasure to meet you too.
VIOLET:
Blimey. Fancy place you’ve got here.
MRS. HAWKING:
I take it you are Miss Strallan?
VIOLET:
Yes, ma’am. And I’d be obliged if we could get on with things. I’ll have to be getting back across town for work.
MARY:
We’ll get to it, then. So you knew all of the four victims?
VIOLET:
Knew might be a bit strong— but I met them. Over the course of my work, I ran into them here and there.
MARY:
Are you… in the same profession as Miss Kelly?
VIOLET:
Me? Oh, no— I’m a nurse. I used to have a place with a doctor in town, but... now it’s the infirmaries, or for folks about in the neighborhood.
MARY JANE:
Do you think we’re all prostitutes, then?
MRS. HAWKING:
Apologies, we meant no offense. It’s only since you and the others—
MARY JANE:
Polly and Annie weren’t neither.
NATHANIEL:
They weren’t?
MRS. HAWKING:
How can you be so certain?
MARY JANE:
Because folks would have said! I told you, I been asking around. Nobody saying it but the newspapermen who make up whatever they please.
VIOLET:
And what difference if they were?
MRS. HAWKING:
Indeed. Then, when you say the infirmaries, you refer to those in the workhouses?
VIOLET:
Yes, ma’am. That’s where I met them— they’d come to stay, and came in taken ill.
MARY:
Do you recall when?
VIOLET:
What, each one? Can’t rightly say, but… all of them in the last year or so.
MRS. HAWKING:
When you saw them, was there anyone else who was also about at all the same times? A particular doctor, perhaps?
VIOLET:
I… I don’t remember.
MRS. HAWKING:
Think on it— who might have been in same place to encounter them when you did?
VIOLET:
I don’t know, all right? It weren’t always the same workhouse, you see?
MRS. HAWKING:
You went between them?
NATHANIEL:
More than once? Why?
VIOLET:
Weren’t my choice. Handed me my walking papers.
MRS. HAWKING:
Why? We’ve no time for games, Miss Strallan.
MARY JANE:
Might as well tell, Violet.
VIOLET:
I… I’ve a taste for drink. They catch me at the cabinet a time too many, then toss me out for a few months, and I go between the two.
MRS. HAWKING:
I see.
MARY JANE:
Here now, what’s it matter?
MRS. HAWKING:
When you said you had a witness, I’d hoped she remembered something of use.
NATHANIEL:
Madam, please—
VIOLET:
I didn’t knew it were something worth recalling!
MRS. HAWKING:
But a madman may have walked in your midst. A madman may still be! Do you want more victims to end up like the rest?
MARY JANE:
I thought you meant to protect us, not shame us.
VIOLET:
What’s that they say of you? You help folks who ain’t got nobody else. Well, let me tell you— there’s nobody more friendless than us.
This scene immediately follows Day #5 - "Dangerous" and is the first part of the gang interviewing the "clients" for this episode. As I've mentioned, that will be the historical figure Mary Jane Kelly (whose middle name I'm including to distinguish her name from our lead Mary's) and an original character, a Whitechapel workhouse nurse I've named Violet Strallan. It's a goal of mine to humanize and give significance to figures who are kind of just thought of as butchered victims of a serial killer, including challenging the biases and prejudices of our heroes. I think I've done it too clumsily in this scene and it will need lots of massaging to make this flow properly, but the ideas are there. At least I know what to edit for.
Somehow Nathaniel being TERRIFIED of prostitutes and having NO IDEA HOW TO TALK TO ONE, but still not wanting to be rude about it, feels really right to me.
Day #14 - "Friendless"
From Mrs. Hawking VI
By Phoebe Roberts
London, England, 1888
VICTORIA HAWKING, lady's society avenger, late forties
MARY STONE, her housemaid and assistant, late twenties
NATHANIEL HAWKING, her gentleman nephew and assistant, mid thirties
MARY JANE KELLY, a Whitechapel prostitute, late twenties
VIOLET STRALLAN, a Whitechapel nurse, late twenties
~~~
(The bell rings. MARY lets in MARY JANE KELLY with VIOLET STRALLAN.)
MRS. HAWKING:
Good afternoon, Miss Kelly. Thank you for coming. These are my assistants, my maid, Miss Stone, and my nephew, Mr. Hawking.
MARY JANE:
(To NATHANIEL) You all right then, sir?
NATHANIEL:
Ah— I’m sorry. It’s only— I’ve never met one before. One of you before. Not that it isn’t a pleasure to make your acquaintance— the way it would any lady— if I may call you lady— I’ve only never had occasion, to— meet one. One of you. I’m married— I’m not the sort— not that it— oh, good heavens.
MARY JANE:
…Pleasure to meet you too.
VIOLET:
Blimey. Fancy place you’ve got here.
MRS. HAWKING:
I take it you are Miss Strallan?
VIOLET:
Yes, ma’am. And I’d be obliged if we could get on with things. I’ll have to be getting back across town for work.
MARY:
We’ll get to it, then. So you knew all of the four victims?
VIOLET:
Knew might be a bit strong— but I met them. Over the course of my work, I ran into them here and there.
MARY:
Are you… in the same profession as Miss Kelly?
VIOLET:
Me? Oh, no— I’m a nurse. I used to have a place with a doctor in town, but... now it’s the infirmaries, or for folks about in the neighborhood.
MARY JANE:
Do you think we’re all prostitutes, then?
MRS. HAWKING:
Apologies, we meant no offense. It’s only since you and the others—
MARY JANE:
Polly and Annie weren’t neither.
NATHANIEL:
They weren’t?
MRS. HAWKING:
How can you be so certain?
MARY JANE:
Because folks would have said! I told you, I been asking around. Nobody saying it but the newspapermen who make up whatever they please.
VIOLET:
And what difference if they were?
MRS. HAWKING:
Indeed. Then, when you say the infirmaries, you refer to those in the workhouses?
VIOLET:
Yes, ma’am. That’s where I met them— they’d come to stay, and came in taken ill.
MARY:
Do you recall when?
VIOLET:
What, each one? Can’t rightly say, but… all of them in the last year or so.
MRS. HAWKING:
When you saw them, was there anyone else who was also about at all the same times? A particular doctor, perhaps?
VIOLET:
I… I don’t remember.
MRS. HAWKING:
Think on it— who might have been in same place to encounter them when you did?
VIOLET:
I don’t know, all right? It weren’t always the same workhouse, you see?
MRS. HAWKING:
You went between them?
NATHANIEL:
More than once? Why?
VIOLET:
Weren’t my choice. Handed me my walking papers.
MRS. HAWKING:
Why? We’ve no time for games, Miss Strallan.
MARY JANE:
Might as well tell, Violet.
VIOLET:
I… I’ve a taste for drink. They catch me at the cabinet a time too many, then toss me out for a few months, and I go between the two.
MRS. HAWKING:
I see.
MARY JANE:
Here now, what’s it matter?
MRS. HAWKING:
When you said you had a witness, I’d hoped she remembered something of use.
NATHANIEL:
Madam, please—
VIOLET:
I didn’t knew it were something worth recalling!
MRS. HAWKING:
But a madman may have walked in your midst. A madman may still be! Do you want more victims to end up like the rest?
MARY JANE:
I thought you meant to protect us, not shame us.
VIOLET:
What’s that they say of you? You help folks who ain’t got nobody else. Well, let me tell you— there’s nobody more friendless than us.
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I don't know if this helps, and I certain don't want to add to any sense of burden or commitment here, but -- I really enjoy reading these scenelets. I'm of the "save several pieces of pepperoni for the last bite of pizza" school of savoring the bits I particularly enjoy, which is why I've had 31 tabs open in my browser, and am reading a few at a time when the right opportunity presents itself. Putting together the puzzle of the next Hawking mystery from these nibbles is quite a lot of fun.
(And Nathaniel's awkward line was a laugh-out-loud for me...)
no subject