SYNOPSIS:

A night out at a club creates an explosive turning point in Cole and Pete's relationship. Read 'Planets In Water opening' on Wattpad http://wattpad.com/27824850?utm_source=web:reading&utm_medium=twitter …

PLANETS IN WATER OPENING

SC1 INT. CELEBRITIES CLUB - DAY - VANCOUVER - 2014 [ON STAGE, A GROUP OF TRANS WOMAN AND DRAG QUEENS SET UP FOR THE EVENING’S CHARITY DRAG SHOW. NAOMI SWARTZ, 22, PETITE TRANS WOMAN HOLDS A PAIR OF SCISSORS AS SHE CUTS PAPER INTO CONFETTI. THE CONFETTI DROPS INTO A JAR PLACED ATOP A TROLLEY. A DRAG QUEEN PERCHES ON THE SECOND RUNG OF A HALF LADDER, WEARING GOLD GO-GO BOOTS AND A GOLD MINI SKIRT. THE DRAG QUEEN ATTACHES A BANNER STATING ‘THE EAST END YOUTH SOCCER LEAGUE CHARITY DRAG SHOW’ TO THE TOP OF THE STAGE. JASON BOWEN IS SAT AT THE BAR WITH AN ICE TEA. THE LATINO BAR TENDER MIXES DRINKS. THE DOOR TO THE SECURITY CENTRE IS OPEN ACROSS THE CLUB. CONSTABLE SERA RASMUSSEN LEANS OVER TO LOOK AT THE SECURITY MONITOR. THE HEAD OF SECURITY IS SAT IN FRONT OF THE MONITOR. ON THE MONITOR, A BLACK AND WHITE IMAGE SHOWS A RECORDING FROM THE PREVIOUS NIGHT. ON SCREEN, THE CLUB IS PACKED WITH DANCING MALE COUPLES. COLE JACOB BILLINGTON DANCES WITH PETE ROSCHILDE. A DRINK SITS ABANDONED ON A TABLE. A HAND DROPS A POWDERY SUBSTANCE INTO THE DRINK. COLE AND PETE HEAD TOWARDS THE TABLE. PETE PICKS UP THE DRINK, TAKING A LARGE GULP.] CONSTABLE SERA RASMUSSEN “Go back to where the hand came into the frame.” [THE HEAD OF SECURITY PAUSES THE RECORDING. WE SEE JASON SAT AT THE BAR. JASON’S POV.: COLE IS SAT AT THE OPPOSITE END OF THE BAR. PETE IS SAT TO COLE’S LEFT. PETE’S POV.: A PAIR OF MINT BAILEYS ARE SET IN FRONT OF THE TWO.] COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “My people, the Garconer, they were really smart. I mean, the average pure blood Garconer could give Einstein a run for his money.” PETE ROSCHILDE “Let me get this straight Cole, you’re from the planet of the geeks.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Pretty much. Here’s my point-there’s a moral to this story Pete. Traits that fit well amongst a singular culture don’t always stand up against the weight of a warrior based competing species. The intellectual giants of the galaxy were no match for the battle hardened bullies of Humanity. Brilliant minds were no match for the fists and knives of a hate fuelled propaganda machine run by leaders working from their basest instincts, those driven by survival; of a species, a culture and a very way of life. It was a fear driven by evolution’s arrow, a goal for a species’ survival, the will to carry on; the basest drive overtaking Humanity’s better qualities, a weak populace highly motivated to find a scapegoat for the source of their many ills. In the Garconer they thought they found the solution to the source of their society’s failure to thrive.” PETE ROSCHILDE “Sounds like history repeating itself.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “People never learn, do they Pete? You know how people are when the economy has gone to crap? In a tale as old as time, Humanity’s descendents sought to search outwards for a source much easier found within. The Garconer came to represent everything wrong with the universe, an easy target, one thought never to put up much of a fight; easy to take down, the bullies overtaking the weak. Innocent of everything but the pure and unvarnished truth of this one thing. They were better than Humanity. In everything they set out to do, they were truly better than their Human cousins.” PETE ROSCHILDE “You my friend should be ashamed of yourself.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “I am.” PETE ROSCHILDE “That’s good.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Released from their long dead animal natures sloughed off through eons of evolution and gene augmentation, the intellectual giants of the galaxy managed to throw off the shackles of their species’ former lower natures. Like all higher species, they weren’t all that different from mankind.” PETE ROSCHILDE “Go on. Regale me with some military history.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Humanity’s enmity towards such a benign force derived from a childish instinct, a sense of fairness and even handedness in the cards they’d been dealt by the universe; seeing in the Garconer a species far in advance of Humanity, both in intellectual prowess as well as in the care of the soul. Coming together as a community in common cause, the Garconer worked for the betterment of the entire species.” PETE ROSCHILDE “How so?” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Millennia before Humanity built the first city states; the Home World of my ancestors was already thriving in its scientific endeavours. Each and every one of its major population centres was home to its own centre of scientific research.” PETE ROSCHILDE “It sounds promising.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “It was. Er, so I’ve been told.” PETE ROSCHILDE “How’s that then?” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “I never got to see the Home World for myself. I just know the stories my father told me as a boy and the written records I studied in school. We lost our way back; I suppose my ancestors never had a Garconer version of leaving out bread crumbs.” PETE ROSCHILDE “They couldn’t figure out how to find their way home; how did that happen?” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “They just kept travelling, they never stopped. They wanted to experience it all, all the universe had to offer. All the sights and sounds, all the wonder and the beauty, they wanted to know it all. At some point, they went too far, got thrown off course, who knows what went wrong. They were too far out; their universal coordinate guiding system no longer making sense. They say different areas of the universe may be running on different rates of time; I suppose it’s possible this part of the universe is slightly out of phase with the Garconer Home World, or something.” PETE ROSCHILDE “Another dimension.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Perhaps.” [NAOMI SWARTZ WANDERS TOWARDS THE BAR CARRYING A BUNDLE OF BLUE FLYERS FOR THE EVENING’S FESTIVITIES. NAOMI STOPS BEHIND COLE.] NAOMI SWARTZ “Hey fellas, are you going to donate to the East End Youth Soccer Fund? Tonight should be a blast, you should come.” [NAOMI HANDS COLE A FLYER.] NAOMI SWARTZ “There’ll be lots of pretty girls, and boys playing at being girls for the evening.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Sounds intriguing.” PETE ROSCHILDE “I’ve no interest in girls, or faux girls.” NAOMI SWARTZ “Suit yourself.” [NAOMI HEADS TOWARDS THE OPPOSITE END OF THE BAR. NAOMI TAKES A SEAT NEXT TO JASON. NAOMI’S POV.: ACROSS THE CLUB, WE SEE SERA THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR OF THE SECURITY CENTRE. SERA’S POV.: ON THE MONITOR COLE DANCES CLOSE WITH PETE. THE MONITOR DISAPPEARS. WE’RE NOW ON THE DANCE FLOOR THE PREVIOUS NIGHT. COLE DANCES CLOSE TO PETE. OTHER COUPLES DANCE AROUND THEM. A SLOW BALLAD PLAYS OVER THE SOUND SYSTEM. COLE SMILES IN CONTENTMENT.] COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Have I told you lately that I love you?” [WE SEE PETE’S EYES. HE’S HIGH ON THE DRUG POURED INTO HIS DRINK. PETE DARTS A HAND TOWARDS COLE’S CROTCH, SQUEEZING COLE’S BUTTOCKS WITH THE OTHER. COLE NUDGES THE FINGERS EDGING THEIR WAY DOWN HIS TROUSERS AWAY. PETE MAKES ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT THE PREVIOUS ACTION. HE’S REBUFFED A SECOND TIME.] PETE ROSCHILDE “Hey hot stuff, hows about you and I head into the men’s room. Let’s have us some fun.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “What, in there? Ew! That’s what we’ve got the condo for.” [COLE STEPS BACK, GAZING AT PETE’S STRUNG OUT EYES FOR A BEAT. COLE PLACES A HAND ON PETE’S SHOULDER, GUIDING HIM TOWARDS THE FRONT ENTRANCE.] COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Let’s go.” CUT TO: - SC2. INT. BILLINGTON\ROSCHILDE CONDO - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT - COAL HARBOUR - 2014 [COLE FACES OFF AGAINST PETE, THE PAIR STOOD ON THE EDGE OF THE HARDWOOD FLOORING IN THE LIVING ROOM. A VIEW OF THE BUSINESS DISTRICT AT NIGHT GREETS US THROUGH A LARGE WINDOW. A BLACK LEATHER COUCH IS SAT IN THE CENTRE OF THE ROOM. ON THE FLOOR IS AN ORIENTAL THROW RUG. PAST THAT IS A BIG SCREEN TV. A BLACK STANDING LAMP IS POSITIONED TO THE RIGHT OF THE COUCH. BEHIND THE COUCH IS A KITCHENETTE. A DOOR LEADS TO COLE’S ART STUDIO BEHIND THE KITCHENETTE. PAST THE STANDING LAMP, A CORRIDOR LEADS TO A BEDROOM AND THE BATHROOM. THREE CONNECTED PAINTINGS SIGNED BY COLE ARE SET AGAINST THE WALL OPPOSITE THE TV. FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, THESE CONSIST OF A PORTRAIT OF TRISTAN, A PORTRAIT OF JENSON STAR AND A PORTRAIT OF SPRING HEEL JACK.] COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “You can’t possibly mean that Pete.” PETE ROSCHILDE “I most certainly do, every single word of it. You mean nothing to me Cole. Nothing, nada, a big fat zero. Truthfully, you could mean everything to me, I just don’t want to let you in. See, I know you prefer the women; you can deny it all you want, but look at the facts. I know you love Sera; if Gerald wasn’t in the picture, don’t tell me you wouldn’t leave me in a heartbeat. Your first love, Anna, Emily. Not sure about your wife Carmina. Cecil was technically female and Horatio; well he was a drag queen wasn’t he? Which aspect were you really attracted to, hmm Cole? So I put a wall up, wondering when you’re going to leave me. Then I lash out, trying to make you leave out of some sort of; actually I’m not quite sure what it’s about.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “I’ll tell you what it’s about. I don’t know how much more of this I can take, Pete. This thing we have going on here? It’s become the very definition of an abusive relationship. You played me, love. You so played me. Was this your plan all along, or could you just not help yourself? Is there a part of you real deep down in the depths of your psyche that needed to cause me pain, hmm? Let’s see, how can I mess this guy up just a little bit more? It’s so insidious Pete, it starts out so miniscule, so minor I really didn’t give it any thought. Ten years ago, I was at the end of my rope; lonely as fuck. I was ready to find someone to settle down with and along you come, my sexy knight in shining armour. I was so lonely, I was willing to overlook a few mean words. It was just a bit of fun, wasn‘t it, just another piece of ass? It didn’t mean anything, so I didn’t mind if you were a bit mean. It’s what I liked best about you back then, what drew me to you. You were my bully boy, I found it so fucking sexy. But you took it too far Pete, I‘m not going to take it any more. See there? That look right there tells me all you want me to know buddy. You get off on the power trip of lording it over me.” PETE ROSCHILDE “How do I lord it over you Cole?” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Have you forgotten the species differentiation you hold in position to me Pete? I’m half alien; not a day goes by that I don’t consider the idea that one day my luck could change. My employers could betray me, turn me into an alien autopsy case. Its unlikely, but that fear is still there. After all, it was the superior Garconer genome that led to Human jealously and thus scapegoating of my people during the Ghost Wars. We live five times as long, have a lower infant mortality rate, a stronger immune system and a much higher I.Q. average. Those are all genetic attributes. Arriving here in eighteen seventy, I tried to give the entire thing a positive spin. As heartbroken as I was for my lost future and for the people I loved, I realized one good thing came out of this mess. Finally I was in a world where no one would know of my alien heritage; I could settle down with a woman, have her give me a couple of kids. I could never do that in my own era, I’d get too many dirty looks from those disapproving of men like me jamming up the gene pool with our mix breed stock.” PETE ROSCHILDE “I do believe you just made my point for me Cole. I envy you for what you once had. Imagine living in an era where scientists have an entire galaxy to study. The things you know Cole.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Garconer and Incubi are both examples of sentient species with androgynous programming running the genetic structures. Both our species get our source of animal protein from fish and birds. Both our home worlds are sparse on land animals. Garconer put all their focus into science and spirituality. Because both aspects are as important as the other, you don’t end up with cases of people putting knowledge ahead of the wellbeing of others. Incubi put all their focus into relationships with others and the women run the show. My ma had two husbands. Garconer believe best propagation results come from using a different father for each child. Species evolve faster and you get more diversity in the gene pool. I believe my mother loved my primary father romantically, viewing my secondary father as more of a friend.” PETE ROSCHILDE “Friends with benefits.” [COLE HEADS TOWARDS THE COUCH. PETE TAKES A SEAT NEXT TO COLE.] COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Humanity mixed stock with Garconer in immense numbers. A lot of alien species were just too different from Humans to make breeding viable. So it was my people the Divisionists really wanted out of the picture. Once we cottoned on to what was truly creating the idea of division, we were able to chose to refuse to go along with it.” PETE ROSCHILDE “Sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo to me Cole.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Yes I know Pete, you disdain anything feminine in yourself. Nobody’s going to make you do anything.” PETE ROSCHILDE “Darn right; I’m guessing these Divisionists were opposed to species mixing?” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Humanity was in the process of evolving an entirely new branch to its family tree; scaring diehard traditionalists half to death. People like me; fifty, fifty splits of Garconer and Human; you could say we were the new Adam and Eves of a brand new species. Their fear derived from a desire to stay the same, to keep the Human species the way it’s been for thousands of years. Despite its short brush with interspecies intolerance throughout the bulk of my childhood, the people of Earth eventually manage for the most part to grow out of that childish phase. By the year fifty one twenty, the year I was swept up by the gravity well; the Earth was well and truly headed towards becoming a mature and accepting cosmopolitan civilization. Ironically, in an unfortunate twist of misogynistic pathos, some Duke or some such discovered his wife having an affair with a Garconer man who managed to knock her up; it all went downhill from there.” PETE ROSCHILDE “For want of a condom, a battle raged.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Far across the stars. Later on, Horatio got me interested in the history of the first half of the twentieth century. He had a real interest in that time period; adoring the fashions and the era’s literary output; drawing great inspiration for his art from the events of the past century. I began looking into the historical records of the time, realizing that the politics under-girding the atrocities of the second world war were quite pertinent to the crux of the matter in my own contemporary life. Three thousand years later, give or take a century or so; history was set on a collision course with a destiny waiting to repeat itself. I should know love, seeing how I have now lived through both periods of history. I quite frankly don‘t know which point was worse.” PETE ROSCHILDE “Sometimes I forget how old you truly are, Cole.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “You’re not just with an older man; you’re with a much older man.” PETE ROSCHILDE “Who often acts a bit like a child.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Hey accept me how I am; because I ain’t changing for no one.” PETE ROSCHILDE “From where I’m stood, change is all you seem to do Cole.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Oh for God’s sake Pete.” [COLE JUMPS TO HIS FEET, CROSSING TO THE FRONT ENTRANCE.] COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “Just when we’re starting to enjoy a nice conversation, you have to go and ruin it. Sweet dreams my Prince, if you can bear to have any.” [COLE OPENS THE DOOR INTO THE CORRIDOR. COLE TURNS, GAZING AT PETE. PETE GETS TO HIS FEET.] COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “I do love you Pete. You own me; my heart, my body, my very soul if such a thing exists. You own it all. But not much longer; one of these days, I’ll manage to get my act together, I’ll be out of here. You can have the entire place to yourself. You can have it all, I don’t care.” [COLE TAKES ANOTHER STEP INTO THE CORRIDOR.] COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “I’ll call you in the morning once we both have a chance to chill off. I’ll head back to work for the night, I‘m not staying here; that’s for bloody certain.” PETE ROSCHILDE “Cole don’t go, stay here with me baby.” COLE JACOB BILLINGTON “No, I fucking won’t stay here; not tonight. I could do with some peace and quiet about now.” CUT TO: -