A Tale Of Flesh and Fiber

by pazu7

Of flesh and blood was he, fiber and wire was she, yet interfaced in the face of all that their bond decried. Was it really love, or just the illusion of such, which flared so brightly, and then died?

4. Chapter 4

A Tale of Flesh And Fiber
By Bryan Harrison

Act 1 Scene 4

Having now made his timely entrance and requisite soliloquy, Romeo is drawn from the edge of his despair to assail the gates of delirium beyond which his countrymen are engaged in the ancient rite of blood and electricity. From this embattled ground has issued a light that pierced the gloom of his solitude. For want of her name, he runs headlong into the fray, heedless of what injuries may come.

ROMEO
Countrymen, desist! Temper your ill-tempered steel!

The fighting subsides as the men of Cirrus heed the call of the favored son of their House. The Mechanique stand by, prepared to reengage if so called. Sampson is angered by this intrusion.

SAMPSON
What haughty wind would extinguish this righteous rage? Romeo? Tepid tempered twit! Retreat to frolic in the fields of your pacific fantasies, with your foppish toys, your poetry and lofty ruminations! These are no grounds for play! Here there be men!

The Cirran soldiers laugh, but Gregory silences them with a glare.

GREGORY
Speak you to the heir of our House! Subordinate your tongue or lose its place in the civil discourse of our policies!

ROMEO
No, Gregory. I need no shield from the brunt of my brother's brutish bating. Tis no playground you say, Sampson. Aye. Yet play is what you enact with these discarded toys, on the stage of your imperial pretensions. If men ye truly be, disengage from these harmless machines and the reckless passions that provoked you. I shall seek to redo with words what peace has been undone without.

Realizing he has spoken above his office, Sampson acquiesces reluctantly.

SAMPSON
As you wish, brother. Hold no resentment for my un-courtly manner and speak not of this to our father. Shame precedes my repent as I shall precede you, with these men, to the borders of our estate. There we will await your timely return.

The men depart begrudgingly as Romeo approaches the Mecha, who watch him with caution.

ROMEO
Still your alarm, Mechanique, for I present thee no threat, but a gift of entreaty. Which among you has the hard and soft wares of wit and wisdom to speak on your Clan's behalf? Let he, though he not be a man, speak as one, to one.

Bishop steps forth, nicked and bruised from battle but presenting a steadfast face.

BISHOP
I am cast in that role, or miscast it may be, for no caste delineation have we to determine authority, except age, in which I am abundantly qualified.

ROMEO
No more miscast could you be than myself, Romeo, heir to Cirrus, as an unprecedented diplomat; or our House in the role of decider of your fates, ill-suited perhaps, but thrust into that office as cousin to the creators of your kind.

BISHOP
You are of a kind more kind than your House has been to me, Bishop, as I am called by mine. We seem of a like mind, you and I, that we prefer Peace to her brazen, warring sibling, or yours, who finds solace only in the suffering of enemies, real or designed. Be there others among you of a sentiment not dissimilar from that which I perceived between us?

ROMEO
Aye. My Father, though patriarch he be, is an even tempered and reasoning man. Justice, the constitution of our House, is no less engrained in him. Arrogance, the bane of civility, taints him not, nor is he so bound by tradition as to let intolerance blind his eye to the future. So this I propose: a meeting of our tribes, that we may find a ground common to our separate hemispheres. There, fresh seeds may be sown, and from them a stable future grown.

From the crest of the hill Sampson pulls Gregory aside and gestures to conversation below.

SAMPSON
The favored son speaks appeasement to the robo-king. What treason is this?

GREGORY
He speaks certainly of peace.

SAMPSON
The same! Were I so equipped as those foul children of our minds, to spy at such a distance, I would surely hear what my heart suspects!

GREGORY
The usual suspects I suppose; treachery, conspiracy and coup; lions and tigers and bears of your fretful fantasies. Oh my. Find yourself a better tale … and spine.

SAMPSON
Unproved is not unwarranted, and unwarranted is yet unproved. Quiet now, that I may discern as best my Organic device allows, what whispers pass between our brother and the king of the fiber-head Clan.

Sampson sneaks down the hillside to a place where he can better hear the negotiations between Romeo and Bishop.

BISHOP
Were the plains of our foreseeable futures so possessed with promise as your speech, no hesitation would precede my decision. But no field is more overgrown with the weeds of our troubled past than that which lies between us, good Orga. Memories as fresh as the nanosecond brevity of our recalling are ever displayed in our minds; of Flesh'd Fairs and pits where my savaged and ruined brethren lay, smoke'd and sizzling with the fire of their brutal and untimely demise. Nay. Neither of us can see what future lies beyond that fusty foliage. Better we should retreat to hide among our own.

ROMEO
Then among your own would you perish, for among us are those who seek only war, and will rest not until their unjust ends are achieved … or just ones met. Trust is a belated request, but no later than the hour for truce. So honor me this: Come this night. Bring those of your Clan that are not too despaired of men to humor our attempt. I will see to your safe arrival and return.

BISHOP
Have you such sway among your own?

ROMEO
Only as much sway as a child that's used to getting his way, but on this matter I will be surely heard.

BISHOP
Then hear this, my revision: Upon darkness falling, I shall lay upon one of my Clan a task, a journey from which I still fear he may not return, to the doorstep of your House to test the waters, so to speak. If I should see him again, unscathed and reporting a temperature of my liking, then I shall honor your belated request.

ROMEO
I ask only that which serves nary offense as well as achieving my desire. To ask more would do neither. I shall announce your emissary's arrival and assure his state of repair be the same 'ponst his return. But may I… well, there is one other matter heavily on me.

BISHOP
What subject would be so tenderly trod to have you fear misstep?

ROMEO
Before, in the midst of my warring brother's dispute, I spied among your Clan, a face as fair as any Orga. Nay, fairer. The limits of your construct notwithstanding, would she be kin in a manner similar to blood?

BISHOP
She is one of us, yea.

ROMEO
To see her again, where arms entwine in revelry, as opposed to rivalry, I would call that a treat worthy of entreating.

BISHOP
No child was I ever, but surely as spoiled in holding sway, at least among my own. I'll do what I can to see to that end when you see to my emissary's timely return. Adieu, Romeo, truly a prince among your kind.

ROMEO
Adieu.

Bishop departs and the Clan Mechanique follows. Romeo watches their retreat, searching the mechanical throng desperately for the face that awoke his passion. But he cannot find her. In time, he turns and scurries up the hill, passing Sampson who hides behind some brush.

SAMPSON
So, princely Romeo petitions more for a piece than for peace. Ho! The patronizing pretense in which he cloaks his perversion! I am outdone! But not undone. Would our father hear of the bestial beseeching of his favored spawn, would he not see fit to foil this foul union? I know not, but gamble a losing hand against his love for the brat. Hmmm … better an organized chaos to sour the budding fruits of this truce.

Call it treaty or treason; in my eyes they are the same,
Romeo cloaks his passions in reason, but two can play at that game.

(cont…)