The Last Time Machine. Forum Versailles, Hall of Mirrors

She lifted her head and realised that she had dozed off. She had been waiting outside the Kings Chamber but obviously he had forgotten her. With some relief and a wicked, wicked smile, she picked up her skirts and ran down the hall and out of the mansion, into the night.

START EPISODE TWO (pretty please if you remember, help out a poor dull old man and put this notice on your start of EPISODE TWO. Thankyou if you remember, never mind if you don't)

[Narnie runs along a cobbled street and enters a small dwelling which is lit by only one candle to see him seated with his plans spread out in front of him. She slowly approaches TEMP from behind and brushes his neck with a gentle kiss. He looks at her expectantly and she giggles...]

'The arrogant fool fell asleep. I didn't have to meet with him at all but look .. I have what you asked for.' [She reaches under her skirts and pulls a shard of mirrored glass, wrapped in a silk hankerchief from the elastic of her bloomers.]

"Now come to bed, old man. There will be time tomorrow."

[He wraps the glass back in the hankerchief and lifts a floorboard where there is an array of other packages, all carefully wrapped in silk. Narnie appears at the top of the stairs again.]

"If you dont hurry I shall make you pay like everyone else has to" [she runs off giggling with him bounding up the stairs]

(INSERT IGNORE SOMEONE ELSES START OF EPISODE TWO)

(We come back to the same room, dark and wooden, a candle comes down the stairs help by TEMP in a red and white nightdress and pointy cap with furry ball. He crosses to the loose floorboard, takes the piece of mirror unwraps it, passes the candle underneath it to warm it up. Looks over his shoulder to make sure Narnies not coming down the stairs. Takes out another parcel and unwraps it. It's a black note book with strange designs. Opens it to a page where there is a line drawing of concentric ripples in a pond, holds the mirror over it. The reflection and drawing merge into concentric ripples in a pool of silver mercury and then into a sheet of silver silk which he rips through the air like a magician to reveal......

HIPSTER)

I roll out of nowhere in time, and space...through what seems to be a mirror shard.
This is my second episode....
Im unrolling out of that eternal fetal position, and I realize my clothes are not my own.
Im wearing a corset, with my shoulders bared. My hair is slightly longer, and it's braided down the back.
Im wearing a full skirt, with petticoats and all.

I say out loud, to no one and everyone...

Hello??

I am in a little room, and I still don't know where I am, so I walk out of the room, and I'm in an empty hallway lined with mirrors.

I see a bench, so I sit there, and I ponder on what the hell just happened to me.

(But she's not there. He looks around the room scratching his balding pate. Nowhere. He looks into the shard of mirror, rubs it clean with his silly hat, riffles through the notebook. Shrugs his shoulders throws his head back and bellows,

TEMP - HIPSTERRRRRR!!!! Where are you? (Nothing)

I hear someone calling my name, but it comes from so far away...knowing nothing is as it seems, I get up from the bench, and I walk slowly down the hallway, looking into each mirror I come across, and I knock on it. I don't care if I leave smudges, there's bound to be someone who cleans them...

Hello?!?

Narnie? Temp? Otto? ANYONE.....HELLO!!!!

(Just about to walk dejectedly back up the stairs when he hears something, a tiny hello. Turns back picks up the notebook and holds it to his ear. Shakes it and holds it to his ear again. Grabs his overcoat, but leaves his red and white with furry ball hat on, stuffs the notebook into a pocket and with one final look up the stairs hurries out into the night.)

I have never felt so alone before in my life...I feel so small in this huge place....maybe Ill go exploring...

where to go, where to go....

I knock on each mirror as I pass, not knowing if someone will hear me or not....

(He turns a corner out of a dark back alley into a brightly lit promenade. Welldressed gents and ladies pass, carriages and so forth. He slides to a halt clutching his overcoat around him and surveys. Sees a working girl across the way trawling and scuttles across the promenade. She waves him away without looking at him, smiling at some single gents passing by. Then he is at her shoulder whispering in her ear and pulling out of his sleeve a string of pearls and showing them to her. As she reaches out for them they disappear. He grabs her hand and leads her up the promenade towards the Palace).

The guards at the gate are busy with an angry rabble.

RABBLE - Kill the Queen, Off with her head, viva la Revolution (etc)

He leads the girl past and into a small backdoor in shadows to the palace.

COOK - What another one?

TEMP - Well, he is the SUN KING after all (shaking his head and chuckling)

(Leads the girl through a maze of corridors to the Mirror Room.)

TEMP - Now sit there and dont say a word and if anyone, anyone at all, turns up do what they say but make it slow and sweet. And you will have this. (The necklace appears again)

(She reaches out but as she grabs it it turns into a much smaller bracelet. She looks at it, shoves it giggling into her bodice and sits)

TEMP - (rotating around the room in the swirly mirror mirror me mirror mirror cliche shot) Now where is she?

I get tired of wandering around this place, and as Im turning the corner, back to the mirrored hallway, I see him.

Hi you!! Where did you come from? When did you get here? Where in the hell am I?!?

And um....
where is everyone else?

Oh no. You too? I was hoping you knew. Here's your book, it might help. I can't make head nor tails of it. But we better get out the palace before the Queen wakes up. She's got it in for me for some reason.

(Leads HIPSTER off, back through the waiting room. Leans over and whispers into the ear off the girl who is still waiting and as HIPSTER and TEMP exit we see him shoving the bracelet back into his pocket.)

Narnie wakes up and spreads her arm over the bed to reach him (TEMP). She realises he is gone and smiles to herself. She looks out of the small glazed window at the Palace. She wonders whether she should tell him what she heard last night, while she was within those walls. She knew there was danger coming but had always trusted him to protect her. This time, she wondered whether it was her turn to protect him. She would try and find Chloe. Chloe would know what to do.

She slips out of bed.. dresses quickly. As she turns to leave she remembers one last task...

She ran up the stairs and looked out at the early morning mist. She opens the window and blows a kiss into the cold morning air. "Take this kiss to TEMP, let him know he is my everything. He is my Love." She closes the window and gathers up some peaches, putting them all in an oversized carpet bag. With one last glance, she goes to find Howie. He may be able to advise her on how they save TEMP.

(exits house and runs down cobble streets... as she does, a purple silk scarf that was wrapped around her waist, drops down and falls into a puddle, slowly soaking up the moisture. She carries on unaware)

Exits out of a tiny door, he has to bend over to squeeze out of it from the palace, turns back and calls HIPSTER. Nothing.

TEMP - (whispering) Where did you go now?

Looks up at the starry sky rolling his eyes. Sits on the ground with his legs crossed in the centre of one of the gardens, takes off his ridiculous red cap and turns it inside out where it is a cliche, dusty, raggedy old pointy purple silver moon and stars magicians hat. plonks it on his head. It is uncomfortable. Takes it off reaches in and pulls out a duck, throw it away over his shoulder saying "Duck" and ducking his head. Puts the cap on and begins to chant inaudibly at first but we close in on his mouth we make out the chant,

TEMP - (chanting) anonomatterpayeahanonomatterpayeah....

Start of Chloe Episode Two...

Chloe stretches, finding herself on the floor staring up at the ceiling. Dressed in corsette and oddly 17th century clothes she laughs. The laughter echoes in the empty room and she tries to remember what went wrong, where she is and where Hipster, Narnie and everyone are. Shards of broken mirrors are everywhere.

"Hello?"

There is a shimmering of the scene around him, like an impressionist rendering of garden around him, the scenes of all the proceding posts appear as the oils swirl, he knows, and that knowledge permeates his being, and he allows it pass through him and allows himself to forget and is reborn in the moment smiling like a fool and suffused with love,