Nation/Nation movie

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

So Battlebriar and Canvas were talking OOC, and the subject turned to 'if they made a movie of Nation... what scenes would have to be in it'? And so became written a sort of preview for a movie that will never be made.

• Canvas sneaking up behind a Freak twice her size, hovering in the air to gently touch him on the back of the neck, decaying the nerves of his spinal column as he collapses in a silent heap - only to rise again, unseen by Canvas as she turns to battle his minions, overwhelmed by their numbers. The Freak, ready to deliver a devastating blow - when vines curl up from around its feet and pin its hands. River standing in the doorway, commanding the plants of the earth to save the girl he regards as a little sister. Enemies defeated they turn to leave, walking (and floating) side by side away from the setting sun. Canvas glances in front of him... then puts her hand up behind his, so her shadow is holding the hand of his.

• Agony, sitting next to Sychosis' bed, as she cuddles a soft toy close, a large book open on his lap. Neither of them look at the page, Sychosis' eyes fixed on Agony's sightless face as he 'reads' to her: "If your enemy outnumbers you..."

It is in the little things we do that we show who we are.

• Canvas and Cold Read, running through the underburrows of Thorn Isles, pursued and hemmed in on all sides by foes far beyond their means to fight; As they're pinned into a corner, Cold Read pauses, and glances at Canvas, before lashing out with the back of his hand, striking the tortured woman with the back of his hand in a brutal gesture of betrayal.

As he turns and surveys their pursuers, he mutters, "Yeah, this'll do," and closes his eyes; when he opens them again, there is nothing but blackness, as he is swallowed by the darkness, a nightmare cut out in the shape of a dragon, rendered in Canvas' pain.

• River, back at his family's home. Nobody there. No bodies, no dust, walking side by side with Canvas and Sychosis and inside, hating himself for exactly what life was wrought by the suffering of people like them. How his family treated things, and how his entire life of privilege was at the expense of not just them, but thousands and thousands more like them.

• River dead, his vines withering to dust as his captives find themselves suddenly free, the battle still raging on around him. His body lifting, a chord of music almost deific - as Agony's telekinesis lifts the limp, vacant body to use as a glorified shield, protecting his own fragile form as he fights to save the remaining citizens of his dreamed and shattered Nation.

• Agony, beaten and blackened, armour torn off as Malta sappers lower their guns, realising that without his powers, they just shot down a seventy-year old cripple holding the hand of what looks like his granddaughter, who's now crying, holding Agony's head...

Then she closes her eyes, and opens them again.

And for those men, the screaming will never stop.

• Canvas, screaming at the pain that floods through her as Agony's protection leaves her, putting her hands on the burning hot steel carapace of a Kronos Titan, and in one cataclysmic moment of Going Beyond, turning what was once a glory of engineering into a clattering tomb of rust and fire.

• Three malta sappers, masks down, gas masks huffing as they stalk through the sewers at a dead trot. They know what they're looking for, they know why they're here. They round the corner and find the body, the woman, wearing hat and coat and filth and a blissed-out expression. Three weapons are raised, as one reaches out, touching her shoulder. And as his fingers hover over her body-

Don't.

The edict spoken by the very stone around them. The soldiers marshal their wits, grip their guns as two turn to head off ambushes, and the first raises his gun, bringing the hilt down sharply on the barely-conscious woman's head. There is a grunt, and a gasp, and she is down; and then the rhythm begins.

Two hundred thousand cockroaches, with over one million legs, moving in completely chilling lock-step, rats and flies and every last aspect of filth itself. The soldiers fire, they fight back; but how can one gun slay an army? How does one bullet destroy two thousand soldiers?

There are few places worse to be buried than in a sewer trench, choked to death by your enemies, who, lacking hands to touch you, make do by crawling into your body and suffocating you. Gas masks can only keep out so much.

• A graveyard, or perhaps simply a memorial garden. Wayfare enters and moves to a small corner, the contents completely obscured by the shadows of the area. She reaches in her worn bag and produces an old plush bear, almost falling apart with time and care, and places it amidst the other items. She folds her hands, saying a small prayer, and then disappears in a flash of light.

Do you have scenes for the Nation movie? Add them here!