Ark Fandango

I have been busy working on Ark Fandango. I wrote a brief plot synopsis (please excuse my rusty writing skills) which I will include lower in the post.

This project has also been a real joy since I am working with my new Fujitsu T900 i7 tablet laptop. I plan to write an in depth review along with some tips for digital artists using tablet pcs sometime next week.

Would love to hear any feedback!

Setting: Los Ritmos, a (fictional) small village in the remote mountains of southern Mexico in the early 1900′s. The name of the town literally means “The Rhythm”.

The village has long been a very musical society, where dance and rhythm are as important as working the land to survive. For the past three months trees and wildlife have mysteriously gone missing and only gaping holes remain where they once were; as though they have been scooped up by giant hands…

A local young woman, Almira Archuleta, a dancer, is the first to see the strange visitor in the moonlight, plucking trees and goats carefully from her father’s fields. Hiding in the shadows, she sees an enormous figure, big enough to hold a towering tree in the palm of its hands. The being is made of shiny metal and what looks like clear glass. Through the glass Almira sees what appears to be massive living landscapes in the head and abdomen swirling in a foggy ether.

Almira’s curiosity is piqued observing the care with which the visitor treats the specimens it gathers. Judging that the visitor may be benevolent, but ultimately determined to put a stop to the ravaging and the petty thefts of the environment, she approaches the being. At first the visitor seems startled, then even scared, rising to its feet suddenly, destructively, and leaping maladroitly behind a small mountain. Realizing the being is like a big child, and wanting to coax him from his hiding spot, Almira begins to dance, tapping out rhythms on the earth. The visitor seems fascinated but, its shyness is too much and it disappears out towards the beach beyond the mountain ranges. The next night Almira waits on the highest roof of the mountainside village with her friend Quique, a trumpet player, watching over the fields for the visitor. In the moonlight she sees a colossal figure appear with birds swirling around its head down in the maize fields. Rushing down the steep village steps to meet with the visitor once again, she is excited to show off her dancing once again, this time with musical accompaniment. A wonderful night of dancing and fun is had by all, and by the end, the Ark and Almira have become fast friends.

The Ark is very timid around human beings, and has avoided them, pillaging only at night, but Almira teaches the Ark about her people’s music, their dancing, their culture, and the Ark is captivated by the displays. With this new fascination keeping the Ark busy, tapping on a hillside for percussion, splashing hands across a lake sending geese scattering and honking like wild brass horns, tapping a foot to the music of Los Ritmos, shaking the earth, the Ark has put an end to collecting.

For the first time in a long while, crowded and uncomfortable, frustrated with the thefts, the villagers of Los Ritmos don’t have to keep all their chickens, goats, cows, and donkeys in their bedrooms at night in for fear of losing another valuable possession.

The villagers, relieved, and now even grateful see that the Ark has a miraculous green thumb, when forced to apply itself. The Ark is quite lazy and goes into a sleep-like state most of the day in the ocean 100 kilometres away. With the Ark’s help, crops and plants suddenly are in supernatural abundance. Everything seems more than back to normal, fantastic even! The village of Los Ritmos even works together crafting the Ark a giant hat in thanks.

But perhaps the new cornucopia is all too good to be true. The Ark has a new fascination, and his nature as a collector, but perhaps ultimately as an interstellar guardian of flora and fauna, returns in full force. A dying old woman, a good friend of Almira’s, mysteriously disappears, and the town is sad and confused; wondering how the old weak woman could ever wander off on her own from her deathbed. To make matters worse, Almira’s relationship with the Ark is faltering as its temperament seems to get more difficult each day.

The Ark stubbornly refuses to do work or help out anymore and is perhaps a little too occupied with Almira, even jealous. When a troublesome shopkeeper who has been hording the new abundant crops disappears mysteriously with a lion’s share of the new harvest, much of the town just dismisses it as a good riddance, grateful for the overflowing harvest still remaining. But when Almira’s Father discovers the stolen crops stashed conspicuously under his new barn in a pile as big as the barn, and the barn itself not looking exactly new anymore teetering fifty feet higher than it was yesterday, on a pile of vegetables, he lets Almira know the time for guessing games and dance lessons is over. The being’s true nature must be discovered or he fears that Almira herself will disappear as a prisoner into the great beyond.

Some Possible Taglines:

“A mysterious collector from Beyond… Is it a friend or foe?!”

“A wandering planet stopping at nothing for its galactic zoo!”