Diego Vazquez Gomez

Prof. Lauren Reinhard

FYS Production Lab
April 12, 2019

OSCAR RICARDO TORRES

The View At The End
Character Analysis / Given Circumstances

Part One

1. Character List

Sally and I run into the roof (2)

- We’ve been anticipating this and Sally, in particular, is very excited about this.
- She’s leading and she can be very blunt and forward.
- I seem to balance her out in that sense.

I apologize on behalf of Sally and myself for intruding on their last moments (2)

- I have profound respect and understanding of how important this is for everyone.
- I tend to act in response to Sally’s instigation. She moves and I adapt/clean up after her.
- I don’t mind it though, I’m just that used to her and I love and accept her that much.

I seem to be more reclusive than Sally despite my excitement when we initially arrived. Maybe
that’s a reaction or taking in of the people there.
Charlie mentions that everyone evacuated yesterday. This affects everyone. He also mentions
that it doesn’t make a ton of difference. (2)

- Everyone’s going to die regardless. It really is the end of the world.

○ Poetry to add concepts and further the immersive aspect of our experience.
- Raises the question of what does it mean to not evacuate? How many people are left?
Have we run into anyone?

Sally tells them that we also didn’t have a place to go. (2)

- A strong sense of togetherness has been established. We act together. We’re an

independent and autonomous couple.

Sally introduces me as her “bae”. (3)

- She seems to be a lot freer and into pop culture but it must obviously be an influence on
both of us.
- I translate for Charlie and Agatha
○ Do I always back her up like this? Is that backing her up? Is it a test? The text
seems to go for the former.

Sally is infatuated with this roof. The view is so beautiful and we’re about 30 stories up.

- Charlie and Agatha’s apartment building

Sally seems to have this concept of “finding each other”
- How romantic are we?

I tell Sally that maybe we should go since it’s their roof. (3)

- I can tell Sally doesn’t pick up some things

Sally says “it’d be more meaningful to have witnesses.” (3)

- It doesn’t convince me yet.

 - We never discussed witnesses. I always thought it’d be us alone.

I’m still young. Sally and I use similar lingo. “We should bounce” (4)

“If it’s what you want, then it’s what I want” (4)

- It’s our end, this is a pretty serious thing to say.

- I don’t want to make her upset or cause any friction between us.
- I prioritize our smooth sailing first. I need her there. It’s an act of desperation but love.
- Getting married is the ultimate vow of a union.
○ Marriage in my life is pretty significant. It’s been taught to me as a very important
relationship and I see it as a beautiful togetherness.
○ My parents are incredibly happy.
○ I have a good standing. I am happy with my life.
○ I have so much to give. Sally is an activist of sorts. I support her. She’s taught me
so much and she’s so patient with me. She loves me and it takes effort but we do
it because we truly care for each other. We get each other’s humanity, however
different we may be.

When they bring up the negativity at the end of the world, I bring up us being together. (4)

- “At least we’d be together. To the end.”

○ ((Find a song that mentions “us against the world”))
○ That’s a huge motif in our lives. Sally and I face shit together.

The plan: We’re getting married tonight and then we’re going to jump off the building. (5)

I say that this^ (referencing the ​whole​ plan) is “not just because the world is ending.” (5)

- What the heck does that mean?

- I think the end of the world influences it or promotes it but there’s an ideology behind
this. We have something romantic about the suicide that appeals to us.
 - The wedding is “the real deal.” (5)

I tell Agatha that “I proposed before all of this world ending trouble.” (5)

- How long before? I like a short time before because it gives more impetus to this act.
‘The world isn’t gonna take this away from us’
- Us getting married while still in school before we found out about the end of the world?
- I mean we’re in love but how do we manifest that much love without playing at it.

Sally adds that I “got down on one knee and everything. Just like in the movies. [Sally] couldn’t
believe people still did that, ya know?” (5)

- We are very pop-culturally aware/sensitive.

- It is us against the world but we’re not separate from the world
- We’re very surrounded by all of these influences. We’re very social and generally
well-known/popular. In an amicable sense, not a bitchy sense.
○ In the sense that we have a lot of friends. We have our couple friends.
- VERY social
- She can talk for hours and I can listen for hours.
- I wanna be pushed and she pushes me. With me.
- Very symbiotic
■ We see and accept each other's flaws. Everyone’s human.
■ We’re very open and accepting, I can’t take time from my
life trying to put someone else down

“So you’ll do it then?” (5)

- We figured they understood what we were putting down.

- “Marry us. Official it or whatever you call it.”
○ Sally and I are in sync. I know what she’s thinking and I feel safe speaking for
her.
- Shows an implicit trust between the two of us.
 - I’ve heard enough of her talking to know what she thinks/feels like
○ “Official it” suggest some ignorance on my behalf but “or whatever you call it”
reinforces this idea that we just roll with it. We can’t apologize or look back.
There is only forward for us. (5)

Sally explains to Charlie and Agatha that “it’s not about killing ourselves.” (5)

- We’re very firm in our resolution and reasoning behind our plan. It’s about our marriage.
About our love. The suicide is just a confirmation of that love. It’s us living forever.
Jumping off at our happiest moment.

“If you hadn’t noticed, the world’s gone to hell and it’s taken all of us with it.” (5)

- Referencing what’s happening. We watched the news yesterday.

○ Government shut-downs, crime spikes, religious scandals, cult action, mass
homicide.
- We’re joining in the rebellion in a sense. For our vows. Singing our song
amidst the noise.

“We’ll all probably be dead by morning anyway.” (5)

- The time is ticking. That’s definitely a huge influence on us

“Why not go out on our own terms?” (5)

- Suggests some struggle with control before. Like why should we accept what other
people tell us?
○ Maybe some of our friends don’t agree with us being together. Why though?
Fleshing this out a tiny bit might fuel this part

“A big “FUCK YOU” to the world for ending on us.” (5)

- Everything that was just starting in our lives. We’re angry. I always looked forward to the
life ahead of me. Every joy and beauty and sadness life brought me was so different
 growing up. I know this isn’t supposed to be my end. It just feels better to do it instead of
having it done to me. It’s us showing the world and whatever is trying to take this from
us that we are reclaiming our lives. They’re ours, not yours. If I am religious, I’m not too
strict and I’m mad at God or whoever.

Sally mentions that we wrote “it all down.”

I tell her that we could do it all ourselves, but that it takes the wind out of the sails. (6)

- I am supporting Sally’s vision 100% now. I get why she wanted this and I want it too
now ​because​ I want it for us.

Sally says that when we got up here it “seemed like fate”. (6)

- Do we believe in fate? But we wanna say fuck you to the world for ending?
- So “seemed” like fate. It gave her hope. That is so beautiful and powerful to feel hope in
her. It makes me so strong and I will be everything she needs.
- She is my hope.
○ When we met she changed my life somehow.
- Helping me with my career?

I tell them that “we’re just saying that it would be nice to have witnesses to it, and to have
someone preside over the ceremony.” (6)

- Sally adds “It would be perfect, actually. Make it feel, more real.” (6)

Agatha says that she can’t let us just give up. (6)

- Sally counters that we can’t give up on each other.

- Agatha’s focused on the suicide aspect.
- We don’t love this reaction, she’s only putting her energy and attention into that.
- Sally counters with “On what? We’re not giving up on each other.” (6)
Charlie says that I made a good argument. (7)

Agatha says that it’s wrong. (7)

- She says we seem like nice/lovely people

○ Maybe as support for her argument?
○ Shows that collectively, Sally and I come off as kind.
○ We haven’t harvested or maintained any ills sentiments toward C and A.

Agatha tells Charlie that we “wrote it all down… All of them. Their lives, their stories, their
love.” (7)

- We don’t want to die. This is our way of staying here on earth.

- We’re trying to stay together forever. To get our loves down.
- We write down what we think would have amends could have happened. There’s a
journal filled entirely with what we wanted to do with our lives.
○ We already wrote all of our hopes and hypotheticals and our past and our regrets
which we don’t wanna regret and what could’ve happened and EVERYTHING
down.
- I explain to them that “After it was announced, ya know, that this was it, that it was the
end, we felt like recording something. Us, ya know, written down.” (7)
○ Us written down.
- We’re not dying. Those journals are us on earth. I think the world burning
is difficult but we have hope that they’ll survive. They’re fireproof. Idk
how but they went on sale and I bought some on the way over.

Charlie tells us that no one’s gonna ever going to read it.

- Sally defends that he doesn’t know that. She says there should be proof we were here, as
in US. The people who lived and died in these cities. We wanted to leave something just
in case someone “stumbled upon this rock” (8)
 - Agatha says she thinks it’s beautiful (8)

Agatha asks us why we would want to go before the end before we see what happens. (8)

- I tell her “We know what happens” (8)

○ She can’t change our minds. We have a path and we know we’re going to die.
○ Maybe Sally’s God will save us, maybe no one will.
- “You could face it here, with us.” (8)
○ “No… we can’t.” (8)
- No. We have to do this. She may not understand but we can’t let the world
kill us. We can’t let ourselves end. We have to proclaim our love. We
have to die together and face death completely together. By ourselves
imprinted on the sidewalk. We will fall together. We will whisper I love
you into the wind as we reach for each other just before we hit the ground.
We will be a couple that everyone knows loved each other. That our lives
were robbed from us so we took them back. Made them ours. We can’t sit
here with strangers after living our lives and letting the world have its way
with us.
- Charlie calls this our last wish. The last wish of our humanity. (9)
○ Given everything we’ve been through, we want out beauty to be permanent. We
want to remember each other and die in our happiest moment. No decline, just a
stoic peak in the decay of the world. We went out at our strongest.

Sally mentions that we’re all nervous. (9)

- Of course, we are scared of jumping to our deaths. But we’re there for each other. We can
face anything as long as it’s together.
- That’s how it’s always been.
Sally and I wrote in our vows that we “have loved a lifetime because tomorrow isn’t coming and
today is all [we] have.” (9)

- We wrote these in central park a little while back.

We don’t have the rings but I have one on my finger. (9) Who’s the ring from?

- What’s its importance to me?

○ My mother gave it to me when she died. It was very important to her but she
wanted her to have a piece of me and I want Sally to have a piece of me. I feel a
little more naked without it since I’ve worn it since I was 19.
- We never thought to get rings, we just completely forgot about that whole thing.

I thank them for marrying us. (9)

- This is perfect. It feels like just where I’m supposed to be and what I’m supposed to be
doing. It does feel like fate. Sally was right.
- She wishes them good luck
○ We really hope the best for them. Reinforces the optimistic aspects of our
character.

2. Create/flesh out an anecdote from your childhood that reveals an aspect of your
personality.

When I was was 4 years old and I started understanding the things around me in a
different way, I grew very curious about my parent’s relationship. I started asking how they
picked each other and how all of the parents picked their kids. They explained to me that they
picked each other because they were in love and that they didn’t pick us, that God gave us to
them as gifts in their lives to love and raise. I don’t really remember this, but the thought of this
interaction brings up a vague, vignette-y image of my parents crouched down with me, their
faces bright and radiating love. I intuit that I was very satisfied with their answer because as I
grew older, I became determined to find someone I loved. And by growing older, I mean 6 years
old, which is when I brought my friend and exclusive playground buddy, Patricia, home for a
play date and we told my parents we were going to get married. She was my best friend at the
time and I wasn’t sure if I loved her but I knew we were going to get married and I wanted my
mom and dad to know. They seemed a little taken aback but when they saw us playing around,
they realized that it was harmless fun. After she left that day, they had a brief talk with me with a
light explanation of how kissing was for when I was older, “like at least 7th grade”, and that not
everyone you like, you love. That marriage was a special thing for when I was wayyyyy older,
even way after kissing was allowed. However, they were cool with Patricia and I’s plans in the
meantime, saying that we should have fun but not go crazy about it.

3. Create/flesh out an anecdote from your adolescence that reveals another aspect of
your personality

I always used to be a shyer kid growing up. Like I did my crazy shit but I never really did
it for other people’s approval or attention. In 7th grade at my K-12 private school, I remember
feeling jumpier than usual, I wanted to stand out and I was starting to compare myself to the
other kids. I felt like I was always watching them get laughs in class, and granted get in trouble,
but they were doing something else. Bringing their own thing into the classroom. I also didn’t
want to be one of those people who just did what other people did—wear a out-of-dress-code
jacket, or toe the line with the teacher for the sake of attention—I wanted to just do something
truly noticeable that people would acknowledge me for, instead of just my teachers in silent
letters to my parents detailing how good of a student I was, or how I was so respectful in class,
which really just meant quiet. That wasn’t loud enough. And the noise I wanted to make was
grand... like everyone would find out, no small scale BS.

One day, I was walking afterschool towards the bus stop (the late bus) with my friends
Heather, Dylan, and Wes. The halls were tired and vacant and as we reached the outdoor halls,
my eyes caught a glimpse of the fire alarm. Feeling brave and a little playful, I asked them if
they would ever consider pulling the fire alarm as a prank and run away. They all considered it,
imagining the thrill but they when I insisted on the seriousness of the question, they all backed
off saying that it wasn’t worth getting caught. I pushed my luck and after considering it for a
second, I told them that I’d do it. They laughed and said I wasn’t serious but I started becoming
more adamant, fueled by their negation and dismissal. I was very casual about the whole thing
until Heather asked me “what’re the odds that you’ll pull it right here right now?” Now I was
living dangerously but I said one in 14. A daring but honest answer. Wes and Dylan looked at
each other with excitement in their eyes, in awe of the potential disaster currently ensuing.
Heather pressed on. She said, “you sure you wanna test that out?” I pinky promised her that I’d
keep my word, really thinking that I would in the odd chance we picked the same number; I was
intoxicated by the attention but I knew I picked my fate. Heather and I started at it, counting “1,
2, 3” and our “THIRTEENS” clashed against each other in an explosion of nerves and danger
and hilarity. Now I had to do it. I was going to pull the fire alarm. I was going to make some
noise in this empty school with my friends and show them up in the ultimate prank. I composed
myself and walked over casually to the fire alarm, checking to see if anyone was around. I
looked back and the 3 of them had unsatiated panic in their eyes, violently checking to see where
they would run. I gingerly lifted the plastic case up against the wall and then, before I was ready,
my hand jerked through the tension and yanked down the fire alarm. The sound system started
screaming and beeping high pitched, horrible blares at us. This was louder and scarier than the
fire drills and as we all ran, whispering loudly at each other “HOLY SHIT” and “FUCK
OSCAR, YOU REALLY DID IT ” and “GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO,” We ran down three
hallways into the choir club, the kids all chattering and the teacher glaring at us suspiciously. He
asked us with a mean tone what club we were in that we were still on campus for. We all
panicked and our heavy guts and booming hearts kept us from giving him an answer. He told us
to come inside with him, and we all looked at each other and started RUNNING back to the
busses. The teacher started yelling after us and we saw him go back inside angrily. Maybe to call
someone? Fuckfuckfuck, we were screwed. Heather, Dylan, Wes, and I stopped about a hallway
away from the bus stops and just stood there, shocked and scared out of our minds. We were all
in this together now. We were scared but the alarm stopped blaring and we unanimously decided
to fast walk to the busses and try to avoid that man if we saw him. As we were walking, and we
started to get away with it, the sentiment of “I didn’t know you were actually going to do it”
turned into one of admiration. We managed to get into our busses before anyone got to us and I
still felt that fearful rush in my chest. My friends and I were intimidated the next few days and
we avoided the music teacher’s hallway like a plague. I’d learned my lesson about doing these
things impulsively but I also felt like I did something monumental. I wouldn’t do some shit like
that again but I knew I could and so did my friends. It was a furious memory we all kept and
cherished from that day on.

Who am I?

My full name is Oscar Ricardo Torres. My PE coach called me “Big O” in elementary

school as a joke and it stuck until 6th grade when everyone started calling me Oscar. My close
friends as a joke would still say “yo, Big O” when they were showing me something cool. At an
summer internship going into my sophomore year of college, “Torres” caught on, and sometimes
Sally calls me that in a Draco Malfoy impersonation, horribly placed accent and all. My parents
at home call me Oscar but my Mom called me Oski endearingly. I was born on October 18th in
1989 in a hospital on the border of North Dakota and Minnesota, finding me at 23 years old. My
parents are Guillermo Oscar Torres and Thalia Redding and my siblings include my older sister
Anna Rosita Torres and my younger brother Lucas Francisco Torres. My dad is president of ​La
Tienda​’s US branch, which exists solely in Minnesota and Spain, the latter being where my dad
was born. My dad moved here to expand his family’s major business which produces traditional
Spanish snacks and is in charge of the production and distribution of all La Tienda products in
North America. Yes, this means my family is quite wealthy. My parents have always taught us to
live humbly and to not take our wealth for granted, enforcing the ideas of kindness and respect
but filled our childhoods with stories of adventures and trips to Europe and South America. I
have grown to recognize the privilege of our wealth and we are often reminded of the value of
hard work. I feel that I am humble about my economic status, but I am very happy and used to
that cushion to fall back on. It encourages me to try and make mistakes even though my
endeavors are earnest and mostly self-funded. I still have my family to support me now that I live
in New York City (they helped me pay for a significant portion of the cost of my apartment in
the Bronx) but it is an understanding between my father his children that we should be
financially independent by the time we graduate college, and I have successfully managed so far.
I’ve saved a comfortable amount from internships and my job for Time IN magazine as the
pop-culture columnist, which basically consists of Sally’s understanding of “hot topics” filtered
through my narrative lens and mixed with light research. It’s has a solid following across odd
places in New York State but it is a popular read at Columbia and is picking up momentum in
the college market.

My greatest fear in a deep, overarching sense would be to find myself alone and unloved,
but in a more specific sense, my worst fear would be losing Sally. After my mom’s death
(stomach cancer) when I was 20, my dad’s despair hit me hard. He is still in the process of
grieving her. The only things that got him through it were me and Anna flying in to spend a
month with him and constantly checking in with him as well with Lucas being a trooper and
having a great relationship with dad. The importance of family has always been assumed and
practiced in our house. However, I saw that piece of his heal and harden like a rough scar. He
became much colder to the world and in his business but his softness always surfaced with his
kids. Her death made me feel so wrecked and it took me around a year to get past the sheer
emotion of it all. She was always there for me and I felt a huge hole in my life where this
calming and always warm unconditional love used to flow. Sally was there to get me through my
mom’s passing. I called her every other night to check up on her and tell her what was going on
and I know I would have taken that period of my life so much worse if it weren’t for Sally. She
was more than everything I needed and in the past month, I realized that if I were to lose Sally, I
would lose everything I was working towards in my life. Which leads me to my greatest
accomplishment which was being enough for Sally to accept me as her husband. I’ve always
known she was special from the moment I met her in that Salsa class and she refuses to stop
surprising me, exciting me, and giving me a reason to live and be happy. When I proposed to
Sally, I took a huge gamble on what she wanted. We’d discussed our future in years and years
but we mapped any of it out. I wasn’t sure she would say yes since she hadn’t even graduated
from Columbia yet or if she saw me in her life but not as her husband. But when I took her out to
the balcony of our new apartment and she gave me that yes, the gift of her in my life as my wife,
everything clicked for me. I knew I was blessed by God or something out there to have such a
bright light and beautiful spirit brought into my already beautiful life. She saw me in her life and
wanted to be in mine and somehow deserving that is my greatest accomplishment.

4. What is your relationship to each person you discuss or encounter in the play?
- Sally:​ Sally and I have been engaged for 3 days and dating for 4 years before I proposed.
We met our sophomore year of college at Columbia University. Sally and I complement
each other incredibly well. She brings the impulse and I’m there to support her no matter
what. She gives me light, hope, and excitement for my life and I bring her happiness and
fulfillment. We are very different individuals with a flair for adventure and a hunger for
life to feed us. As our relationship has matured with time, Sally and I have proved to be a
source of optimism for each other and we understand the other very well without
respecting the intimacy of our relationship. We can get through anything as long as we’re
together. Where we are now, at the moment of the scene, Sally and I have a need to keep
moving forward. The end of the world seemed to steal our future just as it was unfolding.
We knew we would have issues and difficulties in the future, but when the end presented
itself, we decided we couldn’t let anyone take our lives and our love away from us.
- Agatha:​ Just met her. She seems nice but resistant to our plans for personal reasons. I can
relate to her and I understand where she’s coming from. Reminds me of my older sister.
- Charlie:​ Another stranger but he gives me the most unsettling energy on this roof. There
is some slight friction between us but I know it’s not my concern to involve myself in any
of the negativity he seems to find comfort in.

5. Write a journal entry about or intimate letter to the person with whom you feel you
have the most significant relationship in the play.

12/20/2012
Sally,
 I don’t know if you’ll ever read this page but I just woke up and there are journals littered
around us. I’m writing in one now and you’re currently drooling on the spread-eagled spiral
notebook you settled for as a pillow. The time is 2:54 AM and it’s officially the day before the
end of the world. I don’t want to wake you but I had to write down the feeling that woke me
up. The immense hope that you manage to give me even when there is a definitive nothing
that robbed us of our future. My head is sore from wishing back the years we’ll never spend
together, the mid-life crises we’ll never lead, the children with your eyes and my lips or your
ears and my nose. I find myself angry but I’m so thankful we spent today revisiting our lives.
Appreciating and telling each other everything that got us to this point, splayed on your old
carpet who fuck knows how long ago you last washed it. I just wanted to say the words I feel
have lost meaning to us because we say them all the time but, in this moment here and now, I
know I wouldn’t spend my end with anyone else and I am so full of love for you. Thank you
for everything you continue to give me. I still want to marry you and love you fully for the
rest of my life. The world hasn’t taken that away. Good night and sweet last dreams.

Part Two

1. If your character were a/an (_________), what would she/he/they be?

i. Animal
- An adolescent elephant. “ESFJs are genuine and authentic, and they care deeply about
those around them. These are the kind of individuals who bring out the best in those
around them, and they are serious about loyalty and responsibility to their families,
friends, and co-workers. They are generous and they love to bring joy to others, but they
are also sensitive and easily hurt. ESFJs are often blind to the flaws of those they love
and they are incredibly trusting and full of love.” (Buzzfeed)
ii. Color
- A profound blue
iii. Food
 - A hearty whole-wheat wrap with provolone, iceberg lettuce, spinach, mayo, roast beef,
chicken tender strips, some tomato, and an unexpected kick of sriracha and spicy
mustard.
iv. Object
- The soft side of a velcro strip.
v. Car
- 2006 Land Rover Range Rover SUV, Orange.
vi. Genre of Music
- 2000’s Synthetic Pop (e.g. Fireflies by Owl City)

2. What would be written on your character's gravestone?

Oscar Ricardo Torres

Loving husband of Sally Maria Geronimo.

They fell… In love. ;-)

3. What slogan revealing your character's general position/attitude toward life might
be on the front of his/her/their t-shirt? What revealing inner truth might be written
on the back?

Front:​ Everything looks perfect...

Back:​ ...from such great heights.

4. List ten differences and ten similarities between yourself and your character.

Sims:
1. Open to adventure but reserved
 2. Oscar and I are both head-centered and we love intellectualizing what we gather, but
Oscar has more ease dismissing these observations.
3. We love writing as an outlet and to help us think. I tend to write poetry while Oscar loves
narrative form.
4. We are both visibly passionate individuals.
5. We are both extroverted and amicable, we have a knack for getting along with people.
6. We both feel out our decisions as opposed to exclusively using logic.
7. We’re both afraid of being alone.
8. Oscar and I both find direction and self-worth through other people. Our efforts are
validated outside of ourselves.
9. Both of us dedicate some of our energy to keep us in a positive headspace.
10. The concept of family is a huge motif in our lives.

Diffs:
1. Oscar revels in the experience of love and finds confidence and security in it. I, on the
other hand, find it is at the root of one of my deepest insecurities and my experiences
with romantic love have proved unclear.
2. Oscar tends to take in information at face value and finds comfort in objectivity while I
am infatuated with my subjective lens and I tend to analyze and interpret to the point of
exhaustion.
3. Oscar appreciates things in his life to be set and decided while I revel in the ambiguity of
situations and I like to stay open to all of the options at hand.
4. Oscar has a further understanding of commitment than I do.
5. Oscar is 23 years old while I am 19. Having graduated from college, Oscar is financially
independent and has to face life without the security of definitive structure via the
education system.
 6. Oscar is far more organized and responsible that I consider myself to be. He is even ready
to take on taking care of another person in his life, which I don’t feel even slightly ready
for.
7. Oscar comes from a happy family with surplus wealth while my family holds a lot of
tension and as a middle-class family, we struggle to live within our means,
8. Oscar considers himself very connected with everyone around him while it is easy for me
to separate myself from others.
9. Oscar connects with people in a more grounded manner while my interactions are
frivolous and sporadic in energy.
10. Oscar has significantly more confidence instilled in himself but still finds a need to prove
himself.

Given Circumstances

Where am I? ​(Where the scene is set, town, country. How you feel about this place. Flesh out
fully!)
The scene is set on the rooftop of a 30 story residential building directly adjacent to
An apartment rooftop directly adjacent to Central Park.

What time is it? ​(fully fleshed out time of day, time of year, period in history.)

The date is December 20th, 2012. It’s the night before the apocalypse, in which Scorched Earth
Theory details that we will be knocked out of orbit and the sun will overheat the planet past
humanity’s cooking point. Given those circumstances, it’s a little warm for December at 70º at
9:34 PM. The day was bright and hot, and the night feels full. The stars are new and surprisingly
bright, an odd sight for a New Yorker. The moon is large and completely orange. The view is a
work of art, bold and unexpected and almost offensively beautiful. It feels like everything around
us is changing and it seems to mourn the world, silent but ready.

The year is 2012, meaning Obama is president and was just reelected in November, everyone is
still covering “Someone That I Used To Know” by Goyte (ft. Kimbra) on youtube, and memes
were a contained phenomenon. Pop culture was not as defined as it was in the 2000s but it was
oddly specific, a lot of new things being introduced. With the apocalypse, a flash period began in
which humanity did a 360º and news of terrorist attacks and burnings and government
shut-downs have shocked the world. We went from steady, gradual peace to definitive
destruction. There has been a large movement protesting the institutions that kept research and
information secret but I recognize that there’s no point to anything really. These are all shouts
into the impending silence. There is an air of rage, despair, and freedom across the globe.

Distant Past

- Sally and I met at salsa classes during our sophomore year on Friday, October 5th. They
were commemorating Hispanic Heritage Month and I’d promised myself I’d participate
in more unexpected Columbia-sponsored activities. I showed up to a surprising 14-15
people there, all dressed in movement attire that made me feel self-conscious about my
navy and orange t-shirt and basketball shorts. It took me about half a minute to realize
this was a professional dance class and that everyone standing before me seemed to be a
dance major. They were friendly but I was considering leaving until I spotted this girl
with dark hair in a blue and yellow dress with spandex shorts who seemed about as lost
as I did. I went up to her and asked her if she knew anything about salsa. At first, she
thought I was calling her out but I quickly clarified that I was asking since everyone else
seemed to be an actual dancer and I just came here for a good time. She laughed and
agreed to be my partner. I learned her name was Sally and I introduced myself as Oscar.
We were very receptive to each other but we were mainly preoccupied with measuring
the severity of the situation we got ourselves into. When the teacher, Angelica came and
introduced herself, I kept glancing over a Sally awkwardly, wondering how she’d react
 when she saw how poorly I danced. I always looked enthusiastic but ridiculous,
especially when I tried. As Angelica started teaching the combo, Sally and I got lost in
the back, always two/three steps behind the others in the room, stumbling and jumping
throughout the choreography to keep up. Angelica learned out names quite quickly and
would often shout out encouragements to us as we tried to turn out and give into our hips.
Sally and I were relieved that we were both equally sad dancers for different reasons, and
it resulted in us having a good time and whispering the steps to each other. After class,
we said parted ways in a friendly manner. I wasn’t sure if she was gonna show up to the
next class, but I know I had a shit ton of fun dancing with her and I wanted to do it again.
- After discreetly practicing the combination in my dorm’s lounge, I showed up to the next
class with some more flattering shorts I borrowed and a tank top and I was pleasantly
surprised to see her there again. Angelica was glad to see us. When Sally and I reviewed
the combo from last time, we were shocked by how much easier it was to get through it
and we caught on to the second half of the combo much quicker. After that second class,
we resolved to impress Angelica and I proposed that we meet up to practice the
combinations. She seemed excited about it and we got pumped for rehearsal. I asked for
her number to keep in touch and she read it off as we walked out. I was like “Yeah great,
text me when you’re free” but I had her number and it wasn’t awkward but it was playful
mistakes and bouncing off of them.
- We became a lot closer in our rehearsals and we ending up dragging out our water breaks
and breathers into full conversations which carried on for a few hours. I was really
digging all of this time I was spending with Sally. She was genuine and funny and she
seemed to enjoy my company.
- After a couple of months of messaging and meeting up, Sally and I started dating on
December 4th.

- My mom died of stomach cancer when I was 20, during the first semester of my Junior
year. She was 57.
- I came home for her final moments and she left me her ring as a reminder of how much
she loves me. I spent a month out of school and I called Sally at night when I was worried
my mom wouldn’t make it or I just needed to hear her voice to feel her here with me. My
brother Lucas, 16, was struggling and Anna, 24, felt a lot of pressure to be the strongest
in the room. We were very supportive but we were all handling it very differently.
- My dad had a talk with me about how much Mom meant to him and how he was really
struggling to see the rest of his life without her. They were always a symbol of love in my
family and I couldn’t even imagine my dad’s pain. It was different to mine. I didn’t
mention this to Sally because it implied some pretty heavy themes, but she was in the
back of my mind during the talk with him. We’d been dating for around a year at this
point and I started having a deeper understanding of who she was to me. She was there
for me while I mourned my mom. I cannot thank her enough for the patience and
dedication she showed me, always willing to adapt to what I needed. I wished I could
have been more there for her but she helped me accept the help I needed. She showed me
the extent of her compassion and love for me and once we got through that year, we made
it out stronger than ever. Concrete in our togetherness.

- My senior year at Columbia, I decided that I was going to propose to Sally after my
graduation. She was set to graduate a semester after me because she overloaded herself
with extra credits but I knew I had to do it as soon as I left Columbia to make sure we
didn’t grow apart. I was afraid she would get lost in her last semester and that not living
on campus together would invite unnessecary friction, even though I knew we would’ve
worked through it.
- With some funding from Dad, I bought an apartment in the Bronx 2 weeks before
graduating—I told Sally I was renting it—and Sally and I set up plans for me to show her
the area and my new place. My dad told me I was responsible for buying the ring and I
started tapping into my savings to collect enough for the perfect one.
- I graduated on December 15th with a BS in Journalism and a minor in Business.
- On the morning of Sunday, December 17th, I spent the morning preparing some creme
brulee to set in the fridge and making a seaweed salad like the one she wanted to try at
this Japanese place we tried but had pineapple in it, which she was allergic to. I prepared
a romantic setting on the balcony, set with string lights on the black railing and a table set
with everything but the champagne glasses. I knew Sally wouldn’t want anything too
spectacular. After I set up, I took the subway over 110th, picked up some yellow and
white lilies, and walked to her dorm prompt 1:25, 5 minutes early. She came down at
1:28, trying to beat me. She was really pleasantly surprised by the flowers and then
laughed at my sunglasses and teased me about living outside of the Columbia bubble. She
ran back upstairs to leave the flowers in her room and she came down with her matching
sunglasses. I laughed and we headed out for brunch in Manhattan. We walked around
most of the day just laughing and enjoying her day off. She asked me how job interviews
were looking and I told her I got 3 just for this coming weekend for varying positions at
magazines and that I was being considered for a debut humor column in The Times. She
was so proud and happy for me and I could tell she was itching to graduate and start her
life. It was a beautiful day, with a rare 61º in the city. At around 3, we took the subway to
the Bronx and I showed her around Lafayette and Boulder St, where my apartment was.
- At 5:30 we entered the apartment and she got really excited about the empty rooms and
the new apartment smell and what we could do to decorate when she was free. I gave her
a slow gradual tour ending with the balcony, which had the curtains drawn. She spotted
the lights outside through the sheer curtains and exclaimed something about string lights
before she ran to open up the sliding doors. She stood completely still looking out on the
the balcony, the curtains blowing gently around her in the wind. While she was taking it
in, I got down on my left knee. She turned around and I told her she means everything to
me and that when I’m with her there’s no better feeling and I can’t imagine living the rest
of my life without her. I don’t have a ring yet but I promise her that I’ll get her one.
- She said yes and I went to cook the chicken I left marinating in the fridge along with the
salad, yellow rice, and the creme brulee (for which the lighter didn’t work). She had an
 assignment the next day at 8:00 AM so I walked her back to the station and we
exchanged deeply needed I love you’s.

- Monday passes and Sally and I are planning to meet again on Wednesday. I can’t stop
thinking about the rest of our lives.
- On Tuesday, at 2 PM, I was testing out the TV in the apartment when President Obama
appears on the screen. He is highly poised but there is a dangerous tone of severity to his
voice as he informs us that in 3 days humanity will have ended.
- The asteroid Neburu knocks us out of orbit. He mentions the fulfillment of a
phenomenon called Scorched Earth Theory, in which the Earth will come too
close to the Sun and the temperatures will rise above human tolerance.
○ Look into 9/11 reactions for research
● Sally is at Columbia when we find out.
● I call her, asking her if she’s heard. We don’t waste too much time and I pack up some
things and head over. I meet her at Columbia, at her dorm and we tried to process this
together. That it was real. The end of the world, out of nowhere. That day was a lot of
dead ends for us. For the first time I felt like we couldn’t do anything. We called to order
Chinese food but no one answered. Fun.
○ “I wish I could do something”
○ We don’t wanna be forgotten.
■ We feel insignificant in the face of the end
● That night, right before we fall asleep she tells me about the journals and I tell her we
should finish them. I’m Indignant. Mad at the world for taking that all away from us. I
wish we could live our lives according to us. We are going to decide on what our lives
are.
- The night of the 19th, the day after the announcement but before the End, Sally and I are
sitting on the floor of her bedroom, trying to figure out what we can do. We hear bits and
pieces of commotion outside and the news is depressing. Sally brings up the journal that
 she had when she met me. She wanted to give me on our wedding day. She pulls it out
and she starts reading to me her first impressions and thoughts about me. We start talking
about our lives then and reminding ourselves of why we are here tonight. I’ve never
heard any of this before. As we discuss this, we realize that we can’t believe that we’re
insignificant. That we’ll be an after effect of the end of the world. Sally starts laughing,
saying that this really isn’t important, but tell her that we are. That our love is so
important and that we can die but we can’t let this world take our love away. We have to
commemorate it somehow. I find a box of her blank composition notebooks and I ask her
to keep telling me about her life. About everything and anything that comes to her mind.
As Sally starts off, I start writing down what I can furiously, intent on capturing the spirit
of what Sally is telling me onto the page. We start picking up the pace and falling into a
passionate rhythm as she writes down my words and I transcribe hers. Drawing pictures,
shaking out of hands, doing everything we can to place a semblance of our lives and of
ourselves on these pages. Once we exhaust ourselves of the past, I ask her what she
wanted from life. What was she looking forward to? What were the things we wanted to
do before dying? We gain a second wave and write about the rest of our lives. The ones
we would have lived with all of the variations our brains are capable of. Everything that
was just starting in our lives. We’re angry. I always looked forward to the life ahead of
me. Every joy and beauty and sadness life brought me was so different growing up. I
know this isn’t supposed to be my end. It just feels better to do it instead of having it
done to me. It’s us showing the world and whatever is trying to take this from us that we
are reclaiming our lives. They’re ours, not yours. When we were about to fall asleep,
Sally and I are yawning through our conversations, communicating everything through
grunts and minimal speech. I tell her that I still want to marry her before I fall asleep at
around 1:30 in the morning.

Near Past
- Sally and I wake up organically at around 11 in the morning. As soon as our eyes are
open, we can’t fall back asleep. It feels familiar to the gut feeling of realizing it’s your
birthday or that you’re going on a road trip except it’s our last day on Earth. There’s a
twisted panic as we look at each other when suddenly Sally jumps to her feet and tells me
that we ​should​ still get married. We collaborate and come up with this scheme to live the
rest of our lives as fully as possible today, doing what we want to do before we die in a
day. We agree that at the end of the day, we’d rather die together and by choice rather
than tomorrow morning. It’s us showing the world that it’s our love to live and die, not
theirs.
- We break into the Columbia dining hall and make our own pancakes and eggs, and then
we yoink some bikes and hit the city. It’s so eerie, we expected there to be at least some
semblance of a population but NYC is abandoned. It’s scary to see it uninhabited. Just a
shell of concrete.
- We ride our bikes down the Guggenheim museum, break into the MoMA and we take
pictures holding Starry Night.
- I convince Sally to eat a pretzel from an abandoned corner and we streak in Times Square
briefly.
- Towards 8 PM, Sally and I head over to Central Park to talk. We lay down on an open
field and just feel the breeze. Listen to the grass. We talk about how we can never feel the
silence in NYC but that it seems so fitting. To see our imprint on this Earth robbed of
context makes it that much more powerful.
- We start discussing the marriage and start thinking of how we’re going to go out. It’s
been such a beautiful day and we want something to encapture all of what we’re feeling.
Something as epic as our love. I spot a building off to our right, right next to one of the
smaller lakes in the park, and I suggest jumping off? The idea of death so accessible
spoken out loud send us shivers. We realize how incredibly nervous we are and Sally
quietly agrees. We’re in awe of the future that lies ahead of us but we get excited thinking
about making our forever permanent. We already wrote all of our hopes and
hypotheticals and our past and our regrets which we don’t wanna regret and what
 could’ve happened and EVERYTHING down. We’re not dying. These journals are us on
earth, and we’re carrying them with us. Our whole lives.
- Fueled by the immediacy of our plan, we write down some brief, heartfelt and inspired
vows and we look into each other's eyes as I tell her I love her and she smiles and tells
me she loves me too. I hope I can hold onto her smell until my last milisecond alive.
- We walk to the building and are pleasantly surprised to see that it’s open. We prepare
ourselves, jump a couple of times, making soft sounds of encouragement and then we
race up the stairs. Every 7 floors or so, we wait to catch up with each other and we
remind each other of how beautiful we are and how lucky we are before pulling a fast one
on them and trying to beat them to the top. The roof comes into focus and once Sally and
I catch our breath she makes a run for it and I chase her to the door, hoping for the roof to
be everything we need and so incredibly scared and excited by my love for this woman
and by everything we are about to do.

Where am I going?
Scenic Objective:​ To give Sally the best ending possible.

If I achieve my objective:

Sally and I need to keep moving forward. Agatha and Charlie may not understand but we can’t
let the world kill us. We can’t let ourselves end. We have to proclaim our love. We have to die
together and face death completely together, imprinted on the sidewalk. We will fall together.
We will whisper I love you into the wind as we reach for each other just before we hit the
ground. We will be a couple that everyone knows loved each other. That our lives were robbed
from us so we took them back. Made them ours. We can’t sit here with strangers after living our
lives and letting the world have its way with us. If I achieve my objective and I give Sally the
best ending possible, she’ll give me the strength to go out in the way I need to go out. With her,
here and now. Our beauty will be permanent. We want to remember each other and die in our
happiest moment. No decline, just a stoic peak in the decay of the world. We went out at our
strongest.

If I don’t achieve my objective:​ We have built up everything for this forward moment and we
have to keep going, to keep fighting. We decided on this building before coming up here and we
promised each other we would be there for each other, together through everything. This is what
Sally wants because she knows it’s what I want, I’m just afraid. She is helping me out and
fighting. Making friends as she does even in the face of the end of the world. If we don’t jump
off now, we’ll never do it. This is the perfect moment and we can both intuit that. We can feed
into the sense of fate and confirmation that here and now is our time. That’s if we don’t carry out
with our plans. If I don’t give Sally the best ending possible that will instill me with doubt and
hesitation. I need her to be strong and confident and she’s radiating that light I so desperately
need here and now. I will give her this so that she can go out shining brighter than ever and thus
giving me the thereness I need to do this. If her light dims or she gets frustrated with the events
of today, of our last day on Earth and our wedding day, I don’t know if I’ll have the strength and
grace that she does to help us do this as beautifully as we pictured it. One of our conditions for
doing this was that we were ready and we both didn’t want to end our lives unless we were
completely satisfied with them. The disheartening and crude idea that someone could take our
final moments away from us or interfere with the happiness Sally and I share, I wouldn’t be able
to push us to die and we wouldn’t be ready even for the end of the world. We want to go out on
our own terms, together and by choice.

RESEARCH:

END OF WINTER​ by Louise Gluck

“When has my grief ever gotten
in the way of your pleasure?
Plunging ahead
into the dark and light at the same time
eager for sensation
as though you were some new thing, wanting
to express yourselves
all brilliance, all vivacity
never thinking
this would cost you anything,
never imagining the sound of my voice
as anything but part of you—“

THE SECOND COMING​ by W.B. Yeats

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”

DISAPPOINTMENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE​ by Mary Karr

“And physicists rocketed
copies of the decree to paradise
in case God had anything to say,
the silence that followed being taken
for consent, and so citizens
readied for celestial ascent.
Those who hated the idea stayed indoors
till the appointed day. When the moon
clicked over the sun like a black lens
over a white eye, they stepped out
onto porches and balconies to see
the human shapes twist and rise
through violet sky and hear trees uproot
with a sound like enormous zippers
unfastening. And when the last grassblades
filled the air, the lonely vigilants fell
in empty fields to press their bodies
hard into dirt, hugging their own outlines.
the singed fume
of things beautiful, noble, and wrong.”

VOW​ by Diana Khoi Nguyen

“It will be windy for a while until it isn’t. The waves will shoal. A red-legged
cormorant will trace her double along glassy water, forgetting they are hungry.
The sea will play this motif over and over, but there will be no preparing for it
otherwise. Water will quiver in driftwood. Sound preceding absence,
a white dog trailing a smaller one: ghost and noon shadow, two motes
disappearing into surf. And when the low tide comes lapping and clear, the curled
fronds of seaweed will furl and splay, their algal sisters brushing strands
against sands where littleneck clams feed underwater. Light rain will fall
and one cannot help but lean into the uncertainty of the sea. Bow: a knot
of two loops, two loose ends, our bodies on either side of this shore where we
will dip our hands to feel what can’t be seen. Horseshoe crabs whose blue
blood rich in copper will reach for cover, hinged between clouds and
sea. It will never be enough, the bull kelp like a whip coiling in tender hands,
hands who know to take or be taken, but take nothing with them: I will marry you.
I will marry you. So we can owe what we own to every beautiful thing.”

THE SUICIDE’S WIFE​ by Amy Gerstler

“a frantic bat takes a wrong turn
from the attic veers
into her living
room, bounces off walls
a sick​ flut-thud e​ ach time it hits
the suicide's wife
pulls out her roasting pan
climbs the kitchen counter
teeters and grabs
for twenty minutes
at last claps on the lid
walks her prize outside

releases the creature

into the trees
where the lawn peters out
where the idea that at death
something is liberated
can flap blackly away.”

An end-in-itself (BBC)
“The word "end" in this phrase has the same meaning as in the phrase "means to an end".
The philosopher Immanuel Kant said that rational human beings should be treated as an end in
themselves and not as a means to something else. The fact that we are human has value in itself.
If a person is an end-in-themself it means their inherent value doesn't depend on anything else - it
doesn't depend on whether the person is enjoying their life, or making other people's lives better.
We exist, so we have value.”

Is 2012 the end of the world as we know it?

“The last New Year’s Day in human history is here.

You may not believe so, but millions do. They’re convinced that ancient Maya priests calculated
Dec. 21, 2012, as the end of the world as we know it. These claims and warnings,
prognostications and reassurances are on bookstore shelves, on Web sites, in museum exhibits
and ​in tourist promotions​. The global doomsday industry even has a name — 2012ology.

Apocalyptic anxiety is, if anything, reassuringly familiar. This most recent phenomenon taps into
a well-established tradition in our society. Just this past year, religious broadcaster ​Harold
Camping took two swings​ at predicting doomsday, pinpointing one date in May and, when the
world emerged unscathed, one in October.

What makes 2012ology different is the starring role it gives to the ancient Maya. Among
numerous native cultures in the Americas, the Maya seem to have captured the popular
imagination. They are cast as a mysteriously wise civilization, one that disappeared into the
tropical forests of Central America, taking with it a sacred knowledge that has only recently
started coming to light.”
Images: