PREMISE # 1: emotasticness

The Fountain

The world is populated by people that would otherwise be ordinary except for the fact that their fingers are made of crayons, chalk, pencils, and other drawing implements. The children have the longest fingers, as they have not had much time to use them yet. Our story centers on a young girl, Penny. We meet her at school, surrounded by children running, laughing, playing, and drawing all over everything. She sits, dejected, as her fingers appear to be fountain pen nibs. Penny cannot draw, as she has no ink. The other children laugh at her. This continues on through high school. She tries to draw using paint from a boy with paint-fingers, Arthur, but it only dries up. One day, Penny returns home to mope in her room, as usual. She strokes her fingers up and down her arms. Scowling, she digs her fingers into her arm and inky ‘blood’ wells up. Shocked, Penny is frozen for a minute, then begins to write on the wall. It works. By the time Penny is an adult, her classmates’ fingers have all worn down to artless nubs. They are now drudging businessmen drones, lacking any semblance of individuality. Penny tries to be a part of the workforce, but all of the employers judge her for her pen-fingers. They have not worn down at all. In fact, they are sharper than ever. She wears long sleeves, too, that occasionally seep ink from inside. Workless, she returns home. This time, though, her house is full of etchings, cartoons, and wall upon wall of words: essays, poetry, and everything in between. One day she finds Arthur milling around downtown mindlessly. She tries to snap him out of it, but it is difficult. It isn’t until she leads him to her house that he sees her art and becomes like his old self. His fingers, though, are still woefully bare. He convinces Penny to share her art with the world. She is uneasy, but agrees.

Penny’s art is a hit. Everyone flocks to her exhibitions and upon leaving they each seem livelier and less of a drone. After a few weeks, however, things grow out of hand. People are obsessed with Penny’s ability to create art while the rest of the adult world can no longer do so. They hunt her down, begging her to create more. Her art consumes her life: she sits at home all day and night, bleeding out her work.

Four possible endings:

Ending 1: Penny becomes engrossed with her fame and lets it carry her away. She eventually bleeds dry and the world goes back to the same way it was before (sad but realistic ending)

Ending 2: Penny becomes obsessed with her fame, goes insane, and after nearly bleeding herself dry decides to use the blood of other people, becoming a frenzied murderer in the name of art. (let’s not do this one…)

Ending 3: Arthur realizes the plight of his friend Penny and eventually talks her out of torturing herself for art. The rest of the world, still obsessed with her art, hunts down both Penny and Arthur, killing them both. (let’s not do this one either…)

Ending 4: Arthur talks Penny out of harming herself in the name of art. This act convinces the rest of the world that one person alone cannot give individual meaning and identity to everyone. The people work together to reclaim their own senses of self. (happy ending!)