MJG
You still there?

N
Just thinking

MJG
Sorry I didn’t mean to bring you down

N
No, no you didn’t
I like talking to you
Keep going
What else do you think about

MJG
I think about heaven

N
One track mind

MJG
Shit I’m keeping you up

N
I like talking to you.

MJG
Hey N

N
Yeah

MJG
Hey you there? You still there?

N
Yeah..needy

MJG
If you could be anything in the world
what would you be

N
I don’t know...happy, I guess
Tell me a story bitch

MJG
Why I gotta be a bitch?

Nkechi
Because you're keeping me up

MJG
Okay
What kind

MJ’S Mom
This is my favorite part

N
I don’t care, but this has to be the last one the sun coming up.

MJG
Did I ever finish telling you the Greek myth? The Orion-Artemis one

N and BRO
Oh yeah, but you need to hurry up

MJG
You said you wanted something epic. Where’d I leave off

N and JD
Umm....Orion is dead, Artemis is carrying his sad dead carcass, looking up at the stars

ALL
Right

MJG
So
Artemis gets the idea to throw his body into the sky
And that’s how you get Orion’s belt in there

N
But, how does it end?

MJG
Well she comes back every solstice or whatever and prays to him for like a thousand years
and then one day she’s like
fuck this
I miss him too much
And she spins the world back around
Like Superman-

N
Like Dean Cain-

MJG and PAPA
Like Christopher Reeve
Don’t interrupt.

MJG
And she keeps going back to that time where she finds him in the woods and falls
madly in love with him. When she stares him down and he bows his head to like give
her reverence and she like lifts it with a queen like grace and says we shall be companions for the rest of our days and they just stare
Pleased that they’ve found they’re companions.......

Both rooms open up
The ensemble begins to strip N and MJG until they are finally unveiled to each other as Orion and Artemis

BRO/APOLLO
only sometimes she’s Orion

JD/EROS
and sometimes he’s Artemis

PAPA/ZEUS
or she’s Zeus

NENE/LETO
and he’s Apollo

MOM/NEPTUNE
sometimes she’s even the scorpion that killed him

MJG/ORION
or sometimes they comeback as mortals and relive someone else’s story

Beat

N/ARTEMIS
Yeah?

ALL
Yeah

We see the sky grow out of control.
Day becomes night becomes day becomes night
It is a chaotic frenzy of stars, suns, planets, and meteors.

MJG/ORION
Cause she’ll do anything to relive the story

APOLLO
Right.

MJG/ORION
Even if it’s only to witness

PAPA/ZEUS
And she hurts each time

NENE/LETO
like crazy painful

MJG/ORION
like whole in your heart

JD/EROS
punch to the gut
gun shot to the face painful

PAPA/ZEUS
because they both know how it’s gonna end

MJG/ORION
But it’s not as bad each time
So she keeps reliving it
hoping that she will move forward

N/ARTEMIS
And does she...move forward?

MJG/ORION
I don’t know

N/ARTEMIS
But how does it end?

MJG/ORION
I don’t know. I don’t think it does.

ALL
Huh

N/ARTEMIS
I like that story.
Can we start from the.......

But they are all already gone. Orion trailing behind.
Artemis left alone.
In muddy darkness.
But then
She looks up.

N/ARTEMIS
Maybe........

She parts the sky and
Begins to write her own story.

N
Maybe it's like.....

And never stops.

N
It goes like this.

And we see it.
Orion's constellation, his belt,
His bow.
It is easy to spot.

End of play.