A young man, Hippolytus, and a young woman, Pip, sit on a ring around Saturn. Stars shoot all around, no sounds but for Hippolytus and Pip talking.
Hippolytus: I shoot without ammo, what am I?
Pip: A star!
Hippolytus: No, silly! Try again. (laughs)
Pip: I don’t want to try again. (pouts)
Hippolytus: I know you want to try again. (kicks an icy rock)
Pip says nothing.
Pip: Our final stop, is it soon?
Hippolytus: About half way now, I think. Not many rings to go…
Pip: And how many rings around Saturn?
Hippolytus: As many as to Purgatory.
Pip: And this is?
Hippolytus: I’d say ring four.
Pip: Our trip, is it moving up or down through all rings?
Hippolytus: I don’t know, but (funny bus conductor intonation) Purgatory, coming up! (claps hands)
Hippolytus and Pip turn to icy crystals, blow onto an adjoining ring, turn human again. Hippolytus and Pip sit on a ring around Saturn.
Hippolytus: It’s cold.
Pip: A soft cold.
Hippolytus: A smooth cold. You know, sort of as cool cotton.
Pip: A cool pillow.
Hippolytus: That’s right baby, a cool pillow.
Pip: And so bright.
Hippolytus: Mhm, icy bright.
Pip: But softly so.
Hippolytus: Soft.
Pip: As soft as your skin… as icy too.
Hippolytus: Don’t start.
Hippolytus and Pip say nothing.
Pip: Why won’t you say it?
Hippolytus says nothing.
Pip: Say it.
Hippolytus says nothing.
Pip: I lo… (prods Hippolytus jokingly, giggling) I looo…
Hippolytus: Stop it.
Pip: you lololovvvloovv (Pip prods Hippolytus again and again, giggling)
Hippolytus: Cut it out. (slaps away Pip’s hand, turns away from Pip)
Pip says nothing, looking at Hippolytus. Hippolytus turns back around, looks at Pip.
Hippolytus: If it’s so important, you say it.
Pip: I try… but it’s stuck in my throat. I’d say it gladly!
Hippolytus: A word can’t stick in a throat.
Pip: Look! It’s stuck in my throat. (mouth gaping)
Hippolytus: I don’t think so. (Hippolytus looks into Pip’s mouth, his hand around Pip’s throat)
Hippolytus and Pip laugh, kiss. Pip looks lovingly at him. Hippolytus looks lovingly at Pip.
Pip: How long?
Hippolytus: Until?
Pip: Until…you and I… you know…
Hippolytus: Fuck?
Pip: Crass man! Don’t you think of nothing but that? (giggling)
Hippolytus: My angsty girl… (Hippolytus wraps arms around Pip) No, no I don’t. (pulls away)
Pip: How long until you and I stand on solid ground?
Hippolytus: I don’t know, baby.
Pip starts to cry. Saturn’s rings spin in ultra-rapid, fast and slow. Saturn and Saturn’s rings vanish.
A minimalist room, a hanging light, a scratchy LP playing, shouting fighting sounds coming through a wall of an adjoining flat (Putain! Putain! Salaud! Salaud!), cop cars wailing, dog barking. Pip is lying in Hippolytus lap, not moving. By Pip and Hippolytus is a box of Narcan. Hippolytus starts to laugh; Hippolytus starts to sob.