Flip and Burn

This is Flip & Burn: a one-shot, 12 episode fan show in the universe of The Expanse. This is a hybrid show half traditionally acted, set, and scripted as storyline control element; and half character-driven narrative propelled by four principals using The Expanse RPG.

• Primary filming/sets: Seattle and additional filming in San Fransisco\London\Auckland.

• Episodes: weekly; both live and pre-recorded.

• Original concept/production/direction — Scotland Symons

• Lead Writer / Cast — Violet Blue

How it kicks off

• Our principals arrive to Eros on a ship with others who are running an illicit ferry business. No one seems to know one another, but few of the relationships are truthful. One for scrip, one for love, one for revenge, one to repay a debt.

• Eros is consistently punished for not playing ball with the corrupt forces of Inners, attempting to restrict their trade and suffocate Eros.

• Their illicit ship catches the eye of the Harbormaster.

• The ship arrives on Belter Fete Gede (a celebration for the dead, where masks are worn).

• Harbormaster June Santos seizes the ship.

• Anderson Dawes noticed this out-of-band ship, too. He interferes, disrupting a smuggling trade controlled by Santos, though he has long wanted to one-up her. Revolutionary Belters believe Eros is pandering to Inners. Air and water taxes and trade routes become restricted thanks to Dawes's public actions. Later on, many believe this was Dawes's regret, setting in motion the downward spiral of Eros.

• Act two begins with an all-character confrontation in a bar called Naterash Imbobo.

# # #

Eros Station

Welcome to the untold stories of Eros Station, the jewel of the Belt.

"Eros is a garbage dump" -- cop on Ceres

"Eros is the murder capital of the system" -- Earther Errinwright

"Can you believe this place used to be called 'The Jewel of the System'? Wish I could've seen it back then." -- Kenzo, Avesarala's spy

A bit about the the Background of Eros in the way we envision it

When Eros died its population was around 100,000. We can estimate the population in our time, it’s heyday as The Jewel, was at least double that. Just under the population of New Orleans.

It is Blade Runner Venice. It is 1930s Hong Kong ruled by Triads. It has districts; St. James (brothels), Takeshita (clubs and fashion), Macau (gambling), Huang (electronics and parts, also called "Bunnie"), among others, like theater. Eros has better comedy clubs, DJ parties, and speakeasies than Ceres. The only other station that could rival Eros as a cultural hub for Belters is Titan.

In parity with its reputation as the jewel of the Belt, the sigil for Eros Station resembles a gemstone.

Eros is pockmarked with docks, some public (for ferries, etc.) and many private belonging to companies, governments, and the wealthy. Within Eros is a multi-layered, three-dimensional city interconnected with a central transit hub, freight elevators, as well as private transit cars and elevators used by elite and high-rollers.

Unlike Ceres (remember: Earth says Ceres is theirs), Eros is similar to Las Vegas with its separate ports where the rich dock their ships and pleasure craft, high-end hotels and private penthouses, a whole separate class of everything like brothels, casinos/entertainment venues, etc.

Deals are brokered and made in these erudite, elite spaces, and they see Belt culture as a collectible, "savage," yet exotic culture ("save" the pretty women for fucking; top Belt men to show masculinity; pedo as you like; walk on the wild side with gender, etc) -- much in the way England viewed India.

Festivals -- because this is Venice on a rock. There is the Eros Carnival (arts and diversity “we are who we are” celebration), Second Line (Belter Creole day of the dead; if Blade Runner did Fete Gede), the Solidarity March (worker solidarity; officially banned by inners and Star Helix but tolerated on Eros).

Neighborhoods; blocks of "cells" (small studio apartments) with singles, station part-timers, and families that identify like any neighborhood around family-run shops and merchant clusters (like night markets in Southeast Asia. Taggers and street artists flourish, with the expected neighborhood rivalry (gang warring).

Its medinas beat like community hearts: Food stalls, electronics hawkers, knock-offs, kitchen junk, healers), groups of people with transience as a part of life like any port town. Medinas that function like open-air night markets are mostly found at junctions and extend several stories upward; prime real estate has overlooking balconies (again, similar to New Orleans).

Mech shafts: old tunnels for smugglers, entrepreneurs, traders. Star Helix believe these tunnels to be a maze of collapsed and abandoned tunnels. OPA uses them for moving product, among other things, and have marked the tunnel walls with maps and symbols.

# # #

Principal Characters

Narrator (Story Facilitator)

Hey thats me, Scotland. I will be facilitating the RPG portions of the story and talking our principals through the story that we will weave. This is not a character in our story and will often fill in the world with the voices of other non-main characters of the world.

About Eros Station Harbormaster (Violet Blue)

Rumors swirl around June Santos, a woman who cut her way through all the interests running everything from drugs to water through Eros station. Santos negotiates between the OPA factions, brokers deals and business channels between Belt interests and Mars-Earth entrepreneurs. The Governor of Eros -- a weak, easily bribed man with delusions of control -- usually abdicates to her judgement. June knows who pays who, and importantly, how much.

June runs the docks and -- despite appearances -- is deeply loyal to the Belt. To June, Inners have been taking their pleasures from the bodies, hearts, and minds of Belters for too long. There is nothing she hates more than hypocrisy, though the way that Inners deny her people education and science training comes at a strong second. Men who second-guess her come in at third.

June cut her teeth working her way up on the docks at Ceres and spent plenty of time doing smuggling runs for pirates throughout the Belt. She led crews to take and scuttle Martian delivery ships, she once seduced a UNN commander to get information on trade routes (and kept a souvenir). Santos knows firsthand how corrupt Inner military are, and has seen her close friends spaced on suspicion of being OPA.

Santos knows what shipments come and and go through Eros and often facilitates "missing" shipments. She brokers trade deals of smuggled goods between various factions and tries to keep the peace. The factions work with her both because she is the Harbormaster and because she is an OPA visionary; her "tax" on deals usually means one faction or another delivers meds, food, gas, or learning modules to Belter communities in need. The relationships are tenuous, and some key OPA figures would like to take her place.

June is happiest when she is stealing things from Inners, but drinking and fucking are a close second. She loves swindling Inners, and her personal hobby is taking back what Inners have stolen from the Belt. Most especially anything of cultural significance to the Belt; her active hobby is tracking the collection of Belter artifacts, artwork, famous weapons used by fallen OPA, and other assorted Belt prizes acquired by wealthy or prestigious Inners as trophies. She tracks the items, and reclaims them back for the good of the Belt.

Born in the Belt to rock-hopper dads -- though carried in the belly of an Earther, rumored to be a politician -- June grew up bouncing from station to station around the system. One father a military engineer, the other an artist who believed in revolution, June rebelled by bailing to work the docks as a grunt at Ceres Station as a teen. It was at this time she formed romantic attachments to key OPA figureheads.

Her calling, however, was Eros Station, where she saw the true potential for Belter power and liberation in both its powerful and diverse culture, and its system-lifeblood of smuggling and shipping routes. And a place for her community to survive, thrive, and grow strong.

More coming as the other cast character’s solidify.

• Can’t give away too much as you will just have to stay tuned to learn more about what cast of 5 is really up to and the story they are about to weave to tell one of the many lost stories of Eros.

Trailer and Intros

The Show did have some work in production beyond the writing and world building.There were trailers, props, costumes and even new music written for the show before its temp production halt.

This was the test video intro’s & trailer to the show that I was creating called "Flip and Burn". The show never fully made to air on GeekSpaceTV but will hopefully be coming back in the near future.

• logo design - Javier P. Beltrán

• Images/video - Nasa public media archives

Music

Flip and Burn original song by Multinational Synth Corporation (check them out!)