Care Cycle [fragment]

A sitcom that takes place across multiple dimensions. Each episode exists on the same time continuum of the other. The situations change every single episode, depending on what choices the characters make.

There are fifteen characters, introduced in differing frequencies, and across the entire first series. The viewpoint shifts between some of them, with others appearing sporadically.

PRIMARY CHARACTERS:

1. Kimberly Walven, 0, the never-born ghost child of Kelly Peterson Walvern. She died in a barn fire, set by her mother’s jilted lover. She is the sole voice of reason in this universe.

2. Rajiv Vinegar, 28, the only member of his Nepalese family who didn’t become a doctor. He is a constant victim to his sisters’ emasculating comments. His father once tried to disown him, but he didn’t want to pay the lawyer. He lives at home after an accident at the construction site dealt him severe mental trauma.

3. Keerna Vinegar, 30-something. She was supposed to get her next promotion at Barnes and Nobles, but she refused to blow the Afro-American manager. She later admitted that she it was in her moral worldview to fellate a superior to maintain job security, but she is a racist. Divorced.

4. “The Cool,” 18. Cool haircut, cool women’s jacket. Cool everything. He wants to become the best at something, but he always breaks his legs.

5. “Clover” the Cow, 4, “desperately seeking Staghorn.” Lonely. Very, very lonely. Actually a cow.

6. Thomas Baird Hughes, 22. Son of deposed Romanian diplomats. Timber baron.

SECONDARY CHARACTERS

1. Michael Walven, 54. Widower and sole survivor of the fire that claimed his two daughters, one unborn, and his wife.

2. Lester ven Hague, 11, orphan and drug-addicted prostitute. Diseased.

3. Lovely Peterson, “NOT telling,” pancake-make-up’d stripper. Androgynous.

4. God, ∞, Onlooker – possibly responsible for everything, possibly insane. Never seen.

5. Rad Dad, 39, father of “The Cool.” He is just really rad, when you need him to be, and otherwise he stays out of your hair. He buys you cough syrup so you can abuse it. Divorced, but has custody, so “fuck you, bitch!”

6. Fay Shull, 31, self-titled icon. Had tryst with Rad Dad during the hectic months of 2002. Never regretted it, except when he made her get an abortion. Went crazy, but is now getting better. Has switched from heroin to methadone, but sometimes steals car radios just for the fun of it all. And to buy heroin.

7. Forever Kevin, 75, homeless, laid down for a spell under the gazebo in the park, and during the night, moss grew over him and he was trapped. It wriggled into his skin and became part of him. He was nurtured, like a baby, by the cool embrace of the Earth. Only his torso and half of his face are recognizable, but he speaks with the perverted wisdom of generations.

It takes place in the near future, but few things have changed. Biodiesel has been proven economically invalid and unimportant ecologically.