Sa Limliman; Main Story

This was written for our finals in BMMA108P - 2D Animation, majority of the storyline was cut in half to fit the three minute constraint we had, but our final output did not even meet that three minutes.

I really thank the mounting efforts our group mates had done for this project, from the bottom of my heart, especially our director and animators who went through hell and beyond to get it done. Thank you, absolutely!

Credits

Thanking Chloe for the original story idea, and I really apologise that it took me five days to finish the storyline because I was procrastinating and I did not know that you guys were waiting for me with completing the story, I'm an absolute stupid chud. sobs

Story Structure: Three Act Structure

The story begins with Nico attending his state college, this was the final month of the semester as professors are handing out final major activities of their courses. On his social studies course, he was required to have a pair as they have to submit an audiovisual presentation of a particular landmark they’ve chosen, various students have already chosen their pairs leaving Nico and another student across the room. Nico never knew or heard of Jaimie before, but with the professor insisting on going by pairs, Nico approached Jaimie, reluctantly agreeing to work together.

As their professor allocated the rest of his time for his students to discuss their final activity, they spent all that free time looking for any landmark to visit. Jaimie eventually settled on an abandoned cobblestone church beyond the outskirts of the city, where a peaceful anti-corruption protest erupted that led to a massacre during the tumultuous administration of the national government half a century ago.

As the school bells rang, they were eventually dismissed, Nico still had classes but Jaimie was finally vacant, they exchanged numbers before parting their own ways. Nico had no idea who she was but he was more than pleased to have a new friend, his social status as the son of the mayor of Romanez has led to obvious distancing of various students in the campus, alienated by his connection to his father, but intimidated about what might happen if someone messes with him.

Back at Nico’s home, his family were having dinner, sitting parallel to his father, he absent-mindedly ate his meal. Eager to at least create some conversation in the area, his mother asked him how he was, Nico replied how he made friends with someone at class, his mother let out a smile as he complimented Nico before finishing their meal, his father was quiet, something stirring upon his mind but Nico and his mother rubbed it off thinking he might be preoccupied with something for his mayorhood.

Nico finally finished his meal as he left, pulling out his phone from his pocket as he messaged Jaimie, eager to learn more or even go further with their project, at which Jaimie responded back long after, apologising for the late response but Nico accepted the apology, offering Jaimie to visit his home for tomorrow to work on the project together. She gladly accepted the offer, setting up a meeting place at the entrance of their college by morning at 8.

Nico finally rested until the dawn arose, taking a shower before heading to their agreed meeting place. He waited for Jaimie who arrived not too long after, taking a stroll on the business district until they headed to the backyard entrance of Nico’s home, climbing up the stairs until they reached the second floor that led to his room. It was large and spacious with a wooden foldable partition separating the bed and the work desk with tables and a sofa behind it.

Jaimie was stunned but also not overly too surprised, he was the son of the mayor after all, one is bound to expect the mayor’s interior to at least have some style. But Nico wasted no time on the research part, handing out his laptop to Jaimie to start researching while also researching on his computer at the work desk. Working tirelessly until it was way past the afternoon. Nico brought some food in, before finalizing their work, they’ve finished the research part, they just need to get to the landmark to film, voice their script, and edit it back home.

As the sun was starting to set they sat at the balcony learning to know more about each other while snacking on chips that Nico found at their pantry and formally introducing themselves this time, until Nico asked Jaimie where she lived, she kept joking that it’s a secret and that he’s bound to find it someday, but Nico gave up on the question as Jaimie wouldn't budge.

They finally cleaned up as Nico handed out a bill of 100 Pesos to cover Jaimie’s transport cost for his own good will. Jaimie hesitated but Nico insisted, ultimately leading her to accept the offer before the boy escorted her to the gate.

Jaimie kept her eyes at the bill before putting it in her pocket as she rushed back home. With Nico ever perplexed as the mystery of where she lives. The next day on the weekend, he was mindlessly strolling around the city walking far beyond from the business district and to the transitional area, looking around what the people are doing, but he received a notification from his mother on where he was, replying as he was walking before accidentally falling on a manhole that knocked him unconscious, he eventually woke up to see a crowd of people surrounded by him, he stood as people were assisting the boy, only for Nico to discover that the tunnels were inhabited by people, those who couldn’t even get a glimpse to the surface as they have been shunned for being so poor. The ladder of the manhole was long rusted and unsafe for anybody to touch, he asked for forgiveness for the accident and left with an awkward smile as he explored the tunnels to find a stairwell that led him to the station.

To his surprise, he discovers Jaimie outside one of the tents and walks towards her, frightening the girl in the process. Perplexed, she asked Nico how he even got here, in which Nico elaborated, but furthermore asked her about where he is. Jaimie’s parents came to the scene to the surprise of the mayor’s son next to their daughter, the situation got more awkward as numerous stares surrounded Nico and Jaimie, then the latter asked their parents for an excuse to get Nico back home and they ran away with Jaimie in the lead.

They got out to the streets as they walked back to Nico’s home, asking the frustrated and embarrassed Jaimie how she got here in the first place, at which Jaimie didn’t know how, but she elaborated that she was born when they were already in the slums, Nico looked away in shame, further perplexed as to why his father didn’t cater the people residing here but the many people he saw on the streets, some begging for money as they walk past some of them further stirred that shame, perplexity, and frustration inside him.

Nico admitted he never knew his father neglected people like her, adding that he was ignorant on the matters his father tended to, the lifestyle he imposed on him, and made him blind on such affairs. But Jaimie was silent, still visibly frustrated, their walk was rather silent and Jaimie dropped Nico off to his home as she fled without a word.

At dinner, Nico asked his father about the slums, making the latter freeze, asking Nico how he even discovered the place and the people, but Nico refused, interrogating his father about the situation and why he never cared but the father insisted on his question. Nico walked out in protest, his mother stunned, conflicted by the love for her son and her father.

Later at midnight, eager to learn more, Nico thought to look into his father’s phone. His father was absolutely knocked out from the amount of alcohol he intoxicated himself with. Getting his phone was relatively easy with him being so intoxicated, and guessing the passcode was a breeze and to his dismay, he discovers numerous messages to various different people he doesn’t know, obviously must be some colleagues he knew he thought. He opened a conversation to discover that his father spent one million pesos of presumably taxpayer money to a casino in Manila only to lose all of that money, as well as business conversations where contracts for the city of Romanez are tied to companies he has a stake in.

Nico was left stunned, and now he’s left in a dilemma of potentially destroying his family or leaving Jaimie and those in the slums beyond the brink of death by starvation and lack of opportunities. Further ridden with guilt that his lifestyle came from the corruption of his father, the dismay of what he saw in Jaimie lingering in emotional pain to him, the mansion, his room, everything he has is responsible for the difficulties Jaimie has in her personal life. He can expose and destroy his father’s reputation as a politician, or worsen Jaimie’s life and the rest.

As morning came, his family gathered for breakfast, Nico’s father sat with his phone in hand, replaying the footage of Nico and Jaimie slipping through the backyard gate. Locking his eyes toward Nico, in a voice so eerily calm that you can sense that something isn’t right, he scolded his son about bringing a ‘street trash’ to his home. Nico defended his actions by stating that Jaimie is a friend and the only friend he has in person after being excluded by the social divide of the other students at college. And he would do everything in his power to defend people like Jaimie, but the father laughed, not finishing Nico’s sentence. Seeing his son’s ambitions as a mere joke, degrading the son’s future ambitions for justice for the poor as clueless and pathetic.

It felt like a blow to Nico’s chest, his heart sinking, a heavy feeling consuming him. He was enraged by his father’s statement, he abruptly left the dining room as he stormed towards his room, locking the doors, the document file displayed on his computer that compiled all of the evidence against his father gathered his attention, but continued to question himself whether doing this was right, but the memories of him in the underground, how Jaimie felt and seeing how others are suffering, and the stinging pain of the insults his father flared to him, out of spite, he published the documents on the City of Romanez social media forum. And Nico knew he had to hide, packing everything as much as he could, his phone, laptop, school textbooks and clothes to last for the next few days in a single backpack, he snuck out on the backyard gate as the post gathered traction from the locals.

Nico knew he practically destroyed his family’s reputation, destroyed every opportunity he had now, but he knew what he did was right. He knew he would have to repair the damage he blew to his image. Checking the post through his phone, it has already gotten enough traction, one could wait until it gets into the news. Nico ran to the train station to where he discovered Jaimie, he eventually stumbled upon her as he was running towards the slums, with Jaimie surprised to see him.

She asked Nico what happened, with Nico telling everything he discovered about his father, Jaimie wasn’t really surprised hearing that but when he told her that he exposed his father’s corruption online her eyes widened in surprise. Now she understood why Nico was running away, he put himself in danger to provide a better opportunity for the people in the slums.

Nico stayed with Jaimie until the night, as primetime meant the news was coming, and the biggest story that night was the fact that somebody exposed the Romanez mayor, with the son vanishing from the mansion. People are drawn to the TV screens at some of the nearby stalls, the cafeteria at the transitional area had a small crowd gathered to watch, their meals interrupted to watch the story. And the reactions varied from being surprised for the exposure, or the fact that the mayor got exposed at all. As for the missing boy in the story, they did just find Nico frantically running away earlier in the morning, their description of the boy matching what they saw on the streets much earlier.

The mayor made an address to the situation, discrediting his son for destroying the reputation of his family but to also attempt to deny the evidence provided. But the date of the creation and even the publication of the document were too hard to disassociate from Nico and the argument he had with his father.

The crowd at the slums gathered to Nico in the train station to ask, various overlapping voices questioning him simultaneously with reactions varying from applause to skepticism of a rich boy playing hero to which Jaimie interrupted them to not overwhelm Nico, the crowd dissipated leaving Nico, Jaimie, and her family. Her parents asked Nico why he wanted to do this, why risk himself, why lose it all, to which Nico mentioned that Jaimie is his only friend in college, the social divide as the son of the mayor practically isolated him from everyone, and seeing that his only friend suffer at such conditions motivated him to see change, but his father refused, even belittling her and his ambitions.

The power at the station was abruptly cut off leaving them in total darkness. Everyone started shouting about the arrival of officers at the underground and the train station. Jaimie, her family, and Nico decided to flee as officers arrived and ransacked the place, most of what remained belonging to those at the station were destroyed, photos, heirlooms, and even the tents were damaged. They all watched in horror as they made their escape to the surface, ran to the lush forest as they frantically searched for shelter.

They fled for god knows how long, they’ve found an abandoned church shrouded with fauna, perhaps this might be the same church that Jaimie mentioned before. But in sheer desperation, they’ve hoped for the best. The family was able to get enough clothes to last them for another day, and Nico was smart enough to bring a power bank with him just in case. He checked his phone for updates, social media already flooding with recent information about his father, and news about the ransacking of the underground. He looked in terror at Jaimie and her parents in sorrow for losing everything they’ve had, he knew this was his fault and he knew he needed to make up for it.

But for now they needed to recover from what happened. By morning hopefully Nico could work out what to do. The inside of the church was cold, Nico thought to carry some light blankets to cover Jaimie and her younger sibling as her parents guarded them through the night, by morning, he was awoken to the snores of Jaimie’s parents, his stomach was growling, having not eaten since last morning. He opened his wallet to find himself a 2,000 peso bill that he stashed away for emergencies, and it was a perfect timing, he wandered outside to find himself in the transitional area, walking to a nearby stall that was selling home cooked food, he knew he should buy something that’s easy to eat, and a quick trip to a sari-sari for drinking water. He brought Pancit Bihon and Pabalok and a 6 liter jug of water, plastic fork, and disposable cups, the food and cutlery stashed in his bag, the jug of water carried by the handle as he made the run back to the church, Jaimie’s family was awoken by the panic rustle of plants to see Nico step inside the church.

Nico gave the individual plastic bags of food and obviously a fork to Jaimie and her family and filled the cups with water and offered it to them. Jaimie’s parents thanked Nico for the gesture as they finally began their breakfast. Breakfast for Jaimie’s family was practically a rarity, and this felt like a deeply sincere gesture from Nico. Once they were done, Jaimie wanted to go back to the station to check what happened, everyone agreed and packed up and left to check.

The station was worse than it was before, people picking up what remained of what they had, tents shredded until there was nothing left in the vicinity. They walked in the stairs that led to the sewage. Seeing disparaged people leaving the underground to look somewhere else to say, Nico looked in sadness at the sight.

Nico tried to gather everyone’s attention, standing on a makeshift platform made out of discarded crates. Dozens came to take a look, many were curious, skeptical, and weathered from the raid that happened yesterday. His heart was pounding, he never made a speech, nor talked to a large crowd before, heart pounding in anxiety, but Jaimie’s nod of encouragement was the very motivation he needed.

He began with how people in the slums wouldn’t trust a guy who’s rich and benefited from his father's corruption. He acknowledged the evidence, he was the one who exposed his father in the first, because Nico realized the hardships that people in the slums have faced and the connection that the suffering of the people are what made him privileged, socially separated, and even scrutinized, and brought up Jaimie as the person that have made him see the light into the atrocities of his father. Only for an elderly man to rebuke the boy. But Nico shot back, acknowledging that guilt doesn’t fix the underlying issue, and that true action is effective. He told them about the news on TV yesterday, it was spreading amidst the many exposure of corruption around the country. If they could organize one in Romanez, we need to make those who are in dissent of the mayor to go together to topple him down. If it only was just Nico to revolt, he would be seen as a privileged kid initiating family drama. Then giving some inspiring speech to seal the deal. He would campaign online for a protest in Romanez, in line with the many other protests that are bound to happen within the same day. Others have set the calendar on Sunday, which means they have less than a week to organize, the people in the underground were convinced, joining in to campaign for the rally, the people have dissipated as they’ve begun inviting people within the day, Nico doing his best efforts to organize the rally on the social media side. To take place on the city plaza. And within hours, the plan was spread online and through word of mouth. One of the father’s allies messaged him about the campaign, and he came prepared.

Nico continued to care for Jaimie and his family with what remained from his 2,000 pesos and until the protest began, forward to the protest, even before Nico and Jaimie arrived, there was already an impressive pool of people, people he can tell came from the slums and the transitional area, many at cheered at Nico’s presence. It started peacefully, chants and signs, and screams of the people, speeches from notable people that are considered legends by the locals, but a conflict with an officer sparked, the officer was obviously deranged and a classist towards the poor. People began taking videos of the officer’s aggression to the protester until the officer resorted to baton and tase the protester, the conflict erupted as civilians fought the officer, nearby officers called for backup, fighting back with teargas and water cannons, some in the other parts of the city heard gunshots, pooling of blood at the other side of the city was discovered as another stupid ass officer shot a protester, who would be later found out was a grade school student who pushed an officer away after taunting the student.

The protest had to abruptly end, the officers fled the scene as medical vehicles rushed to admit the injured and the fatalised, the mayor addressed the situation later at night, making some obviously staged speech, stating that the officers were doing their job, and blamed the conflict on the protestors, even making bold claims of assisting those in need when in reality he fully neglected them. The people gathered on every television in the vicinity, their emotions agitated, even enraged.

Jaimie and Nico were infuriated, and a collective agreement spread through the community like wildfire, if they fight peace with brutality, then they have to fight for peace through brutality. Nico addressed through social media that they’ll continue this fight for justice, with another round of protest spreading through word of mouth, this time, it is exactly what they needed, the address, the footage of brutality, and a new date to coincide, and it was Sunday next week, early morning.

After a week of preparations, protesters gathered at the city hall, the plaza, and Nico, Jaimie, and a few others surrounded his father’s mansion, and what they had with them, Molotovs, pitchforks, rocks, lighter fluid, and matches, Nico still had the key to the backyard gate. And they took no time to storm in, the moment officers become aggressive is the cue they need to start tearing this city apart, and when an officer attempted to beat up a protester on Nico and Jaimie’s side, other protesters doused the officer in lighter fluid and lit him on fire, rocks were thrown towards the officer, and one even stole a large rock from the mansion and threw it on the officer, knocking him unconscious but still continued to burn.

As other attempts of police brutality erupted at the city hall and the various police stations, Molotovs lit up the city like wildfire, windows shattered, officers burning in pain, tied, beaten up, even stripped and humiliated in public.

Stones, and even large rocks were being thrown and smashed against the authorities, the city hall lit on fire and everything inside it. At the mansion, the mayor tried to run away but protesters caught him, tying him to a chair as protestors dumped everything from the mansion, windows, glass, and decorum stripped or destroyed out of their prestige with everything falling apart at the mayor’s sight. Nico’s mother fled the scene, begging protesters, and even his son to stop it but Nico never budged, apologising to his mother that this was bound to happen whether she liked it or not.

And now, the protesters lit the mansion on fire. Most of the things inside the house that the protesters were able to strip out already dumped on the ground, fires engulfed the mansion, the mayor and the wife screaming in pain to see their home destroyed, expensive furniture burnt to ashes like it was worth nothing as protesters circled to witness the sight, but Nico didn’t show any remorse, taunting his father that he knows that he’ll have someplace else to live… if they could even find it, he’ll be fine, Nico mocked his father about everything he had, offshore accounts in Switzerland, the second mansion at the other part of the city, which by now is also engulfed in flames already.

His father tried to beg and bargain Nico to stop, and that one word Nico muttered made him feel utterly defeated. Everyone wanted him to resign and face a sentence. His father rebuked but Nico was holding a bottle of lighter fluid and threatened his father to agree to it. Nico showed him every footage of people burning everything down in the city, the second mansion, police stations, government vehicles, and buildings of businesses tied to his father’s wealth. His father felt defeated, agreeing to resign.

And blah blah blah after that what happened is that he actually resigned, including the vice mayor for ties to the resigning mayor and a city election had to be held, and arrest warrants issued by the fictional and newly established Independent Anti-Corruption Commission of the D.O.J that lead to their arrest, his bank accounts in the Philippines and Switzerland were suspended, with the latter government complying to transfer the money back to the commission, his other assets were seized, his businesses were suspended too. And will be put on trial and sentence.

And after the new elections, a new mayor was installed and the focus was immediately setting up welfare programs and opportunities for people, focusing on government housing, citywide healthcare benefits, and more.

It also shows how Jaimie’s family is not living in the slums anymore. They were living a better life compared to 3 years ago. Jaimie seems to be texting someone on her phone, then it is revealed that she was talking to Nico who is now in studying abroad (or maybe working idk??). Romanez was now an actual developed city with a mayor who really cares about the city and its people.

The end is a little cheesy, but I was working on constraints and hoped that others could improvise with the visuals.