@Phil - From Script to Screen: Story Idea #4

• A large factory filled with fortune teller machines, each one with a glowing crystal ball balanced on a see-saw like device.
• The factory is built like a pillar, over a chasm which descends into darkness
• Each crystal ball is a human life, and they tilt back and forth on the see-saw; tilting all the way to the left for good fortune, and all the way to right for bad.
• There is one empty machine, one of the many mechanical Seers running the factory places a crystal ball into it. The machine comes to life and the see-saw begins tilting.
• Looking into the crystal, the Seer can see a newborn baby.
• Over time, the Seer regularly studies the crystal, witnessing events in the persons life, E.g.: learning to walk, breaking a limb, going to school, the loss of a loved one, graduation, marriage, etc.
• One day, during her daily rounds checking the machines, the Seer finds the machine has stopped working again. She picks up the crystal ball, inside she sees the person she'd been observing lying in a hospital bed, dying.
• She carries the crystal ball with her, looking at it sadly.
• As she walks, the crystal is suddenly removed from her hands by another Seer (slightly older looking in design). The Seer stares at the crystal ball for a second, before nonchalantly throwing it behind her, into the chasm.
• The crystal falls further and further into darkness, before smashing into a pile of other broken crystals lying at the bottom.
• The older Seer hands the younger one a new crystal ball, and sends her in the direction of the non-functioning fortune teller machine.
• Placing the new crystal into the machine, it restarts, going right back to how it was.
• The Seer watches for moment, before moving along.

Slightly different from my last idea. I added the extra Seer to make the younger Seers attachment to the human life she was observing more tragic, but I am open to having the younger Seer being the only one, making the throwing away of the crystal ball reveal that she never really cared at all.