Susanna Overhears

The cheerleader says, "I've been watching In Treatment, a nightly drama showing the weekly therapy sessions of a number of people, including the therapist. Watching the exchanges and seeing how there's the version of things the 'patient' (as the show refers to them) describes to the therapist, there's the version that the therapist perceives, the version that the therapist interprets, then the version that the therapist feeds back to the patient. There's the patient's interpretation of the therapist's expressed version, experienced based their own conditioning, bias, history. And then there's the implied hidden version that the patient is withholding, consciously or not, as well as a version that the therapist may be unconsciously experiencing based on their own conditioning, bias, history, so on.

"And I wonder, is the existence of all these versions the very basis for the therapy itself? Or is it the thing that prevents therapy from being effective? Or both and in what combination?"

The writer says, "The Professor once called it 'The Implicate Meaning Field' - the possibility that things can be other than they are, creating room for error, and for change, and for imagination, and for suffering."

The businessman says, "Tor Norretranders describes in The User Illusion a model of communication in which a massive tree of exformation is condensed within us into a tiny packet of information, which is transmitted from us to others who are listening and watching, wherein it grows a new tree of exformation. And I guess we hope that the two trees roughly correspond to each other."

The writer says, "Maybe without this there'd be no art, but sometimes it makes me feel like really sharing anything is impossible."

Tull

Tull

The Children of the Revolution (You Won't Fool)

Max lay back on the couch, feeling like a cliché. It reminded him of the Lab for a moment, a shiver, tried to steady his breathing.

"I guess it's always been a question of trying to figure out who is sending the transmissions," he said. "If it's Control or the Professor, or if it's Morganfokker. If it's an order, or an insight, or a delusion. Their voices often sound alike and the frequencies are always changing. So I try to listen and hope the only people that get hurt are people who need to get hurt.

"But lately I got one message, from one of them, The Professor I think: It's a question of trying to synchronize the inside of you with the outside of you with what's outside of you.

"I thought that if those were even each only a variable between say 1 and 10, the chances of having them all land on the same number at any given moment... I guess that's life as slot machine. But I figure it's closer to say a game of chess where only one combination of the 32 pieces is an accurate representation of how things are - the relationships between royalty and clergy and soldiers and such, be they desires and fears and drives, or whatever (Professor, Morganfokker, Control?) - and there's actually 3 boards you're playing on, against 3 different players. And you're supposed to get each board in sync, all 32 pieces in the same position, in the same move.

"And that's when it happens I guess. Has it happened to you?"

In The Shadow Of Fears Big and Little

FADE IN.

1. ON A WOMAN'S FACE

As the camera slowly pulls back we see LUCY MORNINGSTAR sitting at a table; she is dressed in a red dress, wearing a black cropped jacket. She is sipping coffee and looking at several sheets of paper on the table before her. A file report of MAX CUBE - ACTIVE (UNSTABLE) is open before her.

2. INT. COFFEE SHOP - MORNING
A quaint looking place, looking more of a cafe. LUCY is sitting at a table in front of a window. There are three other customers sitting about her at another table. The door opens and enters A TALL DARK MAN dressed in a three piece business suit carrying a business suitcase. He looks around the place in disgust like a man who is accustomed to the finer things in life. He sees LUCY and approaches.

TALL DARK MAN:
Lucy.

LUCY
Anubis. You're right on time.

ANUBIS
What's your fascination with this place? I do not understand it. Of all the places and all the worlds that were made and unmade you seem to be attracted to...

LUCY (interrupting)
Did you bring it?

ANUBIS (brings case to table)
That I have.

LUCY
I love to see a MAN respect the wager.

ANUBIS
Before we do this transaction. Would you like to go double or nothing?

LUCY
Another wager?

ANUBIS
Yes. But this time with a twist.

Roll Credits

Max closed his eyes. He drew a slow puff from the cigarette in his mouth. Inhaling the toxic fumes once again and savouring it.

"I'm scared," Suki said. "What's going to happen to us all?"

"We've been going in a loop non-stop for 15 years now," Frank stated. "It's time to take it to the next level."

"Like in a video game?" Suki inquired.

"See," Frank interjected. "She still calls them video games."

"I get the point," Goner said. "Yeah, I see it now, don't go all 'I told ya so' on us now!"

Frank cracked a smile for the first time in a long time.

"If we were movie characters what would be doing now?" Suki asked.

Max opened his eyes and tousled Suki's hair. "We strut."

Verse Chorus Verse Bridge Verse Chorus

It was a pure symphony.

Max was back to back with Maggie and they were moving in unison across the floor, bullets flying like angry wasps looking for whoever stirred up the hornets' nest. It felt like old times, yet to Max it was just the beginning. Never before had he encountered such a creature as Maggie.

She was more than human, but human in appearance. He presumed if he saw her true form his eyes would burn out and his brain would melt, much like butter on a hot plate. But he didn't mind if it did.

They were surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of goons.

Little robotic spider-like bots crawling across the floors, the walls and the ceiling just trying to get at them to tear their flesh from their bones.

"You okay, my love?" Maggie asked.

"Oh, I'm just Jim Dandy today!" he replied.

Block Busting

"What do you want to watch tonight?" Angst asked. She held up three movies: Dazed and Confused, Quantum of Solace, and The Killer Elite."

"Whoa," Dexter said. "Combine all those movies together and you will have our story."

"Should add The Wizard of Oz into the mix then," Suki stated.

"And don't forget that obscure Rutger Hauer movie, Crossworlds!" Frank chimed in.

"Well, if we are going to go that route," Maggie said. "You might as well add that movie with that actor who played in that movie with some strange stuff in it."

"Obscure much?" Suki stated.

And that's when everyone broke out in laughter. 

This Is a Throwdown

Max pulled the car over. Country road, sunny day. He had forgotten where he was going.

There was a duffel bag in the back seat. The car smelled like vinegar.

He felt nervous. He checked his cellphone. There was a text from Control, timestamp was 33 minutes ago. It said: KEEP DRIVING.

There was a link in the text:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backbone_network

"Hm."

Max started driving again, turned on the radio, recognized the beginning of the song.

"Hm."

At The Whiskey-A-Go-Go

Max stepped into the room; it was early afternoon and the bar was particularly empty. It didn't tend to pick up until evening when the bands take to the stage. He glanced around and saw an old friend sitting in a booth and sipping Jack Daniels on the rocks. Max could see several cigarettes butted out in the ashtray as well, with several sheets of paper scattered about. 

"Yo, Jimbo" Max said as he approached. He slid into the booth across from him. 

"Max!" the fellow said as he saw his old friend approach him. "What you've been up to?"

"Oh, traveling," Max told him. "You know, like opening doors to here and there."

From The Journal of Suki

Dear Diary,

It's been three days since I was brought into this secret club. A club of warriors, fighters, criminals, madmen (and also madwomen as well). What madness have I gotten myself into? I'm scared, I'm happy, I think I'm in a dream world and will wake up soon as well; but I don't want to!!!

Diary I got to admit this to you. The past three days have been awesome! Terrifying as well, but mostly awesome! We've been studying Norse literature in school, and this got me thinking! 

I think Max is the god Loki in disguise!!! He has to be. I have discovered three things...

wait... gotta go... subway is finally stopping and it looks like it's gonna be a big one.

Will update later.... maybe...

The Selection

"What are we going to call this operation?" Darius wanted to know. "We should give it a cool name... you know, for the files."

Max leaned back in the chair and reached out for a book behind him; he closed his eyes and flipped the book open and stopped at a page. He then put a finger down on the page and then opened his eyes to see what word he had picked.

"Backbone," Max stated.

"Backbone?" Darius questioned. "What kind of a stupid-ass name is that for an assignment?"

A Cliffhanger

"Repeat after me: With this ring, I thee...."

Torque

He wandered through the city streets, looking for the symbols on the side of buildings. Letting him know where the safe haven was. It'd been three days since he had been here and he was getting to the point where he thought he would be stuck here forever.

Well, it wouldn't be a bad thing, since it was kind of nice here. The coffee was good, the smokes were to die for and the people were friendly. But he missed the adventure, his companions, and most of all he missed her.

"You look lost mister?" someone asked.

"Yeah," he replied. "I am."

"Maybe this will help," the young kid told him, holding up a map of the 'stars'.

Max saw the map that the young girl was holding and he saw the symbols on them and he cracked a huge smile; he glanced up at the heavens and said, "Thank you Universe!"