Scene 10.03 - A Friendly Visit
ANIMATION STYLE 6 [LIVE ACTION WITH MINIMAL CGI]
EST: INT. PSYCHIATRIST'S OFFICE - Washington, D.C., A Future Present Day
(VYLENCIA PENSACOLA [AZALEA] reclines in her psychiatrist's spacious office, richly decked-out in a sexy-and-revealing blue-and-white-checkered outfit with blue-and-white-checkered stockings, with matching shoes, purse, sunglasses and hair -- her feet aren't wearing her high heels, which lounge on the floor off the side of the couch next to her purse. SALVATORE JORGES [WELLS], is recording the session with his spectacles, and quietly sits in a recliner next to her and sips a cup of Earl Grey, listening attentively. VYLENCIA tokes up.)
VYLENCIA
And if it ain't them frickin' bugs gettin' to me, I think those damn movies are making me crazy. And I can only remember bits and parts now; it ain't anything like it was before. Eeeeugh! Puh! (Sips a cola.) When they gonna make a pill that'll let us forget that we're tasting bugs all the time?
SALVATORE
The insect population bugs everybody. Sometimes the swarms are the only thing that I can hear at night. (Sniffs a tug of snuff. Winces. Sneezes.) Cheer up; they're going back to using D-D-T since the birds are gone anyway.
VYLENCIA
Most birds; but it's still a load. Believe me, I'd know. (Pause.) I guess some flyer -- an attempt at humor in the face of unnerving environmental strain was posted on the bulletin board by someone's water cooler and somehow got doctored into an official-looking memo -- and then it got passed loosely around the social networks to trickle down to the eco-terrorist watchdog groups -- and then somehow the media got a copy of it an' the whole issue turned the State Of the Union into a Mockingbird Mockery: The subject of The People's infatuation with flatulation that we all got wind of on the news. It's horse manure; I looked into the story myself; trust me.
SALVATORE
Damn. I thought it was true. It was all over the net.
VYLENCIA
Consider your source.
SALVATORE
Mmmmm. That's too bad, I was kinda hoping there. From what I hear, D-D-T worked.
VYLENCIA
You sound like a farmer I had a talkin' to. The feds are looking for a natural solution.
SALVATORE
There ain't enough spiders in the world to eat-away THAT mess!
(Points to the window. Large, black clouds of insects buzz about in the Winter fog.)
SALVATORE (Cont'd)
Pfffh. A natural solution to five thousand years of unchecked human encroachment? I don't think there is one. Except maybe the bomb. Mother Nature could just start over.
VYLENCIA
Then the bugs would really win.
SALVATORE
Guess so. Maybe just a nuclear bug-bomb. All-natural.
VYLENCIA
There's nothing natural about any bomb, and believe me, if we're going to blow up the planet, it won't be while trying to get rid of the bug problem. My guys tell me the scientists are trying to get inside the brain of the bug; figger it out an' tell it to stop living. (Winces, unable to mentally reconstruct the crap that she was forced to digest:) Or, make it wanna evolve into something else, I dunno. I don't get the particulars; it's all religion to me. (Beat.) Hey -- If the military can beam things into a bug's head to make it change its chemistry or something and make it homosexual without it knowing -- can people do that to other people with the movies we see?
SALVATORE
Huh? Where's this going? Movies?
VYLENCIA
Yeah. Night-trips.
SALVATORE
Ah. You're referring to poetic dreams. Trauma-Scripting. I thought you'd be behind that sort of thing.
VYLENCIA
Been night-trippin' since high school. I'm like everyone else I guess. I really dunno much about it -- It's not really my business.
SALVATORE
(Small sigh.) Which service do you subscribe to?
VYLENCIA
Dreamworx, stuck with it through thick and thin. Do you sleep-surf, Doc? You're in all these dreams I've been having lately, like all the time.
SALVATORE
How flattering. (Drops glasses to chest, suspended. They deactivate.) No, I avoid those services; I like not having to remember my dreams... like people used to. I think the brain is better-off working-out its problems on its own -- but professionally, I must support the use of mandated dream-therapy on violent offenders. Placebo or not, it appears to help.
VYLENCIA
(Doesn't notice WELLS' emphasis on 'violent offenders':) You don't say. Leo and I have talked at length and we figger we must be having the exact... same... dreams, almost. Now you sure you ain't having no dreams with me in it?
SALVATORE
"No, I ain't havin' no dreams with you innit." I told you, I don't remember my dreams.
VYLENCIA
Never tried night-trips?
SALVATORE
No.
VYLENCIA
Never?
SALVATORE
No.
VYLENCIA
Come on, Sal! Never dipped in the brain-bucket even one time?
SALVATORE
No. I'm not too fond of what people call technological innovations.
VYLENCIA
I see you're wearing holo-specs; and this office seems fully automated. It's not like you're Amish.
SALVATORE
I don't wear contacts; I like to be able to remove technology from my environment at will.
VYLENCIA
A person can't can't function without it; no good ever came from ignoring it.
SALVATORE
It's not that I ignore technology; I just like to be in control of how personal the technology can be.
(VYLENCIA sparks a blunt, offers; SALVATORE refuses and continues with taking his notes.)
SALVATORE (Cont'd)
Back to you; in high school, you began your scripting service? Dreamworx, you say?
VYLENCIA
Yeah. I tried that HeadTrek thing for a while and it was trash, and then I previewed DreamFlix for free, but it was all artsy-fartsy; linoleum patterns and spacey sounds.
SALVATORE
Linoleum?
VYLENCIA
Yeah.
SALVATORE
No, I mean: What is it?
VYLENCIA
Floor tapestry patterns.
SALVATORE
Ah. Go on.
VYLENCIA
Still, I thought that before I totally give up on it all, I'd would go to the experts who started it and try Dreamworx. It was going really great and the stories were even kinda funny until lately -- now it's just real weird -- and so vivid! It doesn't make any sense tho-
SALVATORE
Some formats work better with some individuals than others. Some can't use the services at all. What is it in particular about the Dreamworx scripts that are troubling you?
VYLENCIA
It's a mess; nothing like they're supposed to be. (Pause.) Actually I think I'm troubled because I'm discussing my fifty-buck-a-month porn service to my hundred-buck-an-hour therapist.
SALVATORE
See me as a friend. Scripting has many uses; porn is only one feature of the service.
VYLENCIA
WetDreams is the hands-down and jackin' winner there, so where's the mystery? (Pause, toke.) I just wanna know one thing: Can them dream towers make me think crazy, Doc? Are they one-hundred-percent safe?
SALVATORE
No evidence has been brought forth to suggest that they're unsafe -- considering its history and the numerous clinical trials, it doesn't seem to present any adverse risk. The technology works with only a certain part of the brain. Do you have an implant or a stent?
VYLENCIA
Neither. They just pipe it in to me. Can they control me like that, tho?
SALVATORE
Mind Control? Induced Sleepwalking? Subliminal commands? Fairy tales. (Beat.) It's reasonable to have fears -- but the technology is hardly new -- but it has been shown time and time again that neurals can neither extract any credible information that could be considered reliable nor can the transmitter of the signal implant any lasting suggestion, no matter how subliminal. A dream has to be played-out like a sit-com. Brains are made to make up their own minds. Don't your people tell you these things?
VYLENCIA
No. How about them soda-and-popcorn studies? I saw some documentary on the tube about that.
SALVATORE
Hogwash. A clever researcher can make a study suggest anything, if the money is right.
VYLENCIA
Ain't that the truth! I-
(There is a light rap at the door.)
VYLENCIA (Cont'd)
I still got five minutes! I'm almost done! Go water a bush or something!
(VYLENCIA lights another blunt. SALVATORE touches his spectacles. VYLENCIA shares.)
VYLENCIA (Cont'd)
What about some kind of telepathy, Doc? Could I be "dream sharing" like all them psychics claim they do?
SALVATORE
Nonsense! (Beat.) While there are new discoveries nearly every day, I certainly haven't heard of any telepathy breakthroughs from sleep-therapy. Your dreams are solely your own.
VYLENCIA
But these stories ain't supposed to be, right? Isn't that the point of the thing?
SALVATORE
It's just a framework -- an outline is fed to your sleeping mind and then you fill in all the blanks. It's your id; nothing more. Mental trash; it's like taking out all the garbage in your head while you sleep at night.
VYLENCIA
But there's so many levels to these dreams lately and none of it fits together at all. I'm telling you, something is way off-script here. I feel like maybe somebody's hacking into my head; I dunno.
SALVATORE
Have you contacted the company about this? I'm sure they would talk to you at length about it.
VYLENCIA
I'm heading up to Isis for the Eclipse this year. Dreamworx broadcasts from there, so while I'm in the neighborhood there I figger I might drop in and visit their headquarters and see what in the Hannover House of Honeybuns is going on. I've called them plenty, but all I get is troubleshooting guides and touch-tone operators.
SALVATORE
Yes... Perhaps they can assist you in the particulars of their stories or their plotlines or the security firewalls and all that -- or perhaps you can save yourself the bother and just get rid of it: Quit the service and go back to black and white if their dreams really bother you all that much; they're not for everyone. I sure don't need them bouncing around in my head.
VYLENCIA
I always dream in color. Always did.
SALVATORE
Just an expression. I ain't no Sigmund Freud, but really: I don't think your problems stem from your mother, your lack of having penis OR your dreams, especially not any of those pre-scripted ones coming from dream towers.
VYLENCIA
That's... reassuring. I'm telling ya, they're weird. Man, I swear the dreams I'm having are really weird. Weird. (Beat.) I gotta fly; I was... thinking that maybe you could go up with me to Isis so when I go talk to them and you can tell them what you're telling me, ya know, an expert opinion and all. I'd pay for the trip and your expenses.
SALVATORE
Phh! I'm hardly an expert; I only have an opinion. I'm more concerned about your waking life, things you are experiencing, pressures you are dealing with in reality.
VYLENCIA
(Sighs and smiles and shakes her head.) You really don't want to know.
SALVATORE
I'm paid to want to know. Try me. You keep a journal?
VYLENCIA
Do I look like the kind of girl who DOESN'T keep a journal?
SALVATORE
Well, there's what people write for you, and then there's what you write that only you know. Things from your childhood, for instance -- when you still were innocent.
VYLENCIA
Next session, I'll tell you about my antique hybrid car. The thing tops one-hundred-fifty miles an hour.
SALVATORE
Miles? Does it run on gasoline?
VYLENCIA
Yeah, it used to -- it's that old. Fully restored. (Three light raps on the door. Gets up, tokes, passes.) Last year it got vandalized by some total biker douchebags. Cost me a mint to get it back to the way it was before.
SALVATORE
Douchebags.
VYLENCIA
Total douchebags.
SALVATORE
You're lucky I've got a background in medicine and actually know what those were and what they were for.
VYLENCIA
I know -- I see old movies -- pick up the lingo; get a piece of the action and all...
SALVATORE
You should watch your slang anyway; you especially. You never know who's listening, eh?
VYLENCIA
No dip, but that's why I like seeing you, Doc -- I can say whatever in Herbert Hoover's Hideaway Hooch I want around you and you ain't tellin' nobody jack. You always keep it on the down-low.
SALVATORE
Down-low... interesting. You may be right and that may be true, but still remember that all the walls have ears.
(Two raps. The door opens. LEONIDAS' [HEINLEIN'S] head pops in and he touches his stud earring.)
LEONIDAS
(Dressed in black; wearing dark, night-vision sunglasses.) The transport is ready, Mam.
VYLENCIA
I'm ready, too; this party is so played-out. Gotta go, Sal. Can't keep the boys waiting.
SALVATORE
Until next time -- (Tokes.) Enjoy the summit meeting.
VYLENCIA
Oh yeah, a thrill, I assure you.
SALVATORE
Start keeping a dream journal for me. What's the worst that could happen?
VYLENCIA
Ew, yikes! In my line of work, I never say things like that aloud. It's not nice to fool with Lady Fate. Always think best-case scenario. Words like that can come back to haunt you.
SALVATORE
I can't be haunted, I don't believe in ghosts.
VYLENCIA
(Abrupt pause in motion. Slower:) Mmm. I used to say that, too.
(Long pause. Because she always arrives to his office with an entourage of reporters and photographers and a line of limousines with multi-national flags, SALVATORE knows VYLENCIA is someone important, though he's never heard of her outside of his office, and he never asks about her since he enjoys the mystery. He suspects that VYLENCIA may be a diplomat or that she possibly works for a secret arm of the government. VYLENCIA is aware of SALVATORE'S suspicions and enjoys the charade and is slightly saddened that such a long-standing question will eventually be answered and yet is inwardly elated that she can fully share her unique perspective with the only friend who cares more about her mind than her money, her power or her physical attributes. VYLENCIA exits with her muscular escort.)
FTB