18 characters: Misty, Clay, Hardcase, Ensign, Announcer, Peterson, Car, Phone, Tourist, Gawker One, Gawker Two, Ives, Northerland, Downs, Agent, Agent Two, Agent Three, Priscilla
Click on a character's name to get their lines highlighted.
Misty (98 lines, 2133 words, 59.97%) - [Steff Knappe] Misty L'Quil, trying to come to terms with being human.
Hardcase (14 lines, 193 words, 5.43%) - [John Gaunce] Mack Hardcase. A shell of a man, remembering glory days that weren't real, not knowing how to face his future.
Clay (3 lines, 32 words, 0.9%) - [David Loftus] Clay Erhardt, in his original form here in a dream.
Peterson (21 lines, 209 words, 5.88%) - [Alex Foott] Psychologist.
Ensign (3 lines, 23 words, 0.65%) - [?] Ensign on the Chimera.
Car (5 lines, 53 words, 1.49%) - [bot] Car AI.
Phone (10 lines, 160 words, 4.5%) - [bot] Phone AI.
Tourist (1 line, 5 words, 0.14%) - [Nicc Fury] Random person touring California's state capitol building.
Gawker One (1 line, 18 words, 0.51%) - [bigboy944] Random person touring California's state capitol building. [complete]
Gawker Two (1 line, 17 words, 0.48%) - [Jose Montalvo] Random person touring California's state capitol building.
Agent (7 lines, 83 words, 2.33%) - [Dan Stabb] FBI counter-terrorism agent. [complete]
Agent Two (1 line, 5 words, 0.14%) - [Jose Montalvo] FBI counter-terrorism agent.
Agent Three (1 line, 11 words, 0.31%) - [Quackers2] FBI counter-terrorism agent. [complete]
Downs (20 lines, 170 words, 4.78%) - [DeBug] Union for Humanity thug by the name of J.D. Downs. Relatively intelligent.
Northerland (15 lines, 105 words, 2.95%) - [John Derringer] Union for Humanity thug by the name of Donald Northerland. A simple mind. [complete]
Priscilla (3 lines, 22 words, 0.62%) - [Nahla Campbell] Union for Humanity thug by the name of Priscilla Prescott.
Ives (10 lines, 175 words, 4.92%) - [Audrey J Williams] Senator Mary Ives, Republican representing Nevada. A favorite angling for the party's 2040 presidential nomination. Sees our heroes as the ultimate threat of replacing mankind with machines, or at least sees an opportunity to win power by scapegoating them as such.
Announcer (2 lines, 143 words, 4.02%) - [Paul Knierim] Announcer. [complete]
Script format: Margined | Marginless (for phone viewing)
1 SOUND: Chimera medical background
2 MUSIC: apt for panic drama dream
3 Misty: [panic] Doctor, my tentacles fell off! They just FELL OFF, in my sleep!
4 Clay: [casual accusation] Are you sure you didn't cut 'em off?
5 Misty: [panic] Of course not! Why would I do that?! Doctor, help me!!!
6 Clay: Give 'em to me and I'll sew 'em back on you.
7 Misty: I... I don't know where they are now. They disappeared!
8 Clay: Try looking in the mess hall, somebody might've mistaken your tentacles for seafood.
9 Misty: [hurrying away] Thanks for nothing Doc!
10 SOUND: footsteps, door opens and closes, perspective stays with Misty, we hear people in corridor
11 Hardcase: [sfx: intercom loudspeaker] Attention crew! I need all of you to stop what you're doing and help Misty look for her missing tentacles! That's an order!
12 Misty: Finally, some help!
13 Ensign: Commander, are these your tentacles?
14 Misty: Yes, thank you Ensign! Where WERE they?
15 Ensign: They were in a waste processor. What are you going to do with them?
16 Misty: I'm reattaching them to my body of course! Like this... [confused] uh... wait...
17 Ensign: They're just fabric, Commander.
18 SOUND: alarm clock, shifting sheets, slapping snooze
19 Misty: [groans of awakening]
20 SOUND: sounds of getting up and washing face, maybe starting shower, behind the narration
21 Misty: [narration] Every morning, I wake up and open my eyes expecting to see my cabin on the Chimera... but this strange white Earth ceiling stares down at me instead. I get up, look in the bathroom mirror and expect to see myself -- but instead I see this human woman. She's alien to me, doesn't even have the right number of appendages. It's a daily horror, seeing the wrong person in the mirror. But while I lost my tentacles involuntarily, I lost my accent by choice. Maybe I don't sound perfectly Californian, but close enough I don't stand out too much. I wonder how much more of my identity I'll voluntarily surrender in order to fit in and feel safe here. And I wonder if it'll work.
22 SOUND: theme music
23 Announcer: QuietPlease dot org presents Beyond Awakening. Starring Steff Knappe as Misty L'Quil. Episode twelve, The Shape of Things Past.
24 Misty: [narration] Zandax, one of the great authors of Cthunia's quaternary reign, once wrote that life isn't optional. It doesn't wait for us to come to grips with it. I think Doctor Peterson would've liked Zandax.
25 SOUND: therapist office
26 Peterson: Tell me what you've done since you moved out from Monolith-Eigen.
27 Misty: Well, I don't really know how to do much in this world. So most of it was done for me, either by an AI assistant or a human assistant. They arranged my apartment, cleaning services, they take care of acquiring foodstuffs and fulfilling the various monetary commitments.
28 Peterson: So you feel you're not ready to do things for yourself?
29 Misty: Doctor Peterson, I'm brand new to your planet. How well would you do on Cthunia with no prior knowledge?
30 Peterson: I know I'd be eager to try on my own.
31 Misty: That eagerness could get you killed on Cthunia.
32 Peterson: Sacramento is more forgiving.
33 Misty: Is it? Tell that to Trisha. You have plenty of crime.
34 Peterson: Well, sure.
35 Misty: And don't criminals prey on bewildered tourists who wander into the wrong neighborhood or reveal their valuables because they don't know what the locals know?
36 Peterson: I suppose...
37 Misty: So think how vulnerable I am as someone who knows so little about your entire planet, let alone your city. And that's if the terrorists who want me dead don't figure out who I really am.
38 SOUND: a pause
39 Peterson: But you can't get the experience you need by isolating. You have to take risks.
40 Misty: Doctor, would you tell a baby to go play in the street to learn about cars?
41 Peterson: Are you a baby?
42 Misty: I'm a few months old.
43 SOUND: a pause
44 Peterson: Why don't you take the knowledge implant they offered you? Seems like the solution to all your problems, and two of your three companions already got it.
45 Misty: Captain Hardcase and Ensign Blackburn seem... different somehow, since they got the knowledge implants. I don't like that.
46 Peterson: Different can be good.
47 Misty: Let's say Monolith-Eigen starts offering knowledge implants to everyone. Let's say you need a new job and you want to become a chemist. Would you take the brain implant or go back to school?
48 SOUND: a pause
49 Peterson: I'm not sure.
50 Misty: Now suppose you'd had your brain messed with before against your will multiple times, and the people offering the knowledge implant are the same people who violated you repeatedly. Then what would you say?
51 Peterson: I'd probably decline.
52 Misty: So you see my position.
53
Peterson:
I suppose I do.
But you can't take life too passively. I think you have to seize control of your life, to gain agency.
54 Misty: That was easy in my old life, but it's a very hard thing to do in a world this... complex.
55 Peterson: You don't need to do something big and complex, you just need to get out into the world on your own terms.
56 Misty: I did go out somewhere, on my third day out of Monolith-Eigen. But it was all... overwhelming. Confusing. Chaotic. Dangerous.
57 Peterson: Tell me about it.
58 SOUND: opening and closing car door, now interior
59 Car: Where would you like to go, Miss L'Quil?
60 Misty: I'd like to learn more about your society and government. Can you suggest a place to start?
61 Car: How about California's state capitol building, where you can observe our government at work?
62 Misty: Okay, take me there.
63 SOUND: electric car starts and pulls into traffic
64 Car: Navigating to 1315 10th Street.
65 Misty: Uh, vehicle...?
66 Car: Yes, Miss L'Quil?
67 Misty: What will I do when you drop me off? How do I get in, where do I go, how do I understand what I'm seeing?
68 Car: I'm sending an interactive audio tour to your phone now. It'll describe what's around you, highlight where you should go, and respond to questions.
69 Misty: Thank you.
70 SOUND: a transition wipe
71 SOUND: debate echoing from below, a few whispers and movements of tourists nearby
72 Misty: [quietly throughout this conversation to avoid disturbing others -- bit of a stage whisper] So this is how your world's laws are decided?
73 Phone: This is the assembly, one of California's two legislative chambers which must debate and approve a law before sending it to the governor.
74 Misty: So when the two chambers pass the same law it becomes law?
75 Phone: If the governor signs it, or the chambers override the governor's veto.
76 Misty: And then it goes into effect?
77 Phone: Usually not until January 1st or July 1st, and only if the courts don't issue an injunction to prevent it taking effect.
78 Misty: But if all that complicated stuff happens, then the people of this world have themselves a new law?
79 Phone: The laws here are only for California.
80 Misty: California is... the nation?
81 Phone: California is a state in a nation.
82 Misty: Are there many states?
83 Phone: Fifty.
84 Misty: And many nations?
85 Phone: Between one hundred and ninety eight and two hundred and fifty three.
86 Misty: [louder due to being startled] Wait, how can you not know how many?!
87 Tourist: Ma'am, please lower your voice.
88 Misty: Sorry.
89 Phone: There are a variety of definitions of what it means to be a country, and not all countries are recognized by all other countries.
90 Misty: [stage whisper again for rest of scene] There must be an organizing power at the world level, right?
91 Phone: The United Nations.
92 Misty: So the United Nations is the ultimate power, it directs the nations who relay directions to the states who relay directions to municipalities?
93 Phone: No, the United Nations is the least powerful level. All levels, including city and county which we haven't discussed, have different sorts of power. When they disagree with each other each has supremacy over certain issues, and when supremacy is unclear the state or national judicial system can adjudicate.
94 Misty: It's like infinite chaos...
95 Gawker One: [excited] Hey, the one talking to her phone... the way she talks, I think she's one of the zombies!
96 Gawker Two: [excited] I was thinking the same thing! I think she's L'Quil, the one who thinks she's an alien!
97 SOUND: therapy room
98 Misty: [pulling out to therapy] I suddenly became aware that I was totally alone and helpless, like a prey animal drinking at the watering hole who looks up to find herself locking eyes with hundreds of predators. And I bolted back to my vehicle, and back to my apartment.
99 Peterson: And how does that make you feel?
100 Misty: Didn't I just tell you?
101 Peterson: You told me how it made you feel at the time. But what about now? Do you feel trapped by the fear of being noticed?
102 Misty: Yes.
103 Peterson: There are ways to address that problem.
104 Misty: Such as?
105 Peterson: Be more careful about what you say out loud in public.
106 Misty: Are you always conscious of other listeners when you talk to your phone AI?
107 Peterson: I suppose not.
108 Misty: And what if they recognize my new face now that some people have identified me?
109 Peterson: You could try makeup, change of hairstyle, more plastic surgery.
110 Misty: [narration] I tried to take Dr. Peterson's advice to heart. I went to the midtown farmer's market and just lingered watching people for a bit, trying to understand them by observation. That's where I was when I got the call.
111 SOUND: farmer's market crowd background, phone ring, pickup, phone voice processing for Ives
112 Misty: Hello?
113 Ives: This is Senator Mary Ives.
114 Misty: What do you want, Senator?
115 Ives: How are you settling into your independence?
116 Misty: Fine, thanks.
117 Ives: I'd like to come check up on you in person, maybe smooth things over between us.
118 Misty: I'm a little busy, can I have some time to think about that?
119 Ives: Of course, I'll be ready when you are.
120 Misty: [narration] It felt so wrong. All my Cthunian instincts told me it was some sort of trap, told me not to fall for it. But I couldn't be sure of myself or my instincts anymore, so I went to see the person I trusted most for advice.
121 SOUND: bridge scene from last episode
122 Misty: Good morning, sir! Can I have a word with you?
123 Hardcase: [outwardly normal] Of course, Misty. Hey, your accent is practically gone now.
124 Misty: Thank you, I've been working hard at it. Sir, I have a little problem.
125 Hardcase: What's that?
126 Misty: Senator Ives wants to come see me. She says she wants to see how I'm adjusting, but I don't want her even knowing where I live.
127 Hardcase: She's probably going to be the next President. We have to work with her, have to convince her to be on our side somehow. If anyone can make our case, I believe it's you. This sounds like a golden opportunity.
128 Misty: But I'm scared, sir.
129 Hardcase: Of what? Ives?
130 Misty: Of what she represents.
131 Hardcase: The hate?
132 Misty: I don't think she hates us, sir. It's the casual brutality, the willingness to destroy us to score points, thinking of us only as pawns in a political game and not as real people.
133 Hardcase: You'll have to show her we can be useful allies. Channel that Cthunian strength and confidence.
134 Misty: I'll try. Thank you, sir.
135
Misty:
[narration] The Senator's visit was perfunctory... performative... choreographed. Nothing of any consequence was communicated. If anything, she seemed to suck information out of the air and leave me knowing less about her than when she'd entered. What she got from it, I couldn't see. I thought perhaps it was just to put me in my place by letting me know she still had her eyes on me. Although there was none of the combativeness, no accusations, there also wasn't any attempt to build bridges -- I might as well not have been there as far as she was concerned.
It was a couple days later that everything happened. It started with such a small sound.
136 SOUND: gas hiss
137 Misty: [10 seconds of coughing while trying to cover face and stumbling around, to use as background]
138 Misty: [narration] By the time I heard it and came out of my bedroom to investigate, my apartment was quickly filling with gas. I didn't know where it was coming from exactly. I tried to cover my nose, and I managed to reach my phone.
139 SOUND: dialing
140 SOUND: phone filter on Hardcase side
141 Hardcase: Hello?
142 Misty: [weakly, coughing] Help, sir! Help! Gas!
143 Hardcase: [alarmed] Misty? Hello, Misty, are you there?!
144
Misty:
[narration] And then I wasn't there. I was asleep.
You'd think a kidnapping would be an exciting affair, wouldn't you? In my old life, it would've been an epic struggle where I'd hold off a whole assault team by myself until overcome by sheer numbers in hand to hand combat. But in this new life, it was just the soft hiss of gas and a long sleep. And I woke up in a warehouse of some sort, tied up with a couple of gun-toting men standing over me.
145 SOUND: bit of warehouse reverb on voices
146 Northerland: But I gotta get my swim in.
147 Downs: What part of 24/7 don't you understand, Donald?
148 Misty: [waking noises]
149 Northerland: It's comin' around!
150 Downs: Careful.
151 Misty: [groggy] Worried a woman just out of hospital will overpower you?
152 Northerland: We heard the stuff about you all bein' weak, but I don't believe ya.
153 Downs: You're going to have to stay tied up because we can't be sure they haven't given you some sort of enhanced physical capabilities.
154 Misty: I sure wish they had. If I were my old self you'd be dead by now.
155 Northerland: This the one with tha story bout bein' super strong tentacle alien.
156 Downs: They must've fed a lot of Japanese porn into their AI.
157 Misty: So who are you people and what's the meaning of this kidnapping?
158 Downs: We're concerned citizens.
159 Misty: Union for Humanity?
160 Downs: Yes, that's a name we operate under.
161 Misty: Are you going to kill me?
162 Downs: We don't know yet. Those decisions are above my pay grade. We'll let you know when we find out.
163 Northerland: Hope they decide and kill ya soon so I can get my daily swims in. And my dog don't like me be away so long.
164 Downs: You got someone to look after her, right?
165 Northerland: My neighba, but she don't like my neighba.
166 Downs: I've got my sister looking after my cats, they're probably happy to be rid of me.
167 Misty: Captain Hardcase will save me. He'll make you regret this.
168 Downs: [laughs]
169 Northerland: [laughing] Lady, that's a fictional character you countin' on. Look at us quiverin' in fear.
170 Misty: Our histories may be fake, but they make us who we are.
171 Downs: Oh, so your fake history as some sorta bad-ass alien is why a couple barely-trained volunteers like us took you with no trouble?
172 Northerland: Got nothing ta say ta that, do ya?
173
Misty:
[narration] I didn't have anything to say. That was the moment when I truly realized how alone I am in this world, how helpless we all are.
How could Captain Hardcase save me? He'd have no idea where I was. There was no script to create fortuitous coincidences. He wouldn't have the connections with law enforcement to make any guesses, or the authority to follow up any leads if he had them. And even if Captain Hardcase had been magically transported into the warehouse with me, he wasn't the action hero I remembered -- he was a sad, broken old man in a wheelchair. And without my tentacles I wasn't much better.
The days in that warehouse passed slowly, cold and uncomfortable. I lost track of time. I don't know what day it was or what time it was, but I was sleeping when a loud noise woke me up...
174 SOUND: gunshots outside
175 Misty: [subtle waking groan and yawn]
176 Northerland: [alarmed] What's that?
177 Downs: I think we're under attack...
178 SOUND: door kicked open
179 Agent: FREEZE!
180 SOUND: movement of diving for cover
181 Northerland: Shit!
182 Downs: Grab the hostage, the hostage!
183 Misty: [grunts of being dragged for a few seconds]
184 Northerland: Got her.
185 Agent: We know you're behind those boxes! Come out with your hands in the air!
186 Downs: We've got the cyborg! If you want her to remain alive, you'll let us go.
187 Agent: Do you think we really care about her?
188 Downs: Why are you going to all this trouble if you don't care?
189 Agent: We just care about getting YOU, you're a threat to public order. If she dies in the process, well, that's one security headache gone.
190 Downs: [quietly to self] Shit.
191 Misty: [softly] My thoughts exactly.
192 Northerland: [softly to partner] Are they bluffing?
193 Misty: Would you like some help?
194 Downs: YOU'RE going to help US?
195 Agent: You have 30 seconds to decide if you want to come peaceably or die!
196 Misty: At least you guys want me alive. Untie me and I'll do what I can to get us out of here.
197 Northerland: [shrug] What we got ta lose?
198 Downs: [resigned] Fine, it's crazy but fine, do it...
199 SOUND: untying
200 Misty: I've got an idea, give me your weapons.
201 Downs: [uncertain] But, what...
202 Northerland: Here.
203 Misty: Thanks.
204 SOUND: two gun shots, some splatter
205 Downs: [death grunt]
206 Northerland: [death grunt]
207 Misty: [narration] I had memories of killing enemies so many times before, and god knows those two deserved it more than most. But, the looks on their faces... the splatter of their brain matter... I could taste the pungent reality of these deaths that all the killings in my backstory lacked. And I felt horror... not so much at the gore as at the reality of what I'd done. At my ability to do it, at my having done it so calmly. It was a plan I'd improvised seconds earlier, that I didn't expect to work, but I simply seized the opportunity to snuff out two lives.
208 Agent Two: [shocked] She blew their brains out!
209 Agent Three: [shocked] Maybe Union for Humanity is right about how dangerous they are...
210 Agent: [professionally] Let's get you out of here, Miss L'Quil. I'll take the gun.
211 Misty: [shaken, uncertain] Sure... uh, were you really hoping I'd die back there?
212 Agent: Just a bluff, you understand. Let's get you to the van.
213 SOUND: they walk, then after about 10 seconds there's a hail of gunfire
214 Misty: [narration] I had no idea what was happening, no idea if I was being shot at, no idea if my next breath would be my last. But I heard the three FBI agents drop around me, and the gunfire ceased. I looked down at my body to find it splattered in blood, but none of it was my own. And out of nowhere four more well-armed, un-uniformed people surrounded me who I inferred were Union for Humanity.
215 Priscilla: Where are J.D. and Donald?
216 Misty: They were the two guarding me?
217 Priscilla: That's right.
218 Misty: The FBI agents shot them, they're dead.
219 Priscilla: God dammit. They were good men, we didn't have to lose them over YOU.
220 Misty: [narration] They tied me up again and took me to a different warehouse. And there, it seemed I was going to be left forgotten. There was a little bit of food and water when I arrived, but nobody ever came to replenish it. Days passed. I resigned myself to the prospect of a slow death by neglect, in my lower moments I thought it fair justice for the lives I'd taken. And maybe they'd figured out from the holes in the heads of J.D. and Donald that it must've been close range, must've been me and not an agent. But then, at long last, the door finally opened...
221 SOUND: door opening, footsteps approach
222 Ives: Misty L'Quil? Ah, there you are.
223 Misty: Senator Ives! I should've expected you'd be behind this!
224 Ives: [chuckles] I'm your savior, actually.
225 Misty: My savior?
226 Ives: I've been negotiating with Union for Humanity -- since President Kruck's raid was an unmitigated disaster that cost so many lives. And I've just secured your release, that's why I'm here.
227 Misty: You're... you're setting me free? But I thought you wanted us dead?
228 Ives: I'd actually rather have you alive for now. With you four out of the picture I wouldn't have much to build my campaign around, would I?
229 Misty: You'd rather keep a problem to run against it instead of solving it?
230 Ives: There's no hurry. I'll have you deactivated in two and a half years, when I'm President. Meanwhile I've made President Kruck look like a dangerously incompetent fool, and showed I'm better than him even at tasks he values and I don't.
231 Misty: Once I tell people you're working with Union for Humanity, you're done.
232 Ives: [chuckles] Oh, please do. You have no proof of that conjecture. You'll make me a folk hero with sympathizers and you'll make my opponents look like crazy conspiracy theorists to the moderates.
233
Misty:
[narration] This sort of twisted scheming never happened on Cthunia, or in Confederation politics. It's another way reality is more complicated and confusing. I don't understand how such odious creatures can rule a democracy. How can anyone look at someone like Senator Ives and not see the evil? But I guess my sense of right and wrong, good and evil, are alien to this planet.
I was released. I went home -- a new home, they set me up with a new apartment, and another set of changes to my face. It wasn't enough to make me feel safe, but it made them feel they'd done their job. They offered to let me go back to Monolith-Eigen, but I knew I wouldn't feel safe there either, that was where I'd been caught in that bombing Trisha took the brunt of. Nowhere on this planet is safe. But even with no safe PLACES, there were still safe PEOPLE, so I gave Captain Hardcase a call.
234 SOUND: Hardcase side has phone filter
235 Hardcase: I'm so glad to hear you're safe now. But I'm sorry, so sorry...
236 Misty: For what, sir?
237 Hardcase: [breaking down] I wanted to plan a rescue mission. Wanted to come save you. But they wouldn't let me get involved, wouldn't even talk to me, and I just couldn't figure, and I talked to the President, and I was wrong, almost got you killed, but I... I couldn't... there wasn't...
238 Misty: You're not that man anymore, sir. You can't do that sort of thing.
239 Hardcase: That's what I'm so sorry about.
240 Misty: It all worked out, sir. Try to think of it as being retired.
241 Hardcase: Do you need any help setting up your new place?
242 Misty: I've got movers doing the lifting, they don't need help from a man in a wheelchair.
243 Hardcase: Okay Misty. But don't hesitate to call me if you need anything.
244 SOUND: call end
245 Misty: [narration] Life is back to normal, or as normal as 21st century Earth gets. The rain has gone away, it's hot outside, the fields have begun to brown, spring is giving way to summer. And I feel as if I'm drifting from day to day, carried on the breeze of the new routine, unsure if the wind is taking me anywhere. I know who I used to be, and I know I've lost a lot, left a lot behind me. I don't know yet what this new world will shape me into, or if it'll just leave me unformed, a sort of shapeless gelatin. Only time will tell.
246 SOUND: end theme
247 Announcer: Beyond Awakening episode 12, The Shape of Things Past, was written and produced by Paul Knierim. It starred Steff Knappe as Misty L'Quil. Also featured were Alex Foott as Doctor Peterson, John Gaunce as Mac Hardcase, Audrey J. Williams as Senator Ives, DeBug as J.D. Downs, and John Derringer as Donald Northerland. The FBI agents were Dan Stabb, Jose Montalvo and Quackers2. David Loftus was Clay Erhardt, Mariella Espinosa was Ensign Ensign, Nahla Campbell was the terrorist Priscilla Prescott. The state capitol tourists were bigboy944, Jose Montalvo, and Nicc Fury. This is Paul Knierim. Music licensed from Joel Steudler and creative commons zero and public domain sources. To learn more about Beyond Awakening or support the show, go to quietplease dot org slash awakening.