Baseline Test Full Script
May. 23rd, 2022 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
konstantA blood black nothingness began to spin.
Began to spin.
Let's move on to system. (System.)
Feel that in your body. The system.
What does it feel like to be part of the system. (System.)
Is there anything in your body that wants to resist the system? (System.)
Do you get pleasure out of being a part of the system? (System.)
Have they created you to be a part of the system? (System.)
Is there security in being a part of the system? (System.)
Is there a sound that comes with the system? (System.)
We're going to go on: Cells.
They were all put together at a time. (Cells.)
Millions and billions of them. (Cells.)
Were you ever arrested? (Cells.)
Did you spend much time in the cell? (Cells.)
Have you ever been in an institution? (Cells.)
Do they keep you in a cell? (Cells.)
When you're not performing your duties do they keep you in a little box? (Cells.)
Interlinked.
What's it like to hold the hand of someone you love? (Interlinked.)
Do they teach you how to feel finger to finger? (Interlinked.)
Do you long for having your heart interlinked? (Interlinked.)
Do you dream about being interlinked? (Interlinked.)
Have they left a place for you where you can dream? (Interlinked.)
What's it like to hold your child in your arms? (Interlinked.)
What's it like to play with your dog? (Interlinked.)
Do you feel that there's a part of you that's missing? (Interlinked.)
Do you like to connect to things? (Interlinked.)
What happens when that linkage is broken? (Interlinked.)
Have they let you feel heartbreak? (Interlinked.)
Did you buy a present for the person you love? (Interlinked.)
Within cells interlinked.
Why don't you say that three times? (Within cells interlinked. Within cells interlinked. Within cells interlinked.)
Where do you go when you go within? (Within.)
Has anyone ever locked you out of a room? (Within.)
Where do you go to when you go within? (Within.)
Where is the place in the world you feel the safest? (Within.)
Do you have a heart? (Within.)
Stem.
Did you pick asparagus stems? (Stem.)
What comes from something else? (Stem.)
Have you been to the source of a river? (Stem.)
When's the first time you gave a flower to a girl? (Stem.)
What did she look like? (Stem.)
Is it a slang word for people's legs? (Stem.)
Have you planted things in the ground? (Stem.)
Have you ever been in a legal battle? (Stem.)
Within one stem.
Dreadfully.
Is that an old fashioned word? (Dreadfully.)
Did you ever want to live in the nineteenth century? (Dreadfully.)
What's it like to be filled with dread? (Dreadfully.)
Do you think you could find out all the answers to all the questions? (Dreadfully.)
Distinct.
How good are your eyes? (Distinct.)
Do you have a particular personality? (Distinct.)
What separates somebody from somebody else? (Distinct.)
Who do you admire most in the world? (Distinct.)
What was your most shameful moment? (Distinct.)
Dreadfully distinct. (Dreadfully distinct.)
Dark.
Were you afraid of the dark when you were little? (Dark.)
What's it like to hide under a bed? (Dark.)
Did they keep you in a drawer when they were building you? (Dark.)
Was it dark in there? (Dark.)
Do you have dark thoughts? (Dark.)
Did they program you to have dark thoughts? (Dark.)
Do you think it's some kind of corruption, these dark thoughts? (Dark.)
Maybe it's a spot of rust or something? (Dark.)
Who's the darkest person you know? (Dark.)
What is it like when someone gives you the silent treatment? (Dark.)
Who did you get your darkness from? (Dark.)
Against the dark.
What kind of power do you have against the dark? (Against the dark.)
Do you think there is such a thing as evil? (Against the dark.)
Do you think you can protect people against the dark? (Against the dark.)
Why are these things happening? (Against the dark.)
Do you prefer the day or the night? (Against the dark.)
When is the last time you saw a starry sky? (Against the dark.)
What's your favorite part of the moon? (Against the dark.)
Fountain.
Have you seen the Trevi fountain in Rome? (Fountain.)
Have you ever seen the fountain in Lincoln center? (Fountain.)
Have you seen fountains out in the wild? (Fountain.)
What's it like when you have an orgasm? (Fountain.)
Have you read the Fountainhead? (Fountain.)
White Fountain.
Is it pure white? (White Fountain.)
Is that a metaphor? (White Fountain.)
How did the white fountain make you feel? (White Fountain.)
A tall white fountain played.
When you were little did you ever fall into a fountain? (A Tall White Fountain.)
Do you like fire, earth, air or water? (A Tall White Fountain.)
Do you like skipping around in the water? (A Tall White Fountain.)
(A blood black nothingness.
A system of cells.
Within cells interlinked.
Within one stem.
And dreadfully distinct.
Against the dark.
A tall white fountain played.)
Began to spin.
Let's move on to system. (System.)
Feel that in your body. The system.
What does it feel like to be part of the system. (System.)
Is there anything in your body that wants to resist the system? (System.)
Do you get pleasure out of being a part of the system? (System.)
Have they created you to be a part of the system? (System.)
Is there security in being a part of the system? (System.)
Is there a sound that comes with the system? (System.)
We're going to go on: Cells.
They were all put together at a time. (Cells.)
Millions and billions of them. (Cells.)
Were you ever arrested? (Cells.)
Did you spend much time in the cell? (Cells.)
Have you ever been in an institution? (Cells.)
Do they keep you in a cell? (Cells.)
When you're not performing your duties do they keep you in a little box? (Cells.)
Interlinked.
What's it like to hold the hand of someone you love? (Interlinked.)
Do they teach you how to feel finger to finger? (Interlinked.)
Do you long for having your heart interlinked? (Interlinked.)
Do you dream about being interlinked? (Interlinked.)
Have they left a place for you where you can dream? (Interlinked.)
What's it like to hold your child in your arms? (Interlinked.)
What's it like to play with your dog? (Interlinked.)
Do you feel that there's a part of you that's missing? (Interlinked.)
Do you like to connect to things? (Interlinked.)
What happens when that linkage is broken? (Interlinked.)
Have they let you feel heartbreak? (Interlinked.)
Did you buy a present for the person you love? (Interlinked.)
Within cells interlinked.
Why don't you say that three times? (Within cells interlinked. Within cells interlinked. Within cells interlinked.)
Where do you go when you go within? (Within.)
Has anyone ever locked you out of a room? (Within.)
Where do you go to when you go within? (Within.)
Where is the place in the world you feel the safest? (Within.)
Do you have a heart? (Within.)
Stem.
Did you pick asparagus stems? (Stem.)
What comes from something else? (Stem.)
Have you been to the source of a river? (Stem.)
When's the first time you gave a flower to a girl? (Stem.)
What did she look like? (Stem.)
Is it a slang word for people's legs? (Stem.)
Have you planted things in the ground? (Stem.)
Have you ever been in a legal battle? (Stem.)
Within one stem.
Dreadfully.
Is that an old fashioned word? (Dreadfully.)
Did you ever want to live in the nineteenth century? (Dreadfully.)
What's it like to be filled with dread? (Dreadfully.)
Do you think you could find out all the answers to all the questions? (Dreadfully.)
Distinct.
How good are your eyes? (Distinct.)
Do you have a particular personality? (Distinct.)
What separates somebody from somebody else? (Distinct.)
Who do you admire most in the world? (Distinct.)
What was your most shameful moment? (Distinct.)
Dreadfully distinct. (Dreadfully distinct.)
Dark.
Were you afraid of the dark when you were little? (Dark.)
What's it like to hide under a bed? (Dark.)
Did they keep you in a drawer when they were building you? (Dark.)
Was it dark in there? (Dark.)
Do you have dark thoughts? (Dark.)
Did they program you to have dark thoughts? (Dark.)
Do you think it's some kind of corruption, these dark thoughts? (Dark.)
Maybe it's a spot of rust or something? (Dark.)
Who's the darkest person you know? (Dark.)
What is it like when someone gives you the silent treatment? (Dark.)
Who did you get your darkness from? (Dark.)
Against the dark.
What kind of power do you have against the dark? (Against the dark.)
Do you think there is such a thing as evil? (Against the dark.)
Do you think you can protect people against the dark? (Against the dark.)
Why are these things happening? (Against the dark.)
Do you prefer the day or the night? (Against the dark.)
When is the last time you saw a starry sky? (Against the dark.)
What's your favorite part of the moon? (Against the dark.)
Fountain.
Have you seen the Trevi fountain in Rome? (Fountain.)
Have you ever seen the fountain in Lincoln center? (Fountain.)
Have you seen fountains out in the wild? (Fountain.)
What's it like when you have an orgasm? (Fountain.)
Have you read the Fountainhead? (Fountain.)
White Fountain.
Is it pure white? (White Fountain.)
Is that a metaphor? (White Fountain.)
How did the white fountain make you feel? (White Fountain.)
A tall white fountain played.
When you were little did you ever fall into a fountain? (A Tall White Fountain.)
Do you like fire, earth, air or water? (A Tall White Fountain.)
Do you like skipping around in the water? (A Tall White Fountain.)
(A blood black nothingness.
A system of cells.
Within cells interlinked.
Within one stem.
And dreadfully distinct.
Against the dark.
A tall white fountain played.)
no subject
Date: 2022-07-15 07:53 am (UTC)Everything is dirty. Ash falls from the sky constantly like snow, and no one ever questions where it comes from anymore. There is no sign of anything at all alive except the human population - no trees, no grass, no shrubs. Nothing but crumbling concrete, nothing but rusted metal.
K has a headache, probably a broken cheekbone and there's dried blood crusted all down one side of his face and his arm stings and burns every time he moves it to adjust the course of the spinner; his entire body hurts like he's been put through a wall because that's exactly what happened, but he's fine so he ignores it. He's more annoyed about the torn shirt and the blood on his coat. He lands the spinner on top of the towering, blocky LAPD precinct building and heads inside at a decent clip, eager to be done with this shift.
The halls are crowded with other officers of every level - detective, patrol, SWAT - and the kind of people who have cause to be in a police station, arrested or handling civil matters or newly released from the block of cells they have here. K keeps his head down as he navigates, but several of the officers he passes go out of their way to swear at him - "Fuck off, Skinjob," more than one hisses at him with real venom - and several more would walk straight into him if he didn't dodge automatically out of their way. He says nothing, doesn't engage, he's used to it. It's better to just ignore it.
He drops off what is very clearly an eyeball in a plastic evidence bag at one booth, then doesn't stop again until he's in a room small enough to be a cell, padded dirty white walls and a stool in the center which he takes and waits, patiently, facing the camera set in the wall. It's several minutes before a formal voice comes over the speaker, no sign of the actual person: "Office KD6-3.7, let's begin. Ready?"
"Yessir," K answers promptly.
"Recite your baseline."
"A bloodblack nothingness began to spin -"
What follows is a series of call and response, the voice mechanically asking questions and K repeating a word mostly every bit as mechanically rather than actually answering. His heartbeat follows the cadence of the test, the words memorized, and he reminds himself to breathe through it; calm. Be calm. Give the right response, collect another bonus, call it a day. Be calm.
"We're done," the voice finally says, something human seeping back into it finally, a conversation more than an interrogation. K doesn't relax, but there's still a sense of relief when the voice says almost warmly, "Constant K. You can pick up your bonus."
"Thank you, sir." K does, and leaves the precinct at street level rather than going back to his assigned spinner. He has an errand to run and he stops, picks up a package from a shuttered store with a golden W logo over the kiosk, exchanging the entire envelope of cash and signing over a hefty chunk of virtual credits as well for it, and finally heads home.
Street level is so crowded and cramped that it never sees the light of day anymore, and he trudges through ash and refuse piled up that frequently goes over the top of his boots. Vehicles speed past without any regard for pedestrians, people are a nearly solid wall on the sidewalks, and street cleaners large enough to maim a person and not even notice plug past uselessly. There's a constant smell in the air, acrid and cloying, refuse and bodies in too close and the saltwater haze off the ocean and something long dead. K's apartment building is a one hundred story ancient monstrosity, and the smell of humanity crammed inside of it hits the moment he's in the door. Every apartment building below the middle class is crammed full of people, families that sleep curled up together on the floor as well as on every piece of furniture available, that burst out into the hallways and stairwells and street as soon as the light comes out to get away from each other - or with people who aren't tenants at all, seeking shelter amongst the mass of humanity already lingering in the building until the landlords figure it out and yank them out like weeds.
Children in little better than rags scurry past in the lobby and point at him and chant something with the feel of a nursery rhyme, then scatter as quickly as they assembled; old Mrs. Zakovian is perched on her landing and she starts shrieking in her powerful, rasping voice in her native tongue as soon as she sees him and doesn't stop even long once he's past, her angry jeering echoing off the metal ceiling and walls. Some people laugh, or just turn up their lips; some pointedly don't bother moving where they're sitting on the stairs, and force K to contort around them to avoid touching them as he goes. No one actively blocks his way though. No one actually touches him in turn, and K navigates it all as if it the stairwell is utterly silent.
One elevator is broken; the other is dangerous. He lives on the fifty third floor, and he has to walk all the way up to his apartment, to the door with FUCK OFF, SKINNER spray painted across it, and a few questionable stains around the bottom. More children go running past, older this time, giving him a wide berth; the oldest boy snickers, jabs the oldest girl in the ribs and points at him and they burst out laughing as they swing down the stairs. K doesn't look up from placing his hand on the security lock, and slips in when the door slides open.