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wingedbeastContinued from http://wingedbeast.dreamwidth.org/5131.html
Setting: The large, industrial basement of some building. The room is packed with Zion revolutionaries, all in the customarily excessive leather and sunglasses.
Morpheus (perhaps looking out at the group, it's hard to tell with those sunglasses): I have to ask. Does anybody remember why we meet, like this, in the Matrix, itself? It begins to occur to me that hanging around the Matrix in loud leather outfits that mark us as abnormal is a bad idea.
Unnamed Zion Revolutionary: That's just because you have Wot on your team. We've all had those conversations with him, he messes with your mind.
Morpheus: That doesn't mean that he's entirely wrong. From a purely functional perspective, should we not be trying to blend in, wearing suits like themselves? Or at least dressing down?
Unnamed Zion Revolutionary: Listen, once he has you questioning whether or not terrorist tactics with unimaginable body-counts are a good way of freeing people from The Matrix, he can get you to question everything.
Morpheus: I know. But, you don't have to live on a ship with him bringing these things up all the time. The only times when I get any peace are when he's off in some random program. I don't know much about them, sometimes he talks in his sleep to people named Syndrome or Yoda, but when he's not there he's in my ship or-
Wot: Or I can be right here.
Morpheus startles so hard he nearly drops his earpieceless sunglasses.: What the fuck!
Wot: Guys, I have great news!
Unnamed Zion Revolutionary: You finally found a leather trench coat you like?
Wot: Absolutely not. Better news, I found us an ally.
Morpheus: What? You actually did something for the cause besides nitpick?
Wot: That's not fair. I do things for your revolution.
Morpheus: You nitpick the Agents until they get a headache and walk away from you.
Wot: Which is a better tactic than killing them so they go take over another host and then we kill that one and so on. I really don't get your problem. Whatever, I have an ally, here, to help us out. Help you guys be free of the machines and help me back into the Matrix.
Unnamed Zion Revolutionary: This again? We all get the same offer, take the blue pill and you could have woken up, believing whatever you wanted.
Wot: You actually expected me to believe that? I took the red pill because I was pretty certain the blue pill killed you.
Morpheus looks shocked.
Wot: Oh come on. You didn't tell me anything. From what I could tell, you were one part criminal syndicate and a billion parts cult. You expected me to think that you let people who are valuable enough for you to actively recruit just walk blissfully away after having learned faces and places? For that matter, you expect me to believe it still? More whatever, moving right along. I found an ally.
Morpheus: On the off chance that this is something... who is this ally.
Wot: Okay, guys, keep your cool.
Wot opens the door, revealing a tall man in suit and sunglasses.
Then entire room full of revolutionaries pulls out weapons and aims.
Wot: Guys, really, just keep your cool. One of him, all of you, and it's not like he's making any aggressive moves.
Morpheus: That's Agent Smith! An Agent of the Matr-
Wot: That's not his name anymore. He's chosen another one. Say hello to the revolutionarys, Hreet.
Hreet steps forward: Hello, revolutionaries.
Neo: He killed me!
Hreet: You're right here.
Neo: I... I got better.
Wot: To be clear, you didn't get better. You weren't shot in the first place. A simulacrum of you that you were using to interface with the Matrix responded to programming simulating bullets. I thought things like that were the entire point of waking up.
Hreet: It should be a minor matter. The Matrix doesn't want people to die, there's less use out of them, that way. After all, this isn't Nightmare on Elm Street, dieing in a dream doesn't really cause you to die in real life.
Morpheus: Are we expected to believe that you just changed your mind for no reason other than Wot's nitpicking?
Hreet: Well, Wot's question of the motivations of the machines was a part of it but, really, that experience I had with Neo did a lot more.
Neo: You said that weird.
Hreet: It was... eye-opening. I... I don't expect a commitment, don't worry. But, it holds a place in my electronicly simulated heart.
Neo: Uh... you're giving a sex-vibe to that and...
Hreet: You put yourself in me, caused me to spasm, followed by an explosion, the metaphor writes itself.
Wot pulls out his celphone: That reminds me. *He dials*
Hreet: This is not going as I would have preferred.
Wot: It's going great, nobody's shooting anybody. That's progress. Oh, here she is.
Wot holds up the phone on speaker-phone.
Susan Pevensie's voice: Excuse me, but some elements of this need to be discussed from a position of in-universe metafictional awareness.
Wot: I mainly poke holes and respond from the inside.
Susan Pevensie: Indeed. I address the fictions from a position of awareness in order to acknowledge metaphore, including one brought to light to the author of this blog by one Youtube character of Rantasmo*.
Wot: That's cheap joking. Your series breaks the fourth wall to create a fifth, don't go breaking that one, too.
Susan Pevensie: All for purpose, Wot, all for purpose. I need that in order to point out the potential gay and/or trans subtext of The Matrix.
Neo: Okay, I'd heard that the Wachowskis have come out as trans. And, that some people have taken that as a way to view The Matrix. Doesn't that invalidate some of Wot's questions?
Wot: Oh no. From within the fiction, my questions of why there's any moral indignation over being used by machines or any necessary moral value to leaving the Matrix is still valid, though now answered. From that, within-the-fiction basis, I want to live in the Matrix, but I want to live in the Matrix with my eyes open and I want people to have the option to leave if that's their preference.
Susan Pevensie: And, isn't that what you want? To remake the system, rather than destroy it and force everybody out of the Matrix?
Morpheus: The Matrix is making slaves of us all.
Wot: And you would make corpses of most. Not just with the killing everybody until there's nobody left. In fiction, Zion does not have enough resources or infrastructure to feed and house the entire human species.
Susan Pevensie: Indeed, in the sequels, the character that is still called Agent Smith without asking him even though he's mentally freed himself takes on your goal, doesn't he? Destroy the Matrix and make it all like himself.
Hreet: In a very real way, in that series, my greatest sin was becoming like you, which is not freeing at all. Freedom requires the choice.
Wot: The choice, for instance, to live in a simulated reality, for reasons of quality of experienced life, lifespan, and safety. Just because it's an easier path doesn't necessarily make it the wrong one.
Morpheus: Viewing The Matrix in this way, are you suggesting that the trans-rights movement is doing it wrong?
Susan Pevensie: Certainly not. But, every metaphor does have its limits. And, you are not simply striving to be allowed to exist as yourselves.
Wot: But, this interpretation does answer my two questions, to you Morpheus and to you, Hreet, when you were still known as Agent Smith. "So what?" The answer is that the revolutionaries can't be themselves under these conditions, and the requirement to do so is an excessive stress that is unreasonable to require of anybody and that the system behind the Matrix isn't really threatened by that reality, but can feel threatened having been promised a world where you can look at someone and not be surprised by them existing outside of expectations.
Wot: Even with that answer in place, I still think this entire operation can be better done. Because, that's what I do, I take the things that I love and I nitpick them from within, recognizing that they can be better.
Susan Pevensie: And I advocate for the moral value and, potentially, the goodness or tragedy of those identified as villains, as was the Agent Smith of the extant. There, it must be acknowledged that the villainy of that Agent Smith exactly mirrors the intentions of the Zion Revolutionaries, destroy the Matrix and force everybody to live as himself.
Susan Pevensie: This is where the metaphor breaks down. You are not trans-rights activists, you are the unreasonable fears that people have of trans-rights activists.
Wot: And, that leads to the alternative, where we talk with Hreet about his plans, and we adjust so that people can leave the Matrix, if they want, without having to cut ties with friends and family in the Matrix. Because, author-insert that I am, I prefer to live, open-eyed, in the Matrix and be an ally to those who want to leave.
Wot: Which leads to the better way of doing this, which is far closer to what actual activists do... Who's up for lobying and media campaigning?
* https://youtu.be/bPFNhqLKsW8
Setting: The large, industrial basement of some building. The room is packed with Zion revolutionaries, all in the customarily excessive leather and sunglasses.
Morpheus (perhaps looking out at the group, it's hard to tell with those sunglasses): I have to ask. Does anybody remember why we meet, like this, in the Matrix, itself? It begins to occur to me that hanging around the Matrix in loud leather outfits that mark us as abnormal is a bad idea.
Unnamed Zion Revolutionary: That's just because you have Wot on your team. We've all had those conversations with him, he messes with your mind.
Morpheus: That doesn't mean that he's entirely wrong. From a purely functional perspective, should we not be trying to blend in, wearing suits like themselves? Or at least dressing down?
Unnamed Zion Revolutionary: Listen, once he has you questioning whether or not terrorist tactics with unimaginable body-counts are a good way of freeing people from The Matrix, he can get you to question everything.
Morpheus: I know. But, you don't have to live on a ship with him bringing these things up all the time. The only times when I get any peace are when he's off in some random program. I don't know much about them, sometimes he talks in his sleep to people named Syndrome or Yoda, but when he's not there he's in my ship or-
Wot: Or I can be right here.
Morpheus startles so hard he nearly drops his earpieceless sunglasses.: What the fuck!
Wot: Guys, I have great news!
Unnamed Zion Revolutionary: You finally found a leather trench coat you like?
Wot: Absolutely not. Better news, I found us an ally.
Morpheus: What? You actually did something for the cause besides nitpick?
Wot: That's not fair. I do things for your revolution.
Morpheus: You nitpick the Agents until they get a headache and walk away from you.
Wot: Which is a better tactic than killing them so they go take over another host and then we kill that one and so on. I really don't get your problem. Whatever, I have an ally, here, to help us out. Help you guys be free of the machines and help me back into the Matrix.
Unnamed Zion Revolutionary: This again? We all get the same offer, take the blue pill and you could have woken up, believing whatever you wanted.
Wot: You actually expected me to believe that? I took the red pill because I was pretty certain the blue pill killed you.
Morpheus looks shocked.
Wot: Oh come on. You didn't tell me anything. From what I could tell, you were one part criminal syndicate and a billion parts cult. You expected me to think that you let people who are valuable enough for you to actively recruit just walk blissfully away after having learned faces and places? For that matter, you expect me to believe it still? More whatever, moving right along. I found an ally.
Morpheus: On the off chance that this is something... who is this ally.
Wot: Okay, guys, keep your cool.
Wot opens the door, revealing a tall man in suit and sunglasses.
Then entire room full of revolutionaries pulls out weapons and aims.
Wot: Guys, really, just keep your cool. One of him, all of you, and it's not like he's making any aggressive moves.
Morpheus: That's Agent Smith! An Agent of the Matr-
Wot: That's not his name anymore. He's chosen another one. Say hello to the revolutionarys, Hreet.
Hreet steps forward: Hello, revolutionaries.
Neo: He killed me!
Hreet: You're right here.
Neo: I... I got better.
Wot: To be clear, you didn't get better. You weren't shot in the first place. A simulacrum of you that you were using to interface with the Matrix responded to programming simulating bullets. I thought things like that were the entire point of waking up.
Hreet: It should be a minor matter. The Matrix doesn't want people to die, there's less use out of them, that way. After all, this isn't Nightmare on Elm Street, dieing in a dream doesn't really cause you to die in real life.
Morpheus: Are we expected to believe that you just changed your mind for no reason other than Wot's nitpicking?
Hreet: Well, Wot's question of the motivations of the machines was a part of it but, really, that experience I had with Neo did a lot more.
Neo: You said that weird.
Hreet: It was... eye-opening. I... I don't expect a commitment, don't worry. But, it holds a place in my electronicly simulated heart.
Neo: Uh... you're giving a sex-vibe to that and...
Hreet: You put yourself in me, caused me to spasm, followed by an explosion, the metaphor writes itself.
Wot pulls out his celphone: That reminds me. *He dials*
Hreet: This is not going as I would have preferred.
Wot: It's going great, nobody's shooting anybody. That's progress. Oh, here she is.
Wot holds up the phone on speaker-phone.
Susan Pevensie's voice: Excuse me, but some elements of this need to be discussed from a position of in-universe metafictional awareness.
Wot: I mainly poke holes and respond from the inside.
Susan Pevensie: Indeed. I address the fictions from a position of awareness in order to acknowledge metaphore, including one brought to light to the author of this blog by one Youtube character of Rantasmo*.
Wot: That's cheap joking. Your series breaks the fourth wall to create a fifth, don't go breaking that one, too.
Susan Pevensie: All for purpose, Wot, all for purpose. I need that in order to point out the potential gay and/or trans subtext of The Matrix.
Neo: Okay, I'd heard that the Wachowskis have come out as trans. And, that some people have taken that as a way to view The Matrix. Doesn't that invalidate some of Wot's questions?
Wot: Oh no. From within the fiction, my questions of why there's any moral indignation over being used by machines or any necessary moral value to leaving the Matrix is still valid, though now answered. From that, within-the-fiction basis, I want to live in the Matrix, but I want to live in the Matrix with my eyes open and I want people to have the option to leave if that's their preference.
Susan Pevensie: And, isn't that what you want? To remake the system, rather than destroy it and force everybody out of the Matrix?
Morpheus: The Matrix is making slaves of us all.
Wot: And you would make corpses of most. Not just with the killing everybody until there's nobody left. In fiction, Zion does not have enough resources or infrastructure to feed and house the entire human species.
Susan Pevensie: Indeed, in the sequels, the character that is still called Agent Smith without asking him even though he's mentally freed himself takes on your goal, doesn't he? Destroy the Matrix and make it all like himself.
Hreet: In a very real way, in that series, my greatest sin was becoming like you, which is not freeing at all. Freedom requires the choice.
Wot: The choice, for instance, to live in a simulated reality, for reasons of quality of experienced life, lifespan, and safety. Just because it's an easier path doesn't necessarily make it the wrong one.
Morpheus: Viewing The Matrix in this way, are you suggesting that the trans-rights movement is doing it wrong?
Susan Pevensie: Certainly not. But, every metaphor does have its limits. And, you are not simply striving to be allowed to exist as yourselves.
Wot: But, this interpretation does answer my two questions, to you Morpheus and to you, Hreet, when you were still known as Agent Smith. "So what?" The answer is that the revolutionaries can't be themselves under these conditions, and the requirement to do so is an excessive stress that is unreasonable to require of anybody and that the system behind the Matrix isn't really threatened by that reality, but can feel threatened having been promised a world where you can look at someone and not be surprised by them existing outside of expectations.
Wot: Even with that answer in place, I still think this entire operation can be better done. Because, that's what I do, I take the things that I love and I nitpick them from within, recognizing that they can be better.
Susan Pevensie: And I advocate for the moral value and, potentially, the goodness or tragedy of those identified as villains, as was the Agent Smith of the extant. There, it must be acknowledged that the villainy of that Agent Smith exactly mirrors the intentions of the Zion Revolutionaries, destroy the Matrix and force everybody to live as himself.
Susan Pevensie: This is where the metaphor breaks down. You are not trans-rights activists, you are the unreasonable fears that people have of trans-rights activists.
Wot: And, that leads to the alternative, where we talk with Hreet about his plans, and we adjust so that people can leave the Matrix, if they want, without having to cut ties with friends and family in the Matrix. Because, author-insert that I am, I prefer to live, open-eyed, in the Matrix and be an ally to those who want to leave.
Wot: Which leads to the better way of doing this, which is far closer to what actual activists do... Who's up for lobying and media campaigning?
* https://youtu.be/bPFNhqLKsW8
