Frequencies

Boy:
  What did you get?

Marie-Curie Fortune:
  A hundred twenty-seven.

Boy:
  Don't go higher than a hundred.

Boy:
  Meet my friend.

Girl:
  You don't have any friends.

Boy:
  This is Isaac-Newton Midgeley.

Isaac-Newton "Zak" Midgeley:
  Zak.  Hello.

Marie:
  Hello.

Boy:
  He's a minus-seven.  Always knew I didn't like you.

Girl:
  Thought he was your friend.

Boy:
  Shut up, and wait.

Girl:
  What for?  [Marie observes her pocket watch]

Boy:
  Super-high frequency meets super-low frequency: something should be happening, some…reaction.  [after some more seconds pass, thunder begins rumbling and rain begins falling on Zak]

Marie:
  Interesting.

Mr. Fortune:
  How do you feel about it, hmm?

Marie:
  [imitating what a girl had said to her earlier in the day]  I'm so relieved, really; it could have been so much lower.

Mrs. Fortune:
  Is there anything we can do about her emotional…her emotions?

Miss Anderson:
  It's a common side-effect: the higher the frequency, the lower the empathy.  One tends to drive out the other.  The luckier we are, the less we care about it.

Mrs. Fortune:
  And no one's gonna be luckier than Marie.

Miss Anderson:
  No, it doesn't appear so.  There are certain things we can try—knowledge does determine destiny, after all.

Mrs. Fortune:
  I don't want her to be an experiment.  We want her to, uh…make friends, have fun, fall in love, have a normal life.

Miss Anderson:
  Oh, I'm sorry, but you must understand, that won't be at all possible.

Miss Anderson:
  Misses Midgeley, we need to be clear on this: Zak is a negative.  This is very rare, but it means that he is literally out of sync with the natural world.  He will be beyond unlucky.  He will never be at the right place at the right time.  He will never fit in—apart from those of his own kind.  He no longer belongs here; that's not our opinion, that's scientific fact.

Mrs. Midgeley:
  He is gifted.

Miss Anderson:
  He's a genius, but unfortunately surrounded by prodigies.

Mr. Strauss:
  Look, for hundreds of years, we have been the players, Theo, interpreting the score, evolving it.  Where's the life?  Where's the inspiration?  Where's the…spontaneity!?

Theodor-Adorno "Theo" Strauss:
  If we are all machines, then everything is decided; spontaneity is an illusion.

Mr. Strauss:
  No, we still have free will, we still have souls, we still have imagination.

Marie:
  This analyses your precise frequency.  I developed a way to directly read the wave-form—much more efficient than the old school tests.

Miss Anderson:
  You have the patent for that?

Marie:
  Of course.

Miss Anderson:
  That's how you define true love?

Marie:
  That's how nature defines it.  Those with the lower frequencies need a minimum of seven hundred signifiers.

Marie:
  Everybody wants to be my friend.

Miss Anderson:
  But how many actually are your friends?

Marie:
  None.

[Experiment 1]

Zak:
  Hello.

Marie:
  Hello.

Zak:
  Did you see the—

Marie:
  I was going to say—

Zak:
  Yes?

Marie:
  —we don't have to speak.

Zak:
  [pauses]  It's just that I-I want to; I mean, we're probably not gonna get more than a minute.  [pauses]  Sorry, um, how are you?

Marie:
  Greeting or serious question?

Zak:
  Uh, greeting.

Marie:
  Fine.  How are you?

Zak:
  Bit worried about what's gonna happen.

Marie:
  Maybe nothing will happen.

Zak:
  [referring to student observers]  If that's true, then why are they here?

Marie:
  Why don't you ask them?

Zak:
  Why me?

Marie:
  Because you and I are supposed to have the most interesting reaction.

Zak:
  [pauses]  How long?

Marie:
  [checking her pocket watch]  Fifty seconds.

Zak:
  What happens if it goes past a minute?  [a low-flying plane passes overhead; luggage begins falling from the sky]

Miss Anderson:
  Do you like him?

Marie:
  It's just an experiment.

Miss Anderson:
  It's a false experiment; frequency does not change.  Don't waste your "feelings" on this boy; the two of you are just not destined to be together.

Marie:
  Knowledge determines destiny, Miss Anderson.

[Experiment 3]

Zak:
  Hello.

Marie:
  Hello.  [pauses]  What was your idea?

Zak:
  I think we should…touch.  You know, as part of the data collection, I-I think we should touch.

[Experiment 4]

Zak:
  Bu-ut, this isn't data collection, this is a date.

Marie:
  A one-minute date?

Zak:
  I've been on shorter ones before.

[Experiment 5]

Zak:
  I know we can't be together, but I-I need to tell you, I love you.  I-I know you probably don't love me, but I just hope that you like me, you know?

Marie:
  Serious question?

Zak:
  Yes.

Marie:
  No.

Zak:
  What about our meetings?

Marie:
  Data collection.

Zak:
  Just data collection?

Marie:
  No, I've also been experimenting with flirting, and now I've stopped.

Zak:
  You really don't feel anything for me?

Marie:
  I don't think you understand, Zak:  I don't feel.  No one wants to understand.  I know what they call me—"the Machine"—and they're right.  I do not love my family.  I experience no joy.  If you ever see me smile, frown, laugh, or cry, I'm pretending, waiting for it to become real; but it never will.  It's the side-effect.

Zak:
  Irony: the indirect presentation of a contradiction between an action or expression and the context in which it occurs.  Ironic particle: the physical manifestation of irony existing latent in every atom in the universe.  But my preliminary research suggests that the ironic particles are only activated by the brain when we want something, and so forming a "desire chain"—but only by a certain type of person.

Panel member #1:
  A low-frequency person.

Zak:
  Yes!  My research indicates that only they are susceptible to irony.

Panel member #2:
  Is not irony in the eye of the beholder?

Zak:
  Yes, but the beholder is the individual involved; hence, the "desire chain."  In everyday terms, it's why they never get what they really want.  But, my hypothesis—and the purpose of the research grant I hope you'll give me—is that it is possible to reverse this effect.  The mental changes the physical.  It's all about patterns.  The first stage is to want something, recognise the potential irony, and then to change your desire chain.

Panel member #2:
  Sorry to interrupt, but that sounds suspiciously like your trying to fool fate, and I just don't think that's possible.

Zak:
  Well, I do, sir.

Zak:
  The sound waves were the first thing everyone tried!

Theo:
  It's not just the waves.

Zak and Theo:
  [simultaneously]  It's the words.

Marie:
  Where's Kaichi?  I've not heard of it.

Zak:
  Relax.  You don't have to pretend to care.  [Marie ceases smiling]  How are you?

Marie:
  Greeting or serious question?

Zak:
  Serious question.

Marie:
  Still "the Machine."  Still broken.

Zak:
  Still waiting.

Marie:
  Waiting, pretending, but now I think so is everyone else.

Marie:
  Nothing's changed.

Zak:
  Not for you.

Marie:
  What's changed for you, Zak?

Zak:
  Look at your watch.

Marie:
  [looks at watch; puzzled]  Over a minute.

Marie:
  But nature works hard to give me everything.

Zak:
  Almost everything.

Marie:
  It definitely feels better when we're touching.  Why is that?

Zak:
  B-because…(unith) you love me…maybe.

Marie:
  You think I'm a virgin?  I've conducted many experiments.

Zak:
  And your conclusions?

Marie:
  Sex is like masturbation, just with someone else.

Zak:
  I hope not.

Marie:
  [to Isaac-Newton "Zak" Midgeley]  I think I love you.

Zak:
  I—I think I love you, too.

Marie:
  I—believe I need more empirical evidence.  H-how—how does this "love" manifest itself?

Zak:
  Whatever you ask, I'll do.

Marie:
  Anything?

Zak:
  Yeah.  And you?

Marie:
  I wouldn't do anything for you.

Marie:
  No, he did it.  He made me feel like this.  He told me.

Zak:
  What?

Marie:
  He told me—to love him.

Zak:
  N-no, it—must have been an accident.  L-l-like she said, it-it's a side-effect—  I said the first word on the list.  Y-you have to believe me.

Mr. Fortune:
  If we believe you, then you are just a fool who got lucky; if we don't, you are a lying genius.  I'm sure you'll appreciate the irony.

Zak:
  I-I probably don't need to do anything; now that I'm not using it anymore, things should go back to normal pretty quickly.

Marie:
  Oh, they have.  I can feel myself feeling less—but not for you.  Don't touch me.

Zak:
  I'm sure I can fix this.

Marie:
  I know.  [places The Manuel in Zak's hand]  I love you, but only because you've told me to.  Cruel, isn't it?

Zak:
  Maybe you would've loved me anyway.

Marie:
  Now we'll never know.

Zak:
  Does it matter?

Marie:
  You have to have choice.

Zak:
  Do you?  If it works—

Marie:
  Do it!  Do it for me.

Zak:
  Maybe somebody else can.

Marie:
  No, I've already tried!  It has to be you.

Zak:
  I'm just gonna say the last word on the list; I don't know if it'll work.  "Endel."  You do not love me.

Marie:
  [pauses]  Nothing's changed!

Zak:
  You always got whatever it is you wanted, didn't you?

Marie:
  Mm-hmm.

Zak:
  And what was it you wanted more than anything else in the world?

Marie:
  Feelings.  To be in love.  [pauses]  So what are you saying, that nature created you for me, someone to give me what I wanted?  [pauses]  That would mean neither of us had a choice.

Marie:
  If you're right—

Zak:
  If I'm right, it means that whatever gave us our minute wasn't love, it was fate.  It means I'm just here to serve a purpose for you.  It means everything is already decided.  There's no freedom, no responsibility, and knowledge absolutely does not determine destiny.

Marie:
  Yes.  But does it matter?

Zak:
  No, not to me.

Marie:
  Me, neither.