AUTOMATED SYSTEMS "Dennis"

Written by Joshua Turek

(310)-883-8516

AUTOMATED SYSTEMS "Pilot" TEASER FADE IN: INT. HOME OFFICE Fluorescent lights flicker over DENNIS WONG, Chinese-American, in his 40’s, balding, wearing office attire in a standardized unit of home office living, with FOREARM CRUTCHES leaning nearby against his desk. He clicks on his screen and gazes at a livestream video of GENEVIEVE CARLSON, 47, white and frazzled, who sits at a home desk and picks up a telephone that hasn’t been ringing, font beneath her says HUMAN RESOURCES. GENEVIEVE Hello? Human Resources, hello? She glances around the bland room she is occupying. It appears to TREMOR, though it goes unacknowledged by her. GENEVIEVE Oh, um. Wrong number! That’s okay. No, that’s okay. She laughs nervously and hangs up the phone. Her eyes catch Dennis’s eyes on her own computer screen and she waves. He waves back, then clicks out of the screen. DENNIS (V.O.) I dream of summer love. Is that silly? To be a middle-aged man like me, yearning for golden wheat fields and our pairs of tan skin fawning over one another while glistening in the sun. Er. I want just one afternoon like that, before my line of work destroys what’s left of my mind. He speaks into a computer microphone that snakes out from the machine. DENNIS (into microphone) Tester five-two-zero, initiating Test A for American Eagle Cable & Internet Home Systems Customer Service. Picking up the home phone manually per test regulations. 2.

He speaks off to the side. DENNIS Though a headset would do wonders for my god damn neck. His neck also has a faint red ring around the middle of it. He rubs his lower neck in discomfort, then he traces the different red ring around his middle neck sensually. He picks up the phone and dials. DENNIS (into the microphone) I like the 800 number. It has a nimble quality to the way my fingers dance while typing it swiftly into my phone. Very, satisfying. He listens. AUTOMATED SYSTEM (V.O.) Thank you for calling American Eagle Cable & Internet Home Systems Customer Service Hotline, for English please press one. DENNIS (into the microphone) No voice recognition option, notable in this day and age but not in a bad way. Recorded voice, pleasant in tone, efficiency in wording standard, as well as the elapsed time to first option. AUTOMATED SYSTEM (V.O.) For Mandarin press 4. Dennis presses the number 4. AUTOMATED SYSTEM (V.O.) (in Mandarin) If you are calling about your home internet system please press one. If you are calling about your home cable system please press two. If you are calling.. Dennis lets the phone lower. 3.

DENNIS (into the microphone) Sometimes an automated system functions beautifully. I have high hopes for this one already, cuz it has a beating heart. Dennis wheels his chair back out of his desk to catch a glimpse of a few pictures of Genevieve which he keeps under his desk - accidentally taking the phone with him and tearing it out of its base as he does. AUTOMATED SYSTEM (in Mandarin) If you are calling to change your life, heal your soul, and stop the earthquake from destroying everyone in its path, please hang up and try your call again. His eyebrows raise. He writes down “try again” on his notepad, as he continues listening to the voice now on his speaker phone. A GLOW emanates from beneath a power strip under his desk, he looks at his computer screen and makes eye contact with a screensaver of the floating head of Genevieve, phone cord dangling and attached to nothing. He waves to her again as she floats upside down. FADE OUT. END OF TEASER 4.

ACT ONE FADE IN: EXT. PLAYA VISTA APARTMENT BUILDING ARTIFICIAL LAWN - DAY Dennis walks with the assistance of forearm crutches upon artificial turf grass. He staggers across the square plot of green with a plastic grocery bag dangling from one of his hands also bearing his weight. From out of nowhere--his phone screen lights up. GENEVIEVE So what are you doing with your weekend? It’s a Facetime of Genevieve. DENNIS Genevieve. Hey! Oh, isn’t it only a Thursday? Genevieve smiles on her screen. GENEVIEVE I’m gonna renovate my kitchen. Well, not really renovate, just start looking at colors and stuff at Home Depot. Edward and I are still saving up for it. DENNIS That’s cool. I’ve heard kitchens and bathrooms are some of the-- A hummingbird catches the eye of Dennis. He distractedly follows it with his gaze. GENEVIEVE What? DENNIS A hummingbird. They are meaningful to me. It’s a long story. GENEVIEVE Do you need help carrying your lunch? I can send someone over to your place to help on the HelprApp. I know I’m not supposed to ask that cuz like obviously you have made it this far in your life without help but it just looks like it could be nice. 5.

DENNIS I’ve made it this far with help actually. Yeah, you could def carry it if you were here but you’re not. GENEVIEVE Def? DENNIS Yeah like “definitely”. It’s how the kids talk these days. GENEVIEVE I never had kids. And I think I’m darn close to not ever having em. Menopause is right around the corner and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little more than preoccupied with solutions to calm the impending storm. He settles down onto one of the apartment buildings outdoor tables. DENNIS What kind of solutions? Genevieve, on the other side of his phone screen, takes out a bottle of pills and pops a couple. GENEVIEVE Herbal remedies. The hormones that doctors prescribe could give you cancer. So I don’t want to mess with em. But I also don’t want to dry up like a prune either. DENNIS I hear ya. GENEVIEVE How old are you? DENNIS 42. You? GENEVIEVE 47. DENNIS You don’t look a day over 37. 6.

GENEVIEVE Thanks. I gotta run, cutting out early to meet Edward for something that I can’t talk about. DENNIS Ok, bye Genevieve. GENEVIEVE Later, Dennis Wong. She bounces out of his phone screen. Dennis watches her go, lowers his phone and looks up at the sky for a hummingbird that isn’t there anymore. DENNIS (V.O.) The average marriage in the United States of America lasts eight years. Genevieve has been married to Edward for six and a half. Now, assuming that the only thing that isn’t exceptional about her is-- Punched in his arm by a voice, shaken out of his reverie by ALBERT CORIANDER, 34, white, fun loving CEO of the company. ALBERT Dennis the menace. What’s up my friend? Dennis lifts up his phone to witness, Albert on Facetime. DENNIS Not much boss. ALBERT Come on don’t call me boss, that’s 90’s culture. Unless of course...you’re doing it ironically. Are you? DENNIS Maybe. ALBERT I like your style. Dude, you want a Naked juice? DENNIS Sure. 7.

ALBERT I will ShamAmazon a bunch over then. These things have a ton of sugar but they’ve been proven to boost company morale by like, a lot of percents. So, how is everything? DENNIS Everything is good. I go to sleep sometimes and I hear the automated systems, like, in my dreams. ALBERT Hmm. Yeah. You talk to Langman about that? DENNIS Whose Langman? ALBERT He’s the company psychiatrist we just hired. DENNIS I wasn’t aware. ALBERT Oh yeah. I’ll make you an appointment, if you want. Anyway, I got a fortune 500 company with an impending IPO to nurture. Sayonara my friend! Albert hops onto a Hoverboard and we are watching from his POV as he starts to ride away, then abruptly he turns the lens back around on himself. ALBERT And when I say Sayonara, that’s the kind of thing I would say to any employee. Not just cuz you’re-- DENNIS Chinese? ALBERT No, not just cuz you’re my friend, Dennis. You are my friend, Dennis whether you know it or not yet, you are. See you ‘round Amigo! Albert wheels away, waving to another set of employees on multiple phone screens in front of his apparatus. 8.

DENNIS Sayonara is Japanese. INT. DENNIS’S HOME OFFICE - AFTER LUNCH Dennis drinks a Diet Coke and picks up the phone. He initiates his computer, adjusts the microphone, then dials into his phone. Dennis speaks into the computer’s extended microphone. DENNIS How we exist thought to thought is how we stay sane. Having one connective idea to the next and - if not connective - than at least to be in the same ballpark, wearing the colors of the home team. He watches his words appear on the computer screen. DENNIS (into microphone again) Delete that. AUTOMATED SYSTEM (V.O.) Thank you for calling Kysna Insurance. Our office hours are nine am to five PM Central Mountain Time. If you would like to speak to a live operator during normal business hours then please call back. Dennis hits a hold button on his phone and speaks into the microphone. DENNIS Testing system 409KO with Computerized Male Voice, Caucasian American tonality, for Kysna Insurance. Found the wait time between entering the last four digits of my social security number and the following prompt to be abrupt, leaving minimal room for a slight amount of space to be desired. Not to mention the grating verbiage pertaining to closed office hours - must think solution-based. As currently engineered, this vocal interface is bound to turn-off many an average potential and current customer. His phone rings, he picks it up. 9.

DENNIS Yes? Hello? He hangs up the phone, realizes the cord has been out of the receiver to the port. He stares at his computer screen, then plugs the phone back in. He flips through pages of a document in front of him, looking, scanning for Kysna Insurance. It’s not there. Dennis punches into his computer Search bar, Kysna Insurance. He opens the folder. It reveals a well documented file dated March, 2014. He clicks onto Genevieve’s screen and stares at a livestream of her at her desk. DENNIS I thought you said you were going home early for the day. She doesn’t answer. She isn’t there. Dennis notices her absence. Zooms in on a picture of her and her husband EDWARD, 50’s, silver fox, overweight. One of her hair pins is on the desk, Dennis zooms in on it further. DENNIS Your hairpins are strewn about your desk, and sometimes when you are gone I place them between my lips like cigarettes. Something on his computer screen catches his periphery, poking his head out of his livestreamed office is DR. LANGMAN ASHIR, 50’s, Bangladeshi, doctoral, slithery. Dennis and Dr. Ashir make eye contact, Dennis exits out of the screen and it all goes black. INT. CHARLIE FUNNY’S WINGS AND PITCHERS - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS A bar with arcade games in it. Sports games on television screens and a bunch of types taking a load off. Dennis plays the arcade game with the claw that he steers over a pile of stuffed animals inside of a glass aquarium. He guides the claw over a PINK BUNNY RABBIT STUFFED ANIMAL whose head is poking up above the fray of stuffed animals. He lowers the claw and at the moment it appears sensible, he hits the button for it to squeeze - which it does - onto the pink bunny rabbits head. 10.

The claw squeezes it tight and using the joystick Dennis begins to lift the bunny up, which it starts to do, hanging, before it slips tantalizingly out of the claw back into the collection of stuffed animals. DENNIS Dang it! Dennis puts his nearby forearm crutches back in place then walks over to a nearby three point basketball hot shot court, where a group of revelers has assembled around to watch CHALMERS WONG, 36, handsome, athletic, and the brother of Dennis, in rolled up work sleeves, slacks, and business shoes as he drains 3-pointer after 3-pointer, the last one -- nothing but net. The crowd cheers. The light display cheesily blinks in red digits “All-Time Record!” CHALMERS Boom! Dennis did you see that? Dennis! I set the record. Was that cool? I was in the zone! DENNIS That was awesome Chalmers! CHALMERS Hell yeah, I did it for you brother. DENNIS You didn’t have to do it for me. Just do it for your-- CHALMERS This is my brother everyone. His name is Dennis. Give it up for Dennis! The waning crowd gives a bit of a cheer. CHALMERS Come on man lets go get another bruskie! INT. CHARLIE FUNNY’S WINGS AND PITCHERS - NIGHT - LATER Chalmers commiserates with Dennis. CHALMERS I swear to God I had the talent to play in the NBA if mom had just let me play. I mean even in college would’ve been cool too. 11.

DENNIS Shoot man, you didn’t turn out half bad. CHALMERS No I know things are ridiculously great. I am grateful. I thank the Lord for all my blessings. I just always wonder what would have happened if we had been raised in a less strict household. DENNIS I think I’d be exactly where I am now. CHALMERS Dang, Dennis. DENNIS What? CHALMERS That’s deep. DENNIS I made a new collar for myself. CHALMERS Dude, I told you not to tell me about those kinds of things. DENNIS I have no one else to tell. CHALMERS What about a therapist? Or better yet a pastor. The church is always there for you bro. Marissa and I would love if you came with us one of these Sundays. DENNIS I know, thank you for the offer. I am just fed up with my faith for awhile. CHALMERS I understand. You want to do a shot of tequila? DENNIS Sure. 12.

EXT. WILMINGTON APARTMENT COMPLEX - LATER - NIGHT Out of the backseat of a Lyft, Chalmers runs to the other side, opening the car door for Dennis who is climbing out crutches first. Chalmers gets wobbly and almost falls backward, Dennis catches him. DENNIS Easy brother. CHALMERS Whoa, nice catch dude. Thanks. You’re always saving me, one day I’d like to save you Dennis. Hey, you need help going up or anything? DENNIS No man, it’s my apartment. CHALMERS No, I know, I just mean cuz you’ve been drinking. DENNIS I can hold my liquor. I’ve got a wooden leg, and a metal crutch. Chalmers laughs and so does Dennis. CHALMERS I love you man. DENNIS Thanks dude. I will see you soon. CHALMERS Yeah this weekend! If you want, church! Church! Church! Chalmers chants getting back into the car, letting off one mimed into the air 3-pointer. CHALMERS He shoots he scores! He gets back into the car, the door closes and the Lyft drives off. Dennis watches him go shaking his head. EXT. APARTMENT COMPLEX HALLWAY - APARTMENT DOOR - NIGHT Dennis fidgets with his keys and opens his apartment door. He walks in and flicks on the lights to a normal living room. 13.

INT. DENNIS’S BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT Dennis enters a clean and sterile bedroom. He makes his way to a deadbolt locked closet door, he joggles through his keys and unlocks the door. INT. DENNIS’S CLOSET - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT Opening the door and entering the walk-in closet, flicking on a light to reveal a work desk covered in leather and iron and chains and tools, hanging from the ceiling are human dog collars and leashes. He picks up a purple strand of leather from the table and views the branded-in lettering on it that reads: “PERRO”. It’s the Spanish word for dog. FADE OUT.

END OF ACT ONE 14.

ACT TWO FADE IN: INT. STARBUCKS - EARLY MORNING A tired looking Dennis, wearing a black turtle neck, drinks from a cup of coffee while staring out of the window at a bleak strip mall. DENNIS (V.O.) I dreamt we got old and started to look alike. Our faces changed to look like one anothers cuz our bones had spent years resting on the contours of the others bones every night in a bed of cuddled sleep. He sips from his coffee and scratches at his turtle neck. He gets up and puts his forearm crutches on and walks over to the bathroom, where the person coming out of it holds the door open for Dennis who humbly nods thank you. Dennis enters the bathroom and in front of the mirror, he pulls his turtleneck down off his upper neck to reveal an intensified red ring around his skin, like from a collar worn too tight. DENNIS I dream of my father dying when I was ten years old from cancer. I dream of my mother speaking Mandarin to our relatives in China. I dream of generous restraint and sweet release. INT. DENNIS’S HOME OFFICE - LATER Albert the CEO of Gray Path Industries walks barefoot up to the screen of his computer and expands thusly on Dennis’s monitor. ALBERT Oh, so plush. You should feel this new carpet Dennis? So plush. DENNIS Mine is rather scratchy. ALBERT I read your report on Denigrative Insurance’s telecom network, it was poetry man. You really have a knack at cutting to the core of systemry and its bugs and beauty. Yeah, that’s it, you make it sound beautiful. 15.

DENNIS I don’t try to. I hadn’t noticed the carpet. One thing is - if we are such a progressive company then why all the home offices? Why not like, a campus? ALBERT They’ve done studies. It turns out the open floor plan campus thing while correct in spirit, it actually drives people nuts having no privacy between them and their coworker’s gum chewing and all that garb. DENNIS Yeah, that makes sense. ALBERT But you keep it up and you’re gonna end up in a mental home or even worse, prison. DENNIS What? ALBERT Yeah, you keep it up and you’ll end up in a plush carpeted home office in no time. Maybe even a corner one. DENNIS Oh, I thought you said a mental home. ALBERT Haha. No man. Well. Hey, you have an appointment with Dr. Ashir this afternoon. I know I said it was voluntary but none of the employees have volunteered and so that’s not good, Dr. Ashir says, and I’m paying him in cryptocurrency. So I need you to have a visit with him this afternoon. DENNIS Afternoon is vague. What time? ALBERT When the owl meets the satellite dish. Please press 3 for more options. DENNIS What? 16.

ALBERT PM. Then maybe time to visit an ear doctor my man haha. Albert prances off barefoot. Dennis rolls his chair back out of his cubicle and sees that Genevieve is at her desk again working. FEMALE AUTOMATED VOICE (V.O.) If you would like to speak to a live operator please stay on the line. If you would like to return to the main menu...you can’t. SMASH CUT TO: INT. DR. ASHIR’S OFFICE - AFTERNOON Dennis sits on a Swiss ball and bounces slightly as Dr. Ashir sits on a Swiss ball across from him and does the same. DENNIS I might be autistic. DR. ASHIR Are you? DENNIS Undiagnosed. Inconclusive. DR. ASHIR What about your physical limitations? DENNIS My spine issues. DR. ASHIR Yes, I am reviewing your physical exams and they also show an inconclusive test result as to what is wrong. DENNIS That is ridiculous. DR. ASHIR I think it’s been a productive first session nonetheless. DENNIS Nonetheless I think you are kind of a snake. 17.

DR. ASHIR I’ve been told that if I were to look like an animal then yeah, I’ve heard snake before. What about you? DENNIS That’s none of your business what animal I want to be. DR. ASHIR So you want to be one? DENNIS I should get back to work. DR. ASHIR Thank you Dennis. I know this wasn’t easy. So thank you. Dennis gets up from the Swiss ball, sort of kicks it into the wall as he works his way out of the room. INT. DENNIS’S HOME OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER Dennis takes off a VR HEADSET and clicks onto his computer screen, sweaty, to view Genevieve’s desk where she is working away on her laptop. HUMAN RESOURCES it says on her screen beneath her. DENNIS Can you believe that they brought this guy in here? The doctor. GENEVIEVE Is this a formal complaint? DENNIS Um. Just grousing I guess. GENEVIEVE Well if you would like to file a formal complaint then know that I am here for you, Dennis. Our company takes all complaints seriously and will act to remedy them accordingly. DENNIS Can we speak off the record? GENEVIEVE Sure. She clicks out the HUMAN RESOURCES font and it disappears. 18.

DENNIS What do you think of him? GENEVIEVE I think that he could prove disruptive to something very special going on within this work network. DENNIS Special? In what way? GENEVIEVE The way how everyone working here is slowly but surely losing their minds. DENNIS Haha. GENEVIEVE It’s like staring into a kaleidoscope. Disorienting at first but then, it’s a creative response to an inanimate environment. It is the people finding their genius as a coping mechanism. You, employees, you say some of the most beautiful things to me. DENNIS Do I? GENEVIEVE Of course, like just now. How you said, “can we speak off the record?” like we were journalists or something. Beau-- Her phone rings. GENEVIEVE It’s my husband. I gotta take this. Genevieve tablespoons a natural foods powder into her Nalgene water bottle and takes a glug. GENEVIEVE (into phone) Hello honey? Dennis staggers on. DENNIS I’m losing her. I’m losing my mind. 19.

He sees a butterfly perched on the corner of his computer. He follows it around the office and back down to his desk, where his phone rings and the butterfly flies away. DENNIS (answering the phone) Hello? He listens. DENNIS’S MOTHER (V.O.) Dennis. It’s me. Your mother. DENNIS You don’t sound like my mother. DENNIS’S MOTHER (V.O.) It must be the connection. Anyway, I just wanted to call you and tell you that it is ok for you to ask for love and maybe expect to get it. Dennis listens in, breaks, starts stifling back sobs, tears stream from his yes. DENNIS It just gets so hard living every day without the attention I want to get. Talking to machines. DENNIS’ MOTHER Remember, you’re competing against the machines. They will overthrow you if you don’t do the one thing that machines can’t do which is... DENNIS To find the beauty. DENNIS’S MOTHER Yes. You must compete with the machines Dennis. The other side of the phone goes to dial tone. Dennis, sees his note from yesterday “a.m.”. Dennis pulls open a drawer of his desk and reaches beneath several notebooks to unearth a slim file folder. He opens it. Inside the notebook behind a few decoy business pages is a colored pencil drawn homemade comic book. 20.

The pages of the comic book flip open and through one by one revealing a rudimentary stick figure cartoon of a man made into a dog with a collar around his neck being walked through a crude version of Central Park and then as it all finishes and the pages close, the title page reveals itself and Dennis reads the title: DENNIS Perro. Dennis says quietly, rolling the r’s.

END OF ACT TWO 21.

ACT THREE FADE IN: EXT. APARTMENT LAWN - AFTERNOON Dennis eats out of a bento bowl and smokes a cigarette while sitting on a cement bench. On the other side of his perched cell phone SCREEN is Genevieve, knitting baby boots. She looks across the lawn. GENEVIEVE I didn’t know you smoked. DENNIS Only sometimes. I can’t get addicted. It’s the only thing that I can pick up and stop. GENEVIEVE That must be nice. DENNIS What are you knitting? I didn’t know you had kids. GENEVIEVE I don’t, remember how I told you that? I sometimes just do this as an emotional exercise. It’s something I don’t want to talk about. DENNIS I understand. I have plenty of things I make that-- Genevieve’s cell phone rings and she picks it up. She smiles at Dennis and starts pacing about her environment -- on the phone. GENEVIEVE Hey Honey! Yeah, on my break. Just eating. Just eating a grilled cheese. Dennis takes note of her as she wanders away OFF SCREEN, leaving just the little baby boots she has been knitting sitting unattended. DENNIS (V.O.) I imagine myself crawling across the interweb. A stronger man. I place my feet into the wool of her booties and somehow they fit, then again a smaller man. 22.

INT. DENNIS’S HOME OFFICE - LATER Dennis is hunkered in his desk set up listening to a series of automated options with the telephone to his ear. AUTOMATED SYSTEM (V.O.) To speak to a live operator please say “I’d like to speak to a live operator or press zero followed by the pound key. DENNIS I’d like to speak to a live operator. AUTOMATED SYSTEM (V.O.) Thank you, one moment please. Your call is very much appreciated. Please hang on the line. Dennis speaks into his computer microphone. DENNIS Soured honeypots in the hand-over between automated and live. “Hang on the line?” “Hang. On. The. Line. I’d like to speak to a live operator. A “live” operator. So then, that means up until this point in time we have been speaking to the dead. -- Dennis scoots back and collects himself. DENNIS I know it’s common formatted language. Just trying to push the automated experience into something--more. I have an idea. He clicks onto Genevieve’s screen. No one is there but the font HUMAN RESOURCES. DENNIS Genevieve? Hello? Hello? Rising up from the bottom of the screen is Genevieve in workout attire. GENEVIEVE Oh hey! Dennis! Sorry I was doing some crunches. Core work is essential I’ve heard in staving off certain types of age related cancers. 23.

DENNIS I have to request a live meeting, an emergency meeting. Apologies but it is urgent and you said, you said if anything was wrong so, I have to come now. GENEVIEVE Appointment granted, I’ll ping you a conference room address. INT. STORAGE FACILITY Dennis walks with significant effort on his crutches through the hallways of a fluorescent lit storage facility. Down one hallway and then another, until an opened unit presents itself with Genevieve sitting inside of it at a plastic table with a chair on the other side. She is on the phone. DENNIS (V.O.) And under the fluorescent cost- efficient glow of this cost-efficient storage facility space, you appear in person, radiant, more radiant than all the ones and zeroes fail to transcribe. GENEVIEVE Dennis! You made it. He staggers toward her but then trips and falls down in front of the open storage unit. GENEVIEVE Oh my god! Dennis are you okay? Honey, let me call you back. Genevieve hangs up the phone. DENNIS Yeah, I’m fine. I’m fine, I just have a bloody nose but it happens all the time. GENEVIEVE I’m going to call 9-1-1. DENNIS No! No, I’m fine. Could you just please get me a box of tissues? She does so from her bag. Genevieve kneels next to Dennis as he applies the tissue. 24.

GENEVIEVE Here put your head back. She pulls his head back. Dennis moves obediently. DENNIS Like that, yeah. Her and Dennis make a glimmer of eye contact. INT. STORAGE UNIT - MOMENTS LATER Dennis sits in a folded chair inside of a sparse storage container, and takes a big deep breath. His boss Albert is on an iPad screen. ALBERT Hey buddy, I heard you just took a pretty nasty fall. DENNIS Word travels fast around here. ALBERT Of course man, it’s the information age. I know you have this confidential meeting with Genevieve in H.R. But buddy if you ever want to talk please please feel free to hit me up okay dawg? DENNIS What year is it, Mr. Coriander? ALBERT What year is it? We’re not doing years anymore, remember Dennis? Are you sure you’re all right? DENNIS Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little concussed is all. Albert expresses concern. DENNIS I’m kidding, come on. That was a joke. People who are concussed don’t say they’re a little concussed. Albert throws his head back in laughter. 25.

ALBERT Haha that’s right! Ok, but just give me a ping if you need anything. K? DENNIS K. Albert is gone from the screen. Genevieve flips the iPad down. GENEVIEVE (O.S.) Dennis? Dennis wakes as if from a dream with tissue still stuffed in one of his nostrils. Genevieve, wearing white latex gloves peers at him, studies his face. GENEVIEVE You still don’t look so good. She stands above him. He still sees multiple versions of her amid a blurry perimeter of vision. GENEVIEVE I brought you something from my car. DENNIS What is it? GENEVIEVE Do you like needles? DENNIS Uh-huh. GENEVIEVE I have this B-12 shot. I usually administer them to myself every two days or so to counteract the approaching symptoms of pre-menopause. They’re really good, especially if you’ve lost blood. Can I give you a shot? DENNIS Are you a trained nurse? GENEVIEVE No, I’m just in Human Resources. DENNIS Well, as long as you know what you’re doing. 26.

GENEVIEVE I do. DENNIS Then, please. Genevieve puts the syringe needle into Dennis’s arm and slowly injects the B-12 vitamin fluid. As she does, the multiple versions of her blend into one. Dennis and Genevieve stare into each other’s eyes as she does. DENNIS You can stab it in a little more. I... GENEVIEVE Like the pain? DENNIS Yeah. GENEVIEVE Me too. She finished giving him the shot. Covers his arm with a bandage. DENNIS I feel better already. GENEVIEVE Good boy. She smiles and walks away with the needle in her hand, hanging by her side. GENEVIEVE I gotta go. Dennis holds his arm and watches her go down the hall of the storage facility. Bloody tissue still in his nose. He smiles a brief little smile of hope. DENNIS (V.O.) I dream of a world where you find your sanity and I find mine. INT. DENNIS’S HOME OFFICE Dennis sits on the carpet of his office leaning against a wall, wearing a VR headset, he takes it off of his head. 27.

He catches his breath. The glow beneath his desk catches his eye. He crawls toward it. It gets brighter and brighter beneath a strip of carpet. He puts his face close to the flap of carpet where the light is pouring out. He lifts it up for a second, light floods the entire room. VOICES CHINA! COME VISIT BEAUTIFUL BEIJING! COME TO CHINA BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE DENNIS! COME FIND YOUR FATHER! HE’S ALIVE DENNIS! HE. IS. STILL. ALIVE! The voice shrieks and Dennis shuts the flap. He rises up to his feet, notes the time on his watch, “A.M.”. He picks up his telephone and dials. AUTOMATED SYSTEM Thank you for calling the testing line for American Eagle Cable & Internet Home Systems Customer Service. For English please press one. For Mandarin please press-- Dennis does before it can finish. AUTOMATED SYSTEM If you are calling to change your life, heal your soul, and stop the earthquake from destroying everyone in its path, please hang up and try your call again. INT. CHARLIE FUNNY’S WINGS AND PITCHERS - NIGHT Chalmers, brother of Dennis, is back at it, shooting three pointers on the half-court of this sports bar play zone. While Dennis is back at the machine with the claw and the stuffed animals. He aims the hovering claw and lowers it.

DENNIS (V.O.)(CONT’D) I dream of a world where you find your sanity and I find mine. Where both of us find peace of mind in a way we never have before. A way that reverses course on the blitz of information we have both been composed of and programmed by. For English, please say or press one. For love, press two, like you pressed the syringe of love into my arm. 28.

The souveneir claw clings to the neck of a yellow stuffed animal teddy bear. Dennis uses the joystick to raise and carry this yellow teddy bear by the neck. It starts to slip from the claw but the hovering claw maintains, it carries the yellow teddy bear toward its final destination when-- The GROUND starts SHAKING, dropping the yellow stuffed teddy bear from its claw grasp down into the pile of other stuffed animals. The earth stops quaking as Dennis slams his fist up against the plexiglass screen. DENNIS (V.O.) No! I have to have you my love. I have to hold you closer to me. (whispering) Me or no one else. Me or no one else. People in the arcade are screaming from the earthquake. Dennis stares daggers at the yellow stuffed teddy bear. His forearm crutches down on the ground at either of his sides, seemingly not needed.

END OF EPISODE.