I started work on another piece of writing yesterday. I really wanted to do something set in The Matrix. So I'm writing a fanfic. I don't do fanfics too often, but I do enjoy them some days, because they're quite a challenge. When I write a fanfic, I do my best to adhere to the established universe's rules. And as a note I never, ever write about established characters in said universe. I might throw in references, very loose mentions of established characters, but the story is never about them because they already have a story being told. So, what's my story about? [spoiler]We come to Mark. An office jockey. Good with numbers, good with computers. The premise of this story, is that Mark is a recurring anomly in The Matrix. He's a recurring anomly, first and foremost, because he's, in a manner of speaking, a genius. But it's fractured and broken. Most of the time, he's normal. But some days when the portion of his brain that excels with numbers becomes active, the coding of the matrix begins to bleed through to him. Mark can see the code, and not only that, but he can alter it. Over time, the longer Mark remains alive, the better he becomes at accessing, and changing the code. He could look at a mug for example, shift the code, and change the form of the mug to it's broken state. Or a cracked handle. This, obviously makes Mark a threat to the matrix. And as such, Agents have hunted him down and killed him, many times over. Mark's second anomly, is that when killed, he will reappear again. A different person, born as a child, growing all the way up to adulthood, bits of his mathematical genius manifesting, and Agents finally locating him and killing him over and over. Mark never has any memories of previous encounters but his ability manifests faster and faster with each new recurring life. As a result of this, a machine, a program, was tasked with watching, and studying Mark. But eventually, Mark found out. Found out that somebody was watching him, and reached out. The program interacted with him in an attempt to potentially find out more about him. Eventually, over time, the more the program interacted with Mark, the more it became convinced that the anomaly couldn't be killed, and converted to his side, trying to help him. The Agents then flagged this program as a rogue progrom for deletion, and The Watcher, as the machine is code named, now tries to help Mark from a distance in the blind spots of the matrix where agents can't tread. The Watcher is convinced that the only way to free Mark, and remove his anomaly from the matrix is to free him. But it can never get him out in time before an Agent kills him. But every cycle plays out differently. There's similarites, but subtle differences that change over time. For once, Mark finds the Watcher before being killed, and begins to ask questions about himself and his past, which he can't remember, but knows is there. And we come to the inevitable conflict. Does Mark want to leave the Matrix? And if he does, can he get out? Does he want to leave the Watcher behind, which he himself begins to trust as his only true friend and source of help? I just got to the very first meeting of an Agent, who is investigating Mark's workspace and Mark himself. Writing an Agent is fun, actually quite fun, because they're so plain. They're like blank slates, looking and talking monotone, but at the same time they've got an air of authority, and maybe even disdain, and although they dress plain their monotone suits mark them out sharply as somebody dangerous. And I already thought up the perfect title. Maybe cheesy but I like little ironies or loops like that. When I'm all done I'll call it, The Matrix: Deja Vu Theory.[/spoiler]