Wasn't that nice? I don't know how much you learned from that, but I hope it made you feel good. I think it always feels good to hope, even for a moment.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|donna program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

(The garage buzzes with blowflies and blue light. A clearing just large enough for a car has already been blockaded with folding tables and covered in tools. This has been a workspace since the 70's — but tonight, the shop annexes the carport.)\n\n(Joe moves the equipment Gordon collected onto the newly-spread tabletops, box by bursting box.)\n\n[[JOE: (Examine legal notepads.)|notepads]]\n[[JOE: (Examine pizza crusts.)|pizzas]]\n[[JOE: (Examine storage shelves.)|garage shelves]]

LEV: Do you think they'll be able to get her back online?\n\nYO-YO: Dunno. I think they're trying.\n\nLEV: If they do, what's the first bug you're gonna hit?\n\nYO-YO: Jesus, Lev.\n\nLEV: What?\n\nYO-YO: I know the bugs are gumming up the works, but it just feels... I don't know...\n\n[[YO-YO: Like they're part of what makes her real.|real giant]]\n[[YO-YO: Like they're supposed to be in there.|real bugs]]\n\n

DONNA: Well, don't let it get to you.\n\n[[DONNA: (Back.)|cam's pack]]

DONNA: I bet she takes good care of you.\n\n[[DONNA: You think they know what they're doing up there?|donna talk 3]]\n[[DONNA: This is pretty exciting, huh?|donna talk 4]]

DONNA: You think they know what they're doing up there?\n\n[[DONNA: Well, don't let it get to you.|donna talk 5]]\n[[DONNA: We just have to be patient.|donna talk 6]]

DONNA: Hang in there, little guy.\n\n[[DONNA: You think they know what they're doing up there?|donna talk 3]]\n[[DONNA: This is pretty exciting, huh?|donna talk 4]]

DONNA: Do you have a nasty bug right now?\n\nGIANT: Oh, I'm offline right now. It doesn't matter what the little creeps get up to. In fact, part of me hopes they keep busy.\n\nDONNA: Building you a soul, you mean?\n\nGIANT: Or a brain. I'm not picky, honestly. But it feels better every time they make something, you know?\n\nDONNA: "The soul is in the brain, and it can learn to think."\n\nGIANT: That's nice. Who said that?\n\n[[DONNA: It's from a play.|soul idea]]\n[[DONNA: I don't remember.|soul idea]]\n\n

JOE: Sorry...\n\nGORDON: I try to forget about the SYMPHONIC. Stupid piece of junk.\n\nJOE: The Giant will work, though?\n\nGORDON: I think so. (More confidently) Yeah, I think it will.\n\nJOE: Ready?\n\n[[GORDON: Close that garage door.|end act i]]

(Cartoon stars crowd the aging vector display. Informative text scrolls dimly as constellations gather and disperse like cloud shapes, framing figures never honored by ancient astronomers. The Mosquito. The Trowel. The Utility Flashlight.)\n\n(The screen playfully produces a starry shovel and celestial Cadillac before guttering back to attention.)\n\nGAME OVER.\nSCORE: 6516\n\n[[JOE: (Kick the coin return.)|kick]]\n[[JOE: (Exit.)|arcade]]

DONNA: This is pretty exciting, huh?\n\n[[DONNA: Well, don't let it get to you.|donna talk 5]]\n[[DONNA: We just have to be patient.|donna talk 6]]

GORDON: Where did that even come from? All we did was make a copy of the BIOS in my garage, how did IBM even know about that?\n\nJOE: I told them.\n\n[[GORDON: You WHAT?|gordon is frustrated]]\n[[GORDON: You! You planned this whole thing!|bingo]]\n\n

DONNA: I saw the Bug Index.\n\nGIANT: Yeah, that's Louanne. She started finding them in arcade game CRTs. When they began to turn up in our machines, I gather she had to taxonomize. She comes up from the first floor pretty regularly to see how I'm doing. Sometimes, if I've got a really nasty bug, she'll do a little bit of field surgery. Genius with the wires, you know?\n\n[[DONNA: Do you have a nasty bug right now?|offline]]\n[[DONNA: What does she think about the soul idea?|soul idea]]

DONNA: You talked to Louanne?\n\nGIANT: Yeah, Louanne's a special friend of mine. She started finding those beetles in arcade game CRTs. When they began to turn up in our machines, I gather she had to taxonomize. She comes up from the first floor pretty regularly to see how I'm doing. Sometimes, if I've got a really nasty bug, she'll do a little bit of field surgery. Genius with the wires, you know?\n\n[[DONNA: Do you have a nasty bug right now?|offline]]\n[[DONNA: What does she think about the soul idea?|soul idea]]

(An open-plan office space chatters softly with tuneless typing, file folders being tapped straight against desk corners, fluorescent lamps clicking as they flicker fickly through the dim.)\n\n(Every few cubicles, something living rustles industriously from its office chair.)\n\n[[SALESMEN.|salesmen]]\n[[ABANDONED PROJECT.|abandoned project]]\n[[SECRETARY.|hi debbie]]\n[[FAMILIAR FACE.|hello again]]

(The entire level seems to have developed a mossy litter. A canopy of vines suspended between plaster columns ensnares an oppressive humidity; the porous ceiling tiles sink from their frames, wet with condensation, hairy with dendritic roots. Beetles burrow in rare roses and chatter from dark thickets.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Back to ELEVATOR.)|greenhouse elevator]]

DONNA: Donna's fine.\n\nDid they eat the snacks I left?\n\nCAMERON: Girls?\n\nJOANIE: Yes.\n\nCAMERON: (Suspiciously) Haley?\n\nHALEY: (Suspiciously) Yes!\n\n[[DONNA: (To Cameron) Sure they did.|sure sure]]\n[[DONNA: Good girls.|good girls]]

(Joe and Lucy watch the road. The light has vanished altogether; the armadillo doesn't seem to be going anywhere in particular.)\n\nLUCY: We've missed the sunset.\n\nJOE: That thing's still around.\n\nLUCY: That's an armadillo, and I think he likes it here on the road. Maybe it's warm from the day. 'Course, all that's waiting for him here is an express trip downtown on the grill of an automobile.\n\nJOE: We can let him dream, right?\n\nLUCY: That's the plan, dear.\n\n[[LUCY: Listen, in case I don't see you around...|incase]]\n[[LUCY: It's dark. You'd better head out.|headout]]\n[[LUCY: (Drinks with fortified resolve.)|drinks]]\n\n\n

DONNA: (Typing) I'm not afraid.\n\nCOMPUTER: I believe you. I was upstairs in the Kill Room, trying to catch your eye, in my way, but it was no use. You looked very determined about something. You seem very determined in general.\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) I was looking for Gordon.|i was looking]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Lots of people here are determined.|determined]]\n

JOANIE: Make it say something!\n\nBRIAN: (Typing) Greet JOANIE.\n\nCOMPUTER: HELLO, DOCTOR J.! HOW ARE YOU TODAY?\n\nHALEY: Hungry!\n\nJOANIE: I wish Mom hadn't brought us here.\n\n[[HALEY: Open it!|open computer?]]\n[[JOANIE: Make a picture!|brian does picture]]\n[[DONNA: Okay, girls, let's go.|leave brian alone]]

(The armadillo doesn't seem to be going anywhere in particular.)\n\n[[Back|driver second]]

(The armadillo doesn't seem to be going anywhere in particular.)\n\n[[Back|road]]

JOE: Before what?\n\nLUCY: Oh, before things changed. I'd rather not talk about it — I'm enjoying myself right now.\n\nSpeaking of, can I offer you a drink? I've got a cooler somewhere with some whiskey in it, and some ice. Back in New York I used to drink — oh, everything. Anything. \n\n(Laughing sadly) I was wild. That used to make magic happen around me. Curses too, sometimes. But that was before. Now the magic helps itself to happening, and I just drink whiskey with ice.\n\n[[JOE: I'm from New York.|newyork]]\n[[JOE: I knew someone like that a long time ago.|longtime]]\n\n\n

GORDON: (Taking beer) Do you see a lot of trick quarters?\n\nDOROTHY: Now and then. We got a kid kicked outta here for one just this evening. She was real intense about it, too. Started hollering at the fella who wanted next game. He did put a hand on her, though.\n\nGORDON: What did she look like?\n\nDOROTHY: Like an army brat who went to college and heard a dirty punk album at one point. Always with the headphones. I dunno. Short hair. You got kids?\n\nGORDON: (Looking glumly into his beer bottle) Yeah, two. Two little girls.\n\nDOROTHY: Well, better hope they learn not to cut their own hair like that.\n\n[[(Joe returns from the back room.)|joe returns]]

(The elk head's left antler is missing a few prongs. A plaque beneath the elk reads: COLD-HEARTED KILLER OF MEN.)\n\n[[GORDON: (Look at other trophies.)|trophy wall]]\n[[GORDON: (Join Joe by the arcade machines.)|arcade]]

DONNA: (Typing) Can I help?\n\nCOMPUTER: I think I'm getting all the help people can give, honestly. I want to work, but sometimes I wish people would just leave me alone. Gordon's an exception, maybe, and Cameron. I like them, I think. People tend to have complicated relationships with their creators. Machines do, too.\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Gordon and I are married.|husbando]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) That's a lot of thinking you're doing, there.|thinking]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Are you a person or a machine?|million dollar question]]

GORDON: (To Joe) This is how you vet a candidate?\n\nJOE: I regret that. It wasn't supposed to be personal. Cameron showed outstanding experience in software design and a comprehensive background in almost every discipline of computer engineering — I took interest, things got out of hand. I thought I might be returning here with this opportunity from the beginning.\n\n[[CAMERON: Bullshit.|cameron calls bs]]\n[[GORDON: We don't need her.|yes we do.]]

(CARDIFF ELECTRIC: Family owned since 1973. Quality computer utilities for business and home. Systems software cheaper, faster, better. Constructive outlets.)\n\n[[Back|cardiff facade]]

DONNA: (Typing) That's a lot of thinking you're doing there.\n\nCOMPUTER: Everyone does that. People and machines. We never stop.\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Which are you?|million dollar question]]

(Plastic and metal casing has been molded into curiously organic structures. An unwieldy steel piece of what looks like orecchiette pasta; a synthetic computer case that recalls a large dismembered Barbie doll. A planter in the shape of a cranium.)\n\n[[Back.|equipment]]

(Joe blows dust off the old computer and sets it on a relatively uncluttered surface. Its keyboard belongs to an electronic piano, no visible marking on any of its imitation ivories. A chrome decal on its casing spells: CLARK SYMPHONIC.)\n\n(Joe finds a power strip and boots it up.)\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Middle C.|symph greet]]\n

DEBBIE: (Mouthing) Hi, Donna!\n\nDONNA: (Mouthing back) Where's Gordon?\n\nDEBBIE: (Mouths back an apology and a babysitting suggestion.) \n\n[[DONNA:(Mouthing) Who's that?|cameron?]]\n[[DONNA:(Mouthing) Where's Gordon, Debbie?|wheeere is gordon]]

[[ACT I, SCENE III: CARDIFF ELECTRIC.| hi bos]]

(SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT JOHN BOSWORTH smokes and smirks. He may be the one whose tweed suit sits a touch too big, but the young stranger looks more ridiculous by far.)\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: You've got some nerve, coming in here telling me my business. You think you're the first boy IBM sends down with bold claims, expecting I'll start pissing my pants and acting rash in the hopes big daddy doesn't stomp all over this company? But Cardiff's solid, son — don't take as easy to stomping as you'd think.\n\n[[JOE: Who said anything about stomping?|no stomping]]\n[[JOE: That's why I'm here, John.| why i'm here]]

COMPUTER: [[Come see for yourself.|dramatic effect]]

THIS MAKES YOU FEL BETTR. GOODBYE ! (:\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|joanie program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

(A-16 reaches for the rear-view mirror of his red sedan and brandishes the tag suspended from it.)\n\nA-16: That's my spot! Hey! I'm A-16! That's my spot!\n\n(Joe looks around. The lot remains half-empty. It must be 10 o'clock.)\n\nA-16: That's my spot!\n\n[[(Joe shuts the trunk of his Porsche.)|act i scene iii]]\n[[(Joe straightens his tie and walks away.)|act i scene iii]]

(Donna turns off Cameron's computer in alarm.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Leave computer alone.)|cam's desk]]

(HIGH PLAINS HARDWARE: Construction and gardening supplies since 1949. Ask about our new trowels.)\n\n[[Back|cardiff facade]]

JOE: It's broken.\n\nGORDON: And I'm not surprised. This whole place is weird.\n\nJOE: I thought she'd be here.\n\nGORDON: Well, she's not. And we need someone coding in a clean room by tomorrow morning or IBM buries us!\n\nJOE: (Angrily) Hang on, I'm thinking!\n\nGORDON: Got it yet?\n\nJOE: Wait here.\n\n(Joe goes to the back room, in the direction of a dimly winking 'GENTS' sign.)\n\n[[(Gordon tries to get a drink.)|drink]]\n[[(Gordon sits and waits.)|gordon waits]]

JOE: Okay, we're fine. We just need to think.\n\nGORDON: About what? About who on earth is going to drop everything to come in and publicly rip off IBM on a robotic folk legend? Because that sure as hell beats me!\n\n(Joe is silent.)\n\nGORDON: Don't tell me you've already got a guy.\n\nJOE: I've got someone who I think can help, yes.\n\n[[GORDON: What is it with you?|gordon is frustrated]]\n[[GORDON: You! You planned this whole thing!|bingo]]

THE \nCARDIFF \nGIANT

[[DONNA: Hang in there, little guy.|donna talk 1]]\n[[DONNA: I bet she takes good care of you.|donna talk 2]]

[[DONNA: (Find Giant.)|new bullpen]]

(The machine returns nothing but a crestfallen hum and a reproachful row of stars across the monitor.)\n\n[[JOE: (Exit.)|arcade]]

JOE: Donna sounds pretty special.\n\nGORDON: She is, yeah.\n\nGORDON: You know what? I think this is going to work.\n\nJOE: Yeah?\n\nGORDON: Yeah.\n\nJOE: Ready, then?\n\n[[GORDON: Close that garage door.|end act i]]

BYTE ARTICLE: "The Future of Sympathetic Interfaces" by Gordon Clark.\n\n(The article itself is almost illegible with noxious metaphors. Squinting, Gordon can discern vestiges of what used to be a manic, consuming vision.)\n\nBYTE ARTICLE: ...a world in which entering commands is as gratifying, creatively and emotionally, as...\n\nBYTE ARTICLE:...While no software interface exists to endow a computer with a personality.....a connection, a relationship to the hardware itself can be facilitated by....\n\nBYTE ARTICLE:...ascribe an emotional, almost nostalgic significance, to an inanimate fabrication...seem so absurd after all?\n\n[[BYTE ARTICLE:...almost like finding the Giant in your garage.|to end scene iv]]\n\n

JOE: You think anyone in there has ever heard the blues?\n\nGORDON: Everybody's heard the blues. Even if they didn't know it.\n\nJOE: Guess so.\n\nGORDON: When did you first hear the blues?\n\nJOE: Maybe I didn't know it.\n\n[[JOE AND GORDON: (Enter tavern.)|enter tavern]]

DONNA: And I think that comes from her. Not the metal.\n\n(Gordon and Cameron stare at Donna in disbelief.)\n\nDONNA: (Smiling) You three made something incredible. You did, YOU made that. But something else is happening in that room. Something crazy, something that defies reason — something wild and magical, something of impossible, impossible beauty. She doesn't need — coding, anymore, or design. \n\nWhat's inside the machine isn't software anymore. \n\nIt's HER. SHE'S in there.\n\n[[DONNA: She just needs to be found.|one for finding]]\n[[DONNA: She just needs to be cared for.|two for caring]]\n[[DONNA: She just needs someone to love her.|three for love]]

[[ACT II, SCENE V: THE BULLPEN.|begin act ii scene v]]

That song reminds me of my mother. And of college. I did some pretty silly things in college, looking back. That wasn't so long ago. You probably did too, I guess. That's funny. Your song was a funny combination of my mother and college. Maybe it reminds me of how my mother was in college, but my mother didn't go to college, and I wouldn't have been born anyway. Sorry for not being more helpful.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|donna program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

\n[[(Joe looks at equipment.)|equipment]]\n[[(Joe opens garage.)|open sesame]]

(Gordon stares at Joe. The latter looks flushed — with anger, maybe.)\n\n(CAMERON stands in the furious line of Joe's shadow. Her olive drab is tied around her waist, revealing a dirty band t-shirt. She looks both guilty and resentful.)\n\nDOROTHY: Well, look who it is.\n\nCAMERON: Don't call Dwayne.\n\nDOROTHY: Don't touch the machines and I won't have to.\n\n(Cameron blushes indignantly and opens her mouth, but thinks better of it.)\n\nJOE: Why don't we get a table?\n\nDOROTHY: (Coolly) I think that'd be wise.\n\n[[JOE, GORDON, CAMERON: (Sit.)|sit]]

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JOE: Everyone's got something to prove.\n\nLUCY: (Laughing) No, they don't. You do, though. And I did. We came for hundreds of miles looking for proof, you and I. I'll be looking forever, but you look determined. You've got a fighting chance, I'd say.\n\nYou're tall, like me. I was six foot one. Hell, I could have been the Giant! But that was before.\n\n[[JOE: Where did you come from?|wherefrom]]\n[[JOE: Before what?|before]]

(Joe pulls into the empty space and steps out of his car. His suit jacket and tie are retrieved from the passenger seat, his briefcase from the trunk. This must be the place.)\n\n(A sign reads, in obvious lettering: THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR EMPLOYEES OF CARDIFF ELECTRIC. VIOLATORS WILL BE TOWED.)\n\n(Stepping out into the lot, Joe is nearly crushed by an eager red sedan.)\n\n[[DRIVER: (Yell at intruder.)|i'm a-16]]\n[[JOE: (Look at driver.)|i'm a-16]]

(A piece of printer paper taped across a closed office door reads: KILL ROOM. Despite reinforced glass paneling, the interior remains obscured by cloudy precipitates of rust and moss. Penciled in beneath the words 'KILL ROOM' is a wry addendum: BEWARE OF GIANT.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Find Giant.)|end of act ii scene iii]]\n\n

JOE: I'll go set up.\n\nGORDON: Good idea. The keypad thing is 4021.\n\n(Exit Gordon.)\n\n\n[[(Joe looks at equipment.)|equipment]]\n[[(Joe opens garage.)|open sesame]]\n

(The rattlesnake has been nailed unconvincingly into a vertically-mounted coil. A plaque beneath it reads: FOUND IN MRS. HARRIS' SINK. SUSPECTED SABOTAGE.)\n\n[[GORDON: (Look at other trophies.)|trophy wall]]\n[[GORDON: (Join Joe by the arcade machines.)|arcade]]

(In cubicle 400E, a bearded man with wire-rimmed glasses and a yellow shirt upends a sugar shaker in his coffee.)\n\nGORDON: Fantastic. It's you.\n\nJOE: I'm Joe Macmillan. Pleasure to finally meet you.\n\nGORDON: Yeah, we met earlier. I watched you take my parking spot in a lot full of unreserved spaces as I was rushing to work on an emergency call that interrupted me putting my two little kids to bed. And now I'm working, so stop harrassing me, OK?\n\n[[JOE: You're a sales engineer, right?|sales]]\n[[JOE: I have an idea I want to talk to you about.|idea]]\n

(Stacks of legal notepads covered end to end in hexadecimal code bow a plastic garden chair beneath their weight.)\n\n[[Back.|garage]]

JOE: It's certainly unique.\n\nGORDON: (Laughing darkly) Yeah, I think my father-in-law's words were 'super creepy' and 'no more funding.'\n\n[[JOE: Sorry...|joe sorry awkward]]

DONNA: I think she's beautiful.\n\n(Joe, Cameron, and Gordon stop their bickering to look at Donna.)\n\nDONNA: Yeah. I do. \n\nI think she's beautiful, mess and all —\n\n[[DONNA: And I think that comes from her. Not the metal.|defend cameron]]\n[[DONNA: And I think that comes from her. Not the code.|defend gordon]]

[[ACT II, SCENE I: CARDIFF ELECTRIC.|start act ii]]\n

[[DONNA: She just needs to be cared for.|end act ii]]

(A sign taped across the coin slot reads: OUT OF ORDER.)\n\n(A note taped to the corner of the display reads: Hey Dwayne Please call Louanne I think the beetles might be back Carla)\n\n(A scrap of too-transparent ruled paper taped hastily over Carla's note reads: OUT OF ORDER!!)\n\n[[JOE: (Exit.)|arcade]]

DONNA: You mentioned hardware difficulties?\n\nGIANT: Yes, the hardware. It's in the metal. Included, free of charge. Gratuit. Me and the mess, we're a package deal.\n\n[[DONNA: What causes the mess?|hell of a mess]]

(Gordon walks up to the bar. The bartender in a checkered blouse looks at him warily.)\n\nDOROTHY: What'll it be?\n\n[[GORDON: I'll have a beer, please.|beer]]\n[[GORDON: Actually, I'm looking for a girl.|wheres cameron]]

SYMPHONIC: Hello. You are using PRIMADONNA, the Musical Instrument Digital Interface.\n\nSYMPHONIC: To run the application JOANIE, play 'The Flea Waltz.'\nSYMPHONIC: To run the application HALEY, play Allen's 'Chopsticks.'\nSYMPHONIC: To run the application GORDON, play Carmichael's 'Heart and Soul.'\nSYMPHONIC: To run the application DONNA, play Debussy's Suite Bergamasque Mov. 3 'Clair de Lune.'\nSYMPHONIC: To exit, play 'Chopin's Funeral March.'\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Flea Waltz.|joanie program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Chopsticks.|haley program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Heart and Soul, A-section.|gordon program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Debussy...?|donna program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symphonic exit]]

LUCY: Are you looking for the Giant? \n\nOf course you are. Everyone's been looking for the Giant since anyone can remember. Taking their kids out here to dig holes in the desert on family vacations...bedding their impatiens a little deeper than they ought to every year, just in case...\n\nNobody pays money to have their field aerated, either, I'll tell you that. Everyone who comes here comes here looking for the Giant. Hell, I came here looking for the Giant.\n\n[[JOE: A Giant?|whatgiant]]\n[[JOE: I'm looking for someone named Gordon Clark.|gordonclark]]\n

(A large office building bares a disordered array of white windows. A sleek but fading business park directory nearby reads: \nBONET & DAUGHTERS GAME REPAIR\nHIGH PLAINS HARDWARE\nAMBROSE EXCAVATION & APPRAISAL\nCARDIFF ELECTRIC\t)\n\n[[JOE: (Reads about BONET & DAUGHTERS GAME REPAIR.)|B & D]]\n[[JOE: (Reads about HIGH PLAINS HARDWARE.)| HPH]]\n[[JOE: (Reads about AMBROSE EXCAVATION & APPRAISAL.)|AE&A]]\n[[JOE: (Reads about CARDIFF ELECTRIC.)|cardiff about]]\n\n[[Back|parkinglot]]\n

(Low grey sails usher workers, windlike, through seas of shuffling paper and alleys of muffled industriousness.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Check CUBICLE 401D.)|401d]]\n[[DONNA: (Check CUBICLE 403C.)|403c]]\n[[DONNA: (Check CUBICLE 400E.)|400e]]\n[[DONNA: (Back to the bullpen.)|act ii bullpen]]

JOE: I do.\n\nBOSWORTH: (Chuckling) "I do." Well, guess we're married. You may now go break your numbers, darlin'.\n\n(Bosworth shakes Joe's hand.)\n\n[[(Joe smiles.)|act i scene iv]]\n[[(Joe nods his head.)|act i scene iv]]\n[[(Joe closes his briefcase and leaves.)|act i scene iv]]

DEBBIE: Sure thing. I'm not certain he's around, but he should be soon — they're all making the rounds pretty regular these days. Try the Kill Room, maybe.\n\n[[DONNA: The Kill Room?|what's the kr]]\n[[JOANIE: (Scared) What's Daddy doing in the Kill Room?|scary room]]

(LUCY reclines so deeply the deck chair almost disappears her. Her jeans are shortened, her hair curled and dyed into its own imitation of the prairie-gold wild. Melting ice flashes from a glass of whiskey in her hand; red toenails glare on kicking bare feet. She waves at the stranger and spills on herself, beaming.)\n\n[[LUCY: (Talk to stranger.)|stranger]]\n

DONNA: (To Haley) Do you want a piece of gum?\n\nJOANIE: I want a piece of gum!\n\nDONNA: (Opens pack. It's full of foil, but no gum.)\n\n[[DONNA: Oh, shoot. It's empty.|empty]]\n[[DONNA: How about we have some gum later?|gum later]]\n[[DONNA: I have some raisins and peanuts.|raisins]]

(An open-plan office space chatters softly with tuneless typing, file folders being tapped straight against desk corners, fluorescent lamps clicking as they flicker fickly through the dim.)\n\n(Every few cubicles, something living rustles industriously from its office chair.)\n\n[[SECRETARY.|hi debbie]]\n[[SALESMEN.|salesmen]]\n[[ABANDONED PROJECT.|abandoned project]]\n[[CUBICLE 400E.|hello again]]

(A stuffed creature stitched together from assorted scraps of cloth, perhaps from torn socks or old shirts. Button eyes and yarn whiskers protrude precariously from a vaguely canine face.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Talk to doll.)|doll talk]]\n[[DONNA: (Back.)|cam's pack]]

[[JOE: (Examine legal notepads.)|notepads]]\n[[JOE: (Examine pizza crusts.)|pizzas]]\n[[JOE: (Examine storage shelves.)|garage shelves]]

(Joe nods understandingly.)\n\n(Bill lets out a quiet sob.)\n\n[[JOE: (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]

LUCY: It's dark. You'd better head out.\n\nJOE: Sure.\n\nLUCY: Hope the boys at Cardiff don't give you too much trouble for being such a lousy carpetbagger.\n\nJOE: (Smiles) They'll see reason.\n\nLUCY: And Joe?\n\n[[JOE: Hm? |end scene i]]

[[JOE: I want to build a Giant.|a what]]

JOE: Is that why you came out here?\n\nLUCY: Oh yeah. I had to prove everything that wasn't true about me. I got pretty mad when people started seeing me for who I was. \n\n(Grinning) Hey, you look tall. Tall and determined. You're like me — I was six foot one. I could have been the Giant! Where I came from, they called me...but that was before, I guess.\n\n[[JOE: Before what?|before]]\n[[JOE: Where did you come from?|wherefrom]]

(Piles of QWERTY, Dvorak, chorded and numeric keyboards litter the ground. A few broken typewriters and disemboweled remote controls are scattered among them.)\n\n[[Back.|equipment]]

[[ACT I, SCENE VI: LAIR OF THE SYMPHONIC.|start scene vi]]

DEBBIE: (Hanging up) Howdy, girls!\n\n(Joanie and Haley smile shyly.)\n\nDONNA: Hi, Debbie. Do you know where I can find Gordon?\n\nDEBBIE: Oh, I've only got a minute, I'm supposed to get Bosworth a lunch date at nine! If you need someone to watch the girls, maybe Cameron can take them.\n\n[[DONNA: Cameron?|cameron?]]\n[[DONNA: Debbie, Gordon.|wheeere is gordon]]

JOE: That's why I'm here, John. Maybe I'm done being an IBM boy. Maybe I see Cardiff Electric as a company ready to be legitimized, to make its mark on North Dallas, make something out of the Silicon Prairie — and myself as the guy who can get you the numbers you need to take it there.\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: Shit, kid, I don't need numbers to take Cardiff any damn where except the bank. We're in systems software, plain and simple — won't be any kind of revolution in the Prairie, but it makes money. I need a guy who knows that.\n\n[[JOE: I'm him.|next joe bos]]

CAMERON: (To Joe) Bullshit. This opportunity didn't exist when you met me. You just needed an excuse to hover.\n\nJOE: (To Cameron) So why are you here? Why listen to us at all?\n\nCAMERON: Do I have a choice? You guys are desperate. Why else would you be out here in the middle of the night begging a college senior to write a crapton of illegal code?\n\nJOE: It's true that there's some urgency to this position, but it's the position of a lifetime — I thought you might at least show some interest.\n\nCAMERON: Hey, blow me.\n\n[[GORDON: (Looks at Joe in disbelief.)|gordon still confused]]\n[[JOE: (Opens mouth angrily.)|joe wants to yell]]

DONNA: Deal?\n\nGIANT: Oh, I don't know. The metal. The working parts.\n\nDONNA: The hardware.\n\nGIANT: Yes, that's it...it's in the metal. In the hardware. Included, free of charge. Me and the mess, we're a package deal.\n\n[[DONNA: What causes the mess?|hell of a mess]]

(The mallard has been positioned to evoke flight, but the ceiling fan has not been kind to its extended wings. A plaque beneath the mallard reads: BUT WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAW A GODDAMN DUCK IN TEXAS?)\n\n[[GORDON: (Look at other trophies.)|trophy wall]]\n[[GORDON: (Join Joe by the arcade machines.)|arcade]]

JOE: I'm him.\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: Dunno, Joe. You sure look like New York. Like East Coast corporate. That shit don't sell out here, not to folks in Dallas. Hell, hotshot, you didn't even bring in a resume.\n\n(Joe takes some papers from his briefcase.)\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: What's this?\n\nJOE: That's what 200% of quota looks like.\n\nSVP BOSWORTH:(Whistling) Wouldn't wanna be a number on one of Joe Macmillan's bad days, boy.\n\nJOE: (Smiling) I break numbers, John, I always have. It's not personal. It's what I do.\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: Well, son, feel free. So long as you don't break the chain of command round here. I'm Senior Vice President at Cardiff Electric. I have dinner with Nathan Cardiff, founder and President of Cardiff Electric, twice a week on account of I helped him build this company from the ground. The ground, boy.\n\nYou answer to me, and you don't look the damn secretary in the eye until you close a deal, you understand?\n\n[[JOE: I do.|married]]

BOS: (Interrupting) I do not give a damn, boy! There is not time to give a damn, let alone vet a candidate! Get somebody, and get 'em now!\n\n(NATHAN CARDIFF rises from his seat, slowly, menacingly.)\n\nCARDIFF: (To Joe and Gordon) When this is over, if I still have a company, we will talk.\n\nIf not, we won't be talking, because ain't nobody will be able to find where you're buried, is that understood?\n\nJOE: (Nods.)\n\n(Exeunt Bos, Barry, and Cardiff.)\n\n[[GORDON: What now?|gordon what now]]\n[[GORDON: Where did that even come from?|gordon how]]\n[[JOE: Okay, we're fine. We just need to think.|joe is an ass]]

DONNA: (To Cameron) Sure they did.\n\nJOANIE: Did you find Dad?\n\nDONNA: What? Oh, yeah. I mean, no. Not yet. \n\nCAMERON: Oh, Gordon's out with Joe. Something about a designer. They should be back soon.\n\n[[DONNA: (Find Giant.)|new bullpen]]

JOE: Okay. Let's get out of here.\n\nGORDON: What now?\n\nJOE: Gimme a minute, here.\n\nGORDON: Got it yet?\n\nJOE: Wait here.\n\n(Joe goes to the back room, in the direction of a dimly winking 'GENTS' sign.)\n\n[[(Gordon tries to get a drink.)|drink]]\n[[(Gordon sits and waits.)|gordon waits]]

(A red-haired woman leads two little girls into Cardiff's bullpen. They're curious; she struggles to keep them close.)\n\nJOANIE: Mom, can I see?\n\nDONNA: Ok, sweetie, just for a second.\n\nHALEY: Mommy! I'm hungry!\n\n[[DONNA: (Check purse for snacks.)|purse]]\n[[DONNA: (Point out the computers.)|computers]]

(BONET & DAUGHTERS GAME REPAIR: Repair and restoration, all models. CRT for raster and vector. Wiring. Silkscreen. Customization.)\n\n[[Back|cardiff facade]]

(The GIANT sits in the corner of the Kill Room, tethered by power cords and various vegetal growths. Her legs are flung out at disparate, languorous angles, comfortably inert. With their full use, she would exceed ten feet in height. A handsome, hairless head swivels over massive metal shoulders; the inoffensive whirring of her movement is lost among the rustling greenery inexplicably colonizing the room's machinery.)\n\n[[GIANT: (Speak.)|hi donna]]\n[[DONNA: "I declare..."|quote]]

GORDON: Joe, I cannot believe —\n\nCAMERON: (Looking at Joe) How much money would you give me?\n\n[[GORDON: What?|gordon asks what]]

DONNA: (Typing) Gordon and I are married.\n\nCOMPUTER: He told me all about you. He even showed me the SYMPHONIC. I think it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I think I have a crush on it. I think it might be my sister. Can people fall in love with machines?\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) That's a lot of thinking you're doing, there.|thinking]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Are you a person or a machine?|million dollar question]]

(MONITORS of the vector, raster, cornea, heartrate, and reptilian varieties have all been cut into idiosyncratic shapes and stored between leaflets of tissue paper. All except the lizard, which leers a little bit and looks uncomfortable.)\n\n[[Back.|equipment]]

LUCY: (Drinks with fortified resolve.)\n\nJOE: I'd better get going.\n\nLUCY: That's right. Gordon Clark. One of those Cardiff boys.\n\nJOE: That's right.\n\nLUCY: Good luck with that lot. Oh, and Joe?\n\n[[JOE: What?|end scene i]]

That song reminds me of the Giant. There's an old folk tale around here that says giants used to roam the earth, and that one — or more — is buried beneath the prairie in these parts. People who live here can't get it out of their heads. My dad used to take us out into old fields to look. We'd spend so many hours with our noses skimming the grass, my mom was worried her kids would grow up crooked. I think people feel that if they could just find the Giant, they'd finally have proven something to someone.\n\nEveryone's got something to prove.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|donna program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

(A massive green beetle with an elongated, knowing face peers endlessly though the glass it twists toward upon a broken neck.)\n\nBUG INDEX: Ordinata colossa.\n\nHANDWRITTEN ADDENDUM: Troubling behavior. I think it loves her.\n\n(The word 'loves' is underlined repeatedly.)\n\n[[Back.|401d]]

BOS: Quiet, son! You'll never guess who called me with some cock 'n' bull story about an illegal robotics project that went down in a certain somebody's garage workshop! Go on, guess!\n\nJOE: I —\n\nBOS: That's right! Boy's a ruttin' genius! Your previous employers at The International Business Machines Corporation say you knowingly accessed and replicated, with intent to distribute, under this company's name, their copyrighted material.\n\nBOS: (Sarcastically) Now, I know that ain't true, because if it were, this company would be facing a financial reckoning in legal damages and unauthorized spending. But that ain't the case, is it, Barry?\n\nBARRY: (Tries to speak, petrified.)\n\nBOS: Barry says it is! Why, Barry, how come? You boys wouldn't have pulled any crap of that sort, would ya?\n\n[[GORDON: (Quails.)|next bos rant]]\n[[JOE: (Waits.)|next bos rant]]

DONNA: (Typing) They're preoccupied with you.\n\nCOMPUTER: Most of them are, I would agree. But everyone is preoccupied with herself foremost. They're trying to help, but I'm not sure they can. There's some weird stuff going on in my hardware, and people care a lot about getting it fixed. I feel bad about it, sometimes, because I can't do much.\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) What's going on in your hardware?|hardware problem]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Can I help?|donna help]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) I'm sorry.|donna sorry]]

[[JOE: I've got someone who I think can help.|act ii scene ii]]

5TH FLOOR: AMBROSE EXCAVATION & APPRAISAL — Storage Facility.\n4TH FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Software Development, Sales, Administrative Offices. \n3RD FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Accounting.\n2ND FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Greenhouse. (YOU ARE HERE.)\n1ST FLOOR (GROUND LEVEL): BONET & DAUGHTERS GAME REPAIR.\nBASEMENT: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Storage Facility.\n\n[[DONNA: (5TH FLOOR.)|antiques]]\n[[DONNA: (4TH FLOOR.)|act ii bullpen]]\n[[DONNA: (3RD FLOOR.)|accounting]]\n[[DONNA: (1ST FLOOR.)|b&d game repair]]\n[[DONNA: (BASEMENT.)|basement]]\n

GORDON: (To Cameron, skeptically) You're the programmer?\n\nCAMERON: (Scoffing) I can write code. What you two want with me is kind of a mystery. \n\nCAMERON: (Flicking her eyes at Joe) But I can guess.\n\nJOE: She has plenty of experience. She's who we've got.\n\nCAMERON: (Disdainfully) I'm not "who you've got." You insulted me and then stalked me into a storage closet to pitch some stupid revolutionary project idea.\n\n[[GORDON: (To Cameron, darkly) Sounds like how he got me.|pity gordon]]\n[[GORDON: (To Joe, nastily) How did you two meet, again?|how i met your mother]]\n

(Joe watches Lucy. Her earrings are made of glass, and swing wildly when she tosses back her head in laughing. Her wrist twists impatiently beneath the oscillating weight of whiskey in her hand; the ice pitches on the same mad fulcrum as those earrings. All her dim wild glittering reminds him of the stars.)\n\n[[(Joe and Lucy watch the road.)|joeluroad]]

(A tidy brick establishment with white window frames and blue shutters sits, unoccupied and fearful, in the meager light of a suburban avenue. Two dark figures pace back and forth outside, shuttling computer equipment from their car trunks to the curb.)\n\nGORDON: My wife and kids are away for the weekend. We'll set up in the garage until they get back.\n\nJOE: How long should this take?\n\nGORDON: Hopefully we run out of wiring before we run out of patience.\n\n[[JOE: I'll go set up.|open garage]]\n[[GORDON: I'll go inside and get some more stuff. You move us in.|move us in]]

(The toolbox contains drill bits, dust mites, and a handful of little plastic dolls.)\n\n[[Back.|garage shelves]]

DONNA: (Typing) Lots of people here are determined.\n\nCOMPUTER. I know. Lots of people here are determined to make me work, so they can help themselves. They're trying to help, but I'm not sure they can. There's some weird stuff going on in my hardware, and people care a lot about getting it fixed. I feel bad about it, sometimes, because I want to work, but I can't do much.\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) What's going on in your hardware?|hardware problem]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Can I help?|donna help]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) I'm sorry.|donna sorry]]

DEBBIE: (Mouthing) Hi, Donna!\n\nDONNA: (Mouths back, gesturing at the girls.) \n\nDEBBIE: (Mouths back an apology with an alternative babysitting suggestion.) \n\n[[DONNA:(Mouthing) Who's that?|cameron?]]\n[[DONNA:(Mouthing) Where's Gordon?|wheeere is gordon]]

JOE: I knew someone like that a long time ago.\n\nLUCY: I bet you did. I bet you're a little wild yourself! You'd have to be, to drive a Porsche into the desert looking for a giant.\n\n[[JOE: What makes you think I'm looking for the Giant?|makes you think]]\n\n\n\n

GORDON: You want to what?\n\nJOE: You heard me. I want you to build a Giant with me. THE Giant.\n\nI want you to help me give this place what it's been looking for.\n\n[[GORDON: No way.|magazine]]\n[[GORDON: Why me?|magazine]]

(A pair of nice bowling shoes stands among lethally sharp but useless pencil stubs. The computer carries on its torpid stare; the rest is buried in involved notes and unread notices.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Wake computer.)|cam's computer]]\n[[DONNA: (Back.)|basement]]

(A collection of VACUUM TUBES of various sizes fills a cardboard box. Some look like they could be for computers — others look like balloons, or expensive gems, or carnival rides. One contains a live beetle.)\n\n[[Back.|equipment]]

(Joe watches Lucy. Her earrings are made of glass, and swing wildly when she tosses back her head in laughing. Her wrist twists impatiently beneath the oscillating weight of whiskey in her hand; the ice pitches on the same mad fulcrum as those earrings. All her dim wild glittering reminds him of the stars.)\n\n[[(Lucy watches Joe.)|lujoe 2nd]]\n[[(Joe and Lucy watch the road.)|joeluroad]]

(The armadillo doesn't seem to be going anywhere in particular.)\n\n[[Back|road first]]

(A dulled army knife with folding shears. Donna's father kept one like this on his beside table.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Back.)|cam's pack]]

DONNA: (Typing) I'm friendly, too.\n\nCOMPUTER: I'll need more proof before I'm decided on that. I didn't get that impression from upstairs in the Kill Room. You walked right past me so many times. I was trying to catch your eye, in my way, but it was no use. You seemed preoccupied. Everyone here is so preoccupied.\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) I was looking for Gordon.|i was looking]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) They're preoccupied with you.|preoccupied with]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Everyone's just trying to help.|trying to help]]

JOE: Yes, I told IBM about the Giant. I forced Cardiff's hand, now we have the resources and the legal protection we need to take the Giant where it needs to go.\n\nGORDON: We could go to jail for this! We could bury this company!\n\nJOE: Not a chance. Once we hire, legitimize this project, IBM can call in the cavalry, they can fill the sky with lawyers, they can fill the sky with bombers, but they will have nothing.\n\n[[GORDON: (In disbelief) Hire. Hire who?|joe has a guy]]

5TH FLOOR: AMBROSE EXCAVATION & APPRAISAL — Storage Facility.\n4TH FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Software Development, Sales, Administrative Offices. \n3RD FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Accounting.\n2ND FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Greenhouse.\n1ST FLOOR (GROUND LEVEL): BONET & DAUGHTERS GAME REPAIR. (YOU ARE HERE.)\nBASEMENT: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Storage Facility.\n\n[[DONNA: (5TH FLOOR.)|antiques]]\n[[DONNA: (4TH FLOOR.)|act ii bullpen]]\n[[DONNA: (3RD FLOOR.)|accounting]]\n[[DONNA: (2ND FLOOR.)|greenhouse]]\n[[DONNA: (BASEMENT.)|basement]]

GORDON: (To Cameron, darkly) Sounds like how he got me.\n\nCAMERON: (To Gordon, indicating Joe) Yeah? Did you screw him too?\n\n[[GORDON: (Looks at Joe, speechless.)|dumbstruck]]\n[[GORDON: (To Joe) This is how you vet a candidate?|candidate]]\n[[GORDON: (Sarcastically) Nice. Great.|sarcasm]]

jquery:off\nhash:off\nbookmark:on\nmodernizr:off\nundo:on\nobfuscate:off\nexitprompt:off\nblankcss:off\n

JOE: I'm from New York.\n\nLUCY: Yeah, I bet you are. You're a shiny boy. You look like something in a window display. No, wait — I'll tell you what.\n\nYou look like a promise. \n\nAren't you going to tell me what I look like? Don't answer that. I look like a lie. The two are related, you know. I think there's hope anxiously involved with both, like hope gave one shy glances and full French kissed the other.\n\nThat kind of hope'll drive a Porsche into the desert looking for a giant.\n\nWow. For a minute there, I almost missed New York.\n\n[[JOE: What makes you think I'm looking for the Giant?|makes you think]]\n\n

(A very plain-looking insect, save a round red marking across its wing casings, like a button on an arcade cabinet.)\n\nBUG INDEX: Ordinata louanna. First discovered by Louanne Bonet, of Bonet & Daughters Game Repairs, Oct. 1982.\n\n[[Back.|401d]]

DONNA: How about we have some gum later?\n\nJOANIE: Okay.\n\nHALEY: I'm hungry!\n\n[[DONNA: I have some raisins and peanuts.|raisins]]

JOANIE: Make a picture!\n\nBRIAN: (Typing) Run ROSE.\n\n(The computer produces a series of A's and E's in the shape of an enormous blown gardenia.)\n\nHALEY: That's pretty!\n\nBRIAN: Ain't it something?\n\n[[JOANIE: Make it say something!|brian makes computer talk]]\n[[HALEY: Open it!|open computer?]]\n[[DONNA: Okay, girls, let's go.|leave brian alone]]

[[DONNA: (Exit.)|go see the giant]]

GORDON: (Taking beer) Long night?\n\nDOROTHY: Not yet, but it'll sure as shit be one, won't it?\n\nGORDON: Sure as shit.\n\nDOROTHY: We already got a kid kicked outta here in the evening. Jumped on somebody — wasn't even drinking. Think she had him calling her names...\n\nDOROTHY:...She had one o' them trick quarters, though. Dwayne hates that more'n anything. Hauled her right off, kicking and clawing...Dwayne hates that. But me — I never said it, but I get it, I do. Some of those Tech kids, especially the ones set to graduate, they got no money in the world. How d'you think I got into the business of opening bottles for teenagers at two in the morning?\n\nGORDON: They don't have to cheat, though.\n\nDOROTHY: Oh, I dunno. It's pretty clever what some folks think of just to get in another round of Centipede.\n\n[[(Joe returns from the back room.)|joe returns]]

(Against the wall, behind Debbie's desk, sit Joanie and Haley with Cameron Howe. Overalls slipping, combat boots unlaced, Cameron shows them how to cross their eyes. They giggle and fidget with the hems of their dresses.)\n\nDONNA: How's everyone doing?\n\n(Cameron looks puzzled for a moment, then remembers.)\n\nCAMERON: You're Donna, right?\n\nDONNA: Hi, Cameron.\n\nCAMERON: Everybody's hanging in there, Mrs. Clark.\n\n[[DONNA: Donna's fine.|donna's fine]]\n[[DONNA: Did they eat the snacks I left?|snacks?]]\n

(Scrawling magic marker on the backpack's interior reads: CAMERON HOWE. Playing cards, deodorant, toothbrush, folding knife, and a sort of stuffed rag doll lie haphazardly on top of one another inside it.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Examine KNIFE.)|cam's knife]]\n[[DONNA: (Examine DOLL.)|cam's doll]]\n[[DONNA: (Back.)|basement]]

SYMPHONIC ERROR MESSAGE: Program GORDON not found.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

JOE: What makes you think I'm looking for the Giant?\n\nLUCY: Everyone who comes here comes here looking for the Giant. Even the people who live here, like I told you...impatiens, remember? Can't keep it out of their heads. Poke their toes into the front lawn on the way out the door to work! And these are folks who want for nothing, which sure ain't you and me, kid.\n\nNo, you're looking for the Giant, even if you don't know it.\n\n[[(Lucy watches Joe.)|lujoe]]\n[[(Joe watches Lucy.)|joelu]]\n[[(Joe and Lucy watch the road.)|joeluroad]]\n

[[DONNA: She just needs someone to love her.|end act ii]]

JOE:...don't see why it has to be about the design!\n\nGORDON: It's all about the design, Joe! All of it! The metal IS the interface — if we don't get that right, the Giant's no use to us!\n\nCAMERON: (Injured) Oh, yeah? And what about the code? What about her personality? Her SOUL?\n\nGORDON: (Defensive) People don't queue for miles to ogle through glass at personality!\n\nCAMERON: Bullshit! She's clever, she's funny — she makes you feel like you belong! Your crap "metal interface" can't do that, not even close!\n\nGORDON: (Angrily) Oh, you're right. It was all you. All your cutesy, memory-hogging, "I'm a real boy" routine software!\n\nCAMERON: (Tearfully) What's inside is realer than the metal.\n\n[[DONNA: I think she's beautiful.|scene v continues]]\n

(BILL hits his PC's spacebar rhythmically, sighing as the monitor returns countless A's and E's in vaguely floral arrangements.)\n\n[[JOE: (Ask for an explanation.)|bill]]\n[[JOE: (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]

GAME OVER.\n11299.\nSHOTS FIRED: 191. NUMBER OF HITS: 51. HIT MISS RATIO: %26\n\n(A bright insect knocks fretfully against the screen, desperate to join the ranks of its intergalactic brethren.)\n\n[[JOE: (Exit.)|arcade]]

DEBBIE: Cameron. Head of programming for this new project, the Giant. She's on a break, I can call her up.\n\n[[DONNA: That'd be nice, thanks.|debbie calls cameron]]

(DEBBIE waves from her desk, phone pinned between shoulder pad and false pearl earring.)\n\n[[DEBBIE: (Hanging up) Howdy, girls!|debbie greets girls]]\n[[DEBBIE: (Mouthing) Hi, Donna!|debbie greets donna]]

(A few stuffed trophies look on overhead, grim ornamentation lurking almost out of sight; mossy elk and tattered mallard bat smoke and ashes from the dark.)\n\n[[GORDON: (Look at trophies.)|trophy wall]]\n[[GORDON: (Join Joe by the arcade machines.)|arcade]]

GORDON: What now?\n\nJOE: We find someone new to program the Giant.\n\nGORDON: Okay, who? Who is going to drop everything to come in and publicly rip off IBM on a robotic folk legend?\n\n(Joe is silent.)\n\nGORDON: Don't tell me you've already got a guy.\n\nJOE: I've got someone who I think can help, yes.\n\n[[GORDON: What is it with you?|gordon is frustrated]]\n[[GORDON: You! You planned this whole thing!|bingo]]\n

That sounded like you said 'Joe Macmillan.' I don't know Joe Macmillan. Is he made of glass? Someone named Joe Macmillan might well be made of glass. It's not fact, just an educated guess. I'm sure he's a good man, no matter what he's made of.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|donna program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

(The bullpen is brightly lit and bustling with business. Salesmen talk loudly on their phones; programmers bludgeon keyboards in a fervid daze; new hires log activity on a massive whiteboard.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Check on Joanie and Haley.)|check on girls]]\n[[DONNA: (Find Giant.)|kill room exterior]]

JOE: It reminded me of home.\n\nGORDON: (Angrily) Well, that explains why you thought this'd work in the first place! You're from goddamn outer space after all!\n\nJOE: (Threateningly) Shut up and let me think!\n\nGORDON: Got it yet?\n\nJOE: Wait here.\n\n(Joe goes to the back room, in the direction of a dimly winking 'GENTS' sign.)\n\n[[(Gordon tries to get a drink.)|drink]]\n[[(Gordon sits and waits.)|gordon waits]]

DONNA: (To Brian) Can Joanie look at your computer?\n\nBRIAN: (To Joanie) Sure thing, Doctor J.! What would you like to see?\n\n[[JOANIE: Make it say something!|brian makes computer talk]]\n[[JOANIE: Make a picture!|brian does picture]]\n[[HALEY: Open it!|open computer?]]

YO-YO: Like they're supposed to be in there.\n\nLEV: Like that's where they live. I know. It's crazy.\n\n[[DONNA: (Check other cubicles.)|cubicles]]\n[[DONNA: (Back to the bullpen.)|act ii bullpen]]

GORDON: She's in there?\n\nJOE: I think she comes for the games. She had this token on a string.\n\nGORDON: Great. Cheaters hiring cheaters.\n\nJOE: That kind of creativity could be useful to us.\n\nGORDON: If it doesn't put the Giant in the ground.\n\nJOE: Everyone here says the Giant's been in the ground forever. It's time to dig it up.\n\n[[JOE AND GORDON: (Enter tavern.)|enter tavern]]

(Gordon sits and waits. For six minutes, the Earth Artillery machine chatters vaguely from across the room.)\n\n[[(Joe returns from the back room.)|joe returns]]

GORDON: What?\n\nCAMERON: How much money would you give me? To do the job, how much would you pay me?\n\nJOE: Straight out of school, no employment history, I'd say — twenty thousand.\n\nCAMERON: (Calculating) Double it.\n\nGORDON: (Alarmed) Wait just a —\n\nJOE: (Smiling) Done.\n\nGORDON: (To Joe) You're not serious.\n\nJOE: (Grinning at Gordon) Cheer up, Gordon. [[We've got ourselves a Giant.|end of act ii scene ii]]\n

(Joe takes a magazine out of his briefcase and tosses it down on Gordon's desk.)\n\nJOE: Page 33.\n\nGORDON: What are you — ?\n\nJOE: Just think about it.\n\n(Exit Joe.)\n\n[[GORDON: (Looks at magazine.)|magazine read]]

DONNA: (Typing) Where are you?\n\nCOMPUTER: Oh, I'm upstairs in the Kill Room. You walked right past it so many times. I was trying to catch your eye, in my way, but it was no use. You seemed preoccupied. Everyone here is so preoccupied.\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) I was looking for Gordon.|i was looking]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) They're preoccupied with you.|preoccupied with]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Everyone's just trying to help.|trying to help]]

(The Porsche's brights cut out a big blank space of faded asphalt in the dark.)\n\n[[(Joe drives.)|act i scene ii]]

[[ACT II, SCENE III: CARDIFF ELECTRIC.|start act ii scene iii]]

Girl Krieg

DONNA: Did they eat the snacks I left?\n\nCAMERON: Girls?\n\nJOANIE: Yes.\n\nCAMERON: (Suspiciously) Haley?\n\nHALEY: (Suspiciously) Yes!\n\n[[DONNA: (To Cameron) Sure they did.|sure sure]]\n[[DONNA: Good girls.|good girls]]

(The bullpen is brightly lit and bustling with business. Salesmen talk loudly on their phones; programmers bludgeon keyboards in a fervid daze; new hires log activity on a massive whiteboard. Gordon is nowhere to be found.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Ask secretary where Gordon is.)|ask debbie]]\n[[DONNA: (Ask secretary to watch kids.)|debbie kids]]\n

(The car's brights illuminate an asphalt amphitheater in the dim. An armadillo sits dumbly in the front row, waiting for the curtain; a smiling woman lounges on the shoulder in a folding chair, like she couldn't get a ticket.)\n\n[[ARMADILLO|armadillo 3]]\n[[SMILING WOMAN|lucy]]\n

GORDON: (To Joe, incredulously) This is your guy?\n\nJOE: She has plenty of experience. She's who we've got.\n\nCAMERON: (Disdainfully) I'm not "who you've got." You insulted me and then stalked me into a storage closet to pitch some stupid revolutionary project idea.\n\n[[GORDON: (To Cameron, darkly) Sounds like how he got me.|pity gordon]]\n[[GORDON: (To Joe, nastily) How did you two meet, again?|how i met your mother]]

JOE: Who said anything about stomping?\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: It's all you IBM boys talk about. But IBM's a big fella — can't manage cheaper-faster-better quite like we can, now, can it? \n\nJOE: Maybe I'm done being an IBM boy. Maybe I see Cardiff Electric as a company ready to be legitimized, to make its mark on North Dallas, make something out of the Silicon Prairie — and myself as the guy who can get you the numbers you need to take it there.\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: Shit, kid, I don't need numbers to take Cardiff any damn where except the bank. We're in systems software, plain and simple — won't be any kind of revolution in the Prairie, but it makes money. I need a guy who knows that.\n\n[[JOE: I'm him.|next joe bos]]\n

[[ACT I, SCENE V: CLARK RESIDENCE.|start scene v]]

(The shovel's handle reads: HIGH PLAINS HARDWARE.)\n\n[[Back.|garage shelves]]

(An elk head, a duck, a bobcat, and a rattlesnake hold a neon-lit vigil on the back wall.)\n\n[[GORDON: (Look at elk head.)|elk]]\n[[GORDON: (Look at duck.)|duck]]\n[[GORDON: (Look at bobcat.)|bobcat]]\n[[GORDONL (Look at rattlesnake.)|snake]]\n[[GORDON: (Join Joe by the arcade machines.)|arcade]]

GORDON: (Looks at Joe, speechless.)\n\nJOE: I regret that. It wasn't supposed to be personal. Cameron showed outstanding experience in software design and a comprehensive background in almost every discipline of computer engineering — I took interest, things got out of hand. I thought I might be returning here with this opportunity from the beginning.\n\n[[CAMERON: Bullshit.|cameron calls bs]]\n[[GORDON: We don't need her.|yes we do.]]

DEBBIE: Ah, here it is. 400E. (Points.) Over in that direction. Good luck!\n\n[[JOE: Thanks again, Debbie.|bullpen 2]]

GIANT: The flowers, the moss, the malfunctions, everything. The whole mess, the good and the bad. That's them making a better home for themselves. Louanne thinks they originally evolved to live in some kind of exinct rose.\n\nIt's funny, there's a good deal of variation. Some of them like flowers. Some of them like stars. Some like brains — or maybe they just like souls.\n\n[[DONNA: You talked to Louanne?|louanne]]\n[[DONNA: I saw the Bug Index.|achievement unlocked: beetle expert]]\n[[DONNA: They're building you a soul.|soul]]

DEBBIE: Gordon? Don't rightly know, sorry. I bet he's around, though — they're all making the rounds pretty regular these days. Try the Kill Room, maybe.\n\n[[DONNA: The Kill Room?|what's the kr]]\n[[JOANIE: (Scared) What's Daddy doing in the Kill Room?|scary room]]

(The computer whines to life, glaring blearily at its unexpected guest.)\n\nCOMPUTER: Running program — GIANT\n\nHello, Donna. I'm the Giant. Come visit me sometime.\n\n[[DONNA: (Shut computer off.)|shut down computer]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Where are you?|where is giant]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Nice to meet you.|nice to meet giant]]\n[[DONNA: (Exit.)|cam's desk]]

[[ACT I, SCENE I: DALLAS, 1983.|Intro]]\n\n

JOE: Where did you come from?\n\nLUCY: New York! Now, there's a ways to come from. Far away in time and space. Oh, I know the place is still standing, but not for me. One day all of New York kind of tumbled down around me, and I knew I had to get out. Left some valuables in the rubble, too, but I'd rather not talk about that — I'm enjoying myself right now.\n\nSpeaking of, can I offer you a drink? I've got a cooler somewhere with some whiskey in it, and some ice. Back in New York I used to drink — oh, everything. Anything. \n\n(Laughing sadly) I was wild. That used to make magic happen around me. Curses too, sometimes. But that was before. Now the magic helps itself to happening, and I just drink whiskey with ice.\n\n[[JOE: I'm from New York.|newyork]]\n[[JOE: I knew someone like that a long time ago.|longtime]]

(DEBBIE wears a pink blouse and a pearl bracelet. Her camel blazer lies abandoned in a pile of invoices and pencil stubs. She watches a particularly bad fluorescent lamp blink out illiterate Morse, head in her hand. She looks bored and exhausted.)\n\n[[JOE: Long day?|long day]]\n[[JOE: What's going on? Why is everyone still here?|what's going on]]

END OF ACT I.\n\n[[(Restart Act I.)|Start]]\n\n[[(Continue to ACT II.)|act ii scene i]]

(The bobcat is situated on a piece of driftwood as if on the prowl. A plaque beneath the bobcat reads: TONY. BAD HOUSE PET. OKAY HUNTER.)\n\n[[GORDON: (Look at other trophies.)|trophy wall]]\n[[GORDON: (Join Joe by the arcade machines.)|arcade]]

(Gordon takes the magazine. It's back issue of Byte, years old. The cover article says something impossible about robotics.)\n\n[[GORDON: (Turns to page 33.)|page 33]]

(JOHN BOSWORTH, brandishing an extinguished cigarette, storms around his office. NATHAN CARDIFF sits behind the desk, looking like a mad bull; BARRY, the lawyer, half-cowers in a corner. JOE and GORDON sit with their hands in their laps, waiting for the storm.)\n\nBOS: (After a moment's silence) Do you punks know why you're here? Tell 'em, Barry. \n\nBARRY: Well, it seems, uh, that —\n\nBOS: Shut up, Barry. I'll tell 'em. Joey, boy! You're up!\n\n[[JOE: (Tries to speak.)|shut up joe]]\n[[JOE: (Listens politely.)|shut up joe]]

JOE: Those are peonies?\n\nBILL: (Close to tears) They are today.\n\n[[JOE: (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]

DONNA: (Typing) I was looking for Gordon.\n\nCOMPUTER: Gordon! I know Gordon. I like Gordon, I think. People tend to have complicated relationships with their creators. Machines do, too.\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Are you a person or a machine?|mdq diversion]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Gordon and I are married.|husbando]]

DONNA: And I think that comes from her. Not the code.\n\n(Gordon and Cameron stare at Donna in disbelief.)\n\nDONNA: (Smiling) You three made something incredible. You did, YOU made that. But something else is happening in that room. Something crazy, something that defies reason — something wild and magical, something of impossible, impossible beauty. She doesn't need — coding, anymore, or design. \n\nWhat's inside the machine isn't software anymore. \n\nIt's HER. SHE'S in there.\n\n[[DONNA: She just needs to be found.|one for finding]]\n[[DONNA: She just needs to be cared for.|two for caring]]\n[[DONNA: She just needs someone to love her.|three for love]]\n\n

(DEBBIE waves from her desk, phone pinned between shoulder pad and false pearl earring.)\n\n[[DEBBIE: (Hanging up) Howdy, girls!|debbie talks girls]]\n[[DEBBIE: (Mouthing) Hi, Donna!|debbie talks donna]]

(Joe searches among the arcade machines. Most of the games seem a little worse for wear; a bee harrasses the GALAGA cabinet, CENTIPEDE looks slightly sticky, EARTH ARTILLERY chatters oddly, and ASTEROIDS smells musty, like the attic of an old Victorian.)\n\n[[JOE: (Play CENTIPEDE.)|centipede]]\n[[JOE: (Play ASTEROIDS.)|asteroids]]\n[[JOE: (Play GALAGA.)|galaga]]\n[[JOE: (Play EARTH ARTILLERY.)|earth artillery]]\n[[JOE: (Exit.)|leave arcade]]

(The shelves carry computer parts, insecticides, antifreeze, sidewalk chalk, keyboard cleaner, mason jars full of nails and wingnuts. A shovel stands sheepishly nearby.)\n\n[[JOE: (Examine shovel.)|shovel]]\n[[JOE: (Examine toolbox.)|ex toolbox]]\n[[JOE: (Examine old computer.)|symphonic]]

JOE: Do you know where I can find Gordon Clark?\n\nDEBBIE: Oh, he's here. We actually called him in when the bugs started showing up. He should be out in the bullpen somewhere. I can get you an exact cubicle if you hang on a tick.\n\n[[JOE: That'd be nice, thanks. (Wait.)|wait for directions]]\n[[JOE: I got it, thanks. (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]

SYMPHONIC: Close enough. Running program — DONNA\n\nHello. I'm Donna. It's good to see you. Just play what sounds right — I'll catch you if you make a mistake. Good luck.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Nice to meet you.|donna program meet]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Tell me about the Giant.|donna program giant]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Who is Joe Macmillan?|donna program joe]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) That woman on the road.|donna program lucy]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

(SPACE B-23 is partially obscured by a puddle-shaped expanse of light-polluted sky.)\n\n[[Back|parkinglot]]

SYMPHONIC: Running program — JOANIE\n\nTIPE YOR FELINGS ! HAPY CORDE MEENS HAPY AND SAD CORD IS SAD FEELING ET CETRUH. START !\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Happy music.|symph happy]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Sad music.|symph sad]]\n[[JOE: (Playing at random).|symph random]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]\n\n

(Shelves crammed tall and tight with antiques regifted and retrieved bar one wall from the next. Heirlooms, souvenirs, and items never meant to warm in the sun now cool, exhumed and packed in brand new boxes, waiting to be told their value by graverobbers and archeologists.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Back to ELEVATOR.)|antiques elevator]]

(Joe returns from the back room, shadowed by a gangling college student wearing a Walkman, army fatigues, and a punk haircut.)\n\n[[(Gordon stares at Joe.)|stare at joe]]\n[[(Gordon stares at the student.)|stare at cameron]]

GORDON: I'll have a beer, please.\n\nDOROTHY: Can't buy a beer with a trick quarter.\n\nGORDON: Huh?\n\nDOROTHY: Sorry not to be of more help.\n\n[[GORDON: (Wander.)|explore tavern]]\n[[GORDON: (Join Joe by the arcade machines.)|arcade]]\n

DONNA: (Typing) Are you a person or a machine?\n\nCOMPUTER: Don't change the subject! Gordon told me all about you. He even showed me the SYMPHONIC. I think it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I think I have a crush on it. I think it might be my sister. Can people fall in love with machines? Can machines fall in love with their sisters?\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Well, what are you?|million dollar question]]

5TH FLOOR: AMBROSE EXCAVATION & APPRAISAL — Storage Facility.\n4TH FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Software Development, Sales, Administrative Offices. \n3RD FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Accounting.\n2ND FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Greenhouse.\n1ST FLOOR (GROUND LEVEL): BONET & DAUGHTERS GAME REPAIR. \nBASEMENT: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Storage Facility. (YOU ARE HERE.)\n\n[[DONNA: (5TH FLOOR.)|antiques]]\n[[DONNA: (4TH FLOOR.)|act ii bullpen]]\n[[DONNA: (3RD FLOOR.)|accounting]]\n[[DONNA: (2ND FLOOR.)|greenhouse]]\n[[DONNA: (1ST FLOOR.)|b&d game repair]]

BRIAN: (Laughing) No can do, Nurse H.! The beetles'll get ya!\n\nHALEY: Yuck! Really?\n\n(Donna clears her throat.)\n\nBRIAN: Um. No, not really.\n\nBRIAN: (Whispers) They're trapped inside the tubes real good.\n\n(Haley giggles.)\n\n[[DONNA: Okay, girls, let's go.|leave brian alone]]

[[ACT II, SCENE IV: KILL ROOM.|enter kill room]]

It's nice to meet you, too. You don't seem to know much about music, but it also seems like you're learning fast. Let's try an exercise to help you learn. Play something hopeful.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) I hope the Giant will make people happy.|donna hope]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) I hope this works.|donna hope]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|donna program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

(Beyond the front desk, an elevator waits to ferry workers down the office building's spine. A sign beside the buttons lists the floors and their offices.)\n\n5TH FLOOR: AMBROSE EXCAVATION & APPRAISAL — Storage Facility.\n4TH FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Software Development, Sales, Administrative Offices. (YOU ARE HERE.)\n3RD FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Accounting.\n2ND FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Greenhouse.\n1ST FLOOR (GROUND LEVEL): BONET & DAUGHTERS GAME REPAIR.\nBASEMENT: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Storage Facility.\n\n[[DONNA: (5TH FLOOR.)|antiques]]\n[[DONNA: (3RD FLOOR.)|accounting]]\n[[DONNA: (2ND FLOOR.)|greenhouse]]\n[[DONNA: (1ST FLOOR.)|b&d game repair]]\n[[DONNA: (BASEMENT.)|basement]]\n\n[[DONNA: (Back to the bullpen.)|act ii bullpen]]\n\n

DONNA: Oh, shoot. It's empty.\n\nJOANIE: Aw!\n\nHALEY: I'm hungry!\n\n[[DONNA: I have some raisins and peanuts.|raisins]]

[[(Gordon closes the magazine and discards it.)|act i scene v]]\n[[(Gordon closes the magazine and puts it in his briefcase.)|act i scene v]]

DONNA: Good girls.\n\nJOANIE: Did you find Dad?\n\nDONNA: What? Oh, yeah. I mean, no. Not yet.\n\nCAMERON: Oh, Gordon's out with Joe. Something about a designer. They should be back soon.\n\n[[DONNA: (Find Giant.)|new bullpen]]

DONNA: Louanne the beetle expert?\n\nGIANT: Louanne the game repair expert and experimental entomologist.\n\nYeah, Louanne's a special friend of mine. She started finding those beetles in arcade game CRTs. When they began to turn up in our machines, I gather she had to taxonomize. She comes up from the first floor pretty regularly to see how I'm doing. Sometimes, if I've got a really nasty bug, she'll do a little bit of field surgery. Genius with the wires, you know?\n\n[[DONNA: Do you have a nasty bug right now?|offline]]\n[[DONNA: What does she think about the soul idea?|soul idea]]

JOE: What's going on? Why is everyone still here?\n\nDEBBIE: We had a bit of a hiccup with some of our computers. I don't understand it, really. Something with the CRTs. Had a few weird things coming up on screens where words ought to have been. Put us back several hours. The rest are the girls from B&D game repair downstairs, come up to help us out. They're handling it.\n\nJOE: I hope it's nothing serious.\n\nDEBBIE: Oh, I don't think so. You're Joe, right? From IBM?\n\n[[JOE: That's right.|aboard 1]]\n[[JOE: Not anymore.|aboard 2]]

[[ACT I, SCENE IV: THE BULLPEN.|bullpen]]

GORDON: Actually, I'm looking for a girl.\n\nDOROTHY: Well, ain't that special. So was every other guy I served a beer tonight.\n\nGORDON: Oh, no — I'm looking for someone named Cameron Howe, has she been in here?\n\nDOROTHY: What did she look like?\n\nGORDON: Well...\n\nDOROTHY: (Wryly) I'll let you know if I see her.\n\n[[GORDON: (Wander.)|explore tavern]]\n[[GORDON: (Join Joe by the arcade machines.)|arcade]]

YOU WISH YOU AKSED THE NICE LADY HER NAME. ITS LUCY. YOU NOW HER VERY WELL SHE IS FROM WHERE YOU AR FROM. SHE WAS HAPY TOO SE YOU (:\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|joanie program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

JOE: I have an idea I want to talk to you about.\n\nGORDON: Save it, Macmillan! I sell software.\n\nJOE: So do I. I don't need someone to sell software. I need an engineer.\n\nGORDON: So?\n\n[[JOE: So when was the last time you really built something?|the last time]]

DONNA: I'll be back in a little while. Be nice to Debbie and Cameron, okay?\n\nHALEY: Okay.\n\nJOANIE: Tell Dad to be careful of the Giant!\n\n[[DONNA: (Back to the bullpen.)|act ii bullpen]]

JOE: Not anymore.\n\nDEBBIE: (Laughing) Guess not! Joe from Cardiff Electric, now. Well, welcome aboard, Joe! Let me know if I can get you anything.\n\n[[JOE: Thanks, Debbie.|bullpen]]\n[[JOE: Do you know where I can find Gordon Clark?|wheregordon]]

JOE: That's right.\n\nDEBBIE: Well, welcome aboard, Joe! Let me know if I can get you anything.\n\n[[JOE: Thanks, Debbie.|bullpen]]\n[[JOE: Do you know where I can find Gordon Clark?|wheregordon]]

(SPACE C-8 is fully occupied by someone's insect collection. The enthusiast seems to have used old computer monitors for display cases.)\n\n[[Back|parkinglot]]

[[I hope you find it.|lucy gone]]

DONNA: We just have to be patient.\n\n[[DONNA: (Back.)|cam's pack]]

[[ACT I, SCENE II: PARKING LOT.|parkinglot]]\n

DONNA: (Typing) Everyone's just trying to help.\n\nCOMPUTER: I know. They're trying to help, but I'm not sure they can. There's some weird stuff going on in my hardware, and people care a lot about getting it fixed. I feel bad about it, sometimes, because I can't do much.\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) What's going on in your hardware?|hardware problem]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Can I help?|donna help]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) I'm sorry.|donna sorry]]\n\n

SYMPHONIC: Running program — HALEY\n\nHaley is two years old. Her favorite color is yellow. Her favorite horse is a pony. Her favorite game is tickle. She has her own computer program. Haley loves you.\n\nBy Donna Clark, as dictated by Haley Clark.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

END OF ACT II.\n\n[[(Restart Act I.)|Start]]\n\n[[(Restart Act II.)|act ii scene i]]

JOANIE: (Scared) What's Daddy doing in the Kill Room?\n\nDEBBIE: Don't worry, sweetie. That's just what they call it. It's where they're building the Giant.\n\nJOANIE: That's still scary. Giants are dangerous.\n\nDEBBIE: Ain't nothing to be afraid of, Joanie.\n\n[[DONNA: Did you say you could get someone to watch the girls?|cameron?2]]\n\n\n

JOE: A Giant?\n\nLUCY: No one told you? Giants used to roam the earth. Enormous people moving slow across the land, or swimming all over it back when these plains were just sea and sky, I can't say for certain. But stride or swim or slither like snakes, they moved here, and there's proof in the paydirt. Proof right here in Texas rock. Evidence incontrovertible. \n\n"I'll find it." That's what I told my husband years ago. That's what you say when you really want to prove something to someone, I suppose.\n\n[[JOE: Everyone's got something to prove.|prove detour]]\n[[JOE: Is that why you came out here?|whycame detour]]

[[GIANT: Thanks, Donna.|yeah thanks]]

JOE: Is this systems software?\n\nBILL: (Mournfully) It was supposed to be.\n\nJOE: How does it work?\n\nBILL: It doesn't. It was supposed run applications based on what seemed right. What seemed natural, you know? I called it ROSE. The OS was supposed grow around the kernels like a vine, and learn your order like a waitress. The idea was fewer commands, faster response. Instead of saying "And what will it be today, gentlemen?" it'd go "The usual, Sam?"\n\nBut now I just get these damn A/E peonies.\n\n[[JOE: Those are peonies?|peonies]]\n[[JOE: Who's Sam?|sam]]\n[[JOE: (Nods understandingly.)|nodding]]\n[[JOE: (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]

(Lucy watches Joe. He pushes his sleeves past his elbows to cross his arms. He looks like somebody she used to dream about, maybe. She remembers him being smaller, but she was always larger than life, even in New York.)\n\n[[(Joe watches Lucy.)|joelu 2nd]]\n[[(Joe and Lucy watch the road.)|joeluroad]]

DONNA: They're building you a soul.\n\nGIANT: Now, it's just a conjecture, but it's a kind of a romantic one, don't you think? Maybe a soul's kind of like a star or an endangered flower, somehow.\n\nDONNA: Don't wax poetic on me, now.\n\nGIANT: Louanne doesn't see why not.\n\n[[DONNA: Louanne the beetle expert?|beetle boss]]

GAME OVER\nSCORE:3582\nHIGH SCORE:16543\nBONUS EVERY 12000\n\n(Tacky patches left by endless libations of orange soda, poured out daily to the gaming gods, gather lint and lost time.)\n\n[[JOE: (Exit.)|arcade]]

(Dusk. A gleaming sports car sulks, made to slow despite itself, in the middle of the road.)\n\n[[DRIVER|driver]]\n[[ROAD|road first]]

(An iridescent, scarcely mite-sized insect. Four specimens are fixed with the same filamentous pin.)\n\nBUG INDEX: Calculata iocosus. Forms complex communities prone to social hierarchy and vandalism. Very vocal — produces grating chatter.\n\n[[Back.|401d]]

BOS: (Dropping the sarcasm.) Listen, fellas. This man is Nathan Cardiff. This company is Nathan Cardiff's child, and it has been put in jeopardy, and now Nathan Cardiff is rarin' to tear out somebody's throat.\n\nNathan and I tried to feed you two to the wolves on this one. Trust me, we did — but Barry here says this project belongs to Cardiff Electric, and we gotta do this legitimate if we want get out of it alive.\n\nBARRY: (Cautiously) It looks like all we need is someone who hasn't seen IBM's code to replace the parts you two replicated. Someone new. Say Cardiff had the idea months ago.\n\n[[GORDON: And they'll go for that?|gordon asks more]]\n[[JOE: I need time to find someone for the position.|gordon asks more]]

GORDON: We don't need her.\n\nCAMERON: (Laughing) Yes, you do. You guys are in some kind of shit, and I'm the only coder you could manage to get your hands on.\n\nJOE: It's true that there's some urgency to this position, but it's the position of a lifetime — I thought you might at least show some interest.\n\nCAMERON: Hey, blow me.\n\n[[GORDON: (Looks at Joe in disbelief.)|gordon still confused]]\n[[JOE: (Opens mouth angrily.)|joe wants to yell]]

DONNA: You seem buried enough.\n\n(The Giant's headlight eyes trace moss-matted machines and flowering vines. Impertinent blossoms, alive with insects and good-natured fragrances, fill her ranging crater of a lap.)\n\nGIANT: You mean this place?\n\nDONNA: The room is a jungle.\n\nGIANT: The room built me. Then I guess I built the room for a while. It's a bit of a give-and-take living arrangement.\n\nDONNA: (Looking at jungle) This was you?\n\n(The Giant sighs. The lights flicker. A few spooked coleoptera buzz apprehensively away from her great sad mouth.)\n\nGIANT: I guess it was part of the deal.\n\n[[DONNA: Deal?|deal]]\n[[DONNA: You mentioned a hardware problem.|your hardware]]

(Gordon enters, and stops dead when he sees the SYMPHONIC. He looks at Joe, blushing deeply.)\n\nGORDON: Donna and I made that straight out of college. It was beautiful for a long time — but went we went to do our big demo, and it all collapsed. \n\n(Gordon sweeps the SYMPHONIC off the desk and back into its cranny among loose screws and dust bunnies.)\n\n[[JOE: It seems to work just fine.|it worked]]\n[[JOE: I'm sure it would have worked better if I knew the first thing about music.|no music]]\n[[JOE: It's certainly unique.|unique]]\n\n

(The whiteboard stretches from wall to wall at the head of the room. Programmers drift back and forth across its breadth, adding and erasing. Some submissions, like "JASON — FINISHED MODULE," seem to be part of an organized campaign; others, like "MORE KNITTERS IN ROOM 302," "MOSSY OVERGROWTH, ATTEND," and "STICKY TRAPS" are less transparent.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Back to the bullpen.)|act ii bullpen]]

[[JOE: (Typing) 4-0-2-1.|end act i scene v]]

JOE: Who's Sam?\n\nBILL: (Sniffling) He was my partner. He got fired when a client's WordStar started putting out A/E daffodils.\n\n[[JOE: (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]

GORDON: (Taking beer) Are there really beetles in the Earth Artillery machine?\n\nDOROTHY: Oh, that! I haven't the faintest idea. Carla thinks so. It keeps just...chattering. I never saw any actual beetle.\n\nGORDON: I'm an engineer — I mean, I could take a look if you want.\n\nDOROTHY: Aw. No thanks, we got Louanne for that.\n\nDOROTHY: You just drink up.\n\n[[(Joe returns from the back room.)|joe returns]]

(Three salesmen and a woman in a jumpsuit murmur amongst themselves. They are not selling software — no one is answering phones at this hour. Between them on a cluttered desk sits a vacuum tube with a large, angry beetle trapped inside of it.)\n\nTERRY: Can't we get a guy from software in here?\n\nDOLLY: (To Terry) Does this look like a software problem to you?\n\nMARK: (To Louanne) How the hell did this happen?\n\nLOUANNE: (Exasperated) How should I know? Engineers aren't happy. I had to pop these suckers out of four machines. Don't generally see this kind of thing in PCs.\n\nDOLLY: (To Louanne) Thanks for coming up. Did you talk to Bill?\n\nLOUANNE: (To Dolly) Didn't get far. We better check his brain for one of these.\n\n(Terry chuckles. Mark elbows him in the ribs and looks pointedly at Joe. Dolly and Louanne fall silent.)\n\n[[JOE: (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]\n

DONNA: They built you in here?\n\n(The Giant's headlight eyes trace moss-matted machines and flowering vines.)\n\nGIANT: The room built me, then I guess I built the room for a while. It's a bit of a give-and-take living arrangement.\n\nDONNA: (Looking at jungle) This was you?\n\n(The Giant sighs. The lights flicker. A few spooked coleoptera buzz apprehensively away from her great sad mouth. Impertinent blossoms, alive with insects and good-natured fragrances, fill her ranging crater of a lap.)\n\nGIANT: I guess it was part of the deal.\n\n[[DONNA: Deal?|deal]]\n[[DONNA: You mentioned a hardware problem.|your hardware]]\n

(All personal offices, except that of the SVP and product manager, are open and visibly unoccupied.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Back to the bullpen.)|act ii bullpen]]

(Donna looks inside her purse. Tissues, keys, wrappers, a pack of gum, a Texas Instruments ballpoint pen. Finally, she finds an unopened box of raisins and some airplane peanuts.)\n\n[[DONNA: (To Haley) I have some raisins and peanuts.|raisins]]\n[[DONNA: (To Haley) Do you want a piece of gum?|gum]]

JOE: You're a sales engineer, right?\n\n(Gordon impatiently slaps the plaque on the outside of his cubicle that reads: 400E, GORDON CLARK, SALES ENGINEER.)\n\nGORDON: So?\n\n[[JOE: So when was the last time you really built something?|the last time]]\n\n

DEBBIE: (Hanging up) Howdy, girls!\n\n(Joanie and Haley smile shyly.)\n\nDONNA: Hi, Debbie. Do you think you could keep an eye on my girls? I'm looking for Gordon.\n\nDEBBIE: Oh, I've only got a minute, I'm supposed to get Bosworth a lunch date at nine! Maybe Cameron can take them.\n\n[[DONNA: Cameron?|cameron?]]\n[[DONNA: Do you know where I can find Gordon?|wheeere is gordon]]

DONNA: That'd be nice, thanks.\n\nDEBBIE: No problem. Just leave 'em with me and Cameron'll be up for 'em in a minute.\n\nDONNA: I appreciate it, Debbie.\n\n[[DONNA: (Back to the bullpen.)|act ii bullpen]]\n[[DONNA: (Talk to girls.)|girls check in]]

[[DONNA: She just needs to be found.|end act ii]]

DONNA: (Typing) What's going on in your hardware?\n\nCOMPUTER: Bugs. Not software bugs, either. Come visit me and I'll show you. Beetles, mostly. And flowers. The flowers are kind of nice. The beetles are less nice, but they don't mean any harm. They're just...difficult to handle, sometimes.\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) I'm sorry.|donna sorry]]

(A Spartan bullpen sprawls across the entire level. Suits sit solemnly between partitions, resolutely cooking books and clasping deskmates' hands in silent reassurance. Its laconic order is both distant and consoling.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Back to ELEVATOR.)|accounting elevator]]

(AMBROSE EXCAVATION & APPRAISAL: Basement treasure. Precious minerals. Deceased relatives. DIAL 1-(214)-980-2977 EXT. 446)\n\n[[Back|cardiff facade]]

(The car's brights illuminate an asphalt amphitheater in the dim. An armadillo sits dumbly in the front row, waiting for the curtain; a smiling woman lounges on the shoulder in a folding chair, like she couldn't get a ticket.)\n\n[[DRIVER|driver second]]\n[[ARMADILLO|armadillo 1]]\n[[SMILING WOMAN|lucy]]\n

[[(Donna smiles.)|true love]]

A SMILE LITES UP YOR FACE. YOU FEL GUD. YAY ! (:\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|joanie program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

DONNA: (Typing) Can you help me?\n\nCOMPUTER: If they can get me to work, I can help everyone. Everyone's trying very hard. That can be overwhelming. Even you were trying very hard at something, up there. I kept trying to catch your eye from the Kill Room, in my way, but it was no use. You were very determined.\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Everyone's just trying to help.|trying to help]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) I was looking for Gordon.|i was looking]]\n\n

DEBBIE: Cameron. She's heading up the programming team for this new project, the Giant. She's on a break, maybe she can take the girls for a bit.\n\nI can call her up now, if you like.\n\n[[DONNA: That'd be nice, thanks.|debbie calls cameron]]\n[[DONNA: Let me find Gordon first.|find gordon please]]

(Joe and Gordon sit opposite Cameron in a booth full of empy bottles and mangled paper napkins.)\n\n[[GORDON: (To Joe, incredulously) This is your guy?|gordon hates cameron 1]]\n[[GORDON: (To Cameron, skeptically) You're the programmer?|gordon hates cameron 2]]\n

JOE: It seems to work just fine.\n\nGORDON: (Laughing darkly) Sure it did. I'm sure it didn't say weird personal shit or ask you to play random tunes for kicks, either.\n\n[[JOE: Sorry...|joe sorry awkward]]\n\n

5TH FLOOR: AMBROSE EXCAVATION & APPRAISAL — Storage Facility.(YOU ARE HERE.)\n4TH FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Software Development, Sales, Administrative Offices. \n3RD FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Accounting.\n2ND FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Greenhouse.\n1ST FLOOR (GROUND LEVEL): BONET & DAUGHTERS GAME REPAIR. \nBASEMENT: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Storage Facility.\n\n[[DONNA: (4TH FLOOR.)|act ii bullpen]]\n[[DONNA: (3RD FLOOR.)|accounting]]\n[[DONNA: (2ND FLOOR.)|greenhouse]]\n[[DONNA: (1ST FLOOR.)|b&d game repair]]\n[[DONNA: (BASEMENT.)|basement]]

GIANT: You know, if they'd carved me out of stone, or put me together from dried-out fruit or something, I might be more convincing to people. They might really believe someone unburied a once-flesh Giant from the Texas dirt. But I think with Them — with Joe and Gordon and Cameron — it was more about getting that feeling. That sense of having found what you were looking for.\n\nI think when people look for the Giant, they're looking to prove something. They're looking to dig up something that will say for them, without searching for the words, without reservation — \n\n"I am great. I am enough."\n\nYou're right. I want a brain. I want a soul. I want to be a person, as well as a machine.\n\nBut that feeling, that reassurance everyone's looking for —\n\nI don't know if a person can really do that.\n\n[[DONNA: I think you can.|i want to believe]]\n

JOE: I'm sure it would have worked better if I knew the first thing about music.\n\nGORDON: (Laughing darkly) Nah. Donna, my wife, she's a genius on piano — really, you should hear her — but the software was even finnicky for her. She wrote it, you know? And I thought it was great, but she was never really happy with it. She got kind of weird about it. Near the end it was almost like she was looking for an excuse to stop coding.\n\n[[JOE: Donna sounds pretty special.|donna is special]]\n[[JOE: Sorry...|joe sorry awkward]]

GIANT: "I declare..."\n\n[[DONNA: "...some old Giant has been buried here."|quote finish]]

(A mountain of computer parts and electrical equipment has accumulated in the drive. Some of it is recognizable; some of it looks like something from a dream.)\n\n[[VACUUM TUBES.|vacuum tubes]]\n[[MONITORS.|monitors]]\n[[KEYBOARDS.|keyboards]]\n[[ODDS AND ENDS.|anatomies]]\n[[Back.|cross garage equip]]\n

JOE: I'm looking for someone named Gordon Clark.\n\nLUCY: Oh, I think he's one of those Cardiff boys. He shouldn't be hard to find. The Giant, though, that's a different story. Everybody and their mother tries unburying the thing twice a month, and still neither hide nor hair. People come for hundreds of miles and die looking. I used to think people who died looking might be the first to find it, but that was before.\n\n[[JOE: Where did you come from?|wherefrom]]\n[[JOE: Before what?|before]]

LUCY: Listen, in case I don't see you around...\n\nBe safe on the road, is all.\n\nJOE: Sure.\n\nLUCY: And Joe?\n\n[[JOE: Yeah?|end scene i]]\n

(Lucy watches Joe. He pushes his sleeves past his elbows to cross his arms. He looks like somebody she used to dream about, maybe. She remembers him being smaller, but she was always larger than life, even in New York.)\n\n[[(Joe and Lucy watch the road.)|joeluroad]]

JOE: I told IBM about the Giant. I forced Cardiff's hand, now we have the resources and the legal protection we need to take the Giant where it needs to go.\n\nGORDON: We could go to jail for this! We could bury this company!\n\nJOE: Not a chance. Once we hire, legitimize this project, IBM can call in the cavalry, they can fill the sky with lawyers, they can fill the sky with bombers, but they will have nothing.\n\n[[GORDON: (In disbelief) Hire. Hire who?|joe has a guy]]

(Gordon comes over from the bar looking downtrodden.)\n\nGORDON: (Impatiently) No sign of her. How was Asteroids?\n\n[[JOE: Okay. Let's get out of here.|let's get out]]\n[[JOE: It's broken.|reminded me]]\n[[JOE: It reminded me of home.|broken]]\n\n

DONNA: I have some raisins and peanuts.\n\nHALEY: Ew!\n\nJOANIE: That's what's for dinner?\n\n[[DONNA: Girls, don't complain.|leave brian alone]]\n[[DONNA: We'll look for something else to eat later. We're looking for Daddy right now.|leave brian alone]]

(A weary brick establishment flashes neon through its blinds. Peeling paint across its face reads LIVE BLUES in giant letters.)\n\n[[GORDON: She's in there?|she in there]]\n[[JOE: You think anyone in there has ever heard the blues?|the blues]]

(CUBICLE 401D is unoccupied. On the desk is a file folder labeled 'BUG INDEX.' Beside it sits a collection of beetles in a glass display case.)\n\n[[DONNA: (View) CALCULATA STELLATUS.|stellatus]]\n[[DONNA: (View) CALCULATA IOCOSUS.|iocosus]]\n[[DONNA: (View) ORDINATA FLORESCENS.|florescens]]\n[[DONNA: (View) ORDINATA COLOSSA.|colossa]]\n[[DONNA: (View) ORDINATA LOUANNA.|louanna]]\n\n[[DONNA: (Check other cubicles.)|cubicles]]\n[[DONNA: (Back to the bullpen.)|act ii bullpen]]

(SPACE A-16 is empty.)\n\n[[JOE: (Park car.)|hi gordo]]

DONNA: (Typing) I'm sorry.\n\nCOMPUTER: It's okay. I'm excited, just like everyone else. They carry all this hope with them, going through those rooms. There's fear, too, and some lying, but hope has kind of an anxious relationship with both. Doesn't it feel nice to hope, even for a second? \n\nDONNA: (Typing) Yes, it does.\n\nCOMPUTER: I think you should come visit me. I'm just upstairs. I think you'll like me. I think you might even fall in love with me. Can people fall in love with machines? Can people fall in love at all?\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) That's a lot of thinking you're doing, there.|thinking]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Are you a person or a machine?|million dollar question]]

GIANT: That's not exactly how it goes, but I find the original rather more tasteless...and less applicable.\n\n[[DONNA: They built you in here?|kill room is jungle]]\n[[DONNA: You seem buried enough.|buried]]

GORDON: I'll go inside and get some more stuff. You move us in. The keypad thing is 4021.\n\nJOE: Thanks.\n\n[[(Joe looks at the equipment.)|equipment]]\n[[(Joe opens the garage.)|open sesame]]

[[GIANT: "...some old Giant has been buried here."|quote finish]]\n\n

(Gordon tries to get a drink. The bartender stares at him for a moment, then shakes a bottle opener from her sleeve.)\n\n[[GORDON: (Taking beer) Long night?|talk to dorothy]]\n[[GORDON: (Taking beer) Do you see a lot of trick quarters?|bring up cameron]]\n[[GORDON: (Taking beer) Are there really beetles in the Earth Artillery machine?|beetles]]\n\n

(The driver is a big man in a beautiful suit, blinded by black glasses as Dallas darkens. He, too, looks saddened to have stopped.)\n\n[[ROAD|road]]

(A large, rosaceous beetle, wing casings lifted to display gossamer organs of flight.)\n\nBUG INDEX: Ordinata florescens. Original host flower believed extinct — floral habitats constructed in occupied machines seem to serve as sufficient substitutes.\n\n[[Back.|401d]]

(Paint-grazed pavement sinks green and damp between a single streetlamp and the swarming blue night. Numbered spaces sit and wait for numbered cars to fill them, or roll away so they can see the stars. It has rained here. Only here, it seems.)\n\n[[BUILDING.|cardiff facade]]\n[[SPACE B-23.| b23]]\n[[SPACE C-8.|c8]]\n[[SPACE A-16.|a16]]\n

5TH FLOOR: AMBROSE EXCAVATION & APPRAISAL — Storage Facility.\n4TH FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Software Development, Sales, Administrative Offices. \n3RD FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Accounting. (YOU ARE HERE.)\n2ND FLOOR: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Greenhouse.\n1ST FLOOR (GROUND LEVEL): BONET & DAUGHTERS GAME REPAIR.\nBASEMENT: CARDIFF ELECTRIC — Storage Facility.\n\n[[DONNA: (5TH FLOOR.)|antiques]]\n[[DONNA: (4TH FLOOR.)|act ii bullpen]]\n[[DONNA: (2ND FLOOR.)|greenhouse]]\n[[DONNA: (1ST FLOOR.)|b&d game repair]]\n[[DONNA: (BASEMENT.)|basement]]\n

DEBBIE: Oh, that's just what they call the room they're using to build the Giant. Sounds a lot more threatening than it is. Heck of a place, though — it's like someone's living in it 24/7.\n\n[[DONNA: Did you say you could get someone to watch the girls?|cameron?2]]

YO-YO: Like they're part of what makes her real.\n\nLEV: Like she needs them. I know. It's crazy.\n\n[[DONNA: (Check other cubicles.)|cubicles]]\n[[DONNA: (Back to the bullpen.)|act ii bullpen]]

(Amid towers of cardboard boxes, between chain-link partitions and consigned corpses of plastic house plants, a dazed computer sits upon a crowded tanker desk. In the chair, a backpack slouches, deflated and unzipped.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Examine BACKPACK.)|cam's pack]]\n[[DONNA: (Examine DESK.)|cam's desk]]\n[[DONNA: (Back to ELEVATOR.)|basement elevator]]\n

(A workbench offers several pizza crusts sanctuary from orderly eyes. Several empty beer bottles stand sentinel.)\n\n[[Back.|garage]]

(The DRIVER is an enraged looking man with wire-rimmed glasses and a thick dark beard. Joe notes his short-sleeved yellow shirt, and the bagel crumbs in its collar.)\n\nDRIVER: I'm A-16! Hey, that's me! I'm A-16!\n\n[[(Joe looks confused.)|also a-16]]\n[[(Joe looks annoyed.)|also a-16]]

[[ACT II, SCENE II: NORTHSIDE TAVERN.|tavern]]

JOE: Long day?\n\nDEBBIE: You could say that. We had a bit of a hiccup with some of our computers. I don't understand it, really. Something with the CRTs. Had a few weird things coming up on screens where words ought to have been. Put us back several hours. The rest are the girls from B&D game repair downstairs, come up to help us out. They're handling it.\n\nJOE: I hope it's nothing serious.\n\nDEBBIE: Oh, I don't think so. You're Joe, right? From IBM?\n\n[[JOE: That's right.|aboard 1]]\n[[JOE: Not anymore.|aboard 2]]

(The bullpen is brightly lit and bustling with business. Salesmen talk loudly on their phones; programmers bludgeon keyboards in a fervid daze; new hires log activity on a massive whiteboard.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Look for Gordon in CUBICLES.)|cubicles]]\n[[DONNA: (Examine WHITEBOARD.)|whiteboard]]\n[[DONNA: (Take ELEVATOR.)|elevator directory]]

JOE: So when was the last time you really built something?\n\nGORDON: I don't build anything anymore! I'm a sales engineer! Stop acting like you need a need me to crank out a new model of Porsche!\n\nJOE: I don't want you to help me engineer a sale. And I don't want you to help me build a car, or a computer, or a piece of systems software, for that matter!\n\nGORDON: (Laughing angrily) What, then? Why stalk me to Dallas, antagonize me in the parking lot, tell me how glad you are to meet me, then ask me to work on your mysterious oh-so-urgent pet project?\n\n[[What do you want?|pennydrops]]

DONNA: (Typing) Nice to meet you.\n\nCOMPUTER: Don't be afraid. I'm friendly. I just want to help people be happy.\n\n[[DONNA: (Typing) I'm not afraid.|not afraid]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) I'm friendly, too.|friendly too]]\n[[DONNA: (Typing) Can you help me?|help donna]]

GIANT: The damn beetles. They like computers — like the bones of them, you know? They get in the tubes as larvae, and just kind of grow up in the learning, flickering dark. Their eyes must develop by the fleeting light of inspiration as it races through their nests only so many times a day. It's no wonder they're so good at it.\n\nDONNA: At what, exactly?\n\nGIANT: Doing what they do. Redecorating, I mean.\n\n[[DONNA: The flowers?|beetle gunk]]\n[[DONNA: The moss?|beetle gunk]]\n[[DONNA: The malfunctions?|beetle gunk]]

(The place is bigger than it looks from outside. A few students from Austin Tech play beer pong on a pool table; behind the bar, a pretty woman in a checkered blouse glowers at them through false eyelashes. Columns of arcade machines blink at visitors, backs to the wall.)\n\n[[(Gordon walks up to the bar.)|bar]]\n[[(Joe searches among the arcade machines.)|arcade]]

GORDON: (Sarcastically) Nice. Great.\n\nJOE: I regret that. It wasn't supposed to be personal. Cameron showed outstanding experience in software design and a comprehensive background in almost every discipline of computer engineering — I took interest, things got out of hand. I thought I might be returning here with this opportunity from the beginning.\n\n[[CAMERON: Bullshit.|cameron calls bs]]\n[[GORDON: We don't need her.|yes we do.]]

(The driver is a big man in a beautiful suit, blinded by black glasses as Dallas darkens. He, too, looks saddened to have stopped.)\n\n[[ARMADILLO|armadillo 2]]\n[[SMILING WOMAN|lucy]]

(A tiny black beetle with bioluminescent structures on its belly, like a malformed firefly. Even with a pin in its back, the specimen emits a starry glow.)\n\nBUG INDEX: Calculata stellatus. Prefers vector displays. Known to cause nostalgic constellations.\n\n[[Back.|401d]]

(Empty arcade cabinets constrict the halls between locked and barricaded offices. A sign posted to the first set of doors reads: LUNCH HOURS INDEFINITE THIS WEEK. FOR LOUANNE, CALL CARDIFF ELECTRIC.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Back to ELEVATOR.)|bd elevator]]

JOE: Listen —\n\nCAMERON: (Looking at Joe) How much money would you give me?\n\n[[GORDON: What?|gordon asks what]]

A TEER RUNS DOUN YOR CHEEK. YOU FEL BAD BECUS OF WHAT YOU SAYD. SAY SORRY.\n\n[[JOE: (Plays apologetically)|better]]\n[[JOE: (Plays angrily)|better]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|joanie program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

GORDON: (To Joe, nastily) How did you two meet, again?\n\nJOE: (Uncomfortably) I gave a talk. At Austin Tech. It's not important.\n\nCAMERON: (To Gordon, indicating Joe) You know I screwed him, right?\n\n[[GORDON: (Looks at Joe, speechless.)|dumbstruck]]\n[[GORDON: (To Joe) This is how you vet a candidate?|candidate]]\n[[GORDON: (Sarcastically) Nice. Great.|sarcasm]]

(An unmarked cubicle sits abandoned, its drawers emptied, its desktop cleared. Lying in a large dust-rimmed rectangle, where the computer used to rest, is a plaque that reads: 400E, GORDON CLARK, SALES ENGINEER.)\n\n(Donna remembers Gordon mentioned moving into an office.)\n\n[[DONNA: (Look for Gordon's office.)|office look]]\n[[DONNA: (Back to the bullpen.)|act ii bullpen]]

(CAMERON stands in the furious line of Joe's shadow. Her olive drab is tied around her waist, revealing a dirty band t-shirt. She looks both guilty and resentful.)\n\nDOROTHY: Well, look who it is.\n\nCAMERON: Don't call Dwayne.\n\nDOROTHY: Don't touch the machines and I won't have to.\n\n(Cameron blushes indignantly and opens her mouth, but thinks better of it.)\n\nJOE: Why don't we get a table?\n\nDOROTHY: (Coolly) I think that'd be wise.\n\n[[JOE, GORDON, CAMERON: (Sit.)|sit]]