The Matrix Guide To Tango

1st April 2011

One: Follow the white rabbit

[Morpheus opens a container which holds two pills: a blue one, and a red one. He puts one in each hand, and holds them out to Neo.]

Morpheus: This is your last chance . After this, there is no turning back.....You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up ......and dance to traditional music...nothing composed after the Golden Age.
You take the red pill.....you stay in wonderland...and I show you just how nuevo the rabbit hole goes.

[Neo pauses for an instant, then reaches for the red pill. He swallows it down with a glass of water, and looks at Morpheus.]

Morpheus: Remember...all I'm offering you is the truth: nothing more. Morpheus half smiles at Neo.
Morpheus: Follow me.....

[Morpheus turns to Neo]

Morpheus: You've been living in a dream world, Neo. This...is the Buenos Aires as it exists today.

[Morpheus changes the channel on the television.]
[The sky is an endless sea of black and green bile. The earth, scorched and split like burnt flesh, spreads out beneath us as we enter the television. An endless dirge of Gotan Project music is playing in the background.]

Morpheus: Welcome.....to the desert of the real...We have only bits and pieces of information, but what we know for certain is that some point in the early twenty-first the Argentine economy collapsed - again. We don't know who struck first - the traditionalists or the Nuevos - but we do know that the Nuevos blotted out the sun to help destroy the cabeceo.

Two: I know Milonguero

[Tank leads Neo onto the main deck, and plugs him in.]

Tank: Now, we're supposed to start with these operation programs, walking and posture, but that's major boring sh*t. Let's do something a little more fun...combat dance training, Negracha-style.

[Tank smiles as he sits down in his operator's chair, flipping through several disks. He picks one, and puts it into his computer. Neo looks at the screen.]

Neo: Volcadas? I'm going to learn...Volcadas ?

[Smiling, Tank presses the 'Load' button.]
[Neo's body jumps against the harness as his eyes clamp shut. The monitors kick wildly as his heart pounds, adrenaline surges, and his brain sizzles. An instant later his eyes snap open.]

Neo: Holy sh*t!

[Tank grins]

Tank: Hey Mikey, I think he likes it! How about some more?

Neo: Hell yeah...oh yeah.

[Hours later, Morpheus walks in. Tank is blinking, trying to keep his eyes in focus.]

Morpheus: How is he....?

Tank: Ten hours straight in salon Canning..he's a tango machine!

[Neo's training finishes, and he opens his eyes, breathing hard.]

Neo: *gasp* I know...Milonguero!

Morpheus: Show me...

[Morpheus sits down in the chair next to Neo and nods at Tank.
[They appear in in a very sparse Japanese-style dojo.]

Morpheus: This is a Milonga program, similar to the programmed reality of the Matrix. It has the same basic codigos, codigos like the cabaceo. What you must learn is that these rules are no different than the rules of a computer system...some of them can can be bent. Others...can be broken. Understand?

[Neo thinks about it, and nods]

Morpheus: Then dance with me...if you can.

[Morpheus and Neo embrace, neo. Morpheus assumes a milonguero stance. Neo assumes a similar stance, cautiously circling until he gives a short cry and launches a furious attack. They move at high speed, fists and feet striking from every angle as Neo presses his attack, but each and every blow is blocked by effortless speed. Morpheus colgadas Neo and knocks him back against the line of dance.]

Three: Red dress and Comme il Fauts

[A woman walks by, standing out from all the leaders in suits, as she is wearing a bright red dress, and bright red lipstick. Neo stares.]

Morpheus: You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to dance with musicality. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependant on the routine-based dance system, that they will fight to protect it. Were you listening to me, Neo? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress and Comme Il Fauts?

Neo: I was...

Morpheus: Look again..

[Neo turns around, to see that the woman in the red dress has turned into an agent, and is pointing a gun at his head. Neo ducks, covering his head with his hands.]

Morpheus: Freeze it.

[The people and animals around them stop, frozen.]

Neo: This....this isn't the Matrix?

Morpheus: No. It's another program, designed to teach you one thing: If you are not one of us, you are one of them.

~ BorderTangoMan, 1st April 2011