baker.txt

baker.txt

Video title	baker.txt
Creator	Jadus
Channel	Jadusable
Upload date	April 19, 2020
Runtime	9:10
Tags	N/A
Game	N/A

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THE FATHER.wmv

Methods of Revolution
[Day 1]

“I am telling you, whatever they end up proposing. Don’t get it put in you. No matter what they say, or what they tell you it’s for. Don’t get it.”

—Baker, methodsofrevolution.com

baker.txt is the twelfth video of Awakening and the thirty-second video in Ben Drowned. It is preceded by THE FATHER.wmv and followed by Methods of Revolution [Part 1].

Synopsis

Jadus describes a last-second meeting between himself and Baker, a friend of his. Baker tells Jadus of an impending riot that will cause a city-wide lockdown and advises he leave the city before it happens. He also mentions a doomsday cult that has appeared out of nowhere and something biblical in nature being developed by top researchers. He warns Jadus not to take it.

Video

Description

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Transcript

Over the image of a coffee shop and sounds of idle chatter, Jadus types the following.

• I glanced down at my coffee and stirred it aimlessly. Without my phone with me I didn't really have much else to do while I waited. I wanted to pretend that I was just meeting a friend. I wanted to pretend that the cars passing outside were typical rush hour traffic. But I couldn't. The truth was that we had a handful of minutes left before this coffee shop closed and we had to be back home. The truth was that the traffic outside was congregating because people were racing to avoid being ticketed. The truth was, our entire country was locked down under a strict curfew.
• I heard the shop bell ring and I glanced up. Years of meeting people in this hole in the wall had instilled a very real Pavlovian response in me. Sure enough, a man stood in the doorwar - above average height, stocky build, and intentionally dressed down. It had been a couple years but I recognized him instantly. He scanned the area and locked eyes with me. I waved him over.
• "Baker - long time no see." The floor creaked as he approached.
• He nodded at me and gestured to the waiter as he slid into the seat across from me. "Black coffee's fine, thanks."
• He scanned the room, "Place seems busier than normal."
• I shrugged, "Guess everyone's making the most of it before visitation hours end."
• "Yeah, guess so."
• Baker either hadn't aged much or my world had just gotten that much older since we last saw each other. His eternal five o'clock shadow didn't seem that out of place anymore in a world where everyone was letting their hygiene slip. I never prodded too closely into his line of work - all I knew from our time befriending each other at the gym years ago was that he worked in the private sector and was often overseas. Since then, we would touch base whenever he was in town - grab a bite to eat, complain about our wives, complain about the government, that sort of thing. Without fail, we inevitably ended up talking more about my life than his, and although I found my own life boring he seemed intrigued by it. I always had the feeling that I was his insight into some semblance of a normal life.
• We pitched small talk back and forth for a few minutes. It was the usual - how are you holding up, how's the lockdown treating you, did you see the latest developments towards the cure, and so on. But we were both beating around the bush. He wanted to meet me on an incredibly short notice, and he didn't want me to bring my phone. I knew it was something serious.
• "So, the big question. You think you'll still have your job once this is all over?" Baker asked.
• "I doubt it. My company is not going to survive this." I stared at the table and shook my head with a sad smile. It was all I could muster.
• "It's just so absurd. I can't seem to catch a god damn break. I graduated high school right into a recession. Worked a few awful jobs for a few years to save up for college. Took out tens of thousands of dollars of loans to go to school and graduate with my masters. Couldn't find a decent job for a few months and thenwhen I finally do and I'm able to get my head above water-"
• "-then along came H.E.R.O.E.S., huh?" Baker finished.
• "It's a fucking cosmic joke."
• "And people act surprised they're already rioting in Seattle." He took a long sip of his coffee.
• Beneath his aloof temperament I could tell he was mad. Me too.
• A hell of a lot of people were.
• "...Well, at least I don't have H.E.R.O.E.S." I managed a smile.
• "At least." Baker's eyes drifted from mine as he shifted his posture. Here it comes.
• "Listen, we're leaving the city tomorrow."
• "You're serious? What did you hear?"
• "Things are getting bad - real bad."
• There was a long silence as the gravity of the situation set in, the general murmurs around me became muted as I felt my stomach twist in on itself.
• In the past Baker had occasionally joked with me - often after a few beers - that if things ever got too bad he had a piece of property out in the boonies to fall back to. Never thought he was actually serious.
• "...What's going on?"
• Baker scratched the side of his chin, "Heard from one of the union heads that they're going to go on strike soon. That strike is going to disrupt the entire supply chain to several cities, namely..." he tapped his finger on the table twice, "...well, namely Saint Louis."
• "Seriously? Why?" In my bewilderment I couldn't help but repeat myself. Why? why were they striking now?
• "In a nutshell? Untenable working conditions. I don't have time to give you the full scoop but you know this story just as well as I do." Baker lowered his voice to just above a whisper, "When this lockdown happened, we found out real quick who really keeps this country going and it's not the boys up at the top - it's the people making our food, paving our roads, and picking up our trash. After three months of putting up with all of this abuse and getting paid dogshit it's no surprise most of them are quitting. You're liable to make more money on unemployment anyway with none of the risk. Everyone's always so eager to go on social media just to tell them how much they're the real heroes, but it's all just sycophantic bullshit. They don't really mean a word of it."
• "But... why now?"
• He tapped each of his fingers rhythmically on the table for a minute, as if he was choosing his next words carefully.
• "there was another round of worker fatalities this week. It was pretty bad."
• "I didn't hear about that on the news."
• "thing is, the government's not gonna have it. Once people stop getting a reliable way to eat, it's going to break bad here soon, and if you're smart you'll be out of the city by then."
• "How long do you think we have?" I felt like a terminally ill patient trying to bargain with his physician.
• "Once the riots start? Maybe five days before the guard deploys? Less?"
• "...Do you have anywhere that you can stay? Any friends or family out in the country?"
• I didn't, but moreover I couldn't just leave my life here.
• "You really think they'll start rioting here?"
• "What would you do if you couldn't eat?"
• "I'll have to take my chances here."
• "That's your choice, but that's not the only thing unfortunately." Baker eyed the room once more. "You don't have your phone with you, right?"
• I pated both my pockets and raised my shoulders slightly.
• "alright" Baker leaned in, "Word on the street is that our boys in white at the CUIMC are working on something big. Something biblical."
• "The cure? I would've thought that was obvious."
• "No. Not the cure. Something else. Some real mark of the beast type shit." Baker slapped two fingers against his wrist, "Uncle Sam is panicking because the longer we stay on lockdown the more likely this house of cards comes tumbling down. They want to rush us back to work as fast as they can. They want things to go back to normal."
• "Can you blame them? But mark of the beast... really?" That was a little too on the nose for me. "Think they're going to get some guy in horns and a pitchfork to hand it out too?"
• Baker laughed ruefully, "You can be sure that they'll be clever about it."
• "OK, I'll bite," I raised an eyebrow. "What does it do, exactly?"
• "Well, that's really where the reports end." Baker sighed, "We have no idea. It's all just theories at this point."
• "Never thought you'd become a conspiracy theorist," I laughed nervously and felt myself fidget in my seat, "Enough with these 'reports', come back to reality Baker."
• "Don't lecture me about reality," Baker stared at me and managed a faint smile, "Stop and think for a minute here. In just the span of twelve months - just twelve months - we found out about a secret pedophile ring that went all the way to the top, right after that there was a global pandemic that broke out that's still affecting hundreds of thousands of people today, a doomsday cult has emerged out of damn near thin air, and there's an alarming amount of people that are now misremembering things from their childhood. You and I might be sitting in the same old coffee shop, but outside of here - nothing is making sense anymore."
• Baker glanced around the room yet again before turning back to face me - his brief smile completely gone.
• "Think about where you and I are right now. I mean right this minute. We're on lockdown. Punishable by fines and jail time. In our own country. You really think you could've seen any of this coming a year ago? Predicted any of this? You'd think that you'd stop and humble yourself just for a minute before dismissing anything now as a conspiracy theory. If this trajectory holds, you and I have no idea what other kind of crazy shit is on the menu. You need to come to terms with your grasp on reality - it's not as strong as you might have thought."
• Baker paused and brought his voice back down. He was certainly fired up. Where was this coming from?
• "Listen, I'm not saying what they got cooking up is good or bad. I'm saying you need to recognize that you and I have completely lost the plot - no one has any idea of what is going on in this world anymore. All I know is that yesterday's conspiracy theories are turning into tomorrow's news."
• He could tell by my expression that his words were beginning to weigh heavily on me. "You're in IT right? It's like some programmer messed up the code or something," he managed a sympathetic smile again.

After several seconds of background noise, the video ends.

Shortly after the video's premiere, the following text, which continues the narrative from the video, was found on the lock screen of methodsofrevolution.com:

• He was all over the place, but I followed. I followed all of it. A lot had happened in the past year - in retrospect it was morbid how we just meandered from one once-in-a-generation scandal to the next in a lazy, indifferent haze. We were so caught up in making it to work on time, paying our bills, and buying the next big ticket item that those events barely registered for more than a week or two before we forgot all about it. But now half the country was unemployed, bills were frozen, and people prioritized essential food/supplies. This was probably the first time many of us really got the chance to stop and really think about the weight of these things and what kind of world we were living in. There really was a billionaire pedophile that ran uncontested for decades in our most elite circles, and we still hadn’t found his accomplices. We really were headed towards another Great Depression, and society as we knew it was beginning to crumble. And we really did spend way too much time at the office, and for what? Things were too fast paced to focus before, but now that we had nothing but time we realized that this was real. This was actually happening in our world. There’s a psychological barrier that many people have that refuse to allow them to accept terrible things happening in the world. It’s only when things become so in your face and undeniable that the barrier shatters - in many cases it was the lockdown that shattered it for many people. Now there were no bills to pay and we had no choice but to dwell on the truth. This was the first time that myself and many others were able to stop and realize the reality that we lived in. It was a shame that the riots were beginning to start this early, we might have had time to really organize a revolution. The riots in Seattle were emblematic of that, I’m sure. But now with the supply chain being disrupted in the Bible Belt, more would start, but for the wrong reasons. We were interrupted by the owner - the shop was closing soon, which meant we had only a few minutes to get back home before curfew. I stayed behind to use the restroom while Baker made his way to the exit. He paused in half-step out the door and turned to me, staring directly at me. “I am telling you, whatever they end up proposing. Don’t get it put in you.“ “No matter what they say, or what they tell you it’s for. “ “Don’t get it.” These specific memories fluttered back to me for some reason in a dreamlike fashion, I could recall them all vividly. Rather, it was the last poignant thing as I woke up on a cold tile floor on the 23rd of April.

Notes

• This video features the first instance of scripted voice acting in a video, as Baker's dialogue is read aloud as it's typed.