You are a Martian

[F4M] or [A4A] [script offer] You are a Martian [Hypnosis] [narrative] [train] [longing] [Landscapes] [calling a place home] [scifi] [breathing mask] [journey]

© by SofConMac

A guided meditation transporting the listener into a train riding through a terraformed Mars, (inspired by Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy) where he/she will have a nap, not sleeping but just chilling down and enjoying the place and his/her situation. There is longing, long journeys on and between planets, people left behind so far away, but also a general and diffuse pleasure – I hope – caused by the landscapes the listeners travel through, landscapes of a planet that once was lifeless and now is full of life. There is also the pleasure – chaste this time- of wearing a breathing mask on your face, being fed air by a machine, being given the possibility to enjoy life in a place where human life should be impossible. And also, perhaps, the pleasure of traveling through a world when humans built and seeded life instead of destroying it. And perhaps also a way to evade the current times by imagining that having to wear a mask can have positive implications (although I thought about this script before the coronavirus outbreak). The resulting audio is supposed to be listened to while lying comfortably in an armchair or your bed. Or, even better, alone in a train riding through the landscape. I wrote this script imagining a feminine voice telling it to my male self, but I feel like both the voice and the listener can be of any gender.

As long as I can listen to the result, you can make whatever you want from this.

[Just some calm, meditative music fading in. The choice you make is the best choice!]
[gently, but with a rhythm, lulling the listener into hypnotic trance/guided meditation through word repetition, and thought associations. Your purpose is to become the train of thoughts of your listener.]

[tender, relaxing]
Listen to me.
Just calm down, unwind, and listen to me.
listen to me, human.
You are right, I am a human too, but…
For now, I’m just a voice…
A voice in your head…
A voice lulling you down…
So, just let go, human, just let go.
Let go, and listen to my voice.
[a bit complicit] It’s a trick that brought you to so many places…
It makes you feel so good…
So, just let go…
Just let yourself be lulled…
Lulled into that state…
That half-asleep state…
Half-dreaming…
[some faint background train SFX can be added now to the music]
Just let my voice lull you into that dream…
As if you were in a train, half awake…
All alone in the compartment, half looking at the landscape…
[Now the train SFX can be louder, and the music fainter, in the background]
Just let go, human…
Let my voice enter your ears…
Like the landscape enters your half closed eyes…
You know how good it makes you feel.
To just let yourself float…
As if you were sliding, gliding, flying…
Yes, human, just let yourself float…
Just let yourself float, glide, fly…
Fly, inches above the ground…
Fly, in that gentle rolling countryside…
Fields and pastures…
A tropical countryside, large, lone trees dotting it…
A palm tree, from time to time…
And far away, the mountains at the horizon…
Mountains, or, dream of mountains, floating above the horizon…
Ochre, red and pink mountains in the distance…
Gliding with you above the countryside…
[Pause]
[Praising, more casual] This is good, human, you’re getting good at that…
[back to hypnotic lull] Golden mist, violet mountains in the sky …
Golden mist, green pastures and towering trees…
Just let go, human…
Just enjoy what I have in store for you.
The train is going at a regular speed…
And this smooth movement reminds you of those dreams you have…
[starting here, the train SFX can partly fade out, just becoming a distant background for the music]
Those dreams where you fly above the green countryside…
Mountains, far away, and clouds, puff of cream, floating above you.
Above you in the beautiful, beautiful sky…
The large expanse of the sky…
Clouds floating like you float above the countryside…
Floating in the sky…
The beautiful purplish blue sky…
This beautiful sky that stunned you the first time you saw it...
The purplish hue of the sky…
How long ago was it? So many years…
This beautiful sky that stunned you the first time you arrived here.
That made you cry…
Yes, human, beauty makes you cry at times…
This beautiful sky that stunned you…
The first time that you landed…
That you landed on Mars.
On Mars…
On Mars…
[A bit more casual, but not much] Yes, don’t you remember?
You didn’t expect that sky...
[back to hypnotic tone] You knew about the vast expanses…
You knew about the red mountains…
You knew about moonless nights, human…
But not about this beauty.
This beauty always hovering above you.
The beautiful, intense and tender purplish color of the sky…
The beautiful color the sky has…
On Mars.
On Mars, the alien world…
The alien world that became your home…
The home of your family.
Yes, human.
Your family.
On Mars.
On Mars…
[Now the train SFX can come gently back, be  more present]
The train gliding through the landscapes on mars…
Your family waiting for you on Mars…
Your home, ready to welcome you again, on Mars…
Your secluded home nested in that crater, on Mars…
The birds…
The trees…
The purple sky, the black sand, and the red rocks of Mars.
[pause]
[the train SFX can be slower if that is possible, as if the train was climbing a steep slope]
The landscape continues to slide behind the window…
The train twists and turns in ample curves…
Slowly raising above the countryside…
Slowly rising…
Uphill, always slightly higher…
At times, you enter a tunnel, and everything becomes dark…
The dark red color of the rocks on Mars…
The red and hard rocks of Mars…
And then, it exists, and crosses a bridge…
And you feel like you fly, you really fly above the landscape…
And you continue to remember…
Flying above the trees…
The pastures…
You continue to remember…
[here the train SFX can fade out again, not disappearing but just being a faint background]
How Mars welcomed you.
How new people became your friends.
How each need became a pleasure.
A part of what makes your life enjoyable…
The need to wear a suit…
The need to wear a mask…
The air here isn’t breathable for you…
Birds can fly, ants can crawl, but you need a mask.
Without it, your breath is short, and a dull pain invades your head…
Making you miserable and panting…
Miserable, human…
You feared that, at the time…
But now, you don’t, do you?
Everything is so natural.
Everything is so normal.
This mask is a part of yourself…
You feel naked without it, feeble and fragile.
Wearing it is what you are.
The mask, hugging your face…
Covering your mouth…
Covering your nose…
Covering your eyes…
Straps maintaining it on your face.
Warmly hugging your face.
Underlying with a hiss each of your breaths.
Underlying life racing through your lungs.
The long and calm life on mars…
And feeding you with fresh air.
[here the train SFX can get more present]
As the train pulls you up…
Higher, and higher…
Always higher, along that long, long incline…
And the chiasm, just over the window…
And the tropical countryside at the bottom of it…
The great chiasm…
The great valley….
The valley of the mariner…
Dammed away from the ocean [just to be sure, it is not damned but dammed, a dam blocks the ocean from inundating it]
The great Valles Marineris.
And a whole country at the bottom of it.
[pause]
The train gently continues to bring you up.
Along that slope.
Each curve hugging the cliff.
And you remember, human.
You remember…
You remember when you built it.
That slope…
The great incline that feeds this valley.
You were not alone, human.
You were not alone…
But you were a part of it.
Carefully calculating the curves.
The gentle and regular slope…
Hugging the cliffs.
The gentle and regular slope, human.
[a bit less tender now, we are speaking about rocks and hard work]
Calculating it, and then carving it.
Blast, after blast, after blast.
Carving it through the red rocks of Mars.
The hard, the hard red rocks…
Blasting them, bringing them down.
And then, laying the tracks. [calming down]
Laying the tracks, human.
Laying the tracks of the train.
Calculating those curves.
[once again, the train SFX can gently come back to the background]
Laying the tracks of your life.
In that virgin world.
And seeding it with life.
[Pause]
Seeding it with life.
The life…
The long, and calm life.
Breathing the life.
The mask giving you life.
The long, and calm life.
The long and calm life of Mars…
[pause]
Each day, forty minutes longer than on earth.
Each year, twice as long…
Forty more minutes, each and every day…
And each year, twice as long…
Forty more minutes of sleep when you are tired…
forty more minutes of work when in a hurry…
forty more minutes of leisure and happy life.
Every day, each and every day.
Forty minutes worth empires.
And each year, human, each year, twice as long…
[pause]
The landscape changes behind the window…
The valley is not there anymore.
The hot land down below…
The mango trees…
The hummingbirds...
And the great lake, under the red cliffs.
[pause]
Bathing in that lake.
Drops of water on your mask…
Your mask hugging you…
Your suit hugging you…
And the mountains towering above you…
And you floating in the lake.
Deep down, at the bottom of the great valley, human.
Floating in the lake,
And the mountains towering above you.
[here the train SFX can get more present]
And the train climbing them, now…
The line of life.
The great incline.
[train SFX back into the background]
And above it all, the sea, the ocean.
The ocean of Mars.
Blue at times, but always purplish
And even at times red, under the skies of Mars.
The great Ocean of the north.
Blue, like the Atlantic, or red like blood.
Lined with beaches of black sand.
Rich red blood irrigating Mars.
Irrigating Mars with its life.
Okeanos Borealis, the Ocean in the north.
The Ocean, in its majesty.
Lined with beaches of black sand.
And heavy, heavy with life.
Fishes and sea life, all brought here.
Aliens in this place, but making it home.
Helped by you, by people like you, human.
Seeding Mars with life.
Seeding Mars with life.
[pause]
Seeding Mars with alien life.
Fishes of the earth…
But changed, engineered.
Changed to enjoy this place.
The chemistry of the Ocean, of the air.
The alien chemistry of Mars.
The alien life on Mars.
Changed by the place.
[pause]
And you, human?
Were you changed by Mars?
Birds are flying in Mars now, fishes are swimming.
Fed by the great Ocean, in the north of Mars.
Ants are crawling…
But you, human?
Were you changed?
You wear a suit…
You wear a mask…
You were not engineered.
But, were you changed?
Were you changed by this place?
All these years, twice as long…
All these days…
Forty minutes longer…
Day after day after day…
[Pause]
Forty minutes given to you, every day, by Mars.
Forty minutes, the slow and gentle rhythm of Mars.
Of Mars, lulling you, like this train…
Day, after day, after day.
Lulling you in the slow and leisured time…
The slow and gentle time Mars gives to its inhabitants.
Forty minutes longer, day after day.
And minutes adding themselves.
Day, after day…
Offsetting your life.
Offsetting your life from those of earthlings.
Forty minutes more, every day.
Forty minutes farther, every day.
Forty minutes, farther from earth…
Each and every day.
[pause]
Earth…
The Earth…
The other island of life…
Where your roots are…
Your parents…
Forty minutes, every day.
The places of your childhood…
Forty minutes farther away.
Each and every day.
The distance, the journey…
The length of that journey through space.
The dull hours, days, weeks, months lost in space.
The dull light…
The canned food…
The cramped life…
Idle, useless, canned life…
And every day, that blue disc a bit smaller.
The earth a bit farther...
Always a bit farther away.
Calling them daily, and each time, and their response coming later.
A few seconds at first, but another one each day…
Each passing day…
And another, and another…
And now minutes, sometimes a quarter hour…
Phone calls became useless, and your words sounded silly…
Spilled in the void…
The great void…
The great empty void of space.
The minutes light takes to go through space…
The distance…
That huge distance that even light needs time to go through…
So far away, little islands lost in space…
Specks of dust, under the light of the sun…
Little specks of light…
In the great, lifeless void of space.
The lifeless ocean of space.
[pause]
[the train SFX can become more present here]
The train stops at times, in port towns.
And you continue to stare into the ocean.
As the train continues to glide along it.
The rich Ocean of Mars, red like blood and full of life.
Bathing the north of Mars with its warmth.
The great ocean…
But, after a last stop, the train continues due east…
Due east into the highlands.
Arabia terra, your land, your highland…
Green but cold, but dotted with oases of warmth…
And the landscape changes once again.
Countryside dotted with rocks and dark trees.
Red rocks, fields, pastures, and trees.
Always recomposed into another landscape.
And another.
And another.
But this mixture changes, as the trains continues to rise…
To rise, in small steps, through the land...
Less trees…
More rocks…
And fields receding, melting, disappearing.
And pastures, green lush pastures taking their place.
Green pastures, rolling in hills…
Red rocks dotting them…
Rain and sun always alternating.
The purplish sky…
White clouds dotting it…
And the train sliding, twisting through the undulated land.
The undulated green and red land of Arabia terra.
[the train SFX can come back into the background]

Your land.

It’s cold up there.
Never freezing, but never warm, human.
The air, always crisp and clean.
Cold and clean like a mountain spring.
The light always changing.
Like an Irish spring, an Icelandic summer…
An Icelandic summer, lasting forever.
Rolling hills, intensely green…
Dotted with red rocks.
One after the other…
Hill, after hill, after hill…
And a mountain from place to place.
Snow sprinkled at times atop them…
And the train brushing along them.
Mountains, hiding oases.
Oases of warmth.
Oases of eternal spring.
Oases of life.
And Martian plants, Martian animals, Martian people living in them.
Martian people…
Living in them.
With you.
In the oases, hidden behind the mountains.
And trains gliding between them.
Trains gliding like yours in the green and red land.
Gliding on their tracks.
Tracks laid out by Martians.
Laid out between the oases, behind the mountains.
[pause]
Do you remember how it surprised you, at first?
Each mountain appears to have a flat top, always hidden in mist.
Golden mist under the sun, grey and blue under the rain…
But there is no flat top.
Nothing but the rim of a bowl.
A bowl of warmth the size of a county…
A circle of warm countryside walled of and secluded.
Secluded.
Secure.
Content.
A circle of warm countryside…
Gouged by fiery rocks eons ago.
In catastrophes you can’t even imagine.
Cosmic rocks smashing Mars with unspeakable energy.
All of a sudden, out of the great void.
And doing so, building your home.
Your secluded home.
In the violence of the impact.
Coming from the darkness of space.
The darkness of space.
Only dotted with tiny specks of light.
You look at it at times.
In the clear nights.
In the eternal spring, at the bottom of this crater…
This oasis, lost somewhere…
Somewhere in the Arabia Terra.
You look at it at times.
Little dots of light.
Stars and planets…
Stars and planets…
[pause]

At times, there is that bright blue star…
In the evening sky…
The bright blue star…
And the small white one always following it.
The bright blue one…
The small white one…
The earth…
The moon…
Specks of light in the sky…
Specks of life in the sky…
So far away…
Your past.
Your roots.
Only specks of light in the sky…
So far away…
So far away even light needs time to go there.
Even light…
[pause]
Why did you do that?
Why did you do that, human?
Pulling away your roots from the earth?
This is the mystery hidden inside you…
This is the mystery hidden inside every martian…
[pause]
And that journey never stopped…
Everyday a bit farther away, human.
Away from them, from their daily life.
Their days not being yours.
Their time, not being yours.
And exchanging messages, like bottles in the ocean…
The huge, the cold and lifeless ocean of space.
But, would you go back?
One year of travel, at a dazzling speed…
Through the huge, the cold and lifeless ocean of space.
Leaving your home…
And the purplish blue sky of mars…
Leaving your family…
And that red and blue Ocean
Leaving your life.
And the lake at the center of the oasis?
The lake where your children learned to swim?
How could you?
How could you, human?
And what for? Why coming back there?
Under the always changing moon?
Bathed in the wind of the Atlantic?
Your mask presses itself gently on your face…
And you know why.
Earth is a beautiful planet.
You know what you saw there.
But you also know why you left.
And how Mars welcomed you.
Your mask reminds you...
It reminds you of who you are.
Gently hugging your face.
Of how you were changed by Mars.
While you were changing it.
How it made you who you are…
While you made it your home.
Gently hugging your face…
It reminds you of who you are.
Of who are those you work with.
Those you walk with.
Those you enjoy life with.
Gently hugging you face.
It reminds you of who you love.
Who are your family.
As the train enters a last tunnel…
Gently sloping down.
Sloping down into the crater.
The oasis.
The warm bowl of countryside.
Looking at the sun.
Opened to the sky, the purplish sky.
Opened by a fiery rock, eons ago…
A few villages around the lake.
Homes warmed by the sun
Homes fed by the rain.
Built on the soil of Mars.
Made of the shocked rocks of Mars.
Your home…
Your life is here, human.
Not under the moon.
As the train enters the station.
Your family is waiting for you, human.
[Pause]
Your family is waiting for you.
You home is here.
Made of the red rocks of Mars.
Your family is here.
Grown under the purplish sky of Mars.
And fed by the life growing on Mars.
And you are a Martian, human.
You are a Martian…
You are a Martian and there is nothing to regret.

2600 words.