He looked down at his own hand. It didn't look like a hand anymore. It looked like a flickering broadcast of a hand from 1984. He couldn't remember what his real skin felt like. Was he the man in the chair watching the screen, or the man on the screen being watched?
The scanner didn't just watch Elias; it translated him. Every six seconds, the "scramble suit" he wore shifted his appearance through a million different identities—a child, a waitress, a construction worker, an old man—to ensure no one, not even his superiors, knew who was underneath. He was Agent 7, assigned to monitor a suspect named Elias. The problem was that Elias was himself. subtitle A Scanner Darkly
Below is a story inspired by its "scanned" aesthetic and "Slow Death" Substance D premise. The Static Mirror He looked down at his own hand
"Target is consuming," Elias-the-Agent whispered into his suit’s recorder. His voice came out as a synthesized rasp. He couldn't remember what his real skin felt like
A knock came at the door. On the monitor, he saw a woman standing in the hallway. He recognized her—Donna, his only link to the world outside the static. But then he realized: if he was wearing the suit, he couldn't open the door. If he took it off, he was just another "freak doper" the scanners would hunt.
But the scanner behind him, whirring in the corner, whispered back: "Which one?"