Déjà Vu

This article is about the comic, for the phenomenon see Déjà vu.

Déjà Vu is a comic written and illustrated by Paul Chadwick for the The Matrix Comics Series 1, and was included in The Matrix: Comic Book Preview and, in color, as part of The Matrix Comics Volume 2. Later, it was also included in The Matrix Comics: 20th Anniversary Edition.

Shown from the point of view of the husband, it told the fortunes (and misfortunes) that befell him and his wife, a potential able to perceive the déjà vus that occurred within the Matrix, as they tried to seize more control of their lives inside the Matrix using the woman's precognitive knowledge of what was to come.

Story

A stockbroker was married to a woman whose mind was unusually sensitive. Extremely so that the husband noted how his wife was not cut out for the real world. His wife, as he continued to note, was deeply wounded even by the mildest of criticisms, and has shown to be easy prey to the common and opportunistic sales spiels. These sensitivities further extended to her physical senses, exhibiting extremely delicate and irritable skin and having been gifted with hyper-acute eyesight.

The husband also recognized how his wife's sensitivities were, at some times, gifts. She was specially receptive, being unable to fully shut out the physical world and, by extension, unable to shut out her nightmares. But her permeable walls also made her extremely empathetic and caring, and it allowed her to fully focus on her present experiences. Extraordinarily, her sensitive mind was also able to receive premonitions of what was to come or, in actuality, perceive the deja vus permeating the Matrix.

But often times, her abilities had also brought about grief, exemplified by a premonition of the sudden and violent death of a random robin she came across in one of her jogs. She was also sometimes able to self-substantiate during her sleep, witnessing her body paralyzed in a pod surrounded by machines, and mistaking it for nightmares. The husband would then often talk to his wife about these experiences, trying to ease her mind off of her difficulties, and talking her back into "reality".

During one such attempt to lighten the situation, the husband chose to talk about his work, and about how his colleague Butterfield had heard rumors of a new wonder drug by the pharmaceutical company Pfitzer. Upon hearing this, the wife immediately confirmed the rumors of the pill's upcoming release, and further confirmed how sensational the new drug, Amourtin, was going to be.

The stockbroker, in a risky move, decided to invest every dollar they could afford into Pfitzer's stocks, nervously watching the market for the next two weeks. His wife's intuition proved to be keen, however, and the investment immediately paid off. To the stockbroker, this newly acquired wealth provided security and allowed the couple to look forward towards a more hopeful future full of different prospects.

Not long afterwards, while the couple were out shopping, the stockbroker's wife suddenly perceived that a vehicle was bound to crash into the store they were currently at. Acting quickly, she prevented the accident from claiming any lives. This deed, however, did not go unnoticed by the media and the woman soon appeared on a TV interview, confusing the husband who thought his wife would have never agreed to one.

During the interview, the woman revealed the truth of her abilities in front of the cameras. To give credence to the claim, she then credited their wealth as a couple to her precognitive abilities and how they had used it to invest early in Pfitzer's stocks. Then, revealing to his husband why she even agreed to the interview, she warned San Francisco of an upcoming earthquake. With her advise, she was able to prevent the devastation that the natural disaster would have otherwise caused.

But this disclosure of her abilities had marked the beginning of the couple's troubles. Following a deja vu which the couple both experienced, and believing that they were beginning to detect and uncover some underlying structure to the world, the couple were suddenly pitted against an ever-growing list of problems. And as if being forced from directing their focus towards "the truth", they were instead stalled into place by her pregnancy, then by a barrage of lawsuits and investigations, and even by the infestation of pests in their home. Mysteriously, the deja vus also just suddenly stopped.

As such, and through time, the couple were eventually completely side-tracked back into the normal cycles within the Matrix and were confined into the insurmountable struggles that they had both been forced to ceaselessly cope with.

Characters

• The stockbroker/narrator
• The stockbroker's wife
• Butterfield

See also

• Déjà vu, the phenomenon
• Artistic Freedom, which also showcases another potential able to self-substantiate in her sleep