Author's note: I did what I could re: formatting, but yeesh. Fanfiction is great, you guys are great, but this one interlude in particular may be worth reading on aooo instead (work number is 5627803) or by downloading the pdf (woo!) available at goo gl yLCvgK

[–] GrimHarvest7876 133 points 3 hours ago (edited)

Trying to keep track of everything; please ping me with updates (thanks u/machinaut for the sticky).

CURRENT CONCLUSION: Still think "true," but trending heavily toward false. Lots of pretty convincing holes being poked ITT.

Edit/update: I'm sticking mostly to facts here, people. I'll stop overusing the word 'allegedly' once we have actual confirmation on any of this.

Ventura: no weird seizures of evidence (phones, video, etc), no known government interference. All signs point to meteor strike (turns out EMPs are normal for meteor strikes and don't necessarily imply nuke; thanks u/GrunklePrime). Anomalies: unconfirmed explosion near center of town ~1hr prior to impact, plus scattered reports of sonic booms/shockwaves/wind disturbances along roads surrounding ~30min prior, especially to the northwest.

Washington: FBI cordon around entire neighborhood, no one going in or out without a badge. No-fly zone extends 5mi radius (thanks u/FairyClarkJr). Google, weather, et al not offering any satellite photos and may be under gag orders; tons of photos and videos hitting the web since "Esplin's" departure, but most of it seems extremely fake and does not match quality and internal consistency of first wave of content. No official statements from anybody other than media pundits (who for once are admitting they don't know anything, either). [original photos of crashed ship collected here and mirrored here; video from the scene here here and here]

Aliens:

Yurks (Yerkes? Yeerks?) are allegedly small, senseless slugs that specialize in controlling other bodies. Presumably needs to interface directly with the brain, allegedly starves after three days of continuous possession. Currently stationed on Europa (edit: will allegedly be there in five months; present whereabouts unknown).

Andalites are undescribed, allegedly at war with the Yeerks, presumably have better technology, don't sound very nice.

Blue centaurs: no name given, not much detail, said to be as intelligent as a cow. [photos]

Esplin: The Yurk who gave the speech [transcript]. Currently claims to be possessing a blue centaur. Claims to have led an invasion force to infiltrate Ventura starting three months ago, to have realized recently that humans are morally relevant, to have been responsible for the destruction of Ventura after his people's stronghold got taken out (possible contradiction between direct responsibility and "dead man's switch"). Claims to be willing to die for crimes committed, claims to want diplomatic relations, claims to have provided two ships (one wrecked) as a gesture of goodwill. Last "seen" entering a black US government vehicle under partial duress.

Other notables:

MIB dude: African American male, late thirties, 6'2", muscular build, tailored suit, no weapons [pic]. Passed through cordon without ID, stopped (possibly paralyzed?) at a gesture from Esplin. Later recovered and took point on restraining and extracting Esplin.

Unnamed freedom fighters: High schoolers (WTF?) who were somehow going toe to toe with invasion forces, eventually blowing up the stronghold and triggering the meteor strike. Presumed dead in the blast. Possible exception: first crashed spaceship [photos here] plausibly brought down by one or more of them. Speculation: if so, they were already operating in DC; this could explain some of the weirdnesses around the government's reaction.

Unnamed psychic voice: unconfirmed, but seven messages that made it online prior to the blackout claim words placed in their heads in two separate psychic bursts. Words are consistent between multiple people [transcript]. Accounts making the claim confirmed as real people living in the vicinity; if hoax, then hoax done right and done extremely quickly. Voice is not fond of Esplin; possibly Andalite.

It should go without saying, but take all of this with a heaping tablespoon of salt. There's a lot we don't know, and the weight of multiple sources is reduced by the lack of any corroboration outside of an eight-block radius.

Truthers: analyses available [here] and [here]

Conspiracists: claims of debunking [here], [here], [here], and [here]. Video analysis [here], but narrator seems clearly insane and I don't buy most of the arguments. Presented for completeness only.

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[–] countingcards 27 points 3 hours ago (edited)

Disney af.

Graceful, elegant alien that breathes oxygen and speaks English like fucking Morgan Freeman? Overwhelmingly technologically superior invaders that realize the error of their ways and voluntarily surrender to the authorities? Plans thwarted by a band of scrappy teenagers?

How the fuck are you all swallowing this?

***Edit: NVM, I've seen the light. $50 to countingcards52 and I'll send you a pair of the yurk-proof earplugs I just developed.

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[–] PumicePrimate 7 points 3 hours ago

It sounds like Hollywood because it is Hollywood. No way a government op would be simultaneously this polished and this fucking stupid.

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[–] creatureoftheglade 32 points 3 hours ago

Look, just set aside the "is it true or not" question for a minute and look at the ramifications if it is true. Our use of technology is obvious from space. They were bodysnatching people with enough skill that nobody sounded the alarm. They announced their presence with a humanoid (ish) avatar that had human mannerisms and gestures, which they sure as hell didn't just find and I doubt they designed it last week. And after all that, they still didn't think we were 'sentient' until a few days ago. Whatever their real goals are, they DO NOT share our values – whatever moral reasoning they claim to have is clearly not analogous to human moral reasoning.

We need every public official to submit to a mandatory MRI.

We need every employer to require mandatory Yerke screenings.

We need to offer free screenings so that every family can make sure there is no possession among their members.

We need every private citizen to submit to screening before being trusted with absolutely anything.

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[–] HeartScribe 6 points 2 hours ago

/ technology is obvious from space

Maybe they thought we weren't individually sapient? From what it said, it thought our technology was the result of group intelligence, like termites or ants.

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[–] entroprising 11 points 2 hours ago

"Just set aside the 'is it true or not' question long enough for us to pass Patriot Act 2.0. Y'know, for your own good and all."

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[–] cognoslutty 18 points 1 hour ago

Who told you how to do a Yerke screening? How do you know they weren't a Yerke? How do I know you're not a Yerke? Kind of sounds like something a Yerke would say, doesn't it?

No matter what you do, you're taking something on faith. Yerkes might live in the spine instead of in the head, or they might be too small to detect. They might starve after three days, or they might be able to live off a host forever. They might not exist because mind control is accomplished through some kind of transmission instead, or straight-up bodysnatching (replacing people with clones or robots). Or the whole thing could be one giant misdirect. You're trying to Vizzini your way out of this, and it's not going to work out any better for you than it did for him.

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[–] hagar 2 points 2 hours ago

I hope all you unbelievers have opened your eyes. Ventura was only the beginning: the reckoning is come and the apocalypse is upon us.

/ 11 With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground.

The hour is before us. Great is the Almighty, He warned us but we refused to heed. Lo and behold, who is responsible for "making fire come down from heaven," and destroying a city "in a single hour"? Not to mention Revelation 13:16: "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bound, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads."

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[–] Soniq_is_Daizy 10 points 1 hour ago

Thought this was a troll at first, but looking back through their comments for the past month or two...well, still might be a troll, but a dedicated one if so.

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[–] DankEasy 17 points 2 hours ago

I've been reading through news sites and forums for like three hours now, with the video on repeat in the background, trying to make sense of what's going on. Or more like, waiting for my brain to start to try to make sense of what's going on.

I feel like I'm hanging out on a movie set or something, but they've only filmed one scene and the director and writers are yelling at each other about what the rest of the script should say and what genre the film is. Like, that was a hell of a performance by this Esplin character, but it's not going to be enough to save the movie because I still have no idea about even the most basic things about him or where this story came from or what happens next and it feels like one of those Hollywood blockbusters where you can't squint at it too closely or it'll break your suspension of disbelief.

Yeah, actually, that's it exactly—my suspension of disbelief is broken, but it's like the universe doesn't even care. I mean, there it is, on camera, right?

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[–] WhoLetTheZurgsOut 8 points 2 hours ago

This. So much this.

I first heard about this whole thing from my mom (well, not exactly first but basically yeah.) I was in the library doing homework (I guess it was just three hours ago, it feels like it was off in some parallel universe.) I skipped over the first couple posts about it in my FB feed because it looked too ridiculous to be even interesting, some stupid movie promotion or viral whatever. Then I didn't answer my phone (because library.) Then my mom texted me to ask if I was okay and it was weird how concerned she seemed (I guess it's still kind of weird because it's not like anything was happening but not really) and I called her back when I headed back to my dorm. And that's when I found out. "Are you okay?" and then "Oh my god, you haven't seen it?" And then for like two minutes I was scared she'd turned schitzophrenic or something until the Facebook posts clicked and then I went and checked, like, the whole rest of the internet.

I've basically just been sitting online since then and messaging people, and it still all looks too ridiculous, movies that don't make any sense, people acting like they're not really people. I need to get some food before I pass out.

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[–] WetnessIsTheEssenceOfBeauty 16 points 2 hours ago

Okay, there's a ton of heavy stuff, here … but can we talk about the random MIB dude?

Esplin's barely gotten out two sentences when this guy shows up out of nowhere, BY HIMSELF, police just let him through, and then this one, single guy, with no backup and no weapon I could see, he just confidently walks up to this self-professed alien war criminal.

Then he gets stunned or paralyzed or whatever (right in the middle of Esplin's speech about learning to treat us all with dignity and respect), and then he STILL JUST GETS UP AND CALMLY PUTS HANDCUFFS ON THE MOTHERFUCKING ALIEN WITH THE ASS KATANA.

Like, what? I don't want to be a conspiracy nut, here, and I don't know what any of this means, but … it's not just me, right? That whole thing was really fucking weird?

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[–] SabreVert 4 points 2 hours ago

It's not just you. Add to that, why the hell did nobody say a single goddamn word? Not the neighbors, not the cops, nobody. Not even when he said he'd killed six hundred thousand people.

A part of me wants to say that's evidence that the whole thing was staged, but, you'd think if they were staging it, they'd do it more realistically, right? Like, if it was fake, wouldn't you have people acting more normal?

I'm hung up on this and the MIB guy because we can actually see it in the footage (as opposed to all the stuff Esplin is claiming, which … who even fucking knows). But this clearly happened, on some level, and it doesn't make any sense.

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[–] GSVOrangeYouGladIDidntSayBanana 18 points 1 hour ago

PHYSICS THREAD (FTL, telepathy, advanced cloaking, Fermi paradox, implications)

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[–] Cosmic_Crayon 5 points 1 hour ago

None of this is showing up on TV or news here (Estonia). Tons of continuing coverage of the Ventura disaster and the cleanup in LA, but not a word on anything weird in DC. Not sure if they're waiting on confirmation or they've been told to keep their mouths shut…

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[–] dontcallmeishmael 9 points 59 minutes ago

Trojan.

Fucking.

Horse.

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[–] ElliotPhoneHome 3 points 50 minutes ago

Oh, God. I just spent like 30 seconds thinking of all the fucked up things that could come out of a crashed spaceship. Any of you ever read The Andromeda Strain? Or War of the Worlds? It wouldn't even have to be on purpose…

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[–] rampant170 1 point 32 minutes ago

Am I the only one who wants some kind of corroboration?

I mean, screw the idea of human confirmation. Even if every single image and video is 100% accurate—

We have one individual, here. One perspective.

How far would you trust Random Joe's summary of what's going on in the Middle East right now? Take a Sunni, a Shia, a Jew, a Russian, a blue-tribe American, a red-tribe American, and somebody from, I dunno, Fiji or whatever, and you're going to get MASSIVELY different conclusions about what should be done, who the good guys are, etc. etc. And that's just bias and culture alone—you don't even have to have any of them actively trying to lie.

Everything this Esplin character's said—about Yeerks, about Andalights, about Ventura—we don't know whether to treat it like it's coming out of Tyagi's mouth, or Thiel's. Esplin could be the Neil deGrass Tyson of his species, or he could be the fucking Vermin Supreme.

We need to get about fifty other aliens on the line, stat. More Yeerks, more Andalights, more of any other species out there. And if this Esplin can't do it, or doesn't let us—well, that tells you everything you need to know right there.

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[–] applied_insanity 3 points 56 minutes ago

So many idiots falling for this blatant propaganda. Whatever you say, Mr. Charisma, we're happy to splatter your psyops all over Youtube for you!

Of course you can trust that we're no longer in the midst of an invasion, he gave such a lovely speech! Why, it would be downright *barbaric* to fight back against such a *noble* enemy.

Forgive me for Godwinning myself, but at least Hitler's fanboys fell for his speeches back *before* he was a mass murderer, instead of fawning all over him the day after when he gave such a heartfelt apology, so sorry.

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[–] m073cu73 0 points 56 minutes ago

Puh-lease, this is the fakest shit I've ever seen. Asteroids and aliens? This is how America's going to try to cover up what happened in Ventura? We've [seen] what happened just before the "impact"…this was clearly either a terrorist strike or a malfunction of some kind of crazy black ops research facility.

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[–] entroprising 8 points 48 minutes ago

While given the circumstances I can understand everybody's mistrust and skepticism, this really does represent a tremendous opportunity for all of humanity (even in light of the tragedy at Ventura). Until this morning, I would've said that humanity was destined to die quietly on this one little rock, but now it looks like there really is a light at the end of the tunnel. We shouldn't trust the aliens blindly, but even a small chance this is legit makes the cost vs benefit of going along with the possibility of peace worth it.

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[–] TroubledTrousers 1 point 41 minutes ago

Fuck you. Fuck you so fucking hard right now.

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[–] entroprising 1 point 33 minutes ago

…I'm sorry? I'd maybe apologize more believably if you were more specific…

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[–] HeartScribe 1 point 39 minutes ago

I really really really hope this technology doesn't end up restricted to the military (especially just our military). Like, I get that they'll try, it's in their limited best interests to try to maintain technological hegemony, but I'm hoping that with all the publicity that's already happening, our government will see there's a clear public interest in letting at least the non-weaponizable stuff out, like the engines.

(Yes, I'm sure somebody will come up with a way to weaponize that – humans did it with planes – but an alien engine is probably too expensive for terrorists)

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[–] mrfreeze54 1 point 3 minutes ago

/ engines

/ non-weaponizable

lol. I know this was nearly a whole day ago, so it might have slipped your mind by now, but remember how a meteor just killed a million people.

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[–] mrfreeze54 9 points 48 minutes ago

How the hell do you live inside a person's head and control them so well that nobody notices for months, but you never realise they're sentient?

Are they actually way smarter than us so we do seem like ants to them? If this is real, this is scary as hell…we're completely at their mercy…

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[–] CQCQ_037 4 points 31 minutes ago (edited)

This, seriously. These aliens are nowhere near advanced enough, based on what we're seeing, and that's way scarier than anybody seems to realize.

Look. Earth took billions of years to form, right? Then life formed. Some couple of billion years later, we get multicellular life. Then, another billion years, intelligent life (primates, corvids, etc). Then a few million years before we settled down enough to start making language, recording history. Then we're talking a few thousand years to go from small villages with basic farming to internet and VR and skyscrapers and SpaceX. Each step takes less time than the previous step, in other words.

So, two intelligent species evolve. Fair enough. But each step in that process–there's no fixed length to them. Fraction of a percent difference one way or another, and one life form got a good couple of million years' worth of technology on the other. Which means that any time two alien species meet, one of them ought to be ridiculously, incomprehensibly more advanced than the other.

The idea that their tech is only a little bit ahead of ours, to the point where we can usefully study it and recreate it, is laughable. Odds are this whole business was deliberately staged, start to finish, with some unknown and possibly unknowable end goal. We're the frigging condors, and this "Esplin" is the condor-shaped puppet they're showing us, so that we react the way they want us to.

EDIT: For the record, I'm not actually claiming that Esplin is the one doing the staging. He could just as easily be a vat-grown creature with implanted memories, telling us a story that he really thinks is true…

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[–] AskMeAboutDwarfFortress 3 points 44 minutes ago

Nobody actually believes they've left the surface, right? I mean, it seems safe to assume that anything capable of interstellar travel is at the very least not much stupider than I am, and if I was leading an invasion force (even if I'd changed my mind)….

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[–] Paper_St_Soap_Company 6 points 42 minutes ago

I keep catching myself muttering "God, don't fuck it up." But I'm not talking to myself. That's a message to you (each and every one of you): don't fuck this up.

Hundreds of thousands of years of human history, and we finally get this chance at something amazing, and we're probably going to fuck it up. You're probably going to fuck it up.

We're on the doorstep of space travel and interstellar colonization and learning the wisdom of a civilization that's crossed the galaxy. Clearly the thing to do is to panic and get paranoid and riot and lash out at the advanced beings who are opening the door. They fucked it up a little at first, so now obviously the clever move is for us to fuck it up as much as possible.

I can just picture them crossing the galaxy, reaching out humbly to make first contact with a gesture of friendship and an apology for like stepping on one of our anthills, and then they find this reddit thread full of guns and idiots like u/Stalwart31415 saying "pour salt in everyone's ears" and "fill that ship with nukes and send it back their way" and all these other ridiculous threats and revenge fantasies. From your vast experience of action movies and flame wars, you have developed the military and diplomatic acumen to know that the correct response to the gift of a futuristic spaceship is guerilla warfare. God, I hope the people with actual nukes aren't this full of panic and vengeance, and that they actually think for once instead of looking at the polls which say how cool would it look if we blew up the mothership.

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[–] applied_insanity 2 points 18 minutes ago

I swore I'd never use the word "sheeple," but you are not making this easy for me. Go drive through the fucking lava pit that used to be Ventura county and tell me how they fucked it up just "a little."

Let me make this simple for you. Ever seen a politician give a speech before? Did you notice what they *did* afterward, and compare that to what they *said* in the speech? Notice any similarities to the blue guy?

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[–] ArcaneFerret 2 points 39 minutes ago

Anybody interested in helping me with my shopping/looting list? So far, my general categories are:

- Guns (& other weapons)

- Food

- Clothes (& armor)

- Fuel (& other power generation)

- Tools

- Medical supplies

- Water purification

- Shelter (tents, tarps, hatchet)

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[–] HeartScribe 1 point 30 minutes ago

Stock market is in freefall. I'm pretty sure that's a looting list. Get guns first.

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[–] PumicePrimate 1 point 26 minutes ago

Yeah, prices of gold and coin are skyrocketing, dollar is crashing as well. I'm posting this from Walmart…people are still pretty calm right now (paying, standing in line) but the place is packed and getting packed-er.

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[–] TheDukeIsNigh 5 points 35 minutes ago

I'm not a religious person, but right now I wish there was a God that I could pray to.

Any moment, everyone I love could wind up like the people of Ventura. Or like the people of Ventura were a few days ago (why aren't more people talking about that?) or maybe it'll all turn out to be a wonderful paradise. Whichever one of those Esplin wants. He has already decided and we are just sitting here waiting.

He can throw meteors around and work miracles while hiding behind the curtain (or while he's on camera, if he feels like it) and basically just do whatever he wants. And he's not a God with special concern for us, he doesn't listen to our prayers, he doesn't care what we do or what's in our hearts. He's just some strange creature who evolved on some other planet, with some scheme that serves his own alien values, and now he's here orchestrating things to his liking.

(Unless the anadalights decide to come and blow everything up.)

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[–] KillroyIsHere 5 points 31 minutes ago

Check the transcript of the telepathic message. MASS-MURDERING PSYCHOPATH.

We have hundreds of thousands dead in Ventura, and that voice knew it before the horse thing took responsibility for it. All you idiots geeking out over science and politics and conspiracy theories are missing the point.

Hundreds of thousands dead.

Hundreds of thousands dead.

Hundreds of thousands dead.

If you're fucking excited right now, you need to get your fucking head examined.

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[–] TroubledTrousers 1 point 2 minutes ago

I don't know where else to put this, so I guess I'll leave it here.

This has been the worst day of my entire life. I know it's trite and cliché for people to say that, like after a celebrity has died and they're trying to get sympathy or attention or whatever, but I don't care. I don't want sympathy. I don't want attention. I just have to get this out. I have to let the pressure out somewhere, or I'm going to crack.

I had family in Ventura. An aunt, an uncle, a cousin. My favorite branch of the family. They took care of me and my little sister while our parents were going through their divorce. They'd fly out to visit on July 4th, and we'd fly out to see them at Christmas.

When the news came, yesterday

When they came on TV and said

Look, I know a lot of people are suffering. I'm not the only one who's lost somebody. But

I sat up all night, trying to stop myself from calling their numbers over and over again. I wrote emails to all three of them, these long, multi-page emails, too little, too late. Around 2AM I started a doc of memories, tried to write down everything I could remember, every visit, every conversation. Little things I don't want to forget. My uncle, balancing a broom on his chin. My aunt, tanning my hide when she found out I stole my sister's doll to get revenge for her making fun of my science project. Cousin's magic show, where he'd say "Alaka-Matthew!" when he did a trick.

They have to be dead. They lived right in the center of town. There's no way they made it out, and I hate that stupid fucking part of my brain that wants to keep hoping, wants to keep checking, thinks they might have been running an errand or gone camping or whatever. Fucking denial.

There were people talking, this morning before everything else, talking about a government conspiracy, some 9/11 bullshit or whatever, and it took everything I had not to grab them by their stupid fucking throats and scream at them that this wasn't some stupid game, that they had no right to treat it like a fucking newspaper crossword riddle

I should've just done it. Who the fuck cares now, right?

They canceled our fourth of July get-together. Said my uncle's work was getting tense, that it was a busy time, couldn't get away, and my cousin was busy with preseason anyway. I kept thinking about that last night, over and over again—how I didn't get a chance to see them, didn't get to tell them I loved them, didn't get to say goodbye.

And then this morning

That three day thing

They've never canceled a trip before. I mean fucking never. My sister and I talked about it at the time—how we were worried about my uncle, worried that maybe he was going to lose his job or something. We were gonna send a fruit basket or something, but we never got around to it, and I was kicking myself all night for being a stupid, lazy asshole.

And then I thought

Maybe they canceled the trip because

(just fucking type it come on you coward TYPE THE FUCKING WORDS)

I don't think that was them, anymore. I think they must have been one of those, some of the people who were taken. Because of the three day thing, you know? I think they couldn't fly out for a week long vacation, because the fucking alien slugs in their heads

God, I talked to them about it. To my aunt, on the phone. About the trip, and my uncle's job, and how we'd always

She sounded so guilty. Like, really genuinely regretful. Like it mattered to her, that I was bummed about it, like even though it was her life that was all stressful, I was the one who needed to be reassured or whatever.

I don't know what that—that thing meant, when it talked about taking people over. Enslaving them. I don't know if my aunt and uncle and cousin were—were like in a coma, like dreaming, or whether they were awake, aware, alive, I don't know if they were trapped, helpless, screaming. They sounded just like normal. They sounded just like they were supposed to.

God. I feel so

It might've been months. They might've been that way for months, bodysnatched by fucking aliens while I bitched about classes and spent money on frozen yogurt and fucking Magic cards. While I was too busy to send them a fucking fruit basket, when they took care of me for almost a year.

I don't want to bring it up, with my sister. If she hasn't figured it out herself—I don't want her to know.

Everybody was so sad about Ventura, and now everybody's confused, and scared, and thinking about the future, and trying to figure out what happens next, and all I care about is those last few days, those last few weeks. If they suffered. If they were alone. If they had any kind of hope.

I kept telling myself, yesterday morning, at least it was quick. At least it happened in a flash. They didn't see it coming, they weren't scared, they didn't feel anything.

Maybe that's still true. Maybe I'm wrong. But I can't get it out of my head, and I can't shake this feeling, like it's my fault, like I let them down. Like I should've pushed harder, or at least sent that stupid fucking basket, why didn't I just send it, I didn't send it because it cost thirty dollars and I bought movie tickets instead, for this awful movie, I went with this stupid airhead and we made out afterward and it was a good day and it's all shit now, shit and poison and

I have to do something. I don't know what, but I have to DO something, I can't just sit here and let it be like this. Maybe I'll drive to Washington. Maybe I'll drive to California. Maybe I should get a gun and just

Fuck it. I was going to delete that, but fuck it.

(Don't freak. I'm not going to kill myself.)

I just—I wish everybody would be a little quieter. A little more serious. I wish people would fucking count, and realize that more people died yesterday than died in World War Two (US people, I mean). There's people talking about how the government is lying to us and how science is going to change and how maybe it was a nuke and maybe it was a laser and maybe this is the start of Independence Day and it's all just

Not serious.

It doesn't matter what "really" happened. Not to my dead family. Not to me. All that matters is it's over, and it's never going to be the same. And I maybe could've done something, some stupid tiny thing to make it a little less shitty, but I didn't, and I'm going to have to live with that, and people are going to try to make it better with candlelight vigils and prayers and memorials and stuff, and it's not going to work, and it's all just

Gah. Sorry. I don't know why I'm dumping all of this on you. Probably none of you are even going to read this, so I guess I shouldn't feel guilty anyway. I guess maybe this is just one of the only places where people really talk to me, like more than just a couple of words. I don't even really want anybody to say anything back, I just don't want this to like disappear or whatever. I want it to matter to somebody, that my aunt and uncle and cousin are dead, that they were good people and they're gone now and it's not some fucking headline scoop or conspiracy debate. That even if it's the best possible case, and all this turns into fucking Star Trek, it's not going to matter because they're not going to be there to see it, them and six hundred thousand other people.

You guys are going to forgive them. I can just tell. They're going to give us hyperdrives and tricorders, and you guys are going to just forgive them, because hey, shit happens, and we're no better, remember what we did to the Indians? Even if it wasn't aliens, even if it was our own government, nobody's actually going to balance the scales here. How do you make somebody pay, for real, for half a million deaths? We can't. So you're just going to let it go.

And I'm not going to be able to deal with that. That is not going to be a thing I am going to be able to handle, to accept. There is only so much pressure I can handle, and that—

That is going to be too much.

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