I'll be more dangerous, more beautiful than any other

"Uh, they're the same thing," I tell them. "Who are you?"

"Yes!" the being with the tablet exclaims.

One of the other researchers groans. "No! My thesis...months of writing wasted..." One of the others comforts them.

"Now, what is this object for?" The first researcher holds up a discolored, dinged-up plastic object. It's clearly been buried in the ground for quite some time, but the two holes and the scuffed plastic window are distinctive.

"That's a cassette tape. You record music with it."

"Interesting, interesting." The being enters something on the tablet.

"How are you speaking English?"

"Sophisticated translation technology," one of the researchers confides. "We are students of your society. From the future."

"What does this pictogram represent?" The researcher with the tablet turns it around so that the screen faces me.

It's the eggplant emoji.

"Sex," I say. "Why do you need to ask me this if you can time travel or whatever? Can't you just go wherever you want to go and look around and see how these things are being used?"

The beings shift guiltily and look at each other. "Technically, travel to times and places prior the advent of time travel is strictly prohibited. Paradoxes, you know."

"Oh."

"We must get back before our advisor returns to the lab. Just don't tell anyone you saw us, alright? The space-time continuity depends on it. Can you do that?"

"Uh, sure, I guess?"

One of them pats me on the head. "And don't go to Mars."

"Okay. Wait, why? Is it dangerous?"

"No. Just not worth it."

The group disappears in a shimmering light.

The cassette clatters to the sidewalk behind them.

Out of befuddlement, mainly, I pick it up. It's clearly old, discolored and scuffed, but it still has tape in it.

I carry the tape around in my pocket for a while. The curiosity builds. I want to know what's on that tape. I don't have a cassette player anymore, so I go to Goodwill and pick up the first one I can find, praying that it still works. I plug it in. It turns on.

I slide the tape inside. It's dirty, but it still seems to be in decent shape. I snap the player closed and hit play. The wheels begin to turn. I hold my breath.

A familiar tune starts up. A wobbly voice comes out of the machine.

melanite's defining past trauma is that her father's store was robbed when she was a child, and although she had managed to retrieve her father's old blacksteel gun from the drawer, she couldn't pull the trigger and the robbers killed her parents. she desperately clings to her railgun, even though it's the cause of her oripathy and continuing to use it will definitely send her to an early grave, because she wants, needs, the strongest firearm and the ability to fire it on demand in order to feel safe.

melanite obtained this railgun by joining a shady weapons testing company, being handed one evil fucked up weapon after another, and getting sent out into the wastes to test them out on "bandits". she's aware that this is just glorified mercenary work, but that traumatic need for safety is so overpowering that she just repressed every other emotion in order to maintain this sense of safety.

her last-line defense mechanism as described in this module is literally a false sense of safety. she had a simple and reasonable wish to alleviate her distress, but her method to achieve this has twisted into something that alienates her from her actual feelings and desires.

melanite's worth to this company is in whether she will fire the gun on demand, and she mechanically fulfils this demand because it superficially corresponds to her own desires. but she wants this evil railgun that kills everyone in your line of sight and then yourself because she wants her parents and herself to be alive and safe, and she won't be safe as long as she has this thing and works for this company.

melanite in rhodes island is initially convinced that she will be denied treatment and kicked out if she does not fire her gun on demand. in therapy with honeyberry she is unable to describe anything about who her parents were as people, because actually remembering them is too painful and actually grieving them will keep her from pulling the trigger on demand and being "safe", and if only she can just repress her feelings harder she can do her job and be "safe" again.

her fragrance earring lets you almost remember a past connection, but actually engaging with those feelings will just get you killed.

We are the two sisters Mira & Nadia

Read our story, please 🙏

It’s written by our mother .

“ I'm Hadeel Emad, a programmer and mother of three children: Mira (9 years old), Nadia (8 years old), and Labeeb (1.5 years old). My husband, Waseem Labeeb, and I are from Gaza. We were displaced to Egypt some time ago due to the brutal war in Gaza.

We were displaced almost two years ago, and my children have increased to be 3 children in these years , and my daughters have grown up, but we currently lack residency permits that would allow us to start a normal life with our children, including education, work, and other necessities. We tried every possible way to continue working, and thanks to God, we were able to find modest work to meet our daily needs. However, our current circumstances have exceeded our income.

My daughters, Mira and Nadia, are supposed to start the third and fourth grades of primary school, and they tried to study intensively for those years. However, the schooling was at an educational center that doesn't issue certificates without Egyptian residency. This means that their studies over the past years have been conducted without official documentation. I have attached their grades from the last year. Mira achieved a 98% average, and Nadia achieved 99.6%, but I cannot have the certificates authenticated by any authority. Officially, without residency permits, I cannot continue their enrollment for the new academic year.

Therefore, my biggest challenge is obtaining Egyptian residency permits to authenticate their certificates and allow them to continue their education. I found a solution: I will apply for a Master's program to obtain student residency permits, which will allow me to authenticate my children's residency, validate their certificates, and re-enroll them in an officially accredited Egyptian school.

However, this requires some expenses that my husband and I cannot afford. These expenses include the Master's program application fees and the residency permit fees.

I will break down the costs as follows:

- Fines: $600

- First term Master's program fees: $500

- Residency application fees for the three children ($450 per child, for my two daughters $950)

- School registration fees for Mira and Nadia ($2000 per academic year for each child, totaling $4000, which must be paid before the start of the school year)

The first goal is for start the first step to apply for a residence permit.

RADICAL SATURDAY

heavy training every hour

huge and fat my awesome pig