Lionel – The counselors have selected the curriculum from the projects and suggestions submitted by the instructors for the advanced students, my group. The curriculum for the rest of the terms is standard.
Kai’s group will audit fungi. They will review growth, reproduction and interactions with the ecosystem. This is a standard program for first’s. He will be bored out of his mind.
The seconds will audit invertebrates. The course this term offers red wriggler thearnworms, slugs, oysters, and the octopus for the advanced students.
Thirds will conduct a slide in this term and experience a life cycle of one of the animals or mollusks chosen for the second term audit.
Fourths will audit hive mind insects either ants or bees, an arachnid of their choice, a butterfly or moth, and then a beetle or other flying insect.
Fifths is a slide term for the fourths insects and arachnids.
Sixths audit a fish, reptile and amphibian of their choice, they must choose at least one wild and one domesticated.
Sevenths is a slide term for the sixths animals.
Eighths will audit chickens, cats, foxes, dogs and wolves both domesticated and wild. Advanced students will be given the chance to audit an aquatic mammal as well.
Ninths is a slide term for the eighths animals.
Tenth terms, my group, will have a slide in for muhans. We have completed the preparatory class and as a class have designed the experiment to meet the goal set by the instructors.
The sliders will review the project when they return. Everybody wants to slide, some have even put in requests for specific characters. We are all hopeful that the audit gets assigned to an eleven or a graduate will take it. It was requested. Elevens and twelves, Remi’s group, have the choice to slide in the tens experiment as antagonists or protagonists, graduate out, or start or continue learning the tasks and responsibilities of an influencer or an instructor. All have put requests in to join the term ten slide. Some parents will be requested to assist as we are short in numbers.
Lionel – Papa was chosen for the experiment and mother won’t sign a special permission slip for me to slide. I haven’t met the age requirement. I will be the auditor.
Lionel – Well, now I know why they didn’t have us audit muhans. Being born is traumatizing. I wonder if they remember it. The womb was nice, rosy warm, peacefulness. Nursing is good, better than a bottle. Burping is good if its done right. Pooping is work, but good up until its done, then it’s gross. Colic is horrible, but not all of them have it though so that’s good. There is a lot of sleeping; that part is a lot like being a cat, minus the sun puddles and physical coordination. Some get held more than others. Cuddles are nice, probably the best part.
Kai is already ahead in his class. He submitted his paper on fungi and the instructor has told him to go back and review the audit again. The rest of the class is only half way through the first experiencing. I’ve reviewed his notes and the paper. His paper was well done, but he did the same thing I did. He noticed the language used between his fungi and the symbiotic tree and interpreted it. It is an interaction in the ecosystem. I got to slugs before I realized the instructors don’t hear the language. I told him to remove the part about the language and resubmit because the instructors don’t hear it. He didn’t believe me, so I set him up to audit his instructors experience of the fungi. He was shocked. There are different levels of perception, we are tuned a little differently I guess.
Mother advised the instructor before term started to make it more of a challenge for him. They don’t listen and he flies through the work. He will enjoy auditing the octopus, the spider, and the aquatic mammal. He might slow down for those, and maybe the cat and dog.
Kai and I will likely finish maybe a term apart. Mother is already looking for the next school to send us to. Remi will take the instructors course after the experiment and be done. He was selected to slide. It’s taken the three of them to manage Kai up until now. I’m a little surprised they didn’t protest the selection of papa for the experiment. Maybe they did. I’ll pitch in more now I guess.
Lionel – Kai was concerned that I wasn’t allowed to slide with the group. He thought it was because mother wanted me to stay behind to help keep an eye on him. He thought I might be angry. I was a little in the beginning, I really wanted to go. After auditing, I’m happy to be able to unplug when I want to. The others are trapped there until the experiment is done.
Lionel – Kai and I got called into the counselors office today. Mother was called in too. They accused us of cheating on the fungi paper. Kai had edited his paper and resubmitted it, and the instructor was skeptical about it being complete and correct so quickly. (I’m fairly certain he didn’t even look at it the first time.) When the instructor asked Kai if he had help, he repeated our conversation about the language and the audit of the instructors fungi experience and said that he changed his report based on that. He said that it was logical that the language wouldn’t be part of the experiment if it wasn’t perceived by the instructor, but that he wasn’t aware of that when he first wrote the report. This upset all of them except mother. They said there wasn’t a language and that we were making it up. I asked for permission to create a profile on the counselors terminal that would replicate what we heard when we audited. It just boosted a segment of the audit that sounded had like static to the instructor. When they played it and the patterns emerged they were all shocked. I mentioned that my notes and papers were available on the server if they wanted to review them.
Lionel – The counselors have submitted my and Kai’s work to the elders in science group for review. They will also have access to the records to audit our experiences of our audits. Mother is pleased. The counselors and instructors are not. If it is proved to be true they may all have to learn all the new languages. Kai said that he has gotten angry looks from some of them. I am mostly insulated from them. My work is ongoing and largely unsupervised. When they check in it is usually electronically. I have offered him the spare terminal for his work if the instructor will let him work remotely.
Lionel – My offer of the spare terminal to Kai has had some unexpected results. The first is that the instructor agreed and the second they apparently consulted with the counselors about it. They have offered me the instructor certificate if I get Kai through level ten after which he can choose to leave the school. By the word ‘choose’ they mean he will be ejected after term ten with a general graduate certificate. He won’t be allowed the option to slide because he will finish before he surpasses the age restriction. I leveraged to also get an influencer certificate. I won’t have to join the general class, I can participate remotely from my current office. They agreed. Mother is pleased. Kai is ecstatic that he won’t be grumbled at all the time. It should be fun, and a little challenge to keep him busy and out of trouble.
Lionel – Kai is missing papa right now. I do too. Its funny though, Remi hasn’t been gone long enough to miss yet.
To distract him, I let him audit a little boy enjoying a fudgesicle. I tuned out the stickiness and all sensation below the neck because he hasn’t gotten to mammals yet and I don’t want to overwhelm him. He really enjoyed it, and asked why we don’t have fudgesicles here. To start with we don’t have chocolate.
He finished his slug paper. He reviewed general slugs and snails in all the habitats that are available in the files to audit. I am pleased with his work. The paper was placed in our file location with my comments and separate notation of how and why it varies from the standard and what the standard would be, and the notice sent for the instructors to review both of our work.
We played the race car game after our work was done.
Counselor Jenkin – Kai has completed his slug paper. He has provided reports on all of them, the similarities, the differences, the language with dialects. Lionel has provided comments both on Kai’s paper and how it differs from the norm. We received a temporary transfer from the science group (Kirb, a former instructor graduate) that is reviewing all of their work, thankfully. Scientist Kirb will assign marks based on our standards and work with them on the languages.
Scientist Kirb – I have met the brothers Lionel and Kai. Both are extraordinary bright. They both noticed a language in what the rest of us hear as background static. The school is anxious to eject them. As they haven’t done anything wrong they will have to settle with graduating both of them as soon as possible. Neither will be allowed to slide due to age. Counselor Jenkin has asked that I work as quickly as possible. He seems to think both of them will be done with their projects at the end of the term. Lionel has flown through his course work. They have him segregated off in his own office. The younger brother recently joined him there. The boys aren’t disruptive, they are polite and well behaved. I wonder about the staff treatment of them. They display anger towards them, but I suspect that it’s really fear. They don’t want to be shown up in front of the other students or the parents.
Their mother is already trying to line up the next school for them and is having some trouble because of their ages and the numbers of schools that they have already completed. She could keep ahead of them enough to home school them, but they really need socialization. Neither is getting it here. I will ask the resource staff at the science department if they can think of a reasonable alternate. I wonder if we could put them to work on actual projects. There aren’t that many schools left for them to attend.
The eldest brother Remi is apparently ‘normal’ and even struggled a bit when he got to vertebrates. Remi and the father are sliding with the current term tens group. I wonder at the reasoning behind allowing that. It seems irresponsible. Both boys seem to be missing their papa. Lionel has signs of mild depression. Maybe having his brother around will perk him up. I question the reasoning behind isolating him like he is.
Lionel – Kai has finished the oyster unit. The octopus is next. As a treat I pulled up a food audit for him to try. This one was at a barbecue. The eater was a young man with a full plate. I turned off sensation for everything below the neck with the exception of the gastro-intestinal area. This fellow over ate a bit and experienced discomfort. When he gets to vertebrates the numbers of experiences available to audit go up exponentially.
Kai – I like macaroni and cheese. It’s delicious. Nel let me audit a muhan fellow that had a plate full of foods. He was at a gathering. There was speech, I don’t have enough experience to know all of what was said. There was also sound coming from a box. Nel said it was music. The young man ate foods called: BBQ ribs, a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and ketchup, baked macaroni and cheese, corn on the cob and a shish kabob of grilled vegetables. He apparently ate too much because he experienced discomfort and pain after. I enjoyed the experience. The pleasant part outweighed the unpleasant part. There were other people at the event that ate other things. One of them had something that I believe to be chocolate based. I will request to experience all of them.
Scientist Kirb – I think Kai is a clone. I think his parents were so happy with Lionel’s successes at such a young age that they got greedy and cloned him. Something happened though, maybe they tweaked the copy. Kai is different. He is just a bright as Nel, but he is fearless. He will audit anything whether it is pleasant or painful. He doesn’t hesitate. He wants all of the experiences. Nel gave him an experience that was modified to exclude most of the body so that he wasn’t overwhelmed. He experienced the meal and resulting stomach ache several times. Most of us would re-experience the pleasant part but not the painful part.
I spoke with one of the resource staffers at the science department about Nel and Kai. She, Marcha, was curious about the boys and wondered about their situation as well. Nel has been working alone almost since he started this school, they look to be planning to do the same with Kai. She is concerned about socialization and emotional issues from the lack of interaction. She plans on coming by to meet with them. I am hopeful, her interest suggests that she may be able to find a better situation for them. It isn’t healthy for them to move around so much from school to school and never really make good friends.
Kai – Nel played the race car game with me today after my audit of the octopus. He won three times, I won twice. The octopus was interesting, it moves more quickly than the other animals, it can camouflage, has a neat propulsion system and it has ink. They can squish themselves through small openings. One of them ate a fish. Tomorrow I will document the camouflage. It is an interesting process.
A lady named Miss Marcha came with Mr. Kirb to visit with us today. She was nice and offered to take us to the science buildings to see what they do there. It sounds neat and Nel wants to go too. We have to get mothers approval first.
Lionel – Kai is working on insects now. Mr. Kirb is really interested to audit Kai’s experiencing of them. We have modified a terminal for him to audit them himself as a comparison. For an adult he is really kinda cool. He seems to be keeping up with both of us just fine, and is interested in how we are doing personally. None of the other teachers ever cared. They have always just wanted me and Kai gone. Mother has approved our visit to the science buildings. It should be fun, we will get to stay in the dorms there. We are going to get to meet people from most of the departments, and they will show us what they are working on. Mr. Kirb thinks it will be a good experience for us to meet others like us.
Scientist Kirb – Kai has a natural ability with languages, he can audit just a few times, work it in his mind a bit and then the language just pops out at him. Nel does it in a similar way, I have audited some of his experiences. It’s amazing. I tried an experiment. I audited the bees myself with the adjusted terminal. It took me some time but I managed to pick out the language. I have noted the differences between Nel’s learning and mine. I can’t wait to see what Kai does with it and how long it takes him. I plan to do it with the remaining insects, I want to learn to do what they do. I’m hoping it gets easier.
It boggles the mind that Nel just slipped through the cracks. The school failed. It’s horrifying that he would have just been graduated out if he didn’t have Kai. I’ve gone back and corrected his grades, and called a meeting with the counselors and Mr. Grint to discuss getting the corrections made permanent. I have to wonder about his earlier school experience. Is it a pattern? Did they do the same?
Kai – We went to the science buildings. I want to live there! It was so fun. They do neat stuff there. Nel liked it too. Miss Marcha took us everywhere and everyone was really nice. The man that was in charge of the place said that they would like us to come and do work/study after we graduate from school. He said we could work our way through the departments if we wanted or pick one and stay there. He said we were doing a great job with the languages.
Lionel – We went to the science buildings. Mr. Grint offered us spots in their work/study program! We have to graduate from here first. Kai is ecstatic. Mother is relieved that she doesn’t have to find another school for us. Everyone there is like us. It felt so good to be there. Everyone was friendly.
Kai is steadily working through the insects and arachnids. He is currently working on tarantulas. We have started playing the new civilization building game.
I suspected Mr. Kirb had pre-learned all of the insect languages, so I asked. He admitted that he wants to learn to learn like we do. He said he was experimenting to see if he could get to a point where he had the same results that we did. He is reviewing our audits after he learns the language to see where he varies and in what ways. His goal is to be able to teach others how to learn the languages.
Kai – Nel gave me an experience to audit. This one was a little boy splashing in puddles. He offered it with the sensation on only the legs and feet, another version with emotions included, and a third version with arms and torso so that the balance could be experienced. Non-essential sensations were turned off. He had fun jumping from puddle to puddle.
Nel – Kai is working on vertebrates. He has completed fish and is now working on reptiles. He has chosen a wild chameleon. He thinks it’s funny when it eats bugs with its long sticky tongue. He also likes looking in two directions at once. I think he is ready for a fully body experience of a muhan. I will start him with a newborn and gradually increase the ages with new experiences. He is anxious to have chocolate again.
Kai – I finished fish, reptiles and amphibians. Mammals are next.
For a treat Nel let me audit some muhan babies. They have a complex system, but are pretty helpless. Breast feeding is better than bottle feeding. They have fewer tummy troubles. The burps are lovely when they happen. Poops are hard work and unpleasant after they are done. The cuddles are nice. Some get held more than others. Some get worn in pouches. They sleep a lot. He said that I could audit a birth after I finish mammals.
Lionel – Kai is done with the mammals and has started auditing the term ten project. The eldest that he is auditing is about age five, he having a great time for himself.
Lionel – Kai is enjoying auditing the group as they grow up. He has discovered television. Most of them don’t get to watch a lot of it. But a few do and he loves it. He likes the puppets the best. Cartoons are his next favorite and after that the nature programs.
Lionel – Kai has discovered the mesh. This is both good and bad. He is keeping up with his regular audits, and is catching up to where I am, but he is also getting lost in the mesh. He will watch anything. He has discovered that he can access and audit people that aren’t in the experiment. I did this too. I have asked that he let me review what he wants to experience before he does so. There are certain things that we are not allowed to experience.
Scientist Kirb – Kai has progressed to the audit of the experiment and has almost completely caught up with Nel. He has taken a liking to muhan media. He is making a concerted effort to learn as much as he can about muhan culture. It is quite complex and hasn’t been done before. Mr. Grint is surprised and pleased. The school staff is unaware.
Nel has finished his influencers course. He will likely teach it to Kai when he feels that he is ready. It isn’t in the curriculum for Kai, but they tend to do what they want to without asking. I suspect that I am the only one actively watching other than the occasional check from Mr. Grint. The leadership in this school is poor, I have a feeling that Mr. Grint will speak up about it after they are out and safely at the science center. He is pleased with both of them. Nel allows Kai to review or audit most of what he wants, but has placed the restrictions on him that we would for a standard student. Nel seems to know instinctively what is dangerous and what isn’t, or he has already seen it. They both get into stuff that the staff would find troublesome, but weren’t instructed to not get into that stuff. I am not going to correct either of them for it. They aren’t out of line, because there are no lines where they are experiencing. I will step in if or when needed.
Lionel – Kai is caught up with me and has audited considerable numbers of people not in the experiment. He is making the attempt to experience as much of the culture as possible. Mr. Kirb is aware. I plan to start instructing him how to influence soon, he is ready. I believe that Mr. Kirb suspects. He has allowed us to use our discretion so far. I think he will continue to do so as long as we observe the rules that are delineated and don’t get foolish.
Kai has discovered movies and favors the silly ones. I have to agree they are better than the murder ones, once we figure out it’s one of those we turn it off. It is easier now because we discovered the rating system. We found out that some movies are also dvd’s and the cases have descriptors. The action movies and science fiction are good too.
Kai – I have been watching movies, Nel likes to watch too. I found out recently that there are places that people go to watch them on big screens. One type is inside a building and the other is outside. They have food there. It was hard but I found someone to audit that went to one and ate something called popcorn. Delicious!
Scientist Kirb – Nel has shown Kai how to make the lab octopus dance. Part of me is a little horrified, part of me finds it hysterical. It was after work hours but a cleaning person walked into the lab, he had it wave to the man after the dance. The mans reaction!!
Scientist Kirb – The octopus is being treated like royalty. It has a bigger tank now, gets mostly favorite foods now and has more toys and objects to interact with now. The lab staff has cameras on it all the time now. The thought to do it again is tempting. It’s not specified as a prohibited activity.
Mr. Grint – Mr. Kirb influenced an octopus to jiggle rhythmically and wave a greeting at a cleaner in a lab. It was hysterical to see the reaction of the cleaner. I ran audits on the octopus to find out why Mr. Kirb would do such a thing and found that Kai had worked with the animal and taught it to dance. The lab staff have been watching the animal constantly since. I showed the audits to my Margot and she roared with laughter. The activity isn’t delineated as prohibited. I have to admit I have a soft spot for Kai, Nel and Mr. Kirb, they remind me of my younger days. The boys will be refreshing to have around.
Lionel – Kai has discovered comedy and has been consuming a lot of content on the mesh.
He is doing well with the influencer training.
Kai – I have found a comedian ventriloquist on the mesh. He can make the puppets talk without moving his lips, though his throat moves a little. He is very talented.
I have started watching something that they call the news and people offering commentary about it. (This and law tube are very informative.) I watch or audit it on both a television and on the mesh. It’s interesting because they say different things. Sometimes they are completely opposite and sometimes the report is altered by narrative. Television tends to report some items several months to a year or so after it is reported on the mesh. The glupae was odd. At first I thought it was a drama mini-series. It’s hard to tell some times. The Caufi character repeatedly changed his instruction back and forth and created immense confusion and fear. They made people do things that didn’t make sense. One group was encouraged to attack the rest of the population. The differences in presentation are divisive. The strangler vines are still an issue, it is starting to affect the economy and infrastructure.
Scientist Kirb – Kai has completed the influencer training and has dug in deep to the culture and has brought Nel with him. It is so complex and more than a little confusing. We don’t have the apparatus to remember it like the sliders experience it. It feels like something is missing when we return, the memories are fuzzy and missing parts. Auditing is closer but is still missing something. The boys have made further alterations to the terminals so that we can experience it how they do. Mr Grint is very interested in the culture results and is wildly happy about the terminal modifications. People are already using the modified terminals for stay-cations as they call it on the world.
Mr. Grint is pleased with the results of the language study. The team has dug into their work and mine and are working to pull in more lifeforms to translate. Early results suggest that a new department may need to be created. There will likely be a second created for culture studies. There are many other cultures on the world that we can study after this one is completed.
The school has requested that I stay on to continue monitoring the boys, Mr. Grint has approved the request. The boys are grateful for the buffer. They are both doing really well and seem to be enjoying themselves.
Lionel – Kai is a wee bit upset about a viewing that he thought was a funny movie. He asked for help finding someone to audit that was eating popcorn. He loves popcorn and wanted some to eat while he watched the sharks with lasers and the inept guards. The culture can be confusing at times and I told him that it was real. He didn’t believe me. He insisted it was pretend until we found people on the scene to audit.
Scientist Kirb – Kai Is a funny little fellow. He loves the concept of movies and has figured out how to take the eating experience from one audit and overlay it on another audit. He is pleased with the mod. Mr. Grint was perplexed by this modification, most of us have trouble processing the extra information and keep that feature turned off.
Kai has been working on something big, but has only said it is culture related. He mentioned something about strangler vines and is just about done with it. Which is good because the experiment is just about done. Both boys are ready to have their father and brother back. The sliders that have aged out are suspended until everyone is ready to be released from the experiment.
Scientist Kirb – The Elbert character has aged out but the system hasn’t released any of the sliders. Nel, Kai, Counselor Jenkin and Mr. Grint are looking into why it hasn’t happened. This has never happened before and there is concern.
The Great Experiment 