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Description
JM: "Tell us a little about what it's like to be on Muir."

M: "Well, that's a very complicated question. It's almost totally Earthlike, you understand, but at the same time that's incredibly misleading to say. There's really no good way to explain the way the place affects you, except perhaps to say that it upsets your expectations at a very basic level."

JM: "Could you explain that a little?"

M: "Hmm, let me see. Well, it's common knowledge that, after the first few years of field exploration, it had become quite clear that the stress of working on Muir, dealing with with alien experiences in a deceptively familiar environment on such a continual basis, had a huge psychological effect on our staff - without exception."

JM: "I hope our readers have all seen the documentary, at this point."

M: "Right. Well, we were beginning to understand that this wasn't just normal stress, right? Many on our staff were showing disorientation and anxiety symptoms like what would be expected in any sort of transition into an extreme and unfamiliar environment. You may remember the term popularized by the documentary - reality shock, yes? But this didn't explain a lot of the other strange behavior we were seeing - lots of new psychoses springing up. I mean with behavior not seen by psychologists before, and other things like extreme shifts in personality or just plain weird mental syndromes."

JM: "Stuff like 'Ooo Face' and 'Pseudoautophagy?'"

M: "Right, exactly. So, anyway, it's very hard to explain what it's like to be mixed in with that - among the kinds of experiences that result in all that. And like I was beginning to say, we were starting to realize at that point that these were not just normal psychoses, not normal reactions, you understand? This was something more like physical mental degradation. We all had routine CAT scans, but they showed nothing. We suspected the PG organs of affecting our minds somehow, despite the PG shielding. "

JM: "How did you realize was was not the case?"

M: "Well, I was a field co-supervisor when we discovered the Thinker, or the Lesser Acephalic Contemplator if you want to look it up. I think the best way to describe the feeling is a terraced dawning horror. First of all, the thing is huge. I mean, immense. When we found it on patrol, it was half-buried under leaf litter in a gully - we all saw has this huge dark shaggy lump apparently rising out of the ground. Impressive, you know? Breathtaking, but at the same it's a huge wild animal, and you respect that in the field."

JM: "Some of the pictures do a good job of conveying that."

M: "Yes. Well, we marked the area as a Territory. Passing patrols kept making a note that the creature was still there. Photos showed no disturbance of the leaf litter, other than accumulation. After a year, a our team was authorized to cautiously unbury it, and to abort a the slightest provocation. It's totally immobile - inert, as you may know - and as we removed the leaves and dirt, it quickly became very clear that this thing looked eerily human. Like, beyond the realm of coincidence. It has arms and legs, hands and feet, despite missing a head. I'm watching this from about 30 yards away, right, and I'm getting a very good view of the whole of the creature as it is uncovered. Suddenly, I realize, and excuse my language, "Holy shit ... this thing is human. It's human." Like, either it's human-derived, or something else. It doesn't fit with anything else we've seen before, not like any of the other creatures."

JM: "And this ties in with the changes we've seen in the creatures since that time?"

M: "Yes, this was one of the very first creatures we observed showing human morphology. Hands, feet, even shoes, all jumbled up but still recognizable. Since that time, it's become apparent that these aliens are infecting us somehow, compromising our field teams, infecting us with their mental aspects. And not just that, but even worse, despite our efforts to leave the environment untouched, we are somehow infecting them too."

Description
JM: "Tell us a little about what it's like to be on Muir."

M: "Well, that's a very complicated question. It's almost totally Earthlike, you understand, but at the same time that's incredibly misleading to say. There's really no good way to explain the way the place affects you, except perhaps to say that it upsets your expectations at a very basic level."

JM: "Could you explain that a little?"

M: "Hmm, let me see. Well, it's common knowledge that, after the first few years of field exploration, it had become quite clear that the stress of working on Muir, dealing with with alien experiences in a deceptively familiar environment on such a continual basis, had a huge psychological effect on our staff - without exception."

JM: "I hope our readers have all seen the documentary, at this point."

M: "Right. Well, we were beginning to understand that this wasn't just normal stress, right? Many on our staff were showing disorientation and anxiety symptoms like what would be expected in any sort of transition into an extreme and unfamiliar environment. You may remember the term popularized by the documentary - reality shock, yes? But this didn't explain a lot of the other strange behavior we were seeing - lots of new psychoses springing up. I mean with behavior not seen by psychologists before, and other things like extreme shifts in personality or just plain weird mental syndromes."

JM: "Stuff like 'Ooo Face' and 'Pseudoautophagy?'"

M: "Right, exactly. So, anyway, it's very hard to explain what it's like to be mixed in with that - among the kinds of experiences that result in all that. And like I was beginning to say, we were starting to realize at that point that these were not just normal psychoses, not normal reactions, you understand? This was something more like physical mental degradation. We all had routine CAT scans, but they showed nothing. We suspected the PG organs of affecting our minds somehow, despite the PG shielding. "

JM: "How did you realize was was not the case?"

M: "Well, I was a field co-supervisor when we discovered the Thinker, or the Lesser Acephalic Contemplator if you want to look it up. I think the best way to describe the feeling is a terraced dawning horror. First of all, the thing is huge. I mean, immense. When we found it on patrol, it was half-buried under leaf litter in a gully - we all saw has this huge dark shaggy lump apparently rising out of the ground. Impressive, you know? Breathtaking, but at the same it's a huge wild animal, and you respect that in the field."

JM: "Some of the pictures do a good job of conveying that."

M: "Yes. Well, we marked the area as a Territory. Passing patrols kept making a note that the creature was still there. Photos showed no disturbance of the leaf litter, other than accumulation. After a year, a our team was authorized to cautiously unbury it, and to abort a the slightest provocation. It's totally immobile - inert, as you may know - and as we removed the leaves and dirt, it quickly became very clear that this thing looked eerily human. Like, beyond the realm of coincidence. It has arms and legs, hands and feet, despite missing a head. I'm watching this from about 30 yards away, right, and I'm getting a very good view of the whole of the creature as it is uncovered. Suddenly, I realize, and excuse my language, "Holy shit ... this thing is human. It's human." Like, either it's human-derived, or something else. It doesn't fit with anything else we've seen before, not like any of the other creatures."

JM: "And this ties in with the changes we've seen in the creatures since that time?"

M: "Yes, this was one of the very first creatures we observed showing human morphology. Hands, feet, even shoes, all jumbled up but still recognizable. Since that time, it's become apparent that these aliens are infecting us somehow, compromising our field teams, infecting us with their mental aspects. And not just that, but even worse, despite our efforts to leave the environment untouched, we are somehow infecting them too."