PSA: this is your brain on Yeerks

[mynameis-jake.livejournal.com]

My name is Jake. I'm here to tell you that there is a Yeerk among you. His name is Iniss 335, and his host is Tom Berenson. My brother.

I'm new to this ship, but not to the war against the Yeerk invasion. I'm told that some of you are sympathetic to the Yeerks, that you pity them, and I understand.

I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong. I can't make that call for you. But you know what the Yeerks are. You know how they control a host so completely, so perfectly, that you can't tell who around you is free and who's helpless in his own mind. The one you don't know is Tom, who has been imprisoned for more than three years. Imagine being unable to move a single muscle, voice a single thought, imagine your body a tool for your captor, used to enslave everyone you care about. Imagine that your thoughts are no longer your own, that someone else can rifle through them at will, and does: uses your knowledge to fool your friends, find their weaknesses, and your every fantasy to shame you.

I know that my brother is strong, but I also know that he is suffering, and I would like that suffering to stop. If you still feel that all creatures have a right to live as they choose, then so be it. But I hope you won't mistake Iniss for the victim here.

If you see Tom, I would appreciate any information.

Comments

[tweedywatcher.livejournal.com]

It's a difficult situation....fighting evil often is. I do assume the creature is acting to ensure its own survival, but that doesn't make it right. I was used by such a creature once, but I've no memory of the incident.Fortunately, the Bezoar wasn't exactly intelligent, and it wasn't hard for my colleague to decide how to handle it. I can't imagine being trapped awake the entire time.

I'll certainly pass along anything I find out.

[mynameis-jake.livejournal.com]

Thank you, and I'm sorry you had to go through something like that.

...And, you're probably right that the Yeerks are just doing what's natural for them: not for survival, but for something that I... wouldn't want to be without. Still, humans are capable of resisting their urges, we don't just grab whatever we want. If Yeerks are really such a superior race, they should be able to do the same.

[tweedywatcher.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. We can be so cruel and disheartening at times, but we have the capability for good as well, and so should other races.

There are, unfortunately, too many races like that out there. I and the people I work with do our best fighting it, but it so often seems it's never enough.

[mynameis-jake.livejournal.com]

Your group actively fight aliens? That sounds pretty amazing. Even if you can't stop them completely, I bet you're still making a difference.

[tweedywatcher.livejournal.com]

It's something like that, but not exactly. They come from my own world, from the Earth in which I live. It's quite interesting, really, how people continually rationalize strange things. Most of them still don't know what's really out there. That's why there's us, I suppose.

[mynameis-jake.livejournal.com]

You're right about that. I've always thought that if we could just bring enough evidence to the media... but yeah, that's why there's us.