The Evening Presentation

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this evening’s keynote presentation, which I have been given the great honour to introduce. *Applause*

Unbeknownst to both of us is the aftermath of great storms since, none of us have ever survived to see them.

Thank you, thank you. I’ll begin immediately as I’m told that the space has been not only double, but triple booked in fact! I believe we have been given the leeway as Mr. D has confessed to be a great fan of our work, and for this we are, of course, deeply grateful for his support and patronage tonight, as well as throughout the course of our research. *Weaker applause*

We did not see the mist clouds of fragrant water sprayed through perfume nozzles, one after the other, by the cosmetic counter Angels, or the branches broken in on their greater selves-

Nevertheless, I will not infringe too heavily on his kindness and will aim to have this wrapped up in time for the next party- a wonderful group of orchid enthusiasts, come to give a seminar on proper competitive orchid evaluation method. *Scattered laughter*

-splinters lodged in the fingers of Heaven as it searches through the squelching mud, and squeezes tiny brown rivers through its grasp, and though we are laying dead there in those rivers, we simply do not know that.

Yes, ha ha, so if anyone is interested in that, they are welcome to remain behind ha ha. Alright, soon we will have the great Dr L. on stage to present his most recent findings from the latest case study having been carried out by our incredible team; and of course, I’d like to take this opportunity to give one final moment of silence to our late and great pioneer, Dr B., who passed earlier this year, and to whom we owe absolutely everything here tonight. *Silence, a muffled cough*

It is the kind of storm that threatens for ages, and then does not arrive until it is too late.

Thank you. So, I will be leaving the exact medical workings and scientific applications up to our Dr L., which comes as a relief to you all, as I’m sure you know that is simply not my forte. *Laughter*

While I waited, I would look out on leaves swaying, and my love would sway.

I will, however, be giving the general rundown, and an introduction, of sorts, into our more recent work, especially since I am told there are several potentially new members present this evening who, like myself, do not hail from a scientific background and, also, I said ‘members’ but, really, I of course meant ‘donors’. *Laughter*

I would fix my eyes on children playing, and my love would play. I would listen to what they were saying, and my love would say that rings were drawn around the roses, pockets full of posies, then offer a tissue- a tissue- and then, finally, all come falling down.

When I first met Dr B., he explained the concept of the biode to me in the simplest possible terms he was capable of managing, and the project just absolutely had me enthralled from the very first moments. For the sake of summary, as well as tribute to the late doctor, I will be reading a sort of transcript taken from the memory of that conversation. I have to repeat and stress that these may not be the exact words he had used but, I have had Dr L. fact-check my speech, and I can assure you the information is sound. It begins:

And since it was coming, I knew it would come, -

“That the issue of Love is resolved as such:

-like a wind observed from a distance: that formless entity that has no body but expresses its figure onto the nature, -

that the lover, henceforth referred to as the ‘assailant’, shall be conceived and born of natural or medically assisted causes, then separated from the mother immediately following the birth. The mother will then be subjected to the standard required ‘cooling phase’ in which she is empowered to live separately from the assailant, as well as to equilibrize the natural maternal hormones, with the assistance of an assortment of mood stabilizing medications, for the period of one year. After such a time has passed, the assailant will be returned to their family following this period of absolutely no contact or interaction.

-moving it aside, lifting the birds several metres in flight, and has no speech of its own yet it is always heard from far off, first, rubbing the world against itself, everything in path become its instrument, and growing louder in borrowed voices before it arrives, finally, at your face,-

During this first year of life, the assailant will be intentionally socialized through the separation, and a number of other techniques to develop a dismissive style of attachment to all figures in their social life, but as well as towards the assailant’s own psyche.”

-and somehow its magic is that no matter if you knew unquestioningly that it was coming, its coming is always a grace.

Ladies and gentlemen, I pause here to note that, although it did not come up in our initial meeting, Dr B. did do me the favour of demonstrating some of these aforementioned socialization techniques and, although we may not have the wherewithal to delve deeply into those at present, I will remind you all that our facility is offering tours and demonstrations as of the fourteenth of next month. Our dear Dr M. was to speak deeper on those methods but, she is unfortunately unwell at present. The very best I can do is to mention some terms such as the “still-face experiments” and “parental uncoupling”, and pray that is enough to capture your imaginations for the time being.

What can I apologize for?

And now, back to the transcript:

If terrible was the sea, then under the sea we would still go;-

“Immediately after birth, following separation from the mother, who is now free to recover from the traumatic experience of maternity, the assailant will have the revolutionary new biode designimplanted within the brain organ. This procedure is best performed as quickly as possible while early psychological development is still in its complete infancy, and the skull remains under formed.

-I would meet my love and he would meet me, and we were both, ourselves, met.

The assailant will not be able to sensually perceive the biode as they mature, nor will they be able to recall of its implantation, however its effect will begin to implement instantaneously, as opposed to in cases of past, unsuccessful models whose effects proved, unfortunately, biologically hazardous, and operated at the mercy of intermittent, unpredictable secretions. The biode, along with the strategic dissolution of the mother-assailant relationship (of which some psycho-sociologists have already begun to term the phrase “solitary exposure”) couple to produce the perfected results which have long since surpassed the hopes and expectations of our own bioengineers.

What tide would not come to hug you again and again?

You will be pleased to hear that the assailant is able to progress into puberty and then into full adulthood without ever forming a single personal attachment or close relationship, be it romantic, platonic, or filial, and thus achieving total emotional apathy. The assailant has squashed his most base desire for connection.”

What fire would not burn if given no end?

*Applause* Yes- thank you, thank you. Ahem. “The biode then, acting not only as a repressor/deterrent, but also as its own fail safe, then ensures that if this perfect state of detachment is somehow breached, then the biode acts with immediate effect, to prompt the adrenal glands to flood the body with cortisol and adrenaline. The assailant will therefore proceed to attack the object of its affection until the effects of the biode’s hormonal interference have eased- in practice, this is long after the assailant has succeeded in beating the object of their affection to death.

I could ignore the pinching feeling growing stronger in the back of my head, but I could not convince even my unnatural heart to bed.

The heightened levels of cortisol and adrenaline ensure the temporary unnatural physical prowess of the assailant and therefore success over any opponent, be it man, woman, animal, and of course, child.

So, to bed, and to bed.

Thus, the biode serves efficiently not only as its own affecter, but its own clean-up system as well in those rare, but unavoidable, instances of failure.”

When the storm breaks, it breaks exactly overhead-

Well, that concludes my little trip down memory lane. For all our potential new members here tonight, I hope I have given enough of an introduction to our work to pique your interest, as Dr B. so effectively did to mine all those years ago.

-and I watched through squinted eyes stinging from torrent as my love-

To our current members, I am sure you are absolutely spinning in your seats to hear from Dr L. and all of his newest findings taken from our latest case study, just concluded not but several weeks ago. I won’t spoil anything but I can assure you it has shown the most promising of results.

-slipped away on a slide slicked with blood, and silt and water,-

Thank you again to Mr. D., to all the donors who make our work possible, and the incredible doctors themselves, including the ones who were unable to be in attendance today.

-and I was losing it,-

Ladies and gentlemen, I will see you once again at the very end for Q&A. Dr L., the floor is all yours! *Loud Applause*

-I was losing it.