"WE HAVE COME HERE TO INVESTIGATE. WE HAVE COME HERE TO UNEARTH. WE ARE HERE TO DISCOVER, DEFINE, AND DIRECT. WE HAVE TO MASTER IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND. WE CAN DO A GREAT MANY THINGS!" Such is the directive of The Administration overseeing the Forest affairs. From the grounds of The Administration, The Forest could hardly be seen. But The Forest was present. It was always present. If you were anywhere else in The Administration, it was obscured by something. It was obscured by the cream-colored buildings of the engineering workshops, and by the four-story garage that housed the personnel vehicles. It was obscured by the employee housing units, research facilities, meeting halls, TV antennas, alleyways and the central square. But even a person who had never in their life seen The Forest, who hadn’t heard of The Forest, hadn’t thought about The Forest, hadn’t been afraid of it, or hadn’t fantasized about it - even a person like that could easily guess that it existed, simply because of the existence of The Administration. The Forest existed, and this enormous, gloomy building concerned itself with its fate. Just about the only place one could actually get a good look at The Forest was the White Cliffs. From there, The Forest looked like dappled, fluffy foam; like a gigantic, world-encompassing porous sponge, overgrown with coarse moss. Of course, throughout its operations, The Administration sent many scientists and engineers on missions into the thick of the wilderness to conduct their experiments and document the unordinary activities reported to have been observed in The Forest. But for the vast majority of The Administration workers and employees, the access was restricted. The directive reads on: "We work together day in, day out with the common aim of learning, understanding, and harnessing the energies of this untamed wilderness. Eventually, everything here will be knocked down and, in its place, we will have dazzlingly beautiful structures made out of transparent and translucent materials - swimming pools, air parks, crystalline bars and diners! Libraries! Laboratories! Soaked through with sunshine and light!" People! I tell you: I have been among the few privileged to have been granted entry into The Forest. I've set foot in it. I’ve conducted the research on behalf of The Administration, and I can confidently say - it’s all lies and nonsense! What we've been doing here is all wrong! We DON’T understand ANYTHING. We are watching from the outside with the biased eyes of a stranger - a stranger who doesn't understand a thing, and for that very reason imagines that he understands everything and has the right to judge. My brain has become overgrown with Forest. What are we doing in this place? I don’t think we can ever understand. It’s time to leave now. The Surpassment is coming!

Candide (lyrics/vocals by Vell Mullens) And though my home goes on for acres I've yet to know any kind of comfort here Harsh ridicule their tricks and riddles Piling on the boughs and branches I'm to bear Fear strikes like lightening And cuts a heart so dear Birds fall to ruin The future can't happen here The future can't happen here It's undeniable fear Replacing love with painful silence Seeking to hide from what I'm forced to know Fear strikes like lightening And cuts a heart so dear Birds fall to ruin The future can't happen here The future can't happen here No matter what you believe And though my home goes on for acres I've yet to know any kind of comfort here Receiving less of that which once sustained me You can't see the forest for the trees

We’re breathing foul air. There’s something off with the atmosphere. There was an incident. A calamity that took place not long ago. A significant portion of what was The Forest is now Bad Lands. Several villages have drowned and are now overgrown with mushrooms. The entire area is covered in yellow fog. And who is to blame? Who is responsible for this? Was it a careless action of some Administration worker or maybe an unforeseen effect of our policies and experiments? In hindsight, I don’t think we’ll ever know for certain but here’s a version according to AIR CREDITS who are helping to recount the events.

The Forest. There it was all around me. I finally entered it. Not as an observer but a participant! What a strange, peculiar place. So full of wonders. Sometimes you take a turn and it leads you nowhere. At other times, you accidentally end up somewhere unexpectedly magical where completely new and astonishing things are revealed to you… Some have perished along the way, some have stopped persisting all together and turned back, yet others have made magnificent strides in exploring this wilderness and harnessing its vital energies. I too have dared to venture out there. And I’m convinced that what I saw, what I experienced there is truly unique to the path I’ve paved along my journey. I still wonder if The Forest even noticed my presence. Was I a welcomed guest? Or did it simply tolerate my being there enough to allow me to find my way back? I do, nevertheless, feel like I’ve made a certain personal connection with it. I can’t completely describe everything that I saw and heard in there but still I have a lingering feeling that, ultimately, The Forest didn't want anything to do with me. That it didn't want any of us there. A wealth of colors, a wealth of smells, a wealth of life, and it’s all genuinely alien. It’s a product of our world, the flesh of our flesh, but it has cut ties with us and doesn’t want to know us. The Surpassment is coming.

Calamity 2 (lyrics/vocals by Rico Sisney) Eyes closed on the rooftop Nice night just a few clouds Forehead felt a dew drop Thunder clap so I looked out It looks like another storm's coming Backed us right into a corner It's too dry and getting warmer It ain't like they didn't warn us Lightning strikes and strikes and strikes and strikes again Unkempt forest built the altar made the match And the climate's just lighting it Campfires turn back to ash eventually We'll see Paradise again The Yerba Santa's next to blackened trees Makes me a real good tea that I like to sip But my question: Who’s gonna mourn little old me? The frog in the pot that got burned up? The killing field isn't lonely And it didn't come cheap It's the modern convenience of murder The ones that made this world still sitting comfy 'Til the tidal waves finally within arms reach The poor and melanated will be the first up 'Til they can disperse us off the burn scarred land Much cheaper to purchase They traded my life for mounds of cash Cut me off like the mountain caps The land heals itself and bounces back Too bad I won't be around for that I feel like Noah. You know why? I know what is coming and no one will listen Don't want to lower emissions So I've got no pot to piss in I suppose when it's this close Nobody thinks of us as exposed They'll probably read about it and scroll All cuz they think it's under control I suppose when it's this close Nobody thinks of us as exposed They'll probably read about it and roll Their eyes because they've heard it before But it hits different when it's hitting you It hits different when it's hitting you It hits different when it's hitting you It hits different when it's hitting you Smoke inside my lungs I'm feeling high off the AQI I didn't hit the joint I just decided to walk outside Covid mask or a N95? Can't make up my mind How the fuck am I supposed to survive Two crises at a time? Who’s gonna mourn little old me? The frog in the pot that got burned up The killing field isn't lonely And it didn't come cheap It's the modern convenience of murder From your view it ain't quite as ominous From my seat, it looks like an apocalypse Levees broke after the promises At least the water's not as high as the profit is They traded my life for mounds of cash I might outrun the smoke but the drought’s too fast The earth heals itself and bounces back I hope my descendants will be around for that I feel like Noah. You know why? I know what is coming and no one will listen Don't want to lower emissions So I've got no pot to piss in I suppose when it's this close Nobody thinks of us as exposed They'll probably read about it and roll Their eyes because they've heard it before But it hits different when it's hitting you It hits different when it's hitting you It hits different when it's hitting you It hits different when it's hitting you

"The idea of an impending catastrophe simply didn’t fit into their heads. This catastrophe was approaching too slowly and had been approaching for too long. It was probably because they thought of a catastrophe as something immediate, something instantaneous, as related to some kind of disaster. And they weren’t able and didn’t want to think about the world outside The Administration and its activities. There was The Administration with its research and there was The Forest. The Forest was stronger—but then, The Forest always had been and always would be stronger. Catastrophe, what catastrophe? How could this be a catastrophe? It was just life. They’ll figure it out one day, when the swamp is at their doorsteps, when the underground springs erupt in the middle of their streets and yellow fog hangs over their roofs... Or maybe they won’t realize it even then: they’ll simply say, we can’t live here anymore. And they’ll have to leave and find another place... And then what? We are the damned, the miserable damned. Or rather, we are the happy damned because we do not know that we’re damned. We are relics who have been condemned to death by objective laws, and helping them means holding up progress—it means putting an obstacle in the way of the front lines of progress, even if only a small one. But what’s their progress to me, thought Candide? It’s not my progress, and the only reason I’m calling it progress is because I can’t find a better word . . . I can’t choose this with my head. I have to choose this with my heart. Objective laws can’t be good or bad; they are outside the bounds of morality. But I’m not outside the bounds of morality!"

In the course of its operation and research, right up to the point when a series of calamities occurred prompting an emergency evacuation of the area, The Administration could only manage an insignificant portion of the territory in the ocean of Forest that envelopes the continent. However, all valuable data and findings have been successfully compiled and preserved in a series of reports right before the fateful events took place. In a matter of hours, a complete evacuation was effectively executed and the area of research as well as the grounds upon which The Administration stood were cleared and sealed by the armed guards.

Thinking back on my years at The Administration and the events that occurred and that I witnessed in The Forest, new fragments of memories have recently come to my recollection. What exactly did I see in The Forest? I met three forest witches. But you never know who you’ll meet in The Forest. I witnessed the destruction of villages and the eradication of acres of landscape, a Forest bog that looked like a factory of living things, scientists enveloped in yellow fog... Experiments, destruction, collapse... But these are my words, my concepts... Now I know that even the destruction of the villages wasn’t destruction—it was The Surpassment. Or at least that's what the villagers called it. But I don’t know what The Surpassment is. I’m afraid of it, I’m disgusted by it, but that’s merely because it’s alien to me. I've tried many times to define it and this is all I could come up with: “a masterful, highly organized, carefully crafted offensive by the present on the past,” or maybe better even “a recently matured and invigorated present attacking an obsolete, rotting past.” Not depravity but a revolution. A law of nature. A law that I’m watching from the outside with the biased eyes of a stranger—a stranger who doesn’t understand a thing, and for that very reason imagines that he understands everything and has the right to judge. My brain has long been overgrown with Forest and I still don't understand a thing. But what is certain to me is that I can feel The Surpassment, and I know it's still coming... Signing off, Candide.