September 11th, 202X

TRIUS: hey guys. i’m trius atlas.
TRIUS: now, it’s a very sad day for america
TRIUS: you see, 20 billion years ago or something, idk it was before i was born, there were these two towers in new york city
TRIUS: now, because of... uhhhh hold on i have to look up something on wikipedia
TRIUS: okay, so this guy osama bin laden wanted america to get out of the arabian peninsula
TRIUS: hold on why were they. there
TRIUS: okay so. america didn’t like that iraq was working with the soviet union and also didn’t like that it was pro-palestine... wait but if they supported iraq then why... okay so then they invaded kuwait... oh my god there’s a lot here
TRIUS: uhhh okay so gist is basically the u.s. had just finished the gulf war about 5 years prior to this opening event, but hadn’t withdrawn forces it seems. osama bin laden did not like that and declared war on the u.s.
TRIUS: in the following years, bin laden would go on to orchestrate 9/11 wherein several planes were hijacked, going toward the twin towers in new york city and the pentagon. one plane managed to be diverted but it still crashed
TRIUS: now 9/11’s casualties were some 3,000 people
TRIUS: in the wars that the u.s. used 9/11 to justify, the death toll is disputed. the costs of war project says that approximately 47,000 civilians were killed in afghanistan. other estimates say upwards of 100,000.
TRIUS: so let’s get our facts straight. 3,000 americans died on september 11th, 2001. in the aftermath of 9/11, the u.s. used these deaths to justify the deaths of 50,000 to 100,000 civilians in afghanistan alone. that’s not counting other countries that the wars took place in. that’s not counting all the soldiers who fought in it. that’s just a flat 50,000 to 100,000 civilians in afghanistan killed because of 3,000 other people’s death. that’s scaling up by an order of magnitude——two if the less conservative estimates were more accurate.
TRIUS: many people were impacted by the deaths of the people in 9/11. if we say that that every person who died in 9/11 had 200 people that mourned their death, then 600,000 people mourned the deaths of those people. let’s say they pass on this mourning to another 300,000 people——half that amount.
TRIUS: well, that’d be 900,000 people mourning the deaths in 9/11.
TRIUS: in the years since 9/11, islamophobia has ramped up immensely. bigots and racists will torment any muslim or arab they see. there are 4.5 million muslim people in the united states and 3.5 million arab-americans in the united states. since there’s probably gonna be some overlap, let’s say there’s at least 4 million people who are affected by islamophobia——even if they’re not muslim themselves, they’ll still be targeted for being brown.
TRIUS: i wasn’t really raised muslim, but literally one single day in middle school i mentioned offhandedly that some of my extended family was, and for the rest of middle school, these two kids would call me slurs whenever they passed me in the hall and there were no teachers around. and that was just from one relation! imagine what it’s like for someone who is actually actively muslim!
TRIUS: so my point here is that 9/11 was a tragedy, yes, but that specific day’s sanctity in american society has made it a justification for innumerable counts of hatred, bigotry, violence, and most of all, murder. its sanctity should thus be completely abandoned and i believe that this is where time and tragedy should mix to form comedy.
TRIUS: which is why i think it reflects no moral standing on my part when i say these words ok?
TRIUS: TURN ON THE TERMINAL OUTPUT ANY THOUGHTSTREAM ANY THOUGHTSTREAM
TRIUS: THEY HIT THE FUCKING OCEAN!!!!!
VASH: hah
TRIUS: oh hi vash!!
VASH: heya
CAL ATLAS: Yo, Trius, who were you speaking to that whole time??
TRIUS: okay so i got this specific sensation that i was being watched and i had that earlier when we were on call with cellhex-v3 so i think it’s like. when the terminal is looking at me or something
PHOEBE: what???
CAL ATLAS: Oh, wicked... So it’s like the camera is on you?
TRIUS: yeah exactly you get me
CAL ATLAS: Hell yeah! Can I say something!
TRIUS: yeah!!
VASH: go ahead boss
CAL ATLAS: Ahem,
CAL ATLAS: ATTENTION ALL HOT LADIES MY PHONE NUMBER IS (415)--