#terrainvicta

[theinitiativechronicle]

📄 Journal Entry 014 – The Game Board Fractures Initiative Strategic Journal — Personal Log Commander’s Desk | November 15 – November 22, 2022 Clearance Level: Eyes Only

The rules of engagement are shifting. Not because the aliens have made their move, but because we have.

Or rather—because everyone else has.

In less than a month, Earth’s board has fractured into warring ideologies, hidden hands, and militarized agendas. While we’ve kept our movements surgical, our rivals have begun painting in fire.

I. The Silent Hand in Africa

Phillip Minton continues to prove his worth in Nairobi. His second advisory deployment was a success—yielding modest but real returns: increased national research output, stronger investment channels, and improved military readiness. Kenya is becoming what we hoped it could be: a sovereign vessel for Initiative policy, protected by legality, and disguised by bureaucracy.

In Rwanda, Kalameet Lund has gone to ground. After securing our second foothold, his presence in Kigali was detected by unknown elements. That made twice in two cycles. We cannot afford a third. He remains dark, but ready. I won’t risk him unless the mission requires it.

II. The Tech Mogul of Amsterdam

Yiyuan Ai continues her methodical dissection of the geopolitical fabric. This cycle, she succeeded in uncovering the identity and alignment of a second enemy agent: Mbhali Kgoloko, a South African-born financier and tech mogul, now operating under the flag of the Protectorate in Amsterdam.

Kgoloko is the second confirmed Protectorate operative in Western Europe. The first was Iribar—Servant-aligned—in Brussels. The presence of both factions in the Benelux corridor signals something more than ideological spread. They are building infrastructure—policy hubs, cover networks, and influence matrices.

We are watching their edges sharpen.

III. A Map Redrawn in Shadow

The most disturbing revelations were not ones we uncovered through espionage—but ones that exploded into view.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps is now officially under the command of Humanity First. Their doctrine of xenophobic resistance has found a nation—and a military. Iran’s power projection, missile capacity, and geographic leverage now belong to a faction that does not believe in negotiation. Only extermination.

The United Kingdom’s 1st Division has also shifted. The Protectorate now controls this elite land force. Whether through backroom influence or ideological realignment, the outcome is the same: a critical NATO military structure now reports to a faction advocating submission to alien overlords.

Yemen has collapsed into a coup. The situation remains fluid, but early signals suggest a foreign-aligned reorganization, likely inspired or assisted by one of the major factions. A vacuum is forming near the Horn of Africa.

In Pakistan, a new operative has been detected—unaffiliated and unidentified, but active in the Lahore–Islamabad corridor. The region has already fallen under partial Servant influence. Now, additional players are embedding. Whether they are Servants, Humanity First, or something else remains unclear.

A second unknown agent was detected in London. That brings the current active, hostile, or ambiguous operatives in Western Europe to at least four. We are surrounded—but not outmatched.

IV. Evaluation

Our assets remain operational. We’ve taken no direct losses. And yet, the tempo is rising. We are no longer operating in a fragmented world. We are navigating a multipolar war of alignment, fought in boardrooms, consulates, city councils, and radio towers.

The aliens have not yet declared war. But Earth has.

Directives Forward:

Secure intelligence on London- and Lahore-based operatives.

Begin evaluating targets for counter-counselor operations—detain, neutralize, purge.

Expand Kenya’s domestic tech sector to prepare for regional research hubs.

Re-engage Kalameet if regional threat levels allow.

Prepare influence package for Uganda or Ethiopia—potential third anchor state.

We are not isolated. We are not yet strong. But we are positioned.

And sometimes, position is the only thing that matters—until the knife slides forward.

— Initiative Command Personal Log – Filed November 22, 2022

[theinitiativechronicle]

📄 Journal Entry 013 – Thresholds and Trajectories Initiative Strategic Journal — Personal Log Commander’s Desk | November 8 – November 15, 2022 Clearance Level: EYES ONLY

The board is shifting faster than we anticipated.

On the morning of November 8th, I signed off on new assignments—what we expected to be a measured deployment cycle. By the 14th, the Initiative had absorbed a second African nation-state, exposed a high-ranking Servant embedded within EU infrastructure, and triggered another detection flag on one of our senior operatives.

We are pushing forward. But not without being seen.

I. Rwanda Secured

Kalameet Lund has successfully brought Rwanda–Burundi under Initiative control. It is, by many metrics, a low-yield acquisition: a GDP below $50 billion, a fragmented development pipeline, and a deeply polarized public. But our calculus was never about wealth—it was position.

With Kenya already under our influence, Rwanda strengthens our inland axis. The two now form a corridor of Initiative-aligned territory extending from the Indian Ocean to the Central African plateau. This will matter—whether for resource extraction, research staging, or containment operations—when the realignments intensify.

Lund’s infiltration was swift, clean, and without direct opposition. But he was detected almost immediately. This is the second time in a month. Whether by Servant networks or sympathetic locals, his cover is thin. We’ll maintain him on assignments for now, but contingency plans are under development. If they’re watching, they’re waiting.

II. Iribar Unmasked

I gave Yiyuan Ai the authority to pursue a lead in Brussels. The target: Miguel Iribar, operating with high discretion. Her results exceeded expectations.

Critical success.

Iribar is confirmed Servant-aligned. His dossier reads like a NATO technical asset gone off-script—naval engineer, former project manager, hardened by war and insulated by loyalty. 137. That’s near-unbreakable. He’s currently embedded in Belgium–Luxembourg and controlling policy from within.

More concerning are his capabilities: project sabotage, orbital operations, military policy setting. And he's not alone. His presence suggests a Servant power base forming in Western Europe, far more advanced than previously modeled. We suspect a shell-state strategy: manipulate a moderate, integrated nation into aligning with apocalyptic theology under the guise of defense planning.

Ai remains our sharpest instrument. She will continue tracking Iribar’s activity. We must know what he's building—or breaking.

III. Stabilization in Nairobi

Minton remains embedded in Kenya and continues his advise mission. The numbers came in this week: +2% to national research throughput, +12% increase in Investment Points, +0.07 military readiness delta.

These are not marginal. This is traction.

Kenya is transforming. Not fast, not loud, but structurally. Minton’s integration strategy is working. When we speak with the Ministry of Development next quarter, we’ll have something to show them.

IV. The Lab is Ready

Our engineering division has unlocked the Military Science Lab project. It’s more than an upgrade. It allows us to construct hab modules that will deepen our combat R&D in orbit and across exo-terrestrial platforms. The implications are straightforward: if we build these, we train for war in space.

The timeline on alien escalation is no longer theoretical. Our teams estimate Jade Mountain’s orbital sweep may enter terminal proximity within four months. That gives us a thin window to prepare, not just diplomatically, but doctrinally.

Initiative oversight has approved provisional planning for our first military orbital lab, pending resource allocation. Construction sites are under review.

V. Risk Profile: Rising

Let me be clear. We’re exposed.

Lund’s second detection. Iribar’s embedded influence. The Servants tightening control over key states. And now a confirmed Resistance cell operating parallel to our own network.

We are no longer operating in the dark alone. The board has players.

Some are naïve idealists. Some are fanatics. All of them are arming.

And we’re still listening to echoes from the sky, trying to build answers before the questions arrive in force.

But I believe this: we are learning faster. Our people are sharper. Our position is improving. And if the sky burns, I intend for us to be the ones who decide where the fire lands.

I will authorize new assignments shortly.

— Initiative Command Personal Log – Filed November 15, 2022

[theinitiativechronicle]

📄 Journal Entry 012 – Command Beneath a Foreign Sky

Filed: November 6, 2022 | Strategic Operations Summary Author: Initiative Command

We hold Kenya.

On the morning of November 6th, Initiative personnel successfully secured full executive control over Kenya’s national governance structure. The second control point fell without incident. Phillip Minton’s operation, long in motion, culminated with quiet precision. We now command both the civilian and military apparatus of Nairobi.

Kenya’s strategic value is manifold—proximity to global trade lanes, access to critical mineral routes, and a rising technological infrastructure. Its domestic politics remain unstable, but Initiative alignment has stabilized key administrative corridors.

This is our first nation. It will not be our last.

Kalameet Lund, following a failed outreach operation in Afghanistan, has been safely exfiltrated to Colombo, Sri Lanka. He remains under passive monitoring. His behavior continues to exhibit patterns of focused obsession following his contact with the Tashkent wreckage, but no further irregularities have emerged. He has been cleared for reactivation when needed.

Yiyuan Ai has returned from a second surveillance pass over Tashkent. Her findings confirm what we already suspect: the terrain is not recovering—it is transforming. Vegetation patterns now exhibit non-native density, resistance, and structural geometry. These are not simply alien plants. They are systems. Growing. Shaping. Persisting.

With Skywatch already active, our engineering division has shifted priority toward the Alien Flora project. Early-stage xenogenetic decoding is underway, with targeted probes to isolate metabolic pathways and growth triggers. We do not yet understand if this represents a form of colonization, communication, or unintentional seeding. But we will.

In orbit, the final phase of the Mission to Space research initiative has concluded. The global scientific community, prompted by alien presence, has aligned around the fundamentals of orbital adaptation. Project Exodus contributed the majority of late-stage breakthroughs and now spearheads the Orbital Shipbuilding framework. A series of near-Earth technologies—deep space propulsion, outpost habitation, and crewed transit systems—has been unlocked.

This will alter timelines. It will also alter wars.

Our own contribution to this research was limited. Internal resources remain focused on Earth-based stability, reconnaissance, and factional countermeasures. But we are watching.

One final note: with the Initiative’s influence growing, we have formally selected our internal advisory cadre. After review, we’ve emphasized international aid frameworks—support structures that will allow us to stabilize developing regions without drawing direct fire. This may buy us goodwill, or at least silence, as we expand.

The aliens have not struck. But they are watching. And so are we.

— Initiative Command Strategic Log – Filed November 6, 2022

[theinitiativechronicle]

📄 Journal Entry 011 – The Sky Is No Longer Ours

Initiative Strategic Journal — Authored Personally Commander’s Desk | October 22 – November 1, 2022 Clearance Level: Eyes Only

I write this entry under the weight of confirmation.

For years, we operated under hypothesis. Speculation. Shadows and glimpses. That era ended on October 23rd at 04:31 UTC, when orbital surveillance under Initiative control tracked two foreign vessels initiating maneuver into low Earth orbit.

Their vectors, mass profiles, and EM signatures leave no room for interpretation.

They are not ours. They are not of Earth. They are inbound. And they do not ask permission.

This is not theory. This is contact.

The sky is no longer the only domain shifting beneath our feet.

In Uzbekistan, our containment teams continue monitoring the crash site near Tashkent. What they’ve uncovered confirms our deepest concerns: the biological samples recovered do not share lineage with Earth-based evolution. These are not misclassified extremophiles or legacy DNA strands. They are alien organisms—functional, adaptive, active.

Local authorities continue to explain the heightened military activity as internal security reform. But we’ve seen the reports. They are trying to trap something they do not understand.

Meanwhile, our rivals adapt faster than I expected.

On October 25th, through our asset in Astana, we identified Mbhali Kgoloko, a financier working in concert with a new political faction we are now calling the Protectorate. Under the leadership of Kiran Banerjee, former UN human rights commissioner, they are quietly lobbying military leaders and governments across Asia to accept alien supremacy as an inevitability.

Their doctrine is clear: survival through compliance.

They speak in the language of diplomacy, of pragmatism, of order. But make no mistake—they offer managed surrender, not coexistence. Their goal is access, not balance.

Elsewhere, signs of ideological capture are even more overt.

Intelligence intercepts suggest that military commands in Russia, Korea, and Pakistan have realigned. Some are overtly controlled by alien-sympathetic blocs. Others appear fractured. Preliminary evidence indicates that the Servants—a theocratic faction glorifying alien contact as divine revelation—may have seized operational control of Pakistan’s 1st Strike Corps.

They do not rationalize domination. They revere it.

Our own fieldwork continues—with mixed outcomes.

Kalameet Lund attempted influence operations in Afghanistan. The window was narrow. The mission failed. Worse, his identity was compromised. He is now under surveillance, likely by hostile Servant-aligned networks. Extraction planning is underway. We may lose the Afghan vector, but not the man.

Phillip Minton, deployed to Kenya, has made progress. Nairobi's administration is opening to our influence. We are positioned to secure full executive control with one final operation.

Yiyuan Ai continues to outperform expectations. Her augmented sensory processing has yielded clean intelligence. It was she who confirmed Kgoloko’s factional alignment. She will remain in Central Asia for now.

Overlaying all this, a crisis born of Earth itself.

A super-cyclone made landfall in the Kolkata region this week. Power grids are down. Food and transport disrupted. Thousands displaced. In a country already fraying at the political seams, this may become the breach point. I’ve instructed Regional Desk East to initiate contingency planning for cascading state failure scenarios across Bengal and Assam.

But amid the chaos, one critical success: Skywatch is live.

Our surveillance constellation is now linked and operational, offering near-complete orbital awareness. When they return, we’ll see them. We may even anticipate their arrival.

Following activation, our research allies selected a new focus: immersive strategic interfaces. If successful, this initiative will reframe how we command multi-theater operations—from military projection to containment and diplomacy.

That future remains theoretical. But at least now, it has a shape.

I end this entry without illusion.

We are not alone. And we never were.

The universe was not silent. We simply hadn’t learned to listen.

We have looked up. And now, they are looking back.

— Initiative Command Personal Log – Filed November 1, 2022

[theinitiativechronicle]

🛰️ Entry 010 – Veil and Soil

Filed: 20 October 2022 From: Initiative Command – Personal Log Location: Global Summary | Research Division | Field Correlation Desk

“They came not with fire, but with roots. Not with conquest, but with presence.”

We’ve completed our first comprehensive analysis of extraterrestrial activity. The Alien Signatures project has yielded results. We now have the tools to detect abduction patterns—not with rumor, but with algorithm. Satellite arrays have been recalibrated. Surveillance assets now include a layer we were not trained to believe in.

The invisible is no longer hidden. Only disguised.

Confirmed Findings

At least one extraterrestrial crew member survived the original descent. Evidence suggests evasion and escape. We are not alone—we are being watched.

The wreckage near Tashkent has been confirmed as non-human in origin. There is no terrestrial match in metallurgy, structural logic, or emission signatures.

Disappearance reports from affected regions now correlate with telemetry anomalies. These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a pattern.

We are no longer a passive observer. We are the observed.

Operational Updates

As of this entry, the Initiative recognizes three emergent mission lines, now supported by confirmed science:

Investigate Alien Abductions — Enabled through targeted Surveil + Investigate operations

Research Alien Origin — Pending broader cosmological surveillance through Deep System Skywatch

Salvage Alien Technology — Contingent upon direct access to alien assets: vessels, facilities, or tactical encounters

All parallel engineering priorities have been deferred. Full throughput is now assigned to Alien Flora.

We must understand the biology before it encircles us.

Field Notes – Almaty

Yiyuan Ai conducted a full surveillance sweep in Almaty. No active abduction signatures were detected. The region remains clear. But pattern analysis suggests that alien activity is migrating—intelligently, or algorithmically. We will reposition accordingly.

No confrontation has occurred. But something is moving beneath the map lines.

Strategic Summary

We have crossed the veil. And we now stand in their garden.

What we once imagined as a clean line between stars and soil has dissolved. They do not arrive as conquerors. They arrive as presence. As change. As systems. Their movement is not theatrical. It is methodical.

Where once we scanned the skies, we now test the soil. Where once we charted satellites, we now trace roots.

The timeline ahead of us is no longer calibrated to human expectations. It never was.

Immediate Directives

Expand abduction surveillance networks—signal filtering, incident mapping, HUMINT collation

Prioritize completion of Alien Flora research to generate biome-resilience models

Prepare Deep System Skywatch protocols to extend Initiative vision beyond the inner system

Establish protocols for first technology recovery, should confrontation or accident permit it

This is not an invasion. It is a planting.

[theinitiativechronicle]

🛰️ Entry 009 – Threshold Breach

Filed: 14 October 2022 From: Initiative Command – Personal Log Location: Secure Uplink – Central Desk, Nairobi Relay

“History shifts not in speeches, but in silences broken by unfamiliar sounds.”

The Initiative is no longer watching from the margins. We’ve crossed into terrain that cannot be reversed—diplomatically, biologically, tactically.

We now hold a government. We’ve traded currency with ideologues we oppose. And in a dead field east of Tashkent, the Earth itself is no longer behaving like Earth.

Field Outcomes

Kalameet Lund has succeeded in opening our first terrestrial channel of control. Somalia is fragmented, fractured, and bleeding—but under the right leverage, it bends. Through intermediaries embedded in military supply chains and economic patronage networks, Mogadishu has accepted our presence—quietly, unofficially, but completely.

It is a beachhead. The nation remains in insurrection. Factions flicker and turn like leaves in a drought. But the state apparatus now houses a thread that leads back to us.

Our directives carry weight.

It will take months to consolidate. But this is not a symbolic win. It is structural.

In parallel, Yiyuan Ai completed a full surveillance circuit around the Tashkent descent zone. What we feared has been confirmed.

The site is alive. Not with machinery, but with foreign biology.

Flora with no Earth-based analogues have established dominance. Local species are vanishing—not through decay, but replacement. There is no resistance. Either the soil itself accepts the foreign presence, or something in the biomass adapts too quickly for the ecosystem to reject it.

This is not invasive species behavior. This is colonization at the molecular level.

In response, I’ve authorized full expansion of the Alien Flora Project. Dedicated personnel, classified sequencing infrastructure, and long-range ecological modeling have all been greenlit. If this zone spreads, we must understand it before it surrounds us.

Diplomatic Movements

The Servants have backed off—for now.

Our diplomatic overture to Judith Howell was met with public contempt, but privately accepted. The financial concession—funneled through a cascade of aerospace shell contracts in the Caspian corridor—was sufficient to buy silence.

Her disdain means nothing. Her silence means everything.

We have operational freedom across much of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, purchased not with bullets, but with economic architecture.

This is diplomacy in the era of the unknown.

Strategic Shifts – Military Alignment

The Academy now controls Russia’s 8th Guards Army. This gives them not just symbolic access to Eurasian military culture—but command of active battlefield infrastructure in the Russia–Ukraine conflict. We are no longer debating technocracy. We are watching it test itself with live fire.

The Protectorate has acquired North Korea’s 820th Armored Division. This is not posturing. This is the first known instance of factional military integration in Korea. Whether it remains defensive is unknown.

The factions are not merely aligning ideas anymore. They are arming.

Internal Surveillance – Kalameet Lund

Lund remains effective—but altered. Since his exposure to the Tashkent wreckage and his subsequent enhancement, his routines have grown mechanical, almost ritualized.

He still executes with precision. But the emotional context around his actions seems dulled—either buried or shed.

If the pattern stabilizes without further divergence, I’ll order a psychological drift scan.

We cannot afford another variable we do not understand. Not in him.

Status Assessment

We are no longer drifting.

We have leverage. We have rivals. And now, we have roots—growing, alien roots—taking hold in soil we once called familiar.

The tempo is increasing. And so must we.

Immediate Directives

Initiate soft power cultivation across Somali ministries, education, and media nodes

Maintain passive observation of xenobotanical growth zones

Develop military response scenarios for Protectorate armor deployment in Korea

Prepare information corridors to redirect blame if containment in Tashkent fails

The soil does not ask who commands it. But something is answering for it now.

[theinitiativechronicle]

🛰️ Entry 008 – Initial Movements

Filed: 08 October 2022 From: Initiative Command – Personal Log Location: Secure Relay – Eastern Theater

“To claim the future, one must first master the shadows of the present.”

We’ve adjusted our posture in Central Asia. Direct acquisition in Uzbekistan has been suspended, not abandoned. The region is compromised—for now—by ideological contamination and operational noise. We will not waste further capital where silence has been shattered.

Elsewhere, opportunities remain. Sub-Saharan and East African vectors are under active evaluation. Several nations—fragmented, overlooked—may yet serve as anchors. Our ambition remains the same. Only the approach varies by terrain.

Servant Contact Established

We needed leverage, not allegiance.

Yiyuan Ai initiated discreet contact with Otto Holland, a known Servant intermediary. Ten days ago, this channel led to a direct audience with Judith Howell.

Her tone was acidic.

“Your greed is shameful,” she said, “but it is of no consequence.”

And yet, she accepted.

A financial concession—clean, routed through opaque Caucasus accounts—was transferred to Servant hands. The sum was precise: enough to buy maneuvering space, not enough to signal desperation.

A non-aggression pact now exists. Howell's disdain is genuine, but she knows how to calculate threat. She has granted us time.

Academy Power Consolidation – Russian Federation

While we negotiate, the Academy consolidates.

Surveillance confirms their alignment now controls Russia’s industrial and internal security apparatus, alongside its 8th Guards Army.

They are no longer observing. They are testing.

If the war in Ukraine continues under Academy analysis, then what we are witnessing may be less a geopolitical campaign—and more a simulation. A live trial of post-contact governance.

Biological Breach Confirmed – Tashkent Region

Yiyuan Ai’s field surveillance has confirmed what we feared: a xenobotanical ecosystem is forming near the crash site.

This is not static contamination. It is an evolving biosphere—microbial life, plant analogues, invasive root systems. These lifeforms are displacing native species without resistance.

Local ecologies are not reacting. They are submitting.

We have authorized a deep research initiative—code-named Alien Flora—to study and, if possible, contain the transformation. We may be witnessing the first naturalized alien biome on Earth.

Protectorate Deployment – North Korea

Signals intelligence confirms that the Protectorate has seized command of North Korea’s 820th Armored Division.

It is unclear how they intend to deploy this force. But the logic is familiar: the factions are no longer content with culture and narrative. They are moving on to steel.

Councilor Note – Kalameet Lund

Lund remains in reserve, but his behavior continues to draw attention.

Since his exposure to the Samarkand wreckage, his focus has narrowed. His speech has become clipped. His physiological baseline is stable—but altered. Loyalty metrics remain high. Perhaps too high.

I am not ready to ground him. But I’ve marked his file for parallel psychological review.

He is still ours. But he is becoming… something else.

Operational Summary

Our terrestrial anchors are thin, but emerging. Diplomatic distance has been purchased. The crash site evolves—unchecked, but under observation. Russia becomes a laboratory. And we move in shadows still, but not aimlessly.

Immediate Directives

Deep profile on Judith Howell – assess psychological vectors, ideological fractures

Identify low-friction entry points in Eastern Europe for cost-effective influence

Expand Alien Flora integration into bio-research frameworks

Continue passive scans of the Tashkent zone

Monitor Protectorate military assets near the Korean peninsula

We have not secured the future. But we have preserved our place in its unfolding.

[theinitiativechronicle]

📄 Entry 007 – Thresholds and Blunders

Filed: 07 October 2022 From: Initiative Command – Personal Log Location: Secure Uplink, Eastern Operations Division

“There is no clean diplomacy—only masks, and how well we wear them.”

We attempted a quiet maneuver in Uzbekistan. A whisper campaign. A tilt, not a push. Subtle influence across procurement chains, regional governance boards, and party intermediaries. Our aim was not to control—merely to be present, to anchor relevance in a shifting landscape.

We miscalculated.

The fracture was not visible at first. Meetings delayed, comms throttled, language grown suddenly cold. One by one, our access points dimmed. A planned press appearance for Phillip Minton—delicately negotiated—was canceled without explanation.

We didn’t lose a battle. We lost the room.

Postmortem review revealed a background intelligence leak. Independent, but devastating. Somewhere in the echo chamber of state-aligned networks, a fabricated claim took root: that our Initiative was an extension of a NATO intelligence proxy.

No evidence. No source.

But in fragile regimes, perception is power. And power fled.

The story ran just long enough to spoil the window. Our channels dried up. Voices that once engaged with subtle nods now repeat state doctrine verbatim. The soft power we had built evaporated without confrontation.

Observations

We believe this misstep may have overlapped with Servant-aligned information campaigns

No personnel identities were exposed, but influence capital was expended without return

Minton has withdrawn and submitted a full procedural review. I’ve issued directive: no reassignment to Uzbekistan until further clearance

I will not place a skilled operative inside a structure already leaning toward collapse.

Strategic Realignment

Uzbekistan will remain in our periphery—for now. We’ll redirect efforts toward passive influence via cultural media, third-party research access, and internal content seeding.

We are not done here. But we must accept that, for the moment, the Initiative is not welcome in Tashkent.

Let the factions that remain plant their flags. We are not yet out of reach.

Addendum (Internal)

Lund has raised a new concern: that atmospheric readings near the Samarkand anomaly site show signs of deliberate signal distortion. The interference is localized, harmonic, and not consistent with natural causes.

If confirmed, it suggests either Servant activity, or something more alien—and more patient.

I’ve issued a directive for passive signal capture and layered analysis. We listen now. We do not move.

In diplomacy, you rarely know where the line was until you’ve already crossed it. The trick is knowing which lines were illusions.