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oliviabutsmart · 6 months

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Physics Friday #12: Interpreting Quantum Mechanics

Preamble: "God does not play dice"

Education Level: High School (Y9/10)

Topic: Quantum Mechanics (Physics)

Developing the Schrödinger Equation

Quantum mechanics had it's origin in the nature of light, and then over the course of 50 years from 1900 - 1950, the entire field of physics was overturned as we realised that waves weren't just limited to light, but everything.

This came to it's head in 1926 with the creation of the Schrödinger wave equation, which dictated how particle 'waves' evolve in time and space.

Now you've probably heard of the wavefunction. Effectively, it's a probability wave, where the amplitude of the wave corresponds to the most likely location you'd find the particle.

The wavefunction doesn't just involve a probability distribution in space, but also in other quantities.

For example, if you put an electron in a small box, you can imbue it with an energy.

But because of quantum mechanics, energy is quantised - there is an energy of X joules, 2X joules, 3X joules, etc. If you put an electron of 2.5X into the system it can't just work like that.

Which is why the electron forms a weighted combination of different states corresponding to specific multiples of our X value. And this superposition just so happens to be the average energy, which is considered the classical energy of the electron.

For example an electron with a superposition of 2X, 50% of the time, and being in state 3X 50% of the time. This averages out to 2.5X.

Collapsing the Wavefunction

But how do you find a particle? Or measure it's energy? Well, via what's known as the wavefunction collapse. When we take a look at the particle as a wave, it suddenly snaps to a specific value and then evolves from there.

This wavefunction collapse can occur for any observable property of the particle. If you measure the energy of our 2.5X particle in our above state, it's a 50/50 chance that you'll catch it in either state.

And once the coin flip occurs, the particle's energy will suddenly jump to 3X or 2X and remain at that value.

You may think this violates the conservation of energy, but remember that the act of 'measurement' intrinsically involves interacting with the electron - a very important point.

But wait, what does this collapse mean?

The Schrödinger equation does not explicitly mention this collapse. It simply describes the evolution of an undisturbed wavefunction. Thus, we need to include collapse as a part of the three postulates of QM:

Particle states are described by a wavefunction, a vector belonging to a Hilbert space

The Schrödinger equation dictates the time evolution of these states

Measurement of an observable (i.e. a hermitian operator) collapses the wavefunction to an observable's eigenstate (each eigenstate being associated with a probability of collapse)

But this still doesn't really answer the question. What is measurement? What counts as measuring an observable property of the particle?

Well here's the thing ... we don't have an answer ... it's an open question and the topic of this post.

The interpretations

An interpretation of quantum mechanics is effectively a theory that aims to answer this question: where and how does this measurement occur?

After almost a century since the formulation of standard QM, we have a litany of many interpretations, most of which fall on a spectrum of when exactly it occurs.

On one end, we have ideas where the wavefunction never existed in the first place, or that the wavefunction naturally collapses.

On the other, we have ideas that the wavefunction collapses at a point very far in the process, or even that it never collapses at all.

I'll talk about 6 of these interpretations, although some of these theories of collapse are more categories of theories.

Think of the Ocean (Pilot Wave)

In the 1920s, de Broglie developed an interpretation of quantum mechanics that posited that subatomic particles do, in fact, physically exist.

The source of the wavefunction and the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics is caused by the particles being guided by a series of "pilot waves" - which push and move the particles around and imbue them with the motion and energy we observe.

The randomness comes from the fact that the waves themselves depend on the positions of all particles. These guiding waves are dictated by a special guiding equation.

dear lord that's complicated Image Credit: Wikipedia

This guiding equation, when applied to particles just so happen to result in our neat and clean Schrödinger equaiton.

So what happened to this theory?

The biggest problem with this theory is that it's non-local, meaning that the evolution of the guiding wave requires knowledge of all of the particles in the universe.

This of course, violates special relativity.

Another problem is that it lost the authors' support, or that the authors lost support. de Broglie rejected the theory in 1927 and David Bohm, the other author, was distanced from the other scientists for being outwardly socialist during the early red scares.

Pilot wave theory, in a sense, is so strict on the physicality of particles that it ends up sort-of wrapping around and becoming a many-worlds theory instead, to quote David Deustch:

Pilot-wave theories are parallel-universe theories in a state of chronic denial.

This arises from the problem of branching, a tacked-on attempt to reconcile the nature of the theory. That since the wavefunction was a physical thing, and the pilot wave and particles kept self-interacting, it sort of creates branching realities caused by distant communication with other particles.

Those silly numbers are hiding from us! (Hidden Variables)

The EPR (Einstein-Podolski-Rosen) paradox is another famous problem in QM, caused by entanglement.

Take two electrons and force them to collide with eachother, bounce off, and travel far into the distance. We know that after the interaction, these electrons propagate with free-particle wavefunctions. And we can fire them at eachother such that we don't know their momentums initially - i.e. they entangled.

Now wait for the electrons to travel very far away from eachother, and then measure one of the electrons momenta. In order to maintain conservation of energy, we instantly know what the momenta of the other electron is.

What we also know is that because of this measurement, and that the electron is entangled with the other, that we have just collapsed the other wavefunction instantaneously from a distance.

This is a problem, due to special relativity, we cannot transfer information faster than the speed of light. So clearly our QM is broken.

Hidden variable theories aim to solve the EPR paradox as well as just generally trying to interpret quantum mechanics. Effectively, there are a series of unobservable entities that dictate how wavefunctions collapse.

The wavefunction in the EPR paradox has a hidden variable stating the electrons' momenta so that we aren't violating causality, for example.

Fortunately, but unfortunately, this theory makes a testable prediction via Bell's theorem, which utilises entanglement to determine if these hidden variables work locally.

The experiments conducted show that only a non-local hidden variable theory is possible. One example of this just so happens to be our previous pilot-wave theory!

Observing isn't needed (Spontaneous Collapse)

We could be thinking of this wrong. Perhaps the wavefunction is real, and it is non-deterministic. But that at some point, it collapses on it's own.

There are several ways to do this, but at it's core, these are how the theories go:

There is an extra non-linear term in the Schrödinger equation, that is insignificant at the small scales

This non-linearity causes the wavefunction to be unstable, and prefers it to collapse to observable eigenvalues

With increasing complexity, this term becomes much more important, as more entanglement = more instability

The rate of decay increases as you entangle the system. And if a system is large enough, it's likely to collapse into a classical environment

Effectively, they say that the wavefunction will collapse on their own. And the reason we don't see it on larger scales, or see a collapse when measuring the system, is that the act of interaction (entanglement) causes the wavefunction to be more likely to collapse.

Of course, the theory has trouble reconciling with relativity. As entanglement works over large distances. Models can be made to try and say that entanglement over these distances increases instability for example, but we're still waiting on developments.

Lastly, we have the problem of tails. The wavefunction of a particle exists for all of physical space. At these far out distances, it is very possible for particles to get entangled with distant objects. Meaning that a wavefunction may end up collapsing further than we think.

The easy way out (Copenhagen)

The Copenhagen interpretation was developed in the 20s to attempt to come up with some placeholder answer to what collapse is. It is our middle-of-the-road theory which states that observation of an observable causes collapse.

Observation is defined as the act of applying an observable operator (like the energy operator) to the wavefunction by an external source to gain information on that operator's outcome.

The problem is that this is a meaningless statement. Because anytime a system entangles itself with something greater, it technically does this 'observation'.

Take the double split experiment.

Image Credit: Discovery Channel

What defines the moment of observation? Is it when:

The particles interact with the measuring laser

The measuring laser interacts with the larger observation device

An electronic signal is sent from the device to a computer

The light from the computer interacts with the conscious observer

We can't pinpoint the specific cut-off between the quantum world and the classical.

After all, we know that lasers can entangle themselves with atoms. And that electronic signals are nothing but moving electrons.

The point of the theory is that it's a placeholder. The definitions are ill-defined because we're kinda waiting for another theory to help us.

It's all in your head! (Consciousness)

The immediate answer to the Copenhagen interpretation could be that the collapse occurs at the end of the specified chain. When a conscious observer interacts with the entangled system.

It's a nice idea given that it kills two birds with one stone - it helps point to a physical theory on the nature of sentience, but also allows us to solve the measurement problem.

This does come into conflict with our current understanding of sentience. Our placeholder theorem is effectively that conscious experience is an emergent property of a series of interacting electrical signals in our brain.

This placeholder helps explain why humans are more 'sentient' than animals, or very young children, as we have a very active and complex central nervous system.

Of course, it's just a placeholder. We don't have an actual meaningful answer to sentience, and probably won't for a while. So for now it's left to the dark realm of god of the gaps.

Where it comes into conflict with QM is that a series of interacting electrical signals sounds exactly like an entangled system. So there clearly can't be just emergent properties involved otherwise we're just dealing with a spontaneous collapse theory.

There has to be something physically unique about a sentient brain to cause the collapse - effectively you require the existence of a soul. Something which is even further in the dark realms of philosophy.

Another issue is that it doesn't work with special relativity, as it violates the EPR paradox still.

We also need to determine what counts as sentient. Sentience isn't an on and off switch. There are many ways it can be expressed.

We know that some mammals have some form of conscious experience - so then are cats capable of collapsing the wavefunction?

Finally, what about the universe prior to consciousness? Did it just end up in an entangled nightmare until somehow we got an observer to collapse it all? How can something built of entangled particles end up collapsing itself at some given size?

This interpretation is very interesting, however if it turns out to be true, we'll be stuck with our measurement problem for quite a while.

For now, the biggest problem with the interpretation is that it opens the door to many, many quacks like Deepak Chopra. Who think that we can control this collapse with our minds and alter our reality by just thinking it away WoOOoOoWwowoWoOo!

Forever entangled (Many Worlds)

So, assuming that our consciousness theory is not the right answer, then what causes the collapse?

We can keep getting bigger and bigger:

The electrons in the double slit entangles with the laser photons entangles with the measurement device entangles with the electrical signals entangles with the computer entangles with the observer entangles with the room their in entangles with the Earth entangles with the solar system entangles with the galaxy ...

This out-spiralling entanglement continues without bound until the entire universe is in a superposition of states. And every time an interaction occurs we ourselves are being pulled into a new wavefunction.

This entanglement would've happened early, at about the time of cosmic inflation. But every new quantum event comes with a new set of entanglements.

This leads to the name Many Worlds, as we're creating new realities with every event.

Now it's important to note something important: this is not a multiverse theory. Multiverse theory is proposed source for cosmic inflation. Here, there is still one single universe. Much like how an electron in superposition isn't multiple actual electrons. The universe is just being treated as an electron.

This theory sounds far-fetched. Arguably the fact that it's unfalsifiable makes it not a good interpretation of QM. However, it is a lot simpler than the previous consciousness interpretation - it simply removes the need for a measurement process.

This satisfies Occam's razor as well. It doesn't require a mathematical formalism because the point of the theory is that the formalism doesn't exist.

However, not having a formalism makes it quite difficult to prove. It only seems to be correct in the sense that it doesn't necessarily say that measurement cannot happen, just that it's not measurement. It's entanglement.

Conclusion

Interestingly, the theories on the "wavefunction collapses early" side of the spectrum are more likely to be disproven. Primarily a consequence of the fact that they have the opportunity of making testable predictions.

Despite all of these interpretations, it's clear who stands as the best theories: spontaneous collapse and many worlds. They have their strengths, but they have fair grounding. You could argue that consciousness is also a fair contender, but it's a bit too much in the realm of fantasy - attempting to tie one big unanswered question with another.

Spontaneous collapse has proper mathematical formalism while many worlds seems to work well in an Occam's razor sense.

Regardless, that is a surface-level exploration into the many different ways we have attempted to answer the measurement problem. I hope y'all enjoyed this post and god I need to make them less long.

Please can someone fix this inverted colours issue it's like causing all of my colours on these posts to invert too thx

Reference post: https://www.tumblr.com/oliviabutsmart/732200630726377472/for-some-reason-some-reasons-only-some-images-i

Anyways, feedback appreciated, follow if want, send memes and send help.

#physics friday #stem #academics #stemblr #science #physics #quantum physics #quantum mechanics

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am-i-the-asshole-official · 8 months

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AITA for accidently/kind of outing someone...

For context I have a neighbour who i used to consider my friend who is a year younger than me... but 2 classes below. She found out that I was gay and made many attempts to make out with me and would say shit like she's straight except for when it comes to me. And I have refused her advances multiple times

I left for college sometime ago... a few months later I get a text from one of my juniors (whose brother I qm dating) that there is a girl claiming that me and her are dating. And everyone in both our schools know that.

I felt very weird so I msged her about it... she ignored my msg... later we were talking I asked her again and she changed the topic.

Then after a few days she msged me asking to put a pic on my ig story where I was on my knee proposing her ( it was braclet in the box and we were having fun that day so it was a pic from that day) and write that I proposed and she said yes, so that we can prank people

I get even more uncomfortable and ask her once again... this time she doesn't avoid it but tells me that someone in her class was shipping her with a boy so she said she has a gf (me) to get out of it.

A small info we are in a country that is very conservative... gay people cannot even get legally married here and are looked at with disgust, tho the new generation is pretty chill.

After that I try to talk to her about the fact that I feel uncomfortable with this but she laughs it off and again asks me to post the story... I refuse her she gets very angry and logs off.

Now I have been trying to get it off my mind and I talk to people ik telling them that it's not true but it's not easy to kill a rumor especially if one person is saying it is true and other isn't even in the same city.

I msg her saying she needs to tell everyone she lied but she refuses me. So I talk to my mom about it and she talks to her mother who forces her to apologize to everyone in her class and tell them.

She is now saying I am a shitty person for doing that especially since I always say that queer people would help other queers and that outing someone is never justified.

Tho everyone thinks she did it for attention and no one thinks she is gay... including her mom.... but I still feel I was wrong for doing what I did.

AITA for talking to my mom about this incident.

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

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quirkwizard · 1 month

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Huh. Well you look at that. The box opened. You're pretty fast not gonna lie. Anyway as my first ever QM can you do a Engine and Rabbit or Horn Cannon and Air Cannon. You can choose of course and keep up the good work. I know you can

To be clear, at the time of writing, the ask box is still closed for stuff like this. This ask was sent in long before I closed it, and thus, I will still cover it.

New Quirk Name: Air Horn

This Transformation type Quirk allows the user to form white horns from the top of their head that are covered in a swirling, windy pattern. The user can remove these horns, causing them to grow back once they do. Once done, the user can unleash a reserve of air from any point from these horns. The blasts of air are quite powerful, able to send a person flying. The user can control the amount of pressure from these. This can let the user move and control these horns up to medium ranges from themselves. The user can apply the horns together to make different kinds of air blasts, such as making a blade of air by swinging the horns in certain ways. This gives the user a variety of choices, able to control the battlefield with their powerful bursts of wind. The user can launch people with blasts of air, move parts of the terrain around, move allies and enemies alike, switch up their attacks with different formations, or simply use them to try someone off. However, the user can run out of air in their horns, causing them to break and fall apart. The horns can be destroyed and will need time to grow back, slowing down the more the user makes them.

#My Hero Academia #Quirks #Quirk Marriage #Air Cannon #All For One #Pony Tsunotori #Horn Cannon

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literaticat · 1 month

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What happens on the agent’s side if someone withdraws a query on QM? Does it just show Withdrawn or does it wipe the whole thing and prevent the agent reading the query or writing sample or downloading any attached files?

It shows a little symbol that says "withdrawn", and at the top there's a yellow box that has a note like "query withdrawn by author" and if you left a note about it.

I can still see the query, sample and everything else.

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peronica · 2 years

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It came in flashes... (A Camp Camp Story).

Warnings for: Child abuse, child neglect, alcohol abuse, cigarette using and abandonment. But, if you like Camp Camp, you're probably used to reading this stuff.

Where are my Camp Camp Fans at? (Camp Cretacous readers, I promise I haven't forgotten my Ben story, just hit some writers block). I just got into this fandom like a week ago and had an idea for an animatic, but, since I can't draw, I turned it into a story. Dollhouse by Melanie Martinez is the song if anyone cares.

This is my first Camp Camp story, so please be kind, and I know I misspelled a couple names, sorry about that. Anyways, enjoy!

. . .

It came in flashes; that's the only way Max could think to describe it. It had happened on parents' day too, but he wasn’t paying attention to them at the time…

He was too busy trying not to care about his parents to care about the others…

But now that he knew they were coming, all he could do was focus on the flashes he saw. Were they real? Were they just his imagination? He knew he didn’t have physic powers, if he did, he never would have come to camp in the first place. Or at least messed with Gwen a lot more.

“Hey Max! Come check out my mom’s new tattoo!” Nikki called, her mom, Neil and his dad were examining her leg on Neil’s science booth.

She quickly took her leg off the table, “oh no, sweety, no need to do that.”

And just like that, a flash came:

Pictures of a little Nikky, playing with her parents, hide-n-seek, tag, piggy-back rides. Then slightly older Nikky, playing by herself with stuffed animals, climbing a tree, riding a bike, no parents in sight. . .

Then, barely any older, the few bottles that littered the pictures turned to mountains, and cigarette boxes became dollhouses. One parent or the other began to appear, but never together. Even though Max had never seen Nikki’s dad before, he somehow just knew the different men her mom brought home weren't him…

She didn’t talk about it much, but he also saw her in a flower scout uniform, always having less badges than the other girls, Nikki being covered in dirt while the others watched on in disgust, all sparkly clean by comparison.

The flash ended; No warning, no happy ending like a movie, it just ended. Were any of those… pictures real? She never really talked about home that much, and he had no way of knowing what her dad even looked like…

Man, he was going mental. It must be from eating QM’s, probably poisoned, food all summer. Were any of the others getting these flashes? If he asked, would they look at him like he was crazy?

He shook his head, and looked at the group, now focusing on Neil as he poured some beakers together-

Another flash:

A baby Neil sitting in a highchair, his parents happily laughing as he threw some disgusting baby food through the air. The family having a picnic by some lake, Neil laughing at his dad’s puppet show…

The image then changed, now his dad looked tired, stressed may be a better word, as he played with his wife and kid. Then, it was just Neil and his mom in a few pictures together, a note on the fridge saying ‘Devoirce’ and the house was different.

Playing with his family turned into playing with science kits in his room, and doing extra math for school. For every one time his dad came to the scene his mom was there 6 times, until it evened out one for one; One at a talent show, one at a teachers’ conference, one with a green christmas tree, one with a white one…

It ended again. Max was starting to freak out by now, trying to find any explanation he could. Did he eat a weird berry? Did everyone have this ability and he just unlocked it? Like a puberty thing? Was he under some kind of a spell…

A SPELL! That had to be it! He must’ve made Harrison or Nerris mad, and they did this to him! But what did he do to deserve this tourchure? He can’t remember annoying either of them recently.

Not sure which one did it, he made his way to the stage first, since it was closer and Harrison was more likely to actually succeed in something like this, as the ‘puking props incident’ still haunted Max.

He saw Harrison on stage, his parents cowering with fear as he tried to do a card trick, interesting that he never did the really cool stuff with them around. . . if you counted puking doves as cool, which Max definitely did not.

Of course, yet another flash came:

A very young Harrsion playing with an older boy Max somehow knew was his brother, they played with dinosaurs, then animals, then dragons. At first, they laughed, they played, they roughoused gently, nothing dangerous, just pure joy on their faces, like all brothers should.

Then, the older boy’s face started to turn hard, mean even, and the playing turned dangerous, Harrson started getting hurt. Genuine guilt turned to nothing as time went on. The parents were not in very many pictures, and they were blurry in the ones he did see.

Then an image of Harrison at a magic show, and the magician calling him to the stage, ultimately letting him keep the man’s hat. His age matched different pictures max had already seen, like two sides of one story, but he watched as his tricks turned from failed card tricks to the day his brother disappeared:

For once the whole family were in the pictures as the other boy pushed Harrison to the ground, and the parents did nothing. With a flash of rage, Harrison grabbed a blanket and threw it over the boy, when he took it off, he was gone. The look of confusion, then pride as he realized he actually did it, the fear when he couldn’t get him back.

Now all the pictures were of the parents, clearly terrified of their remaining boy, different magicians and priests coming to the house to try and get him back. All while Harrisoin practiced every chance he had to fix his horrible mistake…

WHAT IN THE WORLD DID MAX JUST WHITTNESS?

He didn’t know any of that, other than he made his brother disappear. Max didn’t even know if it was an older brother or younger. And why was it so much longer than the others? All Max knew, for curtain, was that he wasn’t asking Harrison after that… at least, not right now.

Before he could leave to find Nerris, Preston took the stage, showing his grandma the recently installed trap door. Max turned before he got another flash, but it still came:

Young Preston with his parents, trying on costumes as they laughed. Them being in small performances, and him having small scenes in a few of them. Max couldn’t help but watch as the genuine joy in the parents' faces turned to greed as the plays got longer, the audience grew bigger, and Preston's parts got smaller.

The pure look of happiness on everyone’s faces as the dad held a paper saying ‘world tour’ on it. An excited prestin packing his small bag, preparing for the trip, and the utter heartbreak as his parents left on the tour bus, leaving him with his grandma.

Little school plays were treated like the real thing, with Preston almost always in the lead role: From The three little pigs to Little red riding hood he was always over performing, driving his co-stars mad in the background.

Why were some long and some short? If he couldn’t figure out why he was having these visions, he would like to at least know why some took forever and some lasted a matter of seconds.

‘Maybe there's just not much to think about with some stories?’ Max shook his head. He had to get out of here before he went totally coo-coo. ‘I gotta find Nerris,’ he reminded himself. He took off running, and ran right into Ered.

“Sorry Ered,” he silently gagged, he should be chewing her out for running into him, not apologizing. ‘Stupid David, stupid rubbing off on me.’

“No worries man,” she flipped her hair, “it’s cool.” As she turned to her dads’ and started to lead them to the skate ramp another flash- story, maybe?- began;

Baby Ered, surrounded by other kids, kids of all ages, colors, sizes, but the adults in the room kept changing. As did the kids. Some of the older kids did skateboard tricks in a fenced in yard, and kept giving her high fives. The first time she saw her would be parents, taking away a man in cuffs, one not yet shown to Max.

Ered’s happiness when they came back, one at a time, rarely together, in fun clothes, not the black suits. The day they took her home, the day she got her first bike, first skates. First skateboard. All the family movie and game nights, times when only one was home, and not the other. Several different houses, several different schools, a few different camps came in a blur.

But, so unlike the others, happiness never left the picture. No sudden reveals of alcohol, abuse, neglect or abandonment.

Honestly, Max was a little mad.

Why show him things he could never relate to, and things he’d live’d himself? What had he done to deserve this… this… this curse?

He must’ve stood there longer than he thought, because soon Gwen was tapping his shoulder. “Max, you ok?” She had a genuine look of concern on her face.

Max took a deep breath, and sighed, “yeah, I’m fine.” He lied.

“Ok, if you're sure,” when he said nothing, she added “you know you can talk to me any time, about anything, if you need to, right?” She was more clarifying than asking..

“Geesh Gwen, I’m fine ok!” He snapped as he stormed away, hoping the coming flash wouldn’t make him trip:

Gwen as a little girl, singing alone to her father’s music, though Max couldn’t hear the words or rhythm, but he knew she was off key by her dog’s howling while her parents laughed. Gwen, coming home with a test bearing the A+ mark, one after the other. The family going on tour, Gwen proudly playing the concertina in some, singing in others.

Time went on for a while like that, then she finally went back to real school (not homeschool), and things went downhill; she got that weird thing on her teeth, kids lagged and pointed from the sides. Kids only sat next to her when test days came round, which she kept aceing and somehow got the other kids F’s.

She spent less time with her family, and more studying in her room. College was not a party, working at different places and not getting sleep. In pictures with wild parties in the background Gwen was looking at a study book. Graduation, then rejected job after rejected job interview…

Until she saw an ad for Camp Campell and met a smiling oaf with red hair…

NO! He was not going to get a newfound respect for Gwen now. Not when this would all end in an hour anyways.

He had to find Nerris, or maybe go back to Harrison, man, at this point he might try Neil. But before he could get too far he spotted Nurf with his mother; She was no longer handcuffed, but the parole officer was still there. He didn’t even try to stop it when the next- vision? Happened;

A young Nurf with a family, not his mom, and something told Max not his dad, were playing some game with stuffed animals and about 5 other kids. The image changed to the dad taking him to a prison, where he spoke to his mom through the glass window you see in movies.

The family just kept changing at rabid speed, faster than any other flash he had had; Nurf, a little older, now with three brothers, then two sisters, no siblings, 10! The houses always changed too. The pictures slowed when Nurf started to dance with one sister, in the next he was in a full out ballet outfit, in an actual dance studio. Despite rapidly changing homes, things seemed great, until…

One kid, in a school, chewed his poptart into a star and stuck it on his shirt, like a sheriff’s badge. Another into a cowboy hat, and they started to chase each other. Then, Nurf made a terrible mistake, one he’d never recover from; He chewed his into a gun and joined the fun.

It was great, until a teacher noticed. Did the cowboy and sheriff get in trouble? No, only Nurf; the school went on lockdown, and a real cop took him away, to a school of real mean kids… just like him, apparently.

Images of older kids pushing him down, pulling his hair, stealing his food flashed in Max’s mind, all while teachers watched and did nothing.

Later, like actual years later, Nurf returned to his old school, but things had changed; when the sheriff boy patted his back, Nurf flipped him over his shoulder. It was an accident, a reflex, really. He said he was sorry, but no one believed him.

He was back to that mean school, where he had to fight or run, but he had nowhere to run anymore. The only constant in this whole story was his mom; They always visited, through bars, through glass, they even lived together a few times. Then, after being separated yet again, a letter came in the mail, one with the Camp Campell logo on it…

Max… Max couldn’t even process that! He knew a lot more about Nurf’s background than other campers, from when they held a boot camp for him, but he had no idea what was real and what he made up. He turned around just in time to see Dolf showing his dad one of his paintings…

A slideshow of pictures, a baby Dolf dressed in a camo onesie as his mom cradled him, his dad holding a paper saying ‘Germany Deployment.’ A slightly older Dolf, coloring in a coloring book next to his dad who was doing paperwork. Dolf asking to play football, and his dad being too busy. Then a soccer ball flew into the yard, and some other kids asked if he wanted to play.

His parents were in barely any pictures as he played soccer, chalked on the sidewalk, learned history from German Soldiers who were teaching their own kids. His mom was in it when he got his first sketch book. The excitement when one soldier pinned his drawing on the main message board, and replaced it each week with a new one.

The disappointment from Dolf’s dad every time he saw pictures of flowers and animals insead of his son training or doing football, real football, not soccer.

The excitement of getting the Camp Campbell bouchire, and the sadness when his friends weren’t coming…

Max physically grabbed his head, and tried not to scream; the last thing he needed was more trouble when his parents got there…

“I roll a asking spell-” Max jumped as Nerris approached from behind, “to ask; Are you ok Max?” This was his chance, just ask her before another flash comes-

Of course…

A tiny Nerris, dressed like an elf for halloween, her parents in similar costumes as dad took her trick or treating, and mom stayed to hand out candy. Nerris watched as her dad played D+D with his friends in the basement, as they went larping in the park, as they came up with background stories for their characters…

When she first joined them, dressed as an elf, and came up with her name ‘Nerris the Cute’ drawn in big letters on her bedroom door. Despite the closeness with her dad, mom wasn’t out of the picture at all; she was always there to help Nerris when she fell, or got a paper cut, or was sick or needed someone to info dump on. And, somehow beyond Max’s understanding, she never seemed to be mad, or even irritated.

The whole family seemed over the moon when they found a flier advertising ‘Camp Campell; LARPING Camp’...

“Max… Max!” He shook awake as Nerris’s mom waved her hands in front of him, “are you ok sweetie?”

No he was not ok! Max wanted to cry, to curse out whoever gave him this horrible curse. What had he done to deserve to see all these stories play out at random? Who even thought of that?

“Yeah, sorry, I’m just really tired,” he lied, “stayed up all night with the guys, you know how it is.” Because if he told the truth, he’d be taken to a mental ward for sure… might still be better than going home though…

“Ok honey, just making sure.” The happy family continued their adventure through who knows what land of elves and dragons they created. Together. As a family…

Max ran. He ran to the nearest tree and climbed up, he couldn’t take another flash right now, or ever again. Then, to his dismay, he heard the one and only…

“Neil Armstrong requesting permission to land!” Space Kid yelled from his dad’s shoulders.

“Permission granted!” The man set the fish bowl headed kid down. His uncle had shown up for parents' day, but his dad made it to pick him up…

Images of the moon landing being told by his grandpa, small astronaut toys spread out across the floor. His dad swinging him around like he was flying, his mom giving moonpie snacks, a collection of space rocks…

His first cardboard rocket, designed by Space Kid himself to look like a flying saucer, his dad had cut it out for him. Random scribbles appeared each day, until the accident; A neighbor's puppy came and chewed it to sheds. Space Kid was devastated, but his ‘uncles’ made him a new, better rocket soon after…

Along with a cool space suit and helmet…

He was so excited as he held the camp flier promising to send him to the moon. His family looked skeptical, but helped him pack his bags anyways.

Ok, now Max was definitely gonna cry; EVEN SPACE KID HAD IT BETTER THAN HE DID? Not only a mom and dad, but grandparents and honorary uncles? Why did Max’s life have to suck so much?

From his tree, he could see the parking lot, and his blood grew cold when he saw the green SUV pull up; the hood had a dent, the bumper was scratched and the windows were tinted. He recognized it anywhere…

“MAX! WHERE ARE YOU? YOUR PARENTS ARE HERE?” David yelled out, blissfully unaware of how terrified Max truly was.

He should’ve expected it, but that helped in no way as his final flash began;

A perfect family, all smiles and laughter as they walked down the street, no anger, no fear, everything about the family was perfect; A nice house, not small, cozy was the word they liked to use. A good car, if a little beat up, but who cared? Perfect pictures lined the perfectly clean hallway leading to the perfect kitchen and perfectly clean bathroom.

All for the perfect family.

One set of doors led to the gurage, another the small backyard, but nobody was allowed in the third set of doors, the doors that led to shouting, to fighting, to cigarette boxes and wine bottles…

To the filthy bathroom that practically begged to be cleaned. To the broken glass littered in the living room carpet. To the middle room, where no one could hear you scream from the outside. To the closet of the middle room, where you could go days without being remembered no matter how loud you screamed.

In fact, only one room beyond those doors was ‘perfect,’ if it could be called that; One bedroom with blue walls, a practically empty closet, and a tiny bed with a single blue blanket and pillow. A hidden teddy bear lived in that pillow, because if the monsters who ran the place found it, it would have to leave.

Forever.

Scars never healed in this house, they never had time before the teddy’s owner messed up again, a missed spelling word, an argument about nothing with the neighbor, a fight with a bully… asking for food…

One day the scars stopped coming, but the closet time got longer, the boy didn’t know why until he was sent to some stupid camp with practicly all his belongings in a single bag. If the scars hadn't healed, they might get seen and taken away, to jail or foster care no one knows and no one cares.

And when that boy met a ray of literal sunshine who probably never had a bad day in his entire life…

Well, that was Max’s last straw…

By now the tears were flowing but tell anybody that and he’s sock Ya in the nose while he denied. He didn’t want to go back to that torcher chamber some dared to call a house; He only hated camp because if he got used to it, used to the sun, to friends, to food, to no pain, it would be that much harder to go back to that dark shadow of a lonely, painful closet.

And of course he managed to mess that up; He messed everything up! He actually liked camp; Nikky and Neil were actually fun, pulling pranks with Nurf, running the camp for at times, busting Campbell himself… even Gwen and David were ok.

No, they were better than ok, they may yell, cuss and fight, but they never once locked him in a closet. Never slapped him or gave him a belt. Never took food away or made fun of him for crying… not that he ever cried… today was a freak accident, mind you. They were the parents his parents pretended to be, if that even made sense.

“MAX! There you are,” David called from the base of the tree, “we're taking a group photo, come on!” He called as he leaned against the tree, a big, goofy smile on his face.

Max sighed, “I’m coming,” he called as he started to climb down. He wouldn’t be lying if he said he felt a little guilty for what he put the man through this summer. He thought David was the most naive person alive, but he had his own struggles he just never shared. He hid them with smiles and songs, games and stories. The poor guy didn’t even know his friend had died…

He almost made it down before David plucked him off the tree. “Gotcha!” He laughed.

“DAVID! You put me down right now or else you won’t live to be in the picture!” He snapped. David put him down. “Thank you.”

“Awe, no bad words and a ‘thank you?’ I must be rubbing off on you.” He was practically glowing.

“Never, ever, say that again!” Max demanded.

“But it's true-”

“DAVID!”

“Ok,” he smiled at the camper, and lowered his voice, “I noticed you weren’t with the others earlier.”

“Yeah, so?”

“So, we got a card and put everyone’s numbers and emails, for those who have them, on it for you.” As he handed Max the white card, his voice grew serious. “And, if you ever need to talk, about anything, I don’t care what time it is or how dumb you think it is, you can always call me. And the same goes for Gwen, even though she’ll never admit it. Ok Max? Max?”

Tears were in the young boy's eyes, but even Max didn’t know if it was from happiness or sadness and fear.

“Max, are you ok?” David asked with genuine concern in his eyes and worry on his face.

“Yeah, it’s just,” he wiped his eyes, “I keep getting these weird… flashes? Mabe visions? Of the other campers' home lives, and I don’t know why.”

To his surprise, David didn’t call him crazy, he just asked, with the same concerned tone “ok. Do you know what might have caused this?”

“I've been trying to figure that out all day!” Anger was in Max’s voice, but not at David. “I almost think Harrison or Nerris cursed me, but that's ridiculous! Right?”

“Well, have you tried asking them?”

“Yeah, but when I got close, I saw pictures of their lives, and got too nervous to talk to them. And why would they curse me like this? What could I have possibly done to deserve this kind of tourcher?” He demanded.

“Well, let's go ask them, together.”

“Are you crazy? It's a miracle you believe me, if they don't do it they'll think I’m nuts!” Max explained.

“But if they did do it, then they can cure you,” David countered. “Come on, Max, we have to at least try.”

Max sighed, “fine; lets go.” He would’ve put up a fight, but he was too on edge; What if the flashes never stopped? And why didn’t David get one? Did David do this to him? Maybe Daniel was back for revenge? Or the Wood Scouts? Flower Scouts? Who-

He thought it was over, but another began…

A very young David, playing catch by himself, and a broken window. The picture went dark in a way Max recognized with terrifying realization; David’s parents locked him in closets too? It happened again and again; David yelled at the T.V., then darkness followed, asked for seconds at dinner, closet. Get in a fight with another kid, a flash of belt, darkness and no dinner.

All the pictures were dark, some darker than others, and they continued when he first got to camp. He made friends with Jasper, but just barely. He was always causing trouble; Putting spiders in one kid’s bed, swimming past the dock, running wild. The day he went with Jasper and Campbell on his dumb adventure…

And when they got back, David got his badge, the pictures suddenly turned brighter. Like looking at the sun…

He was the best camper; Gathering firewood, weaving more baskets than the other kids, making friendship bracelets…

When he asked Campbell about Jasper, that side eye he made, and a picture of Jasper getting picked up early, a frown on his face…

All the pictures were bright, too bright, after that; Like when it’s bright outside, but you turn your phone's brightness up just to see what happened. A forced brightness.

Even being locked in closets had a bright tint. He spent more time outside, reading nature books at the library. David even tried to be friends with the neighborhood kids.

His parents weren’t in a lot of pictures, but eventually his dad just disappeared. For some reason, that brightness didn’t seem forced.

The only other non-forced brightness was when at camp..

Every camp year changed; different counselors, different kids, some repeated, but not a lot. The one constant was Cameron Campbell; always smiling, even if it was in that fake way David never noticed.

A skip in images to David training to be a counselor himself, and becoming one. The kids always changed, his co counselors changed, even Campbell stopped showing up…

All ending when he met Gwen, and an obnoxious little jerk a few days later…

“David?” Max said, once it was over.

“Yes Max?”

“I’m sorry for being so hard on you this summer, but if you ever tell anyone that I will end you!” He tried to apologize.

David just laughed, almost to Max’s surprise, “don’t worry about it, kiddo. I know what it’s like to have things change and miss home.”

‘But you don’t, you liar’ Max thought about what he had just seen. “I hope I can come back next year- don’t go sappy on me now, David!” He demanded when tears were in the counselors eyes. “And don’t you dare tell anyone I said that, or I’ll never come back!”

“Ok Max, your secret is safe with me.” David promised, despite both knowing he’d tell Gwen as soon as Max left. “Hey Harrison, Nerris! Can you come here please?” They had made it back to the others, and the two magic kids came right over.

“Is everything ok, David?” Harrison asked.

“No, it’s not!” Max answered, “I’ve been having these weird flashes all day, and I know one of you cursed me with them.” He got out before he could change his mind.

To both David and Max’s surprise, they didn’t argue. “You were the one that ate our cookie!” Nerris accused.

“Yeah, so?”

“We put a spell on it so we could see what the other goes through.” Harrison explained.

“We were only gonna eat half each last night, so we could dream the flash, as you call it, but it was missing.” Nerris added, “when did you eat it?”

“This morning, I saved it to go with my coffee.”

“And you’ve seen everyone’s story?” Max nodded, “well, since you took the full dosage, it should be over in an hour or two, right Nerris?”

“Yes, it would last longer, but I rolled a low number, unfortunately.” She admitted.

“Well that's great!” David concluded, “we settled that and learned a lesson about stealing! This is the best last day of camp ever!”

“Picture time!” Gwen called, “Everyone meet at the Mess Hall, NOW!”

“Wait, I also had them on parents day? Can you explain that?” Max asked as they headed over.

“Must be an effect of ‘Abracadabra.’” Harrison reasoned.

“That long after you cured me?”

“I guess, after all,” Harrison took his cape off and threw it on the nearby table, “magic is confusing!” He yanked the cape off, expecting a dove or bunny to fly out. Instead-

“THOMAS?”

“HARRISON? Is that you?” The boy from the vision was under the table. The two began hugging, and soon the parents were too. The whole family was soon sobbing tears of relief and joy at finally, finally, being reunited.

Before Max could begin to even process that, Nikki flew onto his back. “There you are! We've been looking everywhere for you!”

“You have?”

“Yeah, ever since you ran off from Nikki’s mom’s horrifying tattoo.” Niel shuddered a little.

“Picture time now! You little weasels,” Gwen called out again. She seemed eager to get rid of the kids, but you could tell she was gonna miss them… some more than others.

As Max move to stand with the group, and he saw everyone, one final flash came:

The day Nikki and Neil arrived, their first escape attempts, the time they went camping on David’s day off. When they took over the camp and he was in charge for about 5 glorious minutes. When Nikki, Nerris and Dolf had some adventure he didn’t recognize, Harrison tricking Neil into believing in magic…

Nikki, Neil, Harrison and Nerris on their volcano quest, game, thing. Nurf finally being nice and making friends with the others. The time Dolf was counselor for the day. Daniel losing the song competition to David. Gwen with her fish creature boyfriend, and at her fanfiction reading club…

Showing Nikki and Niel around the big city. When he took Cameron Campbell down as he tried to frame David. The time Gwen’s dog visited, and her with her father. Nikki petting a wolf like it was a puppy, and Niel geeking out over space facts with Space Kid. Ered and Nerris going to that crazy skate ramp in the woods…

Hanging out with Jasper. Neil and Snake talking at the dance after both being heart broken. The time Gwen rescued Mr. Honey Nuts from the Wood Scouts. The early days when Preston still enjoyed his parody of David skit. The epic water gun fight after getting the camp back…

David, giving him half of the sparrow stick. When they went from camp to camp to gain back each camper and start over again. David and Gewn taking him out for pizza when his own parents couldn’t be bothered to show up…

By the time the flash ended, he was standing between Nikki and Neil in front of the camera, the others surrounding them. “Say Cheese,” QM said, he had set a timer so he could be in the picture too.

“CHEESE!” As almost everyone yelled, Max looked at them and thought about how they had made this the best summer of his life.

And when he looked at the camera…

He smiled.

. . .

I know I didn't do one for Quater Master, and that's because I don't dare touch his backstory with a ten-foot poll!

I know we don't know how much of this is cannon, I just took bits and pieces of what each character said and formed this story. I'm actually pretty proud of this one and I hope you all liked it.

And, above all else, have a great day!

11 notes · View notes

certificationgdp · 3 months

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What should I do to ensure GLP Certification?

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