On that morning everything felt like a summer day by the bay as a final breath to think about the last days on earth, considering the job I was hired for. It was a sweet sensation that briefly changed when Vladimir and Joe arrived at the building, like a close step to doomsday.

They entered the room greeting each other with fake smiles while I started unwrapping a technology developed for the occasion. A bizarre thing, like an alien starfish, something gross to put around their necks, to induce empathy. Mad weird science.

Starting slowly with questions both could answer: "Why are you interfering with things that are not yours?" and "Why did you start to expand near those territories?". Everything felt like a formality masked by bad intentions to negotiate peace and show vulnerability.

Ten minutes after, they got very protective and resistant with answers like bullets in the streets, avoiding responsibility and triggering weakness. It was like a nostalgia shit show from the cold war to hurt pride and rethink nukes to show who is the big boy.

With the device attached to their necks, I could see their emotional activity in the connectivity app. Which started in disgust and switched to rage at every turn, like a body map full of happiness but dangerous as hate.

Time passed, and things got even worse. They started to hit the table over and over again, slobbering all over, and our team tried to calm them. But obviously, they had to stand up and start threatening each other. Pointing fingers and saying that was their last day on earth.

I was exhausted and already consumed by fear when everything seemed lost and both were ready to start the apocalypse in their respective thrones. But for a strange moment, they looked behind and sadness appeared in our panel.

I can't answer who felt first, but both matched feelings when switched turns. A bizarre little device that made two leaders of state show their feelings like dumb friends who just fought as someone stole their toy in the kindergarten.

They return to the table in an awkward situation trying to be neutral, but it wasn't the same thing. Both breathe and start to talk about the frustration of deciding the situation and how they started their lazy career as leaders.

Joe and Vladimir talked about how their parents were intense and aggressive to grow as "big boys", and how ended up wasting their time with other people's dreams. So basically they started a huge therapy session.

Both mentioned how they didn't want to become leaders because their father's image was pressuring them, even if they were already dead. A strange mix that no one expected in the room, a session worthy of some slices with beer.

To close with a golden key, the app reached the highest rate of sadness when both started to cry. A moment when they remembered how their fathers left them wherever a difficulty appeared. A very specific and important point that reminded me the second they almost exited the place.

As a teenage movie from the 2000s, both got closer and ended the conflict by making a peace treaty sealed by deposing their status as leaders. Something that no one from our department could expect, considering that we almost croaked that day.

From that day, Joe and Vladimir became friends. One as a florist, and the other as a fisherman, like big boys trying to fix daddy issues from the past. And for me, I could finally breathe once more on a summer day by the bay.

- XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX November 24, 2023