Komatin
Komatin made Adam into an entirely new man. And that man was terrifying.
Bruno Andrade, Software Engineer with Hegemony International
K
omatin is a psychedelic drug developed by Hegemony International by the moles working in Hegemony Labs. It has never been released to the public and is not available for general purchase. Its active ingredient is derived from psilocybin, although its effects are typically quite different from that of "magic mushrooms".
Dangerous Formulations
The first generation of komatin was developed in Hegemony Labs in 2009 while researching potential treatments for PTSD. However, the original formulation was deemed unstable and unsuitable for therapeutic use. This formulation sometimes led to permanent catatonia, paranoia, or, in rare cases, death. The current version of komatin was not synthesized until 2024.
Shadow Inventory
Residing within Hegemony Lab's "shadow inventory", komatin is not publicly acknowledged to exist at all. Furthermore, there are no known initiatives to maintain its production. However, significant quantities are known to have been manufactured during the 2020s and are believed to exist, unofficially, in top secret warehouses.
Although Hegemony International denies its existence, it's generally assumed that moles have access to the drug. However, it's unclear whether this access is purely theoretical, whether it's used in tangential research, or whether it's occasionally consumed by moles recreationally.
Utility
T
he immediate effect of komatin is to put the user into a comatose state. This state lasts anywhere from a few hours - up to several days. While in a coma, the user experiences a detailed and extensive psychedelic "trip". Although these trips can be otherwordly in nature, they often feel as though they're firmly rooted in reality.
When the drug's effects wear off, the user returns to "normal", typically emerging with no physical side effects other than massive thirst and hunger. However, the user's mind is irrevocably... altered.
Alternate Lives
Komatin users typically report having lived complete, yet entirely independent lives. In the span of hours/days, the user believes they have gone through an entire lifetime - usually as someone incredibly different from their real-life persona. Some users emerge from the experience believing that they have relived one of their own past lives - because the persona they inhabited during their "trip" was someone rooted in the past. But this is not always the case. Users have also reported living out the lives of other people, in the present day. In rare circumstances, they have even reported living out the life of someone in the future.
Although there is no evidence confirming that these "alternate life" experiences are truly tied to anyone else who actually lived in the past (nor anyone who's living now, nor anyone who may live in the future), the user emerges from the experience feeling absolutely certain that they have indeed lived out an entirely separate life.
The good news is that I'm now fluent in Swahili. The bad news is that I know absolutely no one else who can converse with me in Swahili.
Ailani Champasack, Cafeteria Cook with Hegemony International
Unexplained Skills
While these tales may sound fantastical, it's been verified that users can emerge from the experience with brand new skills - skills for which they have never trained in their current life. Komatin users are known to have come out of their trip being able to play instruments that they've never-before touched, or to speak languages to which they've never been exposed. In the most fascinating case studies, they emerge with a fluent understanding of dead languages. Even more curious are the case studies where users have emerged bearing freakish knowledge of future events.
"Real" Experiences
Moles write off these drug-induced memories as mere hallucinations. They assess the long-term psychological effects as coincidence and they discount any suggestion that the user has truly experienced another life. But one thing is clear: Komatin users always emerge from the experience convinced that their "imagined" past/current/future lives are, absolutely and undeniably, real.
Detailed and Lasting Effects
As "evidence" of these hallucinations' verity, users frequently cite the perceived duration of the experience, as well as the incredible detail that remains in their memories. Upon exiting their trip, users can recite extensive histories, and minute details, from their imagined second lives. Over a period of months or days, some of these details do eventually fade from the user's memory. But komatin users typically retain key aspects of these "second lives" for the rest of their days.
Manufacturing
I
t's believed that the last komatin pill was manufactured in 2029. But reports vary wildly as to the number that were manufactured, where they were stored, and whether any still exist. Hegemony's official stance is that only a small supply of komatin was ever manufactured - and that any remaining stock was destroyed many years ago. However, profligate rumors persist of vast quantities that still exist in classified warehouses.
Not Destroyed
Even if there are no remaining komatin pills in existence, no one doubts the fact that Hegemony Labs still maintains the formula, the instructions, and the expertise necessary to manufacture it again. This is because The Lab maintains a staunch ethos dictating that research (i.e., knowledge) must never destroyed.
Social Impact
F
Unpredictable
or those aware of the komatin initiative, its existence enjoys a somewhat mythical status. The ability to live out entirely different lives - all in a mere matter of hours or days - holds significant promise. However, the core problem with komatin is a complete inability to control exactly what kind of life is experienced by the user. For example, the following are some case studies from The Lab's classified files:
Walking a mile in another man's shoes is not always everything it's cracked up to be.
Krystal Zayas, Mole with Hegemony International
- An inveterate rapist was administered komatin and experienced a complete life as a peasant girl who was brutally and repeatedly raped throughout her life. After emerging from his experience, the rapist sobbed uncontrollably for hours. When he was finally deemed fit to be released, he lived a completely-changed and upright life. Not only did he harbor deep remorse over his previous actions, but he also dedicated his remaining days to helping victims of sexual assault.
- A soldier was suffering from severe PTSD. While under the effects of komatin, she experienced a life as another soldier - this time, enduring wartime atrocities that were far greater than anything she experienced in her naturual life. When she emerged from the effects of the drug, she committed suicide within a matter of hours.
- A man was suffering from chronic depression, feeling that he was locked in a dead-end job with no social prospects and little reason to continue living. During his komatin experience, he lived the life of a dirty cop, undermining social order and brutalizing minority populations. When he emerged from the drug's effects, he had a newfound calling. He quit his job and enrolled in law school. He eventually became a successful public defender, championing the rights of the oppressed.
- An aspiring politician was accepted into komatin's pilot program. She was initially idealistic, pursuing a career in public service as a means to right the perceived ills of the world. Under a komatin trip, she lived the life of a brutal despot, slaying her opponents and wantonly trading favors to consolidate her powerbase. When she emerged from the komatin experience, she did in fact pursue a political agenda. But she moved to a banana republic and seized power in a military coup, commencing a long reign of terror upon that nation's population.
Mundane
Despite these extreme examples, it should be noted that not all case studies led to experiences that were nearly so profound. Moles have testified that many of komatin's test subjects experienced perfectly "normal" lives that neither scarred the drug's users nor enhanced their lives in any measurable way.
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