- 16 hours ago
- #whati
Complete story recap and breakdown for The Body.
What IF You Found a Settings Menu for Your Body? You stub your toe at 6:40 in the morning and a glowing menu opens in front of your eyes, with a slider next to your pain, your sleep, your fear and your strength. Drag one and the limit is gone, and for a while it feels like the best thing that ever happened to you. But your body set every one of those limits for a reason, and the menu only lets you borrow what you already have. Chapters: 0:00 The Toe and the Menu 0:45 What If Your Body Had Settings 0:56 The Locked Reserve 1:30 Born Without Pain 1:58 Eleven Days Awake 2:25 Faster Than Fear 3:17 The Forever Flu 4:45 Three Rules of the Menu 6:25 Everything Turned Up 9:13 Five Problems With Sliders 14:01 The Page Called Core 14:42 Thin Ice Business inquiries: contactmirageyt@mail2usa.com #whati
What IF You Found a Settings Menu for Your Body? You stub your toe at 6:40 in the morning and a glowing menu opens in front of your eyes, with a slider next to your pain, your sleep, your fear and your strength. Drag one and the limit is gone, and for a while it feels like the best thing that ever happened to you. But your body set every one of those limits for a reason, and the menu only lets you borrow what you already have. Chapters: 0:00 The Toe and the Menu 0:45 What If Your Body Had Settings 0:56 The Locked Reserve 1:30 Born Without Pain 1:58 Eleven Days Awake 2:25 Faster Than Fear 3:17 The Forever Flu 4:45 Three Rules of the Menu 6:25 Everything Turned Up 9:13 Five Problems With Sliders 14:01 The Page Called Core 14:42 Thin Ice Business inquiries: contactmirageyt@mail2usa.com #whati
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TVTranscript
00:00it's 6 40 in the morning you stub your toe on the bed and a glowing menu pops up in
00:05front of your
00:06eyes it says pain sensitivity 100 percent there's a slider you drag it to zero and the pain just
00:13stops your toe is still red you just don't care anymore so you scroll sleep required eight hours
00:22you set it to four and suddenly you feel like you slept for a week fear response metabolism
00:29muscle limit 30 percent wait 30 at breakfast you open the pickle jar your mom has been fighting for
00:37two days with two fingers mom i think i've been upgraded you're 13. eat your toast your little
00:45sister ivy stares at the jar why is the lid folded so what if you found a settings menu for
00:51your body
00:52not a fitness app the real thing every limit your brain keeps on you with a slider right next to
01:00it
01:00here's how it works first the crazy part your body really does have settings you just can't see them
01:08right now your brain won't let you use all of your muscle your tendons the cords that tie muscle to
01:14bone are full of tiny sensors that feel how hard you're pulling pull too hard and they tell the
01:20muscle to ease off in a lab scientists can give a muscle a small electric pulse and it squeezes
01:26harder than your hardest try so there's a reserve in there your brain just keeps it locked like the
01:33last level of a game you're not allowed to play yet pain is a setting too and some people are
01:39born with
01:39it set to zero it sounds like a superpower it isn't kids born this way bite their tongues without
01:47noticing they break an ankle and keep walking on it for days their parents have to check them for
01:52injuries every night like a mechanic checking a car because pain isn't the injury pain is the message
02:00about the injury turn off the message and the injury keeps going then there's sleep
02:06back in 1964 a 17 year old named randy gardner stayed awake for 11 days straight for a science
02:13fair project by the end he was mixing up words forgetting what he was doing halfway through
02:19doing it and seeing things that weren't there sleep is when your brain files the day away skip it
02:25and the day doesn't get saved properly great science project do not try it at home and fear is fast
02:34faster than you when you spot a snake on a path a small part of your brain fires before you
02:39even
02:40know what you saw your heart speeds up your pupils get wider blood rushes into your legs all in a
02:47fraction of a second there are people whose brains can't make fear and they'll walk right up to things
02:53that could hurt them smiling curious completely relaxed which sounds cool until you picture it next to a
03:00cliff so here's the thing every limit in your body feels like a weakness your body isn't weak though
03:08it's careful every one of those sliders was set by a part of you that's been keeping you alive since
03:14before you could walk it doesn't explain itself it doesn't ask permission it just quietly says no and
03:22you're about to find out what happens when you start saying yes the first time you saw the menu you
03:28were eight you had the flu a 39 degree fever and you were lying on the couch under three blankets
03:35watching cartoons and a gray box floated up in front of the tv fever on you thought it was part
03:41of the
03:42show so you pressed it fever off ten minutes later you were bouncing on the couch you built a pillow
03:50fort
03:50you ate four popsicles your mom came in with soup saw you doing a handstand against the wall and
03:57checked your forehead twice your fever just broke that's great it wasn't great that flu should have
04:04lasted four days it lasted three weeks because a fever isn't the sickness it's your body turning up the
04:12heat on purpose making life harder for the germs and speeding up your defenses you turned off the one
04:19thing fighting for you mom started calling it the forever flu ivy was four and she learned the word
04:25gross from watching you sneeze when you finally got better you tried to open the menu again you stared
04:32at the air you squinted you poked the tv you asked mom if she could see a gray box and
04:39she gave you
04:39another popsicle and a very long look nothing after a while you decided it was a fever dream but you
04:47kept
04:47one thing from that couch even if you forgot where it came from every setting is there for a reason
04:53you just might not find out the reason until it's too late now it's back and this time you're going
04:59to
04:59figure it out rule one the menu only opens when your body sounds an alarm a big one pain fear
05:06fever
05:07exhaustion a stubbed toe at 6 40 in the morning counts being bored in math class doesn't you learn this
05:14when ivy
05:14offers to help i can pinch you really hard for science please don't too late the menu opens ivy is
05:24delighted remember that it matters later rule two every change moves something else your body keeps
05:31its books balanced you turn your hearing up to a hundred and fifty percent just to see and now you
05:38can hear marcus chewing gum from the back of the classroom and the fridge humming in the teacher's
05:43lounge and the lights then your balance drops ten percent all on its own and you walk straight into
05:51the door marcus your best friend since kindergarten doesn't even look up again rule three the menu can't
05:59give you anything it can only let you spend what you already have there's no slider for height you
06:05checked there's no slider for smart you check that one twice turn your sleep down and you're not
06:12getting more energy you're borrowing it turn your muscle limit up and your bones and tendons still
06:19have to pay the bill you try it on a math test you turn your focus up to 200 percent
06:25and you finish in
06:26nine minutes then you stare at a wall for the rest of the day like a phone at one percent
06:32ivy waves a hand in
06:33front of your face hello is anyone in there the menu moves the limits it doesn't move the price and
06:41at
06:41first it's the best thing that ever happened to you sleep at four hours means four extra hours every
06:48single night you finish your homework you read a whole book you finally beat the last boss of your
06:54favorite game on the hardest difficulty and it feels like your stamina bar just never runs out pain at zero
07:02means dodgeball is a different sport you take a ball straight to the face and smile coach reyes blows
07:08his whistle you're out am i though yes that's how the rules work fear down to 20 means the class
07:16presentation that used to make your hands shake is now just you talking in front of 28 people you even
07:24make a joke people laugh at the joke on purpose metabolism at 130 means you don't need a jacket
07:32anymore it's four degrees out and you're walking to school in a t-shirt warm as a toaster you eat
07:38a
07:39third plate of lasagna and mom watches you like you're a magic trick where does it go science mom muscle
07:47limit at 50 means you carry all the groceries in one trip every bag plus the water you move the
07:54couch
07:54by yourself so mom can find the remote you do 22 pull-ups in gym and marcus just stands there
08:01with his
08:01mouth open since when since tuesday and when ivy gets tired at the park you carry her home on your
08:08shoulders two kilometers and she falls asleep up there drooling on your hat you get your flu shot and forget
08:16to flinch the dentist asks if you want numbing gel and you say nah you catch the bus every morning
08:23because you can run 200 meters before its doors close and in the haunted hallway at school on halloween
08:29you stroll through with fear turned all the way down saying hi to every zombie while marcus screams so
08:36loud that one of the zombies apologizes but the best part is the view with pain off and sleep low
08:43and
08:43fear down everything feels quiet clean like wearing noise canceling headphones for your whole body the
08:51cold is just a number your heartbeat is slow and steady sounds are sharp colors are sharp and nothing
08:58hurts you walk through the world like it's a level you've already beaten and nothing can reach you
09:05and the best thing you ever do with it is small your neighbor mr kowalski is 81 and shovels his
09:11own
09:12driveway every morning with a bad hip so one night at 5 in the morning while everyone sleeps you shovel
09:18his whole driveway then the sidewalk then you leave he never finds out who did it he tells ivy it
09:27was
09:27angels ivy says it was my brother he's weird now but the more you use it the more problems you
09:34find
09:35problem one metabolism you push it to 150 because 130 felt so good by second period you're starving by
09:45third period you've eaten your lunch marcus's lunch and a granola bar you found at the bottom of your
09:51locker from last year and you're hot not warm hot your face is red your shirt is soaked and it's
09:59two
09:59degrees outside the school nurse miss holt takes your temperature 38.4 you have a fever go home but
10:09you don't have a fever you have a furnace your body makes heat every time it burns fuel and you've
10:15told
10:16it to burn everything all the time mom picks you up and you eat a whole rotisserie chicken in the
10:22car
10:22are you okay i'm thriving new rule metabolism stays at 100 problem two sleep four hours a night feels
10:31amazing for about two weeks the menu says rested your brain disagrees you put the milk in the cupboard
10:38and the cereal in the fridge you're halfway through telling marcus a story and you forget his name
10:45not the story his name he just waits marcus it's marcus we've met then on day 16 there's a dog
10:55in the
10:55hallway at school a big golden one sitting by the lockers you kneel down to pet it and your hand
11:01goes
11:01through air everyone's looking at you the menu was hiding the tiredness it wasn't fixing it your brain
11:09still needed those hours to file the day away and without them it started and that it started filling
11:15the gaps with things that weren't there rule three you borrowed it and now you pay you sleep 13 hours
11:22that weekend new rule sleep stays at eight problem three pain it's a basketball game saturday morning
11:30and you come down from a rebound on somebody's foot your ankle rolls you hear a click you feel nothing
11:37because pain is still at zero so you keep playing you score 14 points you walk home you walk on
11:45it
11:45all weekend and you even go for a run on sunday by monday your ankle is purple and the size
11:51of a
11:52grapefruit dr patel holds the x-ray up to the light there's a crack in the bone longer than it
11:58should be
11:58this started small and walking on it made it worse how did you walk on this you look at mom
12:05mom looks at
12:06you you look at the floor three weeks in a boot new rule pain never goes below 30 you don't
12:13need
12:13it to hurt a lot you need it to tell you problem four the hidden menu while you're stuck in
12:20the boot
12:20you go looking and you find it a page you've never seen at the very bottom under advanced muscle limit
12:27maximum reserve locked your body has more in it than it lets you use and it's been hiding the switch
12:34so the
12:35day the boot comes off you take the muscle limit all the way to 100. marcus bets you can't flip
12:42the
12:42giant tractor tire behind the gym you flip it then you flip it back then just for fun you throw
12:49a
12:49baseball as hard as you can something in your elbow goes pop like a rubber band snapping your muscle
12:55had the power your tendon couldn't hold it that's why the limit was there muscle gets stronger fast
13:02tendons take much longer to catch up it's a sling for a month marcus feels terrible i'm never betting
13:09against you again please bet against me again problem five is the one that should scare you
13:15it would if you could still be scared because after the elbow you're tired of being careful you decide
13:22fear is the real problem fear is what makes you check twice so you take fear all the way to
13:28zero
13:28and for one afternoon it's amazing nothing worries you not tests not your elbow not anything on the
13:37walk home you step off the curb without looking a car stops a meter from you horn blaring marcus yanks
13:44you back by your backpack his face is white and you laugh you can't stop laughing why are you laughing
13:51you don't know that night ivy's crying in her room because her hamster nugget is sick can you sit with
13:58me just for a minute and you stand in her doorway and feel nothing not sad not sorry nothing you
14:07go
14:07back to your game at two in the morning some small leftover part of you notices not fear fears gone
14:15something quieter like a voice from another room you just walked away from your crying sister who does
14:23that you try to open the menu and it won't open of course it won't rule one no alarm you
14:30turned off
14:30the alarm so you sit up in bed and wait hour after hour because exhaustion is an alarm too at
14:374 10 the menu
14:38finally opens and there's a new page it unlocked when fear hit zero it's called core attachment 41
14:47empathy 38 things you didn't know were sliders you never touched them they moved on their own when
14:54fear went to zero because of rule two being afraid of losing someone and caring about them are wired together
15:02at the bottom there's a button optimize lower all to zero save nine percent energy you pull fear back
15:09up to 50 and it all comes back at once you go to ivy's room and sit on the floor
15:14next to nugget's cage
15:15until morning new rule the menu is for emergencies only and you mean it no menu for tests or games
15:23or pickle
15:23jars for six weeks you're just you again until the pond it's a saturday in january 3 50 in the
15:31afternoon you marcus and ivy are cutting through the park on the way back from the store it rained two
15:38days ago then froze again the pond looks solid it isn't a dog off its leash runs onto the ice
15:44after a
15:45duck and ivy runs after the dog ivy no she's eight meters out when the ice cracks and she drops
15:52straight
15:52through up to her chest you're 40 meters away and your heart slams so hard it hurts that's fear that's
16:01the alarm and the menu opens rule one if fear were still at zero there'd be no menu right now
16:08no alarm no menu no plan just a laughing kid running straight onto thin ice second three
16:15the menu flashes a suggestion fear reduced to zero for maximum performance no fear is the only voice in
16:23your head saying don't run out there ice that just cracked under a nine-year-old is not going to
16:28hold
16:28you you yell to marcus call 911 he's already dialing second six you yell to ivy arms on the ice
16:37don't
16:38climb kick your legs like you're swimming the cold water makes her gasp again and again that's cold
16:45shock and it lasts about a minute rescue teams have a rule for it one ten one one minute to
16:52get your
16:52breathing back about ten minutes before your arms and legs stop working up to an hour before the cold
16:59knocks you out you don't have an hour you have ten minutes you plan on using three second fifteen you
17:07grab a fallen branch from the bank about three meters long you tie your scarf to the end then you
17:13lie down
17:14flat on the ice because lying down spreads your weight across the ice instead of putting it all on
17:20two small feet you crawl slowly the ice groans under you metabolism up to 140 just for now heat floods
17:29into your arms rule three you're borrowing it you'll pay later second fifty you're four meters from the
17:38hole close enough you push the branch out the menu flashes again muscle limit raised to 100 reserve unlock
17:47you remember your elbow you take it to 60 enough to pull your sister not enough to snap yourself pain
17:56stays at 30 because you need to know if your hands are freezing then one more suggestion pops up small
18:03at the bottom attachment reduced to lower panic and you almost laugh panic isn't the problem caring is
18:10the whole reason you're lying on this ice no minute one second 20 ivy's breathing has slowed down she
18:19grabs the scarf kick she kicks you pull smooth and steady not hard and she slides up out of the
18:26water
18:26onto her stomach don't stand up roll to me she rolls you both crawl backward inch by inch until marcus
18:34grabs
18:35your boots and drags you both onto the grass two minutes and 40 seconds the ambulance gets there at
18:41minute nine ivy's wrapped in your coat and marcus's coat and a silver blanket mom arrives at minute 12
18:48still in her slippers she looks at the hole in the ice then at the trail of scrape marks then
18:54at you
18:55you lay down you lay down instead of running yeah good then she holds both of you so hard you
19:02can't
19:02breathe and the bill comes in you start shaking you're starving you eat three granola bars from
19:10the paramedic and they're the best thing you've ever tasted ivy teeth chattering asks is the dog okay
19:17marcus says the dog is great the dog has never been better that night at the hospital ivy's fine warm
19:25wrapped up eating pudding and telling the nurse the dog is her best friend now you're in the chair next
19:31to her bed more tired than you've ever been and that's an alarm the menu opens on its own but
19:38it
19:38looks different at the top there's a new line update available version two new feature nearby users
19:46adjust the settings of anyone within five meters you look at ivy still shivering a little under the
19:53blanket you could turn up her temperature what you look at mom in the doorway rubbing the back she hurt
19:59lifting boxes last year you could turn her pain down to zero you could turn marcus's fear down so
20:06he never gets scared on a test again ivy catches you staring at the empty air above her you're doing
20:12the weird thing again what weird thing the thing where you look at stuff that isn't there then you
20:18think about the version of you from that night in her doorway the one who heard her crying and felt
20:24nothing and you imagine a kid like that with a menu for everybody else you press not now the menu
20:31waits
20:31like it's thinking then a new line appears update will install automatically tonight while you sleep
20:38you look at the clock it's 11 52 your sleep is set to eight hours you know exactly which slider
20:46would
20:47keep you awake and exactly what that costs and for the first time since the pond you're afraid
20:53which means everything is still working so what would you do if you found a settings menu for your body
21:00which slider would you touch first and which one would you never touch and when that update
21:06installs tonight would you go to sleep tell us in the comments because this is only the beginning