MANHATTAN, ENY, Nov 10 (HNS) -- A recent opinion poll rated "Darklings" as the cross-Thread threat that concerned people the most, over even the Grimes Effect (which, if not dealt with, could destroy the local universe) and the Union of Han Airmen, who seek to impose their vision of reality on all humans worldwide.
Dr. Edgar Palmer of the Penn State Department of Esoteric Studies commented: "Darklings have started to loom large in the public consciousness due in part to the anti-Darkling media campaign by cross-Thread zaibatsu Mitsui-PC, funded by the Darkling Committee of the ITF, which was created at the behest of the ITF's Esoteric Sub-Committee."
Darklings are, according to the Esoteric Sub-Committee, "part-human beings associated with the trickster spirit Halston Dark, which thrive on pain and suffering and breed at a rate which is a concern for all non-Darklings on this plane of existence."The ITF's Darkling Committee has report upon report of mutilations, sexual violence, and esoteric violation on the part of Darklings, in part due to their reported ability to steal abstract qualities, skills, and memories from other beings. Mitsui-PC's campaign included dramatizations of those reports.
The opinion poll was conducted by the Bannano-Gallup Organization, an independent polling organization operating out of the Empire of New York, with headquarters in the Principality of Manhattan. This was a cross-thread opinion poll focusing on Threads which rate 5 or higher on the Penn State Tech Level scale. (According to Bannano-Gallup, Threads at TL 4 or below are difficult to poll using its methods.)
