Nova is aware of multiple invisible drones and turrets watching her every move. When she focuses her awareness she can identify a smart weapon platform on the ceiling every few meters and some sort of 'snake' - no three of them moving on the walls, following the team as they make their way. All of them have active camouflage, which is very high quality and nearly impossible to observe.

The armory is easy to find, a room down the hall with a very thick metal door and a retinal scanner. When they move closer, they can see a hologram of a male elf in a military hairstyle and something that resembles a uniform with the Virtual Realism logo on his dash. The man is greeting them "Hello". The hologram pauses for a moment as if encountering an unpredictable situation."intruders?" he asks as if looking for approval that the teams are intruders. He does not seem hostile or judgemental, his expressionless faces are perhaps curious, and his reactions are a bit slow, as if he is way out of his original scripting.

bnc notices that the man does not exist in the matrix, or he likely does exist but she identifies no icon which is associated with him - perhaps he is hiding very well? Nova strangely notices that Fox does not seem to notice the man and is instead looking past him at the armory's door trying to figure out how to open it (as there is no visible locking mechanism).

Nova answers: "Hello! No, we are not intruders, we are just here to help."

Förböveln! How did we get caught so quickly?

bnc lets Nova talk, but instead tries to find out what this thing is.

The man says "There is something you need to know. Core's security forces are locking away all the weapons here due to the flip. This bunker is a trap, coded to stop you from stealing weapons. You raiding the bunker is predictable, but the coding is very strict and would not handle unexpected situations. If you attack the next shipment rather than steal the stored weapons then the bunker would not attack you or lock you inside."

he says "I'll return when you next need me." and then disappears.


bnc does not find any projector or other indications that the man was ever there, but she is aware that he was not around for long enough to go over all possibly silent running icons. So he could have been silent. She realizes that Fox cannot see the hologram, she also notices that the man is not completely aware of them as well. His response has been vouge enough to fit whatever they would have said. This gives her a theory that what they witnessed was some sort of a private message rather than an icon that interacts with them. The script seems to be pre-recorded somehow - but she is still too green to this world to determine if her theory makes sense.

Nova stops and turns to the others. "Everyone, back outside. We need a new plan. I will explain then."

Once everyone is outside and a bit away from the entrance, she starts explaining...

"Looks like our enemies know about your plans, Fox, and expected our presence here, because it was a fairly obvious place for us to go to first. There was this person inside the bunker, which you did not seem to have been able to see. Probably someone else who wants to help us, because he warned us about it and also said that the bunker is a trap and taking away any weapons would activate it. I have seen a bunch of sentry guns and drones along the ceiling, so it sounds feasible. He suggested to target their next haul instead. He said, that Core's security forces are locking away all the weapons here due to the flip. Not entirely sure, what 'the flip' means."

Fox looks in disbelief "anticipated but how?" he says in disbelief. Invisible voices? really but when Nova mentions the flip he serious up and his disbelief turns into fear. "The flip? but how can you know about that?... You did say flip, didn't you he pauses no that can't be... but it explains a lot.

He sighs Right now the roles of the worlds are reversed, horrors in simulation, love, and peace in the real world. Where the purpose of this facility is the other way around, love and peace in simulation and horrors in meatspace. We are to live fortified in our vaults while the horrors roam the world. This is our mind fortress, but it should happen centauries from now none of us is expected to experience a flip. The protocol of how you flip the worlds is unknown to me, but it should explain how they got to raise the shield.

There can't be Horrors in the meat space, can there? There shouldn't they can't exist without mana. Something may be very wrong.


Does he sigh when he realizes that he has more pressing issues So now we sneak outside? he says and suddenly he appears like a scared little kid. His face pale and he breaths nervously.

bnc sends a private message to Nova:
"Are you dumb? This message was obviously designed to be seen by us and not by Fox. We have no foundation whatsoever to put so much trust in that dude. To oversimplify, one of them would be friend, the other foe. How would you know which is which?"

bnc sighs.

"Where are those who would make that decision? And where are the servers on which this sim runs? Is there a simulated equivalent to them?"

<< Paranoia is all good and well, and we should be cautious, of course, but I see absolutely no reason why Fox would not be who he said he is. There are tons of possible reasons, why we got the message only. He certainly did not want to broadcast it, so our enemies could listen in. He might not know who we are with here, he might not know about Fox, specifically. But he obviously has a way to single us out. Could it be that dwarf? Well, whatever program is behind that one, that is. Honestly, if it would be like you imply, then why would the other guy not warn us about Fox? If he cannot hear him, then there would be no reason to keep that out of the message. Instead, the message warned us about Core's security, the same people Fox wants us to go up against. And he told us to get what we are looking to get here, just in a slightly different way. They both want the same thing. I still think we are on track here and that we can trust Fox. He just seems a little bit in over his head here, overall. Still, he is the one who knows this simulation, so he needs the information. Our main takeaway from here is, that we do not have any element of surprise. They know we are coming! >>

Fox responds "I know that I look terrible, but I honestly do not know what the right way to go. I can still turn the shield down if you get me to the control center and save your friend and my family. The thing is, I thought it was a coup -- either a Realism terrorist which we had a few in the past or some other organization infiltrating this facility and trying to assassinate the dragon or do something nasty. This interpretation may still be valid but a flip is something else. Aside from radically changing the simulation, I am not sure that you can get out of the simulation following a flip. The AI would not allow it as taking you out is essentially killing you. If there really are horrors outside. So I am terrified.

No human would know what really happens in a flip, none of us was expected to live so long and the immortals only share what we must know. We have one Drake in here an ice-cold bitch named Nyx. She does not associate with inferior humans. She hates it here and has no interest in technology but she keeps the spells running, rituals working and she is the real security of this place.
She is as powerful as a swat team -- but nobody dares to approach her. She can be very brutal if her privacy is disturbed, she changed the last guy that approached her into a frog without listening to him. Kept him like that for a full day. I am uncertain if she'll hear us out, or not decide to murder me on the spot just for breaking the rules. If we want to know more about this flip she is the only way to go. Otherwise, let's just take the shield down like we originally intended. "

"I would stick to the plan and that means we wait for them to come back here with another haul. Wait until they are beginning to unload, and then get the jump on them. Hopefully, we will get some decent gear that way without having to deal with their trap inside the bunker."

So what is the plan now? where do you want to ambush them?

"I guess, we can use this strange fog for concealment. Should be fairly obvious, when a truck arrives."

"Drek, Nova, I hope your guts feeling is right because we know way too little to reasonably draw any conclusions at all. I just wished you were a bit more paranoid, förböveln."

"Disturbing the drake? Drek, no fragging way. But there's one other we could ask.
Is there any way to talk to the chinky AI itself?"

"Get it to notice you, but that usually means you are getting punished. The AI is mainly interested in rule violations, you see.

"So there is no place where it is more, uh, present, or something? Kind of a built-in sacred place or somesuch?"

"Nope, we do not normally talk to the AI.

"It might be a flip and an act of terrorism. I don't believe that there really are horrors outside. Maybe someone is making the flip to sabotage the whole institution here. Either way, we need to get to the computer system. So, from my perspective, getting in know when those fuckers are still on their way would be the most sensible option. That is, now."

Waiting for the truck to return unnoticed takes a lot of patience as you are practically right next to the base, for a while. Sure there is the fog that helps you hide but there are people there that you cannot see through the thick fog but deduce their presence with other sensors. It would take about three hours for the track to get back and you'll need to remain silent for that time.

The ambush does not go as planned, the team keeps quiet for a while but then after about an hour one of the guards notices them. "Stop and identify!" he demands, and several more guards follow him. They wear uniforms similar to the cloaked guards you saw outside of the facility, carry heavy pistols and seem very alert. Their face is fully covered with some black fabric.

"Oh, hi! Sorry, we are new here and a little lost. What's up with all that fog? I cannot see more than a few meters."

Nova instructs her auto-injector to inject a dose of Jazz, since she does not expect that they will be able to talk their way out of here.

<< Can you prevent them from alarming the truck (or anyone else for that matter)? >>

"Yip", she responds curtly, then focusses on squelching the commlinks of those who can see her. She tries to mostly hide behind Nova to cover the movements while she operates the ARO GUI.

bnc slaps marks and jams communication for a couple of guards but she can tell that there are more, how many more? She'll need to take the time to count.

"drop your weapons, the three of you and put your hands above your head." is the predictable response.

"What weapons exactly? Are you, like, blind or something?"

<< Well, we are not going to talk our way out of here... so, you better look for cover! >>

One of the guards takes a step forward, revealing a soft female voice. Sort of different from the metallic intimidating voice of the other guard. Nova can hear another guard silently cursing.

Please do not escalate it more than it has. You are outnumbered, and underequipped - whatever emotional crisis you are feeling I can help. I am a psychologist. She edges closer to the team, carrying a stun baton and a pistol but her hands are extended outwards away from these weapons. In a show of trust, she makes her face mask transparent with a mental command. It exposes violet eyes, neon green hair, pale skin, and natural freckles. I can help you, you are lost ---just move the weapons aside, and I would help you. Fox shakes in response he drops his weapons and his entire resolve seems to have wavered.

"Okay, I surrender," he says his voice breaking up when he says the next words. "I do need help" it is impossible to say if this is because as a noncombatant Fox does not want to be involved in a fight or because her words have touched something.


In the matrix, bnc can feel the weapons locking on to them, information travels fast. Smart gun systems, gas grenades, and some electricity-based melee weapons are all beaming to life and pointed at them.

Nova shows the open palms of her gloved hands, shrugging.

"Again, what weapons are you talking about?"

<< No clue what is going on here, but surrendering is not an option, obviously. So, unless anyone has a better idea, I will escalate things. >>

The woman gives a signal and the guards move to restrain the group. Just a protocol, we mean you no harm. she assures them. It would all be alright this situation is a lot to handle.

@Nova "Jesus! Fox knows that girl, and knows her fucking well. If you still believe, Fox is not fucking with us, do as he does.
I just hope the heck that I was all wrong about distrusting that fuck."

bnc tries to give the psychologist what she wants. She's been with psychologists most of her life, and knows her way around them, even if she's not the biggest of actors.

"I ... I didn't do anything wrong!", she exclaims, not touching (or removing) the weapon in its holster. "Please, stop that fucking lights!"
She looks around frantically.

The psychologist signals the guards and they take the weapons and move to cuff the team. Just a precision, do not worry. You are not the only one. she assures trying to keep it calm.

bnc steps back one step, seemingly alarmed, and raises her hands. "What? What do you mean? There are others? You're lying, ain't ya?"

Nova will comply (for now) and let the guard restrain her.

<< Guess we will find out where this gets us... >>

She sighs "I wish I was, but would you really expect to encounter a psychologist here in the woods in the dark? I normally work from my office but things have been getting a bit crazy recently."

The teamed is taken into a small cabin next to the bunker, there is not much in there, a coffee maker a table, and a few chairs. There is a door leading to another room containing three double beds, and a few personal lockers.

The psychologist says "I am Dr. Julia Avrahamov, but you can call me Juli." She lets the team introduce themself, and then asks Who wants to go first? While she is confident, it is evident that the situation is awkward or perhaps stressful to her. Fox lowers his gaze trying not to be selected to go first.

The ones not going to the side room would see the guards locking the door behind them, and then making some small talk there are two male guards out of the door. "That crazy chick has done it again." one says. The other comments "This night is getting stranger by the minute"

In what way are they being restrained? Hands cuffed to the back?
As soon as bnc decides to not resist, she will immediately shut down her cyberdeck. In the remaining seconds until it is entirely shut off, she checks it for marks.

When she asks who'd want to go first, bnc speaks up. "You can call me Y.T. Please talk to me first. I don't understand the first thing you are talking about."

She follows the psychologist into the next room.

Okay, Y.T (why tee), you will go first. Since I do not like to repeat myself, I will first explain and then invite you for a psychological evaluation. I assume you know that everyone here was evaluated as very stable, and on top of that, we are magically augmented for emotional control. In other words, it is difficult to make us angry or to upset us in any way we should feel welfare and happiness most of the time. The problems I normally encounter as a psychologist is with people feeling too manic to function. Too much of a good thing may sometimes be overwhelming. We do not normally deal with anxiety disorders, depression, delusions, or suicidal and homicidal tendencies.

Yet, for the last few days, we see more and more having these problems exactly. Many report paranoia, hysteria, or fear. Others suffer milder effects such as stress, discomfort, incoherent thought, confusion, and a variety of other symptoms. A small minority is delusional and performs violent acts trying to attain obscure goals. This minority is causing plenty of trouble since many of our software developers are among them. When they are delusional, they hack the simulation itself to feel safer. The AI is already spread thin trying to cope with the level of illegal hacking of the simulation. In fact, the first thing that we noticed was not normal is a surge in illegal activity in the simulation.

This fog is a prime example - a massive violation of the simulation's rules, but as it is not directly dangerous, nobody has addressed it yet. So we do not know exactly the nature of this threat, but we know enough to determine that we are all at risk - and I and the other psychologists are working around the clock to treat as many people as we can and buy the magical security team enough time to handle this crisis.


These are the bad news, but there is good news. Conventional therapy works, and we have emergency medications for most cases. These would keep you safe for a while, and if things spiral out of control, we can safely induce a comma. Bluntly speaking, we have enough medications for everyone in our emergency supply. We would keep everyone safe until this mess is sorted out. What I am going to do to Y.T and then to the rest of you is a standard psychological test, very similar to the one you took when you joined us. If you pass the test, as far as I am responsible, you are sane - or sane enough to return to normal. If you fail the test, then I'll come to visit you in the facility, and I would help. I am here to help you and to keep us all safe. All our psychologists are fully committed to that she smiles.

She moves to the other room and invites Y.T to follow.

Once she's in the room with Dr. Avrahamov, she asks before the woman can start.
"You are talking paranoia, hysteria, fear. Do you mean schizos? Like, are people losing touch with what's real? Making up conspiracies, fantasizing. I mean, it can be difficult to grasp with all of them horrors and drakes and dragons around, right?"

The doctor responds, "The short answer is that I am not sure. Nowadays, we are not clear about what is possible and what is not. It might as well be that there is real horror and our mental defenses are just not strong enough to protect us. It may also be contamination, a toxin, a computer virus. I do not know, and I part of the investigation effort. I can limit the damage and prevent people from harming themselves and their neighbors. "

"One of the signs of mental health is that you know what you know and what you do not know, and you do not fill in these gaps with wild speculations and begin to act upon these speculations. Rational thinking offers a way out when emotions run wild. The things that happened tonight are bizarre - so we are all very jumpy, and it is okay to be stressed about it, but we need to survive it."

So tell me, are you feeling different than usual? Any anxieties? or other unusual things" she says with concern, but then she handles bnc a notebook to fill. It includes all sorts of simple riddles and sentences to fill out and seems the kind of tests some cooperations would do to new employees to filter out all the psychopaths. Feeling a bit stupid because her hands are behind her back, Julia says, "I am going to uncuff you now, you would remain calm and not try to hit me. You would take the notebook and solve it. If you are feeling frustrated or violent, do tell me. If I decide that you are experiencing strong emotions that you cannot contain, I would cuff you again. There is nothing to be ashamed, but please be real with me I want to trust you. Is that agreeable to you?"

Unsure of what it even is that is supposedly going on that night, Nova just tries to get something out of the guards in the meantime.

"Yo, guys! How are you dealing with all the stress tonight? What's the weirdest thing you have seen so far? Anything? Come on, it's a little boring right now. Tell me something!"


Then she turns towards Fox and asks him:

"And how are you holding up so far? You really look stressed. You need to relax some. It's all gonna be okay. They are here to help! We are all in this together, right?"

The guard responds with, "Shut up, nobody likes traitors. "

"Traitor? What are you accusing us of? I don't consider myself a traitor. Heck, I havn't even been here long enough to fully understand what is going on... Don't believe everything, people tell you! Care to elaborate, maybe?"

the guard decides to talk against his better judgment. "Okay, fine," he enters the room, "What happened is that a bunch of people has decided to murder or enslave the others. We are struggling to minimize the damages, but I don't think people can be redeemed from that. It is a bit quiet now aside from a few hostage situations, but well when it happened, it was insane, extreme hacking, trees capturing people, the ground opening, doors disappearing, guns turning into potatoes it was impossible, seriously. We've never seen hacking to this degree. You can look for magical threats all you like, but I can identify an organized coup when I experience one. "

"And you think we belong to those crazies? That's insane! But more importantly, don't they have to be stopped somehow? Can we help?"

"Look, I don't know. Julia decides what to do with you - somehow, the psychological well-being department is in charge now. There is the drake, but she is..." He looks into saying it in a way that would not get him into trouble, and then adds "not interested in our problems." after a short pause.

bnc sighs, trying to calm down. Once freed, she starts filling the sheet absentmindedly (but perfectly) [She's even got speed reading for the purpose of processing data simultaneously] while she also answers her question:

"Yeah, I do feel anxieties, and no, that's not different as usual. It would be weird if I didn't experience anxieties, in the Sixth World in general and here, even more. You say, one of the signs of mental health is that you know what you know and what you don't know. Obviously, I'm no good judge of this myself. So why don't we skip this slightly modified version of the UCSP Personality Diagnostics Forms. You might think it's useful, but honestly" (she leaves through the pages) "you're not even checking for harmful attribution styles, internalized guilt mechanisms, and, yah, well, great job in maxing out validity on the social anxiety scale with, what, three iterations?"

She returns the notebook to Julia.

"So, let's skip that thing and you tell me whether or not I can figure out reality from dream.

a) We are in a simulation. True or false?
b) This simulation is created by dragons to prevent civilization from being wiped out by horros. True or false?
c) Apparentyl, the simulation is under attack.
d) People are freaking out about it.
e) You thought we would attack a grand-scale dragon-supported and heavily armed simulation because we were sauntering around with, uhm, a pair of colts and no aggressive behavior on our side. True or false?"

Julia examines bnc carefully and then asks "You must be one of the realism girls. Ohh my... You see everyone else is obedient and conformist and fits a certain profile-- except for well the people they had to take to make this thing."

She seems pensive You speak like a true realist, but you treat our world as a simulation which is technically okay but very misleading since most of us can't ever leave this simulation. How long are you with us Y.T?

bnc laughs.
"Sheesh, who would have believed? After all these years, Freud was right. At least about projection. Miss, it is you who tries to categorize people, to find the right label for everyone. Seek for rules and profiles. If you will, in your world view, you're a classic phase 1 psychologist. You know all the DSM VIII catalogues by heart, can tell the diagnostic criteria of all the F's in the world [OoC: That's a reference to the WHO ICD catalogue for mental illnesses] and think, people can be subjected to it. People are more complex than your catalogues admit. Psychology follows rules, yes, but people are also chaos."
Anna, you would be proud of me.

"But yes, I will answer your question: I am quite new to this place. Now in return I want you to answer my questions, too, Juli."
She stresses the name, accompanied with a knowing sarcastic smile, mostly to point out, that she is aware of
a) Julia calling bnc by her (fake) name to create a bonding and
b) Julia using this heart-warming nicknames to induce a sense of proximity.

Julia says "Well, you may have read a few books but I still need you to fill the test, its a long night-- please just do what I say and lets get it over with."

bnc sighs. "Sure, if it helps you with your work..."

bnc fills out the form with absurd speed. She already knows how these surveys work, where the questions aims at, how they are formulated, etc. She can read lightning-fast and skip most of the readings. Within seconds (depending on how long the surveys it), she totally kills out, filling in out in a way that makes bnc's perfectly sound and healthy. Whereever she can without influencing the result, she includes puns. [in an explanatory text area that is not calculated into the result: "Being arrested because standing of standing around in the perimeter of a high-security facility with a holstered light gun makes me question my grasp of reality, sometimes. Writing in my diary helps, however."]

The doctor looks at bnc's form and notes a few things to a virtual assistant. All that bnc catches in meat space are a few "very interesting" as the woman speaks to herself, while typing her report using a DNI. bnc is almost sure of it without even looking in the trix due to her detached/distracted look. "That's an anomaly" she says quietly, and then a minute or two of staring at the wall allows Julia to finish her report. She tells bnc "Well thank you Y.T please send one of your friends inside now."

"An anomaly? What's an anomaly?"

When she dismisses bnc, she interrupts.
"Wait. You haven't answered any of my questions yet. Actually, I felt a hell of a lot more sane before I arrived at this place than I do now. Can you please tell me the drek what's going on? This is all getting confusing."

Julia responds patiently "What is the matter dear?"

"I would be way less on edge, to be frank, if I knew what exactly we know. Like, is it confirmed that we are under assault, or could it just be an anomaly. Do we already know if there are attackers from the outside? You must still be in contact with the outside world: Is something going on there? Horrors or anomalies in the Gaia sphere? And what are you going to do about it? Like, you as an organisation, not you as a psychologist."