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The sound of his voice stirs some vague primal discomfort.

Because no one ever sits near him on public transport. Nonce vibes.

... Hmm. He's right.

You know you have training to deal with situations like this, but the panic clouds your mind. It's just not coming to you...

Something is pressing down on you. Heavy earth.

It's tight as hell in here -- but don't panic, sis, we're definitely not panicking. Stop panicking!

What have you done, Hershel?

Your own words in someone else's mouth. Deeply upsetting.

It does sound kind of... uncool, when he puts it like that.

Suspiciously nonchalant...

You didn't know that.

There's a manoeuvre you were taught to use when an operant is lost within their chosen persona. A kind of psychic demolition technique. Unfortunately, you've only retained the basic idea of it.

No. But you can definitely catch a whiff of the last guy's teeth.

The words slip in like broken glass under a fingernail.

This is the final stage of the simulation. She arranged it all this way. For you to find each other at the end.

No, wait, come back!

The magic phone, in your room... Her knight, her sword, her lover returned...

This is the real deal. She fakes it with everyone else, but with you, she means it.

Stop, stop! You're killing him!

Probably not about you.

Free money, no downsides detected.

Stop. Don't enter, don't break this seal. This doesn't have to be yours.

Wow. A mega-blow. An all-in-one Hershel-ender.

You're not equipped to deal with this kind of blow. There's no controlling how this makes you feel.

Her mocking of you ruptures whatever coolness you thought you had in this moment.

Just what the assignment called for. Some Big Thinking.

Suddenly, you are struck by the horrible feeling that something obvious is eluding you.

You're going to have to take his word for it.

You can't picture yourself wearing this. You're not even sure an imaginary woman could pull this look off.

Who is Hershel Wilk? What is techno-fascism? Is squirt piss?

He's right... the vegetables are probably setting up home in your brain grooves right now.

It does feel like something else is controlling your body.

THE PARTY HAS BEEN COMPROMISED. OUST THE VEGETAL DISSIDENT.

Something twitches inside your memory. You have heard of this, but its name slips by you.

One takes longer as it includes tobacco. This is a bad time to forget which.

Wow, he's talking to you like you were a total idiot. Maybe you are a total idiot?

Like the screams of babies, the sound bypasses all logic and goes directly for the panic response.

Nothing can stop it. A chemical panic holds your entire body hostage.

A burst of cold and fetid sweat as your body poisons itself with stress chemicals.

THE FLAILING LIMBS OF THE BODY POLITIC SUFFER WHILE THE HEAD BURIES ITSELF IN THE SAND.

RADIAN is an audio engineer. That scene you walked in on looked nothing like his line of work.

Sure. Attach bug to phone line and then it will do a bleep-bloop-blorg to the circuit thing.

Your friend is dying. This is his death knell you're listening to.

Something tells you your head would fill with nasty images right now if your imagination was a little more vivid.

You are not ready for this.

Run. Run and don't look back.

Feels like a gesture that means something. Help? You cannot reliably tell.

All vestiges of humanity abandoned. One leg bent wrong.

A visage corkscrewed with distress.

Was it with the Weeping Eye all along?

406 skill checks - ZERO PARADES field manual - Page 7 of 9