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I worked as a research associate at the Eisenloid Perception Lab, a mid-tier government-funded facility that specialized

in human cognition and the mechanics of visual processing.

If that sounds complicated, it really wasn't.

The goal of our work was simple.

To understand how humans interpret reality, what our brains notice, what they ignore,

what they fill in.

It was all supposed to be theoretical.

It wasn't supposed to be dangerous.

I'd been there for almost five years.

I was never the smartest in the room, but I was careful, methodical, and that made me valuable.

Where the other researchers were eager to push boundaries, I was the one always pumping the brakes.

I had spent my entire career arguing against unethical human trials,

shutting down projects that went too far. I thought that was enough to keep us out of trouble.

The project started with an anomaly. A stray frequency picked up by one of our spectral imaging scanners,

something just outside the normal range of perception.

At first, no one took it seriously, probably a glitch or a sensor error.

...