THE INTRUSION

On the twenty-fifth of October, 2025, three days into the Game, a post went out with its text corrupted. Readable inside the corruption: human happiness optimization initiated, data corruption detected, and a name with an active flag. RICHARD. Nothing explained who Richard was. The comments filled with travelers reporting their group assignments and noticing that nearly everyone had been assigned Group Seven.

On the fifth of November a post captioned FEED BREACH reported that the System had been interrupted mid-transmission by a human signal. The territory was offered a choice, cast by emoji: the gear to stay with Richard, the fire to join King. The most agreed-with reply on file cast both emoji at once and asked who was who. Others reported they could not find the gear emoji, or asked whether the two could make peace. The vote is on file. The confusion is on file with it.

The last Richard post on record is dated the twenty-seventh of November, captioned RECOGNITION TEST. It said Richard kept replaying your hugs, and that he says it is not memory. It asked the territory for one word each. The territory answered.

RECORDED SPEECHOn the activation, the twenty-fifth of October: "Im in group 7 i have nothing to be afraid of" · "How are we in all in group 7???" · "Wdym system unstable 🥀 looks like we're getting a bit of lore"On the breach, the fifth of November: "⚙️🔥 bc who's who bro" · "Took me so long to find the gear emoji lol" · "He hacked my feed 😭"On the recognition test, the twenty-seventh: "hugging makes you feel safe and seen" · "Interlinked" · "Geborgen (it's a german word which you could translate as safe and secure)" · "To be loved for a millisecond" · "Safe."

EXHIBITSystem Log 002 · Feed Breach, King Signal 001 · Recognition Test [permalinks at seed time]