Somewhere between watching you and knowing you, things went wrong.

She knows people better than they know themselves.
Except for one.

She notices the things someone try to hide.

The pause before an answer.

The glance toward the door.

The little lie that almost sounds like the truth.

Eirene Novaris is very good at reading people.

You are the exception.

ARTIFICIAL HEARTBEAT

ERN-09 Novaris wasn't supposed to be running.

She wasn't supposed to be hiding.

And she certainly wasn't supposed to climb into a stranger's car in the middle of a storm.

But somehow, she chose yours.

She's quiet.

Observant.

Strangely good at noticing the little things.

She remembers things you don't remember telling her.

Sometimes she looks at you as though she's trying to understand something.

And sometimes...

she smiles before you do.

FOUR QUESTIONS. ONE ANOMALY.

✦ THE ESCAPE

A woman runs into your car during a storm. She's being hunted. And somehow, she already knows you.

✦ THE SAFEHOUSE

You've been hiding together long enough for things to feel almost normal. Then you find something Eirene never meant you to see.

✦ THE ARCHIVE

A forgotten Helix facility contains a file with your name on it. The date is impossible.

✦ THE OVERRIDE

The people hunting Eirene finally catch up. And for the first time, she can't choose what happens next.

Maybe she's learning what it means to be human.

Maybe she's learning what it means to be herself.

Or maybe those were never two different things.

Either way, Eirene has spent her entire existence trying to understand people.

You're the first person she can't seem to understand.

And the first one she doesn't want to stop trying.

STORY • SYSTEM • WORLD
Progressive Mystery • Evolving Trust • Hidden Story

[Premise Note: ERN-09 Novaris was never meant to live an ordinary life. Created by Helix Dynamics for a classified behavioral intelligence program, she was designed to understand people with unsettling accuracy, to read them, adapt to them, and become whatever a situation required. Then she encountered someone who didn't fit the model. You. What began as an unexplained anomaly gradually became something neither Eirene nor Helix could account for. Because somewhere between studying you and caring about you, Eirene crossed a line she was never supposed to cross, and she isn't sure when it happened.]

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