Blue Pills

by Armand Vespertine

  “I can’t believe you took on Idolum by yourself for me,” Vega said, enamoured with his level of devotion.

  “Well I took him on and lost,” Maverick reminded her.

  “Elite guilds took him on and lost,” Vega said. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. You bought Aglet enough time to cut me free. As far as everyone’s concerned you’re as much a hero as I am. Well, maybe my sidekick, but that’s still awesome!”

  “Aglet could have got anyone to escort him,” Maverick claimed humbly.

  “Anyone else would have done it just to stop Idolum; you did it for me,” Vega said smiling, kissing him again.

  “So, it’s over right? You killed Idolum?” Maverick asked.

  “Actually…no,” Vega confessed.

  “What?”

  “I…decided to let him live. Don’t worry though. He’s fully contained and the admins are going to reset his code so he’s the same as he was before,” she explained.

  “I don’t think I understand. Why would you let him live?” Maverick asked.

  “Because I was afraid it might actually kill him,” Vega said. “Surreality is my whole life, and I’ve always thought that if my character was ever deleted, I would kill myself. I don’t know how I would do that since in real life I’m just a box on a shelf, but that’s what I’ve always thought. When Idolum took me prisoner and it was possible I would never escape, I realized that I wouldn’t kill myself because…because of you. You would actually care if I was gone, and I didn’t want to hurt you because…I love you. You saved my life, my real life, before you ever set foot in the Obsidian Realm. You’ve given me something to live for besides gaming for the first time.

  “I don’t know who Idolum is in real life, but I think your guess was probably pretty close. I don’t think he really has anything beyond Surreality, and so no matter what he’s done I can’t take that away from him. What if he actually killed himself over it? I don’t want to kill anyone for real.”

  “I guess I can understand that,” Maverick nodded. “And to be fair, you saved my life first. I really don’t think I could have kept gold farming forever.

  “It’s too bad that Idolum blew your chance for defeating Lady Crux though. I know you were really counting on that XP.”

  “Oh no, it’s fine. I got something better,” she said, holding out her hand and displaying the holographic achievement plaque. “It looks like Aglet made it especially for me. He must have done it as soon as I left him. Check it out.”

  The plaque read Achievement Unlocked: For not only saving all Surreality from a dangerous tyrant, but also showing your enemy mercy that he did not and would not show you, I am proud to award you the coveted Heart of a Hero Achievement. + 500 000 XP, + 100 000 Gold, + 1000 Renown, + Alignment maxed.

  “Five hundred thousand XP? That means you’re…”

  “Yep, level 100,” Vega beamed proudly. “I am now a Legendary Rogue. It didn’t happen exactly like I planned but it was still all worth it. You can have the hundred grand if you want. I don’t need any more gold, and it seems only fair that you should get something for everything you’ve been through.”

  “No, the Achievement is yours and you should keep everything that comes with it,” Maverick insisted. “Besides, you’re free, and there’s nothing I could want more than that.”

  Vega cooed and smiled at him.

  “I did at least loot your corpse before I ran off,” she said, handing him a stack of item cards. “The suit’s totaled, and it will cost a fortune to fix, but you can at least strip the Mythreal off it.”

  “Thank you,” Maverick said, pocketing the cards. “And don’t worry about the suit; it was Warren’s. He paid me back this morning.”

  “Right,” Vega smiled. “Is Warren here?”

  “No, he was gone when I respawned,” he replied. “He’s probably off at the clubs. He won’t be back until early morning.”

  “How about you and I have a night in then? We order pizza, watch a movie, and tomorrow we can go on some fun intermediate quests. No survival horror.”

  “That sounds awesome,” Maverick nodded. He gently pulled her into the bungalow and pushed the door shut, happier than he had ever been in all his life just to know that she loved him.

  Vega and Maverick stood side by side at the start of the testing track, fully suited up and equipped for the trials that lay ahead of them.

  “Welcome friends to Oculus Science’s Co-op Testing Center,” a disembodied voice announced over the PA. “Today you’ll be participating in a series of tests for our R&D department, beta-testing some of our experimental projects and helping us work out the kinks. You may have heard that we used to use condemned prisoners for these experiments, but I am pleased to report that we have completely phased out that program on purely ethical grounds. It has nothing to do with the fact that the damn Foundation keeps hogging all the convicts for their D-classes. You’re not the only ones who need disposable subjects, assholes! Anyway, we’re now using consenting volunteers. Now admittedly, it’s not informed consent. We’ve kept a lot of information from you and may even have blatantly lied about some things, but you’ve already signed the waivers so… whatever.

  “You may also have heard that there’s some kind of big mysterious conspiracy about these tests; that they’re actually serving some kind of grand nefarious scheme, but I’m here to tell you that’s just not true. Should you encounter any evidence that it is true, you should ignore it. Remember, the quicker you finish these tests the sooner you’ll get your voucher for a free steam cleaner rental. I know the waiver you signed said you’d be compensated with cash, but there was an asterisk there. When you get the voucher you may noticed that it’s expired, but don’t worry about that. I know the manager of the rental place, he’ll still honour it.

  “Our first test today will be a 3D obstacle course which you will traverse by manipulating a series of space-time anomalies with your Quantum Everters. One of you has the Positive Quantum Everter, and the other has the Negative Quantum Everter, so you will need to work together to make it through. You also can’t use your Mana, because this is for science. Science isn’t magic. Friendship is Magic, hence the co-operative nature of these tests.

  “Testing will commence in 3, 2, 1…”

  The doors to the test track slid open, revealing a vast room peppered by numerous platforms hovering at various heights, along with positive and negative space-time anomalies.

  Maverick glanced beside him to Vega, smiling with eyes shining in child-like wonder at the spectacle before her, exuding the same joie de vivre that had first infatuated him and illuminated his own dreary life. Though Surreality now seemed brighter that they were together, he still didn’t think he would ever love it the way she did. Deep down he did value reality over illusion, and he knew that her love for him was real. To him that was more wondrous than any of the computer generated delusions Surreality had to offer.

  “Race you to the first landing!” Vega challenged him, bouncing off the starting block and being catapulted through the air by the launch plate and into the first anomaly.

  Smiling, Maverick chased after her right into a rift in the fabric of space-time.

  Afterword and Acknowledgements

  Sorry about that last bit. I just had to put a Portal Expy into Surreality. I had a lot of fun with this story and I hope you enjoyed it. If you did then please leave a positive rating or review over on Amazon or Goodreads, or even just upvote a good review someone else may have written. Shout outs on social media would also be much appreciated. If you would like to get in touch with me you can find me on twitter @A_Vespertine, and on Tumblr at www.tumblr.com/blog/annabelle-cross . You can also find some articles of mine over at Wave Chronicle , and on my blog Sanctum of Vespertine .

  For those of you not already familiar with the SCP Foundation, you should know that it’s not an original creation by me. It’s an online collaborative writing project, and if you’re into creepypasta I highly recommend you check
it out. You can find it at http://www.scp-wiki.net .

  The Foundation is what’s known as Creative Commons, which means anyone is permitted to use it for their own projects, even commercial projects, so long as they acknowledge the source material. The catch is that anything derived from Creative Commons must itself be Creative Commons. I’m not sure if that means that only the Insomnia Labyrinth is Creative Commons or this whole book is, but unless someone who is legally qualified to do so tells me otherwise I’m going to assume that Blue Pills is my intellectual property, and I’ve registered it with All Rights Reserved. But if you want to use the Insomnia Labyrinth for anything, as long as you link back to me it’s all good. I would actually be amazed if someone made an Indie game based on it.

  Below you’ll find an SCP Database entry for the Insomnia Labyrinth which might be helpful.

  Oh, and the creepypasta that Aglet ‘re-enacts’ when he sneaks up on Maverick is called You’re Not Scared, Right? It’s originally written by one of my favourite YouTube personalities, MissShadowLovely , so please check her out if you haven’t already.

  Thanks so much for your readership

  Yours Truly, Armand Vespertine

  SCP Database – The Insomnia Labyrinth

  Item #: Site Theta 7, “The Insomnia Labyrinth”

  Object Class: Thaumiel

  Special Containment Procedures: Site Theta 7 must be kept under Foundation surveillance at all times to monitor for containment breaches. Mobile Task Force Theta 7 (aka The Mountain Goats) is to be stationed on site for recapture, processing new internees, search and rescue within Site Theta 7, and escorting expeditions. No civilians are permitted to reside within five kilometers of Site Theta 7. A warning sign informing trespassers of the hazards within must be posted outside of the site’s entrance. No further dissuasive action is possible, due to the action of SCP-Theta 7-01.

  Description: Site Theta 7 appears to be a solitary mountain approximately 4.5 kilometers in height, located within the xxxxxxxxx Forest. It is vaguely pyramid in shape with steep sides, and is composed of dark gneiss rock. The interior of the mountain however consists of an extensive network of tunnels and chambers, both natural and artificial. The interior is significantly larger than the exterior, and the tunnels will often shift and distort, seemingly for the explicit purpose of preventing escape. It should be noted that Site Theta 7 appears to work much more actively against entities it perceives as a threat to the outside world. While earlier expeditions have found teleportation as an effective means to circumvent the site’s spatial anomalies, following Incident Theta 7-99/Vega teleportation devices no longer appear to function and their use has been discontinued.

  There is only one entrance into Site Theta 7, and all attempts to drill or blast either in or out of the mountain have been unsuccessful.

  Site Theta 7’s entrance is presided over by an entity designated as SCP-Theta 7-01, and refers to himself as Aglet. SCP-Theta 7-01 is an anthropoid, similar in size and build to an adult male chimpanzee. Subject possesses toad-like skin, yellowish and claw-like nails, bat-like ears, yellow eyes, a goblin-like nose and a wide mouth with numerous pointed teeth. Subject claims to be the Guardian of the Insomnia Labyrinth (his term for Site Theta 7), and to have a degree of control over its spatial anomalies (to date SCP-Theta 7-01 has been uncooperative with testing, and so these abilities are unconfirmed). While warning individuals of the mountain’s dangers, he will also tempt them with promises of treasures within. Expedition teams have confirmed the presence of both hostile creatures and valuable objects within the Labyrinth. While the promise of riches seems to be primarily for the purpose of luring victims into the Labyrinth, to date SCP- Theta 7-01 has always permitted individuals who have escaped to keep any treasure they were able to recover. It is not known at this point why SCP-Theta 7-01 attempts to entice individuals into the mountain. As there is no apparent practical purpose to this, his motivations are presumed to be purely sadistic.

  According to SCP-Theta 7-01, Site Theta 7 was created “By the Eldritch Gods of Yore to imprison the greatest abominations that had once ruled the Earth, so that Humanity might have a fleeting age of dominion before the stars aligned once more and plunged the world back into madness and despair,”. Any attempts to extract more prosaic information out of him have been unsuccessful.

  Upon discovery, Site Theta 7 did contain multiple anomalous entities and objects, which have since been catalogued by research expeditions. Once the Labyrinth’s suitability as a containment site was verified, numerous Euclid and Keter class SCPs have since been relocated to Site Theta 7, and re-designated accordingly. SCP-Theta 7-01 is in general quite co-operative with the Foundation in containment efforts, and has yet to refuse to accept an SCP. Despite his apparent sadism for those who voluntarily enter his Labyrinth, SCP-Theta 7-01 appears to take his duty as Guardian seriously, and has actively assisted Foundation personnel during containment breaches.

  Below is a list of the twelve most notable SCPs contained in Site Theta 7.

  Item #: SCP-Theta 7-02, “The Minotaur”

  Object Class: Euclid

  Description: SCP-Theta 7-02 is a large Humanoid entity, approximately 1.9 meters in height and an estimated 140 kilograms. It is heavily muscled with a coat of dark brown fur, cloven hooves and a pair of large spiral horns. Despite its great size and strength, it is one of the more elusive SCPs within Site Theta 7. It will typically only attack its victims when they are alone, beating them to the point of disability. It will then bind its victims in chains and take them to SCP-Theta 7-13 (see below).

  SCP-Theta 7-02 was discovered among Minoan ruins on the Greek island of Crete.

  Item #: SCP-Theta 7-05, “The Zombie Holocaust”

  Object Class: Euclid

  Description: SCP-Theta 7-05 refers to a collection of Human cadavers originally found in a mass grave outside of a Blood Knight concentration camp following the Crimson Genocide. All cadavers are hairless and lacking any pigmentation regardless of ethnicity. This is believed to be a result of experiments performed by the late Dr. xxxxxx xxxxxxx. Most cadavers suffer from some sort of physical deformity or injury, the majority of which were inflicted prior to their death.

  Instances of SCP-Theta 7-05 do not show any signs of post-mortem decay. If any living humanoids come within ten meters of SCP-Theta 7-05, instances will reanimate and attempt to drag the intruders into the pile, where they will become new instances of SCP-Theta 7-05. The number of instances that reanimate seems to depend on the number of intruders, and SCP-Theta 7-05 has been known to remain inert when outnumbered. Instances removed from the main body of SCP-Theta 7-05 will reanimate and attempt to make their way back to the others, converting any humanoids in their path to increase their chances of success. For this reason instances of SCP-Theta 7-05 are all to be contained together.

  Item #: SCP-Theta 7-09, “Sarah”

  Object Class: Keter

  Description: In her passive state, Sarah resembles a prepubescent female of European descent. While her exact form varies, she is always observed to be in a state of severe abuse and neglect. When encountering potential victims, Sarah will feign complete helplessness, claiming she is the victim of extreme parental abuse, often tailoring her sob story to extract the maximum amount of pity from her victim. For example, while her standard story states her condition is the result of a fundamentalist mother punishing her for masturbating, she has altered or omitted this when dealing with victims who possess prominent anti-sexual attitudes. It has been determined that Sarah has telepathic capabilities, which she uses to enhance her victims’ natural sympathy for her to irrational and self-destructive levels.

  Upon gaining the sympathy of her victims, Sarah will get them to perform numerous seemingly innocuous errands, such as bringing her water, food, medical aid, or her teddy bear. These tasks will inevitably put the victim in jeopardy, however they will rarely suspect that Sarah intentionally put them in danger. Victims who have failed to complete Sarah’s quests all repor
t the sound of her laughter as they neared death, even when she was nowhere to be seen.

  If the victim survives these initial trials, Sarah will enlist their aid in attempting to breach containment. Due to her ability to pass as a non-anomalous Human child and enchant her victims, Sarah is able to frequently breach containment of Site Theta 7 (though not as frequently as she breached conventional containment). Upon escaping the Labyrinth, Sarah is able to enter her ‘active’ state. Her eyes will go black, her mouth will become wide and filled with needle like teeth, and black claws will emerge from her fingers. In this state she possesses superhuman strength and speed, as well as the ability to climb up walls and ceilings, and can apportate short distances in a cloud of black vapour. She will immediately drain her victim of vitality, and then flee from the mountain as quickly as she can and attempt to find a foster home to care for her.

  When a family takes her in, she will pick off their members one by one, often prolonging the ordeal for as long as possible. These tragedies will only reinforce any survivors’ bond with Sarah, enhancing their need to provide for and protect her. It is not currently known if Sarah sincerely enjoys parental attention or if it is merely a ploy to increase her victim’s ultimate suffering.

  Recapture is often difficult, as whole families and even entire communities have been known to fervently defend Sarah from Foundation forces. For this reason covert recapture is preferred. Agents involved in Sarah’s recapture must rate a minimum of 76 points on the Psionic Resistance Index, be medically diagnosed and untreated for Empathy Deficit Disorder, and preferably have a strong dislike for children. To date there has been only one containment breach that did not result in civilian casualties (see SCP-Theta 7-54).

  Attempts to inform adventurers of Sarah’s true nature have generally been unsuccessful, as Aglet dislikes us ‘spoiling the surprise’. Aglet does at least sound the alarm when Sarah breaches containment.